In the wake of the retirement of champion footballer Chris Judd last month, a touching article was written by former Carlton rookie list player Matthew Lodge and published by Fox Sports.
The article gave a behind-closed-doors insight into Judd that painted his character in stark contrast to another elite Australian sportsman currently flying the national flag.
Lodge recalls the time when on just his third day as a professional footballer Judd invited him to join him for Pilates. It was half past six in the morning, well before the players had to arrive for the morning’s training session, and what transpired over the following hour or so was what Lodge would remember the great man for.
“Being 18 and stupid … all I wanted to talk about was football,” Lodge said.
“Chris wanted to talk about everything else. Family, school, moving states, different sports, music, current affairs.”
It was the mark of the man.
It was the same Judd who would make his return from injury for the Northern Blues in the WAFL midway through last year.
On watching him train with them, Lodge tells us that: “It was the mark of the man, who didn’t see himself to be above kicking the football with university undergraduate students, apprentice electricians and school teachers.”
Then amid all the hoo-ha of the Blues’ victory – the camera-crews, Carlton fans and journalists wanting a word from him – Judd only wanted to be removed from it all.
But in the same breath that we recall the two-time Brownlow-winning star as an unassuming, approachable and noble ornament of Australian sport, we can’t help but cringe at the damage that Nick Kyrgios is doing to our country’s reputation.
The lack of heart, or ‘tanking’, shown by Kyrgios in his controversial Wimbledon exit, the throwing of racquets and abusive press conferences, go against the blueprint of what it means to have the privilege of representing Australia on the world stage.
Judd is one name that will forever be remembered as an ornament of Australian sport, but there are hundreds of others. Steve Waugh, Rob de Castella, Lleyton Hewitt, Darren Lockyer; they paved the way with dignity for the next generation of undeniable sporting talent.
Kyrgios is without a shadow of doubt one of Australia’s brightest young sporting prospects. Former world number one and Grand Slam champion Mats Wilander even made the stunning prediction last week that he “might be the greatest player of all time once his career is over”.
For the sake of himself and Australia, let’s hope his attitude doesn’t get in the way of that, nor what it means to be an elite Australian sportsman.
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