Five worst teammate feuds in sporting history

THEY say a team that drinks together, wins together.

But history shows that mateship among cohorts is very much optional in the upper echelons of professional sport.

Indeed, some of the great on-field collectives have been riddled with bitterness, jealousy and outright loathing behind closed doors.

And there has been more than one occasion when such drama has spilled into the public eye.

Here are five of the most intense and explosive teammate rivalries in sporting history.

Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal

It has been said many times that Phil Jackson is the world’s best hope of creating peace in the Middle East.

That is because the ‘Zen Master’ somehow coached the Los Angeles Lakers to three consecutive NBA Championship titles while containing the twin egos of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.

A fearsome big-and-little combination on the court, the two were constantly butting heads off it.

Kobe’s cool, business-like demeanour clashed violently with Shaq’s more laid-back attitude to life as soon as the pair arrived at LA in 1996.

Their points and counterpoints in practice, in the locker room and especially in the press were often as entertaining as watching them play.

Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer

It is uncommon enough these days to see European footballers become entangled in anything remotely resembling old-school fisticuffs.

It is even rarer to see such a thing occur between teammates in the middle of a top-flight match.

Lee Bowyer always had a reputation for being scrappy, to put it mildly, and that side came out in full force when Newcastle United played Aston Villa in a 2005 Premier League clash.

Having exchanged words with Kieron Dyer over his choice of passing options, Bowyer grabbed his fellow England midfielder and started swinging.

The referee intervened and both players were given their marching orders.

Unsurprisingly, the nonsense carried into the change rooms after the game, at which point Newcastle manager Graeme Souness promised to take them both on if they didn’t cut it out.

Wayne Carey and Anthony Stevens

During North Melbourne’s halcyon days of the late 1990s, Wayne Carey was universally admired as one of the greatest players ever to grace Australian football.

By the time he left the club in 2002, that reputation had been rather overshadowed by some of his off-field exploits.

It was in March that year when news broke of Carey’s extra-marital affair with Kelli Stevens – the wife of his best mate, Kangaroos vice-captain Anthony Stevens.

That betrayal ripped the heart out of a battling club during its finest years and turned the entire football community against its champion skipper.

Carey quit North in disgrace and fled the country to escape the media frenzy, returning to footy in 2003 with the Adelaide Crows.

Stevens went on to captain the Roos for two seasons before hanging up the boots in 2004.

Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna

Formula One racing has witnessed some fierce internal rivalries down the years, but the shenanigans of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg pale in comparison to Prost versus Senna.

The two standout drivers of the 1980s were contrasting characters: one a well-to-do Frenchman who mingled with the upper crust and played the political game with aplomb, the other an upstart visionary from Sao Paulo who spoke his mind and treated convention with complete disregard.

In 1988, Prost convinced his bosses at McLaren to sign Senna in a bid to ensure that Honda – a huge admirer of the Brazilian’s driving – would stay on as the team’s engine supplier.

The result was a game of one-upmanship like no other.

They fought in the sheds and they sniped in the press, but it was their actions on the track that made this one of sport’s greatest rivalries.

Yet there was a mutual respect there, as evidenced when Senna pulled his rival onto the top of the podium after the 1993 Australian Grand Prix – Prost’s final race.

The Frenchman returned the favour following Senna’s tragic death at San Marino in 1994, serving as a pallbearer at the funeral.

The Australian cricket team

Australian cricket has produced a fair few characters over the past 140 years or so.

Not all of them have got along.

Indeed, we could write an entire series on the grudges and gripes within the national ranks.

Here are the highlights:

Sir Donald Bradman vs. the Catholics – He was the greatest batsman who ever lived, but ‘The Don’ was also a staunch Protestant who had little tolerance for religious diversity. He was infamously icy towards Keith Miller and Bill O’Reilly throughout their shared careers, but his long-burning feud with Jack Fingleton – a Victorian batsman and journalist – stands out.

Kim Hughes vs. Lillee and Marsh – Poor old Hughes had a rough enough time captaining Australia without two of his star players giving him hell. Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh went to extraordinary lengths to defy their fellow West Aussie and were never shy about it, even changing the skipper’s field settings at whim without consultation or instruction.

Shane Warne vs. Steve Waugh, Adam Gilchrist, et al – Like Bradman, ‘Warney’ is an all-time great who had a habit of stirring things up in the dressing room. He despised Steve Waugh most of all, dubbing the long serving and highly successful captain of Australia “the most selfish cricketer I’ve ever played with”.

Michael Clarke vs. Simon Katich – ‘Pup’ Clarke’s reputation as a clean-cut golden boy has taken rather a battering in recent years, due in no small part to the tales of his infamous dressing-room scrap with Katich after the 2010-11 Sydney Test. He promised the likeable and reliable opener that he would never play for Australia again, and he was as good as his word.

Shane Watson vs. the rest of Australia – An extremely talented yet injury-prone allrounder who never quite lived up to his vast potential on the international stage, Watson was one of those players who divided opinion both in dressing rooms and lounge rooms. Clarke had no time for him, even when ‘Watto’ was the vice-captain, and that stance was shared by millions all over the country.