#48 | Jamie Humphreys

In this episode, the boys chat with Jamie Humphreys, South Sydney Rabbitohs' new halfback, about his impressive start to the 2025 NRL season. They discuss his transition from the Manly Sea Eagles to earning the No.7 jersey at Souths under coach Wayne Bennett and much more!

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0:00-Cooper Intro

0:40-Welcome Jamie

5:30-RL Heritage

7:00-South Sydney Rabbitohs

14:00-Army Camp

18:00-Wayne Bennett

22:00-Your Role

27:00-Russell Crowe

28:30-Josh Schuster

31:00-England/London Broncos

42:00-Hype

43:00-Pranks

48:00-Manly Exit

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, what's up guys. Welcome back to the podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
This week, we've got a very exciting guest, Jamie Humphrey's
former teammate of myself and friend of the podcast. We
actually recorded this a couple of weeks ago, prior to
him getting injured. We decided to hold it off for a
couple of weeks just to sort of let him get
through his stuff, and now it's released today.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Really good chat.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Just talk to him about transition to South Sydney and
what's it like being a boom youngster sort of coming
into first grade and doing such a good job under
Wayne Bennett and the South Sydney Rabbit Oz, as well
as a little bit of time on his stuff at Manly.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Hope you enjoy it and have a good week.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
He picked it up himself and put the hat on.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
I wasn't even going to give it to him, we.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Were I'm stolen it. It's mine now.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah, you love it? You love a hat?

Speaker 4 (00:47):
You know what?

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Weird?

Speaker 2 (00:49):
How's your chewing going in that mine? Sorry, you've been
the loudest tour said yeah, uh mate. First of all,
I'm going to give him a big injury. My humps
one of the my humps, my hust black eyed peace.
Jamie Humphries today one of the greats, one of the
great blokes and playing outstanding for souse at the moment.

(01:12):
We played together with the Blacktown Workers, the mighty Blacktown Workers,
shout out. Yeah, the hard knocks School of hard Knocks.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
We're a lot of you know, I.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Don't want to say he was, you know, he took
a lot of stuff from me.

Speaker 4 (01:23):
But you were a mentor. You said that before he arrived.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, mental, Yeah, I was kind of his mentor, Jamie.

Speaker 5 (01:29):
You'd probably agree with that absolutely, especially out there at
Blacktown Coops. Definitely took me under his wing and show
me the ropes. And yeah, very grateful.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
To be in the gym, would you say in the
gym as well?

Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah for sure.

Speaker 4 (01:42):
Yeah, we're on the m four knock shops around the area.
Had it all.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
What's let me tell you something like two years ago
when we played together. Look, you always had an outstanding rig.
The boys would always be so jealous of Jamis. Looking
your mirror, yeah, but did set you would have you?
How many keys have you put on since then? Because
you're you're looking freaking ridiculous At the moment, the physique.

Speaker 5 (02:12):
Look, I don't know exactly, but I've definitely put on
a little bit of weight, been on the bug for
a while.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
So career team, yeah, because you always were into the
buys and tries.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
I remember when you were the first one.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Jamie used to be the first one in the gym
and then he do Bears Andrew Berridge, our strengthen conditioner
at the time.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Do Bezs's program.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
Shout out the Bears.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
And everybody be in the spa or the sauna and
Chami W'd still be in there just ripping into the
bicyc Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:39):
Well, no, it's a good point. You raised, like with Bears,
training with him a lot, kind of growing up. He's
been with me kind of coaching me throughout all the
junior grades. It was pretty funny how like we actually
kind of progressed similarly, like we were Sea Ball together
and then went up to Flag and then my first
pre season was his first pre season NRAL as well.
So yeah, it took a lot from Bears And probably

(03:00):
the biggest thing was the work ethic he's doing.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
He's like strength and conditioning for like Formula one now. Yeah, yeah,
he's doing He's training a lot of them, and I
said to it because I messaged him the other day
and I was like, do they need a lot of strength?

Speaker 1 (03:14):
And he was like, he said, mate, it's so.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Like their legs need to be so strong because when
the G four, Yeah, they needed like it's like doing
leg press.

Speaker 4 (03:22):
They lose about tan HuLos in a race eight to
tulos just sweat.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Well.

Speaker 5 (03:28):
Even the next stuff he was saying is really important
for them with like like you said, all the force
and everything that's right.

Speaker 4 (03:34):
Yeah, yeah, imagine to fit like like we talk about
jockeys all the time. Jockey's going to ride, you know,
fifty two kilos and well, I mean to be no
different form formula, it'll be exactly the same, you know,
just you know, having to keep yourself trim all the
time wouldn't be a problem for you. Coups. Of course, Jamie,
we always kid, We always.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
Like you know, yeah, I mean I think so, I don't.

Speaker 5 (03:59):
I don't really remember, like looking back, but I always
played a lot of sport growing up. I was really
big into surf, li saving as a kid, and did
athletics and soccer at rugby. I did everything, so I
think kind of naturally I'd probably say from my mum,
I was always a bit thicker set, especially my legs,
so yeah, probably always had a little bit of size
growing up.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
I bet she'll be staked here. And if I said
I got I got thick legs for my mum, she
with spoon.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
He's the one who tells me that.

Speaker 4 (04:29):
For my sister, Cops at some top well doesn't Cop
And people say, oh my god, you just look exactly
like Andrew and in physique and everything. She just like, no,
but we should let people know, Like Jamie, you are
about fourth generation footballer. Yeah, you know, your grandfather ran
the game, your Stephen was celed a number of clubs.

(04:50):
So mate, you've been around it your whole life.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
Yeah, I have. Ever since I can remember. Really, I've
been around footy.

Speaker 5 (04:56):
Like my brother and I used to wallwork at the
Tigers when Dad was there, so that was in that
era of Benji and Robbie when they were they were
killing it there. So yeah, as early as I can remember,
I've always been involved in footy and Pop and Dad
were always at all my games. And yeah, my grandma's
probably my biggest fan as well, so.

Speaker 4 (05:12):
They always are.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
Did you ballboy when they won the comp two thousand
and five. You would have been pretty young now.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
I was I think two years old, so yeah, that
would have been pretty tough. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (05:21):
No, it was from probably eight to twenty eleven. Oh yeah,
that was a really good side. And Benji was at
the peak of his powers at the time. And I
remember just yeah, freaking out every time I seen him.

Speaker 4 (05:32):
So once a continuous call when it first started, like
me and Andrew on the cusp of first grade and
I'm doing a thing on the Newcastle Nights saying, oh,
you know, they're struggling at the moment there, you know,
you know what, I don't know what the answer is.
Needs to hear this person ring up and go oh hello,
how are you going? They go, hello, how are you?
Oh yeah, I'm a big night supporter. I just you know,

(05:53):
you were talking who should go in? Well there's two
brothers from Cessnok called Matthew Andrew John's I think that
should go in the first grade side. Oh well, ma'am,
tell us more about it. I'm going I know that voice.
It was my grandmother.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
Really, what giving you as a plug?

Speaker 5 (06:07):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (06:08):
I didn't say that she was an alias and I
got I rang and said, were you just on the
continuous call? She goes, oh, you know, just giving you
a bit of support.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
That's that's low.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
We were just saying out in the living room, Jamie,
you moved to South Sydney and you started your congratulations
like run us through the first impressions of South.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (06:28):
So obviously I've been at Manly for a long time
and kind of probably never really expected to move, especially
kind of at this stage, but it was something that
came about kind of midway through last year. An opportunity
came up there and it was something that kind of
humbled me, like a club, like the house was showing
interest and there's something I'm kind of really happy I did.

(06:50):
Took me out of my comfort zone. Obviously, living on
the beaches and playing at Mainly was felt very comfortable
and definitely wanted to challenge myself there a little bit.
So yeah, first impressions of the club started there in
the preseason early November, and yeah, straight away just I
wanted to make an impression myself. Just kind of based

(07:11):
my preseason around hard work and I know kind of
that's that's what I based my game on ever since
I was a young kid growing up, So that's kind
of where I wanted to start my journey there and
I think luckily for me kind of taking it day
by day and having the coaching staff that they have
there now. I think they really respected that about me

(07:31):
coming in and doing that, and obviously it's kind of
got me to where I am now and just taking
it week by week.

Speaker 4 (07:36):
At the moment, Well, Jeremie, you hit the jackpot in
the fact that you've landed a club which is a
great club. I mean, Manly's a great club. South Sydney
has will so much history, great supporters. But you landed
at a club with a great Wayne Bennett as a
young player when you signed at Souse. Was he already
there to get Was he down to go the next
the following season?

Speaker 5 (07:55):
It was kind of right at that time when that
was all happening, And to be honest, it was confirmed
right before I signed, and that was kind of the
thing that.

Speaker 3 (08:03):
Tipped me over the edge for sure.

Speaker 5 (08:05):
It was such an exciting prospect for me. Obviously, I'd
never met Wayne before that, and I didn't really have
too much to do with him before I signed there.
He was still working at the Dolphins at the time,
but it was definitely something that really excited.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
When was the first time you met him? When when
was you didn't meet him? Because he wasn't there, like
the first few weeks of preseason either, right, So he
didn't meet him until what three weeks into.

Speaker 5 (08:27):
Preseason it would have I think he started early December,
so it would have been three or four weeks into
preseason at that point. I just remember him walking in
the building and everyone just went completely silent. You just
see him walking around, and I heard a few of
the boys saying he doesn't like shaking hands.

Speaker 4 (08:40):
So Jackson's the same thing.

Speaker 5 (08:43):
I wasn't sure what to do, and he come up
to me straight away, and like I made eye contacted him,
and I was so nervous and he stuck his hand
out to shake my hand, and I was like, Okay,
at least I didn't have that awkward.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
Counter it pulls it away, pulls it away last minute. Yeah,
I love.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
The boys used to say all the time that they
like try to get him. It's like one handshaker day
or something, right, Like, I.

Speaker 3 (09:04):
Think I've shaken his hand maybe once or twice since
I've met him.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
So it's so.

Speaker 5 (09:08):
It's just in general he actually said that, like like
when we first when he first started, he kind of
got everyone together and laid the platform of what he
wanted for the preseason, and one of the things he
said was, boys, don't shake my hand every day.

Speaker 4 (09:19):
It's going to have It's not one thing to say
before we go on about Wayne, I want to ask
you that because you're going at SOUS. You arrive at
SOUSE on your first day, which to explain to people
walking into a new dressing rooms like walking to a
new school. Yeah, but you've got Cody Walker, you're Jack White,
and you've got Latrell Mitchell, all those really Cam Murray
at the time, all these big personalities. How did you

(09:43):
feel and what was your plan for day one?

Speaker 5 (09:47):
Or to be honest, I was extremely nervous, Like I was.
I prepared myself as best I could in the off season.
I always try and I trained pretty hard and prepare
myself as best I can.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
But I can't lie. I was extremely nervous.

Speaker 5 (10:00):
But to be honest, the first impression I had of
all those guys that you just mentioned was like they
were so welcoming and just really nice guys. It's the
same but mainly like those those big dogs.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
Yeah, really like they've.

Speaker 5 (10:12):
Got so much time for young guys coming through, which
I felt coming through the grays there, and it was
exactly the same as.

Speaker 4 (10:18):
Us now Jamie. The next big test, Like you walk
into the dressing room okay, and you're feeling your way.
The next thing you want to do is you want it.
You want to actually build a positive image of yourself.
You want them to look at you and go, yep,
he's worthy. Tell me about the first fitness session. What
was all the first test? What did you do, because
that's the next step.

Speaker 5 (10:38):
Look to be honest, it was a complete nightmare for
me actually, so I, like I said, I tried to
prepare myself as best I could, and in fact I
probably overdid it a little bit. So me coming into
that first day preseason, I actually had a bit of
a niggle in my achilles, which was obviously not what
you want kind of in the back of your head
going into it.

Speaker 3 (10:57):
But yeah, we had the fitness test and as I got.

Speaker 5 (11:00):
Out on the field he had the one point too,
and did my best in that got a really good score,
but straight away I was feeling that achilles. Anyway, I
got through the session and just got absolutely flogged the
whole time, as you'd imagine kind of going in early preseason,
and then I remember I got through it all, come
off the field, and this this feeling in my achilles
wouldn't go away and it actually ended up keeping me

(11:22):
out up until Christmas, as I did just saying it
keeps before. So yeah, I tried to hit the ground running,
but probably overdid it a little bit.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
Who is when you talk about fitness, who's because every
club's got like a fitness freak and you at Mainly
you were winning a lot of the fitness theres Ribbon
Garrick's another one who was winning there at SEUs. Your
first impression like who was someone that you trained with
and you were like.

Speaker 4 (11:42):
This guy's a freak.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
Yeah, well I think me.

Speaker 5 (11:45):
I actually started a week later than most of the
boys because mainly went quite far last year in the
in the finals, so a lot of those boys weren't
actually doing the testing with me. I was kind of
doing it by myself and with a few of the
other young guys coming through. But since I joined back
in with the boys, Tyrone Monro was actually extremely fit, right,

(12:05):
like really like clean runner, like just glides to be honest,
like really really cool and he's definitely up there in
the fitness there.

Speaker 4 (12:13):
I saw him interview the other day. She's class act.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yeah, it seems like it's on three sixty or something.

Speaker 4 (12:18):
Yeah, he was really really good so that. But I mean, Jamie,
you said you probably went too hard their first training session.
But first impressions are so important because, as you know,
a new bloke walks into the club, then you're ready
for one point two kilometer time trial, which is a nightmare,
and all of a sudden, I can't train boys, you know,
they're like, oh, here we go.

Speaker 5 (12:39):
Yeah, I was wigging out, Like I genuinely was like
I knew I was going to a new club and
I wanted to make that impression. Like you said, I
know how important first impressions are, so my head was
falling off. To be honest, I was like I could
feel it as soon as I started. I was like, no,
I can't stop. I can't stop, And that probably made
it worse. But it's funny, like, as I said, my
head was falling off. But like the first day I

(12:59):
met Wayne and then was talking to him, I obviously
wasn't training at the time, and the first thing he
said to me was just don't worry about it, Like,
take as long.

Speaker 3 (13:05):
As you need.

Speaker 5 (13:06):
It's going to take time, Like it's not something you
can just do and fix and get back out there.
And obviously for me coming there, it was really important
for me to be out on the field.

Speaker 3 (13:14):
As much as I could, or that's what I thought.

Speaker 5 (13:16):
But after that one conversation with Wayne, he just put
all the pressure off and just straight away made me
feel so calm.

Speaker 4 (13:22):
Well, Jamie, with your first heading for your first full
year in first grade, that limited preseason or you know,
from Christmas, I think I'll put you in good stead.
I mean, you're obviously really fit. But I see Blakes
all the time. By the time they get mid season,
they've completely burned themselves out. So I think Wayne would
have been aware of.

Speaker 3 (13:41):
That one percent.

Speaker 5 (13:42):
And like I said, he's just like I wasn't actually
progressing through much to the rehabit at the time. I
think again, it probably was guilty of trying to do
too much. And as soon as he said that to me,
that's kind of when I turned the corner and I
actually kind of probably started progressing, which helped me get
back out on the field. Straight after Christmas and then
get those reps in a pre season which kind of

(14:03):
prepared me as best I could to hit the ground
in the trials.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
Did you do the Army camp?

Speaker 4 (14:07):
Yeah, we did.

Speaker 3 (14:08):
We did.

Speaker 5 (14:09):
It was that was just before Christmas, and that's kind
of that was where I wanted to get to. I
wanted to be able to do that. And that's what
Wayne said to me as well. He's like, look, I
don't care like if you're not on the field, I
just want you to get ready for that, Like I
want you as you know, like getting around the boys
and doing stuff like that. That's where you build that
connection with the ways. And yeah, we did that just

(14:30):
before Christmas break time. It was it was different. It
was different to the one we did it at mainly
it was it was actually a rolling camp, so we yeah,
we went down to them. I went down to Camera
where the Olympians train.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
Oh, the Institute a sport.

Speaker 5 (14:49):
Yeah, yeah, whether the rowers are preparing for the Olympics there.
So we actually did a like three days training with them,
which was pretty brutal and we got fogged.

Speaker 3 (15:00):
On top of that as well.

Speaker 4 (15:01):
Back to the future for Wayne, because the Raiders were
ahead of everybody else. Wayne went there a nine eighty
seven as co coach and I think they started then
at the Institute of Sport just opened up and that's
where the Raiders used to used to train. They had
about five six years jump on everyone else as far
as powerlifting and everything to play against them was it
was a nightmare. They could actually people like melmurn England,

(15:22):
they could pull you apart. It was. It was terrifying.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
Did you do like, obviously that sounds a bit different
to the army style. Did they do like a man
of the camp for that?

Speaker 5 (15:33):
Well, firstly, it was extremely different, like it was run
by army guys, which was like, you know what they're like,
they're they're pretty So I was going to say discipline,
but I haven't.

Speaker 4 (15:43):
Fhres, what have we got here?

Speaker 1 (15:46):
Shine your shoes they get India.

Speaker 5 (15:49):
Oh no, they definitely do. But straight away, like we
come off the bus and everyone's like shitting themselves thinking,
oh god, here we go. Here we go again, like
most of the boys have already been on a few
and straight away the guys were like, look, this isn't
what you're expecting. We're not going to carry Jerry kNs
and like do obstacle courses and that we're here to
train with Olympians and show you a different side of

(16:10):
professional sport, which was it was honestly really cool.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
It was very cool. Yeah, that's different.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
You're probably like a lot of people get The Army
camp puts you under such fatigue and that you understand
what teammates respond well to like adversity, but seems like
that individuals will probably take more out of it in
terms of how to train an elite level, right.

Speaker 5 (16:28):
Yeah, And I mean it definitely still had that kind
of physical challenge to it, Like we did a lot
of stuff in the gym and conditioning sessions, all that stuff,
and we were training with these Olympians doing what they do.
But the good part about it was we actually we
had sleep and we had food, which was probably what
you don't get people on the other on the other camp.

(16:49):
So although we were doing all this training and probably
a learning a lot as well, like we were actually
getting a fabed out of it because we were like,
I guess well rested.

Speaker 4 (16:57):
On Wayne, I think sweets what we're coaching. You train
hard physically, have high standards for on the field and
off the field. No mind games like players. Players respond
to that. Players will train hard players with all those things.
I think what really burns players out sometimes is you
get smart ass coaches trying to play my games with

(17:20):
young men. Is none of that with Wayne, No, not
at all.

Speaker 5 (17:23):
And like you said there, he's massive on those first
two things. First, so train hard. He's massive on that.
He's always talks about effort and driving that in the team.
And even the standards that you said, he's massive on
standards across the board. Doesn't matter who you are. It
doesn't matter if you're the youngest in the team or
the most capped. It's the same across the board, which
is like, it's exactly how it should be. And he

(17:45):
drives that and he lives that himself.

Speaker 4 (17:47):
Who's been your mentor? Like, of all the players on
the field, who's been the greatest help?

Speaker 3 (17:52):
Oh, Cody's been massive? Yeah, one hundred percent.

Speaker 5 (17:54):
And it's funny like Cody actually had a pretty interrupted
preseason as well, so we actually didn't train together at.

Speaker 3 (18:00):
All until Round one.

Speaker 5 (18:02):
To be honest, Like, I'm pretty sure he was touching
go there for a while if he was going to
play Round one, and I was the same kind of
didn't get that many reps in before Christmas, so I
didn't actually have that much time to develop that connection
with him. But he'd always talked to me after training
off the field, and he'd always be out there watching
the sessions and giving me feedback. And yeah, the biggest

(18:24):
thing I've noticed since playing with him is just like
if I can give him the war and put him
in space like I've never seen a ballplayer quite like.

Speaker 4 (18:32):
When you look at the side. When when it came
the news came out that Canra Murray did his achilles,
then it came out that Latroal Mitchell could have been
up to seven or eight weeks out, I think everyone went, yeah,
there are in a lot of trouble. I had just
initially making your way into the eight. When I heard

(18:54):
those injuries, I thought, no, I don't think it can happen.
But the emergence of yourself tell us dunk and joke Gray,
Joe Gray, Oh, yeah, he's been phenomenal. But Liam or
Blanc coming off the bench, yeah, made he was sensational.
So a lot of you young guys who came on
the question, I ask you, you've been in a number
of dressing rooms you've been in Manly, tell me under
Wayne Bennett at South Sydney, what is the dressing room

(19:17):
like on game day?

Speaker 5 (19:18):
On game day, it's very calm like. It's probably something
I noticed straight away. It's very calm like. He just
has that presence where I think you mentioned it before.
He's been through everything and he's probably seen everything, so
nothing fazes him at all, and that definitely rubs off
on the boys.

Speaker 3 (19:33):
Like I remember my first game was the Charity Shield.

Speaker 5 (19:37):
We're up in Mudgie and I had actually had started
on the bench, so I think by the time I
come on it was he might have been thirty nil
down and we go into halftime, I think thirty to six,
and I didn't know what I was expecting. If it was,
I was expecting a spray. I think most coaches probably
are thinking that at that time. But he had like
three or four words to say that look extremely calm.

(19:57):
Come up to me and said, look, you're going to
play half back in this second half. That's all he
said to me. Just do your job, keep it simple,
and that's it. We kind of went out and I
think we come back, might have scored twenty points in
the second half and kept them to six, and I
just remember that took taking his message away from that.
Nothing phases him like we're thirty zero down in the
trial game, kind of bringing the game.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
Like all in our role players probably respond differently to
the way, like some people like to be ridden quite
hard and be pushed some you just got to let
them do their thing. Maybe say a couple of things
to him. Do you see Wayne treat you differently than
he might treat the other boys, Like, does he knows
he worked everyone out?

Speaker 5 (20:35):
I think so for sure. Yeah, I think like you
still he's still had the sprain and him on the
training field of course, and he's got a lot of
tough love as well. But at the same time, he
knows exactly what to say to each person I think
to get him up for what the job he needs
them to do.

Speaker 4 (20:50):
Well telling me Adam Adam Reynolds used to be his
pet and they were sort of like you know, Cheach
and Chong best together that, Yeah, he's pet piece out
of each other Jack and.

Speaker 6 (21:02):
Yeah, he used to just take the piss out of
him all day. So like Wayne is obviously like they're
a bit like good cop, bad cop. So obviously, uh,
Ad was back and and Wayne would be you know,
as he does. He tried to get onto the field
after he'd have a laugh and then be a bit stale,
and Reno just say like stupid things like he's the
time to go back to the retirement home.

Speaker 1 (21:23):
Just put him on show in front.

Speaker 4 (21:24):
Of the boys.

Speaker 1 (21:24):
But that's the thing, that's what Wayne's good.

Speaker 6 (21:26):
You can have a laugh at himself, can't he?

Speaker 4 (21:28):
Oh yeah, who's his pet?

Speaker 1 (21:30):
Now?

Speaker 3 (21:33):
I'll tell you what.

Speaker 5 (21:34):
He has a really really funny relationship with my good
mate Fletcher and Wires. He's actually a Newcastle boy. Their
their banter is actually hilarious. Like I crack up every
single day every single meeting we have like there is
something going on and yeah, they're just into each other
every day.

Speaker 3 (21:53):
It's very good.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
Letting people know Fletchers.

Speaker 2 (21:55):
He was at mainly with possibly one of the most
unique caacters in rugby league.

Speaker 3 (22:01):
Absolutely Woods.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
He used to call him Dama because he just was.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
He thought at any point he could just flip and
become a serial killer. So what are human white? Because
what are hum and Wayne's like, they're both kind of
unique characters.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
What are they?

Speaker 3 (22:16):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (22:16):
I think that's why they They've got such a funny
relationship is because they're both so unique and Wayne is
actually hilarious, Like he's so funny and he takes the
piss out of Fletched NonStop. But the thing with Fletcher's
he'll give it back. Fletcher's like he's a rookie, he's young,
and I think that's why it works so well because
he probably doesn't expect to get it back.

Speaker 4 (22:37):
Yeah, what be more nervous? Charity shield gone on that
second half? We were Round one.

Speaker 3 (22:43):
Debut Charity Shield.

Speaker 5 (22:45):
Yeah, Like I said, I kind of didn't have the
preseason I was preparing myself to have or that I
expected to have. So that was my first time pulling
on that jersey and yeah, I kind of I knew
the importance of that game is it's only a trial,
but it means a lot to the club, to the fans.
That's probably the biggest thing is the fans, Like they're
at training every day, Like that's something I probably it's

(23:06):
a big difference from from where I've been, is just
how involved the fans are and stuff like that, and
you really feel that connection.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
You've got Bunny Bunny's TV. The guy that runs Bunny's TV.
He's always there at the ground, like film and training.

Speaker 4 (23:20):
REGGI rabbit, lending your support to people, you know, taking
matters into his own hands.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
Shout out to Reggie. Yeah, how do you like?

Speaker 2 (23:28):
Dad asked about what you're more nervous for then, because
you know you're only so early into your career. How
many games you played, but you've you're looking like you've
played a lot more games than you actually have. That
that moment earlier in the year when you kick the
field goal. Do you find a lot of young guys
you rarely see him kick field goals? Do you find

(23:50):
you handle pressure like a lot better than most because
it's a big ass to give a young halfback that
moment so early in their career.

Speaker 5 (23:58):
Well, I think, I mean, I've taken a lot of
lessons from the people I've been around, and in my
time it mainly I was lucky enough to be under
Daily and Kiren and yourself coops of course. Yeah, So
I just I've taken a lot from them. And I'm
kind of young in terms of games and stuff like that,
but I've been around a fair bit in terms of

(24:18):
my training, and I've done a few pre seasons and
stuff like that, So I've kind of been in and
around it for a long time and definitely taken those
lessons from guys like that, and like guys like Cody
now in my team. So although it feels like a
kind of just starting, it also feels like I've prepared
myself well for this.

Speaker 4 (24:36):
This Jamie and I was watching it in the come
to mind and you know, excuse me if I'm completely wrong,
but I never am didn't help you. The fact that
it was a bouncing ball and you didn't have time
to think, like you just had to go and grab
the ball and turn around as creature, couldn't just nudget
like sometimes when you get time you catch the ball,
you're steady, and that one second and me and things

(24:59):
can go through your mind. You didn't have time.

Speaker 5 (25:01):
Yeah, no, that was exactly right, Like we were kind
of I was thinking it throughout the set and then
all of a sudden, we've gone.

Speaker 3 (25:07):
I think Cody took a short side of play for
as he does, like.

Speaker 5 (25:09):
You're seeing something and he's taken, and I'm like, oh, well,
that's not where I want to be when I want
to kick a field goal. Anyway, So like the play
evolved and I kind of. I was chatting to Cody
as it happened and was going to get a two pass,
and all of a sudden he gets a bad pass
from dummy half ends up on the floor, he passes
someone else and then they.

Speaker 3 (25:25):
Throw it over my head.

Speaker 5 (25:26):
And like you said, I just ended up having like
no time to think, and I knew I wanted to
do it. I was still ended up in a really
good position, and if anything, it probably helped because They've
gone chasing the ball that way and I'm actually over here,
so ended up having a little bit more freedom to
get my kick away.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
Bounce pass.

Speaker 2 (25:43):
Bounce pass works every time the defense. And poor old
Shane Flanagan flann with our old assistant coach, really gave
him a heart attack up for that game that the
press he did.

Speaker 4 (25:52):
Yeah, Jamie, Like, so the first test that you walk
into the dressing room, you're getting through the you're nervous.
The second test is, ya, you're out on the fitness field.
You've got to prove yourself there, prove you worthy, prove
your tough and to push yourself. And the third test
is you need a break through a game. You break
need to break through moment to really after the game,

(26:12):
come off and really phil sing the team song and
feel like you're in the midst of it. That field
goal was at the moment.

Speaker 5 (26:20):
Well, I actually never felt that way because I guess
all the messages I got from Wayne was just about
doing my job. Like he never said anything about doing
anything like that, didn't that the team didn't need, or
like trying to stand out, as you said, And obviously
personally I'm probably thinking that a little bit. But after
having those conversations with him, all my focus on doing

(26:41):
my job, and that's I think that's kind of going
into Round one, that was that was the biggest thing
for me. I'd never played in a Round one game
before and I was probably a bit nervous going into that,
to be honest, And he just spoke to me about
make sure you're getting kicks right, make sure you do
you tackles, and that's all that matches, that's all the
team needs. And then you've got guys like Cody and
you've got guys like Jay at the back who can

(27:03):
create out and nothing. So that was like that was
my focus going into those games, and kind of I
think that's probably what helped me, is focusing on that
stuff and the other stuff will come. And in that
round two game, like the opportunity for the field goal
came and I took it, and I'm sure there'll be
many more opportunities to come in the future.

Speaker 2 (27:19):
I remember Jack when you when Jack debut at South
I remember saying he would get a text message from
a random number and would just say Rusty at the bottom.
Does he still do that, Russell Crowe? Does he send
the boys text message on their debut or No?

Speaker 5 (27:34):
I didn't get one personally, so I don't know Jackman,
But no, Actually I did meet Russell actually in the preseason.
He come into the club and I was stilling my
rehab stuff in the gym and he come right in
and said hello, which I was. Yeah, I was pretty
star struck, to be honest, but yeah, No, that was
a cool moment. But I've heard kind of from the
guys and stuff like that who've been there a while.

(27:56):
He's kind of pulled back a little bit. Oh really, Yeah,
but still heavily involved in club, just probably not so
much with the players.

Speaker 4 (28:02):
It's a favorite Russell Crowe movie fell.

Speaker 3 (28:04):
I can't get fast Gladiator.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
Yeah, I mean, with the emergence of the second one
coming out that came out this year or last year.
I think everyone went back and watched the first one.
It just ships on the new one.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
The old one is so good.

Speaker 4 (28:17):
I mean, Paul Paul Mescal scary scar. He just doesn't
look like gladiator. He doesn't hold himself like a gladiator.
Too good looking, not to say that, he doesn't have
the fas and he's just got too soft a face.

Speaker 1 (28:33):
Yeah, correct, what about.

Speaker 4 (28:37):
It's my opinion to the Mescal faily.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
Look another mainly bloke that rabbits have poached one of
another one of our teammates, Shoey Josh Schuster.

Speaker 1 (28:46):
How should we been going?

Speaker 5 (28:47):
No, she has been really good, like as you know
you've been around him. There's a narrative sometimes that he
doesn't train as hard or whatever, but he trains just
as hard as anyone I've ever seen, and.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
Truly he does.

Speaker 5 (29:01):
And he's had a few setbacks that his time it's
south so far. He's had a few half injuries and
stuff like that. But he is someone I've seen who
really puts in the work and he trains so hard.

Speaker 4 (29:12):
I'll tell you what. If he can get going, Jeez
will be handy as a ball playing back row, you
can just feed the ball too early and get going.
I really hope he does because I really like Shoey.
I played with his uncle. But what I really like
about him Jamie is the fact that he could be
one hundred meters down the road on the other side
of the road and he could yell out, you know,
like he's a gregarious, big personality. I like that he is.

Speaker 3 (29:35):
He's He's someone I've got a lot of time for
se He someone I'm.

Speaker 5 (29:39):
Really hoping has a bit of luck with like with
those injuries, and it's hard to come by sometimes, but
I know, I know he'll put in the work and
I'll tell you what.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
Jesus is into his golf at the minute.

Speaker 3 (29:49):
He loves his golf. He loves it.

Speaker 2 (29:51):
Every second post on Instagram is the should we playing golf?
If I said, are you going to training or you
just out playing golf?

Speaker 3 (29:59):
Every time he leaves train he's in the polo and
he's in the shorts. Ready, I'm not kidding. He leaves
the training ground in his polo like straight to.

Speaker 2 (30:05):
The golf court and he's getting some freebies. I reckon,
he must have six set of clubs.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
Yeah, he probably does.

Speaker 4 (30:10):
Yeah, I saw things. I knew you played with the
London Broncos took in the second but they've actually brought
out a it's recruitment recruitment push and it's called be
like Jamie.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
Really did you know?

Speaker 5 (30:28):
I actually did it until I did a bit of
media after the game last week and someone asked me
about it and I had no idea. So yeah, I've
seen it since then, but yeah, no, I did. I
spent a I spent three or four years there in
the Bronco system. Like my old man worked.

Speaker 3 (30:43):
Over as his he worked for British Airways, so did he?

Speaker 4 (30:47):
Okay?

Speaker 5 (30:48):
Yeah, our family moved over there in twenty fourteen, Yeah,
which was a massive move.

Speaker 3 (30:52):
I come from a big family, so it.

Speaker 4 (30:54):
Was based in London.

Speaker 3 (30:55):
Yeah right, yeah, so as.

Speaker 5 (30:58):
You know, rugby union's probably the dominant code over there,
when soccer as well.

Speaker 1 (31:03):
Did you play union over there?

Speaker 4 (31:04):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (31:05):
Yeah, I played.

Speaker 5 (31:05):
I played soccer, I played union and I played league,
so league was kind of I kind of got into
league through the London Broncos system there. I played My
local team was the Elmbridge Eagles in yeah, in Surrey,
and kind of got picked up by the Broncos through
that system and then yeah, played there in the under
sixteens in the nineteens and did a bit of training

(31:26):
there with their team.

Speaker 4 (31:28):
This is history that club.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
Yeah, yeah, this is a random question, right, But one
thing I always noticed about you with your kicking, like
you've got a very perfect ball drop those people that
don't know about is like the drop from the hand
down to the foot when you're kicking, which you don't
see a lot in league of perfect ones. Playing union
and soccer over in the UK, a lot of their

(31:50):
ball drops are perfect, especially in the Super League. Did
you get a heap out of your kicking game from England?

Speaker 3 (31:56):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (31:57):
I actually I played a lot of soccer as a
young kid, and that's always what Dad said to me
when I ask him. He's like, he didn't let me
play footy until I was a bit older, and he's like,
I just one I love playing soccer and two he
knew it would help me with my kicking.

Speaker 3 (32:09):
And no, you're right.

Speaker 5 (32:11):
I definitely took a lot from playing rugby union and
those guys in that game, like I always looked at
them and technically they're they're almost perfect with the way
they kicked the ball, even goalkicking as well, Like it's
quite different when you watch union in league kicks the
way they set up the ball, and I think Clear
is probably the closest kicker to he broke me union
kicker in terms of that kind of process, and that's

(32:32):
definitely something I've taken from them and try and implement
into my game.

Speaker 4 (32:36):
For sure, we're talking before, but London Broncos Coops and
Jane Bee aware of it. But they were brought up
that they were brought as an affiliate to the Brisbane
Broncos and they would send a lot of the young
guys and play over this. So initially in the early
days they had a really young side.

Speaker 1 (32:50):
Well the Broncos sent them to London.

Speaker 4 (32:52):
They would send their players there. So the bloke who
came back and filled in for Joey Leo Donover, he
was a young player who the Broncos said over Brisbane
Broncos London Broncos and they were just it'd get them
rather than play reserve grade or Queensland Cup. It would
basically it would fast track them and they come back anyway.
The interesting story about it is the fact that Richard Branson,

(33:13):
when Super League first hit Richard Branson was watching rabul
League on TV and said, I love this sport. So
he bought the London Broncos outright. So we went over once.
We went over to Southern Dave fairly and we stayed
at Tony Ray's place and he was the coach of
the London Broncos at the time and he was like,
you want to go to Richard Brandson the nightclub and
fucking a. So we walk in. There were flamingos walking

(33:36):
around in the nightclub or actual life life flamingos.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (33:40):
One of the London Broncos boys who actually played at Newcastle,
Minor Ronnie Gibbs one of the Flamingos and got thrown
out for life.

Speaker 1 (33:48):
Ronnie Gibbs.

Speaker 4 (33:50):
Gibb you know that he used to dive at the
feet of the kickers when.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
They kick sat read the room. Look at the reference
you make to Gives. I'm sorry, we don't even who
Ronny Gibs. You know what Ronni Gibbs is?

Speaker 4 (34:05):
Ronnie share to Ronnie. Yeah, that's just shut you up. Sorry,
That's what is all about. It's a clash of generation.

Speaker 2 (34:13):
Clash of generations. Before we move on, just go back
to Sous for a second because in recording this where
you're leading into the Rooster's game, big Souse and Rooster's rivalry.
Obviously your first year at SOUSE, is the week a
big emotional week, Like it seems like Saus really buy
in to their history.

Speaker 3 (34:34):
History is massive.

Speaker 5 (34:35):
It's like probably the first kind of we talk about
impressions of the club. Like everyone talks about the history.
It's it's written on all the walls at our training center.
There's photos of every team of every era, and yeah,
the history is a massive part of the club, and
obviously the rivalry the Roosters is a big part of that.
And it's exciting for me. Kind of got into this
week and it's probably been. Nothing's really changed for us

(34:58):
in terms of our training and stuff like that or preparation.
Wayne likes to keep things pretty simple, as I've said, so,
but no, it'll be it'll be a big game, and
luckily we've got some troops coming back for it, which
I'm very excited for.

Speaker 4 (35:10):
The left center's handy.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
Yeah, he goes.

Speaker 4 (35:14):
My god, he looks fit.

Speaker 3 (35:15):
I reckon he had about ten triers of training the
other day.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
So yeah, I'll tell you right now, like I've got
a good eye for talent. I reckon it'll be something really,
that's my tip.

Speaker 4 (35:27):
Like who's coaching South Sydney. I reckon one day he'll
be a career coach as well.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
Yeah it'll be Premiership when one day.

Speaker 4 (35:33):
First on backstage, weird question.

Speaker 2 (35:35):
For you when you were over in England, given the
time difference and everything, did you actually get to watch
much NRL?

Speaker 4 (35:41):
No, not at all.

Speaker 5 (35:43):
I did because I mean, growing up, I'm massive footy head. Yeah,
obviously been around it for so long, Like I love
watching footy, but it's just it's yeah, like you said,
it's hard with the time difference and everything like that.
I try and catch the highlights and stuff like that,
but rugby union and football soccer definitely dominates the TV
over there.

Speaker 3 (36:03):
That's the other thing.

Speaker 5 (36:04):
Like it's barely on TV, so it's kind of kind
of hard to come by. And yeah, I try to
watch as much Super League as I could as well,
But no, I really didn't have much. Yeah I thought.

Speaker 2 (36:15):
I spoke to Josh Kiddy last week and he was
he was saying he watches every AFL game from from Chicago.

Speaker 4 (36:21):
Yeah, he gets up all watching RL. App now where
you can watch the rules making. I think it's shown
on Fox Sports two over there, but there's no, I'm sorry,
on on Sky but there's no real app. We see
all the games over there now. Yeah, it's it's funny
like the EPL. The English Premier League is such a

(36:41):
monolithic beast. There's even rugby union clubs going broke over
there now. They're just taking all the sponsorship, all the
broadcast money. It's just so big. Here was your side
over there?

Speaker 3 (36:53):
I was an Arsenal man.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
Jack you Arsenal, wasn't Jack?

Speaker 5 (36:57):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (36:57):
Will we die?

Speaker 3 (36:58):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (37:00):
Liverpool man?

Speaker 3 (37:01):
Yeah, so's my dad and my brother.

Speaker 4 (37:03):
Actually you can't when you grow up throughout through the eighties, Liverpool, Liverpool, Liverpool.

Speaker 3 (37:09):
Yeah a second dad and my brother big fans. So yeah,
every time Arsenal would play Liverpool, me and my brother
would have that little rivalry.

Speaker 1 (37:16):
You go down to the pub and just fight on
the street.

Speaker 4 (37:21):
Was it the Emirates then or were they still playing
at Highbury?

Speaker 3 (37:23):
No, the Emirates, Yeah it wasn't.

Speaker 4 (37:25):
Yeah, you go many games, not as because.

Speaker 3 (37:28):
We were playing sport when whenever they play. But I
went to a couple when.

Speaker 5 (37:32):
Yeah, I loved it like you said, it's it is
so big over there.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
It's well, it's it's like a.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
Religion, right yeah, Like we were joking about you guys down
down in the pub and fighting, but when it's a
rivalry game, talk about Souths and Brewsters, like they'd be
going down and if there's the opposition team coming, you'll
run on the other way because they'll actually beat you
up on the street.

Speaker 5 (37:50):
Right.

Speaker 3 (37:51):
Yeah, It's like I've never really seen anything quite like it.

Speaker 5 (37:54):
It's yeah, a lot of people's livelihood base is based
around if the team wins them.

Speaker 2 (38:00):
The English fans, they're just so good, Like even earlier
this year in Vegas, awesome Wigan, who do we can
play against Warrington? But the fans were just the singing
and the chanting.

Speaker 5 (38:10):
Like even in the rugby union. I remember watching a
few games at Twicken Them like when the Wallabies would
go over and play and the whole stadium is singing.
It's like it's yeah, it's like it's it's sweet, sweet
que the atmosphere.

Speaker 4 (38:25):
Yeah, how did you.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
Get to Manley going from England? When you come back
to Australia, how where was the transition from London? Broncos
to Mainley, all.

Speaker 5 (38:34):
Right, So I think we always planned as a family
to come back. Obviously, we've got a lot of family
here in Australia and Dad kind of went over there.
He worked for British Airways previously as well, so it
was always planned to be like kind of a short
kind of stint and he actually finished up there and
he started working at Manly, So Dad came back home

(38:55):
and yeah, went into the role of Cel Manley.

Speaker 3 (38:58):
Yeah, And I.

Speaker 5 (39:00):
Actually I was in school at the time and it
was kind of weird timing for me. I'd just kind
of finished my first season of under nineteen at the
Lindon Broncos and was in school kind of finishing that,
and that kind of come to me and asked.

Speaker 3 (39:13):
Me, He's like, well, are you interested in coming back?
My family were going to stay for a little bit.

Speaker 5 (39:17):
Are you interested in coming back early and kind of
getting started at Mainly, And I genuinely had to think
about it because I wanted to finish school and at
the time I felt very settled there and there was
opportunities to progress through the London system or possibly go
to another Super League club at the time, and I
just I knew I wanted to come home, and I

(39:37):
knew if I wanted to chase my dream.

Speaker 3 (39:39):
Which was to play footy, the best place to do
that was here. And it was kind of a big move.

Speaker 5 (39:44):
Again, like I'd never actually lived on the Northern Beaches
until I moved here in twenty twenty, so I kind
of moved here and it was a well win because
at the time it was COVID, I didn't know anyone,
I wasn't in school, and then footy got canceled, so
I'm like, what am I doing. I'm I lived across
the road here at Coloroid, and I'm just like, I
wasn't sure if I made the right decision, but kind

(40:05):
of got into the group of things there as the
SG ball season kicked off, and I was really lucky
to have a really good team and a good coach.

Speaker 4 (40:11):
I mean, streets around here, how did you handle the
gang warfare?

Speaker 3 (40:16):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (40:16):
No, on the on the walks down to the beach,
it gets a bit messy sometimes, So yeah.

Speaker 4 (40:21):
I'm having an to the guys in East la and blood,
but maybe bringing a franchise out here. How was it
going from you playing for London Broncos just suddenly your
first game out here.

Speaker 5 (40:30):
Oh yeah, completely different, like and I never like kind
of was in the system here. I left when I
was twelve eleven, so I'd always played junior footy in
the Southern Shire in I played for delas Al. I
was lucky enough to be coached by Adam Dykes and
I had like played with k Dikes he's at Cronulla
and sam Stone Street.

Speaker 2 (40:49):
He's also oh he's having a good year Sampson.

Speaker 5 (40:52):
We were all in the same team growing up and
like we barely lost the game, to be honest. So
moving over to England and it was actually something Dad
always said to me, I can't drop my level to
the players around me because they don't play a league
over there as much.

Speaker 4 (41:07):
So that's hard.

Speaker 5 (41:09):
I was guilty of it, I think, And I don't
know if it's coaching or anything like that, but it
is very different style. So coming back to Ship or
everything felt so quick to me, like so quick. Did
just struggle initially, like I think I did. Yeah, I
think I think I struggled to adapt a little bit.
But at the time I was so lucky to have
a good team around me, like guys like Kyo played

(41:30):
in that team, Tolu y.

Speaker 4 (41:32):
Yeah go.

Speaker 5 (41:33):
So, yeah, we all come through together, which was massive
for me. They were all kind of part of the
spine with me, and I think that definitely helped. And
Brett Fulton was the coach and he helped me massively
as well, just kind of getting getting I know, how
to play footy. It is probably just adapting to the
speed of everything. And honestly, it was the best thing
I ever did coming back early because I didn't and

(41:55):
I waited a year or waited a couple of years.
Who knows if I would have made the adaptation.

Speaker 4 (41:59):
So you'll be playing good football, comes attention, you get
to your own media headlines and you know, and even
just going out about getting to get a coffee and
people Jamie, you congratulates how you're finding that.

Speaker 3 (42:09):
Yeah, no, it's again.

Speaker 5 (42:11):
I think back to Wayne and what he kind of
instills and one of the first things he said to me,
kind of before the trial games even started, just like,
just don't pay any mind to it. He's really big
on not and it's a hard thing to do, but
to not have feelings on how people feel about you.
At the end of the day, it's just an opinion.
And he was he was he said. I remember him

(42:34):
saying to me, like, they'll be the first ones to
praise you when you're playing well, but at the same time,
they'll be the ones that write the articles when you're
not doing too well. So if you pay our mind
to it either way, then and you know what you're
doing and trusting yourself and in the team and what
he's doing, then that's all that matters.

Speaker 3 (42:49):
And that's kind of the mindset that I've had with
it all to see.

Speaker 4 (42:53):
How suonn you have any policy on social media?

Speaker 5 (42:57):
No, not not particularly, but at the same time, he's
just he's all about making sure your focus is on
footy and not on the outside stuff. And that's something
that I've kind of had to get used to a
little bit, even talking to media and sometimes talking to
fans and stuff. I almost feel bad that I can't
give him as much time or as much kind of
attention is probably that they like, but at the same time,

(43:19):
probably need to be a bit selfish myself.

Speaker 4 (43:21):
And yeah, you're at the start, yeah exactly.

Speaker 5 (43:24):
Yeah, And I kind of I lean on a few
people who have helped me along the way, and Dad's
one of them as well. He's he's been big on it,
and it's just focusing on what I'm doing and not
too much.

Speaker 6 (43:35):
On the media.

Speaker 4 (43:36):
Have been caught a few times, you know when used
to go on away trips. Our big go was with
a young play. You're ringing go good day, Steve Simpson, yep,
ringing the mobile on the back in the day it
was the hotel phones, Steve Simpson, because you know, because
you know you're because I'm trying to We figured it out,

(43:57):
Steve Simpson. There, yeah, here's this. My name's my name's
John Laurie. I write for the DEI Telegraph. Can't just
ask a few questions? Oh yeah, sure you know where
were you born? And just go now made Listen, I'm
asking a lot here. But our photographer is downstairs. He
wants to get a photo for the back page. Make
sure you're wear tracksuit and everything. So make it so

(44:18):
you go down. The rookie players would be sitting down
in the hotel for you. Just yes, I remember we
found it funny.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
Peter Robinson who was like he's he was the wealth officer.

Speaker 1 (44:29):
At Melbourne Storm.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
I remember our second year there. He got Harry Grant
saying that he had a he had a radio interview,
but it was just robot and he goes he did
a full like a full back around. It's like, well,
welcome to Melbourne Firm. Here, I want to see boy five.
And we've got Harry Grand down the line and Harry
is like start asking all these questions and like sort
of luped him up a little bit and then just

(44:51):
started throwing all these fake headlines at Harry. You know, well,
your coach has come out during the week and he's
given you a big challenge saying that you know, he
doesn't think he may have played you a little bit
early in first grade and you're not sort of ready
for this level. Does that challenge just that challenge really
enforced And Harry's going, yeah, you know, I suppose you

(45:13):
know he's honest, and.

Speaker 1 (45:15):
He tells it how it is, mate.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
He had him going for like fifteen minutes, just sort
of just all these little back, back stabbing questions.

Speaker 4 (45:24):
We had a bloke called Darren Tracy and we'd ring
him and gad, Darren, how are you going? Yeah, yeah, look,
I can't say who I am, but I'm a scout
for the Western Suburbs. We've been watching what you're doing, mate,
you're loving it. You're really really good mate. Listen, is
there any chance there's a coffee shop just across the roads.
Che's coming over there, mate, I'll be there in about
fifteen minutes, just quick, you go, Oh yeah, mate, you'd

(45:45):
undertand I'm going to keep this really quiet. So then
he'd go across and he'd sit and then I'd round
a few of the boys up before us, and we
go into the coffee shop and we'd just be standing.
We go, hey, what's Darren. What's doing mate? You go on,
not much mate, Oh you're waiting on? Oh no, no,
I just come over for quite coffee. Yeah, no worries mate,
your mind. If we sit down and we'd sit with
him and you could see him just going fuck.

Speaker 2 (46:11):
Remember when we were at Manly, Remember the prank war
that went on for a bit. John Bonisara JB had
to put an end to. He's like, guys, it's getting
too far. Morgan Harper was in the heart of it.
Half Josh Alloway, Yeah, I think Josh through Josh through
Harps's bag in the water. And then somebody put took
Harps's car off, like the wheels off.

Speaker 4 (46:34):
It all start took us through.

Speaker 2 (46:36):
It just it started so suddenly like it would have
been someone took took a weight off their barbelle in
the gym, so it was uneven, and it just gradually
just keep going back and forth and back and forth.
It ended because I think Joshy Alloway all Harps thought
that Jason Saab was involved when he wasn't. Sarabi had
nothing and he just bought this beautiful new Designer white

(46:59):
T shirt and it was hanging in his locker and
they I don't know who did it, but they took
it outside and smeared dog ship all over it and
he put it on because they did it on the back,
so he's put it on and on the back, so
he was walking around. Somebody had to say, Sabi, you
got ship on your shirt. And Sabi had no involvement

(47:22):
in the war at all.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
That was ruthless.

Speaker 3 (47:25):
It was hilarious.

Speaker 4 (47:27):
Morgan Harper's cat they removed.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
They took the tires off and they put it on bricks.
And remember someone did something to Jimmy Dimmick's motorbike. Oh yes,
they took they took the pin out or something. Yeah,
just one thing and like they flicked it out and
he's so I wouldn't start like it wouldn't. They wouldn't
ignite and start, and all he had to do was
just put it back in. But Jimmy, not like knowing

(47:51):
much about motorcycles, obviously rang like the nrm A and
was there for like three hours and they came and
he was treated.

Speaker 1 (47:58):
Like they were like, oh, you just have to put
this and he was like it was so funny. Yeah,
they were ruthless, some of those boys.

Speaker 5 (48:07):
I think that's how it all started with the car.
Someone blame Sabi and then he got thrown into into
it all and then yeah, god, yeah they had to
put a stop to it because who knows where it
would have gone.

Speaker 2 (48:17):
Oh make good time, Like was going back to manly
for a second, Yeah obviously, Yeah, did come through their
SG ball twenties, end up full time and talk to
us about the circumstances the relationship between you and man
Like when when did you were they not going to
re sign and you went okay, well old fire opportunity

(48:39):
at South or did they want to resign you?

Speaker 5 (48:41):
Well, so I guess going back to it, Like like
you said, come through playing SG ball there came through
like progress through all the grades played, flag played, carp
did my first pre season with Theirs, which was yeah,
it was.

Speaker 2 (48:57):
I'll never forget.

Speaker 4 (49:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (49:00):
I even remember before that he'd call me in because
I always used to like go on the field of
narrab And and kick.

Speaker 3 (49:06):
I just practice, and.

Speaker 5 (49:08):
He'd sometimes just be walking around behind the behind the tree,
just looking around so I couldn't see him. And I've
seen him a couple of times and I like would
go over, like walk over, like with my hand out
looking to shake his head and just walk away. Would
show no interest, even though he knew I was doing
the free sason with him. And then one day he
come after me, like when I was kicking.

Speaker 3 (49:27):
He's like he gave me.

Speaker 5 (49:28):
He's like, I don't want you to do this training
before we start. At the time lived down here at
Colorade's like, all right, I want you to start here
at Coloroid Beach.

Speaker 3 (49:35):
Go around, go up around long reef, around the golf course.
Run yeah.

Speaker 4 (49:39):
Yeah, yes, he told me to do that.

Speaker 5 (49:40):
He's like, mate, you better be doing it because I'll
be watching. He lives on the beach, so I'd be
out there every day every day doing tough. I never
saw him, never saw him once. I bet he wasn't
even there.

Speaker 4 (49:51):
A lot of those coaches started strength and conditioners. That
was first thing. He was fitness trainer of the Bronco.
I think Wayne was originally when for the police Force team.

Speaker 5 (50:03):
Yeah, yeah, actually yeah, I remember asking him about that. Yeah, yeah,
was the same I heard back in the day. He
was as fit as they can.

Speaker 4 (50:10):
That was his run around the long reef.

Speaker 2 (50:13):
Well, back in the olden days, like before the error
of you know you have three assistant coaches, Yeah, you
have all this stuff. There was one or two of you,
so you had to kind of be skilled in all
areas gym, fitness, attack, defense, you know.

Speaker 4 (50:27):
Now a's a psycology, player, welfare, all of one.

Speaker 2 (50:30):
Media manager Yeah yeah, massage therapist yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
Shout out quite a craig.

Speaker 3 (50:39):
Yeah, sorry, I'll get back to you.

Speaker 6 (50:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (50:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (50:42):
So I come through and yeah, like I said, trained
with des and then obviously whatever happened there and Seeps
come in and I had my first season with Sieves
and kind of felt like I had a.

Speaker 3 (50:52):
Really good pre season, which is what they kind of
told me as well, and.

Speaker 5 (50:57):
Kind of started in the halves, which is where I'd
always played, and then kind of halfway through that year,
Steeves come and spoke to me and said, look, I
feel as though your best progression in the first grade
will be as a hooker.

Speaker 3 (51:12):
Which at the time is probably fair.

Speaker 5 (51:14):
Like Fozz and Cherry were there at the time in
the halves and Chewy was doing good things as well,
so as a young guy coming through, that's kind of
where they saw me. And he basically said to me, look,
we want you to we want you to try this
transition to see how it goes.

Speaker 3 (51:28):
And I was more than happy to do it. Like
I said, I've been at the club.

Speaker 2 (51:31):
For a long time and you're playing. Really I remember
I was there when you moved to hooker. You're playing,
you're playing out You played outstanding as a half back
and a hooker.

Speaker 4 (51:39):
Well, it's a good way to get first in the
first grade because of the fact that you don't have
to organize every woman. Yeah, you get out there and
just make your tackles and you just go.

Speaker 5 (51:46):
Even I think even at the time when Des was there,
he kind of said the same thing to me. So
he said, look, most likely you're probably going to come
in as a fourteen or someone who can cover half
the hooker and like that made sense to me at
the time and gone back to your point keeps and
I went back there and played flag and carpet hooker
and I felt like I was doing good things there
And anyway that the year kind of fizzled out and

(52:11):
come in, did our interview meetings as you do, and Yeah,
basically said like he wants me to have a full
preseason next years as a hooker, like only focus on that,
and I was like, okay, just wrap my head around that.
And coming into preseason was probably a really good thing
for me because at the time I was still I
was playing some games at hooker, some games at halves.

Speaker 3 (52:29):
And like depending on where injuries were hard to prepare.

Speaker 5 (52:32):
Yeah, yeah, and like even at training, like on the
weekend I was playing in the harves, but at training
I was only doing stuff at hooker. So I was like,
it was a bit unsure how things were going to go.
And that gave me a lot of clarity coming in
and just focusing on being a hooker, which was interesting
for me because like I said, I'd always come through
as a half, so that was a really big challenge.
I remember obviously wrestling with the forwards and.

Speaker 3 (52:53):
Doing all the role and rocks so like, and it
really is.

Speaker 5 (52:58):
It's a completely different preseason to what I'd probably been
used to, So it probably probably helped tough me up
a bit as well.

Speaker 4 (53:06):
Just the very nature of HOOKI just moving all the time,
ruck to ruck up and back.

Speaker 3 (53:11):
And I probably had a lot to learn.

Speaker 5 (53:13):
Like that's kind of when Mick Ennis come in and
was doing a fairbit and I can't help. I can't
thank him enough for the help he gave me, especially
kind of mindset wise in that position. So yeah, I
had a really good pre season, felt like I was
doing a lot of things right. And actually at the time,
I think Kroas was injured, so I was getting a
lot of reps kind of in that NL side, which
was like, it's what.

Speaker 4 (53:33):
You want to be doing.

Speaker 5 (53:35):
Yeah, So kind of the time rolled around where we
were preparing to go to Vegas, and at that time
is when kind of we spoke about extending at the club,
which was cool and it was something I was really
keen to do. I was excited by the prospect of
kind of being their long term. It was the club
i'd kind of come through the grades with and it's
very exciting for me.

Speaker 2 (53:55):
So a lot of your mates are there too.

Speaker 3 (53:56):
Under Like like you said, I came.

Speaker 5 (53:58):
Through the grades with a lot of them, had grown
really close to a lot of the older guys there
and hails how's he of course shout out to Stephen
how is he? He was always there and giving me
advice and stuff like that as well. So yeah, all
the coaching stuff were really good. We mentioned Jimmy Dimmick
as well. So yeah, it kind of came around and

(54:20):
it was left out of the Vegas trip, which was
it was what it was, and they kind of said
to me like, oh, we want you to play in
the next trial game. I think it was at the
Broncos at Brookie and ended up playing in the halves again.
So I'm kind of like, right, I've done the whole
preseason at hook and now I'm back in a half And.

Speaker 3 (54:38):
Yeah, I was probably just probably.

Speaker 5 (54:40):
Just trying to understand my role within the team and
I didn't really see that. And at the time the
club was saying they wanted me long term as a hooker,
so it was kind of at that time where it was,
and I was off contract at the end of the
year as well, So and mainly had also said to
me they wouldn't stand in the way if another opportunity
came up. So yeah, was playing the year started hooker,

(55:02):
about two or three games he didn't got moved to
the halves again. So now I'm playing in the halves
and yeah, that's kind of when we got a bit
of interest from other clubs, and I think they probably
were aware of the situation that unsettled.

Speaker 1 (55:12):
A little bit is the word.

Speaker 3 (55:13):
Yeah, But yeah, it was still.

Speaker 5 (55:15):
Loving my time there and love being around the boys,
and yeah, that's when Souths kind of really kicked up
their their interest in me and kind of pitched me
the idea of yeah, the opportunity to play consistent first grade,
which is probably where what I wasn't getting at the
time because it.

Speaker 2 (55:30):
Was bizarre, right, like, you signed two weeks before you
actually make you NRL debut at Rocky.

Speaker 3 (55:35):
Yeah, and you go out there in the.

Speaker 2 (55:38):
Halves, well after doing a whole pre season of book again,
but you play out standing I think, and you score
a good try. A lot of Manly fans were kind
of puzzled, going, hang on, we've had this bloke and
we've let him, We've let him go off contract, haven't
stood in the way of him signing with South. We've
just you know, blooded him in the first grade. He's
playing outstanding. Why have we let him go?

Speaker 5 (55:59):
Yeah, it was I mean, it was all a bit
of a whirl win for me as well. Like to
be honest, I spoke about it before. I wasn't sure
where I stood, and that was probably the hardest.

Speaker 4 (56:07):
Thing for me.

Speaker 5 (56:07):
I just I didn't know, and that's probably what made
up my mind in the end. If I felt if
I felt settled and comfortable in where I was and
what the club saw on me and where I was
going to go, I probably would have never had any
intention of leaving. Like I love the club, I love
the fans, love all the boys, So it was a
big thing for me to kind of move. I never
had any intentions of doing that. But at the same time,

(56:29):
all the stuff that the house was saying to me
was exactly what I wasn't getting from me.

Speaker 3 (56:33):
So yeah, it kind of made up my mind in
that regard.

Speaker 5 (56:35):
And obviously having Wayne coming there as well, I knew
that was something as a young player that's that's not
an opportunity that comes around very often.

Speaker 4 (56:43):
It's funny to say that because danly Chree even said
exactly the same thing.

Speaker 2 (56:49):
Yeah, and you know what the best part about that
joke is it doesn't get old. It's even better here
when you hear it the second time around.

Speaker 4 (56:55):
It be funny all year.

Speaker 1 (56:56):
Seriously, it keeps on going.

Speaker 2 (57:00):
A Jamie look we have do you have a tough
talk for Jamie?

Speaker 6 (57:04):
Now?

Speaker 4 (57:04):
I don't you don't know you've left it out.

Speaker 2 (57:06):
Dad usually does a segment, right, it's all the hard
hitting journal journo questions.

Speaker 4 (57:11):
I had one ready saying such as if if Wayne
offered you a two year extension, but you had to
give him a massage.

Speaker 5 (57:18):
With your massage, I think I would outsource that to
my good friend Fletcher.

Speaker 3 (57:23):
Wise, Fletcher do it too, you do it for free.

Speaker 2 (57:28):
Give it a Halsey, Yeah, you know I was. I
went into the many sheds after the whole the win
against Eels, after the whole chest saga, see a few
of the boys, and I told Halsey you were.

Speaker 1 (57:38):
Coming on the pod. Halsey was foaming as a man has.

Speaker 2 (57:43):
Stephen Hales is he's the assistant coach, one of the
assistants in at Manly there, but when we were there,
he sort of looked after the boys. We called him
the Brady's, like the boys that weren't playing first grade
who go back to Blacktown. But their job is to
prepare the the you know, the seventeen for that week
by mimicking penros attack and things like that. And how's

(58:04):
he He's just he's just one of the great characters.

Speaker 4 (58:06):
He'd always get absolutely and he was always sweety.

Speaker 2 (58:09):
How's he always had a thin layer of sweat on him.

Speaker 4 (58:11):
And he was so sweating all over the barbecue one day.

Speaker 2 (58:15):
And Brooks's barbecue, anyway, he was, and he was he
was up there all the time, all the day.

Speaker 1 (58:19):
He's gone.

Speaker 2 (58:20):
You know, boys, we'd get up there and he'd be
so nervous because obviously he was so passionate about wanting
the Bradies to get out there and have a good job.

Speaker 4 (58:28):
Right, so he's just competing.

Speaker 1 (58:29):
He was actually nervous. He's got are we all on
board with this? Are we all on board with this?

Speaker 2 (58:34):
Hails he It's fine, get your cholesterol down, We will
do a good job for you today.

Speaker 1 (58:39):
It's okay. One of the great blakes.

Speaker 5 (58:42):
Fuck yeah, we had a lot of He probably had
a lot of stressful moments out there when we'd start
doing our own thing.

Speaker 1 (58:48):
Yeah, remember when.

Speaker 2 (58:51):
This is it's a good insight this into what it's
like to not be in the starting seventeen each week.

Speaker 6 (58:56):
Right.

Speaker 2 (58:57):
So a lot of clubs they will kind kind of
they'll tell you exactly what play by play what to do.
So Penrith hit this option, they'll go down the short side.
So the NRL side, they actually know what's coming when
you're training against them. And I remember how he would say, so,
we're got to do this, this and this. But after

(59:17):
a few weeks of doing it, we used to get
kind of pissed off because like we would where we'd
see other opportunities and we're not able to take it,
which isn't good for our football.

Speaker 1 (59:26):
So I remember we got it. We got in together
one day and we were like, you know what, look,
we'll we'll do that.

Speaker 2 (59:32):
But like if we do, if we see something, let's
just take it. Let's at the end of the day,
it's it's their mistake by not numbering up, and we
get good reps of practicing our football. I do you
think he's not going to tell that was our du
So then I remember we did something we did We're
doing edge of the edge and our edge. We did
something that they weren't expecting, just a little variation, and

(59:53):
we skinned them and it was like it was dead
sat World War three.

Speaker 1 (59:57):
It was like, what is going on, Penrith, don't do that.
That wasn't on the video.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
Boys, it wasn't in the video, and we're going, guys,
this is an NRL side. They will probably do something
that the boys aren't going to expect exactly.

Speaker 5 (01:00:13):
I can recall a couple of times where that happened,
and the best times were when we've got to play,
so all right, keeps you running this play, then we're
going to get back to this spot and we're going
to go do this again. And when the boars halfway
in the air to you as a half, the play
changes and everyone's screaming. That's the most stressed I've ever
seen any of those coaches.

Speaker 4 (01:00:31):
I remember seeing Halsey when you got your I give
you your jersey that time he walked in. Halsey he
had all the sausages and steaks and after the barbecue
and he goes, oh, Maddie, here youing And I never
met Halsey sign you're doing all right? Just knocking at
the barbie. He goes, yeah, yes, if you've got a
butcher shop around here, And he goes no, why And

(01:00:52):
I said, oh no, because you're doing the barbie. He said,
I'm Actually, he's.

Speaker 1 (01:01:00):
Got to start. He'll love the plug. He'll love a
good plug.

Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
Thanks Jamie for coming over, big effort, pleasure maybe to
be a part of it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
Welcome anytime.

Speaker 4 (01:01:10):
Thank you, Jamie, Thank you, and my congratulations on how
you're playing mate. Head down us up, brother, that's good stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
Thank you, Thanks so much.

Speaker 3 (01:01:17):
Appreciated.