S3E17 · Matthew LaFontaine: Life In the West

Okay, welcome back to the Virtus podcast, one I'm pretty excited for today because we've been chatting about this on and off for like, since you came back from WA to help the YCW Stonecats win a flag, just before you shoot off again and leave us next week, my very, very, very good friend, Matthew LaFontaine, beautiful surname by the way. Thank you, thank you. What are the origins of that? French, I think. Yeah. It's something I haven't really looked too far into. So you got French heritage, like French. Yeah, way back I think. I honestly couldn't tell you, I should probably look into it.

Yeah. It's an ancestry test, man. Actually, we were talking about this the other day. Yeah, we were. Yeah, it'll be good to see what I've got in me. It's pretty cheap, like a hundred bucks, send your blood off and then away you go. Yeah, see what's been going on. Before I forget, I'd better ask the most important question. The first question we always ask on the podcast, what gets you out of bed in the morning? If you say coffee or your alarm, you get booted off and you never get asked to come back ever again. I do too, other than the fact I have to get out of bed.

I think just the opportunity to go out and do something, get better. I love, I enjoy work at the moment and then I really am enjoying being here at the gym or running after work, so it's probably that after work stuff for me. We can't get rid of you, so that opportunity for betterment and self-development is what drives you? Yes, at the moment for sure. You share a lot of similarities to me. First of all, as I said, you came back from WA, what, how long ago now? I think three months. Three months? About three months ago, yeah.

Before we start with your, I guess early life, childhood, family, all that sort of stuff, what drove your decision to move away from here over to WA? Because I sort of, I met you probably a week or so before you pissed off and then never saw you again. Geez, I thought it was way before then. Yeah, it was a pretty full on time. I think the main reason, it was sort of when COVID was, the worst of COVID had happened and it was sort of just lingering around, like there were still lockdowns and I had

a really bad mental health patch during COVID and then pretty much we went into a small lockdown and in a way, I guess I kind of, I was pretty anxious about the thought of going into a lockdown again and that mixed in with the fact that there was a footy club over in Kalgoorlie in WA who had expressed interest in me coming across, sort of, I put those two together and thought, you know what, what have I got to lose? I'll go over there, get away from COVID, do something new and you know, if I

don't like it, I'll, you know, stick the season out, three months come back, if I enjoy it, see what happens and yeah, basically I just enjoyed it over there and I've still been there, what, 18 months later. Yeah, it was just a lot to do with COVID, mental health stuff but yeah. Yeah, yeah, which we'll dive into and explore a little bit later on. Yeah. Early life, what was life like as little French, Matthew LaFontaine growing up, did you grow up around the Frankston area? Yeah, Langwarran. Yeah, been there your whole life? Yes, whole life. Langwarran, moved to Frankston when I was like 12 maybe?

Yeah. Yeah, so. Brothers, sisters? Yeah, he got a sister, she's two years younger than me, so. Abby? Yep, Abby, that's the one. Love your work. And what was life like at home with your parents, what was those early formative years like? Oh, it was great, I loved it, I was an absolute, I was a little shit, I was full of energy, I was always doing stuff, I was a pest, like always causing trouble, yeah, I've been told about that too, talked a lot, talked a lot. You don't take me as a good student. Yeah, nah,

not really, I don't know, I like to just test the boundaries of people, I don't want people to be comfortable, yeah, nah, I just remember just always being crazy, always wanting to do sport, just always wanting to do something, keep active, just yeah, always doing stuff, running around, yeah. You're big on your footy, when did you first start playing and was like your father a big influence there? Yeah, definitely, whole family's heavily involved with Frankston YC, so that was always going to happen. God, I would have started Auskick, I probably would have been what, five or six?

I didn't play under nines until I was eight, maybe? I think I played as an under rager, but yeah, started at YC since I was eight, pretty much was there, or have been there my whole life, so. Part of the furniture. Yeah, that's it. When you started to progress to high school and they asked that question, and they start to prepare you for what you're going to do post school, were you one of those ones like myself that just had no idea whatsoever, or did you have a rough gauge of where you wanted to go?

Well, I had an idea, but nothing, everything, like it's changed over and over, I think going into high school, I remember I wanted to be a physio, but then once I figured out how hard it is to sort of get into that at uni, I was a bit like, "Oh, I don't think I can do that." Then I thought, you know, strength and conditioning coach, and then I sort of was like, "Oh, maybe I should try and do something away from sport, like I do so much sport, I'll do something different." My mind just kept

changing, so even now I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do, but nah, through school it just kept changing, I just didn't know what I wanted to do, but I think that's normal. A lot of people are like that. You are what Lachie Wallace describes as like an OG of Virtus, like you were training here with him when he was at the tin shed at his parents' house. What was the link there, and how did you become one of the OGs? I think at the time, obviously Virtus was very young, considering it

was in his old man's shed at home, but I think that was, it was around the time I was doing the Dandenong Stingrays program, so I chatted with Dad and said, "Look, I'd love to do this, it'd really help with my strength, it'd really help with my footy," and Dad was happy to bring me down, and so yeah, I got stuck in with Lachie, God, I couldn't even tell you how many years ago it was, it was a long time ago, and so yeah, that's pretty much it. Were you still a little laugh? Oh yeah, I was, I was a skinny laugh.

I grew pretty tall when I was young, but I was just, you know, pretty lanky boy. So yeah, now Virtus has changed me a bit, thank God. At what point in your footy, I guess, career as a youth did you realise that you had a bit of potential and there was something there and that it was worth investing in your physical development in order to continue pursuing that? Yeah, like I think naturally, when I was pretty young, I had a lot of natural talent. That's something I sort of noticed, but I think it got to me a bit.

I think once I got to 16, 17, I was doing these pathway programs, I was playing really good footy, and I think, you know, I thought it was just going to sort of happen. Even when I was at, like when I started up with Lachie, I thought, you know, this would be great for me, but like, it'll help me get, you know, into the AFL system, and I really just thought it was all just going to happen, and yeah, that sort of turned out to be a bad thing because at the end of the day, there's people working harder and they just went straight past me and I just was sort of like, oh, this ain't going to happen anymore.

You just expected it to happen without having to lift a finger. Yeah, exactly. So pretty much from like 12, 13, I thought that it was just going to happen. Just keep doing what I'm doing year after year, and then we'll finally get there. And yeah, it didn't actually work out for me in the end because I thought it was just going to happen. Was that a dream of yours? Like to play AFL? Yeah, 100%. Like just the classic. Yeah, 100%. Classic young boy growing up in Victoria. 100%. Yep. Yep. What club were you with growing up?

A local footy. Yep. Frankston YSW. Okay. Always have been. Yeah. You went through the development programs. Was there a point, what point did you realise, hang on, shit, when did the penny drop? Like fuck, like there are people working harder than me and this may not come to fruition. I think it was my top age year at Stingrays. My bottom age year, I managed to get six or seven games, which was more than most. And I thought, you know, great, I've got my name out there. I've played some alright footy and I thought big preseason

under me, you know, it'll go a long way, but then yeah, during the season there was like, it was hard because I had games where I was like, you know, that was pretty good, but I never really had any games where I was like, yeah, never really had that breakout game. And I think once we got closer to finals, I was like, yeah, I don't, I don't think it's going to happen, but you just never know. Like when I got to finals, even then, I still had this hope. I was like, you know, finals, if I played a game, a good game, anything can happen in finals.

Um, I was really just hoping for the best and just didn't work out that way. How old were you when the penny dropped? So that would have been, I would have been 18, I think 17, 18. Yeah. How did you cope with that as a young 17, 18 year old, like ultimately your dream for the last few years, you realize, hang on shit, this may not come to fruition. Like how do you, how do you cope with that? It was tough. Um, I'm normally someone that keeps to myself anyway, so I kept it very much to myself.

Um, but I was definitely pretty upset. Um, I kind of had been banking on hoping that I would get onto an AFL list for God knows how many years. No plan B. Yeah, exactly. And I had no plan B and then I was sort of in this, this moment where I was like, what now? What now? Um, so yeah, it rocked me a bit and um, yeah, it was pretty emotional for a while, but looking back on it now, it's like, well, I didn't put the effort in. So what, why was I just expecting to just get in?

Yeah. So I guess what would your advice be for current Matthew to little 17, 18 year old laugh, the bean pole? Yeah, I'll just say, yeah, exactly. Um, no, I just put the work in, um, makes a difference. Um, just reach out as well. I probably didn't reach out for too much help in terms of like to mentors and mentors, like, you know, after games and stuff, I wouldn't really reach out and say, you know, what, what do I need to do? How could I improve? Yeah. How can I improve? So just put more effort in.

Don't be scared to talk to people. Um, yeah, people who put the work in always get rewarded. Yeah. What was next after that? Oh, um, I was lucky enough actually to get into Collingwood lists. So, um, I was lucky enough to, to go play at Collingwood with Lockie. So that's where you met the great man. That's uh, I think I knew him well, obviously through training at Virtus, I've got to know him, but I didn't really get to know him too closely until probably I was at Collingwood. Um, but yeah, that was, that was so first year after stingrays, I went there, had honestly enjoyed it so much.

I thought it was the best fun ever. I'm like fresh out of this, this, um, development system and you know, I'm going to this club and you know, I'm getting toured through and you know, Jamie Elliott's just there and like, Oh Jamie, this is Matt. He's in the VFL program. They're like, Oh, like how good is this? Um, and so yeah, I got to, got to play there. I played four games throughout the year, which was really fun. I had an absolute ball. Um, and then yeah, after that ended up the next year, I decided to come to the dolphins.

This was after they had, they folded for a year and then they brought a team back. So I went down there in um, in 20, 2018 just for more opportunity, wanted to play more. Um, and then yeah, pretty much went there, played most of the year there, um, came back to YC for finals. Um, and then yeah, pretty much just had a few years off, um, playing that high level footy and loved it. Love just like, I went back to YC, it was the best thing. So what was it like being in the, I guess being in the four walls of an AFL club at Collingwood?

Cause essentially that's your dream and you're, you're living it, you're walking around being to admitting the players. Did you have like a standout coolest moment? Because essentially you do get a bit starstruck that first meeting, but then you realize, hang on, these are just human beings just like me. Well, it was kind of like, it was bittersweet cause it was like, you know, I missed out on making an AFL list, but I'm in this program where I'm using all the facilities that all these AFL people are, I'm around them. You know, when I was playing, I was playing with and against these AFL lists of players.

So it was sort of like, it was still really nice to be able to get that opportunity. Um, but yeah, the, for me, the big moment that I really enjoyed was I got to, um, I actually got to train with the AFL group one morning and that for me, that was the coolest thing ever. I mean, phenomenal. Yeah. So we were training with Pendles and yeah, Pendles and stuff like I got to do, I was doing midfield stuff for them. So, you know, there was a few contests where I've got, you got Mason Cox with Brody Grundy tapping down.

I got Taylor Adams, Pendlebury, I've got, uh, Levi Greenwood, I've got all these elite midfielders and I'm like, this is the coolest thing ever. Yeah. It was so fun. Did you teach him a lesson? Uh, no, not really. Actually. I got Pendles holding the ball. Well, I claimed that until I die. That was, that's going to be a moment like your starstruck moment. It was so good. Um, and then you got to play match. See, and we were sort of just top up, so it was in there for 10, 15 minutes, so that was a bit of fun too.

I think I only had one touch, but I think it was just an effective handball. I was, I'll take it. You'll take it. Yeah. So that's the, it's a stat. Yeah. That's a win. So that was good fun. Um, so you sit after the pike, you went to the VFL, Franks and Dolphins program, then back to YC. What have been your, what have you enjoyed most about being back at local footy in comparison to I guess chasing that dream? Um, I think I like local footy culture is phenomenal and at YC for me, the culture is just second to none.

It's you really enjoy going there. Not that you don't enjoy going to VFL, but you know, local footy is just like a whole bunch of you just close mates, just having fun, kicking a footy around and um, just working towards a common goal. Yeah. And I think I really thrived on when you're in the VFL system, it's very hard working, but it's all stuff that they make you like, you're forced, forced to do it in a way that local footy, it's all in yourself. So I could have just gone back, done nothing, just done, you know, the bare minimum to get through.

But I actually really thrived on, everything was on me. Like if I wanted to go to the gym, I had to go on my own. If I wanted to go out for a run, I had to do it on my own. Nothing was forced. So you're one that hates being told what to do. I think maybe that's what it is. Yeah. Yeah. Just doing my own thing was great. So if I had, you know, if I wasn't playing good footy and I wasn't preparing well, I wasn't going to the gym, it's my own fault. Yeah. Yeah.

I really enjoyed that part. What was the link up to Calgouli? Can you pronounce it? How do we pronounce it? Calgouli. Calgouli. What is the link up there? How did you know? Whoever reached out to you? Honestly, I didn't. I have no idea. He, um, I don't know. I honestly couldn't tell you Calgouli's in the middle of nowhere in WA for him to reach out to me. His name's Chris. Chris reached out to me. I was like, how does this guy know who I am? So you got a stalker? Pretty much so. Yeah. He just creeped out and said, look, we'd love to have you down.

Um, I was like, Oh, that'd be pretty cool. I'd love to play interstate. That's something I've wanted to do for a while at the time. Um, and then, yeah, sort of, he just kept messaging me sort of just, we're just having chats and um, yeah, then the lockdown happened and then I sort of was like, Hey man, I want to pull the trigger. Yeah. He's my moment to get out of here. Yeah. Yeah. I can tell you how he found me. But so you drove across, drove across, I got to four hours away from Calgouli. My car broke down.

That was a bit of fun. Oh my. Yeah. Mate, I hate cars. They're nothing but trouble. Especially my car. Oh, far out. What were you driving then? There was a big Nissan Patrol. Oh, 1997 thing. Yeah. It's a shit box. But he got to Belladonia and it was mid COVID as well. So I had to organize, um, what's it called? I had to get the car towed, but the towing company said they wouldn't take me because I was supposed to be isolating. Oh shit. So what do you do? Oh, I pretty much reached out to the club and was like, I'm four hours away.

Someone help me. I can't do anything like. Was WA in peak lockdown then too or? No, they were open. They were living a normal life. Yeah. I got out of isolation and played a game of footy and we went out clubbing that night. It's such a stark contrast from being in Vic, we're not allowed out of your house for more than an hour. Yeah. They just locked down little zones. Yeah. It's a different world over there. It is. Yeah. How did you find your life in the waffle system, which is essentially for those that don't know that Western Australian VFL, how did you find that in comparison to VFL?

It's different. Um, VFL is all very AFL affiliated, a lot of AFL players in the waffle. You've only got two teams that are actually affiliated. So I was at Subiaco who wasn't affiliated with anyone and I loved it. It felt like local footy, like the culture side just felt like local footy. A lot of blokes just working hard, but then, you know, when you're out there training or playing the standard is just phenomenal. Like the skills over there are so good and it's probably cause you don't get days like this where you get 40 mil of rain.

Oh, just to be able to comment on the weather, like you're probably, probably silky skills, drier days. Yeah, drier days, big grounds, um, which suited me just, you know, you can run all day, balls always nice and dry. What sort of player are you for those that are unaware? Uh, I would just say a bit of a gut runner. I like to run, run and carry, um, take a bit of pride in the way I use the footy. So that's probably it. Like to run with it and use it well. You play in the middle, play in the guts?

I play a bit everywhere. Probably a wingman mostly. Okay. Yeah. Played backline at Subiaco, played forward at YC this year, so just wherever the coach wants me. Lovely. So when you jetted off, and I always knew you as the mullet man, big long flowing locks and now I reckon you would have had them before you jetted off and then shaved them. When did you shave them? God, just before footy season, maybe in March, maybe April. Yep. Yeah. Okay. What prompted that? Cause that was some beautiful, beautiful hair you had. Yeah, it was. Even I'll admit that.

No, it, um, it was something I thought of for a while. I really loved the mullet, but I was like, if I ever get rid of it, I want it to be for a good cause. So, um, three of my mates from down here had started a company, Speak and Share. Get around it. Um, and yeah, they started a mental health organization, not for profit organization. And, um, pretty much I was like, you know, I would really love it if I can raise some money for you guys. So I said to them, I'm going to shave it, I'm going to do it at the club.

Um, and they said, yep, great. We're on board. Um, they helped promote it. Um, we ended up raising $7,000 for them, which is awesome. That's huge. It was massive. I was hoping for 2000, but we got 1500 in the first 24 hours. It always seems to be the case. You set a goal with one of those things and you just surpass it by leaps and bounds. Exactly. So, um. Was that all Facebook driven? How did that work? Facebook, Instagram. Yep. Um, just constant nagging, just like donate, you know, it had meant a lot. So um, yeah, yeah.

So I thought that it'd be a good, a good way to, you know, if I cut my hair off, raise some money for them. Yeah. Lovely. Yeah. Um, why, why mental health? Why is that important to you? Um, it's important to me, um, but a lot to do with, I guess myself before I flew off to WA, um, like I was saying earlier with the COVID stuff, um, I went through a really, really bad mental health patch, um, where, you know, it's hard with, um, when we're in lockdown cause it was just go to work, go home, go to sleep, repeat.

Um, and I just, I couldn't do it. I struggled. I, I got into a patch where I was, while I was doing was just drinking at home on my own playing video games. Um, that mixed in with a relationship at the time that wasn't doing any good for me. Wasn't serving you? Yeah. It was, um, you know, in relying heavily upon them for me to be happy and then they weren't nowhere near anything what I needed. All of that together just wore me down. Um, and yeah, it was pretty sad. I had some days where,

you know, I was at home drinking and then I'd get really angry at my family for no reason and I just had days where I'd just break down and looking at it now was, it was this really shit time. Um, and then yeah, sort of, I've seeked help, um, spoke to people, spoke to friends, spoke to, um, just anyone who could help, um, slowly got better and then moving away ended up helping me. And then I was able to look back and reflect on what I'd been through and I thought, God, that sucks. I couldn't imagine other people doing that.

So, um, you know, uh, it, you know, raising money for mental health was something I always wanted to do. Um, when I was in Perth, only a few weeks before I decided to, that I wanted to cut the hair off, I lost a friend from the club I was playing at in Kalgoorlie. Um, and he was a guy that sort of, he got around me very early on when I moved there. He was the first person to come to his wing and yeah, he was always the first person to come and check in on you and see how you were doing.

And when I lost him, I was, oh, that hurt a lot that I was very, very upset. Um, and then that sort of prompted me to go, I want to, I want to help people. I want to stop people, you know, feeling this way. So, um, you know, raising money for me in a way was, uh, hopefully the difference between saving a few lives. So yeah, phenomenal job, man. Yeah. Yeah. It's not until you sort of feel that way yourself. That's like, fuck, people are going through this every single day. You just don't know about it too.

You just never know. So, um, when did the penny drop for you and you realize, shit, I need to get some help and reach out to someone and this could go really poorly. Oh, geez, I can't remember the exact moment. It was sort of tough cause the whole thing feels like a dream. It's almost like I'm, my mind's just trying to put it aside, but, um, the best part for me was when I did break off that relationship and I was able to start, you know, I had some clarity there and I was like, okay, I need to start like finding help.

I need to figure out what's going to help. So I reached out, spoke to a counselor, you know, it helped me in a way. Um, I think the best part for me was just being able to speak about what was going on. Like talking about what, what I was feeling and what was going on was just the biggest relief ever. Talking is phenomenal. And like, sometimes you feel like you don't want to talk and it's the last thing you want to do and you just want to isolate yourself. But once you actually just start getting

it out, it is, it's amazing how much, like people don't realize that you don't have to talk to someone, you know, like it's intimidating to talk to a friend about, you know, and be really vulnerable. You don't have to do that, but the feeling after talking about it to someone, it's amazing how you can talk to people and you know, they might come back saying, Hey, you know, I felt this too. And you might go, I would never have thought that. It's amazing how many people have gone through sort of, I guess, struggles. So when

you talk to someone, I guess you open the door for someone else to perhaps express their struggles that they may not have had you not confided in them. Exactly right. It's not only just for you, but yeah, you show vulnerability and you know, it shows them that being vulnerable is okay, you know, you trust them and that can, that can reach out to you. Exactly right. Like it goes both ways. Yeah. Yeah. I think you're right with that relationship thing when you're looking for happiness in other people or like substances, video games, like as an escape, then yeah, that's something's going on.

But yeah, that's the thing. I didn't really realize that for a while because that was the escape. And then I was like, I need to change something up here. So yeah, it's amazing. But yeah, just talking about how you're feeling. It's it's massive, massive. Put that on the T-shirt. Yeah. Yeah. Put that on the T-shirt. There you go. Yeah. So where are we now? We're in WA. Yes. Had 40 season go with Kalgoorlie. Yeah. Oh, Kalgoorlie. Yeah. That was good fun. And with Subiaco. Yeah. So Kalgoorlie, we ended up, we made the grand final actually. We lost by five points.

It wasn't, it was a good year. It was interesting. It's different footy out there. You got some bloody good players. Put it that way. But you've only got five teams out there too. Did you have any experiences like she saw, I think it was this year, maybe last year when Nat Fife returns through the waffle and you know, everyone's running onto the ground to try and get his autograph. Did you have any experiences like that with AFL players that were down in the reserves for whatever reason coming back from injury? Um, nah, that one was a big one.

The crowd was insane. Like our round one crowd probably wasn't even as big as that. Um, yeah, that was pretty special to be honest. That was, but yeah, you don't really get many of the AFL players back cause you've only got the two teams, but um, they, at that moment was, that was pretty incredible. That game was so good to watch, but um, were you there at that time? Cause you versed CB Acco, didn't you? Yeah, I was still there. Yes, he did. It was at our ground. Um, yeah, I was still there at that point.

Uh, that, that would have been probably midway through the year, a few weeks before I came back. Yeah. Yeah. That was good fun. Without getting too deep into it. What prompted the move back to Vic? Yeah, so, um, pretty much there. You can censor it if you want. Yeah. Um, it's like, I hope that I listen, uh, put it this way. It wasn't to come back just for a flag. Um, there was some internal reasons why I had to leave. Um, nothing, nothing bad upon me. Just nothing bad upon the club. Just looking good. I

might come back and yeah, pretty much just, um, I don't really know how to word it in the right way, but look, an opportunity arose where I had to look elsewhere for the rest of the season. Um, mixed in with, um, my ankle injury that I, that I had gave me a good eight, 10 weeks to figure out what I wanted to do. Um, and then yeah, I had all these options and pretty much decided that I wanted to come back here, see family and, um, you know, play footy with YC for the rest of the year.

Is that a hard decision? Cause you've got a footy club over there, work, girlfriend, shout out Millie. Like how did, how did that look? Uh, early on the whole coming back here seemed a bit more like a fantasy and I was like, God, how cool would that be? But I think the more I spoke about it, the more real it came. Um, and she, yeah, so Millie was sort of the main reason why, uh, or the main reason I was a bit nervous about wanting to come back. But in the end she was like, she was more than supportive.

She, she had a prac for her uni stuff during that time. So she wouldn't have been in Perth either. And so it kind of worked out and she said, I think it would be really good for you to go back. So it worked out really well in the end. So what's that looks like being back in Vic now? Oh, it's been amazing. It's been so good. Um, I've just loved being, you know, been around here, been at Virtus, been at the footy club, been around family. It's been great to spend a bit of time with you myself.

So as I said, like when I started working here, like I barely saw you and then it would have been a few weeks later and you were gone. Yeah. And now we see each other what, three, four days a week. Yeah. Yeah. It's been awesome. Um, yeah. Coming back and just seeing everyone's been so good. Um, and I think as well back on that mental health side before I left knowing that, you know, seeing my mental improvement coming back now, it's so obvious. And it's, it's amazing how this one change I've done has made such an impact on me personally and how much better and happier I am now too.

So that's another thing I've really noticed it's coming back, but I've absolutely loved it. I don't want to leave. So we'll cut me out after, you know, that'll go down like a lead balloon. Yeah. That's it. So, but no, it's been, been great. I've really loved it. I think I've made the most of it. Yeah. Yeah. What's the plans now for the future? And as you said before, like you still don't know and you're still tossing and going back and forth, but like, where, where do you see the next 12 months and beyond? Yeah, that's tough.

I don't really know. Um, I think I'm at a point now in my life where I really want to figure out a career. So that'd be nice. Um, just a matter of figuring out what I want to do. I need to sort of sit down, figure out my beliefs and figure out what would work for me. I'd love to see myself, um, stuck into something that is going to be a longterm, um, job or career for me. That'd be nice. Um, yeah, I don't know. I could be living in Perth. I could be living in Melbourne.

I'm not, I honestly couldn't tell you so, which I think is a good thing, but yeah, I'm not too sure. I sort of love the unknown. That was like me at the start of this year, like who knows where I'm like, Oh, I was always going to be here at Verticine in the morning, but like who knows what's going to happen this year? And like, yeah, well that's it. I mean, look, the way I see it is longterm goals are good, but I take every day at a time to be honest. So it's a great way to be, as long as you're waking up excited for the day ahead and excited for the future.

Exactly. Fucking really good place to be. Yeah, that's it. But nah, career for me, I really want to knuckle down and figure out what I want to do. Yeah. You were a good studier. Would you go back to uni? I think I would. I wasn't good at school, but like I was saying before, getting told what to do and just like, I don't know. So it'd be similar to your footy experience. Like now that it's in the balls in your core and you're doing something that you love and no one's up in your grill telling you what to do.

I reckon I'd be much better for it. It's definitely a possibility, but again, just got to figure out what it is I'd like to do. So if anyone's listening and you've got some work, anyone's got any job opportunities, sing out. That's it. So, but yeah, we'll see. Lovely. Hey, before we get into some questions, I'd like to play a bit of a game with my guests. It's called word association. Okay. So we're going to do a Frankston YCW version, so we've, we've already alienated 90% of the viewership. Yep. So essentially I'm going to say a word.

First person at the footy club that comes to your mind when you hear each one. Okay. Funny. Kev Lilac. Never met Kev. God. He'll love that. Annoying. Lockie Wallas. Jet. Henry Berenger. Young Gun. Henry. I'll give Max Gregory a go. Sunshine. Riley Hodson. Good human being. Riley Hodson. Yeah. That's a phenomenal answer. Yeah. Phenomenal man. Yeah. Wise. Byron Barry. Good answer. Strong. Byron Barry. It's funny cause that wasn't in my head, but as soon as you said Byron Barry, I'm like oh yeah that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Byron Barry. Lovely. And I did have another one, but I've forgotten.

Silly. Kev Lilac probably. I'm hearing the same three names. Yeah. Blake Mullane probably as well. I was just hoping to hear Bailey Schmidt's name. One word to describe Bailey Schmidt. He'll be upset that I didn't say him. I reckon Bailey fits under all of them. He does. He honestly does. He certainly does. Yeah. Hey. We put a question box up on Instagram. Do you just want to check that for us? Yes. If it takes too long, I can just make a sneaky little cut and use the pair of editing. No, don't you worry. I got a few.

Yeah, good. Do you want to, do you want to hand them to me and I can just to save them? Use the good ones. Cause I don't know if I've been stitched up anywhere. A few stitch ups. Is there? Okay. First one, will the mullet return, which is something I was going to ask you. I think yes. Yep. Extreme is what it was, but yes. Good. When was the last time you cried? Mm. I like that. That's quite deep. Yeah. It would have been, it definitely was this, was it this year? Yeah. This year. I think when I'm, when I said that my friend from Kalgoorlie passed away, I'm pretty sure that would have been the last time I cried.

Yeah. It's always a good place to be in when you can't remember the last time you cried. I know. I'm pretty sure that's when. Yeah. Um, from your lovely girlfriend, why do you stink so much? She sucks. I don't know. It's probably what I eat. We'll blame Claire. Just before we get into more questions, you have dived into your nutrition this year with Claire. How's that been? It's been incredible. She has helped me so much. What were you eating sort of before you dove into working with her? Just anything. What have the main changes been and takeaways been, your energy levels, the way you're performing on field, mental clarity?

All of it's just gotten better. I've, I've lost, I've lost weight. I've gained a decent amount of muscle mass as well. I feel better. I feel really good in the mornings. I feel really good throughout the days. You know, after workouts I wake up, I recover really well. It's just been amazing. Like I thought I'd already ate pretty well, but sitting down with her, I realized that there were some good parts, but there's a lot that could have been improved. It was more what I wasn't having rather than what I was having. It's not until you dial into your nutrition do you actually realize you can be doing so many things to make it better.

And I know you don't track calories, but ever since I started tracking calories this year, it's when I realized how fuck all I'm actually eating and it's any wonder I wasn't grown at the time. Yeah, there you go. So yeah, it's very important. But Claire's been amazing. Shout out to her, what's been sort of your one main change to nutrition? Whole lot more veggies, veggies and salads, more nutrients, heaps, heaps more. I didn't realize how much I needed. It's almost as if your cells need like vitamins and minerals and shit to actually function. Who would have thought?

Luke O'Goonan, have you seen Onger? Can you tell him something for me, Urgings? That's a post grand final inside joke and it old diet thinking that is the funniest thing ever. It was iconic. I haven't seen Onger. I can't get a hold of him. Is it something we can fill people in on or is it a bit inappropriate or it's just had to be there? It was Tuesday night, like Wednesday morning time and look, long story short, Luke had to work the next day. But when it's 3am and you've been drinking all night, you're not going to go into work.

So we were trying to find Onger, we could not find him, but yeah, Luke couldn't get into work. It was his cat's birthday. Yeah, yeah. You can't miss the cat's birthday. Quite insulting, really. Yeah. Lawson Power or Taylor Lynch? What's he said? Is that what he said? This or that? Lawson Power or Taylor Lynch? Oh, Sam Hallpike would have asked that. Yeah. Lawson Power, 100%. Fantastic. In high school, how many of your classmates pencils and rulers do you think you broke? This is circling back to that shit student. Yeah, that that's definitely a Sam Hallpike question too.

It happened a lot. See, I would have been the worst person to be friends with, I reckon, back then. So like I didn't have a pencil case, I don't think, who would have thought? So I would always be asking people for pencils and if they didn't give me one, I would grab one from them and threaten them to give me a pencil and if they didn't, I'd break their pencils. You'd beat them up. You're a skinny beanpole though, weren't you? Yeah, I know. I was just a pest. I don't know. I would have had it to be friends with me.

Sorry for anyone that was friends with me back then. You've grown up a bit since then because I couldn't see you as being a bit of a pest. Yeah, no, I was. You've never given me the shits. Not yet. What's been your biggest point of personal development in the past 12 months? And that's from Sunshine himself, Riley, Riswar. What was the biggest point? I don't think it was a point. I think leaving Victoria and going to WA, like that for me was the moment, like when I was driving there, I was like, I'm literally driving across Australia on my own, but I hate doing stuff on my own.

I get very anxious in social environments. I struggle talking to people. I normally go out of my way to not engage with people, but I was like, I'm going to have to do all these things on my own. I know nobody over here. So I think that that was probably the point where I was like, okay, things are going to really change here and it has. It's been amazing. It's a huge way to develop like similar to what I've done. Just throw yourself in an environment where you don't know anyone, you've got no support network whatsoever.

No one to lean on. That's where the big growth is. And you build your own. That's where I'm most uncomfortable. I know about you. A hundred percent. But yeah, you can sort of build your own personal personality, but you know, you're going somewhere new. These people know nothing about you. Like people here might remember me as a kid that snapped pencils back at school, but over there they got no idea. So that's like myself growing up in small country town Hamilton and then going to Ballarat uni where pretty much half the town of Hamilton was coming with me and made all these other new friends.

Like you've got these personas and everyone's got their preconceived ideas of you from what you were as a little shit kid and in school and whatever. Then you get to come to this new place and almost like start fresh. Yeah, that's it. Not that you, not that you've done something horrible and you need to start fresh. And you don't want to fake yourself, but yeah, it's just like everything that's, you know, all the shit that's ever happened. You're just like, no one knows anything about fresh slate. You can do whatever you want. Yeah. So yeah, that was, that was pretty cool.

I'll admit. Yeah. This is a weird question that I've come up with. How'd you find that car drive and just being on your own for so long with your own thoughts, especially at a time when I guess everything was still very raw and yeah, it was, it was interesting. I think I really enjoyed it because I think, I think I knew deep down that this move was the best thing for me. So it obviously was very slow. A lot of the days were very tough, but yeah, I dunno, a few podcasts and music and I had some moments where I was like, how good is this?

Like listening to songs that just really get you up and about, you're looking around, you've got desert, desert, tree, desert, like, it's just like, what am I doing? How cool is this and going through different places was really cool too. But yeah, I dunno, I actually didn't do too bad with it all, if I'm honest, I really enjoyed it. Yeah. Yeah. Hey Lachlan, any questions on the Virtus Instagram? Yeah. Really? Of course. It's pretty boring. Do you reckon you've got any more since then? One last quick check. No. If not, wrap him up. I think that might be it.

Wait. Okay. And that's it. So from now, how old are you? 24, 25? 24. 24 year old Laff, advice to little bean pole Laff that's in school, stealing people's pencils, breaking rules, being a pest, advice for him? Grow up, but do more of what makes you happy. Find what you, find what you enjoy and do more of it and just enjoy, enjoy being young, enjoy yourself. Yeah. That's probably it. Just enjoy yourself. Be happy. Find what makes you happy. Good man. Phenomenal. Short, sharp, 40 minutes. How good. It's been an absolute pleasure, mate. Thank you. Been a pleasure.

Thank you. Have a good day.