Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome back to the Mason Cox Show. Today.
Speaker 1: We've got a special guest, a very good friend of
Speaker 1: mine who I'm excited and I'm sure he's a bit
Speaker 1: nervous to be into this, this fan on the podcast,
Speaker 1: but we'll go through his resume. He's got Dancing with
Speaker 1: the Stars contestant. I know there is the highlight of
Speaker 1: your career, mates, but there is other things to do
Speaker 1: with foot eat a two time All Australian calling which
Speaker 1: best best first year player in twousand and five, calling
Speaker 1: with leading goal scorer on four occasions, calling best in
Speaker 1: the first two thousand and seven, twenty ten permiship player
Speaker 1: and the big one. I know you're super proud of
Speaker 1: the twenty eleven Nab Cup champion. It's a really good
Speaker 1: resume and I'm excited to have you on the podcast.
Speaker 1: So off, so welcome Trav Cloak.
Speaker 2: Thanks mate. Fun fact three grand finals we played in
Speaker 2: in six months. Yes, there was a win, a lose
Speaker 2: and obviously another winner the NAB Cup. So there's only
Speaker 2: like ten of us to do it. Mate. It's pride
Speaker 2: and enjoying in my cover with a NAB Cup Premiership medallion. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's one one to always get who's still hanging on
Speaker 2: to that? Actually don't know where it is.
Speaker 3: Yeah you got medallions?
Speaker 1: Wow did you ever? Because I know back in the day,
Speaker 1: if you kicked on like beyond fifty or something, you
Speaker 1: got to like donate. Yeah, you have to donate like
Speaker 1: a grand to your local.
Speaker 2: Food, local footy club. Very thankful mate, because I can't
Speaker 2: kick inside fifty es ied to kick them outside and
Speaker 2: they made some good calls. How much money did you
Speaker 2: make for me? Again? Enough?
Speaker 1: Enough enough, they've got plenty of football's there. Well, man,
Speaker 1: we'll get into it. I'm going to start it with
Speaker 1: something and we'll get into the football career. But in
Speaker 1: March of twenty twenty, your career was really a crossroads
Speaker 1: and dancing with the stars Judge Craig made it official.
Speaker 1: Craig Craig made official by saying, I think both couples
Speaker 1: are absolutely terrible for different reasons. I have to pick
Speaker 1: the best one I think out of them. For me, yes,
Speaker 1: Damie awful to be in with, but you tried to
Speaker 1: collect yourself. I think hard choreography lads with the woman
Speaker 1: in particular sense. For that reason, I'm voting DAMMI in Shae,
Speaker 1: which meant see you later, trave It was a sad moment, mate,
Speaker 1: But how was that feeling? I've been I've been shocked
Speaker 1: down a few times. I'm nationaltle TV. No, but.
Speaker 2: Gee, that was so much fun dance with stars. If
Speaker 2: you ever get an opportunity to do a reality TV
Speaker 2: maybe not do dancing because I don't think you could
Speaker 2: dance either. What would you say?
Speaker 1: I should do S A S.
Speaker 2: That's up on my to do list.
Speaker 1: I reckon you'd be really good at it. That.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I need time. I don't have time and family, man,
Speaker 2: kids working.
Speaker 1: We have Matt Preston's gone on to he was on
Speaker 1: the podcast and he's going on Dancing with the Stardes
Speaker 1: this week.
Speaker 2: He's got rhythm though, he can move. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Did you have no no rhythm feet?
Speaker 2: Mate? I am useless.
Speaker 1: Oh gosh it it was like five hours a day training.
Speaker 1: I remember you told me.
Speaker 2: Working at the club doing development. I was the only
Speaker 2: one on the show'd have a full time job. And
Speaker 2: I'm dancing full time, not a full time job.
Speaker 1: Well, he.
Speaker 2: Took the piece out of people, all right, that's what
Speaker 2: he does. By Ryan was too busy travel around the
Speaker 2: world for filming his show as well. So we had
Speaker 2: good fun on set. Don't keep me wrong, But Eddie's
Speaker 2: one of the funniest guys I've met. And he does
Speaker 2: not work. No, it doesn't worry. He's like doing this.
Speaker 2: This is his job. This is not a job, man.
Speaker 2: This is fun.
Speaker 1: This is good fun. Yeah, this is good fun. We'll
Speaker 1: get into it.
Speaker 2: Mate.
Speaker 1: There's a lot to have. You've done a lot in
Speaker 1: your career. It's not only yourself. Your family's got a
Speaker 1: lot of history. And I'll talk to a few people
Speaker 1: down the road. You know, You've had a few people
Speaker 1: I know over the years that we have mutual friends
Speaker 1: of and one person I want their names. But he
Speaker 1: told me about a work experience. Was the first real
Speaker 1: time you'd met you and you're doing equipment management with Disco.
Speaker 2: Yes, I was like a young fourteen and fifteen year
Speaker 2: old young part mate. Tell you he told me you
Speaker 2: did fuck off. He said, I don't know who you
Speaker 2: got it from. So I worked with Neil Bam right arm.
Speaker 2: He was a footy operator inspect human. Yeah, great guy
Speaker 2: and I still love him. But he used to tell
Speaker 2: me is like it's it's lunch trap and I was like,
Speaker 2: it's nine point thirty. Mate. He's like, now you're on
Speaker 2: lunch break, off you go and this is where a
Speaker 2: big park the time, I'm like this fourteen fifteen year
Speaker 2: old kid in Colleen. We're going. Where do I go?
Speaker 2: What I do? I used to just walk to the
Speaker 2: fish and ship shop and sit there for three or
Speaker 2: four hours and wander back again training would start to
Speaker 2: go kick footie with the boys. And that was my
Speaker 2: work experience for two weeks.
Speaker 1: So do you hate much?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Five bucks a day, five bucks a day? Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think it worked out right. That gave me a
Speaker 2: contracting to your time. But yeah, I did not think
Speaker 2: Rowan Bounds was working at the club. So's to hang
Speaker 2: out with him. He's given you all the inside. Not
Speaker 2: much has changed, to be honest, Like, let's be honest.
Speaker 2: I don't work too much. I worked just to survive
Speaker 2: and that's about it.
Speaker 1: Now, well, there's a lot we'll go into that side
Speaker 1: of it because you are working. We're at Essenon Football
Speaker 1: Club right now, which is kind of Yeah, it's very
Speaker 1: interesting to be in there. A parking light that we'll
Speaker 1: go back to. I want to ask you what your
Speaker 1: favorite football memory is because we'll go into the full
Speaker 1: kind of career and everything else. But I want to
Speaker 1: just start this off with one of your favorites.
Speaker 2: You can't go past obvious. Your premiership, like that's a
Speaker 2: good one, but sentimental, Like I did play one game
Speaker 2: with both my brothers, so that was pretty nice to
Speaker 2: have for Mum and dad, like for them to see
Speaker 2: the three of us running out, like that's good, but
Speaker 2: premiership is still better. Let's be honest.
Speaker 1: Your mom's the most lovely human too, by the way,
Speaker 1: shout out to mothers on Mother's Day last week. But
Speaker 1: I sat next to your mom at a football game
Speaker 1: maybe a few years ago, I think, and she was
Speaker 1: you're off for a game. I really got worried. She
Speaker 1: was so loving. She was give me financial advice, just
Speaker 1: tell me to buy houses.
Speaker 2: She came on the other week. She must have seen
Speaker 2: you somewhere. She's like, Todd Mas to buy a house.
Speaker 2: I'm like, Mum, he's doing his own thing. He's old
Speaker 2: enough to make his own right and wrong choices. She's
Speaker 2: a good lady. She means well. She's got a heart
Speaker 2: of gold. Now she's the full time babysit of mate,
Speaker 2: so she's trying to look after you as well. That's it.
Speaker 1: She's got a third kid. She didn't even more.
Speaker 2: I'm not forcing him on to five. You're the six mate,
Speaker 2: You're jump in line.
Speaker 1: We're going to your dad. David Cloke played for seventeen years,
Speaker 1: two premierships of Richmond, and I've got to ask the
Speaker 1: question because he played for Richmond and Collingwood. Obviously you your
Speaker 1: brothers are played for Colinwood. Why is the reason that
Speaker 1: you chose Collingwood as a family over at Richmond. The
Speaker 1: team was success.
Speaker 2: We don't have time for that. But dad played two
Speaker 2: hundred for two plus for Richmond, one hundred and twenty
Speaker 2: for colling So technically, on the on the numbers like
Speaker 2: we should have favored Richmond, but for some reason we
Speaker 2: all end up at the Pies. The reason I went
Speaker 2: to Colin was they were transitioning from Big Park to
Speaker 2: the Holden Center at the time. Richmond we shit out like,
Speaker 2: let's be able to sell their bottom of the ladder.
Speaker 2: Collingwood kind of on the rise, so it made a
Speaker 2: bit more sense, even though Richmond actually offered more financially
Speaker 2: benefit to go there, like apartment's houses, that type of stuff.
Speaker 2: But I thought the fun of playing with me brothers
Speaker 2: was more important at the time. Maybe looking back now,
Speaker 2: financially it would have been better, but footy did a
Speaker 2: right for me. So I'm still happy, mate. And I was.
Speaker 1: So you were seventeen when we started playing, which is
Speaker 1: kind of like wild idea. Yeah, you were still year twelve.
Speaker 1: And then like if you're seventeen where you played Anzac
Speaker 1: Day in your first gat, you.
Speaker 2: Have to turn eighteen by round one. So I was
Speaker 2: March fifth, I was eighteen. You were right on the
Speaker 2: cuss and then I played an Zac Day twenty fifth
Speaker 2: of April. So what I'm eighteen and five weeks before
Speaker 2: I played my first game of foot year.
Speaker 1: The debut game. Both debuted Anzac Day. How's the feeling Well?
Speaker 2: I had blonde hair, mate, Yeah, like the Red Birds
Speaker 2: blonde hair. I think even more. My socks up because
Speaker 2: Mick did the minute silence and the bounce goes, and
Speaker 2: Mix sent a message like pull your socks up, look
Speaker 2: like a football, and I was like, what he's watching me?
Speaker 2: So I whacked your socks up and for the first
Speaker 2: twenty minutes of socks are up, then all of a
Speaker 2: sudden they're down again. Around my ankle, so.
Speaker 1: Did every player. I have to have the socks up.
Speaker 2: Well, mixed mentality was like look like a football, to
Speaker 2: play like a football, like fake it? Do you make it?
Speaker 1: And people make fun of me for socks up now, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you're a rock.
Speaker 2: Meet you wear shing guards, so it's you're a weird
Speaker 2: character anyway. So I didn't wear shin guards, mate. I'm
Speaker 2: reready big enough and thick enough. I don't need to
Speaker 2: look look thicker by wearing socks. Yeah, that was mixed mentality.
Speaker 2: So that was the number one thing you took out
Speaker 2: of that day is Mick telling you to pull your
Speaker 2: socks up. So I was petrified ever wear them down again.
Speaker 2: But after a while I let me wear them down.
Speaker 1: So seventy thousand Anzac day debut, the one thing that
Speaker 1: comes out of is pull your damn socks up trap.
Speaker 2: And then I think that was on a Wednesday or
Speaker 2: a Thursday that year, and I have to go to
Speaker 2: school the next day.
Speaker 1: That is insane. So you surely come back and you're
Speaker 1: just king of the class.
Speaker 2: No, not really, Like I'd been at school since I
Speaker 2: was like year seven. People knew me by the middle
Speaker 2: of the year or the end of the year, like
Speaker 2: I had enough of school, so sometimes I'd roll in
Speaker 2: all use, excuse, I've got training. I can't make it
Speaker 2: the class. But I manipulated my way through year twelve.
Speaker 2: Put it that way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, ok, yeah, yeah that was me in my last
Speaker 1: year of college. We go through is there's some stories
Speaker 1: about you getting drafted, right, and there's there's rumors that
Speaker 1: they drafted your brothers. Your brother's are good players too,
Speaker 1: but someone told me they mainly draft of your brothers
Speaker 1: to try to get to you. I don't know if
Speaker 1: I four had them simplive that. It's a bit of
Speaker 1: a pop up.
Speaker 2: It is a big bow, don't get me wrong, but hey,
Speaker 2: who knows, maybe pop Cavia Jason the way through.
Speaker 1: But now both you are right. Is there any stories
Speaker 1: from you getting recruited? We talk about Eddie and Derek
Speaker 1: Hines at the club. There was apparently a horse involved
Speaker 1: at some point. You give us a little insight.
Speaker 2: Sounds like a really weird king porn a horse like
Speaker 2: your house, Like, what's going on? Yeah, we're sitting around
Speaker 2: kitchen table a little bit like this's be a bit bigger,
Speaker 2: not the fan, but sliding door, a little pony nugget.
Speaker 2: He just like nudges the door open his nose if
Speaker 2: he goes wander is inside just click clip clip reach
Speaker 2: it out in these in the living room. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: think it was Eddy, Army might have been there, Dairy
Speaker 2: Kine and maybe Mick. I don't know Mick was there
Speaker 2: or not, but yeah, like the powers to be of
Speaker 2: the footy club back then, sitting there Mum and Dad,
Speaker 2: I think my brothers might have been around and like sisters.
Speaker 2: And all of a sudden this horse like walks through
Speaker 2: like fifteen meters through the kitchen into the living room,
Speaker 2: reaches up to the table, grabs at apple and then
Speaker 2: just wander us back outside again.
Speaker 1: Surely people looking around like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was looking around like is this a dog?
Speaker 2: Is it a horse? Like? What is it? Because he's
Speaker 2: only like labrador high. He's still kicking around at mom
Speaker 2: and Dad's house. Actually he's still you're still telling that
Speaker 2: story to all the different horses. Don't get me wrong,
Speaker 2: it's grown some legs as story like everything else in life,
Speaker 2: a bit like the smoking shadows. But it's it's an
Speaker 2: urban myth. Now, it's a great one, and you know what,
Speaker 2: it'll never be like topped. I guess is the best
Speaker 2: way to put it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll say that she said the smoking shadows. And
Speaker 1: I talked to lock folks and he said one of
Speaker 1: the greatest quotes he heard from you was you can't
Speaker 1: lead a horse to water. You could lead a horse
Speaker 1: to water, you can make a drink.
Speaker 2: What's the point of getting these analogies right? Like, that's
Speaker 2: the old skill, mate, You've got to come up with
Speaker 2: your own ones. It's modern times. Mate.
Speaker 1: Like if I someone that's going to tell you if
Speaker 1: I could lead a horse or order, and it's going
Speaker 1: to be your I.
Speaker 2: Can tell you can lead them to water and you
Speaker 2: can make him drink. I've done both of them. Sometimes
Speaker 2: that rich you is. But you can just like, come on, mate,
Speaker 2: we little splash in the face and up you go.
Speaker 2: Oh that's so good.
Speaker 1: Now, well we all get into the farm and the
Speaker 1: life that you're living now. But I want to ask you,
Speaker 1: playing alongside your brother is a colon, how was that
Speaker 1: year you're talking about being one of the best kind
Speaker 1: of experiences in AFL.
Speaker 2: I was twenty when they delisted both brothers. So when
Speaker 2: we won my best at first when I was twenty,
Speaker 2: I think I'm like the fourth or fifth youngest player.
Speaker 2: I thinks actually might knock me back a couple of
Speaker 2: pegs this year, you might win his first one. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I learned that year. It was like, it's a business.
Speaker 2: It's not just a hobby anymore playing footy. So I
Speaker 2: got told like, hey, by the way, your brothers are delisted,
Speaker 2: can you tell them? You had to tell your brother Well,
Speaker 2: it was a message they ended up telling them. But
Speaker 2: I found out and I was just like, this is
Speaker 2: something I'm not saying.
Speaker 1: You knew before they knew.
Speaker 2: I did because my meeting was like a couple before
Speaker 2: them on the exit day. So and then that afternoon
Speaker 2: I found out to win the best in ferraor so
Speaker 2: at the age of twenty, I was like, oh, it's
Speaker 2: the business, not only just a hobby anymore. But at
Speaker 2: the same time, I had what three years with both
Speaker 2: of them to be blank and obvious. Mate. I took
Speaker 2: Cam spot like by coming to the club. So that's
Speaker 2: what it was, to be honest with a better foward
Speaker 2: than him. So that's why he was a RK on forward.
Speaker 2: But we took that. But yeah, it was good fun.
Speaker 2: Like Cam used to drive me to training for the
Speaker 2: first twelve months, or because I only had my license
Speaker 2: for a while, so that was good. But Cam Jason
Speaker 2: I were thick as these were still we're obviously brothers,
Speaker 2: but we're best mates. It was fun because you always
Speaker 2: had someone to d have you back, I guess at
Speaker 2: the footy club. Footy clubs are amazing places, different things
Speaker 2: happening and stuff. To have your two brothers by his side.
Speaker 2: We were at lockers thirty two, thirty three to thirty four,
Speaker 2: so oh really we could always steal each other shit.
Speaker 2: Dad always did our washing, so if you brought the
Speaker 2: wrong shit, just handed over to your brother and go,
Speaker 2: this is your your training top or shorts or whatever.
Speaker 1: So that made it easy, though it was rumory. Pipes
Speaker 1: came in and gave us spray to I think Cameron.
Speaker 1: I think I got in trouble for missing something and
Speaker 1: your dad came in gave us spray to some of
Speaker 1: the Collingwood staff.
Speaker 2: No, no, Cam or Dad. I got in trouble for
Speaker 2: taking someone's parking sport one day, but that was a different.
Speaker 1: Storyties, wouldn't it CEO's parking spot just decided to right mate,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I need ten minutes to part the truck somewhere.
Speaker 2: I'm taking your spot. I leave your keys with your receptionist.
Speaker 2: I got to check to Foxy Foxy on the City.
Speaker 2: I've got to pick some shoes up, mate, I'll be
Speaker 2: back in an hour. I also their started.
Speaker 1: I've done that many at times, late at night after
Speaker 1: games or something like that.
Speaker 3: But the CEO is like out the back. No, no,
Speaker 3: like two o'clock afternoon, like real power move. This is
Speaker 3: Travis's car. I just you couldn't miss. It's a big
Speaker 3: black truck as well, so they couldn't. I just say, oh,
Speaker 3: this is Coxy's car. Parts here, I've got the same car. No,
Speaker 3: that was a bit different.
Speaker 2: But there's a few stories, mate, Like, let's be honest,
Speaker 2: I was a walking billboard for what twelve years? Oh
Speaker 2: my gosh, I made the footy. I made footy fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah you did more than that. Yeah, you made entertaining
Speaker 1: for a lot of people. And we'll go through a
Speaker 1: lot of it. But I want to ask you this,
Speaker 1: what was your welcome to AFL moment? I know you
Speaker 1: played your first game Anzac Day whatnot, But.
Speaker 2: Oh you just big crowds. I guess you pull the
Speaker 2: cling with John Bryan, Like, I think I played on
Speaker 2: an average of sixty thousand people and week to week,
Speaker 2: so that's pretty cool. But as a kid like growing
Speaker 2: up in footage like dad played, my brother's played, My
Speaker 2: uncle's actually an AFL umpire, my mum's father, so my
Speaker 2: pa was on the board at Richmond, so footage for
Speaker 2: the family. So for me to pull on an AFL
Speaker 2: jumper to be a part of it as well was
Speaker 2: nice tradition. And then now like I'm a thirty six
Speaker 2: year old washed up has been football now with a
Speaker 2: two year old son and a five year old daughter,
Speaker 2: Like now, my journey is to pass the knowledge onto
Speaker 2: them and also working pathways, Like part of my role
Speaker 2: now is to build a better program for women's football.
Speaker 2: So when my daughter gets to the other age, if
Speaker 2: she wants to play football, there's a there's a great
Speaker 2: industry for her to be a part of it. So
Speaker 2: I'm going full circle and I'm enjoying it more now
Speaker 2: than I over did as a player. What's the biggest
Speaker 2: thing you learned from your family? Ah, They're always got
Speaker 2: your back, that's for sure. Blood's thick them and water.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, you have your and down.
Speaker 2: Do you have your times where family shitcher times you
Speaker 2: don't want to talk to them, but when the times
Speaker 2: are bad or of grief, you always fall back to them,
Speaker 2: no matter how good or bad it is. And I
Speaker 2: guess that's what it was like when I was had
Speaker 2: my fallout of football, Like when I actually moved on
Speaker 2: from the Pies in sixteen, that were the first people
Speaker 2: I called and said, I need change, I need to
Speaker 2: move or I'm just quitting today. So it was nice
Speaker 2: to have on there in my corner when I need it.
Speaker 2: And it was the same twelve months down when I
Speaker 2: actually finally I've made that decision, like I'm done with footy.
Speaker 2: It's not getting better for me, I'm not enjoying it.
Speaker 2: I'm out the door, and they were there, you know what,
Speaker 2: fine there to support you. So it worked in good.
Speaker 2: I'm glad I did what I did. My relationships got
Speaker 2: better with my coaches, my players, the staff at both
Speaker 2: clubs because they respected my decision. Because of it, I
Speaker 2: was open and transparent with with micking Bucks into sixteen
Speaker 2: the whole way through the year. They knew where I
Speaker 2: stood and where I was at, so it was enjoyable
Speaker 2: process for the last eight months of my footy career.
Speaker 1: We'll go through it a little bit more in death,
Speaker 1: but I want to ask some stuff that happened before then,
Speaker 1: Like I feel like you were one of those players
Speaker 1: loved loved a big game, Anzac days your Carlton's.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love big games. Crowd hated me, so it
Speaker 2: was always more fun.
Speaker 1: What's the best game you've enjoyed as far as atmosphere.
Speaker 2: Day's the best? No better day on the calendar is
Speaker 2: Anzac Day. Like you, you're there because it's fun, passion,
Speaker 2: the support of what we stand for. An Anzac Day,
Speaker 2: it's the best. And I guess the leader Mick. Mick
Speaker 2: was a motivator. He taught your history about what it
Speaker 2: was about. Bucks was a was an educator, so the
Speaker 2: vice versa and different personalities and loved them for different reasons.
Speaker 2: But A day's the best game of footage. Now it's
Speaker 2: pretty much the only game of footy I watch live.
Speaker 1: Now you go to the game every year.
Speaker 2: I don't go. When I say watch live, I watch
Speaker 2: it on TV. Yeah, the home. But it's it's a
Speaker 2: game that I enjoy like even not to even like now, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I work at the enemy of vested in here like
Speaker 2: as such as a player, but it's the beauty of what
Speaker 2: it stands for. When we were playing in it, and
Speaker 2: it didn't matter how good we were or they were,
Speaker 2: it was always a close game. Queen's birthday was similar.
Speaker 2: Now the back end of my career had more meeting
Speaker 2: Queen's birthday because of the MMD with with the Dan
Speaker 2: and her family, So it meant something that way because
Speaker 2: what he had given the football. And then you go
Speaker 2: the other ones. It's like you always love playing against Richmond.
Speaker 2: It's the history of the historians that really sell the
Speaker 2: story of what AFL's about. And they're the games that
Speaker 2: you love. And then finals, well nothing better than finals,
Speaker 2: your long Hawthorne. These type of games we had, especially
Speaker 2: in like seven oh nine, ten, they were good, one
Speaker 2: hundred thousand people cheering and screaming. They're the only moments
Speaker 2: I remember of my wholefully career. Yeah, those games. It's
Speaker 2: funny how like I look back and I think you're
Speaker 2: like comparatively with your like your career, my career and
Speaker 2: everything else, and it's like those big games, there's so
Speaker 2: much in between that just kind of filters into the
Speaker 2: same memories. Fluffed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then you have those big games. There's big
Speaker 1: moments that you enjoy and yourself and you're like, that's
Speaker 1: the one.
Speaker 2: I remember. We had one more big game we haven't
Speaker 2: talked about, like Round one twenty seventeen against the Pie.
Speaker 2: So I've got the blue jumper on I'm lining up
Speaker 2: against I will get into it. My best mate, Benny Reed,
Speaker 2: We've had dinner like a few times, reading nine error
Speaker 2: and come around and every so often he's sitting there
Speaker 2: on the couch. I just air drop him that YouTube
Speaker 2: cliff of me king and a goal on him and
Speaker 2: sits here. Yeah. I'm like sitting there watching him air
Speaker 2: drop and he seas and you see his face drop.
Speaker 2: He's like, you're an asshole. Like mate, if we weren't mate,
Speaker 2: that's not funny. Because we're mates, it's funnier. It's yeah,
Speaker 2: that's up there in my footy moments of like pleasure,
Speaker 2: but at the same time, it was more why it's pleasurable.
Speaker 2: It's like you got joffer and the goal square for
Speaker 2: thirteen years. He cheers me on and supports me. Then
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, I sink this long bomb and
Speaker 2: he just sits down and has a silk about it,
Speaker 2: so to me, it's like a bittersweet. It's like, mate,
Speaker 2: I looked after you for many years and now you're
Speaker 2: trying to give me ship. Will you sit back down
Speaker 2: and enjoy that seatment.
Speaker 1: I want to bring something out because there's a lot
Speaker 1: of things that happened in your career, and there's someone
Speaker 1: wrote up when like I came a bit later into
Speaker 1: your career where I came here. But like, there's been
Speaker 1: a lot of things that have happened I guess away
Speaker 1: from the field to you personally, and like like your
Speaker 1: residence was shot out in two thousand and nine, Like
Speaker 1: what the what happened? Did you ever find out what happened?
Speaker 1: Like what the reason? We're not in America? Guns uneasily
Speaker 1: exactly when? So maybe he's got a little American tom Nah.
Speaker 2: There's three bullets, bullet holes or punctures through the house,
Speaker 2: all through windows and stuff. Get your truck or you're
Speaker 2: about drive. It was like three hundred meters long, so
Speaker 2: you don't know if someone shot it from the street
Speaker 2: or in our drive or whatever. They found a couple
Speaker 2: of slugs in the wall in one of the rooms.
Speaker 1: Were you awake, It was the middle of night, mid
Speaker 1: the night, but.
Speaker 2: We didn't realize like the next day when you're like, oh,
Speaker 2: why is that window got a break in? And then
Speaker 2: you're like you you didn't wake up nothing. We just
Speaker 2: have people comeing like egger house and stuff. And there's
Speaker 2: a few other stories about like following people down the
Speaker 2: street when they try to smash windows in our house
Speaker 2: and just said hello to them. But yeah, what I
Speaker 2: made a house just get vantasized all the time just
Speaker 2: because you played for Congle, yeah, and just people knew
Speaker 2: where you lift. Yeah, it was a fairly home. We've
Speaker 2: been there for fifteen years.
Speaker 1: And the story on you're getting your Cora broke and
Speaker 1: then turns windows smashed and spray plane everywhere.
Speaker 2: That was when I lived in Richmond. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: that happened so many years, mate, good old hay.
Speaker 1: Just hold on the loot here and casually like, yeah,
Speaker 1: these things happen, you know, it's part of footy.
Speaker 2: It's like what no, some of these cars I didn't own,
Speaker 2: so I had to bring up hold and and to
Speaker 2: be like so, mate, I'm really sorry, Like ads, your
Speaker 2: car's been broken into again. He's like made two weeks ago.
Speaker 2: I was like, well, it's not my fault. Here's the
Speaker 2: vision of it. Oh my god. So yeah, I still
Speaker 2: have like security cameras at home and I did always
Speaker 2: growing up, So you've got vision of all these little
Speaker 2: clerky things that happened all the time and people don't
Speaker 2: believe it. And I was like, I didn't need you
Speaker 2: to believe it. I've got the footage of it.
Speaker 1: So what's the worst thing someone's done six years?
Speaker 2: Six six times in one year. I had my car
Speaker 2: broken into it six times in a year. Yeah. So
Speaker 2: I lived outside your house. That's where I lived in Cremona,
Speaker 2: and that's why I moved out of Chrimon. And that's
Speaker 2: why you live in Kangaroo.
Speaker 1: Somewhere else. We will not devote where that is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, like, yeah, I had some weird things and
Speaker 2: people are like how and why does his head? I
Speaker 2: was like, well, I don't know. Like I didn't have
Speaker 2: a sticker on my car and said Travis close car.
Speaker 2: But club people loved it or they hated this, And
Speaker 2: that was like my whole motto of life, of like
Speaker 2: I lived to be the best version of myself and
Speaker 2: I enjoyed myself while I did it and just you know,
Speaker 2: sometimes shit happened.
Speaker 1: There's other crazyest thing. Someone's broken your car five times
Speaker 1: in a Yeah, that's pretty good. Yeah that's insane to me.
Speaker 1: And you just casually like this thing's happened. I guess
Speaker 1: if you were paying for it, it might be a bit different.
Speaker 2: I did have to technically pay for it. I had
Speaker 2: to drive down the Eastern Freeway with a broken window
Speaker 2: the winter. The trash bag I got this downpack used
Speaker 2: to be able to put your wind sheeter like along
Speaker 2: the door and then just tied around like headstall. So
Speaker 2: I had it sorted. And you how to do it.
Speaker 1: One of the many lessons you didn't think you'd have
Speaker 1: to learn from football, Like.
Speaker 2: I've got some life lessons. I'm a very good life motivator,
Speaker 2: that's for sure. Now teaching you how to get through shitting.
Speaker 1: Gosh, I don't know how you deal with it or
Speaker 1: going to the premiership?
Speaker 2: Here?
Speaker 1: Can you can you tack us through from starting to finish?
Speaker 1: Kind of how the feeling was around the club going
Speaker 1: into finals, winning a Grand final.
Speaker 2: That just missed out like into nine I think it
Speaker 2: was Geelong or Hawthorn one or two like beat us
Speaker 2: and they went through I think it was nine, I
Speaker 2: think Geelong one. So we had like good form, good
Speaker 2: mentality going through twenty ten. Like we had a mindsets
Speaker 2: like no matter how good or bad we played, you
Speaker 2: give me ten minutes and we'll beat you. That's literally
Speaker 2: what the boys believed, like all you needed was ten minutes,
Speaker 2: and we did it. And sometimes it was for the
Speaker 2: better officusly someone on the worst, so somebody would played
Speaker 2: bad foot and then all a sudden we just turned
Speaker 2: it on and off we went. So that was nice,
Speaker 2: but it was a journey, like we probably knew we
Speaker 2: always had that grainny in us after the draw purely
Speaker 2: because we addressed it. We went to the function after
Speaker 2: the drawing Grand Final, we trained as normal and we
Speaker 2: recovered really well enough. We went well I think halftime
Speaker 2: we knew we had in the bag as well. So
Speaker 2: the bit of enjoyment factor such a great feeling it was,
Speaker 2: And looking back at it now, like I was, what
Speaker 2: twenty three or something like that, so I didn't really
Speaker 2: enjoy even the celebrations and what it meant. You probably
Speaker 2: just thought I would happen again. Yeah, And that's probably
Speaker 2: the one the regret I have, he thinking it would
Speaker 2: and like. To be honest, we got there pretty close
Speaker 2: in eleven, but there's no guarantees in foot in I
Speaker 2: probably should have enjoyed myself a bit more even after
Speaker 2: the game with the guys and it's not celebrated. We
Speaker 2: just soaked it all in a little bit more. But
Speaker 2: now it's it's the one thing I really love about
Speaker 2: foot is every year now we catch up. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: that's the beauty. You don't see each other for a
Speaker 2: whole year and you come together. We catch up in
Speaker 2: December and it's the best time. Guys come share stories.
Speaker 2: Kids got other kids now telling us about it and
Speaker 2: what they're doing in business. So it's a real connection
Speaker 2: piece and forever we'll have that, that data share. That's
Speaker 2: so good.
Speaker 1: What was the I love to get into people's heads whenever,
Speaker 1: like momentous things happen right in their career. Siren goes drawing,
Speaker 1: grand fine, you probably don't even know what the hell
Speaker 1: will do next? What's going on? I thought's what's going
Speaker 1: through your mind in the drawer? Yeah, Like whenever it happened,
Speaker 1: like the siren goes and it's tired.
Speaker 2: I reckon MAXI was kind of running around going like
Speaker 2: it's five minutes and I'm like, I don't know what's
Speaker 2: going on, but I think it was. There was definitely
Speaker 2: like a minute or of like everyone's like what do
Speaker 2: we do? But then it was like not regroup, off,
Speaker 2: we get and that was what it was. So it
Speaker 2: was good. I think I think it came from Maxie
Speaker 2: in the end or someone from the bench and say
Speaker 2: like no, that that's it, Like just get the hell
Speaker 2: out of here. You have a postmass function.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we did.
Speaker 2: We went to like after they had a big function
Speaker 2: on with like five six hundred people there, so we
Speaker 2: still went to it as we like guys might have
Speaker 2: had to add a wine or whatever, like, still went
Speaker 2: to it since La chose not to. They actually had
Speaker 2: the function still but none of the players went. So
Speaker 2: I think for us it was like we actually like
Speaker 2: mourned it the draw and then we could regroup on
Speaker 2: the Monday Tuesday go again. I don't know, hindsight is
Speaker 2: like at work for us. Maybe it wouldn't have worked
Speaker 2: in the beauty, but foot is a weird game man
Speaker 2: who knows like it could have pissed down with rain
Speaker 2: and you get done. The ball might have bounced a
Speaker 2: certain different way and the drawer and Steven Mial kicks
Speaker 2: a goal. He doesn't smother the ball like all these
Speaker 2: type of things we can talk about forever in a day,
Speaker 2: but in the end of the draw and we come
Speaker 2: back seven days later. It cost me a fortune though,
Speaker 2: because I had to move me holiday mate.
Speaker 1: To rebook the flights. I was gonna hold you you're
Speaker 1: most upset about it.
Speaker 2: I was only going to all right, But yeah, I
Speaker 2: lost like four nights accommodation flights. It's it was worth it,
Speaker 2: That's all right, it's worth It's probably the best my
Speaker 2: best money I've spent my whole career.
Speaker 1: I've wasted money before. That's not a waste. That's not
Speaker 1: a waste. What do you Where is your Premiership medal?
Speaker 2: Out? Did the heme, No, it's at the footy club,
Speaker 2: that'd say, yeah, with my boots, my glove, my jumper
Speaker 2: and another medeonia like I donated the club for their
Speaker 2: ten year reunion. Yeah. Well we're in twenty twenty three now,
Speaker 2: so it's been there for three years. Yeah, I'm getting renovated.
Speaker 2: So I don't know where the in a box, I
Speaker 2: don't know, but someone's got someone's got it. They can
Speaker 2: look after it. I'll get it in due time. I
Speaker 2: don't need it yet. I'm living in a caravan, so
Speaker 2: to be honest, it'd be in a box at my property.
Speaker 2: So it's best that someone else looks after it.
Speaker 1: We talked about this before. Trevor is actually living in
Speaker 1: a caravan at the moment, he's renovating the house. He's going, ok.
Speaker 2: Shows him to do this.
Speaker 1: He chose to do it. He's gonna have a beautiful
Speaker 1: house once it's all done. But yeah, now how wild?
Speaker 1: It's okay? So I've got to because you brought it up.
Speaker 1: The glove. Everyone talks about this thing. Who dubbed you out?
Speaker 1: I think there's rumors a.
Speaker 2: GWS player might have I did take sixteen marks, and
Speaker 2: I think six contested the day you had the silk.
Speaker 2: But anyone can wear the glove still, really, so I
Speaker 2: wore it because my intuity in my hands, my thumb's like,
Speaker 2: don't look now, they're dirty. I've been working, man, but
Speaker 2: my thumbs used to slip out. My fingers still do.
Speaker 2: I'll have arthritis in due time with my hands. So
Speaker 2: that's the reason I wore it. Did it help me? Yes?
Speaker 2: It did? Anyone that knows me. I'm a sweaty pig,
Speaker 2: so to be honest, on hot days or wet days, no,
Speaker 2: it didn't help me because it used to like reversal.
Speaker 2: But I did have two different versions. There was a
Speaker 2: leather one and then obviously there was the one that
Speaker 2: did have the sticky fingers. But the one that actually
Speaker 2: put on that day on the footage show wasn't the glove.
Speaker 2: It was a model of the glove, but that was
Speaker 2: actually the NFL version, so very sticky one. But it
Speaker 2: definitely did work. But it didn't help my goalkie, and
Speaker 2: that's for sure. But yeah, I didn't feel might. I
Speaker 2: got a bit angry that day. I kind of pulled
Speaker 2: him apart. So this is a real there's a real L. J.
Speaker 2: Simpson type scenario here.
Speaker 1: It's the club doesn't fit because it is.
Speaker 2: To be honest, I took the idea of Adam Goods.
Speaker 2: Adam good wore it and it was exact same glove
Speaker 2: that Goods he wore for many years. And no one's anything,
Speaker 2: No one say anything. I just got in trouble originally
Speaker 2: before I got it, got banned or looked at the
Speaker 2: club used to find me five hundred dollars a week
Speaker 2: because it had a Nike tick on it, and obviously
Speaker 2: I was sponsored with Nikes for years and they still
Speaker 2: look after me. Still Nike, you know, still a big man.
Speaker 1: Coincidence they sponsored the club, so you can talking about
Speaker 1: I thought.
Speaker 2: I'd better take my essen. But yeah, so the club
Speaker 2: used to find because at the time, with Star Athletic
Speaker 2: and Start, tried to make a glove for me to wear,
Speaker 2: but it just wasn't up to what I wanted and
Speaker 2: it fell apart. So the club said, well, you can
Speaker 2: either remove the tick from the glove and put a
Speaker 2: Star Athletics on it, or you'd be fine five hundred bucks.
Speaker 2: So I said, oh, I'll take the fine. And I
Speaker 2: remember talking a Nike about and they said, don't worry
Speaker 2: about it. Pay for it next time your contracts up.
Speaker 2: Just whack another fifteen twenty grand each year in your contract.
Speaker 2: Well that's what I did, and I love me for
Speaker 2: it anyway, and they still do.
Speaker 1: So it's a little MJ kind of like, pay for
Speaker 1: the fine every single time you've brought too many colors
Speaker 1: on your shoes.
Speaker 2: About this stuff. So it's U, You're the MJ.
Speaker 1: The AFL it was.
Speaker 2: Like people say, oh, that's that's a laugh. Well I can.
Speaker 2: I can give you my deduction build from the food
Speaker 2: club sands Fine Glove. But for the description of that one, yeah,
Speaker 2: I think I might have claimed as a tax. Did
Speaker 2: actually like one stage for the t But I had
Speaker 2: a lot of weird moments in my career that.
Speaker 1: I'm amazed that the club's finding you in the AFL
Speaker 1: because remember I wore my goggles. I have to sharpe
Speaker 1: you out the sides of them because the AFL doesn't
Speaker 1: want any branding on them.
Speaker 2: Well, technically it's tools of the trade. You can't. It's
Speaker 2: a medical thing. Now you look handsome with glasses. I
Speaker 2: look terrible. I have glasses now, but I only use
Speaker 2: them for my laptop. Can't geting old. Yeah yeah, and
Speaker 2: I still don't wear them. But anyway, wearing glass in
Speaker 2: a game of footy though, cocko, it's very interesting.
Speaker 1: It's different. I think everyone knows I like to do
Speaker 1: things differently. It's pretty well now you're giving shit about
Speaker 1: me from my celebration last year, last week.
Speaker 2: So like like it's very composed.
Speaker 1: Like mate, you want the double covers, you know what
Speaker 1: you want. So if I keep go this weekend, I
Speaker 1: get the double covers to just go.
Speaker 2: Are you playing, Carlton?
Speaker 1: I tell yeah, easy, Oh mate, you're right. I can't
Speaker 1: say anything, drave I can't say anything. Free game. You
Speaker 1: know how these things work.
Speaker 2: You're getting dropped after after your career best game?
Speaker 1: Is that what it means? You never know? You never know.
Speaker 1: We'll go into twenty eleven. I want to ask you
Speaker 1: about this because Colonge was twenty two and three and
Speaker 1: one of your best years every playing career. How was
Speaker 1: the feeling then, like you have the confidence going, the
Speaker 1: team's going really well. You're kind of like the image
Speaker 1: of the Conga Football club. And I tell people this
Speaker 1: all the time because you played the main forward and
Speaker 1: the biggest club in the country in the most scrutinized position.
Speaker 1: I don't think people understand kind of everything that comes
Speaker 1: with that.
Speaker 2: What do you think I've retired at age of thirty man, Yeah, monly,
Speaker 2: it took a toll of me in the end, But no,
Speaker 2: it was like as a twenty three, twenty four year
Speaker 2: old boy, I wasn't a man that I was still
Speaker 2: a boy. I thought it was the best. Yeah, to
Speaker 2: be honest, I mentally didn't mature it. It was like
Speaker 2: twenty seven, twenty eight, and then I realized, like what
Speaker 2: am I doing this for? This is not who I
Speaker 2: am as a person. When I used to pull the
Speaker 2: jumper and across the line, I was my alter ego
Speaker 2: and that's to be honest, that's what beat me up
Speaker 2: by the age of thirty. That's why I retired at
Speaker 2: such a young age, because I didn't have the mental
Speaker 2: resilience to go again. So I didn't realize what it
Speaker 2: was doing to me by being that role model or
Speaker 2: being that picture of the biggest club in the nation.
Speaker 2: So looking back at it now like I should have
Speaker 2: done things to probably better resource myself with the mental
Speaker 2: tools or resilience and had better things to do away
Speaker 2: from the footy club as well. Like everything I did
Speaker 2: was around football. I lived and breathed it. I didn't
Speaker 2: realize un till maybe I was like twenty six twenty seven.
Speaker 2: I was like, these other things to do, Yeah, you
Speaker 2: have to And that was probably now Like now, in
Speaker 2: what I do in life in coaching, it's like, no, no,
Speaker 2: it's all about managing. I don't refer myself as coach.
Speaker 2: I'm a mentor. I want to help educate on and off,
Speaker 2: but I don't look back at it and regret anything,
Speaker 2: and that's the best thing. I love my footy career
Speaker 2: for what it was, my childhood for what it was,
Speaker 2: and now where I am now when I retired at thirty,
Speaker 2: this transaction, transaction and next phase has so far been
Speaker 2: the most enjoyable. I've got married, I've had two kids.
Speaker 2: I'm starting to build now a brand of who I
Speaker 2: am and doing authentically. I'm not being who other people
Speaker 2: thought I was. Like, I had some of the best
Speaker 2: cliches I ever said in my footy career, and this
Speaker 2: is the smoking shadow stuff because I was trying to
Speaker 2: be someone I wasn't. Now, you know what, I'll say
Speaker 2: stuff and I learn and I'll still make mistakes, but
Speaker 2: this is who I am now in my brand, I've
Speaker 2: been authentic, and I guess now the modern day of
Speaker 2: athletes were seeing more of it because they're realizing you
Speaker 2: can't form to what the normal is because the normal
Speaker 2: isn't normal anymore. We see that in society more and
Speaker 2: more and more. But at the same time, I will
Speaker 2: stuff up. I will make good decisions and bad decisions.
Speaker 2: My wife's the first person to tell me what would
Speaker 2: I do good and bad? But I love it for
Speaker 2: that as well, because she holds me accountable. Now, so
Speaker 2: life's pretty good. Now, wait to the kids, so doing it.
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 2: That's five and archies two and a half and they
Speaker 2: already tell me Dad no. I was like, oh man,
Speaker 2: I can't be losing arguments to what? But no, I
Speaker 2: roll over and admit defeat pretty easy with the kids.
Speaker 2: They've got to me wrapped around their finger.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it's it's beautiful, man.
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 1: I think one thing people will probably look at you
Speaker 1: and realize is kind of whenever our first came in,
Speaker 1: you were kind of person I'd never really experienced anything,
Speaker 1: and I was kind of similar to what you were,
Speaker 1: kind of that younger years of not growing into a
Speaker 1: man yat and like you'd gone through that kind of
Speaker 1: the whole process of what you're going through, and I
Speaker 1: was like, fuck, man, this guy is so in tune
Speaker 1: with what's happening and something like I can't even fathom
Speaker 1: having to go through. And then it's like, think of
Speaker 1: how many people since you went through that have been
Speaker 1: able to you know, you talk about like Tom BOYD
Speaker 1: and stuff, who went through his kind of thing and
Speaker 1: and every other kind of player that's come out and
Speaker 1: had their kind of mental health issues, like that was
Speaker 1: something that people didn't do before you. I feel like, yeah,
Speaker 1: and you had to take that really hard, like smash
Speaker 1: of media criticism and everything else, and people don't understand
Speaker 1: exactly how it, you know, took a toll on people before.
Speaker 1: Now that we get to this point now where people
Speaker 1: I guess I've got more understanding of it.
Speaker 2: So sixteen I leave the Pies. That year, I think
Speaker 2: you actually got your first game Nsact day. It was
Speaker 2: the first time my whole career had been dropped so
Speaker 2: till now you to have a game. It's a right.
Speaker 2: I love looking back. What are this Clay with? Faithful?
Speaker 2: Thank me? But for me it wasn't a reality, but
Speaker 2: it was more like perspective in my life to go
Speaker 2: like what do I want to do and where do
Speaker 2: I want to go? Like I already knew that year,
Speaker 2: like I was up with contract, had another year ago.
Speaker 2: I was like, what what does next year look like
Speaker 2: for me? What do I want to do? And this
Speaker 2: is as a twenty eight year old, I'm like, what
Speaker 2: I want to do in foot year? It was like,
Speaker 2: to be honest, they should have been the peaks my
Speaker 2: powers of my career, but I was un till he drained,
Speaker 2: and I didn't know any of this because we didn't
Speaker 2: talk about mental health and not depression, like resilience, about balance.
Speaker 2: These things weren't talked about. So for me at that
Speaker 2: age and being naive, I didn't know what it was.
Speaker 2: It wasn't until I actually left Collingwood that I started
Speaker 2: to do other things and do things differently, Like even
Speaker 2: conversation before like getting throught with Mick, sorry with Barks
Speaker 2: and Edie was like, what does my future look like?
Speaker 2: And even for them, they're like, what do you mean?
Speaker 2: I was like, well do I progress past his career
Speaker 2: of this, like at the age of thirty to my
Speaker 2: contract go further? What do I do? Like looking back
Speaker 2: at I should only retire two three years ago instead
Speaker 2: of seven years ago. But I don't change anything now,
Speaker 2: Like I'm thankful I did what I did. I went
Speaker 2: through what I did because now I realized it was normal.
Speaker 2: If I've kept continuing going through that and forcing myself
Speaker 2: to do it, I don't know where and what I
Speaker 2: would have ended up doing. Like I wasn't in a
Speaker 2: bad place, but at the same time, I didn't enjoy footy.
Speaker 2: I remember at the Dogs like I loved my time
Speaker 2: at the Western Bulldogs at a successful six months transition,
Speaker 2: really enjoyed it. Got to know some good players started
Speaker 2: playing good footy. On my two hundred and fiftieth game,
Speaker 2: which was on Good Friday, I broke my chest my
Speaker 2: intercostals external Soach's zach Zebel lined me up and broke
Speaker 2: it on me, so thanks technically thanks to him. I
Speaker 2: realized like, life's better than just playing footy. So I
Speaker 2: had six weeks off with that to rest up, and
Speaker 2: through that I started to transition and realized what does
Speaker 2: next year look like. I was still contracted, but I
Speaker 2: was like, Footy's not really for me anymore. The love,
Speaker 2: the drive that you need as a professional athlete wasn't there.
Speaker 2: So when I rushed back to play because I wanted
Speaker 2: to play footy, I couldn't do what I used to
Speaker 2: do because of the injury I had. And then that
Speaker 2: probably was a bit of a spiral for me. I
Speaker 2: realized like this is not really it. End of this
Speaker 2: season comes the Dogs say, mate, you still got twelve months,
Speaker 2: we want you to play. What do you want to do?
Speaker 2: And At this stage, I hadn't really thought too much
Speaker 2: about it, and then it got to like October. We
Speaker 2: were chatting like list Lodgment's got to be done. And
Speaker 2: I retired on October thirty one or October thirtieth, at
Speaker 2: like four point fifty eight and list lodgments at five o'clock.
Speaker 2: Three days later, my daughter's born. So to me, the
Speaker 2: realization of why I retired was because you know what
Speaker 2: I want to do the next transition of my life,
Speaker 2: and that is, you know what Skelets could. At the
Speaker 2: same Scolet was gonna be born. Becky and I just
Speaker 2: been married what ten months. Life was different, and I
Speaker 2: wanted to put my time and effort into that. And
Speaker 2: looking back at it now, it's the best thing I
Speaker 2: ever did. I love my footy time as a player,
Speaker 2: but now I love the next phase even more as
Speaker 2: a father, as a husband, now, as a mentor, as
Speaker 2: a coach, as a hobby farmer, like these other things.
Speaker 2: You can't miss them. So I'm really thankful for what
Speaker 2: foot he did, but I'm so thankful for this next
Speaker 2: phase and next whatever looks like for me.
Speaker 1: It really does seem like you're really at peace and
Speaker 1: happy and I'm so happy for you man. I've been
Speaker 1: to two games since I retired, mate pretty well what
Speaker 1: games were? They only went to one of them back
Speaker 1: what I mean just no. One of them was Grand
Speaker 1: Final day last year and I did leave it for
Speaker 1: the Grand Final started because I coached the kids beforehand
Speaker 1: and left.
Speaker 2: But the other one was there. It was a game
Speaker 2: only went because of the President's luncheon. I was sitt
Speaker 2: in mind glass that's a bit nicer, and I actually
Speaker 2: didn't watch a minudle of the footy. I sat the
Speaker 2: whole day there talking to Mick Mick Myldhouse and we
Speaker 2: just talked rubbish and caught up. So to be honest,
Speaker 2: I should get back more to catch up some old
Speaker 2: friends and older teammates. But food, you just don't have
Speaker 2: time for me to sit and watch a three hour
Speaker 2: game of footy now, especially when you're work in it.
Speaker 2: Last thing I want to do is now watching you
Speaker 2: guys run around and more work and support. It's not
Speaker 2: the enemy.
Speaker 1: Well, I want to go back because you kind of
Speaker 1: we briefly talked about this, and this is something that
Speaker 1: I kind of went into this interview wanted to chat
Speaker 1: about this because I've never actually talked to you about it,
Speaker 1: and it's that twenty sixteen stuff. When I played my
Speaker 1: first game you originally got dropped. I was shitless of you.
Speaker 1: I remember coming back to the club thinking like I
Speaker 1: want to get my head bashed in by this man,
Speaker 1: like and then I remember the day I came back,
Speaker 1: you were so like loving and kind and just like
Speaker 1: so congratulations and like you had no reason to like
Speaker 1: no reason to like say, you know, congratulations, you random
Speaker 1: fucking American who has no idea what he's doing. It
Speaker 1: was just it was kind of a moment of like
Speaker 1: just I don't know, like admiration from me, of like
Speaker 1: you putting aside kind of everything that was going on
Speaker 1: and being a genuine fucking human.
Speaker 2: So pretty different. It's a team sport and we're meant
Speaker 2: to be like so supportive and whatever, but at the
Speaker 2: same time, you're competing against one another and that's technically
Speaker 2: that Like we would have trained for months on end
Speaker 2: together against each other to be better, and I would
Speaker 2: have taught you different tricks that I know. So for
Speaker 2: me as an athlete to be disappointed for someone that
Speaker 2: I've worked with to get a game, in my eyes,
Speaker 2: is pretty poor on my behalf. So that's why I
Speaker 2: always like try to be the other way. I was like, no, no,
Speaker 2: compassion's great, like supportive for someone else's dreams being around it.
Speaker 2: Did I realize at the time that that was what
Speaker 2: I was doing, Probably not to be honest, I was
Speaker 2: probably bitter as all hell inside, but at the same time,
Speaker 2: I was like thankful to see like a friend perform
Speaker 2: and do well. Like I remember kicking the goal and
Speaker 2: I think two on the day and had fifteen like
Speaker 2: an outstanding debut pretty similar to mine. Don'ty about it
Speaker 2: is like if you're not like appreciative of your of
Speaker 2: your teammates getting opportunities. I got my first game of
Speaker 2: football when a close friend of mine, Anthony Rocker, went
Speaker 2: down the injury. So it's a bittersweet where a competitive
Speaker 2: sport at the same time it happens. It was probably
Speaker 2: just more of a shock because I'd never been dropped
Speaker 2: for in my career. That's like thirteen years and you're like,
Speaker 2: this doesn't happen, But the reality is is it's probably
Speaker 2: the best thing that happened for me. I remember I
Speaker 2: didn't go to the game. I remember we just moved
Speaker 2: from living in town to buying a property. To be honest,
Speaker 2: I reckon. I had seven bomb fires going on that day,
Speaker 2: so I was having a really good day. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I refreshed, I got all that anger out. That's why
Speaker 2: I said I could come on the Monday and give
Speaker 2: you ahargain say congratulations. So it's I don't know, it's
Speaker 2: probably something that never has been spoken about, and to
Speaker 2: be honest, it probably hasn't really been something I needed
Speaker 2: to talk about because I know what foot is about,
Speaker 2: and this is the thing You've got to be accepting
Speaker 2: of what other people do. And now I sit back
Speaker 2: is a hide player of the club and I look
Speaker 2: now going you know what that was the hating of
Speaker 2: the bat and of the transition of your career, and
Speaker 2: you look back now it's like when they were sitting
Speaker 2: in a bus talking about the Mason Colch Show, like
Speaker 2: how things.
Speaker 1: Have changed got you on as a special guy.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: No, it's very interesting because I think like there's there's
Speaker 1: moments of like you talking about like Pebs and then
Speaker 1: yourself and then like myself and then Brody and like
Speaker 1: I'm looking at now and like I'm kind of towards
Speaker 1: the back end of my career I'm kind of looking
Speaker 1: at who's going to be that person I guess to
Speaker 1: be that next story. It's like, you know, I guess
Speaker 1: Ford or Rock or whatever. It may be a big
Speaker 1: guy essentially of Collingwood. And it's it's interesting because I've like,
Speaker 1: whenever you put yourself back and you look at other
Speaker 1: people that have done it before you, and now you're
Speaker 1: in that position, You're going, fuck, Now, I get why
Speaker 1: he felt that way or why he was acting that way,
Speaker 1: or why he was so nice, and I feel like
Speaker 1: I need to do that, you know, and make sure
Speaker 1: I give the same kind of credit to the next person.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like you're a bit of a bit
Speaker 1: of a father figure at times with the career stuff.
Speaker 2: But now use me as a father figure.
Speaker 1: That's all right, because I remember after like you, I'll
Speaker 1: never forget you. And Jesse White would just go Monday
Speaker 1: after games come in and it would be your dad
Speaker 1: and he'd go, yep, go run like five hundreds and
Speaker 1: four hundreds, and you two would just go dead sprints,
Speaker 1: like dead sprints around the oval after a full game,
Speaker 1: just cook it. There's no chance anyone was keeping up
Speaker 1: to it. Was just like you were just both letting
Speaker 1: your anger out and just smashing four hundreds or it
Speaker 1: was like just insane. And yeah, there was just so
Speaker 1: many things. I feel like I learned over my years
Speaker 1: playing next to you, and like, I'm so appreciative to
Speaker 1: have a bit of a mentor like yourself as one because.
Speaker 2: I only worked hard because I had to work off
Speaker 2: the food that ate on the weekend. Right.
Speaker 1: Well, I've been told you, actually this is your pregame
Speaker 1: meal fish and chips.
Speaker 2: Is this thrue Hamburg of the lot Hake? Yes? And
Speaker 2: ice cream and ice cream?
Speaker 1: Yes, this is what. Oh my gosh, someone told me.
Speaker 1: I think Pndall told me this.
Speaker 2: He goes.
Speaker 1: But one thing you have to know is he can
Speaker 1: finish a tub of ice cream quicker than any other
Speaker 1: person you could possibly fab him.
Speaker 2: Still still is on my on my menu in the
Speaker 2: freezer tubs kind of one lead tub. I'm all over it,
Speaker 2: like all of them. But you only buy the when
Speaker 2: they're on sale because they're like four ten barks and seven.
Speaker 2: You're like six of them in the trolley. Off you guy,
Speaker 2: there's mid weeks ice cream. Yeah, I'm all over. You don't.
Speaker 2: And this is ice This is a fun fat ice cream.
Speaker 2: You don't buy low fat or any of these. You
Speaker 2: got to get the full cream, all the flavors, because
Speaker 2: you're in there for the enjoyment exactly. If you want
Speaker 2: all these like healthy stuff, have frozen yogurt or something else.
Speaker 2: I still now like smash my ice cream, and Becky
Speaker 2: like looks at me and like repulsed by how and why?
Speaker 2: But it's my guilty pleasure. Or you a whole tube
Speaker 2: in one setting, Yeah, because there's no point wasting. Like
Speaker 2: if there's a little bit like what are you gonna
Speaker 2: do with itprastic?
Speaker 1: The next time you open it, you're like.
Speaker 2: More if you do leave a little bit, you've got
Speaker 2: to leave like three tubs with that moch so you
Speaker 2: can like combine it. So you've got like a full
Speaker 2: tub that like three times. Do you have like a
Speaker 2: whole freezer just of ice cream? There's a tray, a
Speaker 2: tray with just like ice cream and desserts. I like
Speaker 2: my ice creams and desserts.
Speaker 1: Oh good, now can I can I bring this back?
Speaker 1: I want to take this back to Mick the Mauhouse
Speaker 1: now twenty twelve, Right, you have a really good year.
Speaker 1: Meck goes and gets moved on. Now you sign a
Speaker 1: five year extension with Colin Wood and your dad's your
Speaker 1: manager who actually signs.
Speaker 2: This was just pretty cow within itself.
Speaker 1: How was your relationship, I guess towards the end of
Speaker 1: Mick Malhouse's career and what were some of the I
Speaker 1: guess the life lessons you learn from because he's such
Speaker 1: a person in.
Speaker 2: The and this is the way he coached. He earned
Speaker 2: the respective you as a player but also as a person,
Speaker 2: but he wanted it back ten folds like you respected
Speaker 2: him as a person. So Mick played with my father
Speaker 2: for many years at Richmond, so I knew who he
Speaker 2: was and what he stood for. I knew his shortcuts
Speaker 2: two a player, like he used to jump on the
Speaker 2: tram when they used to do the ten and like
Speaker 2: cut half the tracks. Yeah, Mick, because the sneaky bases.
Speaker 2: I knew this type of stuff and I knew what
Speaker 2: he stood for. And we were really respectful of my
Speaker 2: work ethic and what I thought I deserved and vice versa.
Speaker 2: He really looked after me as a person. He gave
Speaker 2: me an opportunity. So I always have the most respect
Speaker 2: for Mick and his family do when we don't talk enow,
Speaker 2: But when we do. It's like we saw each other yesterday,
Speaker 2: and I guess that's the friendships that you build. So
Speaker 2: I was sad when he moved on, but I knew
Speaker 2: what the club was doing and how they were going
Speaker 2: about it. Like obviously Barks, I had him as a
Speaker 2: as a player, as my captain, I had him as
Speaker 2: my forwards coach, and then all of a sudden, I
Speaker 2: have him as a senior coach, and now I have
Speaker 2: him as a friend. We still talk, probably not as
Speaker 2: regulous we should also, but it's like we saw each
Speaker 2: other last week, a message here and there, social media
Speaker 2: text here and there. We still talk. And that's what
Speaker 2: footags about, like building lifelong for ends. There is.
Speaker 1: I feel like there's a bit of like a community
Speaker 1: within the footy world of people have had these experiences
Speaker 1: and similar ones. And I want to ask this because there's
Speaker 1: rumor that Mick Mahouse trate a JEVI to Carleton.
Speaker 2: Is that true? It didn't really. He obviously asked a question,
Speaker 2: but the WUS was going for you too. There's a
Speaker 2: couple I was in that stage where like I didn't
Speaker 2: I don't like traveling. I hate sitting on planes. There
Speaker 2: was an offer from one of the Western Suburbs teams
Speaker 2: to go and we use that as a bit of
Speaker 2: leverage the club I'm working, the club i'm working.
Speaker 1: At now too, Like I've been there with Brisbane.
Speaker 2: We utilize this club here to a good friend of
Speaker 2: mine and the family worked in recruiting, might have been Adrian.
Speaker 2: We have a joke about it still now we cross
Speaker 2: pass in the coda and it's like you owe me.
Speaker 2: I was like, I know, but yeah, that's that's the
Speaker 2: beauty of it. And even now I look at like
Speaker 2: players when they negotiate these contracts and we're also outlandish
Speaker 2: that Brodie Grandy signs a nine year deal. I was like, well,
Speaker 2: to be honest, the club committed to it too. So
Speaker 2: I get disappointed with the media of like we hold
Speaker 2: we hang players out to dry with this, but it's
Speaker 2: exactly what I did what ten years ago, and I
Speaker 2: was extracided because I was going for a five year contract.
Speaker 2: Now five years is like the two year contracts. It's
Speaker 2: a base minimum.
Speaker 1: So and if anyone had the opportunity, they'd sign that contract.
Speaker 1: And I hope you too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And like we weren't talking about twenty cents here
Speaker 2: like we're talking about some good money here that were
Speaker 2: lifelong decisions to set up. And I was willing to
Speaker 2: take a financial pay cut to state calling and like
Speaker 2: people go, what's a pay cut? Well, a pay cut's
Speaker 2: ten thousand dollars, or it might be a million dollars.
Speaker 2: It's still a pay cuts. It's different, like we're probably
Speaker 2: looking in the north of the of the other one.
Speaker 2: But it wasn't going to change my life at the time,
Speaker 2: and still wasn't going to change my life now, Like
Speaker 2: where what I did in footy helped me with the
Speaker 2: transition of learning and developing for three is away from
Speaker 2: proper having a job. So I'm I was thankful. I
Speaker 2: was never going to leave. Did I think I was
Speaker 2: going to even go to the Western Bulldogs? No, I didn't.
Speaker 2: I want to be a one club player, but if
Speaker 2: I didn't try something new, I would have always had
Speaker 2: that regret, and now I don't have any regrets by
Speaker 2: trying that. Twelve months of the.
Speaker 1: Dogs, Ian, I go back to my house getting the sack,
Speaker 1: move on to Bucks, who was a teammate of yours.
Speaker 1: How was it having a teammate that would turned into
Speaker 1: an assistant coach into a head coach I had.
Speaker 2: I had had teammates turned to assistants, but not to
Speaker 2: a senior, so it's definitely different. Was our relationship pushed
Speaker 2: through parts of it bloody oath that was like I
Speaker 2: remember sixteen, like having conversations with Bucks that I never
Speaker 2: had before and literally sitting there with coffee with him
Speaker 2: and till I was like, mate, I am at the
Speaker 2: end of the season. I'm leaving and he was like,
Speaker 2: but why and what are you doing? I was like, well,
Speaker 2: if I don't try, I'm going to retire today. So
Speaker 2: he knew what I was wanting to do and why
Speaker 2: I was doing it. It wasn't because I was bitter
Speaker 2: at the club or pissed off. It was because I
Speaker 2: was trying to find the love for footy again and
Speaker 2: that competitiveness. So if I didn't do it, I would
Speaker 2: have been annoyed with myself. And that's probably the outside
Speaker 2: noise people didn't realize this. My relationship with Mick and
Speaker 2: Barks wasn't tethered the whole way through. Our conversations changed
Speaker 2: because became not just personal became business and personal was
Speaker 2: always we always knew where we stood that way, but
Speaker 2: when you talk business sometimes and you're going to personal relationship,
Speaker 2: you can take your fans. We never did and still
Speaker 2: to this day now, like Bucks challenging me on certain
Speaker 2: things or opinions that I might have, but it's not
Speaker 2: because I disrespect him or disrespect me. It's because it
Speaker 2: is for the betterment of us. If I'm not getting
Speaker 2: challenged on a daily basis, like am I really growing
Speaker 2: a learning No, So I respect the opinion and to
Speaker 2: be honest, Like Bucks taught me so much as a player,
Speaker 2: as an assistant coach, but also as a head coach,
Speaker 2: but also as a friend. And I think we as
Speaker 2: footballers and athletes, we forget how much people can teach
Speaker 2: you as a friend. Where young boys going into this
Speaker 2: world of footy. I was at I was a seventeen
Speaker 2: year old, never had a job before. Footy is my
Speaker 2: first job. And I get to the age of thirty,
Speaker 2: I've never had a job. I'm like, well what do
Speaker 2: I do? And here I am now still working in footy,
Speaker 2: Like it's it's a dream, but it's not a reality.
Speaker 2: I still want to be a five man. That's the
Speaker 2: dreams you have as a kid. But I still want
Speaker 2: to do that. Like is that something I do down
Speaker 2: the line, like I still want to do that, bloody
Speaker 2: Oh is it? Is it in two years time or
Speaker 2: five years or ten years? I don't know, but it's
Speaker 2: definitely somewhere on my like, on my plan I want
Speaker 2: to do That's.
Speaker 1: So I can see you being a fiery actually take
Speaker 1: the hat off. Yeah, let's go, boys, sliding down that pole.
Speaker 2: Just CROs come on house. That's all I want to know.
Speaker 2: There is nothing fancy, It's just just necessities. Mate.
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, okay, Well we're going to the next kind
Speaker 1: of phase.
Speaker 2: You.
Speaker 1: Buck's a great man, Love him to death, like, and
Speaker 1: he's an incredible human. Speaks so well. I think people
Speaker 1: don't realize how well he speaks and how well he's
Speaker 1: articulated and what he talks about. You get to move
Speaker 1: to the Bulldogs. Luke bav I was a transition from
Speaker 1: Bucks to bav was it different?
Speaker 2: Coachevo as an assistant coach like in five or six
Speaker 2: or something at Collingwood. So, And to be honest, I
Speaker 2: only had him for like twelve eighty months and didn't
Speaker 2: really get to know him too much. It was he
Speaker 2: floated in and out. I met with him in sixteen
Speaker 2: probably middle of the year when I kind of in
Speaker 2: my mind, I was like, I'm going to move on.
Speaker 2: I met with a few different AFL clubs and senior
Speaker 2: coaches probably had four or five from the clubs. Bevo
Speaker 2: was the one that stood out to be most his relationships,
Speaker 2: his connection piece, his philosophy of what he wanted out
Speaker 2: of his team, and to be honest, when I was
Speaker 2: making this decision, I didn't want to go to another
Speaker 2: Collingwood so Richmond Carlton like these two A clubs, they're
Speaker 2: big clubs. I wanted someone small and go under the
Speaker 2: raidar and just enjoy the twilight of my career. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I met with Bebo. I shared stories and talked with
Speaker 2: him and you know what, we here and Shade and said, yep, done,
Speaker 2: let's do this end of the year.
Speaker 1: And this is like August before the finals. Yeah, it's crazy,
Speaker 1: how like you can still be in season. They're having
Speaker 1: conversations behind doors. Twenty sixteen Dogs win the Grand Final.
Speaker 1: So I remember each week at the final Bevos called him.
Speaker 1: He's like, well, catch up next week.
Speaker 2: Travel. I was like, yeah, yeah, And in my head,
Speaker 2: I'm like, the dogs just won the Granny. I was
Speaker 2: like shit, Like the one thing I didn't want to
Speaker 2: go to was the Big Mat club. He's Western bod.
Speaker 2: I was never want a flag. In fifty something years,
Speaker 2: they win the flag and I'm walking into the door.
Speaker 2: I was like in my head, I was like, this
Speaker 2: is not what I want. But the club was so good,
Speaker 2: Like I really loved it. The people, they're what it's
Speaker 2: dood for their values. I genuinely had the love for
Speaker 2: footy again. But I got in jad like that's just
Speaker 2: what footy does. God's getting the way in. But he
Speaker 2: was different. He rocked up like one day in his timberlands,
Speaker 2: his flannel, he was on a skateboard, Like could I
Speaker 2: imagine Bucks doing that? I couldn't, But I guess now,
Speaker 2: like I've learned so much from those two men of
Speaker 2: like who they are and what they stood for, and
Speaker 2: now that's who I am now. I was like, I
Speaker 2: want to be authentic, and those two guys are extremely authentic,
Speaker 2: Like Bevo grows the most amazing Like mos Now I'm
Speaker 2: just like this is a fantastic, Like it's so good
Speaker 2: to see. So I respect him for different ways. I'm
Speaker 2: thankful for the dogs and obviously forever for giving me
Speaker 2: that opportunity didn't work out, probably not, But at the
Speaker 2: same time, none of us really lost and we really
Speaker 2: gained anything. It's just an opportunity. You enjoyment out of it,
Speaker 2: and that's an important thing. I freed up some money
Speaker 2: for the pies, right, other stuff for.
Speaker 1: Them didn't go into my contract. Unfortunately. We'll talk about
Speaker 1: this game. So on the time of the game, you
Speaker 1: play the Congo Football Club, you kick one from outside
Speaker 1: fifty on radio, as you mentioned, feeling of that, like.
Speaker 2: Well, let's get back with so much history. We have
Speaker 2: never played Western Bulldogs in round one ever. I get traded, traded,
Speaker 2: leave whatever you want to say to the Dogs and
Speaker 2: final of them winning too, And that's like the biggest
Speaker 2: story I play pass well. I was like when this
Speaker 2: came out, I was like, if you try to tell
Speaker 2: me this is not a publicity stunt, so but in
Speaker 2: my head I was like, you know, it was probably
Speaker 2: the best thing to do. You get over and done with.
Speaker 2: You're not waiting to a round five, round six, round seven,
Speaker 2: like whatever. So it was good. I enjoyed it. It
Speaker 2: was definitely strange, Like the guys that were playing, I
Speaker 2: knew them more intimately, like I knew everything about everyone.
Speaker 2: I'm still learning my teammates, like and that's the weird thing.
Speaker 2: But it was really nice to play against READI like,
Speaker 2: to be honest, We've trained on each other for ten
Speaker 2: years plus, so I knew everything about him. He knew
Speaker 2: any thing about me, Like did we both have great games? No,
Speaker 2: we didn't. But there was obviously the one moment that
Speaker 2: keep the goal. So if it didn't happen, would there
Speaker 2: be regrets. Probably. It's just a nice little story now
Speaker 2: when you sit back and have a laugh. But as
Speaker 2: I said, it's a little reminder I give to REDI
Speaker 2: every so off and we catch up for dinner. I
Speaker 2: just air drop it. I don't send it to him,
Speaker 2: air drop it, so he has to accept it except phone.
Speaker 2: So it's strategic, don't get me wrong. But it's got
Speaker 2: like the Titanic music to it now on the YouTube,
Speaker 2: so it just.
Speaker 1: It's got time and the favorites ready to go whenever
Speaker 1: you need to fall it out.
Speaker 2: It's the first search that comes up comes up. But yeah,
Speaker 2: it's it was funny. It was interesting, don't get me wrong.
Speaker 2: There there was definitely some moments in the game from
Speaker 2: a couple of past players that said some things where
Speaker 2: I probably should have pulled them up at the time,
Speaker 2: but that's footy, like it's competitive things that exchanged in
Speaker 2: the moment. Has it changed some relationships over Bluddy either did? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 2: my opinions of like a two minute or a one
Speaker 2: minute thing that somebody might have said on the field,
Speaker 2: Like it's changed ten years in my perspective of them
Speaker 2: one hundred percent did. And friendships with certain individuals at
Speaker 2: the same cost of it. But it's not going to
Speaker 2: change you. I'm not going to when I see that person,
Speaker 2: it's not going to make me change who they are,
Speaker 2: Like I'll say hi and acknowledge them, and we're probably
Speaker 2: just not going to be close and go on holidays
Speaker 2: like we used to. That's all. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Or you look back your career, who's the people you're
Speaker 1: closest with and you've got like tubes in Goldie, Yeah,
Speaker 1: this was.
Speaker 2: Talked about like cam Wood, Alan, Tuby, Entice girls say
Speaker 2: we were close when we've played. I still talk to
Speaker 2: Goldie all the time. He's obviously living in Adelaide, So
Speaker 2: with can different ones too, like Jordi Degoie, like Heat
Speaker 2: we're eight years different in age, but when he came through,
Speaker 2: like I spent a lot of time with him, the
Speaker 2: utmost respecting him. He came and hang out with my
Speaker 2: family and my daughters and my wife and then Brodie
Speaker 2: Grundy the same thing. Like when he got drafted. Pronunce
Speaker 2: lived at my house for the first couple of months,
Speaker 2: so like he's just what he did, and he literally
Speaker 2: ate me out of house at home, like he's the
Speaker 2: biggest to eat it. Bro I used to come home
Speaker 2: some days from training. He's just like sitting on the couch.
Speaker 2: I'm like, what are you doing it? That's bros, And
Speaker 2: like its ice creams. Yeah, that's the relationship we have now.
Speaker 2: Like I love him for it. And even when he
Speaker 2: moved on to the dis I literally said it was
Speaker 2: like this is the best thing for you, mate, like
Speaker 2: the irrelevant footy, Like this is the best thing for you.
Speaker 2: And he's really loving it. I still talk at Pendles
Speaker 2: like not a lot, but when we talk it's got
Speaker 2: meaning behind it, like we spent so many years together.
Speaker 2: It's probably the players that have moved on now that
Speaker 2: we talk to like a bit more. You cross paths
Speaker 2: with and I've said, like that Premiership team of twenty ten.
Speaker 2: We catch up each year. That is the best day
Speaker 2: in the calendar, obviously, apart from my children's birthdays, my
Speaker 2: wife birthdays. Man, have that catch up, you.
Speaker 1: Really tug yourself out. I can see your head. God, wait, no,
Speaker 1: I need to say something else.
Speaker 2: But it's just like I love it because like last
Speaker 2: year only went for like two hours, but I was
Speaker 2: in if I was in the out saw them had
Speaker 2: to feed and I had to go and do a
Speaker 2: couple of things. So I look for I sometimes like
Speaker 2: that was the first one we've had in like four years.
Speaker 2: So who bring a nice, nice drop of venail. Well,
Speaker 2: normally you got to bring a bottle. You got to
Speaker 2: bring a bottle or something. And it's a share thing
Speaker 2: we do and that's just what it is. So yeah,
Speaker 2: a few boys flex their muscles with a few different bottles.
Speaker 2: Some carry on a bit longer than others. Maxi Cuddy's
Speaker 2: hand open like five minutes into the day, like trying
Speaker 2: to having a bottle and being a big, big dick.
Speaker 2: So it was kind of funny because we spent the
Speaker 2: whole day potting him in a WhatsApp group because he
Speaker 2: was in the hospital having sernery. So it's it's ongoing.
Speaker 2: But even like this WhatsApp, we have a WhatsApp group
Speaker 2: with it. The chat it goes all year. There's always
Speaker 2: random things put in there. We're taking the piss out
Speaker 2: of one another, We're carriaging one another. It's business opportunity
Speaker 2: or someone's new business. They share and we get around
Speaker 2: and support. So it's a really cool little community we've
Speaker 2: got now. I think we had like seventeen or eight
Speaker 2: End of the Boys rock up to that one last year.
Speaker 2: Staff members that were really influentially in that period as
Speaker 2: well show up as well. Mick Normy comes and has
Speaker 2: dinner all lunch, say with Eddie. Like people go there,
Speaker 2: relationship must be tethered. Eddie drove me home on this
Speaker 2: commitment like last year, so like is that a relationship tethered?
Speaker 2: I don't think so, But it's just perspective. It's all
Speaker 2: story for most people. Any tight asses.
Speaker 1: I've heard there's a fixed I've I've heard Mick once
Speaker 1: and tried to get a receipt for like fifty cents
Speaker 1: worth of eyes so you could claim it on taxes.
Speaker 2: I have heard this, I haven't seen it.
Speaker 1: I feel like you're an absolutely motivised. These are rumors
Speaker 1: I've heard over the years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like rumors of Greyhouse man like you got to
Speaker 2: make and they've got to get stories and get legs
Speaker 2: and go further. Oh, I believe it did happen. I
Speaker 2: don't know if it's fifty cents. Maybe's three and I
Speaker 2: was fifty. I don't know. But there's different stories with
Speaker 2: Nick and other individuals. The more you get paid, the
Speaker 2: more tight you begin. This is my philosophy. Some of
Speaker 2: the people I know they got paid big bucks their
Speaker 2: whole career. You go for lunch. I don't have my card.
Speaker 2: Get me, I can't pay for a cop I'm like, mate,
Speaker 2: it's a three dollars fifty and a ten dollar a sound.
Speaker 2: He's like fifteen bucks. I'm going to break your bank
Speaker 2: all right? Like why, But it's the same bloke Ready
Speaker 2: Reedy like always known. I don't have my wallet. I
Speaker 2: was like, mate, this is where you get your phone, now, mate,
Speaker 2: your cards on that. You've always got your phone. I
Speaker 2: know that, really I haven't. I haven't paid it yet.
Speaker 2: I'm like, come on, I'll buy you lunch. He came
Speaker 2: to my house like two months ago, hit a wine
Speaker 2: wedding in the winery country of the Old Valley. He
Speaker 2: came to mind and he's like, I'll pop in. I
Speaker 2: have lunch here, cool cut the bottles of red cheese played.
Speaker 2: I'm just going to go. It's like, ready, you got
Speaker 2: to fix up lunch. He's like, no, you got. I
Speaker 2: was like, nothing's changed, has it? But yeah, football is
Speaker 2: the tight asses, Like they want free shit like any restaurant,
Speaker 2: car deals, clothing deals, like we all want it. And
Speaker 2: then all of a sudden, to be honest, it doesn't stop.
Speaker 2: They still do your free shit. But yeah, I've seen
Speaker 2: some of the best, mate, and then it will continue.
Speaker 2: So I was the transition out of football.
Speaker 1: You're now doing the VFLW with us and you're doing
Speaker 1: some coaching with the men's side and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: And how are you enjoying it now? Like I know
Speaker 1: you're kind of at peace with everything that's happened over
Speaker 1: the years and you're in this really exciting I think,
Speaker 1: like happy time of your life years.
Speaker 2: Post retiring, Like I'm thirty six, so it's gone quick.
Speaker 2: For the first couple of years, I to be honest,
Speaker 2: I didn't work. I literally had two years off because
Speaker 2: I wanted to my daughter was born, I want to
Speaker 2: spend time with herbie present. And then I did a
Speaker 2: couple of days here and there and I didn't know
Speaker 2: what I wanted to do, so I technically went on workplacement.
Speaker 2: I went to New Zealand with this National Australian Academy
Speaker 2: of the AFL and that was kind of the moment
Speaker 2: where I was like, shit, I really like development. I
Speaker 2: love footy, but it's a different side, like I really
Speaker 2: want to work with the younger generations, the next phase
Speaker 2: of what footy could be. And from that Collinwood did
Speaker 2: reach out and said can you come run out of
Speaker 2: National Academies the NGA's your father shn working some women.
Speaker 2: So I was like, yeah, you know what wicked. I
Speaker 2: didn't do it for the money, Like to be honest,
Speaker 2: I could have stayed home and probably made more money,
Speaker 2: but I did because I wanted to learn and find
Speaker 2: out what I want to do in this next phase.
Speaker 2: So I did it. COVID hit we looked at relocating
Speaker 2: to Queensland. My wife and I in this stage, obviously
Speaker 2: we're pregnant with a youngest archer but he gave birth
Speaker 2: and really struggled with that transition of COVID and becoming
Speaker 2: much a second time, so we relocated the Queen that
Speaker 2: we did two weeks quarantine in a hotel. On day
Speaker 2: eleven or day twelve, I got a call from the
Speaker 2: AFL saying, mate, come back to Melbourne. We've got a
Speaker 2: job for you in the NAB League running Eastern Ranges.
Speaker 2: And I literally said, I was like, you're going to
Speaker 2: give me a couple of weeks here because we're looking
Speaker 2: at the house tomorrow when we get out and all this,
Speaker 2: and they're like, no probs. We stayed in Queensland for
Speaker 2: three months. I did accept the job and I was
Speaker 2: like I'm coming back at Chrissy. I'm not coming back
Speaker 2: now because we've done the two week quarantine. I was like,
Speaker 2: we're not wasting this. But it has been a blessing.
Speaker 2: I thoroughly enjoyed the last two years working for the
Speaker 2: AFL and the Eastern Rangers in the NAB League, working
Speaker 2: with boys and girls from sixteen through to eighteen. From
Speaker 2: that I got to learn different processes, do things my way,
Speaker 2: program plan, put training plan things I didn't know how
Speaker 2: to do. Yeah, so I went on like six year
Speaker 2: work placement. Last November I took a role here at
Speaker 2: the Essen Footy Club. Like was I nervous, bloody like this,
Speaker 2: this is the enemy for so many years, but it's
Speaker 2: been the best thing. Like good people I work with.
Speaker 2: I've joined a coaching staff that I technically knew. Brad
Speaker 2: Scott takes a role. He coached me back in my
Speaker 2: early days at the Pies left me with a motto
Speaker 2: and I've stuck with this through my now coaching careers.
Speaker 2: Never forget what it's like to be a player. Yep,
Speaker 2: to be a player. It's extremely hard to be a
Speaker 2: Coach's easy as a coach. You demand so much in
Speaker 2: your players, with recovery, execution, physical attention, with just time
Speaker 2: as well from your family. So now as a as
Speaker 2: what I'm doing the other side, I really had that
Speaker 2: in front of mine. Blake Carrosara, I played with him.
Speaker 2: He was also my coach now he's our defensive coach
Speaker 2: here Dale Tapping was my coach at Collaywood as well. Forward.
Speaker 2: He's doing well. He's either good mind. He's still nice
Speaker 2: and tanned all over, so I still believe he's got
Speaker 2: a slare him at home. He said no, I say yes,
Speaker 2: We'll wait and see. Do we see you next, and
Speaker 2: then Daniel, Jerry and c Accusa Like I had him
Speaker 2: at the Dogs as well for twelve months, and to
Speaker 2: be honest, I learned so much in him in that
Speaker 2: twelve months. So to come here with four coaches I've
Speaker 2: a technically worked with in my career has been outstanding.
Speaker 2: And then to have a footy ops or a GM
Speaker 2: a footy of Josh Marney. He's been outstanding for me,
Speaker 2: Like he was the person that really made me want
Speaker 2: to come across to take this role. And he's been
Speaker 2: the almost one number one supporter that I've made mistakes
Speaker 2: in this program running like working with women's of how
Speaker 2: do you educate and progress them through? But we're taking
Speaker 2: step backs, but he's always been there to make sure
Speaker 2: I stay true to who I am, to the way
Speaker 2: I do it and the way I teach. But it's
Speaker 2: been a beauty. I get to work with the men
Speaker 2: and do the things I know well body work aeral
Speaker 2: mar contested Mark I could do with my eyes closed.
Speaker 2: So I teach them that and then I get to
Speaker 2: see it behind a computer and program and plan and
Speaker 2: code for my women's program. And now we're getting the
Speaker 2: results that I thought we would have, but maybe in
Speaker 2: round one. We're getting him now. So it's been a
Speaker 2: bit of a learning for me at that next transition.
Speaker 2: But life's good. Footy is good and still always will be,
Speaker 2: but it's not going to be my number one priority forever.
Speaker 2: Family is that. And whenever I now look back at
Speaker 2: like what what does my footag journey look like? I
Speaker 2: missed the family connection in my when I was playing.
Speaker 2: So now as a coach or a mentor, I'm front
Speaker 2: of mine. I want to be there with my kids
Speaker 2: in the morning, make sure I'm there where I can
Speaker 2: for bed and bath time, knowing I work with programs
Speaker 2: after hours. At his heart but obviously supportive wife and
Speaker 2: I'm with Becky. Some days it gets a bit hard.
Speaker 2: Right at the moment, it's did getting extremely hard. We
Speaker 2: are living in a caravan, so two kids and a
Speaker 2: wife in a caravan is tough, but it's a short
Speaker 2: term pain for the greater good of a renovated.
Speaker 1: Property in the near future. So how many horses and
Speaker 1: to you either on the tractor with the kids sitting
Speaker 1: in front.
Speaker 2: Of I left today to come to work and Becky
Speaker 2: had two horses on the float. One was her, that
Speaker 2: one was coming another one to our property, so bye.
Speaker 2: She just bought another one a couple of months ago,
Speaker 2: but one did go out and she brought another one back.
Speaker 1: Gets to the point where you're kind of like, there's
Speaker 1: another horse on the property.
Speaker 2: Boom Teddy cameo to But I've got a cut of
Speaker 2: cows too, got a sheep, got some turtles, guinea pigs, chickens,
Speaker 2: darks my mini highlands, so they're cows many highlands there
Speaker 2: shaggy ones with horns, but they're only like waste waist
Speaker 2: high okay, And I think they're pregnant at the moment.
Speaker 2: So nine months time from now, I should have some
Speaker 2: baby calves. And that's what I'm excited about. The kids
Speaker 2: weren't enough. You needed some more babies. I'm done with kids.
Speaker 2: Two is enough. I'm really happy back you were like
Speaker 2: another But baby cows, man, when they're when they're born,
Speaker 2: that's when you're coming out mast of the farm. You
Speaker 2: see them, and I reckon, you'll be living in town
Speaker 2: with a little baby calf next year, little cow going
Speaker 2: the factory grouse. I love that shop, but it's big, like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I lived in Richmond Cramre like concrete jungle for five years,
Speaker 2: lived in Richmond for like so q for an I
Speaker 2: was six years.
Speaker 1: Have a hummer in Cremorn. I remember, like worst carr
Speaker 1: you could possibly have in the city. You're like, I'm
Speaker 1: driving a hummer around. I don't care.
Speaker 2: Reverse part that and put that between anything, and I
Speaker 2: still can. It's actually my my dad's play. Still. I
Speaker 2: might have gone a big car again now, but I
Speaker 2: don't live in town now, so I can take up
Speaker 2: as much room as I want these days. How good?
Speaker 2: And you still got the motorcycles. No bikes are all gone.
Speaker 2: I'm on the dirt bikes now, not rode bikes. I
Speaker 2: just didn't have time to ride them. They're sitting in
Speaker 2: the garage getting dirty. Becky was cracking the ships because
Speaker 2: I never used them, so I got rid of them.
Speaker 2: She got another horse. I got a dirt bike, and
Speaker 2: all the dirt bike sits here as well. So she's
Speaker 2: what life does. Mate. If become a father, you buy
Speaker 2: a land. I got two low bowlers now, mate, that's
Speaker 2: for the new John Dear got a tractor to matey
Speaker 2: about it. Don't don't start with me. I've got I've
Speaker 2: got all the gear and no idea.
Speaker 1: You're on a good starting.
Speaker 2: It's going like it's beautiful, mate, looks good, grass is
Speaker 2: nice and green and maintain. The animals are happy, the
Speaker 2: house is getting done, the kids are healthy, and I
Speaker 2: think in the fans, so it's lives are right, mate.
Speaker 1: It sounds like it's going well.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: We'll end it that there's I'm glad to hear that
Speaker 1: life is good. The girls are they're going well, and
Speaker 1: the kiddos are good, and the families all right, and
Speaker 1: you're in a happy place, man, because that's what's important.
Speaker 2: Oh, the best of the rest of you, mate, come
Speaker 2: down and support our girls. Probably, I know it's the
Speaker 2: self position. We're five in the trut, we've had five
Speaker 2: in VFL. Come watch our girls play. One day. Who knows,
Speaker 2: maybe one day you want to work in women's footy.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'll be assistant coach to the truck Cloak.
Speaker 2: No, I don't want you to everything.
Speaker 1: You know, I tort you.
Speaker 2: You can't teach me anything.
Speaker 1: It's no cross over here.
Speaker 2: Two.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you coming on an absolute legend that is
Speaker 1: truff Cloak and a great chart.
Speaker 2: Appreciate it, mate, Thanks buddy,