Albert Thurgood, whose first season playing for Essendon in 1892 was described by the Leader as ‘in every way phenomenal’, was simply the ‘Brighton junior Thurgood’ when Essendon selected him for the first game of that season, though his all-round athletic prowess at Brighton Grammar School had already marked him as a possible ‘prize’ recruit. Though St Kilda was his nearest club, and though, as Lionel Frost recounts, St Kilda actually selected him for a game in 1891 ‘in the hope that he would join them’, he opted for Essendon, a decision which moved several other clubs to wonder if Essendon had organised a financial inducement. Plus ça change.
Immortals: Football people and the evolution of Australian rules by Lionel Frost
John Wiley & Sons, $34.95 pb, 312 pp
Keeping the Faith: Collingwood ... the pleasure, the pain, the whole damned thing by Steve Strevens
Allen & Unwin, $22.95 pb, 276 pp
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