Fear of failure can be paralytic. Not in the sense that you cannot move, but it’s like a cancer that spreads, slowly eating away healthy cells. It is a small seed of self-doubt in the back of your mind. In cricket it is most destructive. One outside edge can cause the best of cover-drivers to let future half-volleys go. One miss-timed pull shot can cause the best of pullers to duck and weave instead. It can cause the best of leavers to doubt his eye and question his off-stump. This is the current ailment of Michael Hussey.
Hussey is a technician. He is a perfectionist ever striving to improve his game. He needs reinforcement that he is on the right track. He is a doubter of his own ability who hides behind hard work and thrives on positive reinforcement. He suffers from fear of failure.
He is the polar opposite of men like Ricky Ponting and Kevin Pietersen. The self-confidence exuded by these two men is the difference between the truly great players and the very good ones. Neither will ever change their games. They never put their shots away. Should they fall to a mistake the seed of self-doubt will not appear. Rather they will look ruefully at a placid surface as if to clarify in their mind that it had suddenly become a mine-field for that one delivery. Or if the surface cannot be blamed they’ll stare down their conqueror as if to conclude that it was impossible for such an inferior bowler to beat them, instead the bowler had produced a ball which could not possibly be repeated.
As insanely arrogant as that sounds it is what separates these two from so many others. They are not paralysed by the fear of failure. Their inherent belief in their own ability overrides any self-doubt. This is why they play this game so well.
Hussey’s failures had to come at some point. He could not sustain such an incredible run of success. After 20 test matches his average was an incredible 84.80. Only Bradman could boast better numbers. In one-day cricket his average after 22 international appearances was a stunning 159.50. 12 not outs from 16 hits played an enormous part but he was striking at 101.26, hardly the rate of a selfish red-ink monger.
These numbers cannot be maintained. Inevitably, there had to be a let-down at some point. Since his 20th test match, against India in Sydney 12 months ago, his test average has plummeted to 59.36. Hard to argue with given that it is still the best average of all current players, but the twelve months themselves are more pertinent. In 14 test matches in that time Hussey has made just 789 runs at 32.87. In one-day cricket his decline over the same period is not as obvious, averaging 46.40, but his strike-rate through the last 22 ODI’s was a career low 74.59.
This is symptomatic of the problem. He is playing with fear. A fear of failure and it is no coincidence that Hussey’s decline in form has mirrored his side’s worst twelve month stretch under Ricky Ponting’s leadership.
For Hussey his battles are in the mind more so than any other player. There is no example of this better than his first two test matches. His first at the Gabba was not the Hussey we’ve come to know. He was paralysed by fear and emotion. Fear that his 15,313 first-class runs were unworthy, emotional that his much coveted baggy green cap had finally arrived before he was ready. He played with that fear against a West Indies attack that was second-rate compared to several Queensland outfits he would’ve faced at the same venue opening for Western Australia.
Twice he was out pulling, a shot that has brought him so many first-class runs. Only a pep talk from Shane Warne, in his underwear smoking a dart in the bathroom, reinforced Hussey’s worthiness and eased his nerves slightly. His second test in Hobart he played without fear. Hussey was aware of Justin Langer’s impending return from a broken rib. He knew this match could be his last for sometime in a baggy green and he vowed to enjoy it. He played his pull shot with authority, and cut, and drove sublimely on his way to a richly deserved first test century.
It kept him in the side and he played with the same freedom throughout his first 20 test matches. That summer he was twice less than 50 when joined by batting bunnies Stuart MacGill and Glenn McGrath, twice he reached test hundreds. They are the type of situations over-thinkers like Hussey can thrive. There is no personal pressure, the team’s advancement is the sole aim, and therefore his game was unshackled from self-imposed technical structures and instinct took over.
He thrived filling the same role in one-day cricket. As a finisher you are self-sacrificing. Hussey either entered trying to turn a total of 300 into 350 or to rescue an unsalvageable sinking wreck. He did both with aplomb, averaging over 100, striking at more than 100, because the fear of personal failure was irrelevant. The team’s cause was key.
Not to mention the support structures that helped this mindset. In test cricket he entered following the platform of Hayden, Langer and Ponting, and played with the batting fail-safes of Gilchrist, Warne, and Lee. If all else failed, Warne and McGrath came to rescue with the ball. In one-day cricket, he batted behind Hayden, Gilchrist, Ponting, Clarke, and Symonds, which if all failed could be rescued with the ball by McGrath, Lee, Clark, Tait, Hogg and or Johnson. Winning breed’s confidence, Australia had it in spades, and throughout Hussey’s first 24 months in international cricket Australia could win from any position in any form of the game.
It is no surprise that his decline has mirrored Australia’s. Despite the cavalcade of stars which surrounded him in the dressing room, Hussey’s performances were integral to the Australian winning way. But his mindset is now different. The lack of experienced support staff around him has placed more value on his runs. He hasn’t played with the freedom he once had, the seed of self-doubt has appeared and it has been hard to shake. He fell twice attempting to leave in Brisbane against New Zealand in November. The press questioned a skill that was a trademark for Hussey despite the fact that he fell to a superb piece of bowling in the first innings, and a poor piece of umpiring in the second. He obviously listened to the press. In three of his five dismissals against South Africa he was caught behind the wicket feeling for his off-stump.
In one-day cricket, the absence of Ponting, Clarke, and Symonds at various times in the last year has seen him become a permanent fixture in the top five. All of his success in one-day cricket has come as a closer batting at six. Playing that role successfully for Western Australia following failures opening had led to his international elevation. Amazingly he opened in the first one-day international against South Africa and he has never looked more lost in international cricket. The pressure of seven men in the ring didn’t allow Hussey to nerdle 20 without taking a risk and a blank canvas scoreboard meant there was far more focus on his individual tally. The doubts creep in, fear of failure takes over and tentativeness ensues.
Hussey has suffered this before in first-class cricket. In 2001, he was the overseas professional for Northamptonshire in the County Championship. He wrote of his fears about his initial failings that year in his autobiography, Mr Cricket: Driven to Succeed. He could not buy a run in his first seven starts. He feared that his teammates didn’t respect him as the overseas professional because he had not played international cricket and he feared that he’d let the club down. It was a simple suggestion from the coach to play a one-day game without fear and complete freedom that turned his winter around. He smashed 96 and never looked back. The weight was removed from shoulders which led to three record breaking county seasons. It laid the platform for his phenomenal international career to date.
He now needs to remember that advice. He needs to play without fear. His preparation would not have changed. His mindset in the middle has.
Perhaps the right move from a team perspective would be to shift him back to six where he made his name, and promote Brad Haddin to four and allow him more time to expand on his all-round stroke-play.
There is no doubt that a fearless Mr Cricket is vital to the success of this Australian team. Now it is more vital than ever.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Armstrong's legacy will Livestrong
Sporting comebacks are fraught with danger. They can go one of two ways. You can either enhance or tarnish a reputation, and more often than not it is the latter rather than the former.
Much interest surrounds Lance Armstrong’s comeback. The myth is that it is his “comeback”, as if it is his first and only. Far from it. It is not even his second. It is Lance Armstrong’s third comeback to professional cycling.
He’s answered the critics before. No one was willing to sign him when he first came back from life-threatening cancer. Those in the know felt he wasn’t worth the investment, to the average punter he was just another cycling no-name.
Again, nothing could be further from the truth. He is a former world champion. He won that title as a 21-year-old in 1993, beating Miguel Indurain, who in that season completed three consecutive Tour de France wins on his way to five straight. Armstrong also claimed separate stage wins in the 1993 and 1995 Tours.
Upon his return post his illness the Texan struggled. He quit the sport during a cold, wet stage of the Paris-Nice early in 1998. He went and played golf and just generally lay around. But a training camp with Chris Carmichael, his coach and mentor, rekindled his love for cycling. He trained in the cold and rain and thrived in it. This is what made his return so special and his performances subsequent can be explained in this context.
There are those who questioned his performances during the extraordinary run of seven straight Tour de France wins. The French instantly suspected illegal substance use. How can a cancer survivor do this, they asked?
Armstrong is a phenomenal physical specimen. People forget he was a world champion prior to his illness. His VO2 max, a lung capacity test, was extraordinary. It was in the same realm as the “freak” Spaniard Indurain, who reportedly had a resting heart-rate of 28 beats per minute. But Armstrong’s physical capacities were only a small part of his success.
What few recognise is his mental strength. Anyone who has read his autobiography will have realised that he is a stubborn man. A man who hated to be proved wrong. When someone said he couldn’t, he did everything in his power to prove that he could. He was determined to beat cancer when he had no right to. People laughed at him on his return when he talked about being a tour rider, having been a bullish, strong, bulky single-day classic rider prior to his illness.
They questioned him even after he won the prologue and then the stage eight individual time-trial in Metz during the 1999 Tour. But it was the icy cold, wet, stage nine two days later to Sestrieres where Armstrong slay his demons. In conditions that had forced him to quit a year earlier, he thrived. He punched out a punishing pace up an evil climb in devilish conditions to put nearly a minute and half into his rivals and stamp his authority on the world’s toughest bike race.
This type of performance cannot be simply explained by his extraordinary physical attributes or his scientific training regime. It is pure mental strength.
He spoke in his autobiography of the pain of chemotherapy. He lay in his hospital bed, in the fetal position for weeks at a time, vomiting, nauseous and unable to sleep because of the near-unbearable pain of the “poison” that was being dripped through his veins, eating away at both cancerous and healthy cells, basically burning him from the inside out. To endure that, to walk away from a stage of cancer that would’ve killed most, gave Armstrong not only the gift of life but a feeling of invincibility. It makes the monstrous Alpine passes seem like molehills and he would prove it time again during his reign as the king of the Tour de France.
He was simply tougher than his opponents. In 2000, the peloton suffered on the ascension on Mont Ventoux, a mountain which has claimed the life of professional cyclist Tom Simpson when his heart, assisted by foreign substances, quite literally exploded. The late Marco Pantani, the 1998 Tour winner attacked time and again eventually breaking clear. With pain written across his sun-beaten face he suffered with every pedal stroke in the same manner as his opponents down the mountain. But Armstrong, after conceding a lead larger than anticipated danced on his pedals with an expressionless face, eclipsed the gap in no time and crossed the line sitting comfortably on Pantani’s wheel to prove that no one could outlast him, no one would suffer easier.
Armstrong’s coup de grace came in 2004. His win in 2003, the toughest of his five saw him join Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Indurain as the only men to claim five Tours. In 2004 he was gunning for six and did it in the most emphatic fashion. Armstrong won five stages on his way to a six minute overall victory. He claimed three stages in a row including a time trial up Alpe d’Huez but his best was saved for the next day. After the final climb of the day into Le Grand-Bornand all the “heads of state” in the peloton were together for the final two kilometers over a flat plateau. 1km from the line Andreas Kloden broke from Armstrong, Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso, and Floyd Llandis. Phil Liggett, cycling’s premier commentator, proclaimed Kloden the stage winner but Armstrong again put the pain of the day aside to chase Kloden down in an extraordinary show of strength.
That was his gift. There were stages throughout his winning streak where he could arrogantly stare into his opponent’s eyes and read the pain on their faces before riding away with ease. His ability to withstand pain was ironically cruel and unusual punishment for his opponents.
Seven Tour victories seemed enough when he called it quits in 2005. So why has he returned? What purpose does it serve?
His brand new bike gives us a clue. Adorned on the frame are two numbers. 1274 and 27.5. Today is the 1274th day since his last race, which was a procession for the outgoing king along the Champs-Elysees in Paris in 2005. 27.5 million are the number of estimated lives lost to cancer in that time. Armstrong proclaims that cancer is a bigger tragedy than terrorism, a bold statement given the world’s current climate. He mentioned that the 3000 lives lost on September 11, 2001 made the world stand still, yet 27.5 million in 1274 days is a figure unpublished, unnoticed.
Armstrong’s return may well be different to any other. He is one of the greatest stories in sport. But previously his preparations for his Tour de France wins have begun privately in January and his appearances prior to July were calculated and rare. He has never ridden the Giro d’Italia. He will this year. In 2009 he has gladly come to Australia for the first time. Winning is not his priority.
Although he has joked that he spent the last three years drinking and sitting on his backside it is blatantly untrue. He will not disgrace himself. He will prepare as he has in the past, meticulously and thoroughly. But he will not be driven by anger and pain. He will not be so single-minded and determined to win at all costs. He is on a promotional tour. He concedes that from a sporting perspective his comeback may come with a price, a tarnished reputation from a cycling legacy standpoint. But he says the social benefits in terms of cancer awareness and fundraising far out-way the cost of losing the odd bike race and adding some losses to his extraordinary winning record.
More than any of his achievements on the bike this will be his legacy. Whatever you think of the man or the cyclist, his “Livestrong” brand is doing more for any cause in the world than any other. What he does on the bike is irrelevant. He is still one of sport’s greatest champions.
Much interest surrounds Lance Armstrong’s comeback. The myth is that it is his “comeback”, as if it is his first and only. Far from it. It is not even his second. It is Lance Armstrong’s third comeback to professional cycling.
He’s answered the critics before. No one was willing to sign him when he first came back from life-threatening cancer. Those in the know felt he wasn’t worth the investment, to the average punter he was just another cycling no-name.
Again, nothing could be further from the truth. He is a former world champion. He won that title as a 21-year-old in 1993, beating Miguel Indurain, who in that season completed three consecutive Tour de France wins on his way to five straight. Armstrong also claimed separate stage wins in the 1993 and 1995 Tours.
Upon his return post his illness the Texan struggled. He quit the sport during a cold, wet stage of the Paris-Nice early in 1998. He went and played golf and just generally lay around. But a training camp with Chris Carmichael, his coach and mentor, rekindled his love for cycling. He trained in the cold and rain and thrived in it. This is what made his return so special and his performances subsequent can be explained in this context.
There are those who questioned his performances during the extraordinary run of seven straight Tour de France wins. The French instantly suspected illegal substance use. How can a cancer survivor do this, they asked?
Armstrong is a phenomenal physical specimen. People forget he was a world champion prior to his illness. His VO2 max, a lung capacity test, was extraordinary. It was in the same realm as the “freak” Spaniard Indurain, who reportedly had a resting heart-rate of 28 beats per minute. But Armstrong’s physical capacities were only a small part of his success.
What few recognise is his mental strength. Anyone who has read his autobiography will have realised that he is a stubborn man. A man who hated to be proved wrong. When someone said he couldn’t, he did everything in his power to prove that he could. He was determined to beat cancer when he had no right to. People laughed at him on his return when he talked about being a tour rider, having been a bullish, strong, bulky single-day classic rider prior to his illness.
They questioned him even after he won the prologue and then the stage eight individual time-trial in Metz during the 1999 Tour. But it was the icy cold, wet, stage nine two days later to Sestrieres where Armstrong slay his demons. In conditions that had forced him to quit a year earlier, he thrived. He punched out a punishing pace up an evil climb in devilish conditions to put nearly a minute and half into his rivals and stamp his authority on the world’s toughest bike race.
This type of performance cannot be simply explained by his extraordinary physical attributes or his scientific training regime. It is pure mental strength.
He spoke in his autobiography of the pain of chemotherapy. He lay in his hospital bed, in the fetal position for weeks at a time, vomiting, nauseous and unable to sleep because of the near-unbearable pain of the “poison” that was being dripped through his veins, eating away at both cancerous and healthy cells, basically burning him from the inside out. To endure that, to walk away from a stage of cancer that would’ve killed most, gave Armstrong not only the gift of life but a feeling of invincibility. It makes the monstrous Alpine passes seem like molehills and he would prove it time again during his reign as the king of the Tour de France.
He was simply tougher than his opponents. In 2000, the peloton suffered on the ascension on Mont Ventoux, a mountain which has claimed the life of professional cyclist Tom Simpson when his heart, assisted by foreign substances, quite literally exploded. The late Marco Pantani, the 1998 Tour winner attacked time and again eventually breaking clear. With pain written across his sun-beaten face he suffered with every pedal stroke in the same manner as his opponents down the mountain. But Armstrong, after conceding a lead larger than anticipated danced on his pedals with an expressionless face, eclipsed the gap in no time and crossed the line sitting comfortably on Pantani’s wheel to prove that no one could outlast him, no one would suffer easier.
Armstrong’s coup de grace came in 2004. His win in 2003, the toughest of his five saw him join Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Indurain as the only men to claim five Tours. In 2004 he was gunning for six and did it in the most emphatic fashion. Armstrong won five stages on his way to a six minute overall victory. He claimed three stages in a row including a time trial up Alpe d’Huez but his best was saved for the next day. After the final climb of the day into Le Grand-Bornand all the “heads of state” in the peloton were together for the final two kilometers over a flat plateau. 1km from the line Andreas Kloden broke from Armstrong, Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso, and Floyd Llandis. Phil Liggett, cycling’s premier commentator, proclaimed Kloden the stage winner but Armstrong again put the pain of the day aside to chase Kloden down in an extraordinary show of strength.
That was his gift. There were stages throughout his winning streak where he could arrogantly stare into his opponent’s eyes and read the pain on their faces before riding away with ease. His ability to withstand pain was ironically cruel and unusual punishment for his opponents.
Seven Tour victories seemed enough when he called it quits in 2005. So why has he returned? What purpose does it serve?
His brand new bike gives us a clue. Adorned on the frame are two numbers. 1274 and 27.5. Today is the 1274th day since his last race, which was a procession for the outgoing king along the Champs-Elysees in Paris in 2005. 27.5 million are the number of estimated lives lost to cancer in that time. Armstrong proclaims that cancer is a bigger tragedy than terrorism, a bold statement given the world’s current climate. He mentioned that the 3000 lives lost on September 11, 2001 made the world stand still, yet 27.5 million in 1274 days is a figure unpublished, unnoticed.
Armstrong’s return may well be different to any other. He is one of the greatest stories in sport. But previously his preparations for his Tour de France wins have begun privately in January and his appearances prior to July were calculated and rare. He has never ridden the Giro d’Italia. He will this year. In 2009 he has gladly come to Australia for the first time. Winning is not his priority.
Although he has joked that he spent the last three years drinking and sitting on his backside it is blatantly untrue. He will not disgrace himself. He will prepare as he has in the past, meticulously and thoroughly. But he will not be driven by anger and pain. He will not be so single-minded and determined to win at all costs. He is on a promotional tour. He concedes that from a sporting perspective his comeback may come with a price, a tarnished reputation from a cycling legacy standpoint. But he says the social benefits in terms of cancer awareness and fundraising far out-way the cost of losing the odd bike race and adding some losses to his extraordinary winning record.
More than any of his achievements on the bike this will be his legacy. Whatever you think of the man or the cyclist, his “Livestrong” brand is doing more for any cause in the world than any other. What he does on the bike is irrelevant. He is still one of sport’s greatest champions.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Ogilvy stakes his claim
Geoff Ogilvy has cruised to a six shot victory in the season opening Mercedes-Benz Championship in Hawaii, to claim his fifth career title in the US and stamp his intentions for the new season on the PGA Tour.
A final round six under par 67 around the Kapalua plantation course, saw him finish with a 24-under par 268 total, six shots clear of US young gun Anthony Kim and veteran Davis Love III.
It was to be a procession for the 31-year-old Victorian who entered the final round with a six shot lead following a flawless 65 on Saturday but two early bogeys revealed cracks in Ogilvy’s seemingly impenetrable armour.
He nullified those blemishes with back to back birdies on five and six but following two more bogeys the 2006 US Open champion had his lead cut to just one as he stood on the ninth tee.
But he rediscovered the beautiful rhythm in his languid game that had been a feature of his play through 54 holes, to eagle the par five ninth, following a superb 3-iron second shot, before backing up with another birdie on ten and from there he was never threatened.
Ogilvy has been in terrific form following a disappointing finish to the 2008 season. He took some time off following the Fed-Ex Cup playoffs and returned to Australia to win the Australian PGA Championship at Coolum.
He was simply sublime through 54 holes here, posting just one bogey against his 20 birdies. He dropped four shots on the front nine today but showed his class to ink five birdies and an eagle in his last ten holes.
Ogilvy’s magnificent ball-striking was a feature this week but it was his putting that has led to the $US1.12 million winner’s check. He led the field in putts per green in regulations hit.
The one-time major winner now has an impressive resume of wins. After breaking through in 2005 with his first USPGA tour win at the Chrysler Classic in Tucson he has claimed some big victories showing he has the game and the resolve to beat the very best in the world. He is only one of three players to have claimed more than two World Golf Championship events, which features the strongest fields each season on world rankings. In 2006 he won the WGC-Accenture Match play and in 2008 his win in the CA Championship at Doral halted Tiger Woods’ winning streak at five. Now he has claimed the first tournament of the year which features 2008 winners only.
Despite the fact that Woods, multiple major winners Phil Mickelson, and Padraig Harrington as well as world number two Sergio Garcia were all absent Ogilvy’s win is no less impressive as the field featured six other major champions.
The once fiery Victorian is now very even tempered to match his beautiful golf swing. He has pristine mechanics and wonderful feel to his short game. He has all the makings of a player who can match the aforementioned stars as a multiple major winner. He has five top 10 finishes in major championships to go with his 2006 US Open victory.
Of the current Australians Ogilvy has the best record in majors by far. This wire to wire win shows he knows how to win when expected to. His game is sound and his mind is clear. The Victorian has every chance when the world’s best head to Augusta in April.
A final round six under par 67 around the Kapalua plantation course, saw him finish with a 24-under par 268 total, six shots clear of US young gun Anthony Kim and veteran Davis Love III.
It was to be a procession for the 31-year-old Victorian who entered the final round with a six shot lead following a flawless 65 on Saturday but two early bogeys revealed cracks in Ogilvy’s seemingly impenetrable armour.
He nullified those blemishes with back to back birdies on five and six but following two more bogeys the 2006 US Open champion had his lead cut to just one as he stood on the ninth tee.
But he rediscovered the beautiful rhythm in his languid game that had been a feature of his play through 54 holes, to eagle the par five ninth, following a superb 3-iron second shot, before backing up with another birdie on ten and from there he was never threatened.
Ogilvy has been in terrific form following a disappointing finish to the 2008 season. He took some time off following the Fed-Ex Cup playoffs and returned to Australia to win the Australian PGA Championship at Coolum.
He was simply sublime through 54 holes here, posting just one bogey against his 20 birdies. He dropped four shots on the front nine today but showed his class to ink five birdies and an eagle in his last ten holes.
Ogilvy’s magnificent ball-striking was a feature this week but it was his putting that has led to the $US1.12 million winner’s check. He led the field in putts per green in regulations hit.
The one-time major winner now has an impressive resume of wins. After breaking through in 2005 with his first USPGA tour win at the Chrysler Classic in Tucson he has claimed some big victories showing he has the game and the resolve to beat the very best in the world. He is only one of three players to have claimed more than two World Golf Championship events, which features the strongest fields each season on world rankings. In 2006 he won the WGC-Accenture Match play and in 2008 his win in the CA Championship at Doral halted Tiger Woods’ winning streak at five. Now he has claimed the first tournament of the year which features 2008 winners only.
Despite the fact that Woods, multiple major winners Phil Mickelson, and Padraig Harrington as well as world number two Sergio Garcia were all absent Ogilvy’s win is no less impressive as the field featured six other major champions.
The once fiery Victorian is now very even tempered to match his beautiful golf swing. He has pristine mechanics and wonderful feel to his short game. He has all the makings of a player who can match the aforementioned stars as a multiple major winner. He has five top 10 finishes in major championships to go with his 2006 US Open victory.
Of the current Australians Ogilvy has the best record in majors by far. This wire to wire win shows he knows how to win when expected to. His game is sound and his mind is clear. The Victorian has every chance when the world’s best head to Augusta in April.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
A year on, a year poorer
Death produces deities. Rightly or wrongly it happens more often than not in this country particularly with our entertainers and sporting stars.
But a year ago this week the country was unified in proclaiming a deity in death.
Clinton Grybas’ passing was nothing short of tragic. A man - a broadcaster - at the peak of his career at just 32, fit as a fiddle, working harder than ever, died in non-suspicious circumstances.
The careful wording of “non-suspicious circumstances” arouses suspicion in itself. The fact that the coroner’s report was never published publicly adds further fuel to the rumour mill. But we shall leave the rumours to the Derryn Hinch(es) of this world.
How he died is irrelevant, his passing was a tragedy.
Australia quite possibly lost not only one of its greatest broadcasters but also one of its best men.
It is rare to be both in such an industry. Egos run wild in sports-casting. It is an industry full of smoke and mirrors. Far more often than not it is who you know, not what you know.
But for a man who was not an ex-player of any note he was carving a broadcasting career that knew no limits.
The reason – he was a prodigy. He had a passion and a drive that lifted him above all others.
Commentary is a career many dream of, lots attempt, some achieve, and few succeed at. Grybas wanted it from age four. Like Tiger Woods working on his golf game not long after he was standing upright, Grybas not long after he had commanded the basics of the English language was preparing to be a broadcaster.
Using an old tape recorder he called test matches like his heroes Norman May, Alan McGilvray, and Richie Benaud, and VFL games like Harry Beitzal. Unlike the Channel Nine commentators of today who rely on statistician Max Kruger to do everything bar move their lips, Grybas prepared meticulously keeping his own statistics from such an early age. It was the basis for which he built his career around.
Grybas’ mother still keeps old statistics scrap books and voice recordings from as early as age nine where he is describing a test match between the West Indies and Australia.
He started his career, as a teenager, at the now defunct South-East Melbourne Magic NBL club in their media department. It was clear in his early days of writing press releases and doing courtside announcing that he would blossom into something special.
His obvious talents were recognised and rewarded when he won a commentary competition with ABC Radio. Executive producer for sport Peter Booth made an amazing instinctive call on the 21-year-old, promoting him to commentate on the ABC’s Friday night football coverage alongside the redoubtable Tim Lane and the effervescent Drew Morphett.
From there Grybas became a full-time member of the ABC Grandstand team, heading west to their learning centre under the tutelage of Glenn Mitchell for a period before returning to Melbourne culminating in working at the Sydney Olympics.
Grybas’ call of the Australian women’s water polo gold medal was exceptional. To maintain such levels of excitement, as well as clarity and accuracy when working solo as he did showed how brilliant a broadcaster he was.
His career stocks rose further. Head-hunted by Melbourne’s 3AW radio network and Foxtel’s new Fox Footy Channel he became the face and voice of football in Melbourne.
By the time he died if he wasn’t already he was very close to being Australia’s premier sports broadcaster. There will be those who argue otherwise throwing up names such as Lane, Bruce McAvaney, and Dennis Cometti but you could argue Grybas was ahead of all of them particularly from a television perspective.
His pure commentary was a mix of the big three. He had McAvaney’s thirst for statistics and accuracy. You rarely if ever heard him miscall a player, and he would always deliver a stat of relevance and interest, undoubtedly dug up by his own meticulous research rather than that of his paid statistician. He had the humour and self-effacing nature of Cometti as well as the silky smooth delivery of the West Australian master. And he had the eloquence and economy of words of the extraordinary Tim Lane.
McAvaney spoke of Grybas after his death as the complete commentator, a man who young aspiring broadcasters should model themselves on.
What’s more though is that Grybas understood television. He understood his audience and used that to his advantage. He had a wonderful ability to meet the demands of the average punter, with humour, excitement and references to popular culture, whilst still attending to the needs of the purist for intimate knowledge of the inner workings and science of the game.
He seemed at his best hosting White Line Fever, Fox Footy’s nightly talkback television show. On the surface it seemed a nonsensical concept but it was a must for the footy tragics as well as those within the industry. It was a look inside the inner sanctum, an access point for the fans, and Grybas compèred it with unparalleled skill.
The loss of Fox Footy left a void unfulfilled for football fans everywhere but it was nothing compared to the loss of Grybas himself. The outpouring of emotion and collective mourning from the football world showed the measure of the man and his impact on the game. Rarely has a figure commanded such universal praise like Grybas did. He had the immeasurable respect of the players, coaches, administrators, colleagues and rivals within the sometimes soulless football world.
The way his friends and family spoke of him at his passing suggests that he was just a brilliant man in general.
A year on from his passing and we are a year poorer for it. Fox Sports have replaced him with ex-players in the play by play role continuing its theme of covering the inner sanctum, but the lack of a class of a professional caller, someone not bigger than the game, means their broadcasts lack a certain quality which could only be achieved in Grybas’ presence.
He demanded excellence from himself as well as those around him and that was the quality he brought to his commentary. We were better for it. We are poorer for having lost it.
Australia has not found another Clinton Grybas. It may never. It is a tragedy and sports coverage in this country will never be the same.
But a year ago this week the country was unified in proclaiming a deity in death.
Clinton Grybas’ passing was nothing short of tragic. A man - a broadcaster - at the peak of his career at just 32, fit as a fiddle, working harder than ever, died in non-suspicious circumstances.
The careful wording of “non-suspicious circumstances” arouses suspicion in itself. The fact that the coroner’s report was never published publicly adds further fuel to the rumour mill. But we shall leave the rumours to the Derryn Hinch(es) of this world.
How he died is irrelevant, his passing was a tragedy.
Australia quite possibly lost not only one of its greatest broadcasters but also one of its best men.
It is rare to be both in such an industry. Egos run wild in sports-casting. It is an industry full of smoke and mirrors. Far more often than not it is who you know, not what you know.
But for a man who was not an ex-player of any note he was carving a broadcasting career that knew no limits.
The reason – he was a prodigy. He had a passion and a drive that lifted him above all others.
Commentary is a career many dream of, lots attempt, some achieve, and few succeed at. Grybas wanted it from age four. Like Tiger Woods working on his golf game not long after he was standing upright, Grybas not long after he had commanded the basics of the English language was preparing to be a broadcaster.
Using an old tape recorder he called test matches like his heroes Norman May, Alan McGilvray, and Richie Benaud, and VFL games like Harry Beitzal. Unlike the Channel Nine commentators of today who rely on statistician Max Kruger to do everything bar move their lips, Grybas prepared meticulously keeping his own statistics from such an early age. It was the basis for which he built his career around.
Grybas’ mother still keeps old statistics scrap books and voice recordings from as early as age nine where he is describing a test match between the West Indies and Australia.
He started his career, as a teenager, at the now defunct South-East Melbourne Magic NBL club in their media department. It was clear in his early days of writing press releases and doing courtside announcing that he would blossom into something special.
His obvious talents were recognised and rewarded when he won a commentary competition with ABC Radio. Executive producer for sport Peter Booth made an amazing instinctive call on the 21-year-old, promoting him to commentate on the ABC’s Friday night football coverage alongside the redoubtable Tim Lane and the effervescent Drew Morphett.
From there Grybas became a full-time member of the ABC Grandstand team, heading west to their learning centre under the tutelage of Glenn Mitchell for a period before returning to Melbourne culminating in working at the Sydney Olympics.
Grybas’ call of the Australian women’s water polo gold medal was exceptional. To maintain such levels of excitement, as well as clarity and accuracy when working solo as he did showed how brilliant a broadcaster he was.
His career stocks rose further. Head-hunted by Melbourne’s 3AW radio network and Foxtel’s new Fox Footy Channel he became the face and voice of football in Melbourne.
By the time he died if he wasn’t already he was very close to being Australia’s premier sports broadcaster. There will be those who argue otherwise throwing up names such as Lane, Bruce McAvaney, and Dennis Cometti but you could argue Grybas was ahead of all of them particularly from a television perspective.
His pure commentary was a mix of the big three. He had McAvaney’s thirst for statistics and accuracy. You rarely if ever heard him miscall a player, and he would always deliver a stat of relevance and interest, undoubtedly dug up by his own meticulous research rather than that of his paid statistician. He had the humour and self-effacing nature of Cometti as well as the silky smooth delivery of the West Australian master. And he had the eloquence and economy of words of the extraordinary Tim Lane.
McAvaney spoke of Grybas after his death as the complete commentator, a man who young aspiring broadcasters should model themselves on.
What’s more though is that Grybas understood television. He understood his audience and used that to his advantage. He had a wonderful ability to meet the demands of the average punter, with humour, excitement and references to popular culture, whilst still attending to the needs of the purist for intimate knowledge of the inner workings and science of the game.
He seemed at his best hosting White Line Fever, Fox Footy’s nightly talkback television show. On the surface it seemed a nonsensical concept but it was a must for the footy tragics as well as those within the industry. It was a look inside the inner sanctum, an access point for the fans, and Grybas compèred it with unparalleled skill.
The loss of Fox Footy left a void unfulfilled for football fans everywhere but it was nothing compared to the loss of Grybas himself. The outpouring of emotion and collective mourning from the football world showed the measure of the man and his impact on the game. Rarely has a figure commanded such universal praise like Grybas did. He had the immeasurable respect of the players, coaches, administrators, colleagues and rivals within the sometimes soulless football world.
The way his friends and family spoke of him at his passing suggests that he was just a brilliant man in general.
A year on from his passing and we are a year poorer for it. Fox Sports have replaced him with ex-players in the play by play role continuing its theme of covering the inner sanctum, but the lack of a class of a professional caller, someone not bigger than the game, means their broadcasts lack a certain quality which could only be achieved in Grybas’ presence.
He demanded excellence from himself as well as those around him and that was the quality he brought to his commentary. We were better for it. We are poorer for having lost it.
Australia has not found another Clinton Grybas. It may never. It is a tragedy and sports coverage in this country will never be the same.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)