Australian Sports Books & Films 2025

List of books and films covering Australian sport in 2025 that tell the story of specific sports, athletes, teams, events and issues. Includes books by Australian authors/editors published overseas.

Books authored by current Australian Society for SportsHistory (ASSH) members are highlighted. The Society has several book awards.

Links to publisher website where available.

Books

Australian Sport

The Eye of the Dragonfly: My Life Seeing the World Through Sport by Tracey Lee Holmes. Simon & Schuster, 2025.
Footy Country by Corey Grant. Hardie Grant, 2025
Great Sporting Sites: Australia by Andrew Clarke. Gelding Street Press, 2025.
Guts and Glory: Diggers, Sport and War by Peter Rees. Harper Collins, 2025.
Levelling the Playing Field: The Problem with Sport and What Can Be Done About It by Bob Stewart and Aaron Smith. Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2025
Tested: Australia’s Test Cricket Captain in conversation with remarkable leaders and achievers – from Julia Gillard to Dennis Lillee by Pat Cummins. Harper Collins, 2025.
A Thing of Beauty : the Founding of Sydney Cricket Ground — Volume 1: 1851–1890 and Volume 2: 1891–1898 by Geoff Armstrong, Stoke Hill Press, 2025 (ASSH Member)

Athletics

Great Running Events Australia by James Knight. Gelding Street Press, 2025.
Past Champions and Changing Times by Brian Lenton, Len Johnson and John Gilbert. Brian Lenton, 2025

Australian Football

Australian Football’s 100 Year Club: Celebrating Three Great Clubs by by Andrew Clarke. Gelding Street Press, 2025.
The Australian rules football cradle which was the old City of Heidelberg by John Guest, 2025. (Available through Trove Edeposit)
Champions of Carlton by Miles Wilks. Woodslane Press, 2025.
Bulldogs Through and Through: The history of the Western Bulldogs by Darren Arthur and Andrew Gigacz. Hardie Grant, 2025.
Fagan’s Way: Tributes and Insights by Chris McLeod and Sam Harvey. Wilkinson, 2025
Grass roots history of Australian rules football – : The reader is taken from the Garrison playing fields of Templemore, Tipperary, Ireland in the 1830s to Hotham (Nth Melbourne) to present day places and teams in Victoria, Northern Territory & West Australia. A football playing history spanning 1830s to 2025 by John Guest, 2025 (Available National edeposit)
Fact Finding: Sports In Templemore & the NMFC Connection by John Guest, 2025. (Available Academia)
Frog Cakes at Half Forward : Flights of Australian Football Fancy by Carolyn Spooner. Number 10 Books, 2025
Hawthorn 2025 by Andrew Eyers. Intertype, 2025 (ASSH Member)
Inside and Out: Story of Family, Self and Sport by Erin Phillps. Hardie Grant, 2025.
Kevin Sheedy’s Bomber Jacket: Australian Football’s controversies and curiosities by Glen Humphries. Gelding Street Press, 2025.
North Melbourne Football Club: Formative Years 1855-1888 by John Guest, 2025. (Available Internet Archive)
Premiership Reflections: the League Premierships of the Swan Districts Foootball Club by Brian Dawson. Cambridge Media, 2025.
Redtails in the Sunset: The Untold story of the Central Australian Football Club by Darren Moncrieff. Aboriginal Studies Press, 2025.
The Road to Hawthorn – The Origins of the Hawthorn Football Club. Hawks Museum, 2025.
Rushed Behinds: Writings on Australian Football by Bernard Whimpress. 2025. (ASSH Member)
Travis Boak: the Power Within by Travis Boak and Michael Gleeson. Pan McMillan, 2025

Boxing

The Burns-Johnson fight : Sydney Stadium, Boxing Day 1908 by Tom Thompson. ETT Imprint, 2024 (published Dec 2024)
The Last Man Standing: The Barry Michael Story by Barry Michael. New Holland, 2025.

Cricket

Arthur Mailey – The Bohemian Cricketer: and a bit more! by James Merchant. The Cricket Publishing Company, 2025
Bedtime Tales for Cricket Tragics by Geoff Lemon and Adam Collins. Affirm Press, 2025.
Bert Folkard: the Pride of Callan Park by Peter Lloyd and Pat Rodgers. 205 ( Pat Rodgers at prodgers@stpiusx.nsw.edu.au ) (ASSH member)
Bodyline Casualty The Bert Oldfield Story by by Gavin Gleeson. Ginninderra Press, 2025.
Bowl The Maidens Over: Our First Women Cricketers by Louise Zedda-Sampson. LZS Press, 2025
The Chappell Chroniclesby Ken Piesse and Greg Chappell. Wilkinson, 2025.
Cricket World Cup: A celebration of the ODI and T20 Games by Liam Hauser. Gelding Street Press, 2025.
Cricket Sports Medicine edited by Benita Olivier and John Orchard. Springer, 2025.
Cricket’s Lost Prodigy – The Story of Karl Schneider by Michael Lefebvre. 2025.
Cricket’s Forgotten Pioneer: the Frank Tarrant Story by Mike Coward. The Cricket Publishing Company, 2025.
Every Picture Tells a Story – New Zealand Cricketer’s in the United Kingdom 1931 by Ronald Cardwell and Rob Franks. The Cricket Press Pty Ltd, 2025. (ASSH member)
First Ball After Lunch by John Benaud. Cricket Publishing, 2025.
From MacDonaltown to Lords : the Erratic Syd Emery by Pat Rodgers. The Cricket Publishing Company, 2025. (ASSH member)
Full Corset and Stockings: A History of Women’s Cricket by Craig Horne. Melbourne Books, 2025.
The Handsome and Extravagent George Bonnor by Ronald Cardwell. The Cricket Publishing Company, 2025. (ASSH member)
Playing to Win: Australia and the 1972 Ashes by Barry Nicholls. Wakefield Press, 2025. (ASSH member)
Playing the Game, How Cricket made Barbados by Brian Stoddart. Brickworks Media, 2025.
Rick McCosker OAM – A Life Fulfilled by Mike Coward. The Cricket Press Pty Ltd, 2025.
Ten Out: The remarkable feat few bowlers have achieved in an innings by Ian Brayshaw. Hardie Grant, 2025.
The 50 Most Ridiculous Ashes Moments by Dan Liebke & Alex Bowden. Affirm Press, 2025.
The AIF Cricket Team: A Retrospective by Ronald Cardwell. The Cricket Publishing Company, 2025. (ASSH member)
The Ashes: A Front Row Seat To An Iconic Era Of Cricket In The 60s by Mark Browning. Wilkinson, 2025.
Victor Trumper Across The Tasman – Arthur Sim’s Australian Tour New Zealand 1914 by Peter Schofield and Ric Sissons. The Cricket Publishing Company, 2025.

Cycling

Just Go by Saya Sakakibara. Simon & Schuster, 2025.

Fiction

After the Siren by Darcy Green. Penguin, 2025.
Collison: a Novel by Kelvin Templeton. Wilkinson, 2025.
Pissants by Brandon Jack. Simon & Schuster, 2025.
The Politician and the Pedestrian by Stephany Evans Steggall. Jabiru Publishing, 2025.

Football

The Big Con—Australia’s Unknown Soccer Pioneer by Trevor Thompson. Fairplay Publishing, 2025.
Bloom : Creating a Life of Love by Mary Fowler. Penguin, 2025.
The Coping Stone —The First English Soccer Tour of Australia 1925by Paul Nicholls. Fairplay Publishing, 2025.
Katrina Gorry: A Matildas Hero’s Story of Football, Motherhood and Breaking Down Barriers. Allen & Unwin, 2025.
Radicalised by FIFA – Football, History and Feminism by Jean Williams. Fairplay Publishing, 2025.
Socceroos in Scotland by Paul Murphy. Fairplay Publishing, 2025.

Golf

Ian Baker-Finch: To Hell and Back by Geoff Saunders. Hardie Grant, 2025.
Golf Dreaming : an Aboriginal Social, Political, Cultural and Historical Perspective of golf by John Maynard, Fairplay Publishing, 2025.

Horse Racing

The Chosen Few: a Quest to Name the Ten Greatest Australian and New Zealand Racehorses of All Time. Allen & Unwin, 2025.
Magic Millions: The Rise, the Fall and the Extraordinary Rise of an an Iconic Australian Company by Jessica Owens. Penguin, 2025 .
The Metropolitan by Any Name by Marc Fiddian. BookPOD, 2025
Ride On: Hope, Healing and Getting Back on the Horse by Michelle Payne and Angus Fontaine. Allen & Unwin, 2025.

Issues in Sport

Accessibility in Sport Management : International Venue Perspectives by Simon Darcy, Paul Kitchin, Tracey Dickson and Juan Luis Paramio-Salcines. Routledge, 2025.
Feminist Futures for Sport : Tracing the Affective Dynamics of Gender Equity in Sport Organizations by Adele Pavlidis, Simone Fullagar, Wendy O’Brien. Palgrave Macmillan, 2025.
Head in the Game: Sociocultural Analyses of Brain Trauma in Sport edited by Stephen Townsend, Murray G. Phillips, Gary Osmond, Rebecca Olive. Mancester University Press, 2025. (ASSH members)
Sport and the Media : Managing the Nexus. 3rd ed. by Merryn Sherwood, Anthony Kerr, Ashleigh-Jane Thompson and Matthew Nicholson. Routledge, 2025.
Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2025
The Value of Sport : Insights by Bob Stewart and Aaron C.T. Smith. Routledge, 2025.

Motor Sport

Frosty: The Autobiography of one of the Most Beloved Drivers in Modern Australian Motorsport History by Mark Winterbottom and James Phelps. Harper Collins, 2025.
Full Tilt: a Champion’s Story of Ford, Holden and the Defining Era of Motor-racing by Colin Bond with John Smailes. Allen & Unwin, 2025.

Rugby Codes

Alligator Grammar: A History Of Sydney Grammar School Rugby by James Cattlin. Mansfield Publishing Pty Ltd, 2025.
Bare Knuckles: John Connolly by Michael Blucher, 2025
The History of Rugby League Clubs. Updated and extended third edition by Ian Collis and Allan Whiticker. New Holland, 2025.
The Natural: Richard ‘Dick’ Thornett by By Brendan Morris and Stephan Wellink. Fairplay Publishing, 2025.
2025 Official Rugby League Annual: Drought Breakers by David Middleton. 2025
On My Own Term: From Redfern to Glory: A Journey of Rresilience, Grit and Finding Your Voice by Adam Reynolds. Simon & Schuster, 2025.
Perspective by Shaun Johnson. Penguin, 2025.

Shooting

Bullseye by Yvonne Hill. The Author, 2025.

Sailing

A Brief Account of the Western Beach Boat Club : Geelong 1955-2025 by Linda Carr Western Beach Boat Club, 2025 . Available National edeposit.
Fifty golden years : the continuing history of the Cruising Yacht Club of Tasmania Inc 2015 – 2025 edited by Julie Macdonald & Erika Shankley. Cruising Yacht Club of Tasmania Inc., 2025.

Surf Life Saving

Great Australian Volunteer Surf Life Saving Stories by Bill Marsh. ABC Books, 2025.

Surfing

Against the Water: A surfing champion’s inspirational journey to Olympic glory by Owen Wright. Simon & Schuster, 2025

Swimming

Annette Kellerman, Australian Mermaid by Grantlee Kieza. ABC Books, 2025.
Mark Time: The Story of A Dopey Swimmer by Mark Morgan. The Author, 2025.

Table Tennis

A Smashing Success – 100 Years of Victorian Table Tennis by Table Tennis Victoria History Group, with Bob Tuckett, and Andrew Cornell. Broadcast Books, 2025

Tennis