There is a big section in George Johnston and Robert Goodman’s The Australians on sport. The Sporting Life.
“In Melbourne, football is a fever-disease like recurrent malaria, and evidently incurable. It has been said Melbourne has no summer only a period of hibernation between football seasons.
It is a cruelly hard game of physical impact, injuring constantly and killing occasionally, but it is considered effete to wear any form of body, head or face protection; most players disdain to wear even the sleeves of their jerseys..”
| Robert Goodman, Rob Barassi and team mates (Melbourne Football Club), Australian Rules Grand Final, Melbourne Cricket Ground, 1964 |
In Sydney they like to show off their rescue methods. Here Goodman captures the National Surfboat Championships.
| Robert Goodman, National Surfboat Championships Collaroy Beach, NSW, c1966 |
“Theirs are brave beaches, bold and brawny, with red cliffs and pale salmon sands and blue distances and storms assembling out across the Tasman, and the powerful beat and churn of that great surf.”
Julia Ritson
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