Marty Sheargold #

Introduction #

Marty Sheargold is an Australian stand-up comedian, radio broadcaster, and actor who lost his drive-time show at Triple M in February 2025 after an on-air rant about the Matildas, Australia’s national women’s football team, was recorded and posted to social media by a national-level athlete. Speaking on his afternoon show hours after the Matildas lost 2-1 to the USA at the SheBelieves Cup, Sheargold said “there’s something wrong with the Matildas,” compared the team to “Year 10 girls,” mocked the SheBelieves Cup with “Oh, she believes in what? It better be men,” and said of the upcoming women’s Asian Cup in Australia: “I’d rather hammer a nail through the head of my penis than watch that.” The remarks were blasted as “horrendous” and “utterly disgusting,” drew rebukes from Football Australia, the Australian Sports Commission, and the team’s own interim coach, and ended with the network announcing that “Triple M and Marty Sheargold have mutually agreed to part ways.”

Background Information #

Sheargold — born Martin Donald Sheargold in 1971 — built his career as a stand-up comedian and radio host, and had returned to the airwaves in 2025 after a sudden exit from radio in 2023, taking over Triple M’s Melbourne afternoon drive slot. The network, owned by Southern Cross Austereo, had become one of the country’s biggest radio brands in part on the back of its AFL coverage, and Sheargold hosted alongside co-hosts including Troy Ellis. His February 2025 rant came at a sensitive moment for women’s sport in Australia: the Matildas’ run to the 2023 FIFA World Cup semi-finals at home had produced record audiences and a surge in participation, and the team was fresh off a 4-0 loss to Japan and a gallant 2-1 defeat to the football powerhouse United States at the SheBelieves Cup in America. Australia was also preparing to host the women’s Asian Cup the following year, a fact raised on air during the segment.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #

During his Monday afternoon show on February 24, 2025 — aired in Melbourne around 5:30pm, hours after the SheBelieves Cup loss — Sheargold went on what Nine’s Wide World of Sports called a “bizarre rant” after co-host Troy Ellis introduced the Matildas result. “There’s something wrong with the Matildas,” he said, acknowledging the team’s 2023 World Cup run “where we all fell in love with them, even though they didn’t make the quarters,” before adding: “You know what they remind me of? Year 10 girls… All the infighting and all the friendship issues, ’the coach hates me and I hate bloody training and Michelle’s being a bitch’.” “Now I’m sorry to undermine the whole sport, but that’s what I think of it so you can stick it up your arse,” he continued, then interrupted his co-hosts’ attempt to discuss the match with “Oh, she believes in what? It better be men,” and, told Australia would host the women’s Asian Cup: “Oh, god. The Asian Cup. I’d rather hammer a nail through the head of my penis than watch that. Got any men’s sport (to talk about)?” Former Hockeyroos player Rosie Malone posted an audio clip of the segment to her TikTok account the next day, and it spread rapidly online, where the comments were called “disgusting.” Sheargold did not appear on his regularly scheduled program on the Wednesday, and the network confirmed the split.

Public Reaction and Consequences #

Southern Cross Austereo chief content officer Dave Cameron said in a statement: “SCA takes its responsibility to listeners, shareholders, and clients seriously and its programming should align with the standards and expectations of its audience… Right now, it’s clear this is a moment for reflection and review,” while acknowledging Sheargold’s contribution over four years. Sheargold apologised in the same statement: “Having mutually agreed to part ways with the Triple M Network, I fully understand the gravity of my comments… I’d like to sincerely apologise to the Matildas and the broader organisation.” Interim Matildas coach Tom Sermanni said the comments “cross the line” and were “completely unnecessary and generally outrageous,” adding that while “sexism and misogyny” were unacceptable, “it’s kind of what the comments were” that disappointed him. The Australian Sports Commission said it was “disappointed that athletes and women in sport still have to deal with these derogatory comments,” and Football Australia called the remarks “unacceptable,” saying they “diminish the extraordinary achievements and contributions of our women’s national football team.” Channel 7 presenter Mel McLaughlin used her sports segment to call them “the bizarre, pathetic, and embarrassing comments,” telling viewers “they obviously do not represent how any of us feel.”

Current Status #

Sheargold’s Triple M show was gone within roughly 48 hours of the broadcast, with the “mutual” parting framing doing little to disguise that the network had cut him loose days after the audio went viral. Beyond the apology embedded in the exit statement, he issued no further public defence of the remarks, and the coverage that week centred on the apologies and the institutional rebukes rather than on any announced next move. The SheBelieves Cup episode itself faded quickly as a sporting matter; the audio clip, the Malone TikTok, and the network’s two-day turnaround remained the story.

Impact on Their Career/Life #

Sheargold lost the drive-time platform he had regained only months earlier, ending his second stint in commercial radio with a network that had, in its own words, weighed its responsibility to “listeners, shareholders, and clients” against his contribution and chosen the former. For a comedian whose radio persona traded on provocation, the incident redrew the boundary in public: a clip captured by an elite athlete he had never met was enough to end the show in two days, a demonstration of athlete-side leverage that Australian women’s sport had not consistently held a decade earlier. The apology and “mutual” framing preserved some dignity, but the exit sealed the reputation of the rant as a career-defining moment, cited alongside his 2023 radio departure as bookends to a turbulent run in the medium. Whatever stage and screen work he pursues next, it will proceed without the daily radio megaphone that had made his voice a fixture of Melbourne afternoons.