In the last week or so, we have seen two examples of public figures being jerks. For one it means disaster, while for the other it is business as usual.
Both Amber Sherlock and Darren Lehman were seen being less than nice, but only Sherlock will suffer for it.
‘Boof’ will suffer no consequences because male professional sport and jerks go together like chips with sauce.
The footage of Channel Nine presenter Amber Sherlock berating sports reporter Julie Snook has created a perception that Sherlock is a bitch – something that isn’t very conducive for being a news and weather presenter.
To be a successful weather presenter your number one attribute is to be likeable.
Conversely, Australian cricket coach Lehmann’s recent comments placed no stock at all in being perceived as nice.
After he made a suggestion that Matt Renshaw might not get a gig for the tour of India, in spite of just getting 184 on a turning wicket, former Tassie Tiger now journo Brett Geeves questioned the Australian coach’s logic.
When questioned about Geeves’ criticism during a radio interview, Lehmann responded that people shouldn’t listen to the former Tasmanian bowler’s opinions because “he wasn’t a very good player”.
Darren Lehmann: jerk.
Firstly, Boof, you’re obviously wrong. Anyone who plays first-class cricket for their state for ten seasons is a very good cricketer. During that period, the Tigers won the one-day competition three times and the Sheffield Shield twice.
So it’s not like he was making up the numbers in a crap team.
Geeves also played two ODI matches for Australia. While he may not have been at the top of the tree, he was clearly extremely good.
Secondly, Lehmann got a pertinent question and chose to deflect it by saying it wasn’t valid because the person who put it forward wasn’t very good; that because Geeves didn’t play at the top level his opinion was invalid.
What a stupid thing to suggest.
Let’s put that theory into practice for footy coaches. Some of the very best players have been woeful coaches: Diego Maradona, Wayne Pearce, Terry Lamb, Wally Lewis, Brad Fittler, Tim Watson and Michael Voss just for starters.
Now think of some awesome coaches who were not superb players: Craig Bellamy, Tim Sheens, Trent Robinson, Mick Malthouse, Alastair Clarkson and Kevin Sheedy were all only, at best, as good a bunch of footy players as Brett Geeves was a cricketer.
By Lehmann’s logic, you shouldn’t ask their opinion on their respective games.
Yeah, right. Great logic Boof.
Geeves played for a long time and at the top level. He’s also an extremely good writer. He has pointed out the dysfunction in Australian cricket in regards to his experience in South Africa in 2009 and again in his rebuttal of Lehmann’s comment.
They are both compelling reads.
But here’s the thing: though Lehmann was a jerk for dismissing Geeves like he did, being a harsh jerk is the reality of top-level sport.
In the competitive and testosterone-fuelled world of professional sport, it is kill or be killed. Cricket is a game where 11 grown men surround a batsman and say the most disgusting things they can come up with to try and put him off. The batsman, in turn, must have the total arrogance to cop it all, block it out or give it back and still play well.
That’s why Boof responded the way he did. He heard what he saw as a sledge and returned serve in a manner that is ingrained in his industry.
I loved Steve Waugh, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne. They were the key reasons our national side was the world’s best for so long.
I guarantee they were some of the worst sledgers. I celebrated ‘mental disintegration’ and through that I encouraged the status quo Geeves highlighted in his article. How many of you did the same?
We even celebrate the best sledges! (Ed note: The three articles linked are sledging gold!)
When the Kiwi side during the last World Cup basically said we should all play like gentlemen, the response of our national side was, effectively, “jam it, bro.”
We want our side to win and nice guys to finish last.
The harsh reality is that, to be competitive at the top level, sportsmen must be tough and arrogant.
I’ll never forget walking past a young Shannon Boyd sitting on the bench during his under-20s days. He was a huge and raw-boned unit even then, his head like a big potato with two eyes and a great, big, childlike smile.
Fast forward to last season and there he was in the sheds with his headphones on, dancing around like a boxer before a championship fight.
And that’s because he is. He is going out there to smash his body repeatedly into other large men who mean him harm and will absolutely give it to him verbally, attacking him mentally.
He’s got to be tough. He’s got to be arrogant. He’s got to be at least a bit of an arsehole.
The smile and the child are now gone. They’ve been exchanged for a starting front-row spot in a top-four side, a Kangaroo jersey and – possibly – a sky blue one.
We like to ignore the possibility that the players we love might not be nice. And we’ll forgive them lots if they are winning. However, start losing and they’re in trouble. Then they’re just jerks.
The last four Test wins have papered over some yawning cracks in the Australian cricket side and a bad Indian tour might see Boof in a spot of trouble.
Who knows, one day someone with the Australian cricket team may say, “Don’t listen to Lehmann. He wasn’t a very good coach.”
And it is worth noting that while Amber Sherlock will be attempting to rally any support she can muster to rescue her career, all for appearing a bit bitchy in something that should have stayed behind the scenes, Darren Lehmann was able to be a jerk in full public view and he’ll continue on as if nothing has happened.
Paul D
Roar Guru
That's your view, mine is that it characterizes him as a petty jerk. Totally unnecessary pot-stirring on his part.
Don Freo
Guest
Langer has a better role already. Why would he be an assistant? I love what Boof has done. Most of the team he initially had have retired. What an excellent rebuild so soon with new faces! A fantastic achievement. If he can upset KP along the way (remember England doesn't want KP either) then that's a bonus.
Don Freo
Guest
It characterizes him more as a great team player. It was a nice return volley for KP's attack on Junior. KP...the man whose team was losing so he went off with a "niggle".
Paul D
Roar Guru
In light of last night's twitter action this article seems remarkably prescient Tim
John Erichsen
Roar Guru
It didn't prove your thinking was correct. The comeback did, however, highlight that your grammar wasn't.
John Erichsen
Roar Guru
Geeves is the David Leadbetter of Australian Cricket. I've always said that...
Phil
Guest
Chris,I always thought I was a fair cricketer(of course not in your class!),handy with both bat and ball.Two incidents which made sure I never got a big head were,one day a fringe NSW Shield player came down to our practice nets(which were not exactly wonderful batting wickets) for a bit of a hit and I thought,great,I can really show this bloke how good I am.Well,it was if I was bowling up against a brick wall!Never looked like beating the bat and when I fielded a couple of hits off my own bowling,thought I had broken my hand. On another occasion we went on a club tour of NZ and I had the "pleasure" of facing an opening bowler from Otago.After playing and missing 3 balls in succession,the next one shattered my stumps with a superb inswinger.If I did not know before,then I certainly knew then,I was not fit to be on the same filed as a "first class" cricketer.Anyone who plays at that level has my utmost respect.Lehmann also should know better.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
I just Googled that an read the story, and I don't know it really says much about Clarke, more about the CA organisation, the idea of arriving at the other end of an airport and not having a clue what to do or where to go and having nobody there to meet you and such. I'd think the idea of rocking up to the change rooms at the ground at the end of the game for the guy who's just been flown in as a replacement would be a strange thing to do. I'd have thought they'd have sent him to the hotel or something and could hook up with the team the next day. Someone in CA may have made the call to bring him in and it's quite possible that the team mates, who would have been focussed on the match they were playing, wouldn't have given a second thought to it. And the idea of casting dispertions because Clarke and his girlfriend were out for a walk, not wanting to be thinking about cricket and were quite possibly thinking of other things and may not have paid any attention to him is hardly an unpardonable sin. I'm sure everyone's had a time when they've been out and have seen someone they know from work and really preferred to hope they weren't spotted and could just happily ignore them! I'm sure there's plenty that could have been done better within the team. But that's the same everywhere. I think the culture in the Aussie team during this period was probably a thousand times better than the England team which very much had some Us v Them stuff going on, and more than one player who struggled with things so much they had to leave tours for mental health reasons. I'm sure Geeves probably has a lot of valid things to say, but talking with authority about team culture when he spent a small part of one tour involved in the team as a replacement isn't really valid. He can talk to issues with how they deal with fringe players who come in and play the odd game, and that could be valid, but that's quite different to overall team culture.
Don Freo
Guest
What?...They're still going? Must have had a few letters home about their absences.
qwetzen
Guest
Curiously, neither Lehmann nor Smith finished high school.
Rob
Guest
Chris it is universally accepted 140Km/h is around the minimum speed required to achieve true reverse swing with a four piece? M.Johnson, D. Stein, Patterson type bowling. Personally from my experience 135km/h is a hell of a lot easier to face than a leg spinner who actually turns the ball and has a well disguised wrongin. I have always had to pick it up early out of the hand so it didn't make me look stupid. Playing it of the pitch after it bounces would be special and truly wonderful to watch. You must be a good cricketer. I also think the grade you were playing in might have been a little below your ability. You don't play with Piers Morgan do you?
JGK
Roar Guru
Jerk is OK but W@anker isn't? How about "nob"?
Pope Paul VII
Guest
Sydney Boys is and always has been a selective public school - Nugget May did it the hard way
Tana Mir
Roar Rookie
Those who play First Class Cricket are average! The logic of the absurd.
Peebo
Guest
Fair enough. In the absence of being able to call him a f@ckwit, W@nker, a$$hole and c@ck, jerk suffices.
Tim Gore
Expert
D1ckhead, f@ckwit, W@nker, a$$hole and c@ck are all unsuitable for publication. Mug lair is old. like 60's/70's language. 10% would understand it. Clown isn't right. Galah - what are we, Alf from Home and Away? Tosser is not quite right. Pelican... TF? Jerk is defined, in the manner I used it, as "a contemptibly foolish person" and/or "a colloquialism for narcissist" As to it's origins, I found this: jerk: "tedious and ineffectual person," 1935, American English carnival slang, of uncertain origin. Jerk was the most suitable to my mind. We all know what it means.
Paul Potter
Roar Guru
I think The Roar believes that an article on Darren Lehmann's character as national coach, and how it is reflective of the type of character you must have in professional sport to succeed, is in the public interest. They also believe that it is the public interest for people to have their say and call their writers out when they believe they are talking "crap". Do I believe it? I think the picture is more nuanced than what Tim constructs it to be. For example, Michael Hussey does not fit the construction in this article. He didn't sledge, finding on the rare occasions he did before international cricket that it was counter-productive. I'm defending Tim's right to say what he thinks, not that I necessarily believe what he said was completely convincing.
I hate pies
Guest
You're cut too shooshy
I hate pies
Guest
Do you think that writing an article for the purpose of calling someone names passes the public interest test? Fair dinkum, no wonder the media get away with writing the crap they do, when they get defended for writing said crap.
I hate pies
Guest
Yes that is what they're supposed to do, but this isn't. The intent of this article is to call him names. This is worse, because it's premeditated.