A compendium of articles on Australian rules football and its leading players from that famous 1858 letter to "Bell's Life" magazine by Thomas Wills suggesting that cricketers should play a winter sport to keep themselves fit for cricket all the way through to the 1978 Grand Final.

Along the way we get short biographies of some of the leading pre-VFL players, an 1893 article on how leading players train (twice a week in the gymnasium) and reports on important matches from days of yore.

While many of the articles hold interest for any football fan, it was disappointing that the editor kept to Victorian football; the odd article on South Australia/Western Australia, etc would have given the book a greater understanding of the development of Australian rules football. ( )