Greg Growden (1959/1960 – 14 November 2020) was an Australian sports journalist, author and biographer.

Life

Growden was born in Adelaide, the son of

Port Adelaide Football Club Port Adelaide Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Alberton, South Australia, Alberton, South Australia. The club's senior men's team plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), where it is nicknamed the ...

player Kevin Growden. The family moved to a rice farm at

Coleambally Coleambally () is a small town in the Riverina of New South Wales, Australia, in Murrumbidgee Local Government Area. Coleambally is one of the newest towns in the state of New South Wales, officially opened in June 1968, with the Post Office op ...

in the

Riverina The Riverina () is an agricultural list of regions in Australia, region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, a climate with significant seaso ...

where Growden spent his teenage years. He joined the ''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper in ...

'' in early 1978 soon after leaving school. He was chief rugby union correspondent for the paper from 1987 to 2012, and was the Australian rugby union correspondent for

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

from 2012 to 2018. He is one of just two international rugby writers to cover all of the first eight

World Cups A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

. Growden died of cancer on 14 November 2020, aged 60.

Books

*''The Wallabies' World Cup!'' (1991, with

Spiro Zavos Spiro Bernard Zavos (born 1937 in Wellington of Greek immigrant parents) is a New Zealand historian, philosopher, journalist and writer. Life and career After gaining a Bachelor of Arts from the Victoria University of Wellington, Zavos taught h ...

Simon Poidevin Simon Paul Poidevin (born 31 October 1958) is a former Australian rugby union player who played as a flanker. Poidevin made his Test debut for Australia against Fiji during the 1980 tour of Fiji. He was a member of the Wallabies side that def ...

and

Evan Whitton Evan Whitton (5 March 1928 – 16 July 2018) was an Australian journalist. Whitton was raised in Murgon in Queensland, and went away to boarding school at age eight. He worked as a teacher for 14 years in Toowoomba before securing a ful-time rol ...

) *''A Wayward Genius: The Fleetwood-Smith Story'' (1991) *''With the Wallabies'' (1995) *''Gold, Mud and Guts: The Incredible Tom Richards – Footballer, War Hero, Olympian'' (2001) *''Rugby Union for Dummies'' (2003, 2011) *''The

Snowy Baker Reginald Leslie "Snowy" Baker (8 February 18842 December 1953) was an Australian athlete, sports promoter, and actor. Born in Surry Hills, New South Wales, Surry Hills, an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Baker excelled at a numbe ...

Story'' (2003) *''My Sporting Hero'' (2004, editor) *''It's Not Just a Bloody Game! Timeless Rugby Union Stories'' (2007) *''

Jack Fingleton John Henry Webb Fingleton, (28 April 190822 November 1981) was an Australian cricketer, journalist and commentator. The son of Australian politician James Fingleton, he was known for his dour defensive approach as a batsman, scoring five Tes ...

: The Man Who Stood Up to Bradman'' (2008) *''Inside the Wallabies: The Real Story – the Players, the Politics, the Games from 1908 to Today'' (2010) *''More Important than Life or Death: Inside the Best of Australian Sport'' (2013, co-editor with

Peter FitzSimons Peter John FitzSimons (born 29 June 1961) is an Australian author, journalist, and radio and television presenter. He is a former national representative rugby union player and was the chair of the Australian Republic Movement from 2015 to 20 ...

) *''Wallaby Warrior: The World War I War Diaries of Tom Richards, Australia's only British Lion'' (2013, editor) *''Bowled by a Bullet: The Tragic Life of Claude Tozer'' (2015) *''The Wrong 'Un: The Brad Hogg Story'' (2016, with

Brad Hogg George Bradley Hogg (born 6 February 1971) is a former Australian cricketer who played all formats of the game. He was a left-arm Left-arm unorthodox spin, wrist spin Bowler (cricket), bowler, and a lower-order left-handed batsman. His earlie ...

) *''The Wallabies at War'' (2018) *'' Major Thomas: The Bush Lawyer Who Defended Breaker Morant and Took On the British Empire'' (2019) *''Cricketers at War'' (2019)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Growden, Greg 20th-century births 2020 deaths Writers from Adelaide Cricket writers Rugby football writers Australian sportswriters Australian biographers Year of birth uncertain Deaths from cancer in Australia