Bring Your A Game : The Encyclopaedia of Australian Sports Cliches

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.

''An entertaining compendium for a country mad on sport and its language'' THE AGE