Speaker 1: On this episode of the Fox League Podcast, we're talking
Speaker 1: great retirements thanks to host Plus that's a plus. Hello
Speaker 1: and welcome to the Fox League Podcast. My name is
Speaker 1: Darcy McDonald and joining me to reminisce his very decorated
Speaker 1: career and chat all things retirement after hanging up the
Speaker 1: boots recently is Aaron Woods.
Speaker 2: Welcome, Thanks Darcy, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Thanks. Sure you got to ask fresh off your very
Speaker 1: last Mad Monday is a full time professional rugby league player.
Speaker 1: How are you feeling? Do they get any tamer or
Speaker 1: the older you get?
Speaker 3: Oh? I think they get a little bit easier as
Speaker 3: you get older, especially what would you say the landscape
Speaker 3: that we live in this day and age, you tend
Speaker 3: to not get away with things like you used to
Speaker 3: so and there's a lot more to put it risk
Speaker 3: if you do want to carry on like a pork chop,
Speaker 3: there's a lot more.
Speaker 2: I want to say, there's more risk than reward at
Speaker 2: the moment. So it was pretty tame. Let's just say,
Speaker 2: stuck to the mid strength beer and that was it.
Speaker 1: Lovely love to hear it. Well, no rest for you.
Speaker 1: You're on radio today in at Fox Tonight. What are
Speaker 1: your plans now that you're retired.
Speaker 2: Honestly, I didn't really want to come out in sales
Speaker 2: and retire.
Speaker 3: I sort of just wanted to float off into the
Speaker 3: sunset and just do it nice and quietly. But you know,
Speaker 3: John Bonaserah merely, he's sort of our football manager and
Speaker 3: operations there. He was just like, hey, you need to
Speaker 3: do something. We want to do something for the club.
Speaker 2: So they were lucky enough to do something for myself
Speaker 2: and Brad Parker who was retiring as well.
Speaker 3: In the last game, they just give us a little
Speaker 3: bit of a shout in front of all the fans
Speaker 3: and the family and our friends and family. Sorry, and
Speaker 3: all the fans of Brookie are enormous, so that was
Speaker 3: good to sort of say goodbye. And with that, it
Speaker 3: didn't really get to float away to the sunset like
Speaker 3: I wanted to. So there's a lot happening in the
Speaker 3: next obviously Grand Final week there will do such a great.
Speaker 2: Thing with the retiree players.
Speaker 3: So everyone that's sort of retiring, we're staying in the
Speaker 3: city and you do all these seminars, you get to
Speaker 3: bring your wife and you do just I'm not too
Speaker 3: sure exactly what we're doing yet.
Speaker 2: But they just said there's a lot of formal.
Speaker 3: Meetings just to help when you do transition, because you know,
Speaker 3: some players it could be out of the blue, and
Speaker 3: other players they could be preparing for it pretty much
Speaker 3: like I have myself, so you don't fall into much
Speaker 3: of a hardship. But it's good initiative for the world
Speaker 3: to help us with those sorts of things.
Speaker 2: We're in the unknown. We've played fully.
Speaker 3: I've played fully for fourteen fifteen years since I've finished
Speaker 3: high school. Now I've got to go out and go
Speaker 3: and get a proper job, so it's a different you know,
Speaker 3: I'd be live, I was saying. I was a little
Speaker 3: bit nervous and scared because you know, it's you're going
Speaker 3: in the real world.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: We've always been that, you know, that rugby league player,
Speaker 3: where you know people done our health insurance, they've done
Speaker 3: in our pay and all.
Speaker 2: That sort of stuff.
Speaker 3: Now you know, if you haven't sort of looked into
Speaker 3: that way you're playing, you've got to go out and
Speaker 3: really know what the real world's all about. So in
Speaker 3: that circum circumstance, you're sort of going to realize that.
Speaker 2: It's going to be different, and there's going to be
Speaker 2: some hardships.
Speaker 3: There's going to be some good times, but you know,
Speaker 3: there's a lot of people there.
Speaker 2: To help you.
Speaker 3: Support you depends which you're sort of what we call
Speaker 3: a village that you've got people around your lot, a wife,
Speaker 3: you know, I've got a couple of family friends that
Speaker 3: really help. So there's going to be moments that it's
Speaker 3: going to be great, and there's many moments where it's going.
Speaker 2: To be like wow.
Speaker 3: You know, it's a lot different without footage, and they're
Speaker 3: going to just try and help us, you know, guide
Speaker 3: us through these sort of stages of our life because,
Speaker 3: as I said, we haven't been in this before and
Speaker 3: we're luckily they're there.
Speaker 2: To help us to come through it.
Speaker 1: You talk about being a little nervous, I feel like
Speaker 1: it might sink in for you the most when you know,
Speaker 1: when it comes to November December and everyone's going back
Speaker 1: to pre season training and we're your first time in
Speaker 1: like fourteen fifteen years that you're spending an November December
Speaker 1: not getting flogged.
Speaker 2: Well, you're right, Darcy.
Speaker 3: I left school at seventeen, so I finished in you twelve,
Speaker 3: and I've done pre seasons ever since. I'm thirty three now,
Speaker 3: so I've done sixteen pre seasons. Pre seasons when it
Speaker 3: does get to that November second and third, when you're
Speaker 3: you're normally getting that anxiety and you're getting very nervous
Speaker 3: to go back. And I wonder if all the work
Speaker 3: I've done in the break has been enough. And you
Speaker 3: know you've got six or seven weeks pre Christmas block
Speaker 3: that you're going to have to do.
Speaker 2: I don't have to do it, so, but in saying that, I'll.
Speaker 3: Still want to keep myself physically in a good shape
Speaker 3: because I don't want to be one of those bugs
Speaker 3: that blows out. And I don't think it'll happen in
Speaker 3: my life because my wife's a personal trainer and honestly,
Speaker 3: she just worries about what she eats and what she
Speaker 3: puts into a system. So I dare say that she
Speaker 3: won't let me fall off track. She let me have
Speaker 3: a couple of moments, but she'll pull me in quick.
Speaker 2: Smart.
Speaker 1: You don't want to be the unfit bloke in the
Speaker 1: coms box you're criticizing players, do you no, Mate?
Speaker 2: You don't want people to go Jesus, lettingself go look
Speaker 2: at him?
Speaker 3: But you also you know I still would love to
Speaker 3: be around it. Trying to talk talking mainly still at
Speaker 3: the moment about maybe having sort of a certain role.
Speaker 3: And the club had five different clubs, so you've got
Speaker 3: to pick one club to work for, so hopefully one.
Speaker 1: Of them like you more options. Right. That's well between
Speaker 1: the two hundred and seventy odd games you played State
Speaker 1: of Origin tests for Kangaroos, I feel like there's so
Speaker 1: much we could talk about, but I want to take
Speaker 1: you back to the very, very very beginning. You said
Speaker 1: you left school at seventeen. What do you remember from
Speaker 1: your very first NRL pre season.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you one of the funniest things I remember
Speaker 3: was two of my favorite blokes to play with, Keith
Speaker 3: Galloway and Bryce Gibbs.
Speaker 2: They punched it on a training It was like one.
Speaker 3: Of the funniest things because I'm the young kid like
Speaker 3: and remember the year is a lot different to when
Speaker 3: I come through to when these young guys come through now.
Speaker 3: So it's basically speak when spoken to. So I was
Speaker 3: too scared to say anything and we're just doing this
Speaker 3: simple just a catch past drill. You know, you have
Speaker 3: a sort of a one line across and there's three.
Speaker 3: There's lines of three and you just do it through
Speaker 3: the hands. Tim Sheen's loved his fundamentals. Loved just catch
Speaker 3: pass name on the past, you know, Keith catch it,
Speaker 3: Bryce catch it. And it was this moment in the
Speaker 3: in the drill gives he was just taking the pisce
Speaker 3: a bit of Keith kept throwing real low and Keithy
Speaker 3: kept sort of either dropping it or just catch it.
Speaker 3: And Keith, he's a very proud man, doesn't like the
Speaker 3: pull and shown especially in front of the young guys
Speaker 3: that you know, he's supposed to be the leader for
Speaker 3: me and he's a guy do look up to, the
Speaker 3: same as same as that Brycey. But Bryce was a
Speaker 3: funny man. And then he did about three times and
Speaker 3: keep He's just like, mate, if you do it one
Speaker 3: more time, I'm going to rip your head off. And
Speaker 3: then what his gold give give gives you do he
Speaker 3: just goes bang froze at his feet next to you know,
Speaker 3: Keith town boom, and it was on poor on Roastie Simmons,
Speaker 3: the little like little gardeners in between trying to grab him,
Speaker 3: and it was just made It was.
Speaker 2: An eye opener.
Speaker 1: Wow, welcome to first grade. Hey, like you. You were
Speaker 1: so young when you entered that system, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: your dreams were enormous, but I'm curious, did you have
Speaker 1: a Plan B in case, you know, everything didn't go
Speaker 1: to plan.
Speaker 3: Look, I was doing some sort of work. I've always
Speaker 3: even through footy, I've always done courses. If the club's
Speaker 3: offered stuff to do, I've always put my how to
Speaker 3: do it. I didn't really think at a time out
Speaker 3: of plan B. I was signed a three year deal
Speaker 3: when I was in year twelve at high school. But
Speaker 3: what happened was I did end up doing a pretty
Speaker 3: serious injury with my hamstring, and basically the doctor just said, look,
Speaker 3: you might not be able to run at a top
Speaker 3: level anymore. And you think about that. Look, I'm not
Speaker 3: the quickest spoke of that at the time, and it
Speaker 3: was like wow. So you walk out of that meeting,
Speaker 3: It's like, what am I going to do now if
Speaker 3: this all doesn't work? But I just gave it one
Speaker 3: hundred and ten. You know, everything I did, committed to it.
Speaker 3: It was the best thing for me because it's really
Speaker 3: I would be how to look after my body was
Speaker 3: in preparation. It's not just about doing the what is
Speaker 3: it the sixty or seventy minutes you do on the
Speaker 3: field of training. It's about getting there, doing your prehab,
Speaker 3: doing your rehab, just working so hard on your body
Speaker 3: to get it right and just little like you know,
Speaker 3: do I go out in the night of the boys
Speaker 3: getting the bees or do I just sit home and
Speaker 3: relax and just make sure you recoverage. Your body is
Speaker 3: a lot better, probably maybe grow up a lot quicker.
Speaker 3: And you know there's times where geez, I wish I
Speaker 3: had have gone out and had a good time with
Speaker 3: where was my schoolmates or the footy boys? But I
Speaker 3: knew if I did that and set me back a
Speaker 3: couple of days, and you know, it's not good for
Speaker 3: what the injuries I had at the time. So look,
Speaker 3: I didn't really have a plan B because I just
Speaker 3: wanted to. I always wanted to be RUGB belief. I
Speaker 3: wanted to be RUGB belief player. It was funny I
Speaker 3: got my year six like it's like a you know,
Speaker 3: a farewell. They do a booklet on each person, and
Speaker 3: mine at the time was I want to play rugby
Speaker 3: league and it's sorry it said where do you see
Speaker 3: yourself in?
Speaker 2: I think it was ten years time.
Speaker 3: So I was twelve or eleven at this stage, and
Speaker 3: I said, I see myself playing for the Northern Eagles,
Speaker 3: because I was a mainly supporter now of Northern Northern
Speaker 3: Negles at that time. And most funny, I don't know
Speaker 3: where I got up. I think my mum might have
Speaker 3: brought it out of the week and look at this.
Speaker 3: It was all right except for the wrong club.
Speaker 1: So funny you say that that brings back my memory.
Speaker 1: I put in my year six year, what what do
Speaker 1: you want to be when you grow up? And I
Speaker 1: said a Bulldogs cheerleader. I also said Bulldogs premiers in
Speaker 1: two thousand and four and I got it right.
Speaker 2: Oh geez, that's good.
Speaker 1: Anyways, have you ever like stopped to think throughout your
Speaker 1: career and go what would I be doing if I
Speaker 1: never played NRL?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Many times, because I was sort of like you know
Speaker 3: when you cash up your schoolmates, it's like there. I
Speaker 3: was like, Jesus, I know I'd be able to do it.
Speaker 3: Something I can't sit still. But for me, I'd always
Speaker 3: loved it. I love coffee, I love just chewing the
Speaker 3: fat with anyone. I love talking to people. So what
Speaker 3: I really wanted to do while I played, but I
Speaker 3: just didn't. I didn't have enough time. Was I'd love
Speaker 3: to open up a coffee shop and just get to
Speaker 3: meet people in the local area. Like it's just I
Speaker 3: love just talking, Like just get to know people, just
Speaker 3: seeing how their day was, what they've been up to,
Speaker 3: and it's just something I love doing. And if you
Speaker 3: speak anyone at probably all the five clubs I've been at,
Speaker 3: they'll tell you the big fellow loves the coffee of
Speaker 3: the Yarn And so I probably would have said maybe
Speaker 3: trying to. I've done my barista course as well. We
Speaker 3: were lucky enough to do that while we're playing footy.
Speaker 3: That was at the West Tigers. And yeah, honestly I
Speaker 3: would have. And I've always bought about the possibility of
Speaker 3: either opening up your coffee shop or cracking my own
Speaker 3: be I.
Speaker 1: Love that idea. We could see with this coffee shop.
Speaker 2: How good is that to be the Bristol I think
Speaker 2: that's already done. But that's already been taken.
Speaker 1: Now, your West Tiger's Junior made your debut twenty eleven.
Speaker 1: Do you remember much from your your debut? I assume
Speaker 1: you probably remember everything right.
Speaker 2: Oh, remember it was a Monday night against the Bulldogs.
Speaker 3: You know, I think it was the same night Sam
Speaker 3: Casiana debuted and he started and I come off the bench.
Speaker 2: I only got told I was playing the day before.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, on the Sunday. Yeah, so I think I
Speaker 2: was in jersey number nineteen or twenty.
Speaker 3: Bro Gibbs was in a bit of injury doubt, and
Speaker 3: I think Chansy knew a week was when I played me.
Speaker 3: I didn't tell me until the day before the game,
Speaker 3: just said, you want me to get too nervous all week.
Speaker 3: I got on for the last twenty minutes and as
Speaker 3: Tim said, he said I wouldn't gone to the second
Speaker 3: half and probably the last twenty or fifteen minutes. I
Speaker 3: remember warm up in the sheds. Benji was straight across
Speaker 3: from me. He just kept looking at me. And remember
Speaker 3: asking him off the game, like, w what do you
Speaker 3: keep looking at me? Because just like I've seeing how
Speaker 3: young kids handle their debut, they're all different.
Speaker 2: I never forget my first carrier.
Speaker 3: I carried the ball straight into Corey Payne and Andrew Ryan,
Speaker 3: and I was like, wow, first grade is a lot
Speaker 3: different to what twenties and reserve grade is. So it
Speaker 3: was a great aitiation we'd got beat that night, but jeez,
Speaker 3: you couldn't wipe the smile off my face. So you know,
Speaker 3: when you're on the sideline, I'm not big to sort
Speaker 3: of do too much warm before I go on, but geez,
Speaker 3: that night I reckon. I did nearly seven k on
Speaker 3: the sideline trying to get ready again.
Speaker 1: Gone, oh that's too funny. A couple of years later,
Speaker 1: you make your Stay of Origin debut. Of course, it's
Speaker 1: every kid's dream. But you must look back at that
Speaker 1: time in the Jersey with so much pride, like you
Speaker 1: made the team early in your career and you held
Speaker 1: your spot for like five or so years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was, it was, it was.
Speaker 3: It was a good squad and the hardest thing about
Speaker 3: it was the Queensland side that we come up against Darcy.
Speaker 3: They had so many I think looking the other day,
Speaker 3: they had four Hall of famers already Greekingless Kronk, Slader Smith, Like,
Speaker 3: that's four that have been only retired for two or
Speaker 3: three years. So shows you have well in Thurston as well.
Speaker 3: Sorry there's five, Like, it's just the side they had.
Speaker 3: And then look you look at it now that they
Speaker 3: had I think it was Matt Scott maybe seven deceiver
Speaker 3: up front, Nate Miles, Hawgols it Origin level. Even Matt Gillette,
Speaker 3: he doesn't get their recognition like a lot of players
Speaker 3: because he retired so early with the neck injury. But
Speaker 3: they had so many great players in that side. You know,
Speaker 3: for me to even be mentioned in the Blues you
Speaker 3: frame of selection, that was awesome. But then when you
Speaker 3: finally get that call off Laurie, I never forget he
Speaker 3: called me on a Sunday morning. It was when James
Speaker 3: Samato got himself in a little bit of trouble and
Speaker 3: he got suspended. So the next game two he wasn't
Speaker 3: allowed to play. I got the call. But the worst
Speaker 3: thing was I had to plan on the Monday night
Speaker 3: and I had to play up against Brisbane up the
Speaker 3: un called stadium. So you go on into a game
Speaker 3: against Brisbane on Monday night knowing that you've already been
Speaker 3: selected for Origin. It was one of the hardest games
Speaker 3: I've ever played in my life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because you don't want to get injured exactly exactly,
Speaker 1: but you also want to show you that.
Speaker 2: You're basically not carrying the book or not making tackles
Speaker 2: with your shoulder. He's just trying to catch and not
Speaker 2: get it hurt.
Speaker 1: That's too funny. Your kangaroo's debute didn't come too long
Speaker 1: after twenty fourteen. I feel like we probably don't talk
Speaker 1: about the international game with the same respect and intensity
Speaker 1: that we talk about origin. But I mean, like pulling
Speaker 1: on that green and gold jersey. That must have been
Speaker 1: so special to play for your country.
Speaker 3: Oh it's you know a lot of people say, what's
Speaker 3: the biggest recognition. You've got to sort of say Australia.
Speaker 3: Because you're playing for your country, you get picked. It's
Speaker 3: like the best of the missiles in Queensland. I never
Speaker 3: forget the first moment we got into camp. I was
Speaker 3: up at the Soft Hotel in Brisbane. You know, I'm
Speaker 3: just sort of get putting my gear on. You're in
Speaker 3: a gear room getting thing fitted, and like Camera Smith
Speaker 3: walks in, you know, Burst and walks in. Slater made
Speaker 3: blokes that I've idolized. I got the room with Matt
Speaker 3: Scott like like just things like that as wow. And
Speaker 3: then next thing you know, we'll have a team meeting
Speaker 3: and then they go I think it was Camera Smith.
Speaker 3: My boy straight down the bar, have a few beers
Speaker 3: and get to know over and OBVI sitting there having
Speaker 3: a beer on my left camera Smith, you know, on
Speaker 3: the right Robbie Farra blocks up playing with Paul gallon
Speaker 3: Great Birds Jesus Man, Like I can't. I'm actually pinching myself.
Speaker 3: It is like a I know, I'm an I was squad,
Speaker 3: but I'm actually a mad fan as well at the
Speaker 3: same time. So I was like, I was so lucky.
Speaker 1: To do what I've done in wa and to I mean,
Speaker 1: you get to play all these really cool nations as well.
Speaker 1: And I've heard a story about you guys. Are you
Speaker 1: in particular a game in Port Moresby and they let
Speaker 1: the fans on the field, the PG fans, and you've
Speaker 1: got stripped of everything but your budget smugglers and you're
Speaker 1: the vest that you wear under your jersey. Is that right?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So yeah, it's one of them. It's a tough
Speaker 2: situation when you go to Maresview as.
Speaker 3: Well, because they a lot of in the prep before
Speaker 3: you go over, they tell you not to give your
Speaker 3: clothes and your gear out to certain people because it's
Speaker 3: there the way they've been brought up a lot different
Speaker 3: wre we are here, but you just can't help it.
Speaker 3: There's young kids that love it. Like you know when
Speaker 3: you get to England and you just see the soccer
Speaker 3: players just get swarm.
Speaker 2: That's what it's like in Port Moresby and put New Guinea.
Speaker 3: I've been there five times, one of the great places
Speaker 3: that they had so many good times. I've even was
Speaker 3: luck enough the captain of preminise squad over there. But
Speaker 3: that one particular moment, Yeah, there was a I think
Speaker 3: it was like ten minutes ago in the game and
Speaker 3: that the something happened and then everyone just.
Speaker 2: Swarmed on the field. It was pretty it was a surreal,
Speaker 2: scary moment.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then they sort of I think we played
Speaker 3: another five minutes and the game was over and the
Speaker 3: next next thing, you know, we're going out to steal
Speaker 3: with the fans take all that.
Speaker 2: Like they asked for things and they try to do
Speaker 2: like a swap for you, and I was like, ah,
Speaker 2: you just have all.
Speaker 3: My stuff, And as you said, I'd come back in
Speaker 3: with my budgets, muggers and the GPS. Vest couldn't get
Speaker 3: rid of that because then boths of the Aussies would
Speaker 3: kill us.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've heard how expensive they are. That must be
Speaker 1: kind of you mentioned surreal. But it must be a
Speaker 1: moment as well that you realize just how privileged you
Speaker 1: already playing for Australia going to a country like that
Speaker 1: and being able to be in a position to be
Speaker 1: able to hand out all that stuff.
Speaker 3: Oh definitely, but it's also like you know your respect
Speaker 3: to that we're a rug belief player. But a funny story.
Speaker 3: When I was captain of the Promeisters. You'll fly into
Speaker 3: two Moresby and then you check you in so going
Speaker 3: through the customs and for some reason I got taken
Speaker 3: to this other room like something was happening with my visa.
Speaker 3: And then I go in this room and like, man,
Speaker 3: I'm in Moresby and no one else is in the
Speaker 3: other room. I'm with all these officials. All they want
Speaker 3: to do is take photos. They didn't there's nothing wrong
Speaker 3: with the visa. They just took us in there to
Speaker 3: take photos. And I was like, honestly, I I was shipping
Speaker 3: myself because I was like, man, I'm in this third
Speaker 3: or country. They've taken me out the bag. One thing
Speaker 3: is what is going to happen to me next? But
Speaker 3: all they wanted the big boss of the security, he's
Speaker 3: a mad Tigers fan at the time.
Speaker 2: He wanted to take a photo with me.
Speaker 1: That is amazing.
Speaker 2: So I was like, wow, take photos.
Speaker 1: I'll give you all the photos I said.
Speaker 3: I got year, you can have me A year after
Speaker 3: the tips down, my heart was raising.
Speaker 1: What an experience. Wow, all right, well twenty fifteen season.
Speaker 1: I want to highlight that because I mean, look, it
Speaker 1: wasn't great for the Tigers as a whole, but as
Speaker 1: an individual. You started in all three Origin games, started
Speaker 1: for the Kangaroos and finished equal second and on the
Speaker 1: daly M leader board. To Jonathan Thurston, wild Yeah, is
Speaker 1: it around then that you reckon your career? Probably peaked
Speaker 1: uh a little, but I think it's probably helped.
Speaker 2: They were in a site that was probably losing that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you've got a lot more points in the dally M,
Speaker 3: which is disappointing. You'd rather win the camp and not
Speaker 3: get any Delian votes, to be honest with you, But
Speaker 3: it was just it was a good sort of time. Obviously,
Speaker 3: I was doing disappointed when when Tiger's part of the
Speaker 3: ways with Tim Sheen's early on, I had my first
Speaker 3: couple of years under him, learnt so much. He taught me,
Speaker 3: not just about rugby, how to be a rugby league player,
Speaker 3: how to prepare, how to do so many things, you know,
Speaker 3: And they were lucky enough to get him back the
Speaker 3: last couple of years the Tigers, and you know, I
Speaker 3: would have loved to be there under underneath him again.
Speaker 3: But you know, it was hard with the consistencies, just
Speaker 3: because there's like so many chopping and changing different coaches.
Speaker 3: They look, it was probably one of our most my
Speaker 3: one of my Probably that fourteen to fifteen sixteen was
Speaker 3: more consistent for me.
Speaker 2: There's no injuries. I think I've played the whole season,
Speaker 2: didn't miss any games.
Speaker 3: And yeah I didn't. I couldn't remember that. It's coming
Speaker 3: second on Delian. That's that's amazing.
Speaker 1: Don't you go and check the leaderboard now? Mate?
Speaker 3: I said, I just love playing footy and if you
Speaker 3: get you know, those rewards they.
Speaker 2: Come at the back end of it. Look, if they
Speaker 2: don't play for the rewards, you obviously you want to
Speaker 2: play in a camp. But yeh, if you can do
Speaker 2: anything with the team, that's all I worry about.
Speaker 1: I think you tied second with Michael Lennis and Ben Hunt.
Speaker 2: Oh always happened before I could have jeeped me up
Speaker 2: at training.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well now you know, yeah, well fast forwards twenty
Speaker 1: eighteen you left the Tigers. There's a lot of chopping
Speaker 1: and changing in this period of your career. Bulldogs for
Speaker 1: half a season, Sharks for three and a half, Dragons
Speaker 1: for a season, mainly for two. I bet during this
Speaker 1: phase of your career you learned a lot about just
Speaker 1: how much the NRL is a business, right and you
Speaker 1: have to you have to be agile.
Speaker 3: Oh I do what and you never know, things just
Speaker 3: come in come around. They just happened. It just happens overnight,
Speaker 3: like I'll go to the Dogs on a four year
Speaker 3: deal from there till I think just before the June
Speaker 3: thirty deadline, you know, I was.
Speaker 2: I was enjoying my time there.
Speaker 3: Obviously it was a bit of disappointing how we'll start
Speaker 3: off the year, but it was a.
Speaker 2: Real good bunch of blokes, great coaching staff.
Speaker 3: But that was just purely for a salary cap, you know,
Speaker 3: reason I go to Sharks. Loved my team at Sharks,
Speaker 3: it was that was one of my funnest like the Tigers,
Speaker 3: you know, the Sharks and man, I really really enjoyed
Speaker 3: because I've got to be there for a bit longer
Speaker 3: than eight eight months back. So yeah, the Sharks boys,
Speaker 3: and I can see why the culture is so good,
Speaker 3: and you know, grayfeit Givens comes in and he's just
Speaker 3: fine tuned a few things that it need to be
Speaker 3: fixed and jeez made they've got a they've got such
Speaker 3: a strong such a strong like nursery down there and
Speaker 3: a lot of the players. Now you look at in
Speaker 3: the around them all, Talo Brandon, Trindle, Akora, Will Kennedy,
Speaker 3: Blake Brayley team, they all played in the juniors together,
Speaker 3: so they dumb world to keep them all together. And
Speaker 3: I really think they're going to be one of the
Speaker 3: powerhouse the next couple of years. It you look back
Speaker 3: at Penrith, you know they were there there about for
Speaker 3: a period.
Speaker 2: Before these five rare finals they played.
Speaker 3: They were really competitive, but then just something took them
Speaker 3: to the next level.
Speaker 2: And I think that's what's going to happen with Cana.
Speaker 3: And I was lucky to be around those boys and
Speaker 3: just what a great group, great area.
Speaker 2: One thing about the Shire is that people don't leave
Speaker 2: the shire.
Speaker 1: Yeah, As someone to grow up in the Shire, I
Speaker 1: can attest that they.
Speaker 3: Have staunch, staunch Shire people and a staunch Canola Sharks supported.
Speaker 2: So I love and I still love going down there.
Speaker 3: There's coffee shops I go to that are still keeping
Speaker 3: contact with a lot of people there. Look Dragons was
Speaker 3: there's a quick little stopover. That was a funny, funny
Speaker 3: period of my life just with the COVID. You didn't
Speaker 3: know what was going on, and then yeah, they've got
Speaker 3: the It was funny how I found out about how's
Speaker 3: come to many. It's just a It was like, literally,
Speaker 3: we're having dinner one night getting ready for a game.
Speaker 3: I think it was two or three nights before a
Speaker 3: game we're going to play. We're having dinner a cold
Speaker 3: release club and Hook and Benny Harron, the football manager,
Speaker 3: kept looking at me and I was going to commentate
Speaker 3: the game after that, and I end up bringing my manager.
Speaker 2: And just asked him some details about Mitch Moses.
Speaker 3: He just resigned with that when he signed out months
Speaker 3: to deal Paramatta and I was like, oh, I may
Speaker 3: just is Mitch done blah blah?
Speaker 2: And I go, yeah, what about the news And.
Speaker 3: I was like, oh yeah, Mitch play happy for him,
Speaker 3: five year deal pump made. I'm so staked he's got
Speaker 3: a done daft to talk about it anymore. Heau no, no, no,
Speaker 3: the other years and I was like, what's the other
Speaker 3: news and he goes, oh, I think what they want
Speaker 3: to do at the club is they want to swap
Speaker 3: you for these two other players at Mailing and I
Speaker 3: was like really, I said, I had no idea, and
Speaker 3: I said it was funny because I've seen hook and
Speaker 3: Ben Harron kept looking at me.
Speaker 2: I wasn't sure if that was it.
Speaker 3: And then a couple of days later when I was
Speaker 3: at it man for the game for Dragons at Carnal
Speaker 3: and they literally next hour was at Mailing.
Speaker 1: That's great, ill Bora to the Northern Beaches in twenty
Speaker 1: four hours.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes I did. I did. It's a quick drive
Speaker 2: for merely which does help.
Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah, oh god, things changed so quickly in rugby league.
Speaker 1: When you were that seventeen year old it first kind
Speaker 1: of entered that tiger system. Could you have predicted that
Speaker 1: your career would have kind of you would have got
Speaker 1: ended up at so many clubs?
Speaker 2: No idea? Yeah, no, umbre, don't. I don't really like that,
Speaker 2: if you ask my wife. I hate change do the
Speaker 2: same things all the time. It was a tough period.
Speaker 3: I went to the Bulldogs because obviously some things happened
Speaker 3: outside and just yeah, it was wasn't what I was
Speaker 3: used to. Really struggled, And then obviously going to CANW
Speaker 3: I was like, well, you know, we're trying to make
Speaker 3: a fist if it will stay here as long as possible,
Speaker 3: and that's probably I enjoyed it so much. So yeah, look,
Speaker 3: I would have thought, look, I would have been happy
Speaker 3: won in an old game, but they played so many
Speaker 3: games and for so many clubs, I'm pretty happy.
Speaker 2: Let's just say the New Days were pretty fun and
Speaker 2: got five.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we could be on the on boards of all
Speaker 1: five clubs. Oh that's the best. I want to finish
Speaker 1: off on three questions. The proudest moment of your career.
Speaker 3: Proudest moment I reckon just playing first grade for the
Speaker 3: West Tigers. Like I was one of those kids that
Speaker 3: was in the system. I remember they would always have
Speaker 3: games at like had Oval wasn't first grade games like
Speaker 3: that have Jersey flag reserve grade games. And this is
Speaker 3: before the twenties come into the play. I'd always just
Speaker 3: walk up there. I lived in nort Street, Like I'd
Speaker 3: always just got to watch sometimes. What wouldn't be the
Speaker 3: West Tigers, would be other clubs, you know, Camber. I
Speaker 3: remember watching Terry Kempezi a fair bit. He played a
Speaker 3: lot of reserve grade for one year, and you just
Speaker 3: see players come through the system and to finally I
Speaker 3: remember when I played reserve grade, sorry twenties.
Speaker 2: At the time I thought I had was this.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm one of these players that these people
Speaker 3: watch and next you know, to get that to get
Speaker 3: that run on against the Bulldogs in that last twenty minutes,
Speaker 3: like all my family and friends were there. It was
Speaker 3: just crazy. I sort of like, you know, I wouldn't
Speaker 3: be more proud of this moment. Is just making my
Speaker 3: ownerial debut.
Speaker 1: That's lovely. Any regrets or anything you would change do differently?
Speaker 3: Look, you always say leaving Tigers definitely, But then what's
Speaker 3: so good about my I've got a story to tell?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, and luck you said you learned that's
Speaker 2: a business.
Speaker 3: Does it's as much as you love it, Like, not
Speaker 3: not saying that club in particular, but when you go
Speaker 3: on world, clubs want to keep you. But when you don't,
Speaker 3: you've seen other clubs they're trying to move different players on.
Speaker 2: So and that's that's the scary thing about right Believe
Speaker 2: you never know who's coming or who's going.
Speaker 3: So you know, for me, probably the biggest regret i'd
Speaker 3: have to be leaving West Tigers in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1: But I suppose you don't leave West Tigers. You don't
Speaker 1: get to experience the Sharks, you don't potentially don't end
Speaker 1: up at Manly.
Speaker 3: Oh that and I've got you know, one of my
Speaker 3: best mates, Scott Chawrenson from the Pandermanthers is one of
Speaker 3: three goal for four. So the little things that I
Speaker 3: would never have got to have that interaction with Scotty
Speaker 3: at Crawle did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Rugby league doesn't go to plan, does.
Speaker 2: It ano at all? Don't When you think you know
Speaker 2: what you're doing, you.
Speaker 1: Can get Well. Final question, what's the best piece of
Speaker 1: advice you were given throughout your career? Oh?
Speaker 2: One thing is always sensed to say, if you don't ask,
Speaker 2: you don't know.
Speaker 3: So from that I always asked a thousand questions and
Speaker 3: a lot of times some coaches took it the wrong way,
Speaker 3: even when I was a leader or a medium player.
Speaker 3: Like always, if I was unsure, I'd always ask a
Speaker 3: question and then they always said, there's no dumb questions,
Speaker 3: you know, like some players might be able to take
Speaker 3: it at easier, other players it might take a little
Speaker 3: bit longer to understand what they've got to do. So
Speaker 3: he was always the best Tim, and he always encouraged me,
Speaker 3: like and the only problem with Tim was you asked
Speaker 3: a question and you think you've got a two minute answer,
Speaker 3: it's going for half an hour. So I loved him,
Speaker 3: but jeez, man, you think I could talk underwater, especially
Speaker 3: about rugby ley You gave a conversation with Tim, but.
Speaker 1: Do your self limit questions to Sheen's.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we've got to go to a podcast with
Speaker 3: Shasi at Triple M one day. And then I was like, mate,
Speaker 3: our podcast go for forty five minutes. We ain't got
Speaker 3: two hours to talk with a big far.
Speaker 1: That's a great question. Oh well, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for your time with your congratulations on a truly remarkable career.
Speaker 1: Time to put your feet up and enjoy retirement.
Speaker 3: Well you mean, I've got three kids at home. This
Speaker 3: is going to happen now. Thanks for having me, Darcia.
Speaker 3: I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: My pleasure