As you may have gleaned, we're passionate about Australian football. It's the reason we set up a publishing company focussed on Australian football books - about Australia, about Australians, by Australians. When we mentioned this to a few people - non-football types - they look at you as if you're a bit bonkers and politely say "That's very niche".
Yes, it is.
And here's something else. We want to help tell stories and share them with people, so our next initiative is to collaborate with the Johnny Warren Football Foundation (JWFF) for a Football Writers' Festival.
The aim is to get together with anyone who wants to come along to Jamberoo, New South Wales, on the weekend of 23-24 March and debate and discuss some of the big, as well as some of the not-so-big but no less important, issues in football. There'll also be a bit of downtime including (of course) a football match, dinner and trivia, and a Big Burger Lunch on the Sunday.
One of the guest speakers will be a fantastic journalist and author from Germany, Jens Weinreich. Jens has been one of the foremost sports investigative journalists over more than two decades. He has written seven books on the Olympics and/or football, and has won numerous awards. We're very thrilled that he is able to travel to Australia for it, and thank you to the JWFF for meeting the costs of his travel. (Check out the media release announcing Jens' participation here).
Other speakers will include some of our authors, for example, Andrew Howe, Jorge Knijnik and Trevor Thompson, as well as other journalists, writers and footballers.
If you'd like to find out more, including how to register for the Football Writers' Festival, please check out the website at www.footballwritersfestival.com.au, and follow the Festival on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.
We hope to see you there!
