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Speaker 1: Is anyone a greater coach swapper than Bradthorne? The Great

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Speaker 1: Brad Thorne won the World Cup of the All Blacks.

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Speaker 1: Of course, he got titles with the Crusaders. He got

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Speaker 1: titles and the NRL as well, State of Origin Kangaroos.

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Speaker 1: He's done it all. What drives him. He's got his

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Speaker 1: book out. It's brilliant. Champions Do Extra. Brad Thorne is

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Speaker 1: with us. Good morning, Good morning to you, Mike.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for having me on.

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Speaker 1: Not at all, congratulations on the book. I love the title.

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Speaker 1: Apart from anything, Champions Do Extra. Doesn't that say everything?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? It was just something that my father talked about

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Speaker 2: when I was younger, with me and my brother, and

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Speaker 2: I know it's probably an obvious one there, but you know,

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Speaker 2: just encouraging us to do You know that that one

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Speaker 2: step more than you know, I guess when applying ourselves.

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Speaker 1: So you would argue that it's inherent or it's taught.

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Speaker 1: In other words, if it is taught, anyone can be

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Speaker 1: taught to be great.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I think so. I think it's taught. Yeah, And

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Speaker 2: I think you know, if you look in the environment

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Speaker 2: I grew up, I'm a very competitive family. You know,

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Speaker 2: my father. My brother's like six foot eight, he was

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Speaker 2: two years older than me. Spent my whole junior life

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Speaker 2: having to compete my butt off to try and win anything.

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Speaker 2: And then you know, just those different times. You know,

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Speaker 2: obviously I got my mum's great mother, but my father

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Speaker 2: really drove that that that mindset and wanted to see

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Speaker 2: me and my brother in chief.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, was it the mindset of the time. So in

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Speaker 1: other words, was he a tough dad? And in today's

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Speaker 1: day and age, a tough dad might be a little lott.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we're pretty determined. He came from his background. His

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Speaker 2: father came back from World War Two, and he also

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Speaker 2: his father had anxiety. He's an alcoholic. He became an alcoholic,

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Speaker 2: and it was, you know, day grew up in state housing.

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Speaker 2: You bread and drippings. You know, he didn't you know,

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Speaker 2: he would have loved to have, you know, got I

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Speaker 2: guess more support around his dad's dad was trying to

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Speaker 2: cope with I guess life. And when dad had us

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Speaker 2: as sons and his kids, he poured everything into us

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Speaker 2: that he wished. I guess he got that support. And

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Speaker 2: sometimes that was an arm around the shoulder. Sometimes that

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Speaker 2: was a kick out the backside. He wasn't he was balanced.

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Speaker 2: You know, he was very thoughtful around us. Mum and

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Speaker 2: him would have imagine, talked quite a bit. And I'm

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Speaker 2: just grateful, you know, the strong role of the father

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Speaker 2: and a great mother. You know, I was really blessed.

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Speaker 1: That's a that's a great way of putting it. The

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Speaker 1: balance thing, because if you go back far enough, I

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Speaker 1: mean dad was always the tough bastard and Mum was

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Speaker 1: the soft touch. Whereas having a dad who can put

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Speaker 1: his arm around you and talk to you as well

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Speaker 1: as kicking up the backside. That that's the goal, isn't.

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Speaker 2: It's so important is that you know, it's in my

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Speaker 2: own fortune, of my own uh obviously coached at the

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Speaker 2: end of my playing career and yeah, it's it's just

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Speaker 2: picking those times and yeah, that balance is key. Do

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Speaker 2: you and the main thing is that you know that

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Speaker 2: they care precisely.

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Speaker 1: Do you instill in your kids what he instilled in you?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's you know many you know, if you ask

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Speaker 2: me who is obviously he's my failure, Who's who is

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Speaker 2: my best? Coaches say my dad. You know a lot

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Speaker 2: of it was around mindset and you know, having a

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Speaker 2: positive mindset and putting in the work, bringing the work

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Speaker 2: ethic to them, being able to have the belief, to

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Speaker 2: having earned the belief, to be able to achieve the

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Speaker 2: things that you want to achieve, and the potential that

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Speaker 2: you have. And we all have potential. So I'd like

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Speaker 2: to think that you know I've done you know, I've

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Speaker 2: been similar with my kids. The biggest one is I

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Speaker 2: said care before you can't loving. You know, I knew

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Speaker 2: my dad loved me, and my mom and dad, and

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Speaker 2: you know, it's something that I've tried to take on

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Speaker 2: in my family.

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Speaker 1: Good stuff. Now listen to the area of brad that

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Speaker 1: fascinates me. So your story is classic, right, your dad

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Speaker 1: comes from adversity. If you come from adversity, you then

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Speaker 1: work hard so that adversity doesn't transfer, of course to

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Speaker 1: the next generation. But then you get to you, you

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Speaker 1: and your kids. Now, I'm assuming you're leading a comfortable,

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Speaker 1: happy life. Therefore, do you worry that that they've got

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Speaker 1: a little bit easy and the adversity that drove you

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Speaker 1: it doesn't drive them.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I guess you know the young adults now

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Speaker 2: and you know they're having a good crack at life.

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Speaker 2: Each one of them you know, ones of the military,

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Speaker 2: you know ones at UNI. You know, you know, so

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Speaker 2: you have achievements and stuff, but it's more so the

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Speaker 2: character of you know, I got three sons, a character

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Speaker 2: of them as young men, my daughter last year high school.

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Speaker 2: It's the you know, it's I want them to achieve.

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Speaker 2: I want them to reach their potential. And I guess

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Speaker 2: like my father want them to through all that. You know,

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Speaker 2: you going character and you know every parent's proud of

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Speaker 2: their kids, but you know they along the way. You know,

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Speaker 2: when they fell over, I didn't just rush it, or

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Speaker 2: we didn't just me and my wife didn't rush and

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Speaker 2: pick them up, or you know, they had their challenges

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Speaker 2: like we all do. And you just like I said,

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Speaker 2: they know that you love them, they know that you're there,

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Speaker 2: but you're allowing them to fight their own battles and

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Speaker 2: and and grow and that's where they get their strengthen

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Speaker 2: and their humility.

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Speaker 1: What do you reckon? The equation is and you talk

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Speaker 1: about adversity and hard work, do you how naturally gifted

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Speaker 1: do you have to be to add the hard work

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Speaker 1: to get to the very top?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well you get you get these guys, Like an

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Speaker 2: example would be you know, we're probably some of the

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Speaker 2: area like Michael Jordan when you agree you know, did

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Speaker 2: you if you watched his uh the last dance that

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Speaker 2: you got to see what sort of mindset he was

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Speaker 2: and you see talent and you see mindset. You know,

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Speaker 2: that sort of mindset come together and you get greatness.

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Speaker 2: You know. So sometimes you know there's different levels of talent.

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Speaker 2: That doesn't make anyone less, it's just what their abilities are.

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Speaker 2: And you know, I just think hard work takes you

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Speaker 2: so far, Mike, it just takes you so far. And

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Speaker 2: you know, as many times with Richie McCaw there's different

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Speaker 2: parts of the game that I didn't think initially he

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Speaker 2: was natural at, but he just worked hard on it

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Speaker 2: and you saw those parts of his game develop and

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Speaker 2: uh and added to what he was great at as well.

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Speaker 2: So hard works takes you a long way.

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Speaker 1: That's that's the that's the other thing that fashion so

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Speaker 1: your success. So you worked hard, you're naturally gifted, you

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Speaker 1: work hard, but you also ended up in a couple

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Speaker 1: of franchises both in League and in Union, where I'm

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Speaker 1: assuming doing well is not only encouraged, it's expected, and

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Speaker 1: therefore doing well becomes easier.

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Speaker 2: Big part of why I went to the Crusaders. You know,

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Speaker 2: I was actually from take on that chance with Rugby

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Speaker 2: to go back. I'm actually from Otago. I was born

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Speaker 2: in mys Girl, which is near Dneden, and all my

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Speaker 2: relations went down there. My father was as a child

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Speaker 2: represented Otargo at Ragby as a schoolboy. He's a sprint

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Speaker 2: champion whatever, so I was my mindset was to go

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Speaker 2: there to pursue it. It was Wayne Bennett who stepped

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Speaker 2: in and said a thorny. I told him I'm going back.

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Speaker 2: And the awesome thing was Wayne said, how good go

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Speaker 2: at it? So you know, and he had a relationship

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Speaker 2: with Steve Hanson who had come across to just you know,

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Speaker 2: check out the Broncos. And Wayne was the guy who said, look,

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Speaker 2: they've got a good program. It'd be worth having a

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Speaker 2: chat to them. So that there's a Reds game on

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Speaker 2: when they come over, why don't you go and catch

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Speaker 2: up with them. I went and catched up with them,

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Speaker 2: and I was really impressed with Robbie Dean's and Steve

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Speaker 2: Hanson and the whole setup. And I'd seen what they've

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Speaker 2: done with ron Crab, Norm Berrm and the sort of

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Speaker 2: guys and in that environment. So I went to a

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Speaker 2: city where I knew nobody lived in a one batchelor apartment.

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Speaker 2: It made it harder, but I knew that it was

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Speaker 2: the best place to go because I'd be amongst the best,

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Speaker 2: and that's the best way of learning.

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Speaker 1: You'd give us, You can give us some insight into

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Speaker 1: this because we are, of course going through the process

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Speaker 1: of looking for a new coach for the All Blacks.

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Speaker 1: At the moment when you deal with Robbie Deans, Wayne

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Speaker 1: Bennett is there and in course you've gone on to coaching.

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Speaker 1: Is there a magic about those sort of people.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they have a mike, they have a presence, you know,

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Speaker 2: you said, you know when I first walked in Dwayne

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Speaker 2: Bennett as a seventeen year old and had a presence

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Speaker 2: and start as Robbie and all those great coaches. So

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Speaker 2: they had that presence, and you know, they're they're very

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Speaker 2: often competitive people. You know, the full picture, the smarts,

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Speaker 2: the experience, you know, and they know how to get

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Speaker 2: the best out of people. The people. And I guess

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Speaker 2: at head coaching level, that's your staff, that's your playing group,

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Speaker 2: that's you know, it's a whole package. A head coach

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Speaker 2: is most like a bit of a CEO these days,

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Speaker 2: managing up, managing down. So those guys were I just

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Speaker 2: feel so blessed. I had the coaches, Joe Schmidt, you know,

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Speaker 2: I could keep going through the coaches, and it was

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Speaker 2: it was a privilege to play for those guys.

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Speaker 1: How do you handle it?

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Speaker 2: How?

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Speaker 1: How how have you handled it? And I'm talking about

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Speaker 1: towards the end. You played till you're forty one, so

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Speaker 1: that's impressive. You played at the very highest level. So

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Speaker 1: the big question for all athletes is what next? How

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Speaker 1: do I do it? How do I handle it? How

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Speaker 1: does it go? How do you reckon you're handling it?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it was. You know, I came back

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Speaker 2: to Brisbane, that's sort of where we see our home,

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Speaker 2: brought our four kids back and we wanted to give

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Speaker 2: them that Australian New Zealand and upbringing and be able

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Speaker 2: to establish friends. And I thought I ended up at

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Speaker 2: the Reds. There was an opportunity there with the sort

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Speaker 2: of lower level with under twenties, and I thought, you know,

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Speaker 2: I've had twenty two years of playing Raby surely can

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Speaker 2: coach from seventeen and eighteen year olds. And then within

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Speaker 2: two years that quickly turned into me coaching the top team.

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Speaker 2: Six years went by and it was solid six years,

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Speaker 2: you know, it was harder challenge and going from league

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Speaker 2: to union. Then where I am now the last two

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Speaker 2: years I've had a break. I'm coaching at first firsteen level,

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Speaker 2: doing some other things. But yeah, I feel what a

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Speaker 2: healthy space. I think the key, Mike is not having

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Speaker 2: your identity wrapped up and in all of that, because

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Speaker 2: when that disappears, that's when I think sometimes people get

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Speaker 2: in a bit of trouble when you know they can

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Speaker 2: fill down and instead of So, yeah, my identity is

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Speaker 2: not Brad just a footy player, a coach, and you

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Speaker 2: know I'm a Christian. I have a family and I've

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Speaker 2: kept my friendships from even my youngest years as a

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Speaker 2: My oldest friend is from being a five year old

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Speaker 2: and I you know, I think that brings strength and

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Speaker 2: you know I look to try and have purpose in

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Speaker 2: each day.

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Speaker 1: Well, good on you. It's good to hear that too.

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Speaker 1: Congratulations as I say on the book, and well then

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Speaker 1: lovely to catch up and talk with you and go.

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Speaker 2: Well appreciate my thanks mate.

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Speaker 1: There we go right Thorne out of Queensland. This morning,

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Speaker 1: The Booker's Champions do extra For more from the mic

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Speaker 1: asking breakfast, listen live to news talks. It'd be from

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Speaker 1: six am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio