Australian Rules Football During the First World War [Hardcover]

The book explores the intersection between the Great War and patriotism through an examination of the effects of both on Australias most popular football code. The work is chronological, and therefore provides an easy path by which events may be followed. Ultimately it seeks to shine a light on and provide considerable detail to a much-ignored period in Australian Rules football history, including womens football history, that was subject to much upheaval and which reflected considerable social and class divisions in society at the time. One hundred years on, the Australian Football League presents past soldier footballers as unequivocal representatives of a unifying national Anzac spirit. That is far from the reality of footballs First World War experience.1. War.- 2. King Football.- 3. Football under Siege.- 4. Women, War and Football.- 5. Football and the Military.- 6. Conscription.- 7. 'Like Old Times'.- 8. Conclusion.- Bibliography.- IndexDale Blair is Historian at Deakin University, Australia.

The book explores the intersection between the Great War and patriotism through an examination of the effects of both on Australias most popular football code. The work is chronological, and therefore provides an easy path by which events may be followed. Ultimately it seeks to shine a light on and provide considerable detail to a much-ignored period in Australian Rules football history, including womens football history, that was subject to much upheaval and which reflected considerable social and class divisions in society at the time. One hundred years on, the Australian Football League presents past soldier footballers as unequivocal representatives of a unifying national Anzac spirit. That is far from the reality of footballs First World War experience.