Matty and Andrew Johns feud: Greg Chappell’s media theory on brothers’ fallout
A Test cricket legend who had decades worth of spirited arguments with his older brother has a theory about the most recent instalment of Matty and Andrew Johns’ family feud.
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Cricket great Greg Chappell, once the centre of Australia’s most celebrated brotherly rivalry, senses the Johns family feud will end with beers not tears.
Chappell sees several common threads in the rivalry between Matty and Andrew Johns and his own relationship with his elder brother of five years Ian who, like Greg, is a celebrated Australian captain.
Matty annoyed his younger brother by waxing lyrical about the Queensland State of Origin side on air before the Maroons won the first game of the series, prompting Andrew to brush a scheduled on air appearance on SEN with Matthew on Friday.
Like the Johns brothers, the Chappell’s were backyard rivals who, later in life, occasionally found themselves locking horns in many spirited arguments.
When they first faced off in a Sheffield Shield games after Greg moved from South Australia to Queensland, Ian later told his mother “you won’t be surprised it took us all of 10 minutes to have our first blue.’’
“The thing about brothers is they know how to wind each other up,’’ Greg Chappell said.
“I got a phone call from Ian after Queensland won the other night and he said “what is it about bloody Queenslanders with their resilience and tenacity.’’ He loves his rugby league but hates Queensland getting up all the time.
“They (the Johns brothers) are in the media and here we are talking about it. They might be playing it up so good luck to them. I wouldn’t mind betting they are having a quiet chuckle in the background. They might have sucked us all in!
“The younger brother is always on the receiving end. In the early years you haven’t got the strength or life experience to get on top but as you get older I think sometimes the younger brother needs to be more cunning to survive.’’
Ian once said, with a strong whiff of sarcasm, he had never once won an argument with Greg which said as much about Greg’s ability never to concede a point to his brother as it did about his debating ability.
But beneath the banter there lies a strong bond with Greg admitting “Ian has always been my hero and still is’’ and “we had our differences but if anyone criticised one of us to the other then we would stick up for each other.’’
The Chappells have had some fierce debates over whether it is the job of the states to pick players to win the Sheffield Shield or develop Test players with Ian arguing the former and Greg the later.
“Ian said to me one say we were always considered very different people but we are actually a lot closer in personality than you would like to admit. That was one thing we actually agreed on.’’
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