"I just wish my kid would stop crying"
That game hit some people harder than most. George Negus has been closer than most to the on and off field action. On December 1, George was interviewed on radio 5AA. The men behind the mike were Ken Cunningham (KG) and Graham Cornes (GC). An edited transcript follows.
(courtesy of Lou Maratos, cheers, mate!)

GC: "Difficult times George, a couple of days later do you see anything differently?"

GN: "A little clearer. I just wish my kid would stop crying. That's what I think we have to worry about now. We've created heroes and I for one am not going to let the kids down, we created those heroes...how can I put it, what journalistic cliche can I drag out, we lost the game but I think the game won."

(later...)

GC: "Can I ask you about another one George? The fact that FIFA overturned the suspensions of four of the Iranian players. Did that..."

GN: "We were pretty peed off about that. You know that was the rule and it applied to us as well as them. So, people of course now are raising the whole spectre of this away goals thing. You know we bragged about that for such a long time we are the only sport in the world that recognises a home advantage. I don't think we can complain too much about that but try to explain to people that don't understand soccer that we played the entire World Cup campaign, did not lose a game and are not there. Iran are there and they lost a couple of games."

KG: "You play under the rules, I can accept that. But I think in the future it has to be changed..."

GN: "Well, I think there will be a scream about it, a bit of an outcry about it that's for sure because it's so clear everybody is saying it, that in this particular instance Mark Bosnich has been his usual courageous self and said they won because they were the better team. I never thought I'd disagree with Mark Bosnich about much except the choice of wine but Bosnich your wrong. I can say it you can't because your a fantastic sportsmen and a great loser but the better team lost the better team clearly lost, those guys...three quarters of that game Saturday night could of damn near beaten anybody in the world

KG: "Should we of been 5-0 up at half time?"

GN: "Yeah, we should of been 5-0 up at half time. That's easy for us armchair types to say, I mean Terry had a very interesting way of putting it about Aurelio (Vidmar) who had some chances, Aurelio Vidmar and didn't your Adelaide boys do us proud?"

KG: "What about Stan Lazaridis?"

GN: "Oh! You know, but Aurelio lifted himself as he always does on these big occasions and I have so much admiration for Aurelio and Tony Vidmar that it's not funny and we would of loved to have seen Milan Ivanovic on the pitch. Now, your other great champion out there and Robbie Hooker.."

KG: "On that point George, we have been asked by a number of callers as to why Milan Ivanovic wasn't put on the pitch after we were 2-0 up?"

GN: "Good point and that's another thing people have raised, I mean Ray Gatt the instant Terry Venables critic..."

GC: "He's been scathing hasn't he?"

GN: "Ray Gatt I suspect wrote the article canning Hill and myself last Thursday and had it in his back pocket for when this happened."

KG: "Has he been gunning for you?"

GN: "Since day one."

KG: "George, on that point before you answer the question about Milan Ivanovic what would you say to the critics that said that you, Hill and Venables should go?"

GN: "Well, we'll go and we'll go back exactly the way soccer was before, with about three hundred people standing under a tin shed on Saturday afternoon watching themselves think."

Page 2, Interview Index.