He admitted to "pissing off" Matthew Hayden, having much the same effect on another teammate, Simon Katich, as well as confessing to being a bad vice-captain.
But former Australian captain Michael Clarke did want to clarify the perception he called Shane Watson a cancer.
Speaking on 60 Minutes, Clarke opened up on some of the controversies that marked his 115-Test career.
Of the dressing room stoush at the SCG with Katich in 2009, he admitted the doughty left-hander had grabbed him by the shirt when Clarke wanted to get the team song sung in order to get to another function.
"I think a lot of us were getting wound up," he said of the incident.
"So I think I had every reason to be pissed off. But I don't think my language was appropriate to Kato."
He admitted a number of other Australian players weren't too happy either, including opening batsman Hayden, who it transpired was set to retire.
"I think Haydos was pissed off as well that that happened in his last Test," Clarke said.
Clarke's time under Ricky Ponting was also fraught on a number of levels.
He said that when he assumed the vice-captaincy it was expected in most quarters that he would go on to lead the side.
"I don't think I was a good vice captain at all," Clarke said. "As soon as I got the vice-captaincy I think the perception was I automatically the next captain and that built."
"I think he (Ponting) feels that I let him down."
While he also admitted that he could be "a dick", Clarke was prepared to split hairs on referring to former Australian allrounder Shane Watson as "a cancer".
"I said that there is a number of players or a group in this team at the moment that are like a tumour and if we don't fix it its going to turn into a cancer," he said of the 2013 slight which came to light via former coach Mickey Arthur.
