1
00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:04,280
Speaker 1: This episode of Head Game was recorded on gadigal Land

2
00:00:04,480 --> 00:00:06,160
Speaker 1: Lasing bet Matthew Johns.

3
00:00:06,440 --> 00:00:11,079
Speaker 2: That's right alongside of Matthew Giants and this jaster is

4
00:00:11,119 --> 00:00:12,320
Speaker 2: coming the first grade.

5
00:00:12,600 --> 00:00:16,680
Speaker 1: He's getting plenty of wreaths and deservedly. It's October two

6
00:00:16,720 --> 00:00:19,920
Speaker 1: thousand and two. More than two hundred games of first

7
00:00:19,920 --> 00:00:22,959
Speaker 1: grade and Representative Rugby League have taken their toll on

8
00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:26,800
Speaker 1: the body of Matty John's. After eleven years of putting

9
00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:29,120
Speaker 1: his body on the line week in and week out,

10
00:00:29,400 --> 00:00:33,640
Speaker 1: sirius neck and shoulder injuries have him sidelined. The prognosis

11
00:00:33,640 --> 00:00:38,120
Speaker 1: from surgeons any fix would be temporary, risking permanent damage.

12
00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:42,000
Speaker 1: He makes the agonizing decision to retire from the game

13
00:00:42,120 --> 00:00:45,159
Speaker 1: he loves so much. But as the door on his

14
00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:48,680
Speaker 1: playing career closes, the door to a career in entertainment

15
00:00:48,880 --> 00:00:52,920
Speaker 1: opens up. Matty had become a hit with audiences of

16
00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:57,440
Speaker 1: the Footy Show after several hilarious appearances, and he would

17
00:00:57,440 --> 00:01:01,040
Speaker 1: soon join the show permanently. More than twenty years on,

18
00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:08,320
Speaker 1: he still has audiences laughing across TV, radio and podcasts.

19
00:01:10,080 --> 00:01:13,560
Speaker 1: I'm Att Middleton and this is head Game Today. Matty

20
00:01:13,640 --> 00:01:16,480
Speaker 1: John's on the challenges in the two very different stages

21
00:01:16,520 --> 00:01:19,280
Speaker 1: of his career and the need to remain a child.

22
00:01:21,720 --> 00:01:25,160
Speaker 1: Super happy to have Maddie John's in the studio with

23
00:01:25,200 --> 00:01:27,360
Speaker 1: me now, Matty. Last time I was on your podcast,

24
00:01:27,959 --> 00:01:30,080
Speaker 1: so the tables have turned. You've come on. Mind to

25
00:01:30,120 --> 00:01:32,240
Speaker 1: return a favor and listen. Thank you so much, mate,

26
00:01:32,240 --> 00:01:34,600
Speaker 1: It's a pleasure to have you here. Last time I

27
00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:37,760
Speaker 1: was with yourself and your son. Great dynamic there, mate,

28
00:01:37,760 --> 00:01:43,720
Speaker 1: But I've got you by yourself today. You haven't exactly,

29
00:01:43,840 --> 00:01:45,680
Speaker 1: you haven't got the backing of your son to back

30
00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:47,560
Speaker 1: you up now. He's a great kid. I had a

31
00:01:47,600 --> 00:01:49,600
Speaker 1: great conversation last time. But I just want to dig

32
00:01:49,640 --> 00:01:53,160
Speaker 1: more into you, so hopefully we can glean some gems

33
00:01:53,200 --> 00:01:53,880
Speaker 1: out of you today.

34
00:01:53,880 --> 00:01:56,960
Speaker 2: MATEO mining, I'll see what I.

35
00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:00,360
Speaker 1: Got, yes, mate, mining. Listen, there was potentially a career

36
00:02:00,360 --> 00:02:01,400
Speaker 1: for you in mining, wasn't there.

37
00:02:01,480 --> 00:02:03,600
Speaker 2: Talk to me about that and yeah there was. Because

38
00:02:03,760 --> 00:02:07,600
Speaker 2: I come from a region then the Hunter in the

39
00:02:07,680 --> 00:02:10,560
Speaker 2: Hunter Valley, the coal fields of Newcastle, so towns like

40
00:02:11,160 --> 00:02:15,040
Speaker 2: Cessnock and Maitland and Curry Curry that are built on

41
00:02:15,880 --> 00:02:19,320
Speaker 2: built on coal and steel ant and myself and my

42
00:02:19,360 --> 00:02:23,160
Speaker 2: brother were the first generation out of a probably about four

43
00:02:23,200 --> 00:02:25,520
Speaker 2: generations not to go down a pit.

44
00:02:25,919 --> 00:02:27,920
Speaker 1: And so really so you were grown up in a

45
00:02:27,960 --> 00:02:31,160
Speaker 1: generation of miners. Oh yeah, was your father a minor?

46
00:02:31,240 --> 00:02:33,760
Speaker 2: My father was a miner, My father, my grandfather was

47
00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:36,720
Speaker 2: a miner. My great great grandfather in Wales was on

48
00:02:36,760 --> 00:02:38,040
Speaker 2: my dad's side was a miner.

49
00:02:38,120 --> 00:02:40,040
Speaker 1: So what was it like growing up as a kid,

50
00:02:40,160 --> 00:02:41,760
Speaker 1: you know, in that environment?

51
00:02:41,919 --> 00:02:44,560
Speaker 2: It was a tear at right. I look at my

52
00:02:44,680 --> 00:02:47,720
Speaker 2: dad now and the older I get, the more I

53
00:02:47,720 --> 00:02:51,360
Speaker 2: admire my father. And he had me when he was

54
00:02:51,440 --> 00:02:54,080
Speaker 2: eighteen him a mum. So it's actually it's a wonder

55
00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:58,400
Speaker 2: I'm here. But he was terrific. He was one of

56
00:02:58,480 --> 00:03:00,760
Speaker 2: the best footballers ever to come through that area as

57
00:03:00,760 --> 00:03:03,160
Speaker 2: a young guy. And then as he was about to

58
00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:05,400
Speaker 2: make the big shift down here to a glamour club

59
00:03:05,680 --> 00:03:08,040
Speaker 2: called Saint George, it would be like back in those

60
00:03:08,120 --> 00:03:10,320
Speaker 2: days in the seventies, it'd be like, you know, being

61
00:03:10,360 --> 00:03:13,440
Speaker 2: a young guy, you know, growing up in you know,

62
00:03:13,480 --> 00:03:16,120
Speaker 2: sort of country England, countryside and getting signed by Manchester

63
00:03:16,200 --> 00:03:19,640
Speaker 2: United and he was about to go huge thing and

64
00:03:19,760 --> 00:03:22,920
Speaker 2: did his acl back in the day, So when he

65
00:03:22,960 --> 00:03:24,919
Speaker 2: was when he was still almost a kid and back

66
00:03:24,960 --> 00:03:26,960
Speaker 2: in that they and I see all these days as

67
00:03:27,040 --> 00:03:29,359
Speaker 2: nine months out. Back then it was a life sentence.

68
00:03:29,560 --> 00:03:31,720
Speaker 2: You were done. And so he kept playing on but

69
00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:35,480
Speaker 2: and I remember him just basically playing lower grades and

70
00:03:35,520 --> 00:03:38,440
Speaker 2: being frustrated and being really violent, like you know, basically

71
00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:40,840
Speaker 2: what he couldn't Like he would he'd get out there

72
00:03:40,880 --> 00:03:43,240
Speaker 2: and like I'd run into people now and they'd say, oh,

73
00:03:43,640 --> 00:03:47,160
Speaker 2: I've played against see this broken nose, Your dad did

74
00:03:47,200 --> 00:03:49,120
Speaker 2: that or you know, And that's my dad was like

75
00:03:49,160 --> 00:03:51,000
Speaker 2: a tough guy, but he was very very He was

76
00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:53,480
Speaker 2: a skillful player. But it says a lot about the

77
00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:56,120
Speaker 2: people up there. And because my dad would play rugby

78
00:03:56,200 --> 00:03:59,720
Speaker 2: league or coach Ruby league and then he'd work the

79
00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:02,280
Speaker 2: mid night till eight am shift in the coal mine.

80
00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:05,360
Speaker 2: Yeah right, and dad, you saw I say to me,

81
00:04:05,600 --> 00:04:06,720
Speaker 2: you know, what do you want to do? And I

82
00:04:06,960 --> 00:04:09,120
Speaker 2: want to go down. I'll be a minor because that's

83
00:04:09,160 --> 00:04:11,360
Speaker 2: what you do here. You know, steel mills, you're going

84
00:04:11,360 --> 00:04:12,600
Speaker 2: to cones, we're going to the coal mines.

85
00:04:12,800 --> 00:04:13,240
Speaker 1: What you do that?

86
00:04:13,800 --> 00:04:17,080
Speaker 2: And he took me underground and and when we left

87
00:04:17,080 --> 00:04:19,080
Speaker 2: the pit, he said, what do you want to do

88
00:04:19,120 --> 00:04:20,520
Speaker 2: with your life? And I said, I don't want to

89
00:04:20,520 --> 00:04:21,279
Speaker 2: be a fucking miner.

90
00:04:22,360 --> 00:04:24,800
Speaker 1: You know what made you know what? I had a

91
00:04:24,839 --> 00:04:28,880
Speaker 1: similar experience when I was about ten years old with

92
00:04:30,360 --> 00:04:34,279
Speaker 1: a fisherman. My best friend's father was a fisherman, and

93
00:04:34,839 --> 00:04:36,400
Speaker 1: you know, he'd come back and he'd you know, have

94
00:04:36,440 --> 00:04:39,359
Speaker 1: the cigarette in his hand and he you know, his

95
00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:43,760
Speaker 1: hands would be solid, just like concrete, and it's you know,

96
00:04:43,839 --> 00:04:45,480
Speaker 1: you want to come on on the boat. And I was, yeah.

97
00:04:45,640 --> 00:04:47,360
Speaker 1: My mate used to no, no, trust me, you don't

98
00:04:47,400 --> 00:04:49,280
Speaker 1: want to go on. You know, I might want to

99
00:04:49,279 --> 00:04:50,160
Speaker 1: be a fisherman one day.

100
00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:52,880
Speaker 2: You're thinking, Monico, one of those pit me on a

101
00:04:52,920 --> 00:04:53,599
Speaker 2: fishing boat.

102
00:04:54,279 --> 00:04:57,320
Speaker 1: Never to revisit the situation. After I got off those

103
00:04:57,400 --> 00:05:00,800
Speaker 1: guys graft, I felt exactly the same because back in

104
00:05:00,839 --> 00:05:03,120
Speaker 1: the day that's all they had. They were just graft.

105
00:05:03,120 --> 00:05:06,159
Speaker 1: As right now, they were hard. They were solid men

106
00:05:06,400 --> 00:05:10,120
Speaker 1: that had their hands as their tools and their bodies

107
00:05:10,240 --> 00:05:13,800
Speaker 1: as as the attraction to push through whatever they needed

108
00:05:13,800 --> 00:05:14,040
Speaker 1: to do.

109
00:05:14,400 --> 00:05:17,479
Speaker 2: And I think about my dad, like Sundays were really

110
00:05:17,920 --> 00:05:19,919
Speaker 2: was in our house was an awful place to be

111
00:05:20,080 --> 00:05:22,039
Speaker 2: on a Sunday. It was like keep out of the

112
00:05:22,040 --> 00:05:22,680
Speaker 2: old man's way.

113
00:05:22,760 --> 00:05:25,320
Speaker 1: Why was that because his shift.

114
00:05:25,160 --> 00:05:27,960
Speaker 2: Midnight started that night on a Sunday night, you know,

115
00:05:28,040 --> 00:05:30,160
Speaker 2: like when you're a kid and you're dreading Sunday because

116
00:05:30,200 --> 00:05:31,920
Speaker 2: the next day awake, I haven't got to get at school.

117
00:05:31,960 --> 00:05:34,800
Speaker 2: For Dad, I mean, at the end of his Sunday,

118
00:05:34,960 --> 00:05:36,560
Speaker 2: he's got to go back down that mind for the

119
00:05:36,600 --> 00:05:39,000
Speaker 2: whole week again. And you combine that with the fact

120
00:05:39,040 --> 00:05:41,599
Speaker 2: that he had his dreams snatched away from him, and

121
00:05:41,640 --> 00:05:44,720
Speaker 2: all things considered, and having a son at adeen old

122
00:05:44,800 --> 00:05:47,680
Speaker 2: man like I remember. I remember one year right and

123
00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:50,560
Speaker 2: Christmas Eve and we sort of lived New Year's Eve

124
00:05:50,600 --> 00:05:52,280
Speaker 2: and we lived half the year in a caravan up

125
00:05:52,279 --> 00:05:56,279
Speaker 2: around put Stephen's Way, and I remember once in it

126
00:05:57,800 --> 00:06:01,520
Speaker 2: on the New Year's Eve, burn about burn about eight

127
00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:07,960
Speaker 2: and as midnight's about to hit for crying out loud

128
00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:10,680
Speaker 2: by meat laughs playing and Dad's singing along. And I

129
00:06:10,720 --> 00:06:12,960
Speaker 2: looked at it and I thought, look at that fucking

130
00:06:13,040 --> 00:06:16,240
Speaker 2: old bastard and looking back now like he was he

131
00:06:16,320 --> 00:06:17,960
Speaker 2: was twenty six, you know what I mean.

132
00:06:19,240 --> 00:06:23,760
Speaker 1: You make me, Yeah, but you do, don't you un

133
00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:25,920
Speaker 1: twenty Yeah, absolutely.

134
00:06:25,360 --> 00:06:28,480
Speaker 2: You do, and so myself. And you know he was

135
00:06:28,520 --> 00:06:31,520
Speaker 2: a great father. So your first born, I was first born.

136
00:06:31,760 --> 00:06:35,039
Speaker 1: And how long after that did your brother three years.

137
00:06:35,120 --> 00:06:37,920
Speaker 2: I'm three years old. Yeah, he came along three years later,

138
00:06:38,040 --> 00:06:40,560
Speaker 2: destroyed my life totally. And then I've got a sister

139
00:06:40,640 --> 00:06:45,239
Speaker 2: who's ten years my junior. So yeah, Andrew gotta understand

140
00:06:45,240 --> 00:06:46,840
Speaker 2: Andrew's typical middle child.

141
00:06:47,080 --> 00:06:47,279
Speaker 1: Is he?

142
00:06:47,480 --> 00:06:48,160
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah?

143
00:06:48,200 --> 00:06:50,160
Speaker 1: What was he like as a father? Was was there

144
00:06:50,160 --> 00:06:51,960
Speaker 1: a different side to him or was he still this

145
00:06:52,080 --> 00:06:55,479
Speaker 1: sort of hard guy that you respected but you didn't

146
00:06:55,480 --> 00:06:57,200
Speaker 1: want to upset sort of thing? What was it? What

147
00:06:57,279 --> 00:06:58,720
Speaker 1: was the atmosphere like at home?

148
00:06:59,120 --> 00:07:01,799
Speaker 2: It's really interesting and Mum and Dad have flip flopped

149
00:07:02,320 --> 00:07:07,240
Speaker 2: when growing up. Mum was really affectionate and Dad was

150
00:07:07,680 --> 00:07:10,080
Speaker 2: Dad was like sad of Dad's way, you know, Dad's

151
00:07:10,080 --> 00:07:12,080
Speaker 2: in a bad mood to stay away from cuddle.

152
00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:14,040
Speaker 1: Was there ever a moment they loved you?

153
00:07:14,120 --> 00:07:15,400
Speaker 2: Yeah? Do you know?

154
00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:17,960
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Because that ever, they were

155
00:07:17,960 --> 00:07:20,320
Speaker 1: so focused on their work that, you know, that sort

156
00:07:20,360 --> 00:07:23,800
Speaker 1: of time, that cuddly side or that loving side of

157
00:07:24,480 --> 00:07:26,200
Speaker 1: a parent didn't always show through.

158
00:07:26,400 --> 00:07:29,720
Speaker 2: That's right. And and there were there were times in

159
00:07:29,760 --> 00:07:31,800
Speaker 2: our film The Life where the coal mines would go

160
00:07:31,840 --> 00:07:34,320
Speaker 2: and strike so there'd be no money in or Dad

161
00:07:34,360 --> 00:07:37,360
Speaker 2: would be still drafting away trying to sort of esh

162
00:07:37,480 --> 00:07:39,720
Speaker 2: himself out some sort of regular career and play with

163
00:07:39,760 --> 00:07:41,480
Speaker 2: his mates on a Sunday and he break his leg

164
00:07:41,680 --> 00:07:43,240
Speaker 2: so he couldn't go down the mind. So things like

165
00:07:43,280 --> 00:07:46,240
Speaker 2: there were difficult periods, but you know, like it was

166
00:07:46,280 --> 00:07:49,960
Speaker 2: a happy upbringing dad. You know, did he say you

167
00:07:49,960 --> 00:07:52,800
Speaker 2: know I love you? Probably probably did. But in our

168
00:07:52,840 --> 00:07:55,320
Speaker 2: house I still find it awkward if a mate comes

169
00:07:55,360 --> 00:07:56,640
Speaker 2: up to me and says, oh, I mate, I love

170
00:07:56,680 --> 00:07:59,960
Speaker 2: your mate. I don't really return the favor that much.

171
00:08:00,120 --> 00:08:03,360
Speaker 2: And I think I know, i'd say to the boys,

172
00:08:03,360 --> 00:08:06,080
Speaker 2: but it's just always something I don't know. I don't

173
00:08:06,120 --> 00:08:06,600
Speaker 2: search for it.

174
00:08:06,720 --> 00:08:08,360
Speaker 1: What you like with your son, is it?

175
00:08:08,960 --> 00:08:09,160
Speaker 2: Yeah?

176
00:08:09,760 --> 00:08:12,120
Speaker 1: Does that feel with your powers? I sort of get that,

177
00:08:12,200 --> 00:08:14,160
Speaker 1: you know, But with your son is it still is

178
00:08:14,240 --> 00:08:15,040
Speaker 1: the same dynamic?

179
00:08:15,280 --> 00:08:18,040
Speaker 2: Oh, me and my sons, we've got a very different

180
00:08:18,120 --> 00:08:20,360
Speaker 2: dynamic to the dynamic between me and my father, very

181
00:08:20,440 --> 00:08:23,200
Speaker 2: very different. My two boys. My wife says to me,

182
00:08:23,280 --> 00:08:26,680
Speaker 2: sometimes you're a father, you're not their mate. And I say, well, Trish,

183
00:08:26,760 --> 00:08:28,560
Speaker 2: to be fair, you can do both. And I think

184
00:08:28,600 --> 00:08:30,680
Speaker 2: in these this day and age, you do. I don't

185
00:08:30,680 --> 00:08:33,160
Speaker 2: think you need to be the totalitarian standing above the

186
00:08:33,200 --> 00:08:36,640
Speaker 2: family and directing traffic and tell them do this and

187
00:08:36,679 --> 00:08:38,480
Speaker 2: do that, and watch out for this, watch out for that.

188
00:08:38,520 --> 00:08:40,720
Speaker 2: For me, were mates, and it was difficult in the

189
00:08:40,760 --> 00:08:43,840
Speaker 2: career that they have been on and are going on

190
00:08:44,120 --> 00:08:46,360
Speaker 2: a sort of similar careers that I did. And the

191
00:08:46,360 --> 00:08:48,880
Speaker 2: difficult thing, and you'll be able to relate to this,

192
00:08:49,080 --> 00:08:52,640
Speaker 2: is the fact that you're watching your sons and they're

193
00:08:52,760 --> 00:08:54,880
Speaker 2: just about to step in the same pothole you did,

194
00:08:55,720 --> 00:08:58,560
Speaker 2: that life pothole and to have the discipline to go

195
00:08:58,760 --> 00:08:59,439
Speaker 2: let them do it.

196
00:09:00,400 --> 00:09:02,360
Speaker 1: Yeah, give them enough rope to trip up on, but

197
00:09:02,440 --> 00:09:06,320
Speaker 1: obviously hanging themselves. Hypothetically, Yes, enough rope to trip up

198
00:09:06,360 --> 00:09:08,280
Speaker 1: on so they can go where did I make that mistake?

199
00:09:08,640 --> 00:09:10,520
Speaker 1: And it's hard, isn't it? Because you see it coming

200
00:09:10,920 --> 00:09:13,120
Speaker 1: And people say, well, a good parents you shouldn't know.

201
00:09:13,160 --> 00:09:16,080
Speaker 1: A good parent should let them figure it out by themselves.

202
00:09:16,200 --> 00:09:18,240
Speaker 1: And do you think you're like that with your son

203
00:09:18,679 --> 00:09:21,800
Speaker 1: because it wasn't like that with you and your father,

204
00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:24,520
Speaker 1: or or do you think it's just naturally grown into

205
00:09:24,559 --> 00:09:25,600
Speaker 1: that with this day and age.

206
00:09:25,720 --> 00:09:29,720
Speaker 2: I was self sufficient for a long time, I reckon.

207
00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:32,560
Speaker 2: There was probably a four year period where I barely

208
00:09:34,120 --> 00:09:36,319
Speaker 2: I didn't have a lot to do with my father

209
00:09:36,640 --> 00:09:38,960
Speaker 2: on it. There was the Sunday on the weekends, but

210
00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:41,079
Speaker 2: through the week now because he was working, he was

211
00:09:41,120 --> 00:09:44,000
Speaker 2: working dog watching the coal mines. Basically he didn't get

212
00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:49,199
Speaker 2: home until, you know, basically after we left to go

213
00:09:49,320 --> 00:09:51,600
Speaker 2: to school and some we're sort of just passed passing

214
00:09:51,600 --> 00:09:53,560
Speaker 2: ships all the time. I remember walking to school one

215
00:09:53,600 --> 00:09:56,079
Speaker 2: day and think himself, Jesus Christ, haven't seen the old

216
00:09:56,120 --> 00:09:58,120
Speaker 2: man for about three or four years. It feels like,

217
00:09:58,160 --> 00:10:01,360
Speaker 2: you know that that didn't really strike that that relationship.

218
00:10:01,720 --> 00:10:03,760
Speaker 2: But we had, you know, a grandmother, and you know,

219
00:10:03,840 --> 00:10:05,800
Speaker 2: we always plenty of love around us. And it was

220
00:10:05,840 --> 00:10:08,280
Speaker 2: a tight community to it, like that that area up

221
00:10:08,280 --> 00:10:11,160
Speaker 2: there in the Hunah Valley and Newcastle, very tight community.

222
00:10:11,200 --> 00:10:14,840
Speaker 2: Everyone looks after each other. And so you know, I certainly,

223
00:10:15,120 --> 00:10:17,840
Speaker 2: you know, whatever happened, myself, and Andrew and my sister

224
00:10:17,920 --> 00:10:18,760
Speaker 2: Kate never went without.

225
00:10:20,040 --> 00:10:22,000
Speaker 1: It's mad that you talk like that, because it doesn't.

226
00:10:22,400 --> 00:10:26,160
Speaker 1: That seems so far away to talk like that for

227
00:10:26,280 --> 00:10:29,679
Speaker 1: the generation that are here now. But it was. It's

228
00:10:29,679 --> 00:10:31,960
Speaker 1: a generation away. You know, it's literally in the not

229
00:10:32,040 --> 00:10:35,520
Speaker 1: too distant past that the coal wines were there, that

230
00:10:35,600 --> 00:10:38,559
Speaker 1: people were searching, put put food on the table, and

231
00:10:38,640 --> 00:10:41,160
Speaker 1: the sense of community was so tight because that's all

232
00:10:41,240 --> 00:10:43,319
Speaker 1: that we had. You know, you talk to the youngsters

233
00:10:43,320 --> 00:10:46,520
Speaker 1: nowadays about it. They're coal mines, you know, like you said,

234
00:10:46,760 --> 00:10:49,440
Speaker 1: old bustards. But it's not that too. It's not that

235
00:10:49,440 --> 00:10:50,080
Speaker 1: too in the past.

236
00:10:50,280 --> 00:10:52,959
Speaker 2: It's it's not and and and like you know, the

237
00:10:53,000 --> 00:10:54,800
Speaker 2: look at the north of England in those areas of

238
00:10:54,840 --> 00:10:57,760
Speaker 2: coal miners. You're sending young guys down mind for aiding

239
00:10:57,840 --> 00:11:00,600
Speaker 2: our shifts and things like that. And like my you know,

240
00:11:00,600 --> 00:11:03,600
Speaker 2: it was amazing, right And again I admire my dad

241
00:11:03,640 --> 00:11:06,600
Speaker 2: for this, but it absolutely spooked the shit out of me.

242
00:11:07,200 --> 00:11:12,360
Speaker 2: So when we went underground. We went there and they

243
00:11:12,400 --> 00:11:14,800
Speaker 2: had a thing called the Alpine miner or something, and

244
00:11:14,840 --> 00:11:18,199
Speaker 2: it just churns behind cuts into the walls of the mine.

245
00:11:18,679 --> 00:11:22,120
Speaker 2: And my dad's job on this particular night, he had

246
00:11:22,120 --> 00:11:24,120
Speaker 2: a helmet on and he had a flashlight top of

247
00:11:24,120 --> 00:11:26,600
Speaker 2: the helmet, you know, the pit helmet, and he's walking

248
00:11:26,640 --> 00:11:29,120
Speaker 2: along and he's just sort of watching the roof of

249
00:11:29,160 --> 00:11:31,400
Speaker 2: the coal seam. And I said to the old man,

250
00:11:31,400 --> 00:11:32,719
Speaker 2: what are you doing. He said, I'm looking for a

251
00:11:32,760 --> 00:11:34,920
Speaker 2: slippery back. And I said, what's the slippery back? He said,

252
00:11:34,920 --> 00:11:37,320
Speaker 2: the slippery back is when the mine the mine shaft

253
00:11:37,520 --> 00:11:39,720
Speaker 2: ends at a section, you know, And I said, what

254
00:11:39,720 --> 00:11:41,559
Speaker 2: does look like? He said, so that how it's shiny.

255
00:11:41,800 --> 00:11:43,840
Speaker 2: I said, oh, what about what happens Dad? If you

256
00:11:43,840 --> 00:11:46,160
Speaker 2: don't spot that? He said, if the alpine miner goes

257
00:11:46,160 --> 00:11:49,600
Speaker 2: straight through it, the roof collapses and we'll die. And

258
00:11:49,640 --> 00:11:52,920
Speaker 2: I went, fucking hell, you know, like it's you know,

259
00:11:52,960 --> 00:11:56,360
Speaker 2: they were herdy, tough people, and you know, and my

260
00:11:56,480 --> 00:11:59,200
Speaker 2: dad is a real dog of war too, because he

261
00:11:59,280 --> 00:12:02,000
Speaker 2: worked down there since he was in the mines since

262
00:12:02,120 --> 00:12:06,080
Speaker 2: fifteen sixteen, and he was such in a bad way

263
00:12:06,679 --> 00:12:08,839
Speaker 2: by the time that they wouldn't allow it that they

264
00:12:08,920 --> 00:12:11,920
Speaker 2: basically said, you can't go back down to the cole mies. Hisnees,

265
00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:14,560
Speaker 2: his back, he was just it was a wreck, physical wreck,

266
00:12:15,160 --> 00:12:17,400
Speaker 2: and so he hid his finish line that he always

267
00:12:17,400 --> 00:12:20,360
Speaker 2: thought about retirement. And then he retired, and he went

268
00:12:20,400 --> 00:12:23,000
Speaker 2: into a depression because he missed all his mates down

269
00:12:23,040 --> 00:12:25,960
Speaker 2: the mine, the camaraderie are going underground with those blokes.

270
00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:28,600
Speaker 2: He just he missed it so much. So then Dad

271
00:12:28,600 --> 00:12:32,400
Speaker 2: went into something a lot easier, roofing, until they wouldn't

272
00:12:32,440 --> 00:12:34,559
Speaker 2: let him get on a roof again. And even now

273
00:12:34,880 --> 00:12:37,040
Speaker 2: like Mum wrung me the other day and she goes,

274
00:12:37,040 --> 00:12:39,480
Speaker 2: I'm really worried about your dad. And he's a groundsman

275
00:12:39,480 --> 00:12:41,680
Speaker 2: at the moment. They ate on his vineyard. And the

276
00:12:41,720 --> 00:12:43,599
Speaker 2: other day he got tangled up. He was doing a

277
00:12:43,679 --> 00:12:45,480
Speaker 2: tractor and lost control of the tractor, ended up in

278
00:12:45,520 --> 00:12:47,360
Speaker 2: barbed wire, caught in barbed wi for an hour and

279
00:12:47,400 --> 00:12:51,160
Speaker 2: a half. And I said, you know, I said, Mum,

280
00:12:51,200 --> 00:12:58,560
Speaker 2: you got to understand he would love that he's done that. Yeah, yeah,

281
00:12:59,280 --> 00:12:59,640
Speaker 2: you know what.

282
00:12:59,679 --> 00:13:03,080
Speaker 1: I know the personality that he is because I grew

283
00:13:03,160 --> 00:13:04,960
Speaker 1: up in that era as well, where you know that

284
00:13:05,520 --> 00:13:08,400
Speaker 1: sort of hard and tough, you know, exterior was was

285
00:13:08,520 --> 00:13:11,560
Speaker 1: always the I suppose a defensive mechanism that they needed

286
00:13:11,600 --> 00:13:15,000
Speaker 1: to put on in order to get through life back then,

287
00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:16,079
Speaker 1: because it was yeah.

288
00:13:16,160 --> 00:13:18,240
Speaker 2: And all these mates, all these mates were similar, you know,

289
00:13:18,440 --> 00:13:21,560
Speaker 2: like Dad's best mate called Ethel Putin, who end up

290
00:13:21,559 --> 00:13:23,680
Speaker 2: I end up win a Grand final that Ethel's sun.

291
00:13:23,760 --> 00:13:27,200
Speaker 2: We cant. They had the public ped in hotel and

292
00:13:27,280 --> 00:13:30,280
Speaker 2: Daddy go around there every day and Mum would say

293
00:13:30,559 --> 00:13:34,000
Speaker 2: ring and say, you know, or duck around there and

294
00:13:34,240 --> 00:13:36,480
Speaker 2: bring your dad home. So we walk in this just

295
00:13:36,559 --> 00:13:40,360
Speaker 2: to I wasn't here, you know, all that goes on.

296
00:13:41,480 --> 00:13:44,280
Speaker 1: So you come up from this mine, Matty and you're like,

297
00:13:44,960 --> 00:13:47,440
Speaker 1: this is off the radar. I'm never going to do

298
00:13:47,520 --> 00:13:50,080
Speaker 1: mining this, you know. One, it's not for me to

299
00:13:51,480 --> 00:13:54,640
Speaker 1: I need to look elsewhere. Did you automatically flip to

300
00:13:54,920 --> 00:13:57,920
Speaker 1: footy then, or did you think to yourself, right, that's

301
00:13:57,960 --> 00:13:59,880
Speaker 1: definitely off the cards. I need to find something that

302
00:13:59,880 --> 00:14:01,720
Speaker 1: I need to do because otherwise I'd end up in

303
00:14:01,720 --> 00:14:02,120
Speaker 1: the minds.

304
00:14:02,400 --> 00:14:05,240
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, well that's probably to be honest. I always

305
00:14:05,240 --> 00:14:08,080
Speaker 2: had the ambition, the ultimate ambition to be able to

306
00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:11,640
Speaker 2: play rugby league and RL or rugby league. Now ITZI

307
00:14:11,679 --> 00:14:15,160
Speaker 2: al in the Sydney competition, that was it, that was

308
00:14:15,280 --> 00:14:15,959
Speaker 2: the big competition.

309
00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:17,600
Speaker 1: And where did that come from? Where did that dream

310
00:14:17,600 --> 00:14:19,880
Speaker 1: come from? For your dad?

311
00:14:20,320 --> 00:14:23,640
Speaker 2: One of my earliest memories is is I can smell

312
00:14:23,640 --> 00:14:26,000
Speaker 2: the kerosine and they used to mark the sidelines with

313
00:14:26,040 --> 00:14:28,240
Speaker 2: the kerosine, and you know, I was a young kid

314
00:14:28,240 --> 00:14:31,880
Speaker 2: and going there and watching the you know, I just remember,

315
00:14:32,120 --> 00:14:35,200
Speaker 2: remember I can smell it now. And so that's all

316
00:14:35,240 --> 00:14:40,320
Speaker 2: I grew up in and and in my town where

317
00:14:40,360 --> 00:14:43,640
Speaker 2: I come from. If you were a rugby league player

318
00:14:43,680 --> 00:14:46,880
Speaker 2: and a good one, then you were somebody, you know,

319
00:14:47,120 --> 00:14:49,400
Speaker 2: like you were fucking somebody. And so I used to

320
00:14:49,400 --> 00:14:51,400
Speaker 2: watch those blakes and the way they were treated and

321
00:14:51,400 --> 00:14:53,520
Speaker 2: how they were treated differently and things like that, and

322
00:14:53,560 --> 00:14:55,320
Speaker 2: I said, I want to fuck be one of those guys,

323
00:14:55,520 --> 00:14:57,280
Speaker 2: one of my dad's mates and things like that, you know,

324
00:14:57,480 --> 00:15:01,040
Speaker 2: like these blokes. It wasn't until I I actually got older,

325
00:15:01,040 --> 00:15:04,200
Speaker 2: into my sort of early turns, that I realized there

326
00:15:04,240 --> 00:15:07,000
Speaker 2: was good money in professional sport. I just wanted to

327
00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:09,680
Speaker 2: play it to be somebody, you know. It was a

328
00:15:09,760 --> 00:15:13,680
Speaker 2: far distant dream. It was a star, far far away

329
00:15:13,920 --> 00:15:17,360
Speaker 2: where my brother Andrew was always going to be the

330
00:15:17,560 --> 00:15:20,920
Speaker 2: one with Andrew, whatever it was he was. I mean,

331
00:15:21,080 --> 00:15:23,720
Speaker 2: he's built, he's like yourself. He's built thick to the

332
00:15:23,720 --> 00:15:25,920
Speaker 2: ground that. But he's always a freak at any sport

333
00:15:26,040 --> 00:15:29,920
Speaker 2: like anything. Like I remember he took up surfing, and

334
00:15:30,080 --> 00:15:33,480
Speaker 2: about three weeks after he took up surfing, he ended

335
00:15:33,560 --> 00:15:35,800
Speaker 2: himself into a surf competition. I mean, we grew up

336
00:15:35,800 --> 00:15:39,200
Speaker 2: an hour in land and against these blakes have been

337
00:15:39,200 --> 00:15:41,680
Speaker 2: surfing five six, seven years. It's kids, and beat them.

338
00:15:42,040 --> 00:15:43,920
Speaker 1: They're born with surfboards in the hand.

339
00:15:43,880 --> 00:15:46,160
Speaker 2: That's right. And he beat them and this. The guy

340
00:15:46,200 --> 00:15:48,560
Speaker 2: who ran it felt called Terry mckenner. I still remember

341
00:15:48,640 --> 00:15:52,960
Speaker 2: his name. And he said to Andrew, I reckon, I

342
00:15:52,960 --> 00:15:54,760
Speaker 2: could turn you into a world champion. And where do

343
00:15:54,760 --> 00:15:56,800
Speaker 2: you live And he said cesnot And he goes, I

344
00:15:57,160 --> 00:16:00,560
Speaker 2: refuse to believe that. He said, yeah. Drew was always

345
00:16:00,600 --> 00:16:03,640
Speaker 2: had this amazing hand eye coordination. If I went to

346
00:16:03,640 --> 00:16:06,320
Speaker 2: watch him play in junior raby league, he'd get the

347
00:16:06,320 --> 00:16:10,040
Speaker 2: worst player in his side and say, getting the end goal,

348
00:16:10,080 --> 00:16:11,680
Speaker 2: I'll bring the ball to you and beat everyone give

349
00:16:11,720 --> 00:16:14,880
Speaker 2: him the ball. It was a little bit like back

350
00:16:14,880 --> 00:16:17,960
Speaker 2: in the when I was in my radio breakfast radio days,

351
00:16:18,600 --> 00:16:23,040
Speaker 2: interviewed Wayne Gretzky, the great Wayne Gretzky. But I remember

352
00:16:23,080 --> 00:16:25,280
Speaker 2: speaking to him when he was growing up in Edmonton,

353
00:16:25,320 --> 00:16:28,400
Speaker 2: and I said to him, we are always going to

354
00:16:28,480 --> 00:16:31,600
Speaker 2: be and he goes, yeah, I was always, he said.

355
00:16:31,800 --> 00:16:34,800
Speaker 2: People would drive three hundred miles when I was eight

356
00:16:34,880 --> 00:16:37,200
Speaker 2: years old to watch me play ice hockey. Now, not

357
00:16:37,240 --> 00:16:40,680
Speaker 2: to that extent with Andrew, but people would go to

358
00:16:40,800 --> 00:16:43,120
Speaker 2: what the junior football to watch this nine year old

359
00:16:43,200 --> 00:16:45,760
Speaker 2: kid and say him that kid's going to be the

360
00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:50,280
Speaker 2: best player we've ever seen. One day he and he was.

361
00:16:49,720 --> 00:16:52,840
Speaker 1: Was that annoying for you or at that age, or

362
00:16:52,960 --> 00:16:54,480
Speaker 1: was it an inspiration for you?

363
00:16:55,440 --> 00:16:59,200
Speaker 2: I would say probably a bit of both. And you know,

364
00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:03,400
Speaker 2: backwards and forwards a little bit, because I'm the polar

365
00:17:03,440 --> 00:17:06,800
Speaker 2: opposite Nandra in so many ways we are in personality,

366
00:17:07,320 --> 00:17:09,920
Speaker 2: we are as and as far as sport was concerned.

367
00:17:09,960 --> 00:17:12,200
Speaker 2: For Andrew, it was just get out there and go.

368
00:17:12,520 --> 00:17:15,439
Speaker 2: For me, I had to work my heart. I had

369
00:17:15,440 --> 00:17:18,879
Speaker 2: to graft and even like and if, like, if I

370
00:17:18,920 --> 00:17:20,720
Speaker 2: took you to my house, now there's a cupboard to

371
00:17:20,800 --> 00:17:24,000
Speaker 2: open up. There's fifty exercise books just stacked. And that's

372
00:17:24,040 --> 00:17:25,639
Speaker 2: me waking up in the middle of the middle of

373
00:17:25,680 --> 00:17:29,159
Speaker 2: the night writing notes and just writing and over and

374
00:17:29,200 --> 00:17:31,679
Speaker 2: over for me to get to where I had to

375
00:17:31,720 --> 00:17:36,000
Speaker 2: get where I wanted to get. I was under no illusions, right,

376
00:17:36,200 --> 00:17:40,840
Speaker 2: I have no I have a really over a savage

377
00:17:40,920 --> 00:17:44,320
Speaker 2: mistrust in talent. For me, it was just hard work.

378
00:17:44,760 --> 00:17:47,439
Speaker 2: And I actually got to the point that I thought, okay,

379
00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:50,040
Speaker 2: you know, in my in my teens, I didn't make

380
00:17:50,040 --> 00:17:51,800
Speaker 2: the school football side, and I said, what am I

381
00:17:51,840 --> 00:17:53,560
Speaker 2: going to do here? And I just thought, right, I'm

382
00:17:53,560 --> 00:17:56,240
Speaker 2: just gonna train harder than anyone. I'm gonna work harder

383
00:17:56,240 --> 00:17:58,679
Speaker 2: than anyone. I'm gonna I'm gonna watch more football and

384
00:17:58,840 --> 00:18:00,480
Speaker 2: watch tape. I'm gonna do this. So I'm going to

385
00:18:00,520 --> 00:18:03,360
Speaker 2: do that. I'm going to develop a fearlessness. I'm going

386
00:18:03,400 --> 00:18:07,120
Speaker 2: to develop the discipline to not fear failure.

387
00:18:07,640 --> 00:18:09,280
Speaker 1: How much sacrifice does that take?

388
00:18:10,160 --> 00:18:12,680
Speaker 2: Yep, And it actually burns a hole in you after

389
00:18:12,680 --> 00:18:15,840
Speaker 2: a certain things. There's two rewards for the city at

390
00:18:15,880 --> 00:18:19,040
Speaker 2: the end of it. One is you're if you're lucky

391
00:18:19,119 --> 00:18:20,920
Speaker 2: enough to hit that ambition, you're giving yourself the best

392
00:18:20,920 --> 00:18:25,160
Speaker 2: opportunity to reach that dream. That's one. And the other one,

393
00:18:25,359 --> 00:18:27,440
Speaker 2: which is the one that you don't even think about

394
00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:31,000
Speaker 2: that comes a little later, is when you retire from

395
00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:34,240
Speaker 2: your sport or whatever you do, it's what you've learned

396
00:18:34,280 --> 00:18:37,239
Speaker 2: along the way by grafting. And that's the thing that

397
00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:40,280
Speaker 2: goes away, and that that that is my work ethic.

398
00:18:41,720 --> 00:18:43,840
Speaker 2: My work ethic, and the things that I learned along

399
00:18:43,840 --> 00:18:45,840
Speaker 2: the way to chase my dream when I wasn't never

400
00:18:45,880 --> 00:18:48,520
Speaker 2: going to be good enough have just carried on into

401
00:18:48,600 --> 00:18:51,720
Speaker 2: normal parts of my life. I can recognize situations, I

402
00:18:51,760 --> 00:18:57,600
Speaker 2: can even as far as work organizations, just multitude. I

403
00:18:57,720 --> 00:19:01,720
Speaker 2: learned all those lessons. It's from focusing on one thing

404
00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:04,000
Speaker 2: that I want to do and just chasing it.

405
00:19:13,119 --> 00:19:14,800
Speaker 1: And when did that work start for you? Do you

406
00:19:14,840 --> 00:19:17,679
Speaker 1: remember when you when you were like, right, listen, my

407
00:19:17,720 --> 00:19:20,320
Speaker 1: brother Andrew, he's smashing it.

408
00:19:20,880 --> 00:19:21,160
Speaker 2: Now.

409
00:19:21,320 --> 00:19:23,320
Speaker 1: I need to up my game. I need to I

410
00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:25,600
Speaker 1: need I need to start this craft. Do you remember,

411
00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:27,560
Speaker 1: was it at a young age or when did that

412
00:19:27,600 --> 00:19:28,720
Speaker 1: sort of moment come for you?

413
00:19:28,920 --> 00:19:33,160
Speaker 2: I went the side that Andrew and I played for

414
00:19:33,160 --> 00:19:36,520
Speaker 2: with the Newcastle Knights. They joined the Big League competition

415
00:19:36,680 --> 00:19:40,200
Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty eight. The league expanded. They brought in

416
00:19:40,359 --> 00:19:43,600
Speaker 2: the Brisbane Broncos, the Gold Coast and the Newcastle Knights,

417
00:19:44,040 --> 00:19:46,800
Speaker 2: and there was a real pushback in the Newcastle and

418
00:19:47,400 --> 00:19:49,800
Speaker 2: the coal Fields community because we had a strong domestic

419
00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:52,080
Speaker 2: competition anyway, and there was a fear that was going

420
00:19:52,119 --> 00:19:54,239
Speaker 2: to destroy it. I was pretty happy it was coming in,

421
00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:55,960
Speaker 2: like I was sort of about. I could see both

422
00:19:56,000 --> 00:20:00,760
Speaker 2: sides anyway. But and I would have been seventeen at

423
00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:03,400
Speaker 2: that point and the Knights were playing their first ever

424
00:20:03,560 --> 00:20:05,800
Speaker 2: just a trial game against Manly and I went down

425
00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:07,680
Speaker 2: to the Oval to watch it. No thirty thousand people

426
00:20:07,680 --> 00:20:09,800
Speaker 2: turned up for the trial and I said fuck yeah,

427
00:20:09,800 --> 00:20:11,399
Speaker 2: this is what I want to do. And I went

428
00:20:11,480 --> 00:20:14,400
Speaker 2: home and I said to my old man, I said, Dad,

429
00:20:14,560 --> 00:20:18,359
Speaker 2: do you reckon? I'd just be satisfied to play reserve

430
00:20:18,400 --> 00:20:20,360
Speaker 2: grade in the Sydney competition. Do you reckon I could

431
00:20:20,400 --> 00:20:23,360
Speaker 2: do it? And he said, mate, you'll play fucking first grade.

432
00:20:23,600 --> 00:20:25,399
Speaker 2: And at the time I was like, right, okay, I

433
00:20:25,400 --> 00:20:27,199
Speaker 2: didn't know whether I believe you or not, but it

434
00:20:27,280 --> 00:20:27,760
Speaker 2: just went on.

435
00:20:27,920 --> 00:20:30,639
Speaker 1: Do you believe in yourself then? Because I talk about

436
00:20:30,680 --> 00:20:33,000
Speaker 1: self belief in a way that you know something new

437
00:20:33,160 --> 00:20:36,160
Speaker 1: that you can only gift yourself through committing and realizing

438
00:20:36,160 --> 00:20:38,160
Speaker 1: what you're capable of. Because when people say they believe

439
00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:40,040
Speaker 1: in you, if you don't believe in yourself, they're just

440
00:20:40,080 --> 00:20:43,120
Speaker 1: empty words, right, And it does help when you've got

441
00:20:43,160 --> 00:20:45,320
Speaker 1: a family member or someone that's close you say that

442
00:20:45,359 --> 00:20:47,240
Speaker 1: I believe in you. It gives you an element of hope.

443
00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:51,600
Speaker 1: But when he said that to you and he believed it,

444
00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:52,679
Speaker 1: did you believe it?

445
00:20:53,600 --> 00:20:57,080
Speaker 2: I would say not at first, and yeah, that really

446
00:20:57,160 --> 00:21:00,479
Speaker 2: ludifier on me, and it gave me motivation. Now's what

447
00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:03,159
Speaker 2: I did there from that motivation. What I did with

448
00:21:03,160 --> 00:21:05,680
Speaker 2: that motivation, I just trained my balls out. Train that

449
00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:07,800
Speaker 2: fucking hard and.

450
00:21:07,480 --> 00:21:09,159
Speaker 1: What did that look like? What did that look like

451
00:21:09,880 --> 00:21:12,160
Speaker 1: just for on a day to day sort of basis

452
00:21:12,200 --> 00:21:15,240
Speaker 1: matter of you know, any youngster listening in or anyone

453
00:21:15,280 --> 00:21:18,280
Speaker 1: that wants to achieve their dreams, what what does that

454
00:21:18,320 --> 00:21:21,840
Speaker 1: look like? You know, that obsession, that discipline, that sacrifice

455
00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:23,760
Speaker 1: on the day to day basis. When you made that

456
00:21:23,840 --> 00:21:26,359
Speaker 1: decision no, you're going to play for the first team,

457
00:21:26,840 --> 00:21:29,000
Speaker 1: what did your daily sort of routine look like there?

458
00:21:29,040 --> 00:21:31,159
Speaker 2: Well, I'm sort of getting towards you in the school,

459
00:21:31,560 --> 00:21:33,240
Speaker 2: so it was get up, you know, it might be

460
00:21:33,359 --> 00:21:36,280
Speaker 2: six seven o'clock, go for a long run, you know,

461
00:21:36,400 --> 00:21:39,280
Speaker 2: get back, breakfast, go to school, come back from school,

462
00:21:40,080 --> 00:21:42,760
Speaker 2: get across the road to the park that we me

463
00:21:42,760 --> 00:21:44,440
Speaker 2: and Andrew would go and train at, which is called

464
00:21:44,480 --> 00:21:48,000
Speaker 2: John's Park these days.

465
00:21:46,480 --> 00:21:50,920
Speaker 1: After you take that.

466
00:21:50,080 --> 00:21:54,000
Speaker 2: One anyway, and then I trained by myself and then

467
00:21:54,040 --> 00:21:57,160
Speaker 2: I'll go to team training. And so for me it mate,

468
00:21:57,160 --> 00:21:59,680
Speaker 2: you were in it, so mate. For me, even when

469
00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:02,479
Speaker 2: I start playing first grade and playing for Australia team

470
00:22:02,520 --> 00:22:07,240
Speaker 2: training was icing on top. It was what you did yourself,

471
00:22:07,359 --> 00:22:11,840
Speaker 2: those extras to push everyone. It was almost like and

472
00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:14,440
Speaker 2: it's just something that's building me that I can always

473
00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:17,360
Speaker 2: hear footsteps behind me. Yeah, I always think that that's

474
00:22:17,680 --> 00:22:21,000
Speaker 2: they are behind you always come and so mate, for me.

475
00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:24,879
Speaker 1: Think someone coming to take your place? Always you always

476
00:22:24,880 --> 00:22:28,680
Speaker 1: someone coming to knock you down, as always.

477
00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:32,320
Speaker 2: And when I finally got into the Nights, I remember

478
00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:34,320
Speaker 2: going in, I was playing twenty ones, did some pretty

479
00:22:34,320 --> 00:22:38,920
Speaker 2: good stuff, and I was so surprised and proud of myself,

480
00:22:38,960 --> 00:22:42,000
Speaker 2: you know, and then I sort of hit a plaiterp

481
00:22:42,200 --> 00:22:45,879
Speaker 2: and first grade. My older madream was close by. You know.

482
00:22:46,280 --> 00:22:48,160
Speaker 2: The things that I'd done carried me a certain way.

483
00:22:48,640 --> 00:22:50,840
Speaker 2: And I remember an old Strength and Condition was there

484
00:22:50,880 --> 00:22:53,760
Speaker 2: one day and I walked in. His name was Joe,

485
00:22:53,840 --> 00:22:58,560
Speaker 2: Joe A j Anyway. And then I walked in the

486
00:22:58,600 --> 00:23:00,520
Speaker 2: gym and I'm sort of clowning around and doing this,

487
00:23:00,560 --> 00:23:02,160
Speaker 2: that and the other. And he walked in and he said,

488
00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:05,120
Speaker 2: do you know those people I was talking to? And

489
00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:09,000
Speaker 2: I know he goes, oh, there you Martha so and so,

490
00:23:09,520 --> 00:23:11,440
Speaker 2: And they said to me, oh, he seems like a

491
00:23:11,520 --> 00:23:13,760
Speaker 2: nice young fellow. Who's that? And he said his name

492
00:23:13,800 --> 00:23:16,040
Speaker 2: is Matthew John's and went, okay, does he play for

493
00:23:16,080 --> 00:23:18,240
Speaker 2: the Knights? He said, mate, he will play if he

494
00:23:18,359 --> 00:23:20,920
Speaker 2: works hard enough. In these next two years, he'll play

495
00:23:20,920 --> 00:23:24,600
Speaker 2: for Australia. And again that was the next like the Bunsenbourn,

496
00:23:24,640 --> 00:23:26,600
Speaker 2: I got placed under me. And so from there and

497
00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:29,600
Speaker 2: what I did from there, I went right, because I

498
00:23:30,760 --> 00:23:33,560
Speaker 2: went instead of saying right, oh, let's see how far

499
00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:37,800
Speaker 2: I can push, I actually go. I'd think of my mind,

500
00:23:38,480 --> 00:23:42,240
Speaker 2: find out what's fucking impossible, then start to pull back

501
00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:45,320
Speaker 2: from there. So even now I'll do it sometimes now

502
00:23:45,320 --> 00:23:47,000
Speaker 2: I'll get there and I'll go right. I'll wake up

503
00:23:47,040 --> 00:23:49,119
Speaker 2: one day and I go, right, what's something that I

504
00:23:49,160 --> 00:23:51,920
Speaker 2: couldn't do today, I'll do three hundred berbies.

505
00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:55,040
Speaker 1: Let's do it, you know, Let's just fucking start knocking

506
00:23:55,080 --> 00:23:55,720
Speaker 1: them off one by.

507
00:23:55,840 --> 00:23:58,399
Speaker 2: Start knocking over, you know, and you work your way back.

508
00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:00,520
Speaker 1: And it's in your head, right, it's there, that's right.

509
00:24:01,680 --> 00:24:05,400
Speaker 2: And that's the thing about it, mate is And that

510
00:24:05,720 --> 00:24:08,680
Speaker 2: does take a toll physically later in my career, which

511
00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:11,320
Speaker 2: we'll get to. But I'd be laying in their bed

512
00:24:11,320 --> 00:24:14,240
Speaker 2: and I'd wake up and my wife would go, oh no,

513
00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:17,159
Speaker 2: not again, and it'd be the exercise book and I

514
00:24:17,160 --> 00:24:21,000
Speaker 2: could stup and just write theories and patterns are taking

515
00:24:21,040 --> 00:24:22,960
Speaker 2: patterns and things like that for hours.

516
00:24:23,119 --> 00:24:26,320
Speaker 1: Obsessed. Would you think you're obsessed? Obsessed with that of

517
00:24:26,359 --> 00:24:26,840
Speaker 1: your trade?

518
00:24:27,040 --> 00:24:29,879
Speaker 2: Yeah, over the top probably got to the point. I

519
00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:32,840
Speaker 2: remember reading the thing about the great Costure Zoo the Fighter,

520
00:24:33,240 --> 00:24:36,560
Speaker 2: and they said that Costure what he would do whenever

521
00:24:36,600 --> 00:24:39,520
Speaker 2: he trained coming out of the old Soviet boxing schools

522
00:24:39,840 --> 00:24:42,080
Speaker 2: he was. He kept a diary of how he trained,

523
00:24:42,119 --> 00:24:44,760
Speaker 2: and they said that every single fight he made sure

524
00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:49,280
Speaker 2: he did more work than the previous fight. But after

525
00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:51,639
Speaker 2: a while that actually starts to become a counteractive. I

526
00:24:51,680 --> 00:24:53,959
Speaker 2: actually back into my care I started to find that

527
00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:57,080
Speaker 2: in the fact that I needed to trust my talent more,

528
00:24:57,119 --> 00:25:00,159
Speaker 2: but I never could. And so you know that that

529
00:25:00,280 --> 00:25:03,000
Speaker 2: over exertion training. Like our coach, who was an Englishman

530
00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:07,040
Speaker 2: from Yorkshire, he used to chase me off the training pack.

531
00:25:07,119 --> 00:25:09,480
Speaker 2: So fucking mate, stop it, Maddie, You've got to stop it.

532
00:25:09,520 --> 00:25:11,600
Speaker 2: You're burning yourself out for Sunday. And worse than that,

533
00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:14,840
Speaker 2: maybe he said, it's going to cost you your niece.

534
00:25:14,960 --> 00:25:17,520
Speaker 1: You're going to put in the red constantly, isn't it.

535
00:25:17,640 --> 00:25:20,879
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. But I wouldn't have fucking done it.

536
00:25:20,920 --> 00:25:23,600
Speaker 2: I wouldn't unless I was at that mindset there is

537
00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:25,480
Speaker 2: no way in the world I would have achieved what

538
00:25:25,520 --> 00:25:25,840
Speaker 2: I did.

539
00:25:26,080 --> 00:25:28,720
Speaker 1: When was the moment that you started to realize that

540
00:25:28,800 --> 00:25:31,600
Speaker 1: all your hard work is not only paying off, but

541
00:25:31,680 --> 00:25:32,400
Speaker 1: he's paid off.

542
00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:34,280
Speaker 2: I remember being a young guy, it must have been

543
00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:40,200
Speaker 2: about nineteen and playing for playing for the Newcomer, and

544
00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:42,879
Speaker 2: myself and my brother We're coming through the lower grades,

545
00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:46,080
Speaker 2: and so I started to hear whispers like people are

546
00:25:46,119 --> 00:25:47,920
Speaker 2: turning up to watch you and your brother play in

547
00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:50,520
Speaker 2: the lower grades, and I'm waiting for a crack at

548
00:25:50,520 --> 00:25:53,639
Speaker 2: first grade. Anyway, I asked my wife to get to

549
00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:58,679
Speaker 2: go out on a date you well married blah, and

550
00:25:58,800 --> 00:26:01,320
Speaker 2: she'd never been a regul league game before, and she's

551
00:26:01,359 --> 00:26:03,439
Speaker 2: sitting in the grand stead. We play on the lower grades.

552
00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:06,560
Speaker 2: Game finishes, and I'm sitting on the bench for first grade,

553
00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:09,239
Speaker 2: not really going to get a go, and then all

554
00:26:09,280 --> 00:26:13,280
Speaker 2: of a sudden, the side's getting beat and the first

555
00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:17,120
Speaker 2: grade coach goes, Maddie, warm up, and I've gone right,

556
00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:21,840
Speaker 2: and I've gone bang, throwing the dressing gown off, and

557
00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:23,560
Speaker 2: I'm starting to warm up on the sideline and the

558
00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:27,480
Speaker 2: announcer over, who was a local Newcastle bloke and had

559
00:26:27,520 --> 00:26:29,800
Speaker 2: an eye for the local blokes and he goes ladies

560
00:26:29,800 --> 00:26:33,520
Speaker 2: and gentlemen coming on number nineteen Matthew and the crowd

561
00:26:33,560 --> 00:26:37,520
Speaker 2: went fucking berserk. And I remember thinking myself, holy shit. Anyway,

562
00:26:37,760 --> 00:26:39,560
Speaker 2: what happened to Blake I was going to replace actually

563
00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:41,199
Speaker 2: was okay after all, and I had to go back

564
00:26:41,240 --> 00:26:43,600
Speaker 2: into the grand stand. But I remember after the game,

565
00:26:44,280 --> 00:26:48,399
Speaker 2: my wife just goes, were they cheering for you? And

566
00:26:48,440 --> 00:26:51,560
Speaker 2: I said, yeah, she goes, that was strange, and I said,

567
00:26:51,560 --> 00:26:53,800
Speaker 2: that was really strange now, but I loved it.

568
00:26:54,040 --> 00:26:55,720
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was your Yeah.

569
00:26:55,920 --> 00:27:01,320
Speaker 2: And then we started working through and it was the

570
00:27:01,359 --> 00:27:04,960
Speaker 2: Newcastle Knights. When Andrew and I first come into that club,

571
00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:09,240
Speaker 2: they had no money whatsoever, and so what they did

572
00:27:09,240 --> 00:27:11,400
Speaker 2: when they would sign players for that club, they went,

573
00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:15,199
Speaker 2: we're going after the two t's, players with it, plenty

574
00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:18,879
Speaker 2: of tomorrows, and players who are tough, the two two's,

575
00:27:19,320 --> 00:27:22,080
Speaker 2: and going into that club made it was that they

576
00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:24,920
Speaker 2: expected so much from me, little things like the coach

577
00:27:24,920 --> 00:27:28,040
Speaker 2: Alum Martin good life lessons in a lot of way,

578
00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:30,399
Speaker 2: a lot of ways. He said, if there's a loose

579
00:27:30,440 --> 00:27:33,199
Speaker 2: ball on the ground and you go to kick it,

580
00:27:33,600 --> 00:27:35,680
Speaker 2: you're gone from the club. He said, you I don't

581
00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:38,320
Speaker 2: care if the people are kicking, are trying to kick

582
00:27:38,359 --> 00:27:40,640
Speaker 2: the ball or whatever. You fucking dive on the thing,

583
00:27:40,880 --> 00:27:43,000
Speaker 2: right and get it that. There was all these standards

584
00:27:43,080 --> 00:27:43,400
Speaker 2: they had.

585
00:27:43,880 --> 00:27:46,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, you dive on the grenade. Yeah, you know what

586
00:27:47,080 --> 00:27:49,120
Speaker 1: matter whether you're going to get blasted, whether you're going.

587
00:27:49,119 --> 00:27:52,560
Speaker 2: To get you said, if they get kicked in the head,

588
00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:54,560
Speaker 2: that's what you do. But if you do, if you don't,

589
00:27:54,640 --> 00:27:57,160
Speaker 2: you don't make that sacrifice, you don't play for this club.

590
00:27:57,520 --> 00:27:59,280
Speaker 2: And it's okay, But.

591
00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:02,080
Speaker 1: The thing like that money. The reason why you why

592
00:28:02,080 --> 00:28:04,719
Speaker 1: I say that is because it's very similar going up

593
00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:07,639
Speaker 1: from the conventional forces, you know, the elite convector to

594
00:28:07,680 --> 00:28:11,119
Speaker 1: the special forces. It's the attention to detail. It's to

595
00:28:11,320 --> 00:28:16,959
Speaker 1: small things that separate the levels of being extremely good

596
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:18,840
Speaker 1: at your job to being in the elite category.

597
00:28:18,880 --> 00:28:21,359
Speaker 2: Isn't it so true? I'd say that my boys all

598
00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:23,399
Speaker 2: the time. We're not just some coaching with young players

599
00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:25,040
Speaker 2: and so mate, it's not the bricks, it's the mortar.

600
00:28:25,440 --> 00:28:28,280
Speaker 2: It's the subtleties to separate people and that and the

601
00:28:28,320 --> 00:28:31,879
Speaker 2: club in those days and played a very very primitive

602
00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:35,160
Speaker 2: game plan. Their whole game plan was retaining the ball,

603
00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:39,200
Speaker 2: don't make errors, bash the opposition, hope for the best,

604
00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:41,280
Speaker 2: and so the club would have a good year every

605
00:28:41,280 --> 00:28:45,040
Speaker 2: now and then, but you know, generally it was it

606
00:28:45,120 --> 00:28:47,480
Speaker 2: was a struggling club, that's what it was. And I

607
00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:50,120
Speaker 2: remember myself and Andrew would sit at home and put

608
00:28:50,120 --> 00:28:52,160
Speaker 2: the game on and watch all these glamour temes like

609
00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:56,480
Speaker 2: the Broncos and Manly and the canber Raiders, and we go,

610
00:28:56,560 --> 00:28:58,480
Speaker 2: we're going to fucking do those guys one day when

611
00:28:58,560 --> 00:29:01,200
Speaker 2: we get into first grade, everything's going to change in

612
00:29:01,200 --> 00:29:03,560
Speaker 2: this club. And probably have more to do with Andrew,

613
00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:05,280
Speaker 2: But it did.

614
00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:07,880
Speaker 1: Did you feel that you always came as a duo

615
00:29:08,400 --> 00:29:10,920
Speaker 1: or was there was there one you know, one could

616
00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:13,520
Speaker 1: potentially make it and the other potentially could or was

617
00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:16,200
Speaker 1: it we're looking at the brothers, the brothers a bit

618
00:29:16,240 --> 00:29:18,320
Speaker 1: like the Burgess brothers, right, yeah, you know, you know

619
00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:20,960
Speaker 1: they sort of came, you know, one Burgess brother came

620
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:24,960
Speaker 1: with another Burgers with another Burgers brother. Was there that

621
00:29:25,120 --> 00:29:27,200
Speaker 1: sense of unity within you two or was there a

622
00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:29,560
Speaker 1: case of I want to push you to be better

623
00:29:29,680 --> 00:29:31,360
Speaker 1: or you want to push him to be better? What

624
00:29:31,640 --> 00:29:34,360
Speaker 1: was it like, you know, at that stage of going

625
00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:36,600
Speaker 1: from you know, the seconds to the first grade.

626
00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:40,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of competition, working as a combination, competing

627
00:29:40,640 --> 00:29:42,800
Speaker 2: against each other. I've been a game and he'd pick

628
00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:45,400
Speaker 2: up the ball and do something specially, I go fuck okay,

629
00:29:46,360 --> 00:29:48,360
Speaker 2: and we just we'd push each other. But we worked

630
00:29:48,360 --> 00:29:51,080
Speaker 2: well as a combination. And when we actually started to

631
00:29:51,080 --> 00:29:53,200
Speaker 2: play it against it together in the first grade, I

632
00:29:53,240 --> 00:29:55,840
Speaker 2: was like, fuck, this is easy because you just didn't

633
00:29:55,840 --> 00:29:58,600
Speaker 2: need to communicate, worry too much. We just knew each

634
00:29:58,600 --> 00:30:02,880
Speaker 2: other instinctively. Things started to happen. And the first eight

635
00:30:03,080 --> 00:30:06,320
Speaker 2: months coming in as young guys, it was hard. Yards.

636
00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:10,880
Speaker 2: You're playing against great teams full of these iconic players.

637
00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:13,600
Speaker 2: And remember one of the first first great games we

638
00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:16,720
Speaker 2: played together, we played Canberra and Canberra and back in

639
00:30:16,760 --> 00:30:20,320
Speaker 2: those days, Mate, it was literally they are all internationals,

640
00:30:20,320 --> 00:30:23,040
Speaker 2: the state of origin players based on Malmaninger, these giants

641
00:30:23,040 --> 00:30:25,400
Speaker 2: of the game. It'd be like getting a start for

642
00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:28,160
Speaker 2: you know, let's say for reasons with Wolves and you're

643
00:30:28,200 --> 00:30:30,280
Speaker 2: running on you're playing against Real Madrid and you look

644
00:30:30,320 --> 00:30:34,320
Speaker 2: across and there's Barbe And we ran on the field

645
00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:36,280
Speaker 2: in Canberra that day and I'm looking across and there's

646
00:30:36,360 --> 00:30:38,840
Speaker 2: all these icons and I'm going I'm standing there going

647
00:30:39,480 --> 00:30:41,240
Speaker 2: fuck me, I'm about playing against Malmedinger.

648
00:30:41,320 --> 00:30:44,080
Speaker 1: What's your headspace like? Is it? Is it a level

649
00:30:44,120 --> 00:30:47,040
Speaker 1: of over respect? Is it a level of we're going

650
00:30:47,040 --> 00:30:48,920
Speaker 1: to get trashed here? Is it a level of or

651
00:30:49,040 --> 00:30:50,800
Speaker 1: is it a level of you know what, we're the

652
00:30:50,840 --> 00:30:53,040
Speaker 1: fucking new generation coming through, We're going to show what.

653
00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:55,520
Speaker 1: Just talk me through the mindset of you running onto that.

654
00:30:55,840 --> 00:30:58,400
Speaker 2: Over respect, respect, over respect. That's what it was from

655
00:30:58,400 --> 00:30:59,200
Speaker 2: me and Andrew.

656
00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:02,440
Speaker 1: Daunting, like you know, have Rabbit in the headlights.

657
00:31:02,200 --> 00:31:04,960
Speaker 2: Were playing against my heroes here and these guys thought,

658
00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:08,400
Speaker 2: who these guys are invincible? You know it was over respect.

659
00:31:08,760 --> 00:31:10,320
Speaker 2: It was you know, even to the point when you

660
00:31:10,520 --> 00:31:13,200
Speaker 2: over respect someone. I think sometimes and I know that

661
00:31:13,760 --> 00:31:16,160
Speaker 2: in sport is a lot of times you don't take

662
00:31:16,200 --> 00:31:18,320
Speaker 2: things with face value, like you look and you go,

663
00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:20,640
Speaker 2: there's an opportunity. I think Mail has been a bit

664
00:31:20,720 --> 00:31:23,560
Speaker 2: lazy defense here, and then another thing in brand and go.

665
00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:26,000
Speaker 2: I know he wouldn't be lazy in defense. He knows

666
00:31:26,040 --> 00:31:26,920
Speaker 2: exactly what I'm up to.

667
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:30,160
Speaker 1: You you're filling the gaps in for him, that's right.

668
00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:32,800
Speaker 2: But you know, slowly as you start to get up

669
00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:36,160
Speaker 2: around like for me, you're not an NRL player to

670
00:31:36,200 --> 00:31:39,120
Speaker 2: you've hit fifty games. Then you start to get used

671
00:31:39,160 --> 00:31:41,960
Speaker 2: to the pace, you start to get used to the physicality,

672
00:31:42,120 --> 00:31:44,760
Speaker 2: and you start giving some back and and like you know,

673
00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:47,800
Speaker 2: some of the I watched There was an interview with

674
00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:50,120
Speaker 2: an old teammate of mind the other night and they

675
00:31:50,160 --> 00:31:51,920
Speaker 2: showed some of the tries and that we did back

676
00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:53,160
Speaker 2: in the day, and I'm looking at you. Fuck, it

677
00:31:53,280 --> 00:31:56,000
Speaker 2: was fun. We just had the best time. Like those

678
00:31:56,080 --> 00:31:58,200
Speaker 2: Knights teams in those early days before we come in,

679
00:31:58,320 --> 00:32:02,200
Speaker 2: they were tough, played very basic, tough football. When we

680
00:32:02,360 --> 00:32:05,320
Speaker 2: come in, we went, right, we're going to fucking change everything.

681
00:32:05,360 --> 00:32:07,440
Speaker 2: We're not only going to win, but we're going to

682
00:32:07,520 --> 00:32:09,480
Speaker 2: make it. When people turn up to watch this game,

683
00:32:09,520 --> 00:32:11,880
Speaker 2: they're going to be entertained. And we go when we're

684
00:32:11,960 --> 00:32:13,760
Speaker 2: when we're playing some of the big sides, like the

685
00:32:13,840 --> 00:32:17,120
Speaker 2: Broncos Brison Broncos. On a Friday night, as we'd leave home,

686
00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:20,360
Speaker 2: we drive together and you knew how big the crowd

687
00:32:20,480 --> 00:32:22,080
Speaker 2: was going to be by how far the cars were

688
00:32:22,120 --> 00:32:24,560
Speaker 2: parked from the stadium. And when we play the Broncos,

689
00:32:24,720 --> 00:32:27,640
Speaker 2: make the cars we parked five ks from the stadium,

690
00:32:27,640 --> 00:32:29,160
Speaker 2: and you go Okay, it's going to be a full house.

691
00:32:29,440 --> 00:32:31,040
Speaker 2: And it was just the buzz, you know, just in

692
00:32:31,160 --> 00:32:34,000
Speaker 2: the sheds before the game. It was, you know, just

693
00:32:34,120 --> 00:32:36,360
Speaker 2: that that feeling, and when you ran on it was

694
00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:39,880
Speaker 2: just just excitement. It was just so good. And there's

695
00:32:39,920 --> 00:32:42,720
Speaker 2: been a few moments, like little moments where you said,

696
00:32:42,800 --> 00:32:47,360
Speaker 2: when did you know, like you'r ridal that, these surreal

697
00:32:47,520 --> 00:32:51,120
Speaker 2: moments that you go, fuck, I've fucking done this. One

698
00:32:51,160 --> 00:32:53,200
Speaker 2: of them was we made the Australian side together for

699
00:32:53,280 --> 00:32:55,800
Speaker 2: the World Cup in ninety five and our opening game

700
00:32:55,960 --> 00:32:59,280
Speaker 2: was against Great Britain at Wembley. Wow. And I walked

701
00:32:59,280 --> 00:33:01,680
Speaker 2: into Wembley and I'm sitting there going fucking hell, there's

702
00:33:01,680 --> 00:33:03,600
Speaker 2: the hot tub that George Best would have been there,

703
00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:06,520
Speaker 2: and Palais all these guys, and then all of a

704
00:33:06,560 --> 00:33:09,800
Speaker 2: sudden there was ninety thousand there and we walk out

705
00:33:09,840 --> 00:33:12,080
Speaker 2: of the tunnel and the whole crowd in the old

706
00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:14,880
Speaker 2: Wembley and it was reverberating what was going to fall apart.

707
00:33:15,160 --> 00:33:16,840
Speaker 2: And they was seeing the land of hope and glory

708
00:33:17,160 --> 00:33:19,080
Speaker 2: and you had a real sense of the old Empire.

709
00:33:19,200 --> 00:33:21,800
Speaker 1: And I was like, fucking hell, yeah, you're walking out

710
00:33:21,840 --> 00:33:25,280
Speaker 1: into a Colisee and amn't you it was just crazy, absolutely,

711
00:33:25,760 --> 00:33:28,320
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of people let go or

712
00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:31,680
Speaker 1: they don't acknowledge those moments where you were like, I'm

713
00:33:31,720 --> 00:33:34,120
Speaker 1: on the right track. I'm exactly where I'm supposed to

714
00:33:34,240 --> 00:33:36,480
Speaker 1: be right now. This is a milestone. I don't need

715
00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:38,520
Speaker 1: to go any further back from this. I can work

716
00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:40,640
Speaker 1: from this moment onwards exactly.

717
00:33:41,160 --> 00:33:43,640
Speaker 2: But you know what we I tear what I was

718
00:33:43,680 --> 00:33:46,560
Speaker 2: doing twelve months earlier. I'm playing first grade for the

719
00:33:46,600 --> 00:33:50,560
Speaker 2: Newcastle Knights. I'm getting paid twelve and a half thousand

720
00:33:50,560 --> 00:33:53,760
Speaker 2: dollars a year, and to supplement my income, I'm working

721
00:33:53,800 --> 00:33:58,040
Speaker 2: as a stop go man on the Cessnock Council. That's

722
00:33:58,520 --> 00:34:01,640
Speaker 2: it was literally a semi professional thing. And then but yeah,

723
00:34:01,640 --> 00:34:03,760
Speaker 2: twelve and a half grand. So you live in the dream.

724
00:34:03,840 --> 00:34:05,720
Speaker 2: But the dream is slightly different to what you thought

725
00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:06,040
Speaker 2: it would be.

726
00:34:06,160 --> 00:34:10,280
Speaker 1: It's a bit deluded. Yeah, and then you're turning around.

727
00:34:11,080 --> 00:34:13,880
Speaker 2: You get well, you get beat on a Sunday at home, right,

728
00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:16,760
Speaker 2: So it's embarrassing to start with, But then you're standing

729
00:34:16,800 --> 00:34:19,480
Speaker 2: in the middle of winter and on a main road

730
00:34:19,520 --> 00:34:22,719
Speaker 2: in sinoch in your hometown, and school buses are going past,

731
00:34:23,080 --> 00:34:25,200
Speaker 2: and they're just pouring shit on you because you've been

732
00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:27,239
Speaker 2: I got to the point I started wearing a bell

733
00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:30,640
Speaker 2: of clava. Yeah, so they could recognize tough.

734
00:34:31,239 --> 00:34:32,279
Speaker 1: It must have been tough meat.

735
00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:34,200
Speaker 2: I'll be standing there and you know, it's the old

736
00:34:34,200 --> 00:34:38,040
Speaker 2: thing where someone's come up from two hundred yards. You're

737
00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:40,279
Speaker 2: on the main road. Of course, people get the ships

738
00:34:40,320 --> 00:34:43,040
Speaker 2: when you hold them up stop and people go fucking hell.

739
00:34:43,040 --> 00:34:46,040
Speaker 2: And then so I go, are you that bloke that

740
00:34:46,120 --> 00:34:48,319
Speaker 2: plays five A for the Newcastle Knights? I said, yeah,

741
00:34:48,360 --> 00:34:50,560
Speaker 2: that's me that would you fall on hard times?

742
00:34:52,239 --> 00:34:54,520
Speaker 1: When you look at it, it was it was almost

743
00:34:54,600 --> 00:34:58,800
Speaker 1: like a it's probably that era where it wasn't well paid.

744
00:34:58,920 --> 00:35:00,600
Speaker 1: And then it flipped.

745
00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:02,359
Speaker 2: I'm on twelve and a half grand injuries on ten

746
00:35:02,400 --> 00:35:04,040
Speaker 2: thousand dollars. The bloke who in two years with the

747
00:35:04,040 --> 00:35:06,680
Speaker 2: greatest playing in the world's on ten thousand dollars. And

748
00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:10,239
Speaker 2: what happens is this civil war of types happens in

749
00:35:10,280 --> 00:35:12,480
Speaker 2: the game. It's like live golf, this PG own live.

750
00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:15,560
Speaker 2: But we had we had the ARL and the Super League.

751
00:35:15,840 --> 00:35:20,560
Speaker 2: So the ARL was the competition as exists to an

752
00:35:20,600 --> 00:35:24,880
Speaker 2: extent like now, and it was it was in a

753
00:35:24,920 --> 00:35:27,480
Speaker 2: lot of ways. The power Breakers were tied to one

754
00:35:27,880 --> 00:35:30,120
Speaker 2: billionaire and a stray called Kerry Packer who had the

755
00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:33,040
Speaker 2: Nine network. In that and super League were represented from

756
00:35:33,040 --> 00:35:35,279
Speaker 2: News Limited by Rupert Murdock, and they went to war

757
00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:38,120
Speaker 2: on players. News Limited wanted to own half the game.

758
00:35:38,440 --> 00:35:40,879
Speaker 2: The ARL rejected them, and they said, well, if you're

759
00:35:40,880 --> 00:35:43,279
Speaker 2: not going to play ball, fuck mate, we'll start our

760
00:35:43,320 --> 00:35:45,759
Speaker 2: own competition. So they went to start a rebel league.

761
00:35:46,040 --> 00:35:50,359
Speaker 2: So then all bets are off. So without clubs knowing

762
00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:52,640
Speaker 2: and a lot officials knowing, they would just go. The

763
00:35:52,680 --> 00:35:56,000
Speaker 2: super League would go to players individually like hey, blah

764
00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:59,560
Speaker 2: blah blah blah blah, sign and the way they go

765
00:35:59,600 --> 00:36:02,239
Speaker 2: and they stay accumulating clubs and others just players and

766
00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:05,080
Speaker 2: so on. Anyway, our turncome. So we're on twelve and

767
00:36:05,120 --> 00:36:07,440
Speaker 2: a half from ten grand. So the Super League want

768
00:36:07,440 --> 00:36:08,799
Speaker 2: to have you and to us, and we're going, okay,

769
00:36:08,880 --> 00:36:11,360
Speaker 2: no worries to meet the super League. All the teammates

770
00:36:11,360 --> 00:36:14,839
Speaker 2: are standing there and that anyway, we're going to mate

771
00:36:15,560 --> 00:36:19,320
Speaker 2: who feel called Darren Tracy. He goes in and he's

772
00:36:19,360 --> 00:36:21,840
Speaker 2: a background and a pretty good player. He's on probably

773
00:36:22,080 --> 00:36:25,120
Speaker 2: he's been old twenty five grand let's say. So he's

774
00:36:25,200 --> 00:36:27,160
Speaker 2: gone in and he's talking to the super League, and

775
00:36:27,200 --> 00:36:28,680
Speaker 2: one of the things the super League would say is,

776
00:36:28,760 --> 00:36:33,200
Speaker 2: don't discuss money what you've been off or offers with

777
00:36:33,320 --> 00:36:36,320
Speaker 2: any of your teammates. It's not so they're sitting in

778
00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:38,840
Speaker 2: a glass front office, so they can all. We're all

779
00:36:38,880 --> 00:36:41,200
Speaker 2: standing at a bar having a beer. That's what professionals do.

780
00:36:41,320 --> 00:36:44,920
Speaker 2: They drink. We're drinking today. He walks out, he's been

781
00:36:45,080 --> 00:36:47,680
Speaker 2: just offered something. He walks out and says, fuck me,

782
00:36:47,840 --> 00:36:50,000
Speaker 2: they've just offered me three hundred and fifty grand, right,

783
00:36:50,239 --> 00:36:53,080
Speaker 2: and we all just go what. So Andrew and I

784
00:36:53,239 --> 00:36:57,000
Speaker 2: go in, what are you on? Right? And they said,

785
00:36:57,000 --> 00:36:59,239
Speaker 2: we'll give you both five hundred thousand dollars a year

786
00:36:59,440 --> 00:37:02,719
Speaker 2: for five years, and one hundred thousand dollars up front

787
00:37:02,760 --> 00:37:06,680
Speaker 2: for signing. We're like, oh, right, okay, yeah, well was

788
00:37:06,760 --> 00:37:10,600
Speaker 2: that close honestly, And then we just went, oh, you

789
00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:12,759
Speaker 2: know all the other blokes in the team, they are

790
00:37:12,800 --> 00:37:15,799
Speaker 2: our best mates. We don't want to sign right now.

791
00:37:15,840 --> 00:37:17,120
Speaker 2: We just want to see where the cards are going

792
00:37:17,160 --> 00:37:20,080
Speaker 2: to fall a little bit. Okay, So we go and

793
00:37:21,160 --> 00:37:22,040
Speaker 2: we sort of sit on it.

794
00:37:22,440 --> 00:37:24,120
Speaker 1: Surely you want to sign on the dotted line there,

795
00:37:24,160 --> 00:37:26,239
Speaker 1: and then we stopped you from doing that.

796
00:37:26,680 --> 00:37:30,320
Speaker 2: Our captain and great friend, great friend of mine, Paul Harrigan,

797
00:37:30,560 --> 00:37:32,680
Speaker 2: he'd signed with the a RL. They showed him up

798
00:37:32,680 --> 00:37:34,239
Speaker 2: first of all because he was our skipper who was

799
00:37:34,239 --> 00:37:37,640
Speaker 2: an iconic player. So we'd sign and I said to Joey,

800
00:37:37,760 --> 00:37:40,680
Speaker 2: we've got to go over and speak to Chief. So

801
00:37:40,760 --> 00:37:44,480
Speaker 2: when over his house, chatting away, and I said, Chief

802
00:37:44,600 --> 00:37:46,120
Speaker 2: is what they've offered us, and we're going to go

803
00:37:46,200 --> 00:37:47,919
Speaker 2: to the Super League. And he was like, oh fuck,

804
00:37:48,440 --> 00:37:50,160
Speaker 2: this is going to tear the team apart. You know,

805
00:37:50,280 --> 00:37:52,880
Speaker 2: we're just getting to where we want to boo and anyway,

806
00:37:53,840 --> 00:37:56,480
Speaker 2: he said, boys, can I just ask you one favor.

807
00:37:57,600 --> 00:38:00,000
Speaker 2: Can we all go down tomorrow to a RL headquarter

808
00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:02,279
Speaker 2: is down here in Sydney and we'll just listen to

809
00:38:02,320 --> 00:38:04,520
Speaker 2: what the ARL want to offer. So we go all

810
00:38:04,560 --> 00:38:07,680
Speaker 2: the way down Sydney. The Super League find out that

811
00:38:07,719 --> 00:38:11,360
Speaker 2: where on the bus down So see manager hands me

812
00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:16,200
Speaker 2: his phone in the early mobile phone, Hello super League, listen,

813
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:19,319
Speaker 2: you're on your way to Sydney. Olive. Yeah, we split

814
00:38:19,400 --> 00:38:22,319
Speaker 2: the AARL. We prefer you didn't. We'll give you six

815
00:38:22,440 --> 00:38:24,719
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty thousand dollars for five years and two

816
00:38:24,800 --> 00:38:27,440
Speaker 2: hundred upfront, if you'll hop off the bus now, and

817
00:38:27,560 --> 00:38:29,680
Speaker 2: I said can't. I can't. I'm down here with all.

818
00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:31,839
Speaker 2: Don't worry. They're doing the same thing to other blokes.

819
00:38:31,840 --> 00:38:33,799
Speaker 2: You should have heard some of the blokes we started off.

820
00:38:33,840 --> 00:38:35,839
Speaker 2: On the way down, we had thirty blokes in the bus,

821
00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:37,800
Speaker 2: but then blokes we go on. Oh, hang on a second,

822
00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:39,279
Speaker 2: I think I've left the iron on.

823
00:38:40,880 --> 00:38:41,040
Speaker 1: Well.

824
00:38:41,080 --> 00:38:43,080
Speaker 2: The time we got there was about fifteen fifteen of us.

825
00:38:43,719 --> 00:38:46,080
Speaker 2: But we go down speech to the aarl. Aarl say

826
00:38:46,160 --> 00:38:47,840
Speaker 2: later that night they're going to come down back to

827
00:38:48,040 --> 00:38:51,279
Speaker 2: Newcastle and make official office. So we head back. As

828
00:38:51,320 --> 00:38:54,480
Speaker 2: we're about to go on the training park at Newcastle

829
00:38:54,560 --> 00:38:58,080
Speaker 2: that night, the manager comes gives me the phone super

830
00:38:58,160 --> 00:39:01,759
Speaker 2: League again. They said, orrybout eight hundred, one thousand, eight years,

831
00:39:02,400 --> 00:39:03,680
Speaker 2: and I forget what it was. It might have been

832
00:39:03,680 --> 00:39:08,640
Speaker 2: two hundred and fifty thousand up front. So tap Andrew

833
00:39:08,680 --> 00:39:10,480
Speaker 2: on the shoulder and I told him, I said, fuck,

834
00:39:10,520 --> 00:39:14,279
Speaker 2: we're gone, We're going to Super League. So we went

835
00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:18,600
Speaker 2: and saw the captain Chief and said Chief, this is

836
00:39:18,640 --> 00:39:23,160
Speaker 2: what we've offered been offered. He starts crying, see hass

837
00:39:23,200 --> 00:39:25,759
Speaker 2: nothing I can do. So he rings the AARL and

838
00:39:25,840 --> 00:39:29,400
Speaker 2: speaks to a legendary blake, black bloke of amazing infamous

839
00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:32,960
Speaker 2: Phil Gould. You see him on the broadcast. Gus is

840
00:39:33,239 --> 00:39:36,080
Speaker 2: a man of amazing intelligence. It was a great coach,

841
00:39:36,600 --> 00:39:40,839
Speaker 2: amazing orator. When he talks, Phil Gould says to Chief,

842
00:39:40,920 --> 00:39:43,480
Speaker 2: you just tell those boys to hold off two hours.

843
00:39:43,800 --> 00:39:46,040
Speaker 2: I'm racing down the highway now. So he comes racing

844
00:39:46,080 --> 00:39:48,160
Speaker 2: down the highway and Gus arrives and he addresses the

845
00:39:48,200 --> 00:39:52,319
Speaker 2: whole team and he said super League, he said, He goes.

846
00:39:52,320 --> 00:39:54,600
Speaker 2: You know the thing that really shatters me. He said,

847
00:39:54,600 --> 00:39:56,759
Speaker 2: there's players, some of my favorite players in the world

848
00:39:56,760 --> 00:39:58,319
Speaker 2: have signed with the Super League and they're never going

849
00:39:58,360 --> 00:40:00,839
Speaker 2: to play regul league again. It's not going to happen.

850
00:40:01,400 --> 00:40:03,080
Speaker 2: This revelue, he's not going to happen. They're going to

851
00:40:03,120 --> 00:40:05,960
Speaker 2: be barred. And we're sitting there, we are shitting ourselves,

852
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:08,520
Speaker 2: you know. Anyway goes everyone put their hands in there.

853
00:40:08,560 --> 00:40:12,279
Speaker 2: Who wants to sign for the arl? And everybody put

854
00:40:12,320 --> 00:40:15,920
Speaker 2: their hands in the except Andrew and I. He went right,

855
00:40:16,400 --> 00:40:18,520
Speaker 2: I want to see you two blakes first. So we

856
00:40:18,640 --> 00:40:21,239
Speaker 2: walk into the office with Phil Gril What are they

857
00:40:21,280 --> 00:40:24,200
Speaker 2: offered you? I said eight hundred thousand years, and he

858
00:40:24,280 --> 00:40:29,200
Speaker 2: went fucking hell. He said, look, we can't offer you

859
00:40:29,239 --> 00:40:30,880
Speaker 2: anything like that. I'll tell what we'll give. We'll give

860
00:40:30,920 --> 00:40:33,640
Speaker 2: three hundred and fifty year, three hundred and fifty one

861
00:40:33,680 --> 00:40:35,520
Speaker 2: thousand a year for five years, two hundred and fifty

862
00:40:35,520 --> 00:40:39,040
Speaker 2: thousand up front. Now all my teammates have said they

863
00:40:39,080 --> 00:40:42,400
Speaker 2: want to they want to stay with the RL, So

864
00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:45,960
Speaker 2: I go, what choice, Okay, we'll do it. Gus to

865
00:40:46,080 --> 00:40:50,240
Speaker 2: his credit, right, Phil Good to his credit goes. Boys,

866
00:40:50,320 --> 00:40:53,880
Speaker 2: between you and I, I can't do this morally. The

867
00:40:53,960 --> 00:40:58,640
Speaker 2: money that you are that you're going to forgo. If

868
00:40:58,719 --> 00:41:02,279
Speaker 2: the packers are any ask you who this cause was

869
00:41:02,360 --> 00:41:04,440
Speaker 2: put in, Matthew or wants you to say you insisted,

870
00:41:04,440 --> 00:41:06,120
Speaker 2: because they find out I put it in, they're going

871
00:41:06,160 --> 00:41:09,239
Speaker 2: to skin me. And the clause was that we had

872
00:41:09,280 --> 00:41:12,520
Speaker 2: a twenty four hour clause to get out, so at

873
00:41:12,520 --> 00:41:14,480
Speaker 2: any point the next twenty four hours we could tear

874
00:41:14,560 --> 00:41:18,200
Speaker 2: our AURL contract up and signed with the Super League. Well,

875
00:41:18,280 --> 00:41:20,480
Speaker 2: nothing was the secret. As we left the office, all

876
00:41:20,520 --> 00:41:22,640
Speaker 2: our mates go in they signed for the AARL. They've

877
00:41:22,640 --> 00:41:26,440
Speaker 2: got no clause to get out, so we're ducking and

878
00:41:26,520 --> 00:41:28,080
Speaker 2: we even I don't want to hear what the next

879
00:41:28,160 --> 00:41:28,680
Speaker 2: off is going.

880
00:41:28,680 --> 00:41:32,359
Speaker 1: To be because you just sleep this night.

881
00:41:32,440 --> 00:41:35,480
Speaker 2: I sleep. Yeah, so Andrew and I. There's only a

882
00:41:35,520 --> 00:41:38,480
Speaker 2: couple of hours left to go on the twenty four

883
00:41:38,520 --> 00:41:43,000
Speaker 2: hour clause and we're eating at Sizzler. That's what winners do, mate,

884
00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:45,279
Speaker 2: they got a Sizzler and celebrate, you know. So we're

885
00:41:45,280 --> 00:41:49,960
Speaker 2: eating away. The manager of Sizzler comes up table and goes, mate,

886
00:41:50,160 --> 00:41:53,080
Speaker 2: there's a phone call for you in the kitchen. God fuck,

887
00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:57,840
Speaker 2: that's strange. So I've walked in the kitchen. Hello, Hello, Matthew,

888
00:41:57,880 --> 00:41:59,960
Speaker 2: it's Ken Cowley here. Do you know who I am?

889
00:42:00,719 --> 00:42:03,759
Speaker 2: I said no, I don't can He said, well, there's

890
00:42:03,800 --> 00:42:05,360
Speaker 2: only one person in the world. I answered to on

891
00:42:05,400 --> 00:42:08,120
Speaker 2: that's Rupert Murdock. I'll just sip it below him in

892
00:42:08,680 --> 00:42:13,080
Speaker 2: News Limited Worldwide. Oh right. He said, you and your

893
00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:15,560
Speaker 2: brother are quite an av, aren't you. And I went,

894
00:42:16,120 --> 00:42:19,279
Speaker 2: what wave, miss Cowley? And he said, well, you think

895
00:42:19,400 --> 00:42:21,520
Speaker 2: us looking to sign you is all about just you

896
00:42:21,600 --> 00:42:24,080
Speaker 2: and he and his talents day and I said well yeah,

897
00:42:24,320 --> 00:42:26,520
Speaker 2: He said no, it's not. We need a team in

898
00:42:26,600 --> 00:42:30,720
Speaker 2: Newcastle and if the Knights want to stay as the Knights.

899
00:42:30,840 --> 00:42:33,000
Speaker 2: That's okay, but we can build a whole new club

900
00:42:33,080 --> 00:42:36,600
Speaker 2: around you, tube blokes. So that's what it's about. You blokes,

901
00:42:36,760 --> 00:42:39,840
Speaker 2: he said, through naivety, find yourselves in the balance of

902
00:42:39,920 --> 00:42:42,440
Speaker 2: power in this Super League war. That's why you're being

903
00:42:42,520 --> 00:42:44,920
Speaker 2: offered so much money. He said, I'll ask your son.

904
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:46,879
Speaker 2: How much was the last offer we gave you. I said,

905
00:42:47,000 --> 00:42:50,359
Speaker 2: eight hundred thousand dollars a year, eight years, two hundred

906
00:42:50,360 --> 00:42:54,600
Speaker 2: and fifty thousand up front. He said, right, okay, scrap that,

907
00:42:54,640 --> 00:43:00,319
Speaker 2: don't worry about it. See what, Matthew, just name anything said,

908
00:43:00,440 --> 00:43:03,400
Speaker 2: we have spent so much money. We can win this

909
00:43:03,520 --> 00:43:05,520
Speaker 2: war right now if we get Andrew and your signature.

910
00:43:05,760 --> 00:43:08,960
Speaker 2: And by the way, it was tatling. We had no idea.

911
00:43:09,160 --> 00:43:12,680
Speaker 2: We just basically found ourselves stumbled into this situation of power.

912
00:43:13,239 --> 00:43:15,279
Speaker 2: And he said, don't worry about it. And he said,

913
00:43:15,560 --> 00:43:18,080
Speaker 2: just say a figure. It doesn't matter, any price, it

914
00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:21,759
Speaker 2: doesn't matter. We need your signature. And I said, mister Cally,

915
00:43:21,760 --> 00:43:25,520
Speaker 2: you've got to understand. I said, when Andrew and I

916
00:43:26,040 --> 00:43:28,279
Speaker 2: signed with the Arl, all our best mates follow us

917
00:43:28,320 --> 00:43:30,400
Speaker 2: in and signed as well. They haven't got our clauses.

918
00:43:30,480 --> 00:43:33,000
Speaker 2: He said, Matthew, I'll tell you something. With the money

919
00:43:33,320 --> 00:43:35,439
Speaker 2: I can give you, you can buy a whole set

920
00:43:35,480 --> 00:43:41,320
Speaker 2: of better mates. And I said, can. I can't do it, mate, No,

921
00:43:41,920 --> 00:43:44,239
Speaker 2: And I said, and I said, I've got to hang

922
00:43:44,280 --> 00:43:47,000
Speaker 2: out with the phone because and he went, I'll stop

923
00:43:47,080 --> 00:43:49,439
Speaker 2: you there. He said, Good on your son. He goes,

924
00:43:49,800 --> 00:43:52,319
Speaker 2: it's not going to help my cause this, he said,

925
00:43:52,360 --> 00:43:54,400
Speaker 2: but I really respect it, so good on you. And

926
00:43:54,480 --> 00:43:56,560
Speaker 2: he said, one day we'll probably work together some other way.

927
00:43:56,600 --> 00:43:59,200
Speaker 2: And has when I retired, I went and started working

928
00:43:59,239 --> 00:44:02,400
Speaker 2: and news limited. But you know, all that money, like,

929
00:44:02,440 --> 00:44:04,239
Speaker 2: how much do you need? I mean, like, I got

930
00:44:04,320 --> 00:44:06,200
Speaker 2: real simple taste. I like it a slap on the

931
00:44:06,239 --> 00:44:08,239
Speaker 2: pokes every now and then, but I don't bet big,

932
00:44:08,520 --> 00:44:10,279
Speaker 2: have a dollar a hit things like that. You know,

933
00:44:10,520 --> 00:44:12,799
Speaker 2: I've got a simple taste. I don't drive sports cars

934
00:44:12,840 --> 00:44:15,919
Speaker 2: or anything like that. And and what I'm proud about

935
00:44:16,120 --> 00:44:16,279
Speaker 2: is that.

936
00:44:17,000 --> 00:44:20,200
Speaker 1: Then your model compass felt like it was pointing true north.

937
00:44:20,280 --> 00:44:21,839
Speaker 2: You know exactly could you could?

938
00:44:21,920 --> 00:44:23,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, you could go on and do what you wanted

939
00:44:23,719 --> 00:44:26,400
Speaker 1: to do, knowing morally that you intact.

940
00:44:26,640 --> 00:44:31,400
Speaker 2: And every time I see these blokes, huge, if I

941
00:44:31,440 --> 00:44:32,960
Speaker 2: had to go on regardless of the money. You know,

942
00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:34,719
Speaker 2: who knows what happens with my life if I take

943
00:44:34,760 --> 00:44:37,000
Speaker 2: that money? Who knows I might might have had Might

944
00:44:37,080 --> 00:44:39,680
Speaker 2: be I might have turned into beans, might have been it,

945
00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:42,719
Speaker 2: or I might have been that bloke that all my

946
00:44:42,800 --> 00:44:45,040
Speaker 2: best mates would never talk to again. And those boys,

947
00:44:45,120 --> 00:44:47,719
Speaker 2: they say, boys will end up. Two years later when

948
00:44:47,719 --> 00:44:48,560
Speaker 2: a grand final.

949
00:44:48,400 --> 00:45:00,840
Speaker 1: With so you sign for the aar L your moral

950
00:45:00,880 --> 00:45:03,360
Speaker 1: compasses intact. You know you're there, you're unit, you know

951
00:45:03,400 --> 00:45:06,880
Speaker 1: you're almost torn apart. What was the years like after that?

952
00:45:07,000 --> 00:45:11,200
Speaker 2: And that very difficult? Yeah? Was it very difficult? Yeah,

953
00:45:11,360 --> 00:45:16,040
Speaker 2: you give a hill billy money, you know, tell me

954
00:45:16,120 --> 00:45:22,279
Speaker 2: about it. But feel good when we signed not long after,

955
00:45:22,360 --> 00:45:25,800
Speaker 2: when we didn't jump and we signed and the contract

956
00:45:25,880 --> 00:45:27,320
Speaker 2: kicked in, he goes, this is gonna be the greatest

957
00:45:27,400 --> 00:45:29,640
Speaker 2: challenge in your life. I didn't get I didn't understand it.

958
00:45:30,080 --> 00:45:33,839
Speaker 2: He said, can you maintain the desire and the want

959
00:45:34,080 --> 00:45:37,360
Speaker 2: and the hunger now that you're earning good money? And

960
00:45:37,480 --> 00:45:38,320
Speaker 2: for a while we didn't.

961
00:45:38,520 --> 00:45:40,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's another challenge just in front of you that

962
00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:43,520
Speaker 1: that you figure out through trial and error. It's called life.

963
00:45:43,600 --> 00:45:46,120
Speaker 1: You know, you get these things and the drive goes,

964
00:45:46,200 --> 00:45:48,239
Speaker 1: the hunger goes, I've been there, I've done it, I've

965
00:45:48,280 --> 00:45:51,560
Speaker 1: had it, And then you know, it's all life lessons

966
00:45:51,600 --> 00:45:53,520
Speaker 1: as long as you can take them as life lessons

967
00:45:53,520 --> 00:45:56,240
Speaker 1: and you can really grab hold of them and go right, aha,

968
00:45:56,840 --> 00:45:59,239
Speaker 1: this is what went wrong, this is where I tripped up.

969
00:45:59,320 --> 00:46:01,399
Speaker 1: I won't be doing that again. Then that's the life.

970
00:46:01,680 --> 00:46:06,520
Speaker 2: It's funny, and I reckon. Sometimes finding your way back

971
00:46:07,239 --> 00:46:09,399
Speaker 2: in some ways is as tough as finding your way

972
00:46:09,719 --> 00:46:13,160
Speaker 2: there in the first place. You know, it's getting pulling

973
00:46:13,200 --> 00:46:16,359
Speaker 2: stuff back, making those disciplines of adjustments.

974
00:46:15,880 --> 00:46:19,480
Speaker 1: And how did it How did that take its toll

975
00:46:19,600 --> 00:46:23,040
Speaker 1: on on your mindset, on your body, and you know,

976
00:46:23,120 --> 00:46:26,319
Speaker 1: when did you realize that you know that you were

977
00:46:26,400 --> 00:46:28,799
Speaker 1: burnt out, that there was a moment that you went,

978
00:46:29,480 --> 00:46:30,880
Speaker 1: you know, I can't do this anymore.

979
00:46:31,200 --> 00:46:34,760
Speaker 2: I remember a mentor, really a good mentor of mine.

980
00:46:35,400 --> 00:46:41,000
Speaker 2: We've been playing shit as as a team. I've been

981
00:46:41,040 --> 00:46:43,480
Speaker 2: playing shit as an individual. Nine to ninety six was

982
00:46:43,480 --> 00:46:46,200
Speaker 2: a year after the sibling and I remember a mentor

983
00:46:46,280 --> 00:46:49,200
Speaker 2: of me who went with the Rebel organization was playing

984
00:46:49,239 --> 00:46:51,440
Speaker 2: for the Rebel team in Newcastle and he was like

985
00:46:51,520 --> 00:46:54,240
Speaker 2: a father to me, this guy. And I remember sitting

986
00:46:54,239 --> 00:46:57,480
Speaker 2: in a red light and just sort of sitting there.

987
00:46:57,520 --> 00:46:58,840
Speaker 2: And I was on the way to train him, and

988
00:46:59,080 --> 00:47:00,880
Speaker 2: I was sort of contemplated and going, fucking you know,

989
00:47:01,640 --> 00:47:04,400
Speaker 2: how to get to this? And I look next to him.

990
00:47:04,440 --> 00:47:06,759
Speaker 2: He's in the car, and he looks at me and

991
00:47:06,960 --> 00:47:09,160
Speaker 2: just rolls his eyes and smirks and shakes his head

992
00:47:09,320 --> 00:47:13,000
Speaker 2: and drives off, and I go, fuck right. And for

993
00:47:13,160 --> 00:47:16,439
Speaker 2: him that was like, ah, there you go. You've got it, boy,

994
00:47:16,840 --> 00:47:19,480
Speaker 2: you know what I mean? Like you make the mistakes

995
00:47:19,520 --> 00:47:24,520
Speaker 2: sometimes by judging yourself by oh jeez, must be a

996
00:47:24,560 --> 00:47:27,120
Speaker 2: great player. I must have this game by the balls,

997
00:47:27,120 --> 00:47:29,160
Speaker 2: because look how much they're paying me, you know. And

998
00:47:29,280 --> 00:47:31,080
Speaker 2: it's getting back a little bit like the old Rocky

999
00:47:31,160 --> 00:47:33,680
Speaker 2: three things, getting back that fire and you're billy.

1000
00:47:33,680 --> 00:47:36,239
Speaker 1: Yeah, getting that hunger, getting that Just how hard is

1001
00:47:36,280 --> 00:47:37,920
Speaker 1: it to do that when you've when you think that

1002
00:47:38,080 --> 00:47:40,719
Speaker 1: you've you know, your status is there, that you're you know,

1003
00:47:40,840 --> 00:47:43,080
Speaker 1: your big name in the game, and the money's not

1004
00:47:43,160 --> 00:47:47,080
Speaker 1: an issue. How hard is it to not only you know,

1005
00:47:47,320 --> 00:47:50,040
Speaker 1: being that situation, but to claw your way back out

1006
00:47:50,040 --> 00:47:50,200
Speaker 1: of that.

1007
00:47:51,160 --> 00:47:54,879
Speaker 2: And I had to do numerous things, like I had

1008
00:47:54,880 --> 00:47:57,239
Speaker 2: to in a lot of ways push myself away from

1009
00:47:57,280 --> 00:47:58,759
Speaker 2: the group for a little bit. We used to go

1010
00:47:58,880 --> 00:48:02,400
Speaker 2: every day and we go and meet it. That restaurant

1011
00:48:02,480 --> 00:48:04,680
Speaker 2: says like as a team, we'd all go and see there.

1012
00:48:04,680 --> 00:48:07,680
Speaker 2: But igan invariably what happens sometimes when you get big

1013
00:48:07,760 --> 00:48:10,799
Speaker 2: groups together, it only takes a couple of a couple

1014
00:48:10,840 --> 00:48:13,560
Speaker 2: of little bit of moon spiritness to just go right

1015
00:48:13,640 --> 00:48:15,880
Speaker 2: through the group. And I found out like one of

1016
00:48:15,880 --> 00:48:17,799
Speaker 2: the things was dragging me down. I found every lunch

1017
00:48:18,120 --> 00:48:19,919
Speaker 2: lunch time we'd all go there and sit all together

1018
00:48:19,920 --> 00:48:21,919
Speaker 2: as a big group, and we just fucking bag people

1019
00:48:22,160 --> 00:48:24,920
Speaker 2: and we talk negative and we talk about, you know,

1020
00:48:25,000 --> 00:48:27,080
Speaker 2: the Blakes were playing for the Rebel team and how

1021
00:48:27,160 --> 00:48:29,680
Speaker 2: fuck they are and what you know, talking about who's problem?

1022
00:48:29,800 --> 00:48:33,920
Speaker 2: We're not winning games? Who's And I said, well, that's

1023
00:48:33,920 --> 00:48:35,360
Speaker 2: the first thing I've got to stop. So I stopped

1024
00:48:35,360 --> 00:48:37,879
Speaker 2: going to lunch. Then I started going back. I went

1025
00:48:37,920 --> 00:48:40,480
Speaker 2: back home to Sessnoch. I would go back and just

1026
00:48:40,600 --> 00:48:42,279
Speaker 2: train at some of the fields that I used to

1027
00:48:42,360 --> 00:48:45,040
Speaker 2: train at, just getting that feeling back again. And it's

1028
00:48:45,120 --> 00:48:47,640
Speaker 2: it's sort of like, you know, the smells, the sweat,

1029
00:48:48,000 --> 00:48:51,439
Speaker 2: the endurance, the pain, all that stuff sort of start

1030
00:48:51,520 --> 00:48:52,320
Speaker 2: to recalibrate me.

1031
00:48:53,120 --> 00:48:56,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, you had a phenomenal career, made absolutely awesome career,

1032
00:48:56,760 --> 00:49:01,279
Speaker 1: played for multiple clubs. When did you realize that enough

1033
00:49:01,440 --> 00:49:01,759
Speaker 1: was enough?

1034
00:49:02,480 --> 00:49:07,960
Speaker 2: I think I took so much where I wanted to

1035
00:49:08,040 --> 00:49:10,560
Speaker 2: go and we won the nine we won the competition.

1036
00:49:10,640 --> 00:49:12,480
Speaker 2: Ninety ninety seven was great and we go on a

1037
00:49:12,560 --> 00:49:15,200
Speaker 2: couple of really strong years after that and then ninety

1038
00:49:15,280 --> 00:49:18,440
Speaker 2: nine I would say it was my apex of my career. Individually,

1039
00:49:19,280 --> 00:49:21,200
Speaker 2: the apex is winning the Grand Final with your mates,

1040
00:49:21,320 --> 00:49:24,919
Speaker 2: but individually made the Australian side and won the six

1041
00:49:25,040 --> 00:49:27,279
Speaker 2: Jersey and there was an amazing competition for that six

1042
00:49:27,400 --> 00:49:29,480
Speaker 2: jersey and I won it and we won the Tri

1043
00:49:29,640 --> 00:49:33,880
Speaker 2: Nations Tournament in a game against New Zealand in Auckland

1044
00:49:34,480 --> 00:49:36,400
Speaker 2: and a teammate. You can play state of origin, you

1045
00:49:36,480 --> 00:49:38,920
Speaker 2: can play anywhere in the world. You play England and Wembley.

1046
00:49:39,280 --> 00:49:41,800
Speaker 2: When you play against the Kuwois and they're on and

1047
00:49:41,880 --> 00:49:44,000
Speaker 2: they're coming at you, mate, it's the hardest thing, like

1048
00:49:44,160 --> 00:49:46,000
Speaker 2: it is so physical. I remember, that's what.

1049
00:49:46,040 --> 00:49:48,560
Speaker 1: You signed up for, right signed up. That's what that

1050
00:49:48,960 --> 00:49:50,960
Speaker 1: is the moment, that is what you signed up for.

1051
00:49:51,160 --> 00:49:55,040
Speaker 1: That's what the years of training has accumulated to. Is

1052
00:49:55,160 --> 00:49:57,399
Speaker 1: that one moment and it's like bad.

1053
00:49:57,480 --> 00:49:59,799
Speaker 2: And it was in that game I got knocked out

1054
00:49:59,800 --> 00:50:02,759
Speaker 2: bad twice. But these are the days for Hia and

1055
00:50:02,920 --> 00:50:07,560
Speaker 2: just continue. Anyway, we won the game in the last minute.

1056
00:50:07,800 --> 00:50:10,200
Speaker 2: We went and I remember just remember sitting in the

1057
00:50:10,239 --> 00:50:12,400
Speaker 2: sheds alfter the game, and it was a part of

1058
00:50:12,440 --> 00:50:15,000
Speaker 2: me that almost felt a bit fucking broken. I was

1059
00:50:15,040 --> 00:50:17,080
Speaker 2: just like fuck, I didn't know whether it was mental.

1060
00:50:17,160 --> 00:50:21,200
Speaker 2: For two it was physical. But then I you know,

1061
00:50:21,600 --> 00:50:23,960
Speaker 2: a few months later, we had we had the off season.

1062
00:50:24,000 --> 00:50:28,160
Speaker 2: Then we go out to train. Idn't train. I didn't

1063
00:50:28,160 --> 00:50:30,680
Speaker 2: have the motivation run one hundred meters and I'd make

1064
00:50:30,760 --> 00:50:32,920
Speaker 2: up excuses why I couldn't train on the back fucking

1065
00:50:33,000 --> 00:50:35,040
Speaker 2: crook and this is crook and I can't do it,

1066
00:50:35,120 --> 00:50:39,800
Speaker 2: and I yeah, it was just I just hit that

1067
00:50:39,960 --> 00:50:43,279
Speaker 2: point and I found myself going into bookstores picking up

1068
00:50:43,360 --> 00:50:46,080
Speaker 2: books on photography and looking through It was my brain

1069
00:50:46,200 --> 00:50:49,080
Speaker 2: trying to look for something else. I mean, I hate photography.

1070
00:50:50,360 --> 00:50:53,759
Speaker 1: Yeah, but your mind, that obsession is gone, you know,

1071
00:50:53,880 --> 00:50:55,359
Speaker 1: your mind somewhere else now right.

1072
00:50:55,520 --> 00:50:56,759
Speaker 2: And then had a couple of years, I went over

1073
00:50:56,760 --> 00:50:58,440
Speaker 2: and played to the North of England, crushing me up,

1074
00:50:58,600 --> 00:51:02,239
Speaker 2: loved it with Wigan fan, pastic mate, the NORTHERNSS cold

1075
00:51:02,280 --> 00:51:05,160
Speaker 2: people warm. Then we go come back and my last

1076
00:51:05,280 --> 00:51:08,279
Speaker 2: year was with Keranulla, and and what had happened? It

1077
00:51:08,400 --> 00:51:11,040
Speaker 2: always had good hands, right, I'd really dropped the ball.

1078
00:51:11,320 --> 00:51:13,680
Speaker 2: We're out training and a running joke at training is okay,

1079
00:51:13,760 --> 00:51:16,520
Speaker 2: fucking dropping balls all the time. You know, I'm going

1080
00:51:16,640 --> 00:51:18,719
Speaker 2: this is weird. So I still getting paranoid. What was

1081
00:51:18,760 --> 00:51:21,560
Speaker 2: happening underknownst to me that all the nerves on the

1082
00:51:21,680 --> 00:51:24,600
Speaker 2: right side of my neck were deteriorating and dying, and

1083
00:51:24,719 --> 00:51:27,759
Speaker 2: my right arm was operating like a quarter of a

1084
00:51:27,840 --> 00:51:30,399
Speaker 2: second slower than my left. Now I didn't know any

1085
00:51:30,400 --> 00:51:32,560
Speaker 2: of this. And then we play this game against the

1086
00:51:32,640 --> 00:51:36,560
Speaker 2: Rooster's aunt and your countryman Adrian Morley, who was tough

1087
00:51:36,600 --> 00:51:40,600
Speaker 2: as to like Sammy. He ran at me and I

1088
00:51:40,760 --> 00:51:43,440
Speaker 2: hit him and literally a bomb went off of my body.

1089
00:51:43,760 --> 00:51:45,719
Speaker 2: I fucking didn't know what it was in I was

1090
00:51:45,840 --> 00:51:49,719
Speaker 2: laying there. I couldn't film my feet, I couldn't feel

1091
00:51:50,040 --> 00:51:53,200
Speaker 2: quite film my hands, but I had a horrendous pain

1092
00:51:53,480 --> 00:51:56,359
Speaker 2: in my shoulder. I didn't know what had happened. They

1093
00:51:56,400 --> 00:51:57,759
Speaker 2: put I don't know if I break on my neck

1094
00:51:57,920 --> 00:52:01,200
Speaker 2: and everything. It was it took me into the sheds.

1095
00:52:01,280 --> 00:52:03,440
Speaker 2: Trish went down there. It was funny. The local. We

1096
00:52:03,560 --> 00:52:08,240
Speaker 2: had a on the on staff. We had a pastor.

1097
00:52:09,640 --> 00:52:11,719
Speaker 2: He come in and put his hand was praying. I said,

1098
00:52:11,760 --> 00:52:12,520
Speaker 2: fuck me, give me.

1099
00:52:12,560 --> 00:52:15,319
Speaker 1: The last rites, but closing your eyes.

1100
00:52:16,880 --> 00:52:19,600
Speaker 2: And that was And I went and saw a specialist

1101
00:52:19,640 --> 00:52:21,920
Speaker 2: and he said, mate, all the nerves in your neck

1102
00:52:21,960 --> 00:52:24,399
Speaker 2: have deteriorated the point that your shoulder will no longer

1103
00:52:24,440 --> 00:52:27,640
Speaker 2: stay in its socket. If you play again, every time

1104
00:52:27,680 --> 00:52:29,960
Speaker 2: you make a tackle will drop out. And I went, well,

1105
00:52:30,040 --> 00:52:32,400
Speaker 2: what what is the surgeon now? So of course I

1106
00:52:32,480 --> 00:52:34,080
Speaker 2: go out there to play. Next tackle I do, it

1107
00:52:34,239 --> 00:52:36,920
Speaker 2: just completely drops out and I'm done. And you know,

1108
00:52:37,200 --> 00:52:39,279
Speaker 2: And when it dropped out and I walked off, I

1109
00:52:39,400 --> 00:52:42,840
Speaker 2: knew it was done. My foremost emotion was relief.

1110
00:52:43,719 --> 00:52:46,440
Speaker 1: Yes it was, yes, I get that that weight of

1111
00:52:46,560 --> 00:52:48,680
Speaker 1: your shoulders. You know that it's done. You know that

1112
00:52:48,760 --> 00:52:50,680
Speaker 1: this is your time. And it's almost not that it

1113
00:52:50,800 --> 00:52:53,919
Speaker 1: gives you an out, but it's like it's like, yeah,

1114
00:52:54,200 --> 00:52:56,320
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not doing myself any favors, won't be

1115
00:52:56,360 --> 00:52:59,040
Speaker 1: doing the team any favors. This is altered. There is

1116
00:52:59,080 --> 00:53:03,759
Speaker 1: You're out, this is this is I'm done. No more off, helmet, off.

1117
00:53:04,040 --> 00:53:06,560
Speaker 2: More exercise books. At one o'clock in the morning, you're

1118
00:53:06,560 --> 00:53:09,400
Speaker 2: getting have a three torture myself. Not flogging myself to

1119
00:53:09,480 --> 00:53:13,160
Speaker 2: the point of exhaustion, not the apprehension, not carrying around

1120
00:53:13,239 --> 00:53:14,680
Speaker 2: superstitions like I would like.

1121
00:53:15,920 --> 00:53:17,359
Speaker 1: All that went? Did it all?

1122
00:53:17,400 --> 00:53:18,160
Speaker 2: I went? Yeah?

1123
00:53:18,480 --> 00:53:21,040
Speaker 1: But mate, you carried it well. You had a phenomenal

1124
00:53:21,320 --> 00:53:24,680
Speaker 1: footy career. And let's finish up on quickly on the

1125
00:53:24,760 --> 00:53:27,719
Speaker 1: transition from your footy career to to your media career.

1126
00:53:28,160 --> 00:53:30,440
Speaker 1: You come over to the to the media world, and

1127
00:53:31,200 --> 00:53:33,759
Speaker 1: is that like a new excitement like you had for

1128
00:53:34,760 --> 00:53:37,120
Speaker 1: for footy when you were young. You know that new passion,

1129
00:53:37,200 --> 00:53:39,359
Speaker 1: that new excitement because you've gone into it. Now, you've

1130
00:53:39,360 --> 00:53:41,719
Speaker 1: got your own podcast, you've got your Yeah, you've worked

1131
00:53:41,760 --> 00:53:45,360
Speaker 1: for all over the all over the media industry.

1132
00:53:45,560 --> 00:53:47,680
Speaker 2: When we started, I started to do it probably just

1133
00:53:47,800 --> 00:53:49,800
Speaker 2: after two thousands when I was still playing, doing a

1134
00:53:49,840 --> 00:53:51,759
Speaker 2: little bit, and then when I started doing it full

1135
00:53:51,800 --> 00:53:54,480
Speaker 2: time in two thousand and two, it was it was

1136
00:53:55,880 --> 00:53:58,920
Speaker 2: I loved a new passion because because it was easy

1137
00:54:00,120 --> 00:54:03,840
Speaker 2: becaurse mate. Is that everything that Andrew was as a

1138
00:54:03,920 --> 00:54:06,600
Speaker 2: rugby league player and just come easy to him? I

1139
00:54:06,719 --> 00:54:09,680
Speaker 2: stepped into something that I found equally as easy.

1140
00:54:10,160 --> 00:54:10,799
Speaker 1: Love that, mate.

1141
00:54:11,040 --> 00:54:13,399
Speaker 2: So that's when I say to people the time, Mate,

1142
00:54:13,640 --> 00:54:17,840
Speaker 2: pursue your dream because there's a reward behind the reward

1143
00:54:18,360 --> 00:54:21,279
Speaker 2: which is a bigger one. And that's stepping into that

1144
00:54:21,400 --> 00:54:23,560
Speaker 2: next part of my career and all the lessons I've

1145
00:54:23,640 --> 00:54:26,080
Speaker 2: learned along the way, then you can put into practice

1146
00:54:26,320 --> 00:54:27,919
Speaker 2: and that part of life can be so much better

1147
00:54:28,000 --> 00:54:31,880
Speaker 2: and so easy, so much easier. But yeah, but it's

1148
00:54:31,920 --> 00:54:34,200
Speaker 2: been a lot of fun in the movie, working with

1149
00:54:34,280 --> 00:54:39,080
Speaker 2: great guys. You know, we base our show on Fox Sports.

1150
00:54:39,840 --> 00:54:41,279
Speaker 2: We select the blokes who are going to be on

1151
00:54:41,360 --> 00:54:43,120
Speaker 2: the show and stuff like that, and we base it

1152
00:54:43,200 --> 00:54:45,080
Speaker 2: off a toe him, and that's how we operate as

1153
00:54:45,120 --> 00:54:47,800
Speaker 2: a team. You know, there's no pettiness, there's no competing

1154
00:54:47,840 --> 00:54:49,719
Speaker 2: for time and all that bullshit. As you know what

1155
00:54:49,800 --> 00:54:52,560
Speaker 2: happens in the TV industry. There's so much bullshit it now.

1156
00:54:53,480 --> 00:54:56,320
Speaker 1: It's unbelievable, unbelievable. I love what you said. That is

1157
00:54:57,120 --> 00:54:59,640
Speaker 1: it's easy because what you've put your body through, what

1158
00:54:59,680 --> 00:55:02,239
Speaker 1: you've put your mind through, what you've put your emotions through,

1159
00:55:02,280 --> 00:55:05,040
Speaker 1: you know, just that whole trilogy of effects that you

1160
00:55:05,160 --> 00:55:08,120
Speaker 1: had to bring to the forefront every single day when

1161
00:55:08,120 --> 00:55:11,040
Speaker 1: you're playing. And again you know that competition it can

1162
00:55:11,120 --> 00:55:13,120
Speaker 1: be toxic as well. You know you've got that healthy

1163
00:55:13,160 --> 00:55:15,400
Speaker 1: competition amongst you, amongst you. But at the end of

1164
00:55:15,400 --> 00:55:17,320
Speaker 1: the day, like you said, there's always footsteps behind you,

1165
00:55:17,680 --> 00:55:19,640
Speaker 1: but always someone that wants to take that number six.

1166
00:55:19,640 --> 00:55:22,000
Speaker 1: There's always someone that wants to take your position. And listen,

1167
00:55:22,080 --> 00:55:24,839
Speaker 1: they're stamboled over you to get to get there right.

1168
00:55:25,000 --> 00:55:26,960
Speaker 2: I know who the bloke is who's got footsteps, and

1169
00:55:27,040 --> 00:55:29,799
Speaker 2: that is my son Cooper. When he was a kid,

1170
00:55:29,880 --> 00:55:32,279
Speaker 2: he'd say to me, he said, what we're gonna do?

1171
00:55:32,280 --> 00:55:33,640
Speaker 2: And he goes, when I get old, I'm going to

1172
00:55:33,680 --> 00:55:35,680
Speaker 2: take all your jobs. It's nice to laugh. And I

1173
00:55:35,800 --> 00:55:39,319
Speaker 2: realized now he's serious that you know, he's doing stuff

1174
00:55:39,360 --> 00:55:42,759
Speaker 2: with Colin Jackieye we're doing a podcast together. But the

1175
00:55:43,200 --> 00:55:46,160
Speaker 2: other day I usually a speaking gig with these two blokes,

1176
00:55:46,239 --> 00:55:49,560
Speaker 2: Nathan I Much, Brian Fletcher, great fellas. They fly it's

1177
00:55:49,560 --> 00:55:51,319
Speaker 2: different parts of the country and will put the shower

1178
00:55:51,320 --> 00:55:53,880
Speaker 2: and all the rest. So I said to Cooper the

1179
00:55:53,960 --> 00:55:55,640
Speaker 2: other day he's packing his bag and way off to

1180
00:55:55,719 --> 00:55:57,759
Speaker 2: heid heading up to towns or what were you doing

1181
00:55:57,840 --> 00:56:00,640
Speaker 2: up there. He said, I myself and Brian Fletcher, and

1182
00:56:01,360 --> 00:56:03,160
Speaker 2: we do want to we're all doing a show together.

1183
00:56:03,680 --> 00:56:09,239
Speaker 2: I went, fucking what what about me? I said, that's

1184
00:56:09,280 --> 00:56:09,759
Speaker 2: my job.

1185
00:56:10,320 --> 00:56:10,480
Speaker 1: I know.

1186
00:56:10,600 --> 00:56:13,120
Speaker 2: The bloke just said, have we do something a little

1187
00:56:13,120 --> 00:56:13,759
Speaker 2: fresh this time?

1188
00:56:14,560 --> 00:56:17,040
Speaker 1: That's my job. Yeah. I told you I was coming

1189
00:56:17,080 --> 00:56:21,560
Speaker 1: for your job, and he's done it. That's awesome. Man. Listen.

1190
00:56:21,640 --> 00:56:23,719
Speaker 1: I love being on your podcast with you and and

1191
00:56:23,920 --> 00:56:26,880
Speaker 1: and Cooper. He's a great lad. What's what's next for

1192
00:56:27,160 --> 00:56:29,560
Speaker 1: for you? But more importantly what's next for you and Cooper?

1193
00:56:29,640 --> 00:56:32,960
Speaker 1: Because Cooper is like, he's literally on your tail, isn't it.

1194
00:56:34,480 --> 00:56:36,840
Speaker 1: It's great that he's there, and because ultimately, as a

1195
00:56:36,880 --> 00:56:38,799
Speaker 1: father you want him to do better than you thought.

1196
00:56:39,400 --> 00:56:40,319
Speaker 1: What's next for you both?

1197
00:56:40,520 --> 00:56:43,560
Speaker 2: Well, you know, And it's worked that really good with

1198
00:56:43,600 --> 00:56:47,040
Speaker 2: the podcast and the changing media is just changing so much.

1199
00:56:47,480 --> 00:56:49,520
Speaker 2: And I had to the boys when they finished playing,

1200
00:56:49,560 --> 00:56:51,360
Speaker 2: I said, you know what, it's an opportunity here to

1201
00:56:51,520 --> 00:56:54,080
Speaker 2: put ourselves in a situation that we can be so

1202
00:56:54,520 --> 00:56:57,920
Speaker 2: we can be agile as media changes continually. I mean

1203
00:56:57,960 --> 00:57:00,520
Speaker 2: it's changing by annually so much all the time. And

1204
00:57:00,640 --> 00:57:04,120
Speaker 2: so we set up our podcast platform and which we're in.

1205
00:57:04,600 --> 00:57:08,000
Speaker 2: He would Nova involved with Nova who partners with it,

1206
00:57:08,239 --> 00:57:10,680
Speaker 2: and my oldest son who's really tech savvy Jack. He's

1207
00:57:10,719 --> 00:57:12,920
Speaker 2: the boss. He runs it, he produces, he edits, he

1208
00:57:13,000 --> 00:57:15,759
Speaker 2: does everything. Cooper and I were stand wear and say

1209
00:57:15,800 --> 00:57:18,040
Speaker 2: what so that's what we do. But it's really nice

1210
00:57:18,120 --> 00:57:21,360
Speaker 2: to do that and come through and you find yourself again,

1211
00:57:21,520 --> 00:57:24,120
Speaker 2: like with your working with your sons and you going.

1212
00:57:24,720 --> 00:57:26,919
Speaker 2: And we interviewed someone the other day and he said, fuck,

1213
00:57:27,000 --> 00:57:29,760
Speaker 2: this is weird. He goes, you are just all together.

1214
00:57:29,880 --> 00:57:32,240
Speaker 2: It's not like it's not like father sons is like

1215
00:57:32,400 --> 00:57:34,560
Speaker 2: just three good mates. And I said, yeah, well I

1216
00:57:34,640 --> 00:57:36,320
Speaker 2: had him when I was young and then we sort

1217
00:57:36,320 --> 00:57:37,520
Speaker 2: of feel like mates. Yeah.

1218
00:57:37,800 --> 00:57:41,200
Speaker 1: Absolutely, mate. Well listen massive, John's been absolute pleasure having

1219
00:57:41,240 --> 00:57:43,720
Speaker 1: you on my podcast head Game. Thanks for coming in.

1220
00:57:43,840 --> 00:57:47,840
Speaker 1: My absolute pleasure. What a career, and I have no doubt. Listen,

1221
00:57:48,080 --> 00:57:50,000
Speaker 1: maybe one day, mate, I'll come for you and Cooper

1222
00:57:50,040 --> 00:57:51,920
Speaker 1: for sas Australia when it comes back.

1223
00:57:52,320 --> 00:57:54,560
Speaker 2: Mate, I tell you what, I'll see what I can do.

1224
00:57:54,800 --> 00:57:59,320
Speaker 2: I don't think I'll be a sam Burgess Sammy. Sammy

1225
00:57:59,400 --> 00:58:03,120
Speaker 2: sends he's been so Yeah, I appreciate it.

1226
00:58:03,200 --> 00:58:06,080
Speaker 1: Brother, you're welcome brother. Thank you. You can hear more

1227
00:58:06,120 --> 00:58:09,560
Speaker 1: from Matty John's on the Matti Johns podcast Backstage with

1228
00:58:09,680 --> 00:58:13,440
Speaker 1: Cooper and Matty John's and Matty and Kronk. I'll put

1229
00:58:13,480 --> 00:58:16,080
Speaker 1: the links in the show notes. Thank you for joining

1230
00:58:16,120 --> 00:58:19,480
Speaker 1: me on this episode of head Game. If you enjoyed it,

1231
00:58:19,640 --> 00:58:22,919
Speaker 1: please share it with a friend. I'm Att Middleton. See

1232
00:58:22,960 --> 00:58:24,200
Speaker 1: you again next time.