We start with a nod to the late Patrick Smith.
Particularly poignant just after 9 on a Monday when the SEN airwaves were his stage alongside KB.
Fearless and fearsome… for so long his old world, old school daily column commanded the back page of The Australian and demanded your attention.
Patrick had the whole suite – he could write beautifully about the majesty of sport; he could be caustic and confronting, a frightful adversary for sports administrators if he had you in his sights; and he was never better than when he was campaigning.
He’d take a position based on principle and prosecute it dogmatically and relentlessly… across days and weeks and years.
By sheer coincidence yesterday I was listening to the Press Box podcast where Bryan Curtis was lamenting the absence of the crusty sports columnist, who would come in strong and land an extreme opinion with such gravitas that it would tilt the axis of a debate.
Curtis said: “We can’t get the right answer unless we explore the polarities of possible responses.”
I thought immediately of Patrick Smith who on the Australian sporting landscape represented one of the last of the old guard on that front.
The prescribed daily column from which to pound the pulpit and provoke a response.
In his own sporting days, Patrick had been a firebrand fast bowler for Prahran and the easiest analogy was to say his writing was always off the long run.
What most readily comes to mind will be different for all those who read him religiously.
For me it’s Corn Flakes.
His satirical columns about Grant Thomas… bitingly funny and borderline cruel.
He was profound when Adam Goodes was being booed.
He thought at its inception the A-League could legitimately threaten the dominance of the AFL if soccer could unite.
He took up against the whip in racing, a battle that still rages.
And how he would’ve feasted on the days of Peter V’Landys.
As a cub reporter I’d spend the feature Spring Carnival days in his orbit wondering what was capturing his eye… looking forward to reading his thoughts on a Monday as a lesson in what to look for.
Throughout the profession he is admiringly remembered today, and I’m sure for many of you as well.
A giant of sports journalism is lost.
We send our thoughts to Sue and his family.
Vale, Patrick Smith.