Speaker 1: Hell, just welcome back to the Mason Cox Show. Plenty
Speaker 1: plenty of stuff going on here. We've got two special guests,
Speaker 1: Tom Phillips and Tom Mitchell. Yes, we've got Tom Mitchell,
Speaker 1: the twenty eighteen Brown Love Medalist who's now playing for
Speaker 1: the Collingwood Football Club and absolutely smashing it at the moment.
Speaker 1: We've gone Tom Phillips, who are on that twenty eighteen
Speaker 1: campaign I've been really really good friends with. They've got
Speaker 1: different business businesses from super Boosts to ball Magnet's plenty
Speaker 1: going on in this We also talk about how they
Speaker 1: change passports in the US. There's plenty of off season
Speaker 1: stories in this one, so check it out. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be a good one listening. All right, ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: we'll get straight into it the two Tom's. This is
Speaker 1: a big pot here, a lot of manpower in here,
Speaker 1: and there's a lot happening. And I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people wouldn't really listen to podcasts, right They want
Speaker 1: to hear the stories that no one tells them. They
Speaker 1: want to hear the stores in the off season, you know,
Speaker 1: the stuff that happens outside of the media that everyone
Speaker 1: gets into. And I know you two have traveled a
Speaker 1: bit on a bit of traveling in my home country
Speaker 1: in the US. There any great part of the world
Speaker 1: top ten, Yeah, I reckon. We've been three times. Yeah,
Speaker 1: probably go again in this off season. Any any good stories.
Speaker 1: I know a few stories, but I think the broader
Speaker 1: public needs to know this.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know your your mate, and you know
Speaker 2: through your brother and great family connections, our man James Bates,
Speaker 2: the Beta.
Speaker 3: Trent shout out to the Beta Trumpe, great man. That's
Speaker 3: where we know. We stay at Bates's house. Amazing.
Speaker 4: He plays for the Austin Crows in the U s
Speaker 4: a f L, which you're obviously an ambassador for. And
Speaker 4: I think they've won like six flags in a row,
Speaker 4: Like they just don't lose.
Speaker 2: I haven't lot when was usime actually lost.
Speaker 1: They lost about three or four years ago. I think
Speaker 1: my brother's been like MVP of the tournament, the national
Speaker 1: tournament so many times over. And Yeah, it's an incredible,
Speaker 1: incredible place Austin, Texas. Just insane, like just the mans
Speaker 1: of that goes on from a c L to you know,
Speaker 1: the F one and everything else. It's a place for
Speaker 1: fun for all ages.
Speaker 4: Long hans As well, like we got to know Isaac
Speaker 4: Pearson who.
Speaker 2: Was the part today. Yeah yeah, still going well, still
Speaker 2: got the Aussie flag and on the back of the.
Speaker 4: Have you seen facilities like that before? Like it just
Speaker 4: makes the AFL look like, yeah, not great is what
Speaker 4: it makes the IFL look like.
Speaker 1: Like. University of Texas, for those listening, is a place
Speaker 1: that is one of the top tier universities in America.
Speaker 1: They've got anything and everything. The money they make has
Speaker 1: to go back into the facilities. They can't spend it
Speaker 1: really on anything else, so they end up essentially beefing
Speaker 1: their facilities up to be the best of the best.
Speaker 1: So they're the same and pretty much on par with
Speaker 1: a lot of NFL facilities. You've got names above lockers,
Speaker 1: you've got you know, all these kind of things where
Speaker 1: you sit inside the locker. I try to explain this
Speaker 1: to a lot of people back home, is like, sorry,
Speaker 1: here is where you like sit in a chair inside
Speaker 1: your locker. And then it's like you got drawers either side,
Speaker 1: you get the lights and everything else. They've got a
Speaker 1: barber shop inside there. Like there's an arcade, an arcade,
Speaker 1: Like it's yeah, it's crazy, like everything whenever you go
Speaker 1: to those places. Do you sit there and go like, oh,
Speaker 1: AFL has got a fair way to go.
Speaker 4: I feel like we don't need that stuff. I feel
Speaker 4: like they don't even use the top of it.
Speaker 3: It's just looks. It looks good.
Speaker 4: I remember we did the facility tour, which we've done
Speaker 4: a few times. We went onto the oval or the
Speaker 4: field as they called it, and we were just having
Speaker 4: a kick around with the NFL ball and our ball
Speaker 4: and teaching a few of their players about AFL. And
Speaker 4: they pointed up to a few of the boxes.
Speaker 3: In the stadium.
Speaker 2: What they said earlier. They were saying, you know, their
Speaker 2: own twenty million bucks for per year.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so yeah, I think it's that, which is like, well,
Speaker 4: just eight or nine home games, there's ten boxers for
Speaker 4: twelve million dollars. They had to pay twelve million US
Speaker 4: to get the box for the season, So you're paying
Speaker 4: over a million per game per game. Yeah, and there's
Speaker 4: about ten boxes. That is some serious is easy? You
Speaker 4: know big operators? Yeah, yeah, even you know famous cow
Speaker 4: Let's talk about him.
Speaker 1: Bebo is the famous car that they tranquilized the four
Speaker 1: games to make sure he's kind well, he sleeps the
Speaker 1: whole game.
Speaker 4: He's the mascot and he they tranquilized because he sleeps
Speaker 4: the whole given.
Speaker 1: A little bit the horse trangel the fact check that.
Speaker 4: But yeah, anyway, the atmosphere in Austin is awesome. We
Speaker 4: like to get to America most years. Obviously a bit
Speaker 4: of business with what we're doing with ball magnets and
Speaker 4: super Boost, and then obviously good to travel around. Last
Speaker 4: year we actually went. Remember when you missed your flight
Speaker 4: to the US, so I was actually one out for
Speaker 4: the first part of the leg.
Speaker 3: Your esta didn't go through, so you got centered around
Speaker 3: at the airport.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I don't know it was. It took a
Speaker 1: while to go.
Speaker 2: It took a while to go through. It actually ended
Speaker 2: up being ten minutes too late, so I could have
Speaker 2: actually still that it was live and exclusive. I was
Speaker 2: doing that and they Tom Brown, Tommy Brown, and they
Speaker 2: turn it back, So yeah, I had to wait another
Speaker 2: twenty four hours.
Speaker 3: A bit of silver lining.
Speaker 4: That's the night I met Dan mix Stay the first
Speaker 4: night because I'm like, oh, I got to find something
Speaker 4: to do something to the Basketball Lakers preseason game, and yeah,
Speaker 4: Dann Micstay was in the line buying tickets and he said, hey,
Speaker 4: come watch the game with us, and so I got
Speaker 4: to know Dan.
Speaker 3: We hung out for a couple of nights and Flip
Speaker 3: joined it on the trip, and off we went.
Speaker 1: At that point, did you know you were going to Collingwood?
Speaker 1: It was just before the trade period.
Speaker 4: So we kind of, like, you know, the media had
Speaker 4: an idea. Dan and I sort of had a look
Speaker 4: at each other as if we both kind of knew,
Speaker 4: but we didn't really know. I said, is your trade
Speaker 4: going through and he said, oh, mine's about to go
Speaker 4: through tonight. I'm like, oh, well, we better we be
Speaker 4: able to get dinner and things like that and celebrate.
Speaker 4: I was hopeful obviously that my trade was going to
Speaker 4: go through maybe a week or so later. So yeah,
Speaker 4: we hung out for a couple of days until Flip
Speaker 4: got the essay approved.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It was amazing, Yeah, because Dan was Dan was
Speaker 1: kind of towted to come to Collingwood for a long time, right,
Speaker 1: like you were a bit of a last second, you know,
Speaker 1: and I guess as far as the trade goes, like,
Speaker 1: so you were sitting there looking at him, going, I
Speaker 1: know where you're going, but you have no idea that
Speaker 1: I'm about to be your future teammate.
Speaker 3: Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 4: Mine was obviously probably not as well publicized like Dan.
Speaker 4: I think from the halfway point of the year it
Speaker 4: was known that he was going to go back to
Speaker 4: Victoria and that Collingwood were chatting to him. There were
Speaker 4: some rumors that I was going to Collingwood. But yeah,
Speaker 4: it was nothing as far down the line as his trade.
Speaker 1: So you're overseas, you're not in Australia. Is there a
Speaker 1: medical that you have to do overseas or is there
Speaker 1: some kind of doctor thing you would think that it
Speaker 1: would have to go through before you kind of get
Speaker 1: signed on, or what's like what's the process of getting traded?
Speaker 1: While internationally, you.
Speaker 4: Know, I think in regards to your body, like I'd
Speaker 4: missed a game in about four years, so that's probably
Speaker 4: enough to know that you know you're going to be fine.
Speaker 4: You still do catch up with the medical team. So
Speaker 4: I caught up with Fooksi the physio and Sammy Harker
Speaker 4: the doctor. My trade went right down to the wire.
Speaker 4: I reckon there was two minutes left. We're in Miami
Speaker 4: when I saw a mate of ours, lou Hedley, who
Speaker 4: University of Miami. Yeah, it was like in the middle
Speaker 4: of the night and Miami were like, well, I couldn't sleep,
Speaker 4: so I'm like I got to stay up, and then
Speaker 4: we're all sort of sitting around the phone refresh, refresh, refresh.
Speaker 4: My manager actually said it was a good thing that
Speaker 4: I was away and out of the country because he
Speaker 4: didn't want, you know, my head noise to be you know,
Speaker 4: think about what the met he was saying at things,
Speaker 4: He's like, oh, I have a break.
Speaker 3: He's like, leaving with me, sort out what needs to
Speaker 3: be sorted and yeah. And then it went through with
Speaker 3: literally a minute ago.
Speaker 2: With me and Nanate just jumped on Nank.
Speaker 3: I saw us one of my mother mates, Locky Nank Krbis.
Speaker 4: They jumped on me and a celebration turned into a
Speaker 4: bit of a wrestle, so me and Nate as boys
Speaker 4: do on footy trips. But it was it was a
Speaker 4: pretty cool moment. I had to have two of your
Speaker 4: best mates that were there to share that with you.
Speaker 4: Its pretty cool too, was.
Speaker 1: His reaction, like, Tom, you were there on the day.
Speaker 2: Well, me and you've both been traded a few times.
Speaker 2: They listed you're still going, You're both still going. It's
Speaker 2: it's a weird feeling when you're going from one place
Speaker 2: that you've had, you know, a lot of memories at
Speaker 2: and then going to another place. I couldn't imagine looking
Speaker 2: at the perspective trying to get perspective around it. You
Speaker 2: look at every other sport, the NBA, EPL, you know,
Speaker 2: the big global sports, when they trade people, when they
Speaker 2: do that sort of stuff, like it's it's amazing, like
Speaker 2: how it can be like a weird feeling for us.
Speaker 2: But least there's like a bit of a lead time
Speaker 2: with like I reckon, you sort of know things are
Speaker 2: going to happen, and then when it does happen, it's
Speaker 2: shit okay. But then sometimes you know in these other
Speaker 2: sports man like they can be traded within a few hours.
Speaker 4: Sometimes they find out through the media, the communications poor
Speaker 4: and through the athletes.
Speaker 1: We've got to know through.
Speaker 4: Business like you hear stories and I'm like, wow, we've
Speaker 4: actually got a pretty good here. Like the transparency and
Speaker 4: you're involvement and saying where you want to go and
Speaker 4: what you want to do is much superior in the
Speaker 4: players favor Compared to American sport, it's very different.
Speaker 1: AFL is the guaranteed contract part of it is very
Speaker 1: unique to probably any other sport around, Like you don't
Speaker 1: just get moved around. And I'll never forgive. When I
Speaker 1: was growing up, there's a guy that was playing for
Speaker 1: the Dallas Mavericks who got traded while he was in
Speaker 1: the game. They traded during the game, and he's sitting
Speaker 1: on the bench to even realize, and he's there going
Speaker 1: like you need to leave. He's like why, He's like,
Speaker 1: you've just been traded to whatever team and they've got
Speaker 1: to go flow over there and you go to live there,
Speaker 1: and that's just that's your future. So it is. It
Speaker 1: is quite different and like pretty cool in that sense.
Speaker 1: I think there's a bit of a cultural want for
Speaker 1: players to stay the team for a long time, where
Speaker 1: another like overseas markets and stuff, no one expects a
Speaker 1: player to play for the same team their whole career,
Speaker 1: if that makes sense.
Speaker 4: Whole concept, they're out a one club player, which I
Speaker 4: don't know, do as loyalty exist.
Speaker 3: I don't really know if it's changing.
Speaker 1: I think it's changing quite a bit now.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like clubs as soon as they're done with the player,
Speaker 4: you know that they won't have an issue.
Speaker 3: They'll do what's best for the advice.
Speaker 1: Mid season trade and that sort of stuff. Yeah, it'd
Speaker 1: be very interesting to see what that goes with. But
Speaker 1: I think on that if the mid season trade happens,
Speaker 1: you have to have both parties agreeing that that's okay.
Speaker 1: I think. I don't think like the af I can
Speaker 1: go in and say, like you're going to move to
Speaker 1: Queens that next week and you're out to find a
Speaker 1: new place and everything else. If they do do that,
Speaker 1: then you have to have some kind of financial renumeration
Speaker 1: for that. Like you can't just all of a sudden
Speaker 1: say I see you later. There's not enough money in
Speaker 1: AFL to make that okay.
Speaker 4: I think, yeah, yeah, it's a good point actually, the
Speaker 4: calling with thing though, like I you know, it's a
Speaker 4: real possibility in the days leading up to the final
Speaker 4: day of the trade week, and obviously had to flip to
Speaker 4: land On because he had a great career calling with himself.
Speaker 3: He played in the twenty eight and grand following being there.
Speaker 1: How many you just have the finally one hundred games
Speaker 1: back when you start.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so he'd been there, and yeah, he talked me
Speaker 4: through you know what the club's like. We faced on
Speaker 4: brush one of the other videos as well we got
Speaker 4: to brushed over the Farnes.
Speaker 3: It just spoke me through.
Speaker 4: You know how much of a great club it is
Speaker 4: the fan base, like you know the experience of game
Speaker 4: down the crowds, and you know it was a helpful
Speaker 4: selling point as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is I want to ask this question,
Speaker 1: this passport question. Now there's a story within this time
Speaker 1: frame of this all happening.
Speaker 2: Stuff that was happening.
Speaker 1: He is a bit of parent trap, you know, twin
Speaker 1: swapping of passports. Is that's true?
Speaker 4: Yeah, mistake a few things. We're going from Miami to Austin.
Speaker 4: For some reason, we had a separate flight about half
Speaker 4: an hour apart.
Speaker 2: There was a tornado coming. It was a hurricane. Yeh,
Speaker 2: hurt up to its name. So yeah, that was I
Speaker 2: went early and Tommy and Nank were coming after.
Speaker 3: But yeah, somehow my mistake. He grabbed my passport.
Speaker 2: I end up with this guy's passport. He's got mine.
Speaker 2: To mention, I couldn't check in my big luggage bag
Speaker 2: in time, so I had to leave it at the airport. Anyway,
Speaker 2: jump over to Austin with a with a backpack and
Speaker 2: it will carry on. So and then the bag ends
Speaker 2: up being there for fifty two days until I.
Speaker 1: Go back fifty two days.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I'll go back six weeks later in surprise.
Speaker 1: I kept it there for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it was in was in the like oversize,
Speaker 2: not over so I it was just like storage I gave.
Speaker 1: You when you went back to pick your backage. What
Speaker 1: are you doing?
Speaker 2: Yeah, they'll go on, what are you? How are you
Speaker 2: back here?
Speaker 1: What?
Speaker 3: What do you bother coming back?
Speaker 2: I mean that's yeah, that story in itself, it's pretty rogue.
Speaker 1: Good kids and things to be retrieved.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that was worth going back from.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it ended up being a bit of
Speaker 2: a bit of a cost, but yeah.
Speaker 1: It was the past part of this.
Speaker 2: No, no, we we ended up working that out. I
Speaker 2: don't know how.
Speaker 4: I don't know we said that work you know which
Speaker 4: we are both both names Tom. We're traveling together. Somehow
Speaker 4: my passport was mixed up. I was kind of like,
Speaker 4: I had my idea and stuff, and I was like,
Speaker 4: this is an honest mistake. I think they checked the
Speaker 4: flight you were on. It's a bit of a.
Speaker 2: So I think I think I think I gave him
Speaker 2: my passport. They didn't really look at it and go
Speaker 2: they just like scanned it, let it in and I
Speaker 2: just and they're like, yeah, just going back, and I
Speaker 2: keep going, but I don't know how.
Speaker 3: He do you have my passport? Because I got yours?
Speaker 3: And then I looked like, oh, I've got yours. But
Speaker 3: then my guy who I went.
Speaker 4: Through the security, he looked at mine, yes, and he's
Speaker 4: just going this is not.
Speaker 3: I might look, I can explain this.
Speaker 1: You're already you're sitting there at.
Speaker 2: The pretty quick.
Speaker 4: But yeah, obviously I had all my ideas and cars
Speaker 4: and explained what happened.
Speaker 1: Did he put you in like the box? And I
Speaker 1: anyone's ever been there in the airport where if you
Speaker 1: get in trouble, you're putting this like a little box area.
Speaker 3: And it was pretty crazy, to be honest.
Speaker 4: It was more we just laughed about the fact that
Speaker 4: obviously there was the missed international flight and then with
Speaker 4: something our changed identities for about and now. But we
Speaker 4: got to Austin, our favorite city in America, and I
Speaker 4: never looked back. I had a great trip there, went
Speaker 4: to Springs Spot. Yeah, but do you love button?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I love but love the button Springs. What do you
Speaker 1: call the big meathouse? Places you can eat what are
Speaker 1: they called barbecue barbecue smokehouses? Yea great smokehouse. Yeah, Franklins.
Speaker 1: If everyone's been to Franklin's out there, they know that's
Speaker 1: one of the best in the world down there in Austin.
Speaker 1: We'll get we'll get We'll get into another one, the
Speaker 1: Vegas to Phoenix trip. Now a bit of petrol, Tom,
Speaker 1: I have to tell this story. This is actually a
Speaker 1: story I wasn't planning to bring up here. You know,
Speaker 1: exactly at one point in my life, I was going
Speaker 1: down to the Peninsula run. I'm going to Tom's house,
Speaker 1: and Tom's I'm pretty much the twenty seventeen eighteen right,
Speaker 1: and you got a beautiful place down there, shout out
Speaker 1: to the fam. And I get this call from Tom
Speaker 1: like where are you at? He's GoF had a bit
Speaker 1: of a bundle. Was like, what is it, Tom? What
Speaker 1: could possibly issue? He's run out of petrol on the highway.
Speaker 1: This is like the main highway.
Speaker 2: For kremera road East Link or Peninsula Link.
Speaker 1: And he's called me up like a dog with his
Speaker 1: tail bedween the layers, going can you can you come
Speaker 1: bring me a kettle or a can with petrol?
Speaker 2: Can go to the petrol station to the petrol s.
Speaker 1: I was already there, and he said, drive back to
Speaker 1: get the jerry can filled up with you know, petrol,
Speaker 1: and then come find me on the side of the
Speaker 1: highway somewhere then drop it off so I can fill
Speaker 1: my car up. This is this describes you pretty well?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean yeah it does.
Speaker 1: And this is not the first time you've almost run
Speaker 1: out of petrol apparently in Phoenix a lot.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, we nearly before that. So we went.
Speaker 4: We went to Vegas because the Lakers were playing a
Speaker 4: preseason game and we've got to know the head of security,
Speaker 4: Johnston Lakers quite well, he's a friend of ours.
Speaker 2: Johnny.
Speaker 4: Get out to Johnny and yeah, we we got to
Speaker 4: the game. We just made it in time for the game.
Speaker 4: We paid a silly amount for seats because that.
Speaker 2: Was very last noticing until the third quarters.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because we didn't organized prior because we're hoping it
Speaker 4: might be able to meet Lebron.
Speaker 3: That was the sort of big ticket item. We were like, well,
Speaker 3: we can't, we can't want it. We can't pass this
Speaker 3: peace that was there, right, So we got on.
Speaker 4: We met Joe, we met a few of the players,
Speaker 4: we got on the court in the stadium in Vegas
Speaker 4: was cool. We didn't meet Lebron, which planning, but you
Speaker 4: know it was a preseason game. You had to get
Speaker 4: out of there. And yeah, so we were only in
Speaker 4: Vegas for a night for the basketball and the next
Speaker 4: day we went. We heard Phoenix was really cool, so
Speaker 4: all it straudes of Phoenix and we thought it'd be
Speaker 4: like four hours.
Speaker 3: I will kind of measuring on the map, We're like,
Speaker 3: it's roughly like kind of I don't know, like Melbourne.
Speaker 2: Usually and usually you don't sleep in Vegas coxy, but
Speaker 2: we actually slept the full twelve hours.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we had great twelve hours in Vegas.
Speaker 1: You didn't do Vegas right then. We actually we wanted to.
Speaker 2: Do it our way.
Speaker 3: Smoothies and things correct, bodies of temple. Yeah, yeah, so
Speaker 3: back back to the.
Speaker 2: How good are the internel? Just the thick shakes and
Speaker 2: oh they got a big top, introduced me first level
Speaker 2: and we also what was the car?
Speaker 1: We had a Mustang that was cool.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was you know, you can get really cool
Speaker 4: cars and we had a Mustang which was cool. Anyway,
Speaker 4: we drove from Vegas to Phoenix the next day, thinking
Speaker 4: you'd be about four hours and midway through yeah, Greaspice
Speaker 4: there we underestimated the time. It actually ended up taking
Speaker 4: eight hours. We're in the middle of the desert too long,
Speaker 4: and we were hitting low on the petrol bas again.
Speaker 4: We were in trouble and we pulled over to this
Speaker 4: like parking sleep spot and we ran this guy.
Speaker 2: It was top. I had my pink bright pink short.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The guy said, we're like, oh, where's the nearest petrol
Speaker 2: station for you? Man, Like, do you know this place?
Speaker 2: And he's like, oh exactly, I think, yeah, yeah, twenty
Speaker 2: five miles away. I don't know what you're going to do.
Speaker 2: It's like, oh, yeah, we're I think we got like
Speaker 2: ten fifteen in US.
Speaker 1: Maybe.
Speaker 2: It's like, yeah, you boys are going to me.
Speaker 4: And Flip was obviously his name was being thrown around
Speaker 4: in trade discussion as well. When he had he had
Speaker 4: a phone call on with s c N on trade radio.
Speaker 4: So we also needed to find reception to get that.
Speaker 2: So we got to call in like an hour. We
Speaker 2: need to like either not we need to get some petrol.
Speaker 1: Somehow.
Speaker 4: I found McDonald's in the middle of the desert in
Speaker 4: Phoenix and Flips like standing up on this bench like
Speaker 4: getting reception and then yeah we got to Phoenix. Well
Speaker 4: we somehow made it without losing, like we're on we're
Speaker 4: on empty. Yeah, and we would have been in a
Speaker 4: massive strife. Oh god, somehow you know, the car just
Speaker 4: keeps going.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I kept going. I saw one thing on Hamish
Speaker 1: Nandy Apparently you can go one hundred k's over the
Speaker 1: empty and you're still good.
Speaker 2: Well, we were doing like we I mean what the
Speaker 2: story is told before, right, you know, I've pushed We've
Speaker 2: all pushed that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we'll let the car roll out like he used
Speaker 4: a bit of petrol.
Speaker 3: You let it all out.
Speaker 1: Wow, neutral for a bit. We had.
Speaker 3: We had a lot of time together discuss all sorts
Speaker 3: of topics.
Speaker 2: Can we talk about the environment and the landscape, like
Speaker 2: the topography and just like the desert and the mountainous area.
Speaker 2: It was just beautiful, like there's nowhere else, nowhere else
Speaker 2: in the world. That's like, it's so unique.
Speaker 1: That whole you go through like that, you got the
Speaker 1: Grand Canyon, you go out to Arches National Parking of
Speaker 1: Bryce and you've got Zion. That whole area around Utah
Speaker 1: is just beautiful. It's it's like you're there and you
Speaker 1: really feel like you're in a desktop background, which is
Speaker 1: like terrible to say because that's how we envision things
Speaker 1: in our life. But like to sit there and experience
Speaker 1: that is just something that's almost like spiritual around it.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a it's an amazing place for being
Speaker 1: ones out there listening. That hasn't been definitely recommend it,
Speaker 1: but a lot of times, you know, athletes, you know,
Speaker 1: like yourself, myself, everyone like kind of goes over to
Speaker 1: America to experience sport. Right, like what would be the
Speaker 1: number one thing either one of you would experience over
Speaker 1: they were like bucket list I'm talking about.
Speaker 2: Let me just talk about the story around this ice
Speaker 2: hockey rider. So six weeks, six weeks later when I
Speaker 2: go and we go back over to New York do
Speaker 2: some stuff with Paddy Mills with super boosts. I did
Speaker 2: some filming that sort of stuff. But a few days
Speaker 2: before that, we went a little bit earlier, flew in.
Speaker 2: This all happened in about twenty four hours, but I
Speaker 2: flew from Melbourne to La Stop over two hours, LA
Speaker 2: to JFK, JFK, straight to Madison Square Gardens, walked in
Speaker 2: with two bags of luggage, sat in the crowd. I
Speaker 2: was meeting a few other mates there they were sitting
Speaker 2: in the opposite side. Watched the ice hockey. Awesome, awesome, fun, great,
Speaker 2: then had some dinner. After that, dropped the bags back
Speaker 2: of the hotel, had a few drinks, and then the
Speaker 2: next morning at ten to six am, took a flight
Speaker 2: from New York to Miami to get my bag.
Speaker 1: Got my bag, freaking flowers.
Speaker 2: Two hour stopover back to New York.
Speaker 1: That afternoon, two hour stop over Miami's You went to
Speaker 1: Miami just to pick up your bags and go back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's I don't know what was in that mark that
Speaker 1: you so desperately, but it had to be worth something
Speaker 1: that's worked right, always turn us. Yeah, it's a great
Speaker 1: piece of the story. Yeah. Wow, there's a few pieces,
Speaker 1: isn't there. Yeah, so you do the ice hockey is
Speaker 1: what you go for.
Speaker 2: No, it's not what I go for. But I think
Speaker 2: I think au, I think a Super Bowl. We've got
Speaker 2: all NBA final Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean I'm a huge basketball fan, as you know.
Speaker 3: NBA Finals would be awesome.
Speaker 4: Having said that, the Texas Longhorns home game was incredible.
Speaker 4: Like the entertainment side of things, and you know, just
Speaker 4: packing one hundred thousand people into a stadium like that,
Speaker 4: like just such a cool feel to it.
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's it was so unique. Do you
Speaker 1: think there's a way that AFL can do that better entertainment? Sure,
Speaker 1: but starting to do it. So halftime shows super well,
Speaker 1: we're going to halftime shows though for the AFL Grand Final.
Speaker 1: I think even whenever we go up, you know, like
Speaker 1: through the banner, we've got like fire and all that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. Now it's like a bit of entertainment
Speaker 1: for everyone. You know, the lights go off, they shut
Speaker 1: it down and kind of gets a bit of atmosphere
Speaker 1: going with that. I think they've taken subtly little chunks
Speaker 1: here and there in the progression and becomes something that's
Speaker 1: quite spectacular.
Speaker 2: It's a mix of a few things I reckon, Like
Speaker 2: it's it's budget and what resource you have. It's it's
Speaker 2: culture and what sort of expected and you know, how
Speaker 2: to improve that whole outlook. And then it's yeah, like
Speaker 2: it's it's it's the offering around. Yeah, you just want
Speaker 2: better creativity and energy around that stuff. But like I
Speaker 2: think teams are getting more through their outside of the
Speaker 2: football department stuff, you know, being able to then create
Speaker 2: those sort of things for membership fans, that type of stuff,
Speaker 2: more engagement, like it's I think it's improving, like it's
Speaker 2: on it's and obviously a lot of the American stuff
Speaker 2: is a really good, really good to look at that
Speaker 2: and see that and go, okay, this is sort of
Speaker 2: probably world leading when it comes to entertainment and commercialization
Speaker 2: of these things. But yeah, I think it's budget and
Speaker 2: market like. That's the US is probably a little bithead
Speaker 2: and it's got a bigger population. There's there's a lot happening,
Speaker 2: but Ossies have there's a unique sort of feel too,
Speaker 2: especially in AFL. Right, there's there's a unique following with
Speaker 2: that too. And I know a lot of Americans, especially
Speaker 2: you know you would have seen it, are really when
Speaker 2: they first see the sport and they watch it and
Speaker 2: they go what is this? Like I never knew this
Speaker 2: is yesterday?
Speaker 1: People believe it. It's really cool. They can't get the editor.
Speaker 4: I think in terms of travel to America though, like
Speaker 4: in terms of personal development, which is you know a
Speaker 4: lot of our trips to America being based on performance
Speaker 4: now we can improve as athletes, but also learning about
Speaker 4: you know what we can do. So with Flipstom, the
Speaker 4: Superboos and all the athletes that he's mett and who
Speaker 4: have brought into Superverse for example, like obviously Patty Mills
Speaker 4: and Joe Ingles some like, we try and connect with
Speaker 4: you know, a few professional teams over there each season,
Speaker 4: whether it be in the NBA or the college teams
Speaker 4: and connect with athletes and learn. So that's the thing
Speaker 4: I love about American sport is because you know, in
Speaker 4: terms of sports science, Australia is quite advanced and we're
Speaker 4: very good, but there's so many things you can still
Speaker 4: learn from American sport and just the way they operate.
Speaker 4: And I guess coming back to the athletes themselves is
Speaker 4: a really good starting point.
Speaker 2: With that point is where you make There so many
Speaker 2: Austraian athletes that have gone over there, especially in the
Speaker 2: football space.
Speaker 1: Perne.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so like obviously through Miami, through Austin with Isaac
Speaker 2: and Lou that were there. You know, these individuals that
Speaker 2: there is, there's heaps that there's heaps of guys now
Speaker 2: over there that you know.
Speaker 3: Even the NBA like more and more Aussies every season.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like so I mean that's yeah, that's that's a
Speaker 2: good thing about that. It's good to see. And then
Speaker 2: especially guys that have been on AFL lists as well,
Speaker 2: that might have been delisted or you know, they get
Speaker 2: to a stage and then they actually going Mitch McCarthy
Speaker 2: over in Orlando. Everything happen to be Damon Greeves. You know,
Speaker 2: he's going over like these sort of guys that have
Speaker 2: finished up, had a short stint with their their frety
Speaker 2: career here and then they go, I want to try
Speaker 2: and do something over there. It's cool.
Speaker 1: I've got asked this because I've known both of you,
Speaker 1: two as AFL players, right, and very different pregame routines.
Speaker 1: You've probably picked up a few things along the lines,
Speaker 1: probably more Hitch than you. Tom. I hate to say,
Speaker 1: but Tom Mitchell is a three hours four hours, five
Speaker 1: hours before a game maybe starting to get ready. Tom,
Speaker 1: you just kind of rocked up and just was like,
Speaker 1: let's do this thing.
Speaker 2: Does he talk to you before the game?
Speaker 1: Not time, but like he's so myself and him always
Speaker 1: the last ones out of Like, so we go to
Speaker 1: the facilities before we go to the MCG and we'll
Speaker 1: do all our prop work and everything in that and
Speaker 1: we're always like the last ones to kind of leave,
Speaker 1: even training sessions and stuff like, we're always the last one.
Speaker 1: We've always see him. You do these like the handball juggle,
Speaker 1: and then you do also the jiu jitsu flips on.
Speaker 1: I don't know how to describe it, to.
Speaker 3: Be honest, I do things differently for sure.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely cops and flat for Jordy to go. He
Speaker 3: loves giving it to me. But that's just what I
Speaker 3: need to do to get the best out of myself.
Speaker 3: That's what I like to do as well.
Speaker 2: You do you still you still sit out there at
Speaker 2: the end of the training sessions. That's that's how the
Speaker 2: best players.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and try to kick goals. Didn't have this week, Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: you don't have funny.
Speaker 4: As you mentioned, you look around the locker room before
Speaker 4: a game, there's so many different guys doing different things.
Speaker 4: Some guys need to be calm. Some guys go to
Speaker 4: the choir room lock themselves in they can't be around
Speaker 4: any noise.
Speaker 3: Some guys are blasting chun's they love it. They're dancing.
Speaker 3: Other guys are doing jiu jitsu, rolling on the floor to.
Speaker 2: Tommy like would always like throughout the week, we'd just
Speaker 2: be you know, training hard, doing all that sort of stuff,
Speaker 2: but then taking the piss and a lot of banter
Speaker 2: and you know in awful days. But then when it
Speaker 2: gets to games, you just locks in.
Speaker 1: Right. Is there any one piece of advice around prep
Speaker 1: of yourself, your body may be for games, career, it
Speaker 1: may be in that sense that you would want to
Speaker 1: pass on to someone else.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's got to be individualized, like as
Speaker 2: much as it can for people. We've all got different upbringings,
Speaker 2: different coaches and things that make us tick with our
Speaker 2: personality and our character in the way that we sort
Speaker 2: of go about our preparation and recovery and trying to
Speaker 2: perform in a certain environment that's high pressured and there's
Speaker 2: a lot of strain around that from different areas. So like,
Speaker 2: if you're better at sort of keeping things out, not
Speaker 2: getting too much of information or advice from certain people,
Speaker 2: but then you'll take it from one person specifically with
Speaker 2: you know, stuff you've got to do with your game
Speaker 2: or whatever it is, then that might work for you.
Speaker 2: If you're more jovial and you've got to feed off
Speaker 2: everyone else's energy and get around everyone else you know,
Speaker 2: we know guys are like that, some that just are
Speaker 2: into their shell. Like I don't think it's a one
Speaker 2: size fits all.
Speaker 3: I think our club does really well.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think both during the week in terms of
Speaker 4: guys know what they need to do, and we've got
Speaker 4: a pretty experienced list, so that obviously helps. But I
Speaker 4: think the club are very good at like you know,
Speaker 4: you know what you need to do, like even in
Speaker 4: our warm up, like you'll see, guys, it's not a
Speaker 4: one size fits all.
Speaker 3: I think that's just such an old school.
Speaker 4: Approach, Like it's very individualized during the week, on game
Speaker 4: day what you need to do.
Speaker 3: Then we come together as a unit and it comes
Speaker 3: all together.
Speaker 1: It's so true. I think a lot of people think
Speaker 1: that you have the two hours you play a game
Speaker 1: every single week and that's all it happens, which people
Speaker 1: don't even realize, Like there's probably maybe four to five
Speaker 1: hours of prep work before you know that even happens
Speaker 1: on the day, right, so like you know, you've got
Speaker 1: all the stuff from sleep and diet and everything else
Speaker 1: that goes into it. That's a twenty four to seven job.
Speaker 1: And then like even in our club and you're a
Speaker 1: part of this with Pola, like we have a ballerina
Speaker 1: that essentially sets an individual program for each person to
Speaker 1: prep yourself for training for game days in different muscles
Speaker 1: you want to activate in different things that might take
Speaker 1: you an hour to go through just to be able
Speaker 1: to train. Like it's there's so many little meticulous things
Speaker 1: along the way that people don't see that they only
Speaker 1: see the outcome of and then they only see this
Speaker 1: small amount of time that you're actually out on the ground,
Speaker 1: which is probably, you know, maybe a tenth of the
Speaker 1: actual time you put in through the week. It's such
Speaker 1: an interesting thing and it's been insane, but I want
Speaker 1: to I want to ask this because I was just
Speaker 1: thinking about Buddy Franklin, players met what might be the
Speaker 1: last game right at the MCG and things like that,
Speaker 1: like do you have any favorite memories on the MCG time?
Speaker 1: I want to say, I'm hoping it's not the time
Speaker 1: you got knocked out and kicked a goal at the
Speaker 1: same time, because I was sitting there right next to you.
Speaker 1: Whenever that happened. That happened scary times for me.
Speaker 3: You have somehow just laugh.
Speaker 2: It's unconscious, so you ru an autopilot.
Speaker 1: Autopilot Yeah, he's got to you know, he's got a
Speaker 1: sixth sense for the goals. Yeah, game, how did you
Speaker 1: get knocked out?
Speaker 3: Chris Main?
Speaker 2: Need me in the head? Yeah right?
Speaker 1: Friendly fire Round eight, twenty eighteen Rember some like that
Speaker 1: against you Long? Yeah, what's your best what's your best memory?
Speaker 1: Outside of that?
Speaker 2: Ah? Man? I think I remember like we had a
Speaker 2: run similar to what you know watching the Pies now,
Speaker 2: Like just a run where you just win those close
Speaker 2: games and you're just you know, at twenty seventeen, I
Speaker 2: remember we would been a lot of games, but we
Speaker 2: would sort of lose by maybe one, two, three goals,
Speaker 2: and we just the group almost hadn't connected and matured
Speaker 2: and meshed as well as it could have. And then
Speaker 2: it's almost like that we went through a stage where
Speaker 2: we would then win those tight arm wrestled games the
Speaker 2: following year and just knowing that, all right, we're onto
Speaker 2: something here, and like it's it's probably similar to what
Speaker 2: you guys are feeling now, where like there's just so
Speaker 2: much confidence and energy running through the group where like
Speaker 2: you just back yourself in and you know you'll win
Speaker 2: those tight games against other teams across four quarters. So
Speaker 2: like that Final Series twenty eight em was pretty it
Speaker 2: was pretty cool. Yeah, those big, big crowds and that
Speaker 2: sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: I asked you a touch was it whenever you got
Speaker 1: fifty four dispellers against us in twenty eighteen or so?
Speaker 4: Obviously last night Pendles broke the all time disposal record
Speaker 4: and that raw around the stadium was like wow, it
Speaker 4: was like some like it was like a team he'd
Speaker 4: won a final, a grand find like it was so loud.
Speaker 4: I'm not sure whether it was because the roof and
Speaker 4: was in closed, but that was loud. I remember that game.
Speaker 4: It was it round one, say yeah, anyway, I remember
Speaker 4: like it was late in the last quarter and the
Speaker 4: crowd started clapping, and like later on I learned why
Speaker 4: because because of that record. But during the game, I
Speaker 4: was like, what are they clapping for? Like as someone
Speaker 4: done something hilarious in the crowd. So I was actually
Speaker 4: thinking about it, and then it made sense. I got
Speaker 4: interviewed after the game, I think by Abby Home. Yeah actually,
Speaker 4: and then it made more sense then, but I didn't
Speaker 4: realize it at the time. No no idea, wow, no idea,
Speaker 4: but just.
Speaker 1: Getting balk Pill gone like yeah, his.
Speaker 2: Preparation recovery, Like he just is so strict and he
Speaker 2: just's so sure of what he does and it works,
Speaker 2: you know, and he's been doing it.
Speaker 3: Because Frus shredded it.
Speaker 4: Also, like like you guys have obviously played with him longer.
Speaker 3: Than I have, other than known him for six months.
Speaker 4: But he's just like such a good guy, such a
Speaker 4: good teammates, so selfless, like sometimes you know with superstar
Speaker 4: players like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I had no idea he was like that.
Speaker 4: He's all just about the team, genuine excitement about making
Speaker 4: others better.
Speaker 3: I'm making the team better. He's all about that.
Speaker 4: That's and it's like he's one of my favorite teammates
Speaker 4: I've ever played with and known him for six months.
Speaker 1: I think he's also a person that you know, he's
Speaker 1: he's almost like a coach on the field, you know,
Speaker 1: you talk about meetings. He knows every single rowle of
Speaker 1: every single player within the team. Even if it's like
Speaker 1: a key forward this position you'll probably never play, he
Speaker 1: knows exactly where that person needs to be at all
Speaker 1: times during the game. Like you'll be sitting there looking
Speaker 1: at him. I'm like, I've been playing for nine years
Speaker 1: and he's gone. You need to be five meters to
Speaker 1: the left, and I'm like, shit, you're right, damn it,
Speaker 1: it's just insane. But another thing, I'll say, Tom and Titch,
Speaker 1: one of these things over eyed and you've been here
Speaker 1: for six months, right, and it's I think about you know,
Speaker 1: people are listening. Maybe something that can take out of
Speaker 1: the podcast, right, Like you came into the club very quickly,
Speaker 1: was able to joel with the team team and then
Speaker 1: learn the game plan, be confident in speaking up and
Speaker 1: meetings and things like that. Was there any nervousness going
Speaker 1: into the club whenever you were traded?
Speaker 4: So I made a conscious effort that as soon as
Speaker 4: my trade went through, you know, I wasn't going to
Speaker 4: start day one of pre season with everyone. I was
Speaker 4: going to start in the off season and anytime there
Speaker 4: was a group training session, I was going to be
Speaker 4: there every single session. And I didn't miss one starting
Speaker 4: from October to our official start of the pre season,
Speaker 4: which was December one.
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 4: So, you know, you talk about great leadership, I think
Speaker 4: it was Pendals actually who as soon as us knew
Speaker 4: guys myself, Billy, Bobby, Dan Leggy. As soon as we
Speaker 4: got traded, Penels added us into the team players WhatsApp
Speaker 4: group made us feel welcome, and then guys were inviting
Speaker 4: us to sessions and come here and you know, do
Speaker 4: way to come here and let's have a kick. And
Speaker 4: so by the time the official pre season started, I
Speaker 4: feel like I knew everyone. I was so comfortable already,
Speaker 4: such a great group of guys. We worked really hard
Speaker 4: and then we got to work officially with the staff
Speaker 4: on day one. But I guess that's where the confidence
Speaker 4: and the comfort came from, because I felt like I
Speaker 4: knew everyone and they gave me the confidence to do that.
Speaker 2: I want to ask you a question because when we
Speaker 2: interviewed you for Yeah, I was going to say, like,
Speaker 2: you've known Fly for you know, since you sort of
Speaker 2: got there a time. How have you seen his development?
Speaker 2: And you know, I guess maturity from development sort of
Speaker 2: coach towards head coach and like his sort of journey
Speaker 2: through Yeah, I guess the.
Speaker 1: Existence of it's because we've all had the experience, right,
Speaker 1: you both played at Hawthorne. Remember he was the development
Speaker 1: coach there and Fly as a person that's probably been
Speaker 1: development coach for what fifteen years of his career or
Speaker 1: something like that. Sorry, assistant coach up but he was
Speaker 1: development coach for that for a long long time. And
Speaker 1: you think of like our list as we do have
Speaker 1: some of the experienced guys on the top end, right,
Speaker 1: they've been there for a while, and then we've got
Speaker 1: a lot of young guys on the list that are
Speaker 1: quite youthful and like to have someone who's been a
Speaker 1: development coach who's been interacting with this that age group
Speaker 1: you know of people like changing and trying to get
Speaker 1: into the AFL system and stuff like that, Like it's
Speaker 1: probably given him the best experience possible to be able
Speaker 1: to handle the personal relationships that he has to deal
Speaker 1: with within our club. But for me, like I've known
Speaker 1: him for a long time obviously, and he's it's kind
Speaker 1: of weird now, like because he's always been a friend
Speaker 1: of mine, but now for him to be a head coach,
Speaker 1: like you kind of have that it's silly, like like
Speaker 1: nervousness around him, but like you know that he's you know,
Speaker 1: he's top level now, like and he's he is where
Speaker 1: the buck stops and like whenever he says something, that's
Speaker 1: how it goes. And he has to be a bit
Speaker 1: more I guess direct sometimes being a head coach, and
Speaker 1: he's really good with being able to people manage. I
Speaker 1: think is like one of the hardest things as a
Speaker 1: head coach. You have to obviously tell someone either they're
Speaker 1: playing every single week or they're not playing every week,
Speaker 1: and that's essentially telling someone and like cutting their dreams
Speaker 1: on a weekly basis, knowing you're probably gonna have to
Speaker 1: do that to at least one person every week, and
Speaker 1: for all the head coaches out there, it's a it's
Speaker 1: a terrible job, like you never want to be the
Speaker 1: person has to break that news to anyone. And like, well,
Speaker 1: you've experienced it probably a lot more than you Titch
Speaker 1: as far as like getting dropped, and it's really tough
Speaker 1: pill to swallow, like it really is, and like Craig
Speaker 1: is one of those people. I've experienced it the last
Speaker 1: year whenever I was going through it, when I got
Speaker 1: dropped and things like that, and the way you handled
Speaker 1: it was like fantastic and it was able to, you know,
Speaker 1: give me that confidence going forward that I knew I
Speaker 1: would be able to get that short time there to
Speaker 1: hopefully kind of launch pad back into it. But I
Speaker 1: think over the years, knowing Craig it's and you can
Speaker 1: kind of speak to this titch a bit too. It's
Speaker 1: like he doesn't feel like someone you can't go and
Speaker 1: talk to. Like his door's always open. He's always there
Speaker 1: to have a chat and just see how things are.
Speaker 1: And he like cracks a joke. He's not too serious,
Speaker 1: but knows when to be serious. Like there's times where
Speaker 1: he can sit there and say, you know what, we're
Speaker 1: not training at the higher standard. We need to turn
Speaker 1: things around like now, And you know, that kind of
Speaker 1: gets a bit more I guess it's a bit more
Speaker 1: weight to it whenever he says it, because he doesn't
Speaker 1: say it all the time. He's usually quite positive and
Speaker 1: everything that goes on. So whenever he says something like
Speaker 1: gets your shit to we need to actually train harder
Speaker 1: an hour, everyone goes, okay, shit, like we are training
Speaker 1: pretty terrib work. Let's turn this around. So, yeah, he's
Speaker 1: a phenomenal human, like an amazing, amazing person that's growth
Speaker 1: to be able to have this experience with them that
Speaker 1: we're having now. But yeah, it's just been it's been awesome.
Speaker 1: Like it's such a back to the people management thing.
Speaker 1: I think that's just like his one would.
Speaker 4: He's very Yeah, he's such a phenomenal person first and
Speaker 4: foremost and coach.
Speaker 3: You know, it speaks for itself.
Speaker 4: I agree spot on, you know, the way he just
Speaker 4: values every single person in the organization and he leads
Speaker 4: from the front in terms of setting the example. And
Speaker 4: I think that's why everyone follows him. And you know,
Speaker 4: this culture that's been created.
Speaker 3: Is quite amazing.
Speaker 4: But I think, you know, from what I can gather,
Speaker 4: having done that long apprenticeship and done you know, development
Speaker 4: and VFL, he's been in pretty much every everyone's shoes,
Speaker 4: you know, like he's been there with the guys you
Speaker 4: know who are you know, forty to forty five on
Speaker 4: the list, and he speaks up in meetings and makes
Speaker 4: them feel and talks about the journey of VFL. And
Speaker 4: so we're all in this collective buying together. It's not
Speaker 4: all about the guys that are just playing on game date.
Speaker 4: It's about the club. He brings the staff along, everyone's involved.
Speaker 2: I was going to say, like you you brought up
Speaker 2: challenges and hardships and like at the elite level, like
Speaker 2: there's so many individual circumstances with thee the top player,
Speaker 2: you're in the bottom five, whatever, it is like, you know,
Speaker 2: everyone knows Tommy for you or yourself myself for a
Speaker 2: little stint with like good footy that you play right,
Speaker 2: but then they don't see a lot of the hardship
Speaker 2: and when you get dropped and like this stint that
Speaker 2: you play, you know and the reserves level of VFL,
Speaker 2: like you had a fair bit of that. Well, tell
Speaker 2: us you know some of the I guess things that
Speaker 2: you learned, coaches that you had and you're taking you.
Speaker 1: Were dominating the need for getting like fifty touches a game,
Speaker 1: but couldn't get a game the seniors and then that
Speaker 1: team goes and wins the premiership and you're sitting there
Speaker 1: on the sidelines watching it like that's there, Like how
Speaker 1: you how do you mentally deal with that?
Speaker 3: That's tough?
Speaker 4: Like you, everyone faces adversity and they at some point,
Speaker 4: whether it's in life, friend footy.
Speaker 3: That was really tough.
Speaker 4: Like I felt like almost helpless, Like I knew I
Speaker 4: was playing really good footy, and I.
Speaker 1: Was just.
Speaker 2: You're still young. You're still right, You're young. You just
Speaker 2: come into it when you get to outed twenty twenty
Speaker 2: eleven eleven, yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so twenty tits my first year and.
Speaker 2: Already playing that level of footy though, right, like, yeah,
Speaker 2: you're not. You're trying to break in the sceniors and
Speaker 2: play and you're doing you know, above and beyond in
Speaker 2: the in the in the second still as a eight
Speaker 2: nineteen twenty year old sort of thing, like.
Speaker 1: What's the messaging from the coach at that point and
Speaker 1: just saying like, you know, because like there is an
Speaker 1: understanding from a coach's side of you know, you trust
Speaker 1: certain players that have been there for a long time,
Speaker 1: and it's tough to bring in a person whenever you're
Speaker 1: making a finals run that's in their first couple of years.
Speaker 1: Whenever you've got someone there that's been there for five, six, seven, eight,
Speaker 1: nine years that you trust and you know is going
Speaker 1: to be able to do the job. It's it's not
Speaker 1: ideal for either scenario or either side of the coin,
Speaker 1: Like what's what is the feedback the coach gives you
Speaker 1: whenever you're playing well but you're not getting I guess
Speaker 1: the opportunity in the AFL level if.
Speaker 3: I cast my memory, but it was, Yeah, it was
Speaker 3: tough time. It was more around.
Speaker 4: Team balance at the time, like we had a deep
Speaker 4: midfield yeah, but it was it was you know, the
Speaker 4: messaging was you're doing great, just wait for your chance.
Speaker 4: So I don't know, it's kind of a tough thing.
Speaker 4: Frustrate You're like, I just got to persist and keep going.
Speaker 4: I guess it makes you really hungry and motivated. And
Speaker 4: when I eventually did crack in, it was, Yeah, I
Speaker 4: was just just so motivated to to start and grow
Speaker 4: a career. So but yeah, back to the adversity thing
Speaker 4: like happens with everyone. Like you know, you know, had
Speaker 4: a broken leg as well, and that was in my prime,
Speaker 4: like after my best footing.
Speaker 3: So it comes at all different stages.
Speaker 4: You guys have experienced it, you know, Flip you've played
Speaker 4: in the Grand Final and and done all sorts of
Speaker 4: things as well.
Speaker 3: And Cox you've you know, come from American you know,
Speaker 3: probably a bigger role.
Speaker 2: So and one thing with with what you're doing in
Speaker 2: the Mason Cox Show. And you know obviously the ball
Speaker 2: Manus podcast. Like the last time we said on a
Speaker 2: podcast was about four years ago now, and that was
Speaker 2: called The Board. That was the Bordroom podcast. So I
Speaker 2: was along with lot, Yeah, I was doing that with
Speaker 2: a few mates out at Collingwood We did that for
Speaker 2: about two years, about fifty episodes, and Mason jumped on Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: every two or three weeks. Yeah, so it's good to
Speaker 2: see this taken off as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's great to see everyone doing everything. I want
Speaker 1: to say Ball Magnets. A lot of people think it's
Speaker 1: just football. You're also getting into the basketball side of things, correct.
Speaker 3: Correct, Yeah, footy and basketball.
Speaker 4: So obviously Josh Kiddy probably Australia's best basketball player at
Speaker 4: the moment at just twenty years of age. He runs
Speaker 4: everything in the basketball aspect of Ball Magnets, so that's
Speaker 4: his category. And yeah, we've just filmed a number of
Speaker 4: his sessions at Hoop City has been obviously home for
Speaker 4: the off season, so there'll be a gym sessions at
Speaker 4: least by Josh Giddy. How we trained and prepares for
Speaker 4: the NBA skills sessions ball handling, shooting, passing. So for
Speaker 4: any athlete out there, no matter what level you're at,
Speaker 4: you know there's there's druels for everyone beginning, intermediate and elite,
Speaker 4: and then no one better learn from than Josh, the
Speaker 4: best up and comer in the country.
Speaker 1: He's an absolute freak.
Speaker 3: He's a freak. Second he's been like Lebron James records.
Speaker 1: You know. The really bad thing though, is Josh Kiddy
Speaker 1: at the moment. It's it's sad that I picture this
Speaker 1: is whenever Lebron broke the scoring record, right, Josh Kitty
Speaker 1: has just missed out on the photo, the iconic photo
Speaker 1: Lebron taking the jumper is almost like.
Speaker 4: Last You want to be the guy that give Pandles
Speaker 4: that ye kicked it to I think he kicked his eyes.
Speaker 3: You should should have run around for him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's great to see different athletes doing different
Speaker 1: things and be able to to extend their experiences passed
Speaker 1: just a football career, to help them build something that's
Speaker 1: bigger than just what they've done on the football field.
Speaker 1: So it's been absolutely incredible. We'll wrap this up everyone,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening. It's been great having
Speaker 1: all three of us get on this podcast together and
Speaker 1: be able to riff a bit of off season stories
Speaker 1: and a few kind of business ideas that we're doing.
Speaker 1: But yeah, hopefully everyone got something out of this and
Speaker 1: we'll hear from you soon.