The Storm Within: The Autobiography of a Legend by Cameron SMITH, with Andrew WEBSTER

$39.99 AUD

Category: Sports & Recreation

***CAPTAIN OF THE 2020 TELSTRA NRL PREMIERSHIP WINNERS THE MELBOURNE STORM*** Cameron Smith AM is the most decorated rugby league player of all time. The recipient of numerous Dally M and Golden Boot awards, he has starred in the toughest league competition on the planet every season since he made his N RL debut in 2002. Captaining the Melbourne Storm to multiple premierships, Smith played in a staggering seventeen finals campaigns. An integral member of the record-breaking Queensland teams of 2006-2017, he won eleven State of Origin series. As skipper of the Australian national team for over a decade, he led the Kangaroos to two World Cups. Smith is credited with revolutionising the number nine position. He holds the State of Origin records for most appearances and most wins, as well as the NRL records for most games, goals, points scored, wins and appearances as captain. This book maps his unique journey in the game: an extraordinary look into the biggest matches and biggest moments, Smith describes his career with great colour and candour, outlining what it takes to climb to the highest level in sport. Talent aside, it is Smith's intelligence and poise that set him apart, coupled with consistency, durability and longevity that are unlikely to ever be matched. Notoriously private throughout his career, The Storm Within sets the record straight. Finally, the life behind the legend - the man behind the mystery - tells his story. Features a foreword by legendary Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy. ...Show more

Gary Ablett: An Autobiography by Gary Ablett

$39.99 AUD

Category: Sports & Recreation

Gary Ablett: An Autobiography celebrates AFL legend Gary Ablett's stellar career. Reliving key moments and events in his life, this memoir not only explores Gary's great success at the very top of the AFL, but also his journey to get there. Drafted in 2001, Gary's incredible career has spanne d two great clubs, two Grand Finals and two Brownlow medals among many other accolades. In his book, Gary takes readers through the trials and triumphs of his life: his close bonds with his family; his famous father Gary Ablett Senior's influence on his life; joining Geelong Football Club along with his brother Nathan; becoming a star player and the pressure that brings from the media; taking on new challenges when he left his home town to join the newly minted Suns football team on the Gold Coast; becoming a captain and leading the Suns; dealing with injury and the pressure that you come under then; the joy of returning home to Geelong Football Club even though it was accompanied by a tragic family event; settling back in Victoria with his wife Jordan and baby Levi and a future that will no doubt always have football somewhere in it.  Illustrated with many never-before-seen photographs from private collections, and including contributions from Joel Selwood, Mark Thompson, Gary's mum, Sue, and Gary Ablett Snr, this book is packed with images and stories that will bring the book to life and remind the reader of the many great moments in Gary's career. From childhood to his zenith as a player, Gary's story will be a book to read and re-read about a player without equal. ...Show more

Battling the Blues by Darius Boyd

$29.99 AUD

Category: Sports & Recreation

  Darius Boyd is an NRL champion. This raw, honest and inspiring memoir takes us into the heart of his footy and private life and reveals his fight to conquer his demons and live a better life. 'A legend of the game' - Anthony Seibold'He's a player that never lets his team dow n' - Billy SlaterDarius Boyd broke into the Brisbane Broncos NRL team in 2006 straight out of high school and was part of the premiership-winning team in his debut season. He'd go on to win another premiership with the Dragons in 2010, claiming the Clive Churchill Medal for man of the match and forever stamping his name as an elite champion of the game. He has played 28 State of Origins for Queensland and taken the field in 23 Tests for Australia - never playing in a losing Australian team. In 15 seasons at the top level, Darius has won nearly every honour the sport can award and is undeniably an NRL great.But listing statistics, awards and premierships doesn't reveal the battles that Darius Boyd has faced off the field. A teenager with a troubled background, he started his career with innate footy talent but also the emotional baggage of an unknown father, the devastating loss of loved ones, and a mother who was walking a mental health tightrope herself, which as a kid he didn't understand.As his talent shone on the field and his profile increased, Darius struggled. Hiding years of depression and unhappiness, playing footy was his escape. But no one can run from themselves forever. The horrific spinal injury to good mate and Newcastle Knights teammate Alex McKinnon was the catalyst that finally broke Darius. Realising he needed help for his anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts, he turned his back on football, checked into a mental health facility and began to mend his life and himself. Now, as he heads into retirement, Darius Boyd is sharing his story, to celebrate his triumphs on the field but, more importantly for him, revealing how to deal with depression, overcome adversity and live with mental illness. He reflects on excerpts from his private journal which charted his journey from the depths of despair to a life of gratitude. It is a heartfelt message he now takes across the NRL and into boardrooms, schools and footy clubs in a quest to keep our young men alive.BATTLING THE BLUES is a raw, honest and inspiring memoir that takes us into the heart of an NRL champion and his fight to conquer his demons and live a better life.   ...Show more

Cheat: The Not-So-Subtle Art of Conning Your Way to Sporting Glory by Titus O'Reily

$32.99 AUD

Category: Sports & Recreation

Where there's sport, there's cheating. No sport is immune; athletics, swimming, rugby, American Football, cricket, baseball, badminton, motorsports, tennis and curling. Yes, even that sport on the ice with brooms. Almost as soon as humans started playing sport competitively, they started to cheat. They cheated to win, for the fame, for the money and sometimes for reasons that are hard to understand. From the fiendishly clever to the outright hare brained, the borderline to the blatant, Titus O'Reily takes us through the many and varied ways athletes and countries have tried to cheat over the years. There's the winner of the New York marathon who was driven in a car part of the way, the male basketballer whose drug test revealed he was pregnant, the Tour De France where many of the riders took the train, the Spanish Paralympic basketball team who faked being intellectually disabled to win gold at the 2000 Paralympics. As well as sharing an alarming amount of tales involving swapping bodily fluids, Titus takes you through doping, illegal equipment, bribes, playing dirty, faking injuries, wearing disguises, dodgy referees, ball tampering, eye gouging, itching powder, licking an opponent to distract them and sending a dwarf out to bat to shrink the strike zone. Just as sport has become more sophisticated, so has cheating in sport, from state backed doping programs to tiny motors in Tour De France bikes. What does this say about us, that we cheat with such regularity and creativity? Will technology help stop cheating or will it only make it worse? Mastering the not-so-subtle art of cheating is a hilarious trip through the history of cheating in sport, and a handy how-to-guide for the professional athlete in your family.       ...Show more

Lights Out, Full Throttle: Stories from the Pit Lane by Damon Hill; Johnny Herbert

$32.99 AUD

Category: Sports & Recreation

Laurel and Hardy, Ant and Dec, Morecambe and Wise, Herbert and Hill. The history of entertainment is studded with brilliant comic duos. Johnny Herbert and Damon Hill between them competed in 261 Grand Prix amassing 25 wins, 49 podium finishes, one World Championship, 458 championship points, a Le Mans w in, two smashed ankles, a broken arm, wrist, leg, sixty ribs and two bruised egos.Having retired from racing, Johnny and Damon have become the one constant for passionate English F1 fans in a rapidly changing landscape.They have earned cult status as commentators and pundits, with viewers loving their unerring dedication to the sport's greatness. Drawing on a lifetime of sniffing petrol fumes, Lights Out, Full Throttle stands large over the landscape of Formula One and takes the temperature of the good, the bad and the ugly of the petrol-heads' paradise.Lights Out, Full Throttle takes F1 fans on a tour of the sport - from Monaco to Silverstone, Johnny's crowd-surfing and Bernie's burger bar, the genius of Adrian Newey and Colin Chapman, Martin Brundle's hush puppies, why Lewis Hamilton will never ever move to Ferrari (probably), getting the yips, money, safety, the future of the sport, and what it's like to have an out of body experience while driving a car in the pouring rain at 200mph.Whether you're a fan of Nigel, Niki, Kimi or Britney, pine for the glory days of Brabham, Williams, Jim Clark and Fangio, or believe that Lewis is one year away from retiring as the GOAT, Lights Out, Full Throttle is the oily rag for the petrol-head fan to inhale while waiting for the racers to line up on the grid. ...Show more

Tide Guide 2021

$8.25 AUD

Category: Sports & Recreation

Belief (HB) by Marlion Pickett; Dave Warner

$37.99 AUD

Category: Sports & Recreation

From prison to premiership glory; this is Marlion Pickett’s extraordinary story. It’s the third quarter in the biggest game of the season. A young man lines up for goal.  The 100,000 strong crowd leaps to its feet and roars as Marlion Pickett sends the ball soaring through the goalpost s for his first ever major, celebrated by every teammate, a tradition upheld even on Grand Final day. It was the 2019 AFL Grand Final, and Richmond’s Marlion Pickett was making history as the first player in over 50 years to debut on that ‘one day in September’. Marlion helped the Tigers thrash the Greater Western Sydney Giants in their debut grand final appearance and was judged third best on ground, only six days after steering Richmond’s VFL team with his best on ground performance to their nail biting Grand Final victory. Marlion Pickett’s extraordinary story of redemption is a true fairy tale. The tale of a man who came back from the brink to triumph on Australian sport’s biggest stage, a long-held dream come true. What’s even more remarkable about Marlion’s journey is how this young, troubled Aboriginal kid from Western Australia ever got his chance in the first place. A story all too sadly familiar – about drugs, crime, violence and time spent in jail – but also about a life picked up piece by piece through his own belief in himself and those around him who believed in him too. Belief also takes us inside the South Fremantle and Richmond Football clubs – clubs that have made stars and cult heroes out of other Indigenous players; clubs willing to overlook a talented kid’s troubled past to give him a chance. We meet the fellow players and support network who stood by Marlion’s side as he fought back against injury and the doubters and proudly ran onto the field at the MCG. Marlion’s resilience and strength is inspirational. His is an unforgettable Australian story of triumph over adversity.   ...Show more

Mike Colman on Sport (Introduction by Trent Dalton) by Mike Colman

$32.95 AUD

Category: Sports & Recreation

Few if any Australian journalists have mastered the art of long-form sports writing better than Mike Colman. Trent Dalton, author of the mega-seller Boy Swallows Universe, knows this too well, having worked alongside Colman for years at the Brisbane Courier-Mail. Dalton jumped at the chance to introduce this book, because he knows the rare quality of his friend's work. Colman has seen it all: Ashes Tests, Bledisloe Cup, grand finals, Origin, golfing Majors, tennis Grand Slams, Olympic and Commonwealth Games. He has met champions such as Usain Bolt, Neymar, Eddie Jones, Kyle Chalmers, Darren Lockyer, Jason Day, Glen Boss and Makybe Diva, but also many less famous but equally intriguing characters. They all come together in this remarkable collection, which ends with poignant tributes to two heroes of Colman's youth - sports media giants Mike Gibson and Richie Benaud. ...Show more

The Comeback Summer: When Smith and Stokes got the Magic Back by Geoff Lemon

$28.50 AUD

Category: Sports & Recreation

The captain of the Australian team: a batsman on the way to being the greatest of all time. The star of the English team: an all-rounder breaking record after record. Both disgraced in enormous scandals of very different kinds. Both attempting a path to personal and professional redemption, through Worl d Cups and county games. All culminating in a meeting of cricket's biggest rivalry: the 2019 Ashes. It was always going to be a summer to remember. The follow-up to Geoff Lemon's multi-award-winning Steve Smith's Men is an equally insightful, thrilling and sharply observed take on the cricketing world, with a cast of finely drawn characters, vivid backdrops and a series of incredible events, both on and off the field. ...Show more

Angler's Almanac 2021

$8.25 AUD

Category: Sports & Recreation

Golden Daze (Australian Surfing Then to Now) by Sean Doherty

$39.99 AUD

Category: Sports & Recreation

Australia's best surf writer brings to life the wild, bold, brave story of Australian surfing from the 60s to the present through the stories of Surfing Australia's Hall of Fame surfers and contemporary surfing legends. Golden Daze is a compelling memoir of Australian surfing through a year in the life of Australia's top surfers. Starting in 1963, renowned surfing journalist Sean Doherty charts the history of surfing through the stories of Surfing Australia's Hall of Fame inductees. Taking a year and a surfer at a time, he will reveal what they did, where they surfed and their life events in fascinating depth and detail. Illustrated with unpublished images from the surfers' private collections, these stories also give a vivid sense of the shifting world around them, particularly in the ever-changing realm of surfing. Golden Daze opens in 1963 with Peter Troy jumping ship in Melbourne with a surfboard under his arm, embarking on his fabled surfing odyssey that saw him introducing surfing to Brazil, being crowned European champion, hitching alone across the Kalahari Desert and watching an unknown band from Liverpool called the Beatles. 1964 is Midget Farrelly's story of winning the first world title on home sand at Manly Beach. In 1969 Wayne Lynch goes down the coast, avoiding the Vietnam draft. And in 1971, Alby Falzon stumbles upon the island of Bali while shooting his humble surf movie Morning of the Earth. The book brings to life the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and noughties through the eyes of the Australian surfers who defined them best, ending today with stories of potential Hall of Famers, contemporary stars like Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson and Tyler Wright. Part journal, part biography, part surf culture memoir, Golden Daze gives a fascinating insight into Australian surfing and what makes it so unique. ...Show more

Roughy by Jarryd Roughead

$42.99 AUD

Category: Sports & Recreation

Roughy is a story of perspective from a Hawthorn legend – much more than a footballer’s tale. A country boy who grew up watching his old man play local footy in Leongatha, Jarryd Roughead’s talent and dedication turned him into an AFL star. Lining up alongside some of the greatest t o ever play the game, he was a key player in a Hawthorn team that will live on as one of the best of any era.In 2015, when a melanoma was found on his bottom lip, it seemed like only a small setback. The spot was removed and, soon after, Jarryd was back on the ground, helping the Hawks secure their famous three-peat – his fourth premiership. He was newly married, planning a family, and life seemed carefree. Then, during a routine check-up in 2016, a scan showed the melanoma had moved into his lungs. He had cancer.Jarryd was one of the first to receive an immunotherapy treatment that is now saving lives around the world – and ultimately saved his. But the side effects were brutal. Endless days and nights of agony, including nerve damage to his feet that threatened any possible return to footy.What saw Jarryd through was the same resilience, drive and positivity that had turned him into an elite footballer in the first place. Not only did he return to play AFL, he was named captain of Hawthorn. A one-club man, Roughy retired as a legend and an inspiration. ...Show more