Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Mason Cox Show. Now today we've
Speaker 1: got one of my favorite people in media. She is
Speaker 1: a lovely, lovely lady. She's actually one of my mom's
Speaker 1: favorite people, and I think she messages my mom back
Speaker 1: and forth on Twitter. But we'll give it a bit
Speaker 1: of a background. She's nine years at Fox Sports, AFL
Speaker 1: cricket basketball, worked across all different sports. Started in Perth
Speaker 1: Radio at six PR in two thousand and six Tonight
Speaker 1: sorry today tonight for seven Network before the Game? Have
Speaker 1: you been paying attention? Also was on the Footy Show
Speaker 1: with myself back in twenty nineteen, and she's also worked
Speaker 1: for things like the Australian Open. She's an absolute legend
Speaker 1: people really breaking the stigma I feel like a female
Speaker 1: in sport and commentating. She's one of the OG's, one
Speaker 1: of the best that's ever done it. We've got nearly meadows.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much. That was a very kind intro.
Speaker 2: I take that.
Speaker 1: That's good. Well, you've got an impressive resume, I must say.
Speaker 1: And I was ignorant come to this country, but I
Speaker 1: love the fact that you are. I feel like the
Speaker 1: in my mind, probably the number one person I feel
Speaker 1: like I've got along with probably on air whenever I
Speaker 1: do things in the media. I feel like you're very
Speaker 1: obviously you've got the podcast ordinarily speaking, which we'll talk about,
Speaker 1: and it's all about kind of mental health and showing
Speaker 1: a different side of athletes. And for some reason, I
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe you can maybe give me a bit
Speaker 1: more intro on it is You're very good at being
Speaker 1: able to get people to open up to you. I
Speaker 1: feel like you're a very calming personality. You know your stuff,
Speaker 1: and that's what's gotten you really well in that in
Speaker 1: your career. But I feel like you're just a person
Speaker 1: that everyone loves to be around, and it's just an
Speaker 1: enjoyable person to have on the podcast. I'm excited.
Speaker 3: Can I just get that audio clip? My ring tone one?
Speaker 1: I love it? Brand can give it to you?
Speaker 2: That is very kind of you, Thank you?
Speaker 3: And yes, your mom does I do love your mom
Speaker 3: because I think I interviewed your parents who managed to
Speaker 3: make it via deboot game and it was antag day right,
Speaker 3: and your mom was just such an absolute sweetheart, and
Speaker 3: then from there she's just loves it, followed what I've
Speaker 3: done and sort of sends messages of support.
Speaker 1: Does my mom d.
Speaker 3: Has DMD me, but mostly it's published. Sorry you to
Speaker 3: be honest.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's better. My mom's a lovely lady, but the
Speaker 1: fact that she's dming friends of mine and her colleagues
Speaker 1: of mine is very questionable. No, I love it.
Speaker 3: She she's amazing and she's such a supportive woman. I
Speaker 3: think just in general. And yeah, like you say, I
Speaker 3: think she recognized.
Speaker 2: Early days that I was more of a human.
Speaker 3: Story type journalist and she jumped on ball with that.
Speaker 2: And I love your mom. She's absolutely fantastic.
Speaker 1: But she's going to love this, no doubt, no doubt.
Speaker 1: She was asking about I told her I was getting
Speaker 1: you on. She was very excited for this. So she's
Speaker 1: going to be very excited for this podcast and what
Speaker 1: we go through. Big shout out to Jay Cox. We
Speaker 1: love her on the pod. You're going to get a
Speaker 1: DM within the week. I guarantee it.
Speaker 3: Next time I'm in the States, I'm just gonna like
Speaker 3: the house.
Speaker 1: She will full kit out the whole house ready for
Speaker 1: you to go down, will cook a barbecue. It'll be
Speaker 1: a whole thing. I'm telling you, it's going to be
Speaker 1: narrowly is week in Dallas. Taxes the biggest week of
Speaker 1: the year, probably better and me coming back. In all honesty,
Speaker 1: we'll jump in that. We'll talk about your early life.
Speaker 1: Now you're born and raised in Collie, w a outside
Speaker 1: Maga River. Now, Mogo River's on my top list of
Speaker 1: places I haven't been yet too.
Speaker 2: You need to go. I go at least every every year.
Speaker 3: My best mate lives there and works a vast Felix winery,
Speaker 3: which is one of the top notch wineries.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it is, and I was there just a
Speaker 2: couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 1: Actually, it's top pless a top thing to do in
Speaker 1: my river besides go to the winery.
Speaker 2: Well, I go to the wineries.
Speaker 3: I mean, the beaches are fantastic, but the long lunches
Speaker 3: that you can have with you know, with your mates
Speaker 3: is just like it's the stuff that you make memories
Speaker 3: out of.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: It's just an epic place to be. Beautiful coastline, beautiful cafes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love very relaxing holiday.
Speaker 2: Very relaxing.
Speaker 3: It's that it's that beautiful sort of bush meets ocean aussieva.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, So did you say Collie is the bush side?
Speaker 2: So Collie is inland.
Speaker 3: So we're about forty five minutes inland from Bumbry and
Speaker 3: as we got teased back in the day, you go
Speaker 3: up hill to go down a hole. Yeah, but it's
Speaker 3: a beautiful town Collie, some amazing little water spots and
Speaker 3: everything like that, and a great outdoor town, so big
Speaker 3: sporting town, country town sort of every you know, everywhere
Speaker 3: had to like a network club and a footy club
Speaker 3: and that sort of thing. So had an unbelievable out
Speaker 3: bringing because we had a little hobby farm, five acre
Speaker 3: hobby farm because that's how my dad grew up on
Speaker 3: a farm. So yeah, we had everything like a third
Speaker 3: of a basketball court and all like sort of Dad
Speaker 3: made it like it's not fancy stuffy, yeah, amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 3: like marion ponds.
Speaker 2: You wouldn't know what a marin is? Would you give me?
Speaker 1: Give me in Australian says I need to learn this,
Speaker 1: so you please please inform me.
Speaker 3: A lot of at don't know either because it's from
Speaker 3: that region. So it's basically freshwater crayfish. It's delicious, delicious,
Speaker 3: but really really hard to get, really expensive. But we
Speaker 3: grew up marining and on that little bit of river
Speaker 3: and we had marin ponds and stuff like that. So yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: and like little cricket setup and basketball and netball. We
Speaker 3: had a bit of everything. So it was an epic
Speaker 3: place to grow up. Yeah, I was very lucky.
Speaker 1: Did you did you play sports growing up? Like? What
Speaker 1: was your top sport?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: I feel like I've dabbled in different sports growing up,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people do. They play different sports.
Speaker 1: They kind of find their niche and go towards it,
Speaker 1: Like what was your niche sport that you loved?
Speaker 3: Basketball was always my favorite, Like, if I could have
Speaker 3: chosen a career, I would have been a professional.
Speaker 1: Basket on my shout out You've got the Valley T
Speaker 1: shirt too. She's a fair say she's a fan of
Speaker 1: the NBA and a fan of the Suns.
Speaker 3: I would say, yeah, and Da signed on, so I'm
Speaker 3: happy we kept the boys together.
Speaker 2: So another.
Speaker 1: I was like, she's really investigating.
Speaker 2: That's when the siblings grew.
Speaker 3: Really glad gets on a high is when there's signing
Speaker 3: news the whole.
Speaker 1: Family, whole family supported someone. Yeah, so how did that
Speaker 1: come to it?
Speaker 3: Well, basically, my oldest brothers five and a half years
Speaker 3: older than me and in the early nine Yes, that's
Speaker 3: Ross Ross, Yeah, yeah, so ross. He played hockey for
Speaker 3: Australia and he's now a teacher and he was so
Speaker 3: he always set the standard with sport in our family.
Speaker 3: And he yet loved Charles Barkley as so many people
Speaker 3: did back in the day and just hardcore went in
Speaker 3: on the Suns and so we followed him basically as
Speaker 3: you know, the younger brother and sister do. And so yeah,
Speaker 3: thirty plus years on and we went and watched them
Speaker 3: live when I was twelve, and that were crap.
Speaker 1: I was, they were great. That was confused while you
Speaker 1: were actually so excited as Chris came around, I feel
Speaker 1: like things turned around.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3: So it's so exciting now to actually be in and
Speaker 3: amongst it. Obviously it was devastating this year to get
Speaker 3: knocked out and not get that run at the actual
Speaker 3: final series. But we're going to talk about but yeah,
Speaker 3: I got the opportunity when I was covering the Super
Speaker 3: Bowl and All Star NBA All Star Weekend earlier this year,
Speaker 3: I did like a sort of twenty two hour stopover
Speaker 3: in Phoenix to watch them, and I dropped a k
Speaker 3: at the Suns.
Speaker 1: Star thousand dollars of American dollars Okay, so like twenty bucks,
Speaker 1: that's too bad.
Speaker 3: Right, because obviously I got my two big brothers, five
Speaker 3: nieces and nephews, so myself.
Speaker 1: A lot of colleagues.
Speaker 2: Exactly, it's hard to.
Speaker 3: Come by, although it's easier now because they're actually good,
Speaker 3: but for years, you can get anything. So I was
Speaker 3: the full blown uffew with two bags of merch watching
Speaker 3: the game by myself. But anyway, my brothers appreciated it,
Speaker 3: and my eldest brother, Ross, who I got the DeAndre
Speaker 3: eight and shirt for, so he's very.
Speaker 2: Relieved that da Is signed off huge.
Speaker 3: But yeah, so I played basketball, but as I say,
Speaker 3: I was always too short, too slow, and just not
Speaker 3: good enough to play for a living.
Speaker 2: So I decided to watch for a living instead.
Speaker 1: A celebrity termament or something. I feel like you'd probably
Speaker 1: would just be that secret, just undercover person that rolls
Speaker 1: in just she dominates no one expects. It's like it's
Speaker 1: a bit shorter side like we own. She just absolute
Speaker 1: murders everyone.
Speaker 3: I am the person that does all the one percent
Speaker 3: is because I'm no good at anything else. So I'm
Speaker 3: setting the screens. I'm doing like hard day, I'm like
Speaker 3: delivandover without being able to shoot basically.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that was my college career of basketball. So
Speaker 1: you've really summed it up in one. Now you talked
Speaker 1: about Ross. You've got another brother, Ian who this is
Speaker 1: an interesting kind of like fun fact. I didn't know
Speaker 1: about Ian. I was on Home and Away and we're
Speaker 1: recently talking about this. He also had a Netflix series
Speaker 1: come out, which is I love to hear it because
Speaker 1: I know you love your family. I love my family.
Speaker 1: We've talked about already, but you're really in doing some
Speaker 1: very unique things that my people probably didn't know that you.
Speaker 1: I guess we're related or maybe like you had their
Speaker 1: connection to him and what he's doing now in like
Speaker 1: the Netflix series and everything else. So tell us a
Speaker 1: bit about that. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So it's funny because Home and Away, obviously you know
Speaker 3: it's it's in the institution in Australia, but also in
Speaker 3: like the UK and places like that, and his storyline
Speaker 3: is still to this day one of the most popular
Speaker 3: storylines that ever.
Speaker 2: Existed on the channel.
Speaker 1: Will give it to us, what is it?
Speaker 3: Sally?
Speaker 1: Sally?
Speaker 2: Anyone who.
Speaker 3: Sally is Kate Richie and she basically just grew up
Speaker 3: on the show and no he didn't collect. But the
Speaker 3: cliffhanger for the summer was will Sally survived it. And
Speaker 3: I remember when he first got that storyline, he sort
Speaker 3: of he was like, You're never going to believe this.
Speaker 2: I stabbed Sally.
Speaker 1: Did you get the did you get like the inside Infhon?
Speaker 1: And You're like, I'm literally sworn to secrecy. I can't
Speaker 1: sell anything.
Speaker 2: I'm quite good at that.
Speaker 1: So I have Sally what known for.
Speaker 3: It's actually more people know him for a show called
Speaker 3: The Moodies and a Moody Christmas, which has sort of
Speaker 3: become a cult classic on the ABC and and a
Speaker 3: lot of families watch it as their family tradition now.
Speaker 3: So it's this amazing comedy show on the ABC. And
Speaker 3: it's funny because he gets recognized most of that. And
Speaker 3: we were at the footage just the other week and
Speaker 3: somebody came up to him, Dad Moody. And one of
Speaker 3: the almost most embarrassing moments of my life was when
Speaker 3: Frio made it to the twenty thirt and Grand Final,
Speaker 3: when I took my brother, even though he's a West
Speaker 3: Coast supporter, as my plus one, and somebody came up
Speaker 3: to us outside the mcg and said, oh, my god,
Speaker 3: can I get a photo?
Speaker 2: And I was this, like so close.
Speaker 3: Because it was in context at the MCG, I.
Speaker 1: Was you or him though, I was I was this.
Speaker 2: Close saying you, no worries.
Speaker 3: And then he turns to my brother and says, I'm
Speaker 3: a massive fan of the movies.
Speaker 1: And so good also degrading for you. I was like,
Speaker 1: oh no, I don't really want I was.
Speaker 3: So relieved that I didn't say yeah, no worries or
Speaker 3: how embarrassing.
Speaker 1: I've heard people be like, oh I can I get
Speaker 1: a photo? And then it's like to the person next
Speaker 1: to me and then they just hand me the phone
Speaker 1: and I'm like the best, Yeah, yeah, we'll do all right.
Speaker 3: But yeah, And so he's he's created a show called
Speaker 3: r FDS, which was a big success on Channel seven
Speaker 3: as well. We sort of wrote and created that and
Speaker 3: it's been renewed for a second season and clickbait. So yeah,
Speaker 3: he's doing stuff, which is awesome. I'm really proud of
Speaker 3: him because it's it's obviously a really tough industry.
Speaker 1: Yeah it's crazy, come all the way from Collie to
Speaker 1: to the.
Speaker 2: Big smoke of Yeah, it's pretty cool.
Speaker 3: And that's the thing, like RFTS is all about telling
Speaker 3: those sort of outback stories of Australia and telling them
Speaker 3: in a really compelling way, because I think a lot
Speaker 3: of the time, you know, it's the same as the
Speaker 3: States in a way, like people refer to rural places
Speaker 3: in a kind of dismissive or Hicksville kind of way, and.
Speaker 2: It's yeah, and it's just not true.
Speaker 3: Like there are so many amazing people who live in
Speaker 3: the country that just didn't want to live in the
Speaker 3: city and that doesn't make them dumb or whatever. Like
Speaker 3: so I think, you know, the beauty of the storytelling
Speaker 3: that he's doing is pretty cool because it is those
Speaker 3: inclusive sort of stories and a.
Speaker 1: Small town like family type place, you know, everyone knows everyone.
Speaker 1: I love that of like maybe colors like this you
Speaker 1: talk about Minor River. You like walk into a place,
Speaker 1: I mean you had your local cafe here, and I
Speaker 1: walked in and you like instantly knew who the person
Speaker 1: was that was behind. I was like, I don't need
Speaker 1: to introduce anyone Like this is like.
Speaker 3: Like all our friends are so tall, and like not
Speaker 3: this tall.
Speaker 1: I would think I'm on the higher end of the structure,
Speaker 1: but yeah, no, it's I love that kind of family
Speaker 1: feel like something in Australia. I've noticed as people here
Speaker 1: very generous and just very caring and like everyone's a
Speaker 1: family here. It's kind of a weird, weird thing to
Speaker 1: I guess so much try to describe to people, but
Speaker 1: that's kind of been my experience. I feel like the
Speaker 1: Australian culture.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like the mate ship.
Speaker 3: And so Dad was the country doctor and he had
Speaker 3: quite a unique land Cruiser car.
Speaker 2: It was a unique color. No one else in town
Speaker 2: had it, so every time it.
Speaker 3: Was like sort of this brownie sort of tinge but
Speaker 3: nothing fancy, but no one else had it. And because
Speaker 3: we were in the town of just under ten thousand
Speaker 3: and when we were learning to drive, if you were
Speaker 3: behind his car, you had to do the two fingerways single.
Speaker 1: Country.
Speaker 2: No, it's like Dad's car. So yes, the two finger
Speaker 2: acknowledgement off the steering wheel.
Speaker 1: If you're all lazy, just the one. Yes, it's cool.
Speaker 3: But yeah, that full blown country thing that you've got
Speaker 3: to say hello to everyone and.
Speaker 1: You'll be in the small town doctor, I feel like
Speaker 1: you'd be the most important person in the town.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So the year before me, my year and the year
Speaker 3: after me, he was the only doctor doing obstetric So
Speaker 3: if you're my age, you were delivered by my dad.
Speaker 3: I was delivered by my dad in our house.
Speaker 1: How many deliveries you reckon?
Speaker 2: He's done I think like a couple of thousand over
Speaker 2: the years.
Speaker 1: So he's delivered like a tenth of the town. Probably.
Speaker 2: Well he's moved on.
Speaker 3: He's moved on from from Collin now they now live
Speaker 3: in Perth. But yeah, I mean a big chunk of it,
Speaker 3: Like he's either he's and there's a few people that
Speaker 3: he delivered both generations, which is which is pretty cool.
Speaker 2: So it's yeah.
Speaker 3: And I don't think the country GPS get enough credit
Speaker 3: as well, because everything that they do it impacts them.
Speaker 3: You know, they know the people they're dealing with. And
Speaker 3: mum was the psychologist in town and dad was the
Speaker 3: country doctor.
Speaker 1: So smart family.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I'm a real letdown.
Speaker 1: I just watched that's what you're going to say next.
Speaker 1: You're like, oh, I'm not a doctor or a lawyer
Speaker 1: into psychology, but I think you're the most well known
Speaker 1: person of the Meadows family. I mean, look, just say yes.
Speaker 1: I now, I'll take it. I'll take it. Thank you
Speaker 1: for the compliment. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3: May be advantage of India that my brother, Yeah.
Speaker 1: You've got the most followers of everyone. I would say that,
Speaker 1: let's just go with that. I do want to ask
Speaker 1: you something because you had an experience that I've had.
Speaker 1: You went to university in America at the University of Tennessee.
Speaker 1: Go balls because of the balls. Bright unch.
Speaker 2: Be a Tennessee ball.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. I did not. I've been it, but I
Speaker 1: want to ask you. Obviously going to university, you've probably
Speaker 1: been to a football game. Tennessee balls, massive, massive stadium.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure how many they would fit. There be
Speaker 1: coursed off. One hundred and.
Speaker 3: Four thousand, I think from memory Nayland's scene. Yeah, and
Speaker 3: it's sold out pretty much every game. And they were
Speaker 3: pretty crap when I was there. It was Phil Former
Speaker 3: and they couldn't pick a quarterback and it was hilarious
Speaker 3: because I was doing an internship at the local TV
Speaker 3: station and they obviously loved the fact that it was
Speaker 3: a chick from Australia who loved sport. And I remember
Speaker 3: turning to them going what they need to pick and stick?
Speaker 3: Like they keep swapping between quarterbacks and they're like even.
Speaker 2: Though the shit again, so why do they not get it?
Speaker 2: Kind of thing? But yeah, it was an unbelievable experience.
Speaker 1: What was your favorite, Like, I know, obviously you've got
Speaker 1: Alabama is probably like one of the biggest games you
Speaker 1: will probably play, But was there any experiences that kind
Speaker 1: of stick out in your mind of like college, because
Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of people in Australia don't
Speaker 1: quite understand it and it's tough to describe it until
Speaker 1: you've actually experienced it firsthand. Of the tailgating the game
Speaker 1: being amateur level, but having is just as much, if
Speaker 1: not more, actual supporters. Like, yeah, it's kind of tough
Speaker 1: to get your head wrapped around it. Like give me
Speaker 1: a I guess, some way to maybe describe it in
Speaker 1: your words of the college experience back in the US.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's it's like every movie you've ever seen,
Speaker 3: and then some it's it's like the movies actually happened. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: but it's it's like On Royd's kind of thing. So
Speaker 3: like a couple of experiences that I had. Kenny Rogers
Speaker 3: came and played at halftime and played the Gambler and
Speaker 3: the band spelled out Kenny with their bodies there were
Speaker 3: I wex you.
Speaker 2: Know after every touchdown.
Speaker 3: Peyton Manning because he was a role He had his
Speaker 3: jersey retired homecoming.
Speaker 2: While I was there and gave it the older. I
Speaker 2: don't want to be remembered. It was a great football.
Speaker 2: I just want to be remembered. It was a great
Speaker 2: man to play football. And everyone's just like.
Speaker 1: Loses their mind.
Speaker 3: The icons of every exactly, the icon of exactly. And
Speaker 3: Candice Parker as well, from her basketball perspective, she was around,
Speaker 3: she was playing when I was there.
Speaker 1: I didn't know where, but his basketball be a massive there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well there's the basketball stadium is about twenty five
Speaker 3: thousand capacity as well. So yeah, just an epic life experience.
Speaker 3: And yeah, loved every every second of it. So but yeah,
Speaker 3: the tailgating, all of that, it's it's very much real.
Speaker 1: It's very much rare. I feel like it's a it's
Speaker 1: a bucket list starting for people. They need to experience
Speaker 1: it before you have to do it firsthand. Like you
Speaker 1: can't like people can talk about tailor getting, but it's
Speaker 1: literally you could walk up in the middle of a
Speaker 1: football game, not I know anyone in the like the
Speaker 1: parking lot and just walk through and people like, ah,
Speaker 1: have a sausage, have a hamburger. Come in. There's like
Speaker 1: six TVs underneath like a gazebo, and everyone's got satellite
Speaker 1: TV watching together. It's just a weird experience in general.
Speaker 2: And the hatred.
Speaker 3: You know, it's been like Collingwood Carlton, like Alabama and
Speaker 3: Tennessee for example, Like my mom's best mate is from
Speaker 3: Alabama and she's constantly buying my family merch and you
Speaker 3: know roll Tide role and I'm.
Speaker 2: Like, stop wearing it. Your blood went to Tennessee.
Speaker 3: We go for the voles like this is offensive, but
Speaker 3: they just they don't care.
Speaker 1: They're not you have no idea how I mean, like
Speaker 1: Alabama next level, like they're just the top tier of
Speaker 1: the top tier. But awesome experience. I love whenever people
Speaker 1: talk about your college and you can't dive too much
Speaker 1: into it because I'm sure you had some fun in college.
Speaker 3: I drank more in that six months than I did
Speaker 3: probably the rest of your life. And it's hilarious because
Speaker 3: I was nineteen when I went over there, so I.
Speaker 2: Wasn't legal, but i'd been leaving this well. I had
Speaker 2: been legal in at for like almost two years.
Speaker 3: And turned twenty over there, so I had to use
Speaker 3: a fake ID, and I used the ID of a
Speaker 3: woman called Anally up a friend of mine. She was
Speaker 3: from Estonia. And this is a classic passport. No, it
Speaker 3: was like a driver's license. And I'm sorry to say,
Speaker 3: but most Americans didn't know what the hell Estonia was,
Speaker 3: so I just told them it was a state of
Speaker 3: Australia and they were fine with that. Didn't work for
Speaker 3: me was when one guy said, I mean the same
Speaker 3: class as Anally, So this I know it's not you. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but I put on the freshman fifteen. But in my
Speaker 3: senior year, like I came home and I mean over there,
Speaker 3: I was hot with an accent.
Speaker 2: Kind of thing. And I came home and I was just.
Speaker 3: Really white in the middle of the Australian summer, overweight,
Speaker 3: and I just came in with my two giants suitcases,
Speaker 3: said I had a well inside.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I love that. You just told us
Speaker 1: you just literally did something illegal on the podcast, Like
Speaker 1: I right, my mom listens to this podcast, so I
Speaker 1: have not mother. I love you very much. Every once
Speaker 1: or twice we'll tell that story, Thanks Nolan. Now we'll
Speaker 1: move into obviously you've got your own podcasts ordinarily speaking,
Speaker 1: and you've got some amazing people on there. Some some
Speaker 1: people obviously you're mastermin cricket with the stuff you do there,
Speaker 1: and you've got some amazing people have come on. I've
Speaker 1: listened to your AFL side of things too. What is
Speaker 1: your favorite thing about having your own podcasts? I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously it's great having your own speaking about different subjects
Speaker 1: and topics you want, But what's your personally your favorite
Speaker 1: thing about doing it?
Speaker 3: Getting the feedback from people that it's actually helped them, Because,
Speaker 3: as you said earlier, my podcast is sort of a
Speaker 3: really heavy focus on mental health and overcoming adversity and
Speaker 3: resilience and celebrating that resilience and the human stories of athletes.
Speaker 2: Because I don't think we do that enough.
Speaker 3: I think it's a really critical industry a lot of
Speaker 3: the time, and particularly in AFL, and I like to
Speaker 3: celebrate people, and I think it's really inspiring when people
Speaker 3: see athletes as human beings and realize that what.
Speaker 2: You've achieved is achievable for them too.
Speaker 3: Why not so when you get feedback, like for example,
Speaker 3: I did one with Greg Higher and he received a
Speaker 3: message and he put it on Instagram that said and
Speaker 3: trigger warning here for anyone who's listening, but it basically said,
Speaker 3: I was driving home to end my life and I
Speaker 3: listened to your podcast and it saved my life. I'm
Speaker 3: still here and I get goosebumps when I sort of
Speaker 3: relay that story because that's through the strength of Greg having,
Speaker 3: you know, the ability to share his story publicly, and
Speaker 3: his motivation is to help people, and anyone who comes
Speaker 3: on the podcast that at the end of the day
Speaker 3: is their motivation. You know, you recognize that as an
Speaker 3: elite athlete, you do have an opportunity to help people
Speaker 3: in whatever way it is. So I think for me
Speaker 3: that's the most rewarding thing. But there's also laughs and
Speaker 3: there's lighter moments as well, because that's humanity, right even
Speaker 3: in the darkest moments, we have that humor, and especially
Speaker 3: in Australia, I think you probably would have found that
Speaker 3: that will make light of everything and anything. But yeah,
Speaker 3: that's my favorite thing is because I set out to
Speaker 3: humanize athletes and help people listening, and so when you
Speaker 3: achieve what you set out, it's a really rewarding feeling,
Speaker 3: especially when it's your passion project.
Speaker 2: Like there's no money out of it or anything.
Speaker 3: It's just my passion project of you know, I love
Speaker 3: doing in depth interviews. Grew up with a mum that's
Speaker 3: a psychologist, so I learned really early on about you know,
Speaker 3: the importance of silence and listening and empathy and to
Speaker 3: be able to meld all my sort of worlds together,
Speaker 3: of having that passion for psychology, having the passion for sport,
Speaker 3: but ultimately seeing myself as a storyteller. It's it's awesome
Speaker 3: to be able to use all those facets and hopefully
Speaker 3: try and help people.
Speaker 2: She loves it. Yeah, and she actually it's quite funny.
Speaker 2: She will often that was a great question. That was
Speaker 2: a really good hollow up question there.
Speaker 3: Or I loved how you left that silence there, you know,
Speaker 3: And a lot of the time I will call mum
Speaker 3: and I think this is really important too, to debrief
Speaker 3: because sometimes it's really heavy and you need to be
Speaker 3: able to talk to somebody to be able to go
Speaker 3: bloody hell, mom, like he just said, X, Y and
Speaker 3: Z A Like, I don't even know if this is
Speaker 3: ever going to go to air because it's so intimate
Speaker 3: what he shared, and you know, sometimes people like regret
Speaker 3: stuff and say, oh, I don't actually want that out there.
Speaker 3: I mean, that was the Ryan Brockoff episode, and he did.
Speaker 3: He was fine with it being out there. He just
Speaker 3: wanted to check with his family. So everything actually has
Speaker 3: gone to air. But that's another thing that I sort
Speaker 3: of when you're doing something independently, you can guarantee people
Speaker 3: if you change your mind or whatever.
Speaker 2: I have all the control here.
Speaker 3: There's no boss telling me no, no, we have to
Speaker 3: use this, or we're going to promo this or whatever,
Speaker 3: and so it just gives an extra layer of security
Speaker 3: I think for people that they can trust what their
Speaker 3: words will end up sounding like. And like I say,
Speaker 3: when you give people that level of assurance, it's amazing
Speaker 3: what they then feel comfortable sharing with you. And I've
Speaker 3: never had somebody say I don't want to answer that,
Speaker 3: and I've never had somebody say I want you to
Speaker 3: take that piece out, And I think it's because they
Speaker 3: trust the intention behind the podcast in the first place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you create that safe space for someone to be
Speaker 1: able to properly open up and tyrte things that a
Speaker 1: lot of times, like I feel like you just keep
Speaker 1: it and bottle it up for a long time and
Speaker 1: then eventually you get to the point you're like, man,
Speaker 1: maybe this actually can help someone else in the same
Speaker 1: situation or whatever it may be. And you know, some
Speaker 1: people put I guess, athletes and people on a paddestal one.
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, we're just normal humans.
Speaker 1: Everyone is human, everyone's the same, come from the same makeup,
Speaker 1: and to think that sometimes people get idolized to the
Speaker 1: point where they think that they don't have the human
Speaker 1: experiences that other people do.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent.
Speaker 3: And the point that you just made there is something
Speaker 3: that really matters to me is a lot of people
Speaker 3: find it a cathartic experience. I have people, you know,
Speaker 3: guess who end up thanking me for what I've given them,
Speaker 3: or family members, which is even more incredible when you
Speaker 3: hear from a family member, And yeah, I think that
Speaker 3: is really important to me, and I lose a lot
Speaker 3: of sleep over how will this be viewed? Will that
Speaker 3: person regret saying that?
Speaker 1: Will?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 3: I think about the impact on their lives, and I
Speaker 3: think that's why no one has ever regretted, because I
Speaker 3: sort of think through all of that and the potential
Speaker 3: to cause harm run than do good.
Speaker 2: So yeah, that cathartic nature.
Speaker 3: I would hate it if somebody regretted doing an interview
Speaker 3: with me, whether it's a podcast or on air or whatever.
Speaker 2: I that to me would just be the worst thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Non, I want to ask you this in the podcast,
Speaker 1: if you had one episode that you would want someone
Speaker 1: to listen to. I know this is gonna be tough
Speaker 1: for you to answer because all these people are probably
Speaker 1: your friends. Now one podcast episode you could promote to
Speaker 1: say this is what it's all about? Which one would
Speaker 1: it be?
Speaker 2: I mean it is.
Speaker 3: It is so hard because they're all so unique and
Speaker 3: interesting and.
Speaker 2: Like I love them for different reasons.
Speaker 3: But still one of my favorites I think will always
Speaker 3: be Peter Siddle, which was one of the earliest ones
Speaker 3: I did because he was, you know, and still is
Speaker 3: a friend of mine. I'm going to be catching up
Speaker 3: with him in the in the UK next week and
Speaker 3: so for your knowledge, he's a former Test cricketer.
Speaker 1: Cricket, by the way, Creet does not know much about it,
Speaker 1: So Peter Sile give you an idea cricket.
Speaker 3: Well as a Victorian and Australian. Now, Peter Sitle is
Speaker 3: it an important but he was also a good friend
Speaker 3: of mine, and I sort of said to him, would
Speaker 3: you be willing to come on this podcast? And I'm
Speaker 3: starting out and it didn't exist at the time, and
Speaker 3: so you're kind of just hoping, you know. Adam Trelaw
Speaker 3: was another one former teammate of yours early days who
Speaker 3: came on and I said to him, you know, would
Speaker 3: you be willing to talk about when you gave up drinking?
Speaker 3: Because he's a total teetotaler now and has been for now,
Speaker 3: it's about ten years. I said, the frame of mind
Speaker 3: that you were in when you gave up drinking and
Speaker 3: why you did so, and I really know the answer
Speaker 3: to it, and he hadn't told anyone publicly, and he
Speaker 3: he said, yeah, I'm willing to do that because I
Speaker 3: think it will help people. And he is such a happy,
Speaker 3: go lucky guy, kind of similar personality to you, actually,
Speaker 3: like just the outgoing sort of you know it doesn't
Speaker 3: drink but can still stay out until two o'clock in
Speaker 3: the morning, because he's just a people person kind of guy.
Speaker 3: And he came on the podcast and just poured his
Speaker 3: heart out and was so open about so many things.
Speaker 3: And it hit me in a way because I think
Speaker 3: because I was friends with him, and I didn't really
Speaker 3: know what was about to transpire. And and I think
Speaker 3: that podcast has helped a lot of people.
Speaker 2: That's another one that I have got a lot of
Speaker 2: feedback on.
Speaker 3: And you know, one guy said, this is the podcast
Speaker 3: I needed to hear right now I'm trying to give
Speaker 3: up drinking. My family doesn't understand, but I've been able
Speaker 3: to send them this podcast and say this is why
Speaker 3: he's speaking on behalf of me almost, And so it
Speaker 3: becomes this tool sort of as a communication tool for
Speaker 3: other people. And there's times where my friends are going
Speaker 3: through stuff and I can say, hey, listen to the
Speaker 3: Kate Campbell episode because she articulates it so beautifully.
Speaker 2: And I think it's going to really help you.
Speaker 3: So if something can become like an actual tool like that,
Speaker 3: it's pretty awesome, I think. But yeah, the SIDS one
Speaker 3: is still one of my personal favorites.
Speaker 2: But it's hard.
Speaker 3: It's like choosing your favorite kid.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was going to say, like favorite movie, but yes,
Speaker 1: favorite kid. Yeah, that's that's totally the same. We all
Speaker 1: know a mom don't have a favorite child. Though, Let's
Speaker 1: be honest, it's my brother at the moment. It's not me.
Speaker 1: It's back in America. They're like, I haven't.
Speaker 2: Produced any grandkids. Way down the TI.
Speaker 3: My mum does tell me that my stories are way
Speaker 3: more interesting to see.
Speaker 1: My most is the same thing. I think that's the
Speaker 1: way of saying, like, we love you, but you're just
Speaker 1: not that, just not you know, at the top of.
Speaker 3: The tod As mum would always say when we brought
Speaker 3: our projects home as kids, it's got character it.
Speaker 1: It's like, I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. We'll talk
Speaker 1: about a bit of your your career, and we briefly
Speaker 1: mentioned this because cricket obviously, I think a lot of
Speaker 1: people know. Not being Australian, I'm a bit ignorant as well.
Speaker 1: Some people might say I've tried to learn. I've tried
Speaker 1: to learn, don't get me wrong, but this is what
Speaker 1: you're doing now, and you're traveling the world doing it
Speaker 1: like you're going to Pakistan, going to India. You're going
Speaker 1: over the world and covering cricket and one of the
Speaker 1: craziest places and I just want to kind of get
Speaker 1: I guess a bet of a an understanding of how
Speaker 1: big cricket is in India, like India is over a
Speaker 1: billion people. We all know that, like, and there was
Speaker 1: actually I'll ask you this question to start off. We
Speaker 1: randomly talked about it. Me Brandon earlier about this this
Speaker 1: IPL cricket league that was started by a bunch of
Speaker 1: farmers and sold off to Russia. Did you hear about this?
Speaker 1: It's crazy, right, I have to ask the question and
Speaker 1: what your thoughts are on it, because I've read it
Speaker 1: and I was like, this is hilarious, Like I can't
Speaker 1: believe someone actually thought this was real.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it was just a big bruise for
Speaker 3: betting or in the end, wasn't it.
Speaker 1: On some farmers, like just with questionable gear.
Speaker 2: And just just throwing the ball.
Speaker 1: Over whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 2: Pitchy. Oh, this is going to be interesting.
Speaker 1: She's gonna hate you this. I don't mean this a
Speaker 1: disrespectful idea.
Speaker 3: It's just me and my pretty hard to offend me. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's it's enormous. It's huge.
Speaker 2: It is like people say, it's like a religion. It
Speaker 2: is kind of like a religion. It's like the I
Speaker 2: p L is the biggest.
Speaker 3: Domestic cricket league in the world, so all the biggest
Speaker 3: stars go and play there. From all over the world,
Speaker 3: and you know, there are times where I've covered a
Speaker 3: game and there's been four international captains playing in the
Speaker 3: one game inside. So the way that I describe it
Speaker 3: as basically like the NBA, there's domestic cricket leads all
Speaker 3: over the world, but that's the one that everyone wants
Speaker 3: to play in, and the muddy is just astronomical to
Speaker 3: the point that the rights just came up recently, and
Speaker 3: my understanding of it was that there were other global
Speaker 3: rights that were being basically put on hold to find
Speaker 3: out who got this and then how much money it
Speaker 3: left them with.
Speaker 2: Because obviously now.
Speaker 3: With huge streaming giants and you know, Disney is ESPN,
Speaker 3: but it's also Star Sports and all this sort of thing,
Speaker 3: how can we piece all the puzzles together. So that's
Speaker 3: how enormous it is. It's it's become like the NBA rights,
Speaker 3: the EPL rights, those those sort of things from an
Speaker 3: international perspective. So it's it's enormous and it's so much fun.
Speaker 3: I came on board during the pandemic, so I mean
Speaker 3: just the.
Speaker 1: Kind of experience itself.
Speaker 3: I feel like, yeah, like most of it's been in
Speaker 3: the UAE that I that I've done and in a
Speaker 3: bubble environment. We didn't have crowds for the first couple
Speaker 3: of goals. But this year I find got to do
Speaker 3: it in India with crowds. It was still in a bubble,
Speaker 3: but the you know, the final, for example, was in
Speaker 3: front of more than one hundred thousand people and just
Speaker 3: so much fun and it's awesome and they're so they're
Speaker 3: just so friendly and nice and so passionate, and yeah,
Speaker 3: I've just had the most wonderful experience working over there,
Speaker 3: and both with like the players, the colleagues and the fans,
Speaker 3: but also just had bizarre experiences to like last year
Speaker 3: and going to India and ended up being in the
Speaker 3: peak of the pandemic in the world.
Speaker 1: And they've got a real big too for.
Speaker 3: A while, massive, and I like, I mean, I'd been
Speaker 3: banned from my home state for a year, and now
Speaker 3: I was banned from my entire country, Like we couldn't
Speaker 3: get home because Scott Morrison decided that India was banned.
Speaker 3: So all of a sudden, you're in a foreign country
Speaker 3: and you don't like, you can't direction no. So even
Speaker 3: that in itself is kind of a crazy story that
Speaker 3: ended up in the Malders for two weeks just to
Speaker 3: be able to come home in you know.
Speaker 1: I know it's alternative.
Speaker 3: It's such a bizarre life experience. You know, with thirty
Speaker 3: of Australia's elite cricketers.
Speaker 1: You become closer. I feel like some of them I
Speaker 1: would have been kind of cool like experience.
Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of them were already my mates, so
Speaker 3: you know, that wasn't a problem at all. It was
Speaker 3: just kind of this weird like And I remember remember
Speaker 3: Kane Williamson, who is a New Zealand's premium cricketer, basically.
Speaker 1: Describe everyone that's listening knows these people just look at
Speaker 1: my blank face and just say yep, maha and just
Speaker 1: roll through the next.
Speaker 3: He's the he's the skipper of the Kiwi's and he's
Speaker 3: a very quiet, yeah, softly spoken guy. And I remember
Speaker 3: there was sort of sting rays being fed and he
Speaker 3: sort of just looks at me and goes, how did.
Speaker 2: We get here?
Speaker 3: I'm still wondering because we've just gone from this you know,
Speaker 3: crazy scenario and we're all so concerned about all of
Speaker 3: our mates in India, and that was like the original
Speaker 3: point is that I was, you know, obviously in an
Speaker 3: environment that was a little daunting because I couldn't get
Speaker 3: home and didn't know what was happening.
Speaker 2: But I knew it would be fine.
Speaker 3: I'm not a sort of panicking type person, and I'd
Speaker 3: played out a lot of these scenarios before getting on
Speaker 3: the plane in the first place. And my parents are
Speaker 3: pretty good with the fact that I'm that kind of
Speaker 3: person as well. And I was also I'm in the
Speaker 3: same place as Ricky Ponting and Pat Cummens and Steve Smith.
Speaker 3: It's okay, They're not leave me behind, don't you go.
Speaker 3: The Indian mates that I had were unbelievable because they
Speaker 3: were literally every day making phone calls to find oxygen
Speaker 3: and hospital beds for someone they cared about. Every day
Speaker 3: you would hear this, and yet every morning they would
Speaker 3: wake up and they go, how are you going?
Speaker 2: Are you okay?
Speaker 3: Nearly?
Speaker 2: Is your family okay? Just the kind and.
Speaker 3: Compassion of people to still ask me how I'm going
Speaker 3: when I know my family was relatively safe, right, Just
Speaker 3: unbelievable human being. So I will always have such a
Speaker 3: special connection with that country from here on in.
Speaker 2: Because of that experience.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and as you know, like it's when things are hard,
Speaker 3: that's when you find out people's true character. True so true,
Speaker 3: so an incredible experience in so many ways, through highs
Speaker 3: and lows.
Speaker 1: We'll move to another place, maybe a bit closer to
Speaker 1: my home now. You recently covered the Super Bowl in Miami. Yes,
Speaker 1: tell us about that experience.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so did Miami in twenty twenty, which was amazing,
Speaker 3: and then LA this year. I was supposed to do
Speaker 3: the one in between as well, but you know pandemic.
Speaker 1: So the way you look at is not a fan
Speaker 1: of that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I miss I miss Brady, but you know
Speaker 3: he's unretired, so maybe I'll get another one. Crazy, but well,
Speaker 3: is just unbelievable. It's like nothing else in the world
Speaker 3: for a like, I know there's a season, but from
Speaker 3: a global perspective, it's a one off event, right, I
Speaker 3: guess a football World Cup final, maybe competes, but pretty
Speaker 3: much everyone has also watched the entire competition unfold as well.
Speaker 3: So as far as just eyeballs tuning in for one game,
Speaker 3: I would say this is unique in that and just
Speaker 3: the ob trucks, so they're the big trucks that broadcasters
Speaker 3: have just to put it to air.
Speaker 2: There's hundreds of them.
Speaker 3: I've never experienced anything like it in my life. And
Speaker 3: in Miami, for example, the set was like five hundred
Speaker 3: meters of purpose built sets on the beach and that's
Speaker 3: not even for the game, that's just for the build
Speaker 3: up for the week. So they're bigger sets than anything
Speaker 3: I've ever worked on in Australia and they're just there
Speaker 3: for like the five days building up to it. This
Speaker 3: year it was in la and because I was working
Speaker 3: with ESPN Australia, which is a Disney partner or affiliate,
Speaker 3: and our set was so we used the same one
Speaker 3: as the domestic guys did and it was unbelievable.
Speaker 2: Its next level.
Speaker 3: So there's this huge set that's in front of the
Speaker 3: world famous like Disney, Mickey Mouse, Ferris Wheel, just crazy
Speaker 3: and our show this is hilarious. And you will find
Speaker 3: this funny now being in a you know, an American
Speaker 3: who plays in the AFL is that our show was
Speaker 3: going to air on the big screens around Disney, but
Speaker 3: it was our Australian one.
Speaker 2: So I'm like, for.
Speaker 3: Example, interviewing a feature story with Ben Griffith's former like Richmond, Yes, exactly,
Speaker 3: really good guy, but like people.
Speaker 2: In Disney like, who the hell's the dude with.
Speaker 1: The mustard does have an Australian accent.
Speaker 3: And so that was so cool when we realized we'rend
Speaker 3: the picture.
Speaker 2: Were like screen.
Speaker 3: They got the photo of me as a twelve year
Speaker 3: old with Dopey and I'm like how it started?
Speaker 1: How?
Speaker 2: And then it was really.
Speaker 3: Cute because there was this little kid he would have been,
Speaker 3: i know, eleven or twelve at the super Bowl.
Speaker 2: Came up to me, little American Kidney.
Speaker 3: Because excuse me, are you the woman that was hosting
Speaker 3: a disney Land? And I'm like, yes, this is the
Speaker 3: colose moment of my life, getting recognized at the Super
Speaker 3: Bowl from hosting a Disney.
Speaker 1: It's so cool.
Speaker 2: So he's like, can I yes.
Speaker 1: That's it? You're like I would love to.
Speaker 2: It was so cool.
Speaker 3: So and it was funny like different people because I
Speaker 3: had told people I was going, you know, to the
Speaker 3: super Bowl. Obviously that was what I was excited about
Speaker 3: as a sports lover. But when they were watching on
Speaker 3: Instagram and stuff, They're like, hang on.
Speaker 2: What you're a Disneyland Like.
Speaker 3: They were more excited about like the lightsaber that I
Speaker 3: got given, which is basically like a real life lightsaber.
Speaker 2: More people were interasion.
Speaker 3: Okay, well, Nick Revolt, for example, was like how much
Speaker 3: I I swear to God.
Speaker 2: I will buy it? And I was like, no, that
Speaker 2: niece and nephews are getting it.
Speaker 1: So it's did you ever go any like pre parties
Speaker 1: or anything like that.
Speaker 3: I didn't this year because I really wanted to avoid
Speaker 3: COVID ahead of NBA All Star Weekend because I knew
Speaker 3: that I had that to look forward to it and
Speaker 3: I didn't want to put that in jeopardy. But in
Speaker 3: Miami I did, yeah, because that was just BEFOREVID.
Speaker 1: Miami in l A. You've picked really good spots.
Speaker 3: I know next year, I'm like, I only do hot super.
Speaker 1: Bowl being a son's lover. That's it. Games. At the
Speaker 1: same time, exactly do you picked all the places you
Speaker 1: essentially wanted to go to. This is what's happened. But
Speaker 1: it is an amazing experience. It's tough to describe people
Speaker 1: how big the sorry the Super Bowl is in America,
Speaker 1: and it's cool that, Like, I love the fact that
Speaker 1: you've got to experience not only one like media and
Speaker 1: America at its best and its biggest kind of like production.
Speaker 1: But I think the game itself. Were you in the stadium? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, so hosted from within the stadium. The first
Speaker 3: time was outside stadium, but went inside to watch the game.
Speaker 3: This year was hosting inside the stadium and then watching
Speaker 3: the game as well from there. So and I got
Speaker 3: I got really lucky with the two halftime shows as well,
Speaker 3: because I got like Jalo Snoop and then this year
Speaker 3: I got like eminem and yeah it was.
Speaker 1: How good was that halftime show?
Speaker 2: It was so good. I mean, I'm very lucky.
Speaker 1: I'm very jealous such as I've got to You've done
Speaker 1: some amazing things as we've gone through. I want to
Speaker 1: talk about, I guess, being female in sporting culture here.
Speaker 1: I know it's it's kind of crazy because there's not
Speaker 1: it's it's changed quite a bit over the last few years.
Speaker 1: Females are now kind of with AFLW being a big
Speaker 1: push in Australia, I feel like there's a lot more
Speaker 1: females that are now commentating there on panels and everything else.
Speaker 1: I'd love to get your perspective being one of the
Speaker 1: probably the people that started before I guess this change,
Speaker 1: and maybe you're kind of the originals that was in
Speaker 1: original females that was in kind of media before all
Speaker 1: this kind of happened. What is your perspective on how
Speaker 1: much it's changed in the industry of females.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and look, I'll give a shout out because there's
Speaker 3: obviously women that came before me, and every generation of
Speaker 3: women push it a little bit further. And the times
Speaker 3: that I've sort of wanted to give up, and there
Speaker 3: have definitely been times that I've wanted to walk away
Speaker 3: because it's all too hard, I then think, well, wherever
Speaker 3: I quit is where I'm leaving it for the next
Speaker 3: lot of women coming through. So the harder that we
Speaker 3: all push, the further we go for them, and then
Speaker 3: they can pick up from that spot and push even
Speaker 3: harder and keep advancing. So I'm really passionate about it,
Speaker 3: and i think I've gotten more passionate about it the
Speaker 3: older that I get as well, you know, seeing images
Speaker 3: like today the AFLW with all eighteen clubs now involved,
Speaker 3: and it just it makes me so happy because I've
Speaker 3: got a you know, a ten year old niece who
Speaker 3: plays footy, She plays with the boys, she plays with
Speaker 3: the girl, she loves it.
Speaker 2: She goes for freo.
Speaker 3: Because I go for Freo and you know, all of
Speaker 3: a sudden, not only does she have an actual platform
Speaker 3: to advance in that sport that I never had. I
Speaker 3: never to play footy as a kid. I played soccer
Speaker 3: with all the boys, but footy didn't exist where I
Speaker 3: was anyway for girls. And I would have loved to
Speaker 3: have played cricket, for example, as a girl, and that
Speaker 3: didn't exist outside of the backyard. So the fact that
Speaker 3: my ten year old niece now does all of these
Speaker 3: things and it's normal for her, but more importantly, it's
Speaker 3: normal for her three little brothers, and her now three
Speaker 3: little brothers play footy because they're cool, big sister does,
Speaker 3: and their auntie reports on it immediately like that. It's
Speaker 3: completely shifted for that generation of boys. So it's hugely
Speaker 3: important we've gotten better on air, there's still a long
Speaker 3: way to go. I would also like to see a
Speaker 3: huge shift behind the scenes. There are still so few
Speaker 3: female producers and definitely female executives in the media landscape,
Speaker 3: and I think that's a really important area because, like
Speaker 3: any diversity, the more opinions you have and different insights
Speaker 3: you have, the better product you're going to get.
Speaker 2: At the end of the day.
Speaker 3: Because you're sharing ideas and exchanging thoughts and opinions and values,
Speaker 3: and you're going to just get a better product rather
Speaker 3: than the same type of person in the room over
Speaker 3: and over and over again.
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you have any role models growing up? And
Speaker 1: when you looked up to in the media so like
Speaker 1: Landscape that you go, oh, if I can be somewhat
Speaker 1: like her and look up to the way she kind
Speaker 1: of handled the situation, I can only imagine being one
Speaker 1: of the originals. And I'm not sit here to I
Speaker 1: kind of be detrimentally talking about kind of media and
Speaker 1: the lack of female representation over the past however many years.
Speaker 1: But is there anyone kind of growing up you kind
Speaker 1: of look to And I was like, oh, my gosh,
Speaker 1: she's kind of my idol.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Joe Green and Karen Tie.
Speaker 3: With the two for me, there were pretty much two
Speaker 3: of the only women on it when I was younger,
Speaker 3: Tiff Cherry and yeah, those sort of figures as I
Speaker 3: got older, got opportunities. But yeah, Karen Tie has been
Speaker 3: around for quite a long time and he's just an
Speaker 3: incredible person, and so is Joe. You know that whole thing,
Speaker 3: And don't meet your heroes those two you can absolutely
Speaker 3: tick off their unbelievable human beings. So they were probably
Speaker 3: the two that I looked to. And it's not in
Speaker 3: a sporting landscape, but I you're gonna this. I say
Speaker 3: that some people find religion. I found Oprah.
Speaker 1: Oprah. Yes, you get the car, you get the car,
Speaker 1: you get car. She is she is redefined I think
Speaker 1: like women in media.
Speaker 3: And to be a black woman who had the upbringing
Speaker 3: that she did and has achieved what she did in
Speaker 3: the era that she has unbelievable. We I know this
Speaker 3: sounds a bit silly, but we undervalue Oprah because her
Speaker 3: impact on you know, that's what I would watch. I
Speaker 3: found her so impressive in the way that she interviewed.
Speaker 3: She knew when to be humorous, she knew when to
Speaker 3: pull back, she knew when to be a little bit
Speaker 3: more aggressive, she knew when to just be silent. And
Speaker 3: so I kind of married up Mum talking about psychology
Speaker 3: and the way that she would get things out of
Speaker 3: patients and Oprah and the way that she would get
Speaker 3: things out of her subjects.
Speaker 2: And I kind of, you know.
Speaker 3: Like to be sort of similar in the way that
Speaker 3: sometimes she does really fun stuff and sometimes she does
Speaker 3: really hardcore stuff. And I like to see myself as
Speaker 3: being not Oprah but that versatile.
Speaker 2: I've got a good name for it though.
Speaker 3: And I just but she was sort of and so
Speaker 3: many things that she, you know, would speak about over
Speaker 3: and over and over has been the way that I view,
Speaker 3: you know, the world, listening to the little voice in
Speaker 3: your head and make you know, acknowledging when you feel
Speaker 3: a certain way, because there's a reason why.
Speaker 2: You do all of those sorts of things. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So she was and still is one of the great
Speaker 3: influences of my life. If I could meet anyone, it
Speaker 3: would be Oprah.
Speaker 1: Oprah. If you have three people you wanted to go
Speaker 1: to dinner with, oprahul be one of them.
Speaker 2: I like this question.
Speaker 3: My answer this is Barack Obama, Oprah, and my best
Speaker 3: mate Errand so that we could talk about it for years.
Speaker 3: Aaron is gonna get Aaron's getting a set at the table?
Speaker 1: Wow?
Speaker 2: Can you argue with my logic? Though?
Speaker 1: I just FaceTime someone in to the table. I would
Speaker 1: just like use the magic of technology, so smart thinking.
Speaker 3: Because then you can sit back, have ones at vast
Speaker 3: feelings and you know.
Speaker 2: Just talk about that.
Speaker 1: I reckon they would they would be able to rif
Speaker 1: off each other very.
Speaker 3: Well to exactly like you've got to be strategic about this.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, like Oprah, I remember Obra was doing
Speaker 1: the interview with the Duke and Duchess something. I'm still
Speaker 1: trying to get my head around the girl family, but
Speaker 1: that interview is awesome. I love that because she she's
Speaker 1: coming back to the back end of her career. Hour
Speaker 1: she doesn't have to deal with it as much like
Speaker 1: she's made her money. She's like done what she wants
Speaker 1: to do. She doesn't have to prove anything. And she
Speaker 1: did that to really kind of like tell their genuine
Speaker 1: story behind it. That was the first time I think
Speaker 1: I really became an Oprah fan. She is.
Speaker 2: She's amazing.
Speaker 3: Honestly, my childhood is just dotted with the Oprah Winfree Show.
Speaker 1: I never saw this going Oprah coming on the podcast.
Speaker 2: I have girly things.
Speaker 1: I mean, Oprah, I just love that. Next is gonna
Speaker 1: be all de generous. I'll ask you this, for female
Speaker 1: and sport, what do you think is the next big
Speaker 1: hurdle to overcome?
Speaker 3: I like, I say more women behind the scenes. So,
Speaker 3: for example, I flw in coaching ranks as well. Why
Speaker 3: has it not worked out as well as it probably
Speaker 3: should have. What are we not doing the support people?
Speaker 3: What can we be doing better behind the scenes in
Speaker 3: the media, As I say, there should be female executives,
Speaker 3: there should be female producers. And I've actually worked with
Speaker 3: more female producers in India in the last two years
Speaker 3: in cricket than I have in Is.
Speaker 1: There a comparative India media and Australian Is there a
Speaker 1: lot more female representation India than.
Speaker 3: Australia behind the scenes in my experience there has been. Yeah,
Speaker 3: there's still a long way to go in India as well,
Speaker 3: but I think we can definitely do more here in
Speaker 3: Australia for those sorts of roles and I would love
Speaker 3: to see that happen. Just trying to increase the diversity
Speaker 3: on all levels. And we're talking before we started recording
Speaker 3: this about Nadini, your new comms.
Speaker 2: Manager's skilessness, very happy.
Speaker 3: I mean, she's a massive, like just a star twenty
Speaker 3: eight year old woman who's just dominating in the AFL
Speaker 3: landscape and just makes me feel brighter and happier about
Speaker 3: the future to come because she's just an incredible person
Speaker 3: and just sees the world differently because, as you say,
Speaker 3: every lot of women coming through have, you know, hopefully
Speaker 3: a more positive experience than the previous generation. So she
Speaker 3: makes me feel happy basically, Like talking to her, I
Speaker 3: just go, Okay, we're getting somewhere. Yeah, we're on the
Speaker 3: right path, and there's still a really long way to go,
Speaker 3: but I think think there are some things that are
Speaker 3: happening that make me feel much better. But I mean,
Speaker 3: there was another one like earlier this year in Pakistan.
Speaker 3: You know, you would think that that was the kind
Speaker 3: of place that you would have an experience like this
Speaker 3: because of the biases or whatever that we have of
Speaker 3: the stereotypes of places. But there was the men's Test
Speaker 3: between Australia and Pakistan. It was the first time in
Speaker 3: more than two decades that Australia had toured Pakistan because
Speaker 3: of the security concerns, so it was a huge deal
Speaker 3: and we had myself and Zanab co hosting, and Ulush
Speaker 3: who was a former female player and selector, and Simon Kaddich.
Speaker 3: So there were four people and seventy five percent of
Speaker 3: us were women hosting a men's test match. Now that
Speaker 3: just doesn't happen. And so for it to happen in
Speaker 3: Pakistan was amazing. And it was cool that it happened
Speaker 3: with Simon Caatdage as well, because I've interviewed him and
Speaker 3: you had so much to do with him and good
Speaker 3: mates with him over such a long period of time.
Speaker 3: And it was really ice that he was there and
Speaker 3: he thought it was really cool. Yeah, he bought into it,
Speaker 3: he brought into it. Yeah, and it wasn't a gimmick.
Speaker 3: It just happened to be how the roster fell that day.
Speaker 3: So yeah, moments like that, I get goosebunts talking about it,
Speaker 3: but moments like that filled me with a lot of joy.
Speaker 1: It's like we did a little bit of a TV
Speaker 1: thing called on the Mark. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: remember this back in the day, and it's all female cast.
Speaker 1: I loved it. It was good. Fine, I could just
Speaker 1: stay there all day. Now. I got a pie out
Speaker 1: of that day too, which is awesome. It's delicious. It
Speaker 1: was delicious. It was like it was thank you Independent
Speaker 1: day and that was all female cast, and I found
Speaker 1: it like that was very different feel in there. We're
Speaker 1: like you talk about even on your podcast where you
Speaker 1: can I don't know, it's like maybe it's like a
Speaker 1: motherly instinct of like, you know, you just are more
Speaker 1: willing to open up to females than males sometimes, and
Speaker 1: you know you're probably not going to cop the backlash
Speaker 1: or the banter quote unquote of Australian media if you're
Speaker 1: kind of in a female cast. Like I remember being
Speaker 1: on there and I was just like totally comfortable walking
Speaker 1: in knew everyone like just said Hi, what's up, and
Speaker 1: just I remember what we talked about, probably my career
Speaker 1: and everything else, you know, but like I just felt
Speaker 1: really at ease, like for some reason. And I think
Speaker 1: there's something that as a as a person on the
Speaker 1: other side of the camera, like and maybe you talk
Speaker 1: about producers and stuff, that they can maybe realize that
Speaker 1: there is a bit of value to that of having
Speaker 1: a lot more females and and things like whether it
Speaker 1: be in media shows, you know, sideline stuff like Abby
Speaker 1: Homes and Daisy Pierce are smashing it in the media
Speaker 1: now and they're doing so well, and it's it's great
Speaker 1: to see him and Daisy's like seeing things with the
Speaker 1: Abby like they know their stuff and it's like they
Speaker 1: just slot in like seamlessly, and it's so good to.
Speaker 3: See yeah, And I think like I sort of always
Speaker 3: describe myself as a little sister.
Speaker 2: Although I'm older.
Speaker 3: Than pretty much everyone in the AFL now except for
Speaker 3: David Mundy keep going, please, David.
Speaker 2: In roles in commentary teams.
Speaker 3: And stuff, I always sort of describe myself as a
Speaker 3: little sister. And I think, you know, you do talk
Speaker 3: to your sisters, to your your girlfriends, your mother, as
Speaker 3: you said, more openly, I think about emotional stuff and
Speaker 3: you do because it's not as combative or competitive or whatever.
Speaker 3: And you know it's great that boys are getting better
Speaker 3: at talking about their feelings. I think, yeah, but I think, yeah,
Speaker 3: it is. There is something to be said for we
Speaker 3: come from a different perspective and you just don't know
Speaker 3: what that's going to bring to the table unless you
Speaker 3: let us sit at the table.
Speaker 1: That's so true. Is there anyone you look at now
Speaker 1: that's coming through the ranks, even for me, if I
Speaker 1: wor anything like that you just thoroughly impressed with.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm a big fan of Chloe Malloy, who's
Speaker 3: obviously your She.
Speaker 1: Actually stocked me one day going to get a scanned,
Speaker 1: and she was like apologizing as she was stocking with.
Speaker 2: Us friends with sorry. Yeah, it's like it's like she.
Speaker 1: Was kind of like she was apologizing but also having
Speaker 1: to ask the questions. Yeah, it is, you like walking
Speaker 1: up me like I'm not going to tell you anything.
Speaker 1: I don't know anything yet, and then she sends me
Speaker 1: a message after she's like, oh my gosh, I'm so so,
Speaker 1: I'm so embarrassed. I was like just doing your job,
Speaker 1: like it doesn't really bother me. But it was weird
Speaker 1: seeing like someone who's like on partophilel like program and
Speaker 1: then also like asking me like questions that the media
Speaker 1: is trying to like get out of me. But she is.
Speaker 1: She's lovely, she's so funny.
Speaker 3: She's absolutely gone you know, basketball as well obviously as
Speaker 3: well as footy and just a lovely person. And yeah,
Speaker 3: so she's probably the one that i'd pick out of that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so what's next for you?
Speaker 3: So I am heading off to Europe in about twelve
Speaker 3: hours still pass right, Yeah my flats like two weeks ago. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so I'm heading over to Europe just for travel because usually,
Speaker 3: as we've sort of touched on, I'm doing footy, but
Speaker 3: sorted most of my work is overseas at the moment.
Speaker 3: And with the Indian Premier League and stuff, so I
Speaker 3: get to just travel for fun over the next few weeks, which.
Speaker 2: I'm really excited about. I've never been able to.
Speaker 3: Do it this time a year usually sort of go
Speaker 3: on that October November range, so I'm excited for that.
Speaker 3: And then yeah, Women's Basketball World carp and Men's Cricket
Speaker 3: World Cup later in the year, so it's good.
Speaker 2: It's fun.
Speaker 3: I'm sort of my two pass in you know, the
Speaker 3: professional environment and live live sport, you know, major events
Speaker 3: and long form interviews. So if I can keep sort
Speaker 3: of ticking those two things off and then have time
Speaker 3: to travel and spend time with family and friends, and
Speaker 3: I'm pretty happy.
Speaker 1: I'm very jealous of this whole trip to Europe. It
Speaker 1: is sumwhere it's prime time. It's one of the downsides
Speaker 1: of playing AFLs, you never get the European summer, but
Speaker 1: I'm glad you get to experience it. I want to
Speaker 1: say personally a massive thank you for coming on. My
Speaker 1: mom's gonna be so pumped for this podcast. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna lie, but and honestly, you're breaking the glass ceiling
Speaker 1: and I love it. You're You're a perfect person. For it, who,
Speaker 1: like I said before, as someone everyone seems to really
Speaker 1: want to open up to, and you're just a very
Speaker 1: calming personality. So I want to say personally thank you
Speaker 1: for coming on the podcast, but also thank you for
Speaker 1: being such a shining light in the media as a female.
Speaker 1: So thanks so much for coming on.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you very much for having me in all
Speaker 2: the kind words as well.
Speaker 3: And you may not know this name, but as Rove
Speaker 3: McManus would always finish his show with, say how do
Speaker 3: your mom for me?
Speaker 1: Oh, Rove, I do know.
Speaker 3: Rov got Sen