Fan Culture
Scope Notes
The material listed and described in this chapter examines the cultural and social aspects of Australian Rules football. A key dimension of works in this section consists of writings about football fans and spectator culture. Works discussing issues such as racism, discrimination, commercialisation, community identity and any work which could be defined as exploring the social or cultural context of football are also included. Works which are primarily about women in football have been put in the ‘Women and Football’ chapter. This is not an exhaustive list but it does represent much of the material that has been produced since the 1980s when football began to be taken more seriously as a topic for social and historical research.
Scope Notes
The material listed and described in this chapter examines the cultural and social aspects of Australian Rules football. A key dimension of works in this section consists of writings about football fans and spectator culture. Works discussing issues such as racism, discrimination, commercialisation, community identity and any work which could be defined as exploring the social or cultural context of football are also included. Works which are primarily about women in football have been put in the ‘Women and Football’ chapter. This is not an exhaustive list but it does represent much of the material that has been produced since the 1980s when football began to be taken more seriously as a topic for social and historical research.
List - Authors A-C. For full list see Reading Australian Rules Football available from Walla Walla Press
Allen, Robert, ‘Starting Up There’, AFL Record, Round 20, August 15-17, 2008, pp.77-78.
Allen outlines the origin of the famous football catch cry, ‘Up There Cazaly’, and traces how it has ebbed and flowed through the Australian vernacular for more than 80 years. TH.
Alomes, Stephen and Stewart, Bob, High Mark: Australian Football and Australian Culture: Contemporary Studies of the Great Australian Game, Maribyrnong Press: Hawthorn, Vic, 1998.
A diverse collection of essays examining various cultural and social aspects of Australian Rules football. Some of the individual chapters are annotated in this section, and are listed under author names.TH.
Alomes, Stephen, ‘The Lie of the Ground: Aesthetics and Australian Football’, Double Dialogues: Art and Lies I, Issue 8, Summer 2007-2008. Online journal article accessed 13 August 2016. http://www.doubledialogues.com
Alomes argues in this article that ‘the Australian game should be seen as a cultural form of significance and even as an art’. He discusses the cultural divide between the arts and sport and explores a wide range of artistic and intellectual expressions relating to football covering such forms as novels, plays, poetry, fine arts, music, films and dance and song by the Tiwi people in the Northern Territory. TH.
Alomes, Stephen, ‘One Day in September: Grass Roots Enthusiasm, Invented Traditions and Contemporary Commercial Spectacle and the Australian Football League Finals’, Sporting Traditions, vol. 17, no. 1, November 2000, pp. 77-96.
Alomes presents an interesting account and analysis of Melbourne's real 'spring festival', the footy finals and explores how much the finals fever and its associated off-field rituals, have grown out of an authentic popular spirit, subsequently re-invented by the AFL, the media and marketers. Meticulous and comprehensive references provide a useful chronology of modern Grand Final week traditions and rituals. TH.
Alomes, Stephen, ‘Tales of a Dreamtime: Australian Football as a Secular Religion’, in Ian Craven (ed.), with Martin Gray and Geraldine Stoneham, Australian Popular Culture, Cambridge University Press, published in association with Australian Studies and the British Australian Studies Association: Cambridge UK and Melbourne, 1994, pp. 48-65.
Andrews, Alf, ‘Introducing the Cheersquads’ in Nicholson, Matthew, (ed.), Fanfare: Spectator Culture and Australian Rules Football, ASSH Studies in Sports History, Australian Society for Sports History: Melbourne, 2005, pp.63-82.
Andrews, Alf, ‘Taming the Cheersquads’ in Nicholson, Matthew, (ed.), Fanfare: Spectator Culture and Australian Rules Football, ASSH Studies in Sports History, Australian Society for Sports History: Melbourne, 2005, pp.83-97.
Andrews, Ian, ‘The Transformation of "Community" in the Australian Football League, Part One: Towards a Conceptual Framework for Community’, Occasional Papers in Football Studies, vol. 1, no. 2, 1998, pp.103-114.
Andrews, Ian, ‘The Transformation of "Community" in the Australian Football League, Part Two: Redrawing "Community" Boundaries in the Post-War AFL’, Football Studies, vol. 2, no. 1, 1999, pp.106-124.
This work on football communities and notions of community, presents a conceptual framework with four broad definitions of community. A schema of emergent, dominant and residual communities is used to interpret the evolution of VFL/AFL football support between 1946 and 1999. Andrews examines whether the League was leaving the community behind, or whether it itself was in danger of being left behind by social, economic and demographic changes. Also provides a response to Nadel, cited below. TH.
Attwood, Alan, ‘If It's Just a Game, Why Did the World End One Day in September?’, in John Powers and Alan Mahar (eds), Prose Writing for Australians: An Anthology of Feature Articles and Short Stories, Nelson: Melbourne, 1985, pp. 14-15.
Brodie, Will and O'Connor, Matthew, One Week at a Time: A Collingwood Supporter's Diary of AFL Footy 1995, The Authors: Melbourne, 1995.
Brooks, Karen, ‘More Than a Game: The Footy Show, Fandom and the Construction of Football Celebrities’, Football Studies, vol. 3, no. 1, 2000, pp. 27-48.
Sam Newman's on screen persona on the popular television program, 'The Footy Show', is analysed, with emphasis on the 'masculine spectacle' and entertainment ingredients which relegate the football content of the show to a secondary role. TH.
Budge, Helen, Flying the Banner: Stories of the Fremantle Dockers Banner Team 2007-2010, Designland: Collingwood, Vic., 2011.
Burke, Peter, Grogan, Leo, and Eatwarflemsd, This Game of Ours: Supporters' Tales of the People's Game, Eatwarflemsd: St Andrews, Vic., 1993.
This anthology is a collection of 56 pieces, in 6 chapters, with no clearly identifiable themes. The preface states that the aim of the authors was to capture people's favourite thoughts, recollections, opinions and feelings on football. Topics range from schoolboy footy exploits, to several pieces on the superiority of Australian Rules football, especially AFL, over all other forms of football and sport. One piece documents a new migrant's impressions of the 1966 VFL premiership season of St Kilda, while several others lament the passing of the grassroots football experience of the VFL. Pieces are varied in style, many are humorous or whimsical in tone and poetry and cartoons are included in this eclectic volume. Most items are from a Victorian perspective, with a couple of 'top end' Northern Territory pieces and one 'crow-eaters' take on Victorian football. This volume also includes a piece considered controversial at the time, 'Marn Grook - Original Australian Rules footy'. There is also an imagined commentary on a future AFL Grand Final in 2003, which describes Brisbane captained by Nathan Buckley, (who actually only ever played one season with Brisbane in 1993), leading Brisbane against the West Coast Eagles. TH.
Burke, Peter and Senyard, June, Behind the Play: Football in Australia, Maribyrnong Press: Hawthorn, Vic., 2008.
Carroll, John, ‘Let's Reclaim the Game’, in Peter Craven (ed.), The Best Australian Essays 2000, Black Inc, Melbourne, 2000, pp. 353-360.
Cash, John and Damousi, Joy, ‘Fathers and Daughters at Play’ in Matthew Nicholson, Bob Stewart, and Rob Hess (eds), Football Fever: Moving the Goalposts, Maribyrnong Press: Hawthorn, Vic., 2006, pp. 223-231.
This piece explores how father and daughter relationships function within football following families using two case studies to present some of their observations. Based on interviews with supporters, which formed part of a larger study on football fans, which was later encompassed in the book Footy Passions (2009) by Cash and Damousi. TH.
Cash, John and Damousi, Joy, Footy Passions, University of New South Wales Press: Sydney, 2009.
Cash and Damousi explore why fans are so attracted to the game, and what lies behind their passion. In this scholarly book fans talk about their emotions and what the game means to them. TH.
Cash, John and Damousi, Joy, ‘Inside Footy Mania’, Meanjin, vol. 63, no. 4, 2004, pp. 218-25.
Chantry, Jenny and Raglus, Jeff, Have You Got What It Takes to Be a Footy Fan?, New Holland: Frenchs Forest, NSW, 2000.
This is a light hearted, entertaining self-help manual, It explains and describes the behaviour of footy fans and guides the reader along a path structured around 44 rules applicable to being a true fan. This volume is more detailed and original than most other works of this genre. TH.
Cooke, Kaz, ‘It's All as Simple as Black and White’, Sunday Age, (Melbourne), Agenda, 14 May, 1995, p. 2.
Corris, Peter, and Dale, John, (eds), Best on Ground, Viking: Camberwell, Vic., 2010.
Seventeen leading writers write about fan’s emotions, ranging from obsession, fervour, joy, weariness and guilt. TH.
Critchley, Cheryl, Our Footy: Real Fans vs Big Bucks, Wilkinson Publishing: Melbourne, Vic., 2010.
Much like Footy Passions by Cash and Damousi this book is about fans and their devotion to footy, which is often at odds with the commercial and corporate aspects of the modern game. There are plenty of perspectives from female fans featured in this book, including a chapter about Critichley’s own experience of football. TH.
Crabbe, Kylie, ‘AFL Demons Hope Last Really Will Be First’, Eureka Street, vol. 18, no. 10, 2008.
An article more about human values than football. It discusses notions of equality, egalitarianism and a 'system of rank' by comparing AFL club Melbourne's struggle to move up the competition ladder with Christ's message of equality before God. A brief but thoughtful piece which takes it's inspiration from Jesus's saying 'the first will be last and the last will be first'. TH.
Allen, Robert, ‘Starting Up There’, AFL Record, Round 20, August 15-17, 2008, pp.77-78.
Allen outlines the origin of the famous football catch cry, ‘Up There Cazaly’, and traces how it has ebbed and flowed through the Australian vernacular for more than 80 years. TH.
Alomes, Stephen and Stewart, Bob, High Mark: Australian Football and Australian Culture: Contemporary Studies of the Great Australian Game, Maribyrnong Press: Hawthorn, Vic, 1998.
A diverse collection of essays examining various cultural and social aspects of Australian Rules football. Some of the individual chapters are annotated in this section, and are listed under author names.TH.
Alomes, Stephen, ‘The Lie of the Ground: Aesthetics and Australian Football’, Double Dialogues: Art and Lies I, Issue 8, Summer 2007-2008. Online journal article accessed 13 August 2016. http://www.doubledialogues.com
Alomes argues in this article that ‘the Australian game should be seen as a cultural form of significance and even as an art’. He discusses the cultural divide between the arts and sport and explores a wide range of artistic and intellectual expressions relating to football covering such forms as novels, plays, poetry, fine arts, music, films and dance and song by the Tiwi people in the Northern Territory. TH.
Alomes, Stephen, ‘One Day in September: Grass Roots Enthusiasm, Invented Traditions and Contemporary Commercial Spectacle and the Australian Football League Finals’, Sporting Traditions, vol. 17, no. 1, November 2000, pp. 77-96.
Alomes presents an interesting account and analysis of Melbourne's real 'spring festival', the footy finals and explores how much the finals fever and its associated off-field rituals, have grown out of an authentic popular spirit, subsequently re-invented by the AFL, the media and marketers. Meticulous and comprehensive references provide a useful chronology of modern Grand Final week traditions and rituals. TH.
Alomes, Stephen, ‘Tales of a Dreamtime: Australian Football as a Secular Religion’, in Ian Craven (ed.), with Martin Gray and Geraldine Stoneham, Australian Popular Culture, Cambridge University Press, published in association with Australian Studies and the British Australian Studies Association: Cambridge UK and Melbourne, 1994, pp. 48-65.
Andrews, Alf, ‘Introducing the Cheersquads’ in Nicholson, Matthew, (ed.), Fanfare: Spectator Culture and Australian Rules Football, ASSH Studies in Sports History, Australian Society for Sports History: Melbourne, 2005, pp.63-82.
Andrews, Alf, ‘Taming the Cheersquads’ in Nicholson, Matthew, (ed.), Fanfare: Spectator Culture and Australian Rules Football, ASSH Studies in Sports History, Australian Society for Sports History: Melbourne, 2005, pp.83-97.
Andrews, Ian, ‘The Transformation of "Community" in the Australian Football League, Part One: Towards a Conceptual Framework for Community’, Occasional Papers in Football Studies, vol. 1, no. 2, 1998, pp.103-114.
Andrews, Ian, ‘The Transformation of "Community" in the Australian Football League, Part Two: Redrawing "Community" Boundaries in the Post-War AFL’, Football Studies, vol. 2, no. 1, 1999, pp.106-124.
This work on football communities and notions of community, presents a conceptual framework with four broad definitions of community. A schema of emergent, dominant and residual communities is used to interpret the evolution of VFL/AFL football support between 1946 and 1999. Andrews examines whether the League was leaving the community behind, or whether it itself was in danger of being left behind by social, economic and demographic changes. Also provides a response to Nadel, cited below. TH.
Attwood, Alan, ‘If It's Just a Game, Why Did the World End One Day in September?’, in John Powers and Alan Mahar (eds), Prose Writing for Australians: An Anthology of Feature Articles and Short Stories, Nelson: Melbourne, 1985, pp. 14-15.
Brodie, Will and O'Connor, Matthew, One Week at a Time: A Collingwood Supporter's Diary of AFL Footy 1995, The Authors: Melbourne, 1995.
Brooks, Karen, ‘More Than a Game: The Footy Show, Fandom and the Construction of Football Celebrities’, Football Studies, vol. 3, no. 1, 2000, pp. 27-48.
Sam Newman's on screen persona on the popular television program, 'The Footy Show', is analysed, with emphasis on the 'masculine spectacle' and entertainment ingredients which relegate the football content of the show to a secondary role. TH.
Budge, Helen, Flying the Banner: Stories of the Fremantle Dockers Banner Team 2007-2010, Designland: Collingwood, Vic., 2011.
Burke, Peter, Grogan, Leo, and Eatwarflemsd, This Game of Ours: Supporters' Tales of the People's Game, Eatwarflemsd: St Andrews, Vic., 1993.
This anthology is a collection of 56 pieces, in 6 chapters, with no clearly identifiable themes. The preface states that the aim of the authors was to capture people's favourite thoughts, recollections, opinions and feelings on football. Topics range from schoolboy footy exploits, to several pieces on the superiority of Australian Rules football, especially AFL, over all other forms of football and sport. One piece documents a new migrant's impressions of the 1966 VFL premiership season of St Kilda, while several others lament the passing of the grassroots football experience of the VFL. Pieces are varied in style, many are humorous or whimsical in tone and poetry and cartoons are included in this eclectic volume. Most items are from a Victorian perspective, with a couple of 'top end' Northern Territory pieces and one 'crow-eaters' take on Victorian football. This volume also includes a piece considered controversial at the time, 'Marn Grook - Original Australian Rules footy'. There is also an imagined commentary on a future AFL Grand Final in 2003, which describes Brisbane captained by Nathan Buckley, (who actually only ever played one season with Brisbane in 1993), leading Brisbane against the West Coast Eagles. TH.
Burke, Peter and Senyard, June, Behind the Play: Football in Australia, Maribyrnong Press: Hawthorn, Vic., 2008.
Carroll, John, ‘Let's Reclaim the Game’, in Peter Craven (ed.), The Best Australian Essays 2000, Black Inc, Melbourne, 2000, pp. 353-360.
Cash, John and Damousi, Joy, ‘Fathers and Daughters at Play’ in Matthew Nicholson, Bob Stewart, and Rob Hess (eds), Football Fever: Moving the Goalposts, Maribyrnong Press: Hawthorn, Vic., 2006, pp. 223-231.
This piece explores how father and daughter relationships function within football following families using two case studies to present some of their observations. Based on interviews with supporters, which formed part of a larger study on football fans, which was later encompassed in the book Footy Passions (2009) by Cash and Damousi. TH.
Cash, John and Damousi, Joy, Footy Passions, University of New South Wales Press: Sydney, 2009.
Cash and Damousi explore why fans are so attracted to the game, and what lies behind their passion. In this scholarly book fans talk about their emotions and what the game means to them. TH.
Cash, John and Damousi, Joy, ‘Inside Footy Mania’, Meanjin, vol. 63, no. 4, 2004, pp. 218-25.
Chantry, Jenny and Raglus, Jeff, Have You Got What It Takes to Be a Footy Fan?, New Holland: Frenchs Forest, NSW, 2000.
This is a light hearted, entertaining self-help manual, It explains and describes the behaviour of footy fans and guides the reader along a path structured around 44 rules applicable to being a true fan. This volume is more detailed and original than most other works of this genre. TH.
Cooke, Kaz, ‘It's All as Simple as Black and White’, Sunday Age, (Melbourne), Agenda, 14 May, 1995, p. 2.
Corris, Peter, and Dale, John, (eds), Best on Ground, Viking: Camberwell, Vic., 2010.
Seventeen leading writers write about fan’s emotions, ranging from obsession, fervour, joy, weariness and guilt. TH.
Critchley, Cheryl, Our Footy: Real Fans vs Big Bucks, Wilkinson Publishing: Melbourne, Vic., 2010.
Much like Footy Passions by Cash and Damousi this book is about fans and their devotion to footy, which is often at odds with the commercial and corporate aspects of the modern game. There are plenty of perspectives from female fans featured in this book, including a chapter about Critichley’s own experience of football. TH.
Crabbe, Kylie, ‘AFL Demons Hope Last Really Will Be First’, Eureka Street, vol. 18, no. 10, 2008.
An article more about human values than football. It discusses notions of equality, egalitarianism and a 'system of rank' by comparing AFL club Melbourne's struggle to move up the competition ladder with Christ's message of equality before God. A brief but thoughtful piece which takes it's inspiration from Jesus's saying 'the first will be last and the last will be first'. TH.