More Than a Game: Love, Loyalty, and Legacy in Marooned
“It’s rare to find a memoir that captures a father-son relationship with such warmth and strength, one that honours traditional masculine connection, but free from the harshness or emotional distance that too often defines similar stories.”
If you’ve ever roared at the television with your family during State of Origin, you’ll already resonate with Darren Groth’s Marooned. This memoir is tender, humorous, and full of nostalgia, exploring the depths of father-son bonds and how traditions can shape relationships. You don’t need to know the rules of rugby league to love this story – take it from me, a girl who could hardly punt a football in high school. No, all you need to know is what it’s like to love, to grow, and to cheer.
Marooned follows author Darren Groth from the birth of Origin in 1980 to life on the other side of the world in 2022, jumping back and forth between decades across chapters. After pledging himself to the Maroons at only ten years old, Darren holds steadfast to his oath and never lets go of his unconditional loyalty. But all that passion is bound to blow sometime, and young Darren must learn to settle the lava that bubbles when fans are disrespectful, bad calls are made, and the crowd hurls cans.
The Maroons are the touchstone as Darren grows up, learns to drive, goes to university, and starts dating. His love for the game forges connections across language and cultural barriers, and so too through the pages. This story shares slices of life – the first game, an endearing meet-cute, a fight – which all collect into a beautiful maroon mosaic. Things certainly change over the years, as life loves to do, but no matter how much everything else changes in Darren’s life, Origin remains.
The way the author portrays his father feels familiar somehow, and I suppose it might to many. Most of us have a father, uncle, or brother we’d see reflected in their bond, strengthened by footy and filled to the brim with love and respect. It’s rare to find a memoir that captures a father-son relationship with such warmth and strength, one that honours traditional masculine connection, but free from the harshness or emotional distance that too often defines similar stories.
At its beating heart, Marooned is a book about community, history, and family. The author unpacks these themes with much warmth and comfort; sparks of humour even had me giggling out loud. But Marooned is not afraid to get real when it needs to, revealing the reality of struggling to start a family and the lack of disability support in Australia. One of the most powerful moments comes when Darren’s son cannot receive the right care, and their family must make a significant move to find the best fit for all.
For any Gen-X Australian, and Queenslanders of all ages, this memoir will transport them back to old stadiums, summer barbecues, and ruckus in the living room. But even those far from such descriptors will find pieces of themselves in these pages, and like me, gasping and on the edge of their seat. Marooned is for anyone ready to sit with real Australian stories, and it’s a memoir every Queenslander should read.