From AFL, rugby union and cricket to aerial skiing, equestrian sports and speed-skating, Australian sport has produced some of the toughest nuts around. They are the people who played on through injury or overcame potentially catastrophic setbacks to inspire a sports-loving nation. Through a series of revealing interviews, author Mick Colliss explores the extraordinary character of these outstanding athletes, and reveals the mental and physical fortitude it took for them to carry on when the rest of us would have been carried off
They call it Murderball. An impossibly brutal game that you can't believe is a Paralympic sport. Players in reinforced steel chairs smash into each other with deadly intent and animal ferocity. You expect massive casualties in every game. But as one of the players says, "" What have we got to lose? It's not like we're going to break our necks again!"" Australian Ryley Batt, a 20-year old who was born with no legs and webbed hands, is considered the world's best player. He and his colleagues are determined to become the No. 1 Murderball team in the world. And after what they've been th.
Welcome to Long Bay, Australia's hardest prison. For the first time prison guards, inmates and all those that have worked in and around the notorious South Sydney facility will reveal what goes on behind the towering concrete walls.
At the start of the hellish, fiery Australian summer of 2019/20, Walkley Award-winning journalist and suburban dad Anthony Sharwood set off on a journey. Abandoning his post on a busy news website to clear his mind, he solo-trekked the Australian Alps Walking Track, Australia's most gruelling and breathtakingly beautiful mainland hiking trail, which traverses the entirety of the legendary High Country from Gippsland in Victoria to the outskirts of Canberra. The journey started in a blizzard and ended in a blaze. Along the way, this lifelong lover of the mountains came to realise that nothing would ever be the same - either for him or for the imperilled Australian Alps, a landscape as fragile and sensitive to the changing climate as the Great Barrier Reef.
These are the true and uncensored accounts of Australia's hardest inmates, from Australia's hardest inmates. Martin Bryant--who killed 35 people and injured another 23 at Port Arthur in 1996--is a 160kg slob who trades sex for chocolate in Risdon Prison. Twenty years after Australia's worst massacre, his blond hair is gone, and so is his self-righteous smirk . . . but he is as evil as ever, showing no remorse for the crimes that shook the nation. He is just one of the killers in the rogues' gallery of Australia's Toughest Prisons: Inmates. You will meet the alleged hitman and undisputed hardman called "Goldie", feared by both prisoners and guards alike. John Reginald Killick will tell you how he really escaped from Silverwater Jail in a helicopter and survived Pentridge Prison's notorious "Hell Block." And former Rugby League star Craig Field will tell you his incredible story of how one wrong pub punch landed him in prison limbo. From the rise of ISIS gangs, the lethal underground drug and tobacco trade, and the threat of contraband phones, to shiv fights, brawls, and white-collar criminal beat-downs, the secret lives of Australia's most dangerous men will be on full display. Award-winning author and journalist James Phelps reveals the horror of life inside Australia's most notorious prisons, including Grafton, Cessnock, Pentridge, Minda, Risdon, Silverwater, and Lithgow.
The incredible story of Dick Johnson – the Aussie battler who became an all-time V8 great. Ford legend Johnson did not get his break in motorsport until he was famously smashed out by a rock in the 1980 Bathurst 1000. But true to his never-say-die attitude, he went on to establish one of Australia’s most successful V8 Supercar teams, amidst a dramatic career that, on many occasions, almost saw him lose his home, his team and even his life. Through intimate revelations and blistering accounts of the motor racing industry, Johnson reveals the incredible strength and commitment it took to win three Bathurst titles and a record five Australian Touring Car Championships in a remarkable career spanning almost 50 years.
THE SECRETS OF SUPERHUMAN PERFORMANCE Never have the best sportspeople seemed so far removed from the rest of us, their prowess so unfathomable. So how are these extraordinary athletes made? THE BEST reveals how the most incredible sportspeople in the world get to the top and stay there. It is a unique look at the path to sporting greatness; a story of origins, practice, genetics and psychology. Packed with gripping personal stories and interviews with top athletes including Elena Delle Donne, Pete Sampras, Joey Votto, Steph Curry, Kurt Warner and Premier League superstars Marcus Rashford and Jamie Carragher, it explains how the best athletes develop the extraordinary skills that allow them to perform remarkable feats under extreme pressure. THE BEST uncovers startling truths of athletic greatness-including why younger siblings have more chance of becoming elite, which towns produce the most superstars, the role of informal play and the best time to be born in the school year. It goes inside the minds of champions to understand what makes them perform during high-octane competition, how to hit a baseball or tennis ball in under 0.5 seconds, the secrets of how the best train and what makes a great leader. The book appeals to all lovers of sport, anyone with an interest in psychology and excellence, the parents of budding athletes, and fans of books like Freakonomics, Outliers and Range. It is a deconstruction of what it takes to be the best-and how we can all improve in sport and beyond.
A bold new theory of leadership drawn from elite captains throughout sports—named one of the best business books of the year by CNBC, The New York Times, Forbes, strategy+business, The Globe and Mail, and Sports Illustrated “The book taught me that there’s no cookie-cutter way to lead. Leading is not just what Hollywood tells you. It’s not the big pregame speech. It’s how you carry yourself every day, how you treat the people around you, who you are as a person.”—Mitchell Trubisky, quarterback, Chicago Bears Now featuring analysis of the five-time Super Bowl champion New England Patriots and their captain, Tom Brady The seventeen most dominant teams in sports history had one thing in common: Each employed the same type of captain—a singular leader with an unconventional set of skills and tendencies. Drawing on original interviews with athletes, general managers, coaches, and team-building experts, Sam Walker identifies the seven core qualities of the Captain Class—from extreme doggedness and emotional control to tactical aggression and the courage to stand apart. Told through riveting accounts of pressure-soaked moments in sports history, The Captain Class will challenge your assumptions of what inspired leadership looks like. Praise for The Captain Class “Wildly entertaining and thought-provoking . . . makes you reexamine long-held beliefs about leadership and the glue that binds winning teams together.”—Theo Epstein, president of baseball operations, Chicago Cubs “If you care about leadership, talent development, or the art of competition, you need to read this immediately.”—Daniel Coyle, author of The Culture Code “The insights in this book are tremendous.”—Bob Myers, general manager, Golden State Warriors “An awesome book . . . I find myself relating a lot to its portrayal of the out-of the-norm leader.”—Carli Lloyd, co-captain, U.S. Soccer Women’s National Team “A great read . . . Sam Walker used data and a systems approach to reach some original and unconventional conclusions about the kinds of leaders that foster enduring success. Most business and leadership books lapse into clichés. This one is fresh.”—Jeff Immelt, chairman and former CEO, General Electric “I can’t tell you how much I loved The Captain Class. It identifies something many people who’ve been around successful teams have felt but were never able to articulate. It has deeply affected my thoughts around how we build our culture.”—Derek Falvey, chief baseball officer, Minnesota Twins
