Mike Colman on Sport

Description

Few if any Australian journalists have mastered the art of long-form sports writing better than Mike Colman. Trent Dalton, author of the mega-seller Boy Swallows Universe, knows this too well, having worked alongside Colman for years at the Brisbane Courier-Mail. Dalton jumped at the chance to introduce this book, because he knows the rare quality of his friend's work. Colman has seen it all: Ashes Tests, Bledisloe Cup, grand finals, Origin, golfing Majors, tennis Grand Slams, Olympic and Commonwealth Games. He has met champions such as Usain Bolt, Neymar, Eddie Jones, Kyle Chalmers, Darren Lockyer, Jason Day, Glen Boss and Makybe Diva, but also many less famous but equally intriguing characters. They all come together in this remarkable collection, which ends with poignant tributes to two heroes of Colman's youth - sports media giants Mike Gibson and Richie Benaud.

A Walkley Award-winning journalist and author, Mike Colman has covered major sporting events across Australia and internationally, including seven Olympics, six Commonwealth Games, four Rugby World Cups and many Ashes, State of Origin and Bledisloe Cup series. A former assistant editor of the Courier-Mail and European Sports Correspondent for News Limited, Colman has won three Clarion Awards, the AOC's inaugural Harry Gordon Memorial Award for Olympic Reporting and was Sport Australia's print journalist of the year in 2010. Among his previous books are critically acclaimed military titles, best-selling biographies of rugby league's Paul Vautin, and Gordon Tallis, and the story of the great Aboriginal cricketer Eddie Gilbert, which was the Australian Cricket Society's book of the year for 2003.