Automatically transcribed, so expect the odd wrong name or word.
- Welcome to part two of the Virtus performance podcast. I am not Lockie Wallace, I'm Jared Polser. I've been given the hosting duties or keys to the podcast cave this afternoon. And our first podcast went for a lot longer than expected. So we decided for our bladders and for you listeners listening, we decided to split it in two. So first half of the podcast was all about Virtus' journey and what it is and how it become. We talked a little bit about the fitness industry and what Virtus does and how it works and what makes it so successful.
Can I take you on a little bit of a different slide now? We're gonna look into the world of performance and then finish off with a bit of fun towards the back end of this second part of the podcast. I hope you enjoy it. (upbeat music) - My personal and business goal is to be just a little bit better every day. I believe everyone, especially normal people have a story to tell. The Virtus podcast exists to help us all find small ways of consistent improvement by discussing the journey and experiences of each of our guests. (upbeat music) - Good afternoon, sweet, sweet world.
That's the quote. I steal mine from one of my other favorite podcasts, The Starters, the NBA Boys. Hopefully they're back doing their thing quite soon when the NBA preseason kicking off, but we're back. We both went to the toilet. We didn't realize how long we had been going for. I think we almost ticked up to two hours, which was-- - We're getting there. - We're getting there. So we decided to split it. Hopefully you enjoyed the first half of the podcast, which was all about the journey of Virtus and the industry, what it is today. I definitely learned a lot.
We're gonna go with, start again. We're gonna go on a different slant now. We're gonna look at a more performance-based slant, asking a few questions about performance, athletic performance in particular. Welcome back, Locky, to the podcast. - Thanks for having me on my podcast. - No worries. That was a weird thing to say. As I said, performance. We're gonna look at it through a few different channels. We're gonna look down the athletic performance to begin with, and then we'll talk about a few other things moving forward as well. But I'm gonna go to football. So obviously football has been a major part of your life, and being part of two semi-professional establishments, the Sting Rays and obviously VFL at Collingwood.
Is there anything heavy taken away from these establishments that resonates with you in your day-to-day life? - Yeah, I think it's probably the big thing that you learn under all of your coaches and teammates and support staff and all that. It's just hard work pays you back. It's a really simple philosophy, but I think the more work you tip in and the more time you put into something and the more effort you put towards it, the more you're gonna get back in return. Our PIES coach, not this year, it's just been, maybe the last five years or four years, Dale Tapping.
Shout-out, Ding. One of the things he said, aren't like his second game as coach, 'cause he was assistant coach the first year, was hard work's got a funny way of paying you back. It's always with interest. That's just a really simple quote that I'll always remember. And that's something that you instill in day-to-day life. Everything, if you wanna put in work, you'll get it back. It may not be today or tomorrow. It may not be in the next six months, but you'll get paid back and you'll look back at all the work you did and you went, yeah, I achieved something.
That's probably it. - Yeah. So being involved in both the Sting Race and VFL, obviously when you're on a Sting Race list and at the conclusion of that time, did you have any aspirations of playing high football? - Yeah, I did. Growing up as a kid, I always wanted to play AFL footy and going through juniors. Like I was always one of the better players in the team and playing into league and stuff like that every year. And under maybe under 15s tryouts at Sting Race, I hurt my shoulder in one of the games and didn't end up playing too much.
And so I didn't make the squad. And then, yeah, just played local in under 16s. Under 18s, first year under 18s, started playing seniors a couple of games in. - YC? - YC, at the Stone Cats. So I was at Seaford until under 13s and then I played a year at Piersdale and then went to Stone Cats for the last two years of juniors. Yeah, started playing seniors and kind of got entrenched in senior footy for that year. So then Seaford was still a powerhouse, so I didn't play, oh, I think we lost the prison or something along those lines.
- How old were you then? Six, seven, seven? - 17, 17 was my first year. So yeah, played that and ended up having not a great eight days. We lost the prelim in the seniors and went back and played the 18s grand final and we got beaten as well, so. But those probably two losses are probably a lot of those 18s players now playing seniors and a lot of those senior guys went on to win four, five, six flags, so. - You're talking about and being in the seniors? - Yeah, it's definitely been something that's probably driven that hunger.
- So everyone went back to stingrays? - Yeah, and then stingrays, that next pre-season, so a couple of the guys I went to school with were playing stingrays and playing regular stingrays and that was year 12, I think, from memory. Yeah, pretty sure it was. And we played in state footy, in one state footy at Frankston High, played on the G before the game where one of the Richmond players kicked a goal after the siren to beat Melbourne. Not all those years ago, the one with the little boat. - Oh, Jordan McMahon. - That guy. - Yeah, right.
- So, yeah, played on the G before that game. That was pretty amazing and played with a few stingrays players, so I think a couple of their guys were there and 'cause I played a full year at seniors at YC and played pretty well. - I think that kick resonates with their premiership win somehow. - Yeah, I can't help but feel somewhat responsible. - I think Jordan McMahon kicking that goal meant that they picked up Dusty. - Oh, really? - And they picked four, rather than having picked one. I think in that draft year was, I think it was Tom Scully's year or the year before, so.
- That's amazing. - Yeah, not having that top pick, I think they slipped down the order a little bit and ended up with Dusty, which turned out to be a bit of a master stroke in team recruitment, which is pretty amazing. I saw it pop up this recently. - That's amazing. Yeah, there you go. So there's a bit of a link to that game. Yeah, so I played midfield and kicked three goals and hit the post three times, same post. See the end at the G, left post, hit three times with football, which was unfortunate. - Still kick three, though?
- It was kick three, yeah. Should kick six, but anyway. Yeah, and just through a couple of people asking, and I think playing some good footy that year, I did a pre-season at stingrays, and yeah, performed really well at pre-season. I guess I'd always been a runner, so at a stingrays pre-season, being able to run helps significantly and ups your stocks a little bit. So yeah, did that, and played the first couple of games, played pretty well, and thought, yeah, I got something here and could make a difference. And I think I might have been around three, third game in, towards the end of the game, I landed funny on my wrist.
And yeah, super sore for a couple of days, got an x-ray, nothing came up. Played the next seven games, just every week, and just worse and worse and worse. And by around 10, I couldn't really grip anything. So went and had another x-ray, and 'cause of the bone that was broken, anyone that's broken their wrist, their scaphoid, it was squished together, even though it was broken, and then kind of separated. So I had to have surgery to get that pin. So the week before I had surgery, I got my first letter from an AFL club, so that was a bit frustrating.
- Who was that from? - Doggies. - Yeah. - And yeah, so missed the next 10 games, was able to get back for finals, and I think the prelim, we were in the prelim, and it was also YC were going for their first of six flags, so I was training with both and hoping to get a game, and the aider, Graham Yates, our stingrays coach at the time came up to me during the week, and he goes, "If we win this week, we'll play next week," 'cause I wasn't right to play that week. I was,
yeah, played good for you earlier, and he said, "If we win this week, we'll play next week," and I think the boys just lost a couple of points. So that was out, and then Stonecats was, 'cause I played the whole year before, trained for a few weeks, played a couple games early in the year, pushing to get back in that grand final, in the finals, and hopefully playing a grand final, and then, obviously a lot of older players, who'd been there a long time and deserved a lot more than me, there wasn't a spot for
me, and then the prelim, Benny Poole got suspended, and Buggy says to me, "If Benny doesn't get off, "you'll play this week," for the grand final. So, but fortunately enough for Benny in the club, he got off, so I didn't end up playing. - Missed out again. - Yeah, so missed out again, but those two disappointments, although I wasn't necessarily deserving to play, 'cause I haven't played for a while, but those two disappointments have definitely helped a lot. A lot for that, and then the next year-- - Did anything come up, obviously, your draft year, or any year with you sending a letter from Western Bulldog, does anything ever come of that?
- No, nothing ever came of it. I finished up that year, and awesome to see the YC boys win the flag, especially after we had the year before. And then, yes, I'll repeat the season stingrays again. - As a third year? - As a, well, I missed the first year, so I missed my 17-year-old year, 'cause I was playing seniors. 18-year-old year, obviously injured for a big chunk. And then, the next year, they had, I think, three 19-year-olds, I think, so. Nick Haynes was one of them, who's playing some excellent football at the Giants. So yeah, we did the whole preseason, and ended up being vice-captain that year, which was the race, which was cool.
Who were our captains? I think Maddie Buntina was captain, who was also doing things at GWAS. The year before, we had Lukie Parker, who was keeping goals at Sydney, so yeah, we had a pretty good couple of years, like Tommy Lynch played, Jake Bachelor, and, so yeah, we had a good couple of years. - It's becoming quite a footy factory these days now, a lot of people going through that stingray system. - Yeah, and then-- - Shout out to Craig Black, one of my good personal friends, who's now the current coach. - He's a great man.
- Yeah, he is a very good man. - Blackie was one of the assistant coaches when I was there, yeah, big, big fan. So, yeah, had that full year, and I played some more, I played some good footy, but yeah, it was never really good enough to get drafted. Was always that hope, and-- - Yeah. - Had a couple of chats with people, but nothing, eventually I didn't do anything, and then, yeah, end of the year, I'd played, so, Frankston Dolphins and Stingrays, if you play, you can play 23rd man, so I played the one
win Frankston had for the year, up in Coburg, I played and kicked two goals, and had a good day, and the boys won for the first time in 12, 13 months or something along those lines, so, yeah, that was a bit of a party in the rooms at Coburg, it was like a premiership celebration, and obviously I hadn't played many of their losses, so I was like, holy shit, this is pretty cool, exactly, exactly, and then, yeah, straight away from there, they were like, you gotta play with us next year, all that kind of stuff,
and was, had every intention to play there, I think I'd done a big chunk of the pre-season at Frankston the year before, before, yeah, when they, 'cause they were out super early, so they started early, before Stingrays pre-season started, I did a big chunk of that, so I knew a bunch of the boys, and so that was pretty cool, but, yeah, and then a couple of weeks after season, I swear to goosey, who was the coach at Frankston at the time, and said, yeah, man, I'm keen to come down pre-season in a couple of weeks, and then maybe a week later, I remember I was sitting at the dentist, and Tarkan Lockyer called me.
- Wow, yeah. - It was one of my favorite players growing up, with-- - You're a common good supporter as well. - Certainly was a common good supporter. - Yeah. - Definitely one-eyed when I was younger, but yeah, Paul Lecuria, Bucks, and Tarkan Lockyer were my three favorite players, and then, yeah, he called me, he's like, hey, mate, it's Tarkan Lockyer here, and I'm sitting there going, bullshit. (laughing) And he's like, I'd love for you to come down for a pre-season, all that kind of stuff, and like, no promises, but see what happens, and I was just like, mate, I'm sold.
So I called Goosey and apologized, and he wasn't very happy, but gotta do what you gotta do, I think. - When your childhood hit hero rings, he kept running, pretty much. - Yeah, that was a pretty surreal moment. So yeah, I went down to Collingwood to fish out of water a little bit. - Yep. - I was lucky one of the boys, Chris Doria, who'd played at Frankston that year that I played there for one game, also went, got the call to Piers, so. - Do you think that was based off that Frankston performance, or do you think it was based on you might be under 18 to perform at the stingrays, but not good enough?
- I'd have to ask Sam, but I had a pretty good year at stingrays, yeah, I guess. A lot of, as I've kind of learned as a system over the last six years, they'll always look for those guys that were kind of next tier down from getting drafted, and hopefully I was on that tier, or at least in the top five tiers, but yeah. So I went there, did a full pre-season, didn't miss a session, and got off at a spot on the list, which I was pretty fortunate and pretty stoked to have, like being interested in that environment.
With all the guys I looked up to when I was growing up with Bucks, and that was the first year of Buckley's coaching, so Anthony Rocca, yeah, all those guys were awesome. Craig McCrae's been a big one for me, my development, and Taps, and all that kind of things, and yeah, played the first year, missed the first game, didn't get a gig, I was like, don't know when I'll be playing this year, and then played seven, eight games in a row, which was awesome, and played a few games on the Byers at YC, when they
won their next flag, I played too many games, so I had to watch again, which was tough, but 'cause we had a pretty lean year at Byers, I think we finished like second bottom, or won a few games, and ended up beating Port Melbourne, and knocked off their 37-game streak, or whatever it was, so that was, or 26, I can't remember, yeah, so that was good, like we were a young side, and pretty undermanned, but we had to rip a game a bit. - Were you playing with many guys that are still on Colin Wood's list at the moment at that time, like a lot of younger kids?
- Yeah, yeah, a few of the younger ones, I couldn't even tell you who was there in my first year, all the years we've kind of molded into one, but yeah, all the guys like, what was it, I think Jamie Elliott started a year or two after that. - Yep. - Dancing Moore played with us for a while, yeah, all the young guys. As probably, as you said, a little bit of an outsider, how did that dynamic work between, obviously, Colin Wood being a standalone kind of AFL side, and obviously the main objective of that side is to-- - Develop.
- Develop and get players playing in a system that are gonna be able to perform in the AFL side, how did that dynamic work with you guys as an outsider, not on the AFL list, coming into that system where you have guys like on the AFL list, not getting a game in their first team and having to come back and mold and play as a unit? - Year one, not well. - Obviously, as the performance. - But yeah, performance, but just like the culture between like there was AFL and there was VFL, and like we
had a few outspoken VFL players, which was awesome because it challenged the status quo and what it was, and a few of the guys that kind of spoke up and stuff didn't go the right way. And yeah, it was just, you know, your AFL players, obviously this is generalizing a little bit, but I'm very happy being there, and very like assured of themselves and cocky, for lack of a better word, a bunch of them were, especially you tend to find every year the first year guys tend to be, because they're, and then two or three years later, they mature a little bit.
So you kind of find that over the journey, but yeah, it wasn't great, it was kind of two teams, it was, but that year, because it was, the AFL list was pretty, pretty injury-free, I think if I remember, there were only like seven or eight VFL guys playing a week, ended up playing all year, so you're getting entrenched in the team, but it does feel disconnected. One of the big things that taps and tucks kept pushing after that year was that unity as a team. We probably came to the best spot it had been maybe
two, three years ago, where they were, it just worked really, really well, and I think that was having a bunch of VFL guys that have been there for a period of time, having a bunch of AFL guys that have been there for a period of time, but having that support from both coaching groups, 'cause they all work together. - Absolutely. - During the week, we weren't seen as outsiders, like we've had some games where it's been six, 15, 16 VFL guys, and five or six AFL guys, so they're the minority, so yeah, it's been something
that's developed, but yeah, it is, it was tough, and I think in any environment where you get two groups that are there for different reasons it's, yeah, it's interesting, and it was always very, I was always very fortunate that I was able to, if I wasn't playing in pyres, I was able to come back and play at YC with all the boys, and have them fairly successful few years. - That is an excellent segue into my next question, Lockwood. From an outsider's perspective, obviously, myself being involved at the Sun Wiggle Footy Club, there you go,
the mighty Eagles, Frankston YCW was such a successful club, seven premierships in the past eight years, I think if I've done my maths-- - Correct. - Correctly, so it's an amazing achievement to have that such long run of success in a pretty competitive football league, if you go off the into league results, second best league in the state, and have consistently been up in that top echelon of leagues around Victoria. From an outsider's perspective, the club looks like such a slick operation, and just knowing a few people that have played there, and obviously getting to
know you a bit better and watching a couple of the games, such a slick operation, what makes it so successful, and what or whom is driving that culture, and a thing I've written down here on my piece of paper, success spread success, kind of thing, so-- - I'm trying to give that answer. - Yeah, it's just such an amazing thing to think about, seven premierships in eight years, it's probably unheard of in probably many footy leagues around Australia, - Yeah, it's gotta be some kind of record. - Yeah, exactly. - Yeah, I think it's probably multifaceted, that answer.
I think from a playing point of view, like you go out with the guys that are there and you play the best footy you can. So we've had, I definitely remember the couple of lean years against when Seiford won three in a row, and as I was kind of transitioning into the seniors, we've had a lot of disappointment, and everyone that's played sport or done any sort of competitiveness knows that the one thing that fuels you to compete harder is losing, and that disappointment of losing. So I think our key players then were super old,
so they've been around, they were able to win a few flags, or they were able to lose a few years and then understand the importance of it. - Burning his eye. - Yeah, have that burning his eye. So from a playing point of view, I remember one game, shout out to Benny Talis, he sat us down after the game, at Mount Liza, and we got beaten. Yeah, we were probably a bit flat that day, and he kind of just like, what the fuck's the point if we're not really having a crack? He goes, I don't want to be grumpy all weekend, and all that kind of stuff.
I remember that speech he did. And I don't know, that kind of, I don't know if that was the year we won or not, I can't remember exactly when the game was, but I think that was kind of, I don't know if that was the first year or not, it might have been the year before, but that kind of, that's always resonated with me, I've always remembered that as kind of like a, you know, that's the seed that was planted, or that was one of the things. And yeah, from a player point of view, it was just that ability to keep players, but develop juniors.
Like there were, I think, four of the guys that have been playing the last couple of years have been from my year of juniors, and I think most years, usually there's two, we've just had a really good bunch of juniors come through. We've had really good leadership on field with all of the senior guys who have stayed there and maintained there, but I think one of the bigger things, as well as winning flags, we've been able to develop 10, 15 VFL players. - Yeah. - Rather than everyone from other clubs will say that we get
VFL players in, but all of our VFL players at YC Juniors, I think we had 16 or 17 of our grand final side this year at YC Juniors, so it's just, yeah, I think if you look after anything and kind of feel it from the bottom, it looks after you down the track, but off-field leadership in terms of coaches and committee and presidents and all that kind of stuff has been immense, and yeah, it's probably a pretty tough juggling act to keep putting everyone on the field every week, and we do do a lot of things really well, like Andy Schneider doing the fitness stuff and things like that.
- It also wouldn't be easy, too, to probably balance your side, 'cause you probably wouldn't know to the Friday, maybe even the Saturday morning, to know what your final 22 is gonna be as well. - Exactly, and I've been on-- - With so many VFL players. - I've been on that, beating that guy for a lot of weeks, where I don't know if I'm playing a VFL or local on the Friday or on the Saturday morning on occasions, so yeah. - You're on the button in terms of viewing all your out. - Exactly, exactly, so
especially my last couple of years of players, it's been a bit like that, so yeah, I think last year I missed the YC grand final 'cause I caught up to the prelim on the Friday. So yeah, that was, and we were belting the prelim, so I'm still salty about that, but it's one of those, yeah, it's the depth and the culture of players is really important. - And I understand that process, obviously, 'cause obviously if you're out, if you're saying, you don't know if you're playing and then you come in at the last minute, that means someone has to go down and then miss out again as well.
- Yeah, second year I was always, I was probably a little naive when I come back, and now, third, fourth, fifth, sixth year, you kinda go, well, I'm disappointed for missing VFL, but I love playing YC with my mates. Someone has to go out of the one side, back into the twos, one of the twos boys misses out. So you kinda take it for granted, or you stop taking it for granted, you understand how important it is and how that for you to play, someone's gotta miss out. And I think that's really humbling and really important to understand.
So yeah, that was something that was tough and that we've been able to deal with really well, and I think that's just from leadership. You spoke about leadership in the first half of this podcast, but I think, yeah, your ability to adapt and ability to maneuver when things don't go right is why we've probably been so successful. - And the system's probably generated a lot of leaders you look at, you mentioned Kev before, he's probably got a similar story to you, he's come up through junior years there, and then there's obviously now premiership captain as well.
- Yeah, definitely. - As well, kind of thing, so. - Yeah, so. - That whole success, breed success kind of mentality is there in action. - But from a, like, if you're not successful and you want to be successful, then it just starts from hard work. Like I said before, like, you look at all the, how hard the guys work over preseason and in-season and at training and just rocking out day after day, or night after night of training. Yeah, we've got those disappointments. Part of me behind us, like, the middle year when, after we won three in a row, we lost the prelim in extra time.
Like, I played that game and it was just, yeah, it was one of the most disappointing kind of moments. You see the devastation on the boys' faces after we've already won three, so. - Yeah. - Yeah, and we've been lucky enough to, like, as players have retired, juniors come up and keep filling those holes and we've only recruited one or two most years that have filled us, filled a role and played really good footy, so. Yeah, I think the, it just comes, the hunger comes from probably the losses for me. - Yeah. - And wanting to compete.
I'm sure everyone's probably a little bit different. But once you just get a taste of it and a flag, man, it's the best feeling in the world, like. - Yeah. - Just that, I've been lucky enough, I've played in four of the seven. - Yeah. - Overqualified twice and played the prelim last year at VFL and I think the, when you know you've won the game, that lasts, like, two minutes or three minutes or four minutes, it's just amazing, just, yeah. It's why you play footy. - Yeah, and I think, too, I was lucky enough
to watch that last premiership win against Bond Beach and you could see how much it meant to the guys out on the field and one thing that really caught my eye was the fact, it was the last 10, 15 minutes, it was virtually party time, going crazy and a lot of the boys were waiting on the, at the interchange gate to get on. - Yeah. - And no one wanted to really come off, but you did the team thing and just rolled off at one point and gave someone else the opportunity to be on the
field when the siren went, so no one else seemed to want to be coming off as they were all lining up trying to get back on, so credit to you for allowing that to happen to someone as well. - Yeah, I actually had that thought, I'm like, do I stay on? I'm like, nah, I gotta go, I gotta go. Yeah, it's one of those things that, yeah, having that, I guess, hunger to win, like, something I noticed five minutes ago on the ground, finally got guys, like, diving in and crashing packs and doing the things
that they do at the first minute and the last minute and I think that's what exemplifies us as a club, it's like, we're never, we're never done and I'm, yeah, I'm really excited to kind of go back full time. - Yeah, and that's gonna be one of my questions. - Make an impact and-- - As well. - Change a few of the, or change or improve a few of the kind of off-field things that, in terms of preparation, that-- - Bit of cross-- - Yeah. - Promotion through Burtis as well, hopefully. - Yeah, just kind of take what we do at work and push it into another one of our passions, which is footy, so.
- And obviously you'd be excited with the restructure in terms of leagues, having a bit more of a new challenge with the bigger teams from the Nepean coming across, so. - Yeah, I think it's important to make changes when it needs to be made and I think, you know, the league is definitely in a better spot than it was maybe last year, we did, like, we would have 100 point wins every couple of weeks. - Yeah. - And this year was a lot closer, like, I think we only lost two games, but I don't think we had a-- - The gap's closing.
- We didn't have any wins over 10 goals, except for the grand final, but that was, yeah, having, now that we've got, what, three teams coming up from Nepean and three teams going down from us, it creates that, you're always kind of in the game, whether it's to avoid relegation or not, so. - Yeah, absolutely, I'd move up. A lot of people are a little bit negative towards the whole kind of shift that they're doing, but I think it's really positive for football, particularly with the Ryan Chidrathman of the Casey Cardinha guys as well, I
think that's gonna be really good, and I think travel, 45 minutes, it's not a big deal, I think we're blessed in terms of our geographical location. - All the players that wanna compete are just like, yeah, bring it on. - Bring it on. - Yeah, exactly, so, yeah, I'm really excited for that, I'm really excited to play against it. If they're better teams, then we've got some work to do, if they're not better teams, then it's gonna feel good to-- - I think Soreno versus YC's gonna be a big game, and the league would be stupid not to have it on a Friday night or a Sunday and just promote the heck out of it and see how it goes.
- I might miss it. I'll be in South America, first two or three rounds next year, but we'll work on it. - Yeah, moving away from that a little bit, and then we'll get back to that again, physical activity, I think this is a big question for me, 'cause I thought about this as I wrote this down. Sport physical activity is a major outlet for a vast percentage of the population. Could you imagine a society without these? - No. - And what would we all do if it didn't like-- - Well, I think part of
society doesn't utilize the benefits of physical activity and of movement, it's something that we promote every day, so we're in the industry, so we see people moving and people lifting and people running and people jumping and people swimming and doing all these different things, all these different sports and all this way of improving their health and wellbeing through movement. But then you meet people that just don't do anything. Do you exercise or not? Like, I get annoyed at you guys if you don't roll five minutes a day, or if you don't do your motives or do your stretches and you come in sore, I'm like, well, you know what to do to fix it.
And I think movement in terms of health and wellbeing's probably lost a lot on a lot of people because we're in those sedentary lifestyles. And it doesn't have to be smashing yourself in an hour workout, it can just be going for a walk or going for a swim or finding something you enjoy, but I think that enjoyment part of it is incredibly important. If people can understand the benefits, it's probably one, so that education side of things is really, really important. And then finding things that they actually enjoy doing, finding activities that they want to
do, 'cause I'm a big advocate that if you want to do things, if you want to exercise or whatever it is, if you don't enjoy it, you're not gonna keep doing it. So yeah, that's really important. - I guess, yeah, looking through it, through a different lens, my mood can considerably change when I'm watching sport, particularly if I'm watching the Saints and my partner Jess or girlfriend Jess is a test of that. My mood can, shout out to Jess, I've been listening, she might be the third listener that might listen into this one, but my mood can change and my feelings can change if the Saints will win and lose.
I say that banking for the Saints is like being on a rollercoaster, you never know where you're gonna end up, but hopefully one day we'll get success, just like Richmond and Western Bulldogs have done in the last couple of years. But a prime example of that for me is this year when the Saints were playing over in Adelaide in a rush time to watch the last quarter and Saints did brilliantly well, come back and got two goals in front with about five minutes to go and my mood was up in the bowels. Yeah, this is gonna be a great night.
I think Jess and I have to go out later. Then all of a sudden Port Adelaide kicked two goals in two minutes, crazy game. And I got very disappointed and very upset and I don't think I ended up going out that night 'cause I didn't think that would be much fun. So it's amazing for that percentage of the population that have such a strong connection to sport, it's amazing what sport can have that power over you and what can make you feel in terms of emotion as well. - 100% and it makes you want to
do things like that positive feeling of sport, you're like, I want to feel that and you chase it and find your own ways and you've been able to, I guess, compete, albeit against yourself and other people and your iron mans and your marathons and things like that. It allows you to, I guess, find ways of exploring that. And yeah, it's only, no one ever watches their team win and is upset, no one ever goes and does a session and is upset, like everyone finds that enjoyment out of it. I just wish more people would want to or be able to have that feeling and have that response.
- Absolutely, sport is such an amazing vehicle for a lot of things and can use it for a lot of metaphors and stuff throughout my life. And I'm a sports tragic and we've had conversations but we could talk on ours about certain events and stuff like that. So pro-sport all the way kind of thing. - Definitely. - I've got a number of different views that I won't share today, but we'll get to them at some point. This question come from a man you mentioned previously and obviously, Andrew Schnider. And you just previously mentioned that, obviously you're a great man, yep.
Does a lot of work, fitness at YTW is the runner. I think he's a seven time premiership runner which is some kind of title as well. - We've been replaced by you next year. - No, I wouldn't go that far. I don't have the skills to be able to do that. He raised an interesting question and it's something that comes up a lot in the triathlon kind of world as well, particularly in the Ironman world. It's called post-Ironman blues in terms of this, but I did a bit of research before the question and Schnider posted it quite well.
Having just won the premiership with the Stonecats, what are your thoughts on avoiding, I looked up the actual official title, post-project depression. So I know I suffered a lot from this when I completed my first Ironman. I really struggled with them. Physically, I was fine to go in the week, but psychologically or mentally, the next three months were a real battle for me. I was up and down and it was a really, really thing. This could be not just sport related, this could be related to your whole life. You might've got a new job promotion or something's happened in your life.
- When you want something for so long and you get it and you're like, now what? - What the fuck do I do now kind of thing? I think it's a big thing. - That's a good question. I think it's kind of reevaluating what you want, but more so reevaluating why you want it. Like for us, now that we've won so many flags, we use that as a, yeah, do we want to win another one? I'm just like, fuck yeah, that's enough for me. But some of the older guys might go, well, I've won a bunch, but we've got these younger guys coming through next year that haven't won one.
I want them to feel what I feel. So it's finding the reason to do something and being able to say, well, no, I'm done. I don't want to do it anymore. Like I always, a couple of years ago, I'd be like, I can't believe the guys retired from footy. Like, it doesn't make sense to me. But now, like I get it. - Yeah. - We had a couple of guys who, I'm hoping they do one more year, but might retire at the end of this year, or might retire now. I think they've decided they're going to be done.
And yeah, they're really, it's been really amazing to see what they've been able to achieve. So I think it's just, yeah. And I get the same thing with work. I kind of get a bit of both. I get post project depression when I tick the boxes that I've been trying so hard for so long to tick, but at the same time, I get like pre project anxiety. I'm like, I've got so much shit I want to do. Like, what do I do next? So yeah, I think it's just a matter of really simply reevaluating what you want and why you want it.
And that's it. And then you kind of just go from there and re-plan it out and yeah. - The most simplest answer that I could, I did a bit of research when I was probably trying to go through this depression kind of thing. The most simple answer a lot of the research tells you is to just sign up for another online man. - Yeah. - That's actually something another challenge and goal. 'Cause I think everyone in society these days, everyone seems to be goal or challenge driven that you need to be something out there, chasing something all the time.
And if you're not, that's totally fine too. But I think for a lot of people that having that objective clear and set out and a plan that makes them feel a lot better. - And if you are going to sit there and just chill out for a while, just enjoy it and actually be present in that. Well, I'm going to have three weeks where I'm not going to train for anything. I'm just going to train what I want to train. - Exactly. - Enjoy it. And you'll chase the things you want to do and you'll avoid the things you don't.
- Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. All right. Resilience and mindfulness are becoming terms used more and more in society's vernacular. - Great use of the word vernacular. - Thank you. I researched that one as well. Nah, nah, teacher. Everyone's a teacher of literacy in Lachlan. Not just, I'm not just a math teacher and a physical education teacher. - Good. Having dealt with a number of injuries over the past two years and probably through your journey as a footballer, what is the best piece of advice you can give for overcoming adversity such as an injury? And this question came from your sister Sarah, I think.
- And Sarah, she's had a very rough trot with injuries and things not being diagnosed and not having a clear path to fix it. So it's one of, yeah, it's kind of, you got to look at it two ways. Three ways. It's mostly mental. Like it's, and like I'm not saying things don't exist or anything like that, but for me, I've had a bunch of injuries. My most recent one, I dislocated a shoulder with two games to go in the footy season, which, you know, proper dislocation, was out for five minutes. You know, a good chance that I wouldn't be playing footy again in a year.
And Schneider's actually came up to me after the game and said, you know, AFL players would probably play finals with an injury like that. And I just like, in my head, it hadn't even occurred to me that I wouldn't be playing finals. I'm like, mate, I'll be back first final. Like I said that to him then and there. And like, I truly believe that I would have been back first final and managed to get back. Played, we won, had a week off and then played in the gurney. So I think from that positive self-talk and that reiteration of I can get back there is really, really important.
Like it sounds cliche and it sounds obvious, but just tell yourself you're getting back and you'll get back. It really works it out. I think we're so, like from a physiological point of view and from a understanding how the brain works point of view, we're so far off understanding what the power we actually have in terms of healing and in terms of getting, allowing things to happen. So yeah, I think that just tell yourself you're gonna get back and you'll get back. You'll figure out a way to do it. Don't be unrealistic. So like, it's not like I would have played the next week, but.
- No, having a plan and trying to stick to it and being patient. - Exactly, and surrounding yourself with the right people. So like, my two physios, Benny and Greg, and all the trainers and Ash massaging and all the guys I trained with and footy boys, like getting me back there was that, it wasn't me, it was the team and all that kind of stuff. But that mental fortitude to be able to go, well, this sucks, but here's what I'm gonna do is really important. I think the, this is my straight up thought. Get back to injury, what was I gonna say?
Oh, I think that, and utilizing that period of time that you're gonna have out or that you're gonna be injured for and chasing other things. - Yeah. - So it's not just, oh, I just gotta get back to footy and fix my shoulder. Well, what else needs work? Well, my conditioning needs a bit of work. I'm gonna have four weeks off. - Cool. - I'm gonna spend a bit of time on the bike. - Yeah. - And finding opportunity in that disappointment is really, really important. - So be mindful of it. - Yeah, be mindful and understanding and perspective's a big one as well.
- Yeah. - Like in everything in life, perspective's immense. Like I was having a real shitty day yesterday in terms of like bills and they're all piling up and I was like far out, like they just keep coming in. And then you hear about the shooting in Las Vegas and you just like take three seconds to go, ah, shit's not that bad. Like, yeah, with all the other crazy things happening in the world. So I think, yeah, perspective's a big one as well. - Yeah, I think, yeah, it's a big one. Like being involved in footy, you get really disappointed for that 10 minutes after the game.
And one of my good mates set up for the one game when the boys lost by a couple of points or something. It was a real close game. And he's like, geez, in the long run, yeah, we lost, we made some mistakes, but hey, we're lucky to be where we are, at least we're not living in India in the slums or something like that too. And I think resonating that and understanding that as a person gives you a bit of perspective of what's happening in the world. And I try and instill that into the kids I teach kind of thing too.
I said, you don't know really how lucky you are to be living in Australia, access to clean running water and all this kind of business. We just take that for granted. - It's a simple thing, but just that gratitude and that perspective made it so important. - Yeah. - Yeah, it's crazy important. I had another answer, but I just forgot to keep talking. - No worries. I guess this probably goes along with the questions from Bec, your other sister as well, which seems to pair up well together. - They're twins. - Yeah. What kind of mental messages or cues do you use or repeat to yourself to get through tougher days and keep perspective?
- Those two words, just gratitude and perspective. I think when you realise how lucky you are and how good things actually are, then all the little things like that are pale in significance like although something might not, well it might be front of mind at one period of time, but it's not gonna be front of mind in an hour or two or three or four hours time. So yeah, I think if you're able to look at the sky and smile and enjoy the sun on your face, then you're doing pretty well. - Yeah. - Yeah,
there's a lot of people, a lot worse off than us and on the same note, it's really easy to fall out of that and to not have that presence of mind, to be able to breathe and enjoy everything, but we're all pretty fortunate regardless of all the other crap that goes on because yeah, like I spoke about in Tommy's podcast, you mentioned in part one of this one, it's you can't be happy without feeling sad and you can't feel, yeah, you've gotta be able to understand those spectrum of emotions but one of the big things
that I try and tell myself and try and tell more and more clients is feel how you feel you need to feel, if that makes sense. It's just too many of us try and restrict feelings. - Is it a marathon you think? - No, it's not just a marathon, it's probably more so a male thing but I definitely don't think, like I spoke to this about this length with the Are You Okay podcast with Tommy but I don't think you have to talk if you don't wanna talk but just let yourself, if you're shitty, be shitty.
Like if you're upset, be upset. If you're frustrated, be frustrated, yeah. - I think a big one and I think Tommy was talking about this like difference between being sad and then for a reason or something, I can't remember the exact words he said but use your resources available to you or use your outlets, going for a walk or talking with someone, do what you have to do. - Yeah, and control the controllables is a big one for me, like there's things I can control, there's things I can't. We can control ourselves and what we do and how we react to things and that's probably another one for the injury one as well.
We can control certain things but there's certain things you can't control. So if you can't control it, accept it, be aware of it, find things around it you can control but then just carry on. - I think Katie summed it up pretty well in her podcast too, the body is a pretty amazing thing. When you have your mind connected to your body and you're able to push yourself through certain tough periods and then being able to overcome that, I think it's pretty amazing what the body can actually do when it wants to. - Look at the guys that have done three, four, five knee injuries and come back and play footy.
- It's amazing, isn't it? - Yeah, there's definitely some things to learn from those guys. - I guess this is more of an individual question that comes from the great man T.K. Alden. - Oh, what a man. - What a man, I haven't seen him on holidays, I don't know what he's doing. What are your sporting or performance goals now after retiring from the VFL? - That's a good question. Yeah, as a washed up VFL player, I've kind of got to take a little bit of time to reassess, I think. I was, at the start of the year, or during the year, when I was talking to you about it, I was thinking about doing a couple of tries.
I'll probably still jump on a bike and wing one but I would like to train for them at some point, properly. Yeah, I'm not too sure, I'm not too sure. I want to go back, play good local footy, make an impact to the team and take the things I've learned at VFL and the leadership and things like that back to local and really make an impact there properly. You know, you kind of find coming back and forth. - Not just from the outside, kind of. - Yeah, you've got to bite your tongue a little bit. Because obviously the way both teams do things are different, so now I've got one team.
Yeah, implement a lot of the stuff we do at work down there. Yeah, sporting goals. Yeah, I just want to play good footy. I want to play a full year of footy next year. - Uninterrupted. - Uninterrupted. League medal, best time grand final. Another grand final would be good. - Yeah, a Dusty. - A Dusty, I want to do a Dusty next year. - Called Dusty. - Yeah, I want to be able to just enjoy playing footy. Which is a simple one, but I want to enjoy playing footy and you have much more enjoyment when you win, so I just want to win lots of footy next year.
- It's that competitive nature coming back out of you. - Yeah, I want to win the Virtus.ball World Championships at our Christmas party this year. That's probably big on my list if Katie Deane is listening. She's somehow managed to sneak a win two years ago and Tommy Curtis won last year, so I'm coming for you. - That's it, Virtus.ball all the way. (laughing) That's very good. We're going to change gears again or change keel before we go to wrap this baby up, this two-part monstrosity that it is. I guess now I'm going to talk about something that's a little bit different, okay?
So Virtus.ball and your good self are pretty new to my life, about 15 months into this kind of relationship that we have and I'm very thankful for that and a shout-out to Tommy for pointing me in the direction after a couple of moments to get back moving again. From my perspective, your family and friends and KP as well mean a great deal to you. So this question that I want to ask is whom and what is your biggest inspiration and why? - That's a big question. I think, like-- - I could probably go back a
step and talk about the statement I probably just made first and then why leaders seem to-- - Yeah, my friends and family are everything, I guess. The whole kind of, like I've said it a bunch of times, the work-life balance thing, like I want to be, like obviously you've got to be a leader and you've got to have that kind of boss hat on sometimes, but I'm friends with all of my staff, I'm friends with all of my clients. Yeah, they're all people I care deeply about. KP, my family, yeah, they're all, they're the reason I am what I am.
And I think that for that reason, they're my inspiration. The people that I spend time with, the people that I surround myself with, they're my inspiration because, yeah, I am who I am because of them. That rhymes here. But yeah, Mum and Dad especially, there was a lot of, no, you can't have that since things like that when I was growing up, but that was all for a reason. You have to, I've never really wanted for anything. I've always been, they've always been supportive and given me what I want, made me work for it, but taught me all the life lessons that have helped me get to this point.
So yeah, Mum and Dad are the big two, I think. - I've found, from my personal perspective, through your 20s, and you're only halfway through that, I've come out the other end, which is something I need to get a grip on from time to time, but I think through your 20s, you kind of realise the fact, you're still, you're spending a lot of time with your friends, but then you get a point to your life where you get an understanding of what your parents have actually done to support you throughout your life, and you tend
to come back and, not that it's a bad thing, you probably, a group of friends or yourself or friends tends to shrink a little bit 'cause you just don't have the time, and then you realise you want to spend more time with your parents as well, kind of thing as well. It just kind of comes again full circle 'cause you go from a teenager like 12, 13, 14, spending a lot of time with your parents, and you get a little bit of independence. You don't want to see them, okay? And then through your 20s, you
start to get a bit of an understanding or appreciation of the world, and it comes back again full circle where you want to be spending time with your parents, and unfortunately, your circle of friends can shrink from time to time. - That doesn't sound like a bad thing. - No, absolutely. - You double down on those relationships you do have with the really close friends, and, yeah, you miss the friends that you don't see speech all the time, but, yeah, they're like, you'll still be able to have a good conversation with them. It's just you double down on the relationship you've got, I think.
- And it's a bit of a selfish question. I asked myself this on the walk back from the train station on Saturday night with Jess, and I was discussing it with her. I don't know if it's selfish for me to think, but is it, in my point in my life, I want to, it is a little bit selfish to think about, is I want to be spending time with people that I've already fostered friendships with rather than trying to create new ones, which is something that you're in. And it's a bit of a selfish look at it, but I think I get more joy or more positive experiences of in the term that you like to use.
I like filling my own bucket a little bit for spending time with friends, rather than having to put myself out there and meet new people and those kind of things. - Yeah, I think all the new people will come into your life as, I guess, necessary or as things change. Yeah, I think it's selfish to a point, but there's nothing wrong with being selfish, like that filling the bucket thing. But if, yeah, if mum and dad are listening, you're right, I'm sorry, about most things. I hope they don't listen purely for that. - All the things you get annoyed at your parents about, yeah, they're right.
- They're so right. - It sucks. - But yeah, like, yeah, they're, mum and dad have fostered an amazing environment for me and the girls to grow up in. And our family, we fight at times like everyone does, but I couldn't imagine a more supportive and better environment. - That actually is another excellent segue into the next question. Sorry we read all your questions last night. No, that's all right. Both you and I have a similar environment that we grew up with. We've both got three younger sisters, which is pretty unique. What are some aspects you have taken away from living in this environment?
- If you, it's toughy. - Yeah. - What are some aspects? - The three younger sisters is not the most common household to have. - Try and win, you won't. I managed to get a couple of them on site occasionally, well, one of them on site occasionally, so I evened it up a bit. Look, you're not gonna win, they're always gonna win. I think, yeah, and I definitely appreciate them now a lot more than I did growing up. - Yeah, absolutely. - Yeah, well, we're all really close now and I love spending time with them
and I love seeing them and it definitely doesn't happen enough, but like you said, as we get older, we run out of time for everything. - Yeah. - But yeah, I think it's just the appreciation for them has definitely grown in the last six, seven years, or especially since I moved out, 'cause you don't spend that time with them and you realise that, yeah, they're growing into adults as well and you wanna support them and help them and do all the things you can do to help them move forward. So it's, yeah, it's a challenging environment at times and I'm sure more so for mum and dad.
But yeah, it's just, and learning that like three girls, but they're all completely different people and they're all amazing in their own right. So yeah, they're all my favourite as they kept arguing at the post house. - It actually comes off in two. I'm gonna get a definitive answer on that question. - I think it's-- - That's all right though. - Yeah, I don't think I'll ever understand how the female mind works, but it's probably helped to understand. - Yeah, I totally say that. Like I, being a part of that household and just understanding a little bit how the female mind works.
- Yeah, chaos. - Chaos, yes, very much so. I think it's helped me, helped me in good stead and I think from that, I've got a lot of good friends that are female or girls and I think being in the household that I was, just being able to foster me, have those relationships with those people in my life as well. - Yeah, spot on. - Next question is being such a good friend/mentor can be draining at times. - Oh yeah. - You talk about filling others buckets. How do you fill your own? - That's a good question.
Sometimes spending time with friends, I fill my own bucket. - Yeah. - Like, you know, it'll be a Saturday night and I'll be cooked and Reece will go, "Hey, come round to our place." And there'll be 15 people there. And things like that kind of get me up and about. - Yeah. - Working, as funny as it sounds, like I love just diving into something and just working on it. Yes, trying to spend time with KP. We obviously, we both live fairly busy lives so just trying to fit that in. And just, yeah, just zoning out.
Like I suck at being on my phone, like I'm on my phone too much but that half an hour of just like, mine was scrolling or just listening to a podcast or an audio book or something like that while you're doing something. Like they're the things that help me kind of get back up and about. And I think one of the big things is the gathering momentum for me is filling my bucket. Like if I'm working hard and getting up early and getting to bed at a decent time and having a good sleep, I want to work harder the next day and I want to work harder the next day.
So I feel energized. - Try and better it. - Yeah, and I feel energized and I feel like I'm moving forward. But yeah, there's definitely a lot of improvement to be had in that aspect. And being aware of it, it's a big one. Surrounding myself with people that will force me to work less or work differently and things like that. It's really important. But yeah, filling your bucket is a tough one 'cause it's, as a, yeah, as a, I guess a mentor and spending time with my mentors is a big one as well. Yeah, I've been pretty lucky with the people that I've been able to find to help me out in a lot of different areas.
Spending time with them and spending time with friends, but also allowing yourself to be alone, I think is really important. - Yeah, I'm a big one for that. There's nothing more than, nothing more that I love than just having a bit of downtime on your couch at home. - And allowing yourself to do it. - And just allowing that time to say, hey, I'm gonna watch some junk TV on the television for the next 45 minutes. I think it's really, really important. - Yeah, and not telling yourself that you have to be working 'cause I
think if we, and I fall into this trap sometimes, I tell myself I have to be working and then I don't relax during my relaxation time. And then when I'm working, I tell myself I need to relax and don't really get my work done, so I feel. - Yeah, I think just being aware of where you're at in the mindset and being present is really important to fill in your bucket. And there's nothing wrong with asking one of your friends to help fill your bucket too. - Yep. And the last question before we go into the final fun round, we've got 12 questions for you.
I struggle with this a lot, is when do you say or how do you say no from time to time? Obviously growing up in this kind of generation where FOMO, or if you're missing out, is a lot, and I, like yourself, I take great joy in being able to help people. And Tommy spoke about this on the podcast as well, being, he wants to be remembered for helping people who achieve what they wanna achieve. But I think in today's society, more than ever, saying no can make you look bad in terms of in the moment, but when you strip that back and you look at it for your reasons, it probably makes you doing the right thing as well.
- Yeah, I think it's tough, and I'm definitely someone that especially, I'm getting better at it, but used to get annoyed when people don't do things you wanna do, but from that aspect of looking at other people while they don't do things, it's like, well, people will do what they wanna do, what they feel as though they need to do, what they feel as though it's right, so you just gotta accept that. Like, if someone doesn't wanna do something you expect them to do, that's fine. You've just gotta accept that. They're gonna do what they wanna do and move on.
But for me, like, I don't like being, I don't like going clubbing or anything like that, so that aspect of FOMO doesn't really apply to me, I don't think. If someone asks me to do something, I'll usually say yes and figure out how to make it work. - Make it work. - I like, yeah, I like being there for people and I like helping people and I like, yeah, doing those things, you know. - Goes back to filling your bucket, filling others' buckets at the same time. - Yeah, it's the same thing, it's kinda hard,
because, like, Reece, your last video, like I said before, over for dinner, and then Kam will say, "Hey, come play FIFA," and then KP will say, "Hey, what are we doing tonight?" And you're just like, "I need three of me, "like, I wanna do all these things." - Yeah, exactly, and it's hard to prioritize as well. - Yeah, and yeah, prioritizing is a toughie. It's something I need to be better at. - Try and make it all work. - Yeah, what was the question? - Oh, I just wanna say, like, it's really hard to say no.
- Yeah, how do I say no? - How do you say no? - I don't think I do very well. - Yeah. - I think it's something I need to get better at. But yeah, and like, as someone that tries to delegate and tries to do too much, I think it's just a matter of being able to let go and being able to go, well, nah, this is more important. Recharging's more important, or spending this time with this friend's more important than this friend because of this, and yeah, if you can justify it yourself, then you'll be fine.
- And I think at the age you are, 25, you're probably caught in the middle of two different narratives that you're probably dealing with too. A lot of the friends that you went to school with, A, are probably still going out on that Friday Saturday night cycle and having a good time, or B, they're probably starting to slow down a little bit. Some of them might have families, they're in relationships where it's not that hard. So it is finding that, what we say is that balance as well. And accepting that people want to do what they want to do and you've just got to do the same.
- Yeah, and unfortunately you can't be there for everyone all the time. - Yeah, I like to think I make my decisions because I want to make them. I'm sure I don't think that many things I do are because of what other people want. - Yeah. - Which sounds selfish, but usually the decisions I make are for other people, so. - I find myself too, I could be dealing with an internal crisis, but if someone asked me for their help I would drop that internal crisis straightaway and go help them. - Let me just find out, that's a terrible thing.
- Yeah, I know. But I just seem to think, if I invested as much time as I did in my friends or other people. - In yourself. - In myself, I would be a much more, a much more, a better person, I think. But until I reach that point in time, then I guess it's always going to be that constant battle within your mind. - That's the exciting thing about everything. It's not the, well, when I get there I'll be fine. It's the, let's just enjoy everything that happens and all the progress on the way. And I think when you remind yourself of that, you'll be fine.
- All right, we've reached that point of the podcast, which I've taken from you. - The last question. - The last question. I've actually, I thought it was only five, but then I listened to some old podcasts and I come up with 12. - Oh, Jesus. - Really good ones, and I think I've got a third in me as well, that we haven't spoken about. So you can answer these as succinctly as you want. Obviously, we're in a second part of the podcast, so we've got a bit more flexibility in terms of, if you guys are answering these.
And I've stolen a few of these from your previous podcasts, which I think are really kind of a question. - Some of them I've heard of. - Yeah, some of them. - Some I haven't. - Yeah, but we'll whips around pretty quick. What is your first question? What is your greatest achievement? - KP. - Yep. - Yeah, she's an 11 out of 10 and I'm a solid four. - Yep. - If the sun's out, I'm maybe a four and a half. (laughing) Yeah, that's probably my answer, without sounding being facetious. Yeah, she's someone that's been there for a big chunk of my life.
Like we've been together for almost nine years and someone that-- - It's two thirds of your life if you break down like that. It's a long time. - Yeah, someone that's-- - Sorry, two fifths or two thirds. - Tries to help me be better and makes me look a little bit more straight ahead and be a little bit more present. - Full yin yang kind of stuff. - Yeah, exactly. I'm a little bit more, I guess, go, go, go and achieve, achieve, achieve. And she's a little bit more kind of sit back and enjoy and all those kind of things.
Like she's still achieving amazing things, teaching and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, just being able to have that kind of partner to deal with everything with and enjoy the good things and get frustrated at the bad things and just attack it together. Yeah, it's super cool. But yeah, creating an environment is probably the second one. Just creating Burdus and a place that, and like obviously I haven't done it myself, but there's been a lot of people that's helped along the way. But yeah, having that environment where I can say like-- - This is mine.
- This is mine or I've done this or I've been part of this. Yeah, where other people get inspiration from it. Yeah, that makes me super happy. - All right, AFL premiership or Olympic gold medal? - AFL premiership. - Why? - 'Cause I was able to go on the other way. - Did you? - Yeah. - I think the reason why I stopped doing athletics and started playing football or focusing more on football was 'cause of the team aspect. Yeah, the 21 best hugs you'll ever have or the 21 hugs you have, or 23 or four coaches and stuff, or the ones you have after the grand final.
If you haven't won one or haven't played in one or haven't watched one, watch all the players at the end and how happy they are when they hug everyone. - Yeah. - It's one of my favorite things. I've been lucky enough to experience it multiple times. - We were able to share a little bit of embrace after your recent. - We had a good hug. - Yeah, and that's the thing, everyone just hugs and it's a simple thing. - I remember I was lucky enough to win an under headings premiership after a year off from booty and I remember the moment when the siren went and I got to hug my best friend, Kerna.
We just stood there and hugged and I still remember it now. Shout out to Kerna, if you're listening. - It's just sharing a moment and obviously, sorry, gold medals, there's a whole support network of people that get you there like it's never the one athlete but yeah, I don't know, just something about hugging guys on a footy field, it gets me up and about, I guess. - You can take that. - It's a good feeling like, yeah, and the family and friends and everyone shares in it and it's just-- - And then we'll go back
to our earlier conversation like that kind of feeling can mean not only the 22 guys that are on the field but that feeling that can transpire or transgress into other people outside of that 22. Is it pretty amazing? - Yeah, it directly hits everyone that watches it and all the friends and family and things like that, so. - Yeah, what piece of advice would you give to 14-year-old Wallace in retrospect? - It's a toughie. 14-year-old Wallace, what was I doing at 14? I was probably in high school, just you do you. Yeah, I don't know, it sounds funny but I was never really part of like one friendship group at high school, like I was always-- - Footy?
- Yeah, I was always a bit of a footy, like I was good friends with a bunch of people. Probably missed out on having that like really good core group of friends and because I was obviously playing footy, so footy friends and I was, well not 14, but 15, 16, I was working and stuff like that, so I had good, really good friends in a bunch of different places. So I think, yeah, just do the things that you wanna do and I think I've done pretty well at that, but yeah, start, yeah, train harder, commit more.
- I don't know how much more you got left in like, you've done a fair bit mate, yeah. - I've got a good 125 years left. - Medical science. - Medical science, I've got a good 125 years left. - Cry on your neck, click through, add vertice. Vertice 2.0, this question did come up in the thread last night, who is your favorite sister? Obviously, I'm not gonna make you answer it, but I thought it'd be funny to answer. - Favorite sister, I don't know any nuns. - Good one, yeah, I like it. All right, let's take you to the next question.
88 common yabbies versus 13 echidnas in a freshwater billabong terrain, who wins and why? - How many echidnas was it? - 13. - Oh, yabbies. Is one of the yabbies KDD? - Purely because I live in Tyre and every time someone says Tyre, I say nip nip, the yabbies have got to win. It's just, but I don't know. The underside of an echidna is relatively soft, so it really depends how angry they are. - How do echidnas go in water? 'Cause obviously in the billabong terrain, there's been a lot of fun around. - Yeah, but billabong could be the edge of the billabong.
- Yeah. - It really depends. - Just by a thousand cuts for the yabbies, maybe? - Yeah, I think so. - What does the echidna bring to the party? I don't know. It's what its tongue is. - Yeah, it wouldn't do much. - No. - There's no attack strategy for the echidna. - Yeah. - This is a great question. - I think you have to include these in one of the animal foot-up fights. - Yeah, there's definitely no attack strategy from the echidna. Like, unless the old 88 yabbies impale themselves on all the echidnas, they're probably in trouble.
- I don't think the yabbies are gonna be that high enough to get into the spikes of the echidna. - Yabbies, every day of the week. - Nip nip. - Yeah. (laughing) - What is the nicest thing you've ever done for someone? I really struggled with this question when I got an answer. - Yeah, see, this is one that everyone struggles with, so I've actually thought about this really well. The nicest thing is an accumulation of little things, like everyone says, but I think it's creating an environment where people can come and be supported and support others.
I think it's not just me supporting a run, it's all our coaches supporting each other and all the clients and all the clients supporting each other and creating an environment where it's family and friends. And I think being able to utilise that for things like run for rye and the fundraisers we've run for rye man. Having those fundraisers as a platform for, 'cause everyone wants to give, everyone wants to help. I'm a big believer that everyone wants to do the right thing and everyone wants to be good, mostly. And yeah, if you give people a platform to do that, they'll support it.
So yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing the Virtus family get together on the 28th of October and pump that and kind of get around the Johnsons and rye man and just support them 'cause yeah, they're really fortunate to have those guys in our lives. - Absolutely. I was having a conversation with Stubba, shout out, another one, trying to-- - I'm getting a shout out bell. - Shout out bell. We need like a sound effect on your podcast, like a little siren or something like that. You can play every time you do a shout out. We
were asking like, conversation come up, we're at a barbecue, you guys are like, if you want that, you just donate a large portion of whatever you want to the Johnsons, just so you can give them a bit of a leg up and stuff like that too. - Yeah, I understand. - It's totally agree. - And to see like how much, like you know, Don talked about Brooke and Reece too much 'cause they know how much we love them. - Yeah, absolutely. - But to see how much they do for everyone else. - Exactly. They're filling buckets left, right and center when they're probably two that need their buckets filled the most.
- Yeah, so yeah, just kind of supporting them and supporting everyone 'cause everyone goes through shit and it's all relative 'cause people like, look at Brooke and Reece and say I could never do that. But until you're into that situation, then you probably want to know. - Yeah, so I think it's just supporting people and helping people support other people. - This one come from Casey, which I thought was a really interesting question. It probably goes away from being nice. - What mildly annoying curse do you wish you could have cursed people with? - Everyone. - Oh, just your enemies or someone that you probably was giving you the shits for the day?
Like mildly annoying. - That's a good question. Mildly annoying curse. - It might be like you might force someone every time they fart popcorn for 24 hours or something. - Yes, I was thinking a little bit more like every time they thought something negative or thought something that they weren't happy about, that they, or actually, I've got one. Every time someone negatively thinks something about themselves, what would happen? They fart popcorn, there you go. Every time someone has a negative thought about themselves about what they look like or what they are, then they fart popcorn 'cause it's just like, yeah.
- 'Cause it's shit. - But it's nutritionally enhanced popcorn that's coming from there. - Yeah, interesting question. - Great question. - Yeah, I thought it was a good one. - Yeah, 'cause that's one of the things that probably frustrates me the most about people is that they don't look after themselves and you said that before. One of my favorite quotes is, oh shit. - Comparison. - Comparison. - I was just gonna mention it. - Yeah, you said it a thousand times. - Yeah, I think it's a really, you do that quote and I love it. It's perfect because it-- - Every time you have a negative connotation towards yourself worth, a bit of popcorn comes out.
- Hey, make that a thing, make that a t-shirt. - Nutritional dense popcorn. - And on top of that quote is another favorite quote is we suffer more in imagination than reality. Like, yeah, they're two that we suffer because of the way we feel about ourselves. It's not happening in real life, it's happening in our head. So look after yourself, people. Back yourself in and yeah. - We've probably talked about the future one, so I wasn't asking that one. What is the last book you've read from start to finish and what did you learn? - Extreme, oh, the last one.
Extreme ownership by Jocko Willink is a big one and I spoke about that in part one of the podcast. I'm not gonna repeat it so you have to go back and listen to part one if you started with part two. The other one was Elon Musk's book. That was start to finish. That was, yeah, amazing. Just to see someone that looks like it's got it all together, all this shit he's been through and all the bad times and all the times where if one more rocket failed, SpaceX would be done. Tesla was teetering for so
close to failure and being able to continually chase the things he wants to chase and make the world a much better place in the meantime. Yeah, that's huge. I'm actually listening to one at the moment. I'm three quarters of the way through. It's called The Personal MBA. So it's like an MBA but it's a guy who's done all these different courses and actually run a bunch of businesses and he's going, talking about the efficacy of an MBA whether you actually need one or not and whether it's the return of investments there. Yeah, it's really cool 'cause it's all personal but also business stuff.
- I've got three more questions for you and then we'll wrap it up. - Hit me. - Yeah. - If you give everyone one personality trait, what would it be? - Good. Persistence. Too many people and-- - Probably goes back to resumes. - Yeah, there's a bunch of different answers that I would usually have stolen that everyone else gives so I'm gonna give something different. - Yeah, I like it. - Persistence because yeah, too many people kind of tell themselves they can't do it or they stop too early. With exercise, with work, with relationships, everything. Just be persistent, it'll all pay you back with interest.
- What is success to you? - I've used this cliche answer before but I'm gonna try and expand on it. It's waking up in the morning and going to bed at night and doing whatever you wanna do in between. - Being happy? - Being happy, yeah. Happiness, I think being happiness is-- - Or being content? - Yeah, happiness is fleeting so it's one of those things that I'm happy most of the time but I was also shitty that I had to pay lots of bills yesterday. So that happiness thing, it's being, but I'm fortunate that I'm able to pay those bills.
So yeah, I think success is doing what you wanna do whilst making the world a better place. - Yeah, not filling your own bucket but filling everyone else's bucket in the meantime. - Yeah, but if you're doing what you wanna do then your bucket's full anyway and I think that making the world a better place thing doesn't have to be on a massive scale like Emma Musk is, for example. Like it can be just helping one person and just, yeah, projecting that to one person. - If you help them, they might help someone else since that whole report.
- Correct, correct. - And the last one, before we knock this baby on the tit, if you could be remembered in one sentence, what would it be? - Someone who practiced what he preached. - Yeah. - Cool. I'm a big one for that, like it's the stubbornness and obviously you titled my podcast itself Stubbornness and Achievement but I think staying true to your word is a big, something that I get pissed off when I don't stay true to my word. - Me too, having integrity in doing the things you said you were gonna do is just, that's important, it's really important to me.
And for anyone that's listened to the Tommy T podcast and seen me eat at common folk, yeah, I fucked that one up. (laughing) - And I'll ask you the next day after I'm in sixth grade. - No, I lost it for like two days. The next two days after that, someone bought me lunch. Was it you? - No, no, no, no. - I had two people buy me lunch but yeah, I decided to give that one to the partner. Even though I said I wouldn't eat at common folk for a month, I realized that if I didn't eat at common folk, I'd just buy food elsewhere.
- We're supporting local businesses. - And I'd rather support Sammy and the rest of the crew. So yeah, that's it. Any more for anymore? - No, that's it. I guess if you like what you hear, you can, I guess the big thing for the podcast and I'll probably do what you should have done probably a long time ago is just write and review. - Yes. - So if you write and review the podcast, leave me with a statement, tell us how many stars you want, that's the-- - Five would be good. - Five would be good.
That's how we get, though that's how Lachie will get the podcast out there and if you like what you hear, if you've got any questions, obviously you can email Lachie at info@vertusperformance, kind of, I don't know. - Yeah, info@vertusperformance.com. - Jump on the website, vertusperformance.com. - I'm hanging around with us, so if you want to talk to me about anything or for anything picture interest, give us a shout out. - Available on all socials. Yeah, if you guys have any questions or queries or thoughts or anything, just contact us 'cause we're always up for a chat.
- Contact Lachie, not me, 'cause I don't actually work for Virtus. - Yeah. - Yeah, that's right. - Podcast producer, head of education. - Thanks very much for the opportunity, Lachie. - You're welcome, mate. It was a lot of fun. - It was a lot of fun. It's a lot easier on this side of the chair, that's for sure. But I really enjoyed it, so thanks, mate. - Pleasure. (upbeat music)
