Carn: The Game, and the Country that Plays it

by Andrew Mueller

There have been histories of Australian football before. There has not been one like Carn. Carn tells the story of the Victorian Football League and its successor, the Australian Football League, from 1897 to the present day, by focusing on 50 of the thousands of games which have been played down the decades. Some of these matches have been significant to the game of Australian football; others have been significant to Australia as a whole. Carn recognises that while the game is only a game, it has also always been much more than that: anything which consumes so much of the nation's attention can't help but reflect something of the nation's character.

Carn is a book replete, as the Australian game is, with great yarns and extraordinary people. It is a book for fans of Australian football, and fans of Australia.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Australia

858 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 1, 2019

Reviews

[Ian Laird · Rating 3 out of 5]

Andrew Mueller has attempted, with some success, to tell the story of Australian Rules football using selected seminal matches played throughout the history of the code.

It is a valiant effort. Valiant, but to some extent doomed because of necessary selectivity and the inevitable partiality of the reader. Mueller has chosen 57 important matches to illustrate key issues, events and heroes (plus a few villains, eg Phil Carman). However, over 16,000 matches have been played since 1897; inevitably there are some of us who will be disappointed at the non-inclusions and our interest will be greater for those clashes involving our team, preferably victories. Sadly many of my team’s better efforts are missing and there are several with the Hawks on the receiving end.

No matter. The author brings these games to life, capturing the energy, excitement and spirit of each match with lively and convincing descriptions of play, in many cases relying entirely on contemporary accounts, unless Andrew Mueller is 120 years old.

We have lots of finals, including famous grand finals, for example the bloodbath of 1945 between South Melbourne and Carlton (who won) and the battlefield epic of 1989 (Hawthorn defeating Geelong). There are matches featuring players who found fame in other fields, including fullback Keith Miller, the future Australian cricket all-rounder, holding Bob Pratt to one goal, and poignantly, Bluey Truscott, the World War Two Spitfire ace, making a guest appearance with his old team Melbourne. Overweight and unfit, Truscott is nevertheless accorded a hero’s welcome, in his last match before losing his life in a training exercise off the Western Australian coast in 1943.

Nicky Winmar's raised guernsey, finger pointing to his black skin, is here, and for political content we have former Prime Minister Menzies, following a stroke, at Princes Park in 1972, seated in his Bentley on a raised platform especially built for him to watch his Blues (Carlton).

[Peter Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

A history of Australian Rules football from the beginning of the Victorian Football League (VFL) in 1897 to the creation, evolution and continuation of the Australian Football League (AFL) of today.

So how do you sum up such a timespan and the thousands of games played into one book ? The author picks 57 of them, all important moments in time, place and the VFL/AFL space.

So how do you write a work that covers such a timespan and the thousands of games played in a manner that might only be on interest to a niche PHD student still living in his childhood bedroom surrounded by posters of teams both current and decades past, or the statistical genius also still living in his childhood bedroom surrounded by posters of teams both current and decades past? Humor, astute observation, detailed footnotes that add wealth to the body of text and reality assessed.

This is a tremendous book, for the person who appreciates Australian humor, for a follower or supporter of the VFL/AFL, for the inquisitive amateur historian and, to a lesser extent, as a relaxed highly engaging and fascinating read for the statistical genius or the niche PHD student.

No spoilers, however if you don’t learn something or get a couple of laughs a game, I would suggest that you replay the match as you have likely missed something within the fast paced hustle and bustle of the telling. Just like a real, top quality game itself, this work moves along at a steady, if not cracking pace, within a multi-dimensional manner that is likely to create both thought and highly entertain.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a lot of fun. Clearly a depth of research has gone into it, but the games he selects to weave a history around, are great. Its laugh out loud (particularly the footnotes). The spectaular mark by John Dugdale (the greatest mark of all time) makes it for me!. The most enjoyable book I have read for some time.

[Loki · Rating 5 out of 5]

A look at Australian rules football through the lense of a selection of VFL/AFL matches, each unique or notable in some fashion, told with affection and humour (and a lot of footnotes). A very entertaining overview of the game, the people who play it, and the people who follow it.

[Gideon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never had so much fun nor laughed so hard while reading a non-fiction book. I do not have the most established interested in the AFL, yet this book captured me from the second I started reading it. It has a magical and lyrical prose, that hooks any casual observer in and won't let them go under the end of a chapter, and then another and another. It got to a point where everyone in my house was sitting on the living room floor while one of us read the book aloud, each of us sitting completely enraptured, absorbed in the language and the wonderful way the author is able to capture unique stories and communicate them to an audience. Literally 12/10 , 6 stars, the works, fantastic book.

And can I just say, we took the time to listen to 'Bob Chitty's Blues' by the Blazing Zoos and it fucking slaps so hard, it is indeed criminally underrated, and it immediately went on my playlist.

[Geoff Matheson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic read for any AFL/VFL fan. Works its way through the history of the competition, through pivotal (and not so pivotal) games. Thorough whilst also being ready to meander off down the occassional rabbit hole.

[Stephen Huntley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read for any footy fan, witty in parts and stuffed full of well researched stories. The author has an enjoyably intelligent though opinionated style. I personally don't like the cramming of footnoted extra bits of information on the bottom of nearly every page; it destroyed the flow for me and the tiny type makes it difficult to read. Also found the writing a bit pompous at times. That said, at two chapters a sitting it was my pleasurable evening companion for more than a month and proved a great antidote to a dull January off-season here in mid-winter Scotland.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant! Bloody brilliant.

Likely to be the BEST book I'll ever read about Aussie Rules.

Fascinating, well written, quirky - this book takes 57 games played since 1897 and chronicles the history of our great game, particularly thru the characters that played the game.

Even the chapters featuring Collingwood are interesting!

[Mark Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book on Australian rules Ive read. Being British it explained a lot. Feel I'd enjoy reading this authors other books given his comments on Anzac Day, Racism and the Australian propensity to smash & humiliate teams.

[Sam Proietto · Rating 5 out of 5]

(10/10) This is the kind of aggressive verbosity that only an Australian football writer from the 20th century would deliver - Mueller is not the first of them to sound like he's reporting war propaganda on the frontlines of WW1 with a transatlantic accent. Fortunately, Mueller is absolutely hilarious, and the stories he's chosen are a rich mix of themes to characterise the history of the game. The research is amazing, and you leave feeling fully educated about the game even with very little prior knowledge - although, there's stuff to learn for the most diehard fan.

[David Stegehuis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great read: both as a set of funny footy stories and as the story of footy. And threaded within these tales is a sense of the game’s culture and that of the people who love it.
On the negative, I found Muller’s writing style a little overbearing or pretentious but if you can get over that, it’s well worth the time.