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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine

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Speaker 1: from News Talks EDB.

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Speaker 2: Completing your NRL Team of the Year lock Ford Aaron Clark,

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Speaker 2: New Zealand Warriors. Here you go. That was Warriors play.

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Speaker 2: Aaron Clark receiving his accolade at the presentation event for

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Speaker 2: the Dallyms on Wednesday night. Fellow Warrior Peyton Tukeimwana also

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Speaker 2: secured a spot on the team. She was one of

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Speaker 2: the wingers in the women's team. Aaron Clark was voted

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Speaker 2: lock of the Year in the men's team. Eron Clark

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Speaker 2: featured in all twenty five of the Warriors games this season,

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Speaker 2: starting all but one of those matches, and he joins

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Speaker 2: us now eron congratulations on this recognition, this accolade and

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Speaker 2: tremendous season. How cool was it to stand up there

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Speaker 2: on Wednesday night as one of the members of the

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Speaker 2: Dallym Team of the Year?

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Speaker 3: Oh? Hello? First off, but I think just being recognized

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Speaker 3: was a big achievement for not just me but my family,

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Speaker 3: and to be at a function among some of the

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Speaker 3: best players in the game was pretty special. And then

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Speaker 3: to hear my name at the end there, I was

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Speaker 3: like Damn. That was pretty surprising. But yeah, I was

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Speaker 3: pretty proud and I'm happy.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, what were your goals and ambitions when you joined

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Speaker 2: the Warriors at the end of last season.

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Speaker 3: Honestly, Bro, I just wanted to come here just and

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Speaker 3: come home. And I felt like I had unfinished business

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Speaker 3: here in a way because I left here and I

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Speaker 3: wasn't I could have given my all at that time

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Speaker 3: because I wasn't in the right mental space. And I

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Speaker 3: feel like I'm in the right mental space now and

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Speaker 3: I can do that. And I'm quite happy that I'm

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Speaker 3: giving my wall to this club because that's all I

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Speaker 3: wanted to do.

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Speaker 2: From being honest, how different are you from the player

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Speaker 2: and the person who left the Warriors in twenty six Well.

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Speaker 3: I think well, honestly, I think the person side of

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Speaker 3: things is what's helped my game a lot. I've got

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Speaker 3: a good group of boys around me at the club,

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Speaker 3: good coaching stuff to keep me on the straight and narrow.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, I think just I think having three kids, Bro,

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Speaker 3: kind of you've got to grow up quick and it

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Speaker 3: gives you a bit of a purpose. It's not just

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Speaker 3: about you anymore. So I think that's the biggest one.

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Speaker 2: How happy were you with your season? First of all,

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Speaker 2: let's talk about you personally. How how happy were you

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Speaker 2: with the way you played across the season?

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Speaker 3: I was happy with mate. But the cool thing is

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Speaker 3: like for me personally, is I still got so much

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Speaker 3: to improve on it, so much to learn it. It's

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Speaker 3: different this year because I'm on the field a lot,

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Speaker 3: a lot longer, so I need to learn certain ways

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Speaker 3: to save energy here and there. But now I'm just

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Speaker 3: just loving it, bro, just loving the opportunity that was

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Speaker 3: given to me, and I'm hopefully I've taken it with

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Speaker 3: both hands. I hope everyone can see.

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Speaker 2: I didn't see you saving energy at all during the

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Speaker 2: seas and when were you doing that?

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Speaker 3: But personally, I think just trying to free up my

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Speaker 3: halves a bit more like obviously you see the run

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Speaker 3: I do and the carries, but I think I can

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Speaker 3: work on my passing game to give my helves a

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Speaker 3: bit of space, and that's something that's that's going to

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Speaker 3: help me save energy, where I can put my energy

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Speaker 3: into different places other than just running all the time.

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Speaker 2: I look at the stats and I know they only

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Speaker 2: tell some of the story, but you made more tackles

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Speaker 2: than any other Warriors player. This season, you averaged thirty

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Speaker 2: four tackles per game at ninety five percent tackle efficiency.

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Speaker 2: How much do you pride yourself on that part of

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Speaker 2: your game?

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Speaker 3: I think defense. Defense is the massive part of our

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Speaker 3: game these days made and when I get tired, I

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Speaker 3: need to make sure that stays up. And I didn't

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Speaker 3: even know those that's broken. It's quite quite musty that

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Speaker 3: because I thought it was heaps worse than that. So

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Speaker 3: you saying that, I was pretty proud.

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Speaker 2: What sort of physical toll does that take on? You know,

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Speaker 2: a game when you're making thirty four tackles on average,

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Speaker 2: you're up and down. That isn't even in start. You know,

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Speaker 2: to think about the time with ball and hand yourself

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Speaker 2: and the run meters that you make, what is your recovery?

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Speaker 3: Like You've probably be first and asses used to put

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Speaker 3: up with it the next day. But to go from

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Speaker 3: playing twenty minutes at the time as the year before

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Speaker 3: to maybe fifty plus week and week out, it definitely

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Speaker 3: took a toll on me o body. But I think

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Speaker 3: midway through the year kind of I've kind of got

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Speaker 3: used to it. By at the start made packing up

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Speaker 3: the next day hard. They could move, and that's the

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Speaker 3: game we play, and it's the toughest game in the world,

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Speaker 3: and I wouldn't want it any other way. Like, I'll

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Speaker 3: put everything on the line for my team and all

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Speaker 3: the fans and my family. So yeah, that's I don't

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Speaker 3: care about my body At the time.

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Speaker 2: When you were having conversations with Andrew Webster, you know,

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Speaker 2: at the start of the season and during the season,

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Speaker 2: is that something that he was keen for you to do,

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Speaker 2: to play those sort of fifty five minute games rather

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Speaker 2: than the twenty minutes.

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Speaker 3: No, honestly, But I think I just came to be

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Speaker 3: that bench middle, to come off the bench and maybe

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Speaker 3: do that twenty in a minute role. But obviously we

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Speaker 3: lost two great players and Dylan and Tahun and I

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Speaker 3: just found myself there and what an opportunity to take

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Speaker 3: and I wanted to take it with both hands. And heah.

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Speaker 2: And here's another stat for you. You averaged one hundred

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Speaker 2: and forty seven run meters per game, so that's ball

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Speaker 2: and hand stuff. Only Roger and Chance ran for more

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Speaker 2: meters than you did this season for the Warriors. So

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Speaker 2: how how proud are you of your ball and hand

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Speaker 2: contribution to this team?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm proud, bro. But like I said, so, it's

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Speaker 3: got so much more to learn. And that's something I

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Speaker 3: wanted to work on this year was my attack And yeah,

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Speaker 3: I just felt like it's slowly coming. But yeah, like

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Speaker 3: I said, I just want to get better with my

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Speaker 3: passing game to three up my half packs and for

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Speaker 3: next year.

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Speaker 2: So no tries though, what's the story there? No tries

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Speaker 2: this season?

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Speaker 3: No tries?

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Speaker 1: No?

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Speaker 3: Oh truth, No, I didn't go there to score tries.

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Speaker 3: I'll roll the sleeves up and let the other boys

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Speaker 3: score the trials. I'll do they running for.

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Speaker 2: The love that love that And if we look at

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Speaker 2: the team, I mean, a good season, especially compared to

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Speaker 2: last season, made the eight and then obviously one week

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Speaker 2: into the playoffs. What what do the Warriors have to

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Speaker 2: do to build on twenty twenty five when twenty twenty

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Speaker 2: six rolls around.

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Speaker 3: I think with this year, mate, look, obviously we lost

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Speaker 3: a lot of key players and Mitch and Luke, and

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Speaker 3: over the year we lost a bit of experience with

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Speaker 3: Fish going down, Chanelle going down for a week, and

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Speaker 3: we got to butt a few of the young boys.

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Speaker 3: And I think next year they're going to be in

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Speaker 3: our season NRL players and that's only going to help

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Speaker 3: us our depth at this club's crazy brown, It's it's good.

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Speaker 3: So I reckon those young boys are going to have

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Speaker 3: a big influence on how we go to next year.

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Speaker 3: And they'll be really lucky with this year, but even better.

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Speaker 2: So, how will you switch off during the off season?

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Speaker 2: I guess three kids might be the answer to that.

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Speaker 3: Wife and three kids fully takes up so much time

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Speaker 3: during the year, brow and I think all my time

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Speaker 3: is going to be with them. They mean a lot

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Speaker 3: to me, bro So yeah, that's that's all.

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Speaker 2: No better way, no better way to spend it, man,

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Speaker 2: no better way to spend it. Got a prediction for

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Speaker 2: the Grand Final? Storm or Broncos? Who you got?

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Speaker 3: I'm going Broncos made. I just think they're hitting their

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Speaker 3: stretch at the right time, and they've got a lot

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Speaker 3: of a lot of key players and Rheese Walsh and

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Speaker 3: playing Heath and the Reese is firing that they're just

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Speaker 3: going to be too hard to stop. And with Reynolds,

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Speaker 3: Reynolds and the Harvest, he's just the maister of their team. Brosa,

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Speaker 3: I reckon, Broncos are gonna do it this time.

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Speaker 2: Aaron congreats on a terrific season. We've loved watching you

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Speaker 2: play and awesome to see you receive that accolade on

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Speaker 2: Wednesday night. Enjoy the off season, look forward to seeing

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Speaker 2: what twenty twenty six brings well.

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Speaker 3: Thank you mate, thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.

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Speaker 2: Now, I appreciate you joining us here and thanks indeed,

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Speaker 2: and congratulations again Aaron Clark lock of the Year in

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Speaker 2: the M Team of the Year, announced on Wednesday night

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Speaker 2: at the awards ceremony in Sydney.

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Speaker 1: For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talk said B weekends from midday, or follow

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Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio