Coffee Table Book of: Aussie Rules Football (Paperback)

Description

Coffee Table Book of: Aussie Rules Football is a large format book of Aussie rules football, printed edge to edge in colour, one picture to a page and the widest carried across two: the red leather ball, the four tall posts, country grounds standing empty from first light to moonlight, grounds among gum trees, beside lakes and rivers and on bare red earth, the kit being made and cared for, the old game, and a few players seen far off in plain dark clothing.

The kit is laid out plain: an oval ball of stitched leather, a red ball beside a yellow one, studded boots with one turned to show its sole, an open kit bag, a pump with its needle in the valve, a mesh bag of balls, a sleeveless jumper on a peg, two small white flags, a whistle beside a stopwatch, rolls of strapping tape, a ball at the padded foot of a goal post, cones and bibs.

The making and the care follow curved panels of leather, folded hides and a ball stitched by hand, an iron roller, mown stripes, a line marker with a fresh white line and muddy boots after rain. The past runs from open parkland and an old timber post in a paddock to the long white coat of the old goal umpires, a wool jumper with a laced collar, a laced leather ball, boots with leather studs, a bucket of lime, an old turnstile and an empty railway platform.

Short notes run through the book, on the rules and how the game is played, the ball, the posts and the kit and how they are made and cared for, and the history of the game: in many country towns, the football club sits at the heart of local life, goal umpires once wore long white coats as they stood between the posts, country clubs are run by volunteers, who mark the lines, run the canteen and wash the jumpers, and a kit bag carries boots, a mouthguard and a water bottle to every game.

Printed in full colour on heavy 150gsm coated paper at 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 inches), as a paperback.