Picking Up Where I Left Off: MacGill Fallout & Australia’s 2026 South Africa Tour

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But the officers have thrown it out the door with their behaviour this week. They should be ashamed

of themselves. They shouldn't absolutely look at themselves in the mirror

and wonder what the f*** they've been doing.

They're f***ing hissing at us and calling us cheats in the Lord's Long Room.

And they have the f***ing goal to say, talk to us about the spirit of cricket.

Absolute f***ing bullshit.

There's a big appeal that's hitting on the panties out.

Lions gone, you South Wales are knocked down.

On to Sydney Road and hit a car.

Oh, I think it's hit a car.

What a way to bring up your f***ing.

All you want is to leave it all behind.

Now there is a simple remedy.

Just a fit for all eternity.

Oh, hello everybody and welcome back to Cricket Unfiltered.

I am Menace and I'm here to finish the episode. I started on Monday,

but it came to a jarring halt when me and Stuart McGeele came to blows.

Not literally, almost literally.

I did think as he was leaving, we might come to blows.

But yeah, I'm going to talk about that,

but I actually do have some cricket stuff I want to get on to.

I'm going to finish my point about us touring South Africa in 2026.

No, Stuart, I'm not moving on.

As I said, it's my show.

All you did was draw more attention to something

that was only just a minor little thing in some points I wanted to bring up.

But let's get into what happened.

So show ends.

I just said, you know what, I can't f***ing do this.

And show ends.

And then he goes off some more yells at me, calls me to say word,

storms out the door.

And I just said, I'm just going to release the episode.

No, no way.

I'm going to sit on this.

Apart from the fact that he was yelling at me

to that I had to release the episode,

which you would think the way he carried on.

He'd be begging me not to release it.

And then he was saying I should bleep out Sunny Bill Williams name

because, oh, no one can hear the ex footballer's name.

What an absolute muppet he is.

So he leaves, I release it.

And look, I was fine.

I don't mind being called those things.

I'm no shrinking violet.

Anyone that's listened to this show knows.

I can take a punch.

I can give a punch.

So don't want to to, you know, people were checking in with me

about my mental health, etc.

I'm doing fine.

One thing about that though that I didn't like is it's the bullying.

It's his attempt to bully me or bully anyone

because that is not good to listen to.

It's not good to watch.

It doesn't say a good example.

So I find that stuff quite onerous.

I don't mind arguing with someone.

And on the show, I did try and take on board his point of view.

But, you know, he wasn't having any of it.

And he had this meltdown that was immature.

And it was bullying.

It wasn't arguing.

It wasn't fun to listen to.

He has shown those signs before in previous episodes.

You know, when he feels like he can't keep up

because, you know, it comes in half cut or whatever,

then instead of trying to engage,

he just bullies or demeans.

It's a very cheap, very cheap form of content.

And personally, the listeners don't like it.

I've had so many people reach out to me saying,

ditch him from the show.

I would say at the moment it's 90% of people are saying,

ditch him 10% of people are saying, keep him on.

I decided not to make any big decisions after the fact.

But what was very worrying for me was he has shown very,

basically zero remorse for what he did.

There's been no, even hint of an apology towards to me

for the way he acted.

There's been no regret.

I mean, so that is worrying for me because I just feel,

you know, he's just a ticking time bomb.

I mean, I can bring him back in the podcast.

But I guarantee, you know, I'm not going to sit on my hands anymore.

So when you come back in, I'm telling you,

there's a car boat, a car boot full of stuff

that I can bring up if you want to keep calling me words.

So I'd be very careful about that because, you know,

things actually could kick off if he doesn't watch it.

Because, you know, it's not going to be one way traffic forever.

Anybody listen to the show for the last month notes.

I've handled him very gently, you know,

when he doesn't know something.

When he's off the pace, I just move on.

I'm very nice to him.

But the way he treated me, that means he's going to get some of it back now.

So I don't know if the podcast is able to continue in that light.

I don't want to be fighting with someone.

I don't want to get punched in the face.

And let's be honest, that meltdown was unhinged and insane.

And he did, like, shape the, you know,

he started twitching like he was going to punch me.

Admittedly, when he left, he got in my face.

So the point is, we're at an interesting point in the podcast.

I'm not sure exactly what's going to happen.

One thing I will say is, I went into this with my eyes open

because I'm telling you, I went into this relationship with Open Eyes,

Open, you know, we could record a podcast together.

I don't want to be great mates with him.

I'm here to do a show with him.

So, you know, I wasn't going to get involved in the other stuff.

I'm not going to go to the pub with him after the podcast.

So I just thought would be able to maybe get through

and record a podcast together.

But it doesn't seem he's got the mental,

he's a broken man.

I mean, he's been through a lot.

He's been through stuff of his own making.

But there's no doubt it's been very traumatic.

And I think it's left a big scar on him.

And, you know, I do feel sorry for him

because he's a broken man.

I think he needs help.

And that sort of behavior is just not on.

People will not like banter on the podcast.

I can take a bit of back and forth.

That's fine.

But bullying, threatening, violence, that's just too far.

And how can I keep putting out a podcast

where those are the themes?

And every time I bring up something he doesn't like,

he just tells me to move on or he's going to punch me.

I mean, that's not terrible for a relationship moving forward.

On that, though, we have commitments to dream 11

to do a show together twice a week for the next year.

So I need a new cricket art to replace you.

Until then, I might just have to get through

with stew on those dream 11 shows, maybe a high security.

I don't know.

But I'm a little bit of a quandary.

So if you know any former cricketers

that want to make some money,

want to join me on a show,

please put them in touch with me

because, you know, I have a contract to fulfill

which I am going to fulfill.

I'm not going to let this moron drag me down.

So we are scheduled to go live tomorrow night, me and stew.

As I said, I'm not going to be holding back anymore.

I've been really nice to him.

But the gloves are off.

Gloves are off with stew.

I don't think you'll be able to take it.

That's my overriding feeling.

If you can't take a little back and forth on a podcast

then when I'm being gentle,

he's not going to be able to take it anymore.

But dream 11 shows alive.

They're not recorded.

They're not saved.

Tomorrow night at 7 p.m.

We will be live.

Who knows what's going to happen?

It could be the last show we do together.

But at this stage, I would say you can say

if he says stew will not be back on the cricket unfiltered podcast.

I'm not going to have him on for the podcast recordings

because I don't really enjoy it.

He's knowing a little bit about cricket

and having some experiences with that great team

doesn't make up for all the other stuff.

And people who listen to the show will know.

There's a lot of holes in his knowledge.

He's ill-prepared sometimes.

All right.

So now, before I get on, I've got cricket news to talk about.

I mean, that's the real shame of Monday.

Didn't get to talk about Chris Tremaine's career.

Didn't get to talk about the Bangladesh test,

which I tried to.

But then I was a little bit rattled,

so I actually couldn't get through it.

And I thought, you know what?

Fuck him.

I'm just not moving on after that.

It's going to be a dickhead.

And that's it.

That's the show.

But I wanted to stick with where I was,

talking about the South African tour.

So the reason I brought up the stuff in 2018

was not for no reason at all.

Because there is a live issue at the moment.

Australia is set to tour South Africa in 2026.

And I think cricket Australia,

bearing in mind what happened in 2018

to families and wives and players.

In 2026, cricket Australia has a duty of care

to look after our team and protect them as much as possible

from that sort of abuse.

The Australian cricket attempt should not have to suffer

through that.

And people are going to be saying,

oh, how can they do that?

I see it happened here all summer.

If an opposing cricketer is in the field

and they get abused by someone from over the fence,

all they have to do is point that person out to security

and they get taken out.

And I think cricket Australia has a duty of care

with cricket South Africa to make sure

cricket South Africa and cricket Australia

on the same page and make sure

that they protect the Australian cricketers appropriately.

I know you can't completely shield them

from stuff that fans are going to give them,

but you can do a lot better than they did on 2018.

And that's why I brought this stuff up.

So you got fixated on some dumb little point.

So I'm saying in 2026,

we have to do better for our Australian cricket team,

especially Steve Smith,

who's been through enough since Sam Papergate.

We need to protect them.

It is a live issue.

It is an important topic.

And I think cricket Australia needs to heed

what happened in 2018

and seek assurances from cricket

and South Africa that they will protect the Australian cricket team

as much as possible.

And I outlined it before in Australia.

If someone is abusive to a player from an opposition,

literally they're pointed out by the player

and they're gone, absolutely out the door.

So cricket Australian needs to give the cricket South Africa

needs to give those same assurances to cricket Australia.

That's the first thing.

Second thing is I also think that when Sam Papergate is revisited,

which it will be, because already,

like Amazon Prime tweeted out a whole highlights video

of Sam Papergate as soon as the tour was announced.

So everybody is going to be talking about it.

Despite the fact people won't want to revisit it,

it will come up.

And where I was going before I was rudely interrupted.

Move on.

No, Julie, I'm not moving on.

I'm going to finish this point.

Was that I think we need to look at Sam Papergate

and David Warner's actions with a lot more empathy

and put it in the context of the mental strain he was under

at the time.

And if I'd been subjected to the abuse he had,

I might want to do anything to win as well.

Now, I'm not trying to say Sam Papergate wasn't wrong.

Obviously, they went too far,

but I just think from an empathetic point of view,

the Australian public needs to take into account

what was going on around Warner at the time

and how we might feel if we were subjected to that abuse.

Now, McGill wouldn't let me get to that point.

And the thing is McGill's blow up.

There's nothing about sympathy for the Warner's or Candice.

It was all about his stuff.

It was all about the fact that he's been in the spotlight.

He was married to a famous actor here, Rachel Friend.

He's had his criminal convictions all over the papers.

And he's all about his stuff.

No empathy.

Because if there's empathy, you don't amplify

that minor thing that I brought up.

I didn't want to go into a deep dive about that,

but it's important when we look at 2026's to a

that the same mistakes do not happen again.

And that's the thing about steering.

You'll say, oh, you know, I was trying to stick up

for someone bullshit you were.

This is because you are sensitive about your personal life,

which is documented on the front and back pages of the paper

for numerous incidents off the field,

but you just, that's all.

That's it just struck a nerve in you.

Nothing to do with protecting Warner or protecting Candice.

If you wanted to do that,

you could have just moved on from the point.

And let me talk about what I wanted to talk about,

which is the 2026 tour and the issues around that.

So yeah, so anyway, got finally got that out

because I think it is important.

And that's why I wanted to bring up what happened in 2018.

So yeah, so that's where we are with the podcast.

And also, Stewie, you're a hypocrite.

You're a big hypocrite because I've got to say,

when I'm doing cricket, I'm filtered.

I rarely, if ever, resort to personal insults.

I don't think I do.

Whereas you with George Bailey,

you call him dishonest.

You say, oh, if, you know, how can you trust a guy that smiles?

I might criticize some of Bailey's selections,

but you're going after his character.

So don't get on your high horse, you muppet

and pretend like you're some moral savior.

You know, when it suits you, you will go low.

So it was, it was going to take that shit from him.

And yeah, that's how I feel about it.

So I wanted to get that out there.

And now you've heard me finally finish what I wanted to talk about.

Now, let's get into the rest of the news

from the podcast from Monday.

Australia have locked in two tests against Bangladesh up north.

And that macaque will be the first macaque will host a test

for the first every time later this year.

And Darwin will host the test.

So big opportunity for Jake Weatheralls,

who was part of the test side.

He was brought up in Darwin.

So the real great opportunity to go back there is a test cricket.

So hopefully if you can score some runs in the shield,

we'll see a home grown play in Darwin.

So that first test is August 13th to 17th.

The second test is August 22nd to 26th.

Man of the series for the last time,

Bangladesh to it here was in 2003.

And the man who normally sits opposite me,

Stuart McGill was the player of the series, unbelievable.

We didn't even get to talk about that.

There was some issues floating around social media about,

does Australia treat Bangladesh like second class citizens?

And I guess the thing, and that was around the Bangladesh playing on venues

like Darwin and macaque and not being at the MCG, the SCG,

the main test venues.

And the one thing that maybe listeners or viewers from overseas don't understand

is that once cricket season is over,

in fact, not even once cricket season is over,

just when the weather starts to turn,

AFL gets all the grounds back.

So they all become all the major grounds,

all the test grounds become AFL grounds.

Even if Australia wanted to play Bangladesh at the SCG or the MCG,

they literally do not have access out of cricket season.

So for Australia to fit all these two as in,

that's why we have to play them up north,

where the climate's good and we just don't have access to the AFL grounds.

Yeah, unfortunately, that's just the way it is.

It's commercially driven.

Right, two other bits of news.

Since the last podcast,

it has been revealed that Mitchell Stark was approached by the selectors

to reverse his retirement and play in the T-20 World Cup.

These approaches were unofficial,

I think is the term that was reported.

And Stark was felt, you know,

he was approached about whether he was considering it.

This was after Cummins and Hazelwood got injured.

And you can see why they would do that.

Because you would be mad not to go to Stark and say,

hey, can you help us out here?

But I appreciate Stark saying no, he's not reversing that.

Because he'd gone straight from the test into the big batch,

into the big batch finals.

So he was probably cooked anyway,

but it just shows how desperate Australia was

to revamp their attack going into this T-20 World Cup.

And the selectors obviously felt they were a bit short

in the pace bowling department.

All right, sticking locally with two bits of news,

Trevor Bayless is gone as Sydney Thunder coach

after five years of service for the Thunder is gone.

He made the finals last season,

but then this year the only one, two games.

So the time was right for him to move on.

And I just wonder whether the Thunder

would consider hiring Greg Shippard from the sixes.

I mean, he's such a great track record

of making the finals.

If I'm the Thunder, I would be desperate

to have that track record of making the finals.

So could that be a little bit awkward

around cricket and New South Wales

that after Legion Monor's sacked Shippard

from the sixes and New South Wales, Trent Copeland

and the Thunder are trying to make high him

as coach of the Thunder.

I think it's something the Thunder should consider.

Shippard is an asset.

He's been a successful coach

and surely his knowledge of New South Wales cricket would help.

Even if he's not the full time

New South Wales coach anymore,

just making him put the Thunder coach

you'll come in with a huge base of knowledge.

The real issue is, I guess Shippard's still based in Melbourne

or in Victoria.

So maybe that would stop them appointing him.

So then another New South Wales fast boulder

has announced his retirement.

So Chris Tremaine has announced he has retired

from first class cricket.

And he had basically a virus in his shoulder.

I commentated with him in the shield last year

and he rammed me through it.

But basically a virus attached itself

to his shoulder and was affecting the nerves.

And when he saw a doctor, the doctor said,

look, that's gonna be three years to get better

and it's turned out to be true.

And therefore he's had to end his first class career.

And he ends 17th, I think,

on the all-time Sheffield Shield wicket takers

took over 351st class wickets

and an average in the low 20s.

So a real start definitely would have played some test cricket

had he not got this injury.

I really think if you look at the last couple of years

and some of the bowlers that have been given a chance

that with Tremaine's record,

he would have played at some stage

during the last couple of years.

So he's retired prematurely.

But yeah, great career.

I think one four Sheffield Shield

to Big Batch one day cups, a serial winner.

And he was part of the test squad in 2017-2018

for that Ashes, but never actually got to play a test match

that did play for one day internationals.

All right, well, that's it for really the rest

of the cricket news.

Crash made a good point about Robert Cratic made a good point

about whether Australia should consider bringing back

the cricket academy with this huge generational change

happening now in Australian cricket,

whether they need to bring back some kind of academy.

It's an interesting point.

I do think there has to be some value

in getting the most talented or the players

have shown the most together at a young age

with the brain's trust of Australian cricket.

And you think about that great generation of cricketers

that spent so much time in the formative years

with Rod Marsh, the cricket academy,

how well that did for them.

So I think with this generational change happening,

even if maybe it's not a full time academy,

maybe they just open an academy for a couple of years

while they're going through this period.

But I think it's certainly something to consider.

That was my cart let it go for this week.

All right, well, really that's it

for this episode of Cricket Unfiltered.

I have gone through all the cricket news.

As I said, so the latest update is just to reiterate,

hard to see how you and I continue doing

the Cricket Unfiltered podcast together.

We might muddle through and try and make this dream 11 show work,

but as you can imagine for me,

it's very difficult to go into a session with you after that

because I really do think one day he's going to snap

and that's a real concern for me

because I've been really nice to him.

I've just taken all his abuse.

But I mean, there is a so much stuff on his resume

that he doesn't want brought up.

And yeah, I just think this, the podcast can't work

if it's just one way.

And you know, someone's just going to do this the whole time.

Move on.

Then what sort of show is it, especially not Cricket Unfiltered,

which when we talk about everything,

we don't shy away from difficult topics.

And yeah,

Stuart McGill, what a meltdown.

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