http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/neil-wilson/ Neil Wilson is a journalist for Melbourne’s Herald Sun, who recently made the jump from print to online. Since starting his career in Melbourne in 1979 he has covered most rounds, particularly crime and industrial, been a Deputy COS, Opinion Editor and reported from around Australia and overseas. During a stint in Sydney during the late 1980s he covered both the Kempsey bush crash and Newcastle earthquake within a week of each other, reported the Sydney Swans at rock bottom and the courtroom demise of their ex-owner Dr Geoffrey Edelsten. In journalistic middle-age, Wilson was conscripted to report the ``old Diggers round’‘. It led him to walk the Kokoda Track with Bronwyn Bishop for 60th anniversary of the battles, brave the cold at Gallipoli for the 90th anniversary dawn service and slip into the VIP enclosure in Normandy during 60th anniversary celebrations of D-Day. Before demobbing himself he also assisted in bringing to light the fate of hundreds of missing WWI Diggers at Fromelles in France, whose bodies are now being recovered. Wilson has been a solid Carlton supporter since age 10, witnessing the 1972, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1987 and 1995 flag victories but enduring the latter years of John Elliott’s presidency and recent lean seasons with customary club stoicism. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:00:13 +0000 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:00:13 +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/ted-kenna-understood-life-in-a-way-that-we-cant/ It’s hard for anyone under the age of at least 50 to say they truly understood Ted Kenna, except for his family and perhaps anyone who’s almost died in combat. And Ted was probably easier to understand than others famed or prominent among his World War II generation, a laconic, uncomplicated country guy who happened to have been given a medal called the Victoria Cross. For valour. It’s the highest honour you can get. But judging by the muted reaction to Ted’s death, at 90, a lot of people didn’t really get what he was about. The story broke in the local Geelong news media on Thursday, which covers where he lived his final few years in a nursing home, in an understated manner befitting Ted, (”Nedda” to his mates). By 4 pm, ABC radio in Melbourne hadn’t picked it up or, if maybe they did they didn’t think the news worthy to include in their bulletin. In one way you can’t blame them, for not ‘getting it’ because 20 or 30 years ago many people of my baby boomer generation may not have only been indifferent, but possibly hostile to men of Ted Kenna’s background. How could you expect much younger people, in their 20s, to rate the significance of a VC holder? feedback@thepunch.com.au (Neil Wilson) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/ted-kenna-understood-life-in-a-way-that-we-cant/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/ted-kenna-understood-life-in-a-way-that-we-cant/#item600 Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:41:37 +0000 Neil Wilson | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-a-megalomaniac-almost-destroyed-my-footy-club/ WHEN John Elliott was invited to appear of the panel on the ABC’s Q and A program a few months back it was surprising to see him re-emerge into the national spotlight. It was surprising that host Tony Jones would agree to have him on a serious, credible program. Yet Elliott appeared almost respectable, almost genial, flashing displays of past wit and supposed wisdom you might expect from a figure imitating a respected elder statesman of business, politics - and , of course, sport. But it didn’t take long for the real John Elliott to re-emerge, the boorish, arrogant, drink-sodden shell of a once brilliant business brain, seemingly destined for the Lodge but who almost wound up doing a stretch in Melbourne’s old Pentridge Prison. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Neil Wilson) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-a-megalomaniac-almost-destroyed-my-footy-club/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-a-megalomaniac-almost-destroyed-my-footy-club/#item537 Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:12:49 +0000 Neil Wilson | Author bios | The Punch