October 5, 2021 • 33 mins
As if this show isn’t hard enough already, a couple of recruits get a face full of sand. Is that a fair tactic? Jess Peris drops in to discuss the first thing she did when she left the show and the lessons she learnt along the way. And with only days left to go, which recruits have got what it takes to go ALL THE WAY? Merrick and Sabrina put their final guesses on the table. Make sure you watch season two of SAS Australia on Channel 7 and 7plus.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi there. I'm Merrick Watts here with Sabrina Frederick and
this is the SAS Australia Debrief. This week it got
brutal for the recruits. How brutal Well, in these episodes
we saw no fewer than three vws. Sabrina, how do
you think the recruits are holding up at this point?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yeah, I think at this point they're probably feeling everything.
It feels like months even though it's been days. They're hungry,
they're tired. But at the same time, also they're in
a smaller group, so you can tell who the strong
ones are. You can probably almost see where they think
they are in the pack as well.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
So close to the finishing line for all of them now,
you know they can probably smell it's only a few
days away. They're just it's just a matter of hanging
in there. So we'll get into that a little bit later.
But coming up in this episode, we're going to talk
about the sand throwing controversy. Is chucking a fistful of
dirt in someone's eyes a fair tactic? It is, but
not when you're doing it at the bank. Apparently, does
Jessica Paris regret her vy you should be joining us
(01:01):
on the show to have a chat shortly and will
dan Ewing's ego stop him from making selection for says Australia.
There's plenty here to tackle, so let's get started. Episode
(01:21):
ten was a rough one. The theme was grit and
it had some of the most physically demanding tasks that
we've seen so far. We're going to get into the
challenges in a moment, but let's talk about what fatigue
looks like at this point. Sabrina trying to explain the
difference between tiredness and where the recruits are now. With
that level of fatigue.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I think when you've gone so long without the correct
amount of sleep, they say, it's almost being drunk at
the wheel. You know, you can fall asleep at any stage.
You're almost in a paranoia. You start to see things
that aren't there, and you start to second guess yourself
a lot as well when you're in there. At this stage,
the recruits are so close yet so far. So they
(02:00):
know they're almost there, but they're still trying to battle
with just feeling like their whole body is going against them.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yeah, and the lack of nutrition, I mean, their diet
has been really heavily restricted as well. So that's playing
the lack of sleep, lack of water, the fatigue. I
mean from my memories that you just you find everything
a little bit harder eat. Sometimes even having a conversation
or just moving around the accommodation is actually something that
you think, No, that's expenditure, and I can't afford expenditure.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I think the last few days, even though it was
a smaller group, you could tell the conversation was not
as high. You've got a lot of people sort of
taking more time for themselves, you know, stretching, keeping to
themselves in the corner, doing whatever they need to do
to survive at this stage, Do you think that's important
saving your energy?
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Oh, totally. I mean I think you've got it, because
if you're starting to waste any calories on doing anything
other than survival through that, then you're not going to
do yourself any good service. It's just too close to
the end. You need every single ounce of energy for
the next task and you don't know what it is,
so you're already on alert. And I think that's another
thing too, is that mentally it's very fatiguing because now
after like day ten, day eleven, you're on constant alert.
(03:10):
You're starting to get you said, paranoid. I started to
get a little bit suspicious, Like if you could see
the ds moving together or something like that, you go,
something's going to happen, because something was quite likely to.
So you're on a constant high alert and that is
fatiguing as well. So the mental and physical fatigue at
this stage is absolutely wearing on the recruits and you
can see it on their faces.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Yeah, you can.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
And with Jack Kenny, do you think it's probably, you know,
just the whole course as one rather than just the food.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Look, I think it's the combination of all those things
which are going to put you in that state. But
for Jet, and I really like Jet, I thought he
was going to go right the way to the end,
but I think he didn't have a commitment to the
course that you need. And that commitment is that you
will eat anything anything to get through the fuel. It's
not even about what you like or don't like. You
will need anything put into I mean once I I
(04:00):
was thinking about eating the egg shells because I thought,
I don't want that to go to waste, because I
knew that there was some sort of nutritional value to it.
I just thought I should eat the eggs shells. What
am I doing? I'm an idiot trying away because every scrap,
every grain, So for him to not eat, I think
that that shows to me a slight lack of commitment
to go all the way to the end, that he
would not fuel himself at every opportunity.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, and I think it probably goes back to also
the very start of the course, where every little bit
of detail, making sure you've eaten the right amount, making
sure you're drinking right amount, making sure you're sleeping and
you're not wasting it, all those things compile up to
these last few days.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Absolutely, and I think it's an interesting point, right. It's
a culmination now, and it's like an exam. They've given
the recruits the lessons every single day a new lesson.
Learn this, learn this, and they expect you to grasp it,
even if you fail or pass an exercise, to learn
from it, because at the end, that's the test, that
is the exam, and starting to get to that point
(04:58):
now where they're going to be expected to have learned
from every single day there on that course, and that's
where I think some people might undo themselves all right,
let's get into the first challenges. There was an individual
task the recruits had to fight each other standing on
a log suspended above rushing water. I saw this and
I was like, this looks real and brutal challenge.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
I couldn't agree more. I saw it and thought, how
fun would this be?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
An't real? And the fact too, Sabrina life pretty late
in the course to be doing such a vicious style
of exercise as well.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah, I think also being with that rushing water behind them.
You know, as much as it looked amazing, it also
is a massive distraction when you're up there and you're
not balanced and there's a lot going on. I think
from the viewer's perspective, it might look like it's quite straightforward,
but with all those distractions in place, plus having to
keep your balance and also go up against an opponent,
(05:56):
there's a lot of things at play, and that's the
pressure that the ds are putting to see if you
can quiet all those things and just hone on what
you have to do and execute.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
One hundred percent. That's exactly what it is to get
that focus even though everything around you seems so chaotic.
I mean, the big talking point from that was definitely
jes Jessica was told by a billy the DS to
grab a handful of sand and throw it in Yana
Pittman's face when they went out of the log and
she did it, and it was it was pretty full.
I saw it and I went, wow, Yeah, that's that's
(06:26):
going to upset people.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, I thought this was going to take a turn.
It's very polar opposites with people. Some people completely understand
it and get it straight away, and they understand the
environment which they're in. And you know, Stefo, he really
made it plain and simple. You know, this is a
dog eat dog world. It's all about survival, so it
doesn't matter who's in front of you. You're just trying
to do whatever you possibly can to survive in there.
(06:50):
And I was shocked, but I also wasn't surprised in
the sense that when she said yes to doing it,
you've been given a direct order.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
You take that order that.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
There's always a test underneath that test, and the test
there is probably you know, will you do that? Will
you have the capacity to take that order and exact it?
She did it, and Stefo did it as well, and
that's actually the right thing to do, be uncomfortable with
doing it, but it is something that you've been told
to do, and they had to do it. Would you
(07:22):
have thrown it? Would you have grabbed a handful of
dirt and thrown it.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I think in that scenario I would have. I mean,
they're telling you what to do.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
I guess.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Also for me, I'm a little bit bigger and my
physicality is my strength, so I probably wouldn't have necessarily
needed it, and I might have said to them, you
know what, I don't think I need it. I backed
my strength in. But if I was someone smaller, I
can understand, like standing next to Yana in this situation,
being Jess, like clearly you can see who's the dominant force.
(07:54):
It was going to take a lot for Jess to
beat her physically, and the DS understand that you've got
to do whatever it takes. And he did that. She
did whatever it takes. It was a surprise. Janna didn't
like it. A lot of the other recruits then, like,
I'm sure a lot of fans didn't like it.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
But in this world, you've just got to do what
you've got to do to survive.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Me personally, what I would have done is I would
have made a display of picking up the dirt and
pretending to take the dirt, and then I would have
held my fist clenched walked out, and then when I
was meeting my opponent, I would have pretended to throw
it and they would have flinched. And then when they flinched,
because I don't like dirty playing, so I wouldn't have
thrown the dirt, and then when they flinched, I would
have kicked them in the balls really hard. Two wrongs
(08:42):
do make a right. Let's talk about who was good
on that. He sure didn't even fall off the log.
He beat the big man, Sam Burges. That was very impressive.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Coming for a football background.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
You do a lot of that sort of stuff in
football training, a lot of that balance work where you're
competing with someone one on one, and I feel like
that came out and it shone for him. The balance
there was amazing. It almost felt like he wasn't even
threatened at all by Sam's physicality, and he had extreme
confidence just going there and do his best.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
And he just he was slick. He was very very slick.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
He was. And the funny thing is, you know later
we know that he'd VW's just shortly after this, but
he absolutely crushed that challenge. Yeah, and particularly that stage
of the course. If you crush a challenge, your level
of confidence and your power and your grit, your internal
strength just goes up another level at that stage, like
(09:39):
you really are inspired by your own actions. But he
didn't seem to be that way. It was like he
was happy with himself, sure, but it didn't seem to
get enough out of it.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Like the DS always bring up, you're only as good
as your last task. And for him, in my eyes, anyway,
he had won that challenge, he was the front runner,
and he didn't quite race it, maybe as much as
he should have.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Yeah, Yeah, I reckon it could have empowered him more,
and I was really sad that it didn't. I was like, Heath,
that was awesome, but who knows. You know, he is
actually strangely quite a humble guy. Yeah, Heath, you know,
he's been humble this whole time, and maybe he was
just a little bit. I'm not saying he should be celebrating,
but he should have been, you know, chested out, puffed
up and taken it on to the next action. Pre
the LOGHL there was another Action, which is where Dan
(10:25):
Ewing is having a bit of a chat to Stepan
and they're talking about social media, and then it got
around to a conversation where Dan started talking about a
foot fetishist that hits him up, and I just thought,
of course, dan Ewing's talking about a man who's attracted
to his feet on a television show. That's what you do. Eleven.
You start thinking, who finds my feet attractive?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Well, we all know that.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
In the last few days of the course, the true
self comes out.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
He's stripped down, he's exposed, and he just goes, it's
about my feet. And I hate to disappoint you, Dan.
I know he likes to listen to the podcast, but
you're not the only one. His name is FEEDI mcfeet
face and he follows me as well. I don't send
him picks. He's a great guy, he's got great boundaries
around this stuff. But you're not the only one with
beautiful feet, mate. I'm sorry, maybe not so. The final
(11:17):
challenge for that episode absolutely brutal. The log haul five
kilometers some really rough trame. We've done that. We did
the log haul for me one hundred percent, so that
looked tougher than the one we did.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yeah, I think it was definitely tougher and from my memory,
that was one of the toughest ones we did. I
remember how painful that was, especially because it's not as
straightforward as just pick up the log however you want.
You're picking it up by a rope knot which by
that point your hands are completely frayed and you're trying
(11:49):
to hold onto a rope whilst getting rope burn, and
having to go through all of those obstacles as you're going.
And I just remember how tough this was, especially if
someone in your team is not picking up the way,
if someone is not giving one hundred percent, the whole
team feels it.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
It seems on Says Australia that regardless of whether or
not you're out in the field or if it's actually
just cleaning out the toilets, logs are always difficult to
deal with. That's a toilet joker did there. I don't
know how that's going to that's probably they should get edited,
doubt or left in. It should be left in because
it was gold. The log Hall for me, was character
(12:32):
defining for us. It was on day four, that was
the day we lost Mitchell we all thought Mitchell was
a really strong competitor. He literally fell off the back
of the log just behind me and was gone, which
meant I think at that stage, you were at the
front of the log and I was at the back
of the log, which are the two toughest places to
be for me. That was the first time I ever
saw fault in for us. I saw him drop off
(12:53):
that log, and that's when I turned on him. Was actually, nuh,
you're not a team member because you're not putting enough
weight in it. And I remember at the very into
that I was at the front of the log. You
were at the very back of the log, and everyone
in between was pitching in as best they could. And
you know, you had people like Alioachin who were doing
an awesome job, the best they could do under difficult circumstances.
(13:13):
But for me, that is possibly the hardest task, and
it looks so simple.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
I feel like every single one of them had their
moment where you could see maybe they could give this
armband in And that's how difficult this task is.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
It pushes you.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
To the absolute extreme where you think maybe they might go.
I felt like that every single time someone swapped over
for the lead. I thought, oh my god, this is
where this is where they're going to hand their armband in.
And credit to them all in this one. Obviously, there
was one incident where Heath has handed his armband in
at the top. Yep, I am in two minds about this. Okay,
(13:52):
So he's ripped his armband off and he said, you know,
I can't do it anymore. And this was after the
fact of they am thinking that it was all over,
which we've been there before, is all over, and then
having to pick the log back up, back up and
go again never ends.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
He's gone, nah, can't.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Do it, and they've only taken the log an extra
ten to twenty minutes down the road, which he doesn't
know about.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Should they have given him another chance?
Speaker 1 (14:19):
My personal belief is that if you take off your
armband once you've taken it off, that means even if
you put it back on, you will take it off again.
If you've taken it off once, you will take it
off again. And some people like you know, I look
at somebody like Sam Burgess and Mark Philip Pursis, I
look at those two bikes and I think that they're
not going to take those armbands off.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
You're going to have to rip them off their dead bodies.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Hundred like you know it can you can imagine other
people taking them off. But I think once it's come
off your arm like, I don't know, Like I think
people should be given a second opportunity to be say, hey,
are you sure you want to do this? Of course
that's but once it comes off, you've made that decision.
I think that you're only going back to the inevitable
after that, don't it.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Yeah, I mean, and it's up happening anyway. He got
back to course and he said, no, I'm completely done.
And I think that's what we're trying to say is,
once you've made that decision in your own mind, it's
very very hard to recover from. We've seen that with
every single other recruit that's handed there I been in
so far. Once you've made that decision in your mind,
it creeps in and it's very very hard to get
(15:22):
rid of.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Yeah. The interesting thing with Heath, as opposed to every
other person I've seen VW on this show and even
in our series as well, is I didn't see the
crack in Heath first. You know, I didn't see him
he'd literally just come off an awesome challenge and then
he gets on the log and at the end of
it just go he's just exhausted, that's fine, and then
he goes, no, I'm out. Did not see that coming.
(15:43):
With all of the others I could read it, I
did not see Heath.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
I think that though, that's why the course is so brutal.
It takes no prisoners. Everyone's going through that inner battle
within themselves and there would have been moments that we've
shared where you're struggling and you're just trying to convince
you that you're not struggling, and every single person has
those moments that you wouldn't know. You would not know
because everyone's trying to keep it together and one moment
(16:09):
you've got people stepping up, and the next day it's
like you're from scratch again.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Next task, almost you're from scratch again.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Yeah, like you said about the DS, you know, you're
only as good as your last task. It's so easy
to rise and fall in rapid motion there. I think,
obviously you've got to pay full respect to everybody who's
been on that log. Hall. One of the people who vw'
along with Heath was Jessica Paris. She did very very well,
particularly for a size and she looked ginger going into
(16:36):
that exercise. She looks sore. We're gonna have a chat
to her. She's dropping by to tell us about her
time on the course that's coming up next. Well, if
there's one recruit on this season who showed an enormous
amount of personal growth, it was Jessica Paris, and she
(16:57):
joins us. Now, Hi, Jess, how you doing.
Speaker 5 (17:00):
I'm good, Marek. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
It's so good to see your face, Jess and watching
you this season has been so inspiring. We've loved every
minute of it. When you VWED, my heart just stopped.
I was like, no, and everyone I'm sure was thinking
the same thing. Looking back now on your VW were
you happy with how far you came?
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Were you happy that you got to that point?
Speaker 4 (17:25):
I think in the moment, I feel as if I
did the right thing, But I would be wrong to
say that there isn't a little bit of regret in
me at the moment, sort of watching and looking back,
what if I gave that little bit more?
Speaker 5 (17:38):
Could I have toughed it out for that extra day
or two?
Speaker 4 (17:41):
You know when I gave my absolute everything during those
last couple of days of the course before VW and yeah,
I was just physically exhausted.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Jesse Go, I reckon, you did give extra days. I
saw you give extra days. You know, from when the
car went underneath the water, you gave extra days. When
you're on the when you're on the bridge, you gave
extra days. You went, you went further. And one of
the great things about you, you know, when I was talking
about personal growth is seeing you know that that attitude
shift from I can't to I can that was picked
(18:10):
up by the DS was your ability to see your
own strength. Is that what you've been able to take
away from from the show.
Speaker 5 (18:17):
Yeah, I think you know.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
I'm I'm actually having more personal reflection watching the show
now than you know when I actually finished filming the show.
Like I've I've learned so much about myself, you know,
and the lessons are just invaluable. It's made me a
better person and a better mother, you know, a better daughter.
So that I'm just I'm so grateful to have had
that opportunity and I've learned you know that only as
(18:41):
you would know, Merik, only in failure do we grow,
either win or you learn.
Speaker 5 (18:45):
You keep moving forward.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Yeah, And to be honest that that task where you
handed your armband in americ and I have both been
there and is honestly probably one of the toughest task
to log carry. It is terrible, and I think that
honest watching it back, I think you gave everything. I
know you're probably feeling it now and you're thinking maybe
I could have gone, but you should be so proud
(19:07):
of yourself. I'm thinking right now, at that point, you're
exhausted and you're just thinking, Okay, it's done.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Now. The first thing that you did when you got out,
what was it?
Speaker 5 (19:21):
Who have you been speaking with?
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (19:26):
Good old doctor Dan. Love doctor Dan, so much respect
for him. As soon as I got into the car.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
Dan actually said, you know, is there anything that I
can do for you?
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Jess said, I would absolutely kill for a chocolate milk
and a big Blocker Cadbridge chocolate food.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
The importance of food when you're out of that course.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
He took me straight to the service station and he
stopped over. He stopped there and he ran in and
got me some food.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
Came back.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
That's awesome. I would have said, just inject me with
whatever you reckon, just give me some needles. Oh you
did well to get down there, just like I mean,
it was really evident from the start that you're quite ginger.
You know, you look like you were hurting, and you know,
we know what that's like. It's it's proper real pain.
(20:12):
It's not like, oh I'm a bit tired. This is
another level of agony. So you did well just to
get down there.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
In actually saying that, I regret not just getting myself
back up that hill and doing the log carry because
I didn't realize that I v W at the bottom
of the freaking hills, so I have to actually get myself.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Back up there.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Well, how stupid he's then he got to the top,
and then V would you do that?
Speaker 3 (20:37):
He should?
Speaker 1 (20:38):
You could have held hands.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Of all time.
Speaker 5 (20:41):
I tell you what I actually said to someone. I'm like,
is there any lift to get back up that hill?
Speaker 1 (20:46):
I don't want?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Is there anyone that you saw on course Withdraw that
you were probably surprised about?
Speaker 5 (20:53):
I reckon Heath, you know, Shory, but as well as Jet.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
You know, they were definitely two people that were, you know,
be contenders to be able to push through the course.
Speaker 5 (21:03):
So I was definitely surprised at the two of them.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
B w'.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
It's funny when you you know, when you start out
and you start to identify people, you think, uh, you know,
formidable weapons, and then when they go, you just go,
holy cow, you know, where where am I now?
Speaker 4 (21:19):
You know?
Speaker 1 (21:19):
In this in this herd? Where do I sit? But
the physical stuff, the mental stuff, and the emotional stuff,
they're the three things that I think, you know, every
recruit has to commit, and you committed it absolutely fully,
es But what's you know, I know that you've got
the growth, but what's the strength that you now adapt
day to day? You know? Is there a practice? Is
(21:40):
there you know, something that you do that's practical as
a result of doing this course.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
For me, I think it's just committing myself, you know,
to everything that I set out to do, you know.
And it's something as well that I want to embed
in my son. My son's extremely talented in his own
right with his sports, and I just for me, I
just want to be able to nurture that. I would
be lying if I didn't tell you that. There's a
sense of a flame being ignited in me again to
(22:06):
want to get out in the athletics track, and I
have been back doing a few sessions at the track
and for me that's a massive step as a place
that's given me a lot of anxiety, you know, and
I'm finally back there.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
That's super special to hear.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I think that when you leave that course, you're almost
at that point where you know where you're at in yourself,
You know what you can accomplish, You know how much
potential there is there. Do you think that you leaving
that course has almost said, you know, why not try
everything and anything?
Speaker 3 (22:37):
What's stopping me? Oh?
Speaker 4 (22:39):
For sure, there's a you know, I've got a little
venture that I'm hoping that I'm going to be able
to kick off next year. And I'm extremely passionate about
helping other people, you know, and I want to actually
start some resilience camps with that risk use up in
the top end. And you know, I think if there's
if I could take my learnings to be able to
not only empower myself, but to give back to others.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
You know, that's something that I that I really want
to do.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Just have one more question before you go. This is
the deep question.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Now that you've gone through it, now you're watching it back?
Would you do it all again? Ool?
Speaker 4 (23:16):
You know what, I'm all for opportunities knocking at the door,
and if an opportunity presents itself, I'm going to give
it one hell of a crack.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Go back to that porridge? How good is it? You
know what?
Speaker 5 (23:30):
I don't know if you ever heard Mark.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
I sat next to Mark a couple of times having
Brecky and he was just it was so funny because
it was almost.
Speaker 5 (23:37):
Like he was visualizing.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
He was eating his porridge that he's that he made
at home, and he was like, yeah, I have maple
syrup and you know, some almonds and you know, just
really getting into it.
Speaker 5 (23:47):
I'm like, Mark, the porridge looks.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Like shit, You've got to do what you've got to do.
It's all about survival and breaking.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
He's a tennis player. Give him a chance.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
That's something you would have done Mez.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Yeah, I was. I was just imagining it was edible
and it wasn't actually reminding me of glue. That was
the trie. This is not glue. This is not glue. Jess,
thanks very much for coming on taking some time out
from work to have a chat to us, and well done.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Yeah, Thanks Jess. We love to have you on.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
Thank you so much for the both of you for
having me.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Episode eleven is pressure. Keeping cool, calm and collected is
what this episode is all about. And the recruits are
put in high pressure situations and they must make the
right choices quickly and without hesitation. Sabrina, what does pressure
bring out in the individual?
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I think pressure it exposes people. I think you're either
going one way or the other. They say pressure craigs diamonds,
and I think we've seen that in this course, and
we've seen that in this task coming up. But also
it can make a pile of shit as well, and
I think we've also seen that.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Yeah, particularly in the later stages when you are tired
and when you're fatigued, the pressure is crushing. Let's get
straight into what the task was. It was a border crossing.
The recruits had to drive a VIP through obstacles. Then
they have to make the critical choice under pressure of gunfire,
explosions and being screamed at to either drive forward, turn left,
(25:26):
and then whether or not to go through a barricade
with a VIP straight up. Dan Ewing flopped this test massively,
but in more than one way. So Brinda, first of all,
discuss like what is going through people's minds when you
are being fired at with guns.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Automatically you're thinking these are real guns, even though they're
probably not shooting anything out. It sounds and it feels
like an environment where they're real. So you're acting exactly
how you would if you were getting shot out your duck.
You're freaking out, your panicking and for a lot of
people you're probably not going to do well in that environment.
(26:07):
But for those who can handle it, everything slows down
and you can just see what you need to do
and that task.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
For me, it was like a kid's dream, like a
racing guard dream. I was watching it going.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
I would go full pedal to the mail and just
try straight through that barrogay.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Yep, one hundred percent, Like it was a really logical choice,
I thought. And nobody failed to drive into the left
hand turn, but it was amazing how they will respond
as a lot of external stimulus. I really liked scudding this.
I thought he was great. He looked, he looked super calm,
he knew what was doing. Good instructions. Yanna was a
standard obviously telling abilly to get his head down. She
was thinking her way through the entire exercise with all
(26:47):
that external stimulus, she was still really on task. But
a very disappointing Dan Ewing.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Especially after the last week.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
We had a chat with Dan and we felt like
his leadership really took the next leap. We felt like
he really finally understood where he was going on this course.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Until this task, I.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Felt like he almost couldn't accept that he had failed something.
And that is the major point of this whole course
is you were going to fail, you need to accept,
learn from it, and move forward. And he just couldn't
accept it.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Yeah, there's two things. He straight up failed the task.
That's okay, you're going to fail tasks. But what they're
looking for is how you deal with failure. There's always
a second test in everything they do, and he failed
at twice. He failed the exercise. Then he failed to
own it. It's not just about ramming the barricade. It's
about his integrity and about owning up to the mistakes
to the ds and then to the group. And he
(27:48):
got caught out the DSc everything and he got caught out,
and I reckon it was absolutely cataclysmic for him on
this course.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
I felt like he was almost trying to convince himself
that his failure was the right thing to do. I
don't know in what world someone would think reversing was
going to give them no momentum to move forward, but
in his mind that was the right decision.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
What did he honestly, what did he forget here and makeup?
I mean seriously, what was he going back for? Like,
there's just own up just so I don't know. I
panicked and I put it in reverse, yeah, and you know,
or I went to put it in first and a
miss gear or yeah, b But it was just like,
you know, trying to say that you're gain him momentum.
It just even if it was true, you wouldn't say
you just you know, the right thing to do is
(28:37):
to own it. And I'm saying it straight up at
this point, I reckon that that singular moment and the
following interrogation where he refused to own his mistake that
has cost him a place on selection. I don't reckon
he'll pass.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
And he almost struggled to admit to himself the failure,
which is the biggest test of them all. You've accept
it first before you can go out and provide for
the rest of your.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Team, and he just could not do that.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Yeah, And it was Look, the interrogation with Billy was brutal.
I don't think i've seen Billy go as absolutely crackers
And that was the moment he had to just drop
it and stop it, and he didn't. From my point
of view, I was looking at the DS's faces and
I was thinking, they've cut you. In their own mind, Yeah,
you've lost them. You'd have to do something remarkable from
(29:27):
here so late in the game for them to get
the trust back. The trust, Yeah, and.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Trust is key. Trust is key.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
They are picking someone who they think they would trust
in battle. That is what they're looking for amongst these recruits.
Who will they trust that has their back. So I
think right now it's safe to say he's probably lost that.
And you know, there's a couple of episodes left. I
wonder if he does pull something out of the bag,
but I yeah, I'm very doubtful.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Well, then the very next challenge to Brenda, where the
recruits are captured and they've taken into a room for
interrogation and the whole point is to escape, and that
would have been an opportunity for him to try and
get something back. He didn't. The one who stood up
was definitely Stefo and Yanna. They were both brilliant in there,
figured out how to unlock the change, something I'm incapable
(30:16):
of doing. Unlocked the change and helped their teammates, and
it looked great. They looked smooth.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
This task for me brings back some taunting memory.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Tell me why, Sabrena, I.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Think, to be honest, I thought if they had seen
oast season, they would have been in there and gone,
I know exactly what to do. I don't think there
was no shadow of a doubt that they would have
felt they knew what.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
To do in our task.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
I clearly realized it was a task and failed to
free my teammates.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
I left me's behind on purpose, and Meg's was too
big to carry exactly.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
And I failed the task because I left my teammates behind.
But that is okay. You can fail. And I learned
so much from that failure, and I think watching it
back and watching how confident Yana was. I loved watching
this task and I loved how she helped even though
(31:16):
the other boys I feel like they were standing around
for a while. Yep, she managed to convince them that
it was a task and they need to free themselves.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
She is the thinking soldier. It's the only question mark
for me is Yanna's self confidence in her own physical ability.
That's the only thing, because otherwise she's she's pretty much faultless.
All right, Well, next week we will see the conclusion.
So let's go through the five recruits and pick out
who we think is going to go all the way
(31:45):
from here. Sabrina, it's tough for me.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
I mean I started off with Kobe and Yana. Obviously,
Kobe he.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
Let me down. And Yana I want her to be
at the end.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
I think she's been an absolute strength the whole way through.
For me, I'm thinking it'll be Sam Burgers at the end.
I think it'll be Mark Philippusis and I think it'll
be Yanna.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Yeah. Look, I think if they do the sickener, which
is what they did to us on the last day,
that is just unbelievably brutal. And I don't know whether
or not Yanna will physically be able to get through that.
She might if she does, I mean, she's a good
chance to pass selection. I don't see Dan passing selection,
but I see him getting towards the end. I see
(32:30):
Stefo getting to the end. I don't know that he's
done enough throughout the course to highlight himself, not through
not trying. I just don't know that he's popped up
on their radar enough. Scud, the guy is a workhorse.
He is the draft horse of this. He's slow but steady.
He's a good chance. I reckon the Scud and Sam.
(32:51):
They're my two picks for who could possibly go through
for passing selection. So there we go. The predictions are in.
We will find out whether or not we're right or
wrong next week, as you guys will. Thanks for listening.
A new episode drops every Wednesday, and keep your eyes
open on Friday. In fact, you can go back and
find a whole lot of mini episodes with ds Oliolson.
(33:12):
He's dropped an extra episode this week and this one
is on confidence, so get around that as well. So
to make sure you don't miss a thing, watch Sas
Australia on Channel seven and seven plus and catch the
SAS Australia debrief on the iHeartRadio app Absolute Pleasure at Sabrina.
I'll see you at the end, See you at the end.
Hi there. I'm Merrick Watts here with Sabrina Frederick and
this is the SAS Australia Debrief. This week it got
brutal for the recruits. How brutal Well, in these episodes
we saw no fewer than three vws. Sabrina, how do
you think the recruits are holding up at this point?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yeah, I think at this point they're probably feeling everything.
It feels like months even though it's been days. They're hungry,
they're tired. But at the same time, also they're in
a smaller group, so you can tell who the strong
ones are. You can probably almost see where they think
they are in the pack as well.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
So close to the finishing line for all of them now,
you know they can probably smell it's only a few
days away. They're just it's just a matter of hanging
in there. So we'll get into that a little bit later.
But coming up in this episode, we're going to talk
about the sand throwing controversy. Is chucking a fistful of
dirt in someone's eyes a fair tactic? It is, but
not when you're doing it at the bank. Apparently, does
Jessica Paris regret her vy you should be joining us
(01:01):
on the show to have a chat shortly and will
dan Ewing's ego stop him from making selection for says Australia.
There's plenty here to tackle, so let's get started. Episode
(01:21):
ten was a rough one. The theme was grit and
it had some of the most physically demanding tasks that
we've seen so far. We're going to get into the
challenges in a moment, but let's talk about what fatigue
looks like at this point. Sabrina trying to explain the
difference between tiredness and where the recruits are now. With
that level of fatigue.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I think when you've gone so long without the correct
amount of sleep, they say, it's almost being drunk at
the wheel. You know, you can fall asleep at any stage.
You're almost in a paranoia. You start to see things
that aren't there, and you start to second guess yourself
a lot as well when you're in there. At this stage,
the recruits are so close yet so far. So they
(02:00):
know they're almost there, but they're still trying to battle
with just feeling like their whole body is going against them.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yeah, and the lack of nutrition, I mean, their diet
has been really heavily restricted as well. So that's playing
the lack of sleep, lack of water, the fatigue. I
mean from my memories that you just you find everything
a little bit harder eat. Sometimes even having a conversation
or just moving around the accommodation is actually something that
you think, No, that's expenditure, and I can't afford expenditure.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I think the last few days, even though it was
a smaller group, you could tell the conversation was not
as high. You've got a lot of people sort of
taking more time for themselves, you know, stretching, keeping to
themselves in the corner, doing whatever they need to do
to survive at this stage, Do you think that's important
saving your energy?
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Oh, totally. I mean I think you've got it, because
if you're starting to waste any calories on doing anything
other than survival through that, then you're not going to
do yourself any good service. It's just too close to
the end. You need every single ounce of energy for
the next task and you don't know what it is,
so you're already on alert. And I think that's another
thing too, is that mentally it's very fatiguing because now
after like day ten, day eleven, you're on constant alert.
(03:10):
You're starting to get you said, paranoid. I started to
get a little bit suspicious, Like if you could see
the ds moving together or something like that, you go,
something's going to happen, because something was quite likely to.
So you're on a constant high alert and that is
fatiguing as well. So the mental and physical fatigue at
this stage is absolutely wearing on the recruits and you
can see it on their faces.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Yeah, you can.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
And with Jack Kenny, do you think it's probably, you know,
just the whole course as one rather than just the food.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Look, I think it's the combination of all those things
which are going to put you in that state. But
for Jet, and I really like Jet, I thought he
was going to go right the way to the end,
but I think he didn't have a commitment to the
course that you need. And that commitment is that you
will eat anything anything to get through the fuel. It's
not even about what you like or don't like. You
will need anything put into I mean once I I
(04:00):
was thinking about eating the egg shells because I thought,
I don't want that to go to waste, because I
knew that there was some sort of nutritional value to it.
I just thought I should eat the eggs shells. What
am I doing? I'm an idiot trying away because every scrap,
every grain, So for him to not eat, I think
that that shows to me a slight lack of commitment
to go all the way to the end, that he
would not fuel himself at every opportunity.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, and I think it probably goes back to also
the very start of the course, where every little bit
of detail, making sure you've eaten the right amount, making
sure you're drinking right amount, making sure you're sleeping and
you're not wasting it, all those things compile up to
these last few days.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Absolutely, and I think it's an interesting point, right. It's
a culmination now, and it's like an exam. They've given
the recruits the lessons every single day a new lesson.
Learn this, learn this, and they expect you to grasp it,
even if you fail or pass an exercise, to learn
from it, because at the end, that's the test, that
is the exam, and starting to get to that point
(04:58):
now where they're going to be expected to have learned
from every single day there on that course, and that's
where I think some people might undo themselves all right,
let's get into the first challenges. There was an individual
task the recruits had to fight each other standing on
a log suspended above rushing water. I saw this and
I was like, this looks real and brutal challenge.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
I couldn't agree more. I saw it and thought, how
fun would this be?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
An't real? And the fact too, Sabrina life pretty late
in the course to be doing such a vicious style
of exercise as well.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah, I think also being with that rushing water behind them.
You know, as much as it looked amazing, it also
is a massive distraction when you're up there and you're
not balanced and there's a lot going on. I think
from the viewer's perspective, it might look like it's quite straightforward,
but with all those distractions in place, plus having to
keep your balance and also go up against an opponent,
(05:56):
there's a lot of things at play, and that's the
pressure that the ds are putting to see if you
can quiet all those things and just hone on what
you have to do and execute.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
One hundred percent. That's exactly what it is to get
that focus even though everything around you seems so chaotic.
I mean, the big talking point from that was definitely
jes Jessica was told by a billy the DS to
grab a handful of sand and throw it in Yana
Pittman's face when they went out of the log and
she did it, and it was it was pretty full.
I saw it and I went, wow, Yeah, that's that's
(06:26):
going to upset people.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, I thought this was going to take a turn.
It's very polar opposites with people. Some people completely understand
it and get it straight away, and they understand the
environment which they're in. And you know, Stefo, he really
made it plain and simple. You know, this is a
dog eat dog world. It's all about survival, so it
doesn't matter who's in front of you. You're just trying
to do whatever you possibly can to survive in there.
(06:50):
And I was shocked, but I also wasn't surprised in
the sense that when she said yes to doing it,
you've been given a direct order.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
You take that order that.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
There's always a test underneath that test, and the test
there is probably you know, will you do that? Will
you have the capacity to take that order and exact it?
She did it, and Stefo did it as well, and
that's actually the right thing to do, be uncomfortable with
doing it, but it is something that you've been told
to do, and they had to do it. Would you
(07:22):
have thrown it? Would you have grabbed a handful of
dirt and thrown it.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I think in that scenario I would have. I mean,
they're telling you what to do.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
I guess.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Also for me, I'm a little bit bigger and my
physicality is my strength, so I probably wouldn't have necessarily
needed it, and I might have said to them, you
know what, I don't think I need it. I backed
my strength in. But if I was someone smaller, I
can understand, like standing next to Yana in this situation,
being Jess, like clearly you can see who's the dominant force.
(07:54):
It was going to take a lot for Jess to
beat her physically, and the DS understand that you've got
to do whatever it takes. And he did that. She
did whatever it takes. It was a surprise. Janna didn't
like it. A lot of the other recruits then, like,
I'm sure a lot of fans didn't like it.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
But in this world, you've just got to do what
you've got to do to survive.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Me personally, what I would have done is I would
have made a display of picking up the dirt and
pretending to take the dirt, and then I would have
held my fist clenched walked out, and then when I
was meeting my opponent, I would have pretended to throw
it and they would have flinched. And then when they flinched,
because I don't like dirty playing, so I wouldn't have
thrown the dirt, and then when they flinched, I would
have kicked them in the balls really hard. Two wrongs
(08:42):
do make a right. Let's talk about who was good
on that. He sure didn't even fall off the log.
He beat the big man, Sam Burges. That was very impressive.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Coming for a football background.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
You do a lot of that sort of stuff in
football training, a lot of that balance work where you're
competing with someone one on one, and I feel like
that came out and it shone for him. The balance
there was amazing. It almost felt like he wasn't even
threatened at all by Sam's physicality, and he had extreme
confidence just going there and do his best.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
And he just he was slick. He was very very slick.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
He was. And the funny thing is, you know later
we know that he'd VW's just shortly after this, but
he absolutely crushed that challenge. Yeah, and particularly that stage
of the course. If you crush a challenge, your level
of confidence and your power and your grit, your internal
strength just goes up another level at that stage, like
(09:39):
you really are inspired by your own actions. But he
didn't seem to be that way. It was like he
was happy with himself, sure, but it didn't seem to
get enough out of it.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Like the DS always bring up, you're only as good
as your last task. And for him, in my eyes, anyway,
he had won that challenge, he was the front runner,
and he didn't quite race it, maybe as much as
he should have.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Yeah, Yeah, I reckon it could have empowered him more,
and I was really sad that it didn't. I was like, Heath,
that was awesome, but who knows. You know, he is
actually strangely quite a humble guy. Yeah, Heath, you know,
he's been humble this whole time, and maybe he was
just a little bit. I'm not saying he should be celebrating,
but he should have been, you know, chested out, puffed
up and taken it on to the next action. Pre
the LOGHL there was another Action, which is where Dan
(10:25):
Ewing is having a bit of a chat to Stepan
and they're talking about social media, and then it got
around to a conversation where Dan started talking about a
foot fetishist that hits him up, and I just thought,
of course, dan Ewing's talking about a man who's attracted
to his feet on a television show. That's what you do. Eleven.
You start thinking, who finds my feet attractive?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Well, we all know that.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
In the last few days of the course, the true
self comes out.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
He's stripped down, he's exposed, and he just goes, it's
about my feet. And I hate to disappoint you, Dan.
I know he likes to listen to the podcast, but
you're not the only one. His name is FEEDI mcfeet
face and he follows me as well. I don't send
him picks. He's a great guy, he's got great boundaries
around this stuff. But you're not the only one with
beautiful feet, mate. I'm sorry, maybe not so. The final
(11:17):
challenge for that episode absolutely brutal. The log haul five
kilometers some really rough trame. We've done that. We did
the log haul for me one hundred percent, so that
looked tougher than the one we did.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yeah, I think it was definitely tougher and from my memory,
that was one of the toughest ones we did. I
remember how painful that was, especially because it's not as
straightforward as just pick up the log however you want.
You're picking it up by a rope knot which by
that point your hands are completely frayed and you're trying
(11:49):
to hold onto a rope whilst getting rope burn, and
having to go through all of those obstacles as you're going.
And I just remember how tough this was, especially if
someone in your team is not picking up the way,
if someone is not giving one hundred percent, the whole
team feels it.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
It seems on Says Australia that regardless of whether or
not you're out in the field or if it's actually
just cleaning out the toilets, logs are always difficult to
deal with. That's a toilet joker did there. I don't
know how that's going to that's probably they should get edited,
doubt or left in. It should be left in because
it was gold. The log Hall for me, was character
(12:32):
defining for us. It was on day four, that was
the day we lost Mitchell we all thought Mitchell was
a really strong competitor. He literally fell off the back
of the log just behind me and was gone, which
meant I think at that stage, you were at the
front of the log and I was at the back
of the log, which are the two toughest places to
be for me. That was the first time I ever
saw fault in for us. I saw him drop off
(12:53):
that log, and that's when I turned on him. Was actually, nuh,
you're not a team member because you're not putting enough
weight in it. And I remember at the very into
that I was at the front of the log. You
were at the very back of the log, and everyone
in between was pitching in as best they could. And
you know, you had people like Alioachin who were doing
an awesome job, the best they could do under difficult circumstances.
(13:13):
But for me, that is possibly the hardest task, and
it looks so simple.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
I feel like every single one of them had their
moment where you could see maybe they could give this
armband in And that's how difficult this task is.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
It pushes you.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
To the absolute extreme where you think maybe they might go.
I felt like that every single time someone swapped over
for the lead. I thought, oh my god, this is
where this is where they're going to hand their armband in.
And credit to them all in this one. Obviously, there
was one incident where Heath has handed his armband in
at the top. Yep, I am in two minds about this. Okay,
(13:52):
So he's ripped his armband off and he said, you know,
I can't do it anymore. And this was after the
fact of they am thinking that it was all over,
which we've been there before, is all over, and then
having to pick the log back up, back up and
go again never ends.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
He's gone, nah, can't.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Do it, and they've only taken the log an extra
ten to twenty minutes down the road, which he doesn't
know about.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Should they have given him another chance?
Speaker 1 (14:19):
My personal belief is that if you take off your
armband once you've taken it off, that means even if
you put it back on, you will take it off again.
If you've taken it off once, you will take it
off again. And some people like you know, I look
at somebody like Sam Burgess and Mark Philip Pursis, I
look at those two bikes and I think that they're
not going to take those armbands off.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
You're going to have to rip them off their dead bodies.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Hundred like you know it can you can imagine other
people taking them off. But I think once it's come
off your arm like, I don't know, Like I think
people should be given a second opportunity to be say, hey,
are you sure you want to do this? Of course
that's but once it comes off, you've made that decision.
I think that you're only going back to the inevitable
after that, don't it.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Yeah, I mean, and it's up happening anyway. He got
back to course and he said, no, I'm completely done.
And I think that's what we're trying to say is,
once you've made that decision in your own mind, it's
very very hard to recover from. We've seen that with
every single other recruit that's handed there I been in
so far. Once you've made that decision in your mind,
it creeps in and it's very very hard to get
(15:22):
rid of.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Yeah. The interesting thing with Heath, as opposed to every
other person I've seen VW on this show and even
in our series as well, is I didn't see the
crack in Heath first. You know, I didn't see him
he'd literally just come off an awesome challenge and then
he gets on the log and at the end of
it just go he's just exhausted, that's fine, and then
he goes, no, I'm out. Did not see that coming.
(15:43):
With all of the others I could read it, I
did not see Heath.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
I think that though, that's why the course is so brutal.
It takes no prisoners. Everyone's going through that inner battle
within themselves and there would have been moments that we've
shared where you're struggling and you're just trying to convince
you that you're not struggling, and every single person has
those moments that you wouldn't know. You would not know
because everyone's trying to keep it together and one moment
(16:09):
you've got people stepping up, and the next day it's
like you're from scratch again.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Next task, almost you're from scratch again.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Yeah, like you said about the DS, you know, you're
only as good as your last task. It's so easy
to rise and fall in rapid motion there. I think,
obviously you've got to pay full respect to everybody who's
been on that log. Hall. One of the people who vw'
along with Heath was Jessica Paris. She did very very well,
particularly for a size and she looked ginger going into
(16:36):
that exercise. She looks sore. We're gonna have a chat
to her. She's dropping by to tell us about her
time on the course that's coming up next. Well, if
there's one recruit on this season who showed an enormous
amount of personal growth, it was Jessica Paris, and she
(16:57):
joins us. Now, Hi, Jess, how you doing.
Speaker 5 (17:00):
I'm good, Marek. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
It's so good to see your face, Jess and watching
you this season has been so inspiring. We've loved every
minute of it. When you VWED, my heart just stopped.
I was like, no, and everyone I'm sure was thinking
the same thing. Looking back now on your VW were
you happy with how far you came?
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Were you happy that you got to that point?
Speaker 4 (17:25):
I think in the moment, I feel as if I
did the right thing, But I would be wrong to
say that there isn't a little bit of regret in
me at the moment, sort of watching and looking back,
what if I gave that little bit more?
Speaker 5 (17:38):
Could I have toughed it out for that extra day
or two?
Speaker 4 (17:41):
You know when I gave my absolute everything during those
last couple of days of the course before VW and yeah,
I was just physically exhausted.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Jesse Go, I reckon, you did give extra days. I
saw you give extra days. You know, from when the
car went underneath the water, you gave extra days. When
you're on the when you're on the bridge, you gave
extra days. You went, you went further. And one of
the great things about you, you know, when I was talking
about personal growth is seeing you know that that attitude
shift from I can't to I can that was picked
(18:10):
up by the DS was your ability to see your
own strength. Is that what you've been able to take
away from from the show.
Speaker 5 (18:17):
Yeah, I think you know.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
I'm I'm actually having more personal reflection watching the show
now than you know when I actually finished filming the show.
Like I've I've learned so much about myself, you know,
and the lessons are just invaluable. It's made me a
better person and a better mother, you know, a better daughter.
So that I'm just I'm so grateful to have had
that opportunity and I've learned you know that only as
(18:41):
you would know, Merik, only in failure do we grow,
either win or you learn.
Speaker 5 (18:45):
You keep moving forward.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Yeah, And to be honest that that task where you
handed your armband in americ and I have both been
there and is honestly probably one of the toughest task
to log carry. It is terrible, and I think that
honest watching it back, I think you gave everything. I
know you're probably feeling it now and you're thinking maybe
I could have gone, but you should be so proud
(19:07):
of yourself. I'm thinking right now, at that point, you're
exhausted and you're just thinking, Okay, it's done.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Now. The first thing that you did when you got out,
what was it?
Speaker 5 (19:21):
Who have you been speaking with?
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (19:26):
Good old doctor Dan. Love doctor Dan, so much respect
for him. As soon as I got into the car.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
Dan actually said, you know, is there anything that I
can do for you?
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Jess said, I would absolutely kill for a chocolate milk
and a big Blocker Cadbridge chocolate food.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
The importance of food when you're out of that course.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
He took me straight to the service station and he
stopped over. He stopped there and he ran in and
got me some food.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
Came back.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
That's awesome. I would have said, just inject me with
whatever you reckon, just give me some needles. Oh you
did well to get down there, just like I mean,
it was really evident from the start that you're quite ginger.
You know, you look like you were hurting, and you know,
we know what that's like. It's it's proper real pain.
(20:12):
It's not like, oh I'm a bit tired. This is
another level of agony. So you did well just to
get down there.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
In actually saying that, I regret not just getting myself
back up that hill and doing the log carry because
I didn't realize that I v W at the bottom
of the freaking hills, so I have to actually get myself.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Back up there.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Well, how stupid he's then he got to the top,
and then V would you do that?
Speaker 3 (20:37):
He should?
Speaker 1 (20:38):
You could have held hands.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Of all time.
Speaker 5 (20:41):
I tell you what I actually said to someone. I'm like,
is there any lift to get back up that hill?
Speaker 1 (20:46):
I don't want?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Is there anyone that you saw on course Withdraw that
you were probably surprised about?
Speaker 5 (20:53):
I reckon Heath, you know, Shory, but as well as Jet.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
You know, they were definitely two people that were, you know,
be contenders to be able to push through the course.
Speaker 5 (21:03):
So I was definitely surprised at the two of them.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
B w'.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
It's funny when you you know, when you start out
and you start to identify people, you think, uh, you know,
formidable weapons, and then when they go, you just go,
holy cow, you know, where where am I now?
Speaker 4 (21:19):
You know?
Speaker 1 (21:19):
In this in this herd? Where do I sit? But
the physical stuff, the mental stuff, and the emotional stuff,
they're the three things that I think, you know, every
recruit has to commit, and you committed it absolutely fully,
es But what's you know, I know that you've got
the growth, but what's the strength that you now adapt
day to day? You know? Is there a practice? Is
(21:40):
there you know, something that you do that's practical as
a result of doing this course.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
For me, I think it's just committing myself, you know,
to everything that I set out to do, you know.
And it's something as well that I want to embed
in my son. My son's extremely talented in his own
right with his sports, and I just for me, I
just want to be able to nurture that. I would
be lying if I didn't tell you that. There's a
sense of a flame being ignited in me again to
(22:06):
want to get out in the athletics track, and I
have been back doing a few sessions at the track
and for me that's a massive step as a place
that's given me a lot of anxiety, you know, and
I'm finally back there.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
That's super special to hear.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I think that when you leave that course, you're almost
at that point where you know where you're at in yourself,
You know what you can accomplish, You know how much
potential there is there. Do you think that you leaving
that course has almost said, you know, why not try
everything and anything?
Speaker 3 (22:37):
What's stopping me? Oh?
Speaker 4 (22:39):
For sure, there's a you know, I've got a little
venture that I'm hoping that I'm going to be able
to kick off next year. And I'm extremely passionate about
helping other people, you know, and I want to actually
start some resilience camps with that risk use up in
the top end. And you know, I think if there's
if I could take my learnings to be able to
not only empower myself, but to give back to others.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
You know, that's something that I that I really want
to do.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Just have one more question before you go. This is
the deep question.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Now that you've gone through it, now you're watching it back?
Would you do it all again? Ool?
Speaker 4 (23:16):
You know what, I'm all for opportunities knocking at the door,
and if an opportunity presents itself, I'm going to give
it one hell of a crack.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Go back to that porridge? How good is it? You
know what?
Speaker 5 (23:30):
I don't know if you ever heard Mark.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
I sat next to Mark a couple of times having
Brecky and he was just it was so funny because
it was almost.
Speaker 5 (23:37):
Like he was visualizing.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
He was eating his porridge that he's that he made
at home, and he was like, yeah, I have maple
syrup and you know, some almonds and you know, just
really getting into it.
Speaker 5 (23:47):
I'm like, Mark, the porridge looks.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Like shit, You've got to do what you've got to do.
It's all about survival and breaking.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
He's a tennis player. Give him a chance.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
That's something you would have done Mez.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Yeah, I was. I was just imagining it was edible
and it wasn't actually reminding me of glue. That was
the trie. This is not glue. This is not glue. Jess,
thanks very much for coming on taking some time out
from work to have a chat to us, and well done.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Yeah, Thanks Jess. We love to have you on.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
Thank you so much for the both of you for
having me.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Episode eleven is pressure. Keeping cool, calm and collected is
what this episode is all about. And the recruits are
put in high pressure situations and they must make the
right choices quickly and without hesitation. Sabrina, what does pressure
bring out in the individual?
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I think pressure it exposes people. I think you're either
going one way or the other. They say pressure craigs diamonds,
and I think we've seen that in this course, and
we've seen that in this task coming up. But also
it can make a pile of shit as well, and
I think we've also seen that.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Yeah, particularly in the later stages when you are tired
and when you're fatigued, the pressure is crushing. Let's get
straight into what the task was. It was a border crossing.
The recruits had to drive a VIP through obstacles. Then
they have to make the critical choice under pressure of gunfire,
explosions and being screamed at to either drive forward, turn left,
(25:26):
and then whether or not to go through a barricade
with a VIP straight up. Dan Ewing flopped this test massively,
but in more than one way. So Brinda, first of all,
discuss like what is going through people's minds when you
are being fired at with guns.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Automatically you're thinking these are real guns, even though they're
probably not shooting anything out. It sounds and it feels
like an environment where they're real. So you're acting exactly
how you would if you were getting shot out your duck.
You're freaking out, your panicking and for a lot of
people you're probably not going to do well in that environment.
(26:07):
But for those who can handle it, everything slows down
and you can just see what you need to do
and that task.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
For me, it was like a kid's dream, like a
racing guard dream. I was watching it going.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
I would go full pedal to the mail and just
try straight through that barrogay.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Yep, one hundred percent, Like it was a really logical choice,
I thought. And nobody failed to drive into the left
hand turn, but it was amazing how they will respond
as a lot of external stimulus. I really liked scudding this.
I thought he was great. He looked, he looked super calm,
he knew what was doing. Good instructions. Yanna was a
standard obviously telling abilly to get his head down. She
was thinking her way through the entire exercise with all
(26:47):
that external stimulus, she was still really on task. But
a very disappointing Dan Ewing.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Especially after the last week.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
We had a chat with Dan and we felt like
his leadership really took the next leap. We felt like
he really finally understood where he was going on this course.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Until this task, I.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Felt like he almost couldn't accept that he had failed something.
And that is the major point of this whole course
is you were going to fail, you need to accept,
learn from it, and move forward. And he just couldn't
accept it.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Yeah, there's two things. He straight up failed the task.
That's okay, you're going to fail tasks. But what they're
looking for is how you deal with failure. There's always
a second test in everything they do, and he failed
at twice. He failed the exercise. Then he failed to
own it. It's not just about ramming the barricade. It's
about his integrity and about owning up to the mistakes
to the ds and then to the group. And he
(27:48):
got caught out the DSc everything and he got caught out,
and I reckon it was absolutely cataclysmic for him on
this course.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
I felt like he was almost trying to convince himself
that his failure was the right thing to do. I
don't know in what world someone would think reversing was
going to give them no momentum to move forward, but
in his mind that was the right decision.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
What did he honestly, what did he forget here and makeup?
I mean seriously, what was he going back for? Like,
there's just own up just so I don't know. I
panicked and I put it in reverse, yeah, and you know,
or I went to put it in first and a
miss gear or yeah, b But it was just like,
you know, trying to say that you're gain him momentum.
It just even if it was true, you wouldn't say
you just you know, the right thing to do is
(28:37):
to own it. And I'm saying it straight up at
this point, I reckon that that singular moment and the
following interrogation where he refused to own his mistake that
has cost him a place on selection. I don't reckon
he'll pass.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
And he almost struggled to admit to himself the failure,
which is the biggest test of them all. You've accept
it first before you can go out and provide for
the rest of your.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Team, and he just could not do that.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Yeah, And it was Look, the interrogation with Billy was brutal.
I don't think i've seen Billy go as absolutely crackers
And that was the moment he had to just drop
it and stop it, and he didn't. From my point
of view, I was looking at the DS's faces and
I was thinking, they've cut you. In their own mind, Yeah,
you've lost them. You'd have to do something remarkable from
(29:27):
here so late in the game for them to get
the trust back. The trust, Yeah, and.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Trust is key. Trust is key.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
They are picking someone who they think they would trust
in battle. That is what they're looking for amongst these recruits.
Who will they trust that has their back. So I
think right now it's safe to say he's probably lost that.
And you know, there's a couple of episodes left. I
wonder if he does pull something out of the bag,
but I yeah, I'm very doubtful.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Well, then the very next challenge to Brenda, where the
recruits are captured and they've taken into a room for
interrogation and the whole point is to escape, and that
would have been an opportunity for him to try and
get something back. He didn't. The one who stood up
was definitely Stefo and Yanna. They were both brilliant in there,
figured out how to unlock the change, something I'm incapable
(30:16):
of doing. Unlocked the change and helped their teammates, and
it looked great. They looked smooth.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
This task for me brings back some taunting memory.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Tell me why, Sabrena, I.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Think, to be honest, I thought if they had seen
oast season, they would have been in there and gone,
I know exactly what to do. I don't think there
was no shadow of a doubt that they would have
felt they knew what.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
To do in our task.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
I clearly realized it was a task and failed to
free my teammates.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
I left me's behind on purpose, and Meg's was too
big to carry exactly.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
And I failed the task because I left my teammates behind.
But that is okay. You can fail. And I learned
so much from that failure, and I think watching it
back and watching how confident Yana was. I loved watching
this task and I loved how she helped even though
(31:16):
the other boys I feel like they were standing around
for a while. Yep, she managed to convince them that
it was a task and they need to free themselves.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
She is the thinking soldier. It's the only question mark
for me is Yanna's self confidence in her own physical ability.
That's the only thing, because otherwise she's she's pretty much faultless.
All right, Well, next week we will see the conclusion.
So let's go through the five recruits and pick out
who we think is going to go all the way
(31:45):
from here. Sabrina, it's tough for me.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
I mean I started off with Kobe and Yana. Obviously,
Kobe he.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
Let me down. And Yana I want her to be
at the end.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
I think she's been an absolute strength the whole way through.
For me, I'm thinking it'll be Sam Burgers at the end.
I think it'll be Mark Philippusis and I think it'll
be Yanna.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Yeah. Look, I think if they do the sickener, which
is what they did to us on the last day,
that is just unbelievably brutal. And I don't know whether
or not Yanna will physically be able to get through that.
She might if she does, I mean, she's a good
chance to pass selection. I don't see Dan passing selection,
but I see him getting towards the end. I see
(32:30):
Stefo getting to the end. I don't know that he's
done enough throughout the course to highlight himself, not through
not trying. I just don't know that he's popped up
on their radar enough. Scud, the guy is a workhorse.
He is the draft horse of this. He's slow but steady.
He's a good chance. I reckon the Scud and Sam.
(32:51):
They're my two picks for who could possibly go through
for passing selection. So there we go. The predictions are in.
We will find out whether or not we're right or
wrong next week, as you guys will. Thanks for listening.
A new episode drops every Wednesday, and keep your eyes
open on Friday. In fact, you can go back and
find a whole lot of mini episodes with ds Oliolson.
(33:12):
He's dropped an extra episode this week and this one
is on confidence, so get around that as well. So
to make sure you don't miss a thing, watch Sas
Australia on Channel seven and seven plus and catch the
SAS Australia debrief on the iHeartRadio app Absolute Pleasure at Sabrina.
I'll see you at the end, See you at the end.
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