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Footy's Glory Days : the Greatest Era of the Greatest Game
Footy’s Glory Days captures the spirit and the venues, the characters and the coverage, and of course the controversies of the Australian football days before the national AFL competition. This was the high-water mark of footy as a spectacle. One-on-one contests, pack marks, spectacular goal-scoring feats and a style of play that left record numbers of fans breathless. It was Knights leaping against Vander Haar, Ditterich taking on all comers, the mercurial Blight, the magic of Jesaulenko, the brute strength of Matthews and the grace of Flower. Footy’s Glory Days reveals the forces that propelled the game’s revolution, goes behind the scenes at every club and details the breathtaking successes and heartbreaking failures. With remarkable candour, it brings to life the fascinating stories of those who were our Saturday afternoon heroes – the players themselves.
Elliot Cartledge is a writer and editor based in Melbourne, Victoria. He is the author of The Hafey Years — reliving a golden era at Tigerland and has written about sport, music and travel, here and overseas. Footy’s Glory Days is his third book.
Elliot Cartledge is a writer and editor based in Melbourne, Victoria. He is the author of The Hafey Years — reliving a golden era at Tigerland and has written about sport, music and travel, here and overseas. Footy’s Glory Days is his third book.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
289 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2013
About the author
Elliot Cartledge
4 books3 followersBorn in Gippsland, Victoria, Elliot Cartledge is a freelance writer and editor. He studied at Monash University and his work has featured in The Age, Inside Sport, Sydney Morning Herald, Inside Cricket and numerous overseas publications.
Cartledge has lived in the United Kingdom, Mexico, Argentina and Corfu. His first commercially-released book, The Hafey Years, was published in 2011, with a second edition following three years later. Footy's Glory Days was published in 2013, while the co-authored Chasing Shadows: The Life & Death of Peter Roebuck was released in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in 2015. A second edition followed 2017.
Chasing Shadows won the British Sports Book Awards book of the year (cricket) and the Australian Cricket Society's book of the year. It was short-listed for the William Hill book of the year and short-listed for the MCC book of the year.
His latest release, Footy's Revolution: The Inside Story of the AFL was released in September, 2018.
Cartledge has lived in the United Kingdom, Mexico, Argentina and Corfu. His first commercially-released book, The Hafey Years, was published in 2011, with a second edition following three years later. Footy's Glory Days was published in 2013, while the co-authored Chasing Shadows: The Life & Death of Peter Roebuck was released in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in 2015. A second edition followed 2017.
Chasing Shadows won the British Sports Book Awards book of the year (cricket) and the Australian Cricket Society's book of the year. It was short-listed for the William Hill book of the year and short-listed for the MCC book of the year.
His latest release, Footy's Revolution: The Inside Story of the AFL was released in September, 2018.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 31, 2013
Wonderful reminder of how spectacular, colourful and tribal footy used to be. It's a book about how the game was changing, too. Also includes some amazing photos. Highly recommended.
October 11, 2021
Puzzling book which never captured my imagination.
Elliot Cartledge sets out to give us a feel for Australian Rules football as a tribal suburban game, mainly from the 1960s to the early 1980s, which just happens to be a time when my team, Hawthorn, enjoyed considerable success, along with Carlton, Richmond and North Melbourne.
Using secondary sources and interviews with players of the era, he gives us something of the flavour of the game: brutal, pretty unscientific yet thrilling, bloody matches played on widely varying ovals and completely non-professional until the end of this time. The author covers a lot of ground but only superficially, summarising much of the time trying to give us a comprehensive picture.
There are some interesting anecdotes: Barry Rowlings talking about being transferred from Hawthorn to Richmond and playing his first game for his new club, against, you guessed it - Hawthorn. Richmond won by five points. And the Hawthorn cheer squad banner in a game in 1981 at Victoria Park (Collingwood's home ground) read: 'Collingwood- you're lower than the basic wage.'
Elliot Cartledge sets out to give us a feel for Australian Rules football as a tribal suburban game, mainly from the 1960s to the early 1980s, which just happens to be a time when my team, Hawthorn, enjoyed considerable success, along with Carlton, Richmond and North Melbourne.
Using secondary sources and interviews with players of the era, he gives us something of the flavour of the game: brutal, pretty unscientific yet thrilling, bloody matches played on widely varying ovals and completely non-professional until the end of this time. The author covers a lot of ground but only superficially, summarising much of the time trying to give us a comprehensive picture.
There are some interesting anecdotes: Barry Rowlings talking about being transferred from Hawthorn to Richmond and playing his first game for his new club, against, you guessed it - Hawthorn. Richmond won by five points. And the Hawthorn cheer squad banner in a game in 1981 at Victoria Park (Collingwood's home ground) read: 'Collingwood- you're lower than the basic wage.'
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews