Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has referred to as Marty Sheargold’s feedback concerning the Matildas “stunning,” “utterly unacceptable” and “offensive”.
Radio broadcaster and actor Sheargold “parted methods” with Triple M on Wednesday after making the feedback concerning the Matildas on-air throughout his Monday drive time present.
The 53-year-old likened the nationwide girls’s staff to 12 months 10 ladies and stated he “would moderately hammer a nail by means of the pinnacle of [his] penis” than watch them play in subsequent 12 months’s Asian Cup.
Albanese rang Melbourne’s Nova radio present on Thursday morning to say the feedback had been “not on”.
“They had been simply stunning feedback, that anybody might suppose it not to mention say it,” Albanese stated.
“Utterly unacceptable. The ‘Tillies are simply legends.
“It is simply not humorous, it is offensive. And these are nice athletes, they carried out so properly to get to the semis within the World Cup, however even when they did not, so what? They had been doing their greatest … [they’re] higher footballers than all of the blokes who’re critiquing them.”
Albanese additionally identified that almost all of the medals Australia gained on the Paris 2024 Olympics — 30 out of 53 — had been gained by girls or girls’s solely groups, together with 13 of the 18 gold medals.
“On the Olympics, because the gold medals got here by means of, that they had one thing in widespread. They had been all girls,” Albanese stated.
“The Matildas have been extra profitable traditionally than our males’s staff.
“Ellyse Perry statistically might be the best cricketer — possibly [Don] Bradman, however he did not bowl — the best cricketer Australia has produced.”
Albanese added that earlier remarks Sheargold made about endometriosis “not being actual” had been additionally unacceptable.
“We have to respect one another, and disrespecting greater than half the inhabitants shouldn’t be on,” he stated.
Vitality Minister Chris Bowen additionally bought in within the act, telling Channel 9 that this “wasn’t one in every of [Sheargold’s] humorous moments”.
“Marty Sheargold could be very humorous. I imply, he is made me chortle over time lots,” Bowen stated.
“This was simply approach out of line and it was very Nineteen Seventies.
“Girls’s sport is actual, it is improbable to observe.
“He is made an enormous mistake right here, and he is paying the results, as he ought to.”
‘Pure rage’
Libby Trickett felt “pure rage” on listening to Marty Sheargold’s feedback. (7.30 Report)
4-time Olympic champion Libby Trickett advised ABC Information Breakfast on Wednesday morning that her preliminary response was of “pure rage” when she heard the feedback from Sheargold — however she virtually wasn’t shocked.
“It was so extremely disappointing to listen to foul-mouthed commentary round girls’s sport at prime time on a nationwide present,” Trickett stated.
“That was completely stunning that that’s occurring in 2025.
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“I actually felt there was a cultural shift that occurred, notably across the Matildas — a few years in the past, the World Cup, their efficiency there, 11 million individuals watching these unimaginable athletes — you form of felt like possibly we had made that cultural shift to actually appreciating and celebrating girls’s sport.
“And you then hear one thing so misogynistic as what Marty was speaking about on Monday, and it was simply actually disappointing.”
Trickett stated the feedback from Sheargold locations “one other impediment” in entrance of youngsters who wish to stick with it with their sport.
“My coronary heart simply broke for the entire little ladies, you understand, notably grade 10 ladies who had been named within the section who may need been heading to sports activities coaching that morning and simply can be so heartbroken to listen to somebody blatantly simply saying that they are sub-par,” Trickett stated.
“Of the children dropping out of sport on the age of 14, 57 per cent of these are ladies, so they’re over-represented in youngsters dropping out of sport.
“These kinds of feedback are the issues that create one other impediment, one other barrier, for teenagers persevering with to play sport, and we all know how vital sport is, whether or not you are going to go to the Olympics or signify Australia within the Matildas, would not matter, you’ll be able to simply be enjoying community-level sport, however these kind of feedback are so dangerous to our younger individuals.
“It is so extremely disappointing.”
Trickett stated that the response to Sheargold’s feedback was acceptable as a result of “language issues”.
Libby Trickett says the appropriate end result has occurred right here. (Mark Nolan: Getty Photos)
“I really feel like the appropriate end result has occurred right here. I am certain there are individuals who can be, like, ‘Properly, that is an overreaction, you understand, why does it matter?’ Nevertheless it issues. Language issues.
“Speaking about younger individuals and our unimaginable girls athletes who’re, you understand, batting properly above their common. We’ve got the ladies’s cricket staff, the Jillaroos, the Australian girls’s swimming staff.
“We’re doing distinctive issues on the world stage and we wish to proceed that and the way in which we do that’s by celebrating and lifting younger girls up in sport.”
Trickett additionally paid credit score to her long-time Dolphins teammate Leisel Jones who gave an emotional speech on her Triple M breakfast present on Wednesday morning.
In tears all through, Jones, a nine-time Olympic Video games medallist and three-time champion, stated it was robust to show as much as work on Wednesday, and he or she had been bombarded by critics questioning why she hadn’t taken a stand towards Sheargold’s feedback on Tuesday’s present.
“I have been fairly upset all morning, and I used to be upset after I got here in. I have been on and off the present all morning,” she stated on Wednesday by means of tears.
“It is a very tough place to be put in when Triple M is my place of employment.
“I’m one of many largest supporters [of women’s sport] … [but] I feel lots of people want to know that it’s totally exhausting if you’re on this place to say the issues that you just would love to say. I’d like to say all of this stuff. I’ve so many issues inside that I’d like to say.”
Leisel Jones, who works for Triple M in Queensland, was criticised for not responding instantly. (Getty Photos: Kelly Defina)
She then added: “Please know that you’re welcome to play sport.
“You might be welcome to play sport to no matter degree. You do not have to be a midfielder. You do not have to be an Olympian. You simply play sport as a result of sport is so great.
“The largest factor we might ask for is males to be on our aspect in terms of girls in sport, as a result of it is all the time an uphill battle. To be paid much less, to get much less protection, to not get the credit score they deserve.”
Trickett stated she was “extremely proud” of the way in which Jones dealt with the scenario and the way Rosie Malone kick-started the response to the feedback.
“It will have been an extremely troublesome factor to form of navigate, thread the needle, basically, of your employer and eager to make a stand, and he or she spoke actually fantastically on her present yesterday,” Trickett stated.
“I am so extremely impressed by Rosie Malone who was the preliminary, form of, catalyst that kicked off this dialog and Chloe Dalton from the Feminine Athlete Venture as properly.
“With out these conversations, nothing modifications and that is why language issues.
“And it issues that [Sheargold’s] co-hosts simply form of laughed alongside and did not name him out on it.
“For this reason, as disappointing as listening to these feedback are and understanding that there are nonetheless segments of our inhabitants who really feel that approach, I feel what we’ve got seen is that this groundswell of help for girls in sport and that provides me hope. I feel that we’re on the precipice of actually celebrating girls in sport.”
Response heartening
Former Matildas participant Melissa Barbieri says she is heartened by the general public response to the feedback. (Getty Photos: Boris Streubel)
Former Matildas captain and goalkeeper Melissa Barbieri has advised ABC Radio Melbourne she’s dissatisfied in Sheargold, however heartened by the response.
“This occurred about 10 years in the past the place a former footballer truly spoke about our recreation fairly disparagingly and no-one was there to again us up, and we form of needed to combat this rhetoric on-line with a barrage of misogynistic feedback all by ourselves,” Barbieri stated.
“The latest era of Matildas have introduced us into the sunshine a lot that the general public have to come back to our entrance and completely supported us by means of this.”
Barbieri stated the controversy wouldn’t disrupt the Matildas’ preparation for the SheBelieves Cup recreation towards Columbia, which kicks off at 11:30am AEDT on Thursday.
“These kinds of feedback truly spur us on to be sure that we’re bringing the most effective of our nation to the sunshine and be sure that we combat with an Australian character each time that we participate on the sphere,” she stated.
Fellow former Matildas participant and Olympian Kate McShea added that the feedback had been appalling and “a kick within the guts for feminine athletes”.
“At first, I used to be seeking to see whether or not we might turned the clock again 20 or 30 years,” McShea advised ABC Information Breakfast.
“I suppose it is simply disappointing somebody of his stature that has such an viewers that he might attain was sending such a unfavorable message.”
McShea stated the general public had bought behind girls’s sport and believed Sheargold’s feedback represented a minority of male attitudes.
She hoped his departure from Triple M despatched a message about what broadcasters discover acceptable.
“Is he solely apologising as a result of he bought caught and it is had this media storm, or is he apologising as a result of he genuinely is sorry for the feedback he made?
“That is one thing I suppose we could not know the reply to.”
