Author(s): FLANAGAN Martin

Sport

Martin Flanagan has been writing Australian football for 25 years. The Last Quarter brings together three of his books that sum up that period. In 1970, he re-created the grand final of that year, said to be the best of the 20th century, by talking to the players, coaches and umpire. Southern Sky, Western Oval, written in 1993, portrays the events of a season set against the backdrop of a club, Footscray (now the Western Bulldogs), fighting to survive. The Game In Time of War, which starts with the first game after 9/11 and ends with the first game after the invasion of Iraq, describes an unnerving period in Australian history through the eyes of a man who distracts himself by watching football. The collection ends with an essay about the controversy that marked the AFL's 150th year and Flanagan's part in it, titled: Tom Wills: Confessions of a Ghost Writer.