It's been a big week for post-sporting event interviews — and no-one dominated the microphone quite like Shepparton soccer starlet Alou Kuol.
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In cementing cult hero status in just his third A-League game for the Central Coast Mariners, Kuol's now-viral post-match interview on Fox Sports was something else; he said he wasn't scared to battle the Newcastle Jets’ veteran centre-backs as he was used to the "big boys back home", said his goal for the rest of the season was to "rifle one into the top corner", and expressed his extremely platonic love for his mates watching back home at The Deck.'
It was five minutes of magic that cannot be recommended highly enough — and yet it was not the only nugget of interview gold emanating from the weekend.
Not only did you have GWS youngster Tim Taranto shamelessly drop an F-bomb during a post-game chat, but Watford striker Troy Deeney sent social media into meltdown when he called a reporter a "cheeky bastard" after being asked if he was going to retire after his team was relegated.
That got the team at OTB thinking — just what are the best post-match interview moments in recent memory?
Richard Sherman (Seattle Seahawks)
“I'm the best corner in the game. When you try me with a sorry receiver like Crabtree, that's the result you gon’ get. Don't you open your mouth about the best.”
Not too many NFL fans would have forgotten this legendary interview from Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman after he won his team a spot in the Super Bowl by saving a touchdown with the final play of the NFC Championship game in 2013.
He repeatedly referenced "sorry" San Francisco wide receiver Michael Crabtree who Sherman claimed had been talking trash he was unable to back up.
When people say AFL players bring zero to the table personality-wise in media appearances, the complete opposite of that is what a fired-up Sherman delivered after the biggest performance of his career.
Marshawn Lynch (Seattle Seahawks)
“Yeah.”
The Seahawks’ mid-2010s team contained the game's best media performer in Sherman, and also the worst in the form of running back Marshawn Lynch.
Lynch, who was actually a charismatic and loveable figure, had zero time for the media and found its need for an interview after every game to be a waste of time — so he decided to waste its time.
In 2014, Lynch was sick of paying fines for not doing media appearances (he'd racked up $100,000 in fines by this point), so he came up with the genius plan of doing media, but not answering questions.
His greatest post-match hit was answering every question with a simple "yeah" — and when he got sick of that, he plugged a foundation he fronted.
Other Lynch highlights from that era included the same strategy of answering every question with the same phrase — "thanks for asking" and "I'm just here so I won't get fined" were two other rippers.
Floyd Mayweather Jr
“You never give me a fair shake, HBO needs to fire you because you don't know sh*t about boxing. You ain't sh*t.”
Fresh from securing a fourth-round knockout of Victor Ortiz, legendary boxer Floyd Mayweather took serious issue with the line of questioning from in-ring interviewer Larry Merchant.
During the bout, Ortiz was deducted a point for an intentional head butt on Mayweather, but when Ortiz had his hands down apologising, Mayweather dropped him with reasonably cheap shots and won the fight.
With Mayweather already dominating the fight, Merchant was perplexed as to why Mayweather had resorted to such questionable means, but the champion ran out of patience and unloaded on the 80-year-old.
To be fair, Merchant probably won the altercation by telling Mayweather "I wish I was 50 years younger and I'd kick your a*se.”
Nick Maxwell (Collingwood)
“It's probably going to take this for the AFL to change the rule, because this is an absolute joke. There's no way it should be decided after another game, guys come here for a win or a loss and that's what we should be leaving with."
Apparently all it took for an AFL player to dish out some unfiltered honestly was just the third — and final — drawn grand final in the game's lengthy history.
After the first 2010 grand final between Collingwood and St Kilda ended at 68-68, Magpie skipper Nick Maxwell hid no part of his emotions — shattered his side had coughed up a lead, and angry the teams would be forced into a replay one week later as opposed to playing extra time.
He was then asked what he would say to his team post-game, and his answer was just as honest — "I have no idea".
He was right too — the AFL did change the rule, making this the last grand final replay.
Chael Sonnen
“Anderson Silva, you absolutely suck. Super Bowl weekend, the biggest rematch in the history of the business, I'm calling you out Silva, but we're upping the stakes. I win, you leave the division. You win, I will leave the UFC forever.”
This is certainly one from left-field, but it will go down as one of the UFC's greatest post-fight moments of all-time.
Chael Sonnen, who had just won a fight after a lengthy lay-off, ignored the interviewer's question and instead called out long-time rival and middleweight champion Anderson Silva for one of the biggest fights in company history.
Silva had beaten Sonnen a year earlier in miraculous fashion, but the latter's trash talk both before and after that fight had built a marketable rivalry between the two creating a bout of epic proportions.
But not too much of Sonnen's offer really came true; they did not rematch on Super Bowl weekend, nor did he leave the UFC after losing their long-awaited rematch.
Senior journalist