From Texas to AFL Glory: Mason Cox's Incredible Journey

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_06 (00:00):
Before we dive into today's episode, I've got some
exciting news.
FutureLab, Australia's firstlongevity supplement range, is
now available at chemistwarehouse and leading health
food stores.
Now, this is a lot more than aregular supplement range.
It really is a mission.
The experts at FutureLab havedeveloped formulas designed to
support your well-being today,tomorrow and beyond.

(00:24):
Welcome to FutureLab, where weexplore the cutting edge of
healthspan and longevity.
I'm Danny Urbinder and And withme is my co-host, Dr.
Denise Finesse.

SPEAKER_05 (00:32):
Hello, everyone.
I'm going to hand it straightover to our next co-host,
Trevor, because I'm reallyexcited to speak to our guest
today.

SPEAKER_04 (00:40):
Yeah, you're excited.
I'm excited.
So firstly, we often do twodifferent types of episodes.
So we do a masterclass where wecould pick Denise's brains or
someone from around the world orfind out more about products to
really get the informationstraight into people.
Then we've got Life Masterieswhere we invite someone along
that we find inspiring someonethat we feel has done some

(01:03):
pretty cool stuff and we couldall learn a lot from, even just
in their story.
So for those that are listening,it's a life mastery today.
And we've got a really specialman, a very special, he's not
liking the fact that I keepcalling him master, but special.
He's

SPEAKER_00 (01:18):
blushing a little bit.
It makes me feel like an oldman, you know, like a wise man
with a big beard is what I feellike at the

SPEAKER_04 (01:22):
moment.
Yes, because spiritually we'rethe same age, right?
Yeah, spiritually, yeah.
We act the same.
But he's a, He's a wonderful,beautiful, amazing friend of
mine.
An interesting story is that forpeople that are listening from
outside of Australia, the AFL,the Australian Football League,
is the biggest sport in ourcountry.
And Denise, for example, andmyself, we've grown up just

(01:47):
idolizing teams and players andeverything else.
So a lot of people spent theirwhole life watching AFL or
wanting to play AFL, and it's abig deal, particularly down here
in the southern states wherewe're at the moment.
We're in Victoria, Melbourne.
It's the front and page of thepaper all the time.

SPEAKER_05 (02:01):
It was VFL when we were growing

SPEAKER_04 (02:03):
up.
The Victorian Football Leagueand then went to the Australian
Football League.
It's truly national.
It's pretty impressive.
So I wanted to state that fromthe start.
But where I met this gentlemanwas through a curious story of
how he ended up in this country.
But I'd just like to say at thestart that it's his birthday
tomorrow.
So that's pretty cool.
Turning 34 tomorrow.

(02:24):
Don't need to say the age, mate.
I'm 56.
You've got plenty of age on yourside.
And he actually arrived inAustralia, flew in the night
before, went straight to themantra on Jolimont and walked
down in his club clothes thenext morning because he knew he
had to go.
He had a bag waiting for him,whatever, to turn up for his

(02:44):
first day at his new job as anathlete, which we'll get into.
But when he walked downstairs, Iwas working for Collingwood
Football Club and I was sittingthere having breakfast and I saw
him come in and I knew all aboutMason arriving.
I'm not supposed to give yourname away just yet, but...
Everyone knows anyway becausethey know the episode.

(03:04):
But in comes this very tall manthat I know pictures of anyway.
And I stood up and I said, hey,Mace, I'm Trevor.
I work at the club.
You know, welcome.
And I said, would you like tohave breakfast with me?
And we sat down and hadbreakfast together and then
walked over to the clubtogether.
And I walked you in andintroduced you to the
development coach at the timeand the head coach.
And the development coachesended up being the head coach.

(03:26):
There's a whole story we'll tellthere.

SPEAKER_06 (03:27):
What did you talk about though?
So you– You've just landed.
You've got no idea what's goingon.
You've come from the US.
Have you even seen AFL before?
What did you

SPEAKER_00 (03:36):
do?
I mean, did you just say, shit,mate, I am shit scared?
So I always tell people, try toput yourself in my position.
So Mason Cox.
Thanks for being here.
Thanks so much for having me,first of all.
Six foot 11.
Six foot 11.
So 17 shoe.
It's a whole thing.
But no, I think like I alwaystell people, I try to put
yourself in my shoe whenever Ifirst came here, right?
Like I didn't know a singleperson from Australia.
I didn't know anything about it.

(03:57):
I knew that like the SydneyOpera House and the fire.
works for New Year's.
That was it.
Kangaroos, koalas, deadly stuff.
Right?
Typical things overseas peoplesay.
And koalas.
And koalas, yeah.
And I came here and I had noidea about anything.
And, you know, Trevor, like yousaid, was seriously one of the
first people I ever saw inAustralia.
And we sat down, you know, and Ikind of was like, oh, there's
this random guy that says he'spart of the Collingwood Football

(04:19):
Club.
And I'm trying to like, youknow, you first meet someone,
you're trying to suss him

SPEAKER_03 (04:23):
out.
What do you do?

SPEAKER_00 (04:26):
And I can remember talking to you about, you know,
you're like, oh, you to, youknow, be an athlete and I'm just
kind of like, all right, what'dyou do?
And you kind of start talkingabout what you did and I was
like, I didn't even know thatwas a professional sport.
Like, I had no clue.
Did you watch

SPEAKER_05 (04:38):
Baywatch?
He was

SPEAKER_00 (04:39):
on Baywatch.
I was looking at him.
He still could be, to be honestwith you.
And it's one of those thingsthat I think it was just like,
there's so many things along myjourney that I've just had to
pick up and just try tounderstand and, you know, it's
through a bit of ignorance andhopefully people don't take
offense to it, but I just didn'tknow people and what they have
done and everything else.
So it's been a massive learningexperience for me and I think
whenever I first met you anyonethat meets you has this amazing

(05:01):
kind of comforting feeling fromyou you give the biggest hugs
which is also amazing and Ithink everyone just has this
incredible positive energy thatyou give off to people and as
soon as you meet someone likethat you instantly just feel
connected with them and that wasI think the biggest thing
whenever I first met you comingup to me you know reaching out
to someone who you had known Iknew nothing about this

(05:22):
experience I was quite nervousand anxious about everything
that was about to happen and youkind of come over as a very
calming personality and say youknow This is what I do.
This is what I'm here to helpwith.
And like any way I can possibly,you know, help you get to that
next step in your career.
Like I want to help you out withit.
And that was something to me,you know, I was like, wow,
Australia is a very givingculture.
And like this guy right away isshowing that.

(05:43):
And something I'm veryappreciative of.

SPEAKER_04 (05:45):
It's funny because almost divinely orchestrated,
because probably the two mostwelcoming people in the club at
the time would have been me andFly.
And it was, I welcomed you andthen took you straight over to
Fly, you know, and that processstarted.
So it was obviously someone waslooking after you to say, oh,
we'll give you the people thatwill make you feel welcome
first.
Because it

SPEAKER_05 (06:03):
was by chance.
You weren't there waiting to...

SPEAKER_04 (06:05):
No, I was just having breakfast because I
stayed in the hotel because Idon't live in Victoria.
So I was traveling down.
I just happened to be one of mydays at the club.
And we walked in.
We ended up doing Chi Gong

SPEAKER_00 (06:16):
at lunchtime on the bank of the Yarra.
Was that new?
No, I was like, this place is soholistic.
This thing is wild.
I was like, I'd never donemeditation at that point.
I was just like, America isknown to be quite a Ruth place
you know like none of that stuffreally kind of

SPEAKER_05 (06:31):
you're not doing that

SPEAKER_00 (06:32):
in sport no chance in heck you would ever be doing
that in America but I was likewow this guy just like fully
bought into it you know wheneveryou do something for the first
time you're kind of like youknow hopefully this makes sense
you know like and hopefully whatI'm doing is right you kind of
look a bit awkward and that wasdefinitely me as people were you
know I'll never forget we'redoing you know that next to the
river and there's people onthese boats just like you know
paddling through and stuff andthere's some guy with a

(06:53):
microphone screaming at them onthe boat and we're sitting there
doing this real zen meditationit was that no it was cool It
was one of the cool experiencesI first got

SPEAKER_06 (07:00):
here.
Sorry, when you met Trevor then,so what did you know about the
game?
What were you expecting in termsof what was expected of you?

SPEAKER_00 (07:10):
Zero.

SPEAKER_04 (07:11):
You'd been to, you came over, you got, you can tell
us the story about it.
Yeah, give me a bit of a backstory.
Actually, go back a little bitfor us.
You started off soccer,basketball.

SPEAKER_00 (07:21):
Yeah, so grew up in Dallas, Texas.
Texas is a very heavy NFLgridiron kind of state.
And I played soccer throughoutmy time.
time there, play at the highestlevel, and then went to
university to study mechanicalengineering and did a business
management minor while I wasthere.
But three years into thatdegree, I ended up getting
spotted by the basketball team.

(07:41):
I'd never played basketball atthis point.
I picked it up while I was inuniversity because I had friends
that did it, and I just went toa local rec gym.
This person that was part of thewomen's basketball team,
actually, firstly came up to meand said, hey, would you be
interested in helping us out?
We need someone that's verytall, that can emulate a person
called Brittany Griner, who'svery famous in the WNBA, and she
was in the...
So you were Brittany Griner.

(08:01):
Oh, it was Brittany Griner.
Brittany Griner's the reason I'mhere.
Wow, that's pretty cool.
Yeah, yeah, it goes back a longway.
Hopefully she hears this at somepoint.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And that was kind of the firsttime I got into, I guess, like a
high level of basketball.
I did that, and...

SPEAKER_04 (08:16):
So you went down to practice, to women's practice,
and you're basically in theirway, you're blocking, and you're
doing all that, but you're alsolike spinning around, doing a
few shots, and mucking around.

SPEAKER_00 (08:25):
Yeah, I mean, I'd never really shot a basketball
too much, so I just stayedwithin the paint you know just
you know play to your strengthsright and height was my strength
because i had no skillwhatsoever so now we did that
and it was more just likedefensive stuff they could run
plays against us and things likethat so they could you know feel
comfortable on the weekend oncethey match up with someone and
you know i was there and one ofthe i think it was a year and a
half two years into it and themen's team training the same

(08:46):
place and they're like hey who'sthat tall fellow over there you
know like we're looking forsomeone that might be able to
play that position and help usout and um you know i went from
the women's team to then themen's team and we started taking
private jets around the countryto different games and stuff and
i was like wow this is reallyfeel bougie you know and it was
awesome we got free clothes andall this kind of stuff and
that's kind of how thebasketball side started and I
didn't expect anything of it Iwas like a walk-on which in

(09:08):
America is kind of like the verybottom of the totem pole and I
sat behind the bench I didn'teven get a spot on the bench
that's kind of how bad it wasbut it was an incredible
experience I never thought youknow my athletic career would
kind of go past that but

SPEAKER_04 (09:21):
you did actually play though

SPEAKER_00 (09:22):
yeah well the first year was like very much learning
what like you know basketballwas I'd never checked into a
proper game at this point likein my life and so what are

SPEAKER_04 (09:30):
you playing for at this stage

SPEAKER_00 (09:32):
Oklahoma State yeah so that's the

SPEAKER_06 (09:34):
university did you or anyone else that was around
you think it was weird thatyou'd never picked up a
basketball

SPEAKER_00 (09:39):
very odd yeah I mean I was six foot ten or six foot
nine at the time or somethingI've grown a little bit since
then but they all kind of lookedat me I was like how did you not
play in high school you know butI grew six inches in the summer
over my last year of senior yearso that was kind of I played
soccer my whole life and thatwas kind of my direction and
what I was passionate about andall my friends were there so I
just continued on with thatretrospectively I probably

(10:02):
should have played basketball tobe honest but it's landed me
here and I'm very grateful andthe soccer

SPEAKER_05 (10:08):
probably helped with what you're doing now even

SPEAKER_00 (10:09):
though it's a completely different sport the
beauty is the things in lifethat kind of lead you to where
you're at so I played the men'steam for essentially two and a
half three years and by the lastyear I was six man which was
like the first person off thebench was having to play legit
minutes against guys that weregoing to the NBA so people that
know my AFL story it's gone fromfrom zero to kind of the

(10:30):
experience I've had now wasbasketball was kind of similar.
Like it was kind of, I'd neverreally played it and then all of
a sudden I'm playing on TV infront of the biggest stage and
the biggest players.
Let's pause for a moment because

SPEAKER_04 (10:38):
how bloody cool

SPEAKER_00 (10:39):
is that?
That makes no sense.
My life is like seriouslyridiculous.
I'm still thinking about

SPEAKER_05 (10:42):
the private jet.

SPEAKER_00 (10:43):
Yeah.
So college

SPEAKER_04 (10:44):
basketball is huge.
Bigger than the NFL.
It's massive.
Really?
Yeah, bigger than the NFL.
Without even actually having ahistory, you got to that stage.

SPEAKER_00 (10:53):
That's pretty cool in itself.
I was deer in the headlights.
I was just like amazed I washaving this experience.
Like I was like, holy smokes,like, You can see me in the
background on television.
It does strike

SPEAKER_06 (11:02):
me, and I think we can talk about that a bit later,
but I think the differencebetween you and probably most
people is you accepted thechallenge.
Most people go, no way, I'venever done that in my life.
Yeah, that would be scary.
That's something I want to talkabout.
We'll continue on going back towhat you said.

SPEAKER_04 (11:15):
So you're now coming on, you're playing serious
minutes, you're shooting hoops.
I've seen some footage.
You're playing some key roles inkey moments.
What was the highlight in thecollege basketball?
What was the game?
or the moment where you thoughtto yourself, oh, I just
contributed there?

SPEAKER_00 (11:33):
Yeah, I think the first game, I kind of really got
the respect of the coaches, andthat was a big thing I had to, I
mean, both AFL and basketballreally.
But we played University ofTexas in Austin, and I think it
was almost out of frustrationthe coach put me in.
And then I did everything thathe had been looking for, and
then he was like, whoa, whoa,whoa.
And then the media caught on,and the media was like, well,
why don't we play this guy?

(11:53):
And there was a whole thingbehind the scenes that happened.
But that was kind of like thebreakout game of like, this guy
plays a role that we need toplay, to be filled within the
team he does it well he's not ascorer he's not a guy going to
the NBA he just is a guy that'sa hustle player that gets us
rebounds gives it to our starplayers and they score and
that's all we needed at the timeso it wasn't like I needed to be
some incredible basketballplayer it's like no just play

(12:13):
this specific role really welland you can get minutes and
that's kind of how the wholething started

SPEAKER_04 (12:18):
well I can actually so I haven't sat with you for
that part of it before but I canfeel I can see the pattern that
then played out again in AFLbecause you became that player
that set up so many otherpeople.
One of the things I love aboutwhen I'm watching footage is
I'll say, did you see Mason'shand just then?
Like there'll be a contest wherefour or five, six people are
going up and you'll get a handto it and you'll very clearly

(12:41):
deflect that ball to exactly whoyou see running past.
And not a lot of people,certainly not a lot of talls do
that because they want the ball,they're going to mark it,
they've been aiming their wholelife to kick the goal.
A lot of times you will deferfrom trying to take the mark
that you're not sure of andyou'll just see this movement,
this flick of the rear orwhatever else.
Black and white person.
And of course, we'll get on towhere you've also starred.

(13:03):
I want to talk a bit about that.
But your ability to play a roleand support others to go and
star I think is one of thereally powerful things about
you.

SPEAKER_00 (13:11):
Yeah, I think I've changed that perception probably
over the last four to five yearsof it used to be almost like
100% or 0%.
You either take the mark or youdon't get anything out of it.
Where now I've kind of got tothis point where I'd rather have
80%, 100% of the time than thatkind of ratio where I know that
the majority of the time we'regoing to be able to get what we
want out of it.
It might not be me getting thestatistic of a mark, but it

(13:32):
might be us being able to get tothe next person, which allows us
to go another 50 meters, 100meters up the ground.
So that's the

SPEAKER_04 (13:37):
old goals are calling with goals thing rather

SPEAKER_00 (13:40):
than it's my goal.
I stopped caring about stats along time ago.
I tell people all the time, ifyou put me in your supers coach,
you're an idiot.
Stop.
Don't.
I just kind of got to that pointnow where in my career, I've
been able to have an incredibleamount of success and experience
and everything else.
Now, for me, I just want otherpeople that are around me to be

(14:00):
able to experience somethingsimilar.

SPEAKER_05 (14:02):
Can I ask, how did you go though from basketball in
the US?
I feel like we're missing abeat.
There's a lot to it.
I was like, I still

SPEAKER_04 (14:11):
don't know.
Bring us back to Craig McRae.
Who saw

SPEAKER_00 (14:14):
you?
Bring us

SPEAKER_04 (14:14):
back to the combine that you went to when you first
had the ball.
That was wild.
And then come to Craig McRae ifyou could.

SPEAKER_00 (14:19):
So you can imagine I was studying mechanical
engineering.
I'd finished my degree almostand basketball had just finished
and I was like, cool, I had ajob at Exxon Mobil, number one.
one fortune 500 company in theworld at that point very good
job coming out of college lockedthat in still at about three
months till I graduated andbasketball finished up and then
I got this kind of like weirdemail kind of thing actually it

(14:41):
was a Facebook message is whatit turned out to be and this guy
said hey would you be interestedto play this sport called
Australian rules footballthere's a combine Los Angeles we
can fly you over there allexpenses paid to be able to go
to this combine see if you'reany good and I kind of thought
it was like a spam message atfirst you know like come on this
doesn't this doesn't happen youknow like a Facebook messenger
okay like where are you from youknow and it was legit and the

(15:03):
guy got in contact with ourmedia people and stuff and then
you know I was kind of towardsthe back end of my college
experience and I had these kindof all I do is just finish final
exams essentially I already hadthe job locked up so I was like
well there's nothing really tolose so I was like well is it
all expenses paid trip and he'slike yep no worries I was a
broke college kid eating rumnoodles every single night and I

SPEAKER_03 (15:21):
was like

SPEAKER_00 (15:22):
free flight free hotel what do I do he's like a
few runs few jumps and thentouch a football and try to do
this and that And I was like,sold, man.
I'm in.
So I told him, I said, as longas I can stay an extra day, go
hang out with my friends in LA,then I'll do it.
And that was the motivationthing, was to hang out with my
friends in LA.
It wasn't actually to do thecombine, because I didn't think
anything would come of it.
I'd never heard of the sport.
And we fly over there.

(15:44):
Had you

SPEAKER_06 (15:44):
seen even a snippet of the game?

SPEAKER_00 (15:46):
Nothing.
Never even heard of it.
Nah, I didn't even knowMelbourne existed.
AFL, you thought it was ArenaFootball League.
Feeling great here right now.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, that's good by you.
I thought it was Arena FootballLeague, which is indoor
gridiron.
I thought that's what AFL was inthe where people first, you
know, told me that acronym.
And I was like, okay, yeah,cool.
I guess they play gridiron inAustralia.
Like, I don't really know.
And so that's kind of how it allkind of started to come

(16:08):
together.
And then we flew over to LosAngeles.
And, you know, I seriously didnot think anything was going to
come from it.
It was just a free trip.
Like, I was here just to have abit of fun.
And then from that, like, didreally well.
So tell us about

SPEAKER_04 (16:19):
Decker.

SPEAKER_00 (16:20):
Yeah, so Derek Hans.
Yes.
He's the recruitment manager, Iguess is probably the
terminology for him at the time.
Just retired, is that

SPEAKER_04 (16:27):
like the last few months?

SPEAKER_00 (16:27):
Yeah, just retired.
and he's one of those peoplethat's been massive in my career
like massively influential andhe was there and they'd flown
out to you know check out thisAmerican talent there's about 20
or 30 of us and he's there andhe brought this other guy named
Chris and Chris was this hypeman you know like this African
American fella who was just likejust you know real hype guy like
really energetic and I was likeheck yeah man I like this guy

(16:47):
and like I said put yourself inmy shoes I don't know the
difference between a Collingwooda Port Adelaide a North
Melbourne like I didn't evenknow what the league was much
less any teams in it so

SPEAKER_04 (16:56):
Melbourne as you said you didn't even know

SPEAKER_00 (16:57):
Melbourne yeah I didn't know Melbourne
Melbourne's in Florida rightyeah Melbourne's in Florida
that's great and I do thiscombine and Derek's kind of you
know pissing in your pocket Ithink is the way Australians
would say it right and you knowand then there's kind of you ask
a few questions and stuff andyou get this feeling of like
Collingwood's got a bit of pullright like Collingwood's a bit

(17:18):
you know got a bit more moneyCollingwood's got a bit more
like you know they're trying totell you all these details in
front of like this many fans andall this kind of stuff they've
got an

SPEAKER_05 (17:26):
amazing

SPEAKER_00 (17:26):
fan base incredible fan base and I think like you
start to kind of understand Iguess the differences between
each team that was there therewas five different teams there
and you know Derek wasdefinitely pushing Collingwood
obviously being the recruitmentguy there so he kind of you know
was able to sales pitch me andeventually what happened was he
actually ended up offering me afree flight to Australia at the

(17:48):
end of this combine that day soI'm sitting in this like what
you call a little like hut outthe back of this hotel next to
the and he starts chatting mefor an hour and stuff, a little
pegola, and he's going, what areyou doing tonight?
I said, I'm going to have drinkswith my friends.
That's the whole reason I didthis combine, to be honest with
you.
I'm not even here for the footypart of it.
I'm not here for you.

(18:08):
No, exactly.
I mean, it sounds like a funtime.
Don't get me wrong.
And he goes, hey, we want totake you back with us, get in
the car with us.
We'll buy your ticket at thecounter, and you come back to
Melbourne, and we'll show youwhat AFL is.
And I was just kind of like,that's absurd.
I've got two days' worth ofclothes on me.
I won't even be able to get tothe other side on the clean
clothes that I've got.
It takes two days to get overthere.
we'll buy you

SPEAKER_04 (18:29):
some clothes

SPEAKER_00 (18:29):
oh it was well yeah it was tough to find a guy
that's 6 foot 11 man but yeah sohe offered it and I was kind of
like the first probablyrealization that this is a bit
bigger than I probably expectedor understood for someone to
offer a flight like that that Iknew was thousands of dollars to
buy was pretty crazy to me so Iwas like oh okay that's my first
inclination maybe this is like alegitimate thing and I didn't

(18:51):
fly back that day because youstill had to see

SPEAKER_04 (18:53):
your friends the sole

SPEAKER_00 (18:54):
reason why you went to LA more importantly according
to my mother I had to finish myfinal exams so I had to finish
my degree so yeah so I went andI kind of was like blown away by
this whole thing I had to callup ExxonMobil and say because
there was a bit of media thatcame out with it you know and I
had to tell them like I'm stillcommitted to you and your you
know your job don't like cancelthat on me blah blah blah like
I'd already moved my stuff toHouston so like my whole thing

(19:16):
was set up apartment everythingwas sorted and this whole thing
came out of the blue and I wentand hung out with my friends for
the night and I was kind of inthis whirlwind of what just
happened got back and then mybrother Nolan and ended up being
my agent who has zero experienceas an agent but it was a bit of
fun for us because we're likewhat do we have to lose we don't
even know the sport exists hewanted the slot too yeah well

(19:37):
that's what ended up happeninghe had a bit of extra

SPEAKER_05 (19:38):
support

SPEAKER_00 (19:39):
yeah so he became my agent while I was studying for
finals and he dealt with the AFLthe different teams got
everything organized for thistwo week trip for me to come
over to Australia to figure outwhat the sport was to have this
experience and the AFL sorts itout they got us a premium
economy seat and I was likethat's fancy that's real fancy
leg room yeah exactly and thenyeah I called him up and I

(20:00):
realized I put all this effortin to get me there and I said
yeah you know I just wouldn'tfeel comfortable if I didn't
have my agent there with me youknow so then I just you know
weaseled my way in to get mybrother to get a free flight
also to have free two weekstrips so this free flight and
free experience in LA turnedinto a free trip and experience
all the way to Australia a veryhigh level negotiation yeah I'm
sure from his zero experiencethat he had so it turned into

(20:21):
both of us being able to comeover to Australia and have an
incredible two weeks and DerekHans was a big part of that and
you know got to see what AFL wasand experience it because I
thought it was like a you wentto multiple clubs right so you
talked through that so I went towhat four clubs there was five
clubs interested so we had PortAdelaide Fremantle Richmond

(20:41):
North Melbourne and Collingwoodwere the five the AFL didn't
allow me to talk to anyone elsebecause they wanted to pay back
the people that came up to theUS combine and so Richmond yeah
went there awesome great greatexperience Dima was awesome he
was so nice loved him DamienHarwick the coach at the time
Damien Harwick yep so he's Ialways have a massive amount of

(21:03):
respect for him Port Adelaidesame with Ken that was over
there yeah the Scott brother wasat North Melbourne he was
awesome and then Fremantle Ididn't get to meet their coach
at the time but they sent over arepresentative to Melbourne and
I kind of told him I saidrealistically if I'm going to do
this like move my life literallyhalf a world away like I kind of
want to be in the mecca of AFLand that you know being in Perth

(21:23):
was very isolating and I waslike I know it's going to be
tough to move over here from apersonal perspective so I can't
want to be where it's a bit of avibe, bit of things going on,
you know, no offense to Perth.

SPEAKER_05 (21:33):
But it is Melbourne, you know, that's where they're
strongest, where it started.
I guess it is national now andthere are fans all over the
world, but Melbourne is wheremore clubs are.

SPEAKER_06 (21:42):
It's a home of eight.

SPEAKER_05 (21:43):
Yes.

SPEAKER_00 (21:44):
You walk out to the MCG, like Collingwood took me
out to the middle of it and justsaid, you know, this could be
your office.
And I was just like, it's a lotbetter than the cubicle I was
looking

SPEAKER_04 (21:52):
at earlier.
So who have you got with you atthat stage?
You've got Derek.
Who's walking you out on theMCG?

SPEAKER_00 (21:57):
So it was AFL reps and staff and then Derek and
then I don't think, I don't knowif Bucks was out there with me
at the time.
So Nathan Buckley was the coachat the time.
And this is the funny thing,right?
Like, once again, I'm ignorantto everything that's going on.
So one of the first meetings Ihad with Collingwood was Nathan
Buckley, Eddie McGuire, DerekHines, right?

SPEAKER_02 (22:13):
Yes.

SPEAKER_00 (22:14):
And I'm walked in there and I'm going, great to
meet you.
What's your name?
I'm Eddie.
Great to meet you, Eddie.
What do you do?
What do you do?
And there's a great story behindthis.
I always tell this story.
So I'm in this meeting.
We go through this whole thing.
They give you the whole kind ofexperience of like, you're going
to be the next Nick Natanui andI'm like who's that like I don't
know who that is like okay coolthat guy sounds cool like he's
got fantastic name I was like ohit sounds like fun and tells you

(22:37):
all these kind of things youknow and it doesn't probably cut
through as well because you'rejust totally ignorant to it all
and there's so nice meeting andthey walk you around show you
the place and everything elseand then we walked out and got
into the taxi or sorry the Uberand there's a taxi in front of
us you know and I'm sittingthere and on the back of this
taxi is this advertisement astaxis do you know and it's who
wants to be a millionaire andit's got Eddie's face.

(23:00):
That looks like my brother.
That's the guy we just met.
He's the Regis Philman ofAustralia.
He should have introducedhimself like that.
And that's when we realized,okay, maybe Collingwood's a bit
bigger deal than we thought.
So that was kind of our firstimpression.

SPEAKER_04 (23:14):
And you being, I don't think you seek this so
much, but being big and you'rehappy in the limelight in the
sense of you don't mind shiningand standing out.
A lot of people have seen it asan American thing, but your
personality is, no, I'm going totake it on.
I'm going to have a crack atthings that must have started to
appeal to you the Collingwoodthing a little bit well if I'm
going to do this I might as wellgo to the club that's actually

(23:37):
why not go to the top

SPEAKER_00 (23:39):
yeah I think like I came over here and you know I
guess one of the things in mylife I kind of think of is like
go big or go home

SPEAKER_02 (23:44):
yeah

SPEAKER_00 (23:46):
that sums it up if I'm going to come to this
country give this a go and likeessentially forego the best job
you can get coming out ofcollege I'm going to try to do
this to the best possible youknow sense of it and try to make
the maximum amount of whateverthis experience is going to be
and you know playing in front of80 to 90,000 people on a weekly
basis and you know the MCG andCollingwood being a big club

(24:07):
like it really came down to twoand it was really Richmond and
Collingwood I was thinking

SPEAKER_05 (24:11):
that I thought Richmond you know we're lucky to
get you because Richmond is alsoyou know a really well-known
club and I loved that you justsaid about both of you like
Collingwood being biggest andbest but I'm sure there are lots
of listeners right now that aregetting really antsy because
there is this you

SPEAKER_00 (24:26):
know yeah well Richmond fans hate me for I I
think one specific game mostly.
We'll get to that later.
But it's a bit ironic to mebecause I had a chance to go to
Richmond.
I'm like, oh, I might have threegold medals.
Things were a bit different.
That could be four.
But at that time, I think theywere like 17th in the league.
So they were a very differentteam to whenever two years after
that and then winning all thesuccess and everything else.

(24:48):
So that was kind of a crazyexperience those two weeks and I
had to get my head wrappedaround the whole thing and then
decide whether or not I wantedto give up a job that I'd worked
for years for and got a degreeand all this stress that came
with trying to find a job andget that and be able to be
successful in that sense.
Do I want to give that up forthis opportunity to be an
athlete for a living that Inever thought existed nor knew

(25:12):
in a place I don't know with nofriends, no support group, no
nothing and play for a team I'venever even heard of?
A ball I've never held.
Yeah, a ball I knew nothingabout.
So it was a

SPEAKER_06 (25:21):
risk.
So it was a risk but what wasthe pull?
What was

SPEAKER_00 (25:24):
the

SPEAKER_04 (25:25):
pull?
I want to hold that questionright because first there's one
more story in amongst thevisiting clubs your brother
plays a key role in the wholething so there's two stories the
second one is what your brotherfinally said to you which I
think might answer the questionbut before that could I just I
just love people to hear themeat pie story wow

SPEAKER_00 (25:49):
people

SPEAKER_04 (25:52):
are going to

SPEAKER_00 (25:57):
me and I'm definitely not getting a
sponsorship from 4 and 20anytime soon my first experience
right going to a game rightAmerica baseball hot dogs those
two are associated with eachother right footy it's meat pies
and football so I'm up therewatching North Melbourne play in
Geelong out of their GMHBAstadium where it was called at
the time and one of the guysthat's with North Melbourne

(26:19):
that's looking after me goes heywe got to get you a meat pie I
said yeah no worries like whatis that and he kind of goes I'll
show you walks me down gets twomeat pies for myself and my
brother walk down to the roomsat halftime and we're sitting
there and it's a group you knowa bit like a table like this
there's about six people in thisconversation I haven't had a
bite of this yet I don't knowwhat to expect I'm a bit nervous

(26:39):
like they've hyped this thing upI'm trying to impress these
people I'm trying to get them tosign me and pay me so I need to
make these people happy so inthis conversation my brother's
straight across from me rightand you can imagine like they're
trying to talk to you so there'sa little bit of eyes on you and
stuff and through theconversations one was like hey
try the meat pie you know so Iwas like how do I do this so you
kind of undo the wrapper andthey're like show you put the

(27:00):
tomato sauce or ketchup as Iwould have called it on top you
know and like my brother's kindof doing it at the same time and
I go to take the first bite andI like bite into it and I don't
know I assume everyone's kind ofhad this experience the middle
was cold

SPEAKER_04 (27:14):
like

SPEAKER_00 (27:15):
still hard and I was like in this mindset where I
didn't know any difference so Ithought this was what

SPEAKER_04 (27:21):
it

SPEAKER_03 (27:22):
was so

SPEAKER_04 (27:22):
I was

SPEAKER_00 (27:23):
like I guess meat pies are cold in the middle in
Australia and I'm sitting therelooking at my brother directly
across me right we are makingeye contact straight to each
other while we're eating thisgoing this is the most
disgusting thing i've evertasted in my life but we have to
put a smile on act like it'sdelicious

SPEAKER_04 (27:37):
was his cold in the middle

SPEAKER_00 (27:38):
as well as cold as yeah i thought you were gonna

SPEAKER_05 (27:41):
tell me it was too hot and then you bit it and it
went all over you or i thoughtyou were gonna tell me it was
the sauce because i've had evenwith my son he did the tomato

SPEAKER_00 (27:49):
sauce i don't know what's worse to be honest with
you but so then i'm sittingthere i've had this first bite
and in my mind i'm going okay ican't upset these people i need
to kind of buy into this Aussieculture right so I'm like I've
got to just fight through it I'mjust going to fight through it
bite bite bite get it down andthen we'll just talk about it
later so you know I go for thesecond one I see my brother and
my brother just all of a suddenlike takes this step back out of

(28:11):
the kind of circle we're in I'mkind of looking at him like
what's he doing but everyone'sstill chatting to me and I'm
still going and my brother sitsthere and I'm watching him as
this happens and no eyes are onhim they're all on me and he
takes a step back takes the fullmeat pie that's like nine tenths
of the way still there and justputs it in the bin next to him
drops it in there and just keepsthe wrapper and I'm like what is

(28:34):
he doing like what the hell so Ihave to go second bite third
bite this is delicious and thenNolan just interjects out of
nowhere and he just crumples upthe paper like the wrapper like
he just ate the whole thing it's

SPEAKER_03 (28:46):
like and he goes that was amazing oh my gosh you
guys do it so well

SPEAKER_00 (28:51):
in Australia and I've watched this whole thing
play out in front of me and Iwas like you're the biggest jerk
I've ever heard in my life I'mjust sitting there looking.
I'm like, I will kill you assoon as we get out of this
change room.

SPEAKER_05 (29:01):
So were the other people having a pie as well?
No, just us two.
So now I understand because Iwas thinking, why did the other
people, if they were all cold,say sorry?

SPEAKER_00 (29:11):
That's okay.
But he wasn't so

SPEAKER_04 (29:13):
self-conscious.
He would have said, is it meantto be cold?

SPEAKER_00 (29:14):
I was like, I guess it's just how they do it.
It's all eyes on you, right?

SPEAKER_05 (29:18):
You're trying to put on a

SPEAKER_04 (29:19):
good show.
You've got to try to impresspeople.
So you and Nolan, take us toDan's question.
What was the draw?
What happened in thatconversation?

SPEAKER_00 (29:26):
Yeah, so two weeks was a bit of a And you can
imagine like your life is eithergoing to go in one of two
directions, right?
You're either going to take thisjob you had previously in
Houston.
The known, the safe, thewell-organized.
Or the extremely unknown ofmoving to Australia and just
giving this crazy lifeexperience a go.
And it was on St.
Kilda Beach, one of thosemoments in life you just never

(29:46):
forget.
There's moments that stick withyou forever.
And it was probably the firstconversation I had with my
brother that was like reallyin-depth, serious, kind of like
man-to-man kind of conversationabout your life.
and we had seen all the kind ofclubs and we sat down and said
you know kind of like where arewe at you know what do you think
like come on you're a bit of mysounding board here like what
are you thinking and he goes youknow I've worked in the real

(30:08):
world I've sat behind a desk forabout you know four or five six
years at that time and he goeslook there's nothing special
about it really like to behonest you can do this whenever
you're 40 you can do thiswhenever you're 50 you can do it
whenever you're 60 and he goesI'll tell you one thing you
can't do is go play sport at 4050 60 years old and he goes your
degree that you've just got thatdegree is never going to expire

(30:31):
you can always go back to thatan opportunity like this is a
finite amount of time that youcan do this and be able to be
successful at it and just giveit a go and that was kind of
this moment in my life where Iwas like holy smokes I think
things are really going tochange and it's this incredible
like I've got goosebumps now I'memotional when you say it you
talk about like a big brotherand someone you look up to

(30:54):
giving you advice and if Ididn't have him there who knows
where my life would be you knowlike who knows what direction
would have took and what wouldhave happened and like that
moment on the beach talking withhim and having that first kind
of like serious conversationchanged the whole trajectory of
my life to now give meeverything I've been able to
experience today

SPEAKER_04 (31:11):
what is the feeling you get right now when you
reflect on it and you sort ofsit with that feeling of that
moment and your brother and theimportance

SPEAKER_00 (31:18):
I think it's just an extreme amount of gratefulness
to have someone like that I knownot everyone has someone that
they can you know feel like theycan go to in those kind of tough
moments of those tough decisionsyeah um and to have someone that
no matter what the situation isthey're always looking out for
the best of you yeah um that'san incredibly beautiful feeling
he did yeah and then it's not tosay that you know we did by no

(31:40):
means thought it was going to beeasy and it wasn't like he knew
just as much as i did that it'sgoing to be a damn hard trial to
get out here and to do this kindof thing to pick up a sport you
knew nothing about and try to besuccessful at it like it's not
the easiest route the easiestroute just go back home act like
this never happened you knowlike you definitely you have to
realize that there's going to beyou know amount of amount of

(32:00):
risk and amount of you knowstress and anxiety and
everything else that kind ofcomes with it but if you can get
through that and get out to theother end there might be
something absolutely incrediblethat you could do that no one's
ever done before and not manypeople I feel like in this world
can say they've been able to dothat

SPEAKER_01 (32:14):
yeah

SPEAKER_00 (32:14):
and it's pretty amazing I'm super grateful that
I was able to have that advicein that part of my life and that
timing to be able to send me onthe right direction I think my
life was supposed to go in

SPEAKER_04 (32:25):
yep why calling it the last moment.

SPEAKER_00 (32:28):
Why Collingwood?
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (32:30):
Because you've decided you're going to do it
and now you've got to nut down.

SPEAKER_00 (32:34):
Yeah, I think it came back to Derek and the
biggest thing that was, I mean,what the AFL did was they said,
you know, I think it was threeof the five, I'm sorry, I told
Perth, I'm sorry, I toldFremantle now, Port Adelaide
didn't give me a contract andthe other three gave me a
contract.
And what happened was the AFLsaid, we want you to choose the
place that you feel like youbest fit in.

(32:54):
All the contracts will be thesame financially the same all
the benefits are going to be thesame but we want you to choose a
place that you are going to bethe most successful at and feel
the most comfortable and lovedat and that was Collingwood
because of Craig McCray so CraigMcCray who's now our head coach
this is the beauty of theuniverse coming back full circle
and he was the development coachone of the first people I ever
met at the club so I mean Iremember I sat down with him and

(33:17):
he was like hey these are theskills we're going to teach you
this is what's going to go onand you know he talked about all
this kind of footy stuff but yougot this general sense of
talking to him and everythingelse that came with him that
he's also going to love you as aperson you know it's not going
to be purely business hegenuinely means that as well he
does and for someone who'scoming over here with no support
network at all and doesn't knowanyone that's important like

(33:37):
without him I would have burntout in a year or two and I would
have been done with footy youwould have never heard of my
name and I would have beenanother statistic that's just
come and gone but the fact thathe was so loving caring took me
in as his own took me in as likekind of family like I look at
him as like a father figure formyself you know and the ability
for him to do that was one ofthe not one of is the reason I
was successful within my careerand it's cool now to be on the

(33:59):
other side of it to know that Iwish I had 10 years left in my
career but realistically I don'tand Craig's kind of in the
beginning stages of his careeras a coach where he's second or
third year in or third fourthyear in and it's an incredible
thing to be able to try and giveback to someone that gave so
much to you in the early part ofyour career and be able to

(34:19):
reverse those roles and say lookwhatever you need I'll do it I
don't really care anymore likeas far as like all this other
stuff that comes with it I'mjust here to try to get you to
where you want to be and it's agreat experience to be able to
feel like you can help someonedo that and winning a
premiership with him was likejust that amazing feeling of
saying you forever now have thatin the history books as a
premiership coach

SPEAKER_04 (34:40):
and we'll get on to the premiership a little bit
later more but that hug with himafter you won the premiership

SPEAKER_00 (34:48):
not many people know this one yeah bit funny right so
you win a premiership absolutelyexhausted right you fall to your
like knees and you're just likeoh my gosh this just happened
very stressful, close game andeverything else, right?
Yeah.
The first thing I did, I felldown, I stared at the ceiling, I
was like, oh my gosh, and it'slike, dude, go celebrate.
Yeah, don't let him grab you.
But I was so physicallyexhausted, I couldn't even pick

(35:09):
my feet up off the ground reallyand I kind of get up, I run over
and I kind of hug Bobby and afew of the other guys and I was
like, oh my gosh, I gotta go hugCraig, you know, and I remember
sitting there and like, I go hugmaybe for five seconds, whatever
it is, hug the players and Iwent over to the bench and
everyone's congratulating eachother and hugging each other and
I just sat there for probably,it would have been like 30
seconds I just kind of sat thereand just waited and just waited
for everyone else and gave himone of the biggest hugs ever and

(35:31):
just like man this is incrediblelike this guy that you know
essentially gave so much in theearly part of your career to get
to where you're at to now seehim you know reach the pinnacle
was just the most fulfillingmoment I think as a player you
can possibly have

SPEAKER_04 (35:44):
man the emotion just sitting there under the surface
for you as well you know I feellike he was like a bridge you've
gone across the world and you'vestepped way out of your comfort
zone and I feel like he he waslike a bridge between the
loneliness and the successbecause the loneliness could
have killed you but it informedyou like the loneliness made you

(36:05):
make the most of the situationbecause it drove you to not
waste it you know if I'm goingto be this lonely I've got to
actually really have a crack atthis but he it was like he met
you over on the loneliness sideof the river and held your hand
over to the other side where itall turned into something
magical

SPEAKER_00 (36:21):
yeah it's incredible I think you know people can't
say I'm a bit of the coach's petI guess but I kind of look at
those early years and like Craigwas a development coach he used
to come to like my house I had atwo bedroom apartment I had one
other friend pretty much in allof Melbourne he would sit there
and do Thanksgiving dinner withus and be like six of us at this
little apartment table that we'dmake shift out of nothing and
it's like it's things like thatof him taking the time out to

(36:44):
know that that was a big dealfor me as an American and like
that stuff goes a long waypeople don't realize that
probably don't see that kind ofstuff don't recognize it but
that stuff's the things thatunderlie you know that make the
connection and the personalrelationship what it is and just
shows to him as the character ofhuman being he is also and I
think that's things peopleprobably look past because they

(37:06):
see all the things that catchthe media's attention and all
things like that and it's thelittle things like that that I
know since day dot he's alwayskind of looked after me and
he'll forever have my you knowgenuine best interest at heart
and I can have an honest anddirect conversation with him
knowing that you know he's goingto be there for me good bad or
ugly

SPEAKER_06 (37:22):
yeah no we were fortunate enough to actually
have him in an interview latelast year and what you have just
described those qualitiesdefinitely shone through he

SPEAKER_04 (37:31):
walked out and you guys are gone oh my god he is
especially

SPEAKER_05 (37:34):
i'm not sure if it was cut out of the podcast or
not if it was that was finebecause i didn't think
afterwards yeah i mean i was onthe plane the way i'm going god
i wish i didn't cry but i satnext to him and it was almost
like a presence and that was notwhat i was expecting you know as
someone that comes from an aflbackground i mean i've dropped
off afl a little bit i live nowi live a different life i've

(37:55):
lived overseas but i grew up asa young child in a very
Collingwood house it was themost important thing in my dad's
life honestly so having CraigMcRae there sort of meant a lot
but I was thinking of him aslike the footy coach and he just
it was so different he's justhe's just an amazing human and I
felt really lucky to be able todo that podcast with him and I

(38:15):
walked away just like wow wowhe's yeah he was very different
to what I expected

SPEAKER_00 (38:20):
and I think he's like this new era of coaching
right like he's very much thatand I think Chris Fagan who just
won the premiership last year isvery much a similar personality
and it's more about being ableto connect with your players so
they want to play for you ratherthan the direct feedback of I
need this this and this from youyou know I think there's a bit
of a an extra power and you knowmotivation that comes with

(38:41):
wanting to play for someone thatyou genuinely know has your back

SPEAKER_05 (38:44):
was it good human he kept using a word or being your
best it was something Trev I'msure that you and him yeah yeah
winners on and off the field youknow I think they were the
things that just really hit youit wasn't just about footy it's
not about performing it's likebeing being a great husband
being a great father yeah but itwas like oh wow you know and

(39:04):
that's what you know we're allabout improving health span
living your best life beinghealthy but that too it's that
holistic approach and you knownot just being you know praised
for what a great footballer youare but being a good human so
also when you walk away from thegame too you know that you are
loved and that you have thoseconnections and that was one
part of your life but there's somany other parts of your life as

(39:25):
well and And yeah, it's reallyimportant.

SPEAKER_04 (39:28):
It's a cheap reference, but the Ted Lasso
reference with Fly, so manypeople know around the world,
such an endearing character, buthe's so close to that, even
though he was that before therewas a Ted Lasso, you know, like
he's literally the embodiment ofsomeone that uses humour,
vulnerability, everything else.
It's an absolute joy to workwith him.

SPEAKER_05 (39:45):
Without the accent.

SPEAKER_04 (39:47):
Yeah, without the accent.
Well, he's got an Australianaccent.
Maybe he's got an

SPEAKER_05 (39:50):
accent to you, whereas Ted Lasso has got a
strong accent

SPEAKER_02 (39:53):
to me.

SPEAKER_04 (39:53):
Very strong, yeah.
So you've got Fly, hisnickname's Fly, you've got Fly
in your corner and you'restarting to feel looked after
and you're playing VFL.
Tell us about the experience onthe first game.
I think your breakout game wasit versus Richmond?
VFL?

SPEAKER_00 (40:08):
Was it the five guys?
Yeah, versus Richmond actuallytoo, sorry.
This is what I'm curious about.

SPEAKER_04 (40:13):
Just tell us quickly about the first game experience
and that breakout game because Ithink you realised you belonged
by the time that Richmond gamehappened.

SPEAKER_00 (40:20):
It's an interesting one.
The first game I actually playedI think was up in Bendigo in
what was called NAB cup of yeahI know I'd never heard of a
place called Bendigo in my lifeit's got a beautiful

SPEAKER_05 (40:32):
gallery for anyone listening it

SPEAKER_04 (40:34):
does have a lovely gallery it's a beautiful place
referred to as barely go barelygo

SPEAKER_00 (40:39):
there that's a good one but no that was I think my
first experience was like a nabcup like preseason game and I
played for half a quarter sorryhalf the game and I was
legitimate two months into everhearing of AFL ever ever
touching a football player or afootball and it It was kind of
funny to me.
I went through that wholeexperience and had a few
hit-outs and stuff, and then thegame finished, and Darcy was

(41:01):
walking next to me, Darcy Moore,our captain now.
He was a first-year player atthe time, and he walks over to
me, and I had this conversationwith one of the, we were playing
Carlton, one of the Carltonplayers, and he goes, man, just
want to let you know, good luckon your career.
Just want to wish you all thebest.
It's an incredible story, andjust want to wish you all the
success.
It's kind of weird to me becauseI didn't understand how footy

(41:22):
worked.
In between the sirens, you hateeach other, you punch each other
in the chest.
you have all this stuff and thenafter you're all these kind
loving humans I was like youjust literally like punched me
in the chest like 10 seconds agobefore that siren happened like
what's so special about thatsiren you know and I was sitting
there and this guy was like youknow all the best on your career
and I kind of was like oh thanksso much man you know and kind of
just walked off and I walkedover to Darcy who kind of you

(41:44):
know gave me a bit of backgroundon AFL history right and I said
that guy over there really nicefella you know like he was so
kind and endearing andeverything else and he goes that
guy with both his shouldersstrapped yeah yeah he goes Chris
Judd?
I was like, yeah, I guess, yeah.
He was like, I kind of looked athim based on his answer.
I go, should I know that guy?

(42:04):
He goes, yeah, you shoulddefinitely know that guy.
I was like, okay, so I waslocked in my memory now.
I've got Chris Judd, okay.
But that was my firstimpression.
And that happens all the time,right?
Because I just didn't knowanything.
So that was kind of my- It couldbe a blessing in disguise as
well too.
I think it is, yeah.
Like when you met Eddie, thereare

SPEAKER_05 (42:19):
some people, in our last podcast, we talked about
anxiety and when you get nervousand stuff.
There would have been somesituations, even though you had-
had a lot of nerves and anxietywith the whole trip, but some
interactions with people thatmay have been a little bit more
relaxed because you didn'trealise they were a big deal.
Yeah, being

SPEAKER_06 (42:32):
overwhelmed by, I mean, if you knew who they were
and what they represented, theoverwhelm could have been

SPEAKER_00 (42:38):
substantially more.
I mean, no offence to Australia,it's still a small pond.
But I think one thing I'velearned throughout my life, no
offence to Australians, sorry,that was really rude.
I'm just saying 13 times as manypeople, so it was a population
thing.
But I think, no, throughout mylife, I've been incredibly
fortunate to meet some peoplepeople that you know are very
well known and the one thingthat we all have in common is

(43:00):
we're all just ordinary peoplewe all come from the same genes
and some same genetics reallymostly and it's just

SPEAKER_05 (43:05):
99.99% we're all the same

SPEAKER_00 (43:08):
and you talk to someone and if you have a one on
one conversation with them likeyou wouldn't know if they're the
most famous person in the worldor they're just another block
off the street

SPEAKER_04 (43:16):
you can occasionally pick up an aura though you can
pick up a sense of something andyou go oh nice guy oh wow strong
presence and then you work outafter a while what do they do

SPEAKER_00 (43:25):
yeah There's definitely like, I think, um,
yeah, people's posture and theway people kind of act and
interact, you know, there'sdefinitely something that you
can feel, but talking to them,like if you take purely just the
audio from it, like he wouldn'tknow any different based on the
experience with it.
So yeah, I think like the peopleI've met in Australia, I've been
incredibly fortunate to meetsome of the, you know, I guess

(43:45):
biggest names in Australia andstuff.
And you're kind of just like, Ohyeah, everyone's really nice.
I've met also people like JoeBiden, who's a bit bigger pond
outside.
Um, a bit more worldly known.
Um, But yeah, it's justeveryone's like, I don't know.
I think it's this incredibleexperience to realize that no
matter how much success or poweror whatever it is in life you
have, we're all just ordinarypeople just with different jobs,

(44:07):
doing different things thatmight have different ways that
people react to them.

SPEAKER_04 (44:10):
And isn't it fascinating that football,
Australian rules football, hasafforded you the opportunity to
meet not only these people inAustralia, but all these people,
these famous people back in theUS.
Because you've been promotedback in the US as the guy that's
made it.
You're on 60 Minutes in the US.
you know all this sort of stufflike a really really cool story
how this crazy little small pondover here has given you so much

(44:33):
I'm never going to hear that I'mgoing to bring it up in every
question I want to make a linkfor you you talked about Darcy
Moore and you just flippantlysaid he's now the captain he's
the son of Peter Moore who was alegend won two Brownlow medals
as a ruckman at two differentclubs just probably one of the
last ruckman second last ruckmanmaybe to win a Brownlow medal
which is the premier thing Iused to run around the street

(44:55):
with Peter Moore's number on myback, you know, as a Collingwood
fan and everything else.
So Darcy comes in, he's in hisfirst year.
Now you go through quickly, I'mgoing to keep this link in
there, but you go to theRichmond game.
You're starting to get a feelfor it.
You've played how many games ofVFL now?

SPEAKER_00 (45:13):
Probably 12.
12 games.
It's

SPEAKER_04 (45:15):
pretty bloody quick.
Half

SPEAKER_00 (45:16):
a season.
There were some fun timesthrough that.

SPEAKER_04 (45:19):
Yeah.
And then all of a sudden, andfill in any bits you want, but
tell us about that game whereyou got your hands on the ball.
a lot

SPEAKER_00 (45:26):
yeah I think like you can imagine like I didn't
know and had never played in agame so an umpire points one way
you run the other way like Ididn't understand that right so
there's like every little tidbitI was picking up every time I
played a game so there wassomething new I had to learn
about the the rules or the waythe ball was moved or the way
players would have to play andit was just like really just
thrown into the deep end andtried you know learn as quickly

(45:47):
as possible so you know you getto about halfway through the VFL
season kind of playing and alsokind of had this idea not like I
I got sales pitch to the MCG and80,000 people, right?
And I'm playing at Victoria Parkin front of, you know, there's
dogs running around before thegame taking a deuce on the
field.
So it's kind of a bit of adifferent experience than what I
was expecting.

SPEAKER_05 (46:09):
It used to be a big deal.
Big Park, my dad's ashes are inthe square at Big Park.
So Father's Day, we will go andeat.
If I'm in Melbourne, I'll go andeat a meat pie.
I don't like meat pies, but I

SPEAKER_00 (46:20):
will have them for hot.
Extra hot.
But yeah,

SPEAKER_05 (46:24):
that's where dad, so my dad had a, spot there was
when he had his funeral at VicPark there was a whole big yeah
anyway we can talk about thatoffline but yeah Vic Park used
to be a really big deal and forpeople like my dad original
Collingwood it yeah he was sadwhen they went to MCG he's like
that's not real football youshould stand in the rain

SPEAKER_00 (46:42):
but I think there was like that's part of
ignorance right the history thatcomes with the Victoria Park and
yeah I remember like that gamethat Richmond game you know you
get your hands on it you take afew clunks you kick a few goals
and like I mean I was stilltrying to figure out what my
routine for goal kicking was Iwas like I was trying to sort
all this out on the fly and youknow you kick I think it was
like four or five goals in thatgame you're kind of going no
it's five yeah because Iremember I learned what a bag

(47:04):
was never heard the terminologyin my life and I was like yeah I
kicked a bag and I was like whatwas that you can tell I never
played footy

SPEAKER_05 (47:12):
even though I'm talking about this history I
don't know

SPEAKER_00 (47:15):
what a bag is either I was kicking five goals
apparently

SPEAKER_04 (47:18):
four goals is four goals five is a bag

SPEAKER_00 (47:20):
there

SPEAKER_05 (47:21):
you go learn something

SPEAKER_00 (47:21):
yeah so I think like that was kind of the start of
saying okay I now understandthis game and now it's time to
try to excel at this game andthat was kind of like my first
experience I think ofunderstanding that like I can be
above that VFL level and thatwas yeah you can stand out and
you can be you know someonewho's best on ground or like you
can influence the game in animportant way so that was

(47:42):
probably my first experiencedoing that and that's about the
time you start going like okaylike I can see this being a
successful journey and up tothat point like you kind of you
have your doubts and you haveyour trials and tribulations
around am I over here doing theright thing what am I doing I
can't even kick a ball and I'msitting there trying to you know
do this and I'm training next topeople like Travis Cloak and

(48:03):
Scott Penderbury and Dane Swanthese guys have been doing it
their whole life and they'reHall of Famers and I'm like how
do you kick you know like Ihadn't even kicked a ball so it
was such a you know distantthing to be able to be the
success of someone like thatthat sometimes you just thought
oh it's unfathomable like I'mnever going to play an AFL game

SPEAKER_05 (48:19):
did you find it hard because if you played soccer you
know so like you can't touch theball was there an element for a
while where you just had tograbbing the ball or that was
okay because of basketball andit was all just different

SPEAKER_00 (48:29):
well that's I think that's the beauty of there's so
many things that had to happenin my life to land me to where
I'm at now and the playingsoccer as a kid growing up all
the way to 18 and then playingbasketball from 18 to 23 just
casually 18 to probably 20 andthen like high level 20 to 23
and those are the two that crossover the most when it comes to
footy and especially playing asa ruckman so it was kind of this

(48:50):
weird thing all these thingsthat I had previously had
previously had experiences in mylife were now coming back to you
know help me in the next journeyof whatever it was and it was
kind of cool I was thinking youknow maybe this experience that
I've had is meant to lead me tothis position of being able to
use all these resources to besuccessful at what I'm doing
based on my past experiences soI think it was kind of one of

(49:13):
those cool moments you're goingwow okay like everything seems
to be kind of falling in line inlife and like everything seems
to be having a reason like backbefore I didn't really
understand why all this washappening and maybe this is what
it's all accumulating to

SPEAKER_04 (49:24):
right you're starting to see a picture
forming

SPEAKER_00 (49:26):
it almost seems

SPEAKER_06 (49:27):
fortuitous it

SPEAKER_00 (49:28):
almost seems like it's been preordained yeah it's
crazy and so yeah so thatRichmond game was probably the
first time I've felt like okayI've got this confidence now I
know what I'm doing and now it'stime to try to take the next
level of trying to get an AFLgame and that was probably the
first experience of thinkinglike I could maybe be at AFL
level now

SPEAKER_04 (49:45):
yeah

SPEAKER_06 (49:46):
If you ever wondered what a healthier, stronger
future you might look like, withMelrose Future Lab, Australia's
first longevity supplementrange, you can now optimize your
health span routine bysupporting cellular energy,
metabolic well-being, and musclemaintenance, as well as much,
much more.
And you can find this range atChemist Warehouse and leading

(50:06):
health food stores.

SPEAKER_04 (50:08):
So moving forward a little bit, we come to the
following season.
Yeah.
Right.
So you finish off that seasonpretty strong.
That's the first year.
And you come to the followingseason.
April 25 is Anzac Day, isn't it,April 25?
And so Anzac Day, Australian NewZealand Army Corps, we celebrate
our efforts of war and union,the way we came together to

(50:29):
fight big battles.
And in the 1990s, it's the30-year anniversary this year,
so 1995, Kevin Sheedy had theidea to put this game, Essendon
versus Collingwood, the twomassive clubs on the MCG on
Anzac Day to celebrate, youknow, from everything from the
haunting...
playing of The Bugle beforehand,Last Rites.

(50:50):
Is it Last Rites?
Is it Last Post?
Last Post.
Last Post.
Not Last Rites, Last Post.
I hope not.
And so this game is massive.
And the minute of silence.
You've got

SPEAKER_05 (50:58):
100,000 people being silent.

SPEAKER_04 (51:00):
So you've got the AFL Grand Final that has 100,000
and then you've got the twopreliminary finals that get you
into those three games, the twoprelims of the AFL Grand Final.
Most people would say, that isthe game I want to get.
I just want to get into a prelimor play in a Grand Final.
But the other one is Anzac Day.
Only two clubs get to play thisgame and so you end up at the
club that's going to play thatgame and guess what happens is

(51:22):
that Mason gets the call up toplay his very first game of AFL
really on Anzac Day I was therelast year so his mum and dad get
flown over mum and dad get flownover from America it's the whole
thing you're experiencing you'restanding there the last post
everything else and the gameswere in the first quarter we're

(51:42):
just into the game and thenenter Darcy Moore and tell us
tell us a little whatever youwant around this but

SPEAKER_00 (51:50):
yeah I mean you can imagine like I mean I was
pushing for AFL and I knew I wasclose and for those kind of
weeks leading up I knew there'smaybe a possibility and I think
my parents are the first peopleI found out because they had to
fly over here and that tookobviously 24 hours to get over
so they had to like tell them sothey could expedite a flight out
to get out to Australia in timeand so yeah so I mean the whole

(52:10):
family actually ended up comingout and incredible moment like I
never in my life kind of throughthis experience knew if my
family would ever be here at thesame time or we'd ever be able
to kind of share this experienceas one I always talk about
family being a big part of why Ido AFL if you ever meet my
parents you'll understand and mybrothers they love it absolute
legend but yeah they were allthere and it was kind of this

(52:31):
incredible experience you canimagine like I was a year and a
half into essentially everhearing of AFL like still was
very young and understandingwhat was going on and everything
that goes around it and then youget thrusted into this
experience of playing on AnzacDay and it was kind of this huge

SPEAKER_05 (52:46):
game and it's an honor I would imagine

SPEAKER_00 (52:48):
yeah 100% like in America we're very passionate
about the people who serve andstuff you know and this was
Australia's version of that so Iknew kind of how important it
was and it's an incredible thingto be a part of to be able to
give a platform on the day toall the people and what they
sacrifice not only them thefamilies everyone else is
involved there's so manyincredible stories we hear about
and they come to light on thatday and it's awesome to be you

(53:09):
know a small part of that and tobe able to create

SPEAKER_04 (53:12):
keeping that awareness alive

SPEAKER_00 (53:13):
yeah exactly and create like something that you
know I'll talked to a lot ofpeople that are involved in it
that are part of our ANZACs andthey love being a part of it and
it's such a cool thing to havethat platform for them.
But to get thrusted onto thatday, I remember sitting there
before the game and you canimagine how nervous I was.
I'd never played an AFL game.
You're playing on what is one ofthe biggest games of the year in

(53:34):
front of a massive crowd and youhave this whole experience of
the pin drop in the last postand then they play the national
anthem and I remember sittingthere and the camera comes and
goes past every person.
I never Everyone's singingexcept you.
Camera goes past everyone.
Everyone's singing, you know?
And then it goes, us in first,bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.
And then I'm 46, so I'm on thevery end.
So I'm the start, I think, ofthe Collingwood group.

(53:55):
So it goes straight to me, and Ijust had to go, I just kind of
moved my lips like I knew what Iwas talking about.
I didn't know a word of thenational anthem at that point.
No disrespect.
And I'll just remember thatmoment.
I kind of had this circuitbreaker in the experience where
I was like, kind of laughed tomyself, and I said, who would
have thought you'd be here doingthis?
Singing the Australian anthem.
I'm like, you freaking idiot.

(54:15):
Yeah.
you know I just kind of had abit of a chuckle yeah relax me
because I was I mean I was allover the place at that point you
know just trying to impress andtrying to break this mold of
saying he's a project he's aproject he's just an experiment
trying to be an AFL footballplayer yeah and you're just
trying to impress the coaches togain the respect of you know
your playing group and also thecoaching staff and everyone else
because you know being a guywho'd never heard of AFL from a

(54:37):
different country like you hadno respect whenever you first
came here because you didn'teven know what it was so you're
just trying to prove to thesepeople this whole time and yeah
it's quite an but within threeor four minutes, I can't
remember what it was, of thefirst quarter, fortuitous moment
again is three people I gotdrafted with, which was Jordan
Ngoi, Darcy Moore, and myself.
Jordy handballs to Darcy, Darcyturns around, hits me on the

(54:58):
chest and a lead out.

SPEAKER_04 (54:59):
So let me explain that.
Darcy's running down the wing,receives the handball, which is
the middle of the field, justgets his kick, sees you leading
out of the goal square towardssort of two-thirds of the way
out of the 50, and you'releading, doing what you've been
taught to do, and you're comingand he just hits you.

SPEAKER_00 (55:14):
Just straight on the chest.
the chest

SPEAKER_04 (55:16):
like right out

SPEAKER_00 (55:17):
and i mean you can imagine from that you're nervous
just to play the game and you'relike oh first kick for goal

SPEAKER_04 (55:22):
yeah

SPEAKER_00 (55:24):
yeah so you've never touched the ball first touch
yeah first mark first

SPEAKER_04 (55:27):
any any statistic at all and there's a famous club
that is the first kick firstgoal so someone the first kick
in the afl picture goal no

SPEAKER_00 (55:35):
pressure here's the big american who barely even
knows what the sport is doesn't100 know all the rules of the
actual game still at this pointso what are

SPEAKER_04 (55:43):
you kicking for goal from about 40 45

SPEAKER_00 (55:45):
I'd say 30, but I'll take 45.
Okay, okay, 35.
And I remember just going backand like in your mind, you're
kind of going, oh my gosh, like,okay, yep, just go back to what
you've been taught.
The simple things of like, whatis your routine?
What do you do every single timeyou kick a goal?
Go through that and that willlead you to success.
And like, that's kind of what,you know, Craig had taught me,

(56:06):
you know, as being thedevelopment coach.
So, you know, you go back andyou kick the goal and went
through and you're kind of like.

SPEAKER_05 (56:13):
Did you get the goal?
Yeah, I first kicked the firstgoal and I just was like.
straight through the middle.
I did not know that.
That might have been that.
I dropped out of footy for a few

SPEAKER_04 (56:20):
years.
That is amazing.
Sitting there like with theirjaw dropped waiting to see what
he's going to do.
Like, oh my God, talking to eachother like, first kick, you
know, and he goes back, justplum kicks it straight through
the middle and everybody wentnuts.
That's

SPEAKER_05 (56:30):
amazing.
So can I ask, you've obviouslygot support from Craig McRae and
I'm sure that many of theCollingwood players are trying
to support you.
They want you to do well.
But was there an element ofunease, jealousy, something?
You know, there are peoplethat...
that have grown up and theirwhole life just wanting to play
football and then you just kindof come in.

(56:51):
Was there

SPEAKER_04 (56:52):
any of that?
What's the

SPEAKER_00 (56:53):
diplomatic answer to this?
How do I not get in troublehere?
There was no one, I don't thinkanyone from the club.
As you can imagine, playing inthe most scrutinized position of
the most scrutinized club in thebiggest sport in Australia,
there's going to be opinions.
And playing a guy who's anAmerican that barely knows
what's going on, credit toNathan Buckley at the time, that

(57:14):
was a bit of a risk by And hedropped a Hall of Famer in
Travis Cloak to play a guy whobarely even knew what the sport
was on Anzac Day.
That takes guts.
And I'm very thankful for that,obviously.
Pretty incredible.
Sorry,

SPEAKER_06 (57:28):
I'll let you finish.
But it did spark a question inme.
I'll ask you later.

SPEAKER_00 (57:33):
But to go back, I think there's been a lot of hate
towards me in the sense thatI've been given this opportunity
without going through maybe thetrials and tribulations that
people have as a kid trying tomake it.
I've just been thrusted intothis thing and I've made it work
And what people don't see isprobably the hard work that goes
behind it.

SPEAKER_05 (57:49):
Well, I imagine you might have had to work harder.
Harder because, one, it's a newsport, but also harder because
there would have been thataround you.
There's some people a little bitnot happy to

SPEAKER_04 (58:00):
go, yeah, you're here.
I reckon hate was the flavourthat came, but resentment was
the vehicle.
I think people resented that youmade it and you made it easier
and everything else.
Hate was the flavour that itcame across with, but really it
was a personal thing for them.
They didn't like the fact thatyou got something they couldn't
get.

SPEAKER_00 (58:16):
That was someone playing their game.

SPEAKER_04 (58:18):
Their game, you know, and not even respecting
and appreciating it much.
Because one of the things thatyou did well, given your
situation, was you stayed prettyflippant around the whole thing.
You're like, oh, I'll kick themthrough the sticks.
And they're like, no sticks,they're sacred goalposts.
It's not AFL, it's calledAustralian

SPEAKER_00 (58:35):
rules.
Yeah, like me when you go, oh,Vic

SPEAKER_05 (58:37):
Park, like I was just playing in Vic Park.
I was like, oh my God, Vic Parkmeans a lot to me.
You could imagine the

SPEAKER_00 (58:42):
reactions.
It's kind of like what, I mean,at the beginning of this, I
said, like, try to imagineyourself in my shoes.
And I think a lot of peopleprobably don't do that and they
don't, and that's maybe why theymisunderstand me, but it's not
out of like disrespect oranything.
It's just out of ignorance.
And I find it kind of funny thatI'm still here to be honest and
doing what I'm doing.
And I find it an incredibleexperience, but you know, I'm
still learning as a person everysingle day, you know, Australian

(59:03):
culture and everything about it.
So, you know, I don't, I don'tmean to be disrespectful to
anyone or upset anyone, butlike, this is just me trying to
learn exactly what's beingaround me.
But I think you

SPEAKER_05 (59:14):
being so open and saying things also, though you
can see there's a genuineauthenticity and it doesn't come
from a place of actually wantingto you know make someone feel
uncomfortable it's just you justI mean we get it in America too
so I'm a bit of a joker andsometimes I'll say something
that I think is hilarious and wedon't

SPEAKER_02 (59:37):
tell

SPEAKER_05 (59:39):
stories if anyone's listening and they know Mark
Hyman we won't go into the storybut I made a joke with Mark
Hyman that I thought washilarious and he actually
thought I was a stalker.
And it was so, it wasinterpreted, I thought, and so
just, yeah, sometimes.
The

SPEAKER_06 (59:52):
difference in humour, sometimes.
It's the miscommunication.

SPEAKER_03 (59:55):
Oh my God.
I thought I was trying to do thebiggest jokes in the world when
I first came here.
Yeah, because you know, you're

SPEAKER_05 (01:00:00):
being funny and you say something and you just, you
think you're connecting, butactually you're not connecting
because there's differentthoughts and feelings and
experiences and so much thathappens behind it and when you
are coming in so new.
So I'm interested to know, howdid you get through that I mean
is it the support of the clubyou know mentally you need to
have a certain level ofresilience and belief because

(01:00:23):
you've still got a smile on yourface you've still got this
flippant you know how did youhow did you

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:26):
maintain that it's not always like that but I try
my best yeah I think through thefirst probably year year and a
half two years is probably thehardest bit because you're still
trying to figure out your innercircle to be honest the only
people I knew was at the clubthen you're going can I trust
these people with you knowhaving a vent every once in a
while or I'm going to getbacklash from that and it's
going to go to someone else whoyou know might take a judge on
that and you kind of like walkon eggshells everywhere you went

(01:00:48):
for that first two years andthen and that's kind of you know
like the importance of havingsomething outside of football
and having your kind of groupoutside of football that's
something I just never had andyou know the people that did
fill that role like we talkabout the Darcy Moore we talk
about you know Craig in thatsense like I remember you talk
about Peter Moore right like Imet Peter Moore I had the same
thing I go hey how's it goingwhat's your name he goes I'm

(01:01:09):
Peter and I said oh great tomeet you you must be Darcy's dad
you know he was known as Darcy'sdad he was known as Peter Moore
the footballer I didn't I didn'tgive a shit about his like sorry
excuse me language but I didn'tcare about his career you know
like I was about the person thatwas in front of me not what he's
done in his past like you knowhe was such an incredible person
him and Jane and you know Ithink that kind of support group
definitely helped me where itwas it was a very much a

(01:01:30):
struggle for my first like twoyears with mental health and
trying to understand like Iremember breaking down like
multiple times out on thefootball field with Craig
because I couldn't kick a ballstraight you know and that's the
most frustrating thing you'relike man everyone else makes it
look so easy and it's like sucha hard thing for me to figure
out and yeah There's so many ofthose times, but, you know, it's
always this belief.
And one of the most powerfulthings in this world is to

(01:01:51):
believe in someone and what theycan actually produce and do in
their lifetime.
And Craig's always kind ofprovided that with me.
He's always said, you know, it'stough now, but, like, you're
going to get through this.
Now at the other end, you'regoing to be amazed at how
quickly you'll pick this up.
And I don't really have greatpatience at times, but, you
know, throughout the wholeexperience, he's like, you're
doing this so much faster thanwe expected.
You know, you're doing this at ahigh level now.

(01:02:11):
Like, you're able to hit kickson the run, which we didn't
think you'd be able to do formonths, you know.
and there's so many littlethings I think he kind of
provided that belief and thatsupport and everything else
behind me to be able to give methat confidence to say like you
might have a bad day here orthere but like overall
throughout your whole careerlike you're heading in that
right direction and thistrajectory is going you know at
a massive pace you probablydon't even realize but yeah I

(01:02:33):
think like away from footballdefinitely was hard and it was
incredible having played likepeople like you like Trev that
you know you know just have yourgenuine best interest at heart
you know and most people that'stheir family but like my family
was half a call them up i coulddo that but to actually
physically see them in personwas something that was not
available to me

SPEAKER_04 (01:02:50):
even even me like i was on the gold coast so i'd
drop down have dinner and comeover or whatever but but i'd be
on the gold coast then you'dcome and visit or yeah i'll go
crash in your basement likeseriously like you know we just
had five days together overchristmas year which was which
was awesome you know but um butstill that's someone else you
can like but i was 2 000kilometers away as well yeah you
know a lot of the time so

SPEAKER_00 (01:03:10):
and there was i mean there was people like i always
have to give credit to this guybecause there's some really
tough times in my career and wemight talk about them later but
he was always there for me andit was Eddie McGuire who was the
president at the time one of thefirst people I met here and very
you know popular man and youknow he's had his things that
have happened whatever but he'sa very busy man as everyone
knows but he always made timefor me and like he would always

(01:03:32):
every Christmas you can imaginelike I'm away from my family I
don't have anywhere to go andstuff he would make sure that I
would go to his house he'd lookafter me have this amazing
dinner with his wife Carla andhis family and you know that's
become a tradition of ours andit's those little things that
like makes such a difference forsomeone like myself who's so far
away from the people you wouldexperience that with and
whenever you see everyone elsehere that has their families and

(01:03:52):
is enjoying their time away andstuff and you're sitting in your
home by yourself and you'regoing what am I doing like to
have those people reach out andsay no no no come in come in
with us you know come have comehave dinner with us like we want
to make sure we look after youtonight

SPEAKER_04 (01:04:04):
what a curious little thing that Eddie's son is
going on to win you know collegenational championship national
college football championshipafter you spending so many
Christmases with them And he'sreversed over and gone over to
what you do, college basketball.
So proud of him.
He's won the ring in collegefootball.
Massive

SPEAKER_06 (01:04:21):
deal.
Yeah, just going back to whatyou said that Nathan Buckley
took a risk on you, that theclub obviously took a risk.
I mean, apart from your height,there are other people that are
tall.
What do you think they saw inyou when you had no skills and
no knowledge of the game?
What is it you think they saw inyou that they thought they could
develop?

SPEAKER_00 (01:04:39):
Yeah, I mean, height definitely helps.
I'm the tallest AFL player toever play the game, which is a
cool little fact that I canstill hang my hat on it.
at the moment there's going tobe someone that will take it
over I'm sure soon but yeah Ithink like if anyone knows me
and my mom says all the time isI'm a competitive prick like I
don't like to lose and you knowyou put a line in a corner it's
like I'll fight my way throughit and I think that's one thing

(01:05:02):
like you know Bucks always toldme he said you're your harshest
critic and like that can benegative don't get me wrong I
totally understand that but Ithink that also shows the drive
that you have to want to besuccessful at the same time and
that was the thing that really Ithink allowed me to continue to
try to get better and not giveup.
And you think they saw that inyou from the very beginning?
Yeah, there's definitely somestories I could tell around

(01:05:24):
certain moments that happenedand you kind of go on, okay,
this guy's not going to justfall over.
He's going to sit there andfight to the death.
And there's moments in thatwhere you get that opportunity
whenever everyone's watching andthe coaches are there to kind of
make your stamp on the groundand say, no, no, no, show me
some damn respect.
I'm going to actually make it inthis thing.
And I think there were certaintimes I did that and there's

(01:05:44):
certain times that you start tosee the opinion of you start to
change from people.
And then you went from thatproject experiment to, oh, shit,
he might be an actual AFLplayer.
Yeah.
And I don't judge them because Ithink previous experiences
they've had and the AFL hadmaybe had was like they had
never seen an American besuccessful at AFL.
So what was going to be a thingthat was going to make this

(01:06:04):
experience different?

SPEAKER_04 (01:06:05):
When you were first explained or described to me by
Decker, he said, oh, he'd be thetallest player to ever play the
game.
That was the first line.
But then straight away behindthat was he's got elite hands.
He's got amazing speed andagility for a tall guy.
You should see his ability toget down to the ground and get
back up and all that sort ofstuff.
He explained you as this tallguy that can actually move

(01:06:29):
really well, like really fast.
He sort of talked about yourspeed, all that sort of stuff.
So there was a lot athleticallythat they saw in you.
I want to take you through as weget sort of closer to the end of
this rolling chat is that beforewe get to two pinnacle football
moments and i'm pretty sure youknow which two they are they're
a season apart no they're somany years apart but um but um

(01:06:52):
yeah actually let's go withlet's go with the um the prelim
final first yeah so preliminaryfinal richmond the club that
you're possibly going to go towon the premiership the year
before they're on top of theladder they're almost unbeatable
all year bucks devises a planyou guys are getting pretty
confident and you go into thisgame and it's at the mcgs 100
000 people it's a crazy crazylevel And this is to play the

(01:07:17):
grand final.
This is the game where Richmondeliminates Collingwood because,
you know, Collingwood just snuckinto the four, Richmond, you
know, but not in you guys'picture, not in you guys' mind.
And the footage of this, theBruce McIverney commentary,
everything of this moment islike we're watching history
here.
Just give us your summary ofwhat sort of happened on the day

(01:07:40):
there because this is yourmoment, which becomes like a
source of commentary.
later in life

SPEAKER_00 (01:07:46):
people remind me of it all the time I don't mind it
I don't mind it yeah it's adefining moment in my career
that's for sure

SPEAKER_04 (01:07:54):
you've kicked some goals you've had some starring
moments you've taken some bigmarks

SPEAKER_00 (01:07:58):
yeah I think like that year I won the Queen's
birthday match best on groundwhich was the Neil Danaher
trophy and kicked a bag in thatgame which was cool that was the
only time I've done that in mycareer but you know I kind of
had like a breakout year and Ithink we played West Coast in
the first game game lost to themplayed gos in the next game and
then we got to richmond andrichmond had won 20 odd

(01:08:20):
something games in a row at themcg like they seemed like
unbeatable just won apremiership and you know they
were the team to beat in thecompetition and and i kind of
love a bit of the underdog imean my whole life experience
has been the underdog right umno one's really kind of counting
me in at times and you know justyou fight your way through it so
i kind of i kind of love thatexperience um of you know being

(01:08:42):
disrespected maybe a little bitand uh Yeah, I remember going
into that game and I thought,you know, I never even thought
about the grand final, likemaking a grand final.
I never made it into my head.
The

SPEAKER_04 (01:08:52):
fullback, all Australian, elite fullback for
Richmond that you're playingagainst.

SPEAKER_00 (01:08:58):
And Dylan Grimes is like, you know, he was playing
on me.
David Asprey was also playing onme.
Alex Rance.
Alex Rance.
Like their back line was verygood.
And, you know, we go into thatgame and there's so many
different storylines I guess youcould write, but most people
wrote us off right away and saidRichmond's going to make it to a
grand final and probably win thewhole thing.
thing and um and we're gettinginto that game and yeah that
kind of like disrespect left abit of a bitter taste in my

(01:09:20):
mouth and um you know we wentout there and i think it wasn't
just myself i think a lot ofother people were the same and
you know i had that moment oflike flow we talked about
everyone hopefully in their lifehas experienced flow state of
some sort right whether it'slike just smashing out emails
through a day and you get to theend you go man i just was so
efficient today like absolutelykilled it you know a bit
different going out but you knowthat was my version out there

(01:09:44):
but you know you just kind offelt in that flow state and I
felt like everyone was soconnected on the day and you
know whenever you kind of havethese things you know confidence
is built and grows the more ithappens right and you know you
get your first mark of the gamebang you feel like you're in it
you know you get your secondyour third you go okay maybe I'm
on here when you get your fourthand your fifth and you're going

(01:10:06):
today's going to be a prettygood day and that was happening
you know and I think I kickedlike three goals on the day and
you know I think even Jordan togo he kicked three goals on the
day he probably doesn't get thecredit I think you had

SPEAKER_04 (01:10:17):
equal most contested marks in a prelim

SPEAKER_00 (01:10:20):
you

SPEAKER_04 (01:10:21):
ran out of the thing with so many people all over you
and you were just rising it waslike your story was playing out
on the football field there wasall the stuff going on but the
vision I've got is of you risingabove the whole thing you like
emerging out of this sea ofconfusion and your head hands
rising above everyone and takingthese marks so clearly

SPEAKER_02 (01:10:42):
and

SPEAKER_04 (01:10:43):
it was like your whole story played out in that
prelim final in those momentsand when you'd land on the
ground you'd land and you'd turnaround and you'd give the

SPEAKER_01 (01:10:52):
let's give a bit of

SPEAKER_04 (01:10:52):
the FU or whatever you know and it was like and
Bruce McEvaney the greatestcommentator of our time in the
sport maybe AFL or Australiansports greatest commentators is
going oh cocks you know likethis and then you've kicked one
goal two goals three goals andhe's going the American he's
making history we're watchinghistory and writing front like

(01:11:14):
it was like but I saw thesymbolism for me you know it was
like that was every single thingthat you'd worked on the
culmination culmination becauseliterally there's people around
you trying to keep you on theground yeah and not allow you to
go to your full height call thatsymbolic you're not allowing you
to be your full version and youare like today's my day you get

(01:11:36):
your first goal first kick onAnzac Day you get your best on
ground five goal bag on Queen'sbirthday which is the you know
the big game the big freeze youcome out in the preliminary
final the second biggest game ofthe year and you absolutely tear
it apart Collingwood are leadinglike 70 to 16 or something on
stage or some crazy amount likesomething ridiculous so that you

(01:12:00):
must have had the experience ofthe euphoria of the moment did
it occur to you as it sloweddown you had to think about
grand final but did you think toyourself what just happened

SPEAKER_00 (01:12:10):
yeah I think in the moment you're so focused on the
next thing right you're sofocused on where you need to be
what's going on making sure youtry to take the next mark things
like that that you don't reallytake in the moment as is like I
mean people sat there and one ofthe things I think people talk
about that comes out of it isthis USA chant that comes
through the MCG and like youknow the crazy thing is like
that happened on the day Ididn't even recognize it I was
so in the game like so in theflow so I didn't even

(01:12:32):
acknowledge that it washappening because I was just so
focused on the next thing nextthing next thing you

SPEAKER_04 (01:12:38):
had 100,000 Australians chanting USA and

SPEAKER_00 (01:12:40):
I totally missed it

SPEAKER_04 (01:12:43):
and just a small pond

SPEAKER_00 (01:12:44):
yeah Crazy to say that, yeah.
But yeah, I think there's likeso much that happened on the
day.
And it wasn't until you get tothe end of the game and it's
pretty locked up with twominutes to go, you know, you're
going to go to a grand final andyou're kind of sitting there
going like, oh my gosh, this isincredible.
And you also have, you know, thecraziness of, I don't know how
many Collingwood fans that wouldhave been there, probably 40,

(01:13:04):
50, 60 odd thousand Collingwoodfans absolutely giving it to the
Richmond fans because they wereunderdogs on the day and just
going absolutely nuts.
And it was like that energy,that you get from that kind of
people and 100,000 people andeverything else is unlike
anything else being in themiddle of that and feeling
everyone screaming over the topof you and you can't talk to the
person next to you and it's aeuphoric feeling it really is

(01:13:27):
and yeah it wasn't untilprobably like the end of the
game you know the siren goes andyou're going oh my gosh like we
did it we did what no onethought we could do and at that
point I knew I played prettywell but I didn't know like how
big it would kind of become andyou always know you played well
whenever the the uh the reportercomes and goes straight b-lines

(01:13:48):
to you you know and you're kindof going how's it going they're
like oh my gosh you're like okaymaybe i did really really well
you know like and not reallysure but um yeah and i just
remember like you know gettingthrough that game and it was an
incredible experience you knowboth my parents were there which
was uh something that was supermeaningful for me and um you
know i just i probably didn'tunderstand the depths of how big

(01:14:10):
that would be for my careermaybe not even

SPEAKER_04 (01:14:12):
appreciated fully what was happening right no

SPEAKER_00 (01:14:14):
I don't think so and to me it's always just kind of
been like I look at this wholething and people always say it's
been a life goal for me to playthat's not my experience my
experience is like this is ajourney this is an experience
for me and I'm going to try tomaximize it and have the best
time as much as I can well you

SPEAKER_04 (01:14:32):
respected it but you didn't have the gravitas
attached to it

SPEAKER_00 (01:14:35):
no and I don't have I remember sitting there and you
get four tickets to a game as aplayer and I remember you got
100,000 people all screaming atyou and I remember in the middle
of this game I'm kind of sittingthere thinking there's four
people in this whole stadium of100,000 that genuinely know me
like genuinely know who I am andjust to

SPEAKER_06 (01:14:51):
that point because this is like it's come to my
head a few times I'm thinkingyour parents what did they think
when you said this is what youwanted to do

SPEAKER_05 (01:15:00):
I'm so glad you asked that I've been wanting to
ask and then you took the

SPEAKER_06 (01:15:02):
first mark and took the first goal at the Anzac game
the Anzac Day game and thenpreliminary fight what were they
thinking and how did they feel Imean maybe the beginning and now
look where you came

SPEAKER_05 (01:15:13):
being at the Anzac match too what a great starting

SPEAKER_00 (01:15:15):
point yeah crazy mom was real nervous yeah like you
can imagine being a mother rightlike you know that you're not
going to go I always saywhenever I first came into it I
said you're not going to comeout of football the way you came
into it your body's going to bedifferent you're going to have
injuries you're going to havetough times like all this
stuff's going to shape you as ahuman physically emotionally
everything else right and Ithink that side of it probably
was a bit hard for mom like tosay like hey my son's going to

(01:15:39):
get injured have surgeries andstuff and I'm going to be 24
hour flight away and I can't bethere for him and that's got to
be a tough thing as a parentright then you got the other
side which is my dad he's a bitof a lyrical right like a bit of
a funny fellow happy genuinelylike one of the best humans if
not the best human I will saythe best human I've ever met
like we'll put that out therehappy for that

SPEAKER_05 (01:15:58):
he's gonna love that

SPEAKER_00 (01:16:00):
if you meet him seriously you'll look at him
like yeah 100% yeah and he'salways kind of been the fan he's
always loved the experiment youknow and the experiences that
come with it and he thoughtbasketball was crazy like my
parents to give you an idea ofjust how supportive they've been
they used to work a full-timejob.
They'd get up at 6 a.m.
in the morning.
They'd drive to work.
Get there at 8 o'clock.
It was two hours throughtraffic.

(01:16:20):
They'd work until about 6 p.m.,get home, feed us dinner, go
back to bed, do it again.
I went to university.
They were still doing this atthe time.
They would somehow fit in twogames a week to go to Oklahoma
State or go down to Waco, Texasto go watch me sit on the back
of the bench, not even play,just to be their support.
That's a four-hour drive up toOklahoma, four hours for the

(01:16:43):
game in a four hour drive backin the middle of the night and
then get up in two hours laterfor two hours of sleep and go to
work like it was insane likelooking back now that's easier
than 16

SPEAKER_04 (01:16:51):
hours

SPEAKER_00 (01:16:52):
oh yeah exactly I mean like the commitment they
gave to me to be able to seethem in the crowd and see the
support like it was awesome andI'm incredibly grateful for that
and I forever will be and it'scool for me now and I remember
like in times where I wanted toquit footy and stuff like that I
looked at my parents I'm like mydad's still getting the love out
of this he's still enjoying ithe's still like I'm like I gotta
do it for him he's reallygetting the enjoyment out of it

(01:17:12):
you know it's like I want to Iwant to give back in some
capacity for what they've donefor me to be able to provide
some happiness and excitementand experience in their life.
And whenever I see my dad, mymom, and things like that, my
dad will walk around the wholecity of Melbourne.
He'll be here for a whole month.
I'd never once see him without aCollingwood thing on his body.
His hat, shirt, shorts,everything's Collingwood.

(01:17:33):
He's waiting for the one personto go, you a Collingwood fan?
No, duh.
I saw him.

SPEAKER_05 (01:17:37):
I would talk to

SPEAKER_00 (01:17:39):
him.
And he'd talk to you for fivehours.
I'd be like, Collingwood, andthen it would start.
Yeah,

SPEAKER_05 (01:17:43):
exactly.

SPEAKER_00 (01:17:43):
It's cool because to me that gives me a bit of
purpose.
It gives me a bit of excitementthat comes with it.
And to see how proud he is andto see, and my mom too, my
brothers also, the whole family,that gives me purpose.
Purpose is always important foranything you do.
And to see them get so muchexcitement and everything else
has kept me going for a longtime.

SPEAKER_04 (01:18:05):
Quick story about your dad is that he comes over,
mom and dad come over for,they're going to get a couple of
games in.
So they're going to do the GoldCoast game up north.
and they're going to come downand do a Melbourne game before
they head off.
So a couple of chances to seesome games.
And your dad gets a house on theGold Coast and you come down,
we're hanging out, we'reconnecting and you're like, oh,
bring him over, bring him over.

(01:18:27):
So he's having a barbecue lunch,I think, or something like that.
And he drops the lid of thebarbecue, it drops down, hits
him square on the head andsplits his forehead open, right?
So he's got a split on the topof his head.
Like he was looking inside, he'sgoing whack and hit him.
So he's got a big split on hisforehead and he comes over and
I'm like, oh you're right youknow we're having a great time
and everything i said so do youwant to go for a swim he goes

(01:18:48):
yeah yeah yeah yeah absolutelygo let's walk down we rode down
did we ride the bikes down werode down the beach to go body
surfing so we're body surfing

SPEAKER_00 (01:18:55):
to give you a bit of backstory my dad is from
illinois illinois does not haveocean around us right like my
dad has barely seen the oceanhe's like he's hyped he's like
oh my gosh there's like waterand it's like expansive and
never ends

SPEAKER_04 (01:19:06):
it's giving him the bit of the backstory like you're
gonna go you're going withtrevor like this is going to be
pretty cool he's gonna take youto the ocean

SPEAKER_00 (01:19:12):
you know he's an iron man i was like trevor's
gonna have a big deal here

SPEAKER_04 (01:19:16):
this is his thing I get down there and I go oh it's
a bit sucky the shore break's abit sucky but anyway we teach
him we catch a few waves we'rehaving a bit of fun and then
finally I ride a bit of aporpoise wave so rather than
body surf on the wave I'm bodysurfing under the wave and he
goes that's that's cool how doyou do that and I go well what
you got to do is you got topoint your face down and you

(01:19:37):
ride the wave and the swellpicks you up but you've just got
to make sure that you don't ridethe swell into the bottom you
know because he's already splithis head he's already split his
head right he's got this cut andso we're doing a couple and
we're having a go at it and thenfinally we see him he's like
he's obviously got the travelgoing the wave crunches and he
stands up and he's like oh likethis and he throws his arm in

(01:19:59):
the air and he's kind of alsospinning around going like this
and we go home we go what thehell's going on he's got blood
pouring down his face he bodysurfed into the sandbank grazed
his face down like this I thinknose

SPEAKER_00 (01:20:10):
as well wasn't it face and nose blood everywhere
blood everywhere

SPEAKER_04 (01:20:13):
I've taken him back to your mum, back to our place
and gone, uh...
Here you go.
I took your husband surfing.
Here he is.
He goes to the next Collingwoodgame in Melbourne.
Of course, the TV will alwayswant to speak to your dad.
So he's doing this interview andhe's got this massive cut on his
forehead, this graze and histhing.
He's like, it's really good tobe here supporting Max.
I'm watching from back on theGold Coast going, oh, no.

(01:20:35):
I wish

SPEAKER_05 (01:20:37):
he had said a story that he was out there body
surfing with you.

SPEAKER_04 (01:20:41):
He might have referenced something like that.
But he

SPEAKER_00 (01:20:43):
does.
it with a smile and he was likeso happy I don't even think he
realized he was bleeding at thetime all through his face and he
was just like that was

SPEAKER_04 (01:20:48):
incredible oh my gosh he was like so excited
we're looking at it with wideeyes still running down

SPEAKER_00 (01:20:54):
we're like you might have a shark coming after you so
we're gonna get out of the waterbut another

SPEAKER_04 (01:20:57):
symbolic thing is you know the way he handled that
a little adversity was like whocares what time of my life yeah
it's probably where you get itfrom can I

SPEAKER_05 (01:21:05):
ask you mentioned about your mum and the injuries
and I have to admit as someonethat watches footy I'm getting
back into it so before dadpassed he lived with us for a
little while so that brought theCollingwood back in we're
watching it every week as youprobably heard most important
thing but I would see you youknow you take off your top you
know you're at the end of thequarter or whatever you're on
the bedroom and you know you'restrapped up here and you're

(01:21:25):
strapped up there and you've gotgoggles on so I thought you were
going to have glasses so I haveseen you on TV looking like
there is a lot you've walked inlooking great if the people
aren't watching YouTube you looksuper healthy I said you look
really young and fit and healthybut I've seen you looking very
banged up and lots of strapseverywhere Everywhere.
And what's going on with yourbody?

(01:21:46):
Are you okay?

SPEAKER_00 (01:21:47):
Yeah.
I mean, I think what peopledon't realize is like how much
AFL players probably have goingon in the background as far as
injuries that they just don'tsay.
Tape all over your shoulders,

SPEAKER_05 (01:21:57):
legs, everywhere.
Your whole body had one aroundyour stomach, I think.
You had tape around yourstomach?

SPEAKER_00 (01:22:02):
I've been, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (01:22:03):
Let's take this true because the prelim final was a
high point.
You lead the grand final rightthrough the last few minutes.
You lose that game.
You probably didn't understandhow hard it is to get there.
at the time but then after thatyou drop off the face of a cliff
because you go through a seriesof big experiences back to
Denise's question tell usfirstly the ones that you went
through the big the major onesthe visits to hospital because

(01:22:28):
there's a couple I'm thinking ofthat are major because there's a
high there's a high height atthe end of all this but I think
you had to go through this otherstuff to get the last little
bits of who you really are to beready to play the role you
played later so to Tell us whathappened.

SPEAKER_00 (01:22:45):
Yeah, I mean, I obviously wear a bit of
accessories, as you're saying,on the football field.
And one of the biggest ones isthe glasses that I wear.
And that was accumulation ofsomething that happened after
the grand final.
So the first thing is in thegrand final, I had someone, a
brass had ripped at my eye as abit of an incident in a contest
with his hand.
Yeah, it just got into my eye.

SPEAKER_05 (01:23:05):
On purpose?
No,

SPEAKER_00 (01:23:06):
he's just going for the ball.
It's just these things happen.
And I didn't think of anythingat the time.
You know, you're in the grandfinal.
you say just play through itthis is an incredible experience
get through the game and all thebest you know and then we get
into the next season and youknow I had a really bad eye
injury where a player in a rockcontest had stuck his finger and
got actually like behind my eyeand it was one of those there's

(01:23:29):
a poke in the eye and there'slike a real kind of trauma to
the eye and it happened Istarted seeing all these dots
flying everywhere my vision wastotally different out of my left
eye and I'm going this is a bitodd but I didn't feel a lot of
pain so I was like I'll justfight through this you know and
I got to halftime and I walkinto the change rooms and I go
to the doctor.
I say, hey, I've been poking theeye before.

(01:23:49):
This is a different feeling.
This is not the same as it'shappened before.
And I said, can you just checkthis out real quick?
So he pulls me into the doctor'sroom while everyone else is
doing the line meetings andstuff.
And he kind of, I don't know ifyou've ever been to a doctor and
something traumatic kind ofhappens.
There's a bit of a differentfeel in the room all of a
sudden.
And I remember sitting there andhe looks at my eye and he just
kind of like goes a bit quietand he says, I was like, yeah,

(01:24:12):
we all good, you know?
He's like, no.
He's like, we're going straightto the hospital.
You're done for the day.
I was like, no, I'm fine.
I feel all right.
There's no pain or anything.
He goes, no, this is a lot moreserious than you realize.
We need to go straight to thehospital.
At that point, he put me in theback of a car.
We drove to the Eye and EarHospital on a Sunday afternoon.
I'm in full kit still, justsitting in the hospital room,
just hanging out.

(01:24:33):
They give me a full test andstuff done.
They do it for both eyes.
The guy comes back and he goes,man, I've got some really bad
news.
I said, yeah, just lay it on me.
He goes, you've had half yourretina detached like half your
eyes essentially you know openand then I said oh man like okay
like and as a football playerwhat does that mean you go okay
what's next you know what's nextlet's move on come on like what

(01:24:54):
passes the past can't change itmove on like what can we do to
fix the future he goes I need totell you something else and I
said yeah what's that and hegoes well you know this eye
obviously is really damaged butyour other eye which is your
good eye also has a detachmentin it and I said what are you
talking about and so I waspoking that eye he goes now like
both your eyes are seriouslydamaged you need to get some
proper help.

(01:25:15):
And it was kind of a bit of ahumbling, sour moment.
It was the other eye that Barassgot.
Yeah, and I was ignorant to thatat the time until the other one
happened and I realized, Iguess, the seriousness of both
of them and what was going on inthat moment.
So from there, you essentiallygo, okay, I went from that
morning be totally okay to thatnight realizing that I need to

(01:25:36):
have surgery on both my eyes andI'm going to go through a very,
very dark time and trial in mylife.
to be able to try to get one ofmy senses back.
And we all use eyesight everysingle day and we're very
fortunate to have it and we relyon it quite a bit.
And I was just putting my fullfaith in these doctors to be
able to bring it back.

(01:25:57):
And so to give you a bit ofcontext around it, the first
surgery was put a heavy liquidin there and then I had to spend
two weeks and for those twoweeks, every hour I could spend
45, sorry, I could spend 15minutes of that hour walking
around, going to the bathroom,something like that, but I had
to spend 45 minutes of everyhour for two weeks straight on

(01:26:17):
my back facing the ceiling in aposition that I couldn't move
and in a dark room I couldn't doanything else

SPEAKER_04 (01:26:23):
that's insane

SPEAKER_00 (01:26:26):
it sounds like saying the words doesn't sound
too much but to sit there fortwo weeks that's 24 lots of an
hour every day it wasessentially bed ridden and at
that point I didn't have familyover here I didn't have I had a
decent friendship group and Istill do Like, I've got some
amazing friends that really lookafter me and they kind of came
over and stuff.

(01:26:46):
And, you know, you lose youreyesight.
Like, I didn't have any sightwhatsoever.
And, you know, the thoughts gothrough your head in this dark
room of going, like, am I evergoing to see again?
Like, am I ever going to playfootball again?
There's all these kind ofquestions you start questioning
about your life.
Thinking I should have

SPEAKER_05 (01:26:59):
taken the job and sat

SPEAKER_00 (01:27:00):
in the office job.
A hundred percent, yeah.
So in

SPEAKER_06 (01:27:03):
that recovery phase, you had lost your vision, is
that right?

SPEAKER_00 (01:27:05):
Totally lost my vision.
Couldn't see anything.
Like, you'd pick up your phone.
I couldn't answer phone callsbecause I didn't know who it
was.
Couldn't see what was on thephone.
And everything was justcompletely...
like blur and it's just likenothing was visible and um you
know you kind of go okay wellhopefully this gets better you
know and for those two weeks youknow you have all these negative
thoughts and all these thingscoming into your head and um you
know it's a very tough time andi talk about eddie previously

(01:27:27):
with the christmas stuff likeone thing that you know i have
incredible respect for himduring that time was like there
was not a ton of people thatreached out during that
experience but eddie being oneof the most busy people i've
ever met he was the one personthat consistently checked in on
me i felt like every single dayasking me like can i do anything
can and food can I like stopover and just check in on you
whatever it was and it was thatlittle effort that meant a lot

(01:27:49):
for me at that time in that darkperiod of knowing that someone
looks after you and knowsdoesn't know the extent probably
of what's going on but juststill wants to make sure you're
okay and that's something thatwill forever I think like
connect us and I'm forevergrateful and we'll forever have
that experience to have thatconnection with them yeah and I
understand like you know he'she's had some everyone's got

(01:28:11):
their opinion of the man andstuff but like my person
personal experience goingthrough that kind of stuff and
having someone like that supportme has, I feel like, bonded
myself and him for life and it'ssomething I'm extremely grateful
in those really dark times.

SPEAKER_04 (01:28:24):
So take us into Ruptured Spleen.

SPEAKER_05 (01:28:28):
So Kenneth, so the eyes, the vision has obviously
come back.
You're not wearing glasses.
I thought you wore littlegoggles because I used to play
netball and I wear glasses, soyou know, prescription.
So I thought you were wearingprescription goggly things that
we wear in sports.
So you're not wearingprescription goggles you're
wearing something to protectyour eyes

SPEAKER_00 (01:28:46):
yeah so I mean the way this all kind of panned out
was the AFL you can imagine it'sa bit weird doing something that
someone's never done beforeright and I tried all these
contacts out nothing was fittingand got to this point it was
kind of a determinant point inmy career of saying like you got
to fix this you can't mark afooty without seeing and like I
was playing games at that timeduring COVID and stuff and I was

(01:29:06):
playing games where I couldn'tsee the ball over 10 meters in
front of me I would just body upthe person hopefully that he's
reading the ball well and thenwould try to take a mark
whenever it came 10 minutes or10 meters in front of me so
there was that whole thing whichwas like kind of crazy within
itself trying to play like thatand I got to this point I said
man like you're never going tohave a career doing this like
you need to make a decision andwearing glasses was not

(01:29:27):
something anyone ever did infootball you know and it's not
you know I mean people judge youand people are going to say
those things and make fun of youand all this kind of stuff that
comes with it right like thereis that critique of people and I
remember it was a very nervousthing to go out and like present
yourself with these things on inthe middle of training
everyone's looking at you goingis this is this a joke because I

SPEAKER_05 (01:29:50):
wear glasses at all never as a child but I would
never wear my glasses playingnetball and I shoot and my
husband was like I think youneed to you know do something
your eye because he's like I waslike I play really well and I'm
not playing at your level anywayfound out that you know
obviously how much better I waswhen I was wearing glasses but I
saw you those and I was likeokay I'll get

SPEAKER_00 (01:30:07):
a lot of people didn't it and that's I think
that's one of the most beautifulthing that things that's come
from it so you know I I tookthis risk to do this that no one
had really done before and youknow and it's a bit of like a
bullying kind of sense that itcan come with this right to
people that do wear glasseswhenever they play or train or
even in life and you know Idecided to kind of go through

(01:30:27):
that that kind of bullying fromthe media the bullying from
other people and stuff like thatoh of course yeah from

SPEAKER_05 (01:30:32):
the media

SPEAKER_00 (01:30:32):
the media didn't understand why they thought I
was just doing something becauseI thought it was fashionable and
I was like mate I've had both myeyes ripped out like yeah and
you had two different shades onthese glasses you need to be

SPEAKER_04 (01:30:42):
lens slightly different to be able to help you
counter the lights so you couldsee

SPEAKER_00 (01:30:47):
so I've had my left eye looks a bit different on my
right because my pupil doesn'tconstrict anymore because of the
surgeries you can probably seeit looks like you know I've had
a bit of a big night so but yeahit's a bit of effect that's
going to stick with me for therest of my life so I have to
have one that's a bit darkerthan one that's a bit lighter
and then you know there'scorrection in each one of them
I've even gone to the people atOakley headquarters over in

(01:31:09):
California and talked to themabout this and what I do and you
know shared ideas back forth andstuff like that and you know
that first part of wearing andwas quite nerve-wracking and
kind of like you know judgmentali guess of like how are people
going to take this you know likethis is a different look and
like didn't really know and youknow you fight through that kind
of negativity and then it kindof became okay this is just part

(01:31:29):
of him this is the part of thevisual of what he looks like now
and people started to understandyou start telling stories on
podcasts of what you've beenthrough and they're like oh my
gosh this is way more than iactually i had no

SPEAKER_05 (01:31:38):
idea i thought you just wore glasses and that's
what you did and i don't likecontacts i was like oh he
doesn't doesn't like contacts sohe wears these I had no idea of
the story

SPEAKER_00 (01:31:46):
yeah so there's a lot more that kind of goes back
to it but the beauty I'll goback to the beauty of it is I
think like once I kind ofstarted wearing him like AFL
games and stuff I started havingso many parents like reaching
out at Auskick clinics or onsocial media wherever it was and
they're like my kid now hassomeone to look up to at the
highest level that is doing thesame thing and wearing these
glasses and he's always beenpicked on and like always kind

(01:32:08):
of felt like he was the oddperson out or she was the odd
person out and now they havesomeone to be a role model for
them at the highest level.
And it was kind of thisbeautiful thing that came out of
something I didn't expect.
And I'm super grateful, andevery time I see a kid wearing
glasses, I always go over to himand be like, you look cool, man.
You look cool, brother.

(01:32:28):
But I think that was kind of oneof the beautiful things out of
taking a risk and doingsomething different than someone
else that no one had really donebefore.
And the beauty, there isbacklash that comes with it, but
I think once you get past allthat, there's a bit of light at
the end of the tunnel and beautywithin it.

SPEAKER_05 (01:32:43):
And you need to be able to see when you're playing.

SPEAKER_00 (01:32:45):
That does help, yes.
And you need to be able to see

SPEAKER_04 (01:32:47):
after you're playing too.
You know, you want the rest ofyour life.
Yeah, yeah.
Mate, you've made a lot oflemons out of lemonade, that's
for sure.
Sorry, lemonade out of lemons.
The spleen.
So the spleen, just go to thatbecause I want to sort of wind
you up and go somewhere withthis finish here.
But

SPEAKER_00 (01:33:03):
yeah, that was big too.
That was pretty wild, yeah.
So that was, I think it was 2023when we played in the grand
final.
So yeah, we're playing PortAdelaide MCG.
I think we're beating them bylike 40 or 50 points at a time
and I kind of was running on thefield and had someone come up to
me and kind of lower the body tokind of like check me.
Yeah, hip and shoulder, man.

(01:33:23):
I tried to kind of match him andhe got me in this spot and as
soon as it hit me, I go, ohgeez, what's going on there?
And it was this like neural painthrough my whole body and I
needed to kind of essentiallyexpel from the top and bottom
half of me at the same time andI was just like, what in the
world was that?
Like I've broken ribs, I've doneall these injuries, I've never
had this feeling before.
I'm sitting there, I run around,of course, the next contest
comes, a ball comes flying intoyou.

(01:33:44):
You sit there like aching inpain going, I'm just going to
throw my body at this thing.
And, you know, I get off.
At one point, you know, I playfor the next four or five
minutes.
I call myself off and I said,man, something's wrong.
Like something's going wrong.
I don't know what it is.
And they kind of look at you andthey're like, no, no, you'll be
all right.
Like just kind of keep, I justplay through it.
We'll figure it out later.
You might, I think you just havea broken rib.
I was like, oh, okay.
So I played through the rest ofthe game and stuff.

(01:34:05):
Didn't play as many minutes andstuff.
I played through the rest of thegame.
That's Dermot

SPEAKER_06 (01:34:07):
Brereton stuff

SPEAKER_00 (01:34:08):
right there.
It's stupid.
And you look at people likeChristian Petrarca who had it
last year and it's like I kindof reached out to him and I was
like man like look afteryourself like make sure this is
not something to kind of try tofight through this is like
serious stuff and yeah so Iplayed the rest of the game and
then you know I go back to therooms and like oh I think you
just have a bit of a bruised ribgo home just relax and stuff so

(01:34:29):
I went relaxed and I woke up onSunday morning I said you know
something's wrong I don't feellike something's right like I'm
still in quite a bit of pain I'mstarting to get this like
bloating in my abdomen I neverhad that before and I was like
what is going on and I said Ididn't ask the doctor for an
x-ray I told him I'm getting anx-ray today like I'm going in
and so I went and got a CT scanand stuff and I mean this is

(01:34:51):
probably something I don't knowhow much of a legalities around
this I can tell but essentiallythey came back and said yeah
you're good you just have abruised rib and I said okay all
right you know it's an x-ray Itrust an x-ray you know and so
and x-rays

SPEAKER_05 (01:35:04):
more bones too

SPEAKER_00 (01:35:05):
yeah x-ray CT scan I can't remember what it was it
was a scan of some sort yeahyeah and I just I was like man
something just doesn't feelright but okay like I trust the
people that are you know in thesystem and so I go back and you
know we've got about five daystill our next game I think we're
playing Richmond actually on aFriday night and you know we get

(01:35:25):
to Wednesday and I hadn't donethe main training and you know
I'm sitting there and they'relike hey we gotta make sure you
can actually get through thispain to be able to play if
you're gonna play on Friday soso Thursday we came up with this
plan we said okay we're gonna doa bit of like a captain's run
you're gonna run around do a fewup downs do a few ruck drills
kind of bash bodies a bit andwe're just gonna pump you full
of painkillers and a pain patchand everything else we're just
gonna try to get you to fightthrough this kind of broken rib

(01:35:46):
so I was like okay so I went outand I did that you know and I
went through all this kind ofstuff and then you know I walked
off and said all right cool likeI'll fight through it I'll get
through it but it's gonna be along day I might need a few more
rests than normal but I'll beable to get through the game and
he goes yeah no worries I said Ijust want to bring something up
it's a bit weird but I've gotthis like weird kind of neural
pain in my shoulder and he kindof was like oh that's a bit odd
like that's kind of different sothen he goes oh we'll check the

(01:36:09):
scans again so he goes back tothe scans and The scans show
that I've got a lacerated spleenthat's been internally bleeding
for the last five days.

SPEAKER_06 (01:36:16):
Bleeding internally, pouring it into your abdomen.

SPEAKER_00 (01:36:21):
What are you talking about?
He goes, it all makes sense now.
You've got the abdomen stuff andeverything that's going on.
I was just like, what the hell?
Same thing.
As an athlete, you go, okay,what's next?
How do I fix this?
What's next?
How do we keep moving forward?
He goes, we're going to talk toa spleen doctor and stuff.
I call the spleen doctor.
He comes straight into theEpworth, chat to him for a over

(01:36:42):
the last 24 hours and 48 hoursand five days.

SPEAKER_05 (01:36:45):
And

SPEAKER_00 (01:36:46):
I said, like, you know, I've pumped full of
anti-bleed tablets.
You know, I've had, you know,painkillers.
I've had a pain patch, you know,and I'm trying to fight through
it.
And then I did some up-downs andrunning around.
And he goes, you've done theexact opposite of what I'm going
to tell you to do for the next24 hours.
And I was like, what do youmean?
He goes, I'm going to give youthis piece of paper.
This has a phone number on it.
If you feel like you're about topass out, hand this to the next

(01:37:06):
closest person to you and tellthem to call that number and
send you to that hospital.
And I said, what do you mean?
He goes, well, if someone callsthe hospital because you passed
out and they send you to theEpworth, they don't have a
trauma ward to be able to dealwith internal bleeding and a
lacerated spleen.
They're going to have to sendyou over to the Alfred, and that
might take 30 minutes of justtransit that you waste, and that
might be your life.
And I was just like, sorry,what?

(01:37:27):
And he's like, yeah, this is,like, the fact that you're kind
of around right now and, like,just doing this stuff is
ridiculous.
Like, you shouldn't be in a bed.
Like, you shouldn't be doinganything, you know?
And he goes, I'm going to talkto the spleen people in the
morning.
We're going to have aconversation and see kind of
where we go forward with this,you So I said, okay.
He said, do not stay alonetonight.
I live alone.
He said, do not stay byyourself.

(01:37:47):
Something happens.
You need to have someone there.
So I think I stayed at afriend's house.
Someone stayed at mine, whateverit was.
And I get to the next morning.
I'm in a meeting with the club.
I'm just kind of chilling.
I get this call from the spleendoctor.
And he goes, what are you doing?
I said, I'm at the club rightnow.
He goes, I had talked with thedoctors.
How quickly can you get to thehospital?
I said, probably 30 minutes orsomething.
He goes, cool.
See you in 30 minutes.
So I just go to my car, get inthe car, drive to the hospital.

(01:38:09):
Before I knew it, I was in thegown.
I was put on this tag.
and it's like essentially across on the table and you got
this big x-ray machine over yourchest and then you got your arm
out to one side and then you gotthis TV and it shows the live
insides of what you are inside.
So you've got this live versionof x-ray of like your internal
organs.
You got your arm out there andit cuts your artery and starts
feeding this wire.

(01:38:30):
This wire through your body.
You're awake for this wholething.
Starts feeding this wire throughyour artery all the way into
your chest, all the way intoyour chest.
It's like two meters long.
This thing's insane.
And then he gets to the pointinto the spleen.
He finally works his way intothe spleen.
He goes, you'll feel a bit ofpressure.
And I said, okay.
So then he puts this coil in myspleen and what he's done is
he's essentially killed off theavailability of blood flow to

(01:38:52):
that part of the spleen andthat's the part that was
lacerated.
So he puts that coil in and hestarts stripping it back out of
your wrist and you're sittingthere watching this whole thing
live on the television next toyour head.
I wouldn't

SPEAKER_04 (01:39:02):
be watching

SPEAKER_00 (01:39:03):
it but anyway.
You're in amazement.
This is a medical marvel.
Are you kidding me?
And the guy's just looking andhe goes, you're the 12th person
I've done today.
Wow.
You say today.
Today.
He goes, I do that many of thesea day.
I don't even, you know, it'sjust part of the job.
Motorbike accidents.
Crazy to me.
And I'm sitting there going,this is the most insane thing
I've ever experienced.
So I go through that.

(01:39:24):
He pulls out, you know, the wireand everything else out of you.
And then you stay overnight.
And then the next morning youget up and he's like, you know,
you essentially can't doanything for eight weeks.
He's like, I don't even want youto get like a sweat on.
I don't want you to go toanything more than a walk.
Like chill out for like seven oreight weeks.
And I said, well, what's goingto happen?
with all this blood.
I had like two liters of bloodthat was sitting in my abdomen,

(01:39:45):
just sitting there.
I said, what happens to theblood?
He goes, look, the body willmagically just soak it all up,
go back into your bloodstream,wherever it is, and then you'll
start feeling a bit better in aweek's time.
So for seven weeks, I didnothing.
Just sat there and just watchedeveryone train.

SPEAKER_04 (01:39:57):
This is in the premiership year, right?
This

SPEAKER_00 (01:39:59):
is the premiership year.
And I

SPEAKER_04 (01:40:00):
remember sending you a message that I spoke to you
about recently because I hadthis little, like a little,
almost like a vision.
I saw you winning thepremiership as the Ruckman, like
you're in the center orwhatever.
And I was like, whoa.
And I sent you a text messagesaying, hey, mate, everything's
going to work out.
I've seen it.
Life's going to

SPEAKER_00 (01:40:18):
be okay.

SPEAKER_04 (01:40:19):
Life's going to be okay.
I've seen it.
You're still alive, barely, butyou're still alive.
It's all going to work out.
I've seen it because I was like,wow, how's it going to end up
there?
I didn't say much in themessage, but I saw it really
clearly, saw the vision reallyclearly.
So take us forward because we'vegot to wrap up.
But if we come into all of asudden now, after all these
things you've been through inthis unlikely story, you're the

(01:40:42):
starting Ruckman for thepremiership for the grand final
with the development coach isnow the head coach.
The kid that kicked the ball toyou for the very first goal is
now your captain.
And Geordie Degoe is now thestar.
And you're lining up for thatgame.

(01:41:03):
It's

SPEAKER_00 (01:41:05):
a bit serendipitous.

SPEAKER_04 (01:41:06):
It's so serendipitous.
It's so magical.
It's so beautiful.
It's so divine.
You've affected, impacted somany people.
Before we touch on that, youknow, round this off, tell us
about those moments.
Tell us about, you know, thatgame and the finish of that game
when that siren goes.

SPEAKER_00 (01:41:25):
Well, it's funny you go from this injury early in the
year and then you play a fewgames and then you actually get
dropped to the VFL.
So before I even played finals,I think it was maybe four games
before we started our finalscampaign, five games, I got
dropped to the VFL and had thatvery honest and open
conversation with Craig at thetime.
and you know he said look I havefull belief in you that you're
going to come back and be betterthan ever and we just need you

(01:41:47):
to go back and kind of find somebit of form and that's a tough
thing as a player and as a coachto give you know as feedback but
you know make it back into theteam towards the back end of
that kind of five game periodand then make it all the way to
the grand final and yeah like tome you know it's like I talk
about it's all about theexperience and the journey and
everything that's kind of comewith it and it's such an
incredible like I'm so lucky tostill have these people involved

(01:42:10):
in my life and still have thesepeople like I'm still kind of
having this experience with andthen to be able to have the
biggest stage and everythingelse included like Darcy Moore
in our first grand final wasn'teven allowed to play like he was
I think he was injured at thetime and now to see him as the
captain you know and then likeall the stuff that comes with it
and then like before the gameyou know you do the parade and
he like holds up the cup andit's like I'm like looking at
all this I'm like wow

SPEAKER_04 (01:42:31):
five years after the last grand final

SPEAKER_00 (01:42:32):
yeah I was like man this is incredible like we were
all young in that first grandfinal experience now we're kind
of like a bit more of anexperienced group that's played
together for a while and yeahjust I think like for myself I
was like man this is uh anincredible opportunity and
there's those moments you knowmaybe it's the you know you
start a new business or you youknow do something else for the
first time you're like oh wowlike this is it like this is

(01:42:55):
kind of that turning momentright like this is an
opportunity I don't want to takefor granted I want to make sure
I enjoy it the most and um yeahI think like going through that
day it was uh it was just socool to be able to see how much
it meant to so many people like

SPEAKER_04 (01:43:09):
you're sharing the ruck with Darcy Cameron

SPEAKER_00 (01:43:11):
who's another incredible story.
Great story.
But

SPEAKER_04 (01:43:13):
you're bouncing around and this means so many
stories.
There's so much to so manypeople.

SPEAKER_00 (01:43:19):
Yeah.
And I think there's, as aRuckman, you kind of get that
first chance to make astatement.
That's a pretty cool experienceto be in a grand final, be the
first experience of it, youknow?
I don't know if I actually wonthe first set.
I can't remember now, butthere's something cool about
being like the start ofsomething, right?
Like you start, you know, acontest, you start the ball in

(01:43:42):
the middle or you know stoppagearound the ground or wherever it
is and sometimes being a ruck isa bit of a thankless job I'll be
honest with you but to me I'vealways enjoyed more seeing other
people be successful than myselfespecially towards you know this
time in my career whereas I canbe if I can help someone else
get more touches in the game orif I can help someone else to
score like I get more enjoymentout of that than scoring myself

(01:44:03):
now just kind of like a weirdexperience I feel like and yeah
I think like being a ruckman inthe premiership and having that
faith for my coach to do that isincredible and there's a there's
a moment you know the way weplayed to give a bit of
background is like you know Iwould play for a chunk in the
middle and then you know at thevery end of the quarter I would

(01:44:24):
come off for like four minutesyou know and that was kind of it
and I would sit in the bench forthe last chunk and I would see
us finish a game and we had whenI think like seven or eleven
games or something like thatwithin like six points it was
like crazy like we're winningall these close games I was
always like on the benchwatching it you know and you
kind of feel that like oh Ican't do anything but I'm like
there and you know like you'relike oh it's out of my hands
back

SPEAKER_04 (01:44:42):
on that Back on that bench

SPEAKER_00 (01:44:42):
again.
Yeah, back on that bench again.
And in that grand final, Iremember at one point we had
kind of kicked the goal andthere was about four minutes
left.
And I was thinking, all right,my job's kind of done.
I'll get pulled off here.
And I kind of look over to theinterchange and I don't see my
number up there.
And I'm kind of going, okay,that's a bit odd.
I guess we'll go for anotherminute or so and see how we go.

(01:45:04):
And we kicked another goal, Ithink it was, and I looked over
and my name still wasn't upthere.
And I think I just had thisrealization in the time.
I was like, oh.
snap like he's putting fullfaith in me to finish this game
out like stop looking it's doneyeah like you're gonna be the
rockman for the rest of thisgame like give it everything you
can possibly do empty everythingout of the tank so it was kind

(01:45:26):
of that beautiful moment of likefeeling like someone genuinely
goes hey I'm putting my fullfaith in the fact that you can
get this job done

SPEAKER_04 (01:45:34):
well

SPEAKER_00 (01:45:35):
and

SPEAKER_04 (01:45:35):
after that whole story

SPEAKER_00 (01:45:36):
it's a beautiful kind of thing to like feel that
and then to know that probablyin the in the time that feeling
of that and looking over thereand just you know knowing that
you're part of that group thatis the most trusted to finish
the job and there's somethingcool about that and it was
something I probably didn'texperience as much throughout
the year and then to be in thatthe biggest moment on the

(01:45:57):
biggest stage to then be trustedin that moment to be able to
perform is something that youknow you just you don't take for
granted you go shit like that'sthat's pretty incredible like
pretty cool to say that you knowyou can be part of that that
group in the middle that youknow is trusted to get the job
done

SPEAKER_05 (01:46:12):
and thank goodness that you saw it that way I
imagine there would be some fearlike everything you've been
through it's scary to go andplay after you've had such major
injuries such serious things youknow this is impacting your body
your physical function

SPEAKER_00 (01:46:28):
yeah I think the day before I was sitting there and I
was doing my laundry orsomething I remember just having
a moment I go in 24 hours yourlife's going to change in one
way or the other

SPEAKER_02 (01:46:39):
you're

SPEAKER_00 (01:46:40):
either going to be super happy you're going to go
with man I went from zeroliterally never hearing of the
sport to then winning achampionship and being on top of
the mountain or you could go tobeing extremely depressed again
saying I had two chances at thisand I missed both of them

SPEAKER_02 (01:46:53):
and

SPEAKER_00 (01:46:54):
it was that kind of moment of like life's going to
change pretty quickly and liketry to make the most of tomorrow
and try to get some sleeptonight first of all but like
understand that tomorrow isgoing to be a massive day in
your life that you'll neverforget and it's cool I mean it's
stressful It's everything else.
But to challenge yourself allowsyou to have these experiences

(01:47:16):
that you'll never forget andthat kind of shape you as a
person.
If you never challenge yourself,you just continue in the same
direction and trajectory and younever grow as a person or
anything like that.
But to be able to put yourselfin hard situations and hard
instances that you have toreally fight through or really
kind of push yourself to be ableto be successful at, it changes
you and it morphs you into aperson that can be able to

(01:47:36):
handle adversity and everythingelse better going forward.
And I think looking at thethings I've been through and the
experiences I've had me as theperson that met Trevor there the
mantra over on Jolly Mont is atotally different person to the
person I am today and that's alot of it is the experiences
I've experienced in AFL outsideof AFL the trials and
tribulations I've had the upsand downs of the roller coasters

(01:47:58):
and everything else that's kindof shaped me as the person I am
now that I like to think I'm away better well-rounded person
that understands life a lotbetter than I ever thought I
would and now I'm extremelycomfortable in my own skin doing
my own thing and that wassomething I just never had
before

SPEAKER_04 (01:48:13):
mate you know I love you you know and my family it's
mutual thank you buddy such anhonor to have you with us today
I just think the story of youknow they talk about the magic
happening outside the comfortzone I think that's why there's
been so magic because you'vebeen so much magic because
you've been so far outside ofthe comfort zone Craig Fly often

(01:48:35):
says to me people will not knowhow incredible Mason's story is
until he's finished becauseuntil they've stop and reflect
back they won't stop judging andassessing him and when they look
back they'll go holy crap lookwhat he did under our noses the
whole time we were actuallycritiquing him because it's
amazing you know you're a biggame player big game human you

(01:48:55):
know you do amazing things youcome back from the deepest stuff
we're going to we'll send youoff with some future lab
products because for yourlongevity you know but we'll
also get them

SPEAKER_02 (01:49:06):
approved so we've got a few more years you've got
to keep playing

SPEAKER_00 (01:49:07):
with Craig McCray we'll get them approved through
Joe I keep telling Fly I waslike feel free whenever you're
ready to sign the contract

SPEAKER_04 (01:49:11):
So we're going to set you up for your longevity.
But tell us a question we askeverybody to finish off.
With all this incredible wisdomthat we're all discovering, if
we're able to give you an extra10, 15, 20 years of incredible
health and incredible life forceat the end of what you would

(01:49:33):
consider life to be, so maybeinto your 80s or 90s or
whatever, why would you wantthat?
What would you do with an extra10, 15, 20 years of growth?
right health

SPEAKER_00 (01:49:43):
continue what I'm doing I think like I just I'm
just enjoying life like I neverexpected to be here never
anticipated anything like thatand I feel like I've lived 20
lifetimes in the last 10 yearslike I really have and if I can
continue to do that like andcontinue to be happy and
continue to form connectionswith amazing people like

(01:50:03):
yourself like it's what life'sall about like we're people that
love connection human beingslove connection and I think
that's what brings us joy andhappiness and if I can do that
for as many people along the wayas possible, then I feel like
I'm living a fulfilled life.

SPEAKER_02 (01:50:16):
Sounds good.
The little

SPEAKER_04 (01:50:17):
Texan, hey?
Little Texans, he's grown.
Little Texans, be coming there.
Thank you so much for

SPEAKER_05 (01:50:25):
sharing your story.
I had no idea.
As I said, I've seen all thetape and I see all these things,
but even for someone that thinksI sort of follow footy-ish,
maybe not as strongly as someothers, you know, just have no
idea what people are goingthrough.
And I kind of knew your story.
I was like, oh, this guy's comefrom the US and he played
basketball, Never really stoppedto think about it, but I feel
honoured that I was able to hearall that and, you know, just

(01:50:46):
amazing what you've beenthrough.
So I'm looking forward towatching you on the screen now
and going, I know him.

SPEAKER_00 (01:50:52):
I know him a little bit better than most people.

SPEAKER_05 (01:50:54):
We're best friends now, like you and Trev.

SPEAKER_04 (01:50:56):
Thank you so much.
That's been great.

SPEAKER_00 (01:50:57):
No, thanks so much for having me on the platform.

SPEAKER_04 (01:51:00):
And I'll see you for work tomorrow, mate.
Sounds good.
For your birthday.

SPEAKER_00 (01:51:03):
That's it.
Happy birthday for tomorrow.
Happy birthday.
I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_04 (01:51:06):
Thank you, Mason Cox.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Stuff You Should Know

The Joe Rogan Experience

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}From Texas to AFL Glory: Mason Cox's Incredible Journey

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Stuff You Should Know

The Joe Rogan Experience

All Episodes

From Texas to AFL Glory: Mason Cox's Incredible Journey

On Purpose with Jay Shetty