The Football Solution

In a characteristically sweeping and entertaining story, George Megalogenis reveals how football has been shaped by the nation that invented it and how the game we love, in turn, might help resolve Australia’s political impasse.

A sport unlike any other in the world, football has always been Australia’s bellwether. But at a time when politics is increasingly conducted like sports – full of one-eyed tribalism, captain’s calls and policy dictated by the Newspoll scoreboard – football is the one institution that’s more relevant than ever.

And it’s Richmond that’s out in front of the pack. Before it could win the 2017 premiership, the club had to change how it thought about good leadership. By weaving together the game’s conflicted history, a sharp-eyed analysis of Richmond’s off-field turbulence and his own love of the Tigers, Megalogenis reveals just how Richmond found a new way to win – and how Australia might do the same.

About the Author

George Megalogenis is an author and journalist with three decades' experience in the media. The Australian Moment won the 2013 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Non-fiction and the 2012 Walkley Award for Non-fiction, and formed the basis for the ABC documentary series Making Australia Great. He is also the author of Faultlines, The Longest Decade, Quarterly Essay 40: Trivial Pursuit – Leadership and the End of the Reform Era and Quarterly Essay 61: Balancing Act – Australia Between Recession and Renewal.