We’re supposedly the most sport-obsessed country in the world, so this book can really help us understand ourselves. It’s a wonderfully irreverent survey of Australian sport – the history, the characters, the pub meetings; even gambling, corruption and drugs are covered. The bulk of the book covers the different sports. First covered are the big 5: cricket, rugby union, AFL, rugby league, and soccer. Then all the others – even motorsports gets in there. It’s great to learn that we’re one of only 5 countries to attend every summer Olympics, even though we weren’t really a country for the first two in Athens (1896) and Paris (1900). This book is great fun to read – get it for yourself or as a gift for anyone who loves sport. That’s almost everyone because, according to the author, researchers put the number of Australians who don’t like sport to be possibly as high as 20 people.
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