More Important Than Life or Death ― Inside the Best of Australian Sport

For years journalists have been eyewitnesses to athletes—from the elite to downtrodden—chasing, achieving, or falling short of their dreams. They have observed, chronicled, and attempted to find the secrets to winning and losing. For some, sport may be a meaningless diversion. For most, it is life's most important punctuation mark. In this book, the formidable Fairfax stable of fine writing thoroughbreds explains why. Roy Masters explores the heart and soul of rugby league. Peter Roebuck and Malcolm Knox provide a fresh look at the confusion of cricket. Richard Hinds focuses on the moment which won the Sydney Swans an AFL premiership. Jacquelin Magnay exposes a grubby cycling world. Jessica Halloran reveals the tense father-daughter relationship in the Dokic tennis family. Michael Cockerill tussles with Harry Kewell. Max Presnell recalls when Amarillo Slim took on those at the City Tatts club. Greg Bearup dissects Khoder Nasser's world and Peter Stone puts Tiger Woods in his place. On the journey to find the reasons why sport is a religion, an obsession to so many, there's revelations, hilarity, triumphs, sadness, excitement, pathos, tribulation, controversy, moments of sheer stupidity, and episodes of bravery. Most importantly, like sport itself, this collection is always entertaining.

Peter FitzSimons is a journalist with the Sydney Morning Herald and Sun-Herald and a former national representative rugby union player. He is also a regular TV commentator, a former Radio 2UE presenter, and the best-selling author of nearly twenty books, including Batavia, Kokoda, Tobruk, and biographies of John Eales, Nancy Wake, Sir Douglas Mawson, and Steve Waugh. Greg Growden worked for the Sydney Morning Herald for 34 years, and was chief rugby correspondent between 1987-2012, covering hundreds of Test matches around the world. He is now a rugby expert for ESPN and scrum.com. He has written 11 books, including A Wayward Genius, which was described by The Guardian's Frank Keating as among the 100 best sporting books of the twentieth century.