Fox Sports’ cricket boss Matthew Weiss viciously attacked the Australian men’s cricket team, Cricket Australia and cricket media members — including one journalist who had previously filed bullying complaints against Weiss’ close Foxtel colleague — in newly unearthed posts on X, formerly Twitter.
Last month, Crikey published an investigation revealing that Fox Cricket’s general manager had secretly run an abusive account, @RealRagingBull, for six years that abused colleagues, rivals and other high-profile individuals, while also posting inappropriate content.
While Weiss has since told people he was hacked, posts made from his anonymous account and another account using his real name show a pattern of behaviour over the years towards colleagues and stakeholders that was known at Foxtel and Cricket Australia.
After first declining to comment, Foxtel said it was investigating the improper use of multiple social media accounts. Weiss has not responded to repeated requests for comment, but three sources in the Australian sports media who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that since Crikey’s investigation, Weiss had blamed being “hacked” for the content of the @RealRagingBull account.
It’s unclear which posts by @RealRagingBull, which was active between 2014 and 2021, Weiss is blaming on a third party. Crikey has also seen text messages sent by Weiss in 2020 in which he admits he ran the @RealRagingBull account.
Additional tweets, seen by Crikey, show Weiss frequently attacked many of the athletes, journalists and the organisation whose matches are broadcast by Foxtel as part of its multibillion-dollar 2018/2023 broadcast deals.
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As well as being an open secret within Fox Sports, Crikey understands at least one Cricket Australia board member and the human resources departments of both Cricket Australia and Foxtel were made aware of Weiss’ social media abuse in 2021.
In addition to @RealRagingBull, Weiss also posted from an account bearing his own name and the username @yeshowgoodweiss and, at another point, @YeeeeeesHowGood at various points in 2020-22. Weiss openly continued to attack some of the same people, raising questions about when Foxtel first became aware of this public behaviour.
In previously reported and new tweets, Weiss called the Marsh family — which has produced cricket players including Mitchell, Shaun and Geoff Marsh — a “whole generation of spastics”. He told then Australian men’s cricket captain coach Justin Langer to “stick to yoga”, called him a “white noise addict” (a reference to Langer’s appeal to his team to ignore white noise) and repeatedly attacked him for defending the team’s resting policy — a policy that threatens to reduce the star power of Fox Sports’ broadcasts.
Both @RealRagingBull and Weiss’ public account have criticised cricket commentator and journalist Geoff Lemon. Crikey understands Lemon had previously made two bullying complaints to Cricket Australia and Foxtel against a Fox Sport colleague close to Weiss. Crikey is not reporting on the substance or merit of these complaints, only that the complaints were made.
Shortly after these complaints, Weiss repeatedly attacked Lemon on his anonymous Twitter account, calling him a “C Grader” commentator and a “battler” and mocking his clothing. Weiss repeated a similar clothing-based attack against Lemon using his named account. Lemon declined Crikey’s request to provide comment for this article.
Weiss frequently directed his ire at other cricket media members and stakeholders. On top of previously reported sprays at ABC’s Jim Maxwell, Gideon Haigh and Rohan Connolly, Weiss said he wanted to “headbutt” English cricket commentator Mark Nicholas. He called the television network Seven, which was then Foxtel’s cricket broadcast rights partner, “desperate”, a “shrinking iceberg” and said its “coverage is still stuck in 1994”.
Weiss even attacked Richard Hinds, a former cricket journalist who now works for Cricket Australia as a media adviser. Hinds declined to comment.
A spokesperson for Cricket Australia declined to comment on either Weiss’ conduct, citing Foxtel’s ongoing investigation, or the outcome of previous complaints against the other Fox Sports employee. Foxtel, too, declined to comment.
As part of Cricket Australia’s media accreditation process, applicants are required to agree to its Respect@Work policy, which includes anti-bullying and anti-harassment sections.
Foxtel’s payments to Cricket Australia reportedly made up close to half the organisation’s “Media, Broadcasting & Marketing” revenue, by far the biggest line item in its financial statements.
Weiss also repeatedly abused former colleague Simon Hill, who had left Fox Sports after 14 years of commentating on A-League, and who later claimed he was “removed” by the network. Over on his private account, Weiss went further, accusing him of looking like a “homeless man” and calling him an “oxygen thief”. On his public account, Weiss mocked Hill for being sacked, called him “previous detritus” and implied that no-one knew who he was. Hill declined Crikey’s request to provide comment for this article.
All under his real name, Weiss abused public figures such as former cricketer Michael Clarke, (“dial a quote… Michael Speaking”) sports writer Peter FitzSimons (“no bigger attention seeking dribbler going around”, “Peter your [sic] are a tool”), and journalist and former Bachelorette Georgia Love.
Weiss also used @YeeeeeesHowGood to attack people criticising the media for publishing a pro-apartheid letter and for its coverage of domestic violence charges against a former cricketer.
In early 2020, sports commentator and writer Rohan Connolly slammed The Australian for publishing a letter to the editor that argued there was a “method to the madness” of South Africa under apartheid. Weiss replied to call Connolly a “laughing stock” and said that he didn’t know “anything” about apartheid.
When Australian comedian Scott Dooley tweeted that articles about domestic violence charges against former cricketer Michael Slater “don’t need his test or one day batting averages”, Weiss replied defensively by suggesting that Dooley was a “part time freelance performer few had ever heard of”.
Weiss showed a fixation with the tennis achievements of 15-time Slam winner Dylan Alcott. On his public account, Weiss replied to a tweet asking, “how do they play a whole tournament with only 4 days left?”. He went further on @RealRagingBull, tweeting at Alcott: “7 titles you win in how many games? Novak was 77 I think…must have missed rounds 1-2-3-4”, “7 titles he beat 28 odd people, largely the same people”, and tweeting that the prize money for winning the men’s wheelchair tournament “should be job keeper”. When Alcott tweeted that the final of the Australian Open quad male singles would be at 7.30 pm, Weiss sarcastically thanked the tournament for the “woke reach around”.
Even the family members of colleagues weren’t saved from this abuse. In 2021, Fox Sports commentator Brenton Speed tweeted that he was the first person on Australian TV to pronounce player Alen Stajcic’s name correctly. Lucy Zelić, then a SBS presenter and sister of Fox Sports commentator Ned Zelić, responded by saying she’d “#BeenDoingItForAWhileNow.
Weiss responded with a withering attack about Zelić’s commentating abilities on @RealRagingBull: ”You hang off one — just — because your brother played and slaughter it most of the time. Pipe down champ.”
