Sam now winning our hearts
EACH week The Chronicle sport team looks at pressing issues on the Saturday Soapbox.
Q: Is Sam Kerr Australia’s new football star?
Ben Drewe: PRETTY soon you could hear Sam Kerr mentioned in the same esteem as Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi.
Kerr has been the star this week as the Matildas beat football powerhouse Brazil.
Things could get even better for Kerr as she is short-listed for the FIFA Women’s Footballer of the Year award.
They don’t put up just any player for that award so Kerr has certainly earned that honour of being in with a chance of being named the world’s best player.
With Tim Cahill closing in on retirement, Kerr is certainly a name the Australia’s sporting public will hear more about.
Glen McCullough: IT’S still early days for the Matildas and Sam is hardly a household name yet.
Many Aussie sport fans are still catching on to the recent success of our national female footballers.
But nothing succeeds like success and it seems people are quickly jumping on board the girl’s growing band waggon.
I confess to knowing little of Sam Kerr but if the plaudits are on the money where she is concerned then it appears she is our next star on the horizon.
And what a welcome addition she’ll be, to not only the Australian football fraternity, but the masses in general if she can indeed live up to and deliver on the growing hype around her.
With the “star” tag comes a heap of responsibilities that we have seen so many of our sporting idols choke on and struggle to uphold.
A lot of people are wary of the false dawns created by some of our arrogant and boof-headed sports people who take stardom for granted.
Let’s hope Sam Kerr is the real deal we can warmly welcome into our lounge rooms and hearts.
Q: What is the best nickname you have come across in sport?
Ben Drewe: THERE are always some great names getting around at sporting clubs.
Every team and club is bound to have someone known as Pothole as everyone tries to avoid them.
But there are a few different ones that I love.
Former Wallaby Stephen Larkham was known as Bernie as he would say as much as the title character in the 1989 film Weekend At Bernie’s.
Another I came across this week was Milwaukee Brewers pitcher and Major League baseball wins leader Zach Davies is known as Bat Boy due to his youthful appearance.
But my favourite sporting nickname of all-time has to go to former NRL player Matt Hilder.
The former Cronulla, Gold Coast and Newcastle utility was known as Waltzing.
Glen McCullough: ONE of the most clever nicknames I’ve heard was “Adol” which Brad Fittler at one stage was tagged with by team-mates.
It didn’t however stick for some reason with the man known best as Freddy.
Aussie cricketers have always been innovative with nicknames.
Mark Waugh carries two of the most clever in “Afghanistan”, as in the forgotten war, and Junior as the younger of the Waugh twins, born presumably minutes after older brother Steve.
Roy Slaven and HG Nelson of course are the kings of nicknames but with handles like the “Human Tripod” for a famous rugby league player an example, we won’t be going into the origin of many of their titles here.