Mark Graham is a New Zealand rugby league legend.
In his prime he was the best league player in the world, known for his size, speed, skill, and toughness, he was “a predator in a sea of sharks”.
He’s been named New Zealand Rugby League Player of the Century, and is the only player to have made it into both the New Zealand and Australian League halls of fame.
Luke Graham, his son, is a filmmaker, and his latest documentary is about his father.
SHARKO tells the story of the man who changed rugby league, carrying his teams and country to the doorstep of greatness.
Luke’s decision to tell his father’s story was motivated by several reasons, he revealed to Newstalk ZB’s Jack Tame.
“He’s someone that, you know, I’ve always proudly looked up to and I’ve been so proud of his success, his career.”
The creation of this documentary was a way to show that pride, as well as his love for that era of rugby league.
“It was selfishly, selfish reason to get to know my family even more, and to show this family to the world,” he told Tame.
The subject of the documentary himself, Mark, was not sure that anyone would want to watch the documentary when his son pitched it to him.
“My football career is dead and buried, and while I used to love the game, I just didn’t know if anyone would be that interested, to tell you the truth.”
Mark said that initially the story that was pitched was the ‘77 Auckland side where they showed up on a Wednesday night after working all day and played international sides for 33 weeks straight, beating all of them, before going back to work the next morning.
“So I thought that was the story, but he thought it was, this one was better.”
“It was lovely for people who perhaps don’t appreciate how much has changed.”
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks at b.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Mark Graham is a legend in rugby league. He's been
named New Zealand Rugby League Player of the Century and
he's the only player to have made it into both
the New Zealand and the Australian Rugby League Calls of Fame.
As a player, he was of course known for his size,
his speed, his skill, his toughness. He was a predator
and a sea of sharks. Now Mark's son Luke Luke
(00:36):
Graham is a filmmaker and Luke's newest film is a
documentary about his dad. Sharko tells the story of the
man who changed rugby league and carried his teams in
country to the doorstep of greatness while remaining somewhat of
a mystery. Have a listen.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Mark Graham is appurance of me the greatest player there's ever.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Been, Captain Mark Graham RL Mark Graham.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Mark Graham is said to be the first New Zealander
to be adapted into the NRLs Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Rugby lee is the toughest game in the world.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
It's a gladiator game.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Mark and Luke Graham are both with us on the
show today. Thanks for joining us, gentlemen.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Thank you very much. Take nice to be here.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
Thank you, sir.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Nice to be chatting with you. Look, we should start
with you. You have You've produced all sorts of work
over the years, but I can only imagine this is
some of your most personal. Why did you tell decide
to tell your dad's story?
Speaker 6 (01:46):
Well, it is my most personal and obviously when you
see your seat, it's it was for multiple reasons. To
be honest, my father's you know, he's looking it in.
Speaker 5 (01:58):
He's my idol.
Speaker 6 (02:00):
He's someone that I've always proudly looked up to, and
I've been so proud of his success his career. It
was another opportunity to.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
To show it.
Speaker 6 (02:12):
And to show rugby league in an era which I
think I loved more than I guess Sally Today's you
know today's there are I love rugby league back then.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
I grew up in it.
Speaker 6 (02:23):
I looked up to the players, and you know, to
be honest, these were people that gave their their bodies,
their lives for something they loved, but not very much money.
And filmmaking myself in a in an industry which is
very hard, I really looked up to those people and
I still do, to be honest, and it was it
(02:43):
was amazing to chat to them, and and you know
other reasons I know it was it was a selfishly
selfish reason to get to know my family even more
and get to show this family.
Speaker 5 (02:54):
To the world.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
So did you have any reservations, you know, for some
people taking on a really personal project like this would
be you know, of course for a bit of anxiety
or something like that.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
Complete complete anxiety the whole time, even now.
Speaker 6 (03:07):
And I think my most anxious moment was my first
and most anxious moment was Dad talking to Dad about it.
We had gone back to New Zealand in twenty seventeen
on an trip for his forty year reunion for the
Auckland team to beat us Prayer France and England, and
(03:28):
we started talking about it Dan the first time we
did our interviews. So we did interviews which we're seeing
the documentary. Was very nervous obviously because we talked about
personal things that we'd never talked about before.
Speaker 5 (03:40):
And lastly was.
Speaker 6 (03:43):
Showing Dad a version of the film in his house
and nervously watching his interactions. You know, even when you
had the comedic parts in the film and the very
emotional parts.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Just seen how he reacted.
Speaker 6 (03:56):
To it, and yeah, we got through the other end
and we had a hug and it was lovely.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Mark, what were your reservations, because you make it pretty
clear in the film you're not someone who usually leaps
at every opportunity to talk about himself.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Well, as I said to Luke early on, and I
think part of the indigowing I'm sure was Lenk's at
that left it in there. But I wasn't really sure
that anyone would be that keen on watching it to
tell you the truth. So, I mean, you know, the
cinematic part with Lenk's involvement, but yeah, like my my
football career is dead and buried in the will. I
(04:35):
used to love the game. Yeah, I just didn't have
anyone to be that interested in to tell you the truth.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah, well, I mean I think I think, dare I
say you're wrong on that front because you know so
many people I think will delight in hearing your stories,
reflecting on your career, looking back at that kind of
golden age of rugby league. Well, what was it like
seeing your son doing the thing. He's really good at
(05:00):
creating in that space because I don't know if you've
had opportunities to see him making films before, that.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Was sort of a place I've seen lots of I've
obviously seen all the stuff that he's done, but you know,
it's all very very good.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
But yeah, it's very proud man.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
And I suppose you know, like you know, you want
your children to succeed whatever, and you obviously want to
support them throughout. And you know, when Luke came to
with the idea that he wanted to do this, I
was really keen on.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
I wanted him to do a story.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
As he said about the seventy seven Uklands side where
we were all just turned up on a Wednesday night
and after working all day and played international sides for
three wednesdays in a row and beat them all and
you know, it was just and then went back to
work the next morning. And yeah, so I thought that
was a story, but he thought it was. This one
was better, So yeah it was.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
It was. It was lovely For.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
People who preps don't appreciate how much has changed. Can
you describe to us what life was like for a
rugby league player in that era?
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Well, you know, you played on the weekend, Julie in
the afternoon on Saturday or Sunday, and then you went
to work on my day Tuesday, went to for you
training on Tuesday and Thursday nights and maybe Saturday morning
if you played on Sunday, and it was just an
extra thing that you had to do with life, you know.
(06:19):
And most careers finished after two or three years of
premier football because you didn't want to get injured because
by that stage that generally had a family and a
mortgage and you couldn't afford to be off injured.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
So yeah, it was they were very short careers nowadays.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Yeah, Luke. One of the things that I think adds
real richness to the to the film is the incredible
archival footage You've got. One thing that stood out to
me immediately was just how physical the game was. And
I know that might sound really obvious, but but I mean,
rugby league has always been physical, but my god, it
(06:54):
was like there was no there were never any penalties
for head highs, you know, just calmon assault was perfectly reasonable.
People are being concostly right and center. It was another age.
Speaker 6 (07:05):
It's certainly it was, and I think we we we
hear from multiple people on both sides of the Tasman
saying comfortably, the strategy was to take out the best
opposing players, and you had to take them out any
way possible so that you had a chance of victory.
It's it's a lot safer now, and obviously it works
(07:26):
so much better for taking care of human humans. But
it's it was I think we we we certainly enjoyed
as an audience myself the richness and the physicalness of
that error and and and put it in your body
and everything on the line for your country.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Dear, I asked, Mark, how's your body today?
Speaker 4 (07:48):
Yeah? Good, thank you? Yeah, find check well it's still
trained a bit.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I My wife's a wonderful cook and nutritionist also, and
so you know, I eat all the ripe foods and
look after myself. I player, but a golf you know.
I'm oldly. I'm sixty nine in September. In the September,
so I most probably should have a few bumps and bruises,
which I do. I've had a neck operation, I've had
(08:13):
a shoulder reversal, and they wanted to give me a
new knee a couple of years ago.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
But I've just changed my diet completely, so it's really helped.
So I don't need the need. Oh that's good.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
So here, yeah, yeah, just by changing your diet, you
haven't needed to have that operation.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Yeah yeah, so yeah, just cut out all the all
the stuff that makes your body inflammatory and yeah it's working.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
Well.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Oh that's fantastic. And how do you feel looking back
at you know that that footage. I'm not sure how
much you've had an opportunity to see, but looking at
the physicality of those games back then and looking at
you as a young man taking those kind of blows.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Yeah, I actually haven't seen that's well, I've seen some
parts of it, but yeah, it's just how it was.
And it wasn't just me, it was everybody, that's the thing.
And that was and before that, stay in the in
the seventies it was even harder. So as as the
the decades went by, a scott and say, a lot
(09:11):
less brutal, Yeah, brutal game.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
So it was. It was.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
It was different, very different in those days, and it
was a different sort of person. It was a different
state of mind. And you know, we weren't so much athletes,
I suppose as they are today. You know, we you
have strength and conditioning coaches, you have you know, nutritionalists,
you have people we actually help the well being and
stuff like that. It was just if you weren't tough enough,
(09:40):
you didn't survive.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
That was how it was.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Yeah, jeez, hey, look what did you feel like you
learned about about your dad or your or your family
throughout this process?
Speaker 6 (09:50):
Well, it was selfishly, I think I was trying to
learn about myself, my family and even life in that
era as well. You know, I'm a I'm a new
father myself currently, I actually have two kids. And the
film takes a little bit to make and over that
period I didn't make the cut of the film, sadly, Thomas,
so my apologies. But it was I was really looking
(10:14):
back in and it was a reflection of different times
for who we are humans over these as brains and
New Zealanders, and we really are brothers, you know, brothers
and brothers and sisters and as compared to the world.
And it was looking about that intergenerational parenthood and parents
(10:38):
and their and their children. I do obviously say fathers,
it's fathers and sons, but it is it can really
be interchange between mothers and their daughters, et cetera. It
was looking at the person that you know and the
person that I believe is my father's idol, his father,
and my my father who is my idol, and and
hopefully for my son as well. And to be honest,
(11:01):
I learned a lot about how close we really are
as a family.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
M One other theme really stuck out to me, and
that was the role that class played and still plays
to a certain degree in rugby league. Was that something
you really tried to to get across and it really,
you know, in your dad's here in particular, it was
a real working class sport.
Speaker 6 (11:25):
Well yeah, and you'd probably say it certainly has changed
in New Zealand recently, very recently as well as so
it's it's different. But and and I guess I'm coming
as I was. I was born in odahu Hu. I
didn't feel too long there. Dad got your dad went
over to Brisbane, as you to find out in the
story and played in the Brisbane Rugby League.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
And and I stayed in Sydney, grew up in Sydney.
Speaker 6 (11:48):
But it was I was looking at that difference between
rugby union and rugby league, and and someone who from
that era chooses certainly is a New Zealander and all
in my opinion, obviously you choose rugby league in that era,
you know, you're choosing a road which you know isn't
(12:09):
lined with gold and taking you to the you know,
in the ollow brick road to once in a sense,
and that kind of speaks more for it speaks for Dad,
but more for people you know.
Speaker 5 (12:22):
That are from the regular community.
Speaker 6 (12:24):
What they're a family, they're in it together and they
and they're choosing that path because they want to challenge themselves.
And that's something we probably don't see a lot in
this time and where we are now as people that
are actively choosing paths to challenge themselves to be better
and learn more in life.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
And that's something we can look up to.
Speaker 6 (12:47):
And it's really just something I really wanted to highlight
because it's it's so important to me.
Speaker 5 (12:51):
Is is has been the best you can mark.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
I'm thirty seven years old and I cannot remember a
time in my life when rugby league has had such
prominence and such an energy in New Zealand. It really
feels like rugby league, for whatever reason, is in a
moment at the moment, is that something that you are
conscious of.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Yeah, well, I'm a Warrior's supporter and fan, and yeah,
I marveled some of the stories here coming out of
the speaking of my great friend Graham Lowe the other day,
and he was we're talking about this very subject. And
although I haven't seen it up place, I certainly read about,
you know, the cell out stadiums at the Warrior's home ground,
(13:36):
and yeah, and Rugby Union maybe being a little on
the back foot at the moment.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, what do you think of that? What do you
think of the you know, especially the scendency of the
Warriors at the moment, and they're kind of the energy
behind the team.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Well, yeah, I think it's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
I think everyone of the Warriors is doing a wonderful
job obviously, And a couple of weeks ago when they
had I think, you know, nine or ten first graders
out and they brought young follows up and they still
won the game against really good opposition.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
I think that this is a lot about the about
the state of the club and the game.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
When you're so yeah, no, it really does. Hey, guys,
congratulations on the film. I really hope you can, you know,
enjoy the process of having it out there for the
world to watch and enjoy. And thank you so much
for giving us your time pleasure.
Speaker 5 (14:23):
Thank you, Rick, Jack, thank you very much, appreciate it
so good.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
That is Mark and Luke Graham. Sharko is going to
be playing at the dock Edge Festival, so it's in
christ Church right now. It's going to be in Auckland
from the third to the fourteenth of July and Wellington
of that same period the third to the fourteenth of July.
And then of course dock Edge does that amazing thing
where they have nationwide the virtual cinema as well, so
(14:47):
that's in the second half of July, and Sharko is
also going to be released in cinemas right across the
country in September. Here's the thing though, we'll put all
of the details up on the News Talks. He'd be
website News Talks, he'd be dot co, dot nz Forward
slash Jack is the best place to go. We will
have all the details there so you can make sure
you can go and enjoy shark as well.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks ed B from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio,
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks at b.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Mark Graham is a legend in rugby league. He's been
named New Zealand Rugby League Player of the Century and
he's the only player to have made it into both
the New Zealand and the Australian Rugby League Calls of Fame.
As a player, he was of course known for his size,
his speed, his skill, his toughness. He was a predator
and a sea of sharks. Now Mark's son Luke Luke
(00:36):
Graham is a filmmaker and Luke's newest film is a
documentary about his dad. Sharko tells the story of the
man who changed rugby league and carried his teams in
country to the doorstep of greatness while remaining somewhat of
a mystery. Have a listen.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Mark Graham is appurance of me the greatest player there's ever.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Been, Captain Mark Graham RL Mark Graham.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Mark Graham is said to be the first New Zealander
to be adapted into the NRLs Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Rugby lee is the toughest game in the world.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
It's a gladiator game.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Mark and Luke Graham are both with us on the
show today. Thanks for joining us, gentlemen.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Thank you very much. Take nice to be here.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
Thank you, sir.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Nice to be chatting with you. Look, we should start
with you. You have You've produced all sorts of work
over the years, but I can only imagine this is
some of your most personal. Why did you tell decide
to tell your dad's story?
Speaker 6 (01:46):
Well, it is my most personal and obviously when you
see your seat, it's it was for multiple reasons. To
be honest, my father's you know, he's looking it in.
Speaker 5 (01:58):
He's my idol.
Speaker 6 (02:00):
He's someone that I've always proudly looked up to, and
I've been so proud of his success his career. It
was another opportunity to.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
To show it.
Speaker 6 (02:12):
And to show rugby league in an era which I
think I loved more than I guess Sally Today's you
know today's there are I love rugby league back then.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
I grew up in it.
Speaker 6 (02:23):
I looked up to the players, and you know, to
be honest, these were people that gave their their bodies,
their lives for something they loved, but not very much money.
And filmmaking myself in a in an industry which is
very hard, I really looked up to those people and
I still do, to be honest, and it was it
(02:43):
was amazing to chat to them, and and you know
other reasons I know it was it was a selfishly
selfish reason to get to know my family even more
and get to show this family.
Speaker 5 (02:54):
To the world.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
So did you have any reservations, you know, for some
people taking on a really personal project like this would
be you know, of course for a bit of anxiety
or something like that.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
Complete complete anxiety the whole time, even now.
Speaker 6 (03:07):
And I think my most anxious moment was my first
and most anxious moment was Dad talking to Dad about it.
We had gone back to New Zealand in twenty seventeen
on an trip for his forty year reunion for the
Auckland team to beat us Prayer France and England, and
(03:28):
we started talking about it Dan the first time we
did our interviews. So we did interviews which we're seeing
the documentary. Was very nervous obviously because we talked about
personal things that we'd never talked about before.
Speaker 5 (03:40):
And lastly was.
Speaker 6 (03:43):
Showing Dad a version of the film in his house
and nervously watching his interactions. You know, even when you
had the comedic parts in the film and the very
emotional parts.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Just seen how he reacted.
Speaker 6 (03:56):
To it, and yeah, we got through the other end
and we had a hug and it was lovely.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Mark, what were your reservations, because you make it pretty
clear in the film you're not someone who usually leaps
at every opportunity to talk about himself.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Well, as I said to Luke early on, and I
think part of the indigowing I'm sure was Lenk's at
that left it in there. But I wasn't really sure
that anyone would be that keen on watching it to
tell you the truth. So, I mean, you know, the
cinematic part with Lenk's involvement, but yeah, like my my
football career is dead and buried in the will. I
(04:35):
used to love the game. Yeah, I just didn't have
anyone to be that interested in to tell you the truth.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah, well, I mean I think I think, dare I
say you're wrong on that front because you know so
many people I think will delight in hearing your stories,
reflecting on your career, looking back at that kind of
golden age of rugby league. Well, what was it like
seeing your son doing the thing. He's really good at
(05:00):
creating in that space because I don't know if you've
had opportunities to see him making films before, that.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Was sort of a place I've seen lots of I've
obviously seen all the stuff that he's done, but you know,
it's all very very good.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
But yeah, it's very proud man.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
And I suppose you know, like you know, you want
your children to succeed whatever, and you obviously want to
support them throughout. And you know, when Luke came to
with the idea that he wanted to do this, I
was really keen on.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
I wanted him to do a story.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
As he said about the seventy seven Uklands side where
we were all just turned up on a Wednesday night
and after working all day and played international sides for
three wednesdays in a row and beat them all and
you know, it was just and then went back to
work the next morning. And yeah, so I thought that
was a story, but he thought it was. This one
was better, So yeah it was.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
It was. It was lovely For.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
People who preps don't appreciate how much has changed. Can
you describe to us what life was like for a
rugby league player in that era?
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Well, you know, you played on the weekend, Julie in
the afternoon on Saturday or Sunday, and then you went
to work on my day Tuesday, went to for you
training on Tuesday and Thursday nights and maybe Saturday morning
if you played on Sunday, and it was just an
extra thing that you had to do with life, you know.
(06:19):
And most careers finished after two or three years of
premier football because you didn't want to get injured because
by that stage that generally had a family and a
mortgage and you couldn't afford to be off injured.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
So yeah, it was they were very short careers nowadays.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Yeah, Luke. One of the things that I think adds
real richness to the to the film is the incredible
archival footage You've got. One thing that stood out to
me immediately was just how physical the game was. And
I know that might sound really obvious, but but I mean,
rugby league has always been physical, but my god, it
(06:54):
was like there was no there were never any penalties
for head highs, you know, just calmon assault was perfectly reasonable.
People are being concostly right and center. It was another age.
Speaker 6 (07:05):
It's certainly it was, and I think we we we
hear from multiple people on both sides of the Tasman
saying comfortably, the strategy was to take out the best
opposing players, and you had to take them out any
way possible so that you had a chance of victory.
It's it's a lot safer now, and obviously it works
(07:26):
so much better for taking care of human humans. But
it's it was I think we we we certainly enjoyed
as an audience myself the richness and the physicalness of
that error and and and put it in your body
and everything on the line for your country.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Dear, I asked, Mark, how's your body today?
Speaker 4 (07:48):
Yeah? Good, thank you? Yeah, find check well it's still
trained a bit.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I My wife's a wonderful cook and nutritionist also, and
so you know, I eat all the ripe foods and
look after myself. I player, but a golf you know.
I'm oldly. I'm sixty nine in September. In the September,
so I most probably should have a few bumps and bruises,
which I do. I've had a neck operation, I've had
(08:13):
a shoulder reversal, and they wanted to give me a
new knee a couple of years ago.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
But I've just changed my diet completely, so it's really helped.
So I don't need the need. Oh that's good.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
So here, yeah, yeah, just by changing your diet, you
haven't needed to have that operation.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Yeah yeah, so yeah, just cut out all the all
the stuff that makes your body inflammatory and yeah it's working.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
Well.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Oh that's fantastic. And how do you feel looking back
at you know that that footage. I'm not sure how
much you've had an opportunity to see, but looking at
the physicality of those games back then and looking at
you as a young man taking those kind of blows.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Yeah, I actually haven't seen that's well, I've seen some
parts of it, but yeah, it's just how it was.
And it wasn't just me, it was everybody, that's the thing.
And that was and before that, stay in the in
the seventies it was even harder. So as as the
the decades went by, a scott and say, a lot
(09:11):
less brutal, Yeah, brutal game.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
So it was. It was.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
It was different, very different in those days, and it
was a different sort of person. It was a different
state of mind. And you know, we weren't so much athletes,
I suppose as they are today. You know, we you
have strength and conditioning coaches, you have you know, nutritionalists,
you have people we actually help the well being and
stuff like that. It was just if you weren't tough enough,
(09:40):
you didn't survive.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
That was how it was.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Yeah, jeez, hey, look what did you feel like you
learned about about your dad or your or your family
throughout this process?
Speaker 6 (09:50):
Well, it was selfishly, I think I was trying to
learn about myself, my family and even life in that
era as well. You know, I'm a I'm a new
father myself currently, I actually have two kids. And the
film takes a little bit to make and over that
period I didn't make the cut of the film, sadly, Thomas,
so my apologies. But it was I was really looking
(10:14):
back in and it was a reflection of different times
for who we are humans over these as brains and
New Zealanders, and we really are brothers, you know, brothers
and brothers and sisters and as compared to the world.
And it was looking about that intergenerational parenthood and parents
(10:38):
and their and their children. I do obviously say fathers,
it's fathers and sons, but it is it can really
be interchange between mothers and their daughters, et cetera. It
was looking at the person that you know and the
person that I believe is my father's idol, his father,
and my my father who is my idol, and and
hopefully for my son as well. And to be honest,
(11:01):
I learned a lot about how close we really are
as a family.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
M One other theme really stuck out to me, and
that was the role that class played and still plays
to a certain degree in rugby league. Was that something
you really tried to to get across and it really,
you know, in your dad's here in particular, it was
a real working class sport.
Speaker 6 (11:25):
Well yeah, and you'd probably say it certainly has changed
in New Zealand recently, very recently as well as so
it's it's different. But and and I guess I'm coming
as I was. I was born in odahu Hu. I
didn't feel too long there. Dad got your dad went
over to Brisbane, as you to find out in the
story and played in the Brisbane Rugby League.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
And and I stayed in Sydney, grew up in Sydney.
Speaker 6 (11:48):
But it was I was looking at that difference between
rugby union and rugby league, and and someone who from
that era chooses certainly is a New Zealander and all
in my opinion, obviously you choose rugby league in that era,
you know, you're choosing a road which you know isn't
(12:09):
lined with gold and taking you to the you know,
in the ollow brick road to once in a sense,
and that kind of speaks more for it speaks for Dad,
but more for people you know.
Speaker 5 (12:22):
That are from the regular community.
Speaker 6 (12:24):
What they're a family, they're in it together and they
and they're choosing that path because they want to challenge themselves.
And that's something we probably don't see a lot in
this time and where we are now as people that
are actively choosing paths to challenge themselves to be better
and learn more in life.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
And that's something we can look up to.
Speaker 6 (12:47):
And it's really just something I really wanted to highlight
because it's it's so important to me.
Speaker 5 (12:51):
Is is has been the best you can mark.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
I'm thirty seven years old and I cannot remember a
time in my life when rugby league has had such
prominence and such an energy in New Zealand. It really
feels like rugby league, for whatever reason, is in a
moment at the moment, is that something that you are
conscious of.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Yeah, well, I'm a Warrior's supporter and fan, and yeah,
I marveled some of the stories here coming out of
the speaking of my great friend Graham Lowe the other day,
and he was we're talking about this very subject. And
although I haven't seen it up place, I certainly read about,
you know, the cell out stadiums at the Warrior's home ground,
(13:36):
and yeah, and Rugby Union maybe being a little on
the back foot at the moment.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, what do you think of that? What do you
think of the you know, especially the scendency of the
Warriors at the moment, and they're kind of the energy
behind the team.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Well, yeah, I think it's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
I think everyone of the Warriors is doing a wonderful
job obviously, And a couple of weeks ago when they
had I think, you know, nine or ten first graders
out and they brought young follows up and they still
won the game against really good opposition.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
I think that this is a lot about the about
the state of the club and the game.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
When you're so yeah, no, it really does. Hey, guys,
congratulations on the film. I really hope you can, you know,
enjoy the process of having it out there for the
world to watch and enjoy. And thank you so much
for giving us your time pleasure.
Speaker 5 (14:23):
Thank you, Rick, Jack, thank you very much, appreciate it
so good.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
That is Mark and Luke Graham. Sharko is going to
be playing at the dock Edge Festival, so it's in
christ Church right now. It's going to be in Auckland
from the third to the fourteenth of July and Wellington
of that same period the third to the fourteenth of July.
And then of course dock Edge does that amazing thing
where they have nationwide the virtual cinema as well, so
(14:47):
that's in the second half of July, and Sharko is
also going to be released in cinemas right across the
country in September. Here's the thing though, we'll put all
of the details up on the News Talks. He'd be
website News Talks, he'd be dot co, dot nz Forward
slash Jack is the best place to go. We will
have all the details there so you can make sure
you can go and enjoy shark as well.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks ed B from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio,
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