This week Jimmy is joined by an NRL icon, the one and only Matty Johns! Matty shares some hilarious & fascinating stories from his time in rugby league.
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0:00 The Human Psyche
13:00 Garry Johns Stories
16:42 Footy & Life Balance
30:52 Matty Johns The NRL Coach?
46:21 Tactical Footy Systems
59:50 Role Of A Modern Day Lock
1:05:18 Andrew Johns
1:15:06 Fox League vs Channel Nine
1:20:30 The Bull Fighting Rugby League Player
1:23:00 1997 Premiership Win
1:31:38 The Footy Show
1:37:16 Communication
1:46:00 Fletch & Hindy
1:54:30 Matty’s Dream Spine
1:55:09 Jimmy’s Three Questions
Hello and welcome everybody to the latest edition of the by round interview show now while today um a man that needs no introduction I hate it when people say that well me but you I’m going to tell I’m going to give him one anyway uh yeah
Arguably um one of our game’s most uh decorated and influential people both both on and off the field uh none other than the face of the game Maddy John thank you Jimmy great to have you on um one of the things I was going to describe you as um in your introduction
Was somebody that’s universally liked which is got you’re not you you don’t feel I I think sometimes Jimmy um you need to have enemies is not the right word but I think if you go and you’re universally liked I mean there you’d think somewhere in the world there’d still be people who
Don’t like Dolly Parton she just a big pair of tits so you just so I think you you have to have people that don’t like you or don’t or don’t like what you’re about otherwise I sort of get the feeling that you’re a bit of a fake yeah
But why would somebody like dislike you because you you’re so popular on TV you you played do you think maybe the fact that you played at Newcastle helped like you don’t have a natural enemy yeah I think newcastle’s a club that a lot of people’s second favorite SLE certainly
Word and the style of football we played um yeah yeah um Jimmy I I I don’t know you know maybe people don’t like me because I laugh at my own jokes a lot um I don’t I I said I might have a sense of humor that’s not really there to go
Sometimes I might be too forthright about their te so on and so forth so there’s got to be people out there send us an email but you speak you speak a lot of sens so so you you’re never the type of person to just um make a point for the
Sake of making a point or go chasing a a headline or CR be critical of someone for for no apparent reason and it’s always an informed opinion if that makes sense like so I I think that’s why it’s difficult to argue against you because you come with evidence yeah I
Think that’s important thing um Jimmy is that if you come with evidence and you can explain something strategically then they know it’s not personal that makes sense and I I know it’s very hard to at times not take things personally when you’re a player the natural tendency is to take it
Personally or that someone will take take it personally for you Jimmy did you hear what Maddie had to say about you know and they’ll you know they’ll put it in a different context to where the way you want to talk about it or a coach
Will say mate I need a big one from Jimmy here to you see what Maddie said about him I’ll just give it to him second hand around I’ve had a few of those where people have have rung me and gone you know asked me about you what
Did you say and I said no I said this and they said no you didn’t you said that I said who told you that said I a coach can so your words get twisted taken out of context and as motivation because you you do you are on a pedestal within the game so
There may be an aspiring um player that wants to impress someone like you because I think you’re narcissistic of you well I don’t care what they’ve got to say yeah well maybe you should yeah and most people do yes well most people do people I think anyone who says I
Don’t give a [ __ ] what anyone thinks means they do to actually not care what people think or or how could I say to not be offended or not be dented by what people want to say I think it’s more of a discipline than it is part of your
Makeup natural makeup because I think part of the human condition really is to worry what people say and what people think about you and especially we are geared towards negative comments like there’s there’s research out there that says if you look on and and things like social media it’s not how we naturally
Communicate anyway um I don’t it’s not how we sometimes really feel like it’s not something we’d say to people now it’s usually stuff that people back in my day you’d ride on the back of a toilet door or something ask you about someone you wouldn’t you wouldn’t have
It on Twitter call this number yeah yeah call this number for a good time call [Laughter] subass no but but it’s true though we we are we we we take on board uh criticism and negative comments more than positive comments it is an interesting world that we live
In because you know there could be 10 people praising you on social media but one comment about an interview a a show a performance you hold on to that but also it we’ve gone a little bit off track here but also like who whose opinion really matters like deep down I
Think there’s a there’s a bit in there with um with the current player and what like am I playing the game to impress Matthew Jones um well it I don’t know I’m contradicting myself there cuz I should care what you think but it’s not why I’m doing it well that’s why I think
Sometimes when you when you have a whether you’re on a panel and and or it’s your job to critique whether that be good bad or something needs to be adjusted that that’s your it’s our job to do that Jimmy so for that reason I actually think social media was
Counteractive to you giv your own honest opinion because I think sometimes what happens with you know whether it be former players or journalists you can actually see sometimes what’s social media and the want what actually starts to happen is the want to impress the people on social media which you then
You you’re really never going to do the ones that like you like it and that’s the reason why I’ve never been on social media I mean wife does a little bit of stuff for me on Instagram or my sons do now uh but I’ve never been on Twitter
I’ve never been on Facebook and as I’ve said to people before I actually don’t own a computer and so really if people are trying to sway my opinion via social media um they’re wasting their time so I don’t see it I’m not I’m not on it but
You know what I mean Jimmy it’s very easy I could imagine to be a journalist and go I feel like I’ve just written the story of my life and then to jump on and people are just absolutely climbing India and then you go well okay the
Natural thing will be well what do they want yeah when you you’re not really yeah that makes sense appease the masses yeah it’s um it’s interesting that and how that influences how we uh how we think how we formalize an opinion which I’m really interested to see which then
Jimmy you take to the next step I suppose and we talk about the other side of the fence about um then okay your job is to critique and you’re crti critiquing athletes and how people’s opinion of us whether it be on social media can influence what we say well
Imagine the impact on these young players having a look on Twitter and they think to themselves and look this this is a normal human condition geez I tell you what I was good tonight I’ll just I’ll just open it up and have a bit of a look and they get bombarded but I
Hate not the impact that must have on players um it’s interesting that you speak about not having a computer not having social media um because there is more to the man than um the TV personality the the the former professional athlete that won a competition with his home Club um
There’s the love of Music uh the love of travel yep um the like I say the the different side not being part I guess you could you could argue with the no computer no social media bit of counterculture within you um yeah I think so yeah probably my dad
Was um sort of come from a long line of coal min and uh and miners are generally Union minded and little probably that left side um left side of the brain a little bit as far as that’s concerned yeah but Jimmy you know I I think a lot of things
Particularly the computer it’ll G it does give me anxiety sometimes because I have an overreliance on than other people my wife so I’ve just well technically don’t you have a computer in your phone suppose I I do I just never really use it although I’ve started to what used to really give me
Panic attacks is when I was away from my wife so what I used to have to do I’d write my article which I still do I write it long hand because of the fact that I think just the Motions your brain work better when I’m writing but then I
Had as oppos to typing yeah and then I but then I had to get it into the computer and I didn’t really know how to operate computer probably this is really I’m incriminating myself here uh but then typing it would have taken me a year so
I used to have to dictate the Trish ah not dictate to voice to text no I’ve just realized how to do that so that that’s the great thing about it like my editor at the telegraph Adam mobs I said mate listen is there a problem if I
Actually if I send you my articles via text and speak into it and he goes oh okay no problem he didn’t sound convinced but that’s how that’s my way of sort of trying to take a little B of pressure off my wife and my sort of step
Into um into technology but as far as uh being on social media and all that sort of stuff Jimmy I’m just not that handy and uh and there was a one one point where Trish set up the Instagram and bugger me what I’m F what I found in
That week was I was on it all the time highly addictive yeah well it’s even um Doom scrolling the designed to keep you engage so now I was listening to somebody talk about this so uh and it’s the same with um streaming services so there used to be you’d watch it you’d
Watch a show you to exit and then play the next episode but now they start to play the next episode for you to keep engagement and it’s the same with Instagram the real or whatever will finish and the next one will begin so you have to choose to exit you don’t
Have to you don’t take away that truth to carry on yeah it used to be you have to choose to continue versus now you have to choose to leave that’s there’s a big difference and they and they they caught on to it and one did it and even
Though you could argue it’s they know it’s not a good thing but because everybody else is doing it that’s their justification well it’s interesting Jimmy again says something about the smart business model or what people are like because years ago I used to go used to go to this gy
It was one of the most populous gyms in Sydney as you can tell yes and um anyway I was talking the BL I said how many how many members do you have here and he said it’s just he said it’s probably almost the most profitable uh gym we’ve
Got in Australia of this chain I said oh how many how many members he said I think we got nearly 5,000 he said but only he said only 3,000 are active and I went what do you mean and he goes well you’ve got to come in and you got to cancel your
Membership and most people just can’t be bothered yeah so there’s people who knows that maybe been dead for 20 years and people are going Tuesday must be fit that don’t miss a day you know what I mean there’d be people like just going around who probably are dead that are
Still paying their gym fees yeah there would be but it it’s interesting how that that human psyche um works and and the addiction of so media you you can’t stop scrolling you just well it’s like the other night I went to a pub you know
Before the game and had a mate there who was only it was like I would like to say to him no more or you know me to go up and say you know not make the decision to go to the bar but he just kept coming
Over and just giving it to me all the time and I I was too polite to say no more that happens to the best of us yeah yeah yeah what am I doing waking up on the lounge that’s right I got home at 4:30 I’ve only gone and done it again
Aren’t you too old for this match here yeah sure babe you’ll never get what guess what I’ve been abducted by aliens for three days but honestly I and and they sprayed alcohol in my mouth that’s the reason babe I’m sorry but this alien came I was on my way home I just around
The corner light came on up I went [ __ ] they held me captive you you’re not going to believe me you are not going to believe me I tell but it did happen Jimmy this this is so similar to a story when I was growing up my dad he
Coached an under 18 side I reckon it might have been 1979 or something like that uh cuz I Remember by that stage I was about I was only about eight or nine you know he was he had mom and dad had me they were about 18 so wasn’t a big
Difference so even when I was sort of going out the old man was still floating about a little bit you know um but so on this this occasion what had happened was that he went and the side played their last game of the under 18 side at cesn
And we hadn’t seen the old man for about 3 or 4 days so the first couple of days mom’s just said I he’s out there having a good time and then by day three she said I might have to call the police anyway she did bit of searching around
No one could find him starting to worry next minute she gets call hello on the old landline of course go it’s Gary Gary where are you the team of abducted me I’m up on the go Coast right so what he’d been doing Jimmy right for the month leading
Up to his abduction every time they had a training session he’d take one pair of jeans and a and a shirt and some shoes and mom kept saying to him Gary that shirt I bought you for Christmas D you know Gary where are your clothes well he
Was stock poing at the football field so it’s good think of him the old man the things we do another time he went um he went I always used to go what are these Buck shows he go uh oh boys I’m I got this on we’re going to I’m
Going to the pub and this is 70s and I say I’ll come with you Dad no no no you can’t it’s a buck show and I go what is this Buck show it sounds so exciting which it is Jimmy and um again Dad hadn’t been seen for a couple of days so
Mom starts ringing around and it turns out he’s in in the hospital uh when we got there dad was face down and the nurse and the doctor were actually picking ashel and tar out out of his back and his ass what he done he was claring around on a buck show for
Whatever reason he was in the back of a car naked who knows might have been his sh whatever reason anyway he fell out of the car and just went bouncing down the road and uh yeah um never really got up got to the bottom of what that was all
About pardon the P yeah that’s right yeah the nurses and the doctors did though I’m here all week what is it with this room it makes you just it opens up now I know what Josh man went [Laughter] through oh dear poor old Source turn
Long ah we have B chat about my career next good timing for JD though oh man live yeah yeah that is the secret of Comedy timing H you your love of travel and your love of music as well um where’s where’s that born from because obviously a kid from cesn I mean
Not going to uh put you in a it boxs you in but um you know not the the stereotypical Traveler no no no you know what Jimmy I I think it was um because I have no Hobbies right I have no Hobbies outside of really drinking socializing all things social that’s my
Passion I like people knocking around with people uh having a beer so my wife Trish will say to me sometimes I wish you would take up golf I wish you’d like you know talking about um care for what you wish for and I was like I’m just not
Into it you know I might play balls occasionally because you walk parallel to the clubhouse but I just I just I’m not handy and I don’t have a lot of um as a lot of pastimes at all and so for me it’s music is reading and it’s travel
And I think I moved into that Jimmy because it for me and it’s not a conscious thing but for me in my mind it balances things out because it’s so easy I know it going to be the same for you to just be eaten up by rubby League
You’re driving you’re listening to a podcast in rubby League you’re reading about rubby League you’re thinking about rubby League you’re making notes about rubby League your Works R your league and so for me that that provides me with the balance as opposed to me going surfing or playing golf or something it
It is interesting the price you pay for having a uh singular Focus it’s not something you necessarily um would wish upon somebody no and that’s and that’s the reason why like I support what Benji Marshall said about I’m not going to be 247 coach which I don’t think anyone is really 247
I mean exaggeration he means basically I’m just obsessed I’m moving I’ve seen coaches destroy their own positions I won’t say their careers but you know basically have have burned out a playing group so much it cut short their tenure at a class just by basically just what began that
Obsession and that being fastidious and worrying about this and doing that and watching when that come initially that brings a certain amount of success and accountability after a certain period of time as you know Jimmy it just burns the playing group completely out and I I’m as real believer that players can and
And and really and consciously will only take a certain amount of information in so my my thing about it is is when I watched the West Tigers play last year and some of the stuff Benji was doing with shiny there and what he and little things he’s done this year I can see
That the the Tigers have a successful formula there that sits there they play Simple they centralized everything most things stem off appy corus right probably no Reliance on appy and they just centralized you know they go they don’t move the ball sideways frivolously for any other reason I like what
Caesar’s bring this year with kicking but my my point is in my opinion if I look at the West Tigers there is a there is a Formula that if they can play close to their best every week going to be very very hard to beat and I think
They’ll have quite a successful season so if you’ve got the formula there and you settle on a formula why would you drive put it this way I’ll take another if you’ve won eight in a row Jimmy the more you spend the more time you spend in the office
If you’ve struck gold in the way you want to play then I would say it’s counteractive for you spending 16 hours a day worrying about the football because then you’re probably starting to push the side and your principles off course a little bit I understand you got
To analyze the way difference plays and nuances of how other teams are viewing you and you might need to adjust but I just I I I see benefits in what Benji had to say I I I agree agree with you to an extent um I think
Coaching uh by its very Nature has to be all in and I think the answer to the question of if we’ve won eight in a r we’ve struck gold why would we continue to work hard well there two points move away more move move away um because you’d be fearful of the
Mindset of the players thinking that it’s becoming easy which we know can happen and also I think uh we strive at Perfection coaches would strive for Perfection so you may think we’ve struck goal but you know you’re chasing the impossible The Impossible Dream of 100% completion Y no Miss tackles yep no
Tries conceded no penalties conceded no six again we win every rook in both defense and attack I think there’s this striving for Perfection and always wanting to be better Wayne Bennett used to say he give his ratings out of 10 he’s never given a 10 yeah I think that I think that’s what
It is I’ve thought about this because the research out there suggests that um any individual can’t concentrate for something like more than like 15 minutes on a particular topic so if you give a lecture if you go over 15 minutes you’re screwed and you should break it up um
Also with the messages to the co from the coaching staff to the player around two or three yep key messages not information overload but we know that coaches live in fear of I know something or I’ve seen something I’ve got to tell them of course and or if I’m not watching every
Single game from every different angle that’s available if I’m not watching training I might miss something and that might bite me in the ass and The crucial moment and we know that grand semi-finals state of Origins test matches can come down to one moment and not that requires millimeter Precision a
Couple of things jimy I think you you need to really you got to have trust in your players um firstly and I think like you got to have trust in your players sometimes like if I was coaching now Jimmy I’d say right out what we’re going
To do we’re going to meet this when we’re meeting in the morning we’re going to do a few hours hard work here we’ll do a little bit of video after I want you to go away I want you to go away I want you to find that balance in your
Life spend times whether it be your your wife and your kids and and I’m going to get you back here at 4:00 in the afternoon we’re going to put another couple of hard hours work now people will say well may there could be some drama there cuz you know can you trust
The players well if you can’t trust the players in that position you haven’t got the right players M got up the The Sweet Spot for me Jimmy is that I think the last thing you want to be as a coach and you just said something there where you
Go I’ve got to tell this person I’ve just it’s here and I’ve got to go and tell him how many times you’ve been in the dressing room and mentally you’re ready to go and he go oh he’s [ __ ] coming up again here [ __ ] Jimmy one more thing you know the one more thing
And one more thing and you’re going he’s killing me yes yes he’s not trusting me um I think I think The Sweet Spot from from my experience playing Jimmy The Sweet Spot for me was we trained really hard MH number two we really understood how we’re going to play we understood
The principles how we’re going to play um and then then number three the coach under coached this to his extent right to granted we hadn’t experienced football side myself and Andrew had Paul harrian and different got Tony Butterfield we had an experience side to come through simil
Sim multaneously and that allowed a guy like Malcolm reallyy who was Far and Away the best coach I ever had Tau us went from being boys taught us be men handle pressure he would Malcolm would under coach us right once he put in place the things that work for us
Although we trained hard mentally he he under coached us he didn’t over Coach Us in videos if someone Jimmy if you knocked a ball on let’s say you’re taking the ball up and you’re fumbled he’d at least know to go Jimmy knows he he knows that it’s an error I’m not
Going to show that embarrass him all those things that style of coaching for me Jimmy was The Sweet Spot even to the point Jimmy is that if a Coach if a Coach steps away Jimmy right we’re being coached by by a guy and all of a sudden
He just steps away a little bit consciously steps away then guess what I can guarantee that you and I and the other leaders will fill that space yeah and it’s prob the other guys with the Malcolm real story The example I got with Malcolm is Malcolm he had us for a
Couple of years 95 996 and he’d put in place how he wanted us to play exactly 96 wasn’t such a good year but we learned a lot from our father years and so we started the 97 season training well and then Malcolm if I remember correctly I think
His dad was sick so he had to go back to England went back to England uh for a few weeks as he left our Reserve grade coach uh was poached and one of our other coaches was poached so effectively we in in the whole club at one point it
Was like we had one coach we had a skills guy and we have Fitness guys and then Malcolm came back and then something else happened I might have might have been with his mom I’m not I’m not exactly sure but basically Malcolm was near missing that whole PR preseason
So to an extent not not F we we’re still getting trained and he would Lia with us from a distance but we had to look after ourselves and then have a look at ourselves and go how are we playing why what worked in 95 what do we move away
From where do we need to go how is the game changing fair play to Malcolm very 0.1% of coaches would be willing to do this basically swall the he came back right played a uh a trial game against the Tigers he didn’t think were that good
And he went for a walk with me and said what have you [ __ ] been doing while I’ve been away and I said no we’re training we’re train we’re trained really hard Malcolm but these are the things we looking to do were a little bit scratchy first up no problem any
Would played Manley in the second trial and we beat manly went away and said yeah is we’re on the right track no problem now that year we went on the win the competition and two things there is Malcolm through necessity had to step out of the space and we had to go and
Fill it and we had to work out the playing group right how we’re going to play so when you work out yourself you absolutely believe in it and even when Malcolm come back we we be doing a video going to a big game and he’d say right we’re
Playing The Roosters here rather than he dictate to us say right I got to play this way he go they’ve got this guy they got this guy they got fitler you guys tell me how where are they vulnerable and how are we going to beat them so we’d all sit there as a
Group N around and he’d have his say what about that not sure about that but then we’d settle on the game play and you go out and you beat him so there’s there was a sense of ownership oh yes it was you know Jimmy he was a tough task
Master uh tough task master he had principles how he wanted you where where you had to get to as far as your performance and more to the point your effort your level of fitness and commitment but mentally it was the easiest experience I’ve ever had in football for
Me there was no anxiety there was no oh what what’s the coach thinking he just come up and tell you you were never in you’re never uncertain it was it was a fantastic environment because we had young guys like Owen craigy and young guys like Troy Fletcher coming through
And lots of young fellas well they had as much say as we did because we enabled that and Malcolm enabled that it was just and and it wasn’t probably till later on that I realized to go like that was professional sport in name but it didn’t feel like it it actually felt
Like when you’re a kid and you’re playing a game now for us to get to that point we had to go through a lot of stuff but I suppose my original point is is that when the formula is right I think a 247 coach can drive you mad and
Like you know players tell me about Wayne you know Wayne walking in there when Wayne I’ve heard this off numerous players and he’s done it numerous times the side has played really poorly and he’s walked in on the Monday and the plays he said nothing after the game he
Just said say the plays go Jesus and I reckon when he says nothing you go away it’s even worse and you’re thinking to yourself what’s he thinking you know in a lot of ways you’ve corrected you’ve already in your own mind corrected your complacency or whatever and then Wayne
Will walk in on a Monday some sometimes walking in and dancing go to put the video on and go ah [ __ ] don’t worry let’s get out in the field and work you know I I that that for me is him trusting his players and probably knowing they’ve corrected in his mind
But also him going he did that wrong who did that wrong who did that but I’m going to back him to get it right I’m not going to over impose myself on him it takes a certain type of character to be that way with a certain level of experience and
Uh it’s almost not even coaching it’s psychology yeah well W way is a master isn’t it I just can one approach be applied to every group because there are some teams that I feel they maybe need that ultimate dictatorship direction and you know you said that Malcolm really he worked you hard yes
Now everybody that plays at all 17 teams currently yeah we train hard now there’s training hard and there and there’s I’m looking to tap and I’m I’m running back to I’m running on Belmore oval and I go back towards the train line and I see a
Train go past and it’s like I think I’m still alive because I’ve seen the train your past versus some other places where it’s like are you train hard yeah yeah yeah yeah Malcolm Malcolm when he first come to Newcastle the first drill he implemented as far as that Fitness
Concerned has become probably the one of the most notorious drills in the NRL the Malcolm the Malcolm and that was off Malcolm really you know let people that’s Malcolm yes that was his drill getting up getting back and remember the first time we did it [ __ ] Legacy to
Leave yeah the most yeah the exercise that surpassed the burp has been the toughest and yeah let people know to do a set of six on on a Malcolm might take you how long would it take you Jimmy 60 down on every yeah probably a minute maybe minute but
Your legs are absolutely you’re burning so when Malcolm first came to Newcastle he said right we’re going to do malcolms we’re going to go 65 43 2 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 6 45 it just kept going and it was it was just it was a nightmare and then the
Next day said right we’re going to go to uh broad Meadow Race Course Newcastle and he’d start us all at 1200 MERS and he would stand at the Finishing Line with his cool hand look Luke sunglasses and just sit there say nothing and just watch us you know you know taking tabs
On right of all the halfbacks where did Andrew finish where did he finish and it was like never trained so hard in our lives but then um he married that with not playing mind games yeah the fitness the fitness gave you the fitness was the Mind Games you know getting yourself
Right getting yourself up I’m feeling a little bit tired today I’m able to do this you know I come on two more efforts to go encourage others when you feel in tight he let the fo Fitness play the Mind Games for us he was just a coach someone to bounce off strong
Disciplinarian but just as I said you know you know you’ve had coaches that play m games you know [ __ ] like hey you going Jimmy I tell you what that the kid over there who could easily fill your jersey and you’re going is he even
A [ __ ] go at me you know I don’t need that [ __ ] yeah there was none of that ah it’s funny the the ingredients that’s required to be a successful coach in an organization there’s there’s some I think nailed on principles that are non-negotiables but there’s somewhere
You got to adapt to the group just on that um you speak a lot about coaching and I was going to save this question for the end but I’m going to ask you now what would it take take for Matthew JNS to do a Gary Neville or a
Benji Marshall has Gary Neville going into the coach he did did he here’d he go not well yeah you go I think where did he I think he went somewhere in maybe Seville oh did he yeah his brothers over there Phil coaches the I think he was coaching the
English Women’s National Team not anymore not the lionesses anymore but he he is involved in coaching I thought he was real did or one of those clubs I’m not sure where he’s at now but yeah Gary Neville left Monday Night Football to go coaching Spain much to the amusement of
Jamie carrier U it went pearshaped yeah and obviously Beni Marshall was heavily involved in the media he left what would it take for for you to do that I think to be completely down on my luck we no it would actually now it would be to the
Point it would be for for whatever circumstances is that what I’m doing now is no longer there and then right this I’m going to back myself here I can do this and have a crack Jimmy however at this point of where I’m at probably my next role that I would do in coaching
Because I’ve done miles of one-on-one stuff and little specialty stuff with you know with with tombs that’ll come in and do a bit of stuff and for a year or two and then go is I think now the greatest kick that I would get in if I
Was going to coaching would be that more experienced bloke who would act act like a bit of cage between the team and the head coach if that makes sense you know that bloke who sort of gets around he understands the players you can give the coach a little bit of stu stuff
But just helping the young guys through being there every single day and understand the pressures that they’re under and how to alleviate that I think for me rather than the Tactical side I think the relationship side is probably the thing that appeals to me so for me to be a head coach
A change in seg what why why why would I do it why would you not why would you not tell you Jimmy why is there a lack of ambition to to go down that road it’s not lack of ambition Jimmy I know I know myself too well though so the other day
I’ve had so there is ambition there sorry no longer well put it this way Jimmy I’d never say no but I think but I think where I’m at at the moment it’s a long long if I was to go back into coaching I think now it would be the per
That that role I was talking about for good okay so sorry yeah so the reason is Jimmy like I’ve said recently to people uh on the record I said I used to have these exercise books that I used to have exercise book next to me when I was
Asleep and I wake up the middle of the night think of a sequence or a shape and just sit and write them down next I’m up for an hour and I’m writing it and writing and writing now these exercise books and Trish went I don’t know how
Many I had probably 20 or 30 I’m going to throw them out and we just carded them from house to house every time we moved until finally I think I thought I thought that she’d thrown them out and good riddens anyway my oldest son jack
Came and said have a look what I found and found all these exercise books uh books so we’re sort of filtering through them going oh yeah and I think what was I thinking there oh that’s right you know this this shape super BK how does
That work do we there oh yeah that is still work what about this not so much so we’re just going through it you know sort of book at a time and I’m thinking to myself [ __ ] me dead how much time have I wasted throughout my life that
Makes sense so for me when I retired Jimmy right I was so ready to retire mentally because it wasn’t like I could just go out there and play in a Sunday Jimmy I wasn’t Joey I’m completely we’re completely different people and yeah hello scoop we’re completely different
Footballers but for me to be to me to to play a game that was 7 and a half 8 out of 10 I had to put myself through the ringer like mentally you know overthink all that stuff Andrew could just go go out and do it right because it’s natural
Now Jimmy if I put myself and a lot of those times I I I wasn’t there for my wife I’m not there for my friends cuz you’re talking to me Jimmy when I’m that person that player and I’m going yeah yeah and all I’m thinking about is oh I
Got to make sure I got to write that down something’s come to me I was absent completely and I don’t want to be that person again but then you could do the Benji Marshall role yeah not 247 for me so you would naturally fall into that I
Would naturally fall into that bloke who basically would go to sleep every night with a you know 20 blank pages next to me and wake up with just and fill them and I I I enjoy my life too much now Jimmy to actually go back into that my life I look I
Um I’m basically I’m a stage of my life that I have I have no desire to go into something just to basically you know prove something to my own ego I’m I’m I’m past that you know that it’s very easy to go you know I could do that rest you know what you
Know I think I could theoretically I think I could you know I can manage people pretty good maybe I could but there’s no guarantees you know you might be look like the ideal Blake for the job and you’re going there during the circumstances and it it just doesn’t
Work out that’s that’s the way it is does that not excite you you I would I I I would really enjoy the challenge Jimmy I would I would really enjoy it but but I know how it would manifest W with me it would get to the point that I would drive myself
Insane and I it’s very hard to hide that from the players because M you’ve had you’ve been coached by BLS who are obsessive and like that and you actually you start to go [ __ ] hell like but also you know it it it certainly affect my wife’s life cuz I i’ just I’d never
Be I’d never be there I’d be there physically but I wouldn’t be there emotionally or you know spiritually I just I just wouldn’t be there yeah it it’s true what you say about head coaches um lack of presence oh you speak to them because in in Social settings yeah
They’re just not there and with Benji you just wonder if he’s going to be able to afford himself that luxury of now I’ve got this three-hour allocation of time with my family because player injuries they’re going for a scan what’s a scan result just just call me and doc
I just need to know is this player torn his hamstring or not I I just want to know is the contract signed is he resigned or not what’s he doing is his manager called what’s his manager saying is there another offer like just insane you’re right with Benji
What a discipline that’s going to be it is going to require a tremendous amount and I hope it’s not the case like real soft spot for the Tigers but you might get to a case through in the year Jesus we’re facing five or six losses on the row there pressure
Starting you know oh come on let’s you know anyway it’s it’s time for you know we’re going to go to Little Johnny’s party he be going Kell I don’t know if I can go there I’ve got too many things to worry about that just I can imagine that’ll be a very difficult discipline
Yeah um just on the the coaching thing it’s no coincidence it’s that type of player that you wear that tends to lead to uh better coaches so those that need to be consumed by the game rather than just brilliant because you know your brother could just say well just do that
Just let do it just well what do you mean you can’t throw a 20 what or why why can’t you see that the wing is up and you need to put the kick in like what do you mean I you need to teach me
How to do it but you know with that all that that that coach style where you’re writing do you ever fall into that trap even though you’re not a coach and you’re like oh I saw something there yeah yeah I do There’s an opportunity if they go out from dummy
Half back to the guy playing the ball that there’s a three on two that they’re missing think every any person who’s played I think there’s always that that there that always sits inside you well if I sit I’ll sit in the lounge uh with a beer and another beer and a few beers
Sit there and I’ve always got the blank piece of [Laughter] Out to me and said we’d like you to apply for the job and I’m like okay sort of pricked the yuo a little bit and so yeah so I ran Craig Belling me up and I said because I was work I’d been working with Melbourne before let me guess you
Said I didn’t realize you were losing your job M I’ve got some news for you you’re out got bad news sorry Contin I rang him and I said I said to him um mate listen this is what’s going on he said M he said you
Kidding he said you would hate it and I went what do you mean and he goes M that’s stuff you come down and do he said that’s coaching he said most of the stuff with coaching isn’t coaching it’s you’re doing you’re doing your bit of coaching with a thing but you’re doing
You’re doing video you’re doing edit guys and your man managing guys you’re coming you’re worrying about this you’re worrying about that you’re doing sponsors he said there is that much he said there’s that much of it he said the coaching element is getting smaller and smaller and he said I just know your
Personality he said after two weeks you’d be bored and I said he’s probably right I reckon he’s done you there yeah he’s done you yeah’s [ __ ] himself about you coming in and taking he heard the footsteps coming behind him yeah yeah to be honest Jimmy
What happened I tried to wh him but they wouldn’t stack him no I reckon he’s gone I don’t want this person coaching against me I’ll I’ll tell him how horrible it is well you should have said well what are you doing it for then yeah that’s right yeah hey tell you what I
Think you’re on the this heroin is no good for Josh made so he’s done you yeah yeah you might be on to something I’ll give the prick a call when I get off here I’ll say listen I am the man take over you not Ry hey um you speak about um growing
Growing up in in cesn um and learning the the game just how did that manifest because you know think I’ve thought about this a lot about children’s sport today and the Oz tag the tag the smaller side of games I’d be right in thinking you were just launched
Into 13 aside on a full field right at the age of about what six seven five five full full yeah professional side professional like 100 met by 50 whatever it was yeah back in those days Jimmy there was uh there was no mini mod football no I’d gone through it was
Literally um basically and it was Dad there was no in cesn so I had it was like it was similar to my school days uh I had 5 years in under NS so I started when I was five five six seven eight and nine so how did you how did how did you
Figure the game out back then I don’t know I can’t remember but um figuring the game Jimmy it’s just we’d play and you know right up until you know we’re teenagers you go we go and play touch or when you’re younger you go and play tackle you you know you finish
Playing with your side s patri s Patrick cesn and then you go behind the town hall the patch of grass there and you go and play all night there so you develop the Natural Instincts and you developed the natural vocabulary because again my dad coached for years and years when he
Did his KNE so you understand to go right on my outside come on turn a guy under all that sort of stuff but all the stuff that all that was just instinctive Jimmy it wasn’t until I went to the Newcastle kns at incredibly lck lucky time where there was all these great
Coaches there though they were basically going through a a period where they made a decision because they didn’t have the money gone by players educate all our younger players to the basically to an inch of their life life and then the best ones will come through and so when
We first got to the kns there was an there was a guy there who I’ve spoken many times before Alan Bell he was an Old Goat farmer but he’d been Here There and Everywhere as assistant coach he was at Newcastle and he was like talking to
John Lon about music you being a scouser and it was like he just sit and grabbed himself and Andrew fun times for hours just with video going stop I’ll show you why Kevy walers is a good ball player stop Alton Langer plays this way stop right uh do 20 minutes on Alfie right
Let’s go now to like Paul langmack the way he used to play short sides stop right now let’s go to this PL let’s go to this PL this how te lie with the football and so you’re watching and you getting saturated with this information but also you got other stuff Jimmy to go
Saying things like R this is what you do boys the field is like a mathematical equation you got length of the field but you got 10% 20% 30% 40% you and you teacher the vocabulary so Maddie if you want to send if you want to put an attacking sequence that starts at the
Far post rter let’s go whether it be two or three let’s go to the 60 you know and then on the way there if you’re thinking hit back and you can sense there numbers always say think and LS thinking LS let let them tip off and form or think and
Ron which means you’re going to go the same way so was all this stuff teaching us tacking pattern teaching us like stuff that coming out trouble the golden rules of Defense things you don’t do things you do so this was just thrown into us to the point that you actually
Go am I going insane here but then all of a sudden Jimmy the day hits boom and everything starts to click and for of course like we never had a Newcastle the success that penth are having you know goes without saying they’re incredible group but all those Blakes were educated
Simultaneously that have come through hence the reason when you’re playing and they get going with they attack and you go there’s no [ __ ] setups like they just instinctively know how the pieces of the jigsa just fall into place and where Nathan’s going to do stuff like
That and that’s how it was with us with that Newcastle side is that the core of that football side probably seven or eight of us were educated simultaneously uh form we’ formed combinations we understood how each of us played to the point that even on the field sometimes you didn’t have to
Communicate that much each player knew what we’re all trying to do particularly when like you’d set up the start of an attacking sequence Say Jimmy and you go like I was just saying there like right I’d say right let’s yeah let’s say for instance let go to to the 50 to the
Middle me and Andrew would split and you’d say right what siid looks vulnerable a little short and you go bang and the person who suspected it or had the best opportunity would take it down that side right one a really flat fast play there you know plenty of bodies of motion and
The goal was not so much to make a break and score that’s a bonus but the number was to attract Defenders over to that threat to gather numbers over towards that scrum line and then once he did that we didn’t even think we didn’t even talk everyone knew that the ball was
Going to go to the other side of the field as quick as we could like a false flug that’s it that’s it so it that was and Jimmy that was regardless of who came in as coach all right and they would have their own ideas and principles that principle that
We were taught when we first walked into the Newcastle Knights never left us yeah it’s it’s almost like a a finely tuned algorithm so if we go to to the 50 in all likelihood it this will happen and there will be an opportunity presented
Over on this side of the field but if it doesn’t because if we predict if they predict what we are going to set up then the opportunity will be need to be taken later on so if they do X here’s the here’s the here’s the the you know every
Action has a reaction y you already knew the reaction to their action and it’s just no matter what he is you you you can you can’t be perfect because we’ve got enough things to do and when you think this play is coming we’ll have a variation on it and we’ll
Be prepared for that variation because the our algorithm is going to see you and we’re going to react we’re going to be so finely tuned that we’re going to be able to react to your action in defense which is going to create an opportunity for us based off the
Repetition and the knowledge that we have well even even sometimes Jimmy you’d actually on first receiver you would take the ball to where the more numers were and you go why would you do that well it’s the easier way to gather more numbers you know what I mean so all
Of a pull them in and you might pull another one that way and all of a sudden the the side that look vulnerable from a half field then mate looks really vulnerable at a long field when you’ve gathered so many so many players across and you other said you said about an
Algorithm is the reason why back in the day moveing to the middle of the field works so good is you could preempt it’s going to be a 55 split you know five five two markers one at the back and they guys dribbling back you know sort
Of dribbling their way back but it gave you a really easy read of where to go and it really expose those Mills okay who’s looking tired but now these days the five5 splits sort of become you know going moving the ball to the middle these days is almost like resetting the
The defense it’s a bit like when you you know um so they they go like past the far post to make it more of a 37 or a 46 but as like saying to you Jimmy like um um it’s like you know let’s say for instance we did that right when we’re
Playing we’re playing together and I go right let’s go to the middle and we’re just going to do our little setup play for use for a better term right me and Andrew are split and I go right I’m going to take the ball here I go to the
Left now your natural thing to be a forward is okay R give me the ball I’m going to settle it back in but the reason you the moment you do that Jimmy is that all you’ve done is reset the defense that makes sense you know what I mean so you’re putting yourself that’s
One of the things are you’re guilty of with sides is they’re always resetting in my opinion unless it’s a hell of a defensive play or a great tackle that drives you backwards once the kettle’s boiling once you’ve gone we’re going to go two here or we’re going to take one
Here and you start to play Don’t Stop just keep playing don’t stop keep playing even to the point and I say to Young halves even to the point don’t worry about shapes don’t sometimes if they’re looking vulnerable the last thing they want the ball player to do is
To take the ball and go at them again even if you’re not sure what you’re going to do just challenge them what they want is for me to say to one of the midds take us forward make the defender make a decision hold you wrestle you put
You on the ground five5 split again so we’re back to the start and if you watch penth play now I love watching penth play is because the as I said they’ve been educated simultaneously the combinations have been forged over years they don’t once they when they really
Get harm and playing good there’s no setups it’s hit shapes fall into shapes so you might have a block formation if Nathan hits short he’ll rip around the same way with with an identical formation and even to the point Jimmy sometimes you’re saying about how we
We’re going to act we’re going to do something here which you’re going to say yeah we can handle this you know we we we know what you’re doing yeah we’re going to handle that no problem but they’re setting you up for something else it’s like the night when they
Played I think it was Pata quite not quite like pen they they went sideline to sideline a little bit and you’re going okay this is interesting but what happens is when it hit one sideline after about the second or third shift they offl out the back
And Moses Le went Tip Tap tail and just went straight through and scored on the post you know and for me that was them playing sideline to sideline upsetting disrupting the Paramount defensive line back on the inside which let them play through so for penrith as such a
Deliberate side you know I’m stating the office here you know they’ve won three they’re on their way to trying to win four comps in a row but they they everything they do is so decisive um and nothing is done without a reason why why do you think
Um a lot of HS don’t play that way I think because what happened is Jimmy is that I don’t I think they came through a system in in juniors that they weren’t as fortunate as guys like myself and Andrew and the guys in Newcastle and some of the guys
Like Nathan who have come through is that I think at times in junior football they I was going to say they being coached by people who don’t really know I’m being that’s me being kind and what it is a lot of times is they some coaches it’s a safety first approach
Yeah no you know what I Reon it is J they’re too structured I think a lot of the junior coaching is way too structured but on top of that I think in the Juniors sometimes you can it’s a it’s a worry um or it’s sort of counteractive sometimes have a really
Ambitious young coach coaching your Juniors because if if you give me a junior side Jimmy I look at them and I go right uh okay what I’m an ambitious coach what am I going to do you know I’m working on the tools through the day but I really
Want to be a first grade coach how do I get this side to win number one completions number two let’s you know don’t do any of this stuff uh dummy half run kick long just get in with pressure now that’s that’s great to win a game
Jimmy right uh but how many Top Line like halves does that produce well I was going to say is the goal itself not the correct one to win games because as a junior coach are you there to win games not if I was the head coach for thing
His job would be completely on producing players I I don’t I don’t care you win loss record but if you’re that Junior coach you think I need to show I can win yes and i’ say to him no you you need to show me you can produce players so big
Difference big difference cuz Jimmy if you can produce players you can coach right just cuz you win games a junior level doesn’t mean you can coach because you go and you watch them and you say they’re not moving the ball at all they’re just kids picking the ball up
And running for dmy half like you know what I mean you can win junior football games with the biggest kid on the field big biggest kid the field exactly yeah um just with the way half’s are moving now as well do you think how have you
Seen the role of of 13 so I I watch isai and I mean this sincerely I if I was building a team and I had the choice between Isaiah yo and Nathan clear or if I was beginning a team I’d take Isaiah yo if I was going to win a Premiership
I’d get Cleary because I think that role of the 13 now gives the half so much more space it does how have you found in your observations the impact of that ball playing lock I think that up until uh couple of years ago I think Isaiah was the most important player on the
Side I think Nathan obviously is now as as Nathan has matured and gone to that next level and Next Level again is that he has of course become the most important player but yeah it’s very interesting with the 13 Jimmy the 13 the 13 has probably um gone
Through so many changes and there’s so different many ways had to play a 13 like originally my dad was the third was coming through and he used to he said I said how did you used to play that what was your thing and he said my job was to
Play the short sides you know back in the day when the centers would swing you know and the half swing yeah and you go that side and the half the 58 would come around outside the half and they all link together and dad said what I would
Do he said my job was to gravitate to the short side and look after the Blind Side yeah that’s he The Blind Side The Blind Side short side plan and third were very good traditionally good at that because they were robust guys who could run use their hips they were tough
Guys and they were really good short ball players which is essential to play at the short side um so that was thing you had guys like Ray Price who were C you know clever with the hands Rod ready he was incredibly clever with the hands
On then all of a sudden there was a change in the game um Bradley Clyde come along Bradley Clyde was you know side knocks the ball down field Cy gets back and takes play two so it became the a AG of 13 and there were still some guys
Around like Jason Smith and Jimmy demick did a little bit but straight away what teams started to look for was the big strong 13 and of course as years as the decades went on then you started to have talolo and so on and so forth suddenly someone made I don’t know which player
Exactly it was but then all of a sudden you had um a guy who could get in the middle and help the halves out and do a little bit of ball playing even though the you know to the point Jimmy if I’m playing thir I’m not necessarily trying
To put you through a gap but I’ll say to you Jimmy he I’ll tip it on you I take two steps tip it on to you get a one get a one-on-one tackle so there was the real benefit having another uh another set of eyes there and another thinking
Player in the middle of the field so that the halves could stand back and go let them go let them go forward we’re just going to watch and react and and that’s the beauty with Nathan is you watch Nathan sometimes particularly a couple of years ago he’s sort of been
More forth right now but you can see he’s saying to Isaiah right let’s work to there and Isaiah says sweet I’ll do that and he takes them there all the time so it’s not just working to a point on the field when you’ve got a got a got
A clever 13 Jimmy he can play football there so although you’re doing hups where effectively just working to a point on the field you know that clever 13 still throwing questions to you getting a one-on-one tackles he’s dropping players off dropping players off play yeah imagine that like seeing
The 13 go across the field and turn his middle forward underneath to get to a point and Jimmy for us if we’re defending in the middle that’s tiring cuz what we’re going here we’re thinking I’m saying Jimmy you got him who you got we’re nonstop we’re talking all of a
Sudden they turn the ball over kick it down field we go [ __ ] me then we got to get back and work and it’ll catch up with me later on well I’ll need to make a decision or I’ll need to tie in and I’ll miss my assignment cuz I’m I’ve o
I’ve been mentally taxed as well as physically well and you watch penth right so penth a couple of times this year but in the in the Grand Final it’s the most obvious example that comes to mind is that penrith when they really attacking Jimmy they’re throwing so much
At you all the time is that unless you got a line share of possession they’re going to burn you out of gas yeah so even to the point that might the they dominated The Possession in the first half and probably had most possession even when the Broncos a winner 248 but
The Panthers just throw so much at you is that that if you don’t at the back end of the game if you don’t dominate possession possession you least get 55% mate you your your fuel tank is just about being exhausted we saw it in the penth game in round two uh sorry penth
Param matter is that they started uh penth a million miles hour and somehow somehow paramet absorbed so much pressure and led 186 but then they came out second half didn’t didn’t didn’t score a point from memory it’s cuz par they just they just burn you out
They do um it is actually incredible to watch that process unfold to the naked eye you’re like oh [ __ ] this is happening um you speak of combinations and and the one with your brother how fortunate were you to to grow grow with the genius well mate the
The thing about it was I was lucky at uh on two levels because of the fact that uh you know and I’m the older brother I’d like to think it was the other way as we’re around is that when never spare time we’re in the backyard playing
Football all the time so from that angle yes uh the other angle was the fact that to be alongside someone who not just your brother but you’re being like I said before educated simultaneously football-wise was enormous benefit and probably helped me a little bit on top
Of that was the fact that uh he’s considered possibly arguably the greatest player of all time that sort of helped me a little bit as long as well Jimmy but it was yeah it was it was it was pretty amazing Sometimes some of the things he did and to see
How you know he evolved um because he went from being sort of when I played alongside Andrew wasn’t until the last couple of years that I used to see him actually completely Dominate and take control of a set Joey was more like just go forward for me aha
You know like I remember here like you’re saying before about me overthinking all the time remember once we’re playing the dragons it was a hell of a game uh 96 not long too they’re beating us and Joey just gets the ball goes to it might have been David barill went bang off his
Left beat him and scored this amazing try of the post and everyone that was that was genius and I said to Joey after the game what were you thinking and he goes [ __ ] I don’t know I just looked up and thought Barney looks tied you know like later on he become far more
Strategic yeah what how he become really good Jimmy was to un he understood his favorite attacking shapes which he played at Newcastle he used to call a bulldog where he would work the ball to a near or far post he would have a Blake on his inside he’d have the short ball
And the guy the fullback just floating around late around the back whether it be robio Davis or Milton th one and they just hit the Gap and now that sounds a lot of guys had that shape now a lot of them call it an arrow or triple or
Something like that one under one short one around the back but Andrew was able to go is it on for him is it on for me is it on for the short or is it on the back and make the correct decision a lot of players you can’t give two
Options get confused where he was able to have the four options wide open and now the play and make the correct decision I want I want to ask you because you spoke there about some of the influences um the coaches and some of the the the information that they
Gave you yep how much time were you spending in the backyard it wasn’t just playing football like we had the trampoline we used to soap up the soap up the ball handland drills uh bombs in the backyard and a small backyard uh we had R tee we’ always come home from
School we’d go um straight in the backyard and we’d play or we’d might go across the road across the roads like a like at Tech College had a big field there we you know go and play over there go might be red Riv crossover might be
You know Force his backs whatever it was we do that for a couple of hours M had wrang inside to have dinner then we’d sit there and watch you know the goodies or the Kenny ever video show or something like that and then you know if if it’s daylight saving out there for
Another hour and then inside so everything so probably 3 hours a day two yeah definitely so what’s that say three hours a day times 7 that’s 21 hours a week that’s almost a day’s worth of football not um Str unstructured extra learning that’s almost one day a week yep 52 weeks a
Year that’s that’s almost roughly speaking it’s about a seventh of the Year yes yeah and that would be at least Jimmy and I think with the distractions of things like video games and phones and iPads and tablets yeah I think that ISS a lot because you quickly do the sums
And you start to see that you’re almost 17th of a year you do that for seven years that’s a year of your life so from the age of 7 to 14 it’s a one whole year of your life that you’ve spent doing unstructured football activities with your brother now that is
A real waste of life you could argue and and Jimmy see and and it’s not even the discipline is but it wasn’t discipl arue is more fun am I correting that no fun absolutely that’s fun but tell you what you got what you got to be careful
Of too and coaches here’s the thing where coaches have got to be careful is that if I’d have gone into a night system that said forget all that what we’re going to you have to do this what they taught us there was principle based football so a principle is that right
Are we’re going to show you how to divide the fuel up if you work there these are the best shapes if you decide to go there that’s the best shapes when the offload comes out let’s think about doing this more it was never a Harden fast rule you know a principle for me
And rby League just L lends ourselves to so much um flexibility it it allows your Natural Instincts and reactive footballers as well as you know the guys are like to play you know get safety and structure uh it’s a little bit like hopping in a
Car and you go right let’s go up to the H Valley and you go well there’s plenty of ways to go there but I’ll just go the I we’ll get to the same destination I’ll go one way you go the other we eventually get there whereas structured
Football is putting on a GPS go left here bang go right here gym boom now if you just do that all the time every time you jump in a car you don’t ever really your own natural bearings does that make sense absolutely so if you can you know
Like in the old days jumped in a car and someone had go um you Sydney and you go I’ve got to get there and before you had a GPS like you you just you’re completely lost but you do it enough you find your way and for
Me or you start to take note of your surroundings yep and I I think look you start to look that’s it he’s start to know yes that’s right Jimmy and that for me is the difference and and that’s where we very lucky is the fact that they
Knew you know what we did that our whole lives were rubul because my dad was very well known up around there and so they knew that and so if that have brought us in and said don’t worry about all that [ __ ] don’t do that anymore don’t do
That you know this is how we want you to play then all that stuff almost dwindles away and when you said to me why you know what do what do you see young coach uh half struggle with these days is the fact that I think is that it is being
Taught structure way too early you should be able to have a very basic simplified game plan which lends itself to natural abilities and players natural talents and then when they start to get closer to first grade then you start to take the edes off a little bit Yeah but
Until that you just you got to let them go and you got to let them make their own errors yeah I I agree with you but I think for me the lesson in that is obviously 3 hours a day is Extreme but in any domain of life if you do 10 15
Minutes extra every day the time soon starts to add off you know if you’re doing 10 minutes extra a day of anything that’s over an hour a week which is over two days of pure hardcore focus on that skill and you quickly find a year that you’ll quickly find that
You’ll start to s yeah and be better than others I think about that sometimes about the piano should learned 20 years ago who knows what it could have been now should have could have would have yeah I know guitar bass drums Bongos rock and roll would have suited I I feel
Um with that combination with your brother um obviously it finishes or sorry soon say finish let me let me skip that out um you very tight it um how is the current situation oh we’re right yeah we’re right Jimmy we always just yeah we have our moments a
Little bit we sort of drift off sometimes and we eventually get back together again and and it’s peace at the moment yeah yeah yeah yeah we we’ve lowered our weapon CE it’s all right it’s a ceas fire yes it’s a ceasefire so it’s all right we’re just we’re waiting
We we’re just waiting waiting for the United Nations to come in and can pull all parties to the table Yeah Yeah like a treat sign the treaty yeah that’s right like here here’s the teas and C’s oh yeah yeah teas and say it’s could be tricky see so I thought I can’t remember
How this conversation came up I was doing a podcast couple of days ago and um there was actually a charity match once allegedly folklore has it that there was the two media companies that are dominant within the NRL landscape they had a charity match with both with
With journalists from each side of the fence so now could be a 9V fox fox could you imagine like if they did that for charity like and I’m talking presenters I’m talking journalists I’m talking former players like if that if you know buz you man we need people like that in like
Could could can you imagine the the funds that we that that could be raised if that charity match was to go ahead could you imagine and John’s V Johns do you know charity matches it’s funny with there’s certain sports that lend itself to charity matches I mean football you
See all the time you know it’s Ronaldinho’s you know the celebration of 21 La Liga with Barcelona and they’ve brought all of run in and they’re sort of tapping away and they can play serious cuz nobody and there they slowed down a lot but the touches is still
There it’s very good rby league is really problematic Jimmy cuz the nature of the game is you got to whack someone or they’re going to run out the top yet and a few years ago Mark guire and Triple M did an amazing thing where they had the Queensland floods and they put a
A state a state of origin Legends game on New South walls versus Queensland right so it’s a par at stadium and I’m sitting I’m watching it on TV on my home and they cut to the new South W [ __ ] and they’re all sitting around right and they got the hands behind their back
Heads and they’re laughing and having a good time and they’re sort of half interested cut to the Queensland sheds right and they’re all head down as guys having protein shakes and so you had two sides completely different angles so in Queensland sh could say mate this is
What our you know like the state’s been put through let’s get out there and let’s make them proud and the new South WS bles here in the gwn this will be good so uh we’re all going to go for a beer after the game sure thing and mate
It was you knew things were going to be bad when Terry lamb Terry lamb standing there from the scrum and Wendell just poured onto the ball and just completely ran out the top of him one Brandy went up a short side to ball play ball play
One of the Queensland boys hit him late right he run me the next day and said you got your valum I said why I went over there he’d split and forked his tongue hit him so hard so all these all these injuries that’s why you know like charity games as far as rubby
League is just so difficult this is you’re selling it to me you know what I mean like you’re selling it right could you imagine just Wilder and Kent can you imagine that like oh mate imagine buzz buzz against who you let me think buzz and G
They get to kronol thing they get on good oh but some of the it would it would be brilliant it it it it would be it would raise yeah a [ __ ] ton of money there might be a like a horrific medical bill at the end of it there’s something
In there can we do it almost like a decathlon where we start a going as rby lugue then we move over to the wrestling match then we go to the boxing ring I like you thinking like just like a bit a bit a little bit of everything yes yes
I’m just trying to think of who would I go the boxing I said I’ll go James bracie did you ever see International king of sports no that was like a a show in England where they had like strange athletic Endeavors but actual proper athletes did
It so like the backwards 100 m oh you’re uh underwater shot put what um headlong dive if you’ve got some time on almost faulty H that’s it me it and it was legit like like a bit of a joke but they had like proper athletes doing like the
Backwards 100 met yeah and like the long jump but you had to jump head first and there and that was the you know how the long jump it the back it was it was the it was the front so um well the um uh but there’s something in there I I
Reckon there’s a well remember um there was the world’s Australia’s greatest athlete they ran once two years in a row Billy won up both years Billy sler yeah not surpris he won everything man even they did a wall climb and he was up against Steve hooker who was like an
Olympic um high jump yeah high jump Champion or Pulver but anyway it’s got to do with Heights and Jimmy um Billy beat him like Billy beat everyone at every everything even people’s chosen vocation oh really people would beat him in he he was he was phenomenal so I can see him with the
Backwards 100 meter sprint I think you do quite good there’s so many great stories out the north of England with Rabia League Jimmy that you know sort of been forgotten in time the other one is a fell called is it Frank Burns Frank Burns so he was for once he he
Played played for southford and rby League back in the day southford when it was quite a glamorous Club in the 60s and ear yeah at one point it was they had the casino remember they had I think almost the first Casino in northern England and it would sit at the end of
The ground anyway so whenever sord played and Manu weren’t playing there was like Bobby Charlton and George best were always up there and and watching the games now I want to get this right I want to get this guy’s name right because it’s an amazing story now what
He did he did his knee in rugby league and went um do you know what and he and George best were mates and he said to George you know what I think I want to be a bull fighter so up until a couple of years ago he was still bull fighting um this
Guy used to play for Salford play for sford had when he was bull fighting at the end he had two titanium knees but um where did he go for that Spain he went to Spain and he become this legendary he actually become a legend in Spain Frank Evans so Frank Evans right
Jimmy Fran’s Frank Evans British born Matador most uh senior form of bull fighting known as El englas uh the Englishman um and but it said but he was a sford rugby league player there he goes is he still alive uh let me have a look uh born no death still alive born
In sford 81 years of age and mate there’s a guest he went to 1964 wait a second he was a rugby league player who went across in 1964 attended training school in Valencia and went from there and GE listen back in sford he began a successful K he was also an associate
George best who at one point was his unofficial manager associate you’re an do you have anyone that you would consider an associate I don’t know if that’s a word i’ use no that’s a it’s it’s I was tempted to say uh Brian Fletcher but no no definitely
Not but on the um all all things Newcastle to to wrap that um part up you you win a Premiership there I’m assuming that’s like the ultimate highlight of your career but it seemed like it when I’ve seen the celebrations it meant more to the people in Newcastle than what it
Would to most other cities and towns up across the land yeah it was a difficult time for the city uh the BHP had began to shut down enormous amount of people laid off there but also a lot of the coal mines were on strike uh the Rio
Tinto mins were on strike and so right through sort of the FI most of the final series my dad was sitting on a picket line you know stopping people crossing the picket line with the Union yeah and so there was a lot going on in the city
Um as we started getting closer to the finals you can feel the momentum starting to pick up we played manly at home Drew this enormous crowd um but yeah it did Jimmy it was quite was it was it was unbelievable I don’t remember I don’t remember anything from when the
Full-time sirum went up until when we got on the bus all of it was a complete blur and I reckon you’d know that from when you won during the co time with some Helens when you’re really emotional full-time but I imagine that next sort of 6 hours is just you know trying to
Remember things I can remember trying to remember yes was bizarre F Jimmy it was bizarre at fulltime one thing I do remember is standing on the field and people there were just novocastrian jumping on the field and running wild and they weren’t running like streaking as such they were running they were just
In this sort of like um uncontrol uncontrolled like Joy just running around and what it’s mad that Joy yeah it is yes it’s it’s insane well I was saying like it’s funny I I I thought for a little bit you could write a book I could write a book on people
Coming up telling me where they were when we won the comp there was like a guy come up I’ve had all sorts of stories one guy got there and he was in the fire brigade and he just fire chief said everybody get in the truck and they
Just drove around the city with a siren going uh there was another guy who said he was sitting with his family watching the game and when we won he literally didn’t know he was having like exploding in himself and just ran into the garage turned the car on and just left the horn
On for 2 minutes it was just there was so many stories like that but it just it’s Jimmy it’s a rugby league Mad City you know it’s um the whole region is rully crazy it’s it it’s something that only sport can do well it’s interesting you see the 30
For30 documentaries and why I often I think a lot of those docos work very well because they’re cross sport is cross referenced with something that’s going on in society there’s always subplots and it which really raises the emotion and that’s what it was with us
For us it was if you doing a documentary in our 97 Grand Final you would do it simultan simultaneously you would sell the stories about the mines and the uh steelworks shutting down or going on strike did you mention that when you were building into the important weeks
Yes we did yep we did we we got there we went remember going for dinner one night uh Malcolm really employed a sports sidey colist for the side uh he must have arrived and gone [ __ ] H got my workout in here but he came in he was
Really good he he trained when Pat cash the Australian tennis player won Wilton it was his uh he was his mind coach and he came in and he just give us little tips he just talked to the group and remember one night was sitting there and
He was like you know guys why why you going why do you want to do this and we all sort of got to the conclusion we realized that it was bigger than just us individually and even collectively it was about the city and um that that was really important although I remember one
Board member there going ah [ __ ] that just win it for yourselves and well n you know and chief really drove that hard like you know mate we’re doing it we’re doing it for the community do you think you needed that I think it but you think in a parallel
Universe where Newcastle is um the city’s AB B employment’s High um lot of infrastructure lot of Hope Prosperity don’t know Jimmy maybe maybe but I I just I felt that every home game towards the end will start to become an event and people sort of until the other really good year Newcastle had
Jim it say I think it says something about the area and what it does for the football team was leading into the 1990s season the back end of ‘ 89 Newcastle were hit by this terrible earthquake a lot of people lost their lives um people lost their jobs um you know people
Losing loved ones people lost their houses and I remember what happened is a guy as the season was just about to start a guy sending an artist sent in a photo and what it was was the city demolished basically the rubble and one
Hand coming out of it and a and a an arm with a Newcastle Knights jersey with the red and blue pulling it out and he said this is what the the the the side should be about and that year they had an amazing run and in the top five uh back
There that was top five they they reached a playoff for Balmain and make it into the finals which was a big big Improvement of what had happened previous and I think what happened with the earthquake and and um I I think had emotionally a lot to do with that it’s
Amazing what some like tragedy can help you tap into guess I think like it can tap you into things you speak about the celebrations the infamous uh better than Lego now I’m not going to ask the the circumstances or what you meant by that but what I would like to
Ask is I think it showed uh character humor uh a different side to um a professional athlete do you think we’re you think we’re lacking those characters now I don’t no I don’t think so Jimmy I a lot could you imagine anybody saying that now uh I mean you
Didn’t drop seven F bombs so yeah I I I sort of you know what I I I do Jimmy I I I re we went through a we went through a period in the game where the the the characters were sort of Disappearing or they few on the
Ground I think there’s a lot now I think there I think there’s a lot I it really helps the game even like you you look at guys you Brandon cheese has got his own thing he’s got his own demeanor whether people like that or not you know build
Somewhere you because you need heroes and villains you got Ru Walsh who incredibly goodlook Ultra confident kid who you know um who I imagine like 90% of people love you got the old cranky old 10% they go you know not in my day you know that sort of but too pretty
That’s right even if guys don’t advertently Jimmy come out and say certain things or Rock boats or anything like that or you know say anything funny is their their characters you know like when you run on the field you know what he’s about I know if you sit up in the
In the crowd and you it’s funny full Vegas I got a call from the New York Post go they put in touch with me and they said he said explain me some of the people on either side and it was really easy to do you’re going well L troll
Mitchell’s this right now what he’s got going for him is this then you got this guy and this guy now this guy’s a funny guy you but and I found it very easy to explain the characters and things to to watch in them where 20 year you know 15
20 years ago you you didn’t really know the players and they were sort of Knocked into shape um so now I I I think there’s I I think there’s great characters in the game at the moment I think the game I got to say Jimmy as far
As stand of the football uh the players individually the way the teams play I’ve never seen the game better speaking of characters when I came to these Shores for the very first time as a 15y old I picked up a couple of uh the best of the
Footage show DVDs for the decade and then the best of that year which was 200 one yep um watch them meticulously because we didn’t have anything like that there was no YouTube there was no it was and you know you featured very heavily with a couple of characters yes
Um but namely re yeah re re the was the flight attendant yes that’s right yeah do you think they could be do you think something like that could happen now I mean Fletch Fletch especially pushes a lot of boundaries and gets close to that edge you think something like that could
Be but were you current player or do you just retired that oh no I I when I started doing regge I was still playing yeah could that be done now by a current player current player I don’t know whether the coaches would give them the
Leeway to do it it’ll be like hey mate listen you know P pull your uh you know pull your head in you know you’re drawing too much attention focus focus away from the team you’re putting pressure on the team all that stuff but um the the the teams I played in you know
Never never never had an issue with it could I could you do it now full stop because I get a lot of people saying to me I why don’t you bring regge back you just got i’ tell the full cream milk reg is not skin milk right it’s you got to take
Him all and you you don’t want to go okay I’ll bring him back and all of a sudden it’s diet rge and people going hang on like you used to be better let him just drift off into uh and all the best all the best characters leave the
People wanting more yeah you know you look at uh David Brent Alan Partridge yeah well the thing about this too Jimmy I’ll say this is that the last I reckon eight months when I was doing a p g enough yeah yeah now they go all you
Know to remember but that’s enough and I seeing this this a run at course who were your um comedic influences like where did your love of Comedy begin you know Jimmy a lot of you know we got um through the ABC back in the day we got a
Lot of English TV uh the goodies Kenny Everett video show but a lot of those Northern you know comedies that were we used to watch Australia wise uh Norman Gunston I used to love Gary McDonald and Norman Norman Gunston but it was Paul Hogan there was just it was but but you
Know Jimmy too you know growing up in rugby league and you know been around rugby league for most of your life is it the people you meet like the naturally funny guys and my my dad like my father and all his mates and the guys he coached and the guys he played alongside
They were all just characters and you had guys that were great storytellers and a real mix and a lot of time and and to be honest that’s what who regge was the regge was basically a a a gathering of all my dad’s mates and teammates and whatnot and just Jam them all together
Yeah like that locker room that’s it that locker room character I mean I’m talking 70s Hunter Valley rugby league where it was catch and kill I know that’s that’s that’s his influence that was the that was the influence did at that point in time did you have any idea
Where um the media career would uh would would end up it I’m talking about the the destination of where you are now no I I didn’t Jimmy there was no no no plan I sort of thought that when I I when I was playing my last few years I thought
Right what I’ll do is when I retire I’ll have a couple of years off then I’ll move into coaching and I was just given an opportunity and it’s it’s gone gone from there I’ve always received a lot of really like people said was there a plan
Did you plan this and plan that no I the thing about it is I’ve always received really good uh information for people like you know Steve Crawley who’s a boss of FKS he he was one of the original guys that got me at nine and crawls would always go mate
Too much [ __ ] pull it in more of this Maddie you’re doing regge all the time seriously people are going to think you’re a fool you got to come back and you know you’ve got to actually do some serious commentary You’ got to have light and shade so I’ve been very lucky
For for people that have helped me out influen me like that but there there was no real plan I went in Jimmy All In on a rabby league career yeah where did you because I did because if I didn’t make it there Jimmy I don’t know I don’t know
What I would be doing but it wouldn’t be it wouldn’t be good no I um I think there’s a lot of people like that that need to have that singular Focus like I say that one thing and if it go you’re all in it’s high risk incredibly High
Reward if it goes tits up you [ __ ] and and if that thing like I I in my eyes if you you can find something in your life you’re Ultra Ultra passionate about and you’re desperate to make it in that is that I think along the way whether you
Do make it or not if you commit yourself 100% is that all the lessons along the way will put you in good stead for what you do after that yeah I I think I think there’s Merit in that I really do um just with your media career obviously you had these
Characters and now where you are now where did you Lear how to think and how to talk and how to communicate um of course I always played in the halves Jimmy is that I’ve always had to be able to communicate which um I I think again is a very important
Thing for halves if I do stuff with with young halves like way back with Cooper at CR not Cooper johnes F footballer uh what I do we just throw out witches hats like our Defenders and and we just stand there and watch him and say right the
First defend a second third right you know your shapes you got to play and what you want to call work on your vocabulary you know hear yourself Talking master your sentences so that in a game when you’re under pressure you’re not going oh uh uh uh you’re going Jimmy work to the
Far post for me right boys we got a pop again coming here it comes it’s com so you can talk Under Pressure so I think that moving into the media and and having been able to structure sentences and and and that understand that that helps you but of course when you’re
Talking about rugby league what you got to do you got to take that next step which is I know what my vocabulary was the Newcastle kns and what I wanted to do but now I’ve got to actually come up with a new set of vocabulary which is
Going to be able to the when I say this the people sitting at home or people I’m coaching with can go I’ve got you you know rather than going right we’re going to go the B Defender and we you should go right second Defender off the ru you
Know turn a guy under a big difference between the B Defender well sorry there’s no difference between the B Defender and the second Defender off The Rook but I know what you mean with both but a lot of people wouldn’t know what you mean with one no that’s right and
And so often it’s so easy for when you retire and even ongoing to go man what he should what he is he jumped from the boot Defender the sea Defender and and what he did there he formed and people would be just going what the [ __ ] he
Talking about where if you can actually come up with a term and you go right uh you got right the the the guy the second Defender to the right off the play the ball or the second Defender off the play the ball there you go okay I know who
That is you know like and that’s just a very simply simplistic um example of some of the things that you’ve got to let go of when you’re a player and then move into the media you know when you’re conducting your interviews how do you structure it do
You do you have a plan a skeleton plan and and how do you keep it all intertwined and how do you think on the go like I’m thinking about you know perhaps your interview with Craig Johnson which was absolutely phenomenal like how do you approach a situation like that cuz you can’t just
Go in and go hey Craig yeah well Jimmy in Craig’s instance for me it was that was easy because he was my hero growing up from the same area didn’t that an extra an extra element of pressure that you don’t want to get the the headlights moment yeah that’s
Right but Jimmy I knew his story I knew his life story so I was I so I was able to go right out tell us about that right then you go to midb right now uh graah sunis at middleb he’s very good to you yeah then now how do you ground
Liverpool you know if I but if I get a person it will give me anxiety Jimmy like when I’ll get there like for instance a few years ago I had to do Lauren Jackson like one of the great uh one of the greatest basketballers of all time um and she’s had an anaz
Unbelievable career so I’m going down to interview Lauren and I go I know her career but I don’t know it like Craigs I don’t know the ins and outs I’m going to go buy a book and went okay oh [ __ ] me she’s won about seven NBA titles all these achievements she’s gone she’s
Played in Korea she’s played in China she’s played in Russia she was on there were and there was Jimmy a multitude of unbelievably interesting stories and I’ll go 30 minutes and you go right so in in that instance where I haven’t got unlimited time Lauren what we’re going
To do here we’re not going to tell your life story what we’re going to do we’re going to talk about your career and we’re going to bump all around the place she go yep no problem so then I can go so you played tell me what it’s was like
You played in the WNBA for for Seattle what sort of city is Seattle we talk about that and what I always do Jimmy I always make sure that I know where the interview is going next or what the next question is going to be but what I’ll do
Is I in my mind I’ll divorce myself away from that and just listen and talk and go oh yeah that’s okay righto and then I might go so you were saying before that you lived on the waterfront there at um in Seattle mate I stay there once now
There’s a lead Zeppelin story and you go yeah and we check all that and you go okay right up now when you left there so you know what I mean so I I’ll allow I’m interviewing you Jimmy and you when you start to talk about something I’ll allow the the
Interview to go down a rabbit hole and made them I go down a rabbit hole for 25 minutes and then we go and we draw back you know similar to you you know it’s it’s similar to this similar to this exactly you get in rabbit holes and you
Bring it back and and and but but the other thing too which is for me it’s it’s a a discipline and I constantly catch catch myself doing it particularly with a audio interview um but sometimes with the TV stuff as well is our natural way that we engage with people Jimmy is
If you’re talking to me I’ll go wow yeah oh yeah I know oh yeah yeah yeah yeah and I’m sitting at home and I’m either listening to or watching going shut the [ __ ] up you know what I mean I’m filling the space now if we’re sitting at a cafe
Having a general General chat that’s me engaging with you [ __ ] yeah yeah whereas in an interview it should be just deathly silence and but if I was doing that at the cafe with you and you go M I’ve got a great story for you right I go and do this and I’m
Going you’re going he’s [ __ ] not into so there those things are just totally different scenarios of how you should react in a in a in a conversation it’s not natural um how do you find it when you’re interviewing someone and you need to go for a piss I just go for a
Piss right I’m going you go Jimmy yeah well you never know when Nature’s going to call and it’s probably been about the last half an hour I’ve been thinking yeah I could go and then I’m like oh do I just and then I just I thought the moment was there well I did
Uh I did one recently who it was it was was it Dave Warner and Dave and Candace and I just went I I was having a beer and I went you know what you guys keep talking I’m just going to go for a piss so I could
Hear I mean and they’re just sort of chatting away and they’re still answering the question amongst themselves I me they’re having a squirt but what do you do you got to go when you got to go you got to go um interestingly you interviewed uh the Warners that’s with your new um podcast
Yes backstage with Cooper and mty johnes so he got preferential oh he got first he got first controversial it’s been good Dave and uh Candice um we did uh Nathan clear that was interesting Luke Brooks for the season started but we did Guy Sebastian the other day and shanon
NS 20 years since that Australian Idol when so there’s been a lot of people we’ve had in the can it’s been it’s been really it’s been interesting yeah so it’s not just a football it’s no no it’s it’s it’s it’s broad but you know the
Stuff at the start of the year uh when we had an opportunity to do brooksie Luke Brooks and also Nathan you can’t pass those up yeah and just quickly LLY on the media cuz though we are quite T tight for time uh bringing Fletch and Hy together was that the your brain
Child I don’t know I there was a c I think there was a couple of us sitting there and what had happened we got hindy on the couch and then I look on super sad day and there’s fles sitting there and I’m just going what the [ __ ] is
Going on here and I we just K got together and he said M let’s put him on the couch and mate he was brilliant and then he and hindy have just formed this comedic combination which is it’s it’s perfect they they you know and the great
Thing about the show Jimmy and I say this to people all the time on the Sunday and the Thursday show working with all the boys we have the best time you know and and and that’s the thing about the show I’ve had people that aren’t even rugby league people
That watch the show and enjoy the show because they said we you can see we enjoy each other’s company so yeah that’s important isn’t it really important and even the Vegas trip we did the Sin City one the first one which I come home I was 6 kilos lighter my wife
Was like Furious furious at me but then she watched it and don’t worry I was S I was laying in the bedroom going oh [ __ ] hell what she going to think she came in she goes that was so good she goes you guys really love each other
Don’t you and I said we do it’s not work it’s it’s not it can’t be CL Master’s work how much um uh say or or or influence do you have on on how the show is you you’re not just the front man for the show I’m assuming you you have no I
Work work hard with the producers and Steve and they they’ll say to me you know about how the show looks and but I I work the producer and say listen I think we should get this guy on let’s have a look at this even you know talking about you know segments and how
The segments are structured yeah it it goes quick time cuz the first time that I’d worked sort of full-time with the Footy Show uh I started doing stuff in 2002 with them and I went the other day and said 22 years [ __ ] me when that time goes again well actually one the other
Day Jimmy uh or last year I was watching and there was an old classic game new uh the Newcastle Knights versus Great Britain and when the Britain came out here in 1992 and they played a lot of the club sides so they cut to the bench
And I’m sitting on the bench right and I’m watching I’m going [ __ ] you hell I go that is is that’s 20 21 years ago God then I went [ __ ] when no hang on keep going it’s more than that it was 31 years ago and I went what am I now
52 that’s gone that quick and life accelerates as you get older in the same amount of time which you’re going blink but I I’m going to be 83 I’m going [ __ ] dad who’s going to wipe my ass yeah yeah I know or did probably the one or the other
Yeah you’re either going to be 83 yeah or brown bread like you know you speak about loving each other like do you get excited for the show yeah I do I still I still excited adrenaline hit yeah I you know what I don’t get the so much I
Don’t get the adrenaline hit anymore what I do I just enjoy it it’s fun with the boys and waiting to see what they’re going to say um that’s what so you know you’re not getting the adrenaline like I I love it but I’m not nervous and anxious because you know when you get
Into something you’re nervous and anxious and you go home and you go and you just can’t sleep that where now you know I’m I I’m sweet you go home and good as C and get a good night’s sleep I I I love it but it doesn’t cause me
Anxiety anymore with with those type of um individuals do you ever get caught off guard like have they ever stumped you and you’re like oh God I am gone here I’ve I’ve had some sometimes where Fletch will say something and I just pause and I’m thinking to myself [ __ ] hell what’s the right
Thing to say here and I just go okay we’ll take a break that you is that your out we’ll just go to bre if something happens and you’re going gez that’s close to the line which happens a lot I mean I’ll say things sometimes to go I’ll just rather
Than try to nurse it or water it I’ll just go yeah okay now if we go back to the game and just just gloss over it just let it go how much of awareness of where that that the boundaries are the how much of awareness of where the line/ boundar me
If you know where it is all the time or your conscious put it more to the point if you’re conscious that there is a line or somewhere then you’ll be okay when you get to the point and like I imagine some days Jimmy you do a lot of media
There and I reckon your safe day with the media when it’s really easy for you is Sunday and Triple M cuz you got you got Dober you got gardy there you probably had a few beers night four and you turn up and you just relaxed and you
Go here we go that is that is the greatest chance you’re going to say something and you just go oh [ __ ] hell like yeah that for me that’s put my foot in the here yeah yeah and you get up and you’re bit of a mischievous mood someone saying you’re saying something
Back next minute you’re flying by the seat of your pants you know you’re about a kilometer offshore and you’re go [ __ ] hell how did I get here yeah you know that’s yeah I I I yeah I I got to catch myself with that all the time I’m
Excited for a show this is going to be fun you know like the Vegas show was a perfect example we’re buzzing we’re having a great time in Vegas what time’s the show finish so we go yeah and go hang on we got to do a show here you got
To respect the people that are watching and just got to make sure you’re professional well well also you can you can for get people are in this conversation yeah I tell I tell one of the greatest ones I’ve ever seen 88 Grand Final right the last one was at the
Scg David Morrow the ABC got fatty on right to the pregame so they’re going it’s CRA it’s CRA versus Manley it’s one where Kevin Ward come back from Manley and played that amazing game probably should have got CL church or medal um pregame and uh
Where joined in the Box by uh well a man who was uh I think he was playing by that stage I’m really stuffing this up it might have been the 88 Grand Final I’m sorry cuz cuz fatty was at Manley so it must have been it must have
Been it must have been the tigers with allery up against the Bulldogs and they’re sitting there and he goes well I’ve got the manly Captain who was part of this fixture last year and fatty how do you think this will go fetty goes well you know it’s um
Um [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] I don’t know David Morrow goes uh we just having some difficulty here we’ll just go down to the sideline and fatty goes oh we’re on are we I it’s on YouTube it’s he just say m he just goes [ __ ] I don’t [ __ ] it’s so yeah brilliant that is brilliant
Speaking of characters uh Brandon Smith um often popping into to your place he’s a regular guest on the show weekly guest uh have you got anything we can put some [ __ ] on Brandon what’s he like when he rocks over is he is he does he change
Does he suck up to you or is he just brand he does he sucks up to my wife beyond belief I’m actually what he does he always walks in and goes Maddie CS Trish come here she and I always thought oh that’s so nice and then I then we did
A thing with the show where Steve Philip who is our warm-up guy with Brandon in the back with the show and Brandon doesn’t know he’s been filmed he goes oh mate you know you go over MD’s Place quite a bit yeah go over there you m
With c yeah mes with C hey what about what about uh what about Trish not bad he goes oh yeah she’s [ __ ] real hot and I go [ __ ] cheeky bastard better that than the alternative yeah the alternative um M we’ll wrap the show up like we do uh for each and every
Guest uh the dream spine so no rules around this so you w 679 I’ve had to think about this at fullback I’ll go Billy Slater in number nine I’m going to go Cameron Smith in number seven seven I’m going to go Andrew Johns so who do I
Play number six the last thing we need number six is a person who’s going to want to pass the ball around we you need a reactive athletic Runner of the football so number six I’m going Ellery Hanley oo so we got wow we got Andrew Johns Eller Hanley Billy Slater and
Cameron Smith I think that’d be they’d be hard to beat that that is the perfect answer um if football didn’t didn’t exist what do you think you would be doing so you may have gone all in and it didn’t work or if it just didn’t exist
May oh no let’s go didn’t exist you think you’d be at I’d be I’d be working in the mines yeah like a lot of my mates went into the mines or they went into the steel Works uh and as I said I think my well my great-grandfather was a minor
Uh grandfather minor dad’s a minor would have been a minor grafting down the main the old man he when I first started I think playing for the knights and there was a chance you’re only playing 21s will you make it will you not the old
Man took me down the coine and I think it’s a bit of incentive and said this is why you want to make it but if you don’t make it you don’t want to do this it was it was tough going you know it’s funny
To say I um my dad’s from a place called workington at marport actually which is very small area near workington um he managed to not get out but he became a school teacher but I was when I was back once met up with one of his school
Friends and he spoke about being down the pit and he said it was the best time of his life it’s interesting it’s interesting because when my dad they wouldn’t let my dad go down the coal mine anymore because of his back and his knees and he really struggled for years
After it and cuz he missed the camaraderie of the guys you know we we we were out there you know playing rby League doing a thing I love but when we retire you miss the camaraderie of the guys and it’s the same same thing down the mine they put him there’s a reason
They put him with a crew and they all stick together bloody hard work they put [ __ ] on each other but said tough the time of his life they used to say about England you know like um England went on as a rubby league so it was just booming
Was you had the steel works and the mines just booming there and you know you get every time you needed a front rower they yelled down a m shaft and want to come up you know BL like I was lucky to be coach like you know through Malcolm really who’s a genuinely tough
Guy bit like youu Jammer though don’t act don’t act tough they just naturally tough guys and through him I met Vince carus oh yeah when we won the 97 Grand Final Vince was standing in the corner of course for people who don’t know the Wild Bull of the uh what they call it
Wild the Pampas but he was regarded as one of the top three tough toughest players of all time he just hard huge hands you know typical northerner yeah um give us a slide indoors moment that you think about the alternative happening I was I just come into first
Grade the side had not been going so good and I was at a point in my career you know you’re just not sure of yourself do I really fit in you know and I’m looking for something I’m certainly I can’t almost in my mind I can’t deal with another disappointment I’m thinking
If I have another disappointment I might just pull a pin so we’re playing East in New Zealand in a game and what happens is uh I get off to quite a good start to the game set up a couple of tries but then what’s happened
Is the my game starts to fall apart do an error then I push a pass then I tried to be ball hits the ground meanwhile roosters are going try try try anyway we you lose the game at the end of the game I find out about a month later but in the
Meantime I’d played two or three really strong games and I’m more secure that they actually had my replacement a half of Jason Martin on the sidelines about to replace me and my half’s partner got injured and he replaced him now I think to myself wow if I’d have been if I sometimes you
You believe in destiny for that and you go if I’d have been replaced which would have caused me so much embarrassment I I don’t know whether I would have been there the next there training the next Monday it’s funny how life works like that yeah um the most interesting person
That you’ve met along the way I’m looking forward to this no out the the most interesting I reckon I met was a a guy I listened to a podcast one day there’s a thing you got to listen to It’s called Big history now I’m listening to it uh it’s an American
Interviewer they’re interviewing this guy and I’m going that guy got an Australian accent yeah he has then I go then I’m listening and he he start talking about how Bill Gates flies him around the world cuz what big history is Jammer he talks about he talks about the
Moment of the Big Bang through to where we are now and at the conclusion of when he talk through that and you you know and and and you read articles you start and when he explained it to you you sit there and you go [ __ ] hell puts perspective into everything religious
Violence why you know Wars why like where little we a speck not even a a click in you know as far as time in the universe and that’s what you get the end get the end of that but I’m listening to this and I’m going this Australian
Wonder you must live in LA then he starts to talk about I work at Western City University then I reach out to him and say will you come on Triple M and he goes yeah of course he comes in and says mad big Tigers fan I was a bain Tigers
Fan growing up and and I’m going this is [ __ ] unbelievable and then you know like I I um trying to think of the guy’s name who does a lot of the Marvel movies now um John favra John favra F fa I listen doing thing and he was talking
About when he does one of those big like superhero movies he’ll read some of the stuff from David Christian to get ideas about the universe and stuff like that so when he explained to me about the universe and I’ve listened to interviews he that he has done one of which is Big
History type in conversations ABC he did with Richard Feer it is the most amazing thing that you will ever listen to I want to do that yeah have a listen I enjoy that sort of stuff David Christian David Christian there’s a great um poem I’ve got it in my house U called The
Pale Blue Dot and you listen to it if you look it up on YouTube basically we are the pale blue dot it’s the it’s a photograph of Earth from like a ridiculously dist like ridiculous distance away and it’s just a speck and it talks about like on that spec is
Everyone you’ve ever loved every everyone you’ve ever ever known every superstar every hero every dictator and every person youve run into kick off in a grand final yeah yeah every like and they say like think of the rivers of blood that have been spilt for control
Of one Speck of that dot to dominate over another Speck of that dot and it is just you just go and it’s just us like they talk about us being suspended in a Sunbeam it’s like that’s home well Jimmy it’s the only one it’s and it says
That’s home but it’s it like it’s give me goosebumps now like talking about it look look [ __ ] like legit because it is us but like these things fascinate me I’m going to look at that the of all the places to for this me and my dear May
Brian carer the Irishman we’re in Bosnia right so I’ve gone back to the room and I’m sitting there I can’t sleep so I just put on I think it’s called life or something anyway the Spielberg’s made this docko on on it it [ __ ] I was watching just going this is
Unbelievable you know talking about you go we always go out the Dinosaurs the dinosaurs have almost come this sort of you know mythological thing that you know but explaining donosa was 150 million years on earth and the longest living and then you’re going [ __ ] it hell and you’re watching the stuff and
You’re going Jesus Christ maybe I won’t pay that parking fine M you know what you spoke earlier about time do you know that the I think it’s the the T-Rex and like what what’s another like famous dinosaur triceratops Triceratops I think it’s this I might be getting it wrong the distance
Between us and the T-Rex is shorter than the T-Rex and the Triceratops like they went extinct like the Triceratops went extinct you’d think that they were those two groups of dinos be closer together in a time frame we better go I was going I was going to ask you
About the Big Bang starting and how determinism works if you ever go down that rabbit hole that is messed up because can we choose our choice I’m going to leave you with that question mat it’s been fascinating um I love talking with you you’re one of the most
Interesting people I’ve ever met I’ve been on uh some good drinks with you in the past also we didn’t get to bring up no gallaga but that’s fine but thank you so much for that that was a experience and a half I was [ __ ] myself but
Thank you for organizing that for me and I know that our listeners are going to love this it’s been football it’s been life it’s been everything so thank you so much for joining us here on the byound thanks Jimmy Josh me sir he’s a good man Josh is
29 Comments
I already listened to the pod, and Hearing Matty being the one interviewed is one of the best podcasts I’ve heard. Well done Jimmy, this is one of your best in a great field
so, the thing is beak
New drinking game . Have a shot every time matty says Jimmy bet you won't make it to the end
What a yarn..
One of the best Jimmy
Take a shot everytime he says Jimmy
WTF is Troy Fletcher? 😂
Fuck me this was a damn good poddy
Fox team-
Matty John’s
Fletch
Hindy
Gordie
Mal Meninga
Cooper Cronk
Anasta
Corey Parker
Channel 9 team-
Joey
Thurston
Cam smith
Wally Lewis
Fittler
Gallen
Slater
Lockyer
Fatty
Sonny Bill
Thaiday
I know I’m missing a few but I think channel 9 would win convincingly.
Will never get tired of listening to Matty talk footy tactics and history. One of the brightest footy brains in the world and he has such a measured and passionate way of expressing his thoughts.
That was interesting fun.
Was just watching the TMM and CHT podcast with YKTR, one of them was saying Webby will wrap up the analysis if the guys are looking done. Love Webster.
Top interview Jimmy 👌
Goooodiiessss, goody goody yum yum
Best AD lib footy ever, Fuk shapes be smart enough to count numbers..!!!
Hahahaha the Josh Mansour line!!
Matty is one of the most intelligent people in rugby league, it's actually disappointing he wears the mask of the buffoon and clown in 80% of his work. His vies on youth coaching is absolutely spot on and why rugby league is so boring and robotic today.
Unreal episode!!
Your brother could play your just lucky you was in the team that won a comp with andrew.
Wow what a great podcast.
so good
An Office quote within 80 seconds, has to be a record.
Office UK reference 1 minute in. This is going to be good
WARNING: Don't watch this during work. 😂 It was the Josh Mansour line
stegasarous dawg
Brilliant interview Jammer, please do more science topics on the universe Jammer.
Dam awesome podcast. Matty john's is a legend and 1 hilarious dude!!!. 9 should've given matty the footy show , he was made for it. He would've killed it on ther . He is killing it now on his own foxtel show with hindy and fletch. Best football show on foxtel hands down. If footy show was to make a come back , have matty been the main guy with hindy & Fletch lol. Thanks James for this 1 😎👍🏽
how did hell did the miss to say Buzz vs Gould!
I've heard Matty, Joey and Mitch Pearce the other day talk about Alan Bell, I'd love to listen in on one of his sessions talking tactics if Matty is any insight into his expertise
Is this why you were late jimmy ya handsome fuck