Bring Your A Game

Australians love sport - and we love a sports cliche. No commentary is complete without a player under an 'injury cloud' or a coach with a 'selection headache'; every game has a 'ball magnet' player. Bring Your A Game is a celebration of Aussie sporting language: a true ornament to the game that gives 110 per cent to sports fans.

So the ball's in your court, reader: are you ready to step up and play within yourself in order to appreciate the blend of youth and experience evident in this book by bestselling author and multi award-winning sports writer Anthony Sharwood, who has covered three Olympics, a Super Bowl, and written sport for newspapers, websites, magazines and television?

In Bring Your A Game, Sharwood takes a tilt at explaining the origins and usage of all the essential Australian sporting phrases - ably assisted by Louisa Maggio's hilarious illustrations of your favourite cliches. What does a premiership window look like, anyway? What is the true cost of an injury toll?

But this book is not just about the cliches. It is a long overdue tribute to the glory of Australian sporting lingo, a language within a language. Only an Australian cricket fan knows that if a bowler chucks pies, the cherry will end up in cow corner. Only an Aussie Rules footy fan understands that you can kick a bag but nothing's more exciting than a speccy.

Bring Your A Game is the glut of possession every sports lover needs. If you don't grab a copy for the sports tragic in your life, Christmas will be a dead rubber and you'll be living in a world of pain.

About the Author

Anthony Sharwood is a Walkley Award-winning journalist who has worked in TV, newspapers, magazines and online news sites. Formerly a sportswriter who covered several Olympic Games, he now specialises in the environment, climate and weather. In 2020 he released the acclaimed From Snow to Ash, a love letter to the Australian High Country written after walking the Australian Alps Walking Track and in 2021 he explored the passionate environmental and cultural battle over Australia's wild horses in The Brumby Wars. His books Kosciuszko and Bring Your A Game are both 2024 releases.