Encore: Helen Garner's love letter to her grandson, and football

When Helen Garner began following her grandson Amby's under-16s football team, it was a chance to spend more time with her youngest grandchild before he became an adult and she was fascinated by the spectacle.

She went along to all the games, and to every training session, shivering on the sidelines at dusk, it also gave Helen a new writing project.

As Helen began writing about Amby and his season, she began to realise that part of the story was about the 'ordinary beauty of human society'.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Nicola Harrison, the executive producer was Carmel Rooney.

It explores growing older, teenagers, playing AFL, training, team sport, AFL, injury, man hood, being a grandma, family, writing, memoir, the culture of sport in Australia, writing, raising boys.

To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.