Speaker 1: Welcome to the podcast today, and you're about to listen
Speaker 1: to episode one. After you've finished, head straight over to
Speaker 1: episode two. Okay, enjoy get that.
Speaker 2: Make yourself comforty you sit back, put the mic into
Speaker 2: you on that, John, I'm comfortable. Are you happy now? Yeah?
Speaker 2: You are.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 2: We'll leave that in. But a bloke that we talk
Speaker 2: about this person a lot on the podcast, Jack, would
Speaker 2: you say, well we I would say he's probably the
Speaker 2: most talked about player in the National Rugby League, not
Speaker 2: for his ability, but for his being a part of
Speaker 2: this family. He's almost like a unicorn to our listeners.
Speaker 2: They've never heard a word that you've said, but we've
Speaker 2: made it happen today. Harry Grant, Welcome to the studio. Mate,
Speaker 2: Thanks mate, it's good to be on. And yeah, it's
Speaker 2: good to see Maddie. Yeah, made an appearance for the
Speaker 2: big event.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, look, you're a big guest for us. We want
Speaker 2: to get you on for a long time. But obviously
Speaker 2: you live in Melbourne, so it's hard to liaise with
Speaker 2: your busy schedule and and the amount that you cost
Speaker 2: as well, and you'll be invoicing us, but Harry, best
Speaker 2: price for your boys dad's in Lismore, so he's what's
Speaker 2: he doing? Well, Loreno's as we just saw, it's expensive,
Speaker 2: so I think he needs to go and make some
Speaker 2: spare cash. I think he's on speaking gigs and whatnot.
Speaker 2: We've better check in. These must be struggling. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: don't think Fox Sport's paying him enough. Yeah, we might
Speaker 2: have to renegotiate that.
Speaker 3: Honestly, Tricia slops him out like nothing she actually does.
Speaker 2: Trisha's gone for a long lunch. Well, this is the thing,
Speaker 2: right Trisha. She'll book all these speaking gigs for him
Speaker 2: and be like, Matt, you've got this. Then. I don't
Speaker 2: even think she checks with him half the time, especially
Speaker 2: when there's costs that are going about, you know, whether
Speaker 2: it be renovations or car costs and stuff. And then
Speaker 2: she goes when he's not here, she'll go and just
Speaker 2: have a massive long lunch with all of her friends.
Speaker 2: So she books it for her herself. Really, well, she's
Speaker 2: probably said to her friends, let's let's have a long
Speaker 2: lunch because that's the way I'll book. I'll book Matt
Speaker 2: into Lizmore for a speaking gig. And you know what
Speaker 2: she does, because he ticked, you know, how dad doesn't
Speaker 2: have like laptop email shit, So she he doesn't even
Speaker 2: have access to his bank accounts. Yeah, so she wouldn't know,
Speaker 2: he would seriously, she doesn't. So he wouldn't know how
Speaker 2: much money's in the bank. So he doesn't know. Chris
Speaker 2: could be scamming the shit out of.
Speaker 3: He wouldn't know what. He wouldn't know what he's been
Speaker 3: able to accumulate over the years. He would have no clue.
Speaker 2: That's a good life, isn't it. It's it's nice. It's
Speaker 2: naive because you would like, as far as he's concerned,
Speaker 2: he makes well, he would have no idea how much
Speaker 2: goes in.
Speaker 3: It works in two ways because in one way, you
Speaker 3: know he hasn't got that over his head. But in
Speaker 3: another way, because he's awfully cheap. I see him do
Speaker 3: some things at dinner sometimes where people are like splitting
Speaker 3: the bill or whatever it is, and you just see
Speaker 3: him go quiet.
Speaker 2: He actually doesn't know how much money's good on the car.
Speaker 2: He goes, Oh no, he does do that a lot,
Speaker 2: Like if he's if he's at dinner and he's had
Speaker 2: a few drinks and he knows the bill's expensive, he'll
Speaker 2: almost like put his head down or go to the
Speaker 2: toilet as he knows the bill is going to be
Speaker 2: coming out so he doesn't have to chip in. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he's tight conservative talking about tight because you are, well,
Speaker 2: you're one of the biggest tight asses. I would say,
Speaker 2: as well, that's rich. Well, I would say, no, I
Speaker 2: think you know for me personally, you know, you know,
Speaker 2: blue collar, coming from a working class family, class town,
Speaker 2: you know, you understand you've got to work for everything
Speaker 2: in life. Where yourself personally like, over the years, it's
Speaker 2: more of that silver spoon you know things. Yeah, things
Speaker 2: just come easy in life, they come free. You've had
Speaker 2: everything given to you. So that's sort of a harsh
Speaker 2: I would say, that's a harsh comment than that. You know,
Speaker 2: my dad doesn't know how much he makes, so therefore
Speaker 2: I never knew how much team made. And yes, we
Speaker 2: grew up close to the beach. I would I'd like
Speaker 2: to be closer. But you out there in your pon,
Speaker 2: where is your poon next to your knife and fork? Correct?
Speaker 2: It is up there in rock Anton. Did you enjoy
Speaker 2: your childhood up there? No idea. It is a good,
Speaker 2: good place to grow up. I think as you get
Speaker 2: older and and you sort of go back there, you
Speaker 2: appreciate it more for what it is and what it
Speaker 2: gives you throughout those years. I don't really know if
Speaker 2: I will end up back there or not. Not really sure.
Speaker 2: We've got real estate in every just about every town
Speaker 2: at the moment. Not in Manly, Mate. It's too expensive
Speaker 2: on the beaches. Yeah, did you? Someone was asking me
Speaker 2: to because you're a surfer. They were saying, it's a
Speaker 2: it's an anomaly that Harry Grant knows how to surf
Speaker 2: given he come from your Pun. They said, the beaches
Speaker 2: aren't that great there. Yeah, No, that's pretty shit surf.
Speaker 2: It's probably like one of the most northern parts that
Speaker 2: gets like genuine swell. I don't remember when we're kids,
Speaker 2: would you just like, as bad as it sounds, you'd
Speaker 2: be hoping for for a cyclone because he'd create a
Speaker 2: bit of swell and you'd get you'd get good surf.
Speaker 2: Where's that?
Speaker 3: Where's that that wave? Pull up? There? Is that Kelly
Speaker 3: Slater's or someone's up that way?
Speaker 2: H Yeah, there's one. There was a prototype in your
Speaker 2: Pun and that was Okolupo.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, is that the giant bell?
Speaker 2: Is it like a bell or anything like that?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, isn't a bell like slams down and hits the water. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So I think the guy had the idea. He threw
Speaker 2: a rock in the pool and like as you throw
Speaker 2: a rock in the pool, there was like a ripple effect. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So he's like, I think he was an engineer or whatever,
Speaker 2: and he was like, oh, I could actually make a
Speaker 2: wave pool with this design, big plunge. Yeah, that was
Speaker 2: his idea. And then it's sort of come to life,
Speaker 2: but it hasn't really has taken off real Is it
Speaker 2: left you or a ride or is it just mate?
Speaker 2: I haven't look at this guy. It's all the above, Jack,
Speaker 2: Oh right.
Speaker 3: I know I'm really interested because I remember going out
Speaker 3: to the surf with you out at Freshwater one day
Speaker 3: when you're at the Tigers, and I do remember that. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it didn't last very long in there. It was pretty
Speaker 3: pretty not.
Speaker 2: Well, Yeah, who did we go with that day? Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's raf That's what I was just telling you before.
Speaker 2: He's on the trunk because the Sharks at the moment,
Speaker 2: this up and down the South at the moment, Yeah,
Speaker 2: they beat they beat the Knights. We're gonna talk about
Speaker 2: your game in a second as well. But the sharks
Speaker 2: at the minute you are you surfing still at the
Speaker 2: moment with all the shark tacks now, probably not as
Speaker 2: much this year, a couple of couple of serfs here
Speaker 2: and there. I think as as the years go on,
Speaker 2: probably get less time in the water. But yeah, it
Speaker 2: definitely is a little bit of a concern, a bit
Speaker 2: more attention around it and something. It's probably on your
Speaker 2: mind a lot more now. But I think Cross.
Speaker 3: Doing the right things in New South Wales. I'm know
Speaker 3: what they're doing in Queensland. So at the moment Chris
Speaker 3: Mens has done like an initiative. So my mate Raff's
Speaker 3: like the head of the board riders there at Curly,
Speaker 3: So he's basically been given like this life saver drone
Speaker 3: where they you know, when they've got contests or anything
Speaker 3: going on, sort of you know in the yea patrolling.
Speaker 3: He goes out there and susses it out before and
Speaker 3: after and then if they get any like he's got
Speaker 3: some footage of like a great white out there behind
Speaker 3: the rock pool and then he'll send it off and
Speaker 3: they like use it for now, like for research to
Speaker 3: try and track them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was telling keeps before there's there's a guy
Speaker 2: on Facebook hunter Shark Restoration. He's actually very educated and
Speaker 2: if you're interested in it, he's he's got pretty good
Speaker 2: opinions on it. All speak speak some truth about it,
Speaker 2: because I mat like I heard someone saying the other
Speaker 2: they because they breed, don't the sharks breed like in
Speaker 2: the creeks in the estuaries and stuff. There's like a
Speaker 2: lot of a lot of bull sharks and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: So is that where they used to They used to
Speaker 2: cull them in there before they'd get big enough. And
Speaker 2: then because when they get big enough, they look for
Speaker 2: bigger fish and that's where they go into the ocean. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I guess there's a lot of competition now for for
Speaker 2: food sources as well for food, and so then they
Speaker 2: sort of come closer and now where we're food look
Speaker 2: at it. I didn't know how I got David Attenborough
Speaker 2: on on the body of today. Oh yeah, A silly questions, mate,
Speaker 2: Get silly answer, good answers. Hey, we're going to talk
Speaker 2: some footy in a minute about that this yearson and whatnot,
Speaker 2: some some serious stuff, some not serious stuff. But first
Speaker 2: impressions of obviously me and you lived together for a
Speaker 2: long time. I've never probably asked you some of these questions.
Speaker 2: First impressions when we sort of were assigned roommates because
Speaker 2: we never met before, they sigt to just put us together. Yeah,
Speaker 2: first impressions. Do you remember. I remember I was heading
Speaker 2: down there, and I remember BP. I was still going
Speaker 2: to BEP, and I was probably more trying to live
Speaker 2: with I think Louis Gerrity, because I knew Louis from
Speaker 2: the Sunny Coast and and BP was sort of like, oh,
Speaker 2: you're going to live with. I said Louis like I'd
Speaker 2: probably try, and he goes, I'm mate, of I got
Speaker 2: a good good match for you. I got a there's
Speaker 2: been a bloke coming and I think you'll be a
Speaker 2: good match, and it was you. He goes, Oh, Cooper good,
Speaker 2: John's he's coming down. I was like, oh yeah, I
Speaker 2: wasn't really sure. And then sort of push pushed Louis again,
Speaker 2: and then out of the blue on Facebook, I just
Speaker 2: get this photo in these videos. Do you remember that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you had a karaoke bar or something. I think you'd
Speaker 2: messaged me just saying, oh, hey mate, I think we
Speaker 2: may be living together or something. Yeah, we're gone into
Speaker 2: the city. I think it was someone's birthday, might have
Speaker 2: been Mum, or maybe I was celebrating. Me finished my
Speaker 2: HSC and we all went Me, Dad, Mum and Jack
Speaker 2: and we went so make it into this karaoke bar.
Speaker 2: And it just happened to coincide with you messaging me,
Speaker 2: and I actually went. I went back not long ago
Speaker 2: and had to look at him. I was just sending you.
Speaker 2: You're like trying to ask youerious questions like oh mate,
Speaker 2: you know what day do you going to have a
Speaker 2: pre season that? And I was just sending you back
Speaker 2: these videos of us singing karaoke. Yeah, oh here we go.
Speaker 2: This would be good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it would have been a positive thing because I
Speaker 3: would have met Harry before you. Yeah. I played Harry
Speaker 3: twenty so yeah, so he played twenties. The first time
Speaker 3: I ever met Harry Grant, he knocked me out.
Speaker 2: Yeah really he went.
Speaker 3: He scored a try on me. I was playing thirteen
Speaker 3: or lock or back row and they excuted out a
Speaker 3: dummy half and like you would have been like sent
Speaker 3: off for it these days. He like full head butted me.
Speaker 2: I just went ahead first at him. That's your that's
Speaker 2: you always been your treat the old head duck. Yeah,
Speaker 2: a couple of times.
Speaker 3: Maybe one of the worst knockouts I've ever had. I
Speaker 3: reckon like waking up.
Speaker 2: That was the my one of my favorite because one
Speaker 2: of my favorite yarns involving because when you first get
Speaker 2: down to Melbourne, they put you on this like everyone
Speaker 2: heard about the work program, there's a big Army camp,
Speaker 2: but I would say this, the work program is almost
Speaker 2: harder than the Army camp because it's over a two
Speaker 2: week period and you get up four in the morning,
Speaker 2: go and do your gym, your work all day and
Speaker 2: then come back and do your training in the ARVO
Speaker 2: like it's to show your appreciation. It's a very good initiative. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but you were a lot better because you've just been
Speaker 2: you'd finished school, you're a year older than me, and
Speaker 2: you before you come down you've done like an apprentice
Speaker 2: as a sparky, so you were handy, you had a
Speaker 2: good work rate. I was probably the opposite side of that.
Speaker 2: And we were working for this guy Maddie Dean at Drainflow,
Speaker 2: where basically what would we do, like what was our
Speaker 2: actual job? It was like inspection plumbing. So they were
Speaker 2: like all the sort of new builds in those newer states,
Speaker 2: and because they're pretty quick slap up homes, a lot
Speaker 2: of the plumbing that was getting laid under the slab
Speaker 2: or under the sort of dirt around the slab was
Speaker 2: getting cracked and stuff. So we'd have to throw the
Speaker 2: cameras down see which which pipes were cracked, and then
Speaker 2: we'd have to dig up repair the pipes. It was
Speaker 2: a tough job. Like it was hard. It was hard labor. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was hard labor and shoveling, and we had to
Speaker 2: dig pretty deep and then like cut the pipe. Like
Speaker 2: there's a lot for a bloke that wasn't qualified, never
Speaker 2: made a tape. It was a hard job, right, You,
Speaker 2: on the other hand, like you sort of handle it well.
Speaker 2: So the guy loved you, Maddie Dean loved Harry Grant
Speaker 2: like he'd probably still to this day you'd be his
Speaker 2: favorite player because he'd just always be wrapping you and
Speaker 2: just hammering me all the time. And he used to
Speaker 2: get real personal too. Yeah your dad. Yeah, at one stage, Jack,
Speaker 2: he was like saying, oh, like you your shit, like
Speaker 2: just like your dad and real like personal sledges. No,
Speaker 2: I don't know, but I don't know what he had
Speaker 2: against Dad and Joey, but fucking hated me, like with
Speaker 2: a passion, just always went at me. And then one
Speaker 2: day I was like this guy like I've had enough,
Speaker 2: I've had enough of him. And and then we come
Speaker 2: up with a plan. Well, his apprentice, whose name was Simz,
Speaker 2: Steven Simons, the night before he tipped this off, the
Speaker 2: day before he tipped us off, and he was like, oh,
Speaker 2: look he's waiting if you want to prank him. He's
Speaker 2: waiting to get back from this guy from Burbank, which
Speaker 2: was like a there building contract, building contractor they build
Speaker 2: all those commercial homes out in fucking in a block
Speaker 2: and they're all like identical. They might be al one
Speaker 2: hundred homes, and he was wanting all that work because
Speaker 2: it must be like a big contract for him. He's
Speaker 2: waiting to hear backroom, you should prank him. So we
Speaker 2: can't be a plan right, I'm going to bring him
Speaker 2: as David from Burbank. No, I send him a text.
Speaker 2: I'm going to text him from David from Burbank, and
Speaker 2: I'm going to tell him mate, you've got You've basically
Speaker 2: got the job. You're going to get a ring soon.
Speaker 2: We're just doing some police checks and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: We're doing background text and sh on you and then
Speaker 2: he goes So, remember we were sitting at I think
Speaker 2: it was like Hungry Jacks or something. We're sitting there
Speaker 2: getting lunch break and we send the text and we're
Speaker 2: just like kids, like we're sitting there watching him, and
Speaker 2: he's looking down at his phone, hadn't replied to it yet.
Speaker 2: And then he was like on the blower, got maybe
Speaker 2: he's maybe he's just like maybe he's just telling telling
Speaker 2: other He's got other ship to worry about. He's not
Speaker 2: really worried about this right now until he gets a
Speaker 2: good conformation. Let it go. Meanwhile, he's ringing his wife
Speaker 2: and he rang his wife and he was like, oh,
Speaker 2: you know, we've honey, we've made it, basically yeah, and
Speaker 2: he was like, buy that new car, yeah, whatever you want,
Speaker 2: holiday book that holiday, let's move houses. Like we've honey,
Speaker 2: we've made it. We've hit the big time. All the
Speaker 2: hard workers finally paid off. And he's basically like making
Speaker 2: all these decisions with his wife. Anyway, during that time
Speaker 2: as well, he rang his main contact at Burbank and
Speaker 2: was like, oh, mate, you know I got this. I
Speaker 2: got this text YadA YadA, and the guy was like, oh, mate,
Speaker 2: shoot me the number. I just confirm who it is
Speaker 2: for you, like I didn't because he didn't have the
Speaker 2: number save and he's saying he's got this job. The
Speaker 2: bloy comes back to him. He'd reference like with the
Speaker 2: security team at Burbank and they go, mate, this number
Speaker 2: is not in our system. This number is not in
Speaker 2: our system. And we get back into the car. Were
Speaker 2: still don't heard anything. We're thinking, oh, like he'll see
Speaker 2: it soon or whatever. And remember we're driving down the
Speaker 2: highway and he rang it. He rings the thing and
Speaker 2: I'm sitting in the back seat and for whatever reason,
Speaker 2: my ringer was on and it just goes bring and
Speaker 2: he's looking remember like the look that he'd given them
Speaker 2: the rear vision mirror. Fuck, it was that scary. I
Speaker 2: would kill a blake. And he's just staring in and
Speaker 2: you're staring at us, and he goes, is that you
Speaker 2: was a little fuck, And I'm like, oh, oh yeah, sorry,
Speaker 2: he was just a prank. Pulls over, remember, and he
Speaker 2: just like looked back at us and he just hammered us.
Speaker 2: Hammered you as well, because he thought you were the
Speaker 2: one that told me to do it, and he's like,
Speaker 2: I expected it from you, but you you, and he goes,
Speaker 2: I'm going to like the report that I'm going to
Speaker 2: give to Craig belly Me on YouTube. Fuck mate, you
Speaker 2: guys will never playing a role everything. He was stone
Speaker 2: cold too. Remember he knew Johnny Donahue. Yeah, John Donahue,
Speaker 2: who is the wrestling man Melvin mate and so scary.
Speaker 2: Everyone's that scared of him, And at that stage we
Speaker 2: were like, such a good guy. Yeah, but like when
Speaker 2: you were young though, when you were young, it's like, oh,
Speaker 2: you're so scared of him. He knew a guy that
Speaker 2: knew John Donahue and everyone Remember everyone had heard the
Speaker 2: stories of like JD choking out Cooper Cromkin stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Players used to say, like, don't get on his bad
Speaker 2: sordy because one time Coop's like was into him. The
Speaker 2: next pre season come back base choked him out, he
Speaker 2: passed out, and then just dragged him off the mat
Speaker 2: and kept So everyone was like, no one pissed off JD.
Speaker 2: Because you can make your life hell in a wrestle session.
Speaker 2: And then he goes, you wait two weeks into our
Speaker 2: time down there, two weeks and you were going, you're
Speaker 2: going to ruin my life, like they're going to hate me.
Speaker 2: Leave the names. And he was like we had wrestled
Speaker 2: that afternoon. Remember he was like he's going to choke
Speaker 2: You's out, Like he's going to choke you's out. Thank
Speaker 2: god he didn't because if he come up to us
Speaker 2: straight away, John's like, you know it's going to be
Speaker 2: your your session today or something like that. I've just
Speaker 2: spoken in a bloke from from drain Flood. That's right,
Speaker 2: and we're like a ship. He's got us, he's got us,
Speaker 2: He's going to simply we should ring him later made down.
Speaker 2: I've still got his number. But some other yarns that
Speaker 2: I love about our time around there because before Harry
Speaker 2: Grant came a captain and a leader, you know, we
Speaker 2: were the young people were we were the young people
Speaker 2: in the squad. Uh and we used to be quite chirpy.
Speaker 2: Well and you sort of followed my lead. Remember we
Speaker 2: used to go Adam O'Brien heat Just think about this
Speaker 2: story the other day, And the best thing about them
Speaker 2: was like, well, you'd finish a pre season session and
Speaker 2: it would be like Saturday and we'd go straight to
Speaker 2: the pub to have a beer precinct precinct and it
Speaker 2: was like an AVO session that would turn into a nightclub.
Speaker 2: So like we didn't have to leave venues, we didn't
Speaker 2: have to change and all the like a lot of
Speaker 2: the assistant coaches would come and have a beer with us,
Speaker 2: and it was like the best singing, like we were
Speaker 2: frothen yeah and we're tired and so we And the
Speaker 2: good thing about an assistant coach is like you kind
Speaker 2: of mates with the assistant like Belly would you have
Speaker 2: a beer with Bellia, But he keeps himself at a distance.
Speaker 2: But like so remember Smith and Eric Smith and Adam O'Bryan,
Speaker 2: they used to always come down. They'd always come on
Speaker 2: and Aaron Bella And so after every session, remember me
Speaker 2: and you would like I Blliak and Adam would finish
Speaker 2: their sort of speech and their address to the group,
Speaker 2: and then me and you were going, oh boys, you know,
Speaker 2: good sesshon, which we shouldn't even been speaking because like
Speaker 2: at first year, we go boys, great sessterday. And the
Speaker 2: good thing about his you know ads, he's put on
Speaker 2: a bar tabe down at the precinct for everyone and
Speaker 2: we all go down everyone and go yeah sweet, And
Speaker 2: I think like it started to get on his nerves
Speaker 2: a heat because we take the piece out of him
Speaker 2: all the time. Remember he pulled us into into his office.
Speaker 2: See he goes, yeah, boy's look, I love you know,
Speaker 2: you guys bring a nice fresh energy, but probably the
Speaker 2: jokes are starting to go too far. And you know,
Speaker 2: when we're out on that field and I'm addressing the team,
Speaker 2: you know there needs to be a level of professionalism,
Speaker 2: and I think you guys are taken that to another level.
Speaker 2: So then we went, yeah, sweet, no worries. And then
Speaker 2: we got together and we went, well, let's just not
Speaker 2: speak to him anymore ever, give him the cold shoulder.
Speaker 2: We just never spoke to him for like a month.
Speaker 2: And remember we started training like really good, really good,
Speaker 2: And then there was one day that like, you know,
Speaker 2: your job is sort of the other side of the
Speaker 2: renegade is to challenge the and our relative. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: we put him like we put him to the sword.
Speaker 2: We had a really good session, like pulled their pants
Speaker 2: down a fair few times and they were sort of
Speaker 2: reviewing it and Adam come in like trying to give
Speaker 2: us a rap, but was trying to be our mate
Speaker 2: again and he was like, yeah, boys, boys, and we
Speaker 2: just completely completely brushed him and he was fuming about it.
Speaker 2: Remember even when we go to the precinct with him
Speaker 2: and you'd get there, you would get the because he
Speaker 2: used to be he love a footy yard when you're
Speaker 2: having a beer, Yeah, and I reckon because we'll because
Speaker 2: we were younger, we craved that sort of validation or
Speaker 2: like learning in a sense, and we just love talking footy.
Speaker 2: And then it got to a point where we realized,
Speaker 2: like he actually talked so much footy when we were
Speaker 2: having a beer they got annoying. And then we had
Speaker 2: schooner glasses and beer coasters and you're setting up plays
Speaker 2: and stuff like that at the pub. Harry said him
Speaker 2: up and he go like, how do we wind him
Speaker 2: up and get him going? And Harry walk up to
Speaker 2: him and got as a young hooker, and he'd be
Speaker 2: there with his wife. So he's not like wanting to
Speaker 2: talk forty, but he couldn't help himself as a young hooko.
Speaker 2: If I'm attacking like a short side, how you know,
Speaker 2: should I be trying to get over the advantage line
Speaker 2: and take the second mark or should I just hit
Speaker 2: my half early and he go right turn his back
Speaker 2: on his wife and get all the coasters out and
Speaker 2: for like twenty five minutes just just going in depth
Speaker 2: and then to plays at the pub. Oh he was funny.
Speaker 2: I still remember. I still remember he sprayed me one
Speaker 2: of my biggest prays, probably copped probably the best thing
Speaker 2: he ever did. But he sort of rinsed me about
Speaker 2: my passing. I think we played a testimony the testimonial
Speaker 2: get Smithie and Thurston testimonial, and I was I wasn't
Speaker 2: going to play, but Brandon ended up not playing, so
Speaker 2: I got a spot in the team, and my passing
Speaker 2: was so bad and he just rinsed me in a
Speaker 2: video session. And it was actually the best thing that
Speaker 2: ever happened, because then after that I was like, oh shit,
Speaker 2: I really need to work hard on my passing. The
Speaker 2: we're going to talk. Do you have any belly axes
Speaker 2: prays in your head? Only that game? The same game? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Is that at halftime?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: At halftime when he he was in, I took a
Speaker 2: show from Thurst and Fair Fair Blake to take a show.
Speaker 2: Not everyone's taken a show from It's pretty John, And
Speaker 2: it was his testiment, his testimony, have a moment.
Speaker 3: How much money can you pulled in that night?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, so do they get the money testimony? Did
Speaker 2: they get the money? They split the money for that
Speaker 2: they get there. I think that's that's usually the way
Speaker 2: testimonials work. But I'm not sure. In the NRL the
Speaker 2: glendid it one didn't he did?
Speaker 3: They did one for Johnny Sutton when I was a
Speaker 3: house too. So like I'm pretty sure whatever the crowd like,
Speaker 3: like the crowd money that comes in the profit of that,
Speaker 3: it's split either. Like for that game, was it two pit?
Speaker 3: Was it JT and Camsmith's testimony? Yeah, yeah, so they
Speaker 3: would have.
Speaker 2: Split the cash, split the pot. So they've got the
Speaker 2: can you take? Did you get one of those? And no?
Speaker 2: I didn't. Still I want them pre season? Why we
Speaker 2: got them on hundred grand?
Speaker 3: What do you think the other day when the storm
Speaker 3: put that Cuba John's cut post that page? What was
Speaker 3: the chat in the dressing room? Right?
Speaker 2: I was very influenced. I think our media team got
Speaker 2: influenced by certain well. I was down there the week before. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he was down the week before and he kept talking
Speaker 2: about it to them.
Speaker 3: Oh I know he did.
Speaker 2: I hyped him up, I hold him out, and they
Speaker 2: thought that's the best. That's the funniest thing I've ever heard.
Speaker 2: Even though I'd been talking about it for like two
Speaker 2: years trying to get it going, we finally got it
Speaker 2: and the best part was Yeah that like after they
Speaker 2: posted that. Yeah, I try to be objective, but I
Speaker 2: really wanted Storm to win it. Given that's given that.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's easier to say that now. Yeah, you
Speaker 2: obviously didn't the because we also went on the army
Speaker 2: camp together, you and I. That was our good We
Speaker 2: had a good young group we did. We had a
Speaker 2: really young crew, not much NRL experience. I think there
Speaker 2: was I think Brandon was the only one that had
Speaker 2: played NRL yep in there because then it was you,
Speaker 2: perhaps tin O myself. I don't know if anyone else
Speaker 2: played first got Chris Lewis. Chris Lewis was on it,
Speaker 2: but at this stage only branded a debut. Yeah played NRL.
Speaker 3: I ask a question too, like so now because they
Speaker 3: used to back in the day, do the whole squad
Speaker 3: army camps? Right? So now is it pretty much like
Speaker 3: initiation now? So it's like pre Christmas? They just do
Speaker 3: it for the newcomers.
Speaker 2: For the storm. That's always been initiation. And then over
Speaker 2: the years, I think I think Hoffy I think remember
Speaker 2: he always talks about how he's I think he's done
Speaker 2: two or three of them when they come back after
Speaker 2: a year, and he'd already done an army camp and
Speaker 2: then they were like everyone's going on it. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: then a couple of years ago we did like a
Speaker 2: sort of semi like a short shortened one after Christmas.
Speaker 2: But yeah, in terms of id Q, it's only you
Speaker 2: only do it once. It's usually only initiation. But then
Speaker 2: sometimes if Billy felt like they needed a whole team one, Yeah,
Speaker 2: didn't he just do that? Yeah? No, No, that's a
Speaker 2: funny story. Why why inappropriate? Yeah, the way, because that
Speaker 2: was the first I talk about Billy X sprays my
Speaker 2: belly ch spray come from the Army camp. I don't
Speaker 2: know if you remember this. Remember we had to day too,
Speaker 2: no sleep like rattled as and they make you write
Speaker 2: an essay and read it. Speeches were so bad because
Speaker 2: you couldn't even understand what you're handwriting. Yeah, because you're
Speaker 2: falling asleep as you're writing. You're falling asleep, So it's
Speaker 2: like it's like your pen and your hands still moving,
Speaker 2: but you remember everyone's pace of paper. I just had
Speaker 2: lines from where they'd be like falling asleep and could
Speaker 2: go Did you keep them?
Speaker 3: Did you to keep them? Afterwards?
Speaker 2: They took they give them to bellyate Kee reads all
Speaker 2: of them. Oh really, So every time you have like.
Speaker 3: Should give him a text if if you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've always actually like been interested in that. Like
Speaker 2: every time there's like sort of a couple of minutes
Speaker 2: spare or whatever, or you jump on a bus to
Speaker 2: go to the next stop, they give you you have
Speaker 2: your book and you got to write things. They like
Speaker 2: sort of give you prompts and stuff. Yeah, text him now, actually.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because because we got we did like a similar
Speaker 3: thing in my first one at South and then they
Speaker 3: gave they gave people are are writing for you, and
Speaker 3: then they gave them to you to keep afterwards. It
Speaker 3: was pretty cool. Oh yeah, I love in my car.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what's it doing in your car?
Speaker 3: I've always I've always just kept there because I like
Speaker 3: positive reinforcement ones. So I always like, because I've got
Speaker 3: the same car for the last ten years. Yeah, but
Speaker 3: I've just always had it sitting in my car.
Speaker 2: So someone tries to break and goes into the Gloff
Speaker 2: box and looks at that. He's a really nice guy.
Speaker 3: Actually, I took photos of him to keep me gaze.
Speaker 2: So yeah, that is a good way to do it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I wish I I wish I had had like a
Speaker 2: a chance to read it back or even now, like
Speaker 2: especially at the time, like like we'd never played a
Speaker 2: game or never really understood what the club meant. So
Speaker 2: when you're writing all that stuff, it's it'd be kind
Speaker 2: of interesting to gauge what your thoughts and feelings from
Speaker 2: them as opposed to now kind of thing.
Speaker 3: You remember what you had to write about anything.
Speaker 2: Well, this essay time, it was writing basically like about yourself.
Speaker 2: They did, they say about your story or something like this.
Speaker 2: It had to be four hundred words. Yeah, but that's
Speaker 2: what they say. It has to be four hundred words,
Speaker 2: not one less for one forward. If it is, everyone's
Speaker 2: putting punished for it. Look they were never counting it.
Speaker 2: But in your head, yeah, in your head, you're so
Speaker 2: I'm up there doing this speech and I remember like
Speaker 2: all the filler words you're writing there. Yeah, it's like
Speaker 2: the two I remember writing just to feel like the
Speaker 2: four hundred words, but you're trying to read it. You
Speaker 2: can barely read it. And because you're that tired. I
Speaker 2: remember like people getting real emotional when boys crying and
Speaker 2: stuff like that, like talking about like random stuff, just
Speaker 2: like playing footy, like they're crying anyway in it to
Speaker 2: fill time. I remember, I said, and this is like
Speaker 2: Billy's pet hate. I didn't know it at the time,
Speaker 2: and I said, oh, you know, I'm really happy with
Speaker 2: where I'm at at the moment. But my whole intention
Speaker 2: was I was trying to say, like, oh, I was
Speaker 2: a Storm fan growing up, Like I'm really happy to
Speaker 2: be at this club, Like I'm really happy. And remember
Speaker 2: he was stewing, and remember afterwards you come back in
Speaker 2: sort of to do a review as a whole group,
Speaker 2: and Belly It goes, I just want to pull one
Speaker 2: thing up from the camp. That was when we're in
Speaker 2: the team meeting room. Hate, we come back in. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we're all sitting there. Everyone thought, yeah, we've done it,
Speaker 2: We've finished, and he goes, I just want to pull
Speaker 2: something up to the group. I think it's a good
Speaker 2: lesson for everyone. But what Cooper said in his speech yesterday,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, oh, shit, he goes, Cooper, you said,
Speaker 2: you know, you're really happy with where you're at, and
Speaker 2: I went and I instantly knew where he was going
Speaker 2: to go. And actually, and he goes, no, I just
Speaker 2: hang on one seat. You know, you should never be
Speaker 2: happy with where you're at, like at this club. Complacency
Speaker 2: Like that's death. Like if you're complacent at this club
Speaker 2: and you start to fall in love with yourself, you know,
Speaker 2: if you're playing Sad of Origin whatever, that doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: Like you need to get better every single day at
Speaker 2: this club. And I'm sitting there just getting roasted. Everyone
Speaker 2: as a team. It was a good thing. Everyone learned
Speaker 2: complacency from it, but fuck me drunk and it was
Speaker 2: never happened where I was at. Oh yeah, that was good.
Speaker 2: I do I still remember that. Actually, that's that's Bells's
Speaker 2: best one line of two what never be happy with
Speaker 2: where you're at. Never be happy where you're at. I
Speaker 2: was pretty happy out there. Never be happy?
Speaker 3: What about just doing it because you like it? It's
Speaker 3: actually fun.
Speaker 2: And Jack will be involved in this story because when
Speaker 2: we actually ended up moving into originally the first two
Speaker 2: years we started at a homestay and you and I
Speaker 2: we ended up moving into a new place in Burnley Street.
Speaker 2: There's there's two parts of this story. Jack actually flew
Speaker 2: down to try to help us moved on, and it
Speaker 2: was actually the week of the AFL Green Final, so
Speaker 2: afterwards we moved in. Steve Crawley actually at Fox Sports
Speaker 2: got tickets. We've got some Grouse tickets. Mad I was
Speaker 2: right in the Richmond area. We'll wear Richmond stuff and
Speaker 2: we watched Richmond pumped them in the Richmond.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we didn't even watch the game because it was
Speaker 3: like it was a GWS, like they got hammered.
Speaker 2: Twenty nineteen, wasn't it? Nothing wrong with GWS as well
Speaker 2: as quietly But now that I'm dating someone flw Wide,
Speaker 2: they're really good. They're strunk, possibly better than the man.
Speaker 2: But we actually a story. People probably don't know about
Speaker 2: you because you'd only played like maybe two first Go
Speaker 2: games at the time we went out on the piss.
Speaker 2: It was the night before Mad Monday and you tried
Speaker 2: to do the right thing and go home and have
Speaker 2: an early night for Mad Monday the next day. And yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: you had an incident where you banged your head and
Speaker 2: you woke up in someone's front lawn. But people people
Speaker 2: at the remember that night we were with was that
Speaker 2: Nick Nattnui? Yeah there's a photo. We got a photo,
Speaker 2: like I think Nico was with him and yeah that's right. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Felice CAFUSI got a picture with him. Cause remember Felice
Speaker 2: dressed up as him the next day. Yeah that was random.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, anyway, can you run people through the actual things
Speaker 2: that happened that night, because the story kind of got out,
Speaker 2: it would have been a bigger story. That's holding this stayed, yeah,
Speaker 2: stayed in the archives. Well, tell as much as you
Speaker 2: want to tell, and then you know we won't. Nah. No,
Speaker 2: So what happened was I think this is what happened
Speaker 2: because I'd lost my phone and I had a hat on,
Speaker 2: and because we've just moved to the new house, I
Speaker 2: sort of lost my bearings, like I didn't really know
Speaker 2: where I was going anyways, and then I think I
Speaker 2: left my phone in the taxi. So I've chased after
Speaker 2: the taxi, and chasing after the taxi, I've tripped over
Speaker 2: and I reckon I've knocked myself out or something because
Speaker 2: I had a massive gash from your eye. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: chasing after the taxi and then I sort of just
Speaker 2: taken cover on someone it's like front porch because they
Speaker 2: had a little day bed, you know, the little day Yeah,
Speaker 2: a little straight away from where we lived it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and then I got working. I woke up the next
Speaker 2: morning and I was pretty rattled, like didn't have my phone,
Speaker 2: had my wallet, and then yeah that obviously the people
Speaker 2: inside were a bit concerned and rang the coppers. Who
Speaker 2: is this hooker on the side of my day bed?
Speaker 2: And then I was full oblivious of where I was
Speaker 2: because it was a new new area to us, like
Speaker 2: we were dead set as a crow fly. I was
Speaker 2: probably fifty meters from home. Yeah, yeah, but I actually
Speaker 2: was like where am I? Like it was and it
Speaker 2: was like it was pretty scary for you at the
Speaker 2: time because you didn't have your phone or anything, but
Speaker 2: you were wigging out because the journal started to ringing,
Speaker 2: Like well, so yeah, anyways, the coppers asked me, they said,
Speaker 2: what do you do? And I remember we were sitting
Speaker 2: with the Stevie, you know Stevie Raper, the cop but
Speaker 2: that always comes on away trips with us earlier in
Speaker 2: the year. I sort of spoke to him and he goes, mate,
Speaker 2: if you ever get in strife. Just be honest with
Speaker 2: the coppers. Just be honest. So they come to me,
Speaker 2: they go, what what do you do? Mate? Like they
Speaker 2: sort of quizzed me. I was like, oh, I played
Speaker 2: rugby league, like for the Melbourne Storm, Like I you know,
Speaker 2: I just had a last night. We had a drink
Speaker 2: like blah blah blah, Like I wouldn't do anything wrong,
Speaker 2: Like I'm not you know what I mean? Like I
Speaker 2: was just honest that I got told to be honest.
Speaker 2: I was honest. And then as I'm at the I
Speaker 2: had to go to the hospital get stitches in my
Speaker 2: eye and then yeah, and then it all come out
Speaker 2: and it's like, oh, well, i'd honestly come back to
Speaker 2: but I remember because I got home and you weren't there,
Speaker 2: and I went, rather than do something about it, I went,
Speaker 2: that's just don't know where he is. I wass go
Speaker 2: to bed. You left me like two hours before should have.
Speaker 2: And then my phone was getting ranged during the night.
Speaker 2: Who's ringing me off some random Facebook account like through
Speaker 2: messenger on Facebook. The nurse said, let him use because
Speaker 2: I didn't have a phone. So I was like in
Speaker 2: Cuba and he's in there getting stitched up, and he's going, Coops, hey, hates,
Speaker 2: what are you doing? I made him just here with
Speaker 2: the nurses. They're stitching me up. Come up where I
Speaker 2: just over the hospital. Come up. And then you were going,
Speaker 2: this is me, mate, Coops. I was telling you about
Speaker 2: this because I was. I was in a.
Speaker 3: Fabitish shock when I because I was like, we actually
Speaker 3: had quite a wholesome weekend. You guys weren't allowed to drink,
Speaker 3: and then we spent the weekend at like Kiyah.
Speaker 2: We'd been gone setting up the new house.
Speaker 3: Harry was set up the new house, Cooper was watching
Speaker 3: and then basically like even Saturday night, that was the
Speaker 3: night that I came home late and you didn't let
Speaker 3: me in the house.
Speaker 2: Remember we locked him out by accident.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I Richmond my Richmond Tiger scarf, and I was
Speaker 3: blind and it was freezing cold. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I remember. I woke up at like seven am. The
Speaker 2: summer's already up, and Jack was starring rocks at my
Speaker 2: window and I was like, oh, I've been outside for
Speaker 2: four hours.
Speaker 3: It wasn't it was like it was probably like six
Speaker 3: or seven hours. I've been there since like one am,
Speaker 3: and I couldn't in the house and like cause he's like,
Speaker 3: you said to me there was something to do with
Speaker 3: your garage door. And you remember you're saying to me, oh,
Speaker 3: just like the garage door will flick up, and it
Speaker 3: just never did.
Speaker 2: And I was.
Speaker 3: Yelling, going, Cooper, let me in. You would have had
Speaker 3: like you would have had over like forty messages on
Speaker 3: your phone.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's good weekend. Yeah, it was a great weekend
Speaker 2: and all. Yeah, it was a successful weekend. You like,
Speaker 2: you know what was mad at what the storm did though,
Speaker 2: they because at the end of the day, you know,
Speaker 2: people like I barely call it a scandal because nothing
Speaker 2: really come of it. Some journal has tried to kind
Speaker 2: of make it a story. Nothing really happened of it
Speaker 2: because the end of the day, you just fell over
Speaker 2: hit your head. And but the storm they were actually
Speaker 2: pretty mad about it. Frank was awesome.
Speaker 3: Like I was rattled.
Speaker 2: I was so so rattled. Young Yeah, I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: what have I done? And the Frank was just like, look,
Speaker 2: you know, you've done something that most people do and
Speaker 2: nothing really comes of it because you've had too much
Speaker 2: to drink, and it would be a good lesson for
Speaker 2: you in the in the long run he goes. But
Speaker 2: as far as we're concerned, you haven't heard anyone or
Speaker 2: harmed anyone or done anything wrong in that regard. But yeah,
Speaker 2: just learn from.
Speaker 3: It and be better. And yeah, probably he probably does
Speaker 3: some worse skeino than his top.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's one thing. That's one thing Melbourne's good for
Speaker 2: because it's like you're out of the limelight and it's
Speaker 2: like that that probably if you're in Sydney or in Queensland,
Speaker 2: they might have tried to make it bigger than it was,
Speaker 2: like speculate about, like yeah, just make it bigger. But
Speaker 2: it was kind of like, well, well I think it
Speaker 2: was sort of like at the start of the morning,
Speaker 2: it was like Melbourne Storm player blah blah blah, and
Speaker 2: everyone was like, oh, this is a bit of goss
Speaker 2: and then it came out as me and everyone's like,
Speaker 2: who's that? You played like one game yeah, and then
Speaker 2: they're like what's Yeah, I remember because I didn't have
Speaker 2: a Mad Monday costume, so all of your like bandages
Speaker 2: and your hospital apron when I dropped you back home
Speaker 2: because I'd go straight to Mad Monday, I was already
Speaker 2: two hours later. I didn't make Mad Monday but yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: you did, probably for good reasons. I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: can I wear what you've got it? And you were
Speaker 2: like yeah, And the ladies at the hospital are like
Speaker 2: you're going to keep all that? And he was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: Cooper's going to wear it, and they're like, oh whatever.
Speaker 2: So then I rocked up to Mad Monday and I
Speaker 2: thought this is hilarious. I remember the first person that
Speaker 2: saw me were Smitty Cameron was on the phone, like
Speaker 2: maybe to his wife or something, out the front of
Speaker 2: the pub and I'm walking down because we just live
Speaker 2: literally five hundimeters from from the pub, yeah, pub and
Speaker 2: the rising Sun, and I'm walking down and he was
Speaker 2: like what the hell you just say? Was like, look,
Speaker 2: I'm Harry Grant because I had like all your bloody bandages,
Speaker 2: and she and everyone thought it was funny. As born
Speaker 2: ten meters into me walking in, stood on a massive
Speaker 2: piece of glass because I was barefoot, cut my foot
Speaker 2: straight open and then I had to go get stitches.
Speaker 2: The last story I want to bring up quickly books
Speaker 2: before we get into the actual body, because we bring
Speaker 2: on thirty five minutes. Just been a random yarns good
Speaker 2: yarns reminiscing great yarns. But remember the wall of legends
Speaker 2: that we used to have had the as, Yeah, that's right,
Speaker 2: So I was rarely just thinking about this today. So
Speaker 2: we had jack a wall of legends of our favorite
Speaker 2: players and well were it was sort of like not
Speaker 2: supposed to be players. It was like wall of legends. Icons. Yeah,
Speaker 2: icons just add to it. Who wasn't it was off
Speaker 2: the Angry Boys, was it? Angry Boys had a hit
Speaker 2: a wall of legends Chrystal Lose TV show, and it
Speaker 2: was like everyone there admired and we had like Tony Carroll,
Speaker 2: Scott Minto, Luke remember the Luke Rooney one. That's what
Speaker 2: Luke Rooney. And then there was something else on there anyway,
Speaker 2: maybe a year. What it was is I had all
Speaker 2: these old footy cards from when I was a kid. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and I found those, like I think it was in
Speaker 2: the move and I found them, and that's when we
Speaker 2: put them on the wall. So like these old footy
Speaker 2: cards that all the kids get now, I still had
Speaker 2: heaps from when I was a kid.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: We just went through found out like favorite oh yes,
Speaker 2: Tony Carroll, sick and then we just put them up
Speaker 2: on the wall of legends and then for whatever reason,
Speaker 2: Luke Rooney lived in Melbourne. Yeah, and he's working with
Speaker 2: the nineties, working with the nineties, and me and you
Speaker 2: later in that year after, like every single day when
Speaker 2: we're having a coffee, we're looking at this of Legends
Speaker 2: and Rooney's up there, like and we love Luke Rooney.
Speaker 2: Like it wasn't meant to be a piss take. We
Speaker 2: actually love Luke Rooney. And we went we're walking through
Speaker 2: and I go, no way, are you Luke Rooney? He
Speaker 2: was in the gym at Melbourne trained in the nineties,
Speaker 2: and he goes yeah, and I went, stay here, stay
Speaker 2: in now. I ran into sheds, Harry, come, come, look
Speaker 2: who it is and we walk up. It's fucking Luke
Speaker 2: Rooney and we were like, no way. Like frothen he
Speaker 2: would have been like, okay, good is this this is man,
Speaker 2: I'm here. And then we're trying to Yanna Yanna and
Speaker 2: then you go, which was trying. It was trying to
Speaker 2: be like a mad respect from their good place, and
Speaker 2: you went, mate, you're on our wall at home, like
Speaker 2: you're on the wall of Legends, and you were. He
Speaker 2: was staved. He's so happy. But then he goes, oh,
Speaker 2: who else is that there? And then I went, oh,
Speaker 2: like Tony Carroll, Scott Minto and there was another player
Speaker 2: up there. And because everyone like treats Scott Minto like, oh,
Speaker 2: he wasn't like, you know, like the like he's like
Speaker 2: just like the cult figure. Yeah, not because of his footy.
Speaker 2: And he took it. He got so offended. Oh really
Speaker 2: didn't take it too well at the start. But you
Speaker 2: could just see cheers boys. You could see the like
Speaker 2: disappointment on his face, like he went from thinking and
Speaker 2: then he just thought we were taking the piece out
Speaker 2: of you. And then me and you get back in
Speaker 2: the car afterwards, you're like, we've just blown that. Never
Speaker 2: met you hear us?
Speaker 3: You hear us?
Speaker 1: Okay, that's the into part one. I reckon it would
Speaker 1: have enjoyed it. Head over to part two.