When footy historians compile best-of lists, players who have won more than one fairest and best award plus those who were voted top footballer on the ground in a grand final there’s some other amazing statistics tabulated. How about a list of people who have played in six, seven or more country Victorian premiership-winning sides since World War 2. Continue reading
The wonderful poet Bruce Dawe died on 1 April 2020, aged 90. The poem below was one of my first pieces of published work. 1981. It has quite a few internal references – phrases adapted from titles of Bruce Dawe poems.
You could call it an illusion, a trick of the stage lighting. Or maybe it was just tiredness that created the moment.
Hamer Hall. October 2001. Paul Kelly is onstage. His grey hair, what little there seems to be of it, is close-cropped. His face appears gaunt, his eyes in shadow. He has looked like this for some years now but it is only at this moment, late in the concert, that for some reason, perhaps merely a blink of my eyes, I think the songwriter bears a passing resemblance to one of Australia’s most popular writers. Continue reading
Times have changed. We’re home. The kids are home, well your kids are home, I haven’t got any.
You won’t get any parenting advice from me but I do know something about something that’s back in fashion – reading aloud. Continue reading
Death Of A Typographer by Nick Gadd
You like fonts? You like murder mysteries? You like 1970s Dutch prog rock? You’ll love Melbourne writer Nick Gadd’s second novel. ‘Clever, witty and very stylish,’ said The Age. Lots of fun. Continue reading
When Scott Walker (above) died just over a year after Mark E Smith it seemed as though the stitches that held the universe together in some short of shape had started to fray. I have written about both of them on this website as it happens.
This year has been a good one for crime reading, with some favourite new novels out by Adrian McKinty The Chain, Emma Viskic Darkness for Light, Dave Warner River of Salt, Garry Disher Peace and Jock Serong Preservation. For my Christmas reading, I’m looking forward to cracking into Sticking It to the Man: Revolution and Counterculture in Pulp and Popular Fiction, 1950 to 1980, edited by Andrew Nette & Iain McIntyre, following their earlier pulp collaboration – Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, and Real Cool Cats: Pulp Fiction and Youth Culture, 1950 to 1980. I’ve got a chapter in the new book, but I know I’m going to love the range, research and comment across the whole thing. Continue reading
• David Whish-Wilson has written lots of books. His latest was The Coves and fans will be pleased to know Frank Swann will be back next year via Fremantle Press. Please note he didn’t write one of the books in this photo, it’s just the next on the australianrules.com.au bookshelf. Continue reading
1. The Deuce. So often the things I look forward to most are overwhelmed by my expectations and don’t meet those expectations. With HBO’s The Deuce, it didn’t happen like that. The Deuce was better than I could have hoped for. With writers like George Pelecanos, David Simon and Megan Abbott involved, this look at the birth of an industry and a neighbourhood is perfectly slow moving, patiently creating layers of detail and character, and I can’t wait for the next season. Continue reading
Teacher Education, Sport, Australian Rules Football,
Every scoreboard tells a story
With the first dog chosen in the AFL Canine Draft
escape to the Vasse idyll
australianrules.com.au 