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Football World Cup Preview | The Wisdom & Experience of Robert Craddock (09.06.26)
09 Jun 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What are the initial thoughts on the upcoming World Cup?
Alright, let's just stray a little broader crash. The World Cup football starts on Friday. Australia plays its first game on Sunday against Turkey. What are we thinking?
I'm thinking that the very few teams ever enter a World Cup with as much sort of, I would love to enter a World Cup with the sort of positivity and lack of real huge pressure as Australia. because they've got there, for goodness sakes. All you've got to remind yourself is this. Italy's missed the last three World Cups, and Australia's playing in this one. And, Gerard, here's the thing.
Anything they do, if they make progress, if they make the second round, being the underdogs is just a beautiful place to be.
Chapter 2: How does Australia compare to other teams in the World Cup?
You think of the pressure on teams like Brazil and Argentina, where their every move will define their lives. In Australia, we think, hey, we're there. And do you know what? Let's just remind ourselves that Australia's ranked 27th in the world. Turkey is 22. The United States is 17. But they're not outrageously ahead of us on the rankings. Australia can pull off upsets here. It's great.
I just think be free, boys. Be free. You're winners already. Anything here is the cream on the pie. That's what I'd be saying to them.
They're getting the disparaging reviews over in the States at the moment. I hope they don't take those too much to heart.
oh, I think it's the best thing that ever happened to them. Like, just sort of being said, oh, Australia, isn't it? Australian teams love that. And in a way, it's great for their psyche. Yeah, there's all these teams saying, and of course, there's Australia in there. Thank God they're there. They're hopeless. Well, well, well. Imagine when Australia plays the US, who were good but not that good.
So it's just, to me, it's just got that, all the portents are there. for an old-fashioned, you know, Australian sort of storm from the bleachers and just have one really good victory and maybe a draw and you might just sneak into the second round. And this is close to home, but Boz is not going to be there for us. No, Boz, of course. Oh, no, sorry.
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Chapter 3: What mindset should the Australian team adopt for the tournament?
What am I doing laughing? The poor guy. I feel sorry for him. He was doing a TAB commercial the other day. Gillian McLaughlin and his famous goalkeeper, Bozza, Gillian McLaughlin got in front of him, who's now the boss of Tabcorp, and tried to sneak a goal past Bozza in the promotion, and he slipped and did his knee. And he'd been planning the trip since December for his family, and...
And he was shattered. He won't be able to go. Gerard, I've got to say this. Of all the people we meet in the media, I find Bozard the most interesting because here's a little story about him.
Chapter 4: What are the implications of the pressure on top teams like Brazil and Argentina?
He's the only guy I've ever met with a photographic memory. And occasionally we would send him photos at Fox Sports, or I know they did it at Triple M, they'd send him down to the foyer to look at the drinks machine and see if he could memorize it. So he'd scan it and you'd come up and say, all right, Bozza, what was C3? And he'd say, twisties, $2.20. What was J7? He'd say, Coke, $2.90.
Like he's just, I've never seen anyone like that before. He's just different. I haven't heard that story. That is so great. Yeah, oh, yeah. He's just, when he first came on, his first night on the back page, you often tell the story, he's a classic.
He went off about the A-League salary cap and the producer was doing the wind-up signal, as they do, and Boz thought that meant keep going, you're going great. So we couldn't stop him. Jeez, it was a funny night. That's great.