This is not a beautifully written book about decolonising Australian sport. This is an ugly book that was born of the ugly language I grew up hearing in this country. This book is me scratching my way out of the scrap of the schoolyard, just trying to stay alive.
So writes Ellen van Neerven in the introduction to their latest book, Personal Score. “I have a score to settle,” they continue.
In this book, they well and truly settle the score – as a Blackfulla, an athlete and as well as a former amateur player, a self-proclaimed “armchair enthusiast of the sport we call ‘the world game’: football, sometimes called soccer in this country”.
