• The Story Behind the Book

    Pride: The Inception

    Back in 1999, I started a football website called The Collingwood Rant. Football being a seasonal thing, I needed content during the off-season. Most of the time, I posted odds and ends. I was young and energetic, so I always had content – good, bad, and indifferent. Come 2002, I thought I’d serialize a story. For years, I’d had this idea about a freakishly magical footballer, everybody in awe of his ability, a la The Natural. Here was the perfect medium – a football website featuring a football serial. Now it was just a case of working out the details. I’d always thought the story would unfold in the AFL…

  • Inside Entertainment,  Old vs New

    Rocky vs Creed

    After six movies spanning thirty years, a number of title defenses, as well as a series of impossible victories, what was left for the Rocky universe? The answer is Creed (2015), a soft reboot which introduces the new lead of Adonis Johnson (Michael B. Jordan), the illegitimate son of the legendary Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers). I actually had a similar idea about twenty years ago – continue the boxing story with one of Apollo’s sons. It’s the logical move. In Rocky Balboa (2006), we see that Rocky’s only son, Robert (Milo Ventimiglia), works in some corporate job, so it’s not like he’s going to put on the gloves. I thought…