From 'A-Grader' to 'Zoning', the hilarious and definitive A-Z of Aussie Rules

The lexicon of the weird and wonderful language of our national game - written by sports journalists and footy fanatics Vince Rugari and Andrew Wu.

Australian Rules football is a code, a culture, and - unofficially - a language. Like any language, it evolves, contradicts itself, and makes very little sense when you think about it for more than a few moments.

Part glossary, part cultural commentary, part long-overdue piss-take, The Footy Dictionary reveals the absurdity, brilliance and strange beauty of the game's ever-expanding vocabulary, and what it says about Australia's national obsession. Compiled by The Age and Sydney Morning Herald sports reporters Vince Rugari and Andrew Wu, it is both authoritative and gloriously unserious: a field guide for anyone who has ever nodded along while wondering what, exactly, a 'back shoulder' is.

Featuring over 650 terms, from old-school staples like 'speccy' and 'torpedo' to modern mysteries such as 'dancing with your sister', 'hamstring awareness' and 'lick of the ice cream', this sharp, affectionate and irreverent illustrated dictionary takes readers inside the 'four walls' to decode the clichés, coaching jargon, media buzzwords and accidental poetry that have developed 'over the journey'.

The Footy Dictionary is for players, coaches, umpires, commentators, analysts, confused foreigners and diehard fans. It's essential reading for anyone who loves Aussie Rules, or loves laughing at it, and anyone trying to find their 'one-wood', 'lower the eyes' and become the 'connection piece' this great game demands. If nothing else, it's a 'watch'.

'Impossible not to enjoy. Rugari and Wu have managed to do something both clever and surprisingly difficult: they have captured the language of our game in all its brilliance, absurdity and contradiction. Whether you're a player, coach, supporter or self-confessed footy tragic, The Footy Dictionary is a wonderfully observant celebration of the game's unique dialect and the characters who continue to invent it.' - John Longmire

'The lid's off! This puts Samuel Johnson's dictionary in the shade. Everything that's weird, wonderful and lamentable about the language of footy, all in one place, and treated with exactly the right measure of wry absurdity. This writing group's in its premiership window.' - Waleed Aly

'hilarious and informative . . . a handball chain of wisdom' - Dwayne Russell

'Have these blokes gone whack or are they simply delivering on the connection piece? Whatever the case, Wu and Rugari are two A-Graders and this book is certainly a watch.' - Sam Perry

'This is a codex for my time and world. This book is pretty much 90 per cent of my vocabulary. A lexicon for the game we love.' - Broden Kelly