Speaker 1: Gooda teen good a gribas hope you well, it's Harps,
Speaker 1: of course it is. It's Stiff, it's Tarps, it's Mark,
Speaker 1: it's Us, it's you. It's another installment of you know
Speaker 1: what my favorite? Actually, I wonder if this is my
Speaker 1: favorite podcast. I don't know if it is. It's definitely
Speaker 1: not my favorite podcast to listen to because as I
Speaker 1: hate my voice, Tiff, other than this show and your show.
Speaker 1: What's your favorite podcast? Do you have one or no?
Speaker 2: I listened to things here and there, but I do
Speaker 2: listen little bit of Joe Rogan.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think if you don't say Joe Rogan, you're
Speaker 1: but I feel you're a bit cliche with Joe Rogan.
Speaker 1: But I'm the same. But I've been I was an
Speaker 1: early adopter. I was Joe Rogan before Joe Rogan was
Speaker 1: Joe Rogan. I was Joe Rogan's eight years ago. Mark BURRETTA, Hi, Hey, great,
Speaker 1: Hey Tiff, Hey mar thanks for coming on to you project.
Speaker 1: How many times a week do you do a podcast interview?
Speaker 1: Typically one, none fifty.
Speaker 2: I might do one a month, So thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Well, thanks, As I said before the show, thanks Ben
Speaker 1: had we feel special do you do you listen to
Speaker 1: podcasts much at all?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do, and my wife got me onto them.
Speaker 2: So obviously I listened to Yours and Tips.
Speaker 1: That's a straight up hey everyone that's called pr thank you,
Speaker 1: But no, I just look.
Speaker 2: My wife's machine, Rache is onto them all the time.
Speaker 2: So she just says to you, look, haven't listen to this.
Speaker 2: And she's a good judge. She picks things that I
Speaker 2: should be listening to.
Speaker 1: What kind of stuff does Rach listen to? What's the
Speaker 1: general genre or space that she plugs into.
Speaker 2: I think she is almost a want to the psychologists,
Speaker 2: So she picks up things that to do with probably
Speaker 2: mental health, and because we've got two teen age kids,
Speaker 2: so we're very in that space at the moment. So yeah,
Speaker 2: she'll pick up things about, you know, just lifestyle and
Speaker 2: balance and staying fit and healthy mentally and physically. So
Speaker 2: you know, I love way that she'll select things from
Speaker 2: me because obviously we've been married twenty one year, so
Speaker 2: she knows me pretty well, good and bad side of me,
Speaker 2: and she'll just say, look, you need to listen to this,
Speaker 2: and she's generally spot on, so I get something from it.
Speaker 2: The latest thing she put me on it was Christian
Speaker 2: O'Connell had done a bit of stuff and I've been
Speaker 2: listening to him and read his book, so yeah, it
Speaker 2: was it was interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's amazing. There's I mean there's some crap,
Speaker 1: of course, but I think there's over four million podcasts
Speaker 1: in the world, and there's you know, there's some junk,
Speaker 1: but there's a lot of it's amazing that we have
Speaker 1: all of these resources that. I mean, this is stating
Speaker 1: the bloody obvious, I know, but in terms of we've
Speaker 1: just got so much stuff at our fingertips that when
Speaker 1: you and I were fifteen years old right now, dragsters
Speaker 1: or our races around doing whatever, you couldn't even begin
Speaker 1: to imagine how much we would have at our fingertips,
Speaker 1: you know, forty years later or whatever.
Speaker 2: It is. Yeah, it's a good thing. I mean it's
Speaker 2: instructional and it's reinforcing, and you know, it's just it's
Speaker 2: almost like having someone there to sort of hold your
Speaker 2: hand a little bit sometimes just to let you know
Speaker 2: that you are you know, you're sort of doing the
Speaker 2: right thing. You might be on the right track or that,
Speaker 2: but you're not really on the right track, or just
Speaker 2: have some different ideas. You know that raising teenagers I
Speaker 2: have found an enormous challenge and so I'm always looking
Speaker 2: for ideas and new strategies.
Speaker 1: Have you got boys girls one of each.
Speaker 2: I've got a seventeen year old girl and a fifteen
Speaker 2: year old boy.
Speaker 1: And do you have a particular I asked this with
Speaker 1: some trepidation. Do you have a parenting style or would
Speaker 1: that be overstating it, like, do you have a method
Speaker 1: or is it just fucking winging it?
Speaker 2: Well, I would I've had to adjust because I've probably
Speaker 2: been a bit of I've probably been a bit of
Speaker 2: a strict dad, and I probably I grew up in
Speaker 2: a family full of boys, like I have two younger brothers,
Speaker 2: So parenting for me was, you know, was there were rules,
Speaker 2: and I've sort of probably tried to go down that path.
Speaker 2: And I'd say I've not been particularly successful this point,
Speaker 2: but maybe I have up to now. But it needs
Speaker 2: to adapt now a little bit. You know, You've got
Speaker 2: to sort of go more from laying down the rules
Speaker 2: to sort of being there to guide and help and support.
Speaker 2: So I'm in that transition phase at the moment, which
Speaker 2: is this is a really interesting thing.
Speaker 1: How do you think I didn't really picture us going here, mate,
Speaker 1: But it doesn't matter. It's all about the human condition.
Speaker 1: How do you think you've changed as a parent in
Speaker 1: the last year or two in terms of your approach
Speaker 1: to navigating problems and challenges and conversations.
Speaker 2: I think I have become probably more that more conversational,
Speaker 2: so I've learned to talk to the kids more as adults.
Speaker 2: And the thing that there's probably I guess not shocked me,
Speaker 2: but it surprised me is how fast the kids grow
Speaker 2: up now and how much they know and the opinions
Speaker 2: they have and they I think a big thing at
Speaker 2: the moment is kids want to be heard. You know,
Speaker 2: teenagers really just want to be heard, and in today's
Speaker 2: world that can be diff So I don't have social media.
Speaker 2: It's sort of helped them grap or not. I think
Speaker 2: it's obviously it's got goods and bads about it, and
Speaker 2: I said all of that, but I think for me personally,
Speaker 2: as a data found I've had to just just change
Speaker 2: gears a little bit, you know, just maybe just slow
Speaker 2: down a little bit and back off and just you know,
Speaker 2: walk alongside more than out in front leading the charge.
Speaker 1: So look, at you getting all wise and philosophically, but.
Speaker 2: I think, look, everyone's going through it all, you know,
Speaker 2: I know, everyone who's brought up kids or it's having
Speaker 2: a go at it, you know. You hell, it's it's
Speaker 2: full on, you know, and it takes a lot of
Speaker 2: your attention and a lot of your energy, and you
Speaker 2: know the end result is obviously very worth it, but
Speaker 2: cracky at times. You know, you're in the wars.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, well, you know, I mean there's and I think,
Speaker 1: as with many other things that we do in life, mark,
Speaker 1: there's there's no set model.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: It's like there's no like getting in shape, there's no
Speaker 1: one plan diet, there's no one diet, there's no single
Speaker 1: parenting paradigm that is optimal because you've got different parents,
Speaker 1: different kids, different personalities, egos, attitude situations, and so there
Speaker 1: are certain kind of fundamentals, I guess, with a lot
Speaker 1: of things that seem to be broadly relevant. But in
Speaker 1: the middle of all of that, there's so much stuff
Speaker 1: for you to figure out individually with each of your kids,
Speaker 1: who bring their own personality and their own physiology and
Speaker 1: their own psychology and sociology and experiences to the table.
Speaker 1: And so this whole four step kind of parenting model,
Speaker 1: I don't think it's ever going to work.
Speaker 2: No, I think I think you're right. I think you know,
Speaker 2: you've just you've got to find your own way. You've
Speaker 2: just got to find what works for you at the time.
Speaker 2: And you know, I mean, obviously we've got, you know,
Speaker 2: the ages of the kids. We've got friends who we've
Speaker 2: known through the kids' schools over the years, so they're
Speaker 2: all about the same age, and everyone's going through sort
Speaker 2: of different things at different times, which is surprising you
Speaker 2: think that, you know, as kids would evolved, they do
Speaker 2: the similar things at similar ages, but they all seem
Speaker 2: to do different things at different stages. And you know,
Speaker 2: it's hard, you I mean, you talk to each other,
Speaker 2: but you know, everybody's experience is different, you know, and
Speaker 2: the way they tackle it is different, and it probably
Speaker 2: depends a bit on how you were brought up, what
Speaker 2: you learned along the way when you were growing up,
Speaker 2: and also sort of trying to adapt to a different
Speaker 2: state of mind, I guess, a different way of doing things.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that you know, I'm fascinated
Speaker 1: with the human experience is this thing called subjective reality.
Speaker 1: And my PhD research is in self awareness, which is
Speaker 1: understanding you know yourself obviously, but there's a thing in
Speaker 1: science called metacognition, which is thinking about thinking and realizing
Speaker 1: that in every situation. You know, when you're having a
Speaker 1: conversation with your fifteen or your seventeen year old, I
Speaker 1: don't think like you, and they're never going to think
Speaker 1: like you. And even whatever we're talking about, we're both
Speaker 1: bringing our own filter, our own you know, our own programming,
Speaker 1: our own conditioning, our own ideas, our own philosophy, and
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes it's very hit and miss because we
Speaker 1: think that our intention is going to be their experience.
Speaker 1: And so part of this metacognitive process is to think about,
Speaker 1: how do I talk about this thing with this kid
Speaker 1: or this person or this or my partner or whoever
Speaker 1: it is. How do I talk about this in a
Speaker 1: way which you'll resonate with them and that they understand,
Speaker 1: and where I'm not being condescending and I'm being compassionate
Speaker 1: and aware and I'm not trying to I don't have
Speaker 1: an agenda. You know, there's this there's this whole kind
Speaker 1: of plethora of variables that come to relationships and communication
Speaker 1: to make it work, you know, and in the middle
Speaker 1: of that you just sometimes you just blurt out whatever,
Speaker 1: and even if it's right, it doesn't work.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly right. The interesting thing too, I find with
Speaker 2: the kids is that the rejection of authority. They're at
Speaker 2: that stage where you know, authorities just just straight up no.
Speaker 2: You know, whatever you say is a native but a
Speaker 2: spot on. Sometimes we're just talking on different levels and
Speaker 2: we're just not going to meet at all. So I
Speaker 2: think that's that's up to me then to sort of
Speaker 2: be able to adjust that level and find that spot
Speaker 2: where we're actually talking the same language. But it's, like
Speaker 2: you say, it's still hard because we come from from
Speaker 2: different experience. Plus, you know, with teenage girls who particularly
Speaker 2: you've got hormones going on, there's that there's a lot,
Speaker 2: you know, just a lot of different chemical balance that's
Speaker 2: happening at the moment, or imbalance it's happening at the moment.
Speaker 2: And then you've got you know, you've got a teenage
Speaker 2: boy who's just you know, they just grunt a lot.
Speaker 1: And eat and sleep.
Speaker 2: That's right. Yeah, So I said, the way we communicate
Speaker 2: mostly at the moment is all send about five or
Speaker 2: six text messages and get a three word reply eventually
Speaker 2: in the next sometime in the twenty four hours. So
Speaker 2: that's how munication.
Speaker 1: And do they give zero shits that your mark forretta
Speaker 1: on the telly? Could they care less about that?
Speaker 2: They use that expression so well, yeah, they absolutely couldn't.
Speaker 2: They could not because I guess it's a weird thing.
Speaker 2: But that's just the way they've grown up. You know,
Speaker 2: there's a stage when Abe was about three or four
Speaker 2: where should just assume that everybody's dad was on the
Speaker 2: TV and that's just life. Now they honestly, they ain't
Speaker 2: give a shit, to be honest. I love that, you know,
Speaker 2: I think that's really good.
Speaker 1: Well, I think that's healthy, mate. I mean, where did
Speaker 1: you grow up?
Speaker 2: Geelong in Victoria, the son of a plumber. Mum and
Speaker 2: dad are in their eighties now. I still see them
Speaker 2: a lot. I'll see them the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 2: But we're did a tight probably type family because we're
Speaker 2: all involved in sport together too. We've got two younger brothers.
Speaker 2: They're both still in Geelong. I love the place, love
Speaker 2: where I grew up, you know, just just love the family.
Speaker 2: And so type family has always been a big thing
Speaker 2: for me. So that's what you know, I would like
Speaker 2: to be. I guess that I would like to have
Speaker 2: the family that I grew up in.
Speaker 1: For my family, how old a mum and dad? You said, eighties?
Speaker 1: What are they eighty?
Speaker 2: Mums just turned eighty and they're both going great. They
Speaker 2: live out of town. They've got about forty acres and
Speaker 2: they just you know, they lived the farmer's life, just
Speaker 2: a little hobby farmer. Think game on. Dad worked so
Speaker 2: hard his whole life. He's a plumber. So he started
Speaker 2: his own business and my middle brother took that over
Speaker 2: and he's going great. Guns. I should have stayed in
Speaker 2: the family plumbing business, to be honest, it would have
Speaker 2: been a lot better off.
Speaker 1: You'd you make come more dome made.
Speaker 2: Let's yeah, yeah, the alley rates not too horrible. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: exactly so. And Dad's what, Dad's eighty three. Dad rides
Speaker 2: his bike forty k's every second day. Wow, And yeah,
Speaker 2: he just that's his thing and it keeps him fitting healthy.
Speaker 2: And he's I think because his work was always physical.
Speaker 2: You know, he always stayed he was always healthy and strong,
Speaker 2: and you know, he's just just stayed that way. But
Speaker 2: I just I admire them. You go go down there
Speaker 2: and they had to keep up with and they're just
Speaker 2: doing stuff all the time. You'll turn around and they're gone,
Speaker 2: and that'll be out in the paddock somewhere doing something.
Speaker 2: So you know, it's great, it's really it's inspiring.
Speaker 1: Well, that's good for two reasons. One because your folks
Speaker 1: are around and they're healthy, and you love them and
Speaker 1: you want them to be around. But two, that bodes
Speaker 1: well for you genetically. Mate, You're probably not going to
Speaker 1: drop off the perch anytime soon, and your brain's probably
Speaker 1: going to keep working for another decade or three. I
Speaker 1: always my mum and dad are both eighty two, and
Speaker 1: the old Dahls had cancer three times. But she's the
Speaker 1: toughest fucker on the planet, right, She's just I'm a
Speaker 1: complete pussy compared to my mother, and I'm scared of
Speaker 1: her because she's she's five one on a good day
Speaker 1: and weighs about forty nine kilos, dripping wet. She's so
Speaker 1: fucking terrifying. She just keeps Ron and I in control. Right,
Speaker 1: It's good, but her brain, her body, the old man Dad,
Speaker 1: he's the same. They've I don't know why it must
Speaker 1: be just genetic. But they've lost you know, obviously their
Speaker 1: bodies are ready two. But they still both drive, They
Speaker 1: both they socialize. They have great friends and relationships. The
Speaker 1: old man walks five six k's every day. Mum's healthy
Speaker 1: and fit. She works with the old people on Friday's mark.
Speaker 1: She's eighty two and she goes and works with the oldies.
Speaker 1: I'm like, how old are these people?
Speaker 2: Good stuff? It's a great thing, is I mean, it's
Speaker 2: nothing better than seeing your parents, you know, doing well
Speaker 2: in their old years is pretty cool. And just to
Speaker 2: be happy and together and enjoying life, you know, that
Speaker 2: stage of life where you can actually sort of really
Speaker 2: really enjoy having the grandkids around. I know my moment
Speaker 2: don't get a huge buzz from that. Like all grandparents,
Speaker 2: their life becomes the grandkids, I reckon, so you know,
Speaker 2: it's a big part of it. But they also like
Speaker 2: to see them all nick off as well.
Speaker 1: What did you think you're going to be growing up
Speaker 1: or what did you aspire to be?
Speaker 2: Helicopter pilot? That's all I wanted to do. Wow, and
Speaker 2: I got I got hit in the head with a
Speaker 2: cricket bat as a kid, and my eyes went a
Speaker 2: bit wobbly. So that was the end of my flying
Speaker 2: dreams and I went to work in the family business
Speaker 2: with dad and that lasted two weeks before he came
Speaker 2: to me at the end of the day after a
Speaker 2: couple of weeks and said, I think there's other things
Speaker 2: you should be doing marketing life.
Speaker 1: Really I sort of got read you career.
Speaker 2: Redirected by my dad. Went off to UNI, studied engineering
Speaker 2: and at Swinburn in Melbourne, and while that was happening,
Speaker 2: all I ever wanted to do was sort of stay
Speaker 2: involved in sport. And I was sort of getting to
Speaker 2: the end of my water skiing career, and so I thought,
Speaker 2: the only way I can make this last is to
Speaker 2: report on sport, which would be great. I imagined that,
Speaker 2: you know, it just wouldn't be working, it'd just be
Speaker 2: fun and you know it sort of thirty years later,
Speaker 2: I was pretty right. So I got a job at
Speaker 2: the local radio station, which was then three g Linger
Speaker 2: along and that became k Rock FM. That was bought
Speaker 2: by Hoots Media that owned the Triple M network, and
Speaker 2: eventually I moved up to Triple Them in Melbourne and
Speaker 2: I would fill in Monday to Friday sport when Al
Speaker 2: called Eddie Maguire wasn't there, I'd step in for him
Speaker 2: and Eddie was great. Eddie got me into Channel ten
Speaker 2: in Melbourne, so I went to ten and then about
Speaker 2: a year and I commentated some basketball for a while
Speaker 2: on ten. And then about a year later there was
Speaker 2: a job at at Channel seven and Jimmy Wilson rang
Speaker 2: me and said, listen, this could be for you. So
Speaker 2: I went round to Bill Cannon, who was the producer,
Speaker 2: and he interviewed me while he was having a smoke
Speaker 2: in the car park and in I got the good
Speaker 2: old days, and I got the job and that was
Speaker 2: in what started nineteen ninety five, so wow. Yeah. And
Speaker 2: just a few months after that, which was pretty awesome,
Speaker 2: Seven announced that had had the deal for the Summer
Speaker 2: and Winter Olympics from Atlanta in ninety six or at
Speaker 2: a Beijing in two thousand and eight. And I just
Speaker 2: walked in the door and I just said, yes, this
Speaker 2: is where I need to be so that this year,
Speaker 2: well in a couple of weeks I'll head off to
Speaker 2: Beijing and that'll be my thirteenth Olympic Games, which is
Speaker 2: just like I thought, I've ever got to one Olympic
Speaker 2: Games would be awesome. But yeah, thirteen.
Speaker 1: Well, I actually just had a coffee just finished twenty
Speaker 1: minutes ago with somebody who is I don't know. I'm
Speaker 1: going to give you a quick pop quiz live. This
Speaker 1: could be terrible TIF. We might have to edit it out.
Speaker 1: She is a former Winter Olympian and she is I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure, doing some presenting for the Olympics on Channel seven.
Speaker 1: I don't know if she's doing it with you. I
Speaker 1: used to train her when she was an athlete. She
Speaker 1: was a snowboarder who had a very bad accident and
Speaker 1: broke her back. I also trained Jackie Cooper, who was
Speaker 1: very good at breaking stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well I was there in Salt Lake City the
Speaker 2: day that Jackie didn't need which was just before you know,
Speaker 2: she was odds on favorite to win the gold medal
Speaker 2: and then Alisa Camplon jumped up and got the gold medal.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So anyway, I had a coffee with Steph prem.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, flash back there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so she's she's a good lass. So do you
Speaker 1: love doing the Olympics?
Speaker 2: Is it?
Speaker 1: You know, what's what's is it the whole international cultural
Speaker 1: kind of high performance vibe or what specifically, do you
Speaker 1: love It's everything.
Speaker 2: It is the greatest event on Earth. It is it's
Speaker 2: the best of the best, you know, Summer Games, it's
Speaker 2: ten thousand of the best athletes in the world. You know,
Speaker 2: the the energy and the color and the vibrancy and
Speaker 2: the enthusiasm and the sporting history is just incredible. When
Speaker 2: I first went to Atlanta, we sat in the meeting
Speaker 2: and I'm like, I've just walked in the door. I'm
Speaker 2: like twenty something and I'm sitting here in Sandy Roberts,
Speaker 2: Bruce mcavany, you know, Drew morp Preterland, all these legends
Speaker 2: of seven And I turned to Sandy and I said, said, hey,
Speaker 2: what's it like. You know, what's the Olympics like? And
Speaker 2: he gave me the best descript never. He said, the
Speaker 2: Olympics is like two AFL Grand Finals every day for
Speaker 2: two weeks. And he was absolutely spot on. You know,
Speaker 2: that's exactly right, because every day there's an event that
Speaker 2: is in sporting historical significance. You know, it's just just amazing.
Speaker 2: And the winners is about a third of the side.
Speaker 2: But the winters I love because it's just got even
Speaker 2: a friendler, more fun atmosphere. It's got that whole winter
Speaker 2: culture that you only get in winter sport where you
Speaker 2: ski and compete your ass off all day and at
Speaker 2: night you go nuts. You know, you're just party. So
Speaker 2: you know, the winters are they're just they're amazing. And
Speaker 2: I love I love speed stuff, so I love my
Speaker 2: water skiing, my car racing, all that sort of thing.
Speaker 2: So for me now, the winters and the downhill events
Speaker 2: and the sliding, you know, all those sports just just
Speaker 2: blow me away. But the Olympics is, without a doubt,
Speaker 2: the pinnacle. You know, that's the greatest thing I've ever
Speaker 2: seen in my life. And I love it and I'm
Speaker 2: so glad it's coming back to Brisbane in twenty thirty two.
Speaker 2: That's going to be awesome now for our you know,
Speaker 2: our kids and young Australians to actually see it and
Speaker 2: experience it because it has it just has such an
Speaker 2: effect on people, you know, it has such a legacy
Speaker 2: now when you think that Sydney Sydney Games were what
Speaker 2: twenty two years ago and people still talk about it.
Speaker 3: It's crazy where they were and what they were doing
Speaker 3: and what they felt, which is just magic. And yet
Speaker 3: to think that we would get to, you know, to
Speaker 3: see that again in just thirty years. I remember a
Speaker 3: few years ago I bumped into John Coates from the
Speaker 3: AOC and I said, yeah, Coazy, how long do you
Speaker 3: reckon until we'll get to see the games back here?
Speaker 2: And he said, not not this side of twenty fifty,
Speaker 2: so them here in twenty thirty two. It was like, wow,
Speaker 2: that's seriously good.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, I do know you're a rev head and
Speaker 1: a bit of a bog, and at heart I love that.
Speaker 1: I did work for a minute with NIS and Motorsport,
Speaker 1: with the Kelly brothers training the Kelly brothers and Michael
Speaker 1: Caruso and James Moffatt. Ye, let's just say it wasn't
Speaker 1: always the most willing group. Let's just say that someone
Speaker 1: more enthusiastic than others in the gym. But I will
Speaker 1: tell you something funny, both of you two and our listeners,
Speaker 1: was I went to I assume they're still there. They
Speaker 1: were based down in Brayside, right, and they had actually
Speaker 1: had a pretty decent gym setup and they had this
Speaker 1: they had this thing on the war barettes, which is
Speaker 1: a reaction time for Yeah, yeah, have you ever seen
Speaker 1: one of those tips? Bloody amazing.
Speaker 2: So me.
Speaker 1: Fucking hell like a dinosaur with Paul vision. Like I'm
Speaker 1: like a turtle with a spray and elbow, right, And
Speaker 1: so Rick shows me how to do it. Well, I
Speaker 1: knew how to do it, but I'd never done and
Speaker 1: I'm like, it's like, and I go, okay, now, I
Speaker 1: don't know. I think you have. I can't remember exactly
Speaker 1: what it was, but it's like forty five seconds or something,
Speaker 1: and you've got to touch as many as you can.
Speaker 1: I think in forty five seconds, like nineteen or something.
Speaker 1: Rick Kelly, I think he got sixty one or something like.
Speaker 2: Rick's one of the best. Rick's really good at that.
Speaker 1: Crazy I can't even see He's hitting stuff like he's
Speaker 1: seen it and hit it before I've seen it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like I think you're a cyborg.
Speaker 2: Yeah. He's renowned for being bloody good at that actually,
Speaker 2: and he practices it. And it's all about reaction time,
Speaker 2: which you know for guys in what they do is
Speaker 2: everything another Formula one guys do it pretty much. Everyone
Speaker 2: different sports use that machine, but particularly in motorsport. You
Speaker 2: know everyone supercars, you know they trained that a lot,
Speaker 2: which is good.
Speaker 1: Who do you reckon? I mean this is I asked
Speaker 1: this to athletes. Well, I haven't asked this question. Actually
Speaker 1: we interviewed Kurt Fernley Estate. Oh great legend, that dude,
Speaker 1: My goodness, yeah, he him and my mum the two
Speaker 1: toughest people I know. Like I reckon, Mary would crawl
Speaker 1: Kakoda with him if he gave her a chance. But
Speaker 1: you think about that, like he literally he literally crawled
Speaker 1: ninety six kilometers. And I was thinking today without using
Speaker 1: your legs, like you know, when we think crawling, we
Speaker 1: think hands and knees. Well, he can't even do that
Speaker 1: because he literally he didn't really crawl. He dragged himself
Speaker 1: for ninety six kilometers if you think about And I
Speaker 1: was thinking, I was trying to get my head around
Speaker 1: that this morning, and I was I was thinking to myself,
Speaker 1: what would it be like my body, which is not tiny,
Speaker 1: but to drag myself by my elbows and hands ninety
Speaker 1: six meters not ninety six kilometers. I thought I would
Speaker 1: probably be saw for three days. I'd be saw for
Speaker 1: three days if I got one hundred meter running track
Speaker 1: came back four meters and I pulled myself by my
Speaker 1: arms with no assistant from my lower body and then
Speaker 1: times that by a thout, and then do it in mud,
Speaker 1: and then do it uphills, and then do it in humidity,
Speaker 1: and then do it with mosquitos and.
Speaker 2: Shit and rocks and tree stumps and branches and you know,
Speaker 2: I stuff. It's not all beautifully manicured grass the cocater
Speaker 2: trail apparently.
Speaker 1: So mate, there are levels, aren't there? Who do you?
Speaker 1: And I mean this is just an opinion, This is
Speaker 1: not science or research. But I mean, you've been watching athletes.
Speaker 1: You were an elite athlete. I want to talk about
Speaker 1: your stuff too, because that's fascinating as well. But you've
Speaker 1: been around athletes your whole life, and you've been watching
Speaker 1: sport and commentating a lot of your life. Who do
Speaker 1: you think of the mentally toughest athletes slash sports men
Speaker 1: and women going around? And I know this is like
Speaker 1: how long is a piece of string? And what's your
Speaker 1: favorite ice cream? So you don't need to be right
Speaker 1: or wrong.
Speaker 2: Let me let me give you some as they come
Speaker 2: to mind. At the moment, I would say, Ash Barty
Speaker 2: is unbelievable. She's one of the even despite twenty five,
Speaker 2: twenty six, she's one of the most mature switched on
Speaker 2: strong sports people I have ever come across like she
Speaker 2: just you talk to her and you just go, wow,
Speaker 2: you know, she's just got it all going man. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I think her mental toughness is fantastic. You know, she
Speaker 2: can really slug it out and then she can go
Speaker 2: through it in a tough match and regroup and have
Speaker 2: herself back again. But she doesn't get distracted. You know,
Speaker 2: she's got awesome focus, and she's built a team around
Speaker 2: her who compliment that, which is really impressive. Tough tough competitors.
Speaker 2: But a tough competitor is an interesting thing because you
Speaker 2: do I think, you know, you can be mister nicey.
Speaker 2: Craig Lounds is probably a good example of that. You know,
Speaker 2: here's Captain Smiley good times. You know, just you couldn't
Speaker 2: imagine that he would. You know, he did bump you
Speaker 2: off a racetrack when he gets on the track and
Speaker 2: he's racing. Man, he is the most ruthless driver, and
Speaker 2: that I love that. It's great. Mark Skaife was another
Speaker 2: one who was just a tough competitor and you've got
Speaker 2: to I think to a certain point you've got to
Speaker 2: have a bit of that mongle you've got to, you know,
Speaker 2: you've got to when you cross that line, when you
Speaker 2: get on the field or on the racetrack or whatever.
Speaker 2: You know, it's got to be to you life and death.
Speaker 2: You know, it's got to be everything at that time,
Speaker 2: and you've got to put aside every distraction that you
Speaker 2: have and you've got to give it you one hundred
Speaker 2: percent focus. Samantha Kerr strikes me as someone who does
Speaker 2: that really well too. You know, Sam Kerr when she's
Speaker 2: on a football field, while she's just going Tim kale
Speaker 2: just while I'm on football. You know, Tim Calee was
Speaker 2: a good tough nut as well. You know, he just
Speaker 2: just really got in and got the job done. And
Speaker 2: the interesting thing is, I think you see, you just
Speaker 2: see the results that these people are getting, and it
Speaker 2: just tells you that to me, these are athletes who
Speaker 2: tick all the boxes.
Speaker 1: So they do the.
Speaker 2: Work, they do the preparation. They arrived there in the
Speaker 2: best shape they can be, They're well rested, their nutrition's done,
Speaker 2: they ticked everything on the way in. When it comes
Speaker 2: time to actually go and they are mentally they are
Speaker 2: going to win. Like they have the mindset that if
Speaker 2: you are in my way, you're my opposition, and I
Speaker 2: will remove you because I am going to win this
Speaker 2: no matter what. And you know you're saying Bolt was
Speaker 2: another great one like that, you know what, incredible self
Speaker 2: confidence and ability, you know, and just belief in yourself
Speaker 2: and just knowing that you know you were going to
Speaker 2: step out there and get it done. And the thing is,
Speaker 2: these people often make it look so easy that you
Speaker 2: think that they don't care and they don't prepare. I
Speaker 2: guarantee you as you would know, Craig, they prepare harder
Speaker 2: than anyone, you know, because it is it means something
Speaker 2: to them. And I see that watching, you know, watching
Speaker 2: kids come up through the ranks. Now you can tell
Speaker 2: pretty soon sometimes it changes a little bit and you
Speaker 2: get it wrong, but you can just see the kids
Speaker 2: that are really you know that they've got it. You
Speaker 2: know they've just there's something here that clicks. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: I am in this race and I want to win
Speaker 2: it and it means a lot to me, and I'm
Speaker 2: going to win it.
Speaker 1: It's so interesting and it's like you you would have
Speaker 1: been around athletes growing up, being an athlete yourself, But
Speaker 1: I've been around athletes my whole life. I played sport
Speaker 1: from when I was fourteen. I wasn't particularly good, which
Speaker 1: is why I ended up coaching people because I was
Speaker 1: a shit athlete, you know, super enthusiastic though Mark, Yeah,
Speaker 1: well I was the fattest kid in the school for
Speaker 1: a minute, so that didn't help. Apparently I'm carrying around
Speaker 1: ninety kilos when you're fourteen. It's not your ideal genetic start.
Speaker 1: But you know, I met lots of people and like
Speaker 1: I worked at some Kilda for four years, the footy club,
Speaker 1: and I remember meeting obviously I'm not going to say
Speaker 1: who they were, but young guys who would come in
Speaker 1: and I would do the testing. They were bloody amazing
Speaker 1: that their strength, they're running their five k, their repeated sprint,
Speaker 1: their you know, their beep test, like that test off
Speaker 1: the charts, and you go, well, these are some good genetics.
Speaker 1: This is a good body. You know, if he's got
Speaker 1: half a football brain, he could be the next big
Speaker 1: thing and they'd be, you know, from our physiological point
Speaker 1: of view, potentially amazing, but just not the mind and
Speaker 1: not necessarily just not a footy brain. That's part of
Speaker 1: it sometimes, but just not that preparedness to hurt, like
Speaker 1: can you get in pain and stay there and get
Speaker 1: there often? And can you work when you're in pain?
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about stupid, ridiculous pain, but just like
Speaker 1: how uncomfortable can you get and stay and for how long?
Speaker 1: Because that's going to because all these other guys and girls,
Speaker 1: depending on the sport, they're also very good. So if
Speaker 1: you can't hurt yourself and keep hurting yourself in a
Speaker 1: productive way, you're not going to get there. And I
Speaker 1: saw lots of guys that I thought would be once
Speaker 1: I tested them, I thought they're probably going to be
Speaker 1: superstars who literally played three games.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well why did you talk football? And other names?
Speaker 2: I've been doing a bit of bike riding with him.
Speaker 1: Is Tony Lockett, my trained plugger.
Speaker 4: He hated me, and no he didn't. He hated me
Speaker 4: and he hated the gym. He's like, fuck the bench, breass,
Speaker 4: fuck your ways. He's like he was, but such a
Speaker 4: good dude though, Yeah, go.
Speaker 2: On, have you seen him lately?
Speaker 1: Because he is an athlete, you obviously got through to him.
Speaker 2: Because he is in such good nick. If he had
Speaker 2: been in that shape when he was playing, he would
Speaker 2: have done even even more amazing things. But his mental
Speaker 2: ability to just switch on and not be beaten. I
Speaker 2: think the thing about Plugger is he has this this
Speaker 2: thing in here that says, you are not going to
Speaker 2: beat me, you know. And I had a fun experience
Speaker 2: a few years ago. I got to toss the coin
Speaker 2: at the SCG at the start of the Swans and
Speaker 2: Geelong match. And I know Joel Selwood and Goodsy really well,
Speaker 2: and so we got out there to toss the coin
Speaker 2: and I looked at these two guys toss the coin,
Speaker 2: looked at them both and I have never seen those
Speaker 2: blokes look like that, like they they would go to war.
Speaker 2: And I didn't know that either of them had it
Speaker 2: in them. But you look at Joel Sellwood and what
Speaker 2: he does on the free field. Sometimes that guy can
Speaker 2: have a lead chopped off and he'd still be running
Speaker 2: rings around his opposition. A number of times they have
Speaker 2: reband each he's bleeding head and send him back out there,
Speaker 2: and he still does incredible things leading that team. You know.
Speaker 2: It's just I don't know what it is. If you
Speaker 2: can find it, Craig and define it and bottle it.
Speaker 2: But that thing, that instinct that just makes people incredible,
Speaker 2: incredible competitors and that want to get the job done.
Speaker 2: And you see, I mean you see it in all
Speaker 2: walks of life too. You're see it in sales, you
Speaker 2: see it in seed, in defense, in the army, just
Speaker 2: blokes will just go the extra mile to make sure
Speaker 2: that the job's done and that there's no way that
Speaker 2: job's not getting done. But it's a great gift. I
Speaker 2: think it's a really I find it probably the most
Speaker 2: admirable gift someone that ability to get in and saying this,
Speaker 2: I've got this and I am doing it.
Speaker 1: We just did. Where I'm doing my PhD, there was
Speaker 1: there was just a great big research project done on
Speaker 1: what they call cognitive fitness and and a lot of
Speaker 1: it was around being able to perform under pressure, so
Speaker 1: whether or not that's as an elite athlete or in
Speaker 1: the military or you know, first responders, or in other words,
Speaker 1: being able to keep your shit together work optimally when
Speaker 1: things are really hard like and there's another there's a
Speaker 1: really nice kind of concept of this in Eastern philosophy
Speaker 1: called equanimity, which is being the calm and the chaos.
Speaker 1: And somebody who used to do that really well that
Speaker 1: I worked with, which you would be very familiar with
Speaker 1: was Robert Harvey, who who I you know, I was,
Speaker 1: I trained, had nothing to do with me, but I
Speaker 1: was just lucky enough to be training him when he
Speaker 1: wanted his two brownlows. Again, zero to do with me.
Speaker 1: I just happened to be at the club. But he
Speaker 1: he just had an ability like I would look at
Speaker 1: him and I know how far he's run, I know
Speaker 1: how I know how many tackles he's later, I Miami kicks,
Speaker 1: I know what his data is at the moment, and
Speaker 1: I'm going, how on earth is he still running? And
Speaker 1: I'd look at him and go, that's it. He's done.
Speaker 1: He's dead, he's off. He's sprinting at one hundred and
Speaker 1: six percent. But we all used to see him hunched
Speaker 1: over like someone with Himphasema, who was gasping for air.
Speaker 1: And like twelve seconds later he was running at MAC
Speaker 1: two chasing someone. Not that he was the fastest unit
Speaker 1: by all means, but he still ran twenty k's a
Speaker 1: day a game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, it is. It's an incredible thing. It's yeah,
Speaker 2: as I say it, just it's a thing that I
Speaker 2: probably I find most attractive about sport is to see
Speaker 2: people just go to their limit and beyond like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's just because you.
Speaker 2: Can see it. You can see what it's happening, you know,
Speaker 2: and you just you just admire it, you know. I
Speaker 2: just love it. And we're lucky. We see it a lot,
Speaker 2: you know. You see it in plenty of people, which
Speaker 2: is great.
Speaker 1: I now I'm not all over this, but I do
Speaker 1: know that you do have a You were an elite
Speaker 1: water skier, that's all I know. I know that you
Speaker 1: were very You were in a multiple Australian chair. I actually
Speaker 1: don't have this in front of me, but you were
Speaker 1: a multiple Australian champion, weren't you.
Speaker 2: I won won ten Australian championships. Yeah, and I did
Speaker 2: eight member Masters and made the finals there four times.
Speaker 2: But I loved it. Mum and Dad they were they
Speaker 2: loved water skiing when I was They taught me to
Speaker 2: ski when I was four, before I could even swim.
Speaker 2: Dad put a life jacket on me. And to be sure,
Speaker 2: because I couldn't swim, you put a second life jacket
Speaker 2: on the front of me, so I went on the
Speaker 2: back one on the front, so I bobbed up and
Speaker 2: down like Dennis Committee's cork in the ocean, the metaphoric
Speaker 2: cork in the ocean. Every time he said that, I
Speaker 2: thought of myself as a four year old. But and
Speaker 2: then I learned to ski and I just I just
Speaker 2: loved it. I think I loved you just the rush
Speaker 2: of a being on the water and the speed of
Speaker 2: the thing, and like I guess, like a lot of
Speaker 2: people who get involved in sport, you just you just
Speaker 2: keep going, and you know, one day you get to
Speaker 2: a point where it's all going all right, and yeah,
Speaker 2: you've come a long way. And I've just really enjoyed
Speaker 2: the sport. It gave me my best mates today. Like
Speaker 2: you know, people say this about their footy or their
Speaker 2: netball or whatever teams have been part of. But for me,
Speaker 2: my best mates and old scheme buddies, you know, we
Speaker 2: catch up. You know, we'll catch up maybe once a
Speaker 2: year or so, and it's just like you never you've
Speaker 2: never been a part. So the sport was great for
Speaker 2: me and I love it and it's a it's a
Speaker 2: great family sport because for me, the good thing about
Speaker 2: it is you have to have other people there to
Speaker 2: do it, so you know, people in the boat and
Speaker 2: you need people around you. So that was it was awesome.
Speaker 2: I loved it.
Speaker 1: How how old were you when you started competing, Pretz.
Speaker 2: I remember I was eight years old when I got
Speaker 2: mom and dad sent me away to a training camp.
Speaker 2: The Victory and Association did a training camp a Bridgewater
Speaker 2: just outside to Go and I went to that and
Speaker 2: I was so bloody homesick every.
Speaker 1: Day, princess.
Speaker 2: And then about the third night I fell out of
Speaker 2: the bunk in the caravan. That was going really.
Speaker 1: Well, I shouldn't laugh, but anyway, but that explains a
Speaker 1: few cognitive issues down the track, right exactly.
Speaker 2: But look at and then gosh, I think I waited
Speaker 2: to make state teen when I was fourteen thirteen. I'm
Speaker 2: still doing it junior boys. Yeah, and won my first
Speaker 2: national title I think in Adelaide at Paddle alonga National Titles.
Speaker 2: That was nineteen eighty.
Speaker 1: So yeah, coming out, this is something that me, as
Speaker 1: an XCISE scientist, have never thought about. TOI right now,
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna you're going to tell me what from
Speaker 1: a physiological point of view, body strength, endurance, balance, coordination,
Speaker 1: spatial awareness, apart from innate talent, what makes someone great
Speaker 1: at what you did? And I know you're going to
Speaker 1: be humble and stuff. But you're untended by the Australian titles.
Speaker 1: So we know you were shiitt. That's okay, what like
Speaker 1: and training and all that and resources, We get all
Speaker 1: of that, but what are the physical requirements just broadly
Speaker 1: for someone to be great at that?
Speaker 2: So I don't want to talk this up right, but
Speaker 2: I'll tell you I have done. As you know, I've
Speaker 2: dabbled in a lot of sport. I've never done anything
Speaker 2: as physically taxing a scheme skiing because your legs are
Speaker 2: working hard, your back's working hard, your arms are working hard.
Speaker 2: I just found there was nothing else that gave you
Speaker 2: the full body workout like scheme, and I still haven't
Speaker 2: found it. Because you know, you've actually a tuggle wall
Speaker 2: with the boat the whole time. That's that's what it is.
Speaker 2: You know, you're sort of you're backing that leaning position
Speaker 2: away from the boat because to generate speed, you lead
Speaker 2: away from the boat and that gives you your acceleration.
Speaker 2: So the whole time you're basically just fighting against the boats.
Speaker 2: It's basically a tug of war for you know whatever,
Speaker 2: five to ten minutes whatever you're out there. So I
Speaker 2: think you're probably you've got a good all round build,
Speaker 2: you know you certainly shoulder strength. Back strength is a
Speaker 2: big thing, and cardio as well, because you know you're
Speaker 2: doing if you if you're going well in slalom, which
Speaker 2: is the six boy course, and then when you make that,
Speaker 2: the rape gets short and you come back again, so
Speaker 2: you can keep doing that for sort of four or
Speaker 2: five runs. See cardio gets a good workout. Jumping was
Speaker 2: a jumping was all power. Jumping is a power sport.
Speaker 1: Jumping's terrifying. Keep that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Actually, I think today at fifty five, I look
Speaker 2: back and I think, how did I do that? I
Speaker 2: was I thinking, because it is now there's a bit
Speaker 2: of risk to it. And luckily I never had a
Speaker 2: bad accident, but I've got some mates who did, and
Speaker 2: you know, it was it was just one of those
Speaker 2: things that you just did. You know. I learned to
Speaker 2: go over a jump ramp when I was eight years
Speaker 2: old at that that ski school outside bender Game, and
Speaker 2: it took me a week to actually to away from
Speaker 2: a jump, and it was terrifying because at eight years
Speaker 2: of age, you're skiing up something that's more than twice
Speaker 2: your height. So it's just it's terrific, but god, it's satisfying.
Speaker 2: And when you when you nailed the right jump, it
Speaker 2: was it was the greatest. And when you're on the
Speaker 2: Yarrow under lights in the night jump a bit and
Speaker 2: there's one hundred thousand people there and they're yelling out
Speaker 2: and the music's cranking, there's not many better feelings in
Speaker 2: the world, I reckon.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you think how many athletes get to do
Speaker 1: their thing in front of one hundred thousand people, apart
Speaker 1: from you know, even some of the best athletes in
Speaker 1: the world, and you know, the best surfers on the
Speaker 1: planet never surf in front of one hundred thousand people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you know, that tournament I remember, was a
Speaker 2: just extraordinary thing. It was the biggest ski tournament in
Speaker 2: the world. And it just so happens that it started
Speaker 2: in the nineteen sixties on the Yarraw and it just
Speaker 2: just kept going and growing, and you know it had
Speaker 2: I mean for a while it was this and that's
Speaker 2: a big part of how I got to seven. Member
Speaker 2: was Seven's longest running continuous broadcast for up until sort
Speaker 2: of you know, I think it was ten years ago.
Speaker 2: They didn't go on with it, but you know I was.
Speaker 2: It had been on TV in Melbourne for a long
Speaker 2: long time and you know, the sport grew. We used
Speaker 2: to have a celebrity slam on event and a lot
Speaker 2: of the footy players would come down and have a ski.
Speaker 2: Johnny Platten from Hawthorne was a great little sylum skier
Speaker 2: because most of the guys you know, had sort of
Speaker 2: grown up around Rivers and now a lot of guys
Speaker 2: from a Choker and you know, from South Australia and
Speaker 2: they just they knew how to ski and they were good.
Speaker 2: So we had a great little event there with those guys.
Speaker 1: I think about think about this Tiff and Mark but
Speaker 1: Tips a trainer and a bit of a fitness bunny
Speaker 1: and a guru. When you're skiing, right, you are unless
Speaker 1: I fuck this up? Correct me? Mark, but so he
Speaker 1: needs avent. You need a inflection the whole time, right
Speaker 1: Obviously you're not. You don't have straight legs, so you're
Speaker 1: in a semi squat the whole time, and so your
Speaker 1: quads and your glutes and your ass. Yeah, your hammies
Speaker 1: are under tension the whole like there's no reprieve.
Speaker 2: It's like their shock absorbers. Your legs your shock absorbers.
Speaker 2: So when you're cutting back and forward, you're hitting the
Speaker 2: boat's wake and your legs have got it suck up
Speaker 2: that shock each time, and then the whole time, as
Speaker 2: I said, you're back in that arch position with your back,
Speaker 2: using your shoulders and your back to get you accelerated
Speaker 2: across the wake, and we would hit that. Remember you'd
Speaker 2: hit the jump ramp at just over one hundred k's
Speaker 2: an hour, so you know the boat to be doing
Speaker 2: is about fifty six fifty eight, and then you know
Speaker 2: you would almost double that by cutting backwards and forwards
Speaker 2: behind the boats wake, so you generate this whiplash effect
Speaker 2: that eventually would get you onto the ramp about one
Speaker 2: hundred ks an hour. It was done, real exhilaration. I
Speaker 2: miss it.
Speaker 1: I'll never do it again once again. Fuck that.
Speaker 2: Keep.
Speaker 1: That's ridiculous. How when was the last time you're on
Speaker 1: a pair of skis doing something more sedentary?
Speaker 2: We have to go to this lot, okay, so last time? Right?
Speaker 1: Oh here we go. Come on, hey, everyone, get the
Speaker 1: bean bag out, beat up. This is going to be good.
Speaker 1: Get comfy.
Speaker 2: I've gone out and I'm up in Queensland and I've
Speaker 2: gone to there's an awesome water skir called Emma.
Speaker 1: Shears before you tell us. She didn't let you go
Speaker 1: get in the way, did you.
Speaker 2: Big Tom, big time. I love that. There's a few
Speaker 2: people there, and I'm thinking I'm going to I'm going
Speaker 2: to put on with Michelle here. So I've gone out
Speaker 2: a sylum course. I'm going all right, I'm ripping into it.
Speaker 2: And and I missed my second, my second last run.
Speaker 2: I missed the last boy, and Emma said to me,
Speaker 2: come on, you know, pussy, you have a bit of
Speaker 2: a go there, right. So I've come out of lasting right,
Speaker 2: and I've done probably I'm in heaven. It's paradise. I'm
Speaker 2: having probably the best run I've had in like twenty years.
Speaker 2: I get to the fourth boy the Salem course, and
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, my front, yeah, it's on my
Speaker 2: bat name, and the left nee goes clunk, like just
Speaker 2: a just a bought clunk cent. I think that was weird.
Speaker 2: And I'm lying in the water and I've sort of
Speaker 2: got no control over it. I jump up on the
Speaker 2: boat and I sat on the back of the boat
Speaker 2: and I fell out. So I had sort of no
Speaker 2: control of the knee and what I'd done was I'd
Speaker 2: actually pulled the quad muscle off the barn. Oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: So if you can relate to that injury, it's about
Speaker 2: a twelve months recovery. So I flew back down to Melbourne,
Speaker 2: went into went straight into Rayal off Shaw Hospital and
Speaker 2: found a great surgeon who reattached it and began a
Speaker 2: long process for that one you're in, you're in a split.
Speaker 2: I was in a split zero movement for six weeks
Speaker 2: and then you start rehabit. It's just like all the injuries.
Speaker 2: It's sort of you know, five degrees, ten degrees, fifteen,
Speaker 2: and it just takes forever.
Speaker 1: And I bet when you came out of that cast
Speaker 1: you looked like my mum.
Speaker 2: But it was some Yeah, I was being silly, but
Speaker 2: that's a good lesson.
Speaker 1: That's a great story though. But I've not heard of
Speaker 1: too many people tearing so obviously at the knee, not
Speaker 1: at the hip. So it off at the knee, so
Speaker 1: the tell attendon correct yep.
Speaker 2: And actually shattered the kneecaps. I broke the kneecap as well,
Speaker 2: So if you imagine it's it's sort of lost control
Speaker 2: and just just pumped through the kneecap as well, which
Speaker 2: was great. I felt good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I can imagine I bet you were just
Speaker 1: I bet you a love and life.
Speaker 2: You would know this though, Craig and people often told
Speaker 2: me this, and it was my first knee injury, so
Speaker 2: I was new to it. But often the worst it
Speaker 2: is the less it hurts. So it actually it wasn't
Speaker 2: too bad that the pain until I got back on
Speaker 2: sitting on the bank and I actually started to shake
Speaker 2: and got the shock shakes and that's when I thought, Okay,
Speaker 2: we better go to hospital and chick. Yeah, but that
Speaker 2: was the whole adventure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that was definitely worth asking that question. Good job, Harps.
Speaker 1: I'll just pump up momentie and pat myself on the back.
Speaker 1: Tell us about the first time that they went, all right, mate,
Speaker 1: you're on National Telly tonight, don't fuck it up. Tell
Speaker 1: us about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. It would have been at seven Melbourne and I
Speaker 2: would have been I was reading the news with a
Speaker 2: guy called Dean Felt. It Mitch meet Peter Mitchell used
Speaker 2: to do the weekend news before you know it took
Speaker 2: over Monday to Friday, and Dean Felt and I were
Speaker 2: rostered on which probably means it was probably Christmas Day
Speaker 2: or something like that, and I was so I just
Speaker 2: so wanted to do it, you know, I was so excited,
Speaker 2: and I guess I should have been really nervous, and
Speaker 2: I wasn't. I just really wanted to have a go
Speaker 2: at this thing because I'd watched it and watched it,
Speaker 2: and I'd seen it and TV has just got a
Speaker 2: magic thing for me, you know. I'm just I really
Speaker 2: like the industry and I love there's just a magic
Speaker 2: to it, you know, and it's something about it for me.
Speaker 2: And maybe it's just I'm old school whatever, but I
Speaker 2: just like TV. I'm obsessed by it and so to actually,
Speaker 2: you know, to be doing that was it just blew
Speaker 2: me away. And I have times now often, you know,
Speaker 2: I regularly get very nervous about what I'm about to do.
Speaker 2: And that's sort of what I've been there almost thirty
Speaker 2: twenty eight, twenty eight years at seven. Yeah, so you know,
Speaker 2: you still get on edge of that stuff.
Speaker 1: But I reckon that's good. I reckon that's good, mate,
Speaker 1: because it means you don't have a massive ego, and
Speaker 1: it means you, like I think I talk a lot
Speaker 1: about you know, when I was a kid. I was
Speaker 1: just this fat, insecure, overthinking kid that didn't fit in
Speaker 1: and thought I wasn't good enough and imposter syndrome and
Speaker 1: all that shit. And since then I've done okay, right,
Speaker 1: I've done okay. I'm not amazing, but I've done okay
Speaker 1: and done some good stuff. But I still feel that
Speaker 1: self doubt, you know, And I still feel even talking
Speaker 1: to you. You know, I talk to lots of great
Speaker 1: people on this, and sometimes I go, am I smart
Speaker 1: enough to talk to this? But am I worthy? Am I?
Speaker 1: There's all that self doubt shit, and I think I
Speaker 1: think a bit of you know, we don't want to
Speaker 1: be overwhelmed, but I think a little bit of insecurity
Speaker 1: and a little bit of it. Just for me, it
Speaker 1: keeps me on my toes and it makes me, you know,
Speaker 1: every podcast that I do, I want it to be
Speaker 1: the best podcast I've done. You know it won't be,
Speaker 1: but do you know what I mean. It's like I
Speaker 1: never want a cruise. I never wanted to take it
Speaker 1: for granted. I never you know, and whether or not
Speaker 1: it's opening my gyms, or whether or not it's you know,
Speaker 1: whatever I'm doing doing workshops and presentations, every time I
Speaker 1: do a workshop, I'm grateful every audience. I'm grateful every
Speaker 1: time i'm I go. I want this to be awesome
Speaker 1: for them, and I think that I don't know, I
Speaker 1: think being for me. This sounds contradictory, but I always
Speaker 1: say that for people mediocrety was my gift because I
Speaker 1: didn't grow up being awesome at anything, but that not
Speaker 1: being awesome at anything made me work really hard because
Speaker 1: I wanted to be awesome or I wanted to be good.
Speaker 1: I wanted to be successful, I wanted to excel at something,
Speaker 1: and you know, for me, it just instilled this thing
Speaker 1: in me that I kind of figured out. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: like even with this podcast Mark, we did three before
Speaker 1: it that didn't work. You know, they're okay, but they
Speaker 1: weren't setting the world on fire. And I kind of
Speaker 1: figured out along the way, what's the formula or what
Speaker 1: do people want? What don't people want? And we just
Speaker 1: signed with Nova, which is great, and we're doing lovely
Speaker 1: and the numbers are amazing and it's all awesome, but
Speaker 1: we're nearly seven hundred episodes in. It's not like it
Speaker 1: was an overnight thing, and so people go, oh, you
Speaker 1: do an amazing. I'm like, well, yeah, all up. We've
Speaker 1: done about a thousand episodes and now we're doing okay.
Speaker 1: You know, it's not like you just persevere. You just
Speaker 1: roll up the sleeves, you know. And what I love
Speaker 1: about you and I'm not pissing in your pocket.
Speaker 2: Like to you.
Speaker 1: I didn't. I've never met you, but you now which
Speaker 1: I suspect. This is just how you are. If you
Speaker 1: and I were having a coffee, I think you'd be
Speaker 1: exactly the same. You're the same on Telly. Like with
Speaker 1: a lot of people, I get the vibe. There's a
Speaker 1: bit of a persona. Some people seem to be just themselves,
Speaker 1: very real, raw, authentic. And I can tell you fucking
Speaker 1: love sport. You're not in there doing a job for
Speaker 1: a paycheck like you love sport, You love athletes, you
Speaker 1: love breaking it down. Especially when you're around the VH.
Speaker 1: You're like a kid in a candy store.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I go like, this is exactly what I expect. And
Speaker 1: I think that's why people would, you know, be drawn
Speaker 1: to you as a commentator and as an expert in
Speaker 1: that space.
Speaker 2: Thanks Craig. That's that's an awesome thing, man. That's probably
Speaker 2: that's the kindest thing you could say to me.
Speaker 1: Actually, because it's true though I think, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: I do.
Speaker 2: When I started this all those years ago, the one
Speaker 2: thing I thought I could do is tell athletes stories,
Speaker 2: because I felt like I had an appreciation or an understanding.
Speaker 2: And that's always been to me, that's been the most
Speaker 2: important thing, is to tell the story of the athlete
Speaker 2: and what they're going through and what they've done to
Speaker 2: get there. And you know, if you know, and that's
Speaker 2: that's what gives your enthusiasm, you know, because God, I've
Speaker 2: seen some great careers, you know, I've watched people, you know,
Speaker 2: come from there their early days, just chipping away, chipping away,
Speaker 2: and then make it and you know, and beyond, and
Speaker 2: it's just it's the best thing. You know, it's just
Speaker 2: just great. And I'm lucky to call you some of
Speaker 2: some of our great sports people are mates, and you know,
Speaker 2: it's a blessing because it's really hard because I'm so
Speaker 2: in awe of them. My old man told me something
Speaker 2: a long time ago. I remember, he was a tough
Speaker 2: old plumber. He said to me, you might not be
Speaker 2: the brightest person in the room, but you can always
Speaker 2: be the hardest working person in the room and that
Speaker 2: has stuck with me and I remember that every day.
Speaker 2: You know, when your LAMB goes off at three thirty
Speaker 2: five in the morning, you know that that's not for everyone.
Speaker 2: You know that's not always easy to get up and
Speaker 2: do that, but you know you do it because you
Speaker 2: go that extra yard, you know. And I love the
Speaker 2: job and I love I love Summrise, I love the show.
Speaker 2: I love actually being up in the morning and doing
Speaker 2: that stuff. I love being sort of first with the
Speaker 2: news from overnight. And Koshi was another Koshi is a
Speaker 2: very bright man and he said to me very early on,
Speaker 2: he said, when you when you come on to this show,
Speaker 2: he said, you'd leave your ego at the door because
Speaker 2: you cannot bullshit people four and a half hours. You
Speaker 2: just can't. It'll fall apart. And we can't lie about
Speaker 2: being friends if we're not friends. You know, we can't
Speaker 2: pretend to be mates because all that stuff, you know,
Speaker 2: it all unravels now. You can't. You can't bullshit people. Basically,
Speaker 2: A great thing about Australians is we have this, I'd say,
Speaker 2: the world's best in built bullshit meetup. If someone is
Speaker 2: telling you porky pies. We seem to know very very quickly.
Speaker 2: And I think you know and everything you do you
Speaker 2: keep that in mind. You just straight up with people.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I think you know that that thing about
Speaker 2: you know, being the hardest worker, and I tried. That's
Speaker 2: the one thing I would love to get through to
Speaker 2: my kids is that you you won't necessarily be that
Speaker 2: the one that everyone thinks is the star, or you
Speaker 2: won't be you won't be the one who's the most
Speaker 2: gifted or the best. But by crikey, if you can
Speaker 2: be the hardest worker in the room every time, you'll
Speaker 2: you'll get where you want to go.
Speaker 1: And I think you know a level of fucking up
Speaker 1: and falling down and failing is a gift because it's
Speaker 1: who you become in the middle of that.
Speaker 2: Mate.
Speaker 1: I've done so many things that didn't work out, like
Speaker 1: three podcasts before this, like corporate speaking gigs that were
Speaker 1: a rock solid one out of ten. You know that
Speaker 1: so many things. I've done more things that didn't work
Speaker 1: than did work. But it's in the not working and
Speaker 1: it's well, do I call this a failure or do
Speaker 1: I call this a lesson? And I know that sounds
Speaker 1: bullshitty philosophical But for me, it's out of the pain
Speaker 1: and the fuck ups and the trials and tribulations that
Speaker 1: I built skill, that I built awareness, that I developed insight,
Speaker 1: that I built resilience, that I became mentally emotionally tougher,
Speaker 1: that I could deal with shits. And and I'm okay,
Speaker 1: you don't like me. I wish you did, but it's
Speaker 1: cool that you don't. You didn't like that, that's cool too.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I get at least because I have a reasonable social
Speaker 1: media presence and we do lots of podcasts, I get
Speaker 1: at least one or two people a week who send
Speaker 1: me an email and go, you're a fucking and I go, hey, Brian,
Speaker 1: thanks for your feedback. Enjoy your week.
Speaker 2: Jam. You just is what it is. You should think
Speaker 2: yourself lucky you just at one and two.
Speaker 1: Well, that's just being conservd It happens in thousands when
Speaker 1: people think I'm better than I am. I just we're
Speaker 1: going to wind up because we can't talk forever. I
Speaker 1: would love to, though, you're a gun tell me about
Speaker 1: So when are you heading off to the Winter Olympics,
Speaker 1: Like in a week.
Speaker 2: Or so, just two weeks. First of pep.
Speaker 1: Yeah cool, So broadly speaking for that, but also more
Speaker 1: broadly speaking for all the other stuff that you report
Speaker 1: on and call and commentate on, how much prep tell
Speaker 1: us about the prep because you can't just I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure you're not all over all the bloody winter sports,
Speaker 1: and I'm pretty sure you can't bullshit you are. I
Speaker 1: would give it a go because I'm that kind of person.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure you can't bullshit your way through the
Speaker 1: Winter Olympics.
Speaker 2: You can't. You can't really, you can't bullshit your way
Speaker 2: through much at all life exactly. But yeah, yeah, heaps.
Speaker 2: I think this will be my seventh Winter a little
Speaker 2: bit game, so I've got a recently good handle on
Speaker 2: it and how it works in the events, but you
Speaker 2: still brush up, So I would spend probably been going
Speaker 2: for at least a month now, but before that you
Speaker 2: keep an eye on things, but probably two three months
Speaker 2: out you're really starting to, you know, to write notes,
Speaker 2: to read things, to highlight, build folders. I've got a
Speaker 2: set of folders here, So yeah, it's pretty full on
Speaker 2: because you've got to you've got to be able to
Speaker 2: recall it like that pretty much. I mean, I don't
Speaker 2: know for me. Bruce mcavey has been the benchmark and
Speaker 2: there's no one better than Bruce anywhere in the world.
Speaker 2: I can tell you we're so lucky to have him here.
Speaker 2: But you go to Bruce's house and he has a
Speaker 2: wall of volumes of notebooks where he just writes notes.
Speaker 2: Every day. He gets the papers, gets the results, writes
Speaker 2: notes about people. You know. He's just and that's how
Speaker 2: he drills it into his mind and it's there when
Speaker 2: he needs it. But yeah, preparation is a massive thing,
Speaker 2: a massive.
Speaker 1: Things he has. Genuinely, I met him one said SCN
Speaker 1: and I'm like, he just his presence is a amazing
Speaker 1: but he's brain. He's rain man. He's the rain man.
Speaker 1: Like literally the ship that he doesn't know is not
Speaker 1: worth knowing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, he's awesome. Same thing with Mackett. Two. I
Speaker 2: think I've learned a lot from guys like human and
Speaker 2: he's been very kind to me over the years, particularly
Speaker 2: early on too. I remember I did remember I used
Speaker 2: to have a show called Sports World on a Sunday
Speaker 2: morning and I stood in once to do the updates,
Speaker 2: and I had these scripts already and basically it all
Speaker 2: fell to poop and they just disappeared on me on
Speaker 2: the computer. He just looked at me. We're about to
Speaker 2: go to wear and do my update, and he just
Speaker 2: looked across. He said, you'll be right, you know it.
Speaker 2: And I thought, shit, okay. Well, you know when someone
Speaker 2: just someone with that authority gives you that handy that
Speaker 2: I guess, the chalice of trust and says you know it,
Speaker 2: you can do this, and you just go, yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: I can do this, and I did somehow we got
Speaker 2: through it. But yeah, just an awesome, awesome human, you know.
Speaker 2: And like I said, honestly, he is renowned as the
Speaker 2: best in the world and we're so lucky he's an Aussie.
Speaker 1: Did you feel like saying I wish I was as
Speaker 1: good as you think I am or my better?
Speaker 2: You did this from Bruce.
Speaker 1: I this is on a much smaller level, mate. But
Speaker 1: I you know, I used to do stuff at SCN
Speaker 1: for a long time, and I used to have I
Speaker 1: used to do a show called the High Performance Show.
Speaker 1: Then I did the Science of Sport for a long time.
Speaker 1: But but I used to do for quite a few summers.
Speaker 1: I would do weekends and it was called I forget
Speaker 1: five hours from midday till five, and I mean, have
Speaker 1: you have you've done a bit of radio.
Speaker 2: Have you? Or triple yeah? I love radio. It's awesome.
Speaker 1: But you know, so I would sit in the studio
Speaker 1: and it's just me in the studio and outside the
Speaker 1: other window is window is a producer, and then now
Speaker 1: and then some people would come in. But you know,
Speaker 1: you just you need to be really organized, especially when
Speaker 1: there's no music. It's all it's on talk right, so
Speaker 1: there's no no fucking get out of jail guard like,
Speaker 1: it's just you. And anyway, we came out of the
Speaker 1: twelve o'clock news and it's like, you know, twelve oh
Speaker 1: four or five, and I'm like, I go Melvenheimer Sport.
Speaker 1: It's five million in the next hour. I'm doing this
Speaker 1: and that. And later on we've got this bloke and
Speaker 1: that bloke. I'm Craig Harper. I'm there, I'm all that
Speaker 1: kind of shit. And then right now and we're about
Speaker 1: to go out to Rodney hog at the MCG and
Speaker 1: I'm like and then and I throwed a hoggy and
Speaker 1: as I do that, the producer goes, we've lost him stretch.
Speaker 1: I'm like, fuck stretching, I've got nothing. I mate, I
Speaker 1: just said everything I was And this was literally the
Speaker 1: first time I'd hosted a big chunk by myself, and
Speaker 1: it was the first two minutes I was on air.
Speaker 1: I was done. I do not know how I got.
Speaker 1: It was like running a marathon and I fell on
Speaker 1: my face in the first two meters.
Speaker 2: I can only laugh because I know that feeling so well.
Speaker 2: As soon as you see this scene, it's.
Speaker 1: Like, I'm like, what actly? Exactly? And I did a
Speaker 1: bit of stuff also, obviously nowhere nothing, just bits and pieces.
Speaker 1: But on the David and Kim Show on Channel ten,
Speaker 1: and I had to do an ob and outside broadcast
Speaker 1: and they're like, okay, we want you to use AUTOQ.
Speaker 4: I'm like, no, you really don't trust me, you really don't.
Speaker 1: They're like, I go just talk to me. I'll be fine.
Speaker 1: And so I had to fight on that because they
Speaker 1: wanted it anyway. But live TV and live radio, Mate,
Speaker 1: you're a much braver, braver and more talented and skilled
Speaker 1: person than me.
Speaker 2: Hey, it's just practice, Craig, That's all just practice.
Speaker 1: Like anything, we really appreciate you having the chat with us.
Speaker 1: You're a ripper. I so enjoyed it. How do people
Speaker 1: find you and follow you. Are you on the socials
Speaker 1: or are you a little bit too high brow for that?
Speaker 2: I know I love the socials speaking so you see
Speaker 2: me in my life or having a bike ride this morning?
Speaker 1: What's your INSTA hand or you all?
Speaker 2: But I'm just at Mark barretta really simple on Instagram
Speaker 2: and Twitter. Yeah, we appreciate you. Stay there.
Speaker 1: We'll say goodbye to the crew and then we'll come
Speaker 1: back and say goodbye to you off here. But thank
Speaker 1: you so much for coming and chatting with us on
Speaker 1: the new project.
Speaker 2: I really enjoyed it, guys, and at any time, keen
Speaker 2: to come back. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Don't say that. It'll be a regular before you know it.
Speaker 1: You'll be a highly unplaid regular before you know it.
Speaker 1: We're cheap as fuck. Yeah, Barrett's is back fourth time
Speaker 1: this week. Hates my guts, don't care. He made a promise.
Speaker 1: See everyone,