Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Highheart, there's no denying Brendan Gail has one of the
biggest jobs in AFL right now at the helm of
Tasmania's team. There's a big weight on the shoulders of
everyone at the Devil's working hard to make sure the
team we fought for for many years makes it to
the field in twenty twenty eight. Our CEO is a
(00:20):
born and bred Tasmanian and credits his family and his
upbringing on the Northwest coast as one of eight kids
for his success. I am Ebeningapolert and for this week's
episode of My Heart Tazy, I sat down with Brenon
Gail to chat about his journey from growing up on
a farm on the Northwest coast to playing at Senior
AFL and it's now becoming the inaugural CEO of Tasmania's
(00:42):
first ever AFL team. Brendan Gale grew up as one
of eight children on a farm at Elliott.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
My father was a I think his fifth generation, Gail Elias,
and yeah, we wed three elder sisters, two two boys
and three youngers younger sisters. We had a big farm
and we had the freedom and opportunity to run around
and explore without getting in too much trouble, and we
(01:10):
moved to Penguin. A little later, my father sold the
farm and sort of ended that link and moved into
real estate rural supplies. But we live right on the
beach in Penguin, and once again just the freedom and
the opportunity to explore, and so we had a very
rich upbringing. Not mature, but in terms of opportunity and freedom,
it was a very rich upbringing.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Like many families on the coast, his father and grandfather
had played afl having a footy in his hand. He's
one of his earliest memories keeping all hours of.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
The day and night and my brother and my farm.
Initially an Elliott and then in the Penguin and Bernie.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
As he got older he played in more well structured
and competitions in regional towns on the coast, and says
football clubs were great supportive environments to spend time in
as a very active kid.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
It was football, winter, it was cricket, and summer it
was surf, I saving nippers and it was surfing, bit
of basketball, football and at the access and opportunity to
a lot of sports was a really important part of
my upbringing on the.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Coast, but he very easily could have gone down a
different sporting route.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Look, if I was going to be absolutely frank, you know,
I probably enjoyed playing cricket at a younger age more
and I was probably better at it. And my father
was involved with the Penguin Cricket Club. So we're around
there knocking around the mets all day long every weekend.
And you know, I played a little bit of golf
as well. But I guess the pathways were as established,
(02:33):
and I guess the supports structures weren't as well defined
we were as football, where there was more of a
gradual sort of movement through the grade.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
After school, Brendon moved from the Northwest Coast to Hobart
to study at the University of Tasmania and played football
with Sadie Bay. During this time, his brother Michael had
moved to Melbourne and was becoming a senior player with
Fitzroy in the VFL.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
He was the one who really blazed the t and
made me think, well, if he can do it, you
know I can do it if I knuckle.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Down and knuckle down he did. At the end of
first year of university he returned home for the summer
and decided to defer his studies and stay the Bernie
Hawks joined the state competition with Brenton on the team, I.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Decided to chance my arm and I got drafted the
end of that year to Richmond, and I guess the
rest is history.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
He credits his brother Michael for encouraging him and making
him take football more seriously, describing him as an important
figure in the journey towards seeing it as a career.
AFL has developed and grown significantly since those days. Players
weren't on multi million dollar contracts like they are now.
They can't average jobs just like you and me.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
There teachers or plumbers or office workers, and they played
footy on the weekend. And so from you know, football
might have been a means to an end, but certainly
in our family, education was always valued in emphasise. So yeah,
I mean, I'm at the opportunity to go to the university.
Did my brother, I guess just open up my eyes
(04:03):
to the possibility of what this could be. And it
was like it was a gradual sort of change. Really,
you know, when I decided to stay at home and
play with Bernie Free, I never probably thought wasn't expected
to be drafted, but I just thought I'd give it
a go. You know, the game's a lot bigger now
and the rewards are so much more significant that we're
(04:25):
seeing young Canada athletes. You commit to that life a
lot earlier and aspire a lot earlier than it happened
for me back then, which gave me the opportunity to develop.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Other parts of my life, I guess, and getting picked
up in the second eighty seven AFL Draft not exactly
how you'd expect it would go down, and certainly not
how Brendon did.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
The night before the draft, I had a phone call
with the Fitzroy Football Club, where the legendary recruiter of
the name of Arthur Wilson, and with David Parkin, who
is the coach at the time, informing me that they're
going to pick me wear a third pick in the draft.
It's interesting because I hadn't had any contact at all
from Fitzroy apart from that phone call, but clearly I
had a brother was playing there. I was six for five,
(05:09):
built like a Rake, but with potential like Kiship. You
might say I had no contact at all with Richmond,
but I know they'd been a couple of games throughout
the year and we played. We made the finals. That
I got drafted by Richmond, and I had no idea.
I was quite surprised. My father rang me. It wasn't televised,
it wasn't broadcast on the radio. My father got a
(05:30):
phone call from Richmond saying I had been drafted. My
father called me and if I was going to be honest,
I was probably a little disappointed because I was looking
forward to joining my brother and now that wasn't the case.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
It wasn't all a disappointment, though. He describes Richmond as
a great club and says it was a great thing
to go forward and fought his own career and identity
and a different football club to his brother.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Fortunately, my brother was able to come and join me
at Richmond about six seven years later.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
He and Michael played a State of origin in football
for Tasmania, playing together for the first time outside of
school football teams before the trade at the end of
ninety three.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
So he had another five or six years at Richmond
with me. He played another one hundred old games. We
had had great times and you know, it's probably something
I took for granted a bit at the time, but
when I look back now upon reflection, I really cherished
that opportunity.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
During his time in the AFL, Brendan completed his degree.
His last game for Richmond was the two thousand and
one preliminary final when they were beaten by eventual premiers Brisbane,
and within two.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Weeks I was working on the thirty second floor of
the twenty five Collins Street the rialto and had a
three x three meter office and a commercial authorm. As
a junior solicitor. That was the future for me. Always
knew that would be the case. I worked with some
really clever that people, did some really interesting things that
I only realized.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
It wasn't a life for me, and the opportunity came
up to run the AFL Players Association. Among the achievements
in his time were a tax test case in the
High Court finding player agent fees could be tax deductible
expense even when they're paid in connection to the negotiation
of employment contract with a new club, as well as
introducing an illicit drug policy with the AFLD.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Some really interesting stuff and that five years there and
that ended towards the end of two thousand and nine.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
He ended up accidentally back at the Richmond Football Club,
my heart, my heart. Brendon Gale accidentally, as he says,
became the CEO of the Richmond Football Clumpy in two
thousand and nine. He'd put a line through his AFL
career and moved on, and suddenly he was back football administration.
(07:39):
He describes as almost like a narcotic They're competing.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
The thrill of winning, but even losing and stripping things
back and learning and recalibrating and going again week to
week season a season. It almost has a bit of
a narcotic effect. It really does feel your carpet really
nourishes me. And so yeah, I found away.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Back in footy thin with Richmond having fallen a bit
off the track since he left, Brendan describes that CEO
role as a renovator's dream.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Had some knowledge of the club and some corporate memory,
but also back with a really strong band aid from
the board, I had the opportunity to make really wholesale
change and bringing a sort of whole new crew and
a whole new team.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Pulling in a new leadership and a new coach. They
developed a shared understanding about what had been going wrong.
By sharing their insights.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Now that began a shared understanding what we have to
do to get it right, and then we're able to
develop a bit.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Of a shared plan bringing together that shared vision of
what success looked like. Sharing that journey with the club
was incredibly warming for Brendan. Here in Tasmania, the role
with the Tasmanian Devils is another huge challenge. He attributes
their early success to the hard work of the team
that's been there since the very beginning.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
I think the establishment of the club has been really
strong and grounded in community and and anchored in the
entire state. There's some challenges with Tasmania. It's a small state,
small in population, small in size and scale, and it's
also decentralized. You know, we've got a major populace in Hobart,
but we've got a fair spread of population up north.
(09:17):
So for us to be successful, we need to harness
the hearts and minds and energy and ambition of the
entire state. So we need to be around, we need
to engage the whole state. We need to be relevant
for the whole state. We need to be visible and
so I think that course was charted early. So you know,
we're going to continue on that course and we're going
to be true to us.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
There's some big challenges as the devils are starting to
want become, but it's an investment worth making. According to Brendan,
we've actually.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Been forwarded boards right now in adversity and in some
ways that's consistent with who we are as a state.
The years and years Tasmanians have been told, you know,
we're not good enough for we're too small or too parochial,
we're two divided, we're not big enough, we're not rich enough,
and we've been denied or been discounted, and certainly in
(10:08):
so far as the AFL experience is concerned. You know,
we've been inspired a n the af for thirty forty
years and here we are, we've been issued license and
it's hard. It's still hard. So I don't mind the
fact that we're being for university because I think that
will make us a better club. It will make us
stronger at the foundations, particularly during this Dallas and phase.
(10:29):
It's uldibly, it's clubs. It's cultures that under pin really
strong successful football clubs.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
One of the things that drives him every day he's
to tackle the role head on.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Competition I love competition. I just think competition brings out
the best of people, and so I'm really focused on
I'm building a club that can support really competitive football
teams that competes and hard and the right way and
hopefully win more games than we lose.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
You know.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
I'm really really focused on that, and I've been lucky
enough to involved in the club that's been very successful.
But it didn't happen overnight, and we worked our way
and we're able to achieve great success so far. As
has mainly concerned, that will your major focus, and I
won't deb eight from that, but I guess the thing
that ultimately attracted to me this role is that is
(11:19):
the notion or the belief, the belief that this is
much much bigger than a football club.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
He says, there's an opportunity to do so much more
than just create an AFL team. He sees it as
building a real sense of pride in the state, a.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Great sense of aspiration and ambition in our youngsters, to
commit at an early age, to have visible role models
of athletes committing to a life of self improvement every day.
And I just think that I'll radiate through the community.
It'll think It'll make kids make better choices about lives earlier.
(11:53):
It might make them better athletes, better footballers, might make
them better students. I think they'll be healthy. I just
think it lift has made and create a real sense
of energy and momentum.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
That passion is infectious.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
It's the concept that we're much bigger than a football
club and we can provide so much positive social impact.
That's what I'm attracted to the most.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
The one thing he misses about his role now at
the Devils is that narcotic feeling of gameplay. That's something
he's looking forward to in the future.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
That fix the competition. It's a drug, but that'll come, man,
It's certainly absolutely worth pursuing and working towards.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
I ended our chat by asking Brendan to flash forward
to the year twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
The team's just gone out on the ground for the
first time. The thought actually gives me a little shiver.
What is that moment going to feel like for you
and for your whole team behind the Devils? What is
that moment going to feel like when they go out
and they go through that banner for the very first time.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Look, it'll probably be a relief to get to the
start line. I think it'll be emotional, feel a great
sense of responsibility, but also gratitude for all the four
bearers who have been described in advocates for the notion
of a Tasmayian team for many, many years and decades.
(13:13):
And I think it'd be a little emotional. You know,
we're caught up right now in the business and the
politics of at the stadium and by extension, the team,
So I think it had been at a moment of
an immense pride, Yeah, pride, but deep and profound gratitude.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
That's it. That's it for this week's episode of My
Heart Tassy. If you want to listen again, you can
find these on the station's website or wherever you get
your podcasts by searching iHeart Tassy. I am Ebane Applett.
Thanks so much for joining me My Heart Tassi.