A Rain of Dollars. "Playing God: The Rise and Fall of Gary Ablett" by Garry Linnell and "Bob Rose: A Dignified Life" by Steve Strevens. [review]

Abstract

Bob Rose epitomised all that was good about the era he played in; and he survived and triumphed over its pitfalls — everything from bog-muddy grounds and generally antediluvian player conditions through to a species of on-field violence now unheard of. The most appalling family tragedy simply brought out another level of his extraordinary personal, as distinct from well-known physical, gifts and capacities. Ablett’s is a terrible story, but it is not the only dark note in "Playing God", even if it is the most resonant. Just as Strevens refuses to romanticise the now legendary past in which Bob Rose had his hour, so Linnell is, by fairly clear implication at least, unimpressed with the corporate culture of modern football, the sometimes predatory behaviour of the media and the clubs’ ambiguous capacity for on the one hand callousness and on the other a dangerous, reality-denying protectiveness.