Speaker 1: So much comedy.
Speaker 2: Goal you go to your sponsored year on two Cooper, Joel,
Speaker 2: You're goes. It's a never ending stream of freebies just
Speaker 2: arriving at outdoor all the time. Soon as we hear knock,
Speaker 2: don't we jack, We just don't.
Speaker 3: Bother it to Cooper. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Well letting people know as well, who got half
Speaker 4: of my freebies the other day because they didn't fit me?
Speaker 1: Who got them?
Speaker 3: It was me?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, because they didn't fit you.
Speaker 4: And then don't be ungrateful that I'm getting freebies because
Speaker 4: I'm always flicking you guys.
Speaker 3: Always flicking.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you go, you go through my stuff to ensure
Speaker 2: that I haven't taken any of your stuff.
Speaker 4: My room's like the boxes that come to me. It's
Speaker 4: like a Saint Vincent de Paul dumping box. I just
Speaker 4: go and put it on on.
Speaker 1: Dad's bed, and anything that's in my room sugar all
Speaker 1: the time. He'll come in and steal it, sugar his room.
Speaker 3: He's he is a hoarder, really yeah.
Speaker 2: He's the stuff that I've found in your eyes up advertising.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: Now I've always struggled, like with culling, like I used to,
Speaker 4: Like I'm pretty well documented I used to steal Maniac yeah, massive.
Speaker 2: Clet I was taking him into Triple M. I used
Speaker 2: to steal everything off people's head. He stole ten bucks
Speaker 2: off Jamie Angel, the Boss once.
Speaker 1: Off his desk. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Chris Page, who was Matthew's Panelotte, had a lot of
Speaker 4: these things in his like horny.
Speaker 1: Goat weed, remember that stuff?
Speaker 4: So yeah, yeah, And I was like twelve, and I
Speaker 4: just took it, not knowing what it was. And I
Speaker 4: was like, well, I didn't need any use for it,
Speaker 4: and at that time, which had it now?
Speaker 1: Because I could put it to good use these days?
Speaker 5: What was pages review on the horny gateweed?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 4: You guys were like you guys had heaps of it
Speaker 4: in a Triple M. I don't know whether they were
Speaker 4: a sponsor or something.
Speaker 2: There's lots of things we play all sorts of tricks
Speaker 2: in Shenanigans. Someone would be going to the airport, traveled
Speaker 2: on to Brisbane and we had a massive, big dildover there,
Speaker 2: big and we used to strap it to a diot.
Speaker 3: And camp stuff. Pretty MG's back. How are you enjoying
Speaker 3: working with Fletch?
Speaker 5: Good mate? Well, you know what it's light and just
Speaker 5: just a knock a bit. I think it kind of
Speaker 5: works because he's he's the youngest of seven fletch. Yeah,
Speaker 5: and I'm the eldest of six. He has he got
Speaker 5: seven of that. Yeah's youngest, youngest of seven, Bryan Nathan Fletcher. Yeah,
Speaker 5: grew up in an apartment too, a three bedroom apartment,
Speaker 5: so with seven kids.
Speaker 1: Yeah, everything in the Eastern Suburbs.
Speaker 5: In the Eastern Suburbs. His mother is still there today. Yeah,
Speaker 5: the same same apartment.
Speaker 2: Because flat choice explains like this, in the old days,
Speaker 2: in the old days of Sydney, the coast was not
Speaker 2: a coveted area because you know, they were concerns about
Speaker 2: invasion and whatnot, particularly the Japanese, and so people would
Speaker 2: generally want to live inland and it was only generally
Speaker 2: the poor, the lower socio economic households that would live
Speaker 2: on the coast, including the Eastern suburbs. How things change, Yeah,
Speaker 2: sure sure, sure, no fears invasion have you around here?
Speaker 1: Yeah, this place is has followed on apart jold.
Speaker 3: Joel, you're the eldest of five.
Speaker 5: Elders is six, so mum and dad had five and
Speaker 5: then mum, we've got a beautiful half brother Joey. So yeah,
Speaker 5: so middle name John actually Joey John's.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Joey John.
Speaker 4: Tell you what I've spun this before on the Family podcast.
Speaker 4: There's a bloke down the road. There's a few of
Speaker 4: these as well.
Speaker 1: I used to play.
Speaker 4: I played with the Matheson. John's short named Maddie John's.
Speaker 4: His instagram is Madde John's played at Penrith and the Dragons. Actually,
Speaker 4: but there's a real estate agent around here. His name's
Speaker 4: Maddie John's. He actually works with Brad Parker because Parks
Speaker 4: is now a commercial real estate agent with.
Speaker 3: The hardboard Hilton.
Speaker 4: Heah come up, yeah, because he rang me after I
Speaker 4: plugged him on the Poddy saying mate, there's this bloke
Speaker 4: on TikTok and he's like, hey, guys, what's up. Maddie
Speaker 4: John's here, come to the open house and everybody always
Speaker 4: praised him on it, going you're not for Maddie John's.
Speaker 2: But that bloke he used to be on the Tricia
Speaker 2: podcast yesterday with a couple of two dotings.
Speaker 1: Two doting dads, Maddie Jay and Schwitz.
Speaker 5: Was on the Bachelorie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, someone told him changed his name because he would
Speaker 2: say on the phone or sudden they go, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: Maddie Johnson and they go oh football.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he's a real estate agent and I hadn't heard
Speaker 5: of this blake and apparently killing it in the States
Speaker 5: leonce so higher. He's a real estate agent over the
Speaker 5: States flying They tell me, wow, good guy Lance. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Remember the time in the in the Super Grand Final
Speaker 2: where he got belted king hit and the guy who
Speaker 2: hit him didn't just get suspended. I think he had
Speaker 2: a jail jail say.
Speaker 4: That video was bad. Yeah, I remember it when viral forbid.
Speaker 4: He was a big dude too. Yeah, it looked like
Speaker 4: he had he jobbed him.
Speaker 2: And then when Lance ht the ground, he hit him
Speaker 2: while he was down and he got yeah, got sent
Speaker 2: off immediately and ended.
Speaker 3: Up having to out of court. He got sentenced. Well,
Speaker 3: I don't know what it was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a big dude. Looked like he had
Speaker 1: more than creatine and his sister.
Speaker 2: So so so six in the family. What's the breakup?
Speaker 5: So five boys and one girl, right, Yeah, it must
Speaker 5: have been all the boys born in the city. My
Speaker 5: sister was born in the country. Ye, it was pretty
Speaker 5: You know what When I was a kid, boys, I
Speaker 5: was very resentful to my parents, who were beautiful people
Speaker 5: still got them Dave and Bernie separated. I was very
Speaker 5: resentful for the upbringing. I'd be thinking, why did this
Speaker 5: happen to me?
Speaker 3: Victim?
Speaker 5: You know, why did this happen to me? And then
Speaker 5: when you get older and you learn things and you
Speaker 5: think about all the good things that came out of it,
Speaker 5: I've sort of changed my thinking to you know, why
Speaker 5: did this happen for me? You know, why did this upbringing?
Speaker 5: At the time, it was very chaotic, you know, very
Speaker 5: very chaotic.
Speaker 3: So an example with traveling.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I went to ten schools, ten.
Speaker 1: Schools in the same area.
Speaker 5: In ten schools and never got to year twelve, right, So,
Speaker 5: and it wasn't discipline. It was mum and dad together
Speaker 5: from a young age, from sixteen pregnant have a young
Speaker 5: boy sadly passes. His name's Nash. So I always said
Speaker 5: to myself, if I have a boy, my first boy
Speaker 5: is going to be Nash. And that's my third child.
Speaker 5: We've got two girls, two boys. He's Nash. But then quickly,
Speaker 5: you know, that scarred them, so they now that was
Speaker 5: an accident, but now they need to sort of fill
Speaker 5: that gap and they have me at the young age
Speaker 5: of about eighteen or nine am. So they've got me,
Speaker 5: and then fourteen months later they've got Rick and three
Speaker 5: of us end up playing first grade. Rick the one
Speaker 5: behind me, he was the best of the lot, you know, great,
Speaker 5: great talented kid. Anyway, so by the time Mum and
Speaker 5: Daut of twenty eight, they've got five kids.
Speaker 3: Jesus.
Speaker 5: But to rewind a little bit, Dad was a young
Speaker 5: constable in the course, and one day they get this
Speaker 5: card to go to this paddock and this knocked him
Speaker 5: around a lot. So he gets his Cordgaut with this
Speaker 5: paddock and these cops all descend upon this particular area
Speaker 5: out in the west of Sydney and there's a bloke
Speaker 5: and this is a different story. This bloke is there
Speaker 5: and later gets charged with knocking off female redch grundies
Speaker 5: off clotheslines. Right, so the yes, the cops turn up
Speaker 5: and catch this bloke in the action, but that's not
Speaker 5: what they're there for. One of the cops sets aside,
Speaker 5: pinging him and they work out what he's been doing.
Speaker 5: But the real reason they were there. The rest of
Speaker 5: the cops march on down this paddic where this tip off,
Speaker 5: it happened, and Dad and a few of the other
Speaker 5: cops who are with him, they're first on scene for
Speaker 5: the Anita copy murder. Oh Jesus, yeah, jesus, yeah. It
Speaker 5: makes me every time I sort of hair stand up.
Speaker 3: But oh wow.
Speaker 5: For a long time Dad and never talk about it,
Speaker 5: But the brutality from these pigs, these pigs, these travers
Speaker 5: brothers and others, what they did to this girl. And
Speaker 5: you can imagine what I did, knock a fam around.
Speaker 5: So it's as a result of that, you know, Dad
Speaker 5: wanted to get out of the city, and he got
Speaker 5: an offer to go to Lake car Jelligo, where you're
Speaker 5: almost the only cop in town, maybe you and another
Speaker 5: one or two. It's really hard to police in the
Speaker 5: in those rural areas because on the one hand, you've
Speaker 5: got to sort of keep ordering town, but on the
Speaker 5: other hand, everyone knows where you live, everyone sees you
Speaker 5: down the pub. You sort of got to win some
Speaker 5: people over. So my dad, he's sort of you're stuck
Speaker 5: between a rock and a hard place. But he was
Speaker 5: really good to the locals where you know, things like Condoblan.
Speaker 5: If Condoblan cops turned up on the CB the only
Speaker 5: reason they would turn up on the ceab is because
Speaker 5: they're coming to Lake Jellyga. So Dadd had ring all
Speaker 5: the pubs. He'd say, guys, with sort of a half
Speaker 5: a wink over the phone, you know you're not spased
Speaker 5: to drink and drive. You definitely ain't better not drive
Speaker 5: to night. Right, I'm catching up with the condo cops.
Speaker 5: And they'd all know people in town that, okay, the
Speaker 5: condo cops are coming in town. That means the RBT
Speaker 5: he's coming to town. So Dadd had let everyone know
Speaker 5: in town things like that. Rightly or wrongly, you'd do it.
Speaker 5: But there was one kid running a mark and he
Speaker 5: even spoke to the parents and said, look, I think
Speaker 5: for the better of him, we've got to take him.
Speaker 5: I've looked after him. I've put a lot of the
Speaker 5: stuff under the carpet. It was a school holiday. So
Speaker 5: this guy's in the back of the paddy wagon and
Speaker 5: he's going to court down at West Wylong. That was
Speaker 5: the nearest court ear and half away. And I'm in
Speaker 5: the passengers seat and so here I am, young kid,
Speaker 5: this is the life on you. I'm just sitting in
Speaker 5: the court and this magistrate character. So he's getting stuck
Speaker 5: into this young kid. He said, mate, list after the list,
Speaker 5: after the list, after item after item. You need some
Speaker 5: time away. He said, I'm going to hit you with
Speaker 5: six months in jail. And this kid's got the rats tail.
Speaker 5: He's chewing gum gun Barrel looked at the magistrate. He said,
Speaker 5: six months, six months. I'll do that stand and I'm
Speaker 5: good ahead, and the magistrate country Blake Larry and he said, oh,
Speaker 5: excuse me, court attendant, could I just have you for
Speaker 5: a second. She comes back over. It's going to make
Speaker 5: a little amendment, gets the pen. Sorry, sir, I forgot
Speaker 5: one thing. He said, I'll give you. I'll give you
Speaker 5: twelve months. He said, I'll give you six months to
Speaker 5: stand on your head, and I'll give you six months
Speaker 5: to get back on your feet. And this is the
Speaker 5: type I think. This is the life we sort of
Speaker 5: sort of grew up with. Then he went and bought
Speaker 5: some pubs, and so we just moved and moved and
Speaker 5: moved and moved. And I resented my family for that.
Speaker 5: The amount of footy clubs you play with, the amount
Speaker 5: of people say I used to go to with you,
Speaker 5: and I'm like spinning the wheel, I wouldn't know you're
Speaker 5: there for and it's quite traumatic as a kid meeting
Speaker 5: new people all the time.
Speaker 1: What positions you play growing up? Rugby league?
Speaker 5: Probably five eight? Like a kid like speed and running
Speaker 5: was my asset. But you know, you get away with
Speaker 5: it in the country as a five eight, even though
Speaker 5: it wasn't really much of a ball player.
Speaker 4: Were you like, I'd imagine the main thing you bond
Speaker 4: over other kids with when you get to all these
Speaker 4: different towns is rugby league.
Speaker 1: Were you were good junior? Like you came in and
Speaker 1: everyone was like all these blokes.
Speaker 5: Again, so that definitely helps and the whole family, Like
Speaker 5: we would go to trophy day and like any given day,
Speaker 5: my dad, who was a horrible athlete, right, he would
Speaker 5: have Joel scored five, Rick scored six, Puld scored four,
Speaker 5: Tyne scored six. So you know, some parents get to
Speaker 5: see Johnny score a try and it's like dad was
Speaker 5: getting twenty tries every week, you.
Speaker 2: Know, Yeah, Joel, can I just take the step back
Speaker 2: there for a second about the impact the anitacopy murders
Speaker 2: had had on him and for the boys. You know
Speaker 2: a lot of younger viewers will not be aware of.
Speaker 2: This could be i'd say, possibly the most infamous murder.
Speaker 3: Australian history.
Speaker 1: Yet where was it located?
Speaker 3: Black Tea.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're not going to go into details, but it's
Speaker 2: absolutely horrific. And I remember getting the book somebody else's daughter.
Speaker 3: And read it.
Speaker 2: I got about twenty pages in I just threw it away.
Speaker 2: It was just too disturbing. But what effect did you
Speaker 2: see on your father?
Speaker 5: Yeah? You know what I saw, which I probably lived
Speaker 5: through myself post career, right, was a lot of alcohol
Speaker 5: in our family, and a lot of financial pressure in
Speaker 5: our family, and a lot of kids. And so Mum
Speaker 5: and Dad really were just ducks in a pond and
Speaker 5: they're just surviving. And the amount of times and as
Speaker 5: I said, I love them to death, and they were
Speaker 5: dealing with what they could do at the time. But
Speaker 5: with a lot of alcohol, a lot of stress, there's
Speaker 5: a lot of fights. Right, So we lived in at
Speaker 5: Mum and Dad were just fighting all the time, you know.
Speaker 5: And the funny thing is not funny thing, but of
Speaker 5: all of my siblings who have gone on to get married,
Speaker 5: we've all married into families who parents have been together
Speaker 5: the whole time and stable families they've lived in the
Speaker 5: same area the whole time.
Speaker 3: We've all sort of got gravitated that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, my wife you probably know Wayne Smith, third most
Speaker 5: cap Magpie. I married his eldest daughter and their family
Speaker 5: is very much I see something about Wayne. Actually remember
Speaker 5: back in the day, Maddie, you'd finished the game and
Speaker 5: the wives or the girlfriends they wait outside, and I
Speaker 5: was sort of anound for I'd have long showers. I'd
Speaker 5: just be in there all day, you know, and k
Speaker 5: shit's why I'm always the last one late, and I
Speaker 5: just love to just chill in the shower. I have
Speaker 5: a beer and chat the boys. And anyway, I got
Speaker 5: invited this Legend's day, and I don't know how the
Speaker 5: freaking how I got invited, but Wayne certainly was invited.
Speaker 5: He was a legend of the West Magpies, so he
Speaker 5: should be there. They'll probably added up the numbers and
Speaker 5: we're taken on Satler and all the bunnies, and I've
Speaker 5: got to start. It's a muck around game out there
Speaker 5: at Redfernoval. And so after the game, having my routine,
Speaker 5: first in the shower, probably going to be the last out,
Speaker 5: and the father in law you have a shower with
Speaker 5: your father in law boys, or your girlfriend's dad.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately Tony's passed. No, I know Tony Truci's dad wasn't
Speaker 2: sort of the guy that she imagined.
Speaker 3: If Tony fancy having a shower up for it.
Speaker 5: So Wayne's six foot six foot two or something fit
Speaker 5: as a fear of even to this day runs a
Speaker 5: sea anels good bloke and he comes in with the
Speaker 5: towel over his shoulder and then the penny drops. I've
Speaker 5: just worked out, right at this moment why his mates
Speaker 5: call him knackers? Right, that was his nickname, which his
Speaker 5: wife Lyne hates that they call him that. But that
Speaker 5: was the very first time I worked out, Oh, Wayne,
Speaker 5: that's why they call your knackers. And then quickly I'd
Speaker 5: left the building. I was very quickly out that day
Speaker 5: to show with your father in law, well under your
Speaker 5: Wayne too, by the way, unusual experience.
Speaker 1: Did he give you us? Did he like have a
Speaker 1: look at you up and down?
Speaker 5: He did? He did? He did? Yeah, having try, I
Speaker 5: would have thought he won the battle. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So back on your father in law for one second.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because now letting people know if you're you know,
Speaker 4: those people are listening that aren't rugby league players. When
Speaker 4: you are a rugby league player, you're an ex rogay
Speaker 4: league player, and you you might have a daughter or
Speaker 4: a son. Probably the your first instinct is, probably I
Speaker 4: don't want my daughter to und up with another rugby
Speaker 4: league player, because you know it could be scally action
Speaker 4: time that I'm out with the boys all the time.
Speaker 4: Probably not renowned family men. When you first met your missus, was.
Speaker 1: Was he very like hard with you?
Speaker 5: Like?
Speaker 1: Was he very skeptical on your Yeah?
Speaker 5: I imagine it was. But when we first met, actually
Speaker 5: Kobe's telling her dad we met at this touch football
Speaker 5: tournament and Kby is telling her that I bet this
Speaker 5: guy and what's his name blah blah blah, and he's
Speaker 5: an electrician. I told her I was an electrician, which
Speaker 5: which I am qualified as an electrician. And then he said, Kabe,
Speaker 5: he's not electrician. He's playing footy, you know, And then say, yeah,
Speaker 5: I mean as I would be the same thing keeps,
Speaker 5: you know, I'd be very skeptical.
Speaker 2: So the towns you went to and the schools, what
Speaker 2: was was what was the most difficult town to live in?
Speaker 2: And where would you Is there any town that you
Speaker 2: go gravitate and go back there.
Speaker 5: Yeah. We finished high school in Port McQuary. That was good,
Speaker 5: you know, like Bonnie Hills, northapn Port McQuary. But we
Speaker 5: lived in this little town of eighty people and there
Speaker 5: was I think there was like eleven at the school
Speaker 5: and five of them were us. You know, like we
Speaker 5: had a little pub in that town, New Bridge, Frosty
Speaker 5: town outside of Blaney. That was tough going.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, okay, So you started the Dragons, yep, you're
Speaker 2: picked up by the Dragons.
Speaker 3: That was when you were living in Port McQuary. How'd
Speaker 3: they find you?
Speaker 5: Yes, I was in Port McQuary, and I just what
Speaker 5: about you, coops? Were you are desperate league? Or did
Speaker 5: you have to do it or you will give or
Speaker 5: take league? Did you want to do it?
Speaker 1: Or I wanted to play league.
Speaker 4: I went to a Union school yep, so I was
Speaker 4: forced to play union there as well. But I always
Speaker 4: league was always my sport. It was always I'd play
Speaker 4: Union on the Saturday, League on the Sunday, or sometimes
Speaker 4: on the same day, rock up with my union stocks
Speaker 4: socks still on. Dad was coaching our league side. But
Speaker 4: I think league was always the passion. Union's just it
Speaker 4: was a bit different for a league.
Speaker 2: The second year you didn't play union, remember you had
Speaker 2: an injury, but also the very fact that I found
Speaker 2: it unhealthy to a certain extent. So I'm not a
Speaker 2: big fan of the sports high schools.
Speaker 5: Yes, but I agree with that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, but you don't want a kid you
Speaker 2: don't keep going through school saying, oh, it doesn't matter
Speaker 2: about schol I'm going to be a first grade footballer anyway.
Speaker 2: And when you're fourteen years of ages, very you think
Speaker 2: that way. Yeah, we chose against that as well.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well definitely like not throwing, not lifting the lid
Speaker 4: on anything. You know, that's too controversially, but those big
Speaker 4: union schools, they probably are. They probably do promise a
Speaker 4: lot of kids the world, Like at fourteen fifteen, they
Speaker 4: get him in on scholarship, come in here, played. And
Speaker 4: then as soon as I saw that, many blog, so
Speaker 4: many kids that will promise like you're going to be
Speaker 4: the next big thing. Two years later they they kind
Speaker 4: of like, you know, and they and they don't. They
Speaker 4: let him get away with not doing exams, someone else
Speaker 4: still in their homework.
Speaker 1: All of this stuff.
Speaker 4: And then they get to seventeen and they they've already
Speaker 4: hit their gross burd everyone goes past them and there's
Speaker 4: a little bit of all right, well you know you're
Speaker 4: no longer.
Speaker 1: That good, so we'll just piss you off a little bit.
Speaker 2: Well, I remember there was one kid at the school
Speaker 2: who made he could really play.
Speaker 3: This kid he was a forward.
Speaker 2: So I bumped the Melbourne Storm and I said, I
Speaker 2: found this this this kid, right, So the Storm made
Speaker 2: him an offer and then someone got in his ear
Speaker 2: inswer me, you don't want to go to don't go
Speaker 2: to that code and anyway, so they promised him somehow
Speaker 2: as far as super rugby and surprise, surprise never eventuated.
Speaker 5: What about so you asked me about how to go
Speaker 5: from Port mcquarie to the dragons, right? And it impacts
Speaker 5: your life? Actually? So I get invited to this trial
Speaker 5: and we were a very weak group, but I was
Speaker 5: probably the captain of our group Group three. We'd played
Speaker 5: group before and get flogged. We're a very weak rep group.
Speaker 5: But anyway, myself, I get invited this trial open trial cogra,
Speaker 5: and I'm so pumped it. This is my chance to
Speaker 5: make it. And it's an open trial. So missmashy socks
Speaker 5: jerseys whatever else, and I get down there, and I
Speaker 5: run into a mate from Tari the Tari Red Rovers.
Speaker 5: Here you are, mate, blahlah blah blah. We play and
Speaker 5: I'm thinking I'm in good shape. If he's got to start,
Speaker 5: I'm going to be flying in. Get out there, bad
Speaker 5: start overthinker had a shaka and my head's off. Meanwhile,
Speaker 5: the boy from Tari Red Rovers is carving up, absolutely
Speaker 5: carving up, and my head's imploding. Right, So I'm kicking stones.
Speaker 5: I'm walking out of Cogra and phone rings Sally. Peter O'Sullivan,
Speaker 5: my great Sally. He rings me, says, oh, how are
Speaker 5: your mate? I said, oh, Pete, it was my best day.
Speaker 5: He said, fancy being a dragon.
Speaker 3: Wow, relief.
Speaker 1: Peter and Sullivan was still recruiting. Back then.
Speaker 5: It was coaching SG ball, was it, Yeah, this is
Speaker 5: nineteen ninety five, this would have been.
Speaker 1: He's been around old.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: He came through our Grand final was against Frank Peronician Manly.
Speaker 5: They were coaching against each other.
Speaker 3: Was he Frank?
Speaker 2: Frank was Bozo had him employed as a junior coach.
Speaker 2: He took him up as an assistant. Wow, Manly, Yeah,
Speaker 2: he's done everything Frank in the game Frankfurt, hence his expertise.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I get the phone call. I'm sorry, relieve,
Speaker 5: he said, mate, not only that, you're gonna live with me.
Speaker 5: So I'm going not beautiful. Three months later. Three months
Speaker 5: later and he's driving an old pantech truck. Then and
Speaker 5: we're driving home from training one day. He's living at
Speaker 5: Rudy Hill. That's where Pete was living and Rob living.
Speaker 5: So we're driving at home and dinner tonight is his
Speaker 5: ex wife Therese, which is Sean O'Sullivan's mum. She'd make
Speaker 5: this beautiful what do they call beef stroging off. So
Speaker 5: we're having that for dinner and Pete goes to me,
Speaker 5: started to get a bit serious and always sort of joke.
Speaker 5: He said, made to you. I'm homesick. I said, I'm
Speaker 5: loving it. He goes, you're missing your girlfriend. I said,
Speaker 5: I miss my girlfriend, but I'm good. He goes, mate,
Speaker 5: we're we're gonna prop sit down the night he said,
Speaker 5: between you and said, the club's this close to get readier.
Speaker 5: I've been played a game. It's been the off seas.
Speaker 5: When I first got down there, they rolled the red
Speaker 5: carpet out. But it starts to diminish and now I
Speaker 5: can't think about this. I'm eating the strogging off and
Speaker 5: it's a favorite meal, but I can't enjoy it, you know.
Speaker 5: And we sit down and Therese brings out a cornetto
Speaker 5: for a seat. We're sitting on the carpet and we're
Speaker 5: watching the TV. He puts on. He said, you're not homesick.
Speaker 5: I said, I'm not homesick. He goes, all right, well,
Speaker 5: let's watch this. So he watches. He puts his tape on.
Speaker 5: You what do you think about that run? I said, oh,
Speaker 5: it's a great run. You know what about the pass?
Speaker 5: Bang ran, tackles, went through all these metrics, bang bang
Speaker 5: bang bang bang. So you promise me you're not amsick?
Speaker 5: I said, not am sick. He goes, and everything's okay.
Speaker 5: I said, everything's okay. He goes, well, how do I
Speaker 5: get you back to doing that?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 5: I said, how do I get back to doing that?
Speaker 5: He goes, yeah, how do we get your back to
Speaker 5: doing that? That's the boy we signed. I said, Pete,
Speaker 5: that's impossible. He said why. I said, that's not me.
Speaker 5: He goes, he goes, what do you mean that's not you?
Speaker 5: I said, I said, that's not me, Like two little
Speaker 5: blokes of brand. I said, that's my mate from the
Speaker 5: Tari Red Ravers. He goes, that's who we wanted to sign.
Speaker 5: He goes on, He goes, well, where the hell's he going?
Speaker 5: I said, oh, I made He got a last minute
Speaker 5: trial with the Knights. Danny grew up as a Dragons
Speaker 5: fan and was he wanted to be a Dragon, right,
Speaker 5: He'd have posters on his walls and he couldn't have
Speaker 5: done more. He was the best player there. So Pete
Speaker 5: says to me, he goes, what are you going to
Speaker 5: do with you? I said, well, for starters, they don't
Speaker 5: want to playing looker too much. And he moved me
Speaker 5: out of that. But as a result of that, because
Speaker 5: if he goes there and you know what, Danny Badiera's
Speaker 5: one of them. I don't need to tell you this,
Speaker 5: but what happens if he gets stuck behind Nathan Brown
Speaker 5: all those years? That's right, he goes to you guys,
Speaker 5: has the benefit of playing with the Johns brothers. So
Speaker 5: sliding door for him, sliding door for me.
Speaker 2: It was tough three years for Bedsy after that that
Speaker 2: Bedsy come to Newcastle and you talk about being an
Speaker 2: able thinking yourself. Oh, my god, Bedsy was I remember
Speaker 2: we used to get there and do sessions with the
Speaker 2: juniors when we're playing first grade.
Speaker 3: Andrew and I.
Speaker 2: I remember Bedsy. He was just tied in ah, mate,
Speaker 2: he was all over the place. Played in the halves,
Speaker 2: he really struggled. They put him in the centers, he
Speaker 2: really struggled.
Speaker 3: They put him to full back, he struggled, and he
Speaker 3: was just he was. He had a foot out the door.
Speaker 2: And then one day there was just a spade of
Speaker 2: injuries and they elevated me first grade and give him
Speaker 2: a crack at a hooker. And remember walking off at
Speaker 2: half time like he hit everything that moved.
Speaker 3: I remember hitting. He hit Richie Barnett.
Speaker 2: Barnett was a hard guy to hit because he'd lifted
Speaker 2: his knee, and mate, Barnett wound up and he was
Speaker 2: running at me, and I sooner think to myself, fucking
Speaker 2: l this is gonna hurt. And then all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: bang beds ed him inside off. Remember walking off at
Speaker 2: half time, just going to Bedsy, are you all right?
Speaker 2: Like for him after the game, he.
Speaker 3: Just said, I found hooker easy. I didn't have to think.
Speaker 3: I just got out there and played.
Speaker 5: But he's a great for kids who missrep teams. I
Speaker 5: tell this all the time, so I'll never forget. Barry
Speaker 5: Sprague was the coach of our under sixteen as I said,
Speaker 5: very ordinary group side, and he was from the gun side.
Speaker 5: So there'd be five players who the league would regard
Speaker 5: better than him at the Tarry Red Ravers. None of
Speaker 5: them went on and Barry Spragg's picking number seventeen and
Speaker 5: I'm the captain of his side at Port and so
Speaker 5: I'm the captain of the squad and he said, oh man,
Speaker 5: I'm thinking about picking this young Banius as a seventeen
Speaker 5: and I reckon he can play, you know, I said, yeah,
Speaker 5: I rid him too, you know, put it. But it
Speaker 5: was just even at sixting, you're that close to think
Speaker 5: that he was going to what a career.
Speaker 3: Yeah, amazing career, Edgie.
Speaker 4: Sorry, you've just spacked my memory on a story of
Speaker 4: clubs that signed the wrong players accidentally. So there's a
Speaker 4: couple actually, but my favorite. So I was playing mainly
Speaker 4: in the under eight ns and mainly we're talking to
Speaker 4: this kid who was playing up in Cans this center
Speaker 4: and they go, you know, send through some tape. We'll
Speaker 4: have a look at it and if we think you
Speaker 4: got anything, we'll come down play the SG bull sweet.
Speaker 4: He sends through this massive tape he's cut together everything himself.
Speaker 4: Him and his manager sends it down. Mainly are looking
Speaker 4: at it, typical manly, very cutthroat. They look at it
Speaker 4: and they go, what's that that fella on who plays
Speaker 4: outside you?
Speaker 1: What's his name? They end up signing the winger on
Speaker 1: the outside of him.
Speaker 4: He comes down tremendous player, like an unbelievable the work
Speaker 4: rate of like no one though like could refuse to
Speaker 4: do any work two games in does his ACL anyway,
Speaker 4: he they end up the club's looking after and the
Speaker 4: end up putting him with another one of those players
Speaker 4: who lives in Western Sydney and he's on crutches and
Speaker 4: he's done his ACL and he was a bit of
Speaker 4: a rat bag and he ended up sleeping with the
Speaker 4: bloke's sister and yeah, yeah, and the blokes sister, the guys,
Speaker 4: the older brothers who were living in the house were
Speaker 4: let's say they were quite heavy fellas, like they were
Speaker 4: fellas you didn't want to cross anyway. Our coach rings
Speaker 4: me one night and he says, oh mate, because you
Speaker 4: got a spot at your house. I know why, he says,
Speaker 4: I've just had to pick up to leave his name
Speaker 4: out of it. What he's done, he goes, I just
Speaker 4: had to pick him up. He was running, he was
Speaker 4: on crutches and his brace, his a C L brace,
Speaker 4: running down the m one and the brothers were chasing
Speaker 4: him with with a machete. And then he was trying
Speaker 4: to bring into our house. I said, keep that fuck
Speaker 4: up as far away from it as possible.
Speaker 1: I don't want those brothers.
Speaker 3: But signing the wrong blokes.
Speaker 2: The biggest, the biggest soccer club in the world at
Speaker 2: the time, AC Milan once signed the wrong player. They
Speaker 2: looked at an English game and the great John Barnes
Speaker 2: for Liverpool.
Speaker 3: Of course will just won the title, all.
Speaker 2: Done, and they're looking and John Barnes was close to
Speaker 2: the best player in the world at the time, and
Speaker 2: they went and made this and they're watching this play.
Speaker 2: They way, yeah, he's the one way they get him.
Speaker 2: Go a Milan and this player is really struggling and
Speaker 2: turns up, well, they his name was Luther from set something.
Speaker 2: I was trying to think of his name, but it's well,
Speaker 2: it's famous. So they went mate, that's the guy, and
Speaker 2: they went and signed him, and later on they went no, no, no,
Speaker 2: the player we're looking at it, but it was John
Speaker 2: Barnes and so they completely It's famous that they signed
Speaker 2: the wrong player. You saped quite a bit of yes
Speaker 2: days for over analysis.
Speaker 5: And like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, all these to go on was just especially
Speaker 1: in league, it was just video and basically.
Speaker 5: Greek Smith, Yeah that's right, mate.
Speaker 3: Greg Smith from Philadelphia Egles to the Newcastle Knights played
Speaker 3: a first grade game, got deported two weeks later.
Speaker 1: He played in the NFL. Or he said he did,
Speaker 1: He said, well he was.
Speaker 2: He was a squad player with the Philadelphia Philadelphia Eagles
Speaker 2: wide receiver. He decided to go cut and come and
Speaker 2: lived in Australia, decided to play a bit of football.
Speaker 2: Someone tipped off Warren Ryan and one thing lose to
Speaker 2: another and up with the Yank and the team.
Speaker 3: I put him in the squad. So he's at the club.
Speaker 2: Played a reserve grade game and I played okay, and
Speaker 2: then we had a mile of injuries and w said,
Speaker 2: I'm going to put them, going to put the Yank
Speaker 2: in the first grade. So we're playing the Bulldogs, the
Speaker 2: Dogs of war and Ricky Stewart, Bradley Clyde at a
Speaker 2: cracking side. Anyway, the Yank was going okay. In the
Speaker 2: first time he was going okay. And then Ricky just
Speaker 2: for after time put a bomb up. He went to
Speaker 2: catch it, hit him in the head and they went
Speaker 2: right out of bloods in the water and they just
Speaker 2: kept going.
Speaker 3: He played so bad.
Speaker 2: Like I remember, after the game, there was just a
Speaker 2: media throng going to Warren Ryan going at the club
Speaker 2: going how can you put this bloke in?
Speaker 3: And he come up to me Smithy and said, Maddie,
Speaker 3: how do you think I went? And I think, oh
Speaker 3: my god, you don't know. I said, you're okay? Yeah, man,
Speaker 3: there was guys were saying you know that I was ship.
Speaker 2: I don't listen to see the Dragons. You're all most
Speaker 2: famous for playing for the Tigers. So you go to
Speaker 2: the Tigers. We'll talk about the crazy gang and see
Speaker 2: Bawmain Tigers to start with.
Speaker 5: Yep, I was at the Dragons and they merged. Then
Speaker 5: I was at Baomain and then they merged. I'm not
Speaker 5: going to run away from this. I ran away from
Speaker 5: the Dragons. They went to a Green final, so I'm
Speaker 5: going to stay here, and thankfully I got the last,
Speaker 5: very last spot at the West Tigers because they're trying
Speaker 5: to get Prett Hodgson. He decided to stay at paramattap
Speaker 5: and what happened that year, and I'm so grateful for
Speaker 5: this year. But this is the year the Broncos won
Speaker 5: the comp two thousand and I said, Junie, you're gonna
Speaker 5: play every game. He said, mate, we've signed Maddie Sears,
Speaker 5: who might play Wayne Pierce the coach. Yeah. And I
Speaker 5: trained as hard as I've ever trained, didn't drink. I
Speaker 5: didn't really drink. Then I'm off the drink again now
Speaker 5: as a result, thinking about getting back to your best.
Speaker 5: But we played the Broncos in the first round and
Speaker 5: they won the I got comeing out men and the
Speaker 5: Matt's three tries most points in.
Speaker 3: The compe three tries.
Speaker 5: Fox gave me the player of the round. So I
Speaker 5: was just on fire. But what hurt me is and
Speaker 5: I'm so proud of what the dally ms and They've
Speaker 5: got the list of the points scorers and it's a
Speaker 5: blanket finished myself, your brother, Andrew, Matt Rodgers, Daryl Halligan,
Speaker 5: Ryan Girdler and to be in that race of five
Speaker 5: and ultimately win it. It's up and I'll never forget.
Speaker 5: But where it come undone, Coops, And you can imagine
Speaker 5: this when you were coming through young that was the
Speaker 5: Olympic year, so the competition we missed the finals. So
Speaker 5: my season finishes in August and the Olympics is in
Speaker 5: Sydney and your host city. And so I've come back
Speaker 5: the next season five K. So all those tries and
Speaker 5: points I score, and you know, like I'm getting ragged
Speaker 5: old and I'm getting caught and I never ever got.
Speaker 1: Back to a trdjole.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's hard. When you have a really big season, you.
Speaker 1: Throw everything into that year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the next year is very very hard to back up. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Particularly I always found in my career in the off
Speaker 2: season when I was going to the next season, I'm thinking,
Speaker 2: I've got this game by the balls. Finally I'd have
Speaker 2: a shocking season. It was when you were turn up
Speaker 2: a training every session, nervous.
Speaker 5: Yep.
Speaker 3: That's when you know, ahead of for a big season yep.
Speaker 5: Yeah. And I just that's why I've got so much
Speaker 5: reverence for these Panthers and the success they have, and
Speaker 5: they just keep wanted to get better. Whereas I kind
Speaker 5: of felt that from the age of five, I wanted
Speaker 5: to be a first grade player and I've won a
Speaker 5: dally M point scoring thing and I kind of felt
Speaker 5: like I can've done it. There they've got there. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: like I've done what I've needed to do, and yeah,
Speaker 5: that was kind of That's why it's.
Speaker 4: So important, like you have you have your short term goals,
Speaker 4: but there's got to be if you're a young player,
Speaker 4: you've got to have a long term because, like you're saying,
Speaker 4: the amount of players that go, I just want to
Speaker 4: All I want to do is get to first game
Speaker 4: and play one game, and then they get there and
Speaker 4: they've worked so hard to get there and they kind
Speaker 4: of go, like, what actually do I want to do now?
Speaker 4: Like is my goal to win a Grand Final? Is
Speaker 4: my goal to play State of Origin? Like so many
Speaker 4: players actually don't know what they want.
Speaker 1: Then they just go.
Speaker 4: They just play because they love it, but they actually
Speaker 4: don't have an end goal. You see Penrith like they
Speaker 4: want to win the comp every year yep, and you
Speaker 4: can tell how I mean, this year they're struggling, but
Speaker 4: the last four years, like they get back to preseason
Speaker 4: and they Ultimately they just want to win. They want
Speaker 4: to They would win the comp every year if they
Speaker 4: wanted to.
Speaker 2: And the difference Coop when you mentioned there about young
Speaker 2: guys coming in the grade and they go, okay, I'm here,
Speaker 2: is that the dream is very different to the reality.
Speaker 2: Is that you grow up playing the game, but you're
Speaker 2: playing with all your mates in the park and there
Speaker 2: aren't no consequences. You might win, you might lose, you
Speaker 2: might play good, you may't play bad. I can't remember
Speaker 2: I play good or bad or whatever. No one would
Speaker 2: critique you.
Speaker 3: And your whole goal is to play in.
Speaker 2: The Sydney Competition or the Winfield Cup. And now's the
Speaker 2: NRL and a lot of young guys will get there.
Speaker 2: Suddenly they get in there and they go there's criticism,
Speaker 2: there's pressure, and it's just not fun.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 2: Like I think if you went to a lot of
Speaker 2: young guys and you went to the masks them honestly
Speaker 2: in the NRL, are you enjoying your career? I reckon
Speaker 2: at the very least half would say no.
Speaker 5: Yeah. And you know the thing right, So Ryan Hoffman,
Speaker 5: so Jay Hoffman. Ryan was a Campbellton kids. He came
Speaker 5: through with St. Greeks. Yeah, Fulton. He won a comp
Speaker 5: with Fulton and I think it was Bronson Harrison and
Speaker 5: a number of other those young sort of Rice Gibbs
Speaker 5: West kids, yep. And Jay Hoffman his dad who was
Speaker 5: a raider. He came to training and he must have
Speaker 5: played with Bellamy, actually yeah he did, probably playing Bellamy.
Speaker 5: He came to training and I was an iva of
Speaker 5: country kid, right, And they say you become the sum
Speaker 5: of the five people you hang around most if you
Speaker 5: went through the first West Tigers team and ultimately it's
Speaker 5: up to myself making bad decisions. But if you have
Speaker 5: a look at some of the scoundrels on there and
Speaker 5: that it was good times, mind you. But Jay Hoffman goes,
Speaker 5: this is not for my son, dragged him out and
Speaker 5: took him straight down to Melbourne m craig and his
Speaker 5: career goes where his career goes, you know.
Speaker 3: So well let's run through that, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2: The West Tigers coups of ninety nine or two of
Speaker 2: two thousand and going forward for a couple of seasons there.
Speaker 2: When you talk about that, they the Crazy Gang referred
Speaker 2: to an English soccer side who were Wimbledon f C.
Speaker 2: Who had Vinnie Jones, Dennis Wise that they were they
Speaker 2: were nuts. Well I'm telling you now, I reckon This
Speaker 2: West Tiger's site has got them covered, and I'm not joking.
Speaker 2: So you got Hopper, John Whardy, Maddie Sears Fields at
Speaker 2: Craig Field, the late the late Great Terry Hill, Darren Center,
Speaker 2: Jared McCracken, Luke, O'Donnell and the Beginner's Brothers. List goes
Speaker 2: on and list goes on and on and on. A
Speaker 2: couple of those boys have had for They had a
Speaker 2: very difficult times.
Speaker 3: It was time in jail.
Speaker 2: But even I remember playing you blokes. It was just like, mate,
Speaker 2: we played you blokes one day Campbelltown and I could
Speaker 2: hear you blokes roaring in the dressing room next door,
Speaker 2: and it was just made like there was some seriously
Speaker 2: scary blokes.
Speaker 4: Hopper, Hopper wasn't was not scary, But how good was
Speaker 4: he coming out of court the other day? By the way,
Speaker 4: where you met, I've been at your mum's house bringing
Speaker 4: to your mum.
Speaker 2: What was like for you to walk into the training
Speaker 2: session with all those blokes. Because blokes like Jared McCracken,
Speaker 2: I reckon, he's probably the most intimidating of the lot.
Speaker 5: But you know what, Jared McCracken, mate, he took me
Speaker 5: on a run and and he was good because he'd
Speaker 5: pushed me. And where are some of the other older ones.
Speaker 5: I'd be winning everything at training slow down, whereas the
Speaker 5: good clubs that are trying to be not going the
Speaker 5: other way. But Crackers was good, you know, like he
Speaker 5: was just so tough, just one of those guys. You
Speaker 5: look around to the sheds. We've got Crackers. We're fine,
Speaker 5: We're actually flying. Guskuld said, this is the team to beat.
Speaker 5: We're running. Second Crackers got hurt, hurt his neck, yep,
Speaker 5: and then we kind of went into free fall. Lost
Speaker 5: that game in the snow, had that big lead against
Speaker 5: Penrith and Nulla vo and Pull. The tour went berserk
Speaker 5: and that was back to back when we went back
Speaker 5: down the back door.
Speaker 6: Just remind me first Crackers. Cracker, who's so where did
Speaker 6: he play Captain New Zealand, New Zealand Captain New Zealand.
Speaker 6: He went to the Bulldogs from McQuary. Yeah, yes, his
Speaker 6: dad was in New Zealand National yep. But he went
Speaker 6: to Paramounta.
Speaker 2: He come to prominence of the Bulldogs then went to
Speaker 2: Paramatta and off to the West Tigers.
Speaker 3: Don't worry a lot of those boys. Some of those
Speaker 3: boys got the West.
Speaker 2: Tigers as far as financially, yeah money, So this is
Speaker 2: two thousand how striking crackers would have been.
Speaker 5: Oh like compared you know what, compared to today they're
Speaker 5: on like two million dollars comparatively, I reckon or where
Speaker 5: property prices were and what? Yeah, mate him and Terry
Speaker 5: Hill and Terry Hill. Because I used to love Blacklock
Speaker 5: and if I was every on the winger, not fullback,
Speaker 5: I'd be coming in. He gave Fane Fanane beat a drum. Fernande.
Speaker 5: He said, I'm not getting paid six hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 5: to be the winger for the club, so he wanted
Speaker 5: me to not do the Blacklock. If I came in,
Speaker 5: it meant he's on the wing, say Fernanda, He'd say,
Speaker 5: But just Terry Hill, I mean the late Terry Hill
Speaker 5: and colorful, yes, but a great character. The first year
Speaker 5: at the West Tigers really ripped in him and Tony
Speaker 5: Green were tired as he had a great season. Second
Speaker 5: year again the Olympic year, and everyone's had a long
Speaker 5: time off Tony Green, the trainer he wear the speed
Speaker 5: dealer Sonny's when he come out of a yeah, very
Speaker 5: sleep great fellow. Though he were to come by some
Speaker 5: of the blokes he was coaching, I wouldn't use. So
Speaker 5: he got us to buy these three thousand dollar bikes,
Speaker 5: and Terry Hill on all this money, refused to do it.
Speaker 5: We're waiting at Centennial Park. One person's got to turn up.
Speaker 5: It's Terry Hill and he comes around the corner of
Speaker 5: this bright pink little bike with the tassels on the
Speaker 5: side in the basket. We've all got these ubute, bloody bikes.
Speaker 5: And he goes, Terry, you're taking the piece. What are
Speaker 5: you doing? He goes, Toney, when have you ever seen
Speaker 5: somebody run the length on the fucking motobike? And it
Speaker 5: wasn't even a motorbike. You started just a carriage.
Speaker 2: I'd heard stories that someone told me. I think some
Speaker 2: of those boys are on about eight fifty. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: then yeah, back then about eight fifty. So there's twenty five,
Speaker 2: twenty six years ago. But on top of what I
Speaker 2: heard about Crackers, the Crackers had the big contract. But
Speaker 2: he also said to the West Tigers in the contract
Speaker 2: and I need to have a car dot dot dot
Speaker 2: on my choice yes and right, and they went, oh yeah,
Speaker 2: no problem, not really not understanding the fine print and
Speaker 2: how ruthless crackers could be. Well, crackers goes you, I
Speaker 2: want a hummer and he turned up with a hummer.
Speaker 2: That's exactly what happened.
Speaker 3: So what was they two hundred and fifty two hundred
Speaker 3: ground then?
Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely, and that's under the salary cap. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, at the time there was when a will superly
Speaker 2: come together for a while, there there was no salary cap.
Speaker 3: It was just do your best.
Speaker 2: I believe because I think the year in ninety nine, Joel,
Speaker 2: I don't believe there was a salary cap, and I
Speaker 2: think the total expenditure there.
Speaker 5: Wasn't because that Bronco Sidere's no way they fitted. They
Speaker 5: were all Australians.
Speaker 2: So ninety nine when the Storm beat Saint George 'll
Speaker 2: Warre and the Grand Finals Saint George Lawara, I believe
Speaker 2: total expenditure on players that year was almost fourteen million.
Speaker 5: Yep. Oh wow, yep.
Speaker 1: Well you don't hear that, like that's not really talked
Speaker 1: about much. That there was a few years where there
Speaker 1: was no salary.
Speaker 5: We all go through that two thousand Broncos side.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, but all the money that they were given
Speaker 2: as the grant to get together, because this is one
Speaker 2: of the incentives. They went to Saint George and they
Speaker 2: went to Laura As they went to Balmain and West
Speaker 2: and offered a large amount of money to merger incentives.
Speaker 2: I believe that Saint George Lawara's money. They almost spent
Speaker 2: it two years just on.
Speaker 3: Players because it was this crazy rush to get footballers.
Speaker 2: What sot Who was the big dog out of all
Speaker 2: those all those colorful characters.
Speaker 5: I think Crackers was a big dog. You know what.
Speaker 5: Terry didn't fear anyone. Terry used to actually I wouldn't
Speaker 5: say bully, but he was always after Luke o'donald. They
Speaker 5: called him brains. He wasn't the smartest kid, but book smart.
Speaker 5: But so one day in front of everyone, Luke o'donnald said,
Speaker 5: come on, I'll have wrestled with you. And Terry had
Speaker 5: this big strength about him, no one could beat him
Speaker 5: in the wrestle. An eighteen year old Luke o'donald took
Speaker 5: him on and ragged old him, and from that day
Speaker 5: Terry sucked up to Luke o'donald, but Terry ran the show.
Speaker 5: But he always had that fear, I fear, but but
Speaker 5: that reverence for McCracken.
Speaker 2: What were some of the things some of the things
Speaker 2: you saw, because I've heard some I've heard some stories
Speaker 2: about Shannannians at halftime. I heard some sans about what
Speaker 2: would happen immediately at full time sometimes win, lose, or
Speaker 2: draw before the coach would easily debrief yep, that there'd
Speaker 2: be some shenanigans going on.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Look, I I was like a twenty twenty one
Speaker 5: year old, so I was quite naive to what was
Speaker 5: going on. And I know there was in hindsight lot
Speaker 5: going on. But there was things like like We're playing
Speaker 5: at Paramatta one day and one of the boys said, oh,
Speaker 5: watch this. They've tipped out the one of the water
Speaker 5: bottles out of the tray and they filled it up
Speaker 5: with beer. And I've got to kick at the end
Speaker 5: of the game, and then I would always put the
Speaker 5: water on the face first, and that comes his beer.
Speaker 5: It actually relaxed me, like get the kick right. Other
Speaker 5: like Terry Hill if he had a bad game. So
Speaker 5: Terry Lamb wasn't a big fellow, and he couldn't reach
Speaker 5: the when he put the video caressett in. So if
Speaker 5: Terry had a bad game, he'd actually reverse the taper
Speaker 5: ind and so when bargat to do it, it wouldn't work,
Speaker 5: you know, and Hopper see bit Hopper. In fact, Terry
Speaker 5: Hill used to call one of Terry Lamb's assistance, I
Speaker 5: won't name hi because hes embarrassing. Right, a minibath, right,
Speaker 5: a mini bath And I'd say, what do you call him? Minibus?
Speaker 5: He goes, oh, because he's half a fucking cage. He
Speaker 5: had all these one liners Hopper who they couldn't control.
Speaker 5: Hopper Hopper, you know, like he'd play every game, he'd
Speaker 5: do twenty carries two hundred meters, but was the worst training.
Speaker 5: He was just a natural athlete. So they kind of
Speaker 5: worked out, if you going to give us a twenty carries,
Speaker 5: who cares? You know, he'd do the beep test with
Speaker 5: a like a bat and he'd just touching each side.
Speaker 5: But they let him go, right, Hoper get away with
Speaker 5: but you know the Hopper what he's the Hopper? How
Speaker 5: that started? We'd been flogged one game and Terry Lamb
Speaker 5: had ascertained that our play the balls were real slow.
Speaker 5: So he said, right, we're going overload on Quick Play
Speaker 5: the Ball speed this week. So we had to wrestle
Speaker 5: each other. Him and I were on the wings this week,
Speaker 5: so it's him verse I best of five. Whoever lost
Speaker 5: had to do this fitness challenge, which again Hopper hates. Right.
Speaker 5: So I'm two two and oero, I've got it at
Speaker 5: one more and I've won this challenge the time and
Speaker 5: the speed of the play the Ball, So I'm going
Speaker 5: to beat him for a third time. I go to
Speaker 5: get up and so I'm in this crouched position and
Speaker 5: then next thing you.
Speaker 1: Know, oh, hoppers put the right put the finger up,
Speaker 1: the finger.
Speaker 5: Up the right. So I was the first to get
Speaker 5: got He got me like this, and so he's gone
Speaker 5: on to win three too, because I wasn't going to
Speaker 5: push a friendship after that and I was happy to
Speaker 5: do fitnes anyway. Yeah, so then the games, he's doing it.
Speaker 5: Every week he's getting someone. You'd see someone from Quick
Speaker 5: Play the Ball and you'd see them get this right.
Speaker 4: So yeah, yeah, so obviously that the Hopper scandal when
Speaker 4: Hopper put his finger up someone's of ars. Yes, so
Speaker 4: he was doing that. Yeah, did you see him like
Speaker 4: even games prior to that, allegedly, I.
Speaker 3: Guess he doesn't away from it. Now he's got the
Speaker 3: T shirt.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he's got the T shirts. He's got much but
Speaker 5: but but how he got done was he had the ball.
Speaker 3: So that's right.
Speaker 5: So he had the ball and bowman's on top of him,
Speaker 5: and he's got trigger happy and and up there because.
Speaker 1: He got comfortable. So do you get away with it?
Speaker 2: Okay, let's not use the name of the player. Let's
Speaker 2: call him Johnny Gambler.
Speaker 5: Okay.
Speaker 2: He was well known around the place, but a few clubs,
Speaker 2: and it's legendary the amount of money that he would
Speaker 2: gamble with.
Speaker 3: What did you see that player?
Speaker 5: So Johnny I was running the Punners Club. So you know,
Speaker 5: you got to Kenkoon at the end of the year,
Speaker 5: and this guy was earning mega dollars. He was six
Speaker 5: hundred thousand, six maybe more he.
Speaker 3: Was on in nineteen ninety seven. I think he was
Speaker 3: on seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 5: He was a player, yep, yeah, yeah, great player, A
Speaker 5: very talented player from a tough upbringing. And I kind
Speaker 5: of you see this for some players where they're used
Speaker 5: to scrapping and no matter how much you're going to get,
Speaker 5: there going to self sabotage, right, So he would play
Speaker 5: the poke's like a piano. He just the money would
Speaker 5: come in and would go out. So the point where
Speaker 5: at the end of the month we get paid monthly,
Speaker 5: he said, oh, Jollie, can I borrow five grand? And
Speaker 5: I'm a young bloke. He's a senior player, so of
Speaker 5: course I'm going to say yeah. And I knew he's
Speaker 5: getting paid big money. We get paid next week. I'll
Speaker 5: pay your back. So I find out second hand. I
Speaker 5: find of the other players he's backed us. And by
Speaker 5: the way, it wasn't an illegal back in those days.
Speaker 5: I don't know to back yourself, right. Fine, so we're
Speaker 5: playing the Broncos up there at the old am z Stadium.
Speaker 5: He's backed us with eight and a half start, and
Speaker 5: I think we've got a few key players coming back.
Speaker 5: So I actually remember thinking, geez, that's a big start.
Speaker 5: Gup danzid Stadium, and it is a big start. A
Speaker 5: t you steer and gun barrel at Thorn Webke Siven receiver,
Speaker 5: Carol Tallis, Bluckie Takiri sailor bike and Walters Carl Webb.
Speaker 5: You know, it just goes. It just doesn't stop right.
Speaker 5: So they couldn't have been under the cap. They wouldn't
Speaker 5: have been a cap. So we turn up, you know,
Speaker 5: Flask gills around the grounds. Donny Moseley six all here,
Speaker 5: Ray try to Lee Murphy converted by a gain, and
Speaker 5: I try to Sean Berrigan six. All right, So the
Speaker 5: game's in the balance. Johnny Gambler's chirp. He's up on
Speaker 5: his feet and he's bouncing around. Eighteen and a half
Speaker 5: start right out the hour mark, Flask Gills around the round.
Speaker 5: Donny Moseley, nice try, barreling over car Web, scores a
Speaker 5: try kick converted by Mick de Vie. He's two from two,
Speaker 5: twelve points to six. The Fronco is leading the Tigers right,
Speaker 5: ten minutes to go. Flask girls around the grounds. Donny Moseley,
Speaker 5: thanks Ray, the Broncos going for try number three. Sliding
Speaker 5: to the corner. Iken picks up the Broncos third, eighteen
Speaker 5: points to six. He's converted that three from three for
Speaker 5: devere Flas scords around the ground. JOHNI the Moseley, Well
Speaker 5: they're looking good now, Ray, Divi's just put it beyond doubt.
Speaker 5: He's just kicked his fourth a penalty goal and the
Speaker 5: score is twenty points to six. The Broncos look home
Speaker 5: against the West Tigers. All right, thirty seconds to go.
Speaker 5: We're attacking. So Gambler's name, last play, So play four
Speaker 5: twenty meters out there, play the ball. This is the
Speaker 5: game that got away from the West Tigers. Ball comes
Speaker 5: back away. Cherarco Mesher will be known futurely for pressure
Speaker 5: in rhyming slang. Looks to the left hand side, carting
Speaker 5: the ball forward, goes Jason Lowry five meters out. Now
Speaker 5: the Tigers looking to get something out of the scraps.
Speaker 5: They could have won this game. It was the one
Speaker 5: that got away. Screaming profusely for the ball. On the
Speaker 5: left hand side is Johnny Gambler. Mesher dummies of the
Speaker 5: left hand side goes as I let here's a chance.
Speaker 5: Murphy's open Mike get number two long cut out ball
Speaker 5: intercept Sailor. God No, Sailor's over the forty. He's over
Speaker 5: the fifty. When Sailor charging down the western touch line,
Speaker 5: he's going to get there with these only one chaser
Speaker 5: from the West Tigers. Look at the chase of Johnny
Speaker 5: Gambler sailor waves the gamblers in the corner right flash
Speaker 5: scores around the ground. Johnny Masley, what a great try
Speaker 5: to Wendel Saylor right on the bell e scores in
Speaker 5: the corner twenty four points to six. Kick the comfort
Speaker 5: de Vere. So people start to leave early to get
Speaker 5: their parking, and Diver's on the touch line the ultimate
Speaker 5: professional four from four for the day. Mick Devere moves
Speaker 5: in from the western touch line twenty meters out right,
Speaker 5: boot strikes it, heading towards the post. Do you blokes
Speaker 5: play golf it all? Yeah? Yeah, you know when there's
Speaker 5: a lake in front of you and your first instinct
Speaker 5: was I'll pulled the six sign out, You get the
Speaker 5: six sign and you put it back in. You go,
Speaker 5: now can get there with the seven. You hit the
Speaker 5: seven one over the lake and you know straight away
Speaker 5: you should have kept the six sign. Yes, the only
Speaker 5: way you can get that ball over the lake now
Speaker 5: is the magic loan. So you're going, oh, de Vere
Speaker 5: hasn't got on it as much as he would have
Speaker 5: liked to, so he's going, Oh, any gambler's behind the post,
Speaker 5: going oh the other way, heading towards the posts. Hits
Speaker 5: the posts and no goal. Ah. You know, have you
Speaker 5: ever come in from the pub, right and you haven't
Speaker 5: seen the game?
Speaker 1: Did he celebrate?
Speaker 5: No? Well, this is what I'm saying. He's like picking
Speaker 5: the ship. If you ever come in from the pub
Speaker 5: and you haven't seen the game, but you can see
Speaker 5: shaking hands. You know who's won based on demeanor, right, Johnny,
Speaker 5: Gil's going got on your empty good on your loggie,
Speaker 5: you know, and he's happiest in the world. Fast forward
Speaker 5: to training the next day. Now a week's a long
Speaker 5: time in rugby league, so we got carved up for
Speaker 5: the video session of the game. They got away six
Speaker 5: or and we'd always finish on a high player of
Speaker 5: the day, Mick all of us who came from Canberra,
Speaker 5: good student of the game, he would choose the player
Speaker 5: of the day. So presses play. So now we finished
Speaker 5: the review. Now we're looking forward for something positive and well,
Speaker 5: look ahead to next week's game. Presses play. Twenty meters
Speaker 5: out and five menters out. Messa the dummy half looks
Speaker 5: to the left. Gambler calling profusely, goes the other way,
Speaker 5: goes you Lett, cut out ball sailer. I'm thinking, how
Speaker 5: is this a whole must have picked the wrong tape.
Speaker 5: And then he paused at the halfway line. He goes, boys,
Speaker 5: this is what we need. This game was gone. Have
Speaker 5: a look at the chase from Johnny Hare. If they
Speaker 5: score under the posts, it's a guarantee too.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: True, yeah, it's a high standard.
Speaker 3: Let's try a forward a little bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you go to England, but first, when you talk
Speaker 2: about it, we spoke about the mcginner's brothers.
Speaker 5: Yeah, great, blakes.
Speaker 2: You when you went to England, you had to endure
Speaker 2: very probably one of the most difficult times in your life.
Speaker 2: Absolutely tell us about what happened.
Speaker 5: Yeah. So, Bengalia and I were going to buy a
Speaker 5: subway franchise. Tigers had moved to Concord. We go to
Speaker 5: Westfields and we said, oh, there's no subway here, let's
Speaker 5: get a subway franchise. Just about how it all ticked
Speaker 5: off and the major sponsor, just by chance him and
Speaker 5: I went to the sponsors due We told him, you know,
Speaker 5: we're doing this subway and they said, great idea. Have
Speaker 5: you had it signed off yet? No, not yet. Do
Speaker 5: you want us our legal team to look through it.
Speaker 5: We said, oh, yeah, for sure. We gave him this
Speaker 5: thick document, they went through it. They came back about
Speaker 5: two days later, which in hindsight was really quick, and
Speaker 5: they said, boys, that's a great idea, this subway, great idea. However,
Speaker 5: we can do a lot better for you. A week later,
Speaker 5: John Scandalus, myself, Benny Gillier, a couple of ladies who
Speaker 5: are widows, which is quite sad. Jim Piper, Olympic swimmer,
Speaker 5: run a private jit from Bankstown, flying to Melbourne, limousine
Speaker 5: out to Point Cook, a suburb west of Melbourne. We
Speaker 5: get sold into this development all right, was going to
Speaker 5: cost four or five hundred grand, but we're sold convinced.
Speaker 5: And Benny's a boy from Dunside, scanned as a bloke
Speaker 5: from Cammelltown. I've been scrapping all my life, so we're
Speaker 5: just these scrappers who were just believers and trust people.
Speaker 5: And so long story short, I'm about to go to England.
Speaker 5: So I've signed Dad as a power of attorney. I've
Speaker 5: paid maybe sixty grand up front. I've got to probably
Speaker 5: pay four hundred and then fast forward to time in England.
Speaker 5: Dad saying this builder wants to take your court. So
Speaker 5: before he goes claiming you haven't paid him. You only
Speaker 5: paid him like sixty three thousand or something. I said, Dad,
Speaker 5: I've paid him sixty up front, and I've got two
Speaker 5: checks evidence of one hundred and seventy grand. So anyway, Dad,
Speaker 5: we look into it and those and the guy said that, mate,
Speaker 5: they weren'te hundred and seventy grand checks. They were seventeen
Speaker 5: hundred dollar checks. So Radison may and who were the
Speaker 5: major sponsor of the West Tigers, they had written seventeen
Speaker 5: hundred dollar checks to the builder on behalf of me,
Speaker 5: but they had written the copy to me as one
Speaker 5: hundred and seventy thousand dollars checks. So for me, I'm
Speaker 5: thinking it's paid in full. And with my upbringing, this
Speaker 5: is a bloke just doing his best as a builder.
Speaker 5: I said to Dad, I said, Dad, tell this guy
Speaker 5: to drop the court case. I will pay him. And
Speaker 5: I sat it out to just give me some time.
Speaker 5: So as it turns out, I've crunched my numbers. I
Speaker 5: could rEFInd finance a little bit from the bank, but
Speaker 5: I'm still going to be short about two hundred K
Speaker 5: and I can't get it. Mom and Dad don't have
Speaker 5: any money. I can't get it. So if you think
Speaker 5: about us moving around all the time. The one thing
Speaker 5: I wanted for my family secured was a home, right,
Speaker 5: So I bought a home in Carrying Bar in year
Speaker 5: two thousand or suddn. That was the stake in the ground.
Speaker 5: So all my brothers lived there, my dad, mom and dad.
Speaker 5: We was separated by the stage and that was our home.
Speaker 5: The very first time in our lives we could call
Speaker 5: something a home. Someone was always living there, right, it
Speaker 5: was everyone called it. Holly Street was a home. Anyway,
Speaker 5: I'm going to have to sell the home. And then
Speaker 5: an angel turns up. An angel turns up in England, right,
Speaker 5: I'll never forget this. Kevin McGinnis turns up. I said, oh, Kevy,
Speaker 5: how are you mate? He goes, oh, good man. I said,
Speaker 5: who's leaving? He goes no one because you know the
Speaker 5: quota system in the end.
Speaker 3: Yes, it was Irish.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Irish. And I said, he goes, no
Speaker 5: one's leaving. I said, well, how do you fit the quote?
Speaker 5: He goes on Irish Cus and he's weaken on Irish Cass.
Speaker 5: I said, you're Irish. He goes surname McGinnis. I'm Irish
Speaker 5: cars right, yeah, So anyway, he's tearing the whole join up.
Speaker 5: He's the best player in Super League England footy or
Speaker 5: one of the clubs dobbed and said, this blokegain't Irish.
Speaker 5: He's as Ossi as you come. He's proud Indigenous man.
Speaker 5: So they've said, listen, you've got it by the end
Speaker 5: of the year. They're okay, because we couldn't make the
Speaker 5: finals anyway by next year unit to get this quot disordered.
Speaker 5: They wanted to keep beginners too, because it's good for
Speaker 5: the league. You got to get rid of someone. And
Speaker 5: the other players did want to go because their last
Speaker 5: ever contract. And I'm thinking, you, beauty, I need two
Speaker 5: hundred thousand to keep my home. So I said I'll
Speaker 5: go for eighty five thousand pounds, which was the amount
Speaker 5: to get two hundred thousand, and they didn't. I was
Speaker 5: playing decent, so they didn't want to get rid of me,
Speaker 5: but they couldn't sell it the other one. Finally they
Speaker 5: come back and say, yep, we'll do it. Thank god,
Speaker 5: I'm home. Except massive asterisks. If you come lasting get relegated,
Speaker 5: all contracts down void yep.
Speaker 3: So you've got to stay up in super League yep.
Speaker 5: The penultimate match. We're playing like sat Helen's in the
Speaker 5: final round. They're playing like Wiggan in the final round Cartofford,
Speaker 5: and you know over there, you just can't beat them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. You're not going to be
Speaker 3: those top sides.
Speaker 5: Yeah. So it came down to the last game, second
Speaker 5: last game. But for really like neither of us are
Speaker 5: going to win the last game, right because they those
Speaker 5: upsets don't happen. R So close to halftime, there's this
Speaker 5: kick and it's the ugliest kick and it just falls
Speaker 5: over in the corner and I thought, jeez, I might
Speaker 5: need that at the end of the game. I make
Speaker 5: this tackle. They've attacked our line. I'm playing fullback for
Speaker 5: six minutes, felt like an hour. If they score, they
Speaker 5: beat us, we get relegated. I lose my home. We're
Speaker 5: playing at the jungle there at Cartleford. I make this tackle.
Speaker 5: I'll never forget. I still remember it. Make this tackle
Speaker 5: on Paul Mellow. Games over and I'm breathing into the
Speaker 5: grass and I never got to win a Grand Final,
Speaker 5: lot you, But right then, in that moment, to finish
Speaker 5: second last in the competition was the greatest moment in
Speaker 5: your rugby league career because I could keep the home
Speaker 5: and that was all because of my angel Vy Irishman
Speaker 5: Kevy beginnings, Heavy arrived and just carved it up today.
Speaker 5: So did you play a part in that game too,
Speaker 5: by the way, Yeah, did any of.
Speaker 4: The boys know, like the boys that you were closest with,
Speaker 4: did you let them know how important that game was?
Speaker 5: No? No, no, one thing, no, no no. By the
Speaker 5: end of it, I was doing car We was like Landings.
Speaker 5: They could work out all but no, no.
Speaker 1: Like Johnny Gambler.
Speaker 2: Okay, So when people go through this sort of thing,
Speaker 2: it's collador damage. Yep, it's not just yourself, but you
Speaker 2: know effects particularly immediate family. What sort of effect did
Speaker 2: they have on your marriage and relationships?
Speaker 5: Well, soon after that, I came home. We came home,
Speaker 5: Cob and I and we'd had a young, our first child,
Speaker 5: and I was training on the sand hills and I
Speaker 5: was that fit and I was retiring in my mind.
Speaker 5: Tim Sheen says, made it come and train with us.
Speaker 5: So I trained the West Tiger's are out there, train
Speaker 5: with them, flogged them and he said bring me next.
Speaker 5: They said, you're back in the squad. I played the
Speaker 5: whole year, scored like forty tries in a reserve grade.
Speaker 5: But the problem was, unbeknownst to me, I signed a
Speaker 5: contract for like fifteen grand a game, no sign on.
Speaker 5: So come people are saying pick me, pick me, pick me,
Speaker 5: but they had no room in the cap.
Speaker 3: They couldn't They couldn't do it, whereas if they had.
Speaker 5: Just told me, I would have played. So it cost
Speaker 5: me a Grand Final ultimately, and I'll never forget. After
Speaker 5: that Grand Final, I sat on the side of the
Speaker 5: road crying. I had debt that I couldn't climb over.
Speaker 5: So I managed to hold it on the home, but
Speaker 5: it was huge debt. I had no income coming in
Speaker 5: and I always wanted to win a greend file and
Speaker 5: I had. I was crying on the side of the road,
Speaker 5: started drinking heaps. Kobe and I separated, so we'll separated
Speaker 5: for a good six months. And then what saved our marriage.
Speaker 5: I'm playing golf at Moore Park. Trent Robinson rings me.
Speaker 5: He says, Jolie used to play with Robi. He says, Mate,
Speaker 5: ever fancied you on going to France? I said, oh, yeah,
Speaker 5: for sure, mate, you when do you want me? He said, oh,
Speaker 5: has tomorrow sound the next day I read Kaby, I said,
Speaker 5: we'll separate. At the time, I said, Robbo has asked
Speaker 5: me to go to France. Do you want to just
Speaker 5: try it again? And Reese in you and we'll go
Speaker 5: to fan next day. We're all on the plane.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 5: Played in France, lived in France, loved it and be
Speaker 5: married happy. Ever since.
Speaker 2: You have been through some ship, let's cot to the
Speaker 2: most difficult situation like working at toob Sorry, just to
Speaker 2: close off Radison Main by the way, they caught him.
Speaker 5: He and his partner fled Australia. They ripped off all
Speaker 5: these people, got cart of Heathrow Airport extra dided went
Speaker 5: to jail. Get that into your pricks.
Speaker 1: Yeah that don't jump me open the throw gut of
Speaker 1: the Poke Brown.
Speaker 5: When they fell in trouble because they no one had
Speaker 5: ever sponsored Major sponsored two teams. They were trying to
Speaker 5: sponsor the Raiders as well. And Aska go and see
Speaker 5: Radison Main sounds for me and Radis is a big gains,
Speaker 5: a big name, and they had this prid of lines.
Speaker 5: Everything looked for me here, but I'm just tin point
Speaker 5: Operation Asex said, Oh, who's this Radison Maine. They looked
Speaker 5: into him, and then it all unraveled and wow, yeah
Speaker 5: to JB.
Speaker 3: So how'd you get to to Jibi?
Speaker 5: So I used to just mix lett Sorry Mick, butuder
Speaker 5: he'd get me to do fandom calls of Melbourne Cup
Speaker 5: in the showers and it's easy to call in the shower.
Speaker 5: And he fell sick one day and he went to
Speaker 5: he was doing community radio and he said, can you
Speaker 5: call for me? I said, no, worries call in the game.
Speaker 5: Penrith versus Broncos come up with this tardy line seem
Speaker 5: Friday crashes over on a Friday. I said, oh, thank god,
Speaker 5: it's Friday and I'm taping this. I'm taping this game
Speaker 5: and next to me the all conquering Continuous call team
Speaker 5: there Bose Blocker, Big Marn Hadley, and I've always to
Speaker 5: call for Hadley, and I thought, stuff it. If you
Speaker 5: don't ask, you don't get So I thought, how am
Speaker 5: I going to do this? He's such a busy man.
Speaker 5: So I waited outside doors. Crash open blocker comes ore
Speaker 5: Bojo comes out, Big Man Hadley and I just said, ray,
Speaker 5: I have you got ten seconds? So I thought, no
Speaker 5: matter how busy over and I've got ten seconds right,
Speaker 5: I said, can you ever listen to this for me?
Speaker 5: And I've pressed play. Oh, of all times, thank god
Speaker 5: it's Thie. I was so disappointed. That was the part
Speaker 5: that come up. So he listened to the tape for
Speaker 5: about a minute. He said, I'll call you tomorrow. I'll
Speaker 5: call you to moraw I tee what he did for me, Hadley.
Speaker 5: He never ever blasted me, so he called me. I
Speaker 5: started around the ground, started calling. He never blasted me
Speaker 5: until one day. I'll get a call at five o'clock
Speaker 5: in the morning and he says, maye, have you seen
Speaker 5: the front page of the paper? I said, mate, two
Speaker 5: minutes ago I was seen in the back of my
Speaker 5: eyelids like I've said nothing. It's five in the morning.
Speaker 5: He said, mate, Look, you wouldn't have got this. Dean
Speaker 5: Richie's got the story, but there's a big racial slur
Speaker 5: against Petrosive and Asiva. He was playing for the Panthers
Speaker 5: at the time. He said, you wouldn't have got this.
Speaker 5: But from now on, what I want you to do,
Speaker 5: he said, instead of sitting in the box waiting for
Speaker 5: the big man to drive aim together, he said, go
Speaker 5: and make contacts. He said, contacts is the most valuable
Speaker 5: commodity you can have in this game, right. So what
Speaker 5: happened was I started to do that and I wouldn't
Speaker 5: come upstairs until they were off here at six. So
Speaker 5: I was meeting never one at the club land, everyone
Speaker 5: at NRL Land to the point where I had suck
Speaker 5: this over the years, I'd have all these inns where
Speaker 5: one day I'll get tipped off about this person where
Speaker 5: Brookvale Oval and I said, tell Hadley to come down
Speaker 5: to me. I've got the Wolfman. And I purposely said
Speaker 5: the Wolfman. He goes, all right, let's go downstairs. Joel
Speaker 5: can't standing by with the Wolfman. David Whims. I said, oh, sorry, Ray,
Speaker 5: did I say Wolfman? I went, I meant Wolverine. I'm
Speaker 5: here with Hugh Jackman. No one knew he was even
Speaker 5: at the ground, but I'd been tipped off thanks to
Speaker 5: making all these contacts. This guy said, I'll give you
Speaker 5: in Hugh Jackman's coming in, so I'd teed that up.
Speaker 5: Other times we'd be at the groundy State of Origin
Speaker 5: Seal or the Madden Brothers or Russell Crowe, wherever it was.
Speaker 5: You weren't to touch them or speak to them. They
Speaker 5: get in there do their gig and they'd piss off.
Speaker 5: And Ray said, oh, you're going to get Sealed for me.
Speaker 5: I said, I'll get Seal. I'll get Sealed. Don't you
Speaker 5: worry about that. And Seal was playing at the northern
Speaker 5: end there at Aane Zeid Stadium, and I said, just
Speaker 5: keep an eye on me, and I'm going to be
Speaker 5: waving by the Big League Magazine when I get him.
Speaker 5: So I spoke to contact of the Nnerella. I said,
Speaker 5: I've got to get Seal. Rais told the whole station,
Speaker 5: the whole network. I'm going to get Seal. She said,
Speaker 5: there's a directive that no one's to get Sealed. We're
Speaker 5: not no one's allowed to interviewing. I said, I've got
Speaker 5: to get him. She said, all right, this is what
Speaker 5: we'll do. When he finishes, I'm going to turn left right,
Speaker 5: and it's all on you. Then if you want to
Speaker 5: cut through and go straight to him, you cut through
Speaker 5: and go straight through him. So, as per planned, he
Speaker 5: finishes his last song, she turns left right and I
Speaker 5: bline for Seal. I've got the Big League Magazine. I said,
Speaker 5: see it now, you mate. And I don't even like
Speaker 5: Seal't it's the worst interview I've ever done. But I'm waving.
Speaker 5: All I care is to get Seal. So I'm waving
Speaker 5: this Big League magazine. Joel Canes down there. He's got Seal.
Speaker 5: Let's go down a sideline at you. Okay. And so
Speaker 5: I was that excited the whole interview. I'm waving the
Speaker 5: Big League and Seal's like, just fucking and weave it.
Speaker 5: He's not going to hit him. It was a shit interview,
Speaker 5: but anyway I got him.
Speaker 2: Oh that's good, Okay to finish with. Want to talk
Speaker 2: about something like that. You you love your racing in particular,
Speaker 2: jo I've heard you talk about the Melbourne Cup sometimes,
Speaker 2: like you know, it's ASA's most famous race. There's so
Speaker 2: many people that love, but you in particular, you love
Speaker 2: everything about it.
Speaker 5: Ashes will be on the finish line. I won the
Speaker 5: Melbourne Cup one year. Boys, I was I was dead.
Speaker 5: You boys been to the Cup? Yeah, so you get
Speaker 5: on that train at nine o'clock. That's the best way
Speaker 5: to get there, by the way.
Speaker 1: And I still think is a Derby Day do day?
Speaker 1: I think Derby Day's the best day of that of
Speaker 1: those three four days, you can't miss. What's so good?
Speaker 5: The train's the best way to get out there. You
Speaker 5: get out there, So nine o'clock you're on the train.
Speaker 5: By eleven o'clock you need subtitles, right, Everyone sideways and
Speaker 5: we've got a runner. On Cup day, we say, lucky you,
Speaker 5: we've got this runner. And because it's busy on Cap Day,
Speaker 5: you're not allowed into the enclosure. Normally you can go
Speaker 5: any time you like as an owner, but on Melbourne
Speaker 5: Cup Day you can only go the moment that race
Speaker 5: before yours finishes. So anyway, we're sort of allge. At
Speaker 5: the moment the Melbourne Cup finishes, we're in the next race,
Speaker 5: we can go into the enclosure, so we're absolutely polos.
Speaker 5: We charge down there and I'm just stargazing. This is
Speaker 5: the Melbourne Cup and I'm in the enclosure and look
Speaker 5: at all these people and this says color and it's great.
Speaker 5: And next year I get chatting to this blake and
Speaker 5: off we go.
Speaker 3: We're walking.
Speaker 5: I'm in this line and I've lost my mates and
Speaker 5: there's a tray of champagne and there's badge, Margaret Green
Speaker 5: VRC badge. She hands me a champagne. I scull this champagne.
Speaker 5: She says, sir, you've just won the Melbourne Cup. How
Speaker 5: does it feel? I said, oh, this feels surreal, like
Speaker 5: it kind of hasn't happened, you know. So I have
Speaker 5: another thing. I scull it. I give a big kid
Speaker 5: since you're go and enjoy it, sir. So I go
Speaker 5: in there, and whilst I'm in the Melbourne Cup winner's
Speaker 5: champagne room, I see this little screen number five. Check
Speaker 5: Sleaves goes into the barrier and I said to my
Speaker 5: other owners, I said, guys, I've got another runner in
Speaker 5: the next race. Back then I'll see the Melbourne Cup
Speaker 5: after party. Anyway, sit down around the bend. They come.
Speaker 5: Only room for Cassidy Cassidy presses. They go button saloon
Speaker 5: soldiers starting to warm into it. Sall on soldier too good.
Speaker 5: He is down by two lengths to win the listed race.
Speaker 5: There we were, my mates, We won on Melbourne Cup day.
Speaker 5: Greatest thing of all the time. So anyway, I following
Speaker 5: the boys and I see this for me your face right,
Speaker 5: I didn't know where we're going. Was following the boys.
Speaker 5: Green VRC vest name tag Margaret Trey is Champagne Margaret.
Speaker 5: She said, sir, to you again, Champagne scarlet. Give her
Speaker 5: a big kiss. She said, so I've never seen this ever,
Speaker 5: two in her own Cup day, including the Melbourne Cup winner.
Speaker 5: I said, oh look, Margaret, ive got to come clean.
Speaker 5: I tee your secret. She goes, you can see it.
Speaker 5: I'm a vault, I said, another champagne, another kiss. I said,
Speaker 5: I don't know how to explain this, but for some reason,
Speaker 5: this feels better than winning the Melbourne Cup. I've been
Speaker 5: there twice on Melbourne Cup day. But just to tidy
Speaker 5: things up, like a lot of people ask me about
Speaker 5: Tom Waterhouse. Yes, what was it like to follow Tom
Speaker 5: Waterhouse and how it happened? Yes?
Speaker 1: Yes, you he was? Was he was?
Speaker 5: He was?
Speaker 3: He Labracks, William Hill, he was himself. Of course.
Speaker 5: Of course he started his own brand, Tom Waterhouse dot
Speaker 5: com and that that was a betting agency, right, yes,
Speaker 5: so he was sponsoring the footy and all that sort
Speaker 5: of thing, and everyone's heads were falling off about it.
Speaker 5: You're now a sports but also but I had a
Speaker 5: catch up with this Bloke's a genius Englishman head of
Speaker 5: marketing at the time, comes up to Sydney and he said,
Speaker 5: oh you want to go for coffee? Went for coffee
Speaker 5: and we're in Pitt Street where the old George Gregan
Speaker 5: coffee house was. We're sitting down there. He's just he's
Speaker 5: a really good leader where he wants everyone's import and
Speaker 5: he said, if you want to have observations, I said,
Speaker 5: I've got a big observation. I said, here's the Daily Telegraph.
Speaker 5: You're in Sydney. Thumb through the back of the paper
Speaker 5: and tell me when you find an AFL article league
Speaker 5: League League. And this day it was a record league day.
Speaker 5: It was just twenty pages of league. No AFL. And
Speaker 5: he said, I know what you're saying. I know what
Speaker 5: you're saying because we were very Melbourne Victorian AFL centric business.
Speaker 5: And I said, there's a big old world out there
Speaker 5: and it's not just say Fell. He said, leave it
Speaker 5: with me. Nine months later from nowhere wins the rights.
Speaker 5: But before he does it, he says, well, how are
Speaker 5: we going to how are you going to sort of
Speaker 5: follow Tom? Tom got everyone off the bit because it's
Speaker 5: right racing. He would talk odds and it's free to
Speaker 5: wear stuff right, So if you didn't like racing or odds,
Speaker 5: you're going to be turned off. So I said, what
Speaker 5: I'm going to do is we have to be respectful
Speaker 5: that not everyone loves punting, not everyone loves racing, not
Speaker 5: everyone loves odds. All my content, yes, odds will get
Speaker 5: splashed up, but I'm not going to reference odds and
Speaker 5: all the insights that I give. I'm going to try
Speaker 5: and make it interesting for you if you're a punner,
Speaker 5: and you if you're not a punner, so that you're
Speaker 5: going to get something out of it anyway. Right. So
Speaker 5: that's how I've tried to sort of craft and that's
Speaker 5: how sports got involved with rugby league and the way
Speaker 5: it went.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really good yourself and dan Ganaine, Shawnie and Sean,
Speaker 2: it's really entertainment.
Speaker 3: It's entertainment.
Speaker 2: You're giving serious analysis on the football and the odds
Speaker 2: are just sort of tucked in there somewhere.
Speaker 4: People can they can pun if they want. Yeah, well
Speaker 4: they can just back their team watching on the TV.
Speaker 4: Before we let you go, because you're about to go
Speaker 4: and record The Run Home on s C with Joel
Speaker 4: and Fletch, which is an excellent show.
Speaker 3: We Get This Man Live today at the studio Live
Speaker 3: in Studio.
Speaker 4: You spoke about Fletch at the start, but what is
Speaker 4: you and Fletched because you're you're would you say you
Speaker 4: to a polar opposites.
Speaker 5: Yeah, definitely, yeah, definitely, I am. He's a superstars, you know,
Speaker 5: absolute gun. I just got to play half back and
Speaker 5: sitting in the ball early position, no dummies, and.
Speaker 1: It's not playing inside Homo just hit him early.
Speaker 5: But how we started, we had a photo shoot Maddie
Speaker 5: and all the team that he and Voss and Brandy
Speaker 5: and Jimmy and Maddie White and everyone, and let's said,
Speaker 5: let's go grab a beer, you know. So we grabbed
Speaker 5: me and we had four scooters. I reckon about twenty
Speaker 5: minutes and he said, how do you want the show
Speaker 5: to be? And I said, look, every sports show I
Speaker 5: ever listened to, they want to go, they want to
Speaker 5: please everyone. Temp ten percent to mays l Temp. It's all.
Speaker 5: I said. I've never sat at the pub with that
Speaker 5: building the conversation. Never never, So I said, when I'm
Speaker 5: at the pub, blokes are taking the piss out of
Speaker 5: each other. So let's do that. You know, listeners can
Speaker 5: take it out of us, we'll take it out of them.
Speaker 5: We talk about our favorite sport, which we mostly talk
Speaker 5: that's what we do, and we talk about what's topical.
Speaker 5: Maybe it's the US Masters maybe. And the other thing
Speaker 5: is we talk about things that aren't sport. You know,
Speaker 5: there's you know, Fletch loves that vax machine that fires up,
Speaker 5: and so it's it's a it's a good he makes
Speaker 5: a show, and I'm conscious of how important he's doing.
Speaker 5: I just play my part.
Speaker 2: I'm always really I'm a big believer that when you're
Speaker 2: on air, it doesn't matter what you're talking about.
Speaker 3: It's just got to be entertaining.
Speaker 2: It can be it can be serious. You could be
Speaker 2: talking about Lachlan Galve and where's he going to go
Speaker 2: and make it entertainment. You can be taking the piss
Speaker 2: some bit of fun. Got to be entertaining. You can
Speaker 2: talk about film, you can talk about music.
Speaker 3: Just got to be entertaining. That's the bottom line. It
Speaker 3: doesn't matter. It's just got to be entertaining.
Speaker 1: Yep, work, great.
Speaker 2: Jobs coming over the start to thanks coming all the
Speaker 2: way over, brother.
Speaker 5: Appreciate it. Well done to Jack a too, and what
Speaker 5: he's doing with this show, well don Jack, Oh Jack.
Speaker 5: Can I give a shout out to one of my
Speaker 5: favorite nights, especially Lader Maddie Craiger. Can you give him
Speaker 5: my best.
Speaker 1: He's a big listener to you guys. You know he's
Speaker 1: a big fan. He listens every day.
Speaker 3: Apparently two croaks. Great good, good footballer.
Speaker 5: Sure he does good on your man, Thank you