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Australia's Tim Cahill celebrates after scoring the first goal for Australia during the World Cup qualifying soccer match between Australia and Qatar at the Brisbane stadium in Brisbane, Australia, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2008. AP Photo/Tertius Pickard
Over at The Finktank, my column for SBS, I’ve leapt to the defence of Tim Cahill after he was smeared last weekend by the Sunday Telegraph for a nightclub incident it appears never happened.
But after his embarrassing performance in front of the cameras after Wednesday night’s Australia Vs Japan World Cup Qualifier, in which he scored two goals, he’s deserving of some rebuke.
Melanie McLaughlin has come along in leaps and bounds as a broadcaster with Fox Sports and she is a great asset for that company to have: telegenic with brains and something useful to say about the game she covers.
The same cannot be said for all of of her stablemates, male and female, at the pay-TV station. (For the record, let me state I’m a big fan of the work of Simon Hill and Mark Bosnich, both of whom call a spade a spade, and Paul Trimboli, whose enthusiasm for the game is infectious and who is turning into a great game analyst.)
So McLaughlin deserved much more respect than she got from Cahill, who chose to ignore the questions she asked of him in her now-obligatory post-match on-field interview and didn’t even doing her the basic courtesy of looking at her when she spoke.
Standoffish, his tongue rolling around in his cheeks, it was a disgraceful display from Cahill, who has every right to nurse a grievance with the way he was treated by the Sunday Telegraph but should have no issue with a bright, pleasant young woman just trying to do her job.
The opening question she asked of him was hardly threatening, a joke about how popular he now is in Japan.
But instead of smiling or offering a laugh, Cahill just turned away to look at nothing and muttered, “I’d just like to thank the crowd, the lads, a great turnout in Melbourne. I’m so proud to be here, so proud to play tonight so I think the credit just goes to the crowd, you were brilliant.“
She tried again.
Same response, after which Cahill scampered off without so much as even acknowledging her presence.
Cahill was deserving of sympathy for the way the Sunday Telegraph handled the nightclub story but in his exchange with McLaughlin he managed in one fell swoop to come across both as arrogant and self-regarding, and certainly undeserving of anyone’s compassion.
It is worthy of sanction by the FFA, especially considering Fox Sports is an official partner of the federation.
Fox Sports, which is owned by Premier Media Group, deserves better for the millions it puts into the game and which keeps the FFA in the black.
What happened in Kings Cross, meanwhile, is not and has never been worthy of sanction.
The problem for Fox is PMG itself is part-owned by News Limited, the publishers of the Sunday Telegraph.
So Cahill was making his own statement, albeit a misguided one. His beef should be with Neil Breen, the embattled editor of the Sunday Telegraph, not poor old McLaughlin or her bosses at Fox, who had nothing to do with that Tele story and who wouldn’t have known anything about it.
As most of you well know, I’ve worked at Fox myself, so I know intimately how various parts of the News Limited organisation function in splendid isolation.
“Synergy“ is the mantra but it’s not the reality on the floor.
So Cahill must be called to account by the FFA for this performance.
Short of that, McLaughlin and Fox deserve a contrite apology. He might have scored two goals and won his team the game, but Cahill also spoiled a great night by behaving like a petulant six-year-old.
Everyone loves a winner, but no one likes an ungracious one.
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