Speaker 1: Hey, legends, Welcome back to the Mason Cock Show.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Today we look back on the interview of Eddie McGuire,
Speaker 1: a man, a myth, a legend of the media sphere
Speaker 1: in Australia, has accomplished so much and we look and
Speaker 1: talk to him about his backstory and everything else and
Speaker 1: how he's become such a successful image in the media
Speaker 1: sphere in Australia. Sorry, it's an incredible interview. Really excited
Speaker 1: for you all to be able to hear it again
Speaker 1: and hopefully you may learn a thing or two about
Speaker 1: the great man. So without further ado, let's get into it.
Speaker 1: Good everyone, Welcome back to the Mason Cock Show.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Today We've got a special guest, a man that I'm
Speaker 1: very close with. He's one of the uh He's known
Speaker 1: as the man that is everywhere. He is one of
Speaker 1: the most iconic people I feel like of Melbourne and
Speaker 1: of the country. He's known. First time I ever met him,
Speaker 1: I think he was I thought he was a regius
Speaker 1: filming of Australia. I was kind of confused on who
Speaker 1: he was until I saw him on the back of
Speaker 1: a taxi. I thought, Oh, this guy's pretty big deal.
Speaker 1: I'd say but he's a game show host. He's a
Speaker 1: member of the Order of Australia, he's an honorary doctorate
Speaker 1: from r MIT, Sale of the Century winner, former CEO
Speaker 1: of Channel nine, a journalist and AFL commentator, and I
Speaker 1: could go on and on and on about all the
Speaker 1: different things he's done, but he is one of the
Speaker 1: most probably influential people in my life. I'd say coming
Speaker 1: to Australia and it's so great to have you on
Speaker 1: The Man the myth Legend Eddie MacGuire Show.
Speaker 2: Good to see that, Thanks so much for coming on.
Speaker 2: Interviewing football is not the other way around.
Speaker 1: I know this is I've been nervous here and usually
Speaker 1: you're the one on the other side of the mic,
Speaker 1: so I'm going to have to really take control of
Speaker 1: this conversation. But I find it amazing because you've got
Speaker 1: such an amazing story, and I think a lot of
Speaker 1: people gravitate you you to you because you've come from
Speaker 1: broad Meadows and you've been able to create a career
Speaker 1: of yourself and it's come through a lot of hard work,
Speaker 1: a lot of dedication. I think you're probably the hardest
Speaker 1: working person I've ever met in my life. You're constantly
Speaker 1: on the go, You're constantly doing something. So I know
Speaker 1: this whole interview, I want to say thank you for
Speaker 1: taking the time to come out and do this. It
Speaker 1: is amazing to have you on. And something I said,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people gravitate to you, and
Speaker 1: you've got some amazing stories that we're going to go
Speaker 1: through on this podcast.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, in a lot of ways, Mason, what
Speaker 2: you said there is what I'd like to be doing now,
Speaker 2: which I am doing even through our business at GMTV,
Speaker 2: and that is over the journey. Over my journey, so
Speaker 2: many people have given me a hand up. You always
Speaker 2: hear about the discrimination against people. I've always found that
Speaker 2: coming from broad Meadows, if you had a bit of go,
Speaker 2: people go, jeez, that's pretty good. You know this kid's
Speaker 2: got a bit of go about him. Well, they would
Speaker 2: never know where you're from. I just found over the journey,
Speaker 2: so many people gave me a leg up. Not one
Speaker 2: of them going buy me a car or And I
Speaker 2: think they just gave you a chance, or they let
Speaker 2: your door, not even they didn't have to be that.
Speaker 2: They might just say hello to you. You know. I
Speaker 2: remember the first time Bobby Rose introduced me to someone
Speaker 2: said he's one of us. He's a great Collingwood med
Speaker 2: It was one of the proudest moments of my life
Speaker 2: that Bob Rose anointed me a Collingwood person. I mean,
Speaker 2: the club meant so much to me as a kid
Speaker 2: coming through. But people like Lindsay Fox who was the
Speaker 2: killed a president back in those days, and I remember
Speaker 2: bringing him up one Sunday morning something had happened down
Speaker 2: at the Saint Kilda Social Club, which was a regular account. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I can tell you I was either most of them
Speaker 2: or a reporter on the rest of them. And then
Speaker 2: after that, Foxy has looked after me. We became close friends.
Speaker 2: I'm going on his eighty fifth birthday cruise. The family
Speaker 2: are close family friends of ours and Foxy has a
Speaker 2: great line he says, to have a friend, you have
Speaker 2: to be a friend. And I've always been conscious of
Speaker 2: that along the journey, that you have to give yourself
Speaker 2: to people as well. So as my time has come around,
Speaker 2: you know, I looked at what I was doing with Collingwood.
Speaker 2: I really saw that as my way of giving back
Speaker 2: to the community without getting into politics. So putting in
Speaker 2: the housing for the homeless and things like that. That
Speaker 2: was part of what we need to do. It couldn't
Speaker 2: just be about trying to win the premiership. Of course
Speaker 2: that's the thinking about it all the time, but it
Speaker 2: needed to be something bigger than that. And the saying
Speaker 2: that we sort of had a calling Wood was if
Speaker 2: you didn't stand for something, you stood for nothing. So
Speaker 2: that was sort of the ethos we wanted to bring
Speaker 2: back to the club that maybe had missed for a while,
Speaker 2: but was really what the club was based on.
Speaker 1: I've got to ask you this, as you brought the
Speaker 1: club already and I was going to bring this at
Speaker 1: the end of the podcast, we'll bring it forward. Is
Speaker 1: it true that you became a Colling fan because the
Speaker 1: Colling the theme song was on the back of a
Speaker 1: packet of chips? Is that story actually true? I've got
Speaker 1: a bit of dirt on you. We're good mates, I
Speaker 1: know if you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, sort of right the right, but close enough.
Speaker 2: It was a doughnut bag, not a But what happened
Speaker 2: was in nineteen seventy I was in great prep. I
Speaker 2: was five years of age and I idolized my brother
Speaker 2: and clearly my dad, who because we lived in broad Meadows,
Speaker 2: the closest team was Essendon basically although were in North
Speaker 2: Melbourne zone, but they were no good at the time.
Speaker 2: And if I was on the other side of the fence,
Speaker 2: I would have been in Carlton's zone.
Speaker 1: The family.
Speaker 2: So there I issen'd and so I idized like I
Speaker 2: carried my brother's bag. He was everything to me. So
Speaker 2: I don't even I still don't even realize how I turned.
Speaker 2: But what happened was I fell in love with Petty McKenna.
Speaker 2: Nineteen seventy the Price, you know, it should have won
Speaker 2: the premiership. We were right in there going well. McKenna
Speaker 2: kicked one hundred goals and every time you turned on
Speaker 2: the TV in nineteen seventy the football you saw Collingwood
Speaker 2: was basically in the replay every week. There was no
Speaker 2: live games in those days world of sport. I remember
Speaker 2: sitting there and finding out for the first time that
Speaker 2: Lou Richards played for Collingwood, that he was a premiership captain,
Speaker 2: and that was like Hollywood had come to broad Meadows.
Speaker 2: If you liked that, Lou was Wow, Lou Richards, you know,
Speaker 2: and all that sort of. Anyway, this particular day, Frank,
Speaker 2: my brother was in there, come back, you know, all
Speaker 2: the come back to as and all that. And I
Speaker 2: was walking back from lunchtime from school and there was
Speaker 2: a Jiffy donut bag that used to have the Jiffy
Speaker 2: donuts right the gym donuts, and it used to have
Speaker 2: the themes ones on the back. And I saw the
Speaker 2: paper about twenty meters from home as I came around
Speaker 2: the corner, and I said to myself, all right, this
Speaker 2: is a site now remember on five. This is sort
Speaker 2: of points to how mad I was even back then.
Speaker 2: And I said, if this has got the Collingwood theme,
Speaker 2: so on it, I'll take it as a sign. And
Speaker 2: that's it. And I opened and I'm sure enough the
Speaker 2: universe is talking about and the univers was talking to me.
Speaker 2: And that was my moment. And then Frank came home
Speaker 2: a couple of weeks later and he said it was
Speaker 2: he nearly fell over because Dad had bought me a
Speaker 2: Collingwood jump and a mom had so number six on it.
Speaker 2: That was it.
Speaker 1: That was that your assault from that day? Well, I
Speaker 1: want to ask you this to start off. I know
Speaker 1: you as a person. I find you amazing. Whenever I
Speaker 1: see you work a room, I know you do a
Speaker 1: lot of hosting. You've done some amazing things for brush
Speaker 1: fire relief, flood victims and everything else. And I see
Speaker 1: you work a room and it's it's something that's a
Speaker 1: talent that not many people have. Now I want to
Speaker 1: get some advice from you. Right, So let's say someone's
Speaker 1: listening and they want to get a bit of advice
Speaker 1: on maybe let's story this. How do you Is there
Speaker 1: any tricks you use to remember someone's name? Because I
Speaker 1: feel like you're really good at this, so you can really,
Speaker 1: like work a room, remember everyone that's there.
Speaker 2: The first trick is I don't think about it. To
Speaker 2: be honest, I don't go want to go. I have
Speaker 2: to work a round. People talk about networking and contacts
Speaker 2: and things like that. If you're trying to do that,
Speaker 2: I find it's pretty awkward. And that goes back to
Speaker 2: probably being a journalists from such a young age, when
Speaker 2: you're thirteen and fourteen, you had to actually introduce yourself,
Speaker 2: have a connection with people, and you always remember their
Speaker 2: stories and so there's always that part of it. I'm
Speaker 2: finding these days. I realized that up until about five
Speaker 2: years ago, I had really good eyesight, and so that
Speaker 2: would give me the chance so I'd see people from
Speaker 2: right across the room and look at them, picked them,
Speaker 2: see who this, and with work out the connection to them,
Speaker 2: and I'd be right. These days they are almost upon
Speaker 2: me put the goggles on. So it's not as good
Speaker 2: as it used to be. But it's about being interested
Speaker 2: in people and knowing everyone's journey or their connection, and
Speaker 2: you know, without pumping the tires up. I genuinely liked
Speaker 2: meeting people, not what they can do for me. I
Speaker 2: liked their stories. And I suppose going back to being
Speaker 2: a journalist, you're always looking for the story, as opposed
Speaker 2: to these days. You see a lot of stories on
Speaker 2: television in the newspapers, and they're really just feel everyone's
Speaker 2: got a story if you, if you kick the rock
Speaker 2: over a little bit and find out what's there. So
Speaker 2: from there I was able to do that, and I
Speaker 2: genuinely was an and continue to be an enthusiast. I
Speaker 2: look forward rather than backwards, and so from that point
Speaker 2: of view, every time you walk in the room, it's
Speaker 2: full of possibilities for a bit of fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. I think there's a great quote someone said
Speaker 1: it was be interested, not interesting. Yeah, I feel like
Speaker 1: that's very much of it.
Speaker 2: That's the quote. That's the short line to a long answer.
Speaker 2: So well done. You've edited me beautifully. Yeah. But then
Speaker 2: when you know, when you are things that at collingwod
Speaker 2: for example, when I was president, and you know, part
Speaker 2: of what you need to do is make people feel
Speaker 2: special as well. I feel the president of the club.
Speaker 2: You know, at the president's lunch, I would go around
Speaker 2: every table because they baughter table to beat the president's lunch.
Speaker 2: And part of the thing I know is that they
Speaker 2: wouldn't have come to see the footy, but to you know,
Speaker 2: I was entertained and as a well known president and
Speaker 2: your celebrity and all that type of thing. So you
Speaker 2: go around to these people and you have a bit
Speaker 2: of interaction and they want to have a photo with you,
Speaker 2: and it makes their day. That's what my job is
Speaker 2: as president of Collingwood. Part of what I brought to
Speaker 2: that job was my celebrity. You know, people like Jeff
Speaker 2: Kennett brings his political acumen, Jeff Brown now the president
Speaker 2: of collin brings his business acumen and his connection to
Speaker 2: the club. You've got everyone's got to play there, get
Speaker 2: their role and my role is was exactly that. It was.
Speaker 2: You know, when you're hosting functions, don't just get up
Speaker 2: and give a speech, go and find out what's going on.
Speaker 2: And then you know, inevitably I'd find out this blocerus
Speaker 2: you know, wants to be a sponsor of the club.
Speaker 2: I've brought him on. I'm not give you a name,
Speaker 2: thank you, close that deal and anywhere you go.
Speaker 1: It's one of those things. I feel like that's something
Speaker 1: I've realized, I guess in my time here, is that
Speaker 1: like the littlest of things, he makes someone's day or
Speaker 1: makes someone's weak even in like month or year, and
Speaker 1: they'll talk about it for you, like I'll meet someone again,
Speaker 1: you know, two years down the road and be like, oh,
Speaker 1: I took a photo with you this time doing that,
Speaker 1: you know, And I was like, yeah, yeah, of course,
Speaker 1: I'll take a million photos made bike. It is. So
Speaker 1: it's to see the.
Speaker 2: Give a bit of yourself. I think one of the
Speaker 2: great things about Australia is and particularly Melbourne, particularly Melbourne,
Speaker 2: is the access to everybody. You know, so I don't
Speaker 2: worry about paparazzi. You don't have Pepperitzis in Melbourne because
Speaker 2: there's no need. You see what's every week. You know,
Speaker 2: we are everywhere Whereas in the States, I always found
Speaker 2: even going to the super Bowl, you go into one
Speaker 2: of the top hotels and they say, oh, you're here,
Speaker 2: what are you for it? Super Bowl? Oh the parties,
Speaker 2: Yeah you're not going yea, and they go, you're going
Speaker 2: to the super Bowl. Whereas where we're sitting, I think
Speaker 2: this has been this place had a major impact on
Speaker 2: my life.
Speaker 1: Let's give it people listening in and watching. We're at
Speaker 1: the MCG, iconic MCG. So is my office actually.
Speaker 2: Exactly a box at the MCG. But what I've always found,
Speaker 2: even the difference between Melbourne and Sydney is that all
Speaker 2: our major events are open to everybody. There's one hundred
Speaker 2: thousand seats in this place. You know, maybe the Grand Final,
Speaker 2: maybe the occasional Lands day you might struggle to get
Speaker 2: a seat, okay, but every other thing you can go to.
Speaker 2: So as a little boy, we would come here. I'd
Speaker 2: sit over there in half Wood, Flint when Purna mckinna
Speaker 2: kick nine against Richmond one day. I was here in
Speaker 2: the old stand in seventy two when we got beaten
Speaker 2: in the Pulminary Final. Life having led by forty two
Speaker 2: points at halftime. I stood over there for the first
Speaker 2: Anzac Day game between Collingwood and Richmond, right on send
Speaker 2: a wing under the old clock when they reckoned it
Speaker 2: was ninety thousand. It was about one hundred and ten thousand.
Speaker 2: In this particular. I sat over there for the first
Speaker 2: Collingwood Essendon all the things I called, the Grand Finals, everything,
Speaker 2: but not only that, but I was over here as
Speaker 2: a kid on the Centenary Test, the day when David
Speaker 2: Hooks hit all the boundaries and Rick ma Cosca came
Speaker 2: back unto the ground. I see it. For the Commonwealth Games.
Speaker 2: I sat over there as an in grade one when
Speaker 2: the Pope was here. So all these things happen. You
Speaker 2: go to the Melbourne Cup, there's one hundred thousand people
Speaker 2: get into Flemington for the four days of the carnival.
Speaker 2: You go to Moomba, which everyone sort of laughs at.
Speaker 2: But if you're a kid out in the housing house
Speaker 2: in broad Meadows, member was massive. You know. My dad
Speaker 2: was smart. It was Scottish, so he's tight right, and
Speaker 2: he worked out that if you stood opposite the town hall,
Speaker 2: that's where all the performances happened. Because all the vps
Speaker 2: are sitting in the town hall. We're sitting on the
Speaker 2: other side of the road and in the sunshine. We
Speaker 2: thought this was better because they're sitting in the shade,
Speaker 2: which is a bit like here. You had the MG.
Speaker 2: We used to sit in the in the southern stand
Speaker 2: in the old days, and we thought this is great.
Speaker 2: As all the noises and it's so vibrant, the members
Speaker 2: are so boring, and they're in the cold, you know,
Speaker 2: and so whatever. Whenever he sat, it was my dad
Speaker 2: who said, you know this, this is the best place
Speaker 2: we could be. And that was our whole enthusiasm for Australia.
Speaker 2: You know. I lived in broad meadows that may as
Speaker 2: well have been Beverly Hills compared to women dad came
Speaker 2: from and my mom. So each generation gets its go
Speaker 2: and he just he and Mom just drilled into us
Speaker 2: that this was the greatest place on earth and if
Speaker 2: you had any amount of ability or get up and go,
Speaker 2: this was the place to do it.
Speaker 1: Is it true you hit a hard teck on this
Speaker 1: still get my well?
Speaker 2: It was a hetag and I took two wickets and
Speaker 2: then it was a media game and Kevin Bartlett was
Speaker 2: actually facing up and I was being an idiot mucking around.
Speaker 2: So I actually went through the fence up into the
Speaker 2: back of the stand to start my running. But I
Speaker 2: got true morphort and I've got David hooks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll you, I got hooks.
Speaker 2: You try to try to put me over the out
Speaker 2: of the stand and he said he got caught on
Speaker 2: the boundary line. But he said he said it. I said,
Speaker 2: I sucked you in here. That was great on the
Speaker 2: on the m c G.
Speaker 1: Yeah, You've got an amazing amount of memories here, mate,
Speaker 1: I know you you've been here, You've been part of this,
Speaker 1: this building and this structure and this coliseum that is
Speaker 1: and you definitely make it up. But we'll go back
Speaker 1: to a bit of I guess your origins. Really you
Speaker 1: talked about your parents were immigrants back from Scotland and Scotland.
Speaker 2: My dad Scottish Mom. I like a drink as long
Speaker 2: as it's free.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's yeah. I've got to ask you this because
Speaker 1: I love my parents, you know, my parents, and those
Speaker 1: are very valiably people. Now I've got to I've got
Speaker 1: to ask you this. What is the biggest life lesson
Speaker 1: you've learned from mom and dad?
Speaker 2: Optimism?
Speaker 1: Optimism and education?
Speaker 2: Education, and unconditional love and tough love. You know, there
Speaker 2: was tough love. It was pretty pretty brutal experience they
Speaker 2: were coming from, so there was no other way. There
Speaker 2: was no easy day in their life until both really
Speaker 2: came to Australia and started their family here. But they
Speaker 2: were both pulled out of school at a young age.
Speaker 2: Dad was working in the coal mines of Glasgow looking
Speaker 2: at running the pit ponies when he was thirteen or
Speaker 2: fourteen years of age. His big break to get out
Speaker 2: of the mines was World War Two. So you know,
Speaker 2: Dad's life really didn't start until in his forties when
Speaker 2: we came out to Australia and Mum worked hard and
Speaker 2: then when she came to Australia, she was working all
Speaker 2: the factories at broad Meadows. But you know they were
Speaker 2: able to provide for them every year. It was the
Speaker 2: battle to get the books and the uniform and play
Speaker 2: the school fees. And you know we were pretty lucky
Speaker 2: in that. You know, we won scholarships and my elder
Speaker 2: system the frame, my young sister Bridget and myself, so
Speaker 2: that gave us a chance here. I went to CBCS
Speaker 2: and killed her, so it was great again. It was
Speaker 2: education by Osmosis. I'd get on the train every morning,
Speaker 2: and my brother actually brought this to my attention because
Speaker 2: he did the same thing. And you get on with
Speaker 2: all the working class people in broad Meadows and they'd
Speaker 2: go into be getting off the various factories along industrial
Speaker 2: broad Meadows Line in those days, and you know, on
Speaker 2: the way up you'd smell then Abisco factory and work
Speaker 2: out whether they're making Vita bridge that day or chocolate
Speaker 2: or whatever, you know, And then I'd get on and
Speaker 2: read the paper. Bought the paper every morning, and you
Speaker 2: go to Flynn Street and as you've got to Essendon,
Speaker 2: sort of more professional people getting on, whether they were
Speaker 2: public servants or lawyers and things and sort of different
Speaker 2: people in the suits. And then at the end of
Speaker 2: the day and then when you know, you go to
Speaker 2: the city, you get off at Flinnis Street and out
Speaker 2: would go to windsor go past the Rosella factory in Richmond.
Speaker 2: You'd smell where they were.
Speaker 1: Cooking making that day effort to get to school.
Speaker 2: So it was an effort, but it was also it
Speaker 2: was good fun. It was late coming home when you're
Speaker 2: footy training and things. So quite often in Windo you
Speaker 2: go to school in the dark and come home and dark,
Speaker 2: and you know it, you learned how to It's a.
Speaker 1: Wake credit to you work, I think probably comes a
Speaker 1: little bit from that that does.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you were you're working twelve hour days at
Speaker 2: school and go home and do your homework. But most
Speaker 2: importantly you'd see at the end of the day and
Speaker 2: you'd see that, you know, the working class people getting
Speaker 2: on and you know, they had the dirt on them
Speaker 2: and things going home and they worked a really hard day.
Speaker 2: And you know that to me was inspiring to see
Speaker 2: people who were literally doing pick and shovel jobs like
Speaker 2: my dad was, who were doing it and for their families.
Speaker 2: And then you know, you might even up to church
Speaker 2: on a Sunday and you knew all the faces and
Speaker 2: all that sort of stuff, and you'd see them dressed
Speaker 2: in their Sunday best and they were doing great, and
Speaker 2: they would be the president of the local football club,
Speaker 2: so Dominic Football Club or Broady Footy Club or those things,
Speaker 2: and you'd see these people in different different guyses and
Speaker 2: then you'd work out that they actually just good, hard
Speaker 2: working class people. They're hugely inspirational and at the same
Speaker 2: time you'd see the professional people and go all right,
Speaker 2: there's another way through this as well. And that was
Speaker 2: inspirational for so. You know, I remember one time saying
Speaker 2: to my dad, I want to get a job apart
Speaker 2: time job. You know my mates at school we're getting
Speaker 2: making money packing shelves at coles. And I said, he'd
Speaker 2: think this is great. I want to step up. He said,
Speaker 2: you kidding, said I haven't come twelve thousand miles for
Speaker 2: you to stepselves. He said, get in there, do your homework.
Speaker 2: And he said, oh, clean your boots, your jobs, to
Speaker 2: get them dirty, you win the trophies old, clean them
Speaker 2: was his motto. And that was it and okay, he
Speaker 2: said you were here to study, get the marks, get
Speaker 2: the results, and get on with your life. So that
Speaker 2: that wasn't pressure. It was inspiring. But at the same
Speaker 2: time you knew that people were sacrificing their lives and
Speaker 2: you know, you know, the letters would come from Scotland
Speaker 2: from an island every week, and the airmail and things
Speaker 2: like that, and as you've got a bit older, you
Speaker 2: realized how much they left behind. It suck and so
Speaker 2: it was so from there you were you were obliged
Speaker 2: to have a go and then you know, as you know,
Speaker 2: you start to win a few things, so that's to
Speaker 2: become a habit, and then you start to get the confidence,
Speaker 2: and then you back yourself in. And then sometimes people
Speaker 2: think I might have backed myself in too much. At
Speaker 2: times I got over confidence. But you know that's what
Speaker 2: you needed to do, because, as you said, you'd walk
Speaker 2: into a room, you're in your brother's suit, you don't
Speaker 2: know anyone, and you're eighteen, and you go right here
Speaker 2: we go it an adventure.
Speaker 1: I actually saw Xander and your jacket recently. It was
Speaker 1: outside the club here, you kidd and I'll look at us,
Speaker 1: So that looks a little bit. Does it look like
Speaker 1: it's tailored for you? Mate? He just goes, it's my
Speaker 1: dad's jacket. Well, I said, yeah, I thought that was
Speaker 1: this iconic little black Trenchcoe.
Speaker 2: But he's taking more than my jacket.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't done it. But I'll ask you. The last
Speaker 1: thing on growing up and everything else. Now, someone who's
Speaker 1: been massively influential is sister Matthew. Yeah, Now, can you
Speaker 1: tell me the most influential thing that's kind of stuck
Speaker 1: with you from her? Because I know we all have
Speaker 1: these people. I think we all grow up and we idolize,
Speaker 1: and someone who's kind of shown us the ropes and maybe,
Speaker 1: you know, pointed us in the right direction whenever other
Speaker 1: things may have joined us away. But is there one
Speaker 1: thing that kind of sticks out that she maybe taught you?
Speaker 2: I think what was her name was Sister Agnes Murta,
Speaker 2: and she was a nun of the Josephite Nuns, and
Speaker 2: she came out for a while. She was Irish, and
Speaker 2: I found out later on her sister was a nun
Speaker 2: as well, and they got every bad job going around,
Speaker 2: so the end up in Broadways. She was an old
Speaker 2: woman by that stage. And in grade five I had
Speaker 2: a really hard year. Was my mum was really sick
Speaker 2: and there was you know, there was a fair bit
Speaker 2: of tumult happening around the family at that stage, and
Speaker 2: it looked like I wouldn't be able to go to
Speaker 2: CBC's and killed Christian Brother's College and Kilda, which was
Speaker 2: all I wanted to do because of the finances and
Speaker 2: different things. So anyway, Grade five had been a disaster
Speaker 2: for me, and the school had changed a little bit
Speaker 2: out some Dominic's, which was a great school, great kids,
Speaker 2: great friends out there still have them to this day. Anyway.
Speaker 2: So I walked in the first day of grade six
Speaker 2: and I know, I've got to go for this scholarship
Speaker 2: exam in March, first of February or something. And she
Speaker 2: looks at me. I've heard about you, and I'm trying
Speaker 2: to be a good you know, the good boy, to
Speaker 2: be honest. And I said, well, let me tell you
Speaker 2: what's happened, which was a bit bulshy now that.
Speaker 1: I look back on it, great for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, I was pretty confident in those days, and reading
Speaker 2: was my salvation. I just read papers and books and
Speaker 2: history and things. So I was I had a little
Speaker 2: bit more life experience and life experienced the hard way
Speaker 2: as well. And I said to her sister, I have
Speaker 2: to go for this exam, and she said right. She
Speaker 2: looked at me and she said, right, okay, you sit there.
Speaker 2: And I came in the next day and had you know,
Speaker 2: we had kids who couldn't read through to kids who
Speaker 2: were brilliant, you know, not just wasn't just me who
Speaker 2: was had half a brain. There was some really, some
Speaker 2: really good people to compete with and against. And she
Speaker 2: just put it up, she said right. And by the
Speaker 2: time I went for the exam. I'd done every entrance exam,
Speaker 2: scholarship exam known to mankind that she collected over forty
Speaker 2: years of me a teacher, to the point when I
Speaker 2: actually sat down and did the exam, I looked around
Speaker 2: and I finished it that quickly. I thought I must
Speaker 2: have missed a couple of pages or something. Really, and
Speaker 2: so I got I got the entry exam, got invited
Speaker 2: back to the scholarship, got the scholarship. And I remember
Speaker 2: coming home at lunchtime because Um was sick. I'd come
Speaker 2: home at lunch time, go and get all the shopping
Speaker 2: and come back and then run back up so I
Speaker 2: could play footy at lunch time. She cooked me a
Speaker 2: warm meal. It was great. So we had this all
Speaker 2: work done. I'd run from school to time myself.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Everything was competitive and about trying to you know, I
Speaker 2: wanted to play footy and everything and and win trophies
Speaker 2: and all that sort of stuff. And I remember coming
Speaker 2: home this day and Mum was waiting at the letter
Speaker 2: box and she had the letter in her hand. Oh really,
Speaker 2: She said, right, okay, here's the letter. It was it was,
Speaker 2: and opened it up and it was like Willie Wonker's
Speaker 2: Golden ticket. Yeah, okay, And I remember she said, don't
Speaker 2: tell anybody at the school, just keep it quiet'd be
Speaker 2: saying anything, and then but I knew that was it.
Speaker 2: It was up from as Ron Brossy says, if it
Speaker 2: is to be, it's up to me. It is up
Speaker 2: to me, all those words to the letters profound, And
Speaker 2: from that moment on, I thought, right, okay, I've got
Speaker 2: the entrance pass. If it is to be, it is
Speaker 2: up to me, and was fantastic for me.
Speaker 1: It's amazing, Like I've talked about multiple times on this podcast,
Speaker 1: of teachers being such a guiding light in this world,
Speaker 1: and it's like they're very for how influential they are
Speaker 1: in some people's lives. Especially the early years, there was
Speaker 1: so much undervalued and underpaid and under.
Speaker 2: A teacher started teaching when she was nineteen and she's
Speaker 2: now dobber and she's now seventy, and the amount of
Speaker 2: people over the years have come up and said, your
Speaker 2: sister taught me, And I said how she was a
Speaker 2: great teacher, you know, and said she's a great sister too.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I'm big on that. I'm massive on education.
Speaker 2: Some of the things I have sort of rolling around
Speaker 2: in my head that I'm trying to work on. As
Speaker 2: big projects at the moment are all in education and
Speaker 2: trying to inspire kids and get the particularly working class
Speaker 2: kids to get the opportunity. The private school system is
Speaker 2: enormous in Australia. I think I think Australia's secondary education
Speaker 2: is probably the best in the world. I'm not so
Speaker 2: not as uh not as boying on tertiary education for
Speaker 2: another day, but yeah, that's something I'd really like to do,
Speaker 2: not teach, but actually facilitate opportunities kation and stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's awesome. Well, we'll move in something else. And
Speaker 1: this is this is how I actually got to know you,
Speaker 1: And I mentioned this at beginning of the podcast year
Speaker 1: the Regis filming of Australia. Now a lot of people
Speaker 1: probably don't know Regis Filming is in Australia, but he
Speaker 1: is the main he did. Yeah, but he started that
Speaker 1: he wants to be a millionaire.
Speaker 2: Now he followed us, he followed you, Well, we followed
Speaker 2: Chris Tarran in England did the first who wants to
Speaker 2: be a Millionaire? And Australia and Holland with a second. Okay,
Speaker 2: and it took off and it was an enormous show,
Speaker 2: and then Regis later on.
Speaker 1: You've been doing this for years now, and I've got
Speaker 1: so many questions because I think it's such a unique
Speaker 1: game show. It's lasted so long. Now I want to
Speaker 1: ask you because I watch it right, and I say,
Speaker 1: every time someone answers a question right or wrong, you've
Speaker 1: got this equip it this all you know, this little fact,
Speaker 1: little factoid or whatever it is, what is on your
Speaker 1: screen whenever you actually are there, you know the answer
Speaker 1: before that.
Speaker 2: I don't know the questions. I haven't got time. I
Speaker 2: not at six in a day, so I don't look
Speaker 2: at the questions.
Speaker 1: I know that's not six episodes a day, So.
Speaker 2: I look at the fastest finger questions because they come
Speaker 2: up quickly, and then what we do, and because there's
Speaker 2: insurance involved in things like that, I don't know the
Speaker 2: answers until they're locked in and then on the screen.
Speaker 2: I do get some cheat notes on some things, but
Speaker 2: a lot of times, you know, I'll add the bit
Speaker 2: that I know of and connect it through and the
Speaker 2: hosting of the show or whether the person's from America,
Speaker 2: for example, if you're on there, you know suddenly there's
Speaker 2: a connection to something that that's all add lip. But yeah,
Speaker 2: we get a little we get some I have a
Speaker 2: little bit on my screen. I have the question the
Speaker 2: answer where they are on the money tree, and that's
Speaker 2: and that's about it.
Speaker 1: Jeez. I was really thinking they gave you like a
Speaker 1: video and a full script and everything else.
Speaker 2: They get a couple of things on you know, a
Speaker 2: little bit of factoids if you like. But but that's it.
Speaker 2: But there is that we're making up.
Speaker 1: Now do you have a do you have a fair?
Speaker 1: In moments, I feel like that is such a life
Speaker 1: changing show to win that amount of money. Is there
Speaker 1: anyone that you've you've heard the story of and it's
Speaker 1: just kind of really hit you hard in the heart,
Speaker 1: you know, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: Time Yeah, you know, I'll take you back at not.
Speaker 2: One of the funny stories which people don't know is
Speaker 2: I'm sitting at home one time. I remember I'd been
Speaker 2: out every night this particular week, and I had a
Speaker 2: Collingwood board meeting in Carla and said my wife, As
Speaker 2: had come home tonight, I'm going to cook a roast.
Speaker 2: I haven't seen you for a better week. Let's sit
Speaker 2: down and as it might have been even before the
Speaker 2: boys were born. Anyway, the night before Millionaire, the old
Speaker 2: millionaire who wants to be a millionaire, Molly Meldrum, who
Speaker 2: had won five hundred thousand dollars and it was going
Speaker 2: to charity. And you know, I knew Molly to be
Speaker 2: highly intelligent, and it changed his life. The next day
Speaker 2: what happened and the way people looked at him, But
Speaker 2: the money was going to charity. Anyway, I walk in.
Speaker 2: I'm on the phone, color phone off, come on, get off.
Speaker 2: So I tend the phone off and she pulls out
Speaker 2: the food and the home phone rings. Now the home
Speaker 2: phone is Ali.
Speaker 1: Mam, Hello old schools.
Speaker 2: Ali, And I said, oh, you know, that's fine. She knows,
Speaker 2: you know, I'll tell that I'll talk to her tomorrow
Speaker 2: or something. Ah Kerry and she looks up. It's Kerry Pecker.
Speaker 2: So she says, puts the food back. Ins to this
Speaker 2: is going to take you well anyway, He starts, easy
Speaker 2: to me, what are you doing? I saw you last night.
Speaker 2: What are you doing giving all my f and money
Speaker 2: to all yourf in mates? And I start laughing. God thought,
Speaker 2: because it riding through there, if it was a messive
Speaker 2: show and he said, I saw you, you know, and
Speaker 2: he said, I said, hey, listen, there was a charity
Speaker 2: night as a text induction. He starts laughing and he
Speaker 2: said to me, he said, listen, son, don't be helping
Speaker 2: any of those doctors or lawyers from t rec Ord
Speaker 2: Bellevue Hill. He said, don't worry about them. He said,
Speaker 2: but if you get a battler on, you know, so
Speaker 2: I've got permission to do what I'm doing anyway, but
Speaker 2: I don't. You gotta be careful because you don't want
Speaker 2: to give a hint to somebody when there's other people
Speaker 2: who have got their opportunity. They're getting the one chance.
Speaker 2: So we do that pretty straight. But sometimes when we
Speaker 2: get to the last couple of questions and only one
Speaker 2: person left in the.
Speaker 1: Direction, are you sure? Are you.
Speaker 2: Not quite that bad? But but but the funny thing
Speaker 2: is sometimes I could say the answer is D and
Speaker 2: they're just not listening.
Speaker 1: They think you're playing them.
Speaker 2: No, not even playing, They're just they're that focused, not
Speaker 2: even focused there the lights, the camera of the action,
Speaker 2: the television. It wouldn't matter what happens. It's it's a
Speaker 2: it's an amazing insight into human nature. When you get
Speaker 2: people when everyone comes on going, I shoot the lights
Speaker 2: out at home while I'm cooking. Okay, well you are
Speaker 2: doing it. Let's see what happens.
Speaker 1: Have you ever, what's the Have you ever had someone
Speaker 1: really like miss a really easy easy question that's like
Speaker 1: super embarrassing. You just feel terrible.
Speaker 2: For well, I'll give the best example was the first
Speaker 2: person ever not to get to the first five answers.
Speaker 2: It was a guy called Richard Hatch, the first winner
Speaker 2: of Survivor. Guy got round in the nude. Yeah. So
Speaker 2: he came on and it was what is twelve times eleven?
Speaker 2: And he at the end and he blew up, and
Speaker 2: he really arked up, and he was saying, ah, this
Speaker 2: question was I think there's question three or something, and
Speaker 2: he said, we do times tables to ten, you know.
Speaker 2: I said, well, we'll do ten times eleven and had
Speaker 2: twenty two doing that type of thing. And he blew up.
Speaker 2: And not long after he got done for text avoidance
Speaker 2: and in jail, and I thought, god, I must have
Speaker 2: we might have burst his bubble. But there's been there's
Speaker 2: been some beauties. There was the girl who entered you
Speaker 2: know what type of ring? You know, I can't remember
Speaker 2: the question now. But there was wedding ring, engagement ring,
Speaker 2: you know whatever, ring had at a burger ring, and
Speaker 2: she went burger ring because she had heard the story
Speaker 2: of Adam Cooney, the Grandway medalist, who proposed with a
Speaker 2: burger ring, and she just got herself completely confused. And
Speaker 2: she was a really smart girl. In fact, when I
Speaker 2: looked at her card, I thought she could go really
Speaker 2: a big chance, and she was. She was a really
Speaker 2: vivacious person and fun. I thought, I'm gonna have a
Speaker 2: lot of fun with her. It's good because you love
Speaker 2: getting I love getting the young women on because when
Speaker 2: people at home are watching younger women going, we don't
Speaker 2: really get a chance at these type of things, and
Speaker 2: it's inspiring for them to go fantastic yeargo girl, all
Speaker 2: that type of roteae. So she was. I thought, this
Speaker 2: is going to be a good, good air of TV,
Speaker 2: half hour of TV, and I am bank. She was
Speaker 2: out straight, became an internate sensation. That's the but you know,
Speaker 2: she was great fun. And people started the usual thing,
Speaker 2: people start becoming mean and all the rest of it.
Speaker 2: And I rang her up and she said, hey, listen,
Speaker 2: don't get caught up, and all this it's fun and
Speaker 2: you'll laugh at it down the track and she said,
Speaker 2: I did. I laughed my head off and then it
Speaker 2: got really mean, and she said, but I'm right now,
Speaker 2: it becomes a footnote in in life. Don't worry about it.
Speaker 1: Now. You've done a lot of You've done a lot
Speaker 1: of media reporting, journalism, everything else. Now I'm all about
Speaker 1: a bit of a laugh here and there, and now
Speaker 1: is there. I'm sure you've done some wild crosses in Australia,
Speaker 1: and I've come to this country and I've seen some
Speaker 1: stuff in the media and I'm like dying life and
Speaker 1: the way some reporters have to kind of maneuver their
Speaker 1: way around, or the awkwardness of an interview or whatever
Speaker 1: it may be. Is there anyone that likes stick out,
Speaker 1: sticks out in your mind and maybe something weird you
Speaker 1: have to talk about it or report on.
Speaker 2: Well, there was, there have been plenty. I mean, first
Speaker 2: of all, I remember being petrified and as a naden
Speaker 2: I was doing crosses and just oh, and I was
Speaker 2: hopeless and I was trying to learn it. And you know,
Speaker 2: there's a video of me when I'm seventeen, the first
Speaker 2: time I ever stood in front of a camera and
Speaker 2: I was like that, and I was actually Bruce mcavanny
Speaker 2: who grabbed me one day said, listen, if I ask
Speaker 2: you a question about football, you can talk for three
Speaker 2: days about it. He said, you're over over preparing. He said,
Speaker 2: just stand there, and when I throw the question to you,
Speaker 2: he said, you know it inside out. Just answer it.
Speaker 2: Don't try and quote Shakespeare or anything else, like, just
Speaker 2: do what you've got to do. And so i'd nearly
Speaker 2: been put on the not to be used again on
Speaker 2: live crosses really and you know, well for a little while.
Speaker 2: And I saw in those days, because it was so
Speaker 2: new to cross live into television and into news thoughts
Speaker 2: that they you know, I saw some really good reporters
Speaker 2: lose their lose, lose everything, and and you know, full
Speaker 2: by the wayside. Anyway, so I'm thinking, God, I'm going
Speaker 2: to be out of here. I'm going to be back
Speaker 2: the broad Meadows in no time. And anyway, the next
Speaker 2: time Bruce crossed to me, I've shot the lights out
Speaker 2: doing it. And it was and it was all happening,
Speaker 2: so it was even it wasn't even time to react,
Speaker 2: it was what was going on. And I was moving
Speaker 2: around and getting interviews and came back and almost got
Speaker 2: a ovation from the newsroom that was fantastic, and so
Speaker 2: the confidence grew and then I became known as one
Speaker 2: of the best live performers. That's that was it. And
Speaker 2: and then you know who would have thought that Dan
Speaker 2: the track the Footy Show was all live. I don't
Speaker 2: use a Q me in a hot set. I don't
Speaker 2: use o Q except for the names, and you know
Speaker 2: a couple of little things like that, and that became
Speaker 2: what I was all about. And so from there I
Speaker 2: developed what you said, able to be able to walk
Speaker 2: around back myself in do all the homework beforehand, but
Speaker 2: just know you've got the knowledge and back your knowledge
Speaker 2: bank in. So there's that. But I remember the one
Speaker 2: time down at Hawthorne and in the eighties we're doing
Speaker 2: a lot of crosses at Hawthorneess because they've played the
Speaker 2: Grand Finals. So Durmott was one of my best mates,
Speaker 2: and Dipper and Johnny Platton and all those they're all
Speaker 2: lunatic scening out there. They've got the camera set up
Speaker 2: and there's nothing behind me, nothing behind me, just to
Speaker 2: you know, like you see sometimes I'm doing stuff, but
Speaker 2: everyone was behind the camera that all decided, are they
Speaker 2: going to make me earn my money?
Speaker 1: Faces and stuff like.
Speaker 2: That's the start of it, right, so they started They're
Speaker 2: doing all that sort of stuff. So then I'm interviewing Dermot.
Speaker 2: I turned to Dermott and of course as I turn,
Speaker 2: he drops drops his towel, standing of it from here up,
Speaker 2: you know, So that's funny. And then John Platten crawls
Speaker 2: underneath the camera shot and gooses me. You know, goozy
Speaker 2: is doan't you?
Speaker 1: The story all the way here? Yeah?
Speaker 2: This one? And then I turned back to camera and
Speaker 2: Dipper standing behind it, jumping up and down in the nude,
Speaker 2: and everyone's doing all sorts of different times, and I've
Speaker 2: got to do another three stories, and I did like
Speaker 2: to do meantime in Canada, the Canadian Grand Prix, you know,
Speaker 2: and center these things. And then they're starting to throw
Speaker 2: things that.
Speaker 1: If you can handle that, you can handle any.
Speaker 2: Hilarious. But you know, it was a baptism of fire
Speaker 2: and it was like an initiation and some people cut
Speaker 2: up raf and oh why do you do that? I laughed.
Speaker 2: I loved it. I actually loved the acceptance that these
Speaker 2: all these lunatics were being were being the pell and
Speaker 2: and at the end of it again they got a
Speaker 2: standing ovation and Bobby Youngman, the legendary trainer, brought out
Speaker 2: a sausage on it with with onion and Sanuell played,
Speaker 2: you know, and all that tope of thing. And from
Speaker 2: that moment on knew were accepted and you're part of
Speaker 2: the action. And it was great and for me getting
Speaker 2: involved in VFL football and then AFL football. You know,
Speaker 2: the first night over went to something, Sam Newman and
Speaker 2: I went out for dinner and we would yeah, pepper
Speaker 2: Steak nearly burnt the roof out of my mouse, you know.
Speaker 2: And then but Drew Morphord introduced me to everybody, and
Speaker 2: I met Lou Richards and Jack Dyer and the maptain
Speaker 2: and the major Ron Casey Hern Channel seven and was
Speaker 2: basically the godfather of footballer and Coco Roberts and all
Speaker 2: these superstars that were mythical and magical figures in my life.
Speaker 2: They were my cartoon characters about the whole on Superman.
Speaker 2: These were the guys Captain Blood and you know, these
Speaker 2: guys who I met and they brought me in and
Speaker 2: Ted Whitton grabbed me. I don't never break my hand
Speaker 2: with his famous handshake and poured me a long neck
Speaker 2: beer and them, yeah, well Ted would break your Handdaugh
Speaker 2: actually break it, and all that sort of stuff. And
Speaker 2: then afterwards Drew and Sam took me around for dinner
Speaker 2: and took me to the first night club and got
Speaker 2: me my first drink card and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2: And ten years later, I'm being asked by Anne Johnson,
Speaker 2: what do you think of Sam Newman being on this
Speaker 2: show we want to do? And I said, He's a legend.
Speaker 2: I love him, He's so funny and John o'ska, really,
Speaker 2: I said, oh no, I think he's absolutely the I
Speaker 2: couldn't think of anyone better. And that was the magic,
Speaker 2: that chemistry from that night where I turned eighteen, the
Speaker 2: week before I was drove my father's car had five
Speaker 2: bucks pocket money got down to the top of gas
Speaker 2: which is down into our raade still it's I think
Speaker 2: it's closing now. And you seemed, realizing I had no money,
Speaker 2: pays for dinner, takes me across the road, introduced me
Speaker 2: like I was some superstar, and you know, dre faans
Speaker 2: Abroady that night thinking that's the best, that's the greatest,
Speaker 2: Not well.
Speaker 1: I mean that's Australian culture I've talked about on the
Speaker 1: podcasts before is it's very much people just look after
Speaker 1: each other. And it's something that's so unique to this country.
Speaker 1: Is I feel like it's very much people live lend
Speaker 1: out like a helping hand. It's has become a.
Speaker 2: Lot mean spirited these days, you know, with social media
Speaker 2: but also the media media, and they're always looking to
Speaker 2: trip people up. And you know, it's not about how
Speaker 2: you're going, it's when we can sack here. You know,
Speaker 2: you're forced to apologize. Now, maybe I just apologize and
Speaker 2: I made a mistake or something, or you know that
Speaker 2: type of thing. And not that we need to be gentle.
Speaker 2: I think we have to dig deeper on bigger questions
Speaker 2: as opposed to going so hard on flippant questions. And
Speaker 2: your point is right, we can't lose that great give
Speaker 2: people a go routine, yeah, and give them a second
Speaker 2: chance if required. I mean, bad people deserve bad results,
Speaker 2: but good people who make mistakes you need to say, right,
Speaker 2: we haven't enough of them. Now. That's why the other
Speaker 2: thing people talk about conflict of interest. Now, sometimes there's
Speaker 2: just not enough people in Australia to get everything done
Speaker 2: and you.
Speaker 1: Don't realize how small the country is comparatively to the
Speaker 1: rest of the world that they see these things overseas.
Speaker 1: Of the US, maybe there's three hundred and thirty something
Speaker 1: million people and there's only thirty something here in Australia,
Speaker 1: and it's like it's just a totally different kind of experience.
Speaker 2: You go to the big universities in American pleasures professional
Speaker 2: yet well we'll talk about sport now.
Speaker 1: I know you mentioned this before Super Bowl. You love
Speaker 1: going to the super Bowl and being an American I've never been.
Speaker 1: I've always wanted to. And there's a story I came
Speaker 1: remember if you told me or someone else told me
Speaker 1: about you somehow making it onto the ground. But the
Speaker 1: super Bowl, after the thing was finished and you're celebrating
Speaker 1: with all the confetti in there and everything else gone and.
Speaker 2: Patriots, it is it's it's it's actually got a double
Speaker 2: funny story this, right, because Craig Hutcheson, actually he loves
Speaker 2: he does, and Craig does a fantastic business ballpark where
Speaker 2: he takes people there and if you've ever want to
Speaker 2: go to the super Bowl, it's fantastic. Right. So this particular day,
Speaker 2: the day before I'd interviewed Bill Belichick and I asked
Speaker 2: him a question and he actually said, that's the only
Speaker 2: smart question I've had all day. So you know, he's
Speaker 2: notorious for just beating.
Speaker 1: Up the media.
Speaker 2: So that was it. So so I thought, oh, that's
Speaker 2: going right. Anyway, as we go from the media area,
Speaker 2: we had room pass us to go in because they
Speaker 2: let the international media. I think they've stopped them. Now,
Speaker 2: this is the international media to go into the rooms. Now,
Speaker 2: I've done that all my life in football. But you
Speaker 2: walk in and there is Tom Brady, and there's Ron
Speaker 2: Gronkowski coming out out of the share and standing there,
Speaker 2: and you could interview every and Bob cra after I'd
Speaker 2: met a couple of times. Jonathan, his son, I knew
Speaker 2: from meetings that I had with him, so they sort
Speaker 2: of knew who I was and and a bit different
Speaker 2: to the American sports casters. Not surprisingly, I'm in a suit. Okay,
Speaker 2: so that straight away elevated. They're not sure if you're
Speaker 2: one of the owners or you know from Australia. Anyway,
Speaker 2: we go downstairs and as we're heading towards the rooms,
Speaker 2: I see all these people going the other way and
Speaker 2: Jane Muller, the American producer of mine from Trip List
Speaker 2: Breakfast Great Man, Jay, I said, cover up your credentials.
Speaker 2: So I said, put him inside your shirt. And he says,
Speaker 2: what what are you doing? Man? I said, just follow me? Said,
Speaker 2: I said, just follow me. I said, don't get don't
Speaker 2: drop off the back. I said, hold on to the
Speaker 2: back of my jacket. I said, we'll see what we
Speaker 2: can do here.
Speaker 1: Okay, Jay's a big dude. He's like six for't six,
Speaker 1: so you can pass as an athlete, I feel like.
Speaker 2: But the thig with Jay, though, is he's very American,
Speaker 2: as you know in that it's like you, yes, sir, yes, ma'am.
Speaker 2: You know I've got a ticket that I have to
Speaker 2: stand up here, you know where I'm a bit more Australian.
Speaker 2: Let's see, let's see how far we get to this.
Speaker 2: So I do a big you two and Jay slips
Speaker 2: in behind me and it's the families. I've picked it correctly.
Speaker 2: There are all the families who are going out on
Speaker 2: on the ground. So we're walking out and suddenly we
Speaker 2: come out the race and all the crowd realized it's
Speaker 2: the families of the New England Patriots. So we're waving
Speaker 2: to everybody and doing the whole routine. So out we go.
Speaker 2: So I'm standing next to Tom Brady and cron Cawski
Speaker 2: and Edelman and these guys, and we're standing there and Jay,
Speaker 2: of course, he's got the microphone. So I said, well,
Speaker 2: come on, this bang off a couple of interviews. So
Speaker 2: everyone's jumping up and down, you know, cronquit, I reckon, yeah, man,
Speaker 2: this is fantastic. You got anything to say to us
Speaker 2: a straight goer? And I look up and up on
Speaker 2: the stage. I look up and they're about to present
Speaker 2: the the the Vince Lombardi Trophy, and Hutchie's got it
Speaker 2: in his hands. He's up on the back of the
Speaker 2: stage and he's got hold of it. So I start
Speaker 2: laughing my head off. Anyway, it comes back down and
Speaker 2: at every and you could see it on the telecast,
Speaker 2: so this is then it comes down and I end
Speaker 2: up with it.
Speaker 1: It's mine, I've got it.
Speaker 2: The guy's going to said because somebody came over. It
Speaker 2: was one of those ones where one of the players
Speaker 2: had it and the family came in. I just said,
Speaker 2: I hold it for you. And they're doing photos and
Speaker 2: Jay's getting they're doing this one anyway. From there, it
Speaker 2: all happens. I get a couple of interviews, and I
Speaker 2: said to Jake, let's not over stay lucky, because we're
Speaker 2: going to get everybody inside. Let's go. So we head
Speaker 2: for the for the rooms, and as we're walking on,
Speaker 2: I realized that's Bill Belichick's ten ten meters in front
Speaker 2: of me, and it's like the parting of the Red Sea.
Speaker 2: We get in behind him, a couple of steps behind,
Speaker 2: and again I said, there's a Jake. Now pull out
Speaker 2: their credentials, right, So I've got all the credentials there.
Speaker 2: They know whether it was media or I was a
Speaker 2: bodyguard or whatever the case of. So we go in
Speaker 2: and they open it and we follow Belichick into the
Speaker 2: rooms and we're the only ones in there, and he
Speaker 2: doesn't know we're behind him, and we weren't going to
Speaker 2: spook him or do anything. Anyway. I was able to
Speaker 2: watch Bill Belichick go over and he went over to
Speaker 2: a sink and he just put his head up against
Speaker 2: the wall and leant his head on the war and
Speaker 2: just took these deep breaths. And we just stayed right back,
Speaker 2: but just to watch what was going on. This amazing
Speaker 2: coach and what it meant for him, and you know,
Speaker 2: you talk to people when they win premierships, particularly coaches,
Speaker 2: and the overwhelming sense of relief. And you could just see,
Speaker 2: you know, the blood drained from him and then come
Speaker 2: back into him and threw water up on his face.
Speaker 2: And he turned around and he walked over and he
Speaker 2: looked up and he said, who are you, guys? I said,
Speaker 2: coach Belichicker Eddie mcguiree from Australia with he said, oh good, yeah,
Speaker 2: I remember, it's congratulations, you know. And I didn't pull
Speaker 2: out the interview because it was more an observational thing.
Speaker 2: I sort of, you know, I was kidding around as
Speaker 2: a reporter doing that stuff, but I was more there
Speaker 2: just to observe what was going on. And it was
Speaker 2: a moment and you don't want to be an idiot
Speaker 2: on those things. You got to understand it. And he
Speaker 2: said all right, and he said and somebody else came in.
Speaker 2: They said, oh, you guys supposed to be here. I said, yeah,
Speaker 2: we've got these tickets. Were supposed to be in. You're
Speaker 2: supposed to be outside, and you come into.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: So we walk get there's a q a mile long,
Speaker 2: which is straight to the thing at the front of
Speaker 2: your Thanks maybe, but yeah, and then we go in
Speaker 2: and you know, you're literally they've got those open style
Speaker 2: lockets that they're have and and there's Brady's locker with
Speaker 2: you know, it's got the photos and also and that
Speaker 2: was I think it was the year that they is
Speaker 2: Jumper got knocked off and so we actually sent them
Speaker 2: all the video that we had and it didn't see
Speaker 2: you couldn't see that anyone, but at least I've got
Speaker 2: a look of who was around the place. So then
Speaker 2: we're going up and you know, it was funny because
Speaker 2: I went up to to Bob Kraft and did an
Speaker 2: interview with him, and I actually interviewed his wife, who
Speaker 2: was fantastic, and I said, you know, Bob, I've got anything,
Speaker 2: you know for the people in Australia. And he's the
Speaker 2: first interview is down, so he's flying. He's so pumped
Speaker 2: out Australia. You're going. So then the next one goes,
Speaker 2: we're from Taiwan, what have you got to, Well, we're
Speaker 2: from But it was great, it was it was an
Speaker 2: amazing experience. And yeah, I've been lucky enough to go
Speaker 2: to a number of super Bowls Now hosted them for
Speaker 2: Channel nine back in nineteen ninety eight at San Diego,
Speaker 2: and you know the one recently in the Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: At so Far Stadium was amazing.
Speaker 2: But that was I was really getting into Gilbern maclachlin,
Speaker 2: who couldn't go because you get your head kicked in
Speaker 2: by the media because you're at the super was that
Speaker 2: Anyone who's in show business, entertainment, stadium management and sport
Speaker 2: who wasn't at that event needs their head red. It
Speaker 2: was a master class. And you come back and you know,
Speaker 2: we look at the MCG and you still got people saying, oh,
Speaker 2: do we refurbish the southern stand when you're saying.
Speaker 1: You know, you go there, you see it.
Speaker 2: We're also but you also got to read the play
Speaker 2: a bit. It's no point building a new stand here
Speaker 2: and spending a billion dollars and it's going to be
Speaker 2: outdated before it even goes up. Cricket is going to
Speaker 2: change if the world keeps going the way it is,
Speaker 2: whether it's weather patterns. No one's going to stand out
Speaker 2: there from ten o'clock till six o'clock in the middle
Speaker 2: of the blinding heat on boxing day. You're going to
Speaker 2: have to have cover. The people aren't going to sit
Speaker 2: up the back in July on Friday night football getting
Speaker 2: their head bolded off with hail. You know, put a
Speaker 2: roof on the feet. We live in Melbourne's you know,
Speaker 2: Sydney had macked it up. They haven't put any rus
Speaker 2: on their stadiums because they don't believe it. They have
Speaker 2: bad weather up there. But Melbourne can't fall for it. Now,
Speaker 2: I know that this is an iconic stadium, but it
Speaker 2: doesn't have to be roofed all the time. When we're lucky,
Speaker 2: we've got to rally out across the road. You can
Speaker 2: have a sliding. The technology that's coming in is it's
Speaker 2: so great. It's all there. And when this needs to
Speaker 2: be in the top five stadiums in the world always
Speaker 2: because it brings so much major events to Australia. And
Speaker 2: we've got a Marvel Stadium down the road which is
Speaker 2: a really good stadium, which we underestimate how good it is.
Speaker 2: But concerts and all those sorts of things massive there
Speaker 2: there And here.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you another story about sport. Now
Speaker 1: you told me this story years ago and still was
Speaker 1: blown away by it. And it's the Joe Fraser story
Speaker 1: Joe Fraser on an airplane. Can you give us a
Speaker 1: bit of a rundown of.
Speaker 2: Well, I was lucky in that I met Muhammed Ali
Speaker 2: and had dinner with Ali, and you know, it was
Speaker 2: you know, for my fortieth birthday through Eloise Pratt and
Speaker 2: Anthony Pratt were actually wrote on the you know the
Speaker 2: usually in the books all the time, the big One
Speaker 2: and did that and I had ordered one for as
Speaker 2: my birthday present, and so that was good. I've got
Speaker 2: two boys that I've got two autograph books. So anyway,
Speaker 2: when I was up in Sydney, I went to the
Speaker 2: fights one night. It was Mundane Versus Green and Joe Frayer.
Speaker 2: I looked across the thing. It looks like Joe Frazier
Speaker 2: and you know we're sitting sitting ringside. So the guy
Speaker 2: who had him knew me, came over said I said,
Speaker 2: I said, said Joe Frasier. He said, yeah, it is.
Speaker 2: Do you want a meeting? I said, do I want
Speaker 2: to meet him?
Speaker 1: Of course?
Speaker 2: So I go across and I meet Joe and he's
Speaker 2: in a wheelchair and he staggers up to his feet
Speaker 2: and having a bit of a chat and he is
Speaker 2: great I love Joe Fraser. You know, my son's called Joe,
Speaker 2: but it's not necessarily but it certainly was in the
Speaker 2: back of my mind. So he's not named after Joe
Speaker 2: Fraser as such, but it's part of it, right, Josephite
Speaker 2: nuns Joe Fraser. You know, my middle names show Joseph,
Speaker 2: but he just was a Joe when he was born. Anyway,
Speaker 2: we get on the plane the next day, I'm flying
Speaker 2: to America to go to the screenings over there, and
Speaker 2: Jeff Brown was actually with us, and John Alexander, who
Speaker 2: was the head of p B ALL at that stage,
Speaker 2: was also Collingo supporter. As it turned out, first class
Speaker 2: was full of Collingwood people and Joe Fraser. And as
Speaker 2: we took off, we're playing Gelong this night, and anyway,
Speaker 2: the games on, we're trying to get scores and things,
Speaker 2: and couldn't quite get him. Anyway, we durned the course
Speaker 2: of the night. I got invited up because Joe Fraser
Speaker 2: remembered me from the night before and the guy who
Speaker 2: was with him, et cetera. So I sat there for
Speaker 2: about two hours on the flight, asking everything, all the stories.
Speaker 1: The man you'd want to hear stories from for sure
Speaker 1: myself to you right now, he's.
Speaker 2: At a different level to me. You know, he was
Speaker 2: in there with le he helped create the fable of
Speaker 2: r Le. But he did talk to me about how,
Speaker 2: you know, how he was that he wasn't invited to
Speaker 2: do the like the cauldron at the Olympic Games, that
Speaker 2: Arli got it in his hometown. And he said he
Speaker 2: was from Louisville, you know, I was from Atlanta. I
Speaker 2: should have done that. And when you look back on it,
Speaker 2: they both should have done it. They should have got
Speaker 2: them both doing it, you know. And he said, you
Speaker 2: know that second that last fight, he said, you know,
Speaker 2: I can't believe that I didn't go back out. You know,
Speaker 2: he did the right thing, but he did the wrong thing.
Speaker 2: And other three minutes I knew he couldn't come out.
Speaker 2: I knew I was. I was still going, well, well,
Speaker 2: you watch the fight, you know, both of them. You know,
Speaker 2: that's watching two people kill each other live on television.
Speaker 2: And but he then he said, he said, you know
Speaker 2: that after that fight, he said, Ali was in hospital
Speaker 2: for a week. We went to a nightclub that night.
Speaker 1: You know, becomes there like it's like Mayweather and McGregor.
Speaker 1: They all come together after and.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but there was there was still there was an edge.
Speaker 2: There was an edge with them, you know, because Fraser
Speaker 2: helped Ali when Ali had been rubbed out for Vietnam,
Speaker 2: gave him money financially and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2: Ali Ali had a mean side to him, But when
Speaker 2: you go through the whole thing, you see how it
Speaker 2: worked itself through and old Joe, you know, after it
Speaker 2: got destroyed by Foreman. Yeah, I thought that that was
Speaker 2: the end of it, the you're invisible to you're not
Speaker 2: in boxing. And then of course you had Ali beat
Speaker 2: beat Foreman, and then the two of them had that
Speaker 2: the round three, the thriller in Manila was just unbelievable.
Speaker 1: Back to the back to the plane, back to He's
Speaker 1: giving me.
Speaker 2: All this sort of information and we're talking. It's just fantastic. Anyway,
Speaker 2: we land and and the news comes through the Pies
Speaker 2: have beaten Geelong by a record margin. So we're all
Speaker 2: linked up and we're saying good old Collingwood. Forever up
Speaker 2: in the first class with Joe. Fraser didn't know what
Speaker 2: was going on. He knew it was exciting, and he
Speaker 2: knew that it was big and at all anyway, About
Speaker 2: two months later, I met in the office up in
Speaker 2: Sydney at Channel nine and you know, it was on
Speaker 2: We're getting We're getting belt around the years a fair
Speaker 2: bit and this package arrives. I don't know, I don't know,
Speaker 2: it was ticking or whatever it was going to be.
Speaker 2: And I opened it up and inside was a boxing
Speaker 2: glove from Joe Frasier. Keep your hands up there, Joe Frasier,
Speaker 2: which of course have So I've got an autograph boxing
Speaker 2: glob from Joe Fraser and an autograph goat book from
Speaker 2: Armored L And wow, that's it's pretty big. It is.
Speaker 2: But they they don't forget. I was on a little
Speaker 2: boy when they were the first big in Australia. They
Speaker 2: were the first major events coming in via Australia on satellite.
Speaker 2: And watching those fights and in those days world heavyweight total
Speaker 2: fights on the front page, it was underlie. It was amazing,
Speaker 2: shaking hands. Actually put my hand into the right hand
Speaker 2: of Joe Frasier, you know, was watching the left was
Speaker 2: But to know that Joe Fort and those fights and
Speaker 2: he was blind in one eye and everything, and then
Speaker 2: to see r L and Ali did the looked at
Speaker 2: Carla and looked at me, looked at at Carla, looked
Speaker 2: at me and said said to color you married him. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you just sit there going, Wow, what's the of life
Speaker 2: as these Yeah, man, amazing people.
Speaker 1: I'm moving to the last time we go talking about here,
Speaker 1: and it's it's someone who this is very recent, this
Speaker 1: is all kind of happened, and You've had a very
Speaker 1: close relationship with this man. I'm looking across and I
Speaker 1: see his name and the Shane warn Stand. I want
Speaker 1: to ask you, I guys, about your personal relationship with him.
Speaker 1: I know you knew him very well and he was
Speaker 1: someone that was very dear to yourself and I had
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of fun times, a lot
Speaker 1: of a lot of good times with the man. I've
Speaker 1: got a bunch of stories that you go through. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to go through, and we'll be here for
Speaker 1: another four hours.
Speaker 2: But picture look Warning was yeah to me, the quintessential
Speaker 2: kid from Melbourne who came in and was the storybook.
Speaker 2: I mean, his life is I mean, you know, we
Speaker 2: only know parts of it. You know it was was
Speaker 2: even bigger than what it is, and he was enormous,
Speaker 2: but he was also a great friend. The phone call
Speaker 2: would come, you know, what are you doing? I don't
Speaker 2: know what it was, the phone of ringing you look
Speaker 2: Shane Warning and said this is either going to be
Speaker 2: the biggest story of the year and he needs help,
Speaker 2: this is going to be a great night ahead of us.
Speaker 2: And you know the amount of times that all happened.
Speaker 2: But once what I loved about Warning is once he
Speaker 2: actually believed you to be a friend, and you showed
Speaker 2: to be a friend, then you were in again. And
Speaker 2: I find that with a lot of the great people,
Speaker 2: they they will bring you in and give you everything,
Speaker 2: and they just want to have other friends and other
Speaker 2: people that can rely on. So it was a terrible
Speaker 2: tragedy when the news came through at one thirty that
Speaker 2: morning that Shane had died. But you know, I remember
Speaker 2: going around to his house one time and Dan at
Speaker 2: Portsy and there's a guy there Ross. Hello, Ross. It
Speaker 2: seems got a bit of an English accents. Obviously he's
Speaker 2: an important character and Warning. So that we get talking
Speaker 2: and start talking about in English soccer and well, they said,
Speaker 2: it says to me, how do you find I said, well,
Speaker 2: you know, nominally Manchester United, And I said, I still
Speaker 2: as old as this is as a Manchester United guy
Speaker 2: like Liverpool because Kenny Delglish became a friend and his
Speaker 2: connection to Celtic. I said, look, I'm a Celtic man,
Speaker 2: and yeah they're the big club and no, really you
Speaker 2: like Seli's heah, yeah, so I start off. Yeah, the
Speaker 2: first British team to win the European Cup of nine
Speaker 2: at sixty seven won the you know, the Coronation Cup
Speaker 2: of nine and fifty three and Celtic played Hibbs and
Speaker 2: it was an all Green final and my father was
Speaker 2: there at Hamden Parkers, one hundred and twenty five thousand
Speaker 2: people there, blah blah blah blah blah. And I get
Speaker 2: wound up into it and they asked warning, throws a
Speaker 2: few questions. You know, I'm into it about all this
Speaker 2: sort of stuff. Not unusual, you know that I've got
Speaker 2: a bit wound up and going. And then Warne says,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, I said, said, Ross is a Celtic man.
Speaker 2: Really if you break for the Celtic I said yeah,
Speaker 2: He says yeah, his family owned them. I said, I said, who's.
Speaker 1: Your last twenty minutes riff and I had just gone on.
Speaker 2: He said what I said, what your father? You do
Speaker 2: them at Desmond, so he said, yeah Ross Desmond. I said, right, okay,
Speaker 2: now he said, I didn't know half of that. It
Speaker 2: was fantastic. So later in the air they're coming out
Speaker 2: and Ross Ross came out for Warning's funeral down at
Speaker 2: the Saint Gilda Footy Club and so the Desmonds are
Speaker 2: coming out, so I'm looking for to catching up with them.
Speaker 2: But one of my great memories was I took my
Speaker 2: dad back and the last game he saw of Celtic
Speaker 2: in Scotland was with me. The first the last game
Speaker 2: he went before he came to Australia was a knee
Speaker 2: deep in the mud, and this time we went, we
Speaker 2: sent in the director's box. And then the last game
Speaker 2: he saw just before he died, when his ninety four
Speaker 2: was over at Amy Stadium and the Celtic we say coach,
Speaker 2: but manager Neil Lennon actually came up and made a
Speaker 2: presentation to him and became a jumper with Maguire ninety
Speaker 2: or ninety four whatever it was, and there must have
Speaker 2: been ninety four and in a beautiful tanker and a
Speaker 2: ball and all that sort of stuff to my dad,
Speaker 2: who couldn't believe it that after all these years in
Speaker 2: Australia that the team that he loved. If we breathed
Speaker 2: loudly on a Sunday morning when the BB said World
Speaker 2: Service with no it was getting the results on the radio,
Speaker 2: so you'd have to go this. That was English Premier
Speaker 2: League and the Division one and again through all that
Speaker 2: didn't Bet Division five, then Scotland Quiet, Celtic two Rangers,
Speaker 2: and that was it happiness for another couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: I must say, mate, I know you did the send
Speaker 1: off with Warner here at the MCG and that was
Speaker 1: a pretty pretty beautiful moment. I think it was very
Speaker 1: well constructed. I know you're a massive behind it and
Speaker 1: something I know he would have been proud of.
Speaker 2: Office was enormous and met Gadinski from Mushroom with the
Speaker 2: staging and Coz cardown at GMTV and then the MCG
Speaker 2: and Peter Jones who does all the big events in Melbourne,
Speaker 2: and what I loved about it was it was Melbourne
Speaker 2: coming together and because it was on all the stations,
Speaker 2: none of the no one stuck their head in from
Speaker 2: Sydney or any of the other and we're actually able
Speaker 2: to do it. And as a turnout, I was actually
Speaker 2: sick the week before I was and I was petrofied
Speaker 2: I had COVID, so I didn't test myself. I stayed
Speaker 2: home and on the Sunday, I thought, I'm going to
Speaker 2: have to write this one because we had to put
Speaker 2: it through protocol, and two because in case I couldn't
Speaker 2: do it. So I was going to test myself on
Speaker 2: the Monday and Tuesday and see how I was going.
Speaker 2: As it turned out, it was a flu that was
Speaker 2: going around Melbourne at that time and I tested negative
Speaker 2: and I was right. But so I sat down on
Speaker 2: the Sunday and wrote the funeral. I just sat on
Speaker 2: the kitchen table and it knocked it all out because
Speaker 2: we knew we had out, and we knew we had
Speaker 2: been at Edge Sheer, and we knew we had Chris Martin,
Speaker 2: and we knew that all these other things were falling
Speaker 2: into place, and so then you're able to put it together.
Speaker 2: And what was interesting for us was because there was
Speaker 2: no ad breaks, we had to really almost do it
Speaker 2: like a theater production where they wanted to or pull
Speaker 2: sets out, and we had to get the kids from
Speaker 2: their speech to the top of the stand unveiled. So
Speaker 2: that's why we had the trumpet and then different things
Speaker 2: like that. So it was actually great fun pulling it
Speaker 2: all together, but at the same time making sure that
Speaker 2: we used the mcg as a set rather than it
Speaker 2: being the venue. So we use it as a set,
Speaker 2: get the shots of Melbourne, get people realizing this will
Speaker 2: be a show, not just a funeral, but at the
Speaker 2: same time keep the solemnity of a funeral on what
Speaker 2: we're actually doing and not turning it into a circus.
Speaker 2: So that was what we were trying to do and
Speaker 2: I think we're able to.
Speaker 1: Check you accomplished it so well mate, and it's it's
Speaker 1: great to sit here and look across and see the
Speaker 1: shame warns, so I'm sure you're pretty proud of that,
Speaker 1: and probably gives you a bit of goose swamp seeing it.
Speaker 2: But it was great because the day he died, I
Speaker 2: received the phone call from the Premier, Daniel Andrews, who
Speaker 2: said we need to do a state funeral, don't we
Speaker 2: and what do you think and I said, yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 2: that'll be amazing for the family. And then I went
Speaker 2: down spoke to the family and you know, they're really
Speaker 2: taken by it. And then a couple of days in
Speaker 2: the phone call came through again and you know, what
Speaker 2: do you think about the stand? And I said, well, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's again. It's a pity didn't happen when he was alive,
Speaker 2: but yeah, what a great moment for the for the family,
Speaker 2: and it's it's it's such a I mean, he's such
Speaker 2: a Melbourne icon.
Speaker 1: You know, he's one of the first people over knew
Speaker 1: shame warnings. So if you know anything about Australia need
Speaker 1: no shame warn.
Speaker 2: Well he's got a statue at the front, and he's
Speaker 2: got on the northern side of the ground. He's got
Speaker 2: to stand on the southern side. And I'm glad that
Speaker 2: the people have come out already and said it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: When it's redeveloped, there'll be a shame war, whether it
Speaker 2: be the whole stand or part of the stand or whatever.
Speaker 2: It's it's there. Yeah, beautiful. It's just enormous.
Speaker 1: You can see how much of a great friend he
Speaker 1: was to you, mate, and just like you are to me,
Speaker 1: an amazing friendship. With the amounts you've been someone I've
Speaker 1: said it before, I'll say it again. You've been somewhat
Speaker 1: of a father figure for me since I've moved to
Speaker 1: this country. It made me too old, but we've showed
Speaker 1: a lot of Christmas dinners. You've always taken me in
Speaker 1: as one of your own.
Speaker 2: And do you bring a certain genes a quiet to
Speaker 2: the equation as well. I remember the first time I
Speaker 2: met you. I remember feeling you and Nol and your
Speaker 2: brother just how impressive you were. And remember Derek Hyes
Speaker 2: ringing me and he was over at the Combine in
Speaker 2: America and I said, is anything anyone over there? He said,
Speaker 2: there's one bloke we've got to get and there's a
Speaker 2: couple of clubs into him. I said, well get him
Speaker 2: out here. He said he's coming out and I said, well, yeah,
Speaker 2: make sure we catch up and I'll do the full
Speaker 2: court press on him. And as you said, you didn't
Speaker 2: quite know who I was, and you walked out and
Speaker 2: saw me on the bank of.
Speaker 1: A big deal.
Speaker 2: But it was great chatting to you. And also what
Speaker 2: I think people estimate with you is coming with your
Speaker 2: college education, you've brought an enormous maturity to football, not
Speaker 2: just Collingwood, but to football and particularly calling Wood, and
Speaker 2: the way you've been able to battle through your I
Speaker 2: issues learning the game, the criticism that is coming your way,
Speaker 2: which is quite incredible at times, but also then to
Speaker 2: not only play that game in the Pulminary Final, which
Speaker 2: is one of the most magical moments I've ever had
Speaker 2: in my life. Watching you that day at the mcg
Speaker 2: against Richmond was just one of the greatest things ever.
Speaker 2: You know, to sit behind your parents when you had
Speaker 2: your first kick on Anzac Day and you kick the
Speaker 2: goal and nearly see them jump out of the out
Speaker 2: of the off the second deck there only to probably
Speaker 2: landed on me because I were jumping even higher I reckon.
Speaker 2: But those they were their magic moments that you just
Speaker 2: look at and you think wow. And then everything you've
Speaker 2: brought and what you continue to do even with you
Speaker 2: becoming an Australian citizen in recent times, these are things
Speaker 2: that are important. We have to get past just the
Speaker 2: media obsession with this week. You know, this week's game.
Speaker 2: Here zero sack the coach, give him a five year extension.
Speaker 2: This bloke should get you. Forget all that takes care
Speaker 2: of itself. We need to get back to reporting the
Speaker 2: humanity and I think you bring that embodiment to our
Speaker 2: game and it's been great and long may you continue
Speaker 2: to be involved in the game. The fact that you're
Speaker 2: doing this, the fact that you are talking to iconic
Speaker 2: people in Melbourne says to me, You've got a lot
Speaker 2: more to give because you actually get it. Whereas most
Speaker 2: footballers they come and they go and you know, they
Speaker 2: come back for the past players thing, and you think, Geszue,
Speaker 2: you actually might have had a bit more to give
Speaker 2: if you had have been given your head. Possibly, I
Speaker 2: think because you became as a mature age person who
Speaker 2: traveled to the other side of the world for a
Speaker 2: sense of adventure, and also because you had your college
Speaker 2: education and you've played a few different sports and things
Speaker 2: that gave you a completely different dimension and a capability
Speaker 2: to get through what has happened.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think I'll look back to my career
Speaker 1: and everything that I've done and everything else comes from zero.
Speaker 1: I didn't know anything. I didn't know anyone in this
Speaker 1: in this country. If I came here and now Bill
Speaker 1: have this amazing experience, it's because of the people have
Speaker 1: been surrounded me like in that time. You're a major
Speaker 1: part of that. And it's like we talked about the
Speaker 1: very beginning of this podcast, it's all those people that
Speaker 1: reach their hand out and help you and that's what
Speaker 1: makes it amazing.
Speaker 2: And I think also, and ask you a question. I
Speaker 2: always find that first generation Australians and all those who
Speaker 2: have come from overseas see Australia for what it is,
Speaker 2: even better than people have been here for generations. I
Speaker 2: find one of the holdbacks on Australia is because it's
Speaker 2: so good that people go, if it's not broke, don't
Speaker 2: fix it. Whereas anyone who's into looking down the track
Speaker 2: of life goes, well, if it's not broke, fix it
Speaker 2: and make it better and do things and look further
Speaker 2: down the track. So you know, we've got you know, unashamedly. Yeah,
Speaker 2: my mother said the best day of her life was
Speaker 2: and she stepped foot in Australia. And I took them
Speaker 2: back forty two years later and she said the second
Speaker 2: best day of her life was and she stepped back
Speaker 2: into Australia. Really, So that's where our mindset is, or
Speaker 2: my mindset is, and mom and dads were, So, you know,
Speaker 2: I just love seeing what we can do in Australia.
Speaker 2: I hate when we get caught up in nonsense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's one of the most beautiful places with some
Speaker 1: of the some just freedoms and things that we take
Speaker 1: for granted every single day that whenever you look back
Speaker 1: to the full picture of it, we're all quite fortunate
Speaker 1: to be here in the circumstances we are. But I
Speaker 1: just want to say a massive thank you Addie for
Speaker 1: coming on. Mate. It's been a great chat. There's some
Speaker 1: obvious here, so I've got a whole list of things.
Speaker 1: Are gonna go through a million things. But I'll bring
Speaker 1: a wine to Christmas next year. I don't think it'll
Speaker 1: be as good as yours.
Speaker 2: But I'll bring you good wine.
Speaker 1: Someone's told me pretty well, so.
Speaker 2: It's just black. You know. I could have give him
Speaker 2: a Cordy all the first streak game. Right now we're
Speaker 2: starting with with a Burgundy or a pet the wine
Speaker 2: glasses that were specific for the top of wine.
Speaker 1: I knew it was in for a lesson. So Mate,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for coming on. It's been a great chat.
Speaker 1: Like I said, Mate, you've been an amazing person in
Speaker 1: my life. I'm so grateful to have as part of
Speaker 1: my journey.
Speaker 2: Say continued.
Speaker 1: Thanks Ma, I appreciate We'll speak soon.
Speaker 2: Got anybody.
Speaker 1: Thanks brother,