Reviews and Podcasts

Here are some of the reviews and podcasts about the paperback and hardback versions of Aboriginal People and Australian Football in the Nineteenth Century: They Did Not Come from Nowhere.

A Paperback edition is now available. Special price from SESA via $39.95

Roy Hay, Aboriginal People and Australian Football in the Nineteenth Century: They Did Not Come from Nowhere, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK, 2025. ISBN: 9781527526488 Hardback, A5, 315 pages, illustrated. RRP £64.99, Paperback ISBN 9781527539723 RRP £25.00 or $39.95 from the author at

In August 2025 the book was short-listed for the Lord Aberdare Prize of the British Society of Sports History.

CSP website link

http://www.cambridgescholars.com/aboriginal-people-and-australian-football-in-the-nineteenth-century

If you open this link and then hit the View Extract tab you will have the first 30 pages of the book from which you will get a good sense of what it is about and can order it directly from the publisher if you wish. Australian bookshops can order it for you or I can supply direct from Bannockburn if you contact me at

Reviews and articles

Gideon Haigh, ‘Field reports yield seeds’, Weekend Australian, 20-1 April 2025, p. . http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/books/field-reports-yield-seeds/news-story/fa904f4d5a5b46055516de882e376129

Bernard Whimpress, Newtown Review of Books, 23 May 2025,

http://newtownreviewofbooks.com.au/roy-hay-aboriginal-people-and-australian-football-in-the-nineteenth-century-they-did-not-come-from-nowhere-reviewed-by-bernard-whimpress/

Colin Ritchie, Almanac Book Review, 24 July 2025, http://www.footyalmanac.com.au/almanac-book-review-aboriginal-people-and-australian-football-in-the-nineteenth-century-they-did-not-come-from-nowhere-by-roy-hay/#comment-1107891

Cam Ward, ‘Footbrawl over state of origin story: Academic rejects footy’s indigenous start’, Geelong Advertiser, 7 June 2025, pp. 28–9. http://regionalnews.smedia.com.au/geelongadvertiser/Afterlogin.ashx?Origin=/geelongadvertiser/default.aspx?publication=NCGA&Id=1&d=2025-10-31&r=none&c=E8D37B06891518A5CE95811682E8C357

Steven Carroll in the Non-Fiction Review page of Spectrum in the Age, 1 June 2025, p. 22.

Chalpat Sonti, ‘Book looks back on local sporting legends’, Portland Observer, 31 May 2025, p. 10.

Tony Ward, Sporting Traditions, vol. 36 no. 1, pp. 77–9.

Trevor Ruddell, The Yorker, Issue 68, Autumn 2025, pp. 30–1.

‘Local Indigenous cricketers and footballers featured in book’, Hamilton Spectator, 25 July 2025, p. 5. www.spec.com.au

Robert Pascoe, ‘Aboriginal People and Australian Football in the Nineteenth Century: They Did Not Come from Nowhere’, The International Journal of the History of Sport, DOI: 10.1080/09523367.2025.1675036. Published online 16 October 2025, http://doi.org/10.1080/09523367.2025.1675036

Ryan Bodman, ‘Roy Hay and Australian football’s history war’, History Australia, vol. 16, no. 4, 2025, pp. 782–83, http://doi-org.ezproxy-b.deakin.edu.au/10.1080/14490854.2025.1670694

Peter Burke, Aboriginal People and Australian Football in the Nineteenth Century: They Did Not Come from Nowhere, Victorian Historical Journal, vol. 90, no. 2, December 2025, pp. 398–400. http://www.historyvictoria.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/VICTORIAN-HISTORICAL-JOURNAL-December-2025.pdf

Rod Gillett, review of Aboriginal People and Australian Football in the Nineteenth Century: They Did Not Come from Nowhere, in Time On: Annual Journal of the New South Wales Australian Football History Society, 2025, pp. 60–61.

Braham Dabscheck, review of Aboriginal People and Australian Football in the Nineteenth Century: They Did Not Come from Nowhere, Footy Almanac, 3 May 2025. https://www.footyalmanac.com.au/almanac-book-review-roy-hays-aboriginal-people-and-australian-football-in-the-nineteenth-century-they-did-not-come-from-nowhere/

Podcasts

Roy Hay with Tony Collins, Rugby Reloaded. 62 Race, racism and the origins of Aussie Rules

http://soundcloud.com/user-523674328/62-race-racism-and-the-origins-of-aussie-rules/s-brosH

Roy Hay with Keith Rathbone, New Books in Sport, 29 July 2025, http://newbooksnetwork.com/roy-hay-aboriginal-people-and-australian-football-in-the-19th-century-cambridge-scholars-2025/

State Library of Victoria

http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=SLV_VOYAGER3807129&context=L&vid=MAIN&lang=en_US&search_scope=Everything&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=default_tab&query=any,contains,Aboriginal%20People%20and%20Australian%20Football%20in%20the%20Nineteenth%20Century ← Previous

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