Speaker 1: Hi, everybody, Welcome to conversations. It's unusual. We sometimes have
Speaker 1: father and son. We've had a husband and wife. I
Speaker 1: don't think we've had brother and sister because a few
Speaker 1: years ago I interviewed Pat Micken as part of this program,
Speaker 1: one of our great Australian basketball players. But her brother
Speaker 1: is equally as famous and it's taken me a few
Speaker 1: years to track him down. Mark Micken, welcome to the program.
Speaker 2: How are you. He's great, good, could be well.
Speaker 1: Brother and sister. I think you're the first of it.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I'm not the best sportsman in the family.
Speaker 1: You're not the best. I'm not sure about that. It's
Speaker 1: been it's been pretty tough for you the last couple
Speaker 1: of years. You were diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and how
Speaker 1: how you handled it. Don't tell us how that's worked out.
Speaker 2: It's been challenging at times. I've got diagnosed in August
Speaker 2: of twenty sixteen, and in two thousand and nine nineteen,
Speaker 2: I had a de brain two deep brain stimulation operations.
Speaker 2: Actually I went on the thirteenth of April nineteen, twenty nineteen,
Speaker 2: and another one that was successful on December the fifteenth,
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: Explain what that is.
Speaker 2: It's a it's a fairly invasive sort of a surgery
Speaker 2: where they open up your scale and go into your
Speaker 2: brain and put the little electrodes in your brain. And
Speaker 2: the first time I was asleep the first operation, that
Speaker 2: didn't work. In the second operation it did work, and
Speaker 2: I was awake. You're await here in the operation most
Speaker 2: of the operation.
Speaker 1: How are they dead? In the plain of it, They've
Speaker 1: gone through your scalp.
Speaker 2: You have an aesthetic and the anethesidist on how you
Speaker 2: say that regulates I could spell it. He regulates your
Speaker 2: consciousness really and has you coming in and out amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and what could you feel? At one stage? I could
Speaker 2: feel jack hammer in the back of my head. It
Speaker 2: was a bit horrendous. One stage. He said, I should
Speaker 2: have I should have told you I was going to
Speaker 2: do that. But anyway, now that the surgery itself was
Speaker 2: very successful. He used to have a severe tremor in
Speaker 2: the right hand and that that is now minimized. And
Speaker 2: some of my left leg used to shake a lot,
Speaker 2: and that's fairly well under control now as well. I
Speaker 2: must point out that my circumstances are different to everyone else's.
Speaker 2: You know, some people don't qualify for the surgery.
Speaker 1: Why are you? Why are yours different? Why are your
Speaker 1: circumstances different?
Speaker 2: Every Parkinson's, every person to live with parking it has
Speaker 2: a different experience with it. And so for some people
Speaker 2: they are very rigid. They might not shake so much,
Speaker 2: but their body be very rigid and stiff. And for
Speaker 2: other people, they shake, they have the shakes, and it
Speaker 2: can figure in so many other ways. Well, you know,
Speaker 2: for me, I've got very low blood pressure as a
Speaker 2: result of Parkinson's, and that is quite demilitating at times.
Speaker 2: You know, there are times I find it hard to
Speaker 2: walk from one end of the house to the other
Speaker 2: without thinking I'm going to fall over or faint.
Speaker 1: And do you have treatment for that?
Speaker 2: Or I a medicated? I medicated for that, And sometimes
Speaker 2: it works better than others. It's working all right today.
Speaker 1: Goodness, How did you get in? How did you get
Speaker 1: into the studio? We're in the studio, folks. Mark's come
Speaker 1: in and we met downstairs, came up to the fourth floor.
Speaker 1: How did you get into the station?
Speaker 2: Come up lifts?
Speaker 1: No? You know, how can you drive yourself with?
Speaker 2: Sorry?
Speaker 1: I'm glad you're laughing.
Speaker 2: When I sit down with blood pressure, it controls itself.
Speaker 2: It's all right, it's driving problem.
Speaker 1: I read though that the treatment is controlled from Melbourne.
Speaker 1: Is that true?
Speaker 2: Can be? Yeah? I have a entallyhealth appointment out every
Speaker 2: three or four months with doctor Andrew Evans, who's non
Speaker 2: neurologist in Melbourne, and he can use his iPad to
Speaker 2: my infrastructure in my brain and adjust it. Wow from
Speaker 2: from there?
Speaker 1: Can you feel anything when he's doing that?
Speaker 2: No, I can't know. And the result of what he
Speaker 2: does can take It can be fair the incident or
Speaker 2: couldn't take a while. So we really haven't adjusted. It's
Speaker 2: I've had the surgery in twenty nineteen because if we
Speaker 2: adjusted it could help one area, but then another area
Speaker 2: is of the brain might not function as well, so
Speaker 2: I might end up with a shaking my right leg
Speaker 2: instead of with a shaking my left or something like that.
Speaker 2: So it's a bit of a balancing act and it's
Speaker 2: not an exact science.
Speaker 1: And you're comfortable with it maybe apart from the blood pressure, I.
Speaker 2: Guess yeah, I am. Yeah. I've been very fortunate. As
Speaker 2: I said, some people's experienced with Parkinson since isn't as
Speaker 2: fortunate as mine. I've got my brother who's in an
Speaker 2: HP facility at Flora Flora McDonald on Don Breburan Drive,
Speaker 2: and he's very debilopitated with Parkinson's. His body's really packed
Speaker 2: up on him. He's got very rigid, very rigid, and
Speaker 2: he sit later on his back all day and it's
Speaker 2: very sad.
Speaker 1: So to say he's the alert at the same time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was aware of this. That must be terrible. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's not good.
Speaker 1: Well, had an impact on your dad.
Speaker 2: He was similar to my brother. He had a very
Speaker 2: rigid sort of body and couldn't talk quite often because
Speaker 2: his facial mush muscles were affected.
Speaker 1: How old were you when that happened?
Speaker 2: He was He was sixty two.
Speaker 1: So you're you're pretty much an adult.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was definitely. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So how's how has life changed? DRAMATOA. You were a
Speaker 1: school teacher, you're active, you were coaching, and what happens
Speaker 1: these days.
Speaker 2: You're getting Parkinson's wasn't part of the plan.
Speaker 1: I put in my life, And I'm sorry, that's right now.
Speaker 2: I don't teach anymore. That's that's pretty much out of
Speaker 2: the question. Because my low blood pressure and associated things
Speaker 2: to do with parkins. I go to the gym. I
Speaker 2: go to the brain and body in the studio at
Speaker 2: twenty five King Winding Road only three times a week,
Speaker 2: and that's a real winner for me because I can
Speaker 2: sit down in a safe environment and do my exercises
Speaker 2: and the exercises of tailor made to suit my condition.
Speaker 1: What do you do.
Speaker 2: A range of weights and aerobic activities? Bike and on
Speaker 2: the bike? Yeah?
Speaker 1: What sort of weight training is?
Speaker 2: It's all cables and stacks of boats and things like that,
Speaker 2: and it's ch chess. Yeah, pretty much what you might
Speaker 2: do in all GM differently sitting down. For me, it's
Speaker 2: quite an inspirational place to go actually, because they got
Speaker 2: people there with parkings and of all different types, and
Speaker 2: people with stroke effective stroke, and all trying their best
Speaker 2: to make the most of their lives.
Speaker 1: The thing that impresses me, you're always such a physically
Speaker 1: impressive guy, big tour and strong, and you still aren't
Speaker 1: big tool and strong. You haven't diminished at all and
Speaker 1: you haven't. Is that maybe due to the gym work?
Speaker 2: Do you think I think on big to a bit fat?
Speaker 1: You are not fat. We led her put on a
Speaker 1: bit away when you get how old are you now?
Speaker 2: Sixty four.
Speaker 1: Okay, so well you let her put on a bit away.
Speaker 2: Thanks.
Speaker 1: Mark mcken is my guest, Folks, he's come all the
Speaker 1: way into We're going to chat about his footy career.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about your dad too, because he's
Speaker 1: a bit more about your dad, and maybe your mum
Speaker 1: as well, because I was intrigued in your dad's war service.
Speaker 1: She brought in his war records, so I'm can have
Speaker 1: a bit of a look at that. Mark Micken is
Speaker 1: my guess. Back shortly, welcome back to conversations. Mark Micken
Speaker 1: has made his way into the studio and he just
Speaker 1: tuned in him. He had a big chat about he
Speaker 1: has Parkinson's disease and is handling that magnificently and still
Speaker 1: laughs and gets around. Is intriguing though, that your father
Speaker 1: had it as well. There must be a genetic compound.
Speaker 2: I think in our case there is. Not only did
Speaker 2: my dad have my brother's got it. My first cousin,
Speaker 2: Barry has it, my dad's sister have it, and well
Speaker 2: it's gone through through the family to a degree. The
Speaker 2: thing is, the treatment for Parkinson's is not really much
Speaker 2: better than it has been over the last fifty years.
Speaker 2: You know, the medications and things like that really haven't
Speaker 2: changed much. And so when we you know, that's why
Speaker 2: we're raised money.
Speaker 1: For the we should tell us about that. You have
Speaker 1: the bike ride, the twenty four hour bike ride, which
Speaker 1: is well supported by people, and to raise money. That
Speaker 1: money goes towards research.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and helping people living with Parkinson's to cope. And
Speaker 2: that will be come out of it again this year
Speaker 2: as well. We're doing it again and we don't know.
Speaker 2: There will be a meeting with us on that Tomorrow Friday,
Speaker 2: and we'll know more about it than about when it is.
Speaker 2: But it's being a fairy well supported by this NFL
Speaker 2: and and by the community at large.
Speaker 1: Really now, I know this isn't about me, but I
Speaker 1: have an amusing story about one of the bike rides
Speaker 1: because I was invited to do the bike ride and
Speaker 1: I had a racing bike that hadn't been used for
Speaker 1: a while, so I took it into Super Addiots and
Speaker 1: I said, look, I've got to do this bike ride
Speaker 1: with Magnick and can you get it done and get
Speaker 1: it And I spent less money to get the bike
Speaker 1: up for scratch and then that's on a stationary bike
Speaker 1: at Adelaide. I still had a good result.
Speaker 2: I didn't know that.
Speaker 1: I had to be there. I guess tell us me,
Speaker 1: you you brought your dad's war records in When do
Speaker 1: you look at anybody's war records when you just he's enrolled.
Speaker 1: He was a block laborer when he was nineteen, when
Speaker 1: he enlisted in nineteen forty two? Did he Did he
Speaker 1: ever talk about it? No?
Speaker 2: Very rarely. We couldn't couldn't glean anything from what he said.
Speaker 2: All we think is that because he had a risk
Speaker 2: injury or a forearm broken forearm and he got medically discharged,
Speaker 2: that he felt he carried a certain amount of guilt
Speaker 2: with him over that.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't discharged on nineteen forty five, So you
Speaker 1: sort of st bit.
Speaker 2: Of the war. Yeah, I think. I think the fact
Speaker 2: that there were some losses from from the group of
Speaker 2: people he trained with waved heavily on his mind.
Speaker 1: Okay, did he remember after did he get Lansac? Was
Speaker 1: Anzac Day important to it that you remember? Not?
Speaker 2: Really, he didn't. He didn't march hardly March sac Day.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: I think it was a conscious decision. I don't really
Speaker 2: know why. And we encouraged him to March as a family.
Speaker 2: But he didn't really want to.
Speaker 1: What happened to his medals because he on these records
Speaker 1: here he's you know, got citations.
Speaker 2: And yeah, to be honest, I don't really know what
Speaker 2: were are, but they'll be in the family somewhere.
Speaker 1: Okay, and your mum, but your mom sports.
Speaker 2: She played netball. She was she was taller. She towers
Speaker 2: in photos of her era. She towers above her her
Speaker 2: mates because she was She was five foot nine and
Speaker 2: that seeing that looks about six foot three in the photos.
Speaker 2: But she was relative. It's funny how the generations get taller.
Speaker 2: But she was quite tall for her era and she
Speaker 2: played a little bit of netball. Sport wasn't really huge
Speaker 2: on her agenda, but ye, she was a participated in
Speaker 2: local Riverland netball as far as I know.
Speaker 1: So where do the sporting gene come from? You think,
Speaker 1: because there's you, there's there's pattern. You've got two other sisters, haven't.
Speaker 2: Have you know Lanne who was very talented. She she
Speaker 2: played one game basketball for Australia. I would have played
Speaker 2: a lot more had she not had her knee reconstructed
Speaker 2: at a time when they weren't doing it quite as
Speaker 2: well as they do now, and that held her back
Speaker 2: quite a bit. And there's Bev who's the oldest of
Speaker 2: her family and she she was a Riverland hockey player,
Speaker 2: very good hockey player. And I guess the sporting team
Speaker 2: comes from dad. He played cricket and foot in the Riverland.
Speaker 2: He was a leg spin boler and and a fellow
Speaker 2: handy bottom not bottom the middle order bestman and as
Speaker 2: a ruckman, as a as a football played in the Rock.
Speaker 2: Who's only six foot and he was known as a bulldozer.
Speaker 1: I wonder what, yes, So you're playing for reend Mark Rovers.
Speaker 1: When did West Adelaide come talk calling on you?
Speaker 2: They didn't really. I played for Remark in junior colts
Speaker 2: on the wing and on the in the senior colts
Speaker 2: on the half foll flank. What. I was already tall
Speaker 2: during that time and I grew about six or seven
Speaker 2: interest in one year. And that was when the U
Speaker 2: I came to Adelaide and I thought I'll go out
Speaker 2: of the West hadlaid to ever go and I went
Speaker 2: out and had a look and we got lost on
Speaker 2: the way to the ground because we didn't really know
Speaker 2: where it was.
Speaker 1: Can you get lost.
Speaker 2: If you come from the mart. And uh And anyway,
Speaker 2: I asked Foggy training and they say that I could.
Speaker 2: I could do it. And then one thing going to
Speaker 2: another and I.
Speaker 1: Just go I'd like to relive this. And I could
Speaker 1: see rocked up at the club. See can I train? Yeah,
Speaker 1: they hadn't invited you down. No, can I train? So
Speaker 1: did you? Who did you speak to?
Speaker 2: Doug Thomas or someone on the mound? Some someone standing
Speaker 2: in front of the gres point me in the right direction?
Speaker 1: So who was coaching?
Speaker 2: Thenis means forth with the coach?
Speaker 1: And they said they can mark? Can I train? Are
Speaker 1: as simple as that?
Speaker 2: Yeah. I went in and I may have rang before
Speaker 2: sale was coming, I'm not sure, but they allowed me
Speaker 2: to train, and I thought, I feel right about this.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, And anyway, the games came around and I
Speaker 2: didn't get a game for the first three weeks. It
Speaker 2: sounds like I could do at the cruise, Yeah exactly.
Speaker 1: Uh so what happened?
Speaker 2: Eventually I got a game and I kicked four goals
Speaker 2: of Elizabeth Central remember that as a for forward. And
Speaker 2: and then the ruckman I think got injured, you know,
Speaker 2: and the guy asked me if I could play in
Speaker 2: the rock, and I said, I hope I got it?
Speaker 1: Had you ever played there before?
Speaker 2: And I'll have a got it? And when I came
Speaker 2: and then he kept me in the rock and sort
Speaker 2: of things went from there.
Speaker 1: Well where'd they go from there? You know? So that
Speaker 1: did you graduate to reserves after that or no?
Speaker 2: I stayed down the nineties for the year. I actually
Speaker 2: won the Best Fairest that year in the nineties.
Speaker 1: Having missed the first three How amazing is that you
Speaker 1: missed the first three games of the first Crows season
Speaker 1: and you won the best in first?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: So anyway, so you win the under nineties best and first,
Speaker 1: so you're obviously on the radar then of the of
Speaker 1: the senior coach.
Speaker 2: Possibly, but I wouldn't have known it. Nobody spoke, not really,
Speaker 2: And the next year they may be captain of the
Speaker 2: under nineties. And I played a few reserve games as well.
Speaker 2: I felt all right at reserve level, but I was
Speaker 2: still going between the two. Between the nineties and reserves.
Speaker 2: I still getting growing into my body and getting used
Speaker 2: to the training. And by this time I was getting
Speaker 2: really into it, and I really loved the West Handlaidian environment.
Speaker 2: I loved my footy. I love the fact that they
Speaker 2: had people who could look after you, like strappy nicles
Speaker 2: and and yeah, it was good, a good environment. And
Speaker 2: I started the training. I started to go for runs
Speaker 2: on my own, and I started to think about what
Speaker 2: sort of player could be if I really put mine
Speaker 2: to it. And I started to think that if I
Speaker 2: got myself really fit, I could make something of it
Speaker 2: because I felt comfortable at the level.
Speaker 1: Did you have a mentor or did someone inspire you?
Speaker 2: Not really. I sort of learned that it's not good
Speaker 2: necessarily just to go for a five or ten k run.
Speaker 2: It's better to do repetitions as I used to do
Speaker 2: ten four hundreds as my go to on my own
Speaker 2: training experience.
Speaker 1: And you're right about that. So when did the league
Speaker 1: team come calling?
Speaker 2: And Neil Curley was the coach?
Speaker 1: So what do you?
Speaker 2: Was this a nine mean eighty one eighty one? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I was twenty one years old.
Speaker 1: Okay, So tell us about your first impression of me.
Speaker 2: I was twenty years old, and yeah it was I
Speaker 2: hear him whenever he come to me one day and
Speaker 2: he said, I'm going to play you on the weekend, son,
Speaker 2: And I said, what you and he said, you're playing
Speaker 2: the back pocket against and so that's what happened. I
Speaker 2: got about four or five touches and we won by
Speaker 2: one hundred points.
Speaker 1: The board come down there.
Speaker 2: I want too much pressure down there. And I played
Speaker 2: three more games, so though the third game I played,
Speaker 2: I didn't get on the ground I was played at.
Speaker 2: We beat Port at Alberton and I didn't get on
Speaker 2: the ground. I just started on the bench and and
Speaker 2: didn't didn't participate.
Speaker 1: Beat al That's a big deal, wasn't it In those days?
Speaker 2: It was okay.
Speaker 1: Now, I know you back for Port Adelaide when you're
Speaker 1: a kid, but what was it like playing against them?
Speaker 2: It was quite interesting, actually, because I was a man
Speaker 2: put out of a supporter and Russell Evitt was my hero.
Speaker 2: And when we first played in a league game, there
Speaker 2: was a ball up at center half back and I
Speaker 2: went up and touched him on them who was on
Speaker 2: the ball on the pack. I just went up and
Speaker 2: touched him and walked away because there was so much,
Speaker 2: so much admiration for him. I can't believe it was
Speaker 2: on the same ground as he was. You touched him?
Speaker 1: Did you tell him that?
Speaker 2: He knows? Because I've become good friends with Brett, and
Speaker 2: Brett told him.
Speaker 1: Great story, when did you start to consolidate your role
Speaker 1: as the leading ruckman?
Speaker 2: In that same year we said they played in an
Speaker 2: elimination final against Nord at Football Park and I played
Speaker 2: in the ford pocket next to Roger Luders. I kicked
Speaker 2: four goals in that game, and that was a game
Speaker 2: that really turned the corner for me. I think we
Speaker 2: lost the We lost the game, but I think it
Speaker 2: really turned the corner for me because to that stage
Speaker 2: I hadn't really shown a whole lot in the league company,
Speaker 2: but in that game I did, and I felt that
Speaker 2: that put more case forward for the following year.
Speaker 1: Mark mckem is my guess, So we need to take
Speaker 1: a break. I don't want to because it's getting interesting,
Speaker 1: but we'll be back after the break and we'll continue
Speaker 1: this progress of this young skinny kid from ren Mark
Speaker 1: who's making his way west Adelaide back shortly. Welcome back, everybody.
Speaker 1: If you just tuned into conversations, Mark mckin is in
Speaker 1: the studio. He's made his way in. We had a
Speaker 1: good chat initially about Mark's illness he's Parkinson's disease, and
Speaker 1: how he's handling it. But we're talking now about his
Speaker 1: footy career, coming down from Renmark, wandering into West Adelaide,
Speaker 1: not really knowing anybody, not knowing how to go about it,
Speaker 1: but slowly consolidating through the under nineteen's reserves. It starts
Speaker 1: to get a game in the league team. And come
Speaker 1: about nineteen eighty two. I suppose as a ruck when
Speaker 1: you're competing against someone like Dexter Kennedy, like the young fellow,
Speaker 1: what are your memories of those times?
Speaker 2: I remember it pretty well because they had Dexter, they
Speaker 2: had Michael greg David Gurney, Michael Gregg Young, he was
Speaker 2: coming to the end of his career at that stage.
Speaker 1: He came from Norwood.
Speaker 2: He played for West as well.
Speaker 1: I forgot that unusual eccentric sort of guy, wasn't he.
Speaker 2: I didn't know him very well, but he used to
Speaker 2: ride his bike to training. I know that.
Speaker 1: I think he is a doctor. I think he is intelligent. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you've got a lot of competition for ruck.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Neil gave me the opportunity to play in the
Speaker 2: ruck for some reason, and I've got a lot to
Speaker 2: be grateful for having you as a coach because he
Speaker 2: was a fantastic motivator. I didn't want him to stop
Speaker 2: talking once he spoke to the group. I just loved
Speaker 2: listening to him and I'd do anything for him.
Speaker 1: And well, you're not the only one who feels like that.
Speaker 2: As you know anyway. But he was such a great
Speaker 2: motivator of people, of men. And it's hard to explain
Speaker 2: to people the effect that he had had on you
Speaker 2: because I had never met anyone quite like him. I
Speaker 2: don't think.
Speaker 1: Over wall it's a really good summary because he had
Speaker 1: a magnetic appeal. You know, when he stood in front
Speaker 1: of an audience, you just you didn't dare you didn't
Speaker 1: dare it erupt. But he was captivating. Okay, we've got
Speaker 1: to talk about eighty three. Don't weight. You have a
Speaker 1: you have a great year, your team is dominant, You're
Speaker 1: going to the finals, and what happens I Benjamin knee
Speaker 1: in the last I think it was the last second, last.
Speaker 2: My round game and it was a posterior Christian Ruckland
Speaker 2: injury and I missed all the finals in the next Yeah,
Speaker 2: all the finals of that series plus the Grand Final
Speaker 2: because I need to operate on my knee because of
Speaker 2: cartilage damage. As well, and that set me back. Obviously.
Speaker 1: Did you have any hope at all that you could
Speaker 1: get right for it?
Speaker 2: I tried to. I tried. I started going well. I
Speaker 2: started going to a horse doctor at or Globe Day
Speaker 2: something glob w was and I sat on this machine
Speaker 2: after after going to school, I was teaching, and after
Speaker 2: going to school for the dard head out that way
Speaker 2: and hop on this machine. I can't remember exactly what
Speaker 2: it did. Didn't you didn't do enough for me.
Speaker 1: And that's the same machine that Jeff Morris.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think they worked for him.
Speaker 1: Jeff Morris had a hamstring industry in the second semi
Speaker 1: finals it, yeah, which he and you normally had missed.
Speaker 1: But he he went to this same doctor, same vet
Speaker 1: you would call it, and they got him up for
Speaker 1: the grand final.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. He did his hamstring with about thirty
Speaker 2: seconds to go in the Grand final.
Speaker 1: Oh, but you're in front, so you've got to sit
Speaker 1: and watch. And they recalled Dirk de Jong. Dirk came
Speaker 1: from a volleyball background, didn't he, But had he not
Speaker 1: retired he.
Speaker 2: Left the club and he hadn't played footy for probably
Speaker 2: a year and or more, and he came into the side,
Speaker 2: they went and head hunting him, And yeah, he did
Speaker 2: a great job in the grand final, and in fact
Speaker 2: the whole final series did a great job.
Speaker 1: How did you feel watching that?
Speaker 2: Oh bit enviews? But I felt that we would always
Speaker 2: be a good side and that would always have opportunities
Speaker 2: to play in grand finals. But you can't you can't
Speaker 2: think that wake circumstances change as they did, and we
Speaker 2: didn't make the finals the next year, and we played
Speaker 2: in a prediminary final in eighty five Slat which we lost,
Speaker 2: but we never played another in another Premierhute.
Speaker 1: Curls always said, to the annoyance of the grenod players
Speaker 1: who played in nineteen seventy three, but that eighty three
Speaker 1: West LA team was the best team he coached.
Speaker 2: You did say that, He did say that, How do
Speaker 2: you feel about it?
Speaker 1: I don't feel very happy because we were smashed, But
Speaker 1: did just run through some of the players for.
Speaker 2: US Ian Bochard, Peter Murrette, Jeff Morris, Roger Lowis, Peter Winter, McKinnon,
Speaker 2: Smith McKinnon, ro McKinnon, Yet Grant Key.
Speaker 1: Bruce lind. Yeah, you're probably right. Who was the wh
Speaker 1: was the fallback from milk from Melbourne.
Speaker 2: Craig Williams Craig.
Speaker 1: Fantastic player, and Ian Bouchard won the medal tack.
Speaker 2: He won the the what's according to the jack Oi.
Speaker 1: So after ady six with the OFL were starting to
Speaker 1: beckon for you. You go to Brisbane, you go to
Speaker 1: this new team called the Brisbane Bears establish themselves in Brisbane.
Speaker 1: What was that like?
Speaker 2: It was quite amazing. Really. We formed a team of
Speaker 2: people from all around Australia and we gathered in nearly
Speaker 2: in early January of nineteen eighty seven and were gathered
Speaker 2: in Brisbane for the first time that we'd ever met.
Speaker 2: And we were supposed to be a football team that
Speaker 2: was going to compete on the big stage within about
Speaker 2: two months.
Speaker 1: Peter Knights as your coach, Peter Knights as the coach,
Speaker 1: great great, great player, great player, and you're appointed captain.
Speaker 2: Yeah, how did that?
Speaker 1: How did that sit with you? Did you welcome it?
Speaker 1: Did you embrace it?
Speaker 2: I did embrace it, but I wasn't expecting it. I
Speaker 2: expected Mark to everyone expected Market needs to be captains,
Speaker 2: including Mark, but we sort of choke about it now
Speaker 2: and he's very good with it. It was the owner Christophers.
Speaker 1: Christopher's What was it like?
Speaker 2: It was one of the reasons why football should never
Speaker 2: be owned by a private, private investor, because when things
Speaker 2: didn't go well, things didn't go well.
Speaker 1: And did he have did he address the team very often?
Speaker 1: Did he come down and speak to the team at all?
Speaker 2: Every now and again? I remember right at the beginning
Speaker 2: of the year, we had a launch and he did.
Speaker 2: He raised some money that launch. He said, We've got
Speaker 2: lots of people in the room with lots of money,
Speaker 2: and what we'll do now is we'll extract some of
Speaker 2: that money from here. So he started with A fora
Speaker 2: architects and B for builders and whatever, and he said,
Speaker 2: it's got to be worth, you know, one hundred thousand
Speaker 2: dollars from your company. And he had that sort of
Speaker 2: power about him, and he was my personal sponsor. Actually,
Speaker 2: what does that mean? It was more of a symbolic
Speaker 2: thing than anything, but it meant that at the end
Speaker 2: of the year, the best and furious night, he said it.
Speaker 2: I sat at his table next to him and he
Speaker 2: said to me, why don't you me going to business?
Speaker 2: And you said and I said, oh, because he was
Speaker 2: trying to lure me back to the club. Only side
Speaker 2: to one new contract and he said, you weren't we
Speaker 2: going to business And I said, that'd be terrific, but
Speaker 2: I've just got to go back to that later and
Speaker 2: saw out a few things and I'll consider about what
Speaker 2: I'm going to do next. And he said, well, there's
Speaker 2: there's an opportunity there for if you want it. And
Speaker 2: I said thanks very much and went back to there.
Speaker 2: I came back to Brisbane and signed on for another
Speaker 2: three years and he I couldn't get him on the phone.
Speaker 2: He smoked, you signed already?
Speaker 1: Okay? You won your first game?
Speaker 2: Yeah, we did. We beat North Mill with the m
Speaker 2: CG by about six or seven goals.
Speaker 1: How exciting was that of bet?
Speaker 2: That was extremely exciting. We didn't know the song we
Speaker 2: had written on a piece of paper in the world
Speaker 2: in the rooms and we stood around, steering at the
Speaker 2: paper around singing the song. And we run our next
Speaker 2: game too. We were better beat you along at Codinya
Speaker 2: Park a park.
Speaker 1: Nobody beat you a long Ada Park.
Speaker 2: No we did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what happened after that?
Speaker 2: After that? We lost to I think the lost Saint
Speaker 2: Kilda And how.
Speaker 1: Did the season pound out?
Speaker 2: After we won six games the year which I thought
Speaker 2: was too bad. I think it stacks up a right
Speaker 2: against the other teams, even against Adelaide winning ken in
Speaker 2: the first year. I think with the circumstances that we
Speaker 2: had going into the year, that six out of six
Speaker 2: out of the season wasn't too bad. We didn't finish bottom,
Speaker 2: we finished about the third bottom.
Speaker 1: I've always admired Peena Knights. Tell us what sort of
Speaker 1: coach was?
Speaker 2: He extremely enthusiastic. He could have been a playing coach,
Speaker 2: I think because he joined in the training sometimes in
Speaker 2: goodness me could he play? Figure was quick and sending
Speaker 2: to his pace and he could do it, could take
Speaker 2: marks that no one else could take, and his boarhanding
Speaker 2: was really switched on and he was fantastic And as
Speaker 2: a coach I really liked him. I already enjoyed him
Speaker 2: because of his enthusiasm and he had it all against
Speaker 2: him coaching a team that had the administration that did.
Speaker 1: No I agree, I reckon he's a great guy. Catch
Speaker 1: up with him regularly once a year and it's always
Speaker 1: great to do so. Mark McKinnon is my guest, folks.
Speaker 1: We've still got his time at the Crows to come
Speaker 1: and subsequently backshortly. Mark McKinnon is in the studio, is
Speaker 1: my guest on conversations and as it is with Old,
Speaker 1: it's just a it's a great chat, just a great
Speaker 1: journey through his footy life. You're in Brisbane, you've been
Speaker 1: captain of the team, You're there for four years. What's
Speaker 1: the motivation to come back to Adelaide. We pretty much
Speaker 1: thought that your career was finished at that stage. What
Speaker 1: were your thoughts.
Speaker 2: At that stage? I had some injury problems. I had
Speaker 2: calf problems and I couldn't train fully and that really
Speaker 2: affected my form. I was doing training on versa climber
Speaker 2: and playing intermittently because if my calf are no good,
Speaker 2: I couldn't play, and that was that was off on
Speaker 2: the case, and so I was beating up when I
Speaker 2: come back And did.
Speaker 1: You come back to I can't remember the actual I
Speaker 1: don't you were on our radar in terms of on
Speaker 1: the list.
Speaker 2: No, no, that's right. I heard Adelaide were interested in
Speaker 2: putting a team in and I thought they probably won't
Speaker 2: ring me because I'm beat up and I've probably give
Speaker 2: them the impression on finished. But I still felt that
Speaker 2: I had some fully left in me, and so I
Speaker 2: didn't train with West that late. For that reason, I
Speaker 2: didn't want you both to think that I was going
Speaker 2: to just resign myself to planning for the s CNFL.
Speaker 2: And so I got myself organized to visit Steve Sauna's visier.
Speaker 2: I sort of seeing him three or four times a week,
Speaker 2: and he was getting into my cars and to the
Speaker 2: point where it is from my eyes and he was
Speaker 2: He's brutal. He didn't hold any back, but it got
Speaker 2: me right and then I could I could actually run
Speaker 2: with ten four hundreds again. And I did that, and.
Speaker 1: You're training by yourself. Yeah, and you spoke to Neil Curly,
Speaker 1: that footy manager at that time.
Speaker 2: Not too later. And then eventually the phone call came
Speaker 2: and they asked me out to training just before Christmas?
Speaker 2: And I said, do you mind if I wait until
Speaker 2: after Christmas to come out because I wasn't quite sure
Speaker 2: that my carf would stand up to it.
Speaker 1: Had you heard about the one hundred and ten hundred?
Speaker 2: I hadn't at that time, but yeah, my.
Speaker 1: Would we spend to kills?
Speaker 2: Was he the Yeah? He rang and said can you
Speaker 2: come out? It might be a week before Christmas break
Speaker 2: and I said, look, can I just wait until after Christmas,
Speaker 2: because I've got a few things I need to do.
Speaker 2: I didn't want to say I've got a car problem,
Speaker 2: so I said, and he said, yeah, that's all right,
Speaker 2: you can come out start after Christmas. That came here.
Speaker 2: They bought me in a couple more weeks to get right,
Speaker 2: and I got right, and I felt as though I
Speaker 2: could still play at the level if I got myself
Speaker 2: right physically. You know, I'd done that, and I felt okay,
Speaker 2: so when I came out, I could do all the
Speaker 2: work and hopefully make me some sort of impression on
Speaker 2: you guys.
Speaker 1: You didn't get picked in the first game. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to think why we were with Romano Negre games. Why
Speaker 1: do you think that? What were you feeling? What was
Speaker 1: your emotion around?
Speaker 2: I felt as uh, you should have picked me.
Speaker 1: You're on the point of retirement.
Speaker 2: But I told shown enough in the Trol games and
Speaker 2: up until that point. But I could have gone to
Speaker 2: the stand. Why he didn't pick me? Absolutely, And I
Speaker 2: just went back and played the West. Dad laid and
Speaker 2: played okay, and then I got a game in the
Speaker 2: fourth game again Stession and at the winter yeh Marpi
Speaker 2: was on the bench with me that's making But at
Speaker 2: the same.
Speaker 1: Time that Bruce Aby got knocked out and Mark came on,
Speaker 1: So you started on the bench. I don't remember that,
Speaker 1: so so did When did you come on?
Speaker 2: About the first quarter?
Speaker 1: I stayed on and the rest is history.
Speaker 2: Well I don't know about that, but one another.
Speaker 1: Best in first and one of the best in first.
Speaker 1: I did summarize that first year for us, for for
Speaker 1: the Crows fans.
Speaker 2: Uh, we well coached. I really enjoyed your coaching. In fact,
Speaker 2: I enjoyed everybody. I feel very blessed to have had
Speaker 2: the coaches that I had throughout marketing my time in
Speaker 2: the game. But that was a really open every year
Speaker 2: for me because coming from Brisbane where we didn't really
Speaker 2: have a ground, we didn't have the infrastructure, we didn't
Speaker 2: have place to train all the time, we had a
Speaker 2: whole lot of different training venues. To be able to
Speaker 2: go to Footy Park and have that as our home
Speaker 2: base and have the people around that were born and
Speaker 2: Bredish out of Australians made for a real us against
Speaker 2: them sort of environment. And I never forget that the
Speaker 2: trial game against this and where you where you you
Speaker 2: send someone out to have a look at the conditions
Speaker 2: and they came back. I said, it's about forty thousand
Speaker 2: people there the show.
Speaker 1: How did the income for you?
Speaker 2: I pulled a hamstring at training and I didn't know
Speaker 2: whether it was only a slight one. I didn't know
Speaker 2: whether to tell you or not, so I think she
Speaker 2: I thought I better, So I told you and you
Speaker 2: left me out that week, which was fair enough, and
Speaker 2: I never got back in the side.
Speaker 1: Ren came along.
Speaker 2: That's that probably help. He's a champion reading wasn't he
Speaker 2: one of my favorite players?
Speaker 1: So what happened? Do you feel your career fizzled out?
Speaker 2: Ah?
Speaker 1: The thing I liked about you at training is that
Speaker 1: you were so generous with your time with the other
Speaker 1: ruckman in terms of helping you like the David Pittman's
Speaker 1: and the and the Sean w Ren, and they like you.
Speaker 1: You're happy to put time in with them and assist
Speaker 1: in their development too.
Speaker 2: So cost me.
Speaker 1: You were going to you weren't going to keep sewing.
Speaker 2: It was fantastic. I'll never forget when I was. He'd
Speaker 2: pick me up at the end, not picked me up.
Speaker 2: He would choose me in the training to do competitive
Speaker 2: marketing with. We do half an hour to train every night,
Speaker 2: and to start with, he would he would not touch
Speaker 2: the ball where I would take every mark, and going
Speaker 2: by the end of the year, I couldn't touch it.
Speaker 2: It was improved that much that quickly as unbelievable.
Speaker 1: So the end comes, do you realize that you're destined
Speaker 1: for coaching.
Speaker 2: I don't think I was destined for coaching, but I
Speaker 2: took a role on to see how I liked it
Speaker 2: at the club as a development coach and during your
Speaker 2: during your time, and I enjoyed that, and I stayed
Speaker 2: in similar roles for quite a while, and then ninety
Speaker 2: seven and Blake came along, and that ninety seven premiership
Speaker 2: year really inspired me to coach because he I felt
Speaker 2: it was I could see what he was doing from
Speaker 2: the inside, and I really liked what he did. His
Speaker 2: philosophy on the game explained.
Speaker 1: Can you explain that for the listeners?
Speaker 2: I never forget. We had a time where he invited
Speaker 2: every trainer, every employee of the club to a meeting
Speaker 2: and he showed the game plan on video and that
Speaker 2: it was so simple and so impressive, and then it
Speaker 2: transferred exactly to the way we played on the game
Speaker 2: on game day and in the coach's box he really
Speaker 2: didn't have a pench on for statistics. He just looked
Speaker 2: at the scoreboard and if the scoreboard played with us,
Speaker 2: he wouldn't make too many changes at all. If it didn't,
Speaker 2: then he would probably change one or two things. But
Speaker 2: I also remember in the Grand Final Robin wasn't didn't
Speaker 2: have a good first half in ninety seven, and everyone
Speaker 2: thought he would change him to some other role and
Speaker 2: he left him and she said, made bring the ball
Speaker 2: the ground. So we got to do make contest.
Speaker 1: Bring it the ground, simple as that.
Speaker 2: And he did that and the result took care of itself.
Speaker 1: So you're going to coaching yourself. You coach the Eagles,
Speaker 1: you coach at come back to West Adelaide, summarize those
Speaker 1: those times.
Speaker 2: It was an exciting time with the Eagles. We had
Speaker 2: about nine last drafted in two years. Bread Biglin's, Matthew
Speaker 2: pavileich Ken, Matthew Wheeling, Robbie Shirley, Brett Burton.
Speaker 1: Likes it hard to settle a team down.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we had we had a pretty successful time.
Speaker 2: We lost a premim Re final in my second year
Speaker 2: to NORWD by fourteen points. I don't know that I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't remember it. And then at Glenelg I felt
Speaker 2: I really enjoyed my time there. I had some very
Speaker 2: good players and Ben came Bull Shearwood were high up
Speaker 2: with glen Well. I suppose I felt say I felt that,
Speaker 2: you know, at the time I got dismissed there was
Speaker 2: we were fifth on the ladder and we had done
Speaker 2: what we said we're going to do in terms of
Speaker 2: the pre season. We did the preseason which was based
Speaker 2: on skill more so than fitness. I used to give
Speaker 2: the boys a fear old river up in the training
Speaker 2: with regard to their fitness, and we decided we'd do
Speaker 2: it a different way and have more kicking and more
Speaker 2: ball involvement. And I said that that might that earlier
Speaker 2: in the year, that might tell a little bit, and
Speaker 2: that was accepted and then that was really the way
Speaker 2: that the season paned out and wasn't good enough. So
Speaker 2: that was that was the end of it as far
Speaker 2: as I was concerned. Back to West Adelaide, though, yeah,
Speaker 2: and back to West Adelaide. That was honor to coach them.
Speaker 2: And the first year we didn't do so well, finished
Speaker 2: ninth and we had a lot of players that were
Speaker 2: unavailable due to injury, and I sort of took a
Speaker 2: while to get used to the way they like they
Speaker 2: wanted to play and they were getting used to the
Speaker 2: way I wanted to play. Yeah, that was We probably
Speaker 2: went the best team all year, but we had the
Speaker 2: best final series. We had a fantastic final series. We
Speaker 2: beat Center fifty three points in the Premium Final and
Speaker 2: played probably our best footy and then in the Grand Fire.
Speaker 2: When the day the day came, I you just had
Speaker 2: this feeling that we're going to win. It wasn't. It wasn't.
Speaker 2: I didn't express it to anyone by the field, as
Speaker 2: I felt good about the way the players were approaching
Speaker 2: the game.
Speaker 1: And what was it like to come back of West Adelaide.
Speaker 1: I mean, you missed the Premiership as a player, but
Speaker 1: you bring home a Premiership cup for the team that
Speaker 1: you know gave you an introduction to footy.
Speaker 2: What was it like?
Speaker 1: Can you tell us?
Speaker 2: It was fantastic. It was great to see that the
Speaker 2: smiles of everyone's face who waited thirty two years for
Speaker 2: that to happen. And what I really enjoys the fact
Speaker 2: that the club doctor is Angel Moran becomes a premiership doctor.
Speaker 1: Hadn't thought of it like that.
Speaker 2: You know, the physio Brinnan o'livery becomes a premiership physio.
Speaker 2: The room staff become premiership room staff and can put
Speaker 2: that next to the name. And I really liked the
Speaker 2: way that you can share a premiership not only with
Speaker 2: the players but with the staff as well.
Speaker 1: And you share it for the rest of your lives. Yeah,
Speaker 1: as right as you're finding out. Yeah, you've had so
Speaker 1: many roles in footy, you're still doing a little bit,
Speaker 1: aren't you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I am. I'm involved with a trust that's in
Speaker 2: Doug Donalds's memory. He was initiated by his lovely partner
Speaker 2: Railan good Enough, and it evolves providing financial support for
Speaker 2: talented young players from the country or from the metropolitan
Speaker 2: area who play for West Satellite, who might otherwise struggle
Speaker 2: to get the opportunities that they need to part at
Speaker 2: the highest level, and so we fund their transport or
Speaker 2: their their needs that foot he creates and we've probably
Speaker 2: sponsored about nine to ten players at this stage and
Speaker 2: it's been very rewarding forever and involved. She asked me
Speaker 2: to put together a trust which involves about eight of
Speaker 2: us and we meet about once or twice a year,
Speaker 2: and we discuss the possibilities of each person being included
Speaker 2: in the funding. The corteriro that they have to be
Speaker 2: talented place yeah, and you know, having some sort of
Speaker 2: cultural or financial disadvantage, and also be a sound character.
Speaker 1: Well done. Everything you've done in footy has been elite,
Speaker 1: magnificent and memorable and just one of those great football
Speaker 1: people markets. It's great to catch up, it's great to chat.
Speaker 1: Good luck with the trust, good good luck with managing
Speaker 1: your parkings disease. You're doing it in an inspirational manner,
Speaker 1: so I'm so pleasing you come in. It's been great
Speaker 1: speaking to you.
Speaker 2: Thanks going up and enjoying it.
Speaker 1: Mark mckemmon is my guest. Folks, thank you for joining us.