Dimensions
144 x 166 x 14mm
This books remembers all the aspects of AFL that footy fans love - the champions, the coaches, the media, the long goals, the high marks, the wins, the losses, and, of course, the biffo. Suzi Petkovski has collected quotes, commentary and phrases from across all the glory days of AFL and it will come right up to the grand final this year.
Suzi has this to say on the book: "...it appeals to me because the way we talk about football, its social-glue properties and its inflated significance, is often more interesting to me than the game itself. There's a real vibrancy, hardness and humour in the footy lexicon, and we're more interested than ever before about the game and the people who play it."
Some tasty quotes include:
Ted Whitten, in his autobiography of 1995, recalled: "Bob Skilton said I was the best and dirtiest, but dirty in a nice way."
And Ron Barassi of Carlton, admitting to striking Fitzroy's Don Furness behind the play, said: "I hit him from behind only because he wasn't facing me."
Then there have been some fantastic manglers of English in footy commentary. A couple of examples:
Doug Wade: "The Ablett brothers are hard to tell apart, although one has a beard."
Lou Richards: "I haven't seen that before for a very long time."
And it wasn't just the commentators who had trouble - Geelong player Garry Hocking had this to say when he retired: "People have seen me as stern and hard. But there's no doubt there's a different exterior underneath."
