Polly Farmer
A biography of the champion Australian Rules footballer.
Publisher: Slattery Media Group
Paperback: RRP $34.95
Published 2014, PP 366
ISBN 9780992363154
(Originally published by Fremantle Press in 1994)
A revised and updated edition of the 1994 original publication about Australian football Legend Graham ‘Polly’ Farmer, one of the 12 inaugural Legends to be inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996. As a young boy growing up in a home for Aboriginal children, Polly Farmer set himself the goal of reaching the highest echelons of Australia’s most popular homegrown sport. Through hard work and sheer determination, with a leavening of pure natural brilliance, he made it to the top—and stayed there. Not only did Polly Farmer claim a position among the greatest footballers of all time, he changed the very nature of the game.
From the author
My personal opinion, based on the records and analysis, and the countless interviews I did for this book is that Pol was the greatest player ever, and the book sets out to document this case, as well as tell his remarkable life story.
This book has a legacy. Pol made a deal with me that he would co-operate with the biography if I would help him set up a foundation to support and assist Indigenous kids through education. Thirty years on, the Polly Farmer Foundation continues to thrive, and to be an absolute leader in its field. It has supported literally thousands of kids around the country.
The original cover from 1991
Reviews
“Hawke is at his best when focusing on Farmer the man, and when examining his impact on the game as a whole. This is a book that deserves recognition on many levels – not the least being that it is one of very few serious footballing biographies. In that alone it makes a significant contribution to our sporting literature.”
“This is a remarkable book about a remarkable man. As this book clearly demonstrates Graham Farmer was the ‘Don Bradman’ of Australian Rules football … Hawke shows in detail how in three separate phases of his career Farmer joined a team that was sitting around the middle of the competition and made it into a premiership team.”
“Steve Hawke’s biography of Graham Farmer is certainly on of the better examples of sports biography … Hawke’s enthusiasm for Farmer shines through and serve only to enhance his thorough research and impressive writing style.”
“Good books make a difference – and Steve Hawke’s biography Polly Farmer has done just that … Hawke’s vivid word pictures chart Farmer’s inspiring journey from a childhood spent in a home for Aboriginal youngsters to football greatness in Western Australia and Victoria.”
“The greatness of Graham “Polly” Farmer is beyond dispute … This biography recounts a sporting life that truly broke the mould. In many respects, Farmer heralded the coming of modern football. Four Stars. ”