1
00:00:00,920 --> 00:00:03,440
Speaker 1: We kicked the show off this morning with some more

2
00:00:03,520 --> 00:00:06,360
Speaker 1: sad news over the weekend, Giez, I tell you what

3
00:00:06,440 --> 00:00:11,280
Speaker 1: in cricket we've Dean Jones has passed, Rodney Marsh, Shane

4
00:00:11,280 --> 00:00:13,640
Speaker 1: Warning over the week and unfortunately we got the news

5
00:00:14,040 --> 00:00:18,160
Speaker 1: that Andrew Simon's passed away in a car car accident.

6
00:00:19,040 --> 00:00:23,040
Speaker 1: An amazing man, very very loyal, very passionate. Anyone that

7
00:00:23,120 --> 00:00:26,240
Speaker 1: knew Andrew Simon's he was straight down the line and

8
00:00:26,239 --> 00:00:28,080
Speaker 1: one man had a bit to do with him. He

9
00:00:28,160 --> 00:00:30,320
Speaker 1: is one of the chief cricket writers at News Corbyn.

10
00:00:30,680 --> 00:00:32,440
Speaker 1: Catch him on the back page as well on Fox

11
00:00:32,440 --> 00:00:34,720
Speaker 1: Sports as Robert Krash Kratick. He joins us this morning.

12
00:00:34,720 --> 00:00:36,159
Speaker 1: Thanks coming on Crash.

13
00:00:36,440 --> 00:00:39,400
Speaker 2: Oh it's a pleasure fifty yes. As you said, sad news.

14
00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:44,040
Speaker 2: And that group of four Jones, Marsh, Warn and Simons

15
00:00:44,640 --> 00:00:49,120
Speaker 2: all entertain his characters, Alaryicans and that's why I think

16
00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:51,400
Speaker 2: it cuts just that bit deeper.

17
00:00:52,159 --> 00:00:54,480
Speaker 3: You know, Chrish, you must be sitting back thinking, I

18
00:00:54,520 --> 00:00:58,360
Speaker 3: can't believe I'm going to have to do another eulogy

19
00:00:58,480 --> 00:01:01,400
Speaker 3: type chat for a different crew. Make it up, because

20
00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:04,520
Speaker 3: you're right, they're all characters and everybody wants to celebrate

21
00:01:04,520 --> 00:01:05,600
Speaker 3: them with the great stories.

22
00:01:06,319 --> 00:01:09,160
Speaker 2: Yes, so you're so right with the news came through

23
00:01:09,200 --> 00:01:12,399
Speaker 2: about six am yesterday and I was just getting read

24
00:01:12,440 --> 00:01:14,480
Speaker 2: out breakfast with their old mate Tony Spies at the

25
00:01:14,520 --> 00:01:18,000
Speaker 2: back page Brisbone for Magic Round. But you're right, it's

26
00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:21,760
Speaker 2: freakish and and the circumstances were shattering. I mean Andrew

27
00:01:22,240 --> 00:01:24,880
Speaker 2: because he was sort of adopted and was of West

28
00:01:24,880 --> 00:01:27,040
Speaker 2: Indian and English heritage, he went out of his way

29
00:01:27,040 --> 00:01:30,560
Speaker 2: to be Australian and his cattle dogs at the scene

30
00:01:30,560 --> 00:01:34,440
Speaker 2: of the car crash rallied around him and were very

31
00:01:34,560 --> 00:01:37,000
Speaker 2: much in distress. And that when his mate said that

32
00:01:37,360 --> 00:01:39,840
Speaker 2: there was country music still playing on the radio in

33
00:01:39,880 --> 00:01:42,920
Speaker 2: his car love you know, And so it was it's

34
00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:46,880
Speaker 2: just it's sad beyond words. And him texting good buddies

35
00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:48,760
Speaker 2: at eight point thirty just about an hour and a

36
00:01:48,800 --> 00:01:51,880
Speaker 2: half before it, in good spirits, watching Magic Round and

37
00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:56,160
Speaker 2: take it easy. So, but you're right. The freakishness of this,

38
00:01:56,360 --> 00:01:59,680
Speaker 2: of what's happening in cricket is Oh, it's it's jarring.

39
00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:03,880
Speaker 1: I have to say there was an element to him.

40
00:02:03,880 --> 00:02:06,520
Speaker 1: He loved Townsville and Far North Queensland so much. He

41
00:02:06,560 --> 00:02:09,840
Speaker 1: loved fishing so much crash and over the years you

42
00:02:09,880 --> 00:02:12,120
Speaker 1: wrote about this, but towards the end of his career,

43
00:02:12,360 --> 00:02:15,080
Speaker 1: I feel there was an element of Andrew Simon's where

44
00:02:15,240 --> 00:02:17,720
Speaker 1: you know, cricket is so professional, you give up your

45
00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:21,000
Speaker 1: whole life to travel around the world and play cricket.

46
00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:25,120
Speaker 1: But he always he always wanted that life of being

47
00:02:25,120 --> 00:02:27,160
Speaker 1: out on the water, crash and getting away from it.

48
00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:29,560
Speaker 1: He got into trouble a little bit for getting on

49
00:02:29,600 --> 00:02:32,120
Speaker 1: the booze, missing training sessions, and there was always an

50
00:02:32,160 --> 00:02:34,680
Speaker 1: element of him wanting to go back home, wasn't there.

51
00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:38,120
Speaker 2: FITCHI there was. As someone said to me yesterday, he'd

52
00:02:38,120 --> 00:02:41,560
Speaker 2: have been perfect in the nineteen seventies or eighties, you know,

53
00:02:41,600 --> 00:02:43,680
Speaker 2: when he could really kick it around off the field.

54
00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:47,000
Speaker 2: That he felt that that spirit was lost in the game.

55
00:02:47,080 --> 00:02:49,440
Speaker 2: And it was so important to him because he was

56
00:02:49,480 --> 00:02:53,160
Speaker 2: never materialistic. As long as he had a tinnye, a

57
00:02:53,160 --> 00:02:55,760
Speaker 2: fishing ride, a crab pot, the cold beer, that was

58
00:02:55,800 --> 00:02:58,840
Speaker 2: all he wanted. So he was the only cricketer I've

59
00:02:58,880 --> 00:03:02,400
Speaker 2: ever known to ask for a pay cut for Australia.

60
00:03:02,600 --> 00:03:05,120
Speaker 2: He said, if you cut my wages by twenty percent,

61
00:03:05,160 --> 00:03:07,240
Speaker 2: I just want to do twenty percent less gigs. For

62
00:03:07,480 --> 00:03:10,760
Speaker 2: Corporate Corporate Australia. He said, I just want to disappear

63
00:03:10,880 --> 00:03:12,840
Speaker 2: up North. Just give me, he said, I don't care

64
00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:15,040
Speaker 2: about the money, which they refused to do. They said, no,

65
00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:16,720
Speaker 2: you've got to do it because it was a superstar.

66
00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:19,000
Speaker 2: All the corporates wanted him, but he just wanted that

67
00:03:19,080 --> 00:03:22,359
Speaker 2: quiet life. A man apart and has said a throwback

68
00:03:22,440 --> 00:03:23,320
Speaker 2: to a different era.

69
00:03:23,800 --> 00:03:25,400
Speaker 3: I mean, you look at some of the images now

70
00:03:25,400 --> 00:03:28,680
Speaker 3: and the photos that have appeared of Shane Warn and

71
00:03:28,680 --> 00:03:30,720
Speaker 3: Andrew Simon's just standing side by side. I watched the

72
00:03:30,760 --> 00:03:32,720
Speaker 3: clipp yesterday where the two of them were talking, and

73
00:03:33,080 --> 00:03:35,800
Speaker 3: you know, and Andrew tells that story about I'm not

74
00:03:35,800 --> 00:03:38,320
Speaker 3: sure who he was batting with and he ran in.

75
00:03:38,360 --> 00:03:41,360
Speaker 3: You would know the story crash and he hit the

76
00:03:41,360 --> 00:03:43,000
Speaker 3: first ball for six and run in and gave him

77
00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:44,480
Speaker 3: a big hug. And then the rooms looked at that

78
00:03:44,760 --> 00:03:46,960
Speaker 3: his head and the other block's head was bleeding and

79
00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:50,200
Speaker 3: he said, what's happened to your head?

80
00:03:50,440 --> 00:03:53,000
Speaker 2: He said, well it was, and it's a great story

81
00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:56,720
Speaker 2: you've just told. It was the Simon's first Test enter

82
00:03:56,760 --> 00:03:59,920
Speaker 2: at the MCG against England, and Hayden told me last

83
00:04:00,120 --> 00:04:02,840
Speaker 2: night from India the very moment you've gest described whip

84
00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:05,360
Speaker 2: was the high point of his whole career. He said,

85
00:04:05,720 --> 00:04:08,640
Speaker 2: Simo and I have been through. We've seen kids born,

86
00:04:09,520 --> 00:04:12,640
Speaker 2: he had a divorce, We've seen been the funerals, and

87
00:04:12,720 --> 00:04:14,560
Speaker 2: to share that moment at the crease, he said, he

88
00:04:14,640 --> 00:04:17,479
Speaker 2: hit me so hard that mahelmet cut my forehead. He said,

89
00:04:17,520 --> 00:04:19,640
Speaker 2: But I look back and he said, that's my high

90
00:04:19,680 --> 00:04:21,960
Speaker 2: point in the game. Mate. He said, you know, don't

91
00:04:21,960 --> 00:04:24,360
Speaker 2: worry about World Cups and everything. He said, I lived

92
00:04:24,400 --> 00:04:27,120
Speaker 2: that with him, and he said the source on top

93
00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:29,400
Speaker 2: of it was that he sledge Kevin Peterson throughout the

94
00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:32,440
Speaker 2: innings for wearing tight T shirts. Be happy to get

95
00:04:32,520 --> 00:04:32,880
Speaker 2: me better.

96
00:04:34,640 --> 00:04:36,359
Speaker 1: The other thing as well, He could have been a

97
00:04:36,360 --> 00:04:39,160
Speaker 1: great rugby league player, couldn't he. I know he trained

98
00:04:39,160 --> 00:04:41,279
Speaker 1: when he was outside of cricket. He used to go

99
00:04:41,320 --> 00:04:44,000
Speaker 1: down with Wayne Bennett and the Brisbane Broncos and do

100
00:04:44,160 --> 00:04:46,680
Speaker 1: tackling practice with the professional guys.

101
00:04:47,480 --> 00:04:49,840
Speaker 2: He did, and in two thousand and one he was

102
00:04:49,880 --> 00:04:52,960
Speaker 2: such a man of impulse he said to John Buchanan,

103
00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:54,840
Speaker 2: I'm retiring from cricket. I'm going to play with the

104
00:04:54,880 --> 00:04:57,600
Speaker 2: Broncos because I just don't trust people in cricket anymore

105
00:04:57,640 --> 00:04:59,760
Speaker 2: and it was a really and he ended up playing

106
00:04:59,800 --> 00:05:01,520
Speaker 2: on for quite a few more years, but he went

107
00:05:01,560 --> 00:05:04,480
Speaker 2: and traded with the Broncos. Had a nice physique for

108
00:05:04,520 --> 00:05:07,280
Speaker 2: a back rower. But Wayne Bennett said to him as

109
00:05:07,279 --> 00:05:10,760
Speaker 2: a rugby league player, you're a fabulous cricketer. Go back

110
00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:13,480
Speaker 2: to where you belong. But he did. I saw him

111
00:05:13,520 --> 00:05:15,960
Speaker 2: playing the charity game and he loved the sleeching. It

112
00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:18,159
Speaker 2: was against a group of New South Wales origin old

113
00:05:18,160 --> 00:05:20,520
Speaker 2: boys and he was he was sniping away in this

114
00:05:21,120 --> 00:05:23,960
Speaker 2: sort of way. He was quite quite sweet actually. But

115
00:05:24,279 --> 00:05:26,400
Speaker 2: there was a story everywhere, and I love where the

116
00:05:26,440 --> 00:05:28,560
Speaker 2: time he missed a team meeting in Darwin to go

117
00:05:28,640 --> 00:05:32,240
Speaker 2: fishing and he was in eyeball deep in trouble. That

118
00:05:32,400 --> 00:05:35,760
Speaker 2: had enough of him. But Matthew Hayden was furious until

119
00:05:35,800 --> 00:05:37,599
Speaker 2: he sent him a fighter with a barre Bundy that

120
00:05:37,640 --> 00:05:41,280
Speaker 2: he caught wow with the tagline, Hey mate, look what

121
00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:42,640
Speaker 2: you've missed by going to that meeting.

122
00:05:44,120 --> 00:05:44,760
Speaker 3: Isn't that great?

123
00:05:44,839 --> 00:05:46,880
Speaker 1: Christ? Was there ever a moment where you were a

124
00:05:46,920 --> 00:05:48,800
Speaker 1: bit nervous around him because I know you wrote a

125
00:05:48,839 --> 00:05:51,160
Speaker 1: few articles about him. Did he ever get he's back

126
00:05:51,200 --> 00:05:52,040
Speaker 1: up with you?

127
00:05:52,120 --> 00:05:56,320
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah? Yeah, definitely Fitzy. We had some blues over

128
00:05:56,360 --> 00:05:58,400
Speaker 2: the years. And see he was he took a long

129
00:05:58,400 --> 00:06:00,440
Speaker 2: while to find his feet, and I away felt that

130
00:06:00,480 --> 00:06:02,039
Speaker 2: he was a bit of an underachiever, but he was

131
00:06:02,120 --> 00:06:04,040
Speaker 2: just feeling his way. So I look back at that,

132
00:06:04,279 --> 00:06:06,760
Speaker 2: I think maybe I just got it wrong. But oh yeah,

133
00:06:06,800 --> 00:06:09,840
Speaker 2: and in a bar, I remember once there was a

134
00:06:09,880 --> 00:06:11,840
Speaker 2: group of journals in the bar and one of his

135
00:06:11,960 --> 00:06:14,800
Speaker 2: queensident teammates, when he went to the toilet, hid his

136
00:06:14,839 --> 00:06:18,599
Speaker 2: stubby cooler. He said, mate, with those journos, fancy them

137
00:06:18,600 --> 00:06:21,640
Speaker 2: coming over here and stealing your stubby cooler. So he's

138
00:06:21,680 --> 00:06:24,039
Speaker 2: gone across the generation and said which one he is?

139
00:06:24,200 --> 00:06:24,360
Speaker 3: Was it?

140
00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:26,279
Speaker 2: You know what I mean? With that look of flame

141
00:06:26,560 --> 00:06:28,920
Speaker 2: in his eye. But see, we look back at all

142
00:06:28,960 --> 00:06:31,039
Speaker 2: these things, and there was a lovely get together last

143
00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:34,280
Speaker 2: night to see him promptu the Storybridge Hotel, people like

144
00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:37,960
Speaker 2: Ian Healy, John Buchanan, Mike Cash for this. They all

145
00:06:38,040 --> 00:06:40,520
Speaker 2: got a group of ten of the Matthew Mott got

146
00:06:40,520 --> 00:06:43,599
Speaker 2: together to share memories and toast the man that he was.

147
00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:47,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's beautiful, well fashed, beautiful, beautiful mate. You can

148
00:06:47,240 --> 00:06:51,320
Speaker 1: get well, you can grab cat crash on Fox Cricket,

149
00:06:51,360 --> 00:06:54,000
Speaker 1: also sports journalists for The Courier, Mail and News Court.

150
00:06:54,040 --> 00:06:55,880
Speaker 1: We appreciate your time. We know how busy you're going

151
00:06:55,880 --> 00:06:57,719
Speaker 1: to be today mate, so thanks for coming on the show.

152
00:06:57,800 --> 00:07:00,920
Speaker 2: Legend Ah it's my pleasure of talk about him all day.

153
00:07:01,120 --> 00:07:02,839
Speaker 3: Thanks, take care, Mats, Buddy

154
00:07:03,080 --> 00:07:04,120
Speaker 2: Fits and Whipper