http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/anthony-sharwood/ Ant grew up in Canberra, largely avoiding the world of politics except for the occasions when he and his schoolmates from Telopea Park High would sneak off to the building site of “New Parliament House” to smoke ciggies. After graduating from Sydney Uni with a half-arsed degree from the economics faculty, Ant worked for bookies on Sydney racecourses, drove cabs and did a range of other odd jobs which some would patronisingly call “life experience” but which were in fact a way of paying the bills. After his Olympic Cabbie’s Diary was published in 2001,  Ant worked as a freelance journalist, winning a Walkley in 2003 for his first ever magazine feature story. He then went to work as a feature writer for The Canberra Times, where he infuriated the entire sports department by getting the nod to cover the Athens Olympics. One taste of the glamorous lifestyle of a sports journalist was all Ant needed to say “yes” to News Ltd, when it launched its flagship sports title Alpha in 2005. When The Punch launched, Ant started contributing sports stories at the rate of approximately one a week until eventually The Punch team caved in and said “righto, you might as well work here then.” Ant is current Deputy Editor of The Punch and can be seen on Wednesday mornings on Sky News from 9.30 am. A father of two, he is often late to work due to Kevin Rudd’s failed promise to end the double dropoff. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:00:46 +0000 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:00:46 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/six-prominent-aussies-with-a-case-of-the-dreaded-yips/ The yips. It’s an old golf term which refers to golfers who lose the ability to putt. They stand over the ball and they tremble. They quake. They can barely hold the damn club, let alone propel the ball into a hole that suddenly appears the size of a thimble. The term has since migrated across to other sports. Beijing gold medallist Steve Hooker today admitted that he has the pole vault yips. He just can’t place that pole in the right spot anymore, and his London campaign is in severe jeopardy. If it’s any consolation Steve, you’re not the only person struggling to get your mojo back. Several other prominent Australians across all walks of life have totally lost the ability to do the thing they were once pretty good at. Here are five more prominent cases of the Yips. The Punch heartily invites more suggestions from you. ant@thepunch.com.au (Anthony Sharwood) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/six-prominent-aussies-with-a-case-of-the-dreaded-yips/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/six-prominent-aussies-with-a-case-of-the-dreaded-yips/#item7720 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:30:29 +0000 Anthony Sharwood | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/stop-expecting-facebook-to-be-your-friend/ Well, what did anyone expect? Facebook removes harmless pics of Aussie mums breastfeeding, and what, we’re surprised? Gee, who’d a thunk that a massive corporation that exists to profit from banner ads wouldn’t share our values? Facebook’s moral universe is admittedly rather haphazard. Its automatic boob-detecting software got onto those breastfeeding Mums much quicker than the site had on other occasions removed pages dedicated to hate and vilification, or pages that cruelly mocked the innocent dead. But here’s the thing. Facebook is not an arbiter of values, nor should it be. It has its own rules and its practices, and anyone who uploads content onto Facebook cannot reasonably expect its editorial policy (or lack thereof) to align with their own values. ant@thepunch.com.au (Anthony Sharwood) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/stop-expecting-facebook-to-be-your-friend/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/stop-expecting-facebook-to-be-your-friend/#item7704 Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:00:45 +0000 Anthony Sharwood | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/other-stuff-to-be-angry-about-today-with-chorizo-pic/ That dopey Spaniard. Three-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador has been banned for two years, and is now officially just a two-time Tour de France winner, after copping a two year ban for drug use. Contador was overnight stripped of his 2010 Tour win by the Court of Arbitration for Sport for testing positive to the banned anabolic agent clenbuterol. The Spaniard says he ingested the substance by eating contaminated steak. Sure he did. The Punch has dined on more than occasion at a delightful tapas bar near our office and we can say with some confidence that both the chorizo and the steak was steroid free. ant@thepunch.com.au (Anthony Sharwood) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/other-stuff-to-be-angry-about-today-with-chorizo-pic/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/other-stuff-to-be-angry-about-today-with-chorizo-pic/#item7699 Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:20:46 +0000 Anthony Sharwood | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/harry-potter-and-the-chamber-of-rip-offs/ Took my daughter to the Harry Potter exhibition at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum on the weekend. She loved it. Great day out. No arguments with the exhibition at all. We pre-booked a $95 family ticket, then queued to get into a queue which led to the queue at the start of the exhibition. Not ideal, but again, no arguments. You’re always going to get crowds with something this popular. The exhibition was terrific, with all kinds of artefacts, costumes and props from the Potter movies. And then the thing ended, in the world’s most expensive gift shop. ant@thepunch.com.au (Anthony Sharwood) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/harry-potter-and-the-chamber-of-rip-offs/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/harry-potter-and-the-chamber-of-rip-offs/#item7696 Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:45:12 +0000 Anthony Sharwood | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Pass-the-doritos-the-greatest-13-super-Bowl-ads/ Went to a Super Bowl once. Hung out afterwards with 160 kilo nude, crying black dudes in the losers’ dressing room. Oh, but you don’t want to hear about that. The Super Bowl is all about the ads, which this year are said to cost $3.5 million for 30 seconds. Some recession they’re having in America. When the 100 million Americans watching the Super Bowl go to the toilet in the ad breaks, they say city sewerage systems overflow. That’s actually a myth. No one takes a pee during the ad breaks. The ads are too good. The Super Bowl is the opposite of normal telly. That pesky football keeps interrupting some damn fine viewing. Super Bowl ads are so highly-anticipated that you get teased beforehand. This year we’ve had the (thankfully false) threat of a Ferris Bueller remake and a sneak peak of David Beckham’s undies ad, which to be frank is more torture than tease. Fortunately, there have been some brilliant ads down the years. Let’s go the video(s). ant@thepunch.com.au (Anthony Sharwood) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Pass-the-doritos-the-greatest-13-super-Bowl-ads/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Pass-the-doritos-the-greatest-13-super-Bowl-ads/#item7662 Sun, 05 Feb 2012 18:55:57 +0000 Anthony Sharwood | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/flick-the-switch/ Nevermind the result. All the talk today is about Dave Warner’s remarkable “switch hit” against India last night. Wow. Talk about skill. But was it legal? Not according to respected ABC commentator Jim Maxwell it wasn’t. “The switch hit is deadset against the spirit of the game,” Maxwell told The Punch today. “Not to take anything away from the amazing skill of Dave Warner, but if I was the bowler and I saw a batsman do it, I’d chuck it at him!” The laws of cricket have nothing to say about the practise whereby a batsman changes his grip on the bat and effectively changes from left to right hander, or the reverse, while the ball is in flight. But the laws are crystal clear that a bowler could never do the same thing. ant@thepunch.com.au (Anthony Sharwood) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/flick-the-switch/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/flick-the-switch/#item7665 Thu, 02 Feb 2012 01:45:26 +0000 Anthony Sharwood | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/alp-saves-the-alps/ There was movement at the station for the word had got around that the Feds might have finally gotten something right for a change. Late yesterday, news filtered through that Tony Burke, Minister for Sustainability, Environment and a bunch of other stuff, had put the kybosh on Victorian premier Ted Baillieu’s absurd, cynical and dangerous plan to reintroduce grazing to the High Country. Good. Minister Burke rejected a proposal by the Victorian government to allow cattle into the Alpine National Park for five months a year, arguing it was in breach of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. He’s right, too. Parks Victoria is just one reputable body which has produced scientific evidence showing that grazing is detrimental to the High Country. ant@thepunch.com.au (Anthony Sharwood) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/alp-saves-the-alps/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/alp-saves-the-alps/#item7652 Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:50:02 +0000 Anthony Sharwood | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/other-stuff-to-be-angry-about-today-with-video/ Once at an NRL match, Wests Tigers fullback Tim Brasher hurled a small novelty footy my way. Pretty sure the thing was intended for his nephew or cousin, but I snatched it, I took it home and that was that. Leaving aside the fact that a Sydney rugby league fan actually got off his backside and went to a game, there is nothing remarkable about this anecdote. Finders, keepers. Especially at sporting venues. Yet public sympathy today appears to be leaning heavily towards 14 year old obsessive Novak Djokovic fan Melissa Cook, who missed out on a shirt thrown her way. And public fury is being unleashed on the fan who snatched the shirt. ant@thepunch.com.au (Anthony Sharwood) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/other-stuff-to-be-angry-about-today-with-video/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/other-stuff-to-be-angry-about-today-with-video/#item7643 Tue, 31 Jan 2012 01:00:29 +0000 Anthony Sharwood | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/match-of-the-century/ There was a famous moment in golf journalism, after an ageing and written-off Jack Nicklaus won the 1986 Masters tournament. A senior writer totally seized up in the media room, clutching his hair and saying “it’s too big, it’s too big, it’s too big…”. What the guy had just witnessed simply defied any words he could write. You feel the same way trying to describe an Australian Open final like the one we had last night. What do you write? How do you sum up five hours and 53 minutes of the most epic tennis imaginable between two guys with the stamina of marathon runners, the dynamism of sprinters and the skill of marksmen? Oh, there are all sorts of angles you can take. More angles than a protractor factory. You can take the broad view and start the “who’s the greatest ever?” debate. After all, if Federer has the most Grand Slams ever, but Nadal keeps beating Federer when they meet in Slams, and now Djokovic keeps beating both of them, that’s the kind of argument that could rage on well past pub closing time. ant@thepunch.com.au (Anthony Sharwood) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/match-of-the-century/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/match-of-the-century/#item7634 Sun, 29 Jan 2012 23:00:54 +0000 Anthony Sharwood | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/this-weeks-lesson-politics-is-no-fairy-tale/ Once upon a time, in a mythical kingdom called Canberra which most people don’t really believe exists, a lady called Cindergillard lost her shoe. The lady didn’t lose her shoe at a big fancy schmancy ball, but what can you do? Ball, restaurant, same effect. The hunt was on. Who would the shoe fit? In ye olde days, they settled this kind of issue door-to-door. On this occasion, the matter was handled in the mercenary manner of the interwebs. ant@thepunch.com.au (Anthony Sharwood) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/this-weeks-lesson-politics-is-no-fairy-tale/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/this-weeks-lesson-politics-is-no-fairy-tale/#item7625 Fri, 27 Jan 2012 03:00:21 +0000 Anthony Sharwood | Author bios | The Punch