Book Club:Night Games by Anna Krien, review by Margaret Cassidy

The Book:

“What does a young footballer do to cut loose? At night, some play what they think of as pranks, or games: night games with women. Sometimes these involve consensual sex, sometimes not, and often the lines are blurred. In Night Games, Anna Krien follows the rape trial of an Australian Rules footballer. She also takes a balanced and fearless look at the dark side of footy culture – the world of Sam Newman, Ricky Nixon, Matty Johns and the Cronulla Sharks. Both a courtroom drama and a riveting work of narrative journalism, this is a breakthrough book by one of the leading young lights of Australian writing.” Ref Booktopia

The Author:

Anna Krien is the author of Into the Woods: The Battle for Tasmania's Forests and Quarterly Essay 45 Us and Them: On the Importance of Animals. Night Games was shortlisted for the Walkley Book Award 2013 and the Adelaide Festival Award for Non-Fiction Industry Reviews:

1. A really good read. Based on real events. Very interesting and extremely well-written. I highly recommend reading if you are interested in court cases, football, sport culture, sexism and feminism. Very thought-provoking book, that makes you ponder a whole range of issues you may have never considered before. I definitely learnt something.

2. Revealing culture behind the scenes. 'The work of a compassionate and expansive intelligence.' The Sydney Morning Herald

Review:

This book raised many facts about some young footballers, from the AFL, NRL and other overseas clubs, and their attitudes towards women, especially so called groupies, and sex. Like many of the book club members I was horrified that the girls/women were treated so callously by not only the footballers but the Leagues and the Law. Many of our members didn’t finish or didn’t attempt to read this book as they found it so upsetting or offensive. As I read through the many cases she outlined I was appalled at the attitudes of so many in our society about what was rape and what wasn’t rape, what was consensual sex and what wasn’t consensual sex. To me, at the start of this read these factors seemed very black and white and very clear but as I continued to read her outlines of the points of view of the accused and the so called victim in the main case in the book, I began to see that there were many grey areas and clashes of opinions between the two main people involved in the case. A very thought provoking book that attempts to outline both sides of some very shocking rape cases. Thankfully, since 2013 when this book was published, both the AFL and the NRL have taken steps by introducing mandatory awareness programs about women’s rights and relationships with women for their clubs and players. I fear that we still have a way to go to stamp out these terrible attitudes and behaviours, not only in sporting clubs but in our society at large.