E-raamat: Changi Brownlow

The umpires were strict, aware that an on-field fracas could see some of the more trigger-happy guards using their machine guns to break it up …'During World War II, in the harshness and brutality of Singapore's Changi prison, a group of Australian prisoners of war dug deep and fought to maintain their spirit in the best way they knew how: Australian Rules football. From Snowy River country came Peter Chitty, a man of unfathomable physical endurance, courage and mental fortitude from Fitzroy came 'Chicken' Smallhorn, an outstanding Australian Rules player and winner of the 1933 Brownlow Medal. Together they helped form six teams who played a season, culminating in 'Victoria' versus 'the Rest of Australia' – with the Changi Brownlow winner declared before the final game.The bonds that these men forged on the makeshift playing field of Changi were to sustain them when so many were later sent to labour on the Thai-Burma Railway. Ravaged by cholera, starved and often simply worked to death, fewer than half survived.The bravery, courage and mateship of these men kept their spirit alive. This is their moving and powerful story.

This is the moving, powerful and surprising story of a group of Australian POWs who organise an Australian Rules Football competition under the worst conditions imaginable - inside Changi prison.

After Singapore falls to the Japanese early in 1942, 70 000 prisoners including 15 000 Australians, are held as POWs at the notorious Changi prison, Singapore. To amuse themselves and fellow inmates, a group of sportsmen led by the indefatigable and popular ‘Chicken’ Smallhorn, created an Australian Football League, complete with tribunal, selection panel, umpires and coaches. The final game of the one and only season was between ‘Victoria’ and the ‘Rest of Australia’, which attracted 10 000 spectators, and a unique Brownlow Medal was awarded in this unlikely setting under the curious gaze of Japanese prison guards.Meet the main characters behind this spectacle: Peter Chitty, the farm hand from Snowy River country with unfathomable physical and mental fortitude, and one of eight in his immediate family who volunteered to fight and serve in WW2; ‘Chicken’ Smallhorn, the Brownlow-medal winning little man with the huge heart; and ‘Weary’ Dunlop, the courageous doctor, who cares for the POWs as they endure malnutrition, disease and often inhuman treatment.CHANGI BROWNLOW is a story of courage and the invincibility of the human spirit, and highlights not only the Australian love of sport, but its power to offer consolation in times of extreme hardship.