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Many of Australia’s current sportswriting crop began their days as, you guessed it, writers for the Roar of The Crowd section on The Roar.
All of these writers started their journalistic career as fan writers, and have since made it into their profession.
So follow in their footsteps, and get contributing to start your road to becoming a sports writer.
Brett McKay
Starting as a Roar of the Crowd rugby writer, Brett quickly realised his talent with the pen. Giving up his day job, he is now a full-time rugby writer for The Roar and ESPNScrum, among others.
We asked Brett what the opportunity to write as a Roar of the Crowd writer meant to him.
“Whatever I end up doing in the industry, and whoever I end up doing it for, the one thing I will be forever grateful for was the start afforded to me by The Roar. Sportswriting for me started as a hobby, and in less than 12 months I was writing in the red column among some names that blew me away, and with an ‘Expert’ tag that took a lot of getting used to. Now it’s a career that I love, and I’m forever in debt to the support I’ve received along the way from Zac and Zolton Zavos, Tristan Rayner, and now Paddy Effeney.
“The brilliant thing about The Roar is that the response and the feedback is immediate; if you’ve written something people love, then the discussion can go on the days, and this where the site comes into its own, I believe. And obviously, if you’ve written something people disagree with, you’ll soon hear about it too!
“The audience is what makes The Roar so great. It means you have to be strong in your convictions, and accurate in your statements and citings, because there will always be someone with a search engine and stats database lurking. This accountability and the whole interactive element is brilliant, and I’ve enjoyed every minute over the last seven years and nearing 600 columns and articles.”
Chris Chard
A long-time humourist and opinion writer for The Roar, Chris now wiles his days away making funny videos and writing articles for a big-time sports betting company.
You might even get to see his mug in some of their videos.
Geoff Lemon
Approaching us as just a man looking for an outlet for his writing on cricket and Australian football, Geoff soon became known on The Roar for his whimsical but illustrative motifs.
He’s carried his talents on, and now works with The Guardian, Cricinfo, ABC, Wisden India as well as The Roar, and is one of the most incisive young cricket writers in Australia.
We asked Geoff what the opportunity to write for the Roar of the Crowd section initially meant to him.
“I’d spent a long time writing and a long time loving sport, but never thought to put them together until I found The Roar. More than most corners of the internet, here was a community of people who were friendly, encouraging, and wanted to talk rather than fight. I loved getting involved.”
Michael DiFabrizio
A long-time AFL and NBL columnist on The Roar Michael landed his first job in journalism in Mildura, and we couldn’t be happier to have him still contributing on his favourite sports.
Elisha Pearce
Elisha wrote on The Roar, specialising in Rugby, waiting for a break. Persistence paid off, one came, and he’s now a full time journalist at Fairfax.
We asked Elisha what writing for The Roar meant to him.
“The Roar was a great place to start my writing career. Producing work for a large audience gave me a chance to develop my voice and stand behind my work. It’s a strong and honest community, so there was no room for fudging!
“As I gained experience there were opportunities to partner with The Roar’s targeted coverage and expand from opinion writing into live blogs, match reports and previews. If you are looking for a foot in the door think about starting at The Roar.”
Shane Jones
Shane has done countless live blogs and articles on The Roar, and even attended the Australian Open and Bathurst 1000 for the site. He now is a full time sports journalist in northern Queensland.
Shane said The Roar helped him get into journalism full time.
“The Roar allowed my to gain experience in a wide range of journalism from reports, blogs, to articles. With it being a national site, with plenty of hits daily and monthly, it allowed me to get noticed by potential employers. I wouldn’t have been hired without The Roar.”