CLAYTON Oliver appears to be embracing suggestions he took a dive against West Coast on Sunday night.
Not only has the Melbourne midfielder changed his Twitter profile picture to shine a light on the incident, but he has also taken aim at Australian cricket great Damien Martyn.
Oliver copped an elbow to the chin from Eagle Will Schofield during a heated scuffle on Saturday evening and fell to ground, leading to suggestions that he dived.
Post-game, Oliver refused to concede that he acted.
Martyn, who is a West Coast supporter and played 67 Tests and 208 one-day internationals for Australia, lashed out at Oliver via social media, only for the second-year footballer to remind the 2003 World Cup winner of a moment he would rather forget.
Martyn was famously made the scapegoat in a painful five-run defeat to South Africa at the SCG in 1994, when he was the second last man dismissed in Australia’s unsuccessful pursuit of just 117.
In just over 100 minutes of batting, Martyn made six from 58 balls as the Aussies reached 8-75. They were just seven runs away from winning when Donald lulled him into a false shot.
“We’d lost a Test match. I blamed myself. I felt it was my fault, even though I made 50-odd (59) in the first innings and the wicket wasn’t great that final day,” Martyn told News Limited in 2013.
“I batted for ages and was gutsing it out. As a young bloke, I watched all these legends getting out.
“I didn’t bat well for a couple of years so it took me a while to get my passion back. I didn’t think I’d make it back to Test cricket at that point.”
An elegant right-hander who ended up having a distinguished career for Western Australia and Australia, Martyn wafted at an Allan Donald delivery and was caught at cover.
The media heavily criticised the 23-year-old and so did the selectors, leading to a six-year exile from the Test team.
Oliver was still three and-a-half years away from being born when Martyn was dismissed at the SCG on that January afternoon.
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