Almanac Book Review – The Norm Smith Medallists: The Players Who Delivered On Football’s Grandest Stage

 

 

The Norm Smith Medallists: The Players Who Delivered On Football’s Grandest Stage

Dan Eddy

Slattery Media Group

$39.95

 

If only a team could be made up of Norm Smith Medallists what a team it would be. The quality of a player who performs on the ultimate stage can never be underestimated. Not underappreciated. But to play against the best and be the best must be an awfully good feeling. In Dan Eddy’s new book for Slattery Media Group The Norm Smith Medallists he takes a look at every winner of the prestigious medal from 1979 onwards, and lets each players open up about the special day in September, and a snapshot of how that player got there.

 

It is an insight we’ve rarely heard before. And it is a welcome one. Eddy has been able to elicit from his interview subjects details about the build up and the atmosphere at an AFL grand final. And just how these great performances unfolded on the big day.

 

We hear from Michael Long, his great run featuring in his highlights reel in the 1993 grand final where we bounced his way into Aussie Rules folklore with his great goal that helped the Bombers secure another flag. And David Rhys-Jones who gave Dermott Brereton a footballing bath in the 1987 grand final by completing blanketing the dangerous Hawk.

 

There are tales of great courage and inspiration, stories of disbelief and perseverance and surrounding those great solo efforts are formidable teams who dominated, just like Brisbane did in the early 2000s with names like Voss, Black, Akermanis and Lappin all outstanding.

 

The Norm Smith Medallists is an essential addiction to any football library for anyone with even a passing interest in Aussie Rules.

 

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Comments

  1. Good one Chris – and Dan. Your article prompted me to go back over the list of winners. The most interesting thing for me was the split between enduring champions (Dusty, Hodge, Judd, Cyril, Bartel, Buckley, Hird, Simon Black) and the “good ordinary” players who had a day out (OKeefe, Johannisen, Chappy, my Andrew Embley and your Byron Pickett). One that I couldn’t have remembered for a million dollars was Brisbane’s Shaun Hart bobbing up everywhere in 2001. And that is just since the turn of the century.
    Superstars and Everyman – should make for a good read. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

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