Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Mason Cox Show. This is Nolan
Speaker 1: Cox filling in for Mason. He is right next to me,
Speaker 1: so we're gonna get this thing cracking.
Speaker 2: Mason kick us off seven platforms, Facebook, it's the great
Speaker 2: of Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Apple Music, have a podcast, and spotifox.
Speaker 2: Those are the seven Nolan's. He started off on a
Speaker 2: very good note. Yes, it is a very bit of
Speaker 2: a weird one. I've got my family in here. He's
Speaker 2: probably gonna asoutely roast me, so I'm a bit nervous
Speaker 2: going into this, but I think it's gonna be great fun.
Speaker 2: But yeah, check us out on seven platforms like comment
Speaker 2: everything else, and we've got some amazing stuff coming up.
Speaker 2: But this one is a very special one, being family
Speaker 2: in town at the moment and doing one with a brother. Now,
Speaker 2: I don't really know. There's gonna be a lot to
Speaker 2: cover here. It's gonna be a lot to cover. You've
Speaker 2: known me for thirty one years. Thirty one years. Nolan
Speaker 2: is a little bit older than I am, so he's
Speaker 2: known me for thirty one years, and he's known all
Speaker 2: the juicy details in the hot gosspt behind the scenes.
Speaker 1: So I'm a bit nervous.
Speaker 2: I am a bit nervous, but I will intro you
Speaker 2: as I do everyone, and it's probably gonna sound very
Speaker 2: much like me. He grew up in Dallas, Texas, played
Speaker 2: basketball Oklahoma State University. That was a highlight of his
Speaker 2: athletic career. Wait, no hold on. He also played footy
Speaker 2: and the us i FL still does now. And he's
Speaker 2: how many times he won the national championship. I think
Speaker 2: we've won five or six, five or six time national championship. Yes,
Speaker 2: he has got way more Grand Final wins than I do.
Speaker 2: But he lives in Austin, Texas now and he essentially
Speaker 2: hosts a homeless person during my off season for about
Speaker 2: three weeks. And he's the great man and the brother himself,
Speaker 2: the man who's been through a lot with me, and
Speaker 2: someone on high respect.
Speaker 1: But thanks so much for coming on having me appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I like the Austin Crows Garry got there on it is.
Speaker 1: I've got the calling with hat.
Speaker 2: So we're we're swat places anyone doesn't know. Austin Crows
Speaker 2: is the us AFL team he plays on. These are
Speaker 2: all the national championships he's won with.
Speaker 1: If anybody can kick them all at more than ten meters.
Speaker 1: You're you're welcome to come out wing. Yeah, exactly, straight in,
Speaker 1: go straight in.
Speaker 2: We'll start because a lot of people it is kind of,
Speaker 2: I guess, giving people an intro into not only yourself,
Speaker 2: but also kind of ourselves in general, because we grew
Speaker 2: up the same place, grew up and doing the same
Speaker 2: kind of thing. Both played basketball university, like somewhat of
Speaker 2: the same intro into where we're at now. And I
Speaker 2: want to cover things because there's so many people who
Speaker 2: ask me so many questions, and I'm sick and tired
Speaker 2: of my opinion of where I grew up, and I
Speaker 2: want to get your opinion on what's going on and
Speaker 2: what is happening in the US, and then also just
Speaker 2: you know, what we can learn from what's going on
Speaker 2: over there. We'll start. We grew up both Dallas, Texas. Now,
Speaker 2: a lot of people say Dallas, Texas. You know, we
Speaker 2: think of cowboys. We think of you know, Indians and
Speaker 2: cowboys and the wild wild West and everyone rides horses
Speaker 2: and everything else. You know, what was it like growing
Speaker 2: up in Texas?
Speaker 1: The Dallas Fort Worth area has eight million people, which
Speaker 1: is three million more in Melbourne. There was no horses,
Speaker 1: there were no cowboys, there were no Indians, and we
Speaker 1: pretty much had the same exact upbringing. Probably is a
Speaker 1: lot of folks here in terms of like just going
Speaker 1: to public school and driving on paved roads and yeah,
Speaker 1: not having any of the stereotyps that you typically see.
Speaker 1: But down in Texas where I live now, you get
Speaker 1: outside of town, a little bit outside of Austin, and
Speaker 1: there's there's some country to it, right, so like there's
Speaker 1: there's definitely some some horses, ranches, that type of stuff.
Speaker 1: So do you get out far enough West Texas and
Speaker 1: Audias like you get some of that. But now where
Speaker 1: we grew up, there's none of that, absolutely none of it.
Speaker 1: And uh yeah, pretty typical suburban upbringing. Do you have
Speaker 1: a cowboy hat? Oh? Do you have cowboy boots? I
Speaker 1: have got some cowboy boots. Yeah you have a pearl snap?
Speaker 1: I might have a pearl snap.
Speaker 2: Okay, we're not helping to start out time, that's right,
Speaker 2: that's a good point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, you gotta go to the country concerts every
Speaker 1: now and then. Yeah, got to be looking the part.
Speaker 2: Now, the country music doesn't really exist in Australia. It
Speaker 2: is up in like Tamworth, I think is the big
Speaker 2: Tamworth Country music festival in Australia.
Speaker 1: That's the big one. But here in Australia doesn't really exist.
Speaker 2: Now back in America, we've got what we call Billy
Speaker 2: Bob's Billy Bob's Texas.
Speaker 1: A lot of people might some might know that.
Speaker 2: I don't know, but it's honkey talk, the world's largest
Speaker 2: honkey talk. Now, if you don't know what a honkey
Speaker 2: talk is, it is, I'll let you describe it.
Speaker 1: It's basically like a country dance all. So like in
Speaker 1: these small towns, I'm sure back in the day they
Speaker 1: had live music, and they still do some of these
Speaker 1: big dance halls, but yeah, green halls are real famous.
Speaker 1: One close to we're at Billy Bob's up in the
Speaker 1: Dallas area. But yeah, so it's definitely a place where
Speaker 1: you can be a fake cowboy for a night and
Speaker 1: where those cowboy boots that otherwise never seen the light
Speaker 1: of day. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And then also there is a rodeo inside Billy Bob's too,
Speaker 2: so you can actually ride a bull within Billy Bob's
Speaker 2: at the same time. If that gives you any idea
Speaker 2: of how country this place is. But there are plenty
Speaker 2: of stuff in America and also in Dallas, it is
Speaker 2: kind of unique to anything else. Now I want to
Speaker 2: obviously talk to you about sport. Now you played football,
Speaker 2: I played soccer. Kind of going through high school and
Speaker 2: everything else or college as they call it here before
Speaker 2: we went to university is a few different words that
Speaker 2: might get mixed up.
Speaker 1: But what was it like in Dallas?
Speaker 2: I know everyone here is obvious football NFL is massive
Speaker 2: in the US, and I try to describe it to
Speaker 2: people of how big it is in Texas, Like maybe
Speaker 2: people have heard of Friday night lights like and things
Speaker 2: like that, of really giving the image of just how
Speaker 2: chaotic and just nuts of a fan base it is.
Speaker 1: For like NFL in America.
Speaker 2: What was it like being in a big school, like
Speaker 2: a big univer or big school in high school playing
Speaker 2: NFL in that sense, growing up through the system, and
Speaker 2: like we talk about like homecoming, people don't quite understand,
Speaker 2: like what a mom is, you know, and like you
Speaker 2: know what it's like wearing the big leather jacket or
Speaker 2: the school jacket with all the patches and everything else.
Speaker 1: I've never got one of those.
Speaker 2: But yeah, like if it's an idea of I guess
Speaker 2: what it was like playing football in high school and
Speaker 2: how big it was for the town.
Speaker 1: Yeah, football and high school is a big time, So
Speaker 1: you'd play in front of fifteen twenty thousand every Friday.
Speaker 1: So Friday Night basically the way football happens in America.
Speaker 1: American football. Thursday Night is like the junior varsity, so
Speaker 1: like it's the you know, basically a year nine through eleven,
Speaker 1: and then Friday night is the big Friday Night Lights
Speaker 1: as I know, and that's the varsity team. So like
Speaker 1: varsity programs play you know, Cross Day or sorry cross
Speaker 1: cross City Rivals and stuff like that, the Friday night
Speaker 1: games like Friday Night Lights. Actually, my coach in high
Speaker 1: school was in the original book that all the movie
Speaker 1: and all the you know, the TV show and a
Speaker 1: that was based off of So out of Permian out
Speaker 1: in West Sexes. But yeah, and Friday Night and then
Speaker 1: Saturday goes into the college game, and then Sunday, of
Speaker 1: course is is the NFL. So it kind of like
Speaker 1: rolls into the weekend with Yeah, nobody really goes to
Speaker 1: the TV game unless yeah, you're lucky enough to have
Speaker 1: a girlfriend sophomore or whatever. It's kind of kind of obligated.
Speaker 1: So nobody's coming to my games except mom and dad.
Speaker 1: But uh and then yeah, Friday night and they get
Speaker 1: pretty big. It's like some of the bigger rivalries we
Speaker 1: played in like Jerry World, like Cowboys Stadium where they
Speaker 1: where they play because you know, the high school sam
Speaker 1: would just be overflowing. But some of these high school
Speaker 1: stadiums like are you know, multi multimillion dollars stadiums, And
Speaker 1: I mean you'd get bigger crowds than you would it. Oh,
Speaker 1: certain teams, yeah we won't. We won't name then, but
Speaker 1: North Melt we're not.
Speaker 2: We hate on North a bit on this just a
Speaker 2: little future tazzy all right, No, but it's like Allen, Texas,
Speaker 2: I think, has like a stadium that holds like fifty
Speaker 2: thousand people, and it's like that's a high school. It's
Speaker 2: not even like a you know, a proper you know,
Speaker 2: it's not even to the point of amateur of college
Speaker 2: like and then you got NFL beyond that. So it's
Speaker 2: tough to describe, like how a whole town will shut
Speaker 2: down for a whole bunch of like, you know, fourteen
Speaker 2: to eighteen year old kids, running around hitting each other,
Speaker 2: like it just doesn't really make sense in the grand
Speaker 2: scheme of things, but it is insane and like it's
Speaker 2: football is just the massive thing. Now I played soccer,
Speaker 2: which was not watched so much and was not really
Speaker 2: oh gosh, wasn't as interesting to people. Let's say that
Speaker 2: now everyone I went to America though, like everyone here
Speaker 2: kind of plays AFL and Melbourne growing up. A lot
Speaker 2: of kids will play rugby up in Sydney. Now most
Speaker 2: people played soccer growing up. Is that correct, Well, that's weird.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like soccer is definitely the biggest U sport in
Speaker 1: the States, and then you know, when you get to
Speaker 1: the high school, it kind of just disappears because like
Speaker 1: it all goes club, right, So like in high school,
Speaker 1: like basketball, you've got like au You've got high school basketball,
Speaker 1: and then football is pretty much just high schools, right.
Speaker 1: There's no like club football, club American football, right, like
Speaker 1: soccer is all club so like every it just kind
Speaker 1: of depends on sport. Like baseball is just the high
Speaker 1: school sports. Like there's no club baseball. So it kind
Speaker 1: of is like pretty bizarre the way that they have
Speaker 1: like the clubs versus the high schools and stuff. But yeah,
Speaker 1: you'd definitely need to be going to like camps and
Speaker 1: stuff like that to get recruited for football. But soccer
Speaker 1: was kind of you get a lot more games in
Speaker 1: like high school football, it's ten or fifteen games and
Speaker 1: you're you're done for the season. So like you if
Speaker 1: you have about a round and you get hurt your
Speaker 1: junior year when you're getting recruited off, Yeah, exactly so.
Speaker 1: But yeah, no high school falls big time. I mean soccer, yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe not so much, not so much. We're getting there.
Speaker 1: MLS in America is becoming bigger and bigger, is it.
Speaker 1: I don't know. We had David Beckham come over there.
Speaker 2: I felt like that was a big, big get, big
Speaker 2: get for the LA Galaxy, big get for the LA Galaxy.
Speaker 2: But now we'll talk about more of away from sport
Speaker 2: now people, we're gonna get a little bit deep here.
Speaker 2: Now in America, a lot of people will ask me
Speaker 2: the first thing they asked about is three things they
Speaker 2: ask about Trump, guns, and religion.
Speaker 1: Right, and those will hit all three. And you have
Speaker 1: me on the podcast today. Yeah, I want to talk
Speaker 1: about a lord and say, Jesus.
Speaker 2: Christ, I'm just yeah, what is it, like though I
Speaker 2: tell people all the time I go, I go to
Speaker 2: school and on a Sunday if no, like if I
Speaker 2: go into school on a sorry, on a Friday, like
Speaker 2: I know I'm going to see a lot of my
Speaker 2: schoolmates on a Sunday. Yep, and they're all going to
Speaker 2: be at church on a Sunday. And that was just
Speaker 2: kind of normalized. Like we're here in Australia, like I
Speaker 2: really would struggle to even know one person that goes
Speaker 2: to church.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's like it blew my mom and I
Speaker 1: came here.
Speaker 2: If not necessarily like the it's probably just a lack
Speaker 2: of care of religion in a sense of like in America,
Speaker 2: it's so ingrained in politics and culture and you know,
Speaker 2: ingrained in families and everything else.
Speaker 1: We're here, like we grew up Catholic, Like do I
Speaker 1: go to church every Sunday?
Speaker 2: No, but most Sundays my mom listens to this podcasts
Speaker 2: or our mom listen to those podcast we do go
Speaker 2: to church every Sunday mom in our heads. But yeah,
Speaker 2: now it's it's different, and like what is it luck?
Speaker 2: I guess give us a bit of a description on
Speaker 2: the differences in religion. You know based in America and
Speaker 2: maybe how it's changed. I feel like it's so much
Speaker 2: different now where a lot of people probably aren't as
Speaker 2: heavily religious as they were probably ten, fifteen, twenty years ago.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, now it definitely has gotten less well
Speaker 1: at least less problement in our lives. And maybe that's
Speaker 1: like not having families and having kids and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Like I think, once, yeah, it's definitely a good piece
Speaker 1: of structure to like raise a family with, right, So
Speaker 1: like I know, you know, we were growing up, we'd
Speaker 1: always want to spend the night at our fend's house
Speaker 1: on a Saturday night, and it's like tough, you got
Speaker 1: to get the Mass on Sunday. So but no, I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's definitely like gotten less prevalent the older we've gotten
Speaker 1: just just in general and society. But like I think
Speaker 1: a lot of people have also been like a lot
Speaker 1: more open to different ideas and different religions. So like
Speaker 1: when we were growing up, it was, you know, obviously
Speaker 1: predominantly Christian from what we saw on our day to
Speaker 1: day lives. But now I think like more and more
Speaker 1: people there's have more exposure to different religions and different face,
Speaker 1: and like I think, you know, if nothing else, it's
Speaker 1: just a good way for like people to build this
Speaker 1: sans of community, which is so it's just a cool
Speaker 1: you know, it's a cool thing. So like whether you religis
Speaker 1: or not, Like I definitely like see the value on it.
Speaker 1: And it's you know, kind of cool that like people
Speaker 1: can now get into like Buddhism or as long but
Speaker 1: whatever they want.
Speaker 2: Growing up, it was unique everyone with church Sunday, saw
Speaker 2: your nights there, saw your friends. Mom and dad had
Speaker 2: all their friends from church and everything. Alison, it's just
Speaker 2: very different now moving from religion to the next topic
Speaker 2: of Dallas. Dallas, Texas, and what everyone loves to ask
Speaker 2: is do you own a gun? From mass to mashings great, good,
Speaker 2: good transition.
Speaker 1: No, I don't have any guns. Yeah, I think everybody thinks,
Speaker 1: like everyone's just rocking around with like shotguns after their
Speaker 1: back go to the grocery store to get like like
Speaker 1: this has not happened in Texas or anywhere in America.
Speaker 1: But now like, no guns for me, no guns for
Speaker 1: most of the people I know. Really, like I know
Speaker 1: a few hunters that like have hunting rifles and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, but like nobody's rolling around with like a pistol.
Speaker 2: Strapped to their side. You can, if you want, you
Speaker 2: can have an open care now legally yes you can,
Speaker 2: but people don't don't.
Speaker 1: Not a necessity.
Speaker 2: Not a necessity because a lot of people obviously it's
Speaker 2: a massive things we've talked about previously in masshootings anything else,
Speaker 2: and like it is so unique here except Port Arthur' shooting.
Speaker 1: Then everyone was like, Noah, give your guns to the government.
Speaker 2: We're gonna burn them all and then essentially we'll give
Speaker 2: you a rebite and you'll never see guns in this
Speaker 2: country again unless you need them for farming or whoever.
Speaker 2: It might be where people go to America and they go,
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, like I've never seen a gun before,
Speaker 2: you know, and then like you getting an uber and
Speaker 2: the guy's got one in his glove box, just coke
Speaker 2: up whatever you want, look a Walmart. But yeah, it's
Speaker 2: it's so different. I think it's it's unique that people
Speaker 2: here always ask about it and it's like so different,
Speaker 2: I guess from Australia and America.
Speaker 1: Most people don't don't have guns. Like the people who
Speaker 1: have their guns love their goals. Yeah, so you hear
Speaker 1: a lot more from those people. And obviously, like you know,
Speaker 1: when things go wrong with guns, it goes about as
Speaker 1: wrong as you can get. So like, has it changed
Speaker 1: much in the last five ten years with the idea
Speaker 1: behind that? For sure? Yeah, definitely, the sentiments have changed
Speaker 1: a time, like with the amount of mass shootings and stuff,
Speaker 1: which are just you know ridiculous, Like people at the
Speaker 1: very least right now, like the big pushes just to
Speaker 1: get rid of fully automatic weapons to start, right, like
Speaker 1: you have to start somewhere with this stuff. Like people
Speaker 1: aren't just gonna like give up their guns. And but
Speaker 1: I think the pro gun people are so afraid that
Speaker 1: like all right, once you give them an inch, you'll
Speaker 1: take a mile and they we're going to start taking
Speaker 1: off everything. So like anytime they start really debating, you know,
Speaker 1: gun laws and everything, like amo sales go through the roof,
Speaker 1: people start stocking up like it's about to be World
Speaker 1: War three or something, right, So like that part's pretty while.
Speaker 1: But no, I mean I think, yeah, like there's just
Speaker 1: really yeah, hunting rifles, some of that stuff I get,
Speaker 1: but like there's absolutely no need for fully automatic weapon
Speaker 1: and every day life like in what you're literally going
Speaker 1: to war, which we are not.
Speaker 2: We're not, so yeah, that's not a just nuts. Well,
Speaker 2: moving on from guns to a gun loving man that
Speaker 2: is Donald Trump. How was the last four years living
Speaker 2: with him?
Speaker 1: In power Bounce? I was like, I'm out real, guys,
Speaker 1: but you guys enjoy it.
Speaker 2: I'm not dealing with this to the last four years
Speaker 2: have been with your boy, Joe Bio.
Speaker 1: Yeah, your boy keep it on your chest while my portfolio,
Speaker 1: could you take an absolute nose? Thanks a lot, sleepy, No.
Speaker 1: I mean, look, it's like politics in the US is
Speaker 1: just kind of nuts a while. You can go from
Speaker 1: like hosting everyality show in the press of the United States,
Speaker 1: which uh, maybe not the best and most qualified candidate,
Speaker 1: but then you know, like Joe Biden's yea, you'd say,
Speaker 1: like very qualified, right time politician and he's been in
Speaker 1: it forever. You know, like there are things that he
Speaker 1: got Delta, like both of them got dealt a pretty
Speaker 1: rough hand with COVID. Like Donald Trump is just like,
Speaker 1: I mean, what's.
Speaker 2: The wildest thing you said that you just listen to
Speaker 2: and you're like, this is absurd.
Speaker 1: My personal favorite and there's a lot is when he
Speaker 1: said he was gonna nuke the hurricane that was New Jersey,
Speaker 1: Like what are you talking about? So, like, you know,
Speaker 1: from that standpoint, you know, Donald Trump, like, yeah, there's
Speaker 1: some fun to like, Yeah, fund is probably not the
Speaker 1: right word. Entertaining is a better better description. But my goodness,
Speaker 1: like we're in a new hurricane. Like listen, love me hate.
Speaker 1: I'm like, that is the most absurd thing.
Speaker 2: I don't think Jane Bond will be reckoned out of
Speaker 2: recommending not one no, no.
Speaker 1: So, like you know, just having somebody where you never
Speaker 1: never know, like what you're going to look up to
Speaker 1: was that problem is like god knows what else he's
Speaker 1: gonna try to do. So it was pretty unsettling from
Speaker 1: that perspective. But like, yeah, just a total loose cannon.
Speaker 1: Like I'm very very glad that he is out of
Speaker 1: office for the time being. I think he's already announced
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four candidacy, but man, yeah, he's hopefully long gone.
Speaker 1: And then yeah, we need some fresh We need some
Speaker 1: younger folks, like you got these like eighty year olds
Speaker 1: and you're trying to run the country. We need some
Speaker 1: people a little bit younger.
Speaker 2: And everyone always ideas, oh, can you know BA want
Speaker 2: to come back, just like can we just can you
Speaker 2: just come back, like change the rules?
Speaker 1: Like I don't know the power of the president, Like
Speaker 1: you want somebody who at the very least has like
Speaker 1: respect for the office and like presents that they want
Speaker 1: the best for America. And Obama had that, and like
Speaker 1: I don't know that I know that title Trump didad have.
Speaker 1: I don't know that we'll have somebody like anytime soon
Speaker 1: that I'll sort of, you know, have the respect to
Speaker 1: the office and the people the way that Obama did.
Speaker 1: You know, politics aside, Like I feel like he at
Speaker 1: least wanted what's best for the American people, which is
Speaker 1: like it should be like literally the only prerequisite for
Speaker 1: the job. But somehow we've gotten the way from that.
Speaker 1: So what do you do?
Speaker 2: Un't real Well, our family is somewhat divided whenever it
Speaker 2: comes to to the to the presidential debate at times.
Speaker 2: But I will go into the next thing because we
Speaker 2: want to talk about I want talk about family and
Speaker 2: we've got obviously amazing parents. Everyone knows Phil Cox filthy
Speaker 2: Phil Follo him on the Twitter account Phil Cox as
Speaker 2: year one eight. I might regret saying that, but what
Speaker 2: was it like I guess like everyone always asks, you know,
Speaker 2: like did you grow up playing sport? Did you grow
Speaker 2: up you know, traveling a bunch of sport and everything else,
Speaker 2: and like what was it like? And I think the
Speaker 2: biggest thing I always talk about was like I was
Speaker 2: super lucky that I had a mom who worked, a
Speaker 2: dad who worked, and like you know, was supportive all
Speaker 2: the way through our different athletic careers and everything we did. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and now it's kind of cool to see him somewhat
Speaker 2: getting a return on investment of that and like being
Speaker 2: able to enjoy AFL and he enjoyed us playing soccer
Speaker 2: and basketball and football and everything else.
Speaker 1: Like what was it? I guess what would our parents
Speaker 1: like growing up? What was it like?
Speaker 2: You know, you know, we all played sport, like all three,
Speaker 2: Like we've got another brother, Austin, like, and we all
Speaker 2: three played sport and had two parents and someone I
Speaker 2: jumped around, like being able to put pull us from
Speaker 2: place to place to be able to get us the
Speaker 2: practice and everything else.
Speaker 1: What was it like?
Speaker 2: I guess like having the support of family, Like I
Speaker 2: think anyone that would you know, be a professional athlete,
Speaker 2: Like it's all about your support group in the circle
Speaker 2: you have and everything else. What's it like having Phil
Speaker 2: Cox and Jay Cox's parents.
Speaker 1: Nah, they're great man, Like yeah, like you said, I
Speaker 1: mean they work full time jobs and then also coached
Speaker 1: our our soccer teams, our baseball teams and all that stuff,
Speaker 1: like despite having never kicked a soccer ball in their lives,
Speaker 1: like all of a sudden, yeah, qualified to be a coach,
Speaker 1: coach for the undertens whatever. But jammers Yeah, hey, they
Speaker 1: shout out the Jammer man, the shammers going. We had
Speaker 1: some good squads. No, but they were yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: they're kind to be packed full?
Speaker 2: Was it?
Speaker 1: Kind of the craziest thing I can remember from that
Speaker 1: was when we were kids, Like we'd have you know,
Speaker 1: like baseball or soccer whatever all across town. And this
Speaker 1: is like pre cell phone days, Like yeah, you'd like
Speaker 1: have one cell phone for the family that you'd share
Speaker 1: or whatever, and like they'd have to go the night
Speaker 1: before just like playing out the schedule. It's like I'll
Speaker 1: meet you at field seven at like twelve thirty. It's
Speaker 1: like guess what, like if you had a flat tire,
Speaker 1: like you just don't know where you're you know, the
Speaker 1: rest of your family is like hopefully okay, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: won't be talking to them. So yeah, they used to
Speaker 1: play it that and it was like, you know, then
Speaker 1: by your senior year of high school, like I ended
Speaker 1: up walking on the basketball team. It'll colon and say it.
Speaker 1: So I'm playing in college like four hours away, and
Speaker 1: they're driving up to those games, even though like I'm
Speaker 1: not getting playing time. You know, I got like NBA players,
Speaker 1: I'm sitting behind on the bench right yeah, exactly exactly,
Speaker 1: So like my mom, dadly you don't have to come
Speaker 1: to this stuff. And they're like, listen, we've been coming
Speaker 1: to your games for like fifteen twenty years, you and
Speaker 1: the boys, and like, you know, this is the last year.
Speaker 1: It's Mason's last year of high school socer, it's your
Speaker 1: last year of college basketball, which we didn't even think
Speaker 1: was going to happen. And then yeah, they got a
Speaker 1: couple of years off and then it's like then you
Speaker 1: walk on and I'm like, oh gosh, like three more
Speaker 1: years of this, but just like you know, pretty cool.
Speaker 1: And then are like, all right, now we're definitely done.
Speaker 1: Mason's not going to the NBA. This is the last
Speaker 1: game we'll ever have to watch like it's been a
Speaker 1: good run and here we are in a van and
Speaker 1: I'll shut you. Eight years later, I'm on tawnterflying that
Speaker 1: way across the world to watch from ridiculous sport we've
Speaker 1: never heard of. So yeah, but no, I mean that's like,
Speaker 1: but that to your point, like your original question, the
Speaker 1: type of support they had, like we had a parent
Speaker 1: at every single game. I like, I've had a parent
Speaker 1: at every single game I've ever played, like a pretty
Speaker 1: much any level sport, which is which is like just
Speaker 1: really lucky, honestly, Like a lot of people don't get
Speaker 1: born into having that support of a family. So like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean to your point, like it's cool that film
Speaker 1: ma gets to reap their rewards and just being like
Speaker 1: the biggest footy nuphy earth from at least on the
Speaker 1: continent of North America and on Twitter. Yeah yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's sure too. So no, it's good man, goodn't
Speaker 1: ask for better. I'm going to ask you this because
Speaker 1: you mentioned it.
Speaker 2: Now a walk on, so we'll go into the college
Speaker 2: guy is now a lot of people don't understand what
Speaker 2: a walk on is. Yeah, can you explain? Because you
Speaker 2: to give a background for everyone else like you're so off.
Speaker 2: You were walking on before I got there, four or
Speaker 2: five years beforehand, right, and then four or five years
Speaker 2: later I walked onto the basketball team, which is not
Speaker 2: professional level but probably has the money of professionalism as
Speaker 2: far as Australia, Like I think there's probably more money
Speaker 2: in Cuba than all of us, like AFL for sure. Sure,
Speaker 2: And so people don't understand I guess like the number
Speaker 2: game behind that and what we did. Can we dive
Speaker 2: into a bit of We'll start with what is a
Speaker 2: walk on because a lot of people don't understand that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So walk on's are the non scholarship players. So
Speaker 1: usually usually the guys who are a little bit of
Speaker 1: like a tackling dummy and football or just yeah, the
Speaker 1: guys that get dunked on during the basketball drills Mason drill. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's usually the white guys at the end of the
Speaker 1: bench wave from the towels. It's like not quite not
Speaker 1: quite there athletically, but like really have a lot of
Speaker 1: spirit about him, you know, really good spirits. Yeah exactly.
Speaker 1: So like, no, well I hadn't played high school basketball, right, so,
Speaker 1: like I just once I got tall, I started playing
Speaker 1: a lot of pick up, and then I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, well, I tried out for the basketball team
Speaker 1: in seventh grade. Yeah, didn't make it. Tried out in
Speaker 1: nighth grade, didn't make it. Hadn't hit you grosper. It
Speaker 1: didn't hit the grosper. Yeah that's right. And then so
Speaker 1: then high school, you know I didn't I've played football
Speaker 1: and got into that football. You couldn't get cut from
Speaker 1: the team. So it was like, as long as you
Speaker 1: showed up every day, yeah we're on, and we got
Speaker 1: a kids. Then I've tried out for the best. So
Speaker 1: they had tryouts by sophomore year of college. Did make it, didn't.
Speaker 1: Senior year. I was like, you know what, give it
Speaker 1: one last crack. Not made the basketball team every other
Speaker 1: time in my entire life dating back to seventh grade,
Speaker 1: but somehow.
Speaker 2: Somehow, so there was a there was an actual tryout,
Speaker 2: actual try out, yeah, goes, well, this is just random
Speaker 2: kids going university.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just students, Yeah exactly. These are students that like
Speaker 1: are not in school to play sports. So like most
Speaker 1: of them, I mean, don't get me wrong, like a
Speaker 1: lot of them played like pretty high level high school
Speaker 1: sports and stuff like that. And then they were like,
Speaker 1: oh I could either play like a low small college
Speaker 1: or something like that, but I'd rather just like have fun,
Speaker 1: go to college and go to a big school with
Speaker 1: my friends. So like, yeah, you end up like just
Speaker 1: in a try out with you know whatever, like one
Speaker 1: hundred other kids. And so yeah, I got lucky and
Speaker 1: ended up like making that. I think they took four
Speaker 1: of us. And uh, yeah, I played my senior year,
Speaker 1: which is pretty sweet. And then you started coming to
Speaker 1: the games. We're playing against you know, pretty big time
Speaker 1: players and uh, the biggest player Pudy ins the most
Speaker 1: fass is probably Blake Griffin, so played him three times.
Speaker 1: Navin Durant though, didn you play Kevin Durant? That was
Speaker 1: the year before I walked on, So yeah at the game,
Speaker 1: but didn't didn't play against him, but yeah, played Griffin.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say I played against play Griffin, but I
Speaker 1: was on the team when we played against them. He
Speaker 1: shook his hand at the end of the game. A
Speaker 1: great game. Yeah, good luck in the Yeah, will be
Speaker 1: watching on TV. Now describe it. So you're walk on now.
Speaker 2: Walk On essentially has everything but scholarship, which is the
Speaker 2: money to go to university and pay for classes and books.
Speaker 2: And all this kind of stuff. You know, so like
Speaker 2: you're paying you know, you're going into debt or we
Speaker 2: were fortunate enough God blessed to have my mom and
Speaker 2: dad and helped pay for college. But a lot of
Speaker 2: people going to debt pay for university and then go
Speaker 2: back and pay that loan off. Now you're a college student,
Speaker 2: you're not getting paid. You're like you're giving all this
Speaker 2: time to this basketball program that's not really giving anything back.
Speaker 2: But this experience, what's it? Like I guess was it always?
Speaker 2: Because I think people don't understand how big of a
Speaker 2: deal it would be to actually walk onto a team,
Speaker 2: Like it is a life goal and it's like, man,
Speaker 2: this is gonna be the biggest athletic accomplishment I've ever
Speaker 2: done in my life. Like this is like I remember
Speaker 2: the first time I walked on like it was free close.
Speaker 2: How good is this? And I was like, dude, a
Speaker 2: private jet, we get free Chick fil A? Like what
Speaker 2: in the world, Like this is insane?
Speaker 1: Nine shoes.
Speaker 2: You're like I had to pay for mushers whole life
Speaker 2: and then free Yeah exactly. Now, like the process of
Speaker 2: you're getting there is very similar to mine. So you
Speaker 2: actually helped out with the women's team. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: which is kind of wild. So you go women's team
Speaker 2: start kind of I guess, like because both of us
Speaker 2: never played basketball growing up, and we start playing the
Speaker 2: local rec league, and then the local rec league go
Speaker 2: and help out the women's team, and the women's team.
Speaker 2: You go into the men's team and then you start
Speaker 2: playing there, right, Like what was it, Like, I guess
Speaker 2: how did you get up into the women's team.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just was doing it like the year before,
Speaker 1: and he was like, hey, look like they play at
Speaker 1: the big stadium. We basically like have you know, instead
Speaker 1: of playing pickup games here at the rec center, like
Speaker 1: you get to play at this like nice fifteen thousand seats. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's pretty cool. And so like you just go rock
Speaker 1: up and they send you the flash cards and they're like,
Speaker 1: all right, you're going to be the center, so run
Speaker 1: this play and then you run it against the women's
Speaker 1: team and then they'll just unlock the gym. And the
Speaker 1: coaches were awesome, like they'd get us like barbecue and
Speaker 1: buy us a ke get the end of the year
Speaker 1: and the year yeah, big time, big time. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: big fan never got that whenever I was in college
Speaker 1: for my own well you know, not that that ever
Speaker 1: really happened, but no, so it's great. Well I think
Speaker 1: that actually, like you know, whenever I tried out for
Speaker 1: the men's team, I'm sure at some stage they were like,
Speaker 1: you know, like we should get a reference or something.
Speaker 1: And I like to think that like the you know,
Speaker 1: the women's the women's team was like you know, this
Speaker 1: guy's stand up dude or whatever, and uh, you get on,
Speaker 1: but because they need just reliable, like you know, solid exactly.
Speaker 1: So like, yeah, the women's team thing was just kind
Speaker 1: of a fun, knock around thing with my friends, Like
Speaker 1: it wasn't like a big time commitment or anything like that.
Speaker 1: So we're kind of doing them a favor. And then
Speaker 1: you know, you start playing on the men's team and
Speaker 1: it's like full on, like you're doing two days morning
Speaker 1: sessions six am that you're doing the afternoons like full
Speaker 1: on practice and then but yeah, the private jets and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. I mean, you know, it's like a
Speaker 1: completely different world than what you have a normal college kid.
Speaker 1: Like there was a game that we were I was
Speaker 1: not like when I first started, like I wasn't travel
Speaker 1: at every game and we were We had practice one
Speaker 1: day and our coach was like, are you going to
Speaker 1: the game and like Corpus Christy today And it was
Speaker 1: like Corpus Chris, He's like a like three hour flight
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I don't know, I've classed tomorrow. He's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: just just come And I was like, well, the flight's
Speaker 1: like right after practice, Like how I get it there?
Speaker 1: He's like, We'll just hold the plane until you get there,
Speaker 1: Like this is ridiculous. Jet, Yeah, the hold the jet
Speaker 1: until yeah. So I'm like, for me, who like didn't
Speaker 1: play basketball until like like organized basketball until like two
Speaker 1: months ago, holding the plane for me or whatever, like
Speaker 1: just ridiculous. So some of those experiences like you just
Speaker 1: never would expect. And then the facilities and stuff. To
Speaker 1: your point, like there's so much money in these Like
Speaker 1: you've got like all this TV money that rolls in
Speaker 1: for college sports and like billions and billions billions of dollars, right,
Speaker 1: so like in college football, in college basketball, or like
Speaker 1: the two sports that actually like are profitable for especially
Speaker 1: the TV right, steal for football kind of pays forever
Speaker 1: the sport, right, So, like the locker rooms and all that
Speaker 1: stuff are just absolutely ridiculous and like you kind of
Speaker 1: come over and oh, when you're intercruited a couple years later,
Speaker 1: it's like, check out these facilities. We're walking through these
Speaker 1: different clubs.
Speaker 2: I'm like, this is an IFL, by the way, Yeah,
Speaker 2: you get recruited all and I'm like, oh man, my
Speaker 2: high school facilities is pretty similar to that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was pretty level, but we tell them that
Speaker 1: they'll take offense to it. But no, no, no, well
Speaker 1: there's you know, there's some really cool stuff here. Like
Speaker 1: I mean, Colling was socility having like the Olympic swimming facilities.
Speaker 1: Like yeah, it's super sweet, right, so it's a bit
Speaker 1: of history there and then you got the modern part
Speaker 1: of it. But like, yeah, compared to like.
Speaker 2: The college we had, Like I remember one thing I
Speaker 2: blew my mind was like we had a pool table
Speaker 2: and the pool balls had like we're customized balls and
Speaker 2: had like logos and everything else, and like we had
Speaker 2: the cowskin like couch and everything else, you know, and
Speaker 2: the twenty TVs and the saunas and the hot pools
Speaker 2: and cold pools, and I think the shower heads were
Speaker 2: like five hundred bucks each and you know, there's a
Speaker 2: half a million dollar meal, like marble staircase going downstairs,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, you know, you have this whole gym
Speaker 2: that's a little underneath the actual like the court you
Speaker 2: play on, and there's a track around that. It was
Speaker 2: just like next level kind of stuff. And then I
Speaker 2: came here and I was like, oh, this is good,
Speaker 2: doing me wrong, but like some things need to be
Speaker 2: probably updated. Remember there's billions of dollars pumped into something
Speaker 2: like I think what was it Boom Pickens, who's like
Speaker 2: the big donator. He's donated over like a billion dollars
Speaker 2: to the school. It's like one person right count that
Speaker 2: he's got his name on the side of the stadium,
Speaker 2: so to one school, to one school, and.
Speaker 1: There's that stuffs happening all over the country. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's pretty wild. I mean, it's just yeah, it's different,
Speaker 1: and like it's a bigger market, right, Like there's you know,
Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty million people in the States and
Speaker 1: there's a lot of them those went to college and
Speaker 1: you know, if they want to be able to brag
Speaker 1: on Monday that their football team exactly got.
Speaker 2: Up, right, So now what is so like we're talking
Speaker 2: about to like basketball, college everything else. I'm a bit
Speaker 2: nervous on this because a lot of people don't know
Speaker 2: about my college life. I've dabbled into it here and there.
Speaker 2: Don't get me wrong, I've said a few things. Now
Speaker 2: you would know some stuff, though I probably don't want
Speaker 2: out there, and I'm happy to be this open conversation.
Speaker 1: Right, So, freshman year, pretty tame, pretty tame, pretty in
Speaker 1: the dorms, in the dorms, keeping of the dorms. Legally,
Speaker 1: you can like get kicked out of the school. Yeah, yeah, right,
Speaker 1: so like, well you know what I mean, Like if
Speaker 1: you get caught doing that, like if you get caught
Speaker 1: off campus without call, right, it's like not as big
Speaker 1: of a deal on campus. Is like you don't to
Speaker 1: put the actual college career in jeopardy because you want
Speaker 1: to be able to have a lot more uh bene
Speaker 1: filled evings later on in life. Right now, we got
Speaker 1: from the first year's pretty time. Second year. I live
Speaker 1: in a place called the Hester House. The Hester House. Now,
Speaker 1: this is disgusting.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to find the best way to put this.
Speaker 2: I should have been condemned about twenty years before.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Rent was one hundred and seventy five dollars a month,
Speaker 1: a month, a month. You get what you pay for, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you get what you paid for. That was that was
Speaker 1: the stars a hole on the floor that you guys
Speaker 1: stole a traffic cone whatever, so that whenever you had parties,
Speaker 1: people wouldn't fall into the hole. Like absolute liability and uh,
Speaker 1: we're coming on. Yeah, the upstairs is basically just collapsing
Speaker 1: into the downstairs. Somebody had cut a hole in the
Speaker 1: staircase where the stair like when the wall came down,
Speaker 1: so they could fit their mattress and shove it off
Speaker 1: the staircase, which like just can't be legal. Then then
Speaker 1: like duct taped a beer can on a ninety degree
Speaker 1: angle to cover up the the hole that was just
Speaker 1: cut with a solid the whole like the whole thing,
Speaker 1: And funny enough, actually was condemned like a year. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: really nice part of Harker Kuboks. I'm not goodness. That
Speaker 1: place is an absolute dum and I lived in some
Speaker 1: pretty bad places too, but like that place took the cake.
Speaker 1: It was disgusting, and the people who lived there were
Speaker 1: evenly discutting you being one of them. So yeah, this guy,
Speaker 1: I mean, like the type of person who would just
Speaker 1: break into his own home through the window because he'd
Speaker 1: forget his keys going out and you know, yeah rock
Speaker 1: up to like you know, Bible study tailgates with the
Speaker 1: handle of makers and just taking full full triple gulps
Speaker 1: before stumbling his way back over to the game. This
Speaker 1: is like eleven am. So I don't know if you
Speaker 1: guys have he doesn't really have tail. You gotta have tailgates,
Speaker 1: like you know the big parks up by the g
Speaker 1: Like if you guys just had that thing full of
Speaker 1: full of you big girls at the back, like that's
Speaker 1: that's what you guys need to get there because that's
Speaker 1: the best part of the whole whole weekend. Yeah wrong,
Speaker 1: but yeah, they tail get his money. So like that's
Speaker 1: where we just kind of get together, kind of bounced
Speaker 1: around to the different tailgates, and like it was cool
Speaker 1: too in the States, like in college all the tailgates
Speaker 1: when you're like in an away games, like if you
Speaker 1: drive from like Oklahoma to Iowa, for like the people
Speaker 1: Iowa are just like guys came from Oklahoma, like jump
Speaker 1: on in, like thanks so much for coming. At least
Speaker 1: like the good schools. That's the way they do it. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's a whole nother but you guys got to
Speaker 1: get on the tail getting here.
Speaker 2: I know, it's something I pushed for a long time.
Speaker 2: I think they tried it for a bit, but they
Speaker 2: just don't really understand how to do it. Yeah, And
Speaker 2: the thing is till getting like because you get like
Speaker 2: the satellite and you can see like.
Speaker 1: Gas generator, the satellite up. You'd be watching all the
Speaker 1: like five different TVs in the back of the back
Speaker 1: of the van or whatever. Not the back of the van, right,
Speaker 1: like we're in the back of the van, but to
Speaker 1: the back of the back of theeabout Yeah, you'd have
Speaker 1: the truck. It's literally the tailgate, right, chuck tailgate open. Yeah,
Speaker 1: love a Barbie. You know.
Speaker 2: I haven't jumped into it, but yeah, it's some crazy
Speaker 2: stuff now. I think because we went to a school
Speaker 2: where it was a very small town, still Water, Oklahoma.
Speaker 2: Shout out to the old Oklahoma State Cowboys.
Speaker 1: That's right, I guess we were cowboys. We were.
Speaker 2: We're not really help on this whole thing. We went
Speaker 2: to kind of somewhat of a small school. So now
Speaker 2: there are bigger schools in the middle of the town.
Speaker 2: But where we lived was very much a remote community
Speaker 2: and since there was no city around, it really is
Speaker 2: an hour and a half away. It was the school.
Speaker 2: The school ran the town, and I think anyone would
Speaker 2: agree with that. The school was run by a whole
Speaker 2: bunch of eighteen to twenty three year olds, and like,
Speaker 2: can you imagine how chaotic and crazy that is.
Speaker 1: In half in the summer because all the kids went
Speaker 1: home from school. So yeah, say thousand person town, which
Speaker 1: is not very big thing to begin with, and then
Speaker 1: twenty thousand leave.
Speaker 2: So now describe it because if you are an athlete
Speaker 2: in that town, right, so you we both played basketball.
Speaker 2: Now the benefits of being an athlete in a small town.
Speaker 2: Never stay on the line, Never stay on the line, never.
Speaker 1: Had a tell drinks. This is a great thing over,
Speaker 1: that's right. It's very similar to your left in Melbourne.
Speaker 1: You cut every line, You cut every line. You don't
Speaker 1: pay for anything. You just flick a text to somebody
Speaker 1: and sure enough tickets show up on your front doorstep
Speaker 1: or you get you know whatever. It is like coming
Speaker 1: here with you is like being in college and away,
Speaker 1: like it's kind of kind of rock out to wherever
Speaker 1: you want. Professional college. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: It still super humble, which is great every once in
Speaker 2: a while, bring you back down to earth. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: good Now, College obviously, we'll move on from that. There's
Speaker 2: a there's a lot of college stuff we could probably
Speaker 2: go into, but I probably won't be employed by the
Speaker 2: time we get this out. That's good point now before
Speaker 2: we get into the IFL SOB because you've got a
Speaker 2: big kind of massive you're my agent beforehead agents here
Speaker 2: you started.
Speaker 1: We're still waiting for your paycheck, waiting on that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But another passion we both have is travel. That's right.
Speaker 2: Now, we've traveled all over We've been some pretty amazing places.
Speaker 2: We've been, you know, to Europe, you've done some time
Speaker 2: over there. You've been to Shirly obviously. You know you've
Speaker 2: been to Japan everywhere else. Now, can you tell me
Speaker 2: the story about Patagonia and donas I don't know if
Speaker 2: I mean beautiful.
Speaker 1: Playing that but probably probably not, probably not, but yeah, no,
Speaker 1: Patagony is incredible. Like we so we did this like
Speaker 1: six day high through the w torus al Pain right
Speaker 1: southern southern tip of Chile, which is like about as
Speaker 1: far as you can get before you get to Antarctica.
Speaker 1: Like then these have charter boats that good Antarctica during
Speaker 1: the summer. But yeah, we're down in Chile and like
Speaker 1: I remember, this is like the first year you were playing, right,
Speaker 1: So like we're playing the VFL, which is, you know,
Speaker 1: not exactly the most glamorous of lifestyles, right, Like you're
Speaker 1: not going to a ton of press covers at that stage.
Speaker 1: But yeah, we're like at this hostel talking to these
Speaker 1: guys about you know, just about life and travels and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. And they're trying of traveling through South America.
Speaker 1: And about an hour into the conversation, they're like, what
Speaker 1: do you guys live, you know, where you guys grow up?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh, I live in live in Austin, Texas.
Speaker 1: And Mason goes, I live in Melbourne and they're like,
Speaker 1: we know who you are. We didn't want to be
Speaker 1: weird about it, and we know who you are. Like
Speaker 1: so cool. I hope you guys make it or whatever.
Speaker 1: These guys are like from Perth somewhere, and I don't
Speaker 1: even know what Perth is at this point, but yeah,
Speaker 1: it's so ridiculous. So like that's kind of like probably
Speaker 1: when I I was on the recruiting trip when you
Speaker 1: kind of came over here first, but like that was
Speaker 1: like one of the first times I was like, man,
Speaker 1: these people really do like a nuts for the love
Speaker 1: is ridiculous. Yeah. So yeah, they're like, you know, they
Speaker 1: know the VFL guys that are like traveling halfway across
Speaker 1: the world. But yeah, punterin, it's like we've had some
Speaker 1: good travels. Yeah. South America is really really solid, like
Speaker 1: all over yeah, all over Asia and Australia, anything else.
Speaker 1: So favorite place in Australia, the place in Australia that
Speaker 1: I've been. Tell you what, Tazzi is good. North Melbourne's good.
Speaker 2: You guys trash Now, you guys be nice to Tazzy
Speaker 2: on this podcast.
Speaker 1: You need to. I'm just need to get them ANFL
Speaker 1: club And I think North Melbourne's best. Uh, Fraser Fraser
Speaker 1: Island's really good. Yeah, like squak but yeah, I've been
Speaker 1: to Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourn obviously, great ocean road love, great,
Speaker 1: huge goodness. Yeah, twelve Apostles is cool. I've been all
Speaker 1: that way down to Warnable, Warnable, shout out the hotel, Yeah,
Speaker 1: pick hotel, down to Warnable. Yeah, big fans of the hotel's, right,
Speaker 1: So yeah, no, I've kind of been all over, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I don't know. So, like, you know, the
Speaker 1: big cities here, especially like the Melbourne's of the Sydney
Speaker 1: is like they're very kind of similar to America, Like
Speaker 1: you know, it's not like a very big culture shot
Speaker 1: coming here. Everyone speaking in English. You get like really
Speaker 1: good food, good uh you know, like buol pubs and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. But man, like my favorite travels and
Speaker 1: you're just kind of out in the middle of nowhere,
Speaker 1: and when you get out, you get out some of
Speaker 1: these hikes and stuff like wine Glass Bay and has
Speaker 1: like out in Fraser when you're just driving the beach
Speaker 1: for hours not seeing a soul. It's like where else
Speaker 1: can you do this? Like you can't do this anywhere
Speaker 1: in America, like hardly anywhere else in the world. So
Speaker 1: that's the type of stuff that I'm like, this is
Speaker 1: like a truly a unique experience, you know, Like you're
Speaker 1: in Melbourne, like you know, it's a unique experience, Like
Speaker 1: things are a bit different, but it's still a really
Speaker 1: big city, right, So like, yeah, you get out there
Speaker 1: and some of these hikes and stuff, it's yeah, new
Speaker 1: Zealand the New Trip. Yeah, yeah, so not unreal. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: and I've been it sounds maybe like yeah, the best
Speaker 1: place I've ever been. Huge in the world. We had
Speaker 1: these dolphins like rolling past our, like riding with our
Speaker 1: boat the entire way. This lady was like, this happens
Speaker 1: maybe once or like two or three months, and you
Speaker 1: guys just got the one lucky boat, right, So like yeah,
Speaker 1: so we're just like looking items like you're in like
Speaker 1: like Avatar or something where it's like, all cgi, there's
Speaker 1: no way this is real. But I'm here like now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that place is nuts. Yeah, but she said every
Speaker 1: two or three months, Uh yeah, every well maybe like
Speaker 1: every month or two. Yeah, definitely not very often. Head
Speaker 1: to write too. Whenever I was there, there was a dolphins.
Speaker 2: Was really sell you sold it? She said, no chance,
Speaker 2: we'll come back to this. There was a dolphin. There
Speaker 2: was only one though, if you had a pot of
Speaker 2: dolphins maybe it was a different experience.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we only had one. Apparently it was kicked out
Speaker 1: of the pod.
Speaker 2: So it was like it was like, oh, this is
Speaker 2: so beautiful. I talk to the guys like I was like,
Speaker 2: oh gosh, oh no, so beautiful. Tell I heard the story,
Speaker 2: Well we'll get into a FL. Now you've been into
Speaker 2: this whole Like a f L was very and we
Speaker 2: didn't know what the hell it was. We had no
Speaker 2: idea what we're getting ourselves into. And I want to
Speaker 2: dive into like the first experience of maybe whenever I
Speaker 2: had called you and I said, oh, I'm going to
Speaker 2: go to this thing in Los Angeles for this AFL
Speaker 2: combine and you were like, what the is that? What
Speaker 2: was your what was your mindset on that? Because I
Speaker 2: tell people all the time it was a whole thing.
Speaker 2: It's like and we'll get back to this as a
Speaker 2: degree doesn't expire, but opportunities like this always never come,
Speaker 2: never come again.
Speaker 1: And what was your thought process?
Speaker 2: I guess as an older brother given advoss to someone
Speaker 2: else who has no idea what the hell it is
Speaker 2: and he's just going out to a combine in LA
Speaker 2: for no reason whatsoever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the combat thing, I'm like, well, free trip to LA.
Speaker 1: I take it, right. But like as far as like
Speaker 1: what could have actually become of this with a sport
Speaker 1: I've never heard of? Like my first thought is you know,
Speaker 1: probably like the like parental instincts kicking in I'm like
Speaker 1: I had a couple of guys I played basketball in
Speaker 1: college that ended up in like Lithuania and some shady
Speaker 1: basketball league that like, yeah, I couldn't afford it some
Speaker 1: play ticket home whenever the league folded or whatever, Like
Speaker 1: we better make sure it's not that. So like I
Speaker 1: go into like full on like Jerry McGuire mode. Right,
Speaker 1: I'm like I've got one client and I got to
Speaker 1: make sure he makes that that's right, So I jump in.
Speaker 1: I'm like all right, So I'm you know, like I
Speaker 1: was joke about, like I was your first aid, but
Speaker 1: like I was doing like a lot of legit research.
Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, are there like salary caps, like
Speaker 1: do you have to get drafted? Can you pick what
Speaker 1: club you go to? Like what are the like as
Speaker 1: you know, if there's a salary cap, like what is
Speaker 1: the average salary? Like what is the average career span?
Speaker 1: Like you know, what endorsement type of deals are there?
Speaker 1: So like I actually like kind of did a fair
Speaker 1: amount of research to make sure that you were going
Speaker 1: to be stuck in a foreign country with the plane
Speaker 1: right now, and so by the time like we actually
Speaker 1: got the trip material realized, Like yeah, I was like
Speaker 1: pretty confident. I'm like, all right, I think that this
Speaker 1: is pretty legit, but you know, you never know until
Speaker 1: you see it, That's right exactly.
Speaker 2: And we had never seen this thing before until we
Speaker 2: actually had visual proof of it.
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I think that's what the ANFL
Speaker 1: was thinking too, right, So like the AFL, you know.
Speaker 1: So I'm like all right again, full dammy. I'm like
Speaker 1: I'm going to start taking some phone calls. I'm like
Speaker 1: talking to agents. I'm talking to different clubs at like
Speaker 1: three am in the morning, isn't it. Yeah yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: So I'll actually no because like eight am Melbourne time
Speaker 1: would be like five ish back home. So like I
Speaker 1: get off clear, I get off work and I set
Speaker 1: all the meetings for like the morning in Melbourne, right,
Speaker 1: So like I jump off work and go straight into
Speaker 1: the zoom calls or whatever. And I'm like all right, So,
Speaker 1: like we got to figure out a real agent who
Speaker 1: like knows tet run contracts and everything like that. In America.
Speaker 1: I haven't passed the bar yet in America or in
Speaker 1: Australia nor whatever. But so I'm like, you know, so
Speaker 1: I have conversations with these agents with the league offices
Speaker 1: some of the different clubs and stuff like that, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, I just I don't know, like what.
Speaker 2: Was your impression of the IFL Was it like this
Speaker 2: is legit like they speak while I'm talking to like
Speaker 2: know what they're talking about, or like, were you kind
Speaker 2: of like Makeson described this this little combine thing he
Speaker 2: had and it was a bit not what he expected.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well you know the combine thing. I know that.
Speaker 1: I think you've told the story before. There's like old
Speaker 1: ladies walking the track around the field. Yeah, this is
Speaker 1: so like this is the field running like awesome, this
Speaker 1: is a good start. But yeah, so you were kind
Speaker 1: of you kind of like I don't know if you
Speaker 1: really wrote it off, but you're like whatever, I have finals,
Speaker 1: Like finals are kind of the big exams that you
Speaker 1: have to pass to be able to graduate, and you
Speaker 1: had the coming up in like a week or two,
Speaker 1: and they do a thing called dead week where like
Speaker 1: you just nobody goes out. It's just all study, all study,
Speaker 1: like cramming for these finals basically the week before, and
Speaker 1: so you were going into the dead week. You're like,
Speaker 1: I don't have time to deal with this stuff. Can
Speaker 1: you please get on the phone with these people and
Speaker 1: just see if this thing is real. So I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I got you. So that's whenever I start the whole
Speaker 1: you know, back and forth with all the different agents
Speaker 1: and the clubs and the and the league and whatnot.
Speaker 1: And then like you kind of gave me. You know,
Speaker 1: We're talking like kind of throughout the week, and by
Speaker 1: the end of By the end of the week, I'm like,
Speaker 1: it seems pretty legit. I don't know, like there's a
Speaker 1: coward caps Like it's guaranteed, right, So like the sports
Speaker 1: that was a big thing. Yeah, because like in the US,
Speaker 1: like if you're in the NFL, like Fell, contracts are guaranteed, right,
Speaker 1: So like if you get like drafted at the very
Speaker 1: end of the draft, tear an ACL guess what, don't
Speaker 1: get paid, Like you just signed a three year yeah,
Speaker 1: three year contract for two million a year, but like
Speaker 1: you're seeing literally none of that. So like they just
Speaker 1: they cut you and move on. So I'm making sure
Speaker 1: that it wasn't anything like that too, So like because
Speaker 1: obviously pretty brutal sport like, so I find out enough
Speaker 1: to think that, all right, this seems pretty legit. So
Speaker 1: we start talking again and You're like, so what's the deal,
Speaker 1: Like what do they want to do because all the
Speaker 1: different clubs are like we want to fly them out,
Speaker 1: we want to fly them out, and the League's like,
Speaker 1: pump the brakes. We can't have him spend like two
Speaker 1: months over here with all these different clubs. Like we
Speaker 1: got to hold around, Yeah, we got to get this thing.
Speaker 1: So the league is like, listen, we want to fly
Speaker 1: them out. And I'm talking and they're like, we just
Speaker 1: we want to get them to three or four different clubs,
Speaker 1: so like we can have him check out a bunch
Speaker 1: of different facilities, meet a bunch of different people, and
Speaker 1: then kind of like just pick the one that seems
Speaker 1: like the best fit. And I'm like all right, So
Speaker 1: I call you and You're like, you know, I still
Speaker 1: don't know much about this, saying like you're the only
Speaker 1: one that's really talk to these people. And so I
Speaker 1: call him back and I could listen, he doesn't really
Speaker 1: want to go alone. I said, we'll fly got to
Speaker 1: I said, we're in so so you know then that's
Speaker 1: that's part of the whole thing. Kind of kicked off
Speaker 1: the whole thing. So like they put together this trip
Speaker 1: and you know, we visit North Richmond, Collingwood, uh, and
Speaker 1: in Port, and so we went to a couple different games,
Speaker 1: like went visited all different facilities and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it was a pretty like wild time, like
Speaker 1: and I was like kind of full wheeling a deal
Speaker 1: and like, you know, it was you know, I thought
Speaker 1: I was I thought I was killing I'm sure like
Speaker 1: all the people and had nothing really like literally talking
Speaker 1: to like you know we had And at the time
Speaker 1: it was kind of funny too, because like you go
Speaker 1: to lunch at these people, you go to like, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, dinner with these like legends of the game,
Speaker 1: and we're like, never heard of any of these people. Yeah, Eddie,
Speaker 1: Eddie macguar, cool, Yeah, what do you do? So that
Speaker 1: happened over and over, right, Like I think like one
Speaker 1: of the funniest things I remember from that trip was
Speaker 1: We're at Richmond and I guess, like, so Damian Hardwork
Speaker 1: picks us up from the hotel, right and uh and
Speaker 1: super nice right, so like all in like every club
Speaker 1: and that's why I don't like you dump it on
Speaker 1: North of the Sink. They were very comminating whatever, yeah,
Speaker 1: saying it's an opportunity and Tezzy yeah, it's fair enough,
Speaker 1: pack pack your jackets. But so we're Richard, like you know,
Speaker 1: David Hardbrok picks us up. We've rolled into the car
Speaker 1: park and Jackie Waltz running into the club and he's like,
Speaker 1: I got to talk to this guy today, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: what's going on with him? And he's like, oh, he
Speaker 1: just said some stuff in the media like about how
Speaker 1: this maybe the coaching staff doesn't have the right mix
Speaker 1: or whatever, because this is mid season and I guess
Speaker 1: they weren't like killing it just yet. But so we
Speaker 1: get in there and like sure enough, you're in some
Speaker 1: psych evaluation thing and I'm just like talking to the
Speaker 1: assistant coaches upstairs and the facilities, and you see him
Speaker 1: like running across the field to go catch the train,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, what is he doing? All the coaches
Speaker 1: you're like, oh my gosh, Like he's like all the
Speaker 1: media's in the car park of like waiting to ask
Speaker 1: him these tough questions and he but I guess they
Speaker 1: caught him on camera like running across, so like you
Speaker 1: got busted anyway, like trying to avoid the media. But
Speaker 1: I'm like, is that really what it is? Here? Like
Speaker 1: this is that big of a deal. You make one
Speaker 1: comment and there's like fifteen people at your doorstep trying
Speaker 1: to doorstop you to talk about like was like to
Speaker 1: you know, it's just crazy, and like that's the thing
Speaker 1: that's crazy about the media here in general. Right, Like
Speaker 1: every week it's you're either like kind of win the
Speaker 1: premiership or your career. It's like, man, you just can't
Speaker 1: catch a break if you're like, well you specifically, but
Speaker 1: like you know, it's not just you, it's like a
Speaker 1: lot of other a lot of other players of also
Speaker 1: I don't know, I.
Speaker 2: Do remember that, and you're telling the story of like
Speaker 2: because they have this like it's kind of like a
Speaker 2: third story up, you know, and you've got this like
Speaker 2: aerial view of the whole field and you just see
Speaker 2: Jack just go bang straight out the gates and it's
Speaker 2: right next to the Richmond station.
Speaker 1: So he's playing this out. There's no like no doubt.
Speaker 2: He's like, I think I've got this, Yeah, I think
Speaker 2: I could possibly get away. Yeah I'll get back in.
Speaker 2: And apparently the next day at the club you have
Speaker 2: to come in and get asked again. I don't know,
Speaker 2: but you just leave your car there and just pick
Speaker 2: it up another time. It seems like things turned around
Speaker 2: for them later, well three of the last four. Yeah, yeah, anyway,
Speaker 2: that was one of the funnier stories I remember for
Speaker 2: that trip. They've asked you to play in there, like
Speaker 2: local I did play basketball.
Speaker 1: All the coaches were like, yeah, we got a break basketball,
Speaker 1: like you played basketball growing up. Come on, I was like,
Speaker 1: whoever's got shoes?
Speaker 2: I went just like throwing all ups at the in
Speaker 2: sac just absolutely dominating. You know, your boy had halfs
Speaker 2: thet pack of the day. Oh man, all right, Well
Speaker 2: we'll go into a bit of I guess going into this,
Speaker 2: this whole experience, right, So we so we met up
Speaker 2: with four teams, five teams really if you count Freemantle.
Speaker 1: We did have a little meeting with them.
Speaker 2: Now we get to the back end of this, right,
Speaker 2: and I'll never forget like we were in the Crown
Speaker 2: I think it was and big kind of like wrap
Speaker 2: up of the whole experience.
Speaker 1: Well we'll go back, I guess for the first AFL game.
Speaker 1: We're a geelong. Yeah, I told I told the story
Speaker 1: about the meat pie. That's right, Chuck, Mine about.
Speaker 2: Ten piece of ship? Can you tell that story? Because
Speaker 2: I feel like I've told it maybe once or twice,
Speaker 2: but we got to hear from your So the.
Speaker 1: Meat pie is like the hot Dog Show whatever, right,
Speaker 1: So yeah, so hot dog in a baseball game in
Speaker 1: America is kind of the same same, right. So we
Speaker 1: get to the game and I've never been to a
Speaker 1: footy game. We don't know what a meat pire is.
Speaker 1: We don't know. We didn't know what's six points? No clue, right, yeah?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. The first BFL game you played, I remember
Speaker 1: like somebody kicked a point. My mom's like, let's go calling.
Speaker 1: We don't like points. Yeah she did, stood up in
Speaker 1: the crowd. He's like, yeah, go team, go team. And
Speaker 1: I was like, it's not a good thing. There's a
Speaker 1: point on the board. I guess it could be worse. Yeah,
Speaker 1: not the best. It's not good. But no, we go. Yes,
Speaker 1: we go this game, and you know, everyone's like again
Speaker 1: like over welcoming. So the North, the North coaches or
Speaker 1: the you know whoever it was, they're like, let's gotta
Speaker 1: get you meat pie. It's like the quinnescent Australia experience.
Speaker 1: So we're getting this like half cooked, like half cold
Speaker 1: meat pie downage along. It's like pretty cool that yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I took one bite and I was like, Mason, and
Speaker 1: You're like, there're no way, no way, this is happening.
Speaker 1: So I go all right, so I suck it back in.
Speaker 1: The little pouch thing comes in right, and like the
Speaker 1: next thing that they turn around, I like just chuck
Speaker 1: it down down to the and they they turned indo
Speaker 1: like I'd done it too quick, so they're like, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, finished already. You want to if you want
Speaker 1: another one? And I'm like that in that full four
Speaker 1: Mason sit there with like sliding on this thing and
Speaker 1: everyone's like what are you thinking.
Speaker 2: You're like pretty good, thank you, so thank you, Please
Speaker 2: give me a contract.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah exactly exactly. But then like the songs start
Speaker 1: coming and I'm like, you know, we got the wee gelong, Like.
Speaker 2: This is not real.
Speaker 1: They're not really getting to hide to this song. Like
Speaker 1: nobody's getting hip to this song. This is ridiculous. So
Speaker 1: that was like the funniest. But that was like the
Speaker 1: first time we went to and it was like kind
Speaker 1: of the cool little bootss hating down the down the coast.
Speaker 1: And then we went to the Port Hawthorne game, I
Speaker 1: think like Adelaide Oval, which is also like those teams
Speaker 1: were flying at the time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, decked out all year making sure and like that
Speaker 2: was all I had. And remember we went out that
Speaker 2: not I went out like here out of the town
Speaker 2: and they're like, oh, you're the guy on the TV.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that was crazy. But I remember like even
Speaker 1: when we got to Adelaide, there was like cameras at
Speaker 1: the airport Mason Coxes in town and I'm like, this
Speaker 1: guy's like not even decided if he's going to come play.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, and they're like, don't worry, it's a sleepy
Speaker 1: town Adelaide. I'm like, you guys can't talk at all.
Speaker 1: Nobody's got more cameras than anywhere I've ever seen. Its ridiculous.
Speaker 2: So we actually on that plane it was like a
Speaker 2: seven NAM fly to Adelaide, and I was so exhaustive,
Speaker 2: like the jet lag and everything else is going on.
Speaker 2: I remember falling asleep and everyone's probably done this, like
Speaker 2: fall asleep, put their head on like the seat in
Speaker 2: front of them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then I woke up.
Speaker 2: And then like that night, we see I got to
Speaker 2: see myself on camera like watching the news or something,
Speaker 2: and I've got this big crease of like the you
Speaker 2: know the table like that keeps it up. It's just
Speaker 2: like this big crease across my forehead of that. And
Speaker 2: I was just like, oh, great, this is a great,
Speaker 2: great first look for Attle. I sure they'll be real
Speaker 2: interested whatever. And then they were the ones that did
Speaker 2: great contract. I remember you've been in that like psych
Speaker 2: evaluation thing too, and you're like why do you want
Speaker 2: to do this? Like what is what's your motivation? I'd
Speaker 2: be like, well, I just yeah, I love it. It
Speaker 2: just loves sport or whatever. Can Agley goes.
Speaker 1: You don't love it. You don't even know it existed
Speaker 1: until three weeks ago.
Speaker 2: And I was like, I'll take your fair enough. Yeah
Speaker 2: on that side, fair call. Well.
Speaker 1: The one was that they were like, well, like how
Speaker 1: are you going to possibly make it and not living
Speaker 1: at home or you're like I haven't lived at home
Speaker 1: for five years. Yeah, it's different to the university, like
Speaker 1: you're not going back every weekend to you know, you
Speaker 1: see your parents like once every six months, kind of
Speaker 1: the same as what you would hear, so it's different.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that was man, that was a fun trip.
Speaker 2: But like it's like literally they went to Geelong game
Speaker 2: the night before you didn't get back to my wents
Speaker 2: like three o'clock. And then we're on a seven o'clock flight,
Speaker 2: which we would be up at like four thirty five,
Speaker 2: and we're just being like two hours got to Adelaide.
Speaker 1: Then they're like straight into the boots, go train against them.
Speaker 2: I followed that out. I forget his name now, but
Speaker 2: he he had play. He was playing basketball. We're looking
Speaker 2: at him and he was just like bank one on one,
Speaker 2: go at it, kick a ball off and just whoever
Speaker 2: comes up with it. And I was like, I'd barely
Speaker 2: even seen a football at this point. They're just like
Speaker 2: essentially I think they're trying to They always I remember
Speaker 2: I first came here, I said, how much.
Speaker 1: Cun t do you? Haven't you? Yeah? And always like
Speaker 1: how much is he having? Is he really like, you know,
Speaker 1: does he really want to do this? You know?
Speaker 2: Not kind of get it because it's like this guy
Speaker 2: trying to have a worldwide like we're investing him, like, yeah,
Speaker 2: best believe me to make sure that he's gonna put
Speaker 2: enough effort into it.
Speaker 1: They playing Monopoly when you're eight years old, they would
Speaker 1: know that you're You're a board flipper. You're the type
Speaker 1: of guy that gets down board.
Speaker 2: Flippers stole a few five hundred out of the board,
Speaker 2: as we all do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, why'd you end up with? Park Place? Was about
Speaker 1: six hours ago? I just bought it. I don't know, Yeah,
Speaker 1: well it was. It was a crazy trip and I
Speaker 1: think we got to the end.
Speaker 2: I'll talk about this so like this instance where the
Speaker 2: Crown and I remember like this whole time, like they're
Speaker 2: not only kind of wining, dining red carpet myself, but
Speaker 2: because they knew you were the person in my ear of,
Speaker 2: like you got all the benefits and all the different
Speaker 2: stuff you could possibly it's actually even better, even better.
Speaker 1: And you're still living that life. That's not bad. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I keep saying, everyone's like, he comes to us, show
Speaker 1: you a lot, and I'm like, well, you know, tell
Speaker 1: Mason gets a legit girlfriend and gets married.
Speaker 2: Like I'm gonna keep living that fust one life as
Speaker 2: long as I can't. If anyone's listened to the pod,
Speaker 2: that's not happening anytime soon. So dating life not so well.
Speaker 2: You could talk about some actually some interesting dating stories.
Speaker 2: I'm sure you've you've heard in.
Speaker 1: The past, But we go back to that last day.
Speaker 1: So like you're getting wine to dine.
Speaker 2: Everything's happening right, And we get to this kind of
Speaker 2: pointy end of this trip and it kind of comes
Speaker 2: to the point where like they told us, Okay, every
Speaker 2: contract's gonna be the same yep, and like financially is
Speaker 2: going to be the same. There's it might be benefits
Speaker 2: in the sense of like Collingwood might have more followers,
Speaker 2: which might help you know, build brand outside wherever it
Speaker 2: may be, or you might have a better opportunity of
Speaker 2: getting a job someone else because they've got more connections,
Speaker 2: whatever it may be.
Speaker 1: And I remember we get to this dinner and I
Speaker 1: remember where it was.
Speaker 2: It wasn't like a Nobu, but it was like a
Speaker 2: very fancy dinner and like there was beers are flowing.
Speaker 2: It was like, hey, thanks so much for coming, great job, awesome,
Speaker 2: thanks for having us.
Speaker 1: For me more please, Yeah, I haven't strapped up a
Speaker 1: pair of boots the whole time, and I'm just yeah
Speaker 1: for two weeks.
Speaker 2: And we got through this dinner and then we go
Speaker 2: for more drinks and there's like I'll never forget this
Speaker 2: little place and it's like right next to the entrance
Speaker 2: and there's a little mini bar and everyone's hanging out
Speaker 2: having drinks and stuff, and yeah, they kind of get
Speaker 2: weeded out and stuff and whatnot. And then we get
Speaker 2: to the point end we're given two agents that kind
Speaker 2: of were giving us an idea of what it would
Speaker 2: look like the contract now because we're ignorant, Like you
Speaker 2: did a business degree, but like, did you have any
Speaker 2: experience as a sport agent.
Speaker 1: No. I remember going up to this.
Speaker 2: I think it was like a sports bar upstairs, and like,
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty pissed, Like I
Speaker 2: was quite drunk at this point, Like we had a
Speaker 2: few beers in us and I remember sitting there. I'll
Speaker 2: never forget this moment. Is like they sit there and
Speaker 2: there's the first time we had talked about financials this
Speaker 2: whole trip, right, and they give like all the contracts
Speaker 2: of the different clubs are given to me, and then
Speaker 2: like we both looked at each other and we're looking
Speaker 2: at these and I'm like, I can't even read the letter.
Speaker 1: Finally talk numbers and we're like ten years.
Speaker 2: To just hammered, which I'm like, I remember sitting there
Speaker 2: and they like start chatting there for like five ten minutes,
Speaker 2: and I just kind of look at you. I was like,
Speaker 2: you're like, can we getting five minutes?
Speaker 1: Now we get ten minutes. Just we're gonna have a
Speaker 1: chat about this.
Speaker 2: I remember like going off to the side and I
Speaker 2: was like, yeah, I'm hammered, Like what are you okay?
Speaker 1: I was like, do you know what's going on here?
Speaker 2: No, it's like should we be making life decisions under
Speaker 2: this circumstances? Like no, no, no, no, no, So go back.
Speaker 2: We're like, thanks so much, guys, can you just give
Speaker 2: us a little bit of time. We'll think, we'll go
Speaker 2: back home, we'll talk to the family and we'll have
Speaker 2: a conversation with them and see if we want to
Speaker 2: come out here. But the AFL had already invested this,
Speaker 2: because they had already gone through and told the media
Speaker 2: that I was coming. They kind of pushed this whole
Speaker 2: thing of like tallest player to ever play American coming
Speaker 2: out here. You know it's going to be this great
Speaker 2: you know, you know, great thing for the game and
Speaker 2: all this, and like they put a lot of investment
Speaker 2: into it. And like you said, I had not said
Speaker 2: I was coming, Like I got a job at Excellent Mobile,
Speaker 2: Like I was a nine hundred percent invested in this
Speaker 2: since I knew I was gonna come yet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And a lot of people are like, well, isn't
Speaker 1: it like kind of a waste of a college degree?
Speaker 1: This and that. But like you were able to negotiate
Speaker 1: the contract based on what Excell had already offered, right,
Speaker 1: so you got paid more than what a normal rookie
Speaker 1: was and then so off the salary cap because it's
Speaker 1: a rookie, like international rookie. See I did my homework, Yeah,
Speaker 1: exactly work. So yeah, that was. That was a coop
Speaker 1: of like to your point. I mean, it was still
Speaker 1: like probably a little dice where they're like, man, this
Speaker 1: guy better come over because we've been really hyping it
Speaker 1: up in the media for the last week or so.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so but like, yeah, that was we were
Speaker 1: in no state to make that decision in that stage
Speaker 1: of the game, so uh, you know, kept on rolling.
Speaker 1: It was a it was a unique circumstance.
Speaker 2: I remember flying back and there's a guy named Chris
Speaker 2: who had come to the combine in the US early
Speaker 2: stag just came to the combine. Was like a hype man, right,
Speaker 2: so he's like this fellas hyped up, you know, He's like, oh, man,
Speaker 2: like the boys you know all this kind of shit.
Speaker 2: You know, I was like, not probably the person they
Speaker 2: thought they get out of it, you know, like this
Speaker 2: like suburban like walk on what that just was like,
Speaker 2: you know, an engineer, Like I don't think that was
Speaker 2: probably the person they were thinking was gonna come out
Speaker 2: of this. And I never forget Chris was on that
Speaker 2: flight over to I think it was from LA, like
Speaker 2: whenybody flew through LA maybe on.
Speaker 1: The way back from the US.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Collingwood knowing, and like Collingwood's very good at this,
Speaker 2: and Decker Derek Hans is very good at this. And
Speaker 2: I loved it because I love ruthlessness. Who becomes suck recruiting.
Speaker 2: He schmoozed it, He lathered it up, you know, I
Speaker 2: just lathered it up and whatever you need, let us
Speaker 2: know whatever it is. You know, we've got all the
Speaker 2: connections in the world and all this kind of stuff,
Speaker 2: and they do have quite a bit. And I don't
Speaker 2: forget Chris sat next to us on the plane. And
Speaker 2: this is a guy that like was kind of hired
Speaker 2: to like be in my ear, and somehow he had
Speaker 2: sorted out the I guess the airplane tickets at the
Speaker 2: AFL had booked for us, and then just I haded
Speaker 2: to book a ticket literally right next to us. We
Speaker 2: had a guy in our ear for like seventeen hours
Speaker 2: straight talking to us how great calling.
Speaker 1: Because the trip wasn't a Callingwood trip, it was a
Speaker 1: tripfl to be like meeting all the different teams, and
Speaker 1: like we had no idea this is this guy was
Speaker 1: even coming, but they not only find out they're coming,
Speaker 1: he's sitting right spang next to us, like halfway through.
Speaker 2: The flight, basical gets up together ise he's like, I
Speaker 2: can't let this guy anymore. You gotta swall seats of me.
Speaker 2: So we He's a super nice guy, but man.
Speaker 1: It was just like we can't listen to seventeen hours
Speaker 1: of this, Like I gotta take a nap, so.
Speaker 2: We'll go into I guess now the IFL career. So
Speaker 2: everything obviously panned out with all this kind of stuff,
Speaker 2: and we are ignorant, like we kind of have no idea.
Speaker 2: And I've called you many of times, going, you know,
Speaker 2: do I want to keep playing?
Speaker 1: Do I not? Is this really worth it? What's going on?
Speaker 1: All this kind of stuff?
Speaker 2: And you've kind of known me through the highs and
Speaker 2: lows and everything else they've gone through, and there's very
Speaker 2: few people I feel like they probably have the background
Speaker 2: information that you do of like kind of my experiences
Speaker 2: and the lows and the highs and kind of we'll
Speaker 2: talk a bit of both, I guess. But the first
Speaker 2: year obviously very very hard. Moving to a country where
Speaker 2: you don't know anyone, you've never heard of the place,
Speaker 2: never heard of Melbourne in my life. Yeah, moving to
Speaker 2: a country to play sport you never heard of. And
Speaker 2: I guess my reliance was a lot on you to
Speaker 2: give me a bit of advice on you know, saying
Speaker 2: this isn't like, you know, like just stick it out.
Speaker 2: You've got a three year deal, stick it out in
Speaker 2: worst case scenario, like if things move on to life,
Speaker 2: you've got.
Speaker 1: That in your back pocket. You go back to working
Speaker 1: engineering job.
Speaker 2: Now, I will say this, like, and I don't know
Speaker 2: if you remember this moment we were in Saint Kilda,
Speaker 2: was after the chaos of like just the AFL trip, right,
Speaker 2: and it was like this fucking nuts And it's probably
Speaker 2: one of the first like actual conversations we've had like
Speaker 2: man and man kind of thing. And we're sitting down
Speaker 2: this like just I don't even know, like this little
Speaker 2: brick bledge looking out the beach, going like what the
Speaker 2: fuck have we just got ourselves into?
Speaker 1: I had no idea? And we're like, well, we thought
Speaker 1: this wasn't real.
Speaker 2: Now we've come into a game, we've seen it can
Speaker 2: have thirty thousand people, one hundred thousand people with the
Speaker 2: MCG have walked out onto the stadium and like being
Speaker 2: able to walk around and see how big of a
Speaker 2: deal this is. Because we didn't think it was real
Speaker 2: and we're like, all right, well now we've got to
Speaker 2: the back into this. We we're probably gonna get a deal.
Speaker 1: Like what do we do?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: Like, and it's kind of this moment in life where
Speaker 1: everyone has these you know, it might go one way
Speaker 1: or mic go or the other.
Speaker 2: And I think like on that beach in Saint Kilda,
Speaker 2: it was like we essentially said like, nah, you're going
Speaker 2: to actually do this thing, and it was like shit,
Speaker 2: like I'm about to move my life to like this
Speaker 2: place I know nothing about and like just have this
Speaker 2: massive just risk. I'm about to take it live and
Speaker 2: I'll be internested.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I guess like you're what were you thinking whenever you're
Speaker 2: kind of going through this whole process of me and
Speaker 2: what I was kind of mentally all over the place
Speaker 2: and not really sure I was gonna do and had
Speaker 2: a job and everything else and giving it up and
Speaker 2: all that.
Speaker 1: But you had kind of already been to work.
Speaker 2: A proper career already, and like you kind of had
Speaker 2: an idea, like what was it kind of like I
Speaker 2: guess giving you advice.
Speaker 1: Now that was like that was exactly it, right, So
Speaker 1: like I, you know, I played, We had like like
Speaker 1: we just talked about very very similar life experience up
Speaker 1: to that point, playing college basketball, Like you don't really
Speaker 1: think anything's going to happen after that, and like I
Speaker 1: just remember sitting on the here whatever it was at
Speaker 1: little legend say kill. Then You're like, I mean, like
Speaker 1: what do you think? Like what should we do here?
Speaker 1: And I was like, look for me, I'm proud of
Speaker 1: you either way. Like you're gonna go work for an awesome,
Speaker 1: like massive company back in the States. They're going to
Speaker 1: have this crazy adventure. Like I've worked four or five
Speaker 1: years at that point in the corporate world, and I
Speaker 1: can tell you not that cool. It's not that cool,
Speaker 1: like sending a cubicle all day whatever. So I was like, look,
Speaker 1: your college degree never exp your athleticism does like you
Speaker 1: will never probably have a day where you're sitting like
Speaker 1: on the field and I'll show you being like, man,
Speaker 1: I really wish I was in a cubicle right now,
Speaker 1: and that'd be awesome because you're gonna have plenty of
Speaker 1: those days probably in the future with yeah yeah, so,
Speaker 1: but I'm like, you know, if you pass this up,
Speaker 1: there's I can guarantee you there will be multiple times
Speaker 1: a year where you sit there in your cubicle in
Speaker 1: Houston thinking like, man, be cooled to be in Aushowa
Speaker 1: right now. I wonder what would have happened, you know,
Speaker 1: Like it's like, look, I'm probably either way. I do
Speaker 1: whatever you want. I really don't care. Like I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to tell you to do one thing or the other.
Speaker 1: But for me, like there's one path that like will
Speaker 1: always be there and the other one pretty much leaves
Speaker 1: when we leave Australia if you decide it does so
Speaker 1: like do without what you wish and uh, And then
Speaker 1: we didn't really talk about it again. I don't think
Speaker 1: the rest of that trip, I was just gonna like
Speaker 1: just leave it with you because, like I said, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm proud of either way. So we'll get back and
Speaker 1: then we kind of talked about a little bit more
Speaker 1: once we got back to the States and uh, just
Speaker 1: enjoy the rest of the trip. But uh yeah, I
Speaker 1: ended up ended up deciding to go and then obviously
Speaker 1: ended up a calling with you eve A worried about
Speaker 1: maybe an over on my own. Uh not really again,
Speaker 1: like after seeing the ass house, like if you can
Speaker 1: survive that, you can survive that. Like I think he's
Speaker 1: gonna be all right. So but honestly, man, like getting
Speaker 1: over here and like the more I've come throughout the years,
Speaker 1: like it's so cool meeting all the different people you've
Speaker 1: met here because like I get them to know you're
Speaker 1: a really good friend group. Then all the people you
Speaker 1: work with and like, and it's like once you once
Speaker 1: you meet and get to know the network that you've
Speaker 1: like created over here and all the people that are
Speaker 1: like essentially helping you along, it like makes you worry
Speaker 1: a lot less because you're like, oh, he's got like
Speaker 1: really really good people that will make sure he's taken
Speaker 1: care of regardless. So and there's been a ton of
Speaker 1: them through the years, right, So like it's you know,
Speaker 1: once you kind of see that and like see the
Speaker 1: infrastructure that you have around you, like, yeah, you don't
Speaker 1: really worry at all. Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 2: I think it is one thing I always talk about
Speaker 2: Australians and the willingness to be able to help other
Speaker 2: people out and stick a handout whenever someone needs something,
Speaker 2: Like it's never their experience they expect something back. It's
Speaker 2: always like, how can I help this person be a
Speaker 2: better human? And like wild, it's unlock anywhere else. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's they're kind of like there is this whole tall
Speaker 2: poppy syndrome. But I think before you get to that
Speaker 2: status in life of being able to like say you're successful,
Speaker 2: a lot of people want to get you to the
Speaker 2: successful point. And then once you get there and then
Speaker 2: you become media and all this other stuff, then people
Speaker 2: try to bring you back down to where you were. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Like so there's never like this is like kind of
Speaker 2: this weird happy medium somewhat. But I have found it
Speaker 2: amazing the Australians are so willing to say, oh, you're
Speaker 2: from a different I couldn't tell you how many people
Speaker 2: have gone, oh you're from no, come over for dinner
Speaker 2: come dinner, come see the family, like don't worry about it.
Speaker 2: And it's like it's amazing, Like I just have never
Speaker 2: experienced that kind of hospitality anywhere else.
Speaker 1: But you get to a certain level, then you got
Speaker 1: to start giving back. Right then you get to be
Speaker 1: the person and that that feels even better than anything, right,
Speaker 1: like being of I've got some of the younger guys
Speaker 1: and like, oh, like I'll give you this, come with me.
Speaker 1: This that like even little things like I remember were
Speaker 1: driving back from Fraser Island and like we pulled out
Speaker 1: you see, you know this is like after Queen's birthday,
Speaker 1: you can five like one of you know whatever, you know,
Speaker 1: dy in her trophy and all that stuff, and like
Speaker 1: so it's a big, really big week and like you
Speaker 1: got the bi week next week. So go to Fraser
Speaker 1: and like just see some kids kicking the footy on
Speaker 1: the side of the road and I'm like, dude, let's
Speaker 1: go have a kid. And so sure enough, like pull
Speaker 1: over on the side of some random street out and
Speaker 1: queens queens, Yeah, god nos where and like these kids
Speaker 1: are like what are you doing? Like a it's like
Speaker 1: and like could not tell you like absolutely made the
Speaker 1: day and like being able to like make somebody's day
Speaker 1: just by giving an odd handball at the park or whatever.
Speaker 1: Like that stuff is really cool. So I it's I
Speaker 1: don't know, so sometimes as small as that, and then
Speaker 1: sometimes it's you know, like you said, like taking along
Speaker 1: some of the younger, younger folks that are on the
Speaker 1: squad or whatever and like kind of you know, helping
Speaker 1: them get into the media stuff or into you know,
Speaker 1: stuff outside of footy and making sure that people are
Speaker 1: like set up for the next phase of life, because
Speaker 1: I feel like that's something that you know, no matter
Speaker 1: the sport, like across the world, a lot of people
Speaker 1: just don't probably playing for that as well as they could.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just not using It's not like making haywhile
Speaker 2: it's on Schine's Like everyone has a finite end to
Speaker 2: their career. No one's going to really retire from it.
Speaker 2: You have to get a job after. And it's being
Speaker 2: able to use the connections and stuff within it to
Speaker 2: be able to kind of, I guess somewhat leverage yourself
Speaker 2: into a career after and a lot of people regret
Speaker 2: not doing that until the end. And it is interesting though,
Speaker 2: but like, yeah, it's that's My favorite part of thing
Speaker 2: about playing ifl.
Speaker 1: It's like, well, I kind didn't grow up with that.
Speaker 2: I don't have a team I loved growing up or
Speaker 2: this or that, you know, and it's just like it's
Speaker 2: cool to see how much it means to other people.
Speaker 2: And like we've been with the club, like we've been
Speaker 2: able to experience people that you know, not been dealt
Speaker 2: the greatest hand in life, it might be towards the
Speaker 2: back end or given terminal cancer, whoever it is, and
Speaker 2: like to be able to give them the happiness by
Speaker 2: just hanging out with them for the day and be like, yeah,
Speaker 2: come to training, like we'll show you around the place
Speaker 2: where it is.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: It's like that's cool to me because I just don't
Speaker 2: look at it as like this crazy. It is a
Speaker 2: crazy thing, but it's not like I always hope there's
Speaker 2: gonna be better things in life once I'm done, Like
Speaker 2: you always kind of have this idea of like, oh,
Speaker 2: there's always gonna be something better, you know, like I'm
Speaker 2: gonna be able to do something cooler this or that,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: And even on that trip, like you were like, well,
Speaker 1: I don't like these kids don't care. I was like Mason,
Speaker 1: remember when you were that age, Like how cool would
Speaker 1: have been if this person would have pulled them inside
Speaker 1: of the road just had You're like, I'm like lost
Speaker 1: my mind. Yeah, you would have lost your mind, like
Speaker 1: go give them that experience. You know, it's like some
Speaker 1: of that stuff. So yeah, it is like tough to
Speaker 1: sort of think back to like when you were that
Speaker 1: age and some of those things, and yeah, to be
Speaker 1: able to give like some of that, that's you Like,
Speaker 1: I mean what else is sport about? Right? Yeah, seriously,
Speaker 1: it's about just kind of like giving people a bit
Speaker 1: of hope.
Speaker 2: I think more than anything. We'll go to my first game. Now,
Speaker 2: the whole family came out in the exact day. This
Speaker 2: is a is a big day, big big day.
Speaker 1: Now, Well, selections on like what the Wednesday or Thursday,
Speaker 1: so like selection happens, get a text on the club.
Speaker 1: Mason's in book a flight. I literally booked fly out
Speaker 1: of Houston is the only one I could find that
Speaker 1: was leaving within the next like three hours, and I
Speaker 1: had to leave like right on the day, on the day,
Speaker 1: so like book a flight, get home, packet a carry on,
Speaker 1: and then just drive to Houston. It was just like
Speaker 1: two and a half hours to drive away, and I'm
Speaker 1: like literally flying out. I got I mad my flight
Speaker 1: by like forty five minutes, so I barely like make
Speaker 1: this light to Australia and then get in you know,
Speaker 1: the morning of the game or whatever, and man just
Speaker 1: like flat on. But yeah, crazy day. Like one of
Speaker 1: my favorite parts. They do the first kick, first goal
Speaker 1: right like beuse nobody can stop gambling in this country.
Speaker 1: Big deal, big deal. So they just had these like
Speaker 1: little envelopes at the table we were at were like
Speaker 1: whatever luncheon beforehand, and they're like, yeah, you can just
Speaker 1: put in one of the player's names, like yeah, put
Speaker 1: a dollar in whatever it was, you know. And I
Speaker 1: didn't have any Australian cash of like put in stod
Speaker 1: in some usc and these ladies ext to me, they're
Speaker 1: like putting in money. I go, he goes going for
Speaker 1: and I think they're like, oh, this is steel Sidebonthom
Speaker 1: or somebody. I go, No, Mason Cox and they started
Speaker 1: laughing at me. They're like, Mason the American, I got
Speaker 1: chick any goals. I was like that's my brother. Yeah, gosh,
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry. And then sure enough kicked the first
Speaker 1: time I got strip back to him, I go, what
Speaker 1: do you think, let's go? That was good? No, what
Speaker 1: a fun day. It was crazy, like just a whirlwind thing.
Speaker 1: And like the day, like the Anzact day in general,
Speaker 1: is such a cool thing because like you got the trumpet,
Speaker 1: like you know, all the the pregame stuff, anything else
Speaker 1: super unique and like just like clearly more than you know,
Speaker 1: like about more than football, like like both the teams
Speaker 1: run through the banner together, right, like that doesn't happen,
Speaker 1: And there's stuff like that that I think is just
Speaker 1: like a really kind of cool tradition. That was like
Speaker 1: cool to see and that's why I first like that's
Speaker 1: the first game I've seen at the MGG as well,
Speaker 1: so like put a one hundred thousand people there and
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my gosh, this is this is wild.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that was that was a cool, cool day
Speaker 1: and a man on real trip.
Speaker 2: That was probably the first time I realized how chaotic
Speaker 2: media can be. And it was like after that day,
Speaker 2: I was freaking out and like I only kicked one
Speaker 2: goal in the day. It wasn't like that's on ground
Speaker 2: by anything like, but people lost their f and mind.
Speaker 1: Yea.
Speaker 2: It was like crazy I remember going out to dinner
Speaker 2: and it was just like everyone was just like saying
Speaker 2: something about it and like and I was just like,
Speaker 2: this is wild, Like this is it is very much
Speaker 2: this idea. And I always says, this is like big fish,
Speaker 2: small pond, like this is very much a bubble and
Speaker 2: it's like everyone falls. I fhon it's the most I'd
Speaker 2: say it's probably the highest followed per capita sport in
Speaker 2: the world.
Speaker 1: Yeah, first city for sure. I'm like I was talking
Speaker 1: to Craig mcra about that this week, like when we're
Speaker 1: in Sydney at the at the game, and like he's like, man,
Speaker 1: the biggest thing that's different for me is just I
Speaker 1: was like nobody knew who I was. Like I'm walking
Speaker 1: around Victoria and like I played for Brisbane like twenty
Speaker 1: years ago, people aren't well you know, walking up asking
Speaker 1: for photos and stuff. Until the last few months has
Speaker 1: just been chaotic. So it's like different, Like that's definitely
Speaker 1: like one of the biggest transitions just from last year
Speaker 1: this year. For him. He's like, you know, I knew
Speaker 1: it was a big deal obviously, but like, man, it's
Speaker 1: just wild, Like you one when people they wanted all
Speaker 1: the photos and stuff with.
Speaker 2: So these guys own the badge of the club. That's
Speaker 2: a big time, a little big time. What is a
Speaker 2: bad one A badge's face, you know, badge? Oh yeah yeah,
Speaker 2: the bad Yeah I got you, yeah yeah, the one
Speaker 2: that mom that's seventeen seven. Yes, like buys the whole thing.
Speaker 2: Every year, we'll go to another game, now, grand finel.
Speaker 2: You missed the prelim, which is follow the best game
Speaker 2: career so far, you know, and like unfortunately you came
Speaker 2: to Sydney, which is another prelim, and you thought maybe
Speaker 2: he's gonna happen again, and then he gets supped out
Speaker 2: a halftime, so yeah into.
Speaker 1: The spectrum, yeah halftime, as I was, my goodness. Now,
Speaker 1: but if across the road tell you what those flights
Speaker 1: of Sydney, they weren't lying, not cheap, not cheat at all.
Speaker 2: From the United States, people complaining about getting from Melbourne
Speaker 2: and Sydney. And I was like, yeah, well the whole
Speaker 2: fan's coming in from the US, so don't complaining to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah now the Grand Final and you've never been to
Speaker 2: a Grand Final like now, the chaos of it and
Speaker 2: everything else, like I think you were on media street
Speaker 2: play more than anyone else side down you were.
Speaker 1: I think your agent was like, oh, there's something they
Speaker 1: want to like film you guys drinking Carlton beer and
Speaker 1: like eating these like mee pies.
Speaker 2: I was like, it's gonna do that in veggiemon. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that was gonna be my Saturday either way.
Speaker 1: So for Friday, I think it's a Friday, right, So like, yeah,
Speaker 1: so we land straight away, like we landed. I'm such
Speaker 1: a neat land and like there's like media at the airport,
Speaker 1: like for being all and like are the brothers getting
Speaker 1: in cameras cameras the airport and they were like, oh,
Speaker 1: Mason Cox's family gets here from America. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: I love ridiculous. I love it. Sure enough. They they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: can we get a word?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: So I talked to him for a second and then yeah,
Speaker 1: they pull off the vans leave and I'm like I
Speaker 1: should ask them for a ride getting it down like
Speaker 1: such an idiot, but anyway, so idok at an uber
Speaker 1: back then, But yeah, it was just like straight through it.
Speaker 1: I was like, it's kind of the same thing. You
Speaker 1: don't know you're planning until you win. The prelims to
Speaker 1: like book a flight on the flight the next day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like, goodness, man, so been some cool stuff like
Speaker 1: just find half a half a world away on the
Speaker 1: last the last minute, which yeah, the flights are never cheaper.
Speaker 1: One again, that's all good. Yeah, So I guess I've
Speaker 1: been to like six or seven games at this point.
Speaker 1: Once the Inxact day I went to the Queen's birthday.
Speaker 1: Queen's Birthday was arguably like one of your best games
Speaker 1: of twenty eight goals goals because most goals you've kicked, right, and.
Speaker 2: Yeah, bag a bag, say a bag, that's right. Only
Speaker 2: time kick the bag you're never getting leather poisoning, so
Speaker 2: you might as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so what did that one? Then I went to
Speaker 1: the game in Bristolin this year, which I would say
Speaker 1: is not your highlight, the game of the Sydney and
Speaker 1: then yeah, I guess that's that's maybe it, but yeah
Speaker 1: it's cold for a guy who lives half a world away.
Speaker 1: I think that's really good. Ones and a couple of
Speaker 1: ones along the way. But where it goes.
Speaker 2: Now, we'll get into this because you do play if
Speaker 2: L Yeah, and I've mentioned it before. You you've won
Speaker 2: a few more premierships than I have. And there is
Speaker 2: a league in the in the in the States called
Speaker 2: the U s a f L. Now, I've been an
Speaker 2: ambassador for a long time, like I've gone, I've gone
Speaker 2: to the national tournament after our season every single year
Speaker 2: pretty much, and it has become this big thing and
Speaker 2: I've fallen in love with it because it is kind
Speaker 2: of cool somewhat to be somewhat of a representative of
Speaker 2: like a nation and a sport that exists in a nation.
Speaker 2: And how did you so you're playing for the Austin
Speaker 2: Crows now the other brother plays for Seattle Grizzlies, and
Speaker 2: shout out both of them. If you are in America
Speaker 2: listening to this, check out your local league Austin foy
Speaker 2: dot com. You go on there and yes, love that.
Speaker 2: How did you find out AFL in the US existed?
Speaker 1: So I'm thinking, like there's got to be So there's
Speaker 1: all these like you know, English Premier League pubs that
Speaker 1: like they watched the soccer games at ten in the
Speaker 1: morning or whatever, and I'm like, there's got to be
Speaker 1: something equivalent for AFL, right, Like I got to have
Speaker 1: some people I can go watch the games with and like,
Speaker 1: at least I get stuck into the like you know,
Speaker 1: the the culture of AFL. So like I'm kind of googling, like,
Speaker 1: you know, Austin footy bars, Austin you know, like any
Speaker 1: of that stuff I come across, like Austin Crows Football, right,
Speaker 1: So I'm like to hit up these guys. They definitely,
Speaker 1: you know, it seems like they know what's going outside.
Speaker 1: I email them, like the generic email, and I'm like, hey,
Speaker 1: do you guys like go watch the games at all?
Speaker 1: And they're like, we'll come after kick. I'm like, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I just want to watch two. I don't get murdered exactly.
Speaker 1: Like so yeah, they're like, no, no, no, come comfort kick, Like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, we'll tell you. And so I'm like a god.
Speaker 1: So we go to the Zilker Park, which is like
Speaker 1: where they hold Awston City Homes Music festival, big beautiful
Speaker 1: park and you know, Central Austin, same park you got
Speaker 1: the phone call from from Frio with uh, might've been
Speaker 1: right next to you on that one.
Speaker 2: Probably, Yeah, if you haven't heard that store, it's on
Speaker 2: the last It's on one of the previous ones of
Speaker 2: Freeman A check the TikTok and the Instagram there's a
Speaker 2: little thing out there about me getting almost traded to
Speaker 2: Freeman while I was absolutely hammered at a cl So
Speaker 2: the first couple of times I go down and I
Speaker 2: was training on Tuesdays, and first couple of times, it's
Speaker 2: just pouring rain, and I'm like, I'll make a quick
Speaker 2: clop and see if they're there. And I do see
Speaker 2: him out there kicking the ball, and I'm like, it's raining,
Speaker 2: I'll just keep on cruising by.
Speaker 1: So I keep going, and eventually, like it's a nice day,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'll go out for kick, kick the ball around.
Speaker 1: I'm like, like it's a falling league. If they were
Speaker 1: in the drills, they're like running, you know, all this stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, so we'll see and I end
Speaker 1: up like becoming friends with some of these guys, end up,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of playing. They're like, we got a
Speaker 1: game this Saturday, so I like, you know, I don't
Speaker 1: know how physical it's going to be any of that stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm like, probably pretty hung over at this point on
Speaker 1: a Saturday morning to a game and we're coming out,
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my gosh, it's like one hundred degrees
Speaker 1: out and all of sudden go out and I'm just
Speaker 1: like getting smashed around the rock because they're like, listen
Speaker 1: to this guy that can't kick. He just like first
Speaker 1: time he ever attempted to kick a ball was like
Speaker 1: last week. Been there. But he can jump in six
Speaker 1: six and he's got yeah, he's got some hops. So
Speaker 1: I rolled out of the ruck and then like ended up,
Speaker 1: you know, just kind of getting suck in from like
Speaker 1: we just kind of go grab youers whatever after training,
Speaker 1: and it's just like a really good and again, like
Speaker 1: it's kind of exactly what I had hoped for in
Speaker 1: terms of the social outlet of like having people that
Speaker 1: I can talk to about footing and watch the games
Speaker 1: with and stuff like that. But they have like a
Speaker 1: full on league get I'm like regional tournaments and they
Speaker 1: travel like once or twice a year to these big
Speaker 1: national tournaments and so like there's like a national tournament
Speaker 1: at the end of each season and like the next thing,
Speaker 1: you know, we're like playing you know this, so our
Speaker 1: our team like you know, ends up. It turns out like,
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, I live in the city with like
Speaker 1: the best like local fitting clubs in America. It's like
Speaker 1: these guys are just smashing people like every single year.
Speaker 1: So I ended up INFL. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, son,
Speaker 1: My buddy Kendrick like played yeah Sandful I think for
Speaker 1: like a few years and in TfL and some of
Speaker 1: that stuff. And like we've so we've got some guys
Speaker 1: that played like pretty high level, like some you know,
Speaker 1: we have a guy this year that played Port Melbourne
Speaker 1: VFL last year. So we've got some guys that like
Speaker 1: actually are pretty legit. So yeah, so I end up
Speaker 1: getting stuck in with this group and like really it
Speaker 1: kind of became like really good friends with a lot
Speaker 1: of them. And it's about half Australians, half like uh,
Speaker 1: you know, Americans are you know, We've got like a
Speaker 1: French guy and a you know guy from Fiji or
Speaker 1: something like that. Anyway, so like all of the place right,
Speaker 1: So like but it's a cool league. It's like definitely
Speaker 1: like a little bit of Australian expats and a few Americans.
Speaker 1: So it's like kind of a good way to grow
Speaker 1: the game, I suppose, but like for me, it's just
Speaker 1: a good way to like sort of stay connected with
Speaker 1: what's going on back here and gives a good like
Speaker 1: athletic endeavor outlet because like once you're done playing sport
Speaker 1: in America, like they don't have these options. There's no
Speaker 1: country footy leagues like they'd have here, right, there's no
Speaker 1: country footy equivalent of like basketball or American football, Like
Speaker 1: if you don't play American football in college, or even
Speaker 1: if you do play in college, like once you're done,
Speaker 1: you're done, like you never play again. So it's like
Speaker 1: ninety nine percent athletes go pro and something other than sports. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right, so classic you can't even yeah, so like
Speaker 1: even to have somebody to go throw football with, it's
Speaker 1: just like people don't really go do that. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: this is great. Like we've got sporting outlets. There's forty
Speaker 1: or fifty clubs here in the in the United States,
Speaker 1: and like I somehow end up on like the best ones,
Speaker 1: like playing you know, these national tournaments. So end up
Speaker 1: being like a really good it's just kind of outlet
Speaker 1: and again like a good way connected back here.
Speaker 2: So I want to ask you this because a lot
Speaker 2: of people don't know this, and you're you're being a
Speaker 2: bit humble, and now how many So they've got best
Speaker 2: in Ferris for the tournament, So there's a big national
Speaker 2: tournament where everyone kind of comes and that's where the
Speaker 2: winter kind of becomes the whole whole thing.
Speaker 1: It was in Austin last year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the boys won, boys won, Boys gout lit boys
Speaker 2: during Out of the Cup old fosso we called we
Speaker 2: called the beer out of the Cup fossil Fueld, Fossil
Speaker 2: fossil field.
Speaker 1: Fossil.
Speaker 2: Is this guy who's like, it's like mid fifties at
Speaker 2: this point, that this is not high level football he played.
Speaker 2: You've got sponsors on your jerseys he.
Speaker 1: Played, like, yeah, he played like pretty high level when
Speaker 1: he was younger. But anyway, so yeah.
Speaker 2: So how many how many best and Farris if you want,
Speaker 2: I think I've won best in Farriss at our club.
Speaker 2: I think four times for our our club. And then
Speaker 2: like I've won the best on in the grand final
Speaker 2: for like the big national tournament. Yeah twice, I want
Speaker 2: to say. And then that's for the whole tournament.
Speaker 1: That's on for the whole tournament, like once or twice
Speaker 1: a well. So yeah, I'm been a pretty good little
Speaker 1: crack over the States. Again, very low level. This is not.
Speaker 2: This is.
Speaker 1: There's some good players for sure, but like I'll tell
Speaker 1: you what when you're like the six to six rocker,
Speaker 1: you can get your hands onto the bed like it's yeah,
Speaker 1: you get a lot more touches and you probably should
Speaker 1: and go forward and kick a goal or two. Then
Speaker 1: you're you're pretty well set for some of these medals
Speaker 1: that you probably don't deserve.
Speaker 2: I'll say this, Man, there's some people, because everyone used
Speaker 2: to play NFL, there's some people just see it as
Speaker 2: an opportunity to absolutely run through someone. And there was
Speaker 2: like I've seen some absolutely brutal things, like probably more
Speaker 2: brutal than that.
Speaker 1: As I found out that you can win medals without
Speaker 1: land of tackle. Figured that out. Yeah, well it is.
Speaker 2: It is unique down It's it's really cool because like
Speaker 2: this whole thing obviously in the US and to see sports.
Speaker 2: Someone make it over there and you know these opportunities
Speaker 2: and you talked about before, and that's something I want
Speaker 2: to eventually do in my lifetime is try to bring
Speaker 2: other Americans over here because there's such a there's such
Speaker 2: a limit as far as you know opportunities post in
Speaker 2: Cola and everything else.
Speaker 1: If you're not at the very very high end and
Speaker 1: there's so many athletes over there, there's absolute freaks that
Speaker 1: like we're just dominated to get go, you know, like
Speaker 1: learn how to kick at a younger age or whatever. Right,
Speaker 1: Like it's there's some like spatial awareness of the game
Speaker 1: when you're like, you know, if you're six foot and under,
Speaker 1: that you'd really kind of need to grow up playing
Speaker 1: the sport. But like there's some there's some big boys
Speaker 1: out there that they could just really wreck it up,
Speaker 1: right if they, like, hell a lot better than athletes
Speaker 1: than I am.
Speaker 2: I'm going to say that, but you know, it is
Speaker 2: very awkward on my side to be able to hand
Speaker 2: metal to to your brother who's showing improving to be
Speaker 2: a better athlete than myself every single year. But I'll
Speaker 2: ask you this, I want I want to kind of
Speaker 2: move on from the US I fl now as a brother,
Speaker 2: you see me do a lot of random ship, right,
Speaker 2: So obviously I came here and I had no idea
Speaker 2: anything anyone, And now I'm kind of doing all this
Speaker 2: random stuff and starting a podcast and also this shit,
Speaker 2: where do you see me And what's the most ridiculous
Speaker 2: thing you see me doing in the future.
Speaker 1: Do you think anything involving politics? Oh, I think I
Speaker 1: think Like so, you know, I think any kind of
Speaker 1: like ambassadorship would be a pretty cool You.
Speaker 2: Think i'd get like an om medal or something like that?
Speaker 2: Is that they call it aom or Order of Australia.
Speaker 2: Oh I am o am metal? What is that Order
Speaker 2: of Australia? Essentially, you know that ridiculous thing called the
Speaker 2: Queen and the royal family. They kind of like acknowledge
Speaker 2: you and say like you're a better human than others.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't. I don't know about that.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think can we get any of those?
Speaker 1: That'll same time? But I think, like, I guess you're
Speaker 1: a citizen now, right, so maybe you can jump into
Speaker 1: some of that stuff. So yeah, I have to give
Speaker 1: up my US citizenship, that's okay. Yeah. So as far
Speaker 1: as like ridiculous things, that's like maybe one of the
Speaker 1: things the US Ambassador to Australia. I think I love that.
Speaker 1: That would be pretty sweet. Yeah, I don't know, try
Speaker 1: to hook that up, but no, I don't. I don't
Speaker 1: know as far as like other ridiculous things, I mean
Speaker 1: I could see you getting on like I don't know
Speaker 1: if there's like a Bachelor equivalent. Oh yeah, you jump
Speaker 1: into something like that. Some reality TV. Maybe some like
Speaker 1: Dancing with the Stars. That's a question. Yeah, no, I think, like,
Speaker 1: you know, you're real embarrassing, right, dancing with the stars. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I've never seen a draft dance, but it'd be kind
Speaker 1: of yeah yeah, country line dance. That's right. That is
Speaker 1: one good thing about it. Yeah, the country experience back
Speaker 1: in college. But no outsaide that. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: probably continue to do a bit media, maybe some some travel.
Speaker 1: Try to parlay some of that into something like this.
Speaker 1: Maybe I think the Bachelor. I like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, some terrible stories might be and be on
Speaker 2: the Bachelor, and oh gosh, I'd be there. I'd be ruthless.
Speaker 2: I feel like that absolutely terribarts. Some of the women
Speaker 2: that come on there, they just are there for the fame.
Speaker 2: You should yeah, be great, you'd be great viewing. That's
Speaker 2: a great viewing. That's tell you went not for the
Speaker 2: Bachelor one year? What for the Bachelor's a for you guy?
Speaker 2: They had open casting in Austin.
Speaker 1: Well they put me through, so like, well, so you
Speaker 1: made to the next round. Oh yeah, so they had
Speaker 1: they had open casting in Austin, And it's like and
Speaker 1: we're thinking, I'm like saying, I'm like probably twenty four,
Speaker 1: twenty five. This one. I'm single. It's like right next
Speaker 1: where I'm living, so I'm like i can walk over there,
Speaker 1: and it's open casting for the Bachelor. Likes gonna be
Speaker 1: some good looking young ladies there, so we're gonna go
Speaker 1: to good play hello. And yeah we did like the
Speaker 1: whole try to put it just kind of like a
Speaker 1: like a random Tuesday, and I'm like whatever, and then yeah,
Speaker 1: they're sure enough. They called back. They're like, we want
Speaker 1: you to like go to the next round. We want
Speaker 1: to want to fly you to the Sorry, they didn't
Speaker 1: not want to fly me anywhere. They said, we need
Speaker 1: to get you. We need you to come to Dallas
Speaker 1: or whatever. It was like, yeah, yeah, exactly, and I
Speaker 1: was like, I'm good. So never I never actually like
Speaker 1: went forward on it, but it's kind of a fun
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, it's a bit of a bit
Speaker 1: of a pump up, but yeah, it's funny. It was like, yeah, definitely,
Speaker 1: Well I'll try to carry the torch. Maybe I'll be
Speaker 1: on the Bachelor. Is a Cox brother.
Speaker 2: There you go, before we get out of here, any
Speaker 2: embarrassing stories, you will throw me under the bus with.
Speaker 1: I don't know, like maybe when I touch you how
Speaker 1: to ride a bike? That was y. So we got
Speaker 1: a big hill by our house, and I'm like, let's
Speaker 1: just get him going, you know, like on two weeks.
Speaker 2: Oh, I can I set the scene here. I'm like twelve.
Speaker 2: Most people aren around their pocket like six.
Speaker 1: I was two wheeler. It's like two years old. I
Speaker 1: was more of the guy on the scooter the razor.
Speaker 2: I was like, it's way easier to stay on than actually,
Speaker 2: like well, you know on two wheels, it's obviously the
Speaker 2: faster you get going easier doesn't stay out.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, listen, let's just take him to the
Speaker 1: top of.
Speaker 2: The hill, get him going nice and past, and he'll
Speaker 2: be able to stay up because otherwise.
Speaker 1: He's like too nervous to get going too fast. He's
Speaker 1: telling them one way or the other. So like, get
Speaker 1: on to the top of the hill. We get him
Speaker 1: rolling down, rolling media shut out, We're rolling out is
Speaker 1: this does her? Guy Fieri?
Speaker 2: This thing roll out to get him rolling downhill and
Speaker 2: I forgot to tell him which one was the breaks?
Speaker 1: No idea which of the breaks? And he smashes into
Speaker 1: this mailbox. He's got blood coming out of his gut
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh, no, Mom's gonna be pissed.
Speaker 2: So like he's like he starts crying.
Speaker 1: I'm like just getting stuck inside. And so yeah, we
Speaker 1: got him into the side. But like no, I said that,
Speaker 1: it was like a pretty funny one. There's definitely one.
Speaker 1: We're playing indoor soccer, we're kids, and uh, Mom had
Speaker 1: this old like oil painting of her like great aunt
Speaker 1: who was like a pasty was young. It was like
Speaker 1: a year old painting and like it's got the original glass,
Speaker 1: the original frame, all this stuff. And he just goes
Speaker 1: over the proverbial crossbars right into this glass painting smashes
Speaker 1: the glass. I'm like, Mom had nothing to do with this,
Speaker 1: and she's like, I mean I've never seen her that,
Speaker 1: I don't think yet in my life and rolls in.
Speaker 1: But so needless said, the painting survived. The frame is
Speaker 1: finally that one hundred and fifty absolutely cooked. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: you know, I had to take it back into the
Speaker 1: frame shop. And now there's probably a couple others that
Speaker 1: I should should probably remain off air that. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: that's more college stay for the next time. The good
Speaker 1: old day just sinking out all was great about. So
Speaker 1: we had this nineteen sixty one for share. That was
Speaker 1: our first car. So anytime you wanted to leave the
Speaker 1: house late night, it's tough getting out, but you left
Speaker 1: early enough because this thing was loud.
Speaker 2: It was like there was you can hear it rolling
Speaker 2: down from five blocks away, like the tree.
Speaker 1: You got the shifter up top on the on the
Speaker 1: you know, on the steering column. Yeah. Well, if you
Speaker 1: wanted to come home late night, so you couldn't get
Speaker 1: out late now because it's too loid like you just
Speaker 1: like you could?
Speaker 2: Well you do, yeah, your buddy, Yeah, I got Chuck
Speaker 2: Camoe in front of mind.
Speaker 1: You got to push the front.
Speaker 2: You pushed it out neutral eventually rolled down the rest
Speaker 2: of the hill and then turn it out right.
Speaker 1: But again, the same hill that you can roll down
Speaker 1: on your bike and smash in the mailbox with, you
Speaker 1: can use that same hill throw the car neutral, makes
Speaker 1: not a sound and drift it right into the driveway
Speaker 1: and then nobody knows what's how you got help and
Speaker 1: you like at the next day, feeling awful.
Speaker 2: Mom and Dad are never otherwizer all good? Oh man,
Speaker 2: was there any other stuff you want to embrass me with?
Speaker 2: While we're on this.
Speaker 1: I think we're all set for today. Say something for
Speaker 1: the next one. You'll do a part two. Wheneybody come
Speaker 1: back next time. There we go. Well, massive, thank you
Speaker 1: for coming on.
Speaker 2: Hopefully people have learned a bit more about the journey
Speaker 2: of myself, yourself, everything else, all the crazy stories that
Speaker 2: come with it.
Speaker 1: We'll write a book one to day, I'm sure, but
Speaker 1: we'll that. Massive. Thanks for coming on. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Thanks for flying out here.
Speaker 2: I know, and I played half a footy and you've
Speaker 2: sent probably ten grand to get out here, but hopefully
Speaker 2: it was worth it.
Speaker 1: It's all good. Yeah, maybe next time next year having me.
Speaker 1: We're all probably super proud obviously of what you've accomplished
Speaker 1: over here, so I definitely appreciate you if you have
Speaker 1: us a platform to share some of the stories. And yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's pretty cool what you got here. The podcast
Speaker 1: is also look forward to hear more of them. But yeah,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me. And it's been a really cool
Speaker 1: experience from from day one, from.
Speaker 2: Day one, and we're still kicking on. That's right, still
Speaker 2: kicking on here nine coming out all right, we can
Speaker 2: get double digits. It'll be huge, huge, get one hundred gas.
Speaker 2: It'll be massive.
Speaker 1: I will be back. What are you on? Ninety four?
Speaker 1: Ninety four? All right, more games, hundred goals. That's it.
Speaker 1: I like you. I've already done hundred goals, scheduled to
Speaker 1: a hundred games.
Speaker 2: But thanks so much mine, as always everyone, before we
Speaker 2: finish up. We've got the seven platforms, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram,
Speaker 2: uh TikTok, Spotify, and Apple fall us all on those
Speaker 2: check it out. We got some amazing stuff. We've got
Speaker 2: some some interesting talks Bread and I've been having recently,
Speaker 2: and we're gonna get back onto the schedule and we're
Speaker 2: gonna seriously have some amazing stuff coming up in a
Speaker 2: lot of catch ups and everything else, some embarrassing stories.
Speaker 2: I'll probably go into it more, but as always, thanks
Speaker 2: so much for listening, and very excited to have you
Speaker 2: on like share everything else, and we'll speak.
Speaker 1: To you soon. See Yeah,