We're the footy dogs

by LES EVERETT

WITH the footy season drained away for another year we'll soon be looking for things to sustain us.

The recently released Footy Dogs: The Dogs of Australian Rules Football by Craig McGill and Susan Elliot is a beautiful publication that will provide dog lovers and footy lovers with loads of enjoyment, lots of laughs and even some tears.

The book features photographic portraits of 110 AFL players and their dogs plus written contributions from Martin Flanagan, Ron Barassi and others.

McGill said the huge project had not been complicated. "People said I'd need to go through player managers but I started by writing to each AFL player just like a fan would," he said. "The players realised the focus was on their dogs and not them and there was a great response - everyone wants to see their dog in a book."

One of the first players to respond was Melbourne's Troy Broadbridge and just before Christmas last year he and his dogs Harry and Sally were the first to be photographed for the book.

Broadbridge died in the Boxing Day tsunami in Thailand. His wife Trisha encouraged McGill and Elliot to continue on with the book and her contribution is a heartbreaking highlight of Footy Dogs.

McGill said the project developed surprisinglt smoothly: "... travelling around Australia and playing with dogs is a pretty good way to make a living. It was all pretty pain free except that the photographers' legs got a sprinkle a few too many times for their liking."

Most of he photographs in Footy Dogs were taken by James Boddington and Alister Clarke. Craig Burrow took the cover shot and Bil Crabb (uncle of the Sandover Medal winner Jaxon) took a photo of Daniel Chick and his alpine dingo Dakota.

McGill and Elliot are the loving owners of three huskies Tok, Tarka and Stella, and McGill said bringing together AFL players and their dogs confirmed his feeling about the part dogs play in people's lives.

"Dogs are family," McGill said. "They are an integral part of the players' lives just as they are for every other dog owner."

Footy Dogs: The Dogs of Australian Rules Football by Craig McGill and Susan Elliot is a Giant Dog book.

From the Fremantle Rooster.

Disclaimer