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Speaker 1: cheers start however you lost you know, hughsy Jack might
Speaker 1: pull me up a little bit. I've got I tend
Speaker 1: to wheeze get We get complaints through from people.
Speaker 3: What are the odds of that? Look, who's ringing me?
Speaker 1: That's Joey Andrew Joey.
Speaker 2: Have you seen Fabe brother recently?
Speaker 4: I haven't seen him for a while.
Speaker 1: It's sort of just skims across society.
Speaker 3: It's a busy viewod for him through origin period.
Speaker 2: Well apparently yeah.
Speaker 1: In fact, it's so busy oftentimes he has to have
Speaker 1: two weeks off work after it and go to the
Speaker 1: Maldives to surf. I mean it's hard work. You know,
Speaker 1: people think playing is hard. I mean to commentate, that's
Speaker 1: where the action is.
Speaker 2: Hugh'sy.
Speaker 1: This is an incredibly busy couple of weeks for you.
Speaker 1: So what's a what's a week entail the week leading
Speaker 1: into the beneaf of brainking.
Speaker 4: So yeah, lots of great support Mattie, first and foremost,
Speaker 4: the the NRL tidal wave of support which started about
Speaker 4: seven years ago for Beanie for brain cancer around really
Speaker 4: lifted us to a new level. It was just amazing.
Speaker 4: So yeah, just just I go to schools, I go
Speaker 4: to workplaces. You know, there's a lot of schools doing beanies,
Speaker 4: which is great.
Speaker 2: I do.
Speaker 4: Yeah, looks good, looks good.
Speaker 1: You should you should you have a sort of bringing
Speaker 1: out a match, use salundation, do rag Maybe.
Speaker 3: It almost looks like one right now. You might want
Speaker 3: to retry that calm, maybe spin it around a little
Speaker 3: bit as well. There we go there.
Speaker 4: I did think of the balaclava range.
Speaker 2: Really good coming up on the NBA news.
Speaker 4: Lots of brand awareness, oh yeah, lots of great things
Speaker 4: getting done and the NRL. Yeah, just it's just amazing.
Speaker 4: So you know, gett into appearances, get into games on
Speaker 4: the round, the networks all get behind us. It's crazy
Speaker 4: but good. Crazy.
Speaker 2: How many people you employed? Now?
Speaker 4: We have four part time staff, which I'm very proud of.
Speaker 4: I'm a full volunteer. I tell people flexible hours, but
Speaker 4: the hourly rate needs a review.
Speaker 2: Yeah, gotcha, now what you're talking about?
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, So I'm very proud to be a volunteer
Speaker 4: and we're run by the big heart of volunteers. They
Speaker 4: pack beanies, they go to go to shops and sell
Speaker 4: our stuff. There's so many volunteers that make this go
Speaker 4: around and I think people like that and they get
Speaker 4: that that the money is going to the right places.
Speaker 4: There's no brand ambassador and all these different tags. There's
Speaker 4: this four amazing staff at Hamilton that you get it
Speaker 4: all done.
Speaker 3: It's incredible. Like the last ten years, you guys have
Speaker 3: sold over a million beanies, tens of millions of dollars.
Speaker 3: And the big thing is in rugby league to everyone
Speaker 3: gets around it. Like you know, I've twenties reserve grade,
Speaker 3: you know, all sorts of grades, and every grade during
Speaker 3: that week always chuck sabeni on, no matter what team
Speaker 3: they are. It's a really proud round for rugby league.
Speaker 4: I think it's become a great tradition that I think
Speaker 4: everyone in rugby league agrees on. It doesn't happen too often. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it doesn't matter there's always blues Queensland, there's always these
Speaker 4: rivalries and that. But I feel like everyone is in
Speaker 4: the grands that brain cancer needs a bit of a help.
Speaker 4: And I think it's been a great tradition and there's
Speaker 4: probably kids now that would never remember nothing else but
Speaker 4: Beanie around and I think it's just part of the
Speaker 4: fabric now. And you know, nothing that we take for granted,
Speaker 4: but it's it's super.
Speaker 1: I stopped to I actually forgot to declare something is
Speaker 1: that people? Jack Johns is he's away from behind the
Speaker 1: edit tweet and cutting up. He today's gone from producer
Speaker 1: to star at the show. Younger bloke Cooper Hughsey is
Speaker 1: in Darwin Cooper exactly Cooper and he.
Speaker 2: Actually make he is filthy.
Speaker 1: He keeps, he keeps calling Jack and I are going,
Speaker 1: Oh listen, make the conversation with Hughesy just short. I
Speaker 1: just talk on like the beney for brain cancer. Don't
Speaker 1: talk about his career, wait till I am back.
Speaker 4: He died.
Speaker 2: Let's dive real deep.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's got a massive poe Like you know, you're
Speaker 3: a favorite. You're one of the favorite guests as well.
Speaker 3: One of the blokes have known us since we're kids.
Speaker 4: So well, funny, Jack, I was thinking this morning that
Speaker 4: we won the Grand Final in ninety seven, and I
Speaker 4: felt like it was a week later. We had Jack's
Speaker 4: wet the baby's head, that's right. Yeah, so we all
Speaker 4: gather at the.
Speaker 2: Wash tub, was it?
Speaker 3: I can't.
Speaker 4: I think I feel like a few a few blurry times.
Speaker 4: But we all assembled, big celebration. I remember I had
Speaker 4: to work the next day. I went massive night and
Speaker 4: I was working at tube Makers. The boys all hit
Speaker 4: me away and tucked me into a little room and
Speaker 4: I had had a sleep, So I celebrated. I celebrated. Yeah,
Speaker 4: we celebrated you pretty hard, mate.
Speaker 3: Thanks mate, I really appreciate it. Surely wasn't the like
Speaker 3: fantastic grand filing is one and a couple of weeks earlier?
Speaker 3: Was it that was in the.
Speaker 2: Background ten days earlier? Jack?
Speaker 1: And you know, for people who listened to that when
Speaker 1: what you just say said there is highly unusual these days,
Speaker 1: well it just doesn't happen. You play a Grand Final
Speaker 1: and then a few days later you've got to go
Speaker 1: back to work in tube makers and let people know
Speaker 1: tube makers was like it was a stool industry.
Speaker 4: Yeah, sure, it was Maddie and Darren Albott was the same.
Speaker 4: He was an apprentice electrician and I was a fitter
Speaker 4: and turner. So we would work and then as I
Speaker 4: started gettingto first grade, we had to your clock in
Speaker 4: as you go in. Then we'll clocking out and going
Speaker 4: and do kicking and catching practice and coming back on
Speaker 4: and off. And I did a bit of shift work,
Speaker 4: so I would do night shift, then i'd go straight
Speaker 4: to the gym, then I'd go back to Curry and sleep.
Speaker 4: Then i'd come back in the afternoon and train, go
Speaker 4: back to Curry and rest and then do it all again.
Speaker 2: Incredible.
Speaker 4: It was good because it was giving me that mental
Speaker 4: toughness and you know, to really appreciate. People used to
Speaker 4: say you're always smiling, You're always happy, because I was.
Speaker 4: I was living a dream and it was a lot.
Speaker 4: The dream was a long way away for a fair
Speaker 4: time for me, but then it changed really quickly. But
Speaker 4: I was getting ready for work life, which was a
Speaker 4: fitter machinist, an average one at that, but that's what
Speaker 4: I was doing.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: What was the reaction when you and Albi, Darren Albert
Speaker 1: who was the hero and that scholled that final try
Speaker 1: what was the reaction when you boys walk back into
Speaker 1: the next shift after winning the Grand Final?
Speaker 4: Look, it was it was you know, this is a tradesman.
Speaker 4: Just blokes, blue collar blokes. They just they loved it.
Speaker 4: You know, we had hundreds of blogs and they were,
Speaker 4: you know, just having fun with them and talking about
Speaker 4: it and they all wanted to know about it. And
Speaker 4: I still run into these blokes now and they all say,
Speaker 4: we work with you at Chievemaker's House, Albi and all that,
Speaker 4: And it was really great times to be right in
Speaker 4: amongst the community. Yeah, you know, whilst that rugby league
Speaker 4: bubble was there, but I was still in that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll check Denny, my late brother in law. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he he worked with you at Tube Maka's the ooce
Speaker 1: of sale.
Speaker 2: Time.
Speaker 1: Saw hughs again today because he made he was a minimalist,
Speaker 1: Yeah he was. Danny was the sort of guy I
Speaker 1: loved him because he's I've never met a person who
Speaker 1: was so comfortable in silence and he just can't come in.
Speaker 2: He just walked in and said, may.
Speaker 1: Want to be or anything, Danny Now, I'm sweet And
Speaker 1: as much as big a conversation I had was like
Speaker 1: been working with Usley lately. Oh you Dan as he young, bloody,
Speaker 1: good bloke us conversation.
Speaker 3: Just a context to Danny looked exactly like Red Dagan
Speaker 3: to a point where I think it was it might
Speaker 3: have been Danny's fiftieth or sixtieth and Dad rocked up
Speaker 3: dressed as Red d Reagan as his brother. He was
Speaker 3: a good man, Danny, He was a.
Speaker 4: Good I was thinking, Maddie. We did the in Search
Speaker 4: of the Holy Grail, a short a short video, remember
Speaker 4: that that was.
Speaker 1: That was for the Newcastle Short Film Festival and they
Speaker 1: asked us to do and that's where Red Drag.
Speaker 3: Oh wow.
Speaker 4: So Crowey was the narrator and he assembled groom. Joey
Speaker 4: was Bruno Snideley. It was a card shark. He was sinister.
Speaker 4: He had this big mustache, a real sinister character. Then
Speaker 4: there was reg I throw back to the eighties and
Speaker 4: there was me and Matt Gidley were two sailors on Shorty. Yeah.
Speaker 4: We're all searching for Holy Greiley, which was which was
Speaker 4: the off this cup We had that hidden away and
Speaker 4: we were going through Newcastle searching for this piece.
Speaker 1: Of We had to put all our own soundtrack on,
Speaker 1: so we had Stevie wonder.
Speaker 4: It was so good. But Maddie walks into the pub
Speaker 4: and I think this is where Regeme started, and he
Speaker 4: just come up with this great dialogue. I'll have some
Speaker 4: crisps TB and some rollies. Please don't.
Speaker 1: Get a at a two years old, a packet of
Speaker 1: smokes and a packet of crisps.
Speaker 4: Was born. And then we're filming all this stuff. It
Speaker 4: was so fun, but I think that just showed that, Yeah,
Speaker 4: they're great fun we used to have.
Speaker 2: When did you hide it?
Speaker 3: Where did you just hide the cup?
Speaker 4: The Obeliska is the highest point in Newcastle. We just
Speaker 4: planned it was going to be planted up there and
Speaker 4: we just filmed as we went up there someone so someone.
Speaker 3: Could have went past and holy fuck, yeah screen, I
Speaker 3: hope someone's guarding it at least Husy.
Speaker 1: Okay, just I want to ask you this question Feusy
Speaker 1: and the diagnosis originally, and I can imagine you've said
Speaker 1: this million times, but people will listen, be listening to
Speaker 1: this story for the very first time. So Mate, your
Speaker 1: flying life scale fantastic. The news must have hit you
Speaker 1: like a ton of bricks. What were the first signs?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was thirty six, Maddie flying high, feeling fit.
Speaker 4: Been out of footy for five or six years, but
Speaker 4: life was going great. Had three children under ten, beautiful wife. Yeah,
Speaker 4: everything was great. Then I just had headaches for a
Speaker 4: day and it put me in bed, which was unusual.
Speaker 4: And then I woke up the next morning headaches again.
Speaker 4: Kiraly said, nah, you need to just go and get
Speaker 4: this checked out. And I thought, oh, well, this is
Speaker 4: a migrain, not a problem. We'll get a couple of
Speaker 4: tablets and keep going. And the doctor was a bit
Speaker 4: funny when I went and saw him, and he said
Speaker 4: we might just go get a scan. So I ducked
Speaker 4: in and got a scan just on my own, and
Speaker 4: that was the last ever scan I've had. Alarm. Kirale
Speaker 4: has been with me ever since because that scan. From
Speaker 4: that moment, everything changed. It's like, quick, get everyone in.
Speaker 4: You know you've got to You've got a tumor, and
Speaker 4: you just go what You've got got a brain tumor,
Speaker 4: So yeah, so your life can change really quick. And
Speaker 4: out of that waited a couple of weeks. Then John
Speaker 4: hunt a hospital and had the tumor removed. And you're
Speaker 4: still hopeful. I got that positive mindset of it's not
Speaker 4: a it's not cancer. We'll just get it out and
Speaker 4: play on. But then the doctor took us in a
Speaker 4: week later and simply said to us, you know, I'm sorry, Mark,
Speaker 4: you've got a high grade brain cancer. And that's the
Speaker 4: words we just couldn't hear. We got Todd you you
Speaker 4: just can't hear that there's different grades. But so yeah,
Speaker 4: definitely life, life really changed. That's husic.
Speaker 1: When a person gets a diagnosis, oftentimes the doctor will
Speaker 1: present the scenarios and just go right out at best
Speaker 1: and worst. What was the At worst.
Speaker 4: We had a go We had to say that you
Speaker 4: get your affairs in order, you need to sort that out.
Speaker 4: There's just no guarantees here with what you've got. It
Speaker 4: was really it was pretty tough and not the stuffing
Speaker 4: out of us and Kiraly. So we went and saw
Speaker 4: the experts, some other people in Sydney who were top
Speaker 4: of their field, and they gave us a bit of
Speaker 4: hope with a few readings out of my tumor that
Speaker 4: they said, hey, there's some really good hope with this.
Speaker 4: We're finding this, this percentage of this or you know,
Speaker 4: there's all these different readings in a chum. So, yeah,
Speaker 4: that just give us a bit of hope, and that
Speaker 4: was enough for me to sort of pick up the
Speaker 4: ball and start running again.
Speaker 1: Oftentimes, people, I think, at the most difficult moments or
Speaker 1: you know, I heard people say when they're putting a
Speaker 1: life threatening situation like you were, they have moments of
Speaker 1: just perfect clarity, you know, and how they look back
Speaker 1: at their lives and whatnot. What would there any moments
Speaker 1: like that for you.
Speaker 4: You do a lot of thinking and whether it's forward
Speaker 4: thinking or look thinking back, so you do reflect a lot.
Speaker 4: And I had a lot of time to reflect. You know,
Speaker 4: you can't drive your car for eight months, you're not
Speaker 4: leaving the harm too often, so you're doing a lot
Speaker 4: of reflecting and thinking. And it was Yeah, I was
Speaker 4: certainly grateful for the life I'd had, but I just
Speaker 4: love life so much. I just wanted to keep going
Speaker 4: and do a lot more of it, you know. So
Speaker 4: there was a really anxious feel about it, really really anxious.
Speaker 4: So it was a really just tough time. And that's
Speaker 4: the way your family and friends, they or react different
Speaker 4: and knocks them around as well, so your whole life
Speaker 4: gets gets flipped.
Speaker 1: And sorry, Jack and Jack just dropped his notes. They
Speaker 1: feel free to pick him up.
Speaker 3: Brother, I've got to memorize man. Okay, actually I got
Speaker 3: I do actually have something for his usual because you
Speaker 3: know something similar like I've had a few beers with
Speaker 3: your son, Zack, your oldest. He's a good fella and
Speaker 3: you know, obviously that night had to take care of
Speaker 3: Crowley more than Zach. But yeah, I always think about
Speaker 3: these sorts of things when people get bad news like this,
Speaker 3: Like Tri Trish was diagnosed with cancer twenty twelve, and
Speaker 3: she always says, now and I look back at it,
Speaker 3: and I would have been around a bit older than
Speaker 3: Za would have been, about thirteen fourteen at the time,
Speaker 3: and she always says, I got quite intrinsic after that,
Speaker 3: like for that through that period, especially when she was
Speaker 3: going through chemo and whatnot. What about Zach, like as
Speaker 3: the eldest of the family, got Dane and Bonnie as well, Like,
Speaker 3: did he wear a lot of that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he was only young, but he was having a
Speaker 4: little bit of childhood epilepsy at the time and that
Speaker 4: was bringing that on a lot. Yeah, so there's a
Speaker 4: lot more of that going on. Bring the ambulance a
Speaker 4: few times, just everything was happening at once, and I
Speaker 4: think it was the stress and the strain of what
Speaker 4: it was going on would have caused a lot of that.
Speaker 4: So but then the kids are a bit younger, and
Speaker 4: then I quickly the positivity and the way I sort
Speaker 4: of conducted myself help help helps everyone around you. And
Speaker 4: I wasn't kicking stones. I was getting ready to launch
Speaker 4: into a charity and fight back. Ecusey just last.
Speaker 1: Before we move on to some of the good times
Speaker 1: and stuff that you never done through the charity lot,
Speaker 1: the tricks.
Speaker 2: Status quo.
Speaker 1: You've gone for skins today, a house things.
Speaker 4: Yeah, got a great scan. I'm so grateful. I have
Speaker 4: one every about four months and go down the specialists
Speaker 4: and you get that done. So yeah, it's always a relief.
Speaker 4: And I'm like, I'm ten years down the track. I'm
Speaker 4: so blessed and lucky. There's so many that don't get
Speaker 4: the opportunities that I get. So I'm feeling fit, I'm
Speaker 4: feeling energized. I'm here for a reason to really keep
Speaker 4: kicking on and helping make a difference and give hope
Speaker 4: to people with brain cancer. And with the NRL community
Speaker 4: behind us, that's what we've done with. We've given some
Speaker 4: real hope out there.
Speaker 3: Can I ask you you to like you've done so well,
Speaker 3: like ten years on, it's pretty incredible. Do you have
Speaker 3: any tips of people out there that might be going
Speaker 3: through it that you know changes to your lifestyle, minimalistic
Speaker 3: sort of things that always help you in the day
Speaker 3: to day.
Speaker 4: I think simply I like to say, just make today count,
Speaker 4: you know, don't worry about down the track. Can't change yesterday,
Speaker 4: So just just try and do your best today, to
Speaker 4: make the best day you can today. Then wake up
Speaker 4: and do it again. But if you're continually dwelling on
Speaker 4: the future or worrying about what's happened, it's going to
Speaker 4: weigh where you're down. So I think that's just a
Speaker 4: nice simple.
Speaker 3: That's interesting what you say there too, Like do you
Speaker 3: think that if you know it can be positive, it
Speaker 3: can impact you a lot more negatively if you have
Speaker 3: those negative, negative thoughts, whereas you've had a very positive outlook.
Speaker 3: Do you think that positive outlooks actually had a physical
Speaker 3: impact on you.
Speaker 4: Oh, for sure, you know. I've looked up on it,
Speaker 4: and we become our thoughts. So if you're always negative
Speaker 4: and down, you're going to have to come across that person.
Speaker 4: So I feel like you need to control your thoughts
Speaker 4: a bit and really try and focus on being grateful, happy,
Speaker 4: positive and makes a difference.
Speaker 2: Well too hugely.
Speaker 1: Through the Foundation, you've had plenty of good times, one
Speaker 1: of which is every single year you've done that the trecks.
Speaker 1: Yes to the players, what are you doing this year?
Speaker 4: Yeah, we're going to go across to Kakoda. We're going
Speaker 4: to walk across and back. So it's going to be huge, Mattie.
Speaker 4: So it's about two hundred k's. But the thing about
Speaker 4: co Coda it's either up or down. It's even muddy,
Speaker 4: it's even hod or really cold, really high. So yeah,
Speaker 4: it's going to be a great challenge. So that's our
Speaker 4: big one. You know, Chief and Billy Peedam came up
Speaker 4: with the idea of challenging ourselves whilst raising money and.
Speaker 2: It's been those two blocks.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's so typical. I mean a lot of the
Speaker 4: traits that our teammates had on the field they've just
Speaker 4: brought across to the Foundation, you know, like and it's
Speaker 4: just been it's like you do great things in rugby league.
Speaker 4: But the way that my former teammates have bound around.
Speaker 4: What I'm trying to do is really the best thing
Speaker 4: I've got out of rugby league for sure. And the
Speaker 4: treks are a great way for us to get away.
Speaker 4: And I'll highlight we did Everest, Maddie and.
Speaker 3: I twenty seventeen, was that? What mean twenty and I might.
Speaker 4: Try go there? We are. We had beaver Menzies we
Speaker 4: did too. We had the beaver We had chief we
Speaker 4: Hads like Russell Richardson and the Ghidli Boys, Bedsillie Boy.
Speaker 1: And what a way to bond. There was so many
Speaker 1: people that I've never met before. But by the time
Speaker 1: you're leaving Catman do everyone like you know, they're all
Speaker 1: our best mates.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, a policeman train account and all these
Speaker 4: people come together as one in a team. And we
Speaker 4: had a like doing Everest, Maddie. It's it's just like
Speaker 4: on the world stage, isn't it. It's just it's challenging,
Speaker 4: it's hard, but it's fun and we we had the
Speaker 4: best time.
Speaker 1: Oh, it's fantastic. A couple of boys were lucky, like Crowey.
Speaker 1: Let people know Crowey is the sort of guy and
Speaker 1: you know, people react different to altitude and they told us,
Speaker 1: just be very mindful of the person that you're knocking
Speaker 1: around with in the tea rooms, like you're in pairs.
Speaker 1: Just keep an eye on him, make sure they're not
Speaker 1: sleeping too long. And started noticing Crowe. He was like
Speaker 1: really really struggling. Anyway, They did a oxygen count on
Speaker 1: him and it was so low and they said no, no,
Speaker 1: there's no more for you, and made he wouldn't he
Speaker 1: wouldn't have it, just kept going and made he was
Speaker 1: They nearly had to put him in a chopper and
Speaker 1: send him back to CapMan do.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he collapsed on the bench in them wearing a
Speaker 4: tea room full of people across the world. We're starting
Speaker 4: to get a bit nervous. A couple of people vomiting.
Speaker 4: And then this German backpacker was a bit snaky that
Speaker 4: Crowley's taking up so much room on the seat and
Speaker 4: had a bit of a shot and then he didn't
Speaker 4: know what he was getting yourself influenced. Then Billy pede
Speaker 4: and pipe and like you know, there there was no
Speaker 4: war on the mountain.
Speaker 2: A lot of the snow, you know.
Speaker 4: And that's Billy is that he's just the best teammates.
Speaker 4: That's this Billy of all the trips.
Speaker 2: So you've done Kilimanjoo.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a hi alogude one. Trent Robo on that
Speaker 4: one joined us. Yep, we've done base Camp twice. Now,
Speaker 4: I've been to Borneo, We've been to where else. We
Speaker 4: did Vietnam last year. Oh, on a bike ride that
Speaker 4: was just brilliant. We went in these villages winding a
Speaker 4: way through and they're saying they hadn't even seen never
Speaker 4: seen white man in the flesh. Really, but they're so happy,
Speaker 4: sitting on their dirt, verandas and stuff. But they're in
Speaker 4: a circle, they're laughing, they're giggling, friends and family, friends
Speaker 4: and family, no phones, no nothing, but they're just happy.
Speaker 4: And I say to you, think myself, well, maybe this
Speaker 4: is true success. They're happy, they've got each other. We're
Speaker 4: out rushing around all the time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's so right. Yeah, you learn so much on
Speaker 3: these trips, those crazy locations that can actually ask you
Speaker 3: which is the worst airport, because I know has got
Speaker 3: a really bad rap as one.
Speaker 2: Of the world's worst airports.
Speaker 4: Well I think it is.
Speaker 1: Well, Well I tea to one. I reckon use it
Speaker 1: when you land in to do the trick.
Speaker 2: The first place, Lukla. Look their airport.
Speaker 1: Look, it is terrifying. Really describe it to me. It's
Speaker 1: you've got to you got this. It's cut into the
Speaker 1: top of a mountain and the runway is just so short,
Speaker 1: so when you land, you've got to be careful. They
Speaker 1: got the jam the brakes on straight away or you
Speaker 1: just ram into the back wall that close. And when
Speaker 1: you take off, when you take off, this is terrifying.
Speaker 1: You Actually they've got a really short runway, so they've
Speaker 1: just to go bang and you just go straight off
Speaker 1: the mountain and just hope that you've got enough.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the towns fac they for entertainment. They sit and
Speaker 4: watch it.
Speaker 5: And watch.
Speaker 4: Every day.
Speaker 3: That's incredible.
Speaker 1: We have some hearing moments too, because remember we couldn't.
Speaker 2: Fly couldn't fly out.
Speaker 4: There was lots of you do, lots of waging around
Speaker 4: for hours the right conditions what about?
Speaker 1: And I was told told this.
Speaker 2: It was fully try used to be on the project.
Speaker 1: His name has Casey. At the moment he's to do all
Speaker 1: these sort of special challenges and whatnot. Terrific bloke, an
Speaker 1: American guy. And he told me, he said, when you
Speaker 1: go and do it, he said, I'll give you tip.
Speaker 1: He said, when you land first in Catman, do before
Speaker 1: you do the track, he said, cat Man do, You'll
Speaker 1: be going around going, oh mate, God, this is hectic.
Speaker 2: It's real third world city, he said.
Speaker 1: But when you go and do the track and come
Speaker 1: back to Catman do, he said, Catman do, will feel
Speaker 1: like Monika.
Speaker 2: True? Yeah, do you remember? Chief?
Speaker 1: So we come back, You're you're eating basically bowls of
Speaker 1: rice all the time at the tea houses, of course,
Speaker 1: So we're fanging when we get back, and Chief's just starving.
Speaker 1: We get we all go to this place to have
Speaker 1: beers and eat. Chief has forty eight chicken wings. No way,
Speaker 1: he kept ordering them. He kept going, Chimpy, You've got
Speaker 1: to get I've got to get some more.
Speaker 2: Just go for a big I'm surprised.
Speaker 3: I'm surprised they even have meat up there, because they're
Speaker 3: like they you guys were eating a lot more sort
Speaker 3: of like vegetables and things that don't up on the trek,
Speaker 3: things that you don't have to cook as heavily, like
Speaker 3: chicken and whatnot. But yeah, did you lose much weight
Speaker 3: up there?
Speaker 4: Too much?
Speaker 2: Really?
Speaker 4: Yeah? You're eating lots of rice and yeah, whenever.
Speaker 2: They take you.
Speaker 1: Now, boys, really important thing is you don't drink on
Speaker 1: the mountain.
Speaker 4: Sure we'd find a cuple of beers. Oh wow, that's
Speaker 4: so good.
Speaker 2: Cu see how the old boys going.
Speaker 4: Our boys going great, mate, We're proud of the old boys.
Speaker 4: We've got to We've got a good group. You know.
Speaker 2: Do you still train in the morning you blow.
Speaker 4: Yeah, bits of training and get together.
Speaker 2: Who's the gang?
Speaker 4: Kurt's the Kurt Gidley is a good ring leader of
Speaker 4: that and Bedsy Chief Billy when he can make it.
Speaker 4: We just whoever we can get there, Crowy, Jared d
Speaker 4: just good blokes, get together, train coffee, good way to started.
Speaker 3: You blokes are that tight even when we're playing us
Speaker 3: up at New some More thing as you'd see that
Speaker 3: the new Center of Excellence. They'd be in there before
Speaker 3: everyone else. And then you drive past Merriwether near the
Speaker 3: bars there and they'd be out there training and doing
Speaker 3: their like in the middle of winter too.
Speaker 4: Like if we go there early and train at the
Speaker 4: Center of Excellence, and tell you, man, if we had
Speaker 4: that gear, I'd be still playing. But it's hard to
Speaker 4: believe we talk about our facilities.
Speaker 1: I was I was saying to the boys the other
Speaker 1: day we trained in a public gym. So Jack, if
Speaker 1: you're in the midst of training, you'd have to wait.
Speaker 1: There could be like two middle aged women and you're
Speaker 1: going to sit and wait until they get their reps done.
Speaker 4: You just you're in.
Speaker 1: There the mercy and sometimes you be packed with the
Speaker 1: public and you.
Speaker 3: Just well, one thing about rugby league plays through. They're
Speaker 3: not very patient either. I can't imagine that.
Speaker 1: It's funny you say that, Jack. I think every single
Speaker 1: every single club, every single team, believe they're tight. But
Speaker 1: I think sometimes in each club's history there is a
Speaker 1: side that is really tight, and I reckon that some
Speaker 1: of those ninety seven into two thousand and one teams.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know, success brings you together as well, and
Speaker 4: we had a great team which helped. And I mean
Speaker 4: ninety five of these boys did it awesome. Ninety six
Speaker 4: it was a bit of a rough year, yeah, but then
Speaker 4: from ice I FL from ninety five to probably two
Speaker 4: the club could genuinely have won a camp if we
Speaker 4: had the right injury and if we had a bit
Speaker 4: of luck, we could have nearly won. You know, we're
Speaker 4: a real chance every year. But we were so close
Speaker 4: because we all lived within ten minutes of each other,
Speaker 4: you know, so we when there was a lunch on,
Speaker 4: we're all together and it was just a great mix.
Speaker 4: Like you got your real serious lead like Butts and
Speaker 4: Chief and MG. But then you had like Maddie and
Speaker 4: Joey in their early twenties and blokes like Robbie Davis,
Speaker 4: Adam Muir, Billy.
Speaker 3: P mad Dog would have been young then too.
Speaker 4: So then there's another tier of guys that were all
Speaker 4: sorts of eighteen nineteen twenty. That was sort of Olen
Speaker 4: Craigie was there, but kids, Betsy, Adam McDougall. Yeah, just
Speaker 4: on Darren Albert. So there. You know, it was just
Speaker 4: a really good blend of of and plenty of They
Speaker 4: say pick on character, Well, there was plenty of character
Speaker 4: in out to it.
Speaker 1: It was put on a Peter sharp you know. Sharpie's
Speaker 1: been a lifelong coach. He's Newcastle at Paramatta of course
Speaker 1: did the Northern Eagles and Manly didn't have a lot
Speaker 1: of success there, but he's just most clubs sharp he
Speaker 1: goes to and he sits behind the scenes, they always
Speaker 1: have success. He's just a he's just a fantastic bloke
Speaker 1: at the moment he's with the dogs. Of course we're
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, but he just says all the time,
Speaker 1: he said, Madie, one of the most difficult things to
Speaker 1: find in the modern game, he said, is leaders, he said,
Speaker 1: But I tell people all the time that Newcastle side,
Speaker 1: he said, I Reckon has had seven or eight leaders.
Speaker 1: That it was just such a strong group.
Speaker 4: Yeah it was, Yeah, it was. Yeah, it was a
Speaker 4: dream for me, like from being from Curry.
Speaker 1: And then you tell us, tell us the story of
Speaker 1: how you got the aggression.
Speaker 4: Well, firstly, I was Curry, Curry boy. I knew Maddie
Speaker 4: and Jail. We were you know, cesn we went at
Speaker 4: the same school. I felt like Maddy was in year twelve.
Speaker 4: I never knew that, yeah right, yeah, so I definitely
Speaker 4: need Madge twelve years. Maddie wouldn't have probably named me, no,
Speaker 4: but I saw I knew Maddie. And then Joey was
Speaker 4: in year nine, so I sort of had a few
Speaker 4: more years there to get to name Joey on a
Speaker 4: minor level, and that Joey was obviously the young gun
Speaker 4: Knights player. So I was just a Curry boy playing
Speaker 4: footy for Curry. But I had a big dream to
Speaker 4: try and get there, but it was just a long
Speaker 4: way away. At fourteen or fifteen, I wasn't anywhere near
Speaker 4: strong enough or quick enough nights fifteen, seventeens, nineteen's not
Speaker 4: getting a look in. So it was I was lucky
Speaker 4: I didn't choose to maybe go in another direction because
Speaker 4: it could have been tempting. But I hung in and
Speaker 4: I got to start in my first year at grade
Speaker 4: at Curry was in two thousand and nineteen ninety five
Speaker 4: and Curry had won two premierships. It was just going
Speaker 4: off the town. It was a great time and their
Speaker 4: third premier ship. I snuck onto the wing for that
Speaker 4: game and we beat Wes and I've scored two tries.
Speaker 4: You and McGrady was in that team.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, wow, yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I got exposed to legend.
Speaker 3: The mcgrady's are crazy. I've played with that many mcgrady's
Speaker 3: too in my time footy and all sorts of grades
Speaker 3: and huge.
Speaker 4: I'd forgotten you played with Panda, Yeah that is that
Speaker 4: was no weekish and I'd watch him at training and
Speaker 4: he was just going half pace and now and again
Speaker 4: he turn it on and I'm just going, wow, this
Speaker 4: is this is awesome. Big Dave Smith was there. He
Speaker 4: was another Knights fella. And so the ninety six Peter
Speaker 4: Brady and Shane Lee, a couple of Curry legends, coached
Speaker 4: the twenty ones. They said, come and have a trial.
Speaker 4: So I've got a trial and made the team for
Speaker 4: ninety six. First time I made the Knights. Had a
Speaker 4: nice steady year. So that was ninety six, and then
Speaker 4: ninety seven started along and I watched the news and
Speaker 4: there it came on nights I started their ninety seven
Speaker 4: campaign and I'm sitting at home into my rissoles and
Speaker 4: We're right, what's going on here? So I made a
Speaker 4: call on said it's all started. Am I going to
Speaker 4: get another trial? And oh yeah, yeah you sure, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: We'll sort that out. So I've got a trial for
Speaker 4: ninety seven season. So I was just trialing and did
Speaker 4: okay and got him into the reserve grade team, and
Speaker 4: then from there it just sort of I got a
Speaker 4: couple of opportunities to sit on the bench and then
Speaker 4: round fifteen we played the Roosters. It was a rainy
Speaker 4: Friday night, Maddie. It came down to the end. We
Speaker 4: had a draw one game, but I just remember the
Speaker 4: extra noise in the crowd and the extra intensity in
Speaker 4: the game, and I just thought, wow, and I think
Speaker 4: someone roughed me up. I think it was even clear,
Speaker 4: and I thought, how good is this? You know? Yeah,
Speaker 4: it was just yeah, dream come true.
Speaker 1: And we talk about Ivan and Nathan of course anonymous. Now,
Speaker 1: how cool I under pressure. That's a perfect example, Jake.
Speaker 1: It's absolutely it's ankle deep mud, just pissed down for days.
Speaker 2: And we're leading them.
Speaker 1: We're leading them ten to four, and it's literally about
Speaker 1: thirty seconds ago. Andrew Walker the numbers out of one
Speaker 1: of the halves playmakers for the Rooses. As he does
Speaker 1: UNKI did a little chip over the top double chip,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden they scored right on full time,
Speaker 1: right in the corner. So it's ankle deep Mart, We're
Speaker 1: leading ten eight, We're standing on the try line. Ivan
Speaker 1: clearly takes the ball and as he putting on the mound,
Speaker 1: we're saying some fucking awful things, just fucking giving it
Speaker 1: to him. He didn't even blink. He just went back,
Speaker 1: came forward, just kicked it, looked over and said, fuck
Speaker 1: you guys.
Speaker 3: Wow, I've actually seen that. Yeah, I mean how much long?
Speaker 3: How much further after was it that you started living
Speaker 3: with bedsy.
Speaker 4: That was about yes after, Yeah, yes, I was just
Speaker 4: finding my feet in ninety seven, getting opportunities at these blags.
Speaker 4: I think I was. I was roomies with Maddie early days,
Speaker 4: away games, so that was always good. I remember that.
Speaker 4: I was thinking about that the other day too, and
Speaker 4: I was thinking, I think one time Maddie might remember this.
Speaker 4: But I gone to sleep early, and I popped up
Speaker 4: and I've gone, you've got a problem? Have you got
Speaker 4: a problem? But he looks at me and goes sit.
Speaker 4: I must have been my head must have been spinning
Speaker 4: and putting it on your.
Speaker 1: Dad, because all the boys when we used to room together,
Speaker 1: they always used to go because I had all these
Speaker 1: I used to take all my boots away, so I'd
Speaker 1: have about eight pairs of boods just lined up in
Speaker 1: the morning and then go. I'd go to the ground,
Speaker 1: do an inspection and know which I'd have.
Speaker 4: Had all these beds. I haven't done lots stink sting rays.
Speaker 2: But it's unbelievable.
Speaker 1: Excuse you to think about the start of the year.
Speaker 1: You're there, you're eating your wristoles and you're going in
Speaker 1: a second, know where's my trial? And then Grand four?
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, just amazing the break the break through.
Speaker 1: We spoke about it before we come on here, and
Speaker 1: I brought up the time we played the Southeast Coinsland
Speaker 1: Crushes two thirds of the way through the year, and
Speaker 1: I brought it up because it was a funny moment
Speaker 1: in the fact that we played a game, and as
Speaker 1: was the time back in the mid nineties, you just
Speaker 1: go on a bender after rumed Brisbane. Anyway, the coach,
Speaker 1: Malcolm Realley, who was a real discipline arean like just
Speaker 1: legend but highly disciplined. He goes, right, we're going to
Speaker 1: do a rehab session. For rehab, We've got a quick
Speaker 1: turn around. I'm just going to do a ball work session.
Speaker 1: And we're all still blind, right, and I can watch
Speaker 1: him out and he's just getting more and more aggravated. Anyway,
Speaker 1: he just us unloading on the team. He's a fucking
Speaker 1: disgrace and everything. And Scotti Conley's nickname was the scrub Pig.
Speaker 1: He thought Maut was joking and started laughing out, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: this is hilarious, right, and he goes.
Speaker 2: Fuck you, fuck you.
Speaker 1: But that game husy like I remember you putting your
Speaker 1: body on the line. Tell us about the yeah moment.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, it was just I'm just trying to feel
Speaker 4: like I'm trying to get the confidence out of these
Speaker 4: guys because they probably didn't really name me, and I
Speaker 4: didn't look probably the most likely type, so they Yeah.
Speaker 4: I just remember they were on the sideline. They've kicked
Speaker 4: this ball across field, and I've come from the wing
Speaker 4: and I've charged across and I've dived in front of
Speaker 4: the I've caught it and then someone's belted me and
Speaker 4: I've flinged around the post. It was a really good take.
Speaker 4: But I just remember Butsy getting on the bus and
Speaker 4: got Eh making a big point of it to me,
Speaker 4: and it made me feel real good and made me
Speaker 4: start to feel part of the team a little bit
Speaker 4: because I obviously lacking a bit of confidence. But it
Speaker 4: was a nice moment. Blokes like Buttsy and like Maddie Butsy,
Speaker 4: these blokes were always building me up from the start.
Speaker 4: I was lucky to have senior players, you know, if
Speaker 4: the Knights were coming last that year and I could
Speaker 4: have got tipped out, just like if Curry wasn't a
Speaker 4: good team in ninety five is it good and they
Speaker 4: come last good chance, I wouldn't have got the opportunities
Speaker 4: I've got. So I was surrounded by some good people
Speaker 4: at the right time at.
Speaker 1: That run through ninety seven, half Jack not long. I
Speaker 1: reckon about four weeks out from semifinals and winning a
Speaker 1: Grand Final is all about timing as well as anything
Speaker 1: else is. We just just caught fire and we kept
Speaker 1: playing manly right at the back end of the year.
Speaker 1: Every song we played, and we just kept getting close
Speaker 1: and closer and closer to the morning. You wake up
Speaker 1: in the Grand Final and you just go you know
Speaker 1: you're going to win.
Speaker 4: A strong air of confidence. And I look back now
Speaker 4: and go, hang on, you were twenty How could you
Speaker 4: feel that confident? But you just get caught up in
Speaker 4: the in that team environment, and I felt this inner
Speaker 4: belief there was there, led from chief as captain to everyone.
Speaker 4: But we just did and we'd had the fun like
Speaker 4: we made up the CD with our you know, we
Speaker 4: had film clear every time we're on the bus, the
Speaker 4: songs are coming on. Then we're in the sheds the
Speaker 4: songs are coming on. And look, Mail probably didn't agree
Speaker 4: with it, but the leader he was, he knew that's
Speaker 4: what we needed. Yeah, you know, and it was fun
Speaker 4: and we're dancing around having fun in the sheds. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it really was special.
Speaker 3: Well, I've got a few a few things from your
Speaker 3: old teammates have said. And then one of the things
Speaker 3: was the Telegraph the morning of the Grand Final, when
Speaker 3: you're reading the paper and they had something about they
Speaker 3: had Chief Joey and you, and they had player bios.
Speaker 4: I tell this story a bit, but I'll tell it again. Yeah,
Speaker 4: so could you, babe. Plaza was where we stayed. So
Speaker 4: we wake up the morning of the game and I'm
Speaker 4: feeling great men, walk to the elevator, danced my way
Speaker 4: into the breakfast room. This is my day. So I
Speaker 4: walk in and there's a six or eight blokes around
Speaker 4: the table and they're looking at me laughing. So I
Speaker 4: sort of wander over and they hand over the newspaper,
Speaker 4: the Daily Telegraph what it was, and it was a
Speaker 4: lift out of each player player profile. So number one
Speaker 4: Robbie o' davis, amazing under the high ball, great side step.
Speaker 4: Number two Darren Albert, fastest man in the game. Number
Speaker 4: three Owen Craigie schoolboy prodigy, brilliant talent, Number four Adam
Speaker 4: McDougall blockbusting strong center. So by this I just can't
Speaker 4: wait to read what they say about me. Number five
Speaker 4: Mark Hughes sholders like a brown snake.
Speaker 3: Oh my god.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so yeah, not the best start to me day.
Speaker 4: Or we show them Jack, so I tell people they
Speaker 4: stung like a brown snack. So yeah, just a bit
Speaker 4: of fun. But you know, like there'd been no off
Speaker 4: season wait programs, like I hadn't really done any weights,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 2: Public gym. There's other people on the machines.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I was playing center, like I hadn't played
Speaker 4: any a center at one game at center as a kid,
Speaker 4: I reckon, you know, I just got put into there.
Speaker 4: So just finding a way.
Speaker 1: What's your memory, hughsy Of, I said the last moment,
Speaker 1: but remember halftime one of the like, so it's really tight.
Speaker 1: It's eight six and almost the last play before halftime, they.
Speaker 2: Do a full fulfilled shift.
Speaker 1: Cliffy Lines drifts across and one of our players just
Speaker 1: lays on the inside inside ballshit and Nevin and we're going.
Speaker 1: They scored Rod on half time, remember going, we all
Speaker 1: walk in fourteen six.
Speaker 2: Down and Joey loses it.
Speaker 1: Memory he's going fucking hell for the fucking hell and
Speaker 1: everyone's going mate settled there.
Speaker 4: It was yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, we like it
Speaker 4: wasn't the most like there was holes in our defense
Speaker 4: at times, and saying it wasn't the most perfect game
Speaker 4: in footage. That was a brilliant like it was a
Speaker 4: brilliant theater the game.
Speaker 1: What do you remember you took the ball on the charge,
Speaker 1: you threw it to Alby. What what's your memory of
Speaker 1: that final play?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: So yeah, so Joey got charged.
Speaker 4: You'd hit the upright yep, moments before. So that was
Speaker 4: that was a close one. And then did Joey go again?
Speaker 1: Joey went again and got charged down.
Speaker 4: I think, yeah, I went to myself and then I
Speaker 4: just got the ball and running and then I just
Speaker 4: as I'm going, I throw a pretty ordinary past to
Speaker 4: Darren Albert. He gets tackled, yeah, five meters in and
Speaker 4: then yeah, so then from there I run. I raced
Speaker 4: to the short side. Joey gets into dummy half. Maddie
Speaker 4: wants the ball. Mark, Ye, I tipped Joey off, but
Speaker 4: that it's on down the short side. He has a
Speaker 4: bit of a glance. Maddie's screaming at him. This way
Speaker 4: on my call. He's come down the short side. And
Speaker 4: just remember this play propelled him on a mortal yep.
Speaker 4: And I made the call, he made the course and
Speaker 4: he throws the dummy to you. Yeah, and then he
Speaker 4: just refuses to give me the ball. Just you watch it.
Speaker 4: Does these stupid little dummy.
Speaker 3: I might have been your chances of immortality.
Speaker 4: I had spud coming across Yep.
Speaker 2: We wouldn't get that. India too strong for Marc Hu's grandstand.
Speaker 4: Albie didn't pay for a beer for two years in
Speaker 4: your car, so I did the Beau. I would have
Speaker 4: saved don in fifty grand back then.
Speaker 3: Well he will trice over the week before too. That's
Speaker 3: on the everyone's I still I remember seeing it for
Speaker 3: the first time and I never seen because he's gone.
Speaker 3: Who was the winger again?
Speaker 2: That's his who was quick?
Speaker 3: So well, he was moving fast when now becomes into
Speaker 3: into camera, Oh my.
Speaker 1: God, Jack, I've never seen and throw Marling throw Slater. Everyone,
Speaker 1: I've never seen someone so football fast as Albie in
Speaker 1: the fact that like our Strength Strength Coast coach Bruce.
Speaker 2: Gallah, who's story in himself.
Speaker 1: But he's just say mate, if I coached him since
Speaker 1: from when he as a kid, he'd want a gold
Speaker 1: medal in the two hundred meters. Really, yep, that's how quick.
Speaker 1: But think about it was stopping and starting stepping. He
Speaker 1: didn't brush a meter.
Speaker 4: Really yeah, all these fast guys I watched now, I
Speaker 4: still compare him to Albi for some reason, a bit biased, but.
Speaker 1: I just felt like that was so fast, oh that one,
Speaker 1: and thinking about it was he was a completely different
Speaker 1: winger to the ones you see now a lot of
Speaker 1: times in the fact that he had no work rate,
Speaker 1: Like just before the semi finals there was a blow
Speaker 1: up in a team meeting because Albie had had the
Speaker 1: Fords blown up. I suppose Rightfley, so he had one
Speaker 1: run for two meters.
Speaker 2: But when you needed something big, that's what he come
Speaker 2: up with.
Speaker 1: If he was a workhoorse, he doesn't pick up maxifats,
Speaker 1: we don't win that competition.
Speaker 4: Magic.
Speaker 1: I just want to say, while we're talking about the
Speaker 1: different characters, and we're skipping around a little a little
Speaker 1: bit here, but I mean Adam McDougall, the success that
Speaker 1: he has made in business, how much has he given
Speaker 1: you think to your found.
Speaker 4: Out he'd be over five hundred thousand. Yeahs is just
Speaker 4: an amazing character. Firstly, footy wise, it was just unbelievable
Speaker 4: playing with him. You just knew he'd set himself for
Speaker 4: the big games.
Speaker 2: He would.
Speaker 4: He was unstoppable when he was when he was like that,
Speaker 4: So we're so blessed to have him in our side.
Speaker 4: But then in later life, you know, he was doing
Speaker 4: all this stuff and going what's he doing? What is it?
Speaker 1: Because he could throw up polkies and he's saying he's
Speaker 1: doing this supple but everyone's going yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Well.
Speaker 3: Well how old would he have been around the ninety
Speaker 3: seven Grand Final?
Speaker 4: Early twenty or Toland? Yeah, he's only he was twenty one?
Speaker 4: Was young?
Speaker 3: Was there a crew of years because there was an
Speaker 3: older crew and then sort of like a middle middle
Speaker 3: sort of crew. Was there a crew of young like
Speaker 3: the lot of yours that were real young that was
Speaker 3: sort of was real surreal for like he's all stuck together.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, it was yeah, we were on this Yeah, we
Speaker 4: were on this wave. Yeah. But yeah, so back to
Speaker 4: just yeah, very giving, amazing person him and Belinda. What
Speaker 4: they've done with the man. I don't think there's a
Speaker 4: rugby League player that's had that type of success made.
Speaker 1: He'll give them the fact they've sold He's maintained a lot
Speaker 1: of the company and sold them to people who are
Speaker 1: going to take into America.
Speaker 2: He could. I think he probably end up as rugbul
Speaker 2: League's first bionaire.
Speaker 4: As far as players, they just couldn't be any happier
Speaker 4: for him and a great person a Hughesy.
Speaker 1: You've got to tell people the celebrations was something in themselves.
Speaker 1: But fear play to you, your stamina and chiefs guts.
Speaker 1: YouTube blokes were the last ones standing.
Speaker 4: When we were the last light standing. But as their
Speaker 4: story goes on, one of the nights might have been
Speaker 4: Thursday night. We ended up at the Empire Hotel. It
Speaker 4: was a lovely little twenty four hour unfortunately not with
Speaker 4: us anymore.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, plenty of blood, plenty of phlegm.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Chief Chief's feet was swelling and he had a
Speaker 4: bit of gout, I think, and I mean g He
Speaker 4: did inspire me on the field, but to kick on
Speaker 4: with no shoes and feet like that, that's leadership.
Speaker 2: That was huge.
Speaker 4: Yeah big yeah, big balloons.
Speaker 2: And new blokes are in the pub, So tell us
Speaker 2: about the Empire yeah.
Speaker 4: So we get in there. It's a twenty four hour
Speaker 4: there's karaoke on. Chief gets on a stool right in
Speaker 4: front of the men's toilet and gets on there and
Speaker 4: has a bit of a bit of a doze off.
Speaker 4: And I noticed that and then sort of people can't
Speaker 4: get it through that through where he was, so I
Speaker 4: felt I had to do something. So I went up
Speaker 4: and I whacked him over my arm and I got
Speaker 4: him up, and the people ask me what did it
Speaker 4: look like? And I say, fink winfeld cup, I've got
Speaker 4: the cheap And as I get him up, everyone has
Speaker 4: one stands. Everyone in the joints to it and they're
Speaker 4: just clapping their leads getting him out of the door.
Speaker 4: We get out, open the door, we start to fall.
Speaker 4: I'm maneuver Chief, so he cushions me on the pavement.
Speaker 4: He takes the hit. I put him in a cab
Speaker 4: and that that's the story.
Speaker 3: So what do you think you're weighing?
Speaker 2: There?
Speaker 4: Usually oh seventy eight that around Jack, But oh yeah,
Speaker 4: but yeah, that's just fun memories and we have fun
Speaker 4: with that. But for me, like the leader Chief is
Speaker 4: and still is to me today, like I just stay lucky.
Speaker 1: Yeah, talk another characters, Jack, little things had happened to
Speaker 1: remember your twenty first? Twenty first but shortly after?
Speaker 3: Would this be my one of my godfather's because you
Speaker 3: couldn't decide.
Speaker 4: So this is December after Grand Final, So this is December,
Speaker 4: December fifteenth. All raids lead to Western Town Hall, yep,
Speaker 4: which is just next to Curry Curry, where I'm putting
Speaker 4: on a twenty first. Reality is the team. So I'm
Speaker 4: all excited yet nervous. So this is everything's coming. So
Speaker 4: then the boys turn up. Oh this is the first
Speaker 4: one with my present, my gift.
Speaker 2: Oh, here we go.
Speaker 4: What's this? So there's this newspaper wrapped around this tall thing,
Speaker 4: it's about this high, and Maddie and Butts and Crowy
Speaker 4: or I think it was, they hadn't present you my presence.
Speaker 4: So I start unwrapping it and there's this big skinny giraffe.
Speaker 4: The boy said that reminded me of so that was
Speaker 4: my president. The giraffe didn't last too much longer, didn't.
Speaker 2: It was Crowy doing the twirl over his head. I
Speaker 2: think it fractured his neck.
Speaker 1: But so Adammir, of course you're one of them, one
Speaker 1: of your god fathers and what had happened our skills
Speaker 1: coach slash he.
Speaker 2: Had hid me and Roles Steve Dunstan the Swede. I remember.
Speaker 1: Swede used to always like he was almost like the
Speaker 1: cheerleader involved with the good skills stuff, right.
Speaker 2: But he's always morale to the point.
Speaker 1: But he used to take upon himself sometimes to like
Speaker 1: sledge the opposition. So we're playing North Sydney one day
Speaker 1: and Greg Florimer is there, who's legend flow and he's
Speaker 1: he's he's about to walk down in the sheds and
Speaker 1: he just goes and Sweed goes a flow. He goes
Speaker 1: mate the loser's sheds when you get to the bottom
Speaker 1: on the right. But you're you're more than aware of that,
Speaker 1: you've played here for twenty years, right, and he's and
Speaker 1: he was known sweet as he used to carry the
Speaker 1: ghetto blaster everywhere and we flow. You alled out in
Speaker 1: the dressy up to the grand stand, just play.
Speaker 3: On the on the boombox, your fuck with mate strength
Speaker 3: conditioners and more so the speed coaches there, there's some
Speaker 3: different breeds out there.
Speaker 1: Well, Adam Mua signed to go to North Sydney, right,
Speaker 1: So Swede had had he on to one of our
Speaker 1: back rowers and said to one of our back rowers
Speaker 1: on the quiet, just trying to boost him up.
Speaker 2: Wasn't so much about Adam Muhr.
Speaker 1: About Hurts he Adam Mill's nickname. It was more about
Speaker 1: building the a guy up. And he said to him, mate, Hurts,
Speaker 1: He's gone, that's all right, forget about that. You just
Speaker 1: train hard, you'll be You'll be twice. You could be
Speaker 1: twice the player he is, So word you back to
Speaker 1: Hertzy that he said that. So we're at the Boosey's
Speaker 1: twenty first and Swed gets up on stage and starts
Speaker 1: performing songs with this guitar that was like a family
Speaker 1: ill his family in New Zealand, like for Traia. So anyway,
Speaker 1: Herts he cats upon one stags and says, may can
Speaker 1: I do a song? And he goes, yeah, good as
Speaker 1: gold hands it and Hertz he just smashes the guitar.
Speaker 2: There were wood chips. We got back to the town hall.
Speaker 4: We used him in the garden.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, oh cry fast for a little bit
Speaker 3: for hughes. See my god, my other godfather, Stephen Crowe
Speaker 3: actually asked me. When I asked him, I said, oh,
Speaker 3: we've got Hughgy and I got to jump in for Coop.
Speaker 3: He actually asked me to ask you about two thousand
Speaker 3: and one, your Origin debut. He mentioned that at the
Speaker 3: time it was sort of Betsy was the one that
Speaker 3: people were going, it's very likely that Betsy will be
Speaker 3: in the squad, and he said, you couldn't have been
Speaker 3: a more supportive friend. But when the team was announced
Speaker 3: you were in and Beggie hadn't been chosen. He was saying,
Speaker 3: what are we to ask you? What was it like
Speaker 3: for Betsy? Like he reckons? Beggie was nothing like couldn't
Speaker 3: have been a more supporting roommate and friend at the
Speaker 3: time for you?
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, we had a great partnership Betsy and I.
Speaker 4: And in two thousand and one, Betsy was very big
Speaker 4: tip to be the hooker. So we played Saturday night
Speaker 4: against the Dragons. Joey went off, he got injured. We
Speaker 4: won the games, a really good game. But Joey said
Speaker 4: to me after game, mate on you're a big chance here.
Speaker 4: But it's like Joey, you know boy that cried wolf
Speaker 4: types And yeah, I mean, okay, well, yeah that'd be good.
Speaker 4: But I didn't think too much of it. So then
Speaker 4: we went. We went went to local league next the
Speaker 4: next day on the cans, having a good day out
Speaker 4: and then yeah, sure enough that the phone rang and
Speaker 4: they said, yeah, you're in the team, and I was
Speaker 4: a smoky, so yeah, it was amazing. Had to rush
Speaker 4: get it done, and Beds he helped. And although I
Speaker 4: did say to take all the messages back then you
Speaker 4: had your home phone because I knew me relative and
Speaker 4: that take take down the messages and I'll get so
Speaker 4: then he ended up, yeah, mate, I've done it all.
Speaker 4: There's a list one hundred long of names and anyway
Speaker 4: lost that list. Anyone out there is still waiting for
Speaker 4: a call playing well yeah, but no, it was awesome.
Speaker 3: Because that was that's a like I never knew that.
Speaker 3: I actually thought bed you played before, but you played
Speaker 3: fullback that series as well.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was our one, and then Beds he didn't
Speaker 4: miss a beat after that. You get in two thousand
Speaker 4: and two and away I've.
Speaker 3: Seen his the debut when he got the kickoff. That's
Speaker 3: one of the great origin moment, some iconic.
Speaker 1: Yeah, accuse me to check. Just two thousand and one,
Speaker 1: the night second premiership. How did it feel going from
Speaker 1: being a young bloke who was just like, I can't
Speaker 1: believe I'm here to suddenly bring someone who's on the
Speaker 1: cusp of a senior player.
Speaker 2: Different.
Speaker 4: It was a different feel because I felt it was
Speaker 4: three or four years of hard work and training and
Speaker 4: you certainly felt I definitely felt more a part of
Speaker 4: the team. So it's still as much enjoyment and you know,
Speaker 4: it was still an amazing thing to be a part of,
Speaker 4: but it was slightly different to the one being the
Speaker 4: young kid just on the edge of it. But yeah,
Speaker 4: it was just a brilliant, yeah, brilliant thing to be
Speaker 4: a part of. You know, the first ever Night Grand Final.
Speaker 4: We really we had the team in two thousand and
Speaker 4: Maddie or know this, but we just just didn't quite
Speaker 4: get there. We were winning aid En Neil against you know,
Speaker 4: and we had like Butt's Maddie peat shields, someone else
Speaker 4: leaving real senior players, and we felt two thousand was
Speaker 4: our window to really do it and we just missed out.
Speaker 4: So there was a bit of a rebuild year in
Speaker 4: two thousand and one, but out of the blue we
Speaker 4: sort of put it together at the right time.
Speaker 1: You had a player like in Joey who suddenly emerged
Speaker 1: as the best player in the world by away, and yeah,
Speaker 1: like Paramatta had broken all the attacking records that year.
Speaker 1: They were red hot favorites. There's a famous story about
Speaker 1: the Grand Final breakfast with you. Blokes were joking having
Speaker 1: a good time because it is a luxury being an underdog,
Speaker 1: and they were really tense, but particularly you said, you
Speaker 1: basically start clowned around and were asking questions like you're
Speaker 1: part of the press of Joey.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, there's been since to us said over that.
Speaker 4: But we had these big game players in like BK
Speaker 4: and Joey had done it all before, so they were
Speaker 4: our leaders, and we rubbed off on us and we
Speaker 4: were having fun. And at the breakfast, we were we
Speaker 4: were felling good. We were just enjoying the week. So
Speaker 4: the media scrumbs there and they've got the players up
Speaker 4: the front, and I think it was Haig's beds, Haig's
Speaker 4: Billy and Joey. Billy was club captain, I think, and
Speaker 4: Billy and Joey, so yeah, they're just getting questions fired
Speaker 4: at him. So I snuck into the scrum and just
Speaker 4: and fired a couple of questions to the amusement of
Speaker 4: the boys. That were watching the back, but it was
Speaker 4: just yeah, simply like because I think Buttsy was the
Speaker 4: captain the year before, so I was like, oh, Michael
Speaker 4: at the start of the year, a lot of conjecture
Speaker 4: for captaincy, a lot of talk about Mark Hughes. You
Speaker 4: ended up going with Andrew Johnts. Do you regret that decision?
Speaker 4: Then he caught it under it was me and he
Speaker 4: said no, I definitely don't regret that. He but it
Speaker 4: was just fun. It was good fun and you know,
Speaker 4: was just part of the week. And you know, like
Speaker 4: I said, we had Ben Cannedy had Joey. They were
Speaker 4: at the top of their games. Yep, Paramatta had a
Speaker 4: great team, great team.
Speaker 3: Can I ask what was Haggs like as a coach?
Speaker 3: I haven't heard too much about him as a coach.
Speaker 4: Yes, it was interesting. We had Mal who was inspiring
Speaker 4: and a real leader. Then we had Warren Ryan came
Speaker 4: in for a couple of years, more of the educator,
Speaker 4: real footy brain. And then I felt Michael had a
Speaker 4: bit of both where he's probably really nice sort of guy,
Speaker 4: knew his footy, just a real nice bit different. So yeah,
Speaker 4: that were the three coaches for me. Yes, they all
Speaker 4: had their strengths. They all did really well. Warren was
Speaker 4: particularly a very educational sort of coach.
Speaker 1: And that was important and that era for the nights
Speaker 1: we had a lot of success because purely by accident,
Speaker 1: each coach was different, Like each coach who superseded the
Speaker 1: last was what the team needed at the time. So
Speaker 1: he go back to David Waite. David Waite Wade, he
Speaker 1: was a great educator, but we needed someone to teach
Speaker 1: us how to give mental toughness and be men. Malcolm
Speaker 1: really come in. So Malcolm, then it was time to
Speaker 1: be topped up with.
Speaker 2: Alcohol.
Speaker 1: Now with education in comes Warren and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, we need the intensity to drop a little bit,
Speaker 1: you know, getting too much. And suddenly Hayes comes in
Speaker 1: as a really affable sort of man management sort of guy.
Speaker 4: So I'll say, with Maddie and Joey, like the education
Speaker 4: that they were given out the team, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean, they ran a lot of stuff. So that
Speaker 4: was a real awesome learning curve for all us outside
Speaker 4: backs and that we were playing outside these guys and
Speaker 4: it made a real difference.
Speaker 1: But you're talking about a lot of leaders in the side.
Speaker 1: One of the untold stories about it. Jack was mileig
Speaker 1: for a lot most of the preseason. We were doing
Speaker 1: a lot of coaching ourselves. On two occasions during the
Speaker 1: lead up to the competition started, Malcolm had to return
Speaker 1: to England. His mum was very very and then I
Speaker 1: think he's no more. Dad passed away, so he went
Speaker 1: over a fair stint. We basically coast ourselves because Sharpie,
Speaker 1: who is a reservery coach, got pinched by Paramatta. So
Speaker 1: we're like, right, how are we going to play this?
Speaker 1: And Malcolm mate was so without ego. He just goes
Speaker 1: right out what he is doing. Yep, sounds good, comes back,
Speaker 1: has look what we're doing, then has to go back
Speaker 1: to England again. It didn't arrive back to about round
Speaker 1: four and so it just shows you if you've got
Speaker 1: soon your players and everybody is on board, just things
Speaker 1: just happen.
Speaker 2: Such a luxury.
Speaker 3: You see it a lot now, just because you know,
Speaker 3: because the game is so quick, you know, and everyone
Speaker 3: a weird time in rugby league where a lot of
Speaker 3: the older playmakers are about to move on or have
Speaker 3: moved on. You can see where a lot of those
Speaker 3: clubs get their edges, like when Reno went up to Brisbane.
Speaker 3: You know how much he educated the rest of the team.
Speaker 3: What an impact having you know, experienced playmakers. Hasn't the
Speaker 3: rest of the squads like how much it can help?
Speaker 4: Watching to highlight the other day and it's against paramatter.
Speaker 4: In ninety seven, Maddy and the left edges are doing
Speaker 4: all these flicking and then we play the ball. Then
Speaker 4: the half back, the dumm hour passes it to you.
Speaker 4: You do a twenty or thirty meter left to right
Speaker 4: to Joey. Then Joey does a thirty meter left to
Speaker 4: right to me and I hit a hole and untouched
Speaker 4: and scored and I thought, so the defense we were
Speaker 4: over there, and then two quick passes and we're over
Speaker 4: this side. You know the way we got shot. Yeah,
Speaker 4: the shot shot and the way we spread the ball
Speaker 4: would have been hard for sides. To a fan.
Speaker 1: Two thousand and one, when you win the Grand Final,
Speaker 1: how different was it because ninety seven we come back
Speaker 1: and it's it's you know, something like eight o'clock at
Speaker 1: night and the whole city is still away, and that
Speaker 1: you get back about one or two in the morning. Yeah,
Speaker 1: was that feel strange?
Speaker 4: Well, not really, because we went to the stadium and
Speaker 4: the stadium there must have been ten thousand there, five
Speaker 4: to ten thousand, So we did a lap around the
Speaker 4: ground and we're getting these massive rules. But it was
Speaker 4: definitely a lot later. I do like the day game
Speaker 4: format for that, but yeah, it was different because it
Speaker 4: was a bit later. But I think Mad Mad Monday
Speaker 4: just started a bit quicker. Yeah, what about so obviously
Speaker 4: the ninety seven one that's become how that Mad Monday
Speaker 4: has become legendary, Like we've got Lego, We've gotten on
Speaker 4: Joey on the skateboard.
Speaker 2: Tripping Ken he can he kick Chase completely naked? That
Speaker 2: I met Kenny at the Old Boy's Book.
Speaker 1: Kenny was like, it shows you, like how inclusive is
Speaker 1: not the right word, you know. It's like just well,
Speaker 1: like we a lot of scaley wags and everything, but
Speaker 1: there was a real decency about the players. Like to
Speaker 1: let people know Kenny. Kenny was a guy who grew
Speaker 1: up with a lot of learning difficulties and suddenly he
Speaker 1: was looking for something in his life and he couldn't
Speaker 1: drive a car. As a result, he used to he
Speaker 1: used to ride his pushbike from Windale into the city,
Speaker 1: which I'll let people know is probably a twenty minute
Speaker 1: twenty minute drive he'd ride and how he what did
Speaker 1: we started to do? We didn't know who he was
Speaker 1: Kenny Hamilton, but we when we do a training session,
Speaker 1: we're practicing our kicking. He just come on the film
Speaker 1: and start kicking the ball back. So he ended up
Speaker 1: earning the nickname Kenny Kick Chase. So then he started
Speaker 1: becoming our game day. So make Kenny, You're just part
Speaker 1: of the see him come in. So we had a
Speaker 1: pass and he come to the sheds and then we
Speaker 1: go out to warm up and this would entertain the
Speaker 1: whole crowd. Part of the warm up, he would stand
Speaker 1: under the sticks and Joey just launched these massive torpedo bombs.
Speaker 2: And Kenny trying to catch him. Sometimes he would and
Speaker 2: the crowd had just be going nuts.
Speaker 4: To catch him. And yeah, Kenny and grew his own
Speaker 4: cult following. He think I'd see him signing the odd
Speaker 4: jersey and he'd do everything like I mean, I'm in
Speaker 4: the big power aide buckets. Yeah, yeah, I remember him
Speaker 4: pouring the water and then putting the powder in and
Speaker 4: couldn't find the stir.
Speaker 3: The first time I heard about Kenny was John Thomas Tomo,
Speaker 3: So Tom, I would have been there when when you
Speaker 3: were there. He's still there now, Tom, he still works.
Speaker 2: Do you do anything with the club?
Speaker 4: Yeah, game days, Maddie, I m C the corporate area,
Speaker 4: which I enjoy just get in and have a chat
Speaker 4: and set the scene and meet some great sponsors and
Speaker 4: people say. I enjoy that side of things. Obviously very
Speaker 4: close to Bedsie, so I keep in contact of everything
Speaker 4: that's going on there. So yeah, I'm.
Speaker 1: Still part of it to all the games.
Speaker 4: Every home game. Enjoy that, watch that, watch the other ones.
Speaker 4: I'm telling you.
Speaker 1: Who are the features? Because we've got the Old Boys Box?
Speaker 1: Who are the regulars? And the Old Boys Box?
Speaker 4: Who are the regulars?
Speaker 2: Do they do shift? Now?
Speaker 4: We try and shift it around and try and share
Speaker 4: it around and we get them there and so now
Speaker 4: the Old Boys is it's it's it's a good strong group.
Speaker 4: And I see that other clubs are doing a good
Speaker 4: job with it now as well. I think it's important
Speaker 4: to keep these X players together and give them some
Speaker 4: purpose and it's great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I need to ask you. I've been I've been
Speaker 3: teetering on it. The house you and Bensie lived lived in,
Speaker 3: can you tell me about the bar.
Speaker 2: The bar.
Speaker 4: So yeah, So Bensy was living on his own and
Speaker 4: I said, let's just move in together. So one rainy
Speaker 4: Tuesday afternoon we decided to move in. So we got
Speaker 4: all the game. We're moving him across and we had
Speaker 4: this cupboard that we couldn't get through the door, had
Speaker 4: this like couldn't work out how to get it through,
Speaker 4: and we were stuff. We just give up. We ran Krowey,
Speaker 4: who was working at the club at the time as
Speaker 4: an admin. Crow can you come? And we're just over
Speaker 4: this and we can't sort it. So Crowley comes in,
Speaker 4: loosens the tie, measures it all up, and it was
Speaker 4: like magic. He somehow knew the angles and got us
Speaker 4: through that door straight away. But then it sort of
Speaker 4: clicked to me that sort of years of maneuver and
Speaker 4: the years through corridor, yeah makes him the perfect removal ust.
Speaker 4: So Crowley moved us in and yeah, so we had
Speaker 4: a great partnership. But downstairs we constructed a bar and
Speaker 4: we called it Whispers Whispers because we found everyone was
Speaker 4: coming there all the time, but they weren't bringing their
Speaker 4: own liquor, so no one was ever shouting.
Speaker 2: So very good.
Speaker 4: We used to call it whispers. I had a pool table,
Speaker 4: had a jacuzzie. It was like a little clubhouse Inweather.
Speaker 4: The boys all close.
Speaker 1: They said to me, excuse you said, mate, come over
Speaker 1: all have a couple of beers and jump in the chacuzzi.
Speaker 1: I turn up. I had one or two beers, but
Speaker 1: I tear what the chacuzi like a laxa.
Speaker 2: I wasn't going to well.
Speaker 3: Joe text me his reckons they used to they called
Speaker 3: you guys, called yourselves Bedsi, you and him the three Musketeers.
Speaker 3: And he asked me to ask Yujo about the Darwin
Speaker 3: trip you did. Was there a trip to Darwin?
Speaker 4: Yeah, we went to Darwin a few times, spreading the
Speaker 4: rugby league gospel. So Joey, myself and Betsy and yeah,
Speaker 4: I just had great time, just hot weather, having fun.
Speaker 4: Betsy met Chris's. I've heard that in the nightclub. But
Speaker 4: we had great time doing that. But we we beds
Speaker 4: and I would drive Joey to train and a fair
Speaker 4: buddy his lordship couldn't drive.
Speaker 1: Yeah, make him live and then he's the sort of bloke,
Speaker 1: Joey that you'll be driving a training You've you've you've
Speaker 1: driven that road a million times, but he's still sitting
Speaker 1: in the team.
Speaker 2: Which way to go? Go left to you left? Yeah, mate,
Speaker 2: telling the story right?
Speaker 1: Excuse the trial game And that went down to Notoriety
Speaker 1: where he went and played a trial game and Joey
Speaker 1: said to Beds, don't worry, you don't have to play.
Speaker 4: I was, I was. I wasn't there for that one.
Speaker 4: But that was in Brisbane, sorry, in Darwin as well,
Speaker 4: and they had they had a trial and they weren't playing.
Speaker 4: So I think they had a two day long then drinks.
Speaker 2: And of course talking about benders.
Speaker 1: Your wedding, who could forget about that?
Speaker 4: So the boys the night before, the boys got a
Speaker 4: bit excited. My wedding party was my brother mate Maka
Speaker 4: and Bedsie and Joey and yeah, we were having fun.
Speaker 4: And I went to bed and the boys just stayed
Speaker 4: in the house and drank a bit longer than probably
Speaker 4: most groomed. It has a fun day. It's became a
Speaker 4: bit of a legendary.
Speaker 1: Shoes you read me and goes mate, you've got a suit.
Speaker 1: I haven't, but I can get one, He goes mate.
Speaker 1: Because these two blokes, he goes, I don't know if
Speaker 1: they're going to be able to.
Speaker 5: Make it and make the anticipation because we knew Joey
Speaker 5: could sort of hold himself together. But mate Bensy completely
Speaker 5: loses his ship and everyone's waiting at the church and
Speaker 5: everyone knows it's gone around anyway. The car turns up
Speaker 5: and going, oh, here we go, poor old Beds mate.
Speaker 5: He dragged to the altar, Paul.
Speaker 4: Normally it should be the bride. Everyone's looking at putting this. Yeah,
Speaker 4: but yeah, just just fun times and Joey, you know,
Speaker 4: he's done. He's always done anything for me, you know,
Speaker 4: and very grateful for the friendship. And yeah, we lived close,
Speaker 4: so we had lots of amazing times, lots of fun,
Speaker 4: but also had lots of success.
Speaker 3: And it was just because it's a very unique thing
Speaker 3: in Newcastle, like people don't people at other clubs don't
Speaker 3: realize it untill they actually come to Newcastle. A lot
Speaker 3: of chat with Tyson Gamble about this when he first
Speaker 3: come to the club. But everyone lives within even if
Speaker 3: you're a little while away, it's within fifteen minutes of
Speaker 3: training generally, so everyone lives so close together you always
Speaker 3: around each other. You don't see that as much as
Speaker 3: at other clubs. Maybe clubs that are similar, like Cowboys
Speaker 3: up in towns will possibly. It's a very unique thing
Speaker 3: to have at a football club in the NRL.
Speaker 4: Yeah, very unique. And I you know, I think if
Speaker 4: you go to another club you experience other you realize
Speaker 4: how good that environment was and is. And that was
Speaker 4: a yeah, it was a great time.
Speaker 1: Jab Now the stories that were thrown him before we
Speaker 1: bid our dear friend for.
Speaker 3: Will actually a little quiz prepared for you, just three questions.
Speaker 3: And I didn't want to. I was going to do
Speaker 3: a game where rattle off your list of teammates. But
Speaker 3: you're too good a bloke. I know you don't want
Speaker 3: to put.
Speaker 4: On that game was coming.
Speaker 3: Yeah, No I'm not.
Speaker 4: I was picturing I won't to do a better teammate
Speaker 4: Maddie or Joie or is that the game?
Speaker 3: I know how much I know how much you love
Speaker 3: your team. I'm not going to do that to you.
Speaker 3: But I got only I only finished on the second question.
Speaker 3: This is for a funny reason. Actually, Game two in Sydney,
Speaker 3: the Blues return Serve twenty six eighteen, You guys won
Speaker 3: from a seventy thousand You're playing fullback who was the
Speaker 3: debutante that game for New South Wales. For New South Wales. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so your your forward power in the forwards. Yes, it
Speaker 3: was Ogre. Now to fact check this, I actually text
Speaker 3: Ogre and just to check it. He goes, Yep, that
Speaker 3: is correct. I think I've still got the most meters recorded.
Speaker 3: He proceeded to send me a photo of him celebrating
Speaker 3: someone's try and then sent me the stats from two
Speaker 3: thousand and one.
Speaker 2: He's all time Ogre, He's all time.
Speaker 4: From memory with had a massive night. We're having a
Speaker 4: massive night and the paper was in the pub and
Speaker 4: it was a big article on Ogre. Bean off the drink.
Speaker 2: Those ones we always goes off the drink hue. Where
Speaker 2: can people get the beanies?
Speaker 4: Yeah? So best place is lows right across Australia selected
Speaker 4: I g a selected woolworst or online or most of all,
Speaker 4: come to the games over across the bean around and
Speaker 4: grab your beanies. Get on the Marquis Foundation website. We'd
Speaker 4: love your support.
Speaker 3: That's at Mark Yu's foundation, dot com, dodau.
Speaker 1: And the business the gym. If people are heading up
Speaker 1: to Newcastle, yeap.
Speaker 4: So I've got air locker guitar if you want to
Speaker 4: come in and do an air locker session.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we've done a few. It's a it's great training,
Speaker 3: really good training, especially if you're going to go on
Speaker 3: something like a trek as well.
Speaker 4: Cooper came in the other weekend.
Speaker 2: I heard. I heard it.
Speaker 1: He wasn't as good as the older bloke. I heard
Speaker 1: he disgraced himself.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think you got a bit sick.
Speaker 2: Isn't funny? It run in there going? Oh I made
Speaker 2: here we go.
Speaker 1: We've got an X bloke recently retired in our role
Speaker 1: player and he's the one vomiting.
Speaker 4: Here's the vomiting and the other thing I'm doing, Maddie.
Speaker 4: I'm doing corporate speaking and stuff for corporate so people
Speaker 4: out there want to hear my story. I'd love to
Speaker 4: do that. It's something that I am passionate about.
Speaker 2: I've heard so heard you give a couple of those talks.
Speaker 2: It's fantastic.
Speaker 3: Yeah, unreal, all right, thank you very much, Usy.
Speaker 4: This has been a pleasure. Here's mate, Thank you Jack, Maddie.
Speaker 2: Here's he always great to say.
Speaker 4: Thanks for everything, Mate, I really appreciate it. On your comrade,
Speaker 4: thank you.
Speaker 3: Thanks com