Gary Ablett: An Autobiography by Gary Ablett

$44.99 AUD

$49.99 (10% off)

Category: Sport

Gary Ablett: An Autobiography celebrates AFL legend Gary Ablett's stellar career. Reliving key moments and events in his life, this memoir not only explores Gary's great success at the very top of the AFL, but also his journey to get there. Drafted in 2001, Gary's incredible career has spanned two grea t clubs, two Grand Finals and two Brownlow medals among many other accolades. In his book, Gary takes readers through the trials and triumphs of his life: his close bonds with his family; his famous father Gary Ablett Senior's influence on his life; joining Geelong Football Club along with his brother Nathan; becoming a star player and the pressure that brings from the media; taking on new challenges when he left his home town to join the newly minted Suns football team on the Gold Coast; becoming a captain and leading the Suns; dealing with injury and the pressure that you come under then; the joy of returning home to Geelong Football Club even though it was accompanied by a tragic family event; settling back in Victoria with his wife Jordan and baby Levi and a future that will no doubt always have football somewhere in it.  Illustrated with many never-before-seen photographs from private collections, and including contributions from Joel Selwood, Mark Thompson, Gary's mum, Sue, and Gary Ablett Snr, this book is packed with images and stories that will bring the book to life and remind the reader of the many great moments in Gary's career. From childhood to his zenith as a player, Gary's story will be a book to read and re-read about a player without equal. ...Show more

Roughy by Jarryd Roughead

$40.00 AUD

$45.00 (11% off)

Category: Sport

Roughy is a story of perspective from a Hawthorn legend – much more than a footballer’s tale. A country boy who grew up watching his old man play local footy in Leongatha, Jarryd Roughead’s talent and dedication turned him into an AFL star. Lining up alongside some of the greatest to ever play the ga me, he was a key player in a Hawthorn team that will live on as one of the best of any era.In 2015, when a melanoma was found on his bottom lip, it seemed like only a small setback. The spot was removed and, soon after, Jarryd was back on the ground, helping the Hawks secure their famous three-peat – his fourth premiership. He was newly married, planning a family, and life seemed carefree. Then, during a routine check-up in 2016, a scan showed the melanoma had moved into his lungs. He had cancer.Jarryd was one of the first to receive an immunotherapy treatment that is now saving lives around the world – and ultimately saved his. But the side effects were brutal. Endless days and nights of agony, including nerve damage to his feet that threatened any possible return to footy.What saw Jarryd through was the same resilience, drive and positivity that had turned him into an elite footballer in the first place. Not only did he return to play AFL, he was named captain of Hawthorn. A one-club man, Roughy retired as a legend and an inspiration. ...Show more

Golden Daze (Australian Surfing Then to Now) by Sean Doherty

$35.00 AUD

$45.00 (22% off)

Category: Sport

Australia's best surf writer brings to life the wild, bold, brave story of Australian surfing from the 60s to the present through the stories of Surfing Australia's Hall of Fame surfers and contemporary surfing legends. Golden Daze is a compelling memoir of Australian surfing through a year in the life of Australia's top surfers. Starting in 1963, renowned surfing journalist Sean Doherty charts the history of surfing through the stories of Surfing Australia's Hall of Fame inductees. Taking a year and a surfer at a time, he will reveal what they did, where they surfed and their life events in fascinating depth and detail. Illustrated with unpublished images from the surfers' private collections, these stories also give a vivid sense of the shifting world around them, particularly in the ever-changing realm of surfing. Golden Daze opens in 1963 with Peter Troy jumping ship in Melbourne with a surfboard under his arm, embarking on his fabled surfing odyssey that saw him introducing surfing to Brazil, being crowned European champion, hitching alone across the Kalahari Desert and watching an unknown band from Liverpool called the Beatles. 1964 is Midget Farrelly's story of winning the first world title on home sand at Manly Beach. In 1969 Wayne Lynch goes down the coast, avoiding the Vietnam draft. And in 1971, Alby Falzon stumbles upon the island of Bali while shooting his humble surf movie Morning of the Earth. The book brings to life the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and noughties through the eyes of the Australian surfers who defined them best, ending today with stories of potential Hall of Famers, contemporary stars like Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson and Tyler Wright. Part journal, part biography, part surf culture memoir, Golden Daze gives a fascinating insight into Australian surfing and what makes it so unique. ...Show more

Cheat: The Not-So-Subtle Art of Conning Your Way to Sporting Glory by Titus O'Reily

$34.99 AUD

Category: Sport

Where there's sport, there's cheating. No sport is immune; athletics, swimming, rugby, American Football, cricket, baseball, badminton, motorsports, tennis and curling. Yes, even that sport on the ice with brooms. Almost as soon as humans started playing sport competitively, they started to cheat. They cheated to win, for the fame, for the money and sometimes for reasons that are hard to understand. From the fiendishly clever to the outright hare brained, the borderline to the blatant, Titus O'Reily takes us through the many and varied ways athletes and countries have tried to cheat over the years. There's the winner of the New York marathon who was driven in a car part of the way, the male basketballer whose drug test revealed he was pregnant, the Tour De France where many of the riders took the train, the Spanish Paralympic basketball team who faked being intellectually disabled to win gold at the 2000 Paralympics. As well as sharing an alarming amount of tales involving swapping bodily fluids, Titus takes you through doping, illegal equipment, bribes, playing dirty, faking injuries, wearing disguises, dodgy referees, ball tampering, eye gouging, itching powder, licking an opponent to distract them and sending a dwarf out to bat to shrink the strike zone. Just as sport has become more sophisticated, so has cheating in sport, from state backed doping programs to tiny motors in Tour De France bikes. What does this say about us, that we cheat with such regularity and creativity? Will technology help stop cheating or will it only make it worse? Mastering the not-so-subtle art of cheating is a hilarious trip through the history of cheating in sport, and a handy how-to-guide for the professional athlete in your family.       ...Show more

Bachar Houli by Bachar Houli

$34.99 AUD

Category: Sport

Bachar Houli is as accomplished an AFL footballer as they come. He's been part of two Richmond Premiership sides, he was an All-Australian in 2019, and with over 200 games to his name he remains a key part of a champion team. Picked at number 42 in the 2006 National Draft by Essendon, Houli played 26 ga mes for the Bombers before moving in 2011 to Tigerland, where rookie coach Damien Hardwick was assembling the team that six years later would achieve the seemingly impossible and claim Richmond's 11th Premiership. Another flag followed two years later, with Houli close to best on ground in both deciders. Yet it's as the AFL's most prominent Muslim player that Houli is best known - and his strong Muslim values are at the heart of the man he is. Writing for the first time, Houli explores the experiences and beliefs that sparked his trailblazing success as a Muslim footballer, and that established him as a leading voice within the AFL community for inclusion, understanding and tolerance. Co-authored with acclaimed broadcaster and writer Waleed Aly, Bachar Houli- Faith, Football and Family tells the unique story of one of football's most fascinating men. ...Show more

Albert 'Pompey' Austin - A Man Between Two Worlds by Roy Hay

$29.95 AUD

Category: Sport

Biography of Indigenous sports person

'the Bool - The History of Racing in Warrnambool, From 1848 by Mark McNamara

$45.00 AUD

Category: Sport

Mark McNamara's near-30-year toil has produced a book of more than 400 pages that is an amazing and well-researched story of more than a century and a half of horse-racing history in Warrnambool that also is a history of the region's people and their sporting passion. The magnificent Grand Annual Steepl echase takes centre stage at Warrnambool's annual three-day May carnival, and it is covered extensively in Melbourne barrister McNamara's much wider labour of love. As the proud Warrnambool man and highly respected former chief steward, Des Gleeson, says in his foreword: "The carnival's Grand Annual Steeplechase is the ultimate test of horse and rider, run over an exhausting 5500 metres with 33 obstacles, more than any other steeplechase in the world. It is a spectacle unmatched, conducted through open paddocks and up and down hills, horses running clockwise and anti-clockwise at different stages." The book covers the Annual and the other iconic carnival races, the Warrnambool Cup, the Wangoom Handicap, the Brierly Steeplechase and the Galleywood Hurdle. Warrnambool-born McNamara tells of the exploits of the great horses, including Galleywood, for whom the hurdle was named, and delves into the fight to save jumps racing, an "endangered species" in racing in recent years. It details the exploits of trainers such big winners Kevin Lafferty and Darren Weir, the great jockeys such as Tom Corrigan and Ted Byrne, and the jockey- trainer combinations such as Pat Hyland and Jim Moloney. Horse owners Tozer, Manifold and more provide key moments, right from the mid-1800s when many rode their own horses in races as amateurs and also were involved-as or with administrators-in the establishment of clubs and Warrnambool's racecourses. ...Show more

The Storm Within: The Autobiography of a Legend by Cameron SMITH, with Andrew WEBSTER

$49.99 AUD

Category: Sport

***CAPTAIN OF THE 2020 TELSTRA NRL PREMIERSHIP WINNERS THE MELBOURNE STORM*** Cameron Smith AM is the most decorated rugby league player of all time. The recipient of numerous Dally M and Golden Boot awards, he has starred in the toughest league competition on the planet every season since he made his N RL debut in 2002. Captaining the Melbourne Storm to multiple premierships, Smith played in a staggering seventeen finals campaigns. An integral member of the record-breaking Queensland teams of 2006-2017, he won eleven State of Origin series. As skipper of the Australian national team for over a decade, he led the Kangaroos to two World Cups. Smith is credited with revolutionising the number nine position. He holds the State of Origin records for most appearances and most wins, as well as the NRL records for most games, goals, points scored, wins and appearances as captain. This book maps his unique journey in the game: an extraordinary look into the biggest matches and biggest moments, Smith describes his career with great colour and candour, outlining what it takes to climb to the highest level in sport. Talent aside, it is Smith's intelligence and poise that set him apart, coupled with consistency, durability and longevity that are unlikely to ever be matched. Notoriously private throughout his career, The Storm Within sets the record straight. Finally, the life behind the legend - the man behind the mystery - tells his story. Features a foreword by legendary Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy. ...Show more

Port Fairy Fishing: Land and Boat by Russell Allardice

$30.00 AUD

Category: Sport

Anna Meares Now: Sometimes the End of the Race Is Only the Beginning by Anna Meares

$34.95 AUD

Category: Sport

From 2004 to 2016, Anna Meares was one of Australia's greatest and most popular Olympians, a winner of two gold medals and medals at four Olympics. She overcame a broken neck to win silver at the 2008 Beijing Games. She is an inspiration not just because of her sporting achievements, but for way she ans wered the potentially debilitating question faced by all retiring athletes: What happens now? Anna confronted personal crises, including the death of her coach from Motor Neurone Disease and a marriage breakup, and learned plenty as she first stumbled but now strides down a bright path. She has a new career, is a new mother and is happy in her personal life. Her sporting life is only part of this story. Her recent wins have added a new dimension to what has been a remarkable life. ...Show more

Stronger and Bolder: Story of Richmond's 2019 Premiership by Konrad Marshall

$29.99 AUD

Category: Sport

Following on from the best-selling Yellow & Black: A season with Richmond, Konrad Marshall's acclaimed account of Richmond's 2017 Premiership, comesStronger and Bolder: The Story of Richmond's 2019 Premiership. It tells the intimate story of the Richmond Football Club through the highs and lows of i ts 2019 finals campaign, explaining how the club recovered from its disappointment of 2018. With unprecedented access to club officials, players and coaches, author Konrad Marshall takes the reader inside the rooms at the key moments of the campaign, chronicling the Tigers' journey to AFL football's Holy Grail. This is not just a book of wins and losses, it's the story of a professional football club and how it operates at every level: from the fitness staff, to the coaching panel, the players, and the Board. The Richmond Football Club has continued to change enormously following the 2017 triumph, its first Premiership since 1980, and Marshall explains in detail the enormous amount of work and thought that has gone into every decision made--on and off the field. Stronger and Bolder: The Story of Richmond's 2019 Premiershipis full of unparalleled access to all the key moments, including frank and occasionally emotional interviews with key figures. Yellow & Black:A Season with Richmond was a compulsory read for all football fans, and critically acclaimed. Stronger and Bolderpicks up where it left off.   ...Show more

Belief (HB) by Marlion Pickett; Dave Warner

$39.95 AUD

Category: Sport

From prison to premiership glory; this is Marlion Pickett’s extraordinary story. It’s the third quarter in the biggest game of the season. A young man lines up for goal.  The 100,000 strong crowd leaps to its feet and roars as Marlion Pickett sends the ball soaring through the goalposts for his first e ver major, celebrated by every teammate, a tradition upheld even on Grand Final day. It was the 2019 AFL Grand Final, and Richmond’s Marlion Pickett was making history as the first player in over 50 years to debut on that ‘one day in September’. Marlion helped the Tigers thrash the Greater Western Sydney Giants in their debut grand final appearance and was judged third best on ground, only six days after steering Richmond’s VFL team with his best on ground performance to their nail biting Grand Final victory. Marlion Pickett’s extraordinary story of redemption is a true fairy tale. The tale of a man who came back from the brink to triumph on Australian sport’s biggest stage, a long-held dream come true. What’s even more remarkable about Marlion’s journey is how this young, troubled Aboriginal kid from Western Australia ever got his chance in the first place. A story all too sadly familiar – about drugs, crime, violence and time spent in jail – but also about a life picked up piece by piece through his own belief in himself and those around him who believed in him too. Belief also takes us inside the South Fremantle and Richmond Football clubs – clubs that have made stars and cult heroes out of other Indigenous players; clubs willing to overlook a talented kid’s troubled past to give him a chance. We meet the fellow players and support network who stood by Marlion’s side as he fought back against injury and the doubters and proudly ran onto the field at the MCG. Marlion’s resilience and strength is inspirational. His is an unforgettable Australian story of triumph over adversity.   ...Show more