Tuesday night's televised confrontation between Harry Kewell and Robbie Slater reached rather dizzy heights.
"I don't know why you're creating this kind of thing."
"What have I ever done to you?"
To be honest, it wasn't unlike the sort of stuff I witnessed in my junior all-girls high school days.
Except this isn't the school playground - it's the international stage.
Whether or not Slater's story is true is beside the point. If it's not true, he's probably got a hefty defamation case coming his way. And more angry phone calls.
If it is true, several factors should be considered. The incident allegedly occurred at a team dinner, post World Cup. South Africa (well, the Germany game at least) was disappointing for everyone involved - coaches, fans, players - and situations such as this tend to bring out the worst in people. Combined with the possibility that alcohol may have been involved, anything that was said should be taken lightly.
Even if Harry was verbally assaulted it's hardly anything to kick up a fuss about. There is disharmony in every football team from every corner of the planet - from under 5s to Manchester United.
Nevertheless, negative publicity such as this is not what football in Australia needs. We get enough bad press about tactics and technicality from Craig Foster without having allegations of problems between the actual players.
Sure, it happens everywhere but the anti-football media is having a field day with this, as they did with the Tim Cahill problems last year. Anyone who has seen the Tim Cahill biography aired before the World Cup can see that they're just waiting to pounce on anything negative they can say about football.
As for the claims that it was time for Harry to retire, I'm siding with Harry here. Ultimately, it's up to the manager to decide whether or not a player should be on the pitch.
Look at John Aloisi - up until a year or so ago he was insisting he could play for the Socceroos, however, Pim Verbeek chose not to select him. Harry has every right to make himself available for international duty until he feels unfit or is no longer needed and should not be told when to retire.
To me, the interview (if you could call it that) proved just how dedicated Harry is to the Socceroos. But you can bet your life a lot of the media won't take that view.
Something tells me "the circus" hasn't left town yet.
