New year, same you. Same Nick Kyrgios, too, demanding respect, adulation, validation, relevance and even empathy.
If you didn’t know any better, you’d think he and Prince Harry had sat next to each other on a long-haul flight and compared notes.
Kyrgios has done this summer what only Kyrgios can do: remain the biggest story in Australian tennis while not actually playing tennis, instead sharing his innermost thoughts on social media as he recovers from knee and ankle injuries.
Finally, on Friday night, we get to see him play, taking on Australian Open favourite Novak Djokovic in an exhibition match at Rod Laver Arena.
When it was revealed that tickets had sold out in 58 minutes, Kyrgios tweeted: “Wow Nick Kyrgios is bad for the sport! Wow what a disgrace, a national embarrassment! How dare he sell out another stadium, the arrogance.”
Kyrgios has been making a lot of assumptions lately about his importance. In early December, he said he’d consider playing Davis Cup if “Australia embraced me a little more”. Then he told us he was going to be the “number one episode on Netflix” and that he was “putting more money in everyone’s pockets” so “your apology should be as loud as your disrespect”.
It’s polarising, it’s disrupting, and ensures clickbait gets clicked. But this combative attention-seeking must eventually become exhausting.
The unfortunate part is, in just a year, Kyrgios has gone from Australian Open doubles champion and Wimbledon finalist we can get around to being a punchline – again.
A large reason for his repaired image last year was the introduction of his Australian-based representative Tristan Hay into his inner circle.
You won’t find much about Hay on Instagram or Twitter, which is part of his appeal in a world where likes and shares often mean more than wins and losses.
He’s the Kangaroos’ team manager, the NBA’s man on the ground in Australia and, mostly, a calm voice of reason and honesty for scores of athletes from footballers to fighters.
He was front-and-centre in Kyrgios’ box at Wimbledon and is sure to bob up in the Netflix series, Break Point, when it drops on Friday.
It’s well known in sporting circles, though, that Hay is no longer involved with Team Kyrgios.
When I called him to talk about the madness of this week, he preferred not to comment other than to say he won’t be at Melbourne Park this year. “But I’m always here for him,” he said.
Nick Kyrgios is demanding respect.Credit:Getty
Teddy’s on-field future not so certain
It was all smiles and air kisses at Roosters captain James Tedesco’s wedding in the Hunter Valley last weekend with several players and officials in attendance – but there’s a looming stalemate over his next contract.
Tedesco’s management has asked for a one-year extension on his current deal, which ends in 2024, but the Roosters aren’t thrilled about being asked to make a call so soon.
While he’s the Roosters’ most important player – on $1.1 million a season – the club is facing a fullback logjam with Joseph Suaali’i, 19, and Joey Manu, 26, also on their books.
Roosters captain James Tedesco.Credit:Jessica Hromas
Tedesco turned 30 last Sunday and you can bet the club will want him to do year-to-year deals as other players have done in their final years.
The Roosters remain confident about securing Suaali’i long-term, despite interest from rugby union, while Manu is being touted as a future five-eighth when Luke Keary retires.
Super League doco on the way
The Super League War, what was it good for? As it turns out, it’s good for a long-overdue documentary.
Amazon-owned MGM is secretly working on a series about the most tumultuous time in rugby league history. Interviews with key figures, including Super League architect John Ribot, have already been secured.
An Amazon spokesperson had absolutely no clue what I was talking about when contacted – nothing new there – but I know that influential people from the ARL and News Ltd have been approached.
It is certainly the age of the sports documentary. There are so many sports documentaries it won’t be long before the only sports documentary left to film will be a sports documentary about sports documentaries.
Season two of The Test featuring the Australian cricket team will be released on Friday and the real winners are the players.
Pat Cummins nervously organises his wardrobe the night before his debut as Test captain in a scene from season two of the Amazon Prime documentary The Test.
It was revealed in this space last August that each player who featured in season one received a whopping $81,000 from Amazon, much to the disappointment of then coach Justin Langer, who received $40,000.
This season, each player will earn more than $100,000. For being filmed. Doing their job. That they’re already getting well-paid to do.
Where do you buy tickets for that gravy train?
Declaration decision was the right move
Australian captain Pat Cummins has been bashed from pillar to post this summer, unfairly branded “Captain Woke” amid incorrect assumptions he told Cricket Australia to abandon its sponsorship of Alinta Energy.
Cummins has led the Australian team magnificently in their smash-up of the West Indies and South Africa, yet people continue to slate him.
On day four of the rain-affected SCG Test, he declared with Usman Khawaja unbeaten on 195 and was roundly accused of thinking like a bowler who doesn’t care for batting records.
Cummins wasn’t thinking about Khawaja reaching 200 – he was thinking like a captain hopeful of snatching victory.
I asked two men who are experts in such matters – former captains and top-order batsmen Mark Taylor and Michael Clarke – if it was a selfish call.
So said Taylor: “I applaud him. Imagine if he didn’t declare and Australia fell an over or two short needing a couple of final wickets?” So said Clarke: “Team first. That’s all that matters.”
Put that in your strawberry vape and smoke it, haters.
Will league get its Lasso moment?
It would hardly be a Ted Lasso moment if a rugby league club snapped up rugby union coaches Eddie Jones or Michael Cheika – but the day will surely come when an NRL club is bold enough to appoint them.
Jones has said before he wants to coach South Sydney while rumours surfaced over summer about a Sydney club reaching out to Cheika.
He denied this was the case when contacted in Paris, where he is working with Argentina, but his work with Lebanon at the Rugby League World Cup has shown he’s more than capable of doing it.
Maybe an NRL club should really think outside the square and appoint Graham Arnold, who Wayne Bennett often says is a “rugby league coach coaching soccer”.
Arnold has finally returned to Australia following the Socceroos’ heroics at the World Cup but hasn’t made a decision about his future.
Luai also in Cobbo’s bad books
Young Broncos winger Selywn Cobbo has been scorched for his podcast comments that Kevin Walters is “a good bloke but not the best coach” but, if you listen to the entire hour-and-a-half interview, the most inflammatory words are reserved for Penrith five-eighth Jarome Luai.
When Cobbo was knocked out in the opening minutes of last year’s State of Origin decider while playing for Queensland, Luai stood over the top of him and hurled abuse, infuriating the Maroons. The Blues No.6 later insisted he didn’t know Cobbo was concussed.
“He’s just a grub,” Cobbo told the Back of the 135 podcast. “Nah, yeah, I was pretty disappointed, eh? Nah, yeah, Luai’s a grub, yeah.”
Cobbo also made some interesting comments about wing being his least favourite position and that he would prefer to play fullback while also revealing Reece Walsh wants to play in the halves.
As for his statement that he was “taken out of context”, he and the interviewer were discussing NFL before he was asked directly about Walters. There was no reference to Tyson Gamble, who was critical of the coach after signing with Newcastle.
THE QUOTE
“What possessed him to do that?!” – Former NBA coach Stan Van Gundy on ESPN after Miami Heat veteran Dwayne Dedmon threw a Theragun onto the court during his side’s dramatic win over Josh Giddey’s OKC Thunder. Why throw your toys out of the cot when you can throw a massage gun?
THUMBS UP
From Gippsland in country Victoria to SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles where Australian punter Brett Thorson helped the Georgia Bulldogs to their second consecutive American college football championship, defeating Texas Christian University, whose punter is Jordy Sandy, who’s from Traralgon. The match was watched by 20 million people. Go Australia.
THUMBS DOWN
If there was ever a reason to deduct points from a team because of the behaviour of its fans, surely Melbourne Victory deserved it after their active supporters invaded the pitch last month. Instead, Football Australia fined the club $550,000 and handed it a 10-point suspended sentence.
It’s a big weekend for … those attending the Magic Millions meeting on the Gold Coast this Saturday as they roll into the track about midday, drop some cash at the races and then stagger over to the yearling sales from 6pm and drop another couple of million on some horses. Now that sounds like fun!
It’s an even bigger weekend for … David Warner, who makes his first appearance in the Big Bash League since December 2011 when he plays for the Sydney Thunder against Perth Scorchers at Sydney Showground on Friday night. Kaboom!
Watch the Australian Open live and free on the 9 Network – Channel 9, 9 Gem and 9Now.
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