Speaker 1: Hey, what's up guys. Welcome back to the podcast.
Speaker 2: This week, we've got a very exciting guest, Jamie Humphrey's
Speaker 2: former teammate of myself and friend of the podcast. We
Speaker 2: actually recorded this a couple of weeks ago, prior to
Speaker 2: him getting injured. We decided to hold it off for a
Speaker 2: couple of weeks just to sort of let him get
Speaker 2: through his stuff, and now it's released today.
Speaker 1: Really good chat.
Speaker 2: Just talk to him about transition to South Sydney and
Speaker 2: what's it like being a boom youngster sort of coming
Speaker 2: into first grade and doing such a good job under
Speaker 2: Wayne Bennett and the South Sydney Rabbit Oz, as well
Speaker 2: as a little bit of time on his stuff at Manly.
Speaker 1: Hope you enjoy it and have a good week.
Speaker 2: He picked it up himself and put the hat on.
Speaker 1: I wasn't even going to give it to him, we.
Speaker 3: Were I'm stolen it. It's mine now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you love it? You love a hat?
Speaker 4: You know what?
Speaker 1: Weird?
Speaker 2: How's your chewing going in that mine? Sorry, you've been
Speaker 2: the loudest tour said yeah, uh mate. First of all,
Speaker 2: I'm going to give him a big injury. My humps
Speaker 2: one of the my humps, my hust black eyed peace.
Speaker 2: Jamie Humphries today one of the greats, one of the
Speaker 2: great blokes and playing outstanding for souse at the moment.
Speaker 2: We played together with the Blacktown Workers, the mighty Blacktown Workers,
Speaker 2: shout out. Yeah, the hard knocks School of hard Knocks.
Speaker 1: We're a lot of you know, I.
Speaker 2: Don't want to say he was, you know, he took
Speaker 2: a lot of stuff from me.
Speaker 4: But you were a mentor. You said that before he arrived.
Speaker 2: Yeah, mental, Yeah, I was kind of his mentor, Jamie.
Speaker 5: You'd probably agree with that absolutely, especially out there at
Speaker 5: Blacktown Coops. Definitely took me under his wing and show
Speaker 5: me the ropes. And yeah, very grateful.
Speaker 2: To be in the gym, would you say in the
Speaker 2: gym as well?
Speaker 3: Yeah for sure.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we're on the m four knock shops around the area.
Speaker 4: Had it all.
Speaker 2: What's let me tell you something like two years ago
Speaker 2: when we played together. Look, you always had an outstanding rig.
Speaker 2: The boys would always be so jealous of Jamis. Looking
Speaker 2: your mirror, yeah, but did set you would have you?
Speaker 2: How many keys have you put on since then? Because
Speaker 2: you're you're looking freaking ridiculous At the moment, the physique.
Speaker 5: Look, I don't know exactly, but I've definitely put on
Speaker 5: a little bit of weight, been on the bug for
Speaker 5: a while.
Speaker 2: So career team, yeah, because you always were into the
Speaker 2: buys and tries.
Speaker 1: I remember when you were the first one.
Speaker 2: Jamie used to be the first one in the gym
Speaker 2: and then he do Bears Andrew Berridge, our strengthen conditioner
Speaker 2: at the time.
Speaker 1: Do Bezs's program.
Speaker 3: Shout out the Bears.
Speaker 2: And everybody be in the spa or the sauna and
Speaker 2: Chami W'd still be in there just ripping into the
Speaker 2: bicyc Yeah.
Speaker 5: Well, no, it's a good point. You raised, like with Bears,
Speaker 5: training with him a lot, kind of growing up. He's
Speaker 5: been with me kind of coaching me throughout all the
Speaker 5: junior grades. It was pretty funny how like we actually
Speaker 5: kind of progressed similarly, like we were Sea Ball together
Speaker 5: and then went up to Flag and then my first
Speaker 5: pre season was his first pre season NRAL as well.
Speaker 5: So yeah, it took a lot from Bears And probably
Speaker 5: the biggest thing was the work ethic he's doing.
Speaker 2: He's like strength and conditioning for like Formula one now. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: he's doing He's training a lot of them, and I
Speaker 2: said to it because I messaged him the other day
Speaker 2: and I was like, do they need a lot of strength?
Speaker 1: And he was like, he said, mate, it's so.
Speaker 2: Like their legs need to be so strong because when
Speaker 2: the G four, Yeah, they needed like it's like doing
Speaker 2: leg press.
Speaker 4: They lose about tan HuLos in a race eight to
Speaker 4: tulos just sweat.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 5: Even the next stuff he was saying is really important
Speaker 5: for them with like like you said, all the force
Speaker 5: and everything that's right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, imagine to fit like like we talk about
Speaker 4: jockeys all the time. Jockey's going to ride, you know,
Speaker 4: fifty two kilos and well, I mean to be no
Speaker 4: different form formula, it'll be exactly the same, you know,
Speaker 4: just you know, having to keep yourself trim all the
Speaker 4: time wouldn't be a problem for you. Coups. Of course, Jamie,
Speaker 4: we always kid, We always.
Speaker 3: Like you know, yeah, I mean I think so, I don't.
Speaker 5: I don't really remember, like looking back, but I always
Speaker 5: played a lot of sport growing up. I was really
Speaker 5: big into surf, li saving as a kid, and did
Speaker 5: athletics and soccer at rugby. I did everything, so I
Speaker 5: think kind of naturally I'd probably say from my mum,
Speaker 5: I was always a bit thicker set, especially my legs,
Speaker 5: so yeah, probably always had a little bit of size
Speaker 5: growing up.
Speaker 2: I bet she'll be staked here. And if I said
Speaker 2: I got I got thick legs for my mum, she
Speaker 2: with spoon.
Speaker 3: He's the one who tells me that.
Speaker 4: For my sister, Cops at some top well doesn't Cop
Speaker 4: And people say, oh my god, you just look exactly
Speaker 4: like Andrew and in physique and everything. She just like, no,
Speaker 4: but we should let people know, Like Jamie, you are
Speaker 4: about fourth generation footballer. Yeah, you know, your grandfather ran
Speaker 4: the game, your Stephen was celed a number of clubs.
Speaker 4: So mate, you've been around it your whole life.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I have. Ever since I can remember. Really, I've
Speaker 3: been around footy.
Speaker 5: Like my brother and I used to wallwork at the
Speaker 5: Tigers when Dad was there, so that was in that
Speaker 5: era of Benji and Robbie when they were they were
Speaker 5: killing it there. So yeah, as early as I can remember,
Speaker 5: I've always been involved in footy and Pop and Dad
Speaker 5: were always at all my games. And yeah, my grandma's
Speaker 5: probably my biggest fan as well, so.
Speaker 4: They always are.
Speaker 2: Did you ballboy when they won the comp two thousand
Speaker 2: and five. You would have been pretty young now.
Speaker 3: I was I think two years old, so yeah, that
Speaker 3: would have been pretty tough. Yeah.
Speaker 5: No, it was from probably eight to twenty eleven. Oh yeah,
Speaker 5: that was a really good side. And Benji was at
Speaker 5: the peak of his powers at the time. And I
Speaker 5: remember just yeah, freaking out every time I seen him.
Speaker 4: So once a continuous call when it first started, like
Speaker 4: me and Andrew on the cusp of first grade and
Speaker 4: I'm doing a thing on the Newcastle Nights saying, oh,
Speaker 4: you know, they're struggling at the moment there, you know,
Speaker 4: you know what, I don't know what the answer is.
Speaker 4: Needs to hear this person ring up and go oh hello,
Speaker 4: how are you going? They go, hello, how are you?
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I'm a big night supporter. I just you know,
Speaker 4: you were talking who should go in? Well there's two
Speaker 4: brothers from Cessnok called Matthew Andrew John's I think that
Speaker 4: should go in the first grade side. Oh well, ma'am,
Speaker 4: tell us more about it. I'm going I know that voice.
Speaker 4: It was my grandmother.
Speaker 1: Really, what giving you as a plug?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I didn't say that she was an alias and I
Speaker 4: got I rang and said, were you just on the
Speaker 4: continuous call? She goes, oh, you know, just giving you
Speaker 4: a bit of support.
Speaker 1: That's that's low.
Speaker 2: We were just saying out in the living room, Jamie,
Speaker 2: you moved to South Sydney and you started your congratulations
Speaker 2: like run us through the first impressions of South.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So obviously I've been at Manly for a long time
Speaker 5: and kind of probably never really expected to move, especially
Speaker 5: kind of at this stage, but it was something that
Speaker 5: came about kind of midway through last year. An opportunity
Speaker 5: came up there and it was something that kind of
Speaker 5: humbled me, like a club, like the house was showing
Speaker 5: interest and there's something I'm kind of really happy I did.
Speaker 5: Took me out of my comfort zone. Obviously, living on
Speaker 5: the beaches and playing at Mainly was felt very comfortable
Speaker 5: and definitely wanted to challenge myself there a little bit.
Speaker 5: So yeah, first impressions of the club started there in
Speaker 5: the preseason early November, and yeah, straight away just I
Speaker 5: wanted to make an impression myself. Just kind of based
Speaker 5: my preseason around hard work and I know kind of
Speaker 5: that's that's what I based my game on ever since
Speaker 5: I was a young kid growing up, So that's kind
Speaker 5: of where I wanted to start my journey there and
Speaker 5: I think luckily for me kind of taking it day
Speaker 5: by day and having the coaching staff that they have
Speaker 5: there now. I think they really respected that about me
Speaker 5: coming in and doing that, and obviously it's kind of
Speaker 5: got me to where I am now and just taking
Speaker 5: it week by week.
Speaker 4: At the moment, Well, Jeremie, you hit the jackpot in
Speaker 4: the fact that you've landed a club which is a
Speaker 4: great club. I mean, Manly's a great club. South Sydney
Speaker 4: has will so much history, great supporters. But you landed
Speaker 4: at a club with a great Wayne Bennett as a
Speaker 4: young player when you signed at Souse. Was he already
Speaker 4: there to get Was he down to go the next
Speaker 4: the following season?
Speaker 5: It was kind of right at that time when that
Speaker 5: was all happening, And to be honest, it was confirmed
Speaker 5: right before I signed, and that was kind of the
Speaker 5: thing that.
Speaker 3: Tipped me over the edge for sure.
Speaker 5: It was such an exciting prospect for me. Obviously, I'd
Speaker 5: never met Wayne before that, and I didn't really have
Speaker 5: too much to do with him before I signed there.
Speaker 5: He was still working at the Dolphins at the time,
Speaker 5: but it was definitely something that really excited.
Speaker 2: When was the first time you met him? When when
Speaker 2: was you didn't meet him? Because he wasn't there, like
Speaker 2: the first few weeks of preseason either, right, So he
Speaker 2: didn't meet him until what three weeks into.
Speaker 5: Preseason it would have I think he started early December,
Speaker 5: so it would have been three or four weeks into
Speaker 5: preseason at that point. I just remember him walking in
Speaker 5: the building and everyone just went completely silent. You just
Speaker 5: see him walking around, and I heard a few of
Speaker 5: the boys saying he doesn't like shaking hands.
Speaker 4: So Jackson's the same thing.
Speaker 5: I wasn't sure what to do, and he come up
Speaker 5: to me straight away, and like I made eye contacted him,
Speaker 5: and I was so nervous and he stuck his hand
Speaker 5: out to shake my hand, and I was like, Okay,
Speaker 5: at least I didn't have that awkward.
Speaker 1: Counter it pulls it away, pulls it away last minute. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love.
Speaker 2: The boys used to say all the time that they
Speaker 2: like try to get him. It's like one handshaker day
Speaker 2: or something, right, Like, I.
Speaker 3: Think I've shaken his hand maybe once or twice since
Speaker 3: I've met him.
Speaker 2: So it's so.
Speaker 5: It's just in general he actually said that, like like
Speaker 5: when we first when he first started, he kind of
Speaker 5: got everyone together and laid the platform of what he
Speaker 5: wanted for the preseason, and one of the things he
Speaker 5: said was, boys, don't shake my hand every day.
Speaker 4: It's going to have It's not one thing to say
Speaker 4: before we go on about Wayne, I want to ask
Speaker 4: you that because you're going at SOUS. You arrive at
Speaker 4: SOUSE on your first day, which to explain to people
Speaker 4: walking into a new dressing rooms like walking to a
Speaker 4: new school. Yeah, but you've got Cody Walker, you're Jack White,
Speaker 4: and you've got Latrell Mitchell, all those really Cam Murray
Speaker 4: at the time, all these big personalities. How did you
Speaker 4: feel and what was your plan for day one?
Speaker 5: Or to be honest, I was extremely nervous, Like I was.
Speaker 5: I prepared myself as best I could in the off season.
Speaker 5: I always try and I trained pretty hard and prepare
Speaker 5: myself as best I can.
Speaker 3: But I can't lie. I was extremely nervous.
Speaker 5: But to be honest, the first impression I had of
Speaker 5: all those guys that you just mentioned was like they
Speaker 5: were so welcoming and just really nice guys. It's the
Speaker 5: same but mainly like those those big dogs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, really like they've.
Speaker 5: Got so much time for young guys coming through, which
Speaker 5: I felt coming through the grays there, and it was
Speaker 5: exactly the same as.
Speaker 4: Us now Jamie. The next big test, Like you walk
Speaker 4: into the dressing room okay, and you're feeling your way.
Speaker 4: The next thing you want to do is you want it.
Speaker 4: You want to actually build a positive image of yourself.
Speaker 4: You want them to look at you and go, yep,
Speaker 4: he's worthy. Tell me about the first fitness session. What
Speaker 4: was all the first test? What did you do, because
Speaker 4: that's the next step.
Speaker 5: Look to be honest, it was a complete nightmare for
Speaker 5: me actually, so I, like I said, I tried to
Speaker 5: prepare myself as best I could, and in fact I
Speaker 5: probably overdid it a little bit. So me coming into
Speaker 5: that first day preseason, I actually had a bit of
Speaker 5: a niggle in my achilles, which was obviously not what
Speaker 5: you want kind of in the back of your head
Speaker 5: going into it.
Speaker 3: But yeah, we had the fitness test and as I got.
Speaker 5: Out on the field he had the one point too,
Speaker 5: and did my best in that got a really good score,
Speaker 5: but straight away I was feeling that achilles. Anyway, I
Speaker 5: got through the session and just got absolutely flogged the
Speaker 5: whole time, as you'd imagine kind of going in early preseason,
Speaker 5: and then I remember I got through it all, come
Speaker 5: off the field, and this this feeling in my achilles
Speaker 5: wouldn't go away and it actually ended up keeping me
Speaker 5: out up until Christmas, as I did just saying it
Speaker 5: keeps before. So yeah, I tried to hit the ground running,
Speaker 5: but probably overdid it a little bit.
Speaker 2: Who is when you talk about fitness, who's because every
Speaker 2: club's got like a fitness freak and you at Mainly
Speaker 2: you were winning a lot of the fitness theres Ribbon
Speaker 2: Garrick's another one who was winning there at SEUs. Your
Speaker 2: first impression like who was someone that you trained with
Speaker 2: and you were like.
Speaker 4: This guy's a freak.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well I think me.
Speaker 5: I actually started a week later than most of the
Speaker 5: boys because mainly went quite far last year in the
Speaker 5: in the finals, so a lot of those boys weren't
Speaker 5: actually doing the testing with me. I was kind of
Speaker 5: doing it by myself and with a few of the
Speaker 5: other young guys coming through. But since I joined back
Speaker 5: in with the boys, Tyrone Monro was actually extremely fit, right,
Speaker 5: like really like clean runner, like just glides to be honest,
Speaker 5: like really really cool and he's definitely up there in
Speaker 5: the fitness there.
Speaker 4: I saw him interview the other day. She's class act.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it seems like it's on three sixty or something.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he was really really good so that. But I mean, Jamie,
Speaker 4: you said you probably went too hard their first training session.
Speaker 4: But first impressions are so important because, as you know,
Speaker 4: a new bloke walks into the club, then you're ready
Speaker 4: for one point two kilometer time trial, which is a nightmare,
Speaker 4: and all of a sudden, I can't train boys, you know,
Speaker 4: they're like, oh, here we go.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I was wigging out, Like I genuinely was like
Speaker 5: I knew I was going to a new club and
Speaker 5: I wanted to make that impression. Like you said, I
Speaker 5: know how important first impressions are, so my head was
Speaker 5: falling off. To be honest, I was like I could
Speaker 5: feel it as soon as I started. I was like, no,
Speaker 5: I can't stop. I can't stop, And that probably made
Speaker 5: it worse. But it's funny, like, as I said, my
Speaker 5: head was falling off. But like the first day I
Speaker 5: met Wayne and then was talking to him, I obviously
Speaker 5: wasn't training at the time, and the first thing he
Speaker 5: said to me was just don't worry about it, Like,
Speaker 5: take as long.
Speaker 3: As you need.
Speaker 5: It's going to take time, Like it's not something you
Speaker 5: can just do and fix and get back out there.
Speaker 5: And obviously for me coming there, it was really important
Speaker 5: for me to be out on the field.
Speaker 3: As much as I could, or that's what I thought.
Speaker 5: But after that one conversation with Wayne, he just put
Speaker 5: all the pressure off and just straight away made me
Speaker 5: feel so calm.
Speaker 4: Well, Jamie, with your first heading for your first full
Speaker 4: year in first grade, that limited preseason or you know,
Speaker 4: from Christmas, I think I'll put you in good stead.
Speaker 4: I mean, you're obviously really fit. But I see Blakes
Speaker 4: all the time. By the time they get mid season,
Speaker 4: they've completely burned themselves out. So I think Wayne would
Speaker 4: have been aware of.
Speaker 3: That one percent.
Speaker 5: And like I said, he's just like I wasn't actually
Speaker 5: progressing through much to the rehabit at the time. I
Speaker 5: think again, it probably was guilty of trying to do
Speaker 5: too much. And as soon as he said that to me,
Speaker 5: that's kind of when I turned the corner and I
Speaker 5: actually kind of probably started progressing, which helped me get
Speaker 5: back out on the field. Straight after Christmas and then
Speaker 5: get those reps in a pre season which kind of
Speaker 5: prepared me as best I could to hit the ground
Speaker 5: in the trials.
Speaker 2: Did you do the Army camp?
Speaker 4: Yeah, we did.
Speaker 3: We did.
Speaker 5: It was that was just before Christmas, and that's kind
Speaker 5: of that was where I wanted to get to. I
Speaker 5: wanted to be able to do that. And that's what
Speaker 5: Wayne said to me as well. He's like, look, I
Speaker 5: don't care like if you're not on the field, I
Speaker 5: just want you to get ready for that, Like I
Speaker 5: want you as you know, like getting around the boys
Speaker 5: and doing stuff like that. That's where you build that
Speaker 5: connection with the ways. And yeah, we did that just
Speaker 5: before Christmas break time. It was it was different. It
Speaker 5: was different to the one we did it at mainly
Speaker 5: it was it was actually a rolling camp, so we yeah,
Speaker 5: we went down to them. I went down to Camera
Speaker 5: where the Olympians train.
Speaker 1: Oh, the Institute a sport.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, whether the rowers are preparing for the Olympics there.
Speaker 5: So we actually did a like three days training with them,
Speaker 5: which was pretty brutal and we got fogged.
Speaker 3: On top of that as well.
Speaker 4: Back to the future for Wayne, because the Raiders were
Speaker 4: ahead of everybody else. Wayne went there a nine eighty
Speaker 4: seven as co coach and I think they started then
Speaker 4: at the Institute of Sport just opened up and that's
Speaker 4: where the Raiders used to used to train. They had
Speaker 4: about five six years jump on everyone else as far
Speaker 4: as powerlifting and everything to play against them was it
Speaker 4: was a nightmare. They could actually people like melmurn England,
Speaker 4: they could pull you apart. It was. It was terrifying.
Speaker 2: Did you do like, obviously that sounds a bit different
Speaker 2: to the army style. Did they do like a man
Speaker 2: of the camp for that?
Speaker 5: Well, firstly, it was extremely different, like it was run
Speaker 5: by army guys, which was like, you know what they're like,
Speaker 5: they're they're pretty So I was going to say discipline,
Speaker 5: but I haven't.
Speaker 4: Fhres, what have we got here?
Speaker 1: Shine your shoes they get India.
Speaker 5: Oh no, they definitely do. But straight away, like we
Speaker 5: come off the bus and everyone's like shitting themselves thinking,
Speaker 5: oh god, here we go. Here we go again, like
Speaker 5: most of the boys have already been on a few
Speaker 5: and straight away the guys were like, look, this isn't
Speaker 5: what you're expecting. We're not going to carry Jerry kNs
Speaker 5: and like do obstacle courses and that we're here to
Speaker 5: train with Olympians and show you a different side of
Speaker 5: professional sport, which was it was honestly really cool.
Speaker 3: It was very cool. Yeah, that's different.
Speaker 2: You're probably like a lot of people get The Army
Speaker 2: camp puts you under such fatigue and that you understand
Speaker 2: what teammates respond well to like adversity, but seems like
Speaker 2: that individuals will probably take more out of it in
Speaker 2: terms of how to train an elite level, right.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And I mean it definitely still had that kind
Speaker 5: of physical challenge to it, Like we did a lot
Speaker 5: of stuff in the gym and conditioning sessions, all that stuff,
Speaker 5: and we were training with these Olympians doing what they do.
Speaker 5: But the good part about it was we actually we
Speaker 5: had sleep and we had food, which was probably what
Speaker 5: you don't get people on the other on the other camp.
Speaker 5: So although we were doing all this training and probably
Speaker 5: a learning a lot as well, like we were actually
Speaker 5: getting a fabed out of it because we were like,
Speaker 5: I guess well rested.
Speaker 4: On Wayne, I think sweets what we're coaching. You train
Speaker 4: hard physically, have high standards for on the field and
Speaker 4: off the field. No mind games like players. Players respond
Speaker 4: to that. Players will train hard players with all those things.
Speaker 4: I think what really burns players out sometimes is you
Speaker 4: get smart ass coaches trying to play my games with
Speaker 4: young men. Is none of that with Wayne, No, not
Speaker 4: at all.
Speaker 5: And like you said there, he's massive on those first
Speaker 5: two things. First, so train hard. He's massive on that.
Speaker 5: He's always talks about effort and driving that in the team.
Speaker 5: And even the standards that you said, he's massive on
Speaker 5: standards across the board. Doesn't matter who you are. It
Speaker 5: doesn't matter if you're the youngest in the team or
Speaker 5: the most capped. It's the same across the board, which
Speaker 5: is like, it's exactly how it should be. And he
Speaker 5: drives that and he lives that himself.
Speaker 4: Who's been your mentor? Like, of all the players on
Speaker 4: the field, who's been the greatest help?
Speaker 3: Oh, Cody's been massive? Yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 5: And it's funny like Cody actually had a pretty interrupted
Speaker 5: preseason as well, so we actually didn't train together at.
Speaker 3: All until Round one.
Speaker 5: To be honest, Like, I'm pretty sure he was touching
Speaker 5: go there for a while if he was going to
Speaker 5: play Round one, and I was the same kind of
Speaker 5: didn't get that many reps in before Christmas, so I
Speaker 5: didn't actually have that much time to develop that connection
Speaker 5: with him. But he'd always talked to me after training
Speaker 5: off the field, and he'd always be out there watching
Speaker 5: the sessions and giving me feedback. And yeah, the biggest
Speaker 5: thing I've noticed since playing with him is just like
Speaker 5: if I can give him the war and put him
Speaker 5: in space like I've never seen a ballplayer quite like.
Speaker 4: When you look at the side. When when it came
Speaker 4: the news came out that Canra Murray did his achilles,
Speaker 4: then it came out that Latroal Mitchell could have been
Speaker 4: up to seven or eight weeks out, I think everyone went, yeah,
Speaker 4: there are in a lot of trouble. I had just
Speaker 4: initially making your way into the eight. When I heard
Speaker 4: those injuries, I thought, no, I don't think it can happen.
Speaker 4: But the emergence of yourself tell us dunk and joke Gray,
Speaker 4: Joe Gray, Oh, yeah, he's been phenomenal. But Liam or
Speaker 4: Blanc coming off the bench, yeah, made he was sensational.
Speaker 4: So a lot of you young guys who came on
Speaker 4: the question, I ask you, you've been in a number
Speaker 4: of dressing rooms you've been in Manly, tell me under
Speaker 4: Wayne Bennett at South Sydney, what is the dressing room
Speaker 4: like on game day?
Speaker 5: On game day, it's very calm like. It's probably something
Speaker 5: I noticed straight away. It's very calm like. He just
Speaker 5: has that presence where I think you mentioned it before.
Speaker 5: He's been through everything and he's probably seen everything, so
Speaker 5: nothing fazes him at all, and that definitely rubs off
Speaker 5: on the boys.
Speaker 3: Like I remember my first game was the Charity Shield.
Speaker 5: We're up in Mudgie and I had actually had started
Speaker 5: on the bench, so I think by the time I
Speaker 5: come on it was he might have been thirty nil
Speaker 5: down and we go into halftime, I think thirty to six,
Speaker 5: and I didn't know what I was expecting. If it was,
Speaker 5: I was expecting a spray. I think most coaches probably
Speaker 5: are thinking that at that time. But he had like
Speaker 5: three or four words to say that look extremely calm.
Speaker 5: Come up to me and said, look, you're going to
Speaker 5: play half back in this second half. That's all he
Speaker 5: said to me. Just do your job, keep it simple,
Speaker 5: and that's it. We kind of went out and I
Speaker 5: think we come back, might have scored twenty points in
Speaker 5: the second half and kept them to six, and I
Speaker 5: just remember that took taking his message away from that.
Speaker 5: Nothing phases him like we're thirty zero down in the
Speaker 5: trial game, kind of bringing the game.
Speaker 2: Like all in our role players probably respond differently to
Speaker 2: the way, like some people like to be ridden quite
Speaker 2: hard and be pushed some you just got to let
Speaker 2: them do their thing. Maybe say a couple of things
Speaker 2: to him. Do you see Wayne treat you differently than
Speaker 2: he might treat the other boys, Like, does he knows
Speaker 2: he worked everyone out?
Speaker 5: I think so for sure. Yeah, I think like you
Speaker 5: still he's still had the sprain and him on the
Speaker 5: training field of course, and he's got a lot of
Speaker 5: tough love as well. But at the same time, he
Speaker 5: knows exactly what to say to each person I think
Speaker 5: to get him up for what the job he needs
Speaker 5: them to do.
Speaker 4: Well telling me Adam Adam Reynolds used to be his
Speaker 4: pet and they were sort of like you know, Cheach
Speaker 4: and Chong best together that, Yeah, he's pet piece out
Speaker 4: of each other Jack and.
Speaker 6: Yeah, he used to just take the piss out of
Speaker 6: him all day. So like Wayne is obviously like they're
Speaker 6: a bit like good cop, bad cop. So obviously, uh,
Speaker 6: Ad was back and and Wayne would be you know,
Speaker 6: as he does. He tried to get onto the field
Speaker 6: after he'd have a laugh and then be a bit stale,
Speaker 6: and Reno just say like stupid things like he's the
Speaker 6: time to go back to the retirement home.
Speaker 1: Just put him on show in front.
Speaker 4: Of the boys.
Speaker 1: But that's the thing, that's what Wayne's good.
Speaker 6: You can have a laugh at himself, can't he?
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, who's his pet?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 3: I'll tell you what.
Speaker 5: He has a really really funny relationship with my good
Speaker 5: mate Fletcher and Wires. He's actually a Newcastle boy. Their
Speaker 5: their banter is actually hilarious. Like I crack up every
Speaker 5: single day every single meeting we have like there is
Speaker 5: something going on and yeah, they're just into each other
Speaker 5: every day.
Speaker 3: It's very good.
Speaker 1: Letting people know Fletchers.
Speaker 2: He was at mainly with possibly one of the most
Speaker 2: unique caacters in rugby league.
Speaker 3: Absolutely Woods.
Speaker 1: He used to call him Dama because he just was.
Speaker 2: He thought at any point he could just flip and
Speaker 2: become a serial killer. So what are human white? Because
Speaker 2: what are hum and Wayne's like, they're both kind of
Speaker 2: unique characters.
Speaker 1: What are they?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 5: I think that's why they They've got such a funny
Speaker 5: relationship is because they're both so unique and Wayne is
Speaker 5: actually hilarious, Like he's so funny and he takes the
Speaker 5: piss out of Fletched NonStop. But the thing with Fletcher's
Speaker 5: he'll give it back. Fletcher's like he's a rookie, he's young,
Speaker 5: and I think that's why it works so well because
Speaker 5: he probably doesn't expect to get it back.
Speaker 4: Yeah, what be more nervous? Charity shield gone on that
Speaker 4: second half? We were Round one.
Speaker 3: Debut Charity Shield.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Like I said, I kind of didn't have the
Speaker 5: preseason I was preparing myself to have or that I
Speaker 5: expected to have. So that was my first time pulling
Speaker 5: on that jersey and yeah, I kind of I knew
Speaker 5: the importance of that game is it's only a trial,
Speaker 5: but it means a lot to the club, to the fans.
Speaker 5: That's probably the biggest thing is the fans, Like they're
Speaker 5: at training every day, Like that's something I probably it's
Speaker 5: a big difference from from where I've been, is just
Speaker 5: how involved the fans are and stuff like that, and
Speaker 5: you really feel that connection.
Speaker 2: You've got Bunny Bunny's TV. The guy that runs Bunny's TV.
Speaker 2: He's always there at the ground, like film and training.
Speaker 4: REGGI rabbit, lending your support to people, you know, taking
Speaker 4: matters into his own hands.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Reggie. Yeah, how do you like?
Speaker 2: Dad asked about what you're more nervous for then, because
Speaker 2: you know you're only so early into your career. How
Speaker 2: many games you played, but you've you're looking like you've
Speaker 2: played a lot more games than you actually have. That
Speaker 2: that moment earlier in the year when you kick the
Speaker 2: field goal. Do you find a lot of young guys
Speaker 2: you rarely see him kick field goals? Do you find
Speaker 2: you handle pressure like a lot better than most because
Speaker 2: it's a big ass to give a young halfback that
Speaker 2: moment so early in their career.
Speaker 5: Well, I think, I mean, I've taken a lot of
Speaker 5: lessons from the people I've been around, and in my
Speaker 5: time it mainly I was lucky enough to be under
Speaker 5: Daily and Kiren and yourself coops of course. Yeah, So
Speaker 5: I just I've taken a lot from them. And I'm
Speaker 5: kind of young in terms of games and stuff like that,
Speaker 5: but I've been around a fair bit in terms of
Speaker 5: my training, and I've done a few pre seasons and
Speaker 5: stuff like that, So I've kind of been in and
Speaker 5: around it for a long time and definitely taken those
Speaker 5: lessons from guys like that, and like guys like Cody
Speaker 5: now in my team. So although it feels like a
Speaker 5: kind of just starting, it also feels like I've prepared
Speaker 5: myself well for this.
Speaker 4: This Jamie and I was watching it in the come
Speaker 4: to mind and you know, excuse me if I'm completely wrong,
Speaker 4: but I never am didn't help you. The fact that
Speaker 4: it was a bouncing ball and you didn't have time
Speaker 4: to think, like you just had to go and grab
Speaker 4: the ball and turn around as creature, couldn't just nudget
Speaker 4: like sometimes when you get time you catch the ball,
Speaker 4: you're steady, and that one second and me and things
Speaker 4: can go through your mind. You didn't have time.
Speaker 5: Yeah, no, that was exactly right, Like we were kind
Speaker 5: of I was thinking it throughout the set and then
Speaker 5: all of a sudden, we've gone.
Speaker 3: I think Cody took a short side of play for
Speaker 3: as he does, like.
Speaker 5: You're seeing something and he's taken, and I'm like, oh, well,
Speaker 5: that's not where I want to be when I want
Speaker 5: to kick a field goal. Anyway, So like the play
Speaker 5: evolved and I kind of. I was chatting to Cody
Speaker 5: as it happened and was going to get a two pass,
Speaker 5: and all of a sudden he gets a bad pass
Speaker 5: from dummy half ends up on the floor, he passes
Speaker 5: someone else and then they.
Speaker 3: Throw it over my head.
Speaker 5: And like you said, I just ended up having like
Speaker 5: no time to think, and I knew I wanted to
Speaker 5: do it. I was still ended up in a really
Speaker 5: good position, and if anything, it probably helped because They've
Speaker 5: gone chasing the ball that way and I'm actually over here,
Speaker 5: so ended up having a little bit more freedom to
Speaker 5: get my kick away.
Speaker 1: Bounce pass.
Speaker 2: Bounce pass works every time the defense. And poor old
Speaker 2: Shane Flanagan flann with our old assistant coach, really gave
Speaker 2: him a heart attack up for that game that the
Speaker 2: press he did.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Jamie, Like, so the first test that you walk
Speaker 4: into the dressing room, you're getting through the you're nervous.
Speaker 4: The second test is, ya, you're out on the fitness field.
Speaker 4: You've got to prove yourself there, prove you worthy, prove
Speaker 4: your tough and to push yourself. And the third test
Speaker 4: is you need a break through a game. You break
Speaker 4: need to break through moment to really after the game,
Speaker 4: come off and really phil sing the team song and
Speaker 4: feel like you're in the midst of it. That field
Speaker 4: goal was at the moment.
Speaker 5: Well, I actually never felt that way because I guess
Speaker 5: all the messages I got from Wayne was just about
Speaker 5: doing my job. Like he never said anything about doing
Speaker 5: anything like that, didn't that the team didn't need, or
Speaker 5: like trying to stand out, as you said, And obviously
Speaker 5: personally I'm probably thinking that a little bit. But after
Speaker 5: having those conversations with him, all my focus on doing
Speaker 5: my job, and that's I think that's kind of going
Speaker 5: into Round one, that was that was the biggest thing
Speaker 5: for me. I'd never played in a Round one game
Speaker 5: before and I was probably a bit nervous going into that,
Speaker 5: to be honest, And he just spoke to me about
Speaker 5: make sure you're getting kicks right, make sure you do
Speaker 5: you tackles, and that's all that matches, that's all the
Speaker 5: team needs. And then you've got guys like Cody and
Speaker 5: you've got guys like Jay at the back who can
Speaker 5: create out and nothing. So that was like that was
Speaker 5: my focus going into those games, and kind of I
Speaker 5: think that's probably what helped me, is focusing on that
Speaker 5: stuff and the other stuff will come. And in that
Speaker 5: round two game, like the opportunity for the field goal
Speaker 5: came and I took it, and I'm sure there'll be
Speaker 5: many more opportunities to come in the future.
Speaker 2: I remember Jack when you when Jack debut at South
Speaker 2: I remember saying he would get a text message from
Speaker 2: a random number and would just say Rusty at the bottom.
Speaker 2: Does he still do that, Russell Crowe? Does he send
Speaker 2: the boys text message on their debut or No?
Speaker 5: I didn't get one personally, so I don't know Jackman,
Speaker 5: But no, Actually I did meet Russell actually in the preseason.
Speaker 5: He come into the club and I was stilling my
Speaker 5: rehab stuff in the gym and he come right in
Speaker 5: and said hello, which I was. Yeah, I was pretty
Speaker 5: star struck, to be honest, but yeah, No, that was
Speaker 5: a cool moment. But I've heard kind of from the
Speaker 5: guys and stuff like that who've been there a while.
Speaker 5: He's kind of pulled back a little bit. Oh really, Yeah,
Speaker 5: but still heavily involved in club, just probably not so
Speaker 5: much with the players.
Speaker 4: It's a favorite Russell Crowe movie fell.
Speaker 3: I can't get fast Gladiator.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, with the emergence of the second one
Speaker 2: coming out that came out this year or last year.
Speaker 2: I think everyone went back and watched the first one.
Speaker 2: It just ships on the new one.
Speaker 1: The old one is so good.
Speaker 4: I mean, Paul Paul Mescal scary scar. He just doesn't
Speaker 4: look like gladiator. He doesn't hold himself like a gladiator.
Speaker 4: Too good looking, not to say that, he doesn't have
Speaker 4: the fas and he's just got too soft a face.
Speaker 1: Yeah, correct, what about.
Speaker 4: It's my opinion to the Mescal faily.
Speaker 2: Look another mainly bloke that rabbits have poached one of
Speaker 2: another one of our teammates, Shoey Josh Schuster.
Speaker 1: How should we been going?
Speaker 5: No, she has been really good, like as you know
Speaker 5: you've been around him. There's a narrative sometimes that he
Speaker 5: doesn't train as hard or whatever, but he trains just
Speaker 5: as hard as anyone I've ever seen, and.
Speaker 3: Truly he does.
Speaker 5: And he's had a few setbacks that his time it's
Speaker 5: south so far. He's had a few half injuries and
Speaker 5: stuff like that. But he is someone I've seen who
Speaker 5: really puts in the work and he trains so hard.
Speaker 4: I'll tell you what. If he can get going, Jeez
Speaker 4: will be handy as a ball playing back row, you
Speaker 4: can just feed the ball too early and get going.
Speaker 4: I really hope he does because I really like Shoey.
Speaker 4: I played with his uncle. But what I really like
Speaker 4: about him Jamie is the fact that he could be
Speaker 4: one hundred meters down the road on the other side
Speaker 4: of the road and he could yell out, you know,
Speaker 4: like he's a gregarious, big personality. I like that he is.
Speaker 3: He's He's someone I've got a lot of time for
Speaker 3: se He someone I'm.
Speaker 5: Really hoping has a bit of luck with like with
Speaker 5: those injuries, and it's hard to come by sometimes, but
Speaker 5: I know, I know he'll put in the work and
Speaker 5: I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1: Jesus is into his golf at the minute.
Speaker 3: He loves his golf. He loves it.
Speaker 2: Every second post on Instagram is the should we playing golf?
Speaker 2: If I said, are you going to training or you
Speaker 2: just out playing golf?
Speaker 3: Every time he leaves train he's in the polo and
Speaker 3: he's in the shorts. Ready, I'm not kidding. He leaves
Speaker 3: the training ground in his polo like straight to.
Speaker 2: The golf court and he's getting some freebies. I reckon,
Speaker 2: he must have six set of clubs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he probably does.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I saw things. I knew you played with the
Speaker 4: London Broncos took in the second but they've actually brought
Speaker 4: out a it's recruitment recruitment push and it's called be
Speaker 4: like Jamie.
Speaker 1: Really did you know?
Speaker 5: I actually did it until I did a bit of
Speaker 5: media after the game last week and someone asked me
Speaker 5: about it and I had no idea. So yeah, I've
Speaker 5: seen it since then, but yeah, no, I did. I
Speaker 5: spent a I spent three or four years there in
Speaker 5: the Bronco system. Like my old man worked.
Speaker 3: Over as his he worked for British Airways, so did he?
Speaker 4: Okay?
Speaker 5: Yeah, our family moved over there in twenty fourteen, Yeah,
Speaker 5: which was a massive move.
Speaker 3: I come from a big family, so it.
Speaker 4: Was based in London.
Speaker 3: Yeah right, yeah, so as.
Speaker 5: You know, rugby union's probably the dominant code over there,
Speaker 5: when soccer as well.
Speaker 1: Did you play union over there?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I played.
Speaker 5: I played soccer, I played union and I played league,
Speaker 5: so league was kind of I kind of got into
Speaker 5: league through the London Broncos system there. I played My
Speaker 5: local team was the Elmbridge Eagles in yeah, in Surrey,
Speaker 5: and kind of got picked up by the Broncos through
Speaker 5: that system and then yeah, played there in the under
Speaker 5: sixteens in the nineteens and did a bit of training
Speaker 5: there with their team.
Speaker 4: This is history that club.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, this is a random question, right, But one
Speaker 2: thing I always noticed about you with your kicking, like
Speaker 2: you've got a very perfect ball drop those people that
Speaker 2: don't know about is like the drop from the hand
Speaker 2: down to the foot when you're kicking, which you don't
Speaker 2: see a lot in league of perfect ones. Playing union
Speaker 2: and soccer over in the UK, a lot of their
Speaker 2: ball drops are perfect, especially in the Super League. Did
Speaker 2: you get a heap out of your kicking game from England?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 5: I actually I played a lot of soccer as a
Speaker 5: young kid, and that's always what Dad said to me
Speaker 5: when I ask him. He's like, he didn't let me
Speaker 5: play footy until I was a bit older, and he's like,
Speaker 5: I just one I love playing soccer and two he
Speaker 5: knew it would help me with my kicking.
Speaker 3: And no, you're right.
Speaker 5: I definitely took a lot from playing rugby union and
Speaker 5: those guys in that game, like I always looked at
Speaker 5: them and technically they're they're almost perfect with the way
Speaker 5: they kicked the ball, even goalkicking as well, Like it's
Speaker 5: quite different when you watch union in league kicks the
Speaker 5: way they set up the ball, and I think Clear
Speaker 5: is probably the closest kicker to he broke me union
Speaker 5: kicker in terms of that kind of process, and that's
Speaker 5: definitely something I've taken from them and try and implement
Speaker 5: into my game.
Speaker 4: For sure, we're talking before, but London Broncos Coops and
Speaker 4: Jane Bee aware of it. But they were brought up
Speaker 4: that they were brought as an affiliate to the Brisbane
Speaker 4: Broncos and they would send a lot of the young
Speaker 4: guys and play over this. So initially in the early
Speaker 4: days they had a really young side.
Speaker 1: Well the Broncos sent them to London.
Speaker 4: They would send their players there. So the bloke who
Speaker 4: came back and filled in for Joey Leo Donover, he
Speaker 4: was a young player who the Broncos said over Brisbane
Speaker 4: Broncos London Broncos and they were just it'd get them
Speaker 4: rather than play reserve grade or Queensland Cup. It would
Speaker 4: basically it would fast track them and they come back anyway.
Speaker 4: The interesting story about it is the fact that Richard Branson,
Speaker 4: when Super League first hit Richard Branson was watching rabul
Speaker 4: League on TV and said, I love this sport. So
Speaker 4: he bought the London Broncos outright. So we went over once.
Speaker 4: We went over to Southern Dave fairly and we stayed
Speaker 4: at Tony Ray's place and he was the coach of
Speaker 4: the London Broncos at the time and he was like,
Speaker 4: you want to go to Richard Brandson the nightclub and
Speaker 4: fucking a. So we walk in. There were flamingos walking
Speaker 4: around in the nightclub or actual life life flamingos.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 4: One of the London Broncos boys who actually played at Newcastle,
Speaker 4: Minor Ronnie Gibbs one of the Flamingos and got thrown
Speaker 4: out for life.
Speaker 1: Ronnie Gibbs.
Speaker 4: Gibb you know that he used to dive at the
Speaker 4: feet of the kickers when.
Speaker 1: They kick sat read the room. Look at the reference
Speaker 1: you make to Gives. I'm sorry, we don't even who
Speaker 1: Ronny Gibs. You know what Ronni Gibbs is?
Speaker 4: Ronnie share to Ronnie. Yeah, that's just shut you up. Sorry,
Speaker 4: That's what is all about. It's a clash of generation.
Speaker 2: Clash of generations. Before we move on, just go back
Speaker 2: to Sous for a second because in recording this where
Speaker 2: you're leading into the Rooster's game, big Souse and Rooster's rivalry.
Speaker 2: Obviously your first year at SOUSE, is the week a
Speaker 2: big emotional week, Like it seems like Saus really buy
Speaker 2: in to their history.
Speaker 3: History is massive.
Speaker 5: It's like probably the first kind of we talk about
Speaker 5: impressions of the club. Like everyone talks about the history.
Speaker 5: It's it's written on all the walls at our training center.
Speaker 5: There's photos of every team of every era, and yeah,
Speaker 5: the history is a massive part of the club, and
Speaker 5: obviously the rivalry the Roosters is a big part of that.
Speaker 5: And it's exciting for me. Kind of got into this
Speaker 5: week and it's probably been. Nothing's really changed for us
Speaker 5: in terms of our training and stuff like that or preparation.
Speaker 5: Wayne likes to keep things pretty simple, as I've said, so,
Speaker 5: but no, it'll be it'll be a big game, and
Speaker 5: luckily we've got some troops coming back for it, which
Speaker 5: I'm very excited for.
Speaker 4: The left center's handy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he goes.
Speaker 4: My god, he looks fit.
Speaker 3: I reckon he had about ten triers of training the
Speaker 3: other day.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I'll tell you right now, like I've got
Speaker 2: a good eye for talent. I reckon it'll be something really,
Speaker 2: that's my tip.
Speaker 4: Like who's coaching South Sydney. I reckon one day he'll
Speaker 4: be a career coach as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah it'll be Premiership when one day.
Speaker 4: First on backstage, weird question.
Speaker 2: For you when you were over in England, given the
Speaker 2: time difference and everything, did you actually get to watch
Speaker 2: much NRL?
Speaker 4: No, not at all.
Speaker 5: I did because I mean, growing up, I'm massive footy head. Yeah,
Speaker 5: obviously been around it for so long, Like I love
Speaker 5: watching footy, but it's just it's yeah, like you said,
Speaker 5: it's hard with the time difference and everything like that.
Speaker 5: I try and catch the highlights and stuff like that,
Speaker 5: but rugby union and football soccer definitely dominates the TV
Speaker 5: over there.
Speaker 3: That's the other thing.
Speaker 5: Like it's barely on TV, so it's kind of kind
Speaker 5: of hard to come by. And yeah, I try to
Speaker 5: watch as much Super League as I could as well,
Speaker 5: But no, I really didn't have much. Yeah I thought.
Speaker 2: I spoke to Josh Kiddy last week and he was
Speaker 2: he was saying he watches every AFL game from from Chicago.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he gets up all watching RL. App now where
Speaker 4: you can watch the rules making. I think it's shown
Speaker 4: on Fox Sports two over there, but there's no, I'm sorry,
Speaker 4: on on Sky but there's no real app. We see
Speaker 4: all the games over there now. Yeah, it's it's funny
Speaker 4: like the EPL. The English Premier League is such a
Speaker 4: monolithic beast. There's even rugby union clubs going broke over
Speaker 4: there now. They're just taking all the sponsorship, all the
Speaker 4: broadcast money. It's just so big. Here was your side
Speaker 4: over there?
Speaker 3: I was an Arsenal man.
Speaker 1: Jack you Arsenal, wasn't Jack?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Will we die?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Liverpool man?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so's my dad and my brother.
Speaker 4: Actually you can't when you grow up throughout through the eighties, Liverpool, Liverpool, Liverpool.
Speaker 3: Yeah a second dad and my brother big fans. So yeah,
Speaker 3: every time Arsenal would play Liverpool, me and my brother
Speaker 3: would have that little rivalry.
Speaker 1: You go down to the pub and just fight on
Speaker 1: the street.
Speaker 4: Was it the Emirates then or were they still playing
Speaker 4: at Highbury?
Speaker 3: No, the Emirates, Yeah it wasn't.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you go many games, not as because.
Speaker 3: We were playing sport when whenever they play. But I
Speaker 3: went to a couple when.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I loved it like you said, it's it is
Speaker 5: so big over there.
Speaker 1: It's well, it's it's like a.
Speaker 2: Religion, right yeah, Like we were joking about you guys down
Speaker 2: down in the pub and fighting, but when it's a
Speaker 2: rivalry game, talk about Souths and Brewsters, like they'd be
Speaker 2: going down and if there's the opposition team coming, you'll
Speaker 2: run on the other way because they'll actually beat you
Speaker 2: up on the street.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, It's like I've never really seen anything quite like it.
Speaker 5: It's yeah, a lot of people's livelihood base is based
Speaker 5: around if the team wins them.
Speaker 2: The English fans, they're just so good, Like even earlier
Speaker 2: this year in Vegas, awesome Wigan, who do we can
Speaker 2: play against Warrington? But the fans were just the singing
Speaker 2: and the chanting.
Speaker 5: Like even in the rugby union. I remember watching a
Speaker 5: few games at Twicken Them like when the Wallabies would
Speaker 5: go over and play and the whole stadium is singing.
Speaker 5: It's like it's yeah, it's like it's it's sweet, sweet
Speaker 5: que the atmosphere.
Speaker 4: Yeah, how did you.
Speaker 2: Get to Manley going from England? When you come back
Speaker 2: to Australia, how where was the transition from London? Broncos
Speaker 2: to Mainley, all.
Speaker 5: Right, So I think we always planned as a family
Speaker 5: to come back. Obviously, we've got a lot of family
Speaker 5: here in Australia and Dad kind of went over there.
Speaker 5: He worked for British Airways previously as well, so it
Speaker 5: was always planned to be like kind of a short
Speaker 5: kind of stint and he actually finished up there and
Speaker 5: he started working at Manly, So Dad came back home
Speaker 5: and yeah, went into the role of Cel Manley.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I.
Speaker 5: Actually I was in school at the time and it
Speaker 5: was kind of weird timing for me. I'd just kind
Speaker 5: of finished my first season of under nineteen at the
Speaker 5: Lindon Broncos and was in school kind of finishing that,
Speaker 5: and that kind of come to me and asked.
Speaker 3: Me, He's like, well, are you interested in coming back?
Speaker 3: My family were going to stay for a little bit.
Speaker 5: Are you interested in coming back early and kind of
Speaker 5: getting started at Mainly, And I genuinely had to think
Speaker 5: about it because I wanted to finish school and at
Speaker 5: the time I felt very settled there and there was
Speaker 5: opportunities to progress through the London system or possibly go
Speaker 5: to another Super League club at the time, and I
Speaker 5: just I knew I wanted to come home, and I
Speaker 5: knew if I wanted to chase my dream.
Speaker 3: Which was to play footy, the best place to do
Speaker 3: that was here. And it was kind of a big move.
Speaker 5: Again, like I'd never actually lived on the Northern Beaches
Speaker 5: until I moved here in twenty twenty, so I kind
Speaker 5: of moved here and it was a well win because
Speaker 5: at the time it was COVID, I didn't know anyone,
Speaker 5: I wasn't in school, and then footy got canceled, so
Speaker 5: I'm like, what am I doing. I'm I lived across
Speaker 5: the road here at Coloroid, and I'm just like, I
Speaker 5: wasn't sure if I made the right decision, but kind
Speaker 5: of got into the group of things there as the
Speaker 5: SG ball season kicked off, and I was really lucky
Speaker 5: to have a really good team and a good coach.
Speaker 4: I mean, streets around here, how did you handle the
Speaker 4: gang warfare?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 5: No, on the on the walks down to the beach,
Speaker 5: it gets a bit messy sometimes, So yeah.
Speaker 4: I'm having an to the guys in East la and blood,
Speaker 4: but maybe bringing a franchise out here. How was it
Speaker 4: going from you playing for London Broncos just suddenly your
Speaker 4: first game out here.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, completely different, like and I never like kind
Speaker 5: of was in the system here. I left when I
Speaker 5: was twelve eleven, so I'd always played junior footy in
Speaker 5: the Southern Shire in I played for delas Al. I
Speaker 5: was lucky enough to be coached by Adam Dykes and
Speaker 5: I had like played with k Dikes he's at Cronulla
Speaker 5: and sam Stone Street.
Speaker 2: He's also oh he's having a good year Sampson.
Speaker 5: We were all in the same team growing up and
Speaker 5: like we barely lost the game, to be honest. So
Speaker 5: moving over to England and it was actually something Dad
Speaker 5: always said to me, I can't drop my level to
Speaker 5: the players around me because they don't play a league
Speaker 5: over there as much.
Speaker 4: So that's hard.
Speaker 5: I was guilty of it, I think, And I don't
Speaker 5: know if it's coaching or anything like that, but it
Speaker 5: is very different style. So coming back to Ship or
Speaker 5: everything felt so quick to me, like so quick. Did
Speaker 5: just struggle initially, like I think I did. Yeah, I
Speaker 5: think I think I struggled to adapt a little bit.
Speaker 5: But at the time I was so lucky to have
Speaker 5: a good team around me, like guys like Kyo played
Speaker 5: in that team, Tolu y.
Speaker 4: Yeah go.
Speaker 5: So, yeah, we all come through together, which was massive
Speaker 5: for me. They were all kind of part of the
Speaker 5: spine with me, and I think that definitely helped. And
Speaker 5: Brett Fulton was the coach and he helped me massively
Speaker 5: as well, just kind of getting getting I know, how
Speaker 5: to play footy. It is probably just adapting to the
Speaker 5: speed of everything. And honestly, it was the best thing
Speaker 5: I ever did coming back early because I didn't and
Speaker 5: I waited a year or waited a couple of years.
Speaker 5: Who knows if I would have made the adaptation.
Speaker 4: So you'll be playing good football, comes attention, you get
Speaker 4: to your own media headlines and you know, and even
Speaker 4: just going out about getting to get a coffee and
Speaker 4: people Jamie, you congratulates how you're finding that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it's again.
Speaker 5: I think back to Wayne and what he kind of
Speaker 5: instills and one of the first things he said to me,
Speaker 5: kind of before the trial games even started, just like,
Speaker 5: just don't pay any mind to it. He's really big
Speaker 5: on not and it's a hard thing to do, but
Speaker 5: to not have feelings on how people feel about you.
Speaker 5: At the end of the day, it's just an opinion.
Speaker 5: And he was he was he said. I remember him
Speaker 5: saying to me, like, they'll be the first ones to
Speaker 5: praise you when you're playing well, but at the same time,
Speaker 5: they'll be the ones that write the articles when you're
Speaker 5: not doing too well. So if you pay our mind
Speaker 5: to it either way, then and you know what you're
Speaker 5: doing and trusting yourself and in the team and what
Speaker 5: he's doing, then that's all that matters.
Speaker 3: And that's kind of the mindset that I've had with
Speaker 3: it all to see.
Speaker 4: How suonn you have any policy on social media?
Speaker 5: No, not not particularly, but at the same time, he's
Speaker 5: just he's all about making sure your focus is on
Speaker 5: footy and not on the outside stuff. And that's something
Speaker 5: that I've kind of had to get used to a
Speaker 5: little bit, even talking to media and sometimes talking to
Speaker 5: fans and stuff. I almost feel bad that I can't
Speaker 5: give him as much time or as much kind of
Speaker 5: attention is probably that they like, but at the same time,
Speaker 5: probably need to be a bit selfish myself.
Speaker 4: And yeah, you're at the start, yeah exactly.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And I kind of I lean on a few
Speaker 5: people who have helped me along the way, and Dad's
Speaker 5: one of them as well. He's he's been big on it,
Speaker 5: and it's just focusing on what I'm doing and not
Speaker 5: too much.
Speaker 6: On the media.
Speaker 4: Have been caught a few times, you know when used
Speaker 4: to go on away trips. Our big go was with
Speaker 4: a young play. You're ringing go good day, Steve Simpson, yep,
Speaker 4: ringing the mobile on the back in the day it
Speaker 4: was the hotel phones, Steve Simpson, because you know, because
Speaker 4: you know you're because I'm trying to We figured it out,
Speaker 4: Steve Simpson. There, yeah, here's this. My name's my name's
Speaker 4: John Laurie. I write for the DEI Telegraph. Can't just
Speaker 4: ask a few questions? Oh yeah, sure you know where
Speaker 4: were you born? And just go now made Listen, I'm
Speaker 4: asking a lot here. But our photographer is downstairs. He
Speaker 4: wants to get a photo for the back page. Make
Speaker 4: sure you're wear tracksuit and everything. So make it so
Speaker 4: you go down. The rookie players would be sitting down
Speaker 4: in the hotel for you. Just yes, I remember we
Speaker 4: found it funny.
Speaker 2: Peter Robinson who was like he's he was the wealth officer.
Speaker 1: At Melbourne Storm.
Speaker 2: I remember our second year there. He got Harry Grant
Speaker 2: saying that he had a he had a radio interview,
Speaker 2: but it was just robot and he goes he did
Speaker 2: a full like a full back around. It's like, well,
Speaker 2: welcome to Melbourne Firm. Here, I want to see boy five.
Speaker 2: And we've got Harry Grand down the line and Harry
Speaker 2: is like start asking all these questions and like sort
Speaker 2: of luped him up a little bit and then just
Speaker 2: started throwing all these fake headlines at Harry. You know, well,
Speaker 2: your coach has come out during the week and he's
Speaker 2: given you a big challenge saying that you know, he
Speaker 2: doesn't think he may have played you a little bit
Speaker 2: early in first grade and you're not sort of ready
Speaker 2: for this level. Does that challenge just that challenge really
Speaker 2: enforced And Harry's going, yeah, you know, I suppose you
Speaker 2: know he's honest, and.
Speaker 1: He tells it how it is, mate.
Speaker 2: He had him going for like fifteen minutes, just sort
Speaker 2: of just all these little back, back stabbing questions.
Speaker 4: We had a bloke called Darren Tracy and we'd ring
Speaker 4: him and gad, Darren, how are you going? Yeah, yeah, look,
Speaker 4: I can't say who I am, but I'm a scout
Speaker 4: for the Western Suburbs. We've been watching what you're doing, mate,
Speaker 4: you're loving it. You're really really good mate. Listen, is
Speaker 4: there any chance there's a coffee shop just across the roads.
Speaker 4: Che's coming over there, mate, I'll be there in about
Speaker 4: fifteen minutes, just quick, you go, Oh yeah, mate, you'd
Speaker 4: undertand I'm going to keep this really quiet. So then
Speaker 4: he'd go across and he'd sit and then I'd round
Speaker 4: a few of the boys up before us, and we
Speaker 4: go into the coffee shop and we'd just be standing.
Speaker 4: We go, hey, what's Darren. What's doing mate? You go on,
Speaker 4: not much mate, Oh you're waiting on? Oh no, no,
Speaker 4: I just come over for quite coffee. Yeah, no worries mate,
Speaker 4: your mind. If we sit down and we'd sit with
Speaker 4: him and you could see him just going fuck.
Speaker 2: Remember when we were at Manly, Remember the prank war
Speaker 2: that went on for a bit. John Bonisara JB had
Speaker 2: to put an end to. He's like, guys, it's getting
Speaker 2: too far. Morgan Harper was in the heart of it.
Speaker 2: Half Josh Alloway, Yeah, I think Josh through Josh through
Speaker 2: Harps's bag in the water. And then somebody put took
Speaker 2: Harps's car off, like the wheels off.
Speaker 4: It all start took us through.
Speaker 2: It just it started so suddenly like it would have
Speaker 2: been someone took took a weight off their barbelle in
Speaker 2: the gym, so it was uneven, and it just gradually
Speaker 2: just keep going back and forth and back and forth.
Speaker 2: It ended because I think Joshy Alloway all Harps thought
Speaker 2: that Jason Saab was involved when he wasn't. Sarabi had
Speaker 2: nothing and he just bought this beautiful new Designer white
Speaker 2: T shirt and it was hanging in his locker and
Speaker 2: they I don't know who did it, but they took
Speaker 2: it outside and smeared dog ship all over it and
Speaker 2: he put it on because they did it on the back,
Speaker 2: so he's put it on and on the back, so
Speaker 2: he was walking around. Somebody had to say, Sabi, you
Speaker 2: got ship on your shirt. And Sabi had no involvement
Speaker 2: in the war at all.
Speaker 1: That was ruthless.
Speaker 3: It was hilarious.
Speaker 4: Morgan Harper's cat they removed.
Speaker 2: They took the tires off and they put it on bricks.
Speaker 2: And remember someone did something to Jimmy Dimmick's motorbike. Oh yes,
Speaker 2: they took they took the pin out or something. Yeah,
Speaker 2: just one thing and like they flicked it out and
Speaker 2: he's so I wouldn't start like it wouldn't. They wouldn't
Speaker 2: ignite and start, and all he had to do was
Speaker 2: just put it back in. But Jimmy, not like knowing
Speaker 2: much about motorcycles, obviously rang like the nrm A and
Speaker 2: was there for like three hours and they came and
Speaker 2: he was treated.
Speaker 1: Like they were like, oh, you just have to put
Speaker 1: this and he was like it was so funny. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they were ruthless, some of those boys.
Speaker 5: I think that's how it all started with the car.
Speaker 5: Someone blame Sabi and then he got thrown into into
Speaker 5: it all and then yeah, god, yeah they had to
Speaker 5: put a stop to it because who knows where it
Speaker 5: would have gone.
Speaker 2: Oh make good time, Like was going back to manly
Speaker 2: for a second, Yeah obviously, Yeah, did come through their
Speaker 2: SG ball twenties, end up full time and talk to
Speaker 2: us about the circumstances the relationship between you and man
Speaker 2: Like when when did you were they not going to
Speaker 2: re sign and you went okay, well old fire opportunity
Speaker 2: at South or did they want to resign you?
Speaker 5: Well, so I guess going back to it, Like like
Speaker 5: you said, come through playing SG ball there came through
Speaker 5: like progress through all the grades played, flag played, carp
Speaker 5: did my first pre season with Theirs, which was yeah,
Speaker 5: it was.
Speaker 2: I'll never forget.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I even remember before that he'd call me in because
Speaker 5: I always used to like go on the field of
Speaker 5: narrab And and kick.
Speaker 3: I just practice, and.
Speaker 5: He'd sometimes just be walking around behind the behind the tree,
Speaker 5: just looking around so I couldn't see him. And I've
Speaker 5: seen him a couple of times and I like would
Speaker 5: go over, like walk over, like with my hand out
Speaker 5: looking to shake his head and just walk away. Would
Speaker 5: show no interest, even though he knew I was doing
Speaker 5: the free sason with him. And then one day he
Speaker 5: come after me, like when I was kicking.
Speaker 3: He's like he gave me.
Speaker 5: He's like, I don't want you to do this training
Speaker 5: before we start. At the time lived down here at
Speaker 5: Colorade's like, all right, I want you to start here
Speaker 5: at Coloroid Beach.
Speaker 3: Go around, go up around long reef, around the golf course.
Speaker 3: Run yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yes, he told me to do that.
Speaker 5: He's like, mate, you better be doing it because I'll
Speaker 5: be watching. He lives on the beach, so I'd be
Speaker 5: out there every day every day doing tough. I never
Speaker 5: saw him, never saw him once. I bet he wasn't
Speaker 5: even there.
Speaker 4: A lot of those coaches started strength and conditioners. That
Speaker 4: was first thing. He was fitness trainer of the Bronco.
Speaker 4: I think Wayne was originally when for the police Force team.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, actually yeah, I remember asking him about that. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: was the same I heard back in the day. He
Speaker 5: was as fit as they can.
Speaker 4: That was his run around the long reef.
Speaker 2: Well, back in the olden days, like before the error
Speaker 2: of you know you have three assistant coaches, Yeah, you
Speaker 2: have all this stuff. There was one or two of you,
Speaker 2: so you had to kind of be skilled in all
Speaker 2: areas gym, fitness, attack, defense, you know.
Speaker 4: Now a's a psycology, player, welfare, all of one.
Speaker 2: Media manager Yeah yeah, massage therapist yeah.
Speaker 1: Shout out quite a craig.
Speaker 3: Yeah, sorry, I'll get back to you.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So I come through and yeah, like I said, trained
Speaker 5: with des and then obviously whatever happened there and Seeps
Speaker 5: come in and I had my first season with Sieves
Speaker 5: and kind of felt like I had a.
Speaker 3: Really good pre season, which is what they kind of
Speaker 3: told me as well, and.
Speaker 5: Kind of started in the halves, which is where I'd
Speaker 5: always played, and then kind of halfway through that year,
Speaker 5: Steeves come and spoke to me and said, look, I
Speaker 5: feel as though your best progression in the first grade
Speaker 5: will be as a hooker.
Speaker 3: Which at the time is probably fair.
Speaker 5: Like Fozz and Cherry were there at the time in
Speaker 5: the halves and Chewy was doing good things as well,
Speaker 5: so as a young guy coming through, that's kind of
Speaker 5: where they saw me. And he basically said to me, look,
Speaker 5: we want you to we want you to try this
Speaker 5: transition to see how it goes.
Speaker 3: And I was more than happy to do it. Like
Speaker 3: I said, I've been at the club.
Speaker 2: For a long time and you're playing. Really I remember
Speaker 2: I was there when you moved to hooker. You're playing,
Speaker 2: you're playing out You played outstanding as a half back
Speaker 2: and a hooker.
Speaker 4: Well, it's a good way to get first in the
Speaker 4: first grade because of the fact that you don't have
Speaker 4: to organize every woman. Yeah, you get out there and
Speaker 4: just make your tackles and you just go.
Speaker 5: Even I think even at the time when Des was there,
Speaker 5: he kind of said the same thing to me. So
Speaker 5: he said, look, most likely you're probably going to come
Speaker 5: in as a fourteen or someone who can cover half
Speaker 5: the hooker and like that made sense to me at
Speaker 5: the time and gone back to your point keeps and
Speaker 5: I went back there and played flag and carpet hooker
Speaker 5: and I felt like I was doing good things there
Speaker 5: And anyway that the year kind of fizzled out and
Speaker 5: come in, did our interview meetings as you do, and Yeah,
Speaker 5: basically said like he wants me to have a full
Speaker 5: preseason next years as a hooker, like only focus on that,
Speaker 5: and I was like, okay, just wrap my head around that.
Speaker 5: And coming into preseason was probably a really good thing
Speaker 5: for me because at the time I was still I
Speaker 5: was playing some games at hooker, some games at halves.
Speaker 3: And like depending on where injuries were hard to prepare.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, and like even at training, like on the
Speaker 5: weekend I was playing in the harves, but at training
Speaker 5: I was only doing stuff at hooker. So I was like,
Speaker 5: it was a bit unsure how things were going to go.
Speaker 5: And that gave me a lot of clarity coming in
Speaker 5: and just focusing on being a hooker, which was interesting
Speaker 5: for me because like I said, I'd always come through
Speaker 5: as a half, so that was a really big challenge.
Speaker 5: I remember obviously wrestling with the forwards and.
Speaker 3: Doing all the role and rocks so like, and it
Speaker 3: really is.
Speaker 5: It's a completely different preseason to what I'd probably been
Speaker 5: used to, So it probably probably helped tough me up
Speaker 5: a bit as well.
Speaker 4: Just the very nature of HOOKI just moving all the time,
Speaker 4: ruck to ruck up and back.
Speaker 3: And I probably had a lot to learn.
Speaker 5: Like that's kind of when Mick Ennis come in and
Speaker 5: was doing a fairbit and I can't help. I can't
Speaker 5: thank him enough for the help he gave me, especially
Speaker 5: kind of mindset wise in that position. So yeah, I
Speaker 5: had a really good pre season, felt like I was
Speaker 5: doing a lot of things right. And actually at the time,
Speaker 5: I think Kroas was injured, so I was getting a
Speaker 5: lot of reps kind of in that NL side, which
Speaker 5: was like, it's what.
Speaker 4: You want to be doing.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So kind of the time rolled around where we
Speaker 5: were preparing to go to Vegas, and at that time
Speaker 5: is when kind of we spoke about extending at the club,
Speaker 5: which was cool and it was something I was really
Speaker 5: keen to do. I was excited by the prospect of
Speaker 5: kind of being their long term. It was the club
Speaker 5: i'd kind of come through the grades with and it's
Speaker 5: very exciting for me.
Speaker 2: So a lot of your mates are there too.
Speaker 3: Under Like like you said, I came.
Speaker 5: Through the grades with a lot of them, had grown
Speaker 5: really close to a lot of the older guys there
Speaker 5: and hails how's he of course shout out to Stephen
Speaker 5: how is he? He was always there and giving me
Speaker 5: advice and stuff like that as well. So yeah, all
Speaker 5: the coaching stuff were really good. We mentioned Jimmy Dimmick
Speaker 5: as well. So yeah, it kind of came around and
Speaker 5: it was left out of the Vegas trip, which was
Speaker 5: it was what it was, and they kind of said
Speaker 5: to me like, oh, we want you to play in
Speaker 5: the next trial game. I think it was at the
Speaker 5: Broncos at Brookie and ended up playing in the halves again.
Speaker 5: So I'm kind of like, right, I've done the whole
Speaker 5: preseason at hook and now I'm back in a half And.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was probably just probably.
Speaker 5: Just trying to understand my role within the team and
Speaker 5: I didn't really see that. And at the time the
Speaker 5: club was saying they wanted me long term as a hooker,
Speaker 5: so it was kind of at that time where it was,
Speaker 5: and I was off contract at the end of the
Speaker 5: year as well, So and mainly had also said to
Speaker 5: me they wouldn't stand in the way if another opportunity
Speaker 5: came up. So yeah, was playing the year started hooker,
Speaker 5: about two or three games he didn't got moved to
Speaker 5: the halves again. So now I'm playing in the halves
Speaker 5: and yeah, that's kind of when we got a bit
Speaker 5: of interest from other clubs, and I think they probably
Speaker 5: were aware of the situation that unsettled.
Speaker 1: A little bit is the word.
Speaker 3: Yeah, But yeah, it was still.
Speaker 5: Loving my time there and love being around the boys,
Speaker 5: and yeah, that's when Souths kind of really kicked up
Speaker 5: their their interest in me and kind of pitched me
Speaker 5: the idea of yeah, the opportunity to play consistent first grade,
Speaker 5: which is probably where what I wasn't getting at the
Speaker 5: time because it.
Speaker 2: Was bizarre, right, like, you signed two weeks before you
Speaker 2: actually make you NRL debut at Rocky.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you go out there in the.
Speaker 2: Halves, well after doing a whole pre season of book again,
Speaker 2: but you play out standing I think, and you score
Speaker 2: a good try. A lot of Manly fans were kind
Speaker 2: of puzzled, going, hang on, we've had this bloke and
Speaker 2: we've let him, We've let him go off contract, haven't
Speaker 2: stood in the way of him signing with South. We've
Speaker 2: just you know, blooded him in the first grade. He's
Speaker 2: playing outstanding. Why have we let him go?
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was I mean, it was all a bit
Speaker 5: of a whirl win for me as well. Like to
Speaker 5: be honest, I spoke about it before. I wasn't sure
Speaker 5: where I stood, and that was probably the hardest.
Speaker 4: Thing for me.
Speaker 5: I just I didn't know, and that's probably what made
Speaker 5: up my mind in the end. If I felt if
Speaker 5: I felt settled and comfortable in where I was and
Speaker 5: what the club saw on me and where I was
Speaker 5: going to go, I probably would have never had any
Speaker 5: intention of leaving. Like I love the club, I love
Speaker 5: the fans, love all the boys, So it was a
Speaker 5: big thing for me to kind of move. I never
Speaker 5: had any intentions of doing that. But at the same time,
Speaker 5: all the stuff that the house was saying to me
Speaker 5: was exactly what I wasn't getting from me.
Speaker 3: So yeah, it kind of made up my mind in
Speaker 3: that regard.
Speaker 5: And obviously having Wayne coming there as well, I knew
Speaker 5: that was something as a young player that's that's not
Speaker 5: an opportunity that comes around very often.
Speaker 4: It's funny to say that because danly Chree even said
Speaker 4: exactly the same thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know what the best part about that
Speaker 2: joke is it doesn't get old. It's even better here
Speaker 2: when you hear it the second time around.
Speaker 4: It be funny all year.
Speaker 1: Seriously, it keeps on going.
Speaker 2: A Jamie look we have do you have a tough
Speaker 2: talk for Jamie?
Speaker 6: Now?
Speaker 4: I don't you don't know you've left it out.
Speaker 2: Dad usually does a segment, right, it's all the hard
Speaker 2: hitting journal journo questions.
Speaker 4: I had one ready saying such as if if Wayne
Speaker 4: offered you a two year extension, but you had to
Speaker 4: give him a massage.
Speaker 5: With your massage, I think I would outsource that to
Speaker 5: my good friend Fletcher.
Speaker 3: Wise, Fletcher do it too, you do it for free.
Speaker 2: Give it a Halsey, Yeah, you know I was. I
Speaker 2: went into the many sheds after the whole the win
Speaker 2: against Eels, after the whole chest saga, see a few
Speaker 2: of the boys, and I told Halsey you were.
Speaker 1: Coming on the pod. Halsey was foaming as a man has.
Speaker 2: Stephen Hales is he's the assistant coach, one of the
Speaker 2: assistants in at Manly there, but when we were there,
Speaker 2: he sort of looked after the boys. We called him
Speaker 2: the Brady's, like the boys that weren't playing first grade
Speaker 2: who go back to Blacktown. But their job is to
Speaker 2: prepare the the you know, the seventeen for that week
Speaker 2: by mimicking penros attack and things like that. And how's
Speaker 2: he He's just he's just one of the great characters.
Speaker 4: He'd always get absolutely and he was always sweety.
Speaker 2: How's he always had a thin layer of sweat on him.
Speaker 4: And he was so sweating all over the barbecue one day.
Speaker 2: And Brooks's barbecue, anyway, he was, and he was he
Speaker 2: was up there all the time, all the day.
Speaker 1: He's gone.
Speaker 2: You know, boys, we'd get up there and he'd be
Speaker 2: so nervous because obviously he was so passionate about wanting
Speaker 2: the Bradies to get out there and have a good job.
Speaker 4: Right, so he's just competing.
Speaker 1: He was actually nervous. He's got are we all on
Speaker 1: board with this? Are we all on board with this?
Speaker 2: Hails he It's fine, get your cholesterol down, We will
Speaker 2: do a good job for you today.
Speaker 1: It's okay. One of the great blakes.
Speaker 5: Fuck yeah, we had a lot of He probably had
Speaker 5: a lot of stressful moments out there when we'd start
Speaker 5: doing our own thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, remember when.
Speaker 2: This is it's a good insight this into what it's
Speaker 2: like to not be in the starting seventeen each week.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 2: So a lot of clubs they will kind kind of
Speaker 2: they'll tell you exactly what play by play what to do.
Speaker 2: So Penrith hit this option, they'll go down the short side.
Speaker 2: So the NRL side, they actually know what's coming when
Speaker 2: you're training against them. And I remember how he would say, so,
Speaker 2: we're got to do this, this and this. But after
Speaker 2: a few weeks of doing it, we used to get
Speaker 2: kind of pissed off because like we would where we'd
Speaker 2: see other opportunities and we're not able to take it,
Speaker 2: which isn't good for our football.
Speaker 1: So I remember we got it. We got in together
Speaker 1: one day and we were like, you know what, look,
Speaker 1: we'll we'll do that.
Speaker 2: But like if we do, if we see something, let's
Speaker 2: just take it. Let's at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: it's it's their mistake by not numbering up, and we
Speaker 2: get good reps of practicing our football. I do you
Speaker 2: think he's not going to tell that was our du
Speaker 2: So then I remember we did something we did We're
Speaker 2: doing edge of the edge and our edge. We did
Speaker 2: something that they weren't expecting, just a little variation, and
Speaker 2: we skinned them and it was like it was dead
Speaker 2: sat World War three.
Speaker 1: It was like, what is going on, Penrith, don't do that.
Speaker 1: That wasn't on the video.
Speaker 2: Boys, it wasn't in the video, and we're going, guys,
Speaker 2: this is an NRL side. They will probably do something
Speaker 2: that the boys aren't going to expect exactly.
Speaker 5: I can recall a couple of times where that happened,
Speaker 5: and the best times were when we've got to play,
Speaker 5: so all right, keeps you running this play, then we're
Speaker 5: going to get back to this spot and we're going
Speaker 5: to go do this again. And when the boars halfway
Speaker 5: in the air to you as a half, the play
Speaker 5: changes and everyone's screaming. That's the most stressed I've ever
Speaker 5: seen any of those coaches.
Speaker 4: I remember seeing Halsey when you got your I give
Speaker 4: you your jersey that time he walked in. Halsey he
Speaker 4: had all the sausages and steaks and after the barbecue
Speaker 4: and he goes, oh, Maddie, here youing And I never
Speaker 4: met Halsey sign you're doing all right? Just knocking at
Speaker 4: the barbie. He goes, yeah, yes, if you've got a
Speaker 4: butcher shop around here, And he goes no, why And
Speaker 4: I said, oh no, because you're doing the barbie. He said,
Speaker 4: I'm Actually, he's.
Speaker 1: Got to start. He'll love the plug. He'll love a
Speaker 1: good plug.
Speaker 2: Thanks Jamie for coming over, big effort, pleasure maybe to
Speaker 2: be a part of it.
Speaker 1: Welcome anytime.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Jamie, Thank you, and my congratulations on how
Speaker 4: you're playing mate. Head down us up, brother, that's good stuff.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thanks so much.
Speaker 3: Appreciated.