Have you ever had the sinking feeling you’re at the wrong party? Your friends are messaging you, but you can’t see them. You’re sure you’re at the right address but it’s becoming clear you aren’t.
Then spare a thought for the former Australian deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, who has revealed he watched the wrong Matildas World Cup match over the weekend.
As the entire country was holding its breath watching the Matildas win an agonising penalty shootout against France, the Nationals MP was celebrating what he thought was an easy victory.
What Joyce had watched instead was the Matildas’ 1-0 friendly win against France, played in Melbourne on 14 July.
Despite proud proclamations on Facebook that he was watching the historic quarter-final, it was only after he had a post-match dinner that he realised he had watched the wrong match.
At 7pm on Saturday night, around the time the Matildas were heading into extra time after 90 tense, goalless minutes, Joyce posted a video to Facebook from the pub he was at, declaring that “in every country pub, city club, suburban home they are doing this tonight. Watching the Matildas.”
“In Australia tonight, this is what’s happening,” Joyce says in the video, before panning the camera to show a group of people at a pub watching the wrong match.
The video also shows shots of a stadium that is clearly not Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.
Joyce was at the Commercial Hotel in Walcha, and staff at the pub confirmed to Guardian Australia that Joyce did watch the wrong match.
“We hadn’t even realised until today that it was the wrong match. The crowd didn’t notice either, it’s been news to us.”
The staff member could not confirm why the pub had access to an old friendly and not a free-to-air broadcast.
In a TV appearance on Monday, Joyce admitted he’d watched the wrong match, saying he went off for dinner because he thought the Matildas had won 1-0.
“I know it was an incredible penalty shootout which we never [saw] – we went and had dinner because we thought they’d won 1-0,” Joyce told Sunrise host Natalie Barr.
“I went to the pub and watched them on the weekend, but I think we were watching the wrong game,” he added.
Joyce said he suspected something was going on, considering the pub was playing Channel Ten and not Channel Seven, which has been hosting live coverage of every Matildas World Cup game.
But Joyce didn’t think to question it in the moment.
“I think they put on a repeat because it was on Channel Ten. I don’t think it was the right one,” he said. “Such is life.”
A Ten spokesperson said the channel was not airing a replay of the match on Saturday night.
