Speaker 1: Good news.
Speaker 2: If you're listening to this, it means you were joining
Speaker 2: us for a bonus episode of Two Doting Dads. These
Speaker 2: are the episodes where we have a guest that comes
Speaker 2: on the podcast, another parent out there to talk to
Speaker 2: us about how they're managing one of the hardest jobs
Speaker 2: in the world. And we're very excited because today we
Speaker 2: have MAXI Gone. I don't know if we can call
Speaker 2: them maxigone. I kind of just I feel like Max
Speaker 2: Gon maxigone. We call them maxigone because we are obviously
Speaker 2: now very good friends. Yeah, best Max Gone.
Speaker 3: Within the inner circle.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, some may.
Speaker 2: Say if you're in the inner sanctum with Max Gone,
Speaker 2: you can call him MAXI. For everybody else, please only
Speaker 2: refer to him as Max. But for those of you
Speaker 2: who do not know Max. He is a captain of
Speaker 2: the Melbourne AFL Club. He's also proud dad to George,
Speaker 2: born in October, four weeks after Melbourne's drought breaking premiership
Speaker 2: win in twoenty and twenty one.
Speaker 4: Max is also an ambassad for Lulu Lemon Matthew which
Speaker 4: lul Lemon are, as you know, the leaders in technical
Speaker 4: athletic apparel, but they also have amazing Men's Cash Aware,
Speaker 4: which you can see us head to toe Maxie as well.
Speaker 2: Can I just say thank you so much to you
Speaker 2: me because you have brought this relationship together.
Speaker 4: You went on that Japanese I went to Japan Lemon Stride.
Speaker 2: We have built that friendship where it now extends to
Speaker 2: the podcast and I couldn't be happy because I'm dressed
Speaker 2: head to toe right now in Lulu Lemon and I've
Speaker 2: never felt more beautiful.
Speaker 4: Well, they are all about meaningful connections, well being in
Speaker 4: the community, bringing people together, Matthew, so a huge thanks
Speaker 4: to them for having us. We're actually situated in their
Speaker 4: office which you'll see on our socials as well, and
Speaker 4: this episod wouldn't be made possible if it wasn't for them.
Speaker 2: Fay, Welcome back, Welcome back.
Speaker 1: Sorry, I'm going to muzzle you.
Speaker 3: This is the professional production.
Speaker 2: Tied under the Table. Welcome back to three doting dads.
Speaker 2: I am Maddie, Jay.
Speaker 3: I'm Ash, I'm Max Gorn and today will.
Speaker 2: Be a little bit different because we always say this
Speaker 2: is a podcast about parenting, the good, the bad, the relatable,
Speaker 2: and we always try and make sure that people are
Speaker 2: aware that at no point throughout the podcast. Are we
Speaker 2: going to give any advice? But today very different. Today
Speaker 2: is a different story because we have Max here, and
Speaker 2: I feel like Max you are, You're like the poster
Speaker 2: child of the AFL and what a dad should look and.
Speaker 1: Behave like Absolutely, I mean I think I'll tackle it
Speaker 1: as a compliment that was intended as a compliment.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, we don't know.
Speaker 2: I can go harder.
Speaker 1: Don't push him, don't push to the water that I
Speaker 1: love you. I'm not sure how much? What do you
Speaker 1: guys watch? I think Tom Hawkin's sort of reeks of
Speaker 1: a good looking dad.
Speaker 4: He's not here.
Speaker 1: Yes, obviously I'm a father and our playfl so I
Speaker 1: took both those boxes. Got a little two year old
Speaker 1: well closer to Georgie boy George Gone, George Gorne Strong Strong.
Speaker 3: That's a great name.
Speaker 1: We liked the whole gg thing and we also liked
Speaker 1: a solid name. Any middle names, Oliver. Yeah, as you
Speaker 1: can see, my wife is a monarchy fan. And if
Speaker 1: you had seen the short list, we've actually got another
Speaker 1: boy on the way.
Speaker 3: Oh congratulations.
Speaker 1: And if you had have seen the shortlist for names,
Speaker 1: it's very royal with.
Speaker 2: Any that you threw out that Jess your wife said no, no, no.
Speaker 1: He has not been a king. There is no there's
Speaker 1: no king Michael what the problem is.
Speaker 3: But probably probably be headed a few people.
Speaker 1: I've had some names. I go in and out of names.
Speaker 1: I'm more so Jess finds like fifty names and says
Speaker 1: yes all, I'm no to every name, and then there's
Speaker 1: one that pops in. I'm like, yeah, you can do that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's like with me too, with my eldest is Oscar,
Speaker 4: and every other name I put forward was like nah, no.
Speaker 4: I was the one that I was like, what about
Speaker 4: and I was when she said yeah, I like that.
Speaker 3: I was shocked.
Speaker 1: I don't like the whole I know someone with that name.
Speaker 1: I know some George's, but like, I know someone really
Speaker 1: well with that name.
Speaker 2: What was the name that was a hard no?
Speaker 1: That was thrown out by Jess Jess's dream. I mean,
Speaker 1: we didn't have a girl, but jess as dream was
Speaker 1: the call of first girl, Rosie. Beautiful, beautiful name, but
Speaker 1: I have negative connotations with that name. What happened, well,
Speaker 1: just a few people my primary school.
Speaker 4: Associated with, like primary school, preschool.
Speaker 1: Primary school. I haven't seen the person since, but hopefully
Speaker 1: not a massive listener. Yeah, that just stems from there.
Speaker 1: And then straight away if I called my daughter Rosie,
Speaker 1: I'd be thinking of that person from you don't want
Speaker 1: that so and it's her dream to have a daughter.
Speaker 1: Lucky we not having a daughter, but well not sorry,
Speaker 1: would love a daughter.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, changed you.
Speaker 2: I guess your son could be a Rosie. It could be.
Speaker 2: You know these names, there's certain Listender's one that could
Speaker 2: kind of go both.
Speaker 1: Ways, potentially could have saved it. And then my boy
Speaker 1: name was Vinnie. Oh that's cool. But then because of
Speaker 1: massive home having Away man growing up, Yeah, it wasn't Vinnie.
Speaker 1: Like the main actor the lifeguard you guys having Away
Speaker 1: was here with Kate Richard.
Speaker 3: I mean, I've never seen an episode. Is that an Australian.
Speaker 1: You probably did a favorit to homework coming into David
Speaker 1: Home and Away wouldn't have been nought about.
Speaker 3: It was just in case every Australian.
Speaker 2: I was like, surely not right as you'll never.
Speaker 1: Bring it up.
Speaker 3: He'll never bring up Home in Away. We actually had
Speaker 3: that conversation.
Speaker 2: Speaking of primary school, what were you like as a youngster?
Speaker 2: Were you someone who got into mischief?
Speaker 1: I've always battled with I mean, this goes into more
Speaker 1: of an adulthood type issue. But I've always battled with
Speaker 1: wanting to be liked type set up. One of my
Speaker 1: greatest values but also a weakness, is my sense of belonging.
Speaker 1: I really enjoy that. And then you battle with wanted
Speaker 1: to be liked, so primary school, I'd lead to primary school.
Speaker 1: Everything stems from just wanting to be liked, wanting to
Speaker 1: not miss out, fomo, all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2: So did you try and slot into that role of
Speaker 2: being liked by being the class clown at all?
Speaker 1: Certainly would have gone down that path. I would say
Speaker 1: it would be a majority of my report.
Speaker 4: Cards distracts others easily was.
Speaker 3: Etched into my brain.
Speaker 1: I feel like that's on everyone's yea, even the class
Speaker 1: pets would distract of it.
Speaker 2: You got to throw it in there. It's just like
Speaker 2: a standard remark.
Speaker 4: You're like ten years old, you know, I don't really
Speaker 4: know any different. Yeah, when did you really hit your
Speaker 4: height statue wise?
Speaker 3: That yeah?
Speaker 1: Because you are closet Yeah just under eleven? Yeah, even six.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I shook my hand when we first met, and I
Speaker 2: just got lost in your grip.
Speaker 1: Okay, I didn't get that sensation from you, but just time.
Speaker 3: Just a really big hand.
Speaker 4: Matt's one of those guys who's six foot but tells
Speaker 4: everyone he's six too.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's all right, six one, and whole family is
Speaker 1: six foot flat really, and then I'm six ten. It's weird.
Speaker 1: See what happened either the milkman or so my mum's
Speaker 1: six foot, so that's tall.
Speaker 3: That's tall.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so mum, dad, two brothers, all six foot, big
Speaker 1: family man, big a lot of food.
Speaker 2: Yeah, obviously those grocery bills must have been a bloody
Speaker 2: night mare.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, now I've gonna have a second boy, and
Speaker 1: I already have a boy, and I'm a big eater.
Speaker 1: So the grocery bills continue in this household. But the
Speaker 1: height lies year twelve, so not till I was I
Speaker 1: was tall. Sorry, I was always tall, but when I
Speaker 1: got to six ten tall yeah, year twelve. So I
Speaker 1: was actually like a bit of a midfielder type set
Speaker 1: up when I was playing football as a young kid.
Speaker 2: Roughly just ballpark. How tall are we talking at this point?
Speaker 2: We're going in like graade eleven, grade twelve.
Speaker 1: I was always in sort of the year eleven, year ten.
Speaker 1: I was always in the one nine so low one nineties.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what that is. Six foot one eighty
Speaker 1: seven is it? So? Maybe like six six to one?
Speaker 2: And then I know this ash so because you're five ten.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm the tallest in my family though.
Speaker 3: That's just so you guys know.
Speaker 2: Disappointing.
Speaker 3: So I go home and I feel I know it's
Speaker 3: going to be tiny.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And then year twelve I went to two eight,
Speaker 1: which I am now so wow.
Speaker 2: And so then did that have like a positive or
Speaker 2: negative effect on your footy?
Speaker 1: Had a negati effect on my body. As you can
Speaker 1: imagine growing that quickly, you're probably gonna something that's going
Speaker 1: to give my knees. My NAEs gave when I was young.
Speaker 1: So I'm two nierekos one going into them. Fully, No,
Speaker 1: it's not a certainly not a footy podcast. It's certainly
Speaker 1: on physio podcast. But yeah, I had a lot of
Speaker 1: injuries when I was a young kid, and probably from
Speaker 1: that put on a lot of weight real quickly as well,
Speaker 1: which would have put a lot of joints under pressure.
Speaker 3: Did your feet grow really big too?
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're still growing.
Speaker 3: How about now?
Speaker 1: So I'm a fourteen get out and I'm so long
Speaker 1: stories short. The boot I wore stopped making this type
Speaker 1: of boot, and I got worded up that they were
Speaker 1: going to stop making it, so I bought twelve pairs.
Speaker 1: I brought twelve pairs.
Speaker 2: Of that's when you're in grade twelve.
Speaker 1: No, no, this is now. This is now. So I
Speaker 1: brought twelve pairs of this boot and stocked up, and
Speaker 1: I'm still I'm down to my last pair now. So
Speaker 1: I'm playing out there with my list.
Speaker 3: Anybody listening right now, if.
Speaker 2: You knocked on their door and said you couldn't give
Speaker 2: me a size fourteen.
Speaker 1: I've stoped making them. The issue is, I'm now like
Speaker 1: a fourteen point two. So the boots I'm wearing is
Speaker 1: a bit too small for me, and my feet aren't
Speaker 1: responding great from it. Oh my god, So my foot
Speaker 1: has grown since I first brought these twelve two or
Speaker 1: three years ago.
Speaker 3: You're thirty two, thirty two this year.
Speaker 4: So you're ninety one and thirty two is still growing.
Speaker 2: Doctors said, hey, Maxie, we don't know when this is going.
Speaker 1: To We're looking at the projection.
Speaker 2: Ralph is telling us that if you.
Speaker 4: Lived in ninety my god, your foot's going to be
Speaker 4: about that big.
Speaker 1: Imagine that, imagine my foot, because fourteen is where it
Speaker 1: stops in terms of shops.
Speaker 3: Yep, you got to special shops.
Speaker 1: Don't stop fifteens for some reason. They stop fourteens. So
Speaker 1: I can go in casually to a Chats and expect
Speaker 1: a fourteen to be there. Yeah, but fifteen I'm going
Speaker 1: to America.
Speaker 3: Yeah, totally.
Speaker 4: I suppose like they're probably like, no, look, we wouldn't
Speaker 4: sell enough of those shoes to actually warrant.
Speaker 3: Making them in putting him in shops.
Speaker 2: I do just want to sit on foot content for
Speaker 2: a bit longer.
Speaker 1: Okay, we'll keep it forward. People right now are like,
Speaker 1: this is am the right podcast. Well, George is a six,
Speaker 1: if that helps George, George is six or yeah, six
Speaker 1: or seven? Oh my god, he's gone through a couple
Speaker 1: of pairs of shoes already. Oh my godness, must.
Speaker 2: Be just churning three two wears and they're out.
Speaker 1: There's a popular thing in football at the moment. I'm
Speaker 1: sharing the rockload with a guy named Brodie Grundy, and
Speaker 1: we're both sort of good rucks in our own right
Speaker 1: that have joined the same team. And I was sitting
Speaker 1: there going my son's two, it's about six foot six already.
Speaker 1: It's a good chance we're just going me and my
Speaker 1: son rather than going all that effort to get Brodie
Speaker 1: into Melbourne.
Speaker 2: Yeah, has there been a father son matchup on a team,
Speaker 2: and like it's been close modern day era close, but
Speaker 2: the Sun didn't end up being talented enough to make it.
Speaker 1: No pressure, George.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they later just owned him.
Speaker 2: So you're grade twelve, You've got this huge gross but
Speaker 2: you've got a few injuries at this point. Are you
Speaker 2: thinking that, hey, a real career for me is going
Speaker 2: to be afl or is it more just a sport
Speaker 2: that you're enjoying at the time.
Speaker 1: Certainly enjoying. All My maides played footy. My parents are
Speaker 1: kiwe So I didn't have much footy, didn't play like
Speaker 1: the real junior stuff. Actually played rugby union as a junior.
Speaker 1: Found out I didn't like tackling, so it probably wasn't
Speaker 1: the sport for me. And then yeah, footy came into it,
Speaker 1: and then I worked out I was relatively talented at it,
Speaker 1: and then injuries hit in the around gear twelve exams
Speaker 1: and schoolies and all sorts of stuff. I love how
Speaker 1: schoolies is on par with your twelve exams. Now I
Speaker 1: got drafted the day before. Oh but I was paid
Speaker 1: ready to go, right.
Speaker 3: So you can't.
Speaker 4: There's no time to like celebrate.
Speaker 1: Training the next day. Oh my god, drafted. Didn't know
Speaker 1: where your club?
Speaker 3: They probably do that so that you don't go.
Speaker 1: All that simple reason why yourself up? Were a Barron
Speaker 1: crew that I was Barron. How did the boys react
Speaker 1: to Well, they all came over draft night, so I
Speaker 1: was relatively confident Draft knight. I had a few people
Speaker 1: there would have been miserable night if that didn't.
Speaker 3: Would have been as up then.
Speaker 1: And then they took off to schools and I took
Speaker 1: off to training.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I always had a sneaky feeling in the
Speaker 1: round that year twelve year that football was going to
Speaker 1: be go for me. I was still relatively good at school.
Speaker 1: I'm a mathematician almost like I was really good at Mass.
Speaker 1: Don't test me right now, I haven't.
Speaker 3: It's just about to whip.
Speaker 1: Name. So I always had that to fall back on.
Speaker 4: And who opened you up to the world of.
Speaker 1: AFL certainly friends. My dad, even though now he thinks
Speaker 1: he is responsible, knows his way around a football field,
Speaker 1: but he does it was friends. It was around fourteen fifteen,
Speaker 1: I dare say so I was a sort of a
Speaker 1: late blooey in that sense. I always loved it. Though
Speaker 1: my whole family didn't really watch football, but I was
Speaker 1: watching it at home. I'm the Australian born in the family,
Speaker 1: the rest of all Kiwi born.
Speaker 3: Are you the youngest?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Youngest of how many three?
Speaker 3: Three?
Speaker 1: So yeah, around fifteen, getting serious around seventeen. And I've
Speaker 1: been at the same football club since i was seven een. Wow,
Speaker 1: I've been in Melbourne that whole oil.
Speaker 2: So when you got drafted in your first year, how
Speaker 2: did you find that change of lifestyle?
Speaker 1: It's a lot. So the best way to put this
Speaker 1: is private school kids tend to get a better chance
Speaker 1: of getting drafted. And if you look through the AFL,
Speaker 1: ninety percent of private school.
Speaker 2: Just because they get more attention, there's more funding.
Speaker 1: And the talented kids tend to get if they're talented
Speaker 1: at fifteen, they get a scholarship. So they're usually private school.
Speaker 1: So I'm from a public school with a family that
Speaker 1: don't know football, and I get drafted to a place
Speaker 1: that I had no idea how to act, and I've
Speaker 1: got a famous story that you two probably haven't come across.
Speaker 1: In my feik. I caught having a cigarette on the
Speaker 1: way to train.
Speaker 3: No, yeah, what were you just walking in the car
Speaker 3: so winning?
Speaker 1: Did you know the monast Freeway? No, so there's a
Speaker 1: freeway that goes we training Cramban, which is forty minutes away.
Speaker 1: And I live in the city. Most people do. And
Speaker 1: so I was driving down to Crambern and I just
Speaker 1: this is me at seventeen. This is how professional I
Speaker 1: thought I was. I just lit up a dart on
Speaker 1: the way down to training, thinking no one else would
Speaker 1: be on the freeway at the same time. Were you
Speaker 1: craving a hitting nicotine? Or I had a deck left
Speaker 1: in the car from the night before. I drove some
Speaker 1: of my mates out right, so I didn't. I don't
Speaker 1: think I probably had brought a deck or two, but
Speaker 1: I don't think that was My deck of cigarettes was
Speaker 1: a PJ Gold if that helps. And yeah, I just
Speaker 1: thought no one would be on the I don't know
Speaker 1: what I was thinking. And Carl Cheney, a teammate of mine,
Speaker 1: was on the road next to me, and I didn't
Speaker 1: see him, so imagine what he's seen. Because I haven't
Speaker 1: tried to hide or anything. He's probably just living my
Speaker 1: best life.
Speaker 3: Down.
Speaker 2: At least you went drinking at the same time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well I didn't get to that. I wasn't drinking
Speaker 1: at the same time.
Speaker 2: Was he like a senior play or no?
Speaker 1: But his best mate was the captain And then the
Speaker 1: captain found out And then I remember having this is
Speaker 1: in my fourth week or something. At least your group
Speaker 1: was nine people semi circle me in the middle and
Speaker 1: they start and they set me up. It's Brett Maloney
Speaker 1: was sharp, right, goes, have you been doing whatever it
Speaker 1: takes to because whatever it takes was our motto. You've
Speaker 1: been doing whatever it takes. He's got to remember I've
Speaker 1: had the dart thinking of just me only I knew
Speaker 1: I had to dart.
Speaker 2: What was your first answer?
Speaker 1: I said yes, I said yep, with a confident ye confident.
Speaker 1: Yet it was then and then another team I went
Speaker 1: straight away and said, so you weren't having a dart
Speaker 1: on the way to training. I said, Jesus yes, And
Speaker 1: then I blamed it on my family. I just was
Speaker 1: in a rabbit hole and I'm like, how do I
Speaker 1: get out of? And I said mom and dad addicted
Speaker 1: like they've never had a dart in my life. My
Speaker 1: mom and dad are addicted to smoking. I was late
Speaker 1: eleven times in my first three months. I just like
Speaker 1: I was late to school a lot and just flew on.
Speaker 2: Is that because you just were bad with time or
Speaker 2: you weren't taking it?
Speaker 1: Probably a bit of both. Probably a bit bad with time,
Speaker 1: Like I haven't been late since my first year, So
Speaker 1: like whatever got installed in me in that first year,
Speaker 1: I've then gone completely the other way and rocking up.
Speaker 1: You guys saw me today, I was here literally two
Speaker 1: hours earlier.
Speaker 4: I can imagine that you probably wouldn't be captain. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I was still smoking darts.
Speaker 3: On the way.
Speaker 1: So the transformation I had to grow. I had to
Speaker 1: become an adult quicker than all my mates. I dare
Speaker 1: say some of them are thirty one and still not
Speaker 1: quite there. And I had to do it sort of
Speaker 1: in a year. It was hard. I was seventeen when
Speaker 1: I first got there, had really bad professional standards. I
Speaker 1: was injured, so it wasn't football.
Speaker 2: Because your first acl and we won't talk too much
Speaker 2: about your injuries, but just really quickly, when was that?
Speaker 1: How old? When I was seventeen?
Speaker 2: And so in those moments where you know an ACL
Speaker 2: that's pretty serious as bad as it gets. Really mentally,
Speaker 2: where are you at with that injury? Is it just
Speaker 2: a case of well, I'll just recover as quick as
Speaker 2: I can and get back on the field.
Speaker 1: The first time you get drafted as a childhood dream.
Speaker 1: So I was halfway through my retail when I got drafted,
Speaker 1: and yeah, I'm like, how good life? Ime drafted? I
Speaker 1: don't know, have to train and I get to play
Speaker 1: for Melbourn Football Club. Get the salary I'm getting, And
Speaker 1: that was pretty cool. The second one I struggled a lot.
Speaker 1: That was when I was twenty and I'd been in
Speaker 1: the system for a couple of years. And the thing
Speaker 1: that actually got me through was so like Pitcher, being
Speaker 1: in the gym by yourself, doing a really hard bark
Speaker 1: ride or something like that by yourself. In football world,
Speaker 1: that's seen as like a lonely, lonely place. But I
Speaker 1: would have been doing that at five am before I worked,
Speaker 1: if I wasn't playing football. But I'm getting paid to
Speaker 1: do it at nine o'clock in a state of the
Speaker 1: art facility. Yeah, that's what got me through a little bit.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I was young, I would hate to be injured. Now,
Speaker 1: I would hate to do an aco now.
Speaker 2: You think it helped having an injury so.
Speaker 1: Young, certainly it made me grow up quicker. The biggest
Speaker 1: issue I had when I first got to the club
Speaker 1: was how to be myself. Like I really struggled with that.
Speaker 1: Like I had this picture of the person they wanted
Speaker 1: me to be, and I felt like the way I
Speaker 1: was acting, I was going the other way. And all
Speaker 1: the conversations that I had about me as a person
Speaker 1: was all about changing that person and becoming this person.
Speaker 1: I feel like what I've eventually done is just clean
Speaker 1: to this person up a tiny bit. But for a
Speaker 1: while there, I was like trying to full change and
Speaker 1: like I didn't I didn't know myself didn't really have
Speaker 1: a good stance in the football club.
Speaker 2: What do you think was the turning point that allowed
Speaker 2: you to be more comfortable in your own skin.
Speaker 1: It's mentors and leaders and it's just getting yourself around
Speaker 1: the right ones. I'm not sure if you guys had heard,
Speaker 1: you probably would have. He's a living legend. We're not
Speaker 1: living anymore, but he's a legend. Is Jim Stein's. Yes,
Speaker 1: And he started the Reach Foundation, which is actually just
Speaker 1: around the corner from where we're recording today, and he
Speaker 1: was our club president, and that's extremely lucky to have
Speaker 1: a guy like that being the club president. I walked
Speaker 1: in and he was the one the whole time, and
Speaker 1: it's amazing, Like he's had such a strength in adolescence
Speaker 1: now and you look back, he go, wow, he was
Speaker 1: so good with me. My draft, my boyer pick one,
Speaker 1: pick two, pick ten, pick eighteen all in our team
Speaker 1: and I was picked fifty or something, so I was down.
Speaker 1: I was like the sixth guy. No one was really
Speaker 1: that interested in me. I was having a dart and
Speaker 1: Jim Steins randomly goes, I like this guy because he
Speaker 1: could tell that I was a different cat, and he
Speaker 1: just kept me on that wagon the whole time. Every
Speaker 1: time he saw me doing something that he thought wasn't me,
Speaker 1: He's like, come on, man, just do that. Just do that.
Speaker 1: The Max corn Way, like the hardest thing to do
Speaker 1: is to go out there on the MCAG in front
Speaker 1: of ninety thousand and play football. Imagine trying to play
Speaker 1: football and not be Max Gorn at the same time
Speaker 1: you're trying to be someone else. Yeah, Like it just
Speaker 1: seems like looking back I'm my Why was I trying
Speaker 1: to do that for so long and it's now I'm captain.
Speaker 1: It allows me to know eighteen year olds are rocking
Speaker 1: up in all different shapes and sizes, with all different backgrounds.
Speaker 1: We're getting kids from the middle of Australia, bottom of Tasmania,
Speaker 1: private public school when they come in and I just
Speaker 1: know they're going to be different and the best way
Speaker 1: for them to finally win a premiership is to be themselves.
Speaker 1: It's a good mess. It goes into fatherhood as well.
Speaker 1: I'm sure we're touch on that.
Speaker 4: You know, going to a footag club with those sort
Speaker 4: of thoughts about yourself, do they provide anywhere for you
Speaker 4: to go to seek support, like other than just picking
Speaker 4: out the mentors that you want to be around.
Speaker 3: Do they physically or do they have you.
Speaker 4: Know, people there that can support you through that sort
Speaker 4: of stuff?
Speaker 1: Certainly not old school football. So when I got drafted,
Speaker 1: men's mental health wasn't a thing. I was sort of
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, two thousand and nine where it
Speaker 1: was almost just starting, but we had no one in
Speaker 1: that role and it was still the football club was
Speaker 1: a place for banter, which is a shocking word, And
Speaker 1: I mean there still is a bit of laughter around
Speaker 1: FOOTB club and that would be a bad place to
Speaker 1: be if there wasn't. But nowadays it's just such a
Speaker 1: different vibe in not just football clubs, in my circle
Speaker 1: of friends. Yeah, which I think is a great thing
Speaker 1: that mental health has come a long way. But yeah,
Speaker 1: when I first started, it was you'll be this guy
Speaker 1: or you're out of the system.
Speaker 3: Wow, okay, so there was no like, you'll be this guy.
Speaker 4: But if you're not that guy, we can help you
Speaker 4: become that guy unless you, like you said, you picked
Speaker 4: your mentors, because there would be so many young guys,
Speaker 4: you know, vulnerable young guys as well, going through the
Speaker 4: system that have been drafted and put into your position
Speaker 4: and then falling short.
Speaker 3: Because they don't have the mentor all the support.
Speaker 4: So it's good to know like now of football clubs
Speaker 4: like well, we recognize that men's mental health is super important,
Speaker 4: and you know, they've got a place for you to
Speaker 4: go and sometimes rediscover yourself.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's very it's very strong now. If you were
Speaker 1: a football got drafted and you were struggling talent wise,
Speaker 1: you'd be at the bottom of the pile. The amounts
Speaker 1: of bad news, bad press, the coaches, the stuff you'd
Speaker 1: begin every day. Now it's look, there's some stuff you'd
Speaker 1: work on. We're going to work as you as a person,
Speaker 1: and it's a much better place to be society wise.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because a lot of the time, like when people
Speaker 4: are having slumps in their form, it can be mentally
Speaker 4: unless they're coming back from a really big injury.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's so much correlation between being and a
Speaker 1: happy place and playing good.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Maxie, this might be a stupid question, Okay, trap
Speaker 2: yourself in. I do not ask it anyway. I'm assuming
Speaker 2: that the club must know a lot of your movements.
Speaker 2: There must be just, you know, total conversation and clarity
Speaker 2: between what you're doing in life and the club's aware
Speaker 2: of that. Do you have to go to them and
Speaker 2: say I'm thinking about trying to start a family or
Speaker 2: can you just say like, hey.
Speaker 3: Good news, guys, well haven't you had one soon turn around?
Speaker 3: Can we watch? That would be weird.
Speaker 1: I don't know, No, I didn't tell them. I do
Speaker 1: wonder that question myself because with the growing of women's sports,
Speaker 1: especially AFL debut, I feel like that might be a
Speaker 1: conversation that sometimes would have to happen in that landscape. Obviously,
Speaker 1: with the paternity leave, you don't.
Speaker 2: Have to say, hey, guys, can I have a kid
Speaker 2: and a concentration?
Speaker 1: I just thought no questions, but that one.
Speaker 2: No one is knowing what impact it could have. It's
Speaker 2: such a disruption to routine.
Speaker 4: Especially then paying you like an X amount of money
Speaker 4: to complete a contract and then you just don't know
Speaker 4: what's going to happen during that time anyway.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of support they go straight to
Speaker 1: rather than what you can't do, it's you do whatever
Speaker 1: you want to do and then we'll support you either way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 2: So then in terms of announcing your pregnancy, what was
Speaker 2: the hierarchy the list of people that you went through.
Speaker 1: Well, we've just done it all again. So it's here
Speaker 1: we go. It's quite an exciting little We haven't done
Speaker 1: the socials yet.
Speaker 3: We're getting there before the societ.
Speaker 1: I'll try and beat this podcast.
Speaker 5: Maybe too late, get me out on the phone, will
Speaker 5: you do like a little a little shoot.
Speaker 1: Perhaps I don't I'm not big on the socials, and
Speaker 1: I'm certainly not big on the same socials that a
Speaker 1: lot of other people do. I might do like a
Speaker 1: little subtle one, but everyone who needs to know knows.
Speaker 1: So what you guys, you're in the need to.
Speaker 4: Know, Yes, all I've on the inner circle.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but certainly the first time, as you guys can
Speaker 1: probably remember it, it's an amazing moment when you finally
Speaker 1: find out you're pregnant. There's obviously, I can't believe how
Speaker 1: many different hoops there are to work out you can
Speaker 1: finally tell someone, Like there's the first pregnancy tests where
Speaker 1: only you and your wife really know. Then there's the
Speaker 1: first scan where only you and your wife and maybe
Speaker 1: you can tell one extra. Yeah, Then there's until you
Speaker 1: get to I think it's like eighteen weeks or twenty weeks.
Speaker 3: Even twelve weeks.
Speaker 1: Now twelve weeks is like tell your family and then
Speaker 1: twenty years tell the world, because that's kind of not
Speaker 1: in the clear.
Speaker 2: But it's a good place to be if you're all
Speaker 2: good at eighteen weeks.
Speaker 4: And as a bloke, you don't want to tell people
Speaker 4: that your wife hasn't already told. Yep, I remember doing that,
Speaker 4: pissed one.
Speaker 2: Night when you have a few times.
Speaker 3: Jimmy, I'm having a kid.
Speaker 1: But in terms of football, club. We have this it's
Speaker 1: called a weekly Wrap. Every Friday afternoon, we all freestyle battle.
Speaker 1: We have the whole, the whole football club get in
Speaker 1: the room and we do like a presentation about how
Speaker 1: good the week was. Compliment this guy, Compliment this guy,
Speaker 1: I got really good, Fiel good to go on a Friday.
Speaker 1: And there's always been like a baby like if there's
Speaker 1: someone's having a baby, there's a baby news like section,
Speaker 1: like they do like the baby news and they do
Speaker 1: like a spinning baby and then put someone's head on
Speaker 1: the baby of whose baby it is. And I've always
Speaker 1: wanted to announce that way. So the second child, I've
Speaker 1: done that.
Speaker 3: That's pretty clever, right.
Speaker 1: So the whole that's an easier way to tell.
Speaker 3: You more than one person having a baby.
Speaker 1: That then the next page, maybe.
Speaker 3: That's good.
Speaker 2: When you had George, he's in Jess's tummy at this point,
Speaker 2: did you do the math and think, oh, that's pretty
Speaker 2: close to the Grand Final?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we were awfully close. Oh sorry, awful the
Speaker 1: bad way to describe that. No, so there was sort
Speaker 1: of our second or third time of trying, so the
Speaker 1: dates don't really matter at that point, although the first
Speaker 1: two times of try, and we weren't really sure on
Speaker 1: how to try, so it really was our first time
Speaker 1: of trying properly. We nailed it using bad words and
Speaker 1: nailed it's bad.
Speaker 4: Get the inside scoop on your Sex Live.
Speaker 1: But then obviously you do the mass and you go well.
Speaker 1: We weren't expected to make a Grand final in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one as well, but you do the mass and
Speaker 1: go okay. Sort of are in around those first weeks
Speaker 1: of October. If COVID comes around, I could push it
Speaker 1: back a tiny bit as well, and then it works
Speaker 1: out that we actually in Perth for the Grand Final,
Speaker 1: so we're away for five weeks.
Speaker 2: And suggests at this point not with you, Shah.
Speaker 1: As you can imagine, the WA government was pretty strong
Speaker 1: on who can get over the border.
Speaker 4: And in your third try, Mester you can't travel anyway.
Speaker 1: And she was at thirty to thirty five. I think
Speaker 1: I missed out on so wow.
Speaker 2: Was there a conversation of let's say if it happened
Speaker 2: the day before the Grand Final, like what do you do?
Speaker 1: There was we chatted. I had a pretty good reply.
Speaker 2: I think, go on, he'll be the judge of that.
Speaker 1: I never played in a Grand Final and I've been
Speaker 1: and I've been upset. I've been played forty since I
Speaker 1: was fourteen.
Speaker 4: I've never been to that part one time.
Speaker 1: I've been playing forty since I was fourteen. That's what
Speaker 1: seventeen years of trying to get to a Grand Final.
Speaker 1: Jess and I made Georgie in five minutes, So like
Speaker 1: if you're way up five minutes versus seventeen genuine.
Speaker 3: Good length of time.
Speaker 1: I'll more reference into this, But no, look, if it
Speaker 1: honestly was about we did have someone so Nathan Nathan
Speaker 1: Jones is our club legend, three hundred games, multiple Best
Speaker 1: and Fairs. He was just on the fringe unfortunately of
Speaker 1: the Grand Final. So he was the first emergency and
Speaker 1: he was having his third and fourth child, he was
Speaker 1: having twins, and once he worked out he wasn't in
Speaker 1: the Grand Final team, he had a big discussion and
Speaker 1: they said, look, which is massive football world, we weren't
Speaker 1: going to play our legend. You're not going to get
Speaker 1: a game. He left Perth and went and got the
Speaker 1: twins Berth and got there by the skin of his teeth,
Speaker 1: got there by an hour ago, which was three days
Speaker 1: before the Grand Final. Silver lining, I guess yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I mean magical moment for him. If he made the team,
Speaker 1: that would have been an all different different conversation himself
Speaker 1: because he was three hundred games without playing the grand
Speaker 1: final for the one club club.
Speaker 2: Legend grand final was played was one. You then come
Speaker 2: back to Melbourne.
Speaker 1: I managed to get three or four days in Perth
Speaker 1: which was nice. Yes, let me have the mad Monday
Speaker 1: and whatnot over in Perth celebration. So I got home
Speaker 1: on a Thursday and the game was a Saturday.
Speaker 4: Hang on, how many days is that?
Speaker 1: It was good?
Speaker 3: He said, Monday? Your Monday is.
Speaker 1: It was a good campaign. And then we had sort
Speaker 1: of two or three weeks. So she went to the
Speaker 1: full forty. But there was obviously the chance you could
Speaker 1: come in that earlier period, but we went to the
Speaker 1: full forty.
Speaker 3: Matthew, I've got a new dad goal.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, what is it?
Speaker 3: I want to get better at golf.
Speaker 2: Okay, So I'm going to stop you right there because
Speaker 2: there's one small problem. I know for a fact that
Speaker 2: you can't play golf very well.
Speaker 4: Well, I want to at least look good, okay whilst
Speaker 4: doing it. And if your dad wants to look good
Speaker 4: on the golf course even if he can't play golf.
Speaker 2: I feel like all dads want to look good.
Speaker 3: Let's be yes.
Speaker 4: But if he wants to know if he's not good
Speaker 4: at it, but he's still looking good, then he could
Speaker 4: potentially still be at his optimum performance.
Speaker 2: I sometimes go to golf courses and I don't actually
Speaker 2: have a hit.
Speaker 3: A ball, it walk around.
Speaker 1: I just walk around looking good.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And that's what this is about.
Speaker 4: So if you want your dad to look good, we
Speaker 4: are running an awesome competition. Head over to our socials
Speaker 4: two doting dads, drop us a follow and tag your
Speaker 4: dad for the chance to win a five hundred dollars
Speaker 4: Lulu Lemon give voucher on us.
Speaker 2: So we are making father's day dreams come true. Imagine
Speaker 2: on Father's Day handing over that gift card to your father. Oh,
Speaker 2: it'd go down well, wouldn't it.
Speaker 4: And imagine being the child that actually allowed your dad
Speaker 4: to achieve his dad goal level up his game.
Speaker 2: Can I just say one thing before we get back
Speaker 2: into the episode with Maxie.
Speaker 3: Yes, Ash, when you feel.
Speaker 1: Your best, you'll perform.
Speaker 2: At your best.
Speaker 3: Write that down right, That is great?
Speaker 2: That is that is quote I've quote some advice for you.
Speaker 4: You go, okay, if you believe it, then it's not
Speaker 4: a lie.
Speaker 1: Drop in the bombs of wisdom.
Speaker 2: But hey, if you don't win the Father's Day gift
Speaker 2: out chat and maybe you are looking for the perfect present.
Speaker 2: Lulu Lemon has gifts that helps Dad look and perform
Speaker 2: at his absolute best. This is no surprise, but Ash
Speaker 2: and I we are huge fans of the brand, both
Speaker 2: on and off the golf course. Now let's get back
Speaker 2: into the episode for the birth. Did you have any
Speaker 2: set role going into that that you had to play side?
Speaker 1: Music?
Speaker 3: Music man was mine?
Speaker 2: Was there a specific song that was to be It
Speaker 2: wasn't a double song.
Speaker 3: I don't know the actually and their cats and.
Speaker 1: It was the Melbourne theme. So I was as most
Speaker 1: of us probably, I was the hype man. I was
Speaker 1: the support guy. Wasn't doing a great job, Bili, Well,
Speaker 1: Jess got the best of both worlds. She had an
Speaker 1: eleven hour labor and then they realized the head was
Speaker 1: never coming out, so then the emergency C section.
Speaker 3: Guilty.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So the first four or five hours, as you
Speaker 1: can both imagine, there's not much going on an eleven
Speaker 1: hour labor.
Speaker 4: It's a lot of like in between contractions and then.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you do feel useless. Yeah, but look, it's not
Speaker 3: about us, is it.
Speaker 2: Also, there's a lot of people who listen to the
Speaker 2: podcast who don't have kids, And before I had kids,
Speaker 2: I thought it was like a really quick process, like
Speaker 2: the water breaks are in there, like fifteen minutes later. Hey,
Speaker 2: the kids arrived, it's a bit slower.
Speaker 3: I told his wife to push harder.
Speaker 1: Okay, don't believe him. I'm not that stupid. That is mistakes,
Speaker 1: but not that one. Yeah, well I couldn't say that
Speaker 1: because pushing harder was damaging the process with the So
Speaker 1: I was actually hold on, which is what you wanted
Speaker 1: to hear, did you?
Speaker 2: Guys? Obviously, like an emergency c section is not part
Speaker 2: of the birth plan.
Speaker 1: But I'm so glad I got to live that out.
Speaker 1: That's a cool experience as well, not for Jess. Horrible
Speaker 1: experience for Jess. But this is arian Yeah, just a
Speaker 1: great taling story from a dad's point of view as well. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: labors happened. I'm not sure if Jess is give me
Speaker 1: the green light to give all these sorts of details,
Speaker 1: but hey, the blue bibs come out. That's when you
Speaker 1: know it's done, be a bit serious. Obviously, the first
Speaker 1: few pushes didn't work. Heads too big. I thought that
Speaker 1: was the obstraction's role in the first place, to let
Speaker 1: us know the head was going to be too big.
Speaker 3: Obviously, not he was too long.
Speaker 2: Did I say that apologies.
Speaker 1: Should be I actually were friends who are obtrition, So
Speaker 1: he's very I'll clear that up. And then it all
Speaker 1: started happening, like we're ten hours of not much into
Speaker 1: like now ten minutes of everyone running around the room.
Speaker 1: I just said, I'll put these on, so I'll put
Speaker 1: them on. The scrubs didn't have shoes.
Speaker 3: That fit.
Speaker 1: On.
Speaker 3: Remember if you were you're blue blue.
Speaker 1: And everyone's running into it. And then I'm not allowed
Speaker 1: in the theater obviously while it's all happening because of
Speaker 1: COVID or, I don't know, you're assuming.
Speaker 3: You're in it. So there's the theater, you're in that
Speaker 3: separate room.
Speaker 1: And I was even in like a little waiting room
Speaker 1: outside of that, I was in the corridor. So I'm
Speaker 1: just sitting in a waiting room knowing something BIG's happening
Speaker 1: in there, which is an interesting experience. And no one's
Speaker 1: in the wait No one's in the corridor, everyone's in
Speaker 1: the room.
Speaker 3: It's a nighttime.
Speaker 1: It was nighttime by then. We checked in at am
Speaker 1: and nighttime by then.
Speaker 2: So then how do they how do they announce to you?
Speaker 1: Eventually? Just the door opens? Would you like to come in? Max?
Speaker 1: I'm sure, like I come in.
Speaker 3: They called you in afterwards.
Speaker 1: Afterwards, so the baby was the actually no, yeah, you're right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the baby was on its way out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And they call you in. You're up and then
Speaker 3: they drop the curtain.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and put them back up. The midwife goes, what
Speaker 1: song would you like? And I'm like, well, this is
Speaker 1: my moment, and I still asked Jess, I said, just
Speaker 1: which one we are? But I knew which one, so
Speaker 1: that was bad by me. I should have just gone
Speaker 1: straight to thed. So the song was on and then
Speaker 1: the midwife was great, she's I give us your phones
Speaker 1: so I can take photos. So the photos are gruesome.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure if you got photos. Yeah, both of
Speaker 3: mine were the sections got photos from.
Speaker 1: But yeah, they're great to look back on. Do you
Speaker 1: go back and have us, Well, they're a great party
Speaker 1: trick for those that want to. You can really like
Speaker 1: you're like.
Speaker 4: I got photos like oh yeah.
Speaker 1: And then yeah, so then that all happened, and then
Speaker 1: I find the best bit is from now so the
Speaker 1: baby's out. We didn't know what sex. And it took
Speaker 1: a while, like the way the obstrations was holding the baby.
Speaker 4: It's like covering everything, covering.
Speaker 1: The good parts for a bit there, and then it
Speaker 1: was just like open. It's okay, yeah, yeah, there's no
Speaker 1: confusing that that is. That's definitely And then the cutting
Speaker 1: of the cord, which is one of the great myths.
Speaker 3: I didn't do it.
Speaker 2: Please tell me how yours.
Speaker 1: The cord has been cut, and I go over to
Speaker 1: a part fifteen meters away from Jess, so obviously not
Speaker 1: still attached, and cut another bit of an already cut cord.
Speaker 1: But I get there's the novelty. But I'm bigger than that.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't need to do it.
Speaker 2: Let's trick this guy to do they offer it to you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they said we do have to cut the cord.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, yeah, cool, how call is this? And
Speaker 1: then we go obviously way too far away from my wife. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure how long they said, not anyone's so
Speaker 1: it's already been cut. And then I cut an extra
Speaker 1: bit of a cut bit.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they probably don't want to give the non professional
Speaker 4: a really important.
Speaker 3: Job to cut.
Speaker 2: Imagine how many have got botched you to me, was
Speaker 2: in a c section for looks at my wife with Marley,
Speaker 2: who's my first and the obstetrician said a bit of
Speaker 2: chaos because there's everything going on. And I got handed
Speaker 2: the scissors and they said would you like to cut?
Speaker 2: And I didn't really want to go down that and
Speaker 2: I prefer to stat with Laura holding her hand. And
Speaker 2: I first I said no, thank you, and then he
Speaker 2: was like, no, come on, and I said no, thank you.
Speaker 1: For peer pressure, a little bit of pressure. Laura was like,
Speaker 1: just do it.
Speaker 2: And so then I'm cutting this umbilical cord, which kind
Speaker 2: of is similar to Calamari.
Speaker 1: I guess, quite well done. Calamario didn't enjoy it.
Speaker 2: I guess I'm glad I had a taste of cutting,
Speaker 2: not the Klamari.
Speaker 3: A surgeon.
Speaker 1: Like, I'm looking back at the experience of me over
Speaker 1: there in the corner by myself cutting the cord again
Speaker 1: the photo, Oh did that really need to be done.
Speaker 1: What happens from then is like there's a little bit
Speaker 1: of family time, which is great, but then Jess is
Speaker 1: extremely unwell. So I've taken the baby and I'm in
Speaker 1: a room by myself. A nurse initially comes in with
Speaker 1: me and says, here's the baby, put him on the skin.
Speaker 1: The nurse then leaves the room the midwife because she
Speaker 1: needs to go back into Jess. And I'm in a
Speaker 1: room with George and newborn by myself with no nurses
Speaker 1: a good half an hour, and I've not read the
Speaker 1: baby books. Yeah, no one reads, so obviously they're not
Speaker 1: much can go wrong because they've trusted me with holding
Speaker 1: the baby for half an hour. But that's a pretty
Speaker 1: daunting half an hour. And I got my phone out
Speaker 1: and thinking I've got to text someone to let them know.
Speaker 1: But I couldn't say, you know, not Mum and Bubba,
Speaker 1: Well that's always the song. I couldn't confidently say mum
Speaker 1: as well, I hadn't seen her.
Speaker 3: I hadn't seen her.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, So I text my mum and said born
Speaker 1: so and so, don't tell anyone because Jess is still
Speaker 1: in theaters. I told my parents I couldn't tell Jess.
Speaker 2: Were you worried about Jess or were they were? They
Speaker 2: kind of saying she's going to be okay.
Speaker 1: Was there reassurance it's going to be okay, but yeah,
Speaker 1: it's still slightly worried, Like, yeah, it's a pretty big
Speaker 1: I don't imagine that moment. I've had a keyhole a
Speaker 1: c L. I don't think that compares to.
Speaker 4: Maybe come out of it, and probably not like I
Speaker 4: had a similar thing. So like they've given me oscar
Speaker 4: and go on, here you go, put me in a room,
Speaker 4: and I like, thankfully I had my father in law,
Speaker 4: my mother in law there, But even for me at
Speaker 4: that moment when April's my wife is still in surgery,
Speaker 4: I don't know what's happening, felt like forever and I've
Speaker 4: got this all of a sudden, I've got the responsibility
Speaker 4: of another life just like that, and it's all on
Speaker 4: me really, so preparation, feeling, feeling, picking up what you're
Speaker 4: putting down.
Speaker 1: Just and I know when I tell that story in
Speaker 1: front of Jess, jeez, sorry to hear you had to
Speaker 1: spend half. But I feel like on a dad podcast,
Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of people would agree that
Speaker 1: that is a very And then the whole first night
Speaker 1: because Jess is obviously out of it for the whole
Speaker 1: first night in and out of sleep. You're almost hands
Speaker 1: on for the first night. I feel like the first
Speaker 1: night is the most daunty night for both parents absolute,
Speaker 1: so to be the one that's hands on the most.
Speaker 1: I was on a fault out bed, which was hilarious.
Speaker 1: As you can imagine with my height, I could have
Speaker 1: been on two. I have to clarify, you're not actually twelve.
Speaker 4: Foot gurglings going to twelve foot close and then it's
Speaker 4: still very tall.
Speaker 1: Six year tennis, six for tennis. Yeah, nine and a half. Yeah,
Speaker 1: not ideal, not ideal of the hospital, but especially fouled out,
Speaker 1: So that that whole first experience was pretty cool.
Speaker 3: In that first half hour, you like, get holding it right.
Speaker 1: You forget everything that you have sort of red or
Speaker 1: prepped yourself on or and you go, okay, I didn't
Speaker 1: know how to swaddle, but all of a sudden, now
Speaker 1: there's an actual human life baby and me, and it's moving.
Speaker 1: I don't know how to swaddle. And then nappies and
Speaker 1: that first poo is interesting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like sharco.
Speaker 1: You don't think that's healthy.
Speaker 4: It's a good sign though, it is a good sign. Yeah,
Speaker 4: good come out scream. It's one of the checklists clears out.
Speaker 3: All of the I'm not a doctor, you know more
Speaker 3: than me, I seem to know.
Speaker 1: It's one of the big checklists to move on to
Speaker 1: the next day.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the the recovery for Jess after that, obviously they
Speaker 4: can't drive for so long.
Speaker 3: Was it off seat, It was just was just after.
Speaker 4: It was really lucky that you weren't you probably we
Speaker 4: weren't off at training over that time.
Speaker 1: She actually did really well. She recovered really well. She's
Speaker 1: actually physio who specializes in maternity, so she knew everything
Speaker 1: that was happening to her body at all points.
Speaker 3: It's always handy always.
Speaker 2: How did you guys find those first few months. What
Speaker 2: were some of the things that you found really easy
Speaker 2: and what were the things that you struggled with.
Speaker 1: We were in COVID, so the family was certainly something
Speaker 1: we struggled with. No family in the hospital, were there
Speaker 1: for three days and then two days at a hotel
Speaker 1: for two days and no family there, and then no
Speaker 1: family went once we got back home. Still the harder
Speaker 1: COVID for us, well, very luckily we're located in the
Speaker 1: morning to Peninsula, which is an hour south from here
Speaker 1: coast Slime a beautiful part of the world, and that's
Speaker 1: where we'd been living for a little bit. So we're
Speaker 1: in a great place to go for walks and experience
Speaker 1: the outdoors. It does everyone. It sort of made us
Speaker 1: all happy in a way, being surrounded by nature and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. But yeah, so she recovered really well,
Speaker 1: So I don't have any real bad stories about that
Speaker 1: sort of two or three.
Speaker 2: Yeah, sleeping, sleeping, how was that initially shocked to the system?
Speaker 1: You two might hate me post this, but we've almost
Speaker 1: had a seven or seven sleeper from the day Dot
Speaker 1: get out, Max, no one to hear it.
Speaker 3: If I could overpower you, I.
Speaker 1: Would obviously early on he's waking up for feeds. But
Speaker 1: we haven't had a bad sleep.
Speaker 3: That's so great. Well, look forward to the next one.
Speaker 2: We just tell you there's always there's always a good
Speaker 2: one and a tricky one.
Speaker 3: Okay, we're not going to say bad.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was like, choose my words very carefully because
Speaker 2: Marley was good. Lola, my gosh, one of the hardest
Speaker 2: moments of my entire life. She just slept no more
Speaker 2: than thirty minutes, So, ok, just prepare yourself for that
Speaker 2: lower your expectations of what sleep is going to be
Speaker 2: like for.
Speaker 1: Number two, Well, we were, yeah, like the other day,
Speaker 1: he's almost two and we still did the baby monitor
Speaker 1: at the moment just because he's too far away from
Speaker 1: our room. Must be nice. Sorry, he's down for levels
Speaker 1: No one, you're gonna hear him. And he made a
Speaker 1: noise the other night. We're like, what is that like?
Speaker 1: It was so foreign to us. Came out he must
Speaker 1: be dying. But he's made a noise in the middle
Speaker 1: of the night. Yeah, so we're very lucky in that space.
Speaker 1: He's also been a very good eater, which has been good.
Speaker 1: I know eating can be an issue, especially bottles early on,
Speaker 1: but no, he's been a very good eater. So we've
Speaker 1: we've sort of lucked out in a way with this
Speaker 1: with this kid.
Speaker 2: Are there any similarities in how you captain the forty
Speaker 2: side versus how you dad?
Speaker 1: George a little bit go on the interesting bit, and
Speaker 1: I'm interested you've probably interviewed a lot of people that
Speaker 1: have older kids. Yes, So we're trying to shape our
Speaker 1: young kids as much as we can, and then at
Speaker 1: some point they're allowed to shape themselves. And I'd love
Speaker 1: to know that transformation because at the moment, I'm just
Speaker 1: trying to teach all the values in every shape and
Speaker 1: I know if I do one thing wrong, now, this
Speaker 1: kid could end up being something at eighteen that two
Speaker 1: one one too.
Speaker 3: I don't know, maybe not a two.
Speaker 1: But that's the mindset.
Speaker 4: Very early years is that, yeah, we've got four year old.
Speaker 4: So when George gets to sort of three and four,
Speaker 4: that's when you'll be like instill those values you get
Speaker 4: into when you can talk back to you and all
Speaker 4: that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: But then at some point, like in a football club,
Speaker 1: like I was saying at the start, you want them
Speaker 1: to be themselves. Yeah, that's going to be a cool transformation.
Speaker 1: I'm guessing that's ten years away. But there is similarities to.
Speaker 2: The footy boys are You're like, come here, that's one
Speaker 2: minute warning, chance to have a super water right now,
Speaker 2: finish it all.
Speaker 1: We actually we got an older group of players. So
Speaker 1: we've got ten to fifteen kids. Wow, which is a
Speaker 1: lot in around our football club. You guys must be
Speaker 1: like daddy daycare time creation. Now what there is a
Speaker 1: creation of the game.
Speaker 4: You just lock them in the middle of the mcg
Speaker 4: on the grass and I can't do any damage there.
Speaker 1: So there's lots of kids, they're all friends, they all
Speaker 1: know each other. Well. Well, I mean we went through
Speaker 1: a harbor. I didn't have a child in the harbor
Speaker 1: we went through in twenty twenty. There was four months
Speaker 1: in Queensland. Yeah, we had ten to fifteen kids there
Speaker 1: having the time of their life, seeing people every day.
Speaker 1: It was probably great for their social skills. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure what you guys were like before you had kids,
Speaker 1: but I might remember.
Speaker 3: I went to school, he sick.
Speaker 1: Partied every night. But I was like that guy was like, yeah, cool,
Speaker 1: I hilf have a kid. Maybe play a card. I'm
Speaker 1: not picking him up or helping you feed him, or
Speaker 1: like when you're saying, oh, look at this cute kid
Speaker 1: of mine, I'm only cool. But now I'm the guy like,
Speaker 1: how are you not finding my son? What he's doing
Speaker 1: right now? He's playing to his cards by himself. That
Speaker 1: is cute. Why you're finding that?
Speaker 4: Look he's pretending he's How do you not say?
Speaker 3: I get what you mean?
Speaker 1: And I also think my kid's the cutest, which I'm
Speaker 1: all absolutely, we all do.
Speaker 2: George is very adorable.
Speaker 1: Have you said that's all the way to and guests.
Speaker 1: So yes, yeah, to tell the guest.
Speaker 3: That child, Look, you're going to be the first guest
Speaker 3: for your child, is fix it coming on the podcast.
Speaker 3: I don't think it'll go down that well.
Speaker 1: We've always good sleeping and good eating. He has got
Speaker 1: a trait that we struggle with a lot, and he's
Speaker 1: incredibly introbuted. I'm not sure who he gets that from
Speaker 1: because we're I feel like we're both on the extroverted side.
Speaker 1: But he struggles at daycare, struggles at separation, struggles with
Speaker 1: other kids, struggles with leaving the house, shruggles when new
Speaker 1: people come to the house. So there's a lot of
Speaker 1: pressure there. But apart from that, yeah, we feel like we've.
Speaker 3: Breakstart a little bit too.
Speaker 4: They don't really know any different, And I mean, my
Speaker 4: eldest is kind of like that. My youngest is the
Speaker 4: complete opposite. I see him struggling in moments that I
Speaker 4: know for me, I would have never struggled him like now,
Speaker 4: you can't shut me up. For him, he'll be like
Speaker 4: really in his shell. So yeah, it's sometimes it's tough
Speaker 4: to like watch it.
Speaker 2: They change as well. Lola, who's my youngest, hated me
Speaker 2: for the first year and a half of her life.
Speaker 2: I did not I would want to give her a
Speaker 2: cuddle and just always wanted mum, nobody else, didn't want
Speaker 2: to interact with people who are you in the household
Speaker 2: like Marley, who's my eldest, did that. Marley would just
Speaker 2: run to anyone. And I kind of thought to myself
Speaker 2: as well, like I guess she's just going to be
Speaker 2: a bit more of a shy child. And then she
Speaker 2: hit two and she just like almost within a week,
Speaker 2: just changed and just with this personality just came out
Speaker 2: of her.
Speaker 1: We do feel like the daycare part will help. The
Speaker 1: first hour of daycare dropping him.
Speaker 3: Off, it's tough.
Speaker 4: Yeah, just back on the foota club, Like are they
Speaker 4: really flexible if you need to step away or if
Speaker 4: Jess is sick and kids sick because it happens, going
Speaker 4: to get this and they're like, you're like, look, I
Speaker 4: can't come to trains day calling sick.
Speaker 3: Do they ask you for a doctor's note?
Speaker 1: Or are they like, look, you do you that's flexible
Speaker 1: and bring a kid to work day if it's an issue.
Speaker 1: We have no single fathers there currently, but we have
Speaker 1: in the past and it's certainly been there's been kids
Speaker 1: in and around the football club, and to be fair,
Speaker 1: it's one of the better jobs to be a dad.
Speaker 1: A lot of time off. We get twelve weeks a
Speaker 1: year off as well at the end of the season.
Speaker 1: That's great and we have obviously a good steady cash flow.
Speaker 1: So it's a great job to be a dad. That's
Speaker 1: probably why people do have kids. Yeah, while there've been
Speaker 1: a footballer.
Speaker 2: Mack, I've got to ask you for any parents, specifically
Speaker 2: dads who are listening, what would be your one bit
Speaker 2: of advice for how they can make life easier for
Speaker 2: their partners.
Speaker 1: So this could come across as selfish, but I feel
Speaker 1: like in the long run, if you've got a very
Speaker 1: good relationship with your family, it makes sense. And it
Speaker 1: stems from how I spoke about the start, about being
Speaker 1: the best version of yourself. If I come home from
Speaker 1: a bad day of training and I walk straight into
Speaker 1: the house, I'm potentially going to get into screen time.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to give George my best version of me,
Speaker 1: and then it's just not going to be a great night.
Speaker 1: So I got into a routine and still do it
Speaker 1: where I have a sort of fifteen minute my own
Speaker 1: time post training, and when I live down the coast,
Speaker 1: which has just changed. I've just moved back up. I'd
Speaker 1: go on the ocean, so I drive home andybe a
Speaker 1: fifty minute drive home, and right at the end we
Speaker 1: live near the beach. I jump in the ocean and
Speaker 1: sit there and do a bit of mine in the
Speaker 1: ocean for ten minutes, and then I'd come home and bang,
Speaker 1: my phone's not even anywhere near me. I'm the best
Speaker 1: version of Max. George is loving me. Jess is getting
Speaker 1: some time away from George, and I felt like that's something.
Speaker 1: It's selfish that I Jess would also love to go
Speaker 1: to the beach, I'm sure and ship into the water.
Speaker 1: But I felt like that was the best version of
Speaker 1: me coming out and I still do it now I'm
Speaker 1: not in the beach. I've got a sauna at home. Again,
Speaker 1: must be nice. But I've got a sauna at home,
Speaker 1: and that's something I can do. Just a little bit
Speaker 1: of mindfulness different times. Doesn't have to be a full,
Speaker 1: big activity. I can literally just put the headphones in
Speaker 1: and listen to a mindful or happen and do it
Speaker 1: that way.
Speaker 2: Who's taught you this?
Speaker 1: Where did this come from? I'm always battling to be present.
Speaker 1: I feel like present Max is the best version of Max,
Speaker 1: and I feel like that's the same with every single
Speaker 1: person in the world. So I know the being present
Speaker 1: I'm gonna you can see it when you're not present
Speaker 1: with your kids. They're sitting playing the cars next to
Speaker 1: you and you're on your phone or you're watching sport
Speaker 1: on TV.
Speaker 3: And that's just exactly like me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you go to sleep that night and go
Speaker 1: I didn't get great George time, today, did I? Yeah?
Speaker 4: And I catch myself doing it too, where I'm like,
Speaker 4: I've been on my phone all day with email as well,
Speaker 4: is it kindy or make?
Speaker 3: Is it kindy?
Speaker 4: And now they're home and I'm still doing the same thing.
Speaker 3: So I have caught myself a lot.
Speaker 1: If you mix that with I've been out till five
Speaker 1: for the whole day, so I've got a Like I said,
Speaker 1: he's a great sleeper, so I've got a two hour
Speaker 1: window before he's asleep, Like why not making an hour
Speaker 1: and forty window and have twenty minutes to make that
Speaker 1: the best hour and forty rather than a mediocre two hours. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And Jess is fully supportive, but that she also gets
Speaker 1: time to do her thing as well and make sure
Speaker 1: she's a physios So she loves pilarates, so she goes
Speaker 1: and does pilarates a lot, and that's her mind forulness,
Speaker 1: and that works for us. Two kids might be a
Speaker 1: different story. I might not be allowed to do that.
Speaker 1: I might. Yeah, fifteen minutes turns into seven as long,
Speaker 1: it's still something. I feel like I might be able
Speaker 1: to get something out of that, even when they're both asleep,
Speaker 1: potentially using that period to clear your mind. But it's
Speaker 1: something that works, so it certainly worked for me.
Speaker 4: Since having it, do you find that you're more aware
Speaker 4: of your health both mental physical?
Speaker 1: You certainly notice not being present? Yeah, a lot more.
Speaker 1: I feel like without a kid, I could have sat
Speaker 1: and watched a whole Ashes cricket day on the couch
Speaker 1: and not even yeah where if you watched four overs
Speaker 1: and going, oh no, I haven't spoken to George, you
Speaker 1: sort of pick up on it real quickly. We're both
Speaker 1: well aware of how we are emotionally. One of the
Speaker 1: big debates about having a child was we both love
Speaker 1: our lives a lot, and I feel like that is
Speaker 1: a big debate when having a child. Do you want
Speaker 1: to start a family now or do you want to
Speaker 1: continue this love of life that you're having. Do you
Speaker 1: want to travel? Do you want to do all the
Speaker 1: things you have? And we were why not do both
Speaker 1: type situations? We should be able to do both. Let's
Speaker 1: see you again. That is lightly differently, just slightly differently
Speaker 1: instead of when we went to we went to Europe
Speaker 1: instead of going out and Malati, we're having dinner at
Speaker 1: four point thirty when everyone else is having breakfast.
Speaker 3: That sounds me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So we're both fully aware of how we are
Speaker 1: emotionally and this is very good with that. She tells
Speaker 1: me to my face when she when she needs some
Speaker 1: time or some communication. Good communication.
Speaker 3: And your relationship with Lulu Lemon. You've been with them
Speaker 3: for three years now, correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 1: How many of the boys hit you up for freaking well?
Speaker 1: I mean, this is one of the big things of
Speaker 1: Lula Lemon is that's such a great brand that how
Speaker 1: many people actually knew they do great male clothing. It's
Speaker 1: actually unbelievable, and I'm had to do. I'm had to tell.
Speaker 2: If I may give you a compliment, you look delicious.
Speaker 3: Color is real.
Speaker 1: But never really responded to a partnership. Again, a lot
Speaker 1: of cool little partnerships been in the position I'm in.
Speaker 1: I've never really responded to a partnership like Lulu Lemon.
Speaker 2: Also goes without saying that you're an incredible athlete, and
Speaker 2: I think from talking with you an incredible dad. So
Speaker 2: it's no surprise that you're one of their ambassadors.
Speaker 4: Well yeah, and that was that was me, That was genuine.
Speaker 2: I'm getting further.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not a rosy better dad as well
Speaker 1: as we all know, there is a lot of times
Speaker 1: I'm not present, so that's why I do that stuff
Speaker 1: to make sure I am. But it has been a
Speaker 1: wonderful journey. Obviously, two is going to rock my world
Speaker 1: by the sounds of things, and then when you're out numbered,
Speaker 1: if you go down the three path, you're two and done.
Speaker 1: I want to be two and done. But the fact
Speaker 1: there's no girl yet makes me feel like Jess is
Speaker 1: going to push for a third.
Speaker 2: Opposite, I'm two girls looking at a third in the
Speaker 2: hope that maybe I'll get a board.
Speaker 1: There's apparently a diet you can go on that puts
Speaker 1: you in the boy category.
Speaker 3: You've got to penetrate deeper.
Speaker 1: I have a small penis penetrate. Well, we've actually got
Speaker 1: a strong, strong, strong formula of during this season, if
Speaker 1: you have sex, you can see a girl, and if
Speaker 1: you have sex in the off season, you have a boy.
Speaker 1: Based on what reason, I'm guessing tests levels maybe so.
Speaker 3: Probably not going to apply for you.
Speaker 1: You could go into a strenuous training program. Yeah, okay, no,
Speaker 1: but then that means girl, so go less training.
Speaker 3: Get that like me?
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, I just need to spend more weekends with
Speaker 2: that less training.
Speaker 1: Chance a boy.
Speaker 4: I've got one of these the boys crazy like exactly
Speaker 4: like I was as a child and is now picks
Speaker 4: up on everything I do, which is both great and annoying.
Speaker 4: And then I've got a little girl who has completely
Speaker 4: changed me. I've softened up, believe it or not. And yeah,
Speaker 4: like it's a totally different experience. I think, like you
Speaker 4: definitely parent them differently. Macy's can do no wrong, but
Speaker 4: I just I can do everything wrong.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I'll keep that in mind when when.
Speaker 3: You go for the third if you never know you
Speaker 3: might have to go down the line, you might.
Speaker 1: Just boy boy boy, I'm one of three boys. So yeah, okay, right,
Speaker 1: you're getting my mom's one of four. My mum's so
Speaker 1: she's not a boy, but she just got three brothers,
Speaker 1: and my dad's one of four boys. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of boys. Max.
Speaker 2: I want to say, thank you so so much for
Speaker 2: talking with us today. It's been an absolute delight.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me in totally.
Speaker 4: I picked up the mindfulness thing for me from you is.
Speaker 1: Be wary of bringing it up the first time with
Speaker 1: your partner.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she'd be like, where have you been for fifteen? Max?
Speaker 3: Gorne told me I've got a float around.
Speaker 1: Don't take your surfboard. That's where it starts to be
Speaker 1: a little bit.
Speaker 4: She goes out of the garage and she counts, make
Speaker 4: sure they're still all there. But yeah, thank you so
Speaker 4: much for jumping chatting with us. Thank you to a
Speaker 4: little element for allowing this to happen, of course.
Speaker 2: And also good luck for the rest of the seasons.
Speaker 1: Points in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, how many weeks now.
Speaker 1: Are we We're five to go with a game on Sunday.
Speaker 1: Obviously not sure when you're going to get this all together,
Speaker 1: so that could be outdated.
Speaker 3: But we're talking probably mid August.
Speaker 1: The finals are coming.
Speaker 3: Like anyway, I'm looking forward to the Grand Final.
Speaker 1: Hopefully we've won the last three games, but we just
Speaker 1: skipped over.
Speaker 4: Where you situated for you're still not a bad place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a top or of the double chance and
Speaker 1: we're sitting in fourth where two games clear of fifth
Speaker 1: at the moment. It will be interesting to see how
Speaker 1: these ages.
Speaker 2: Before we go though, one last mention that if you
Speaker 2: have enjoyed this podcast or any of the episodes that
Speaker 2: we put out, we would absolutely love it. And if
Speaker 2: you go us a review five stars, Maxie, if you
Speaker 2: were to review us, how many stars would you give?
Speaker 1: Three and a half.
Speaker 4: Beautiful honesty, it's all of your cringey compliments.
Speaker 1: Now we're going home and putting in how do you
Speaker 1: do it?
Speaker 2: Ideally Apple podcasts, Apple podcasts, you can give just five stars.
Speaker 2: You can also like the Krem de la Crem review
Speaker 2: would be five stars. You can pass me off phone
Speaker 2: and I can do it for you, just to make sure,
Speaker 2: and just a few comment could be.
Speaker 1: Any loved episode nineteen, Yes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that would be the dream.
Speaker 2: And if there's any other doting dads or doting mums
Speaker 2: that you would love for us to speak to the podcast,
Speaker 2: please make those suggestions. At two doting dads on Instagram
Speaker 2: and on that note, Max, it's been a pleasure.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. Cheers the att