Night Games

NEW FOREWORD BY VIRGINIA TRIOLI

Winner, Davitt Award for Best True Crime Book
Winner, William Hill Sports Book of the Year
Winner, New Writer of the Year Award at the Cross British Sports Book Awards
Shortlisted, Walkley Non-Fiction Book Award
Shortlisted, Adelaide Festival Award for Non-Fiction
Shortlisted, Stella Prize
Shortlisted, Western Australian Premier's Book Award for Non-Fiction
Shortlisted, Cross British Sports Book Award for New Writing
‘The Pies beat the Saints and the city of Melbourne was still cloaked in black and white crepe paper when the rumour of a pack rape by celebrating footballers began to surface … And so, as police were confiscating bedsheets from a townhouse in South Melbourne, the trial by media began.’
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 Croa 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.

“A book of note which has justly been compared to Helen Garner’s The First Stone.” THE AUSTRALIAN