Marooned

It's June 8, 2022. On the outskirts of Vancouver, Canada, Darren Groth, his elderly parents, and his two younger brothers gather in the living room of a Ladner townhouse to watch an early morning replay of the year's opening State of Origin. For Groth, the occasion is full of unknowns. He has no clue as to the result of the game, which concluded just before sunrise, Australian time. He cannot say when his family will travel again from the four corners of the globe to see each other in person. And, due to the incurable cancer in his father Des's blood, he fears this may be the last time he watches Queensland go round with his dad. Marooned uses this crossroads moment as the spur to look back on Groth's lifelong love of the Queensland rugby league team and explore the role it has played in shaping and affirming his identity. Written as a chronological series of funny, thoughtful and accessible essays, Marooned spans five decades of fandom, beginning on a hard-scrabble backyard in the western Queensland town of Hughenden and ending on the opposite side of the Pacific in the rugby league tundra of British Columbia. It chronicles a unique journey as a Maroon devotee, the highs and lows on and off the field, the key place the team has occupied in Groth's relationship with his father and his disabled son, and its necessity in connecting him to his state of origin while living far from home.