November 2, 2024 • 14 mins
The son of rugby league legend Mark Graham is using his father's sporting career as the basis for a new documentary.
Sharko tells the story of Mark Graham's athletic legacy - including the 29 tests he played for the Kiwis, his historic induction into the NRL Hall of Fame and being named as NZ Player of the Century in 2007.
Luke and Mark Graham joined Piney to discuss the documentary.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Fine
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Ed B Sharco is a featured documentary about New Zealand
rugby league legend Mark Sharko Graham and his prime Mark Graham,
the best rugby league player in the world, renowned for
his size, his speed, his skill and his toughness. Sharko
includes interviews with Graham, Low, Wally Lewis, Steve Roach, Hugh McGann,
(00:32):
Paul Voughton and many others. But it's about more than
just rugby league and our best ever rugby league player.
It has written, directed and produced by Mark Graham's son,
Luke Graham. Mark and Luke Graham are both in studio
here at News Talks. He'd be great to see you both.
Congratulations on Sharko. It is a brilliant watch. Look can
(00:53):
I start with you? Are you happy with the way
that it's come out?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yes? Yes, Thank you.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Firstly, thanks for having us, appreciate the support. It's been
a few years in the making, as you'd expect, but
it's I'm glad it's over, but it was. It was
an amazing experience to kind of relive the past. Some
good things some bad things, but I'm really happy to
get it out there to the public and see what
they think.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Look, can you tell us about the motivation behind Sharko.
When did it start as a German of an idea
and how did it grow to the point where you thought, right,
I'm going to make this.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
Well, it's it's it's I guess it's been sitting with
me for a very long time, to be honest. It's
you know, my father's always been you know, he's my
idol to this to this day, and it was Rugby
Leagu's always been part of our family. And when you're
doing films, you really like to do things you can
to stick with and you believe in, and things you
(01:49):
you love. And I love Rugby League, I love my
father and I was I was really happy to be
able to get the opportunity to make this film. So
it's it's been forty plus years in the making, but
it's been six years germinating.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Well, it's amazing. Mark. You said during the during the
doco that you rarely only agreed to do it because
it was Luke who was doing it. You wouldn't necessarily
have done it if an independent person off the street
who you didn't know, had asked you about it? How
did you find the process?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Absolutely though I would have said no, and yeah, well
I didn't. I didn't really have anything much to do
with except Luke organized for me to answer some questions
in an old tin shed and it rained, so we
had to do it again the next day. And that's
that's I've had no input other than that. Yeah, so
(02:42):
I to watch it there. I've watched a couple of
different versions of it. Yeah, and I've been totally blown away.
But how good Lucas at what he does so at
his profession, which is a storytelling event, and he's done
a wonderful job.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yeah, no, you're you're right. It's it's brilliantly told. And
I was going to ask you about sitting in that shed.
It's very rustic, isn't it. The background? Well chosen Luke
for Mark to be sitting there. But you see what
it rained one day, so you get to do it
the next day. So how many hours were we actually
sitting in that chair? And that sherarning to one another.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Good question a bit eight to ten.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Yeah, yeah it was.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
It was actually I was.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
As you'd expect you you filmed for a long long time,
and even all the rest of the interviews we've probably filmed.
I probably filmed three hundred plus hours of interviews, well
for eighty three minutes for an eighty three minute documentary.
But that's what you have to do when you're having
those having those yarns with people. And I got to say,
footy plays a very good story.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Tell us, well, they certainly are, and that comes through
and all of the interviews that you've done so post production,
the post you know, doing all of the interviews, all
that raw footage. Awe, those hours and hours and hours.
Tell us about the process then of getting it down
to your eighty three minutes, Well, I was.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
I think my first cut was about four and a
half hours, and I think I had definitely enjoyed it,
and I feel my friends did. But we really needed
to cut it down for an actual audience. So I
had some very lucky to have some talented and very
honest people around me, and well, you know, it did
take a long time because I am very stubborn and
(04:21):
I am very disagreeable at some things. But we got
down to we got it down over about six to
eight months through the edit, and we got to a
really good place, and I am to be honest. Without
the editors, there's many people in making that edit happen,
so without them, we wouldn't be here today.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Mark. Another thing that you said, I think quite near
the start actually was that you weren't sure anyone would
actually remember you or want to watch it, which I
think was very self deprecating. Does your rugby league career
now feel like it was almost something that happened in
the past life or not?
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Yeah? Pretty much. Absolutely. You know, to have the good
fortune that I had and some of the accolades and
awards that I've won, it seems very much like a
Walt Disney movie, you know, where everything comes, everything works
out in the end. And yeah, as I've said this
on many occasions and will continue to say, you can't
(05:15):
be a good rugby league player in a team unless
you play with good players. So I was very fortunate.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
When you look back, or when you think back, actually,
how often do you do you think back on your
rugby league career? What do you think about a game
of rugby league every day? For example?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
No, never have the ever? Well, I that was a
wonderful period of my life, but now I'm retired, and
I've got other things to think about, mainly my bad
golf swing and what I'm going to do for the
rest of the afternoon.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
I think those are questions for a lot of us actually,
But when you do reflect back, and I guess you know,
going through the process of making this documentary would have
almost in some ways forced you to what is it
that stands out most vividly about your days playing rugby league?
At the top left.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
See a good question. I don't know if anything really
particularly stands yet. I think rugby league in the past
has been plagued and I don't know and will most
probably continue to be plagued by a bad administration. There
seems to be plenty of it. I've played for North
Sydney and we used to be it would get a
(06:31):
new coach every couple of years, and for some reason,
some bloke who didn't know the rules of the game
or didn't know much about the game was coaching in
first grade in Sydney. So I was in shock most
of the time about that. But I never backward and
coming forward, so he knew how I felt about him
pretty quickly.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
There's some amazing footage Luke that you've procured from from
you know, Kiwi's matches in particular. Man, those are some
memory triggers in there for those of us who grew
up watching those wonderful Kiwis teams. Did you have any
trouble getting the archival footage? Was it relatively straightforward to
come by?
Speaker 4 (07:06):
S badly A rugby league hasn't been I guess the archive,
the history hasn't been respected, especially from the video. The
video perspective, it was in the eighties and even the
previous film they did which we used footage of Dad in.
When we tried to get footage, one of the networks
in Australia had the rights. They lost it. They burnt
(07:26):
all their archive. They didn't hand it over to the
new South Lazeraby League or anything. And that's kind of
the way it was. So you know, half the time
we were we got footage from broadcast or etc. But
you know the other half it was John O who
recorded it on his VHS to his TV in nineteen
eighty three and he kept a DVD and he contacted
(07:48):
me or contacted someone else and we were lucky enough
to get that footage. So it was it was a
bit of a journey doing the archive, but luckily we
got there in the end.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah, and it adds so much to it, you know.
You you know, Mark, you talk about some of these
games or some of the other into viewees do and
then you see that footage and and again it's just
so well done, you guys. It just is a really
really good piece of work. Just back to the edit.
Look interested, you know you said you had four and
a half hours worth and you thought, oh, that's pretty good.
(08:18):
Down to eighty three. Did it get to the point
where you were just watching it so much that actually
you were a bit of a law of diminishing return
and you thought, I've watched this too much. I can't
possibly be dispassionate about it anymore.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
Well, well, definitely, to be honest, I'll be honest with filmmaking,
is I I changed the edit and we changed a
few shots and hopefully this just doesn't go across to
Australia suscreen Australians from Queensland don't here. But we changed
a few shots recently. And you you know, as a filmmaker,
that's part of you know, as a rugby league player,
you've got to train, you've got to eat, right, you're
going to sleep as a filmmaker. You just you know,
(08:51):
I've seen that film a thousand times. When you're when
we were watching the cinema, I was looking. I was
still picking out mistakes in everything that we were doing,
and I was thinking, oh gosh, oh no, but it's
you know, it's it's part and parcel to filmmaking.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
And yeah, yeah, Cross you have to beer. Probably that
you'll never be, never be entirely pleased. Mark. You were
obviously well known for the incredible toughness that you brought
to the rugby league field and the punishment you took,
the physical punishment you took. Do you have any lasting
effects from that?
Speaker 3 (09:28):
My wife would mostually say so, Jason. She's always getting
onto me saying, you keep forgetting things like that. I
just wanted to don't want to do what she asked
me to do. But I can use it as a
bit of a crux.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yes, But what about physically you're able to? I mean
I can only tell by looking at the You know,
you're in pretty good physical shape. Still you okay to
get around? You can get around a golf course obviously.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Yeah, yeah, like you know, I trained, they still train.
I lift weights, so lift heavy weights. I play a
bit of golf. I've had a neck operation and a
shoulder reversal, and they wanted to give me a knee
something to do with my knee. Knee anyway, it was
a big one. Anyway, just changed my diet and so
(10:12):
I don't have sugar, dairy or gluten, and all my
inflammatory markers have dropped and I'm good to go.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Great to hear, great to hear.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Look, this is a documentary about rugby league and about
a rugby league player, obviously, but it's also about family
and the tragedy that hit your family with the death
of Matthew, your son Mark, your brother Luke. How confronting
Luke was that to relive well.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
Yet, to be honest, and I'll say that with the
Dad and I hadn't talked about it before, and that
was one of the first things when I was discussing
the idea with Dad was that I wanted to bring
up about Matthew's passing because it wasn't It's something that
we'd lived through, we'd kind of exactly what it was.
(11:01):
In the film. We didn't talk about it prior. We
haven't talked about it prior. We talked about it then
and there and we were and as you could you
could see that we were on very similar wavelinks with
it and how we dealt with it, et cetera. And
that was kind of the way we survived was by
dealing with it like that. But it was what was
really important, especially for myself, was that we were communicating
(11:24):
to an audience about something that every single human being
deals with in some way, shape or form. No one's
really superman, no one's bulletproof. We all feel no matter
who we are in this world, and it's really important
that you know, certainly, just as a filmmaker myself, to
to comm to communicate to the public that it's okay,
(11:44):
it's okay. You know, sometimes we feel down, sometimes we
feel great, But make sure that you communicate to those
people around you or if you can see someone, give
them a hand.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
It's incredibly authentic. It's pretty raw, pretty harrowing. Mark. How
have you managed to move on in your life after
such a tragedy?
Speaker 3 (12:03):
I think, yeah, Well, as I think, as Luke just
pointed out Jason, that the fact of the matter is
that not everything goes really good for everybody, and it's
just one of them things that you've got to do. Everybody,
everybody that you know, and I know I've most really
lost somebody. They've had a heartbreak, they've had financial ways,
they've had lack of sleep, whatever. You know, there's there's
lots of problems out there, and we just deal with
(12:24):
them by getting up in the morning and doing your
best you can. And I'm a believer in the Good Lord,
and I pray in the morning, in the evening, and
I pray for Matthew and my family and any every
chance I can get, so, you know, and I just compartmentalize.
I just put it there and I get to it
when I go to bed that that evening and I
(12:44):
think about it.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Then well, it adds an extraordinary layer to a to
a terrific documentary. Just before you go, Sharko. You tease
us all the way through, you know, you ask all
your guests, you know why is he called Sharko? A
couple of them ever have a guess at it, but
nobody seems to really know. And even at the end,
unless I've missed it, you don't tell us. So how
(13:06):
did you get the nickname?
Speaker 4 (13:07):
Well, it's it was it was, it was very interesting.
How he got that in here it was I think
he got it through a friend of his, and that
friend was nice enough to actually tell me very recently
about it, and while I was making the documentary, because
obviously that was one of his he had, He's had
a few nick names. A few of them we can't
say on radio, obviously, but yeah, this this gentleman told
(13:28):
me about it, told me the nickname, and I thought
that was that was very good. But sadly, Jason, I'm
not going to tell you.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
I knew you were coming to that, Luke. I knew
as she was as she were affering that scene, since
I thought there's a butt, there's a butt coming up
at the end of this. But I can't tell you.
I can't tell you what it adds. I just love
it how it ends without the thought I'm finally going
to find out why he's called Jarko. I don't never did,
I never did. Again. Guys are terrific. I I really
(13:55):
enjoyed watching it. I thought it was a terrific piece
of filmmaking. Luke. By you Mark, you're even though you
sound as though you were an unwilling subject. I think
it's a terrific portrayal of your life both on and
off the rugby league field. Thanks for popping in for
a chat. I'm sure a lot of people will take
a lot from Sharko.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Thank you, Jason, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Thanks guys. That's Luke Graham and Mark Graham. Sharko is
the name of the documentary. It premiere is in the
weak Ahead. In fact, I think the first premiere is
actually tonight, guys, Yes it is. It's tonight and Lynn
Moore the first premiere Sharko. It's called I'm sure if
you googled it you'll find all the screening details. I've
(14:35):
had the chance to have a look at an advanced
screening of it ahead of having a chat to the guys,
and yeah, it's well worth a look, not just for
rugby league fans who will take plenty from it, but
for sports fans and those who enjoy good filmmaking, which
this certainly is.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine. Listen live
to News Talk sed B weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Fine
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Ed B Sharco is a featured documentary about New Zealand
rugby league legend Mark Sharko Graham and his prime Mark Graham,
the best rugby league player in the world, renowned for
his size, his speed, his skill and his toughness. Sharko
includes interviews with Graham, Low, Wally Lewis, Steve Roach, Hugh McGann,
(00:32):
Paul Voughton and many others. But it's about more than
just rugby league and our best ever rugby league player.
It has written, directed and produced by Mark Graham's son,
Luke Graham. Mark and Luke Graham are both in studio
here at News Talks. He'd be great to see you both.
Congratulations on Sharko. It is a brilliant watch. Look can
(00:53):
I start with you? Are you happy with the way
that it's come out?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yes? Yes, Thank you.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Firstly, thanks for having us, appreciate the support. It's been
a few years in the making, as you'd expect, but
it's I'm glad it's over, but it was. It was
an amazing experience to kind of relive the past. Some
good things some bad things, but I'm really happy to
get it out there to the public and see what
they think.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Look, can you tell us about the motivation behind Sharko.
When did it start as a German of an idea
and how did it grow to the point where you thought, right,
I'm going to make this.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
Well, it's it's it's I guess it's been sitting with
me for a very long time, to be honest. It's
you know, my father's always been you know, he's my
idol to this to this day, and it was Rugby
Leagu's always been part of our family. And when you're
doing films, you really like to do things you can
to stick with and you believe in, and things you
(01:49):
you love. And I love Rugby League, I love my
father and I was I was really happy to be
able to get the opportunity to make this film. So
it's it's been forty plus years in the making, but
it's been six years germinating.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Well, it's amazing. Mark. You said during the during the
doco that you rarely only agreed to do it because
it was Luke who was doing it. You wouldn't necessarily
have done it if an independent person off the street
who you didn't know, had asked you about it? How
did you find the process?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Absolutely though I would have said no, and yeah, well
I didn't. I didn't really have anything much to do
with except Luke organized for me to answer some questions
in an old tin shed and it rained, so we
had to do it again the next day. And that's
that's I've had no input other than that. Yeah, so
(02:42):
I to watch it there. I've watched a couple of
different versions of it. Yeah, and I've been totally blown away.
But how good Lucas at what he does so at
his profession, which is a storytelling event, and he's done
a wonderful job.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yeah, no, you're you're right. It's it's brilliantly told. And
I was going to ask you about sitting in that shed.
It's very rustic, isn't it. The background? Well chosen Luke
for Mark to be sitting there. But you see what
it rained one day, so you get to do it
the next day. So how many hours were we actually
sitting in that chair? And that sherarning to one another.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Good question a bit eight to ten.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Yeah, yeah it was.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
It was actually I was.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
As you'd expect you you filmed for a long long time,
and even all the rest of the interviews we've probably filmed.
I probably filmed three hundred plus hours of interviews, well
for eighty three minutes for an eighty three minute documentary.
But that's what you have to do when you're having
those having those yarns with people. And I got to say,
footy plays a very good story.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Tell us, well, they certainly are, and that comes through
and all of the interviews that you've done so post production,
the post you know, doing all of the interviews, all
that raw footage. Awe, those hours and hours and hours.
Tell us about the process then of getting it down
to your eighty three minutes, Well, I was.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
I think my first cut was about four and a
half hours, and I think I had definitely enjoyed it,
and I feel my friends did. But we really needed
to cut it down for an actual audience. So I
had some very lucky to have some talented and very
honest people around me, and well, you know, it did
take a long time because I am very stubborn and
(04:21):
I am very disagreeable at some things. But we got
down to we got it down over about six to
eight months through the edit, and we got to a
really good place, and I am to be honest. Without
the editors, there's many people in making that edit happen,
so without them, we wouldn't be here today.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Mark. Another thing that you said, I think quite near
the start actually was that you weren't sure anyone would
actually remember you or want to watch it, which I
think was very self deprecating. Does your rugby league career
now feel like it was almost something that happened in
the past life or not?
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Yeah? Pretty much. Absolutely. You know, to have the good
fortune that I had and some of the accolades and
awards that I've won, it seems very much like a
Walt Disney movie, you know, where everything comes, everything works
out in the end. And yeah, as I've said this
on many occasions and will continue to say, you can't
(05:15):
be a good rugby league player in a team unless
you play with good players. So I was very fortunate.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
When you look back, or when you think back, actually,
how often do you do you think back on your
rugby league career? What do you think about a game
of rugby league every day? For example?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
No, never have the ever? Well, I that was a
wonderful period of my life, but now I'm retired, and
I've got other things to think about, mainly my bad
golf swing and what I'm going to do for the
rest of the afternoon.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
I think those are questions for a lot of us actually,
But when you do reflect back, and I guess you know,
going through the process of making this documentary would have
almost in some ways forced you to what is it
that stands out most vividly about your days playing rugby league?
At the top left.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
See a good question. I don't know if anything really
particularly stands yet. I think rugby league in the past
has been plagued and I don't know and will most
probably continue to be plagued by a bad administration. There
seems to be plenty of it. I've played for North
Sydney and we used to be it would get a
(06:31):
new coach every couple of years, and for some reason,
some bloke who didn't know the rules of the game
or didn't know much about the game was coaching in
first grade in Sydney. So I was in shock most
of the time about that. But I never backward and
coming forward, so he knew how I felt about him
pretty quickly.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
There's some amazing footage Luke that you've procured from from
you know, Kiwi's matches in particular. Man, those are some
memory triggers in there for those of us who grew
up watching those wonderful Kiwis teams. Did you have any
trouble getting the archival footage? Was it relatively straightforward to
come by?
Speaker 4 (07:06):
S badly A rugby league hasn't been I guess the archive,
the history hasn't been respected, especially from the video. The
video perspective, it was in the eighties and even the
previous film they did which we used footage of Dad in.
When we tried to get footage, one of the networks
in Australia had the rights. They lost it. They burnt
(07:26):
all their archive. They didn't hand it over to the
new South Lazeraby League or anything. And that's kind of
the way it was. So you know, half the time
we were we got footage from broadcast or etc. But
you know the other half it was John O who
recorded it on his VHS to his TV in nineteen
eighty three and he kept a DVD and he contacted
(07:48):
me or contacted someone else and we were lucky enough
to get that footage. So it was it was a
bit of a journey doing the archive, but luckily we
got there in the end.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah, and it adds so much to it, you know.
You you know, Mark, you talk about some of these
games or some of the other into viewees do and
then you see that footage and and again it's just
so well done, you guys. It just is a really
really good piece of work. Just back to the edit.
Look interested, you know you said you had four and
a half hours worth and you thought, oh, that's pretty good.
(08:18):
Down to eighty three. Did it get to the point
where you were just watching it so much that actually
you were a bit of a law of diminishing return
and you thought, I've watched this too much. I can't
possibly be dispassionate about it anymore.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
Well, well, definitely, to be honest, I'll be honest with filmmaking,
is I I changed the edit and we changed a
few shots and hopefully this just doesn't go across to
Australia suscreen Australians from Queensland don't here. But we changed
a few shots recently. And you you know, as a filmmaker,
that's part of you know, as a rugby league player,
you've got to train, you've got to eat, right, you're
going to sleep as a filmmaker. You just you know,
(08:51):
I've seen that film a thousand times. When you're when
we were watching the cinema, I was looking. I was
still picking out mistakes in everything that we were doing,
and I was thinking, oh gosh, oh no, but it's
you know, it's it's part and parcel to filmmaking.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
And yeah, yeah, Cross you have to beer. Probably that
you'll never be, never be entirely pleased. Mark. You were
obviously well known for the incredible toughness that you brought
to the rugby league field and the punishment you took,
the physical punishment you took. Do you have any lasting
effects from that?
Speaker 3 (09:28):
My wife would mostually say so, Jason. She's always getting
onto me saying, you keep forgetting things like that. I
just wanted to don't want to do what she asked
me to do. But I can use it as a
bit of a crux.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yes, But what about physically you're able to? I mean
I can only tell by looking at the You know,
you're in pretty good physical shape. Still you okay to
get around? You can get around a golf course obviously.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Yeah, yeah, like you know, I trained, they still train.
I lift weights, so lift heavy weights. I play a
bit of golf. I've had a neck operation and a
shoulder reversal, and they wanted to give me a knee
something to do with my knee. Knee anyway, it was
a big one. Anyway, just changed my diet and so
(10:12):
I don't have sugar, dairy or gluten, and all my
inflammatory markers have dropped and I'm good to go.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Great to hear, great to hear.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Look, this is a documentary about rugby league and about
a rugby league player, obviously, but it's also about family
and the tragedy that hit your family with the death
of Matthew, your son Mark, your brother Luke. How confronting
Luke was that to relive well.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
Yet, to be honest, and I'll say that with the
Dad and I hadn't talked about it before, and that
was one of the first things when I was discussing
the idea with Dad was that I wanted to bring
up about Matthew's passing because it wasn't It's something that
we'd lived through, we'd kind of exactly what it was.
(11:01):
In the film. We didn't talk about it prior. We
haven't talked about it prior. We talked about it then
and there and we were and as you could you
could see that we were on very similar wavelinks with
it and how we dealt with it, et cetera. And
that was kind of the way we survived was by
dealing with it like that. But it was what was
really important, especially for myself, was that we were communicating
(11:24):
to an audience about something that every single human being
deals with in some way, shape or form. No one's
really superman, no one's bulletproof. We all feel no matter
who we are in this world, and it's really important
that you know, certainly, just as a filmmaker myself, to
to comm to communicate to the public that it's okay,
(11:44):
it's okay. You know, sometimes we feel down, sometimes we
feel great, But make sure that you communicate to those
people around you or if you can see someone, give
them a hand.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
It's incredibly authentic. It's pretty raw, pretty harrowing. Mark. How
have you managed to move on in your life after
such a tragedy?
Speaker 3 (12:03):
I think, yeah, Well, as I think, as Luke just
pointed out Jason, that the fact of the matter is
that not everything goes really good for everybody, and it's
just one of them things that you've got to do. Everybody,
everybody that you know, and I know I've most really
lost somebody. They've had a heartbreak, they've had financial ways,
they've had lack of sleep, whatever. You know, there's there's
lots of problems out there, and we just deal with
(12:24):
them by getting up in the morning and doing your
best you can. And I'm a believer in the Good Lord,
and I pray in the morning, in the evening, and
I pray for Matthew and my family and any every
chance I can get, so, you know, and I just compartmentalize.
I just put it there and I get to it
when I go to bed that that evening and I
(12:44):
think about it.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Then well, it adds an extraordinary layer to a to
a terrific documentary. Just before you go, Sharko. You tease
us all the way through, you know, you ask all
your guests, you know why is he called Sharko? A
couple of them ever have a guess at it, but
nobody seems to really know. And even at the end,
unless I've missed it, you don't tell us. So how
(13:06):
did you get the nickname?
Speaker 4 (13:07):
Well, it's it was it was, it was very interesting.
How he got that in here it was I think
he got it through a friend of his, and that
friend was nice enough to actually tell me very recently
about it, and while I was making the documentary, because
obviously that was one of his he had, He's had
a few nick names. A few of them we can't
say on radio, obviously, but yeah, this this gentleman told
(13:28):
me about it, told me the nickname, and I thought
that was that was very good. But sadly, Jason, I'm
not going to tell you.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
I knew you were coming to that, Luke. I knew
as she was as she were affering that scene, since
I thought there's a butt, there's a butt coming up
at the end of this. But I can't tell you.
I can't tell you what it adds. I just love
it how it ends without the thought I'm finally going
to find out why he's called Jarko. I don't never did,
I never did. Again. Guys are terrific. I I really
(13:55):
enjoyed watching it. I thought it was a terrific piece
of filmmaking. Luke. By you Mark, you're even though you
sound as though you were an unwilling subject. I think
it's a terrific portrayal of your life both on and
off the rugby league field. Thanks for popping in for
a chat. I'm sure a lot of people will take
a lot from Sharko.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Thank you, Jason, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Thanks guys. That's Luke Graham and Mark Graham. Sharko is
the name of the documentary. It premiere is in the
weak Ahead. In fact, I think the first premiere is
actually tonight, guys, Yes it is. It's tonight and Lynn
Moore the first premiere Sharko. It's called I'm sure if
you googled it you'll find all the screening details. I've
(14:35):
had the chance to have a look at an advanced
screening of it ahead of having a chat to the guys,
and yeah, it's well worth a look, not just for
rugby league fans who will take plenty from it, but
for sports fans and those who enjoy good filmmaking, which
this certainly is.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine. Listen live
to News Talk sed B weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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