Speaker 1: I didn't feel like as I was doing it, I
Speaker 1: was being sneaky and deceitful. So I of just did
Speaker 1: it and didn't really think a whole lot of it,
Speaker 1: And it wasn't until weeks later I've stuffed up here.
Speaker 2: I'm John Ralph and I'm Glenn MacFarlane.
Speaker 3: Welcome to Sacked, a podcast that explores what really happens
Speaker 3: when the ax falls in the AFL world. Will take
Speaker 3: you behind the scenes with some of the biggest names
Speaker 3: in football and find out how they found out their
Speaker 3: time was up and who.
Speaker 4: Pulled the trigger.
Speaker 3: Thirty eight goals, a Grand Final appearance and the rising
Speaker 3: star in Jaden Stephenson's debou year would have had Pies
Speaker 3: fans salivating at the prospect of a generational talent, but
Speaker 3: just two years later, punctuated by a gambling scandal, he
Speaker 3: was out at the Pies and after four middling years
Speaker 3: at the Ruse, he turned his back on the AFL
Speaker 3: all together at twenty five.
Speaker 4: So how did it all go wrong?
Speaker 2: Jaden Stevenson, Welcome to the podcast. Mate.
Speaker 5: One hundred and twenty two games, seven seasons, a rising star,
Speaker 5: two clubs.
Speaker 2: When you put your head on the pillar at night.
Speaker 5: Do you think of the soaring highs of the MCG
Speaker 5: or the fact that your career finished a little bit
Speaker 5: quicker than you probably had originally planned.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's a good, good mix of both. Yeah, obviously, yea.
Speaker 6: It came in.
Speaker 1: It was very fortunate to play early and at Collingwood
Speaker 1: been the biggest, biggest club in the AFL, and it
Speaker 1: was sort of a will win that whole first year.
Speaker 1: And then obviously was able to see probably more the
Speaker 1: lows of AFL after that, obviously getting traded going to
Speaker 1: a different club where we weren't winning, there wasn't success,
Speaker 1: and I was able to see both sides of it,
Speaker 1: which you know, like you said, it might have been
Speaker 1: a little bit shorter than we hoped, but I got
Speaker 1: to see all of it.
Speaker 3: I think, what's life like away from AFL football? Like
Speaker 3: everyone says, you know, why wouldn't you want to be
Speaker 3: an ANFL star? But how much you're enjoying just the
Speaker 3: little things, the decisions you can make, the freedom that
Speaker 3: you have, the lack of pressure, I'd imagine, and you know,
Speaker 3: from that day to day existence.
Speaker 1: Hit the nail on the head just that you know,
Speaker 1: when you're in the AFL system. You're a role model
Speaker 1: for younger people. You're in the public eye, you're to
Speaker 1: sort of support the club, so you're always looking at
Speaker 1: what am I doing?
Speaker 6: Is that the right thing?
Speaker 1: Am I giving the right image of how I want
Speaker 1: to be portrayed, how the club wants to be portrayed.
Speaker 1: And the fact now that you can just sort of
Speaker 1: I can do and not have to think and yeah,
Speaker 1: really just live life freely. It's certainly enjoyable.
Speaker 3: That feels like that's almost metally training, you know, all
Speaker 3: that stuff, those micro decisions every single single moment, rather
Speaker 3: than living your life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wouldn't necessarily say training. It was an incredible
Speaker 1: experience and I love being a part of it. But
Speaker 1: when you do step outside of it, like I was
Speaker 1: talking to Glen before, you come straight in from high school,
Speaker 1: you finish finish high school straight into an AFL, and
Speaker 1: it's just in your face now being able to sit
Speaker 1: back and have a look, it's certainly less stressful, a
Speaker 1: lot less pressure.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: That word free, is that what you feel like you
Speaker 2: are now? Free?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 6: Certainly, I think it's one word, one way you can
Speaker 6: put it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Yeah, just take us back to the start when
Speaker 5: you were the gun young kid pretty much. I think
Speaker 5: you played in four premierships as a junior. You were
Speaker 5: starting a couple of bags of ten as well. Tell
Speaker 5: us about junior days for you. Yeah, junior days was
Speaker 5: were awesome. Everything just seemed to happen. Happened well. Started
Speaker 5: off at Upway to Como. I went to Finsray Galley,
Speaker 5: like you touched on. Was able to win some flags,
Speaker 5: only one three of them. Actually, I've given you one
Speaker 5: the fourth one, I still give you twenty eight.
Speaker 2: Start with the fourth one.
Speaker 6: No, there's no sob.
Speaker 4: Sorry.
Speaker 6: I was playing Eastern Rangers.
Speaker 1: I've played the whole year there and didn't qualify for
Speaker 1: my local team, but they won by seventy points.
Speaker 2: You can claim that.
Speaker 1: But I think just going up in that environment we
Speaker 1: had we had such an amazing team. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: not the most talented, that's for sure, but every single
Speaker 1: person had each other's back, and you know, there's little
Speaker 1: clicks within teams everywhere, but we all got along so
Speaker 1: well and it was a big part of our success.
Speaker 6: We wanted to play for each other.
Speaker 1: And we didn't didn't care about who was the one
Speaker 1: kicking the goals, who was the one having thirty forty touches.
Speaker 6: As long as we're winning, we were happy.
Speaker 1: It's got of innocent times almost, Yeah, exactly, there's nothing
Speaker 1: better Like you go to school, you work hard during
Speaker 1: the week. So your Tuesday Thursday nights training that was
Speaker 1: probably the best two nights of the week. And then
Speaker 1: you're obviously looking forward to Sunday, which was game time.
Speaker 4: We want did you get on the AFL draft radar?
Speaker 3: And Kevin Sheen at one stage thought like, this play's
Speaker 3: going to go at number one and obviously you're pretty.
Speaker 4: Close to that.
Speaker 3: When did it turn into Okay, this is a business
Speaker 3: for me and I can set myself up with an
Speaker 3: AFL career.
Speaker 6: Like I touched on. So I just went with the
Speaker 6: flow to start with.
Speaker 1: Played in the under twelve state team, which you know, as
Speaker 1: a twelve year old grade six, I think you're a
Speaker 1: big dog.
Speaker 6: I had a lot of confidence. So something like that
Speaker 6: was an amazing experience.
Speaker 1: And there's been, you know, a lot of players in
Speaker 1: that side that have gone on to have good careers.
Speaker 1: But under sixteens played the Eastern Rangers Under sixteen underage
Speaker 1: tournament thing and was very fortunate to get a game
Speaker 1: in the Under eighteens as a sixteen year old and
Speaker 1: ended up playing the four finals there as well. In
Speaker 1: a Grand final on Eddie had which was first real
Speaker 1: exposure to playing on an AFL based ground.
Speaker 7: We saw James Stevens move from playing as a half
Speaker 7: forward into the midfield. It was something that took a
Speaker 7: little bit of time, but the progression finally got there
Speaker 7: in the second half of the season where he was outstanding.
Speaker 7: He's quick, he takes marks above your seat, he kicks goals,
Speaker 7: kicked five goals and had twenty eight possessions from a
Speaker 7: wing of Vic Mattrojur in the carnival. So he's an
Speaker 7: outstanding prospect. He's the X factor of this year's draft.
Speaker 7: We've been seeing it for three years and he's absolutely quality.
Speaker 7: He's Stevenson again looking for number five.
Speaker 4: He's beending that one back.
Speaker 6: Probably after that I thought I might be a chance.
Speaker 5: You didn't win that game, but you dominated pretty much
Speaker 5: that final series. That's probably when you thought I'm right
Speaker 5: in the mix year. Yeah, certainly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've played against Oakley and I think we're down
Speaker 1: by I think the scores might have been even at
Speaker 1: three quarter a time. We end up losing by two goals,
Speaker 1: but getting opportunity to play on the week before, played
Speaker 1: on Jacob Wiedering, who was the clear number one draft
Speaker 1: pick at the time. That was a pretty cool experience,
Speaker 1: and Charlie Kurno the week before that, So played against
Speaker 1: these big names as a sixteen year old and the
Speaker 1: next year, what I'm there still playing Eastern Rangers and
Speaker 1: there here kicking bags of goals or stopping both and
Speaker 1: kicking bags a goal.
Speaker 6: So it's a pretty cool experience.
Speaker 3: So leading to the half, Samuel Landsberger, late great our colleague,
Speaker 3: reported on your heart issue, which was something you had
Speaker 3: known about but was a huge drama at the time.
Speaker 3: There take us through the lead into that draft and
Speaker 3: all of a sudden you know that it's a genetic
Speaker 3: condition and you think that it's okay, but you've seen
Speaker 3: clubs all of a sudden having doubt about you.
Speaker 6: Well, actually they did correlate.
Speaker 1: So at the same time they were finding out, I
Speaker 1: was finding out It's not something I always knew about.
Speaker 1: It was picked up through draft testing. So yeah, it
Speaker 1: was a bit of a whirl win for everyone. And yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: especially mum. So like I said, it was genetics, so
Speaker 1: mum has it. She's obviously passed it down to my
Speaker 1: sister and I. So there's a little bit of a
Speaker 1: tough time sort of navigating through all that, starting on
Speaker 1: new medication. What effects are these medications is going to
Speaker 1: have on aerobic capacity all that sort of stuff. So
Speaker 1: it was a long lead up that month before so
Speaker 1: come I think it was November twenty fourth in Sydney.
Speaker 1: Once my name was read out, it was nicest to
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 5: But there were worries from your perspective. The World Club's
Speaker 5: not that keen. Were you on a cruise or something
Speaker 5: at one stage with your mum and you're like, am
Speaker 5: I going to get drafted now?
Speaker 1: So we couldn't do schoolies because school he started the
Speaker 1: week of the draft, I think, so I wasn't able
Speaker 1: to do that with my friends. But a couple of
Speaker 1: mates and I and our partners we went on a
Speaker 1: cruise for nine ten days before the draft and it
Speaker 1: arrived in Sydney the morning.
Speaker 6: Off the draft. It was perfect timing. We're nice little
Speaker 6: get away before.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I think obviously I've spoken to mum
Speaker 1: about it and she was very worried that I wouldn't.
Speaker 6: Get drafted because of it.
Speaker 1: However, I always had that confidence that I've put in enough,
Speaker 1: I've shown enough in the last two years that someone
Speaker 1: will surely take a risk on me at pick sixty
Speaker 1: or seventy or even in the rookie.
Speaker 2: Draft high you were thinking it could push out that high.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that was like, worst case, I've done enough
Speaker 1: to put myself in a position where I should be drafted,
Speaker 1: and even if the heart does scale off, surely they
Speaker 1: can take a risk with a rookie pick or whatever
Speaker 1: it may be. So I was never really too worried
Speaker 1: about not getting drafted. I just sort of was happy
Speaker 1: to go anywhere and the improve my worth from there.
Speaker 3: So's when did you first get the obviously do the
Speaker 3: draft screening. What was the phone call who told you, look,
Speaker 3: you've got this issue and it might jeopardize an aspect
Speaker 3: of your career.
Speaker 6: We spoke to. It's actually very good question.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I can't remember a long time ago, the nitty gritty stuff,
Speaker 1: but got sent off to a cardiologist, did lots of tests,
Speaker 1: and they always they thought it was a lot worse
Speaker 1: than it was, just because they were general cardiologists, and
Speaker 1: then got in touch with the sports psychologist. Sought sports
Speaker 1: cardiologist and she was able to, you know, set the
Speaker 1: story straight and show that the risk wasn't as bad
Speaker 1: as we may have thought.
Speaker 2: Can you tell us what exactly what it is?
Speaker 1: It's called long QT syndrome, So it's basically in the
Speaker 1: electrics of the heart. And the easiest way to explain
Speaker 1: it is, you know, on a graph, out goes up, down, up,
Speaker 1: and then scribbles out for a little bit. Supposed to
Speaker 1: go up and come straight back down my and goes
Speaker 1: up and takes too long to come down in the
Speaker 1: QT interval.
Speaker 6: So there's the long QT for you.
Speaker 3: And so eventually Colinwood got clearance and then obviously clearance
Speaker 3: from their board going into that draft. Had they suggested
Speaker 3: to you, had they given you any reassurances at that stage,
Speaker 3: Like you didn't know you're going to go to Collingwood.
Speaker 6: I didn't have any reasure is from them.
Speaker 1: I'd spoken to them the most, so I caught up
Speaker 1: with them three or four times, and it was something
Speaker 1: that there was a club that I didn't really think
Speaker 1: I was going to go to. I was just sort
Speaker 1: of in that like pick six are in a funny
Speaker 1: little spot. I thought maybe I'd go higher, or maybe
Speaker 1: I'd go well lower. Yeah, So I hadn't really paid
Speaker 1: a whole lot of attention to where I thought I
Speaker 1: was going to go. But my whole Mum side of
Speaker 1: the family have been mad Collingwood the whole life.
Speaker 4: My nan.
Speaker 1: Actually, she's snuck it snuck in the Bucks's wedding. So
Speaker 1: she's got a photo with Bucks on his wedding days.
Speaker 6: A pretty cool story.
Speaker 4: Yeah, she had to get in. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know the full details, but she's got the photo. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I used to have the photo in her lund room.
Speaker 3: So and does she like Wedding Crashes is her favorite movie?
Speaker 6: He thinks it might have come she would have pass
Speaker 6: away unfortunately, but yeah.
Speaker 4: I'll have to get that photo on that night there,
Speaker 4: so they pick you.
Speaker 3: I think we did an interview straight afterwards in the
Speaker 3: relief in your face which is palpable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like I said, it had been along probably month
Speaker 1: two months before, of doubts, questions, adjusting to life, you know,
Speaker 1: taking this medication and not really having done high intensity
Speaker 1: training at AFL level I suppose with the medication, So
Speaker 1: it was all a bit of a up in the air,
Speaker 1: a little bit of a question mark. So to finally
Speaker 1: get my name read out and thought, okay, now I've
Speaker 1: just got to go out there and show what I
Speaker 1: can do.
Speaker 6: It was a great relief.
Speaker 3: How did the medication affect you and how did it
Speaker 3: affect you, if at all through your career?
Speaker 6: Yeah, it hasn't, hasn't at all.
Speaker 1: Early days it was three times a day, and that
Speaker 1: was pretty tough to keep up with morning, lunch, dinner,
Speaker 1: and I certainly did miss a few, just no on purpose.
Speaker 6: It's hard to keep track of. But was able to
Speaker 6: get in touch with an American, an American type of
Speaker 6: the same medication that is only once a day, So
Speaker 6: that's made life a whole lot easier. I don't think
Speaker 6: it's had any real effect on my day to day life,
Speaker 6: which is a great result.
Speaker 5: Someone once said Ralphie that walking into Colin was like
Speaker 5: walking into Hollywood in a lot of ways.
Speaker 2: Was that the way it was? You were a hot
Speaker 2: seat me and are hot seat fan? You grow it up.
Speaker 5: You're walking and you meet Eddie straight away, and Bucks
Speaker 5: is there and these amazing players that are there.
Speaker 2: What was it like joining Commingwood?
Speaker 1: Yeah, certainly, I think Eddie was one of the first
Speaker 1: people I met on the way in and like you said,
Speaker 1: hot seat fans touched back to my name. We used
Speaker 1: to sit there I was four or five years old.
Speaker 1: Always been a bit of a sponge for education and
Speaker 1: learning stuff like the general knowledge I've got in my
Speaker 1: head that's just useless is.
Speaker 6: Well and truly there.
Speaker 1: But we used to Eddie McGuire questions, Nan, can you
Speaker 1: give me ediemcguy? So to meet him first up was amazing.
Speaker 1: And then you know, you walk in the doors, you
Speaker 1: meet Bucks, I mean Nick Maxwell was there, who was
Speaker 1: obviously captain. Then you look up to players, players you've
Speaker 1: been looking up to, Scott Penderby, still side Bottom, these
Speaker 1: kinds of guys, and there they're shaking their hand, getting
Speaker 1: to know your name.
Speaker 6: It's amazing.
Speaker 4: Well, how do you describe that to people?
Speaker 3: Like it's just it's a life changing moment and you're
Speaker 3: like almost can't believe it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's where where your idols become your friends.
Speaker 1: Not necessarily day one, but you can tell it's the
Speaker 1: start of a relationship, and you know, just being able
Speaker 1: to see what these people are like because from the
Speaker 1: outside and I don't know if it's like it as
Speaker 1: an adult, I haven't experienced it, but as a kid
Speaker 1: you look up to him you think, oh, it's amazing
Speaker 1: up here on.
Speaker 6: A pedestal, and then you get there and it's just just.
Speaker 1: Like the normal bloke from hanging out to a local
Speaker 1: footy club or something like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you may get in round one in the
Speaker 3: number thirty five jumper, what's that summer like?
Speaker 4: Because as it turns out, it's a pretty special year.
Speaker 3: You know, obviously impressed in those pre season contests and
Speaker 3: you know, all of a sudden you're slot straight in
Speaker 3: round one.
Speaker 5: It looks comfortable already at the level Jadan Stevenson, high
Speaker 5: and long.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's funny when you come he as an eighteen
Speaker 1: year old. You've got all this confidence and no real
Speaker 1: cares not the word, but you've got no pressure on
Speaker 1: you at all, really, no Scar tishue, no Scar tish
Speaker 1: ee Exactly. You come in and they don't really try
Speaker 1: and change you straight away. They just they just go
Speaker 1: right show us what you've got.
Speaker 6: So I was able to just do that.
Speaker 1: And I think as AFL goes on, the more it
Speaker 1: becomes about structure and this, and I think maybe young
Speaker 1: kids can can lose their confidence and their spark a
Speaker 1: little bit depending on how the team going, So that's
Speaker 1: one thing to navigate. But yeah, like I said, came
Speaker 1: in just played on confidence, and as the weeks went
Speaker 1: through Round one, round two, round three, like didn't matter
Speaker 1: whether we won or lost. I knew they were never
Speaker 1: looking at me and going Jesus the fourth game it's
Speaker 1: his fault that we lost.
Speaker 6: So it's a pretty easy easy way.
Speaker 5: To live because after your SAE, I think you said
Speaker 5: somewhere after three games you thought you might have got dropped.
Speaker 2: You weren't sure.
Speaker 5: Then you come out, you go to Adelaide, you kick
Speaker 5: five goals. It's a life changing moment really in a
Speaker 5: sense from you, isn't it.
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that round three was against Carlton. I
Speaker 1: think I had six touches and didn't do much else.
Speaker 1: And you know, I'd come in as a four that's
Speaker 1: always kicked goals throughout my junior life, and I hadn't
Speaker 1: kicked one of the first three games.
Speaker 6: I thought, geez, maybe it is a little bit harder
Speaker 6: than I first thought.
Speaker 1: But from yeah, from conversations had with people after that,
Speaker 1: I think most of the coaches and that wanted to
Speaker 1: give me a rest or drop me that week. But Bucks,
Speaker 1: from what I've heard, was the one that said that
Speaker 1: will give him one more game.
Speaker 6: I reckon he can do it.
Speaker 1: And yeah, lucky for that because Adelaide was probably the
Speaker 1: breakout game that I needed.
Speaker 5: Stevenson gets another kick and he steps a great goal.
Speaker 5: The kids kick five breakout performance from Jade and Stevenson in.
Speaker 4: His fourth game.
Speaker 5: Did your life change after that? Like you, it became
Speaker 5: so big. You know you, you know your rising star
Speaker 5: nominee that week, you kick five goals, you help and
Speaker 5: win an amazing game.
Speaker 6: Yeah, certainly it was.
Speaker 1: I think Adelaide played in the Granny the year before
Speaker 1: and we'd finished thirteenth, so that's why they had picked six.
Speaker 1: Finished thirteth the year before, hadn't played finals for three
Speaker 1: or four years, so to get that win over there
Speaker 1: against a hot favorite of the league that year certainly
Speaker 1: just built built the confidence in the whole team and
Speaker 1: sort of set our year up, both personally and as
Speaker 1: a team. So from there on out, we as a
Speaker 1: team knew that we can compete and we are as
Speaker 1: good as anyone on our day And for me personally,
Speaker 1: I sort of that was that moment where I thought,
Speaker 1: I do belong here and I can make a living
Speaker 1: of this.
Speaker 3: What's a lot playing Anzac Day in front of ninety
Speaker 3: one thousand in your fifth game?
Speaker 6: Yeah, unbelievable.
Speaker 1: I've always been a massive supporter of Anzac Day, have
Speaker 1: gotten up since I was since I remember.
Speaker 6: I've always gone to the Dawn Service and really loved.
Speaker 1: The patriotic side of it, and always obviously been interested
Speaker 1: in the game itself. But to go out there and
Speaker 1: play it was like nothing else. People have spoken about
Speaker 1: the Grand Final saying how good was it playing in
Speaker 1: Grand Final? I said, yeah, that was great, But playing
Speaker 1: on Anzac.
Speaker 2: Day that as much because of the occasion.
Speaker 1: Not only the occasion, but that probably just the atmosphere too.
Speaker 1: Like you think at a Grand Final you've got you know,
Speaker 1: maybe thirty thousand of each supporters and then forty thousand
Speaker 1: corporates that are buying. And say that I was at
Speaker 1: the Grand Final, Yeah, an Zac Day, it's pretty much yes,
Speaker 1: colling with So I've.
Speaker 6: Got a vivid memory of that first game.
Speaker 1: I've ran down the ring and took a couple of bounces,
Speaker 1: and I remember just every step I took. My whole
Speaker 1: years were just ringing and bouncing, just from the noise
Speaker 1: and the anticipation, the excitement of the crowd, the numbers.
Speaker 2: Kick you kick.
Speaker 5: I think you kicked two in Ice the game against Brisbane,
Speaker 5: the team that you barracked for, and then you kick
Speaker 5: four on Queen's Birthday. You're really on a roll. How
Speaker 5: much support did you get internally? Bucks was the caring
Speaker 5: sharing coach that year. He was a little bit harder
Speaker 5: early on in his coaching career, but it was a
Speaker 5: very different Collingwood, wasn't it. Yeah, you probably don't know
Speaker 5: the difference, but in the sense that that's the.
Speaker 2: Way he was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, certainly. I, like I said, didn't have anything to
Speaker 1: do with Bucks of that before that year, but I
Speaker 1: just thought he was an amazing leader, a good motivator
Speaker 1: of men.
Speaker 6: And I've touched on it too.
Speaker 1: I think justin longmyore there, who's now coach, a frero,
Speaker 1: incredibly smart footy brain. So I think those two whacks
Speaker 1: off each other really well. Put together a game plan,
Speaker 1: Bucks was able to get up motivate people to buy
Speaker 1: into that game plan and the results ended up showing
Speaker 1: on the field, which was great.
Speaker 3: Long you were remember interviewing him through that time, and
Speaker 3: I thought he's not high on charisma. And now at Fremantle,
Speaker 3: you know he's a bit deadpan. So the players look
Speaker 3: at that and say, well, you know I need more
Speaker 3: or do they go no, I just respect this footy
Speaker 3: brain because there's a lot of talk about, you know,
Speaker 3: how he holds himself a freeman and it still feels
Speaker 3: like those freo players really love him.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think you know, everyone's different, everyone needs to be.
Speaker 1: They learn differently or they get motivated differently. And like
Speaker 1: you said, Jos not yet, not the most charismatic. He's
Speaker 1: a lovely man like he got a great foot IQ.
Speaker 1: So I think, preman, I've got all the tools to
Speaker 1: be a really good side. They've got the game plan.
Speaker 1: Maybe do they need a motivator. I'm not too sure,
Speaker 1: but it's certainly something that I would look at. If
Speaker 1: you've got someone that can really rev the boys up.
Speaker 1: Along with j Loo smarts, I think they can be
Speaker 1: a really successful side for many years.
Speaker 5: Adam Trelaw said, at the time, you were a barbecue, chicken,
Speaker 5: pizza man.
Speaker 2: That was your go at the time.
Speaker 5: You've moved out of home by this stage, tell us
Speaker 5: about what it was like and how difficult it was
Speaker 5: a bit of uber eats. You were getting a little
Speaker 5: bit of uber eats at the time, And yeah, I
Speaker 5: got a little bit of going on there.
Speaker 6: A little bit of trial by fire moving out.
Speaker 1: I got chucked into a sharehouse with Jack Madge and
Speaker 1: his partner. So Jack was a rookie Category B rookie
Speaker 1: the same year I got there, and I was with
Speaker 1: Cale Kirby, who had.
Speaker 6: Been drafted the year. Well, yeah, so that was that
Speaker 6: was very interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've got stories for curbs.
Speaker 5: He didn't really have talent too, didn't he have exceptional talents?
Speaker 1: So yeah, he did have a great talent, but yeah,
Speaker 1: he just did not really leave his room.
Speaker 6: And oh there's some stories. I'll tell you what we
Speaker 6: try to think that's a good one to talk about.
Speaker 1: One he did was he'd come into a room and
Speaker 1: he go, Steve, I've got no money on my card.
Speaker 1: Can you get me you berreats and I'll give you
Speaker 1: some cash. I was like, yep, no worries. Gave him
Speaker 1: my phone. Yere sweet, thanks for that. Mate, comes in,
Speaker 1: gives you baut my phone, gives me back twenty dollars
Speaker 1: as appreciated.
Speaker 6: Look at my phone he's ordered forty three.
Speaker 1: Dollars giving me the twenty That was just that was
Speaker 1: just curbs sort of thing. Yeah, we'd sit there, see
Speaker 1: there at the nighttime and watch the footy and you go,
Speaker 1: someone do their a cl Oh Jesus, I wish you'd
Speaker 1: do your a cl Steve. I'm like, so he could
Speaker 1: get a game there you go, so that I'd be
Speaker 1: playing like he didn't meet it within ten stuff.
Speaker 2: Like that dry sense of human Yeah.
Speaker 3: It was actually pretty easy to spend twenty eight grand
Speaker 3: on Uber Eats when you're probably doing it two out
Speaker 3: of the three meals a day.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Like I said, we was a trial by fire.
Speaker 1: I had a pretty fortunate upbringing where my washing got done,
Speaker 1: my bed got made, and food cooked obviously, so to
Speaker 1: come he as an eighteen year old, I did try
Speaker 1: and cook, but a lot more, a lot easier.
Speaker 5: Just getting ordered with a signature dish that you would
Speaker 5: get in the Uber Eats and was the figure about right, like, yeah,
Speaker 5: twenty eight thousand is that?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 6: It was very accurate.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it was Greek food was my go to
Speaker 1: a lot of the time. Obviously, the nights before games
Speaker 1: and big trainings. I'd order in some pasta. Yeah, certainly
Speaker 1: I look back at that time and go, you're an idiot.
Speaker 1: But you know, like I said, it was trial by five.
Speaker 1: It was all part of me learning and growing up.
Speaker 3: So what's that year like where you're kicking goals, hoscanellit's
Speaker 3: kicking goals, just Thomas. I think you all had forty
Speaker 3: odd goals for the season. Yeah, you're thinking about your
Speaker 3: own form, but you're thinking, yeah, this is pretty special
Speaker 3: all of a sudden.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it was a good thing.
Speaker 1: I think any of us, like we were Hoscanelliot, Josh Thomas, myself,
Speaker 1: we all got along really well and it was never
Speaker 1: never a competition between any of us. And I know
Speaker 1: I hear a lot of people, especially well while I
Speaker 1: was playing for you too, but especially out now, they
Speaker 1: put some shade on Mason Cox say no, he's not
Speaker 1: that good, and I'm the first one to say, like Coxy,
Speaker 1: he's a superstar, Like you don't understand how important he
Speaker 1: was to us at that time, and I mean he's
Speaker 1: still doing it now. But we just knew as smaller
Speaker 1: forwards that that ball got kicked to Coxy. He wasn't
Speaker 1: getting outmarked, the ball wasn't really going out the back.
Speaker 1: It was coming front and center, so it made it
Speaker 1: really easy for us. And you know he may not
Speaker 1: take as many marks as he should or he could
Speaker 1: at that height, but as a team man and playing
Speaker 1: with him, there's no one else you want more on
Speaker 1: your team.
Speaker 4: You did it the hard way.
Speaker 3: So qualifying final against West Coast in Perth, you lead
Speaker 3: but to points at three quarter time. You get rolled
Speaker 3: memories of that and thinking maybe this won't be this year.
Speaker 1: I actually don't really have many memories of that game.
Speaker 1: But we played West Coast once or twice throughout the
Speaker 1: year also and hadn't beaten them at all, So I
Speaker 1: think we lost to them three or four times that year.
Speaker 1: I think I don't think they would have beaten Richmond
Speaker 1: in the prelim, but we couldn't beat them either.
Speaker 6: It was just the way the matchups went. I thought sometimes, yeah,
Speaker 6: I thought we.
Speaker 1: Beat Richmond, Richmond beat West Coast, West Coast beat us,
Speaker 1: and that's how it ended up.
Speaker 4: Being got on a role.
Speaker 5: Then you've beat obviously GW Wes and then there's you
Speaker 5: talked about Mason Cox.
Speaker 2: Then there's the Mason Cox game. Wasn't it the Richmond c.
Speaker 6: Cox again, I cannot believe it.
Speaker 7: You've got to go to Kimpley Graham with the MC.
Speaker 6: Chief for an American to dominate like this? Can he
Speaker 6: guide it through Yu si Ken three.
Speaker 5: Or the very best tell us about the mindset going
Speaker 5: into that. Everyone had figured that Ralphie's a Richmond man.
Speaker 5: Everyone had figured that Richmond, we're just going to win
Speaker 5: that game. It was the Premiership that they had already
Speaker 5: locked away.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 2: What was the lead up to that game?
Speaker 5: Like the motivation from the coaches to get you into
Speaker 5: that position to win a game.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Like I said, we're going back a long way.
Speaker 1: But there was no doubt but then any of us
Speaker 1: that we're going to win that game that we'd lose.
Speaker 6: So yeah, we just went into it.
Speaker 1: We knew how best foot he stacked up, We knew
Speaker 1: we matched up pretty well against them, and we just
Speaker 1: went out there and Mason Cox just put on a
Speaker 1: Yeah that was that was unlevel nine or ten contested marks.
Speaker 6: He took a big expec over Trent Cootchin.
Speaker 1: Actually, and I was standing nearby his feet and he
Speaker 1: takes the mark, looks at him on the ground and goes,
Speaker 1: this is my field, boy, Like in his American accent,
Speaker 1: and I was like, Jesus, that's crazy, but.
Speaker 4: I I love him for that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not sure you could be saying that, but
Speaker 1: that day he could have said whatever he wanted because
Speaker 1: he was amazing.
Speaker 5: And the crowd was like USA. That was when the
Speaker 5: start of the real chant, wasn't it.
Speaker 4: Yeah it was.
Speaker 6: It was just ringing probably throughout the third quarter, taking
Speaker 6: probably six or seventh, and it just just started. And
Speaker 6: from there on in the next you know, when I
Speaker 6: played another probably thirty games, it was every time you
Speaker 6: did something, the USA chan around the crowd. It was amazing.
Speaker 2: What a wild ride you guys had. You know, started
Speaker 2: the final series.
Speaker 5: You become the first Column of player since Nathan Buckley
Speaker 5: to win a Rising Star. You know, you kick thirty eight.
Speaker 5: You didn't miss a game, thirty eight goals. You didn't
Speaker 5: miss a game that year. It must be feeling like
Speaker 5: you're floating on air leading into a Grand Final.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, a bit of a whirl win. The year
Speaker 6: just sort of just kept going.
Speaker 1: The weeks rolled on and didn't really have a time
Speaker 1: to sit back and breathe and have a look at it.
Speaker 1: From afar, but in reflection, Yeah, it was just amazing.
Speaker 1: And going into that Grand Final, obviously your phone starts
Speaker 1: going off messages from people you forgot, you even youw
Speaker 1: they come from tickets, give me tickets. Yeah, they come
Speaker 1: from high and far. But we got our eight tickets.
Speaker 1: Was able to give them to, you know, eight people
Speaker 1: that have had an influence of me throughout my career
Speaker 1: and have just been really good friends for the Grand
Speaker 1: Final parade. That's probably what that is one of the
Speaker 1: highlights of my career. That was unbelievable. I was in
Speaker 1: the back with Chris Maine and you know, just driving
Speaker 1: down the streets of Richmond and East Melbourne whatever it is.
Speaker 1: Sitting there by the end of it, like my face
Speaker 1: was sore from smiling. My hand had been up waving
Speaker 1: all day and was busting for the toilet for about
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes. But that was, Yeah, one of the greatest
Speaker 1: experiences I've had.
Speaker 3: The Grand Final itself. You're hot, Colin was hot early.
Speaker 3: You get out to a start, they're not going to roll. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: those early your experience of those early moments.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a bit of a whirl win. I mean,
Speaker 1: Bark's kicking the first goal. He was such an inspirational man.
Speaker 1: He was pivotal in my career, always very good at
Speaker 1: you know, motivating me and complimenting me. And yeah, I
Speaker 1: couldn't thank Varks enough for that. But obviously what had gone.
Speaker 4: On with and he addressed the group as well.
Speaker 6: He'd addressed the group.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it had been something that you know, we'd
Speaker 1: been helping him through. So for him to come out
Speaker 1: and kick the first goal on Grand Final day probably
Speaker 1: couldn't have set the tone any better for us. And
Speaker 1: then I obviously kicked two after that.
Speaker 2: Take us through those goals, you've got to take it through.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think the first one was the leftot snap
Speaker 6: kicked my Stephen just came in and.
Speaker 1: Like I said, everything was just on instinct an eight
Speaker 1: year old, nine year old kid.
Speaker 6: Everything just was there and happened. And I look at
Speaker 6: it now, I'm d they're actually a pretty good kick
Speaker 6: and but in the moment you don't really think of it.
Speaker 6: Very fortunate that went in and.
Speaker 7: Stevenson so quick, come do, come do, Come on.
Speaker 4: You're not going to catch him.
Speaker 5: He's a second, he's not two years of the bench.
Speaker 1: The second one was able just to get a little
Speaker 1: nudge and Tommy Cole and use my speed and ran
Speaker 1: on and like I said, that same feeling I had
Speaker 1: in Anzac day where the crowd was just pumping, was
Speaker 1: the same thing running in there. And I kicked that
Speaker 1: second one and started thinking like, where's my norm Smith
Speaker 1: Metal going a little spoted by my bed maybe, but
Speaker 1: ended up not to be. I didn't really do a
Speaker 1: whole lot after that, unfortunately. But yeah, I mean goes down.
Speaker 1: It's one of the greater Grand Finals in a long time. Amazing,
Speaker 1: you know, I can look at it from afar. What
Speaker 1: just just wasn't our day. We did a lot of things.
Speaker 6: Right, But before dom she'd kicked that goal. They kicked
Speaker 6: three or four points in a row.
Speaker 2: That there was a wave, wasn't it. There was a
Speaker 2: wave coming while your whole last.
Speaker 3: Quarter they were dominating your contest wise, possession, territory game
Speaker 3: that the damn war.
Speaker 1: Was only exactly was just holding and we weren't able
Speaker 1: to do anything to nullify that.
Speaker 5: There was a moment in the third quarter with Alex
Speaker 5: will the runner, he was slightly in your way and
Speaker 5: you know, Elliott, you kicks the goal. Tell us about
Speaker 5: your recollections of that moment.
Speaker 6: Yeah, obviously at the time.
Speaker 1: Paul Woody he got it after and he's such a
Speaker 1: great man and for him to be copying it as
Speaker 1: hard as he did at the time, I thought, maybe
Speaker 1: could I dodged him, But in reality it was just
Speaker 1: a bad kick by Tape.
Speaker 6: We'll put all the blame on pay for the kick,
Speaker 6: but that's a good point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's one of those things that just happens, and
Speaker 1: you know, they really do a really good job. As
Speaker 1: a runner, it can be a hard job. I actually
Speaker 1: umpired the all abilities down at fanry Gal the other day,
Speaker 1: and I mean it can give some the umpire some stick,
Speaker 1: but it's actually quite hard being out there. And this
Speaker 1: was a little bit slower pace than what the AFL is.
Speaker 1: So now they do a really good job. All the volunteers,
Speaker 1: I know they're not volunteers in AFL, but yeah, the
Speaker 1: people that help out.
Speaker 3: Is it a part of you that I've missed a flag,
Speaker 3: I've unrequired or it's like that's part of my journey.
Speaker 6: It's part of my journey.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty one of those people where I feel like
Speaker 1: everything happens for a reason. And obviously I would have loved,
Speaker 1: loved to have won a flag. Would have loved to
Speaker 1: have another opportunity to play in a Grand final and
Speaker 1: to win another premiership, and probably finishing my career without
Speaker 1: one sort of lowers it and it's not not what
Speaker 1: I set out to do. But you know, there's either way,
Speaker 1: there's going to be twenty two disappointed players whoever wins.
Speaker 6: And that happens every year.
Speaker 5: You talk about your connection to that team, how was
Speaker 5: your feeling five years later as we fast forward down
Speaker 5: and some of those guys end up doing you know,
Speaker 5: playing in a Grand final and winning a remarkable grand
Speaker 5: final in itself.
Speaker 1: Yeah, certainly I could be more proud of them, especially
Speaker 1: people like Josh dkos So.
Speaker 6: He was one of my best mates there.
Speaker 1: We lived together for a time and he wasn't a
Speaker 1: part of the Grand final in twenty eighteen, so for
Speaker 1: him to you know, watch him grow get more consistently
Speaker 1: in the seniors and now I'll be up there for
Speaker 1: all Australian talk and playing in a Grand final, winning
Speaker 1: a Grand final. It's people like that. I'm just wrapped
Speaker 1: for Brandon Maynard another one. But yeah, just as a collective,
Speaker 1: it's awesome that they're able to chase that to taste
Speaker 1: that ultimate success.
Speaker 4: Footy kicks you in the ass. Quick kicks a lot
Speaker 4: of people in the ass.
Speaker 3: So twelve games, twenty one goals for twenty nineteen, and
Speaker 3: then the gambling situation happens.
Speaker 4: People say, what happened? How do you explain it?
Speaker 1: Yeah, just a young kid that made a super mistake
Speaker 1: and I made my consequences. I suppose, like you touched
Speaker 1: on satur that year, probably better than my first year.
Speaker 1: A lot of people talk on that first year was great,
Speaker 1: but I was kicking like, yeah, one and a half
Speaker 1: to two goals a game there and sort of just
Speaker 1: started catching fire. I think the game before it kicked
Speaker 1: four against Port Adelaide and then three against Melbourne, and
Speaker 1: then the band came out, So it was just sort
Speaker 1: of getting on a roll. And I say unfortunately, but
Speaker 1: it wasn't really like I said. It was just me
Speaker 1: being stupid and something I've learned from. But it was
Speaker 1: a tough time for me personally, but within the four walls,
Speaker 1: I felt like I had their complete support and me
Speaker 1: being able to look at it from afar like, come
Speaker 1: week one of finals, I'm a second year player that's
Speaker 1: just missed ten games for making a mistake and Bucks
Speaker 1: had the confidence to select me in that first final side.
Speaker 6: That means more to me than probably.
Speaker 1: The the disappointment of the whole thing.
Speaker 6: That means more to me to know that he had
Speaker 6: belief in me. It continued the next year in the
Speaker 6: Hub too.
Speaker 1: We had a conversation before the first final where I
Speaker 1: probably wasn't playing my best football, but he had faith
Speaker 1: in me and he always did so I love playing
Speaker 1: for Bucks and.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've I've watched enough American sport, Ago what the
Speaker 3: fuck are you doing? But when you're pretty young kid
Speaker 3: like at that stage there, you're not really aware of
Speaker 3: the rules of what you can and can't do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, probably you don't really think about the consequences either.
Speaker 1: I mean, sit on the couch with one of your
Speaker 1: good mates that you've grown up with and he's doing
Speaker 1: He's putting on this bet, Yeah, I'll do one as well,
Speaker 1: and just sort of slips your mind. I didn't feel
Speaker 1: like as I was doing it, I was being sneaky
Speaker 1: and deceitful, sort of just did it and didn't really
Speaker 1: think a whole lot of it. And it wasn't until
Speaker 1: weeks later I've gone, oh, I've stuffed up here.
Speaker 5: Yeah, when do you get that feeling? Like you the
Speaker 5: bets were small. There were thirty six dollars I think,
Speaker 5: was that right? Yeah, there was three of them throughout
Speaker 5: the year, through the year, and they had no impact
Speaker 5: on the way you approached the game or anything like that.
Speaker 6: No, exactly it was.
Speaker 1: There was not one thing that was for another someone
Speaker 1: from another team sort of thing. It was all I
Speaker 1: don't know, like I said, just had this confidence. I
Speaker 1: was just like, oh, we able to do this. I
Speaker 1: was like me kick goals. So I did have to
Speaker 1: all this sort of stuff. Yeah, which in hindsight like
Speaker 1: just what a waste of money? Not only Yeah, the
Speaker 1: best I've put it is I've put thirty six dollars
Speaker 1: on and lost seventy and thirty six dollars because I
Speaker 1: lost twenty thousand dollars fine and ten out of ten
Speaker 1: matches at five thousand dollars ago.
Speaker 6: So yeah, it ended up being quite expensive to be lost.
Speaker 1: But like I said's another one of those things that
Speaker 1: it was part of my journey and life goes on.
Speaker 4: So how did it emerge?
Speaker 3: So you're in the rooms with Jeremy, how you sort
Speaker 3: of mighte a comment about a multi or something on
Speaker 3: the margin.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I just laughed it off. And then the next morning
Speaker 1: I was out for breakfast with Callum Brown and he
Speaker 1: called me. He's like, were you being Were you telling
Speaker 1: the truth of that? And I was like, yeah, mate,
Speaker 1: like one of these people that I'll be just rather
Speaker 1: be honest and face the consequence and you know, lie
Speaker 1: to a leader of the club. So just said yeah,
Speaker 1: I am, and he goes all right, well, you're probably
Speaker 1: going to need to tell Walshi about this because it's
Speaker 1: against the policies and can affect the game with the
Speaker 1: integrity side of it.
Speaker 6: So I said, yep, no worries.
Speaker 1: Went to Jeff Walsh the next morning and toldy Moore
Speaker 1: what had gone on, and he said, yep, no worries, mate,
Speaker 1: will obviously you've made a mistake. Not no worries, but
Speaker 1: we'll speak to the integrity unit. I get this all
Speaker 1: sort of goes I thinking you'll probably get a five
Speaker 1: thousand of the fine and you might have to miss
Speaker 1: a game or two.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: And then the first thing comes back and it was
Speaker 1: a two year suspension and I'm like, oh, he's gone
Speaker 1: from two weeks to two years.
Speaker 6: It's going to get very cos Yeah, so it was a.
Speaker 1: Bit of a worrying time there, but yeah, you know
Speaker 1: I had the support of the club. I think any
Speaker 1: McGuire really helped, and we're able to get it to
Speaker 1: the ten Games, which I suppose unfortunate as well, because
Speaker 1: it could have gone, like I said, could have gone
Speaker 1: a whole.
Speaker 3: Lot worse, pretty bigger Jeremy, like, you know, I think
Speaker 3: there'd be blokes out there he'd say, he's flying, We're
Speaker 3: going to win a premiership, like you know, we're well
Speaker 3: do under him, even though that must have been a
Speaker 3: really challenging thing thing for him to consider.
Speaker 4: Okay, no, we have to crack down on this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, people make choices throughout their life. That was a
Speaker 1: choice that I made. It was a choice that he made.
Speaker 1: You know, if we both don't make those choices, if
Speaker 1: one does, one doesn't, there's different results and all different
Speaker 1: sort of things.
Speaker 6: But life goes on.
Speaker 5: That's them, And who's to know that that doesn't come
Speaker 5: out later anyway? Is that something the worse consequences that
Speaker 5: might have even been worse consequences. At least you were
Speaker 5: up front and you said I've done the wrong thing
Speaker 5: here in that sense.
Speaker 2: How pissed off as the club were they They were
Speaker 2: pretty good.
Speaker 6: You said they were pretty good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they probably probably behind closed doors they might have
Speaker 1: had a few more pissed off moments, But to me personally,
Speaker 1: they were great. I didn't feel like I knew I'd
Speaker 1: done something wrong, but I didn't feel like I was
Speaker 1: being persecuted or whatever.
Speaker 5: And they were all losses. The bets were all losses anyway.
Speaker 5: I didn't win, probably lucky that.
Speaker 6: I think if they had a one, it would have
Speaker 6: been a lot worse, really, probably.
Speaker 5: Because how strongly did the AFL prosecute you, or you know,
Speaker 5: the Integrity Department prosecute you.
Speaker 2: Did you add how many meetings would you have had
Speaker 2: with them?
Speaker 5: I suppose they're going through all sorts of gambling records
Speaker 5: and stuff like that as well.
Speaker 1: I only had only had one or two meetings with them,
Speaker 1: but it was quite thorough. And then I think they
Speaker 1: had meetings with other players in the team about it.
Speaker 1: Really Yeah, and they sort of came to their deliberation
Speaker 1: pretty quickly. Yeah, Like I said, I look at it
Speaker 1: ten weeks.
Speaker 6: Is it steep?
Speaker 1: Is it not enough? Is it too much? I don't
Speaker 1: really know. And you know, that's about the just like
Speaker 1: I said, the journey so.
Speaker 4: And the just one, not the labor.
Speaker 3: There's like a sixty five minute talk against security the barrel.
Speaker 4: He's gone doing. That's gone, baby barrel. People would say,
Speaker 4: were you trying to get your MULDI up?
Speaker 3: Was there ever a time where you were trying to
Speaker 3: Colin was trying to win, but where you were trying
Speaker 3: to influence your bets with your performances.
Speaker 6: No, certainly, I'd forget about them all while I was
Speaker 6: out there, and we'll forget what I've done. I'd get
Speaker 6: back in.
Speaker 1: I'd get back in and that night or whatever it
Speaker 1: may be, that's when i'd look and go a lost
Speaker 1: sort of thing. But yeah, that talk, and it's it's
Speaker 1: funny people people do talk about that talk because it
Speaker 1: did come into contention with it. I think I spoke
Speaker 1: to integrity about this. But one of the legs was
Speaker 1: me to kick goals. The other leg was like us
Speaker 1: to be wonder thirty nine or whatever it may have been.
Speaker 1: So I couldn't have done both with that same thing.
Speaker 1: Talk put us over that. So that's what I said.
Speaker 1: I wasn't thinking about it at all. I just was
Speaker 1: in the moment felt the ball. It was a good
Speaker 1: ball to torp and went for it.
Speaker 4: And it's still like your partner is you know, did
Speaker 4: it scare you off it?
Speaker 6: Or yeah, it did scare me off it.
Speaker 1: It was you know, something that you know, I watched
Speaker 1: my grandpa do and my dad did it just not
Speaker 1: not like not bad, but dad was once a month
Speaker 1: in a punners club with his mates and sort of
Speaker 1: something you go up with and something that's heavily involved
Speaker 1: at a footy club. But it's something I've tried to
Speaker 1: stay away from.
Speaker 5: We had a survey recently with player managers in our
Speaker 5: paper where basically they said it's one of the great
Speaker 5: things they're worried about with the current crop. Do you yeah,
Speaker 5: worry about that with the current crop and you see
Speaker 5: it probably suburban level as well.
Speaker 1: I certainly agree. I think it's just the footy culture
Speaker 1: in general. The footy culture in Australia is you know, drinking, gambling, partying,
Speaker 1: all that sort of stuff. So it certainly is a
Speaker 1: worry and certainly something I think the AFL probably need
Speaker 1: to educate better on.
Speaker 3: So Gil Laughlin gives your break though I think the
Speaker 3: AFL team had played you'd served at ten weeks, that
Speaker 3: was twenty two weeks with twelves ended. Then you're allowed
Speaker 3: to play I think VFL that weekend and then as
Speaker 3: you said, there bucks just totally back to the hill
Speaker 3: to play a final.
Speaker 1: Yeah that was actually it was actually my idea to
Speaker 1: play the VFL that week. So I obviously had the
Speaker 1: ten week and I'm always trying to think outside there.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I went up to Jeff Walsh the week before
Speaker 1: and I said, hey, well she like the fixtures come out.
Speaker 1: The AFL side plays on the Friday night. Because it
Speaker 1: was a floating fixture. We didn't know when we're playing.
Speaker 1: They're playing on the Friday night. VFL's on Saturday. My
Speaker 1: ten game band technically ends on Friday night. Can I
Speaker 1: playing the VFL on Saturday at Yeah? I thought that's yeah,
Speaker 1: because I was obviously itching to get back out there
Speaker 1: and play, And so I went to Welsh You said,
Speaker 1: this is my plan.
Speaker 6: What are your record goes? It actually makes it makes
Speaker 6: a bit of sense. Future, that makes some sense.
Speaker 1: I'll speak to the AFL and get a result. And
Speaker 1: two days later they said, yep, no worries, it's all
Speaker 1: kicked off. So I was able to get that game
Speaker 1: in and then get picked and.
Speaker 3: You played a couple of finals and Jenniburs roles, you're
Speaker 3: in the prelim, you kick a couple of goals.
Speaker 4: But it wasn't to be.
Speaker 3: It wasn't to be the retribution for two twenty eighteen's loss.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like I said, we played along the first game
Speaker 1: at the g knocked them off, and then played GBS
Speaker 1: in the pre lim and they were just the better
Speaker 1: side on the day.
Speaker 6: I think they won by three or four points.
Speaker 1: So to close you have two years in a row
Speaker 1: where your seasons are defined by one kick is pretty crazy,
Speaker 1: but I think that was the opposite. They got out
Speaker 1: to like a thirty forty point lead, and they did a.
Speaker 3: Wet day and Brady Greeny is getting all the hitouts
Speaker 3: and same month the.
Speaker 1: Game, Yeah, yeah, we're coming, coming, coming, And I felt
Speaker 1: like you were going to get over the line all
Speaker 1: the way through that last quarter, but just didn't quite
Speaker 1: get there in the end.
Speaker 6: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: And it felt like the year before with West Coast,
Speaker 1: where they were coming coming.
Speaker 6: They did get over the line. We unfortunately didn't.
Speaker 1: And you know, I really think if we hadn't made
Speaker 1: it to that twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, it would have
Speaker 1: been against Richmond.
Speaker 6: I think we had that number.
Speaker 2: Did you really you felt like you matched up really
Speaker 2: well at Richmond, really.
Speaker 1: Well against Richmond. Yeah, and we always struggled against West Coast.
Speaker 1: Geelong was another one where we kind of struggled a
Speaker 1: little bit. So you sort of know that as a
Speaker 1: as a team and as a playing group, who you
Speaker 1: match up well against and who you don't.
Speaker 2: How fire are you? You know you're going into twenty twenty.
Speaker 5: You're not to know that the world's going to fall
Speaker 5: apart in twenty twenty, but you get like that. You
Speaker 5: had glandula fever to start, so you had a really
Speaker 5: tough start in that preseason to get yourself right.
Speaker 2: And then the world changes, doesn't it.
Speaker 6: Yeah covid Yeah I did.
Speaker 1: I'd done my work during the off season, came back
Speaker 1: because the first of four year players always come back
Speaker 1: two weeks earlier, so did the first week. And I
Speaker 1: was really struggling. I'm starting to drop behind, cannot keep
Speaker 1: up with anyone. I thought, this is this isn't normal.
Speaker 1: Like I've always sort of with the running and the
Speaker 1: aerobic sort of stuff, been more towards the front than
Speaker 1: anywhere else, and for me to be, you know, half
Speaker 1: a lap behind everyone was pretty crazy. So had a
Speaker 1: good rest on that weekend, came back into the second
Speaker 1: week of training, and by the friday I was like
Speaker 1: a lap and a half mind everywhere.
Speaker 6: And couldn't keep up.
Speaker 1: It was just had nothing in me when had the
Speaker 1: tests glendula fever. So I spent six to eight weeks
Speaker 1: away from the club, just literally at home doing nothing.
Speaker 1: Went back to my family home with my my dad
Speaker 1: where they again cooked clean.
Speaker 2: That's for Randy, But yeah.
Speaker 1: I missed the first game or two that year, obviously
Speaker 1: having to catch up to speed, missing the whole preseason,
Speaker 1: and then we get shipped off to the hub and
Speaker 1: they might be up there for you know, thirty thirty
Speaker 1: five days, and one hundred and five days later I
Speaker 1: was coming home. So it was pretty pretty crazy experience.
Speaker 4: That tough was the hub for everyone, but for you
Speaker 4: as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it affected people differently, people that lived
Speaker 1: and breathed football and didn't have a whole lot going
Speaker 1: on outside of football.
Speaker 6: I think they ate it up.
Speaker 1: Andy're probably the ones that performed well in that in
Speaker 1: that environment. But for a lot of others me included,
Speaker 1: you know, that interaction with friends, that get away, you know,
Speaker 1: seeing your family certainly things that I missed and contributed
Speaker 1: to not really enjoying my time up in the hub.
Speaker 3: So West Coast had a worse time in the hub.
Speaker 3: You eventually play me in Perth the elimination final. You
Speaker 3: burn them by a point, they're ravaged, and then I
Speaker 3: think you're sick and you're injured and you've got absolutely
Speaker 3: nothing short breaking. You get smashed by Gelong in a
Speaker 3: semi final, lost by sixty eight points. I think you
Speaker 3: had a single goal at three quarter time and Bucks
Speaker 3: is like we were even. We were never a chance
Speaker 3: to win that game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, probably going into I didn't really think we were
Speaker 1: a chance against West Coast either.
Speaker 6: I think we'd finished eighth and they were.
Speaker 2: Fished the dirty pis. I think they were.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Mason Cox stepped up and took three test marks
Speaker 1: and three goals in the first quarter again, so he
Speaker 1: seemed to step up when we needed it. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it was sort of not that we wanted it to
Speaker 1: be over, and a lot of people weren't going to
Speaker 1: be sad once it was over.
Speaker 6: And when we get back see family and friends.
Speaker 3: And that's that might be a confronting thing for people
Speaker 3: to fore you to acknowledge, but it's reality.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's certainly how I felt. The whole or of
Speaker 6: the group was.
Speaker 2: You're not aware that that's going to be your last game?
Speaker 2: Far from it. When did you realize we've got a
Speaker 2: problem here?
Speaker 1: Probably the day before the trade period, really that light.
Speaker 1: Six weeks later I had makes It interview, and you know,
Speaker 1: it was just talking about going and getting fitter, getting stronger,
Speaker 1: all the typical stuff you hear going into an off season.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't to My manager called me a day
Speaker 1: or two before the trade period and said, hey, mate,
Speaker 1: looking at trading you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, was it Robbie Doradio gives you a call and
Speaker 2: what are you thinking of that?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 6: It was pretty rattling, you know.
Speaker 1: Like I said, I was well aware that probably didn't
Speaker 1: have the year that I wanted to have, But like
Speaker 1: I said, get over that, COVID, get back, I have
Speaker 1: a full preseason. Because obviously had the glandula and wiped
Speaker 1: out my whole preseason, I thought it'll be good, good
Speaker 1: to go all guns firing the next year.
Speaker 6: So to get that was a bit of a kick
Speaker 6: in the guts, but I suppose again it's part of
Speaker 6: the journey. I'm going to say it a lot, he said.
Speaker 8: Bucks said I hadn't opened up to the group enough,
Speaker 8: which I didn't really agree with.
Speaker 4: He said.
Speaker 8: I actually rang Bucks and asked what was happening. He said,
Speaker 8: for me to pursue a trade as heavily as I can.
Speaker 8: A couple of days before the trade period, my manager
Speaker 8: mentioned I might be traded.
Speaker 4: It was a bit of a.
Speaker 2: Shock at the time.
Speaker 8: What do you make of this? It's quite an incredible situation.
Speaker 8: We might have tra Law to come, we might have
Speaker 8: Tom Phillips, but king you Jaden Stevenson's trade to North
Speaker 8: Melbourne has come as a shock to most Collingwood fans.
Speaker 8: Two weeks ago it looked like he was going to
Speaker 8: be playing at the Pies for.
Speaker 3: At least How much of it in retrospect was your performances,
Speaker 3: your salary like their issues? Yeah, as you think about
Speaker 3: being traded as well, like I can't have just been
Speaker 3: your performances given as you say, you've been a rising
Speaker 3: start two years before.
Speaker 1: Yeah, obviously I don't have any idea of what the
Speaker 1: actual conversations were within the club.
Speaker 6: But it's all just conjecture.
Speaker 1: But the way I say it and what's been portrayed
Speaker 1: in the media, obviously performance wasn't there Sally, I was
Speaker 1: getting paid a really good salary from there on out,
Speaker 1: and obviously what I produced the year before on the
Speaker 1: field and my salary the next year they weren't aligned
Speaker 1: at all. So I've got no hard feelings. So I
Speaker 1: think as a business in the AFL is a business.
Speaker 1: Each club is a business.
Speaker 6: I know they're not for.
Speaker 1: Profit, but that's not really true, correct, So as a
Speaker 1: smart business decision for them.
Speaker 6: I would have got rid of me.
Speaker 4: So you would have traded yourself.
Speaker 6: I would have traded myself.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if I'm running the business that is Collingwood, they
Speaker 1: made the right decision and I can sit here and
Speaker 1: deal with it. I know it's not personal. It's just
Speaker 1: a business and that's how it works.
Speaker 3: And so what was it was a classic all the
Speaker 3: way through. The couple of club was saying we're not
Speaker 3: trading players. You know, clearly there was going to be
Speaker 3: a clean out given the salary cap issues.
Speaker 4: Brady Grundy was on a massive deal.
Speaker 3: What those couple of weeks, like Adam Trelaw is potentially
Speaker 3: going to be traded as it turned out, you know,
Speaker 3: Phillips to Buston VOLANGI what were those couple of weeks
Speaker 3: like leading into the well, as you said, only the
Speaker 3: day before the trade period and a really turbulent trade period.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it only felt like a two week process for me,
Speaker 1: and I didn't really mnd like as much as I did.
Speaker 1: Like I said, I was able to at the time
Speaker 1: understand the business side of it and go, Okay, this
Speaker 1: is where my journey ends here, but where are we
Speaker 1: going from here? And was able to chat with a
Speaker 1: few clubs obviously, spoke to North Melbourne and came to
Speaker 1: an agreement there and it was all pretty seamless in
Speaker 1: that aspect.
Speaker 4: How did you talk to? Who else did you talk to?
Speaker 1: I didn't actually speak with any else I'd had. My
Speaker 1: manager had spoken about, you know, Gold Coast might be interested,
Speaker 1: but I thought that's where I've been up in the
Speaker 1: harbor and I hate it, so no way I'm going
Speaker 1: there a chance there? Yeah, at that time, I thought,
Speaker 1: just in the headspace I was in, Queensley is not
Speaker 1: the place for me and that sort of thing. And
Speaker 1: then he spoke about Richmonds and Kilda, but you know,
Speaker 1: taking huge pay cuts. Yeah, so it was only really
Speaker 1: one one club that really and if that, if that
Speaker 1: hadn't have been there, I could have stayed at Collingwood
Speaker 1: like I had a three year contrast.
Speaker 2: Is that ever a thought in your mind that it was?
Speaker 6: It was actually a thought for I'm going to.
Speaker 2: Prove these Bathards wrong and get back to my best again. Yeah.
Speaker 6: For the first probably nine ten days, that was my thought.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and then you had a discussion with but Nathan Buckley.
Speaker 5: Is that right that the club hadn't really contacted you?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I spoke to the class rang Bucks.
Speaker 5: Just said so one night, one late, one night, you
Speaker 5: give him a call? So what I take us through
Speaker 5: that conversation?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't obviously don't quote me, but it was
Speaker 1: along the lines of, yeah, do you value me? Do
Speaker 1: you want me there? What will be the go come
Speaker 1: next year if I stay? And pretty much just said
Speaker 1: it's going to be hard. So yeah, that's that's the
Speaker 1: crux of the whole conversation. Obviously there was more to it,
Speaker 1: but basically said it's going to be hard and you
Speaker 1: may spend a lot of time in the twos or whatever,
Speaker 1: it may be so obviously in my own head thought, no,
Speaker 1: I won't. Like if I'm there and I'm playing, well,
Speaker 1: you'll pick me in the ones. But yeah, at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, you want to go somewhere where
Speaker 1: you're valued and wanted, and that was North Melbourne at
Speaker 1: that moment in time, So yeah, made the choice pretty
Speaker 1: easy in the end.
Speaker 4: What was the pitch from the rue? How did you meet?
Speaker 4: Who did you you know?
Speaker 3: How did you get your head around thinking Okay, I
Speaker 3: know they're you know, down to the bottom of the ladder,
Speaker 3: but it'll still be okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Mark Finnigan was the main one I spoke to
Speaker 1: as a recruiting manager. I think Brady Rulings may have
Speaker 1: had a bit to do with it as well. They
Speaker 1: actually didn't have a coach at the time, so there
Speaker 1: was no coach to speak too, which is an interesting,
Speaker 1: interesting position to be and obviously getting a trade going
Speaker 1: to a no coach, but yeah, that was sort of
Speaker 1: great from the outset. They gave me a our point
Speaker 1: selling themselves to me and it really seemed like they're
Speaker 1: on the up and unfortunately it wasn't in the end.
Speaker 5: But yeah, you have to get a couple of new housemates,
Speaker 5: colind didn't want a couple of your housemates living with you?
Speaker 2: Was that a bit of a slap as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a bit of a slap. Didn't really
Speaker 1: appreciate that side of it. They were obviously good mates
Speaker 1: of mine.
Speaker 2: Who remember exactly They a couple of players.
Speaker 1: Anton toehillsco and Jay Rentel was there as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and Train ended up staying for a while. Anyway, treyger
Speaker 1: along with really well and had a really good relationship.
Speaker 1: But I'm not being able to live with someone it's
Speaker 1: from another club was a bit of a bizarre, a
Speaker 1: bit bizarre in my eyes.
Speaker 4: Yeah, what was their explanation, what was their issue?
Speaker 6: I have no idea, that's not You'd have to go
Speaker 6: speak to one of them.
Speaker 2: Quite tell us about that first year at North.
Speaker 5: You finally get a coach, you finally get a coach
Speaker 5: to start David Nables your coach, What was it like
Speaker 5: that first year at North and the differences between Collingwood
Speaker 5: and North Melbourne From the moment you walked in.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I walked in, it was actually very similar.
Speaker 1: People have spoken about, you know, Colin, We've got these
Speaker 1: great facilities in North Melbourne's got these.
Speaker 2: Small they're not bad out there, great facilities, have.
Speaker 6: Got everything you need. It's a really intimate club.
Speaker 1: There's amazing people involved, some of the volunteers, the people
Speaker 1: that you know do all the nitty gritty stuff behind
Speaker 1: the scenes. They're just amazing people at North Melbourne and
Speaker 1: very similar in all aspects from Collingwood to North Melbourne.
Speaker 6: The major difference was just the on.
Speaker 1: Field performance and we weren't able to get up to
Speaker 1: scratch there.
Speaker 3: Tell us about playing free and easy on instinct and
Speaker 3: then as your form drops away, how do you try
Speaker 3: and rediscover it, you have to try and work harder.
Speaker 4: What's the challenges for an AFL player.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was really tough that probably that first year
Speaker 1: at North sort of coming in. I think I think
Speaker 1: I had like twenty in a goal a game in
Speaker 1: that first season and we're still getting sort of ripped
Speaker 1: into it and I'm like, this is probably one of
Speaker 1: the better years I've had, but because we're not winning
Speaker 1: and I've come across as a recruit, a lot of
Speaker 1: that pressure on me and I spoke about before where
Speaker 1: they're not going to blame the fourth year play, the
Speaker 1: fourth game player, whereas they are starting to now blame
Speaker 1: you and think you're a big reason of why we
Speaker 1: are losing when I was probably having, you know, one
Speaker 1: of my better year, one of my better years.
Speaker 4: So who's having a great Year's played every game this year?
Speaker 4: It's twenty one goal seven this year. Jaydon Stevenson three
Speaker 4: straight last weekend. That's an hour.
Speaker 1: And that sort of just gets stepped under rug because
Speaker 1: of us winning two or three games, whatever it may be.
Speaker 1: So that was quite disappointing, but from there on out
Speaker 1: it sort of just just got worse.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm assume that that's from David Oval. Again.
Speaker 3: He's talked about, you know, the things he did right
Speaker 3: and wrong in this seat, But like, what's it. What's
Speaker 3: the criticism? You know, you're not pressuring enough. You're not
Speaker 3: you know, because as you say, your numbers are pretty good.
Speaker 6: Yeah, not pressuring enough.
Speaker 1: Or I have always been a more skinny outside playoff
Speaker 1: And it's like I missed one ground ball, one contesta ball.
Speaker 1: So then for the next three weeks I'm training, you
Speaker 1: have to do extra ground balls and extra hardball gets.
Speaker 1: It's like, hold on the second. There was three that
Speaker 1: I did get. The one I've missed is the one
Speaker 1: that just comes to light. And I felt like that
Speaker 1: the whole time of North was a lot. It was
Speaker 1: you know, one thing got amplified a lot, and it
Speaker 1: wasn't just me, it was a lot of people throughout
Speaker 1: the group.
Speaker 6: And how training is that it is training.
Speaker 1: It's just going from week to week having something else,
Speaker 1: or you know, you finally have put in your three
Speaker 1: weeks of work doing ground balls and then it might
Speaker 1: miss a kick and do a turnover. It's like, oh,
Speaker 1: you need to get your kicking up with scratch, so
Speaker 1: then you're doing kicking extra kicking for two weeks and
Speaker 1: it was just constant of and the results if we're winning, like,
Speaker 1: they don't let those things, those things don't come to
Speaker 1: light and the stresses aren't there. So that was the
Speaker 1: thing that probably annoyed me at most, just having seen
Speaker 1: what it was like being at a really successful club
Speaker 1: and a club that's not and the stark differences in.
Speaker 2: Terms of building a confidence, like internally.
Speaker 1: Confidence and the things that you know, the expectations that
Speaker 1: are there and for instance, like at Collingwood when we're winning,
Speaker 1: like steel side Bottom used to train in track your
Speaker 1: pants for the main session. It was freezing and so
Speaker 1: I'd do the same and it was all fine, we're winning,
Speaker 1: we're going well, nothing said about it North Melbourne. You're
Speaker 1: in your shorts, single it and a beanie.
Speaker 6: What are you doing with your beanie on? That's not
Speaker 6: a footballer.
Speaker 2: It's like really old school stuff, really old.
Speaker 1: School, and it's like, only this is only because we
Speaker 1: are losing on a weekend.
Speaker 6: I did really struggle.
Speaker 5: So they're listening to the outside noise in the sense
Speaker 5: internally really in that in.
Speaker 1: My perspective, yeah, it just seemed like each week there
Speaker 1: was a new thing, and you know, if we had
Speaker 1: to just maybe focused on us as a group doing
Speaker 1: our thing every every week, maybe it would have been
Speaker 1: a different result.
Speaker 4: What did Dave Noble do right as a coach and
Speaker 4: what were his room for improvements? He used the vernacular.
Speaker 6: Yes, it's actually a long time ago to think.
Speaker 1: I suppose my main thing that he did well was
Speaker 1: that he was pretty clear in his messaging and you
Speaker 1: knew what he wanted from you. I think sometimes it
Speaker 1: can get lost in translation, but he was very good at,
Speaker 1: you know, teaching and under standing and making you understand,
Speaker 1: whether that be visually or speaking to whatever it may be.
Speaker 1: You were very clear at what he wanted you to do,
Speaker 1: and I think probably the downfall for personally in my opinion,
Speaker 1: is just changing changing little ways we played each game
Speaker 1: depending on who we're playing. So I know what Collenwood
Speaker 1: it was like, we played our style of football and
Speaker 1: if that's if that's a switch, or if that's a
Speaker 1: long down the line, if that's a handball run game.
Speaker 1: We played our style no matter what we're playing. And
Speaker 1: obviously we're aware of some things and of what the
Speaker 1: other team was going to do, but we didn't really
Speaker 1: change our core way we played.
Speaker 4: He believed in you in your game style.
Speaker 6: We believe in that game so and my my gripe.
Speaker 1: I suppose in those two years at North where we'd
Speaker 1: be playing too long, we'd like to run and handble,
Speaker 1: for instance, and we'd change and we'd play completely trying
Speaker 1: to deny them that style or that So we then
Speaker 1: didn't get any continuity in or an identity of how
Speaker 1: we play as a club.
Speaker 2: For sure.
Speaker 5: That that second year, I think John Ralph broke the
Speaker 5: story about the David Nobles spray against Brisbane.
Speaker 2: You played in that game, you haven't recollections of that or.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I remember being in it. I don't think it
Speaker 6: was as bad as you as you would have made
Speaker 6: it out to be. But yeah, it was just a
Speaker 6: good old old fashion fashion bake.
Speaker 2: Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and I think he had every right to do so.
Speaker 6: I mean we weren't performing and actually in local footy
Speaker 6: two weeks ago we've got a good halftime which would
Speaker 6: have gone close to it.
Speaker 3: But you try a water bottle or something like. It
Speaker 3: wasn't like it was. It was theatrical, but it was
Speaker 3: It's just a spray.
Speaker 6: Yeah, just a spray. Had plenty of time. Darren Buick
Speaker 6: as an ad and he gave really good ones Bick. Yeah,
Speaker 6: and you would have seen it the NRL. Yeah, it
Speaker 6: certainly wasn't to that level.
Speaker 3: I think Jason or Francis like was on the Virgin
Speaker 3: tiers or something, so you know, there was some layers
Speaker 3: to it.
Speaker 5: Possibly at the end of that first year at North
Speaker 5: there's the bike incident. Can you take us about that?
Speaker 5: Where you practice here?
Speaker 1: Another another silly mistake if I made has had a
Speaker 1: few drinks and decided I was a good BAMEX rider.
Speaker 2: And were you a good BX rider.
Speaker 1: I'd ridden some BMX and ridden skate parks and that
Speaker 1: growing up. I hadn't done it for probably six or
Speaker 1: seven years.
Speaker 4: And on the evidence you were not a good.
Speaker 6: That's I think that's the conclusion I've come to as well.
Speaker 4: What happened.
Speaker 1: Just had a few drinks and decide I could ride
Speaker 1: my bike down my stairs at my house outside and
Speaker 1: went to the top to roll off them, and realized
Speaker 1: at that moment this is a stupid idea, and then
Speaker 1: chucked the brakes on, actually chucked the front brakes on
Speaker 1: when over the top and pretty much just went down
Speaker 1: from the top of five stairs down and just landed straight.
Speaker 4: On my hip.
Speaker 2: Great trouble straight away.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I hopped up and I got on something's not
Speaker 1: right and yeah I went to the hospital and no good.
Speaker 5: How do you go about letting the club know when
Speaker 5: there's something like that happens. That's the hardest bit, I
Speaker 5: would imagine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, certainly, I think I spoke to Brady Rulings first
Speaker 1: and said this is what's what's going on. Obviously was
Speaker 1: it wasn't too happy, but was also worried about my
Speaker 1: health and that that came first, which was good. So
Speaker 1: it was a good week or two before I actually
Speaker 1: had a good sit down chat with with North Melbourne
Speaker 1: and they were able to you know, discipline me as
Speaker 1: as required.
Speaker 3: What's David Noble or what's the leadership group say to you?
Speaker 3: Were like the gory details of these things. What was
Speaker 3: what was their spray at that stage two.
Speaker 1: You like, yeah, I can't I can't remember really having
Speaker 1: a chat to them. It was more Ceo ben A
Speaker 1: Mafio had a long hard chat with him, which you
Speaker 1: know wasn't wasn't great sitting or I sort of did
Speaker 1: a lot of listening and a lot of agreeing.
Speaker 6: But yeah, within.
Speaker 1: Terms that I think I copped it hard enough from them,
Speaker 1: And because we were in the off season, it's not
Speaker 1: like they're going to get everyone together to do it
Speaker 1: on the spot. So and by the time we got
Speaker 1: back to pre season, I was back up and running
Speaker 1: and it was almost like nothing had happened. So the
Speaker 1: main deep chats we with Bennie and Mafio. Obviously Nobes
Speaker 1: was in there, Brady rawlings that sort of thing.
Speaker 3: When did footy get to that stage where you're like,
Speaker 3: I'm not having as much fun or not having any fun?
Speaker 1: Yeah, probably probably the end of that second year at
Speaker 1: North had won you know, four games and played forty
Speaker 1: five games or something whatever it may have been forty
Speaker 1: games and we have won four or five games, and
Speaker 1: like I touched on, it was just constant, we're not
Speaker 1: doing this right. When I looking that right, crisis meetings,
Speaker 1: what's going on? And it just didn't really change.
Speaker 6: So that's just that's exhausting.
Speaker 1: Its training and like I said, at the start, you
Speaker 1: play with that natural flare and that love, that confidence,
Speaker 1: and that was completely gone. It was every week I
Speaker 1: was thinking about six things of when the ball goes
Speaker 1: up in the here, I've got to be strong in
Speaker 1: the contest.
Speaker 6: Please don't fumble the ground ball. And you're just overthinking.
Speaker 2: Going to say you're overthinking, then yeah, And.
Speaker 1: It's more there's a lot that's actually a law that
Speaker 1: the more you think about it, the more likely it
Speaker 1: is to happen. So and like I said, do a
Speaker 1: lot of And if you're riding a bike at a tree,
Speaker 1: the more you think, don't think the tree, don't hit
Speaker 1: the tree. More like you are was your brain quickly
Speaker 1: go right dodge around like this, You'll do it a
Speaker 1: lot more. So, Yeah, I kept thinking about mistakes and
Speaker 1: the mistakes kept coming, and yeah, couldn't put together complete,
Speaker 1: really good games consistently.
Speaker 5: What was it like playing with Jason Horn Francis in
Speaker 5: that one year at North? There was so much external noise?
Speaker 5: What was it like internal?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean external probably got most of the story
Speaker 1: spot on. I'm not sure he was really keen on
Speaker 1: being there. I think he was missing home a lot.
Speaker 1: The one thing I suppose with Horn is that you
Speaker 1: could he had to undeniable talent. Like we watched him
Speaker 1: in some match sims before the season started and he
Speaker 1: was clearly best on ground and some of the things
Speaker 1: he could do. The confidence he had to just break
Speaker 1: out was amazing, and he put him in put Adelaide.
Speaker 6: I know they're not going great this year, but he's.
Speaker 1: In a team with, you know, players that have had
Speaker 1: success and a team that has been good, and you
Speaker 1: can see how much of an impact he can have.
Speaker 6: So yeah, he's a phenomenal talent. It just wasn't to
Speaker 6: beat North.
Speaker 2: That he left at the end of the eighty.
Speaker 4: Tell us about the ice bath story, what actually happened.
Speaker 1: I had left that stage, I had my ice bath.
Speaker 1: But yeah, apparently just wasn't too keen on getting on
Speaker 1: and yeah, I think I said it was hard. Obviously
Speaker 1: my foot he had took a decline in the hub
Speaker 1: because I wasn't happy. I was missing home. So maybe
Speaker 1: I can relate to Jason how he was feeling. And
Speaker 1: you know, you're away from home. Your an eight year
Speaker 1: old kid. He's gone pick number one, supposed to be
Speaker 1: the superstar. You're now playing a team that's won two
Speaker 1: games for the year, just had another big loss, and
Speaker 1: you've been us top and ice BA. I'm not giving
Speaker 1: him any chop out, but that's possibly why why he
Speaker 1: did what he did.
Speaker 3: We smashed a lot of players for different things, and
Speaker 3: if someone says something about us, we get so sensitive
Speaker 3: about it. Like people started talking to you about your contest,
Speaker 3: West lines back to you. He doesn't physically physically compete.
Speaker 3: What happens when people say things like that about you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is frustrating, And I think you'd love to
Speaker 1: just go he go Ross, here's my highlights, or he's
Speaker 1: twenty minutes of footage, Go go actually have a look
Speaker 1: rather than you know, watch one game, see one contest
Speaker 1: where yeah, might might have done it well, but you know,
Speaker 1: Patrick creeps with someone who's known who's been hard. He
Speaker 1: goes he might miss the exact same one that doesn't
Speaker 1: get brought up. It's just like, because my aura is that,
Speaker 1: and I don't you know, Patrick Coops might do ten
Speaker 1: to miss one. I might do five and miss one.
Speaker 1: It then just comes onto me, and that really annoyed me.
Speaker 1: It's like, go back and watch the footage, or go
Speaker 1: look at how hard I'm running up and down that flank.
Speaker 1: How hard I'm getting to run back help the defense.
Speaker 1: You know, the balls coming in this side, I'm there
Speaker 1: helping to spoil as a higher forward, and then I'm
Speaker 1: working back.
Speaker 6: And being in the forward line for when it comes
Speaker 6: in there. So I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think it's a lot of these old school guys
Speaker 1: can sort of lose the fact that you need multiple
Speaker 1: different types of players to create a good side and
Speaker 1: whether it be work great as of strength or being
Speaker 1: tough at it or would I would never say I'm
Speaker 1: week and soft. Obviously wasn't super hard and really great
Speaker 1: at that, But I don't think it was a massive
Speaker 1: deficiency either.
Speaker 3: Wasn't why they drafted you to be Patrick Cripps. And
Speaker 3: it takes courage to run and all those things, and
Speaker 3: they're just different levels of courage.
Speaker 6: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: I think when the team's going poor, When teams going poor,
Speaker 1: it really comes down to the hard and toughness and
Speaker 1: that just wasn't me necessarily as a footballer and were struggling.
Speaker 1: I mean, look at someone like Zane Durzma this year
Speaker 1: at North I mean he's a phenomenal talent as well
Speaker 1: and very similar mold to me, and he's struggling getting
Speaker 1: in and out of the side. And I think if
Speaker 1: you drop him into Geelong or you drop him into Collingwood,
Speaker 1: He's played every game this year, kicked multiple goals.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: How does your family handle all that as well, like
Speaker 5: the criticism you'd come up or whatever. Obviously from a
Speaker 5: really close family. How difficult is that for them?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think a lot of them struggle, My mate struggle.
Speaker 1: They just they say to me continuously they want to
Speaker 1: bite it back, especially online.
Speaker 3: When I bite it back, well said it. So let's
Speaker 3: not say, oh those bastard eno. Yeah, we've been part
Speaker 3: of it at times.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And a lot of the time, like journals are
Speaker 1: just saying their opinion and other like you said, ross Lyin,
Speaker 1: they have their opinion. That's fine, like you're disgruntled by it,
Speaker 1: but no way I'm going to go back. But I've
Speaker 1: got no interest in going back. And I don't know
Speaker 1: who's a person either really like as journal say we
Speaker 1: may have a chat or two, do we really know
Speaker 1: each other as people?
Speaker 6: Probably not?
Speaker 1: So like what they're saying, You've got to realize it's
Speaker 1: not an indictment against your character. It's indictment on how
Speaker 1: you're going on a football field, how you performing. So
Speaker 1: it's no different to a boss or a coworker saying
Speaker 1: you know, you're.
Speaker 6: Not doing this well enough at your job.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm pretty good at understanding that and realizing
Speaker 1: that they're not talking about you as a person.
Speaker 5: How did you get on with Alister Clarkson when Alistair
Speaker 5: Clarkson joins North Melbourne.
Speaker 6: Yeah, he got along really well.
Speaker 1: He obviously has had great success in the past and
Speaker 1: has a really good foot of mind. Also to be
Speaker 1: able to learn some things off him has certainly helped.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, having had three four good coaches
Speaker 1: in your time, you're able to take parts from each
Speaker 1: each of them that you like and other parts that
Speaker 1: you don't and create my then like coaching plan which
Speaker 1: someone are going to like some aren't.
Speaker 4: Going to lie.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I just love the I love the tactical
Speaker 1: side of football, and been able to listen to Clarko
Speaker 1: for two years has certainly helped my understanding of that was.
Speaker 3: It, And obviously we understand why clark I stepped away,
Speaker 3: But it was weird with Brett Ratton stepping in. Clarko
Speaker 3: took his gardening leave, given the fallout from the Hawthorne stuff.
Speaker 4: It was.
Speaker 3: It was a weird time, but obviously Brett Ratton had
Speaker 3: huge support from the place.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it certainly was challenging and we just touched on it.
Speaker 6: But that's now they're going after Clarko's character, so that's
Speaker 6: out there for the me to see in the public eye,
Speaker 6: going after his character. So I can't imagine how hard
Speaker 6: that would have been as a good person. He's a
Speaker 6: good person, he means well. All the stuff that went on,
Speaker 6: I didn't see any of that in my time that
Speaker 6: was there. I thought he treated everyone the same, treat
Speaker 6: everyone with respect. So for them for the public and
Speaker 6: people to come at his character, I can understand why
Speaker 6: it took such a toll on him. But like you said,
Speaker 6: rats stepped in and he's an incredible man. He's one
Speaker 6: of my favorite people I've met in football. Just just
Speaker 6: an awesome, down to earth guy, and he did as
Speaker 6: good a job as he could.
Speaker 3: Was was he such a great but we see it,
Speaker 3: But tell the people out there why he's such.
Speaker 4: A great bloke.
Speaker 1: He's just so personable and he's come come from humble beginnings,
Speaker 1: you know, he said, he said, Mane, I look, it
Speaker 1: was a stat the pod I think had the most
Speaker 1: disposals in two thousand.
Speaker 6: I was like, wow, did you guys? Rats was a big,
Speaker 6: big ball.
Speaker 1: Obviously was before my time, and I'd heard of what
Speaker 1: he's done, what he'd done, But he was one of
Speaker 1: those people with you know, with your boss or your coach.
Speaker 1: It can be hard to sit down with him like
Speaker 1: over at dinner and really chat the whole time sort of,
Speaker 1: whereas Rats you could see down with for two hours
Speaker 1: and feel like you're sitting there with a mate.
Speaker 6: Just yeah, just unber level man.
Speaker 1: Another one like that's Gary Hawking, So he had a
Speaker 1: bit too with him at Collingwood and still keeping contact
Speaker 1: with bord Her all the time.
Speaker 2: That's good.
Speaker 5: Yeah, still, yeah, that's great that you keep it going
Speaker 5: into twenty twenty four. Did you think this could be
Speaker 5: my last year? You weren't enjoying it in a lot
Speaker 5: of ways.
Speaker 2: Was it right?
Speaker 5: You played on a bit for your family, Your family
Speaker 5: loved your playing and your mates after you're playing.
Speaker 2: What was your mindset going into last year?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I finished twenty three and thought I've really had enough. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like I don't and I don't see the light at
Speaker 1: the end of the tunnel here. You know, my contracts
Speaker 1: running out, I'm not going to be in a successful
Speaker 1: side here, and I might as well look start looking after,
Speaker 1: you know, my own my own happiness, my life going forward.
Speaker 6: Get a head start.
Speaker 1: Obviously, all my mates are there, they are tradees, but
Speaker 1: they're qualified and then now starting their own businesses. And
Speaker 1: you know, I'm pretty much going back to square zero,
Speaker 1: like I'm going back to nothing once this is all done.
Speaker 1: So do I get a head start in life after footy?
Speaker 1: And it took a lot of conversations, a lot of
Speaker 1: deliberating on my behalf, but came to the conclusion I'll
Speaker 1: play one more year. Sort of made it pretty clear
Speaker 1: that this will probably be my last year. So you'll
Speaker 1: if I invite you to a game, you probably should come.
Speaker 1: Don't miss out.
Speaker 4: Did you play for the money at that stage?
Speaker 3: I think your contract was was it five hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty or what was you contract? Yeah, something like that,
Speaker 3: which would be totally understandable. Yeah, it certainly certainly came in.
Speaker 3: Came into the point of why I staying.
Speaker 1: Like I said, going back, I'm now doing it now
Speaker 1: on apprentice wages and lots a whole lot different. So
Speaker 1: the time we have to earn that good money is
Speaker 1: a short period of our life. And you know a
Speaker 1: lot of people once they start earning those good dollars,
Speaker 1: it continues to grow from there because the business.
Speaker 6: Is going or whatever.
Speaker 1: They can only move up, whereas we go up here
Speaker 1: and then we back down to the bottom. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it certainly certainly helped to keep me motivated, rocking up
Speaker 1: every day.
Speaker 3: But I can't think of a I can't think we
Speaker 3: how challenging that would be to go it's probably my
Speaker 3: last year North Melbourne ship. I'm playing okay football, great,
Speaker 3: it's a it's a tough mental challenge that you got
Speaker 3: through it that year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like I said, you don't really think about the
Speaker 1: money or anything while you're there, Like you're just out
Speaker 1: of training and it is what it is. Probably was
Speaker 1: it more of a driving force pre pre the season starting.
Speaker 1: Once the season starts, keeps going through you commit.
Speaker 2: But yeah it was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a pretty tough, pretty tough year. And
Speaker 1: I played the least games I played, played twelve AFL games,
Speaker 1: maybe spent a lot of time with two is. Actually
Speaker 1: actually really enjoyed my time in the twos. Had Tom
Speaker 1: Lynch there, who played for.
Speaker 4: Adelaide, usually regarded, yeah he's.
Speaker 6: A great man.
Speaker 1: You will make a good scenior coach one day, but
Speaker 1: really helped me to enjoy my football. And I played
Speaker 1: down in the twos, play well for two weeks, go
Speaker 1: back up and not play too well.
Speaker 6: You back down.
Speaker 4: And it was sort of a sort of thing, you
Speaker 4: missed that ground, ball.
Speaker 6: Missed that ground. Yeah, it's sort of I'd stopped.
Speaker 1: As bad as it sounds, I checked out a little
Speaker 1: bit in that last bit and thought, I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: keep trying to have fun on my main thing every
Speaker 1: week going was just trying to joy yourself today, try
Speaker 1: and enjoy yourself. And it was harder to do than
Speaker 1: I than I've tried that I thought sometimes, But yeah,
Speaker 1: I think my last AFL game was against Richmond, had.
Speaker 2: A win win.
Speaker 6: You had one of my six or seven. Yeah, since
Speaker 6: venas that was That was an awesome experience.
Speaker 1: And then yeah, I played VFL for me to finish
Speaker 1: the year, and you know, I think they sort of
Speaker 1: understood that I checked out as well. Like I think
Speaker 1: played half back flank last VFL game of the year.
Speaker 1: I had twenty five and kicked two sort of thing.
Speaker 1: Had played pretty well, bro open the game up and
Speaker 1: there was no looking for selection the next week.
Speaker 5: Going to say do you look back and think what
Speaker 5: might have been if you had stayed at Collingwood, Craig
Speaker 5: McCrae comes in that you could still be potentially playing
Speaker 5: there now.
Speaker 6: Yeah, certainly certainly goes to my head and something I've
Speaker 6: thought about, you know, and I'm one of these people
Speaker 6: that has a lot of confidence, Yeah, you know, within
Speaker 6: my with my own self, and I think had I
Speaker 6: been at the club in twenty twenty three, like I
Speaker 6: probably would have been playing in that and I would
Speaker 6: have fought tooth and I would have my spot there.
Speaker 1: So it's disappointing looking back on it that in that light,
Speaker 1: but the decision I made at the end of last
Speaker 1: year was certainly the right decision for the Cathartic in
Speaker 1: a way, in a lot of ways that you feel free. Yeah, exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I'm very comfortable that I made the right decision.
Speaker 1: Did I make the right decision throughout my whole career
Speaker 1: in terms of the bike, the gambling, the trade and
Speaker 1: all that, Probably not, But like I said, that was
Speaker 1: my journey, and now that it has come to an end,
Speaker 1: I'm very comfortable with how it ended and why it ended.
Speaker 4: What did you do with the retirement?
Speaker 3: Assume you just get a portion of your salary for
Speaker 3: this year or give it all back or yeah.
Speaker 1: It just got a little bit of a portion of it.
Speaker 1: So then spent the next four months doing not much,
Speaker 1: just sort of settling in your life, playing a lot
Speaker 1: of golf, that sort of thing, and then signed with
Speaker 1: my local football club. You go back and play juniors,
Speaker 1: go back and play seniors of frensry Gal, where I'd
Speaker 1: played my junior.
Speaker 6: As my dad played thirty odd years. There.
Speaker 1: Signed, there was training and getting to meet new people.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a whole different game.
Speaker 2: Tell us about it, tell us about what life's rate.
Speaker 6: Now, Yeah, it's great.
Speaker 1: I mean you take for granted at AFL training, you know,
Speaker 1: leading and getting hit right here, like you go back
Speaker 1: and play local footy.
Speaker 3: And nice sharons that have got a bit of you know,
Speaker 3: nice waters.
Speaker 6: There's a lot of big, like wet watermelon looking balls
Speaker 6: and you're kicking them and you know you might hit
Speaker 6: someone with a great kick, but they just drop it.
Speaker 1: And I mean at the first the first probably three
Speaker 1: or four games on there going oh no, like come on,
Speaker 1: what are we doing? But you get to know that's just.
Speaker 6: The game is a lot more contested.
Speaker 1: Very rarely is someone streaming out the front of a
Speaker 1: contest hitting you on the Tit sort of thing is yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a different it's more contested, scrappy sort of game.
Speaker 1: But I'm playing it with my good mates and that's
Speaker 1: all it really matters.
Speaker 2: Beauty.
Speaker 3: Do you ever think about another VFL side or going
Speaker 3: to take the cash in the country somewhere like this
Speaker 3: is where you knew you wanted Tom to be.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Obviously had a few chats with a soon as my
Speaker 1: retirement come out, had clubs calling through what do you reckon?
Speaker 6: What do you reckon? I pretty much had made my
Speaker 6: mind up.
Speaker 1: I am from fernsure galley, and that's where I want
Speaker 1: to play my footy and it's been amazing ever since.
Speaker 1: I was actually fortunate enough but like a Christmas drinks
Speaker 1: fortunate enough to run into the new president of the club.
Speaker 1: So he wasn't actually there when I signed on, but
Speaker 1: he came on as president and then offered me a
Speaker 1: job as an air conditioning.
Speaker 2: Talking about that, Yeah you're air conditioning now.
Speaker 5: I think my son are on TikTok doing Friday telling
Speaker 5: us about you.
Speaker 2: Raffi's all over TikTok.
Speaker 6: Yeah I did that for a little bit of a laugh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm just really because my mate was doing it
Speaker 1: on the electrical side.
Speaker 6: But there won't be many more of them. I'm getting
Speaker 6: too busy at the moment.
Speaker 1: But yeah, they've started my apprenticeship in January this year
Speaker 1: and I'm loving and I'm going out there. I've got
Speaker 1: all the tools and it's so good just having a
Speaker 1: being judged on something that's a that's a result. It's like,
Speaker 1: you don't do this job, Okay, the air CON's not working,
Speaker 1: why not go fix the darks whatever it may be.
Speaker 6: Do that job done well done.
Speaker 1: Where it's like in footy it's like, go out there,
Speaker 1: you do nine, I've sent the job well ten percent
Speaker 1: that we touched on, and you still feel like you getting
Speaker 1: handed for it. So just the pressures of working the
Speaker 1: normal job is a lot easier, and you can just
Speaker 1: say task orientated.
Speaker 2: Would you like to coach at some stage you're doing
Speaker 2: a bit of work.
Speaker 1: Yeah, with Furture doing assistant coaching at Ventry Galley. I'm
Speaker 1: very lucky to have a relationship I do with the
Speaker 1: coach down there, Patti Garrity.
Speaker 6: He's great.
Speaker 1: He's a very good listener, and I bring my ideas
Speaker 1: to the table and you know, he implements a lot
Speaker 1: of them, but the ones he doesn't like, he doesn't implement.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think it's certainly something I'd love to
Speaker 1: do in the future, just think about. I think the
Speaker 1: thing I probably need to work on is getting the
Speaker 1: message across a little bit better. I can sometimes I
Speaker 1: feel myself waffling. Sometimes I'm telling them what to do
Speaker 1: all my mind as I'm speaking to the boy, saying
Speaker 1: let's try and do this, and then I do send
Speaker 1: a goal on tangents. So we're still a little bit
Speaker 1: of work on in that point of view. But certainly
Speaker 1: something that interests me in the future.
Speaker 3: How excited by the next twenty years of footy, in
Speaker 3: life and maybe your own business, And like you've lived
Speaker 3: your life in the spotlight, but there's so much exciting
Speaker 3: stuff ahead.
Speaker 1: Yeah, touch the whole time. But the journey, journey happens
Speaker 1: for a reason, and it's been a crazy journey so far.
Speaker 1: Who knows what the next journey is. But all I
Speaker 1: can do is look forward at the moment. I've got,
Speaker 1: you know, a great partner, so future with her is
Speaker 1: going to look look bright. Really enjoy spending time with her,
Speaker 1: and you know, I think she'll probably be the mother
Speaker 1: of my children in the in the near future. And
Speaker 1: obviously have great support from my parents. My mum and
Speaker 1: dad are great. They're there, they come and what they
Speaker 1: come and watch every game playing AFL there down there
Speaker 1: every week at Fredrick Galley or cold Stream wherever it
Speaker 1: may be watching. I have obviously goten the head start
Speaker 1: in life now with a job. I'm six months in
Speaker 1: started trade school. Have big aspirations there to you know,
Speaker 1: work well and become as good a technician as I can.
Speaker 6: And one of my best mates, Adam Oxley, who played
Speaker 6: at Collingwood.
Speaker 1: He's a mechanical plumber in his second year apprenticeship. So
Speaker 1: in our paths may cross and join, going to business
Speaker 1: together at some stage down the road. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: think it's just an exciting time and I'm free.
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