The Greatest Season That Was Presents...

As we reach the 20th anniversary of the 3rd test in Chennai of that famous 2001 series, its time to wrap up our Final Frontier series.  Our thoughts on the factors behind the slow-build of the Australia v India rivalry, the way that 2001 series entered the public consciousness, and the legacy of the series that continues today.  The Greatest Season That Was Presents is produced by Jay Mueller and edited by Dave Collins. It is part of The Bad Producer Podcast Network.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/TGSTWSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For many years, the rare Australian cricket tours to India went barely noticed by Australian cricket fans.  Scoreboards and match reports were the most that could be consumed. This mixed with the supposed horror stories that filtered back after the fact from players about  accommodation, food and illness resulted in the perception of an outpost - something that was not as worthy as the iconic and growing rivalries elsewhere. However, legendary cricket writer Mike Coward begged to differ. He embraced India like no other Australian in the cricket fraternity through the 70s and 80s. He saw the nation for its cricket passion, and 30 years ago was moved to wrote the  seminal book ‘Cricket beyond the bazaar’ that put a spotlight on the untold stories of Australia’s battles on the subcontinent, and  foretold the rise of Indian cricket well before Australia and the rest of the world cottoned on.  As we reach the finale of The Greatest Season That Was Presents: Final Frontier, Mike Coward joins us to give the historical backdrop to todays’ great rivalry, and the reasons why it took so long for Australians to appreciate Indian cricket. The Greatest Season That Was Presents is produced by Jay Mueller and edited by Dave Collins. It is part of The Bad Producer Podcast Network.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/TGSTWSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The amazing turnaround at Kolkata not only had a nation rejoicing, it cemented the India and Australia rivalry forever. This series was now set for a grand finale in Chennai, a test that truly proved to be the icing on the cake of this magnificent series. The man nicknamed after Tone Loc’s hit Funky Cold Medina,  Colin “Funky” Miller was a maverick journeyman in domestic cricket.  But his mid-30s experiment with bowling off spin as a side hustle to his medium pace, resulted in an international career and cult hero status – whether it be with blonde, pink or blue hair.   Colin Miller joins The Greatest Season That Was Presents - The Final Frontier to talk about his journey to international cricket, and the starring role he played in the frantic finale of one of the greatest test series ever. The Greatest Season That Was Presents is produced by Jay Mueller and edited by Dave Collins. It is part of The Bad Producer Podcast Network.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/TGSTWSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With 16 straight wins in the bank, Australia had the chance to conquer Steve Waugh Final Frontier when they arrived in Kolkata for the 2nd test of 2001. India had been stung by the first test result but by midpoint Australia looked to be realising that dream. Michael Kasprowicz’s performances on the 1998 tour had seen him labelled the India specialist, and he came into that winning side that was aiming to make history. History, however, turned sharply in Kolkata. Michael Kasprowicz joins The Greatest Season That Was Presents - Final Frontier  to tell us about being in the middle on the days that created folklore in Indian cricket, and forever changed the India and Australia rivalry - but also the redemption that was eventually to follow. The Greatest Season That Was Presents is produced by Jay Mueller and edited by Dave Collins. It is part of The Bad Producer Podcast Network.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/TGSTWSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The 1999-2000 season had seen a more ruthless Australia sweep India 3-0,  a group of fresh stars were added to Steve Waugh’s veterans and the team  had seamlessly gone from arguably the best in the world to a whole new, higher plane. Adam Gilchrist was symbolic of this shift, His impact was immediate and within 12 months he was the national vice captain.  As they flew to India in 2001, the tour was personally and collectively termed the ‘final frontier’ by Steve Waugh – the first test tour he’d been on in 1986 on remained the place he and Australia hadn’t won since . By that stage Gilchrist had played in 14 tests for 14 wins, but as he lined up for the first test in Mumbai he couldn’t have imagined the rollercoaster series that lay ahead both personally and from a team perspective. Subscribe to The Greatest Season That Was Presents to listen to each new episode as it goes live. The Greatest Season That Was Presents is produced by Jay Mueller and edited by Dave Collins. It is part of The Bad Producer Podcast Network.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/TGSTWSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

1998 had been a rude shock for Australia, but when India returned to Australian in 1999-2000 for the first time in 8 years, there was a similar shock to their system. That new captain Steve Waugh and the new coach John Buchanan had a vision for excellence to motivate the next era Taylor and Healy had just retired, but  the team was about to welcome Adam Gilchrist and Brett Lee into the fold, while others like Justin Langer could finally lock in a long-term spot.  The challenge was set by Buchanan, and it was Damien Fleming in career-best form that said the team should be aiming to win all six tests of the home summer, a unlikely aim at the time. This was a team that wanted to tick off every challenge ahead of them – a return bout to India in the back of Waugh’s mind.   Damien  Fleming joins us to chat about 1999 -2000 and the next chapter of TGSTW presents - The Final Frontier. Subscribe to The Greatest Season That Was Presents to listen to each new episode as it goes live. The Greatest Season That Was Presents is produced by Jay Mueller and edited by Dave Collins. It is part of The Bad Producer Podcast Network.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/TGSTWSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A 3 test series  in early 1998, was the first full Test series between the India and Australia for 6 years, and the first Australian test series in India since 1986. Shane Warne was fit and touring so the series had the secondary makings of a heavyweight title fight- Sachin v Warne. However there was another great story that didn’t steal any headlines from the main event. Gavin Robertson was a journeyman off spinner who’s played some one day internationals 4 years prior, plucked from the wilderness to be Warne’s spin foil on this much anticipated tour. Gavin Robertson joins us to talk about his unlikely journey to be a running mate in the showdown of cricket’s biggest superstars, the first awakenings by Australian cricketers to the possibilities of India and the start of a rivalry that would capture the public imagination.   Subscribe to The Greatest Season That Was to listen to each new episode as it goes live, but now Gavin Robertson joins us to discuss the building of the rivalry on TGSTW presents - The Final Frontier. The Greatest Season That Was Presents is produced by Jay Mueller and edited by Dave Collins. It is part of The Bad Producer Podcast Network.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/TGSTWSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As 2020 ticks over to 2021, we sit in the middle of another engrossing Test series between two heavyweights of international cricket – India and Australia. Today, an Australia v India Test series can only be rivalled by the Ashes for prestige, quality of competition, and the level of interest from fans around the world. And that’s without talking about the economics any time the two countries meet. But it wasn’t always like that.   2021 marks twenty years since the famed 2001 Test series between India and Australia, Steve Waugh’s final frontier mission and the extraordinary efforts of a golden generation of Indian cricketers to thwart it.   To recognise this, The Greatest Season That Was presents a new series ‘Final Frontier’. This the story of how the Australia and India rivalry went from strangers to fever pitch in just a few years, and the story of how it was all consummated by the magic of  2001. Over the next few weeks we’ll talk to the players in the middle who defined this new rivalry, but also about how the experience changed perceptions and relationships between the two countries. In this the first episode  we talk to the voice of Indian cricket Harsha Bhogle about how Indian perceived Australian cricket, and the historical touchpoints that had Indian cricket fans ready to embrace this new rivalry by the 90s long before their Australian counterparts understood what the new era of cricket was going to look like. Subscribe to The Greatest Season That Was to listen to each new episode as it goes live, but now Harsha Bhogle joins us to discuss the building of the rivalry on TGSTW presents - The Final Frontier. The Greatest Season That Was Presents is produced by Jay Mueller and edited by Dave Collins. It is part of The Bad Producer Podcast Network.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/TGSTWSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the start of 1991, the family club were coming off a season where they had failed to continue in the family tradition, eliminated by Melbourne the previous September to miss their first Grand Final since 1982 - unable to complete a three-peat. As odd as it sounds, their failure to make it to the big one in 1990 sent the club into a tailspin. They had been called too old and too slow in the past – maybe, just maybe, it was now true? When the West Coast Eagles, the new kids on the block, towelled them up at home early into the new campaign alarm bells sounded once more. But sure enough, Michael Tuck’s side got on a roll to finish in second spot on the ladder. Their next mission: a trip across the Nullarbor to take on Mick Malthouse’s hotshots to start one of the most anticipated finals series ever held. All the experience of the battled-hardened Hawks was on display through the month that matters most, overcoming West Coast at Subiaco then just reaching the finish line against Geelong a week later to earn a berth in the Grand Final at VFL Park. The Eagles were now on their territory for the decider. Gary Ayres knows more than most about saving the best for last Saturday in September, twice winning the Norm Smith Medal as best afield in the 1986 and 1988 Grand Finals. By 1991, he was the vice-captain at Glenferrie, hunting his fifth premiership. The man they called Conan joins The Greatest Season That Was to take us into the inner sanctum of one of the most decorated and celebrated football team ever assembled. This is Bound for Glory.  The Greatest Season That Was Presents is part of The Bad Producer Podcast Network.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/TGSTWSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If 1991 was the year the national game came of age, it was the West Coast Eagles that drove the success. . During 1991 as the Eagles dominated the competition Victorian fans' worst fears were realised, the monster form Perth had taken over. But the view from Victoria was a distorted one, and didn’t take into account the challenge the club faced starting from a tribal and traditional league, nor the travel factor that would take its toll. Broadcasting doyen and Perth native  Dennis Cometti saw all of this up close, he joins us to discuss the Eagles rocky rise to 1991 in TGSTW presents Bound For Glory   The Greatest Season That Was Presents is part of The Bad Producer Podcast Network.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/TGSTWSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Greatest Season That Was Presents - Bound For Glory, the story of VFL Park, the Batmobile and the 1991 Grand Final. 2020 will see the AFL Grand Final played away from the MCG for only the second time since World War II. To mark the last time that happened, The Greatest Season That Was Presents…. Bound For GloryRoss Oakley was Ross the Boss in 1991, running the AFL. We chat to him about the 30 year saga of the league’s own ground that ended with a VFL Park Grand Final, the first truly national Grand Final played, and a little matter of Angry Anderson and a batmobile. (Who would be silly enough to buy that?) You can hear Ross's first appearance on TGSTW 93 in Episode 17. The Greatest Season That Was Presents is part of The Bad Producer Podcast Network.  Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/TGSTWSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Through this series we’ve looked at how Australian Rules has found its way into the lives of Americans in the most unlikely circumstances. But for the final episode we’re going to look at things in reverse. A time when US sport found something they liked about Australian Rules and turned it into an asset. Darren Bennett was a high quality full forward in the VFL/AFL whose trademark  was his booming right foot kick for goal. But when injuries curtailed his career at Melbourne Football Club, he was expected to fade off into the distance.  Nobody expected him to have a second life in professional sport. That this second life would eclipse his aussie rules career and make him a legend in America’s favourite sport makes it one of the most unlikely sporting success stories on either side of the Pacific. His legacy paved the way for many Australians in the US. AFL and NFL star Darren Bennett joins us all the way from Tulsa, Oklahoma  on TGSTW Presents US Revolution The Greatest Season That Was Presents is part of the Bad Producer Podcast Network and is produced by Jay Mueller.  Edited by Dave Collins. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/TGSTWSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

US Revolution features Mason Cox, Shannon Gill and American broadcaster Ed Wyatt in an exploration of Australian Rules Football's US connections. The 8-part series features additional interviews with Paul Roos, Mason Cox, Jason Holmes, ESPN's Bob Ley and former VFL / AFL star John Ironmonger.   Since the resumption of the AFL season the interest in Australian football from the US has continued , with now Fox Sports and ESPN both carrying matches in the USA. But  the idea of how to make the AFL an ongoing success beyond the spike of interest during COVID-19 is a challenging one. In a previous episode of US Revolution we spoke to Bob Ley – an ESPN original who was there in the heady days of the early 80s when Australian rules had a prime spot in the schedule because of the lack of rights to the major US sports. BY the 90s ESPN had fallen out of love with the sport as it bounced around irregular scheduling on the network. For expats and US converts it hit rock bottom when the broadcast of a Grand Final was delayed by a baseball game. One of our own, Ed Wyatt, and his Australian sports television producing wife Michelle were two of those who thought the game deserved better in the 90s. Michelle was producing for Fox Sports in the US and decided it was time Australian football was given a proper push. On TGSTW Presents US REV - we talk to Michelle, and Ed, about how they got Fox Sports to televise the AFL in the US during the 90s and the highs and lows of trying to push our game into the American TV market. The Greatest Season That Was is produced by Jay Mueller and is part of the Bad Producer Podcast Network. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/TGSTWSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mason Cox and Jason Holmes are unbelievable recent stories in AFL history, elite athletes from one part of the world being hand-picked without any knowledge of the game and transformed into senior AFL players over a period of time within a full-time professional set-up. But Danielle Marshall is a story perhaps even more unlikely, an American athlete who stumbled across the sport on TV, became a fan and then longed for a chance to play it.   Then when she finally found a way to play the Australian game in the USA year later, her progression was so quick that within 19 months she had become the first player to be directly recruited from the USAFL to AFLW, perhaps the the first time a player in an Australian football league based overseas has progressed to the highest level in Australia. Now a Western Bulldogs player who has just had a taste of her first AFLW season with a fairytale beginning, Dani Marshall joins us on TGSTW US Revolution to talk about her footy journey.  US Revolution features Mason Cox, Shannon Gill and American broadcaster Ed Wyatt in an exploration of Australian Rules Football's US connections. The 8-part series features additional interviews with Paul Roos, Mason Cox, Jason Holmes, ESPN's Bob Ley and former VFL / AFL star John Ironmonger.   The Greatest Season That Was is produced by Jay Mueller and is part of the Bad Producer Podcast Network. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/TGSTWSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

US Revolution features Mason Cox, Shannon Gill and American broadcaster Ed Wyatt in an exploration of Australian Rules Football's US connections. The 8-part series features additional interviews with Paul Roos, Mason Cox, Jason Holmes and Dani Marshall.  The Greatest Season That Was is produced by Jay Mueller and is part of the Bad Producer Podcast Network. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/TGSTWSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

US Revolution features Mason Cox, Shannon Gill and American broadcaster Ed Wyatt in an exploration of Australian Rules Football's US connections. The 8-part series features additional interviews with Paul Roos, Mason Cox, Jason Holmes and John Ironmonger.  The Greatest Season That Was is produced by Jay Mueller and is part of the Bad Producer Podcast Network. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/TGSTWSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When ESPN started on US television it had a studio, a name, and not much else. It also had Bob Ley. Bob and his ESPN colleagues spent hours talking about obscure sports from around the world. Australian Rules Football was one of the most obscure and developed a cult following among early ESPN subscribers.  Bob Ley joins The Greatest Season That Was Presents...US Revolution.  US Revolution features Mason Cox, Shannon Gill and American broadcaster Ed Wyatt in an exploration of Australian Rules Football's US connections. The 8-part series features additional interviews with Paul Roos, Mason Cox, Jason Holmes and John Ironmonger.  The Greatest Season That Was is produced by Jay Mueller and is part of the Bad Producer Podcast Network. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/TGSTWSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Paul Roos is a legend of modern Australian Rules.  On the field he was all class, 356 games for Fitzroy and Sydney, in the 80s he ushered in a new style of attacking play from defence and became on one of the league’s best players through his 17 season career that spanned from 1982-1997. He was named in the All-Australian team no less than 7 times, and was inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame as a player in 2005.  But that wasn’t the end of footy for Roosy. He moved into assistant coaching at Sydney before taking on the head coach role in 2002, turning the Swans into a perennial power and breaking a 72 year drought by coaching the formerly South Melbourne and now Sydney club to a premiership in 2005.  Finishing in 2010 he was then lured out of retirement to mastermind the rebuilding of the Melbourne Football Club taking them from the bottom of the AFL ladder, before handing over a finals ready team to his groomed successor 3 seasons later. But what is lesser known of Roos is his effect on football in the United States. A twist of fate on an end of season trip led to the USA becoming a second home and subsequently made him perhaps the highest profile advocate for the Australia-US footy connection. US Revolution features Mason Cox, Shannon Gill and American broadcaster Ed Wyatt in an exploration of Australian Rules Football's US connections. The 8-part series will feature additional interviews with Jason Holmes and former ESPN broadcaster Bob Ley.  The Greatest Season That Was is produced by Jay Mueller and is part of the Bad Producer Podcast Network. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/TGSTWSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A new series from the team at The Greatest Season That Was Presents.. The Greatest Season That Was Presents... US Revolution. Episode one features Collingwood FC's Mason Cox. US Revolution features Mason, Shannon Gill and American broadcaster Ed Wyatt in an exploration of Australian Rules Football's US connections. The 8-part series will feature interviews with Paul Roos, Jason Holmes and former ESPN broadcaster Bob Ley.  The Greatest Season That Was is produced by Jay Mueller and is part of the Bad Producer Podcast Network. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/TGSTWSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to a special one-off episode of The Greatest Season That Was.  When this podcast began, it was based on a very simple premise: that footy was never better than in season 1993. Needless to say, it’s a belief that remains strongly-held by all of us. But that doesn’t mean it was the greatest Grand Final ever played. For that, we go back four years. It’s widely accepted by the best judges that the 1989 decider was truly something else.  To mark the 30th anniversary of the match that had it all, friend of the show, Tony Wilson, decided to write the definitive account of it. The result is a brilliant new book, 1989 The Great Grand Final. It was that season when Tony formally joined Hawthorn as a player in the Under 19s. The son of 1971 premiership hero Ray Wilson, he knows every inch of the family club and devoted countless hours to interviewing many of Allan Jeans’ back-to-back victors from that momentous day. But this isn’t Hawks Hagiography. Anything but. As Tony details in our conversation, he knew how important it was to capture the essence of a stunning Geelong team under the stewardship of new coach Malcolm Blight with a man they called God standing at full forward. So set back and settle in as we revisit a game of football we’ll never stop watching and we’ll never stop talking about. The Greatest Season That Was is part of the Bad Producer Podcast Network.  Produced by Jay Mueller. Editing assistance by Dave Collins. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/TGSTWSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.