The Short Long Book: A Portrait of Michael Long, the Man Who Changed the Australian Game

Description

A portrait of Michael Long, the man who changed the Australian game. In 1995, Aboriginal footballer Michael Long gave the AFL its Mandela moment . He quietly revolutionised Australian sport by refusing to let a racial insult pass during the Anzac Day match between Essendon and Collingwood. When the overwhelmingly white football public backed a black man against a white institution (the AFL), the culture of the game flipped and the AFL became a leader in Australian race relations. A decade later, he again impacted on the nation when he set out to walk from Melbourne to Canberra to confront the Howard government over Aboriginal issues. This is a portrait of a shy black kid from Darwin who became one of the most notable figures in the history of Australian sport, of a footballer who tore apart the 1993 grand final within seven minutes of the start, of a man known as a joker who is a serious social and political thinker. It is also the story of a white sportswriter who is taken to his limits, and a long way beyond, seeking to understand a man who can only be understood through his Aboriginality. Funny, incisive and revealing, The Short Long Book is a compell

Martin Flanagan writes for the Age newspaper and is the author of twelve books, among them "The Call", an imaginative re-construction of the life of Tom Wills, a founder of the game, and "The Last Quarter", a trilogy of his football books. What people have said about Martin Flanagan's football writing- - "Martin Flanagan must never be allowed to stop writing football. I say this because he is the only football writer I have read who is so good I think he could nearly describe a heartbeat - and that, if you want to touch the essence of football, is what you have to do" - Don Watson "If I'm ever prompted, I have no hesitation in nominating Martin Flanagan as my favorite writer I only hope I can see the game off the field as well as he does" - Nathan Buckley "I like Martin's writing, and I know most players do too, because he comes from a different perspective" - James Hird "The best of Flanagan has a finesse and feeling that no current Australian sports-writer approaches, let alone equals" - Gideon Haigh "I love his brain" - Kevin Sheedy