By Fiona Capp
Play On!
BRUNETTE LENKIC & ROB HESS
Play On!, by Brunette Lenkic & Rob Hess, tells the story of women playing Aussie Rules.
ECHO, $32.95
When the national women's football league was recently announced amidst much fanfare, it was reported as a "major push" by the AFL to boost women's football. Yet, as the authors of this book point out, AFL involvement in women's football only began a decade ago, 90 years after the formation of the first women's teams. Workplace teams began to spring up around Perth in 1915, despite the popular perception that "the rough-and-tumble game of football is peculiarly unsuited to women". Play On! traces the halting progress of the women's game, the hurdles players faced and the constant battle to have the women's competition taken seriously. Above all, this is a story of hard slog and dedication by the many women who made the game their own.