Harder Than Football (Revised and Updated)

HARDER THAN FOOTBALL VFL players in times of war

By BARBARA CULLEN OAM FOREWORD BY KEVIN SHEEDY AO

Australian servicemen have long been renowned for their unfaltering courage, sense of mateship and strength of character—the same values that are so apparent in our indigenous game of Australian Football. But, as St Kilda player Stan Brady noted in a touching letter to his mother—sent from Gallipoli in 1915—such comparisons paled into insignificance when matched against those he encountered on the battlefield: “It’s harder than football here,” he wrote. Of the almost 2500 VFL players who served, 160 gave their lives in action, from the Boer War to World War II. In Harder Than Football, Barbara Cullen, OAM, a curator for the Sydney Swans Football Club and North Melbourne Football Club and previously the curator at the Essendon Football Club’s Hall of Fame, outlines stories of resilience, survival, bravery and sacrifice that so succinctly display the ‘Aussie spirit’. In her introduction, Cullen, who worked on this book for almost 20 years, wrote: “The players who served are representative of our community—they were labourers and clerks and teachers and surgeons and barristers. They had ranks from Private to Major General and everything in between. Most importantly they were loved sons, husbands, brothers—and even grandparents—whose service had a lasting effect upon their families. Harder Than Football—VFL Players in times of war has been revised and updated since the first edition was published in 2015. In his foreword to the book, Kevin Sheedy wrote: “Stan Brady is absolutely right. War is harder than football, so much harder. We need to keep reminding people of that, not just to honour the promise made to those who have made great sacrifices, but in the hope that we will convince future generations that war is to be avoided at all cost. Sadly, sometimes it just can’t be avoided. When that happens, mostly young people, mostly living ordinary, happy lives, are asked to make a stand on our behalf. I forever stand in awe of how little these brave people seek in return.”