One feature of Australian Football compared with some football codes, Gridiron being the extreme example, is that all players get to display the full range of the game’s skills. An exception is ruckwork, which is the exclusive domain of the very tall; otherwise, all players mark, kick, handball, tackle and shepherd. It is also a game, until quite recently, defined by positional play.
Carolyn Spooner’s wonderful and whimsical book, Frog Cakes at Half Forward: Flights of Australian Football Fancy, celebrates the players whose names are indelibly linked to a particular position. These are mostly players who it is impossible to imagine playing anywhere else on the field.
Carolyn’s deep love for Australian Football is evident, along with her passion for South Australian history and culture. With librarian skills, Carolyn has creatively matched players from the 1890s to the current day, with an eclectic range of living and everyday things, including fish, cakes, cars and precious stones. Each match highlights something characteristic about a particular player.
An example is Peter Hudson, who naturally features among the star full forwards. Huddo was always supremely balanced. He floated over the ground. Carolyn’s description of him as a leafy sea dragon captures this nicely.
Richmond’s ruckman Mike Patterson is appropriately the Swamp Mahogany. Centre Half-Forwards are matched with high-performance cars, and Royce Hart earns the Rolls-Royce marquee. However, Michael ‘Flash’ Graham, who played on the half-forward flank for Sturt, earns the major prize, the label of Frog Cake, named after the iconic South Australian treat, baked by Balfours.
Carolyn has included several quotes from Jack Pollard’s 1967 publication, High Mark, which featured stars of the day discussing positional play. In one, Essendon great Jack Clarke described centre players as divided between those who stay at home and those who roam. Of course, today it seems as if every player on the field roams.
Although the book covers the great players from each state and territory, the South Australians shine. I enjoyed reading about the great Ken Farmer, who averaged a staggering 6.3 goals a game. One player who caught my eye was Harold Vivian ‘Vic’ Cumberland, a football journeyman who played for teams in four states before World War I, including for Sturt and St Kilda. He was wounded three times during the war, then returned to play for the Saints at 43.
What a treat this book is. It is beautifully designed with an eclectic array of historical photos, drawings, newspaper clippings, cartoons, recipes and much more.
Carolyn’s book is one every lover of Australian Football should have on their bookshelf.
Read more about Frog Cakes at Half Forward and purchase a copy HERE
Kelvin Templeton rich life, which includes a stint in the goal square at Footscray and Melbourne, has recently published his debut novel Collision. Read more about it, including an extract:
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