OHA Stay Connected Podcast
OHA Stay Connected Podcast
Haileybury Voices - Bruce Eva (OH 1985)
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🎙️ Welcome to Haileybury Voices, the official podcast of the Old Haileyburian Association, where we go Beyond the Blazer.
In this episode, we welcome one of Australia’s most recognisable sporting voices, Bruce Eva (OH 1985). From his early days at The Herald to becoming a trusted voice on 3AW, Bruce has built a remarkable career in journalism, broadcasting, and sport. Bruce reflects on his time at Haileybury, the lessons that shaped him, and the journey to finding his voice in one of the most competitive industries in the country.
He shares stories from nearly four decades in media, the changing landscape of journalism, and what it takes to stay credible, relevant, and resilient under pressure. A fascinating conversation filled with insight, humour, and hard-earned wisdom.
So Bruce Eva, welcome to Hell Ivery Voices.
SPEAKER_02Thanks, fellas. Good to be with you.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02We'll be firing the questions and uh everything at you. Feeling uh feeling the pressure of that. Usually I'm the one that's uh firing the questions at a special guest, but it's um it's always great to be back at the school anyway.
SPEAKER_00Speaking about the school, let's start back at the school here. So, what's the Halebury connection? What years were you here? And what were the standouts you look back on and how it's helped your career?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I was here from 1980 to 1985, so started in year seven at uh here at here at Keysborough. Um I went to Sandown Park Primary School and that was you know like in the Springvale area, right next to the right next to the race course. And uh I remember in the first time I heard the word halebury might have been in about grade five. And um yeah, I remember mum and dad bringing me down for I suppose it was an interview and meeting Mr. Aikman sometime in grade six uh and being just so overwhelmed at the size of the school back then, which was compared to the size of it now, was quite small, but compared to a a state or government primary school, it was just like how big are these buildings and there's a gymnasium and there's a swimming pool and tennis courts and the like. There was only three of us from my primary school, which is only a few K just up Springvale Road, that that came to Hailbury. But um, yeah, so 980 to 85, and I've got had two of my children come through through here as uh as well. The youngest is doing year 12 this year. But um, the initial thoughts were just um the size of it, uh the discipline very early. I'd never worn a tie in my life. Um and yeah, where it's probably outside of the school that your first searing memories because uh with living in Springvale or Sandown Park with getting the bus every day from the corner of uh Springvale Road and Wareham Street. I remember in that first week, by the time the bus picked me up, there was probably 80 kids on a 30-seater bus. There wasn't much OHS back then. Like I'm standing on the bottom step of the bus and it's raucous and it's loud. I mean, all of a sudden you go from a a big fish in a little pond in a grade six kid to, you know, wow, it it's it assaults the senses, but but uh when I when I say loved every minute of it, like your eyes were like dinner plates for uh certainly for the first couple of months.
SPEAKER_01Now, Bruce, I feel like this is almost a sliding door moment for you. Um again, you're here uh where you've had a influential chat from someone else, that is also Hay Lebrien, and we're blessed with you to have be here as well. What were some of the early signs that you went through, whether it be debating, writing, or speak speaking, that hinted to you that you would be behind a microphone?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, another another good question. I remember uh working backwards, I'd clearly in those last couple of years set my mind on getting into the media and um and getting into electronic media because uh I'm not sure if this tradition continues. Uh so muck-up day, it wasn't really muck-up day, final day of year 12. We used to all bring in a spare shirt and you'd get all your mates to to sign it, the cohort to sign it. And a great bloke by the name of Cameron Gregson, uh, Greg O, he signed across mine, can't wait to listen to you call all the action blow by blow or words to that effect. So my mates sort of knew that's what I was um uh on about or or wanting to head towards. And I can remember in year 10, I love drama. Uh back then we only got to do you could do drama literature, I think it was the actual official name of the subject, only to year 11. You couldn't do it in in year 12. Um I wasn't in the school play per se, uh, but I can remember that more so I'd love when we're doing drama in years nine, ten, eleven, all the sort of skits and and and different types, anything performative. And uh, but then in year ten, I specifically remember there was we we almost had free choice, and not far from where we're having a chat today, in one of the sort of sub-theaters off um Aikman Hall, uh, and I was doing mock race calls. My my um yeah, my choice uh and there was like it was a live audience, which obviously were parents and and siblings, and I did a couple of uh mock race calls. So that was in year 10, so I was obviously fairly um set on on the on the path that I wanted to go back then.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, nice. So uh Bruce, you've just mentioned you've had two kids, one currently in school right now. At OHA we use the term once a Hay Burian, always a Hayley Burian. What does that mean to you? And do you still have that connection to the school?
SPEAKER_02Very much so. Uh very much so. It it um I mean I I once you leave the school, um what goes with you if you've enjoyed and embraced what the school can offer um is the mateship and the and the camaraderie. And uh and that's something I still hold dear um today. And with being from a um a small family, both my mum and dad are only children and uh two older sisters. Um so with a small family, I think your your mates, your friends become all the more important. And and I've got other you know great mates through footy clubs and cricket clubs and through work and just general life, but the bond that you that you form with your mates here at Hailabury, I've always thought that it's and it's not being elitist, but I think in the private school system there's probably the potential to form stronger unions with with your mates, maybe compared to government schools. I don't think there's any scientific evidence to that, and obviously, you know, was fortunate enough to come here rather than go to a government school, but um that's one thing which uh yeah, I I certainly agree with that with that motto.
SPEAKER_01What were you like at school?
SPEAKER_02Um yeah, that's uh talkative. Uh talkative. I I was no uh straight A student, not by a stretch, too busy uh often with my love of sport and uh and probably my great strength in being a sports broadcaster is my preparation and my knowledge, my bank of knowledge, and I often say misspent youth. Instead of doing my homework and reading textbooks, I was reading footy records and cricket history books and the like when when mum and dad, when I was in my room and they thought I was doing my homework. So um big group of mates, um, yeah, loved every sport. I mean, the the sport, playing the sport as well was was just um uh you know, was like just live for the Saturday morning sport and training after school and you know, lunchtime, kicking the footy, or playing cricket or or or whatever. So um, yeah, and had a great relationship with with the bulk of my teachers. Um apart from you know, you you just think back to as I said, it was like the discipline was was at a hot at a high level. Uh there's no there's no doubt about that. Um but you know, I was probably just a you know normal, cheeky teenager.
SPEAKER_00Any particular teachers that really really had an influence on you, or any funny stories?
SPEAKER_02No, yeah, yeah. I mean, well, once again, when you go through the six years and you know, the you just have so so many teachers. Um Mr. Bell, who only has finished up here, I think, in the last few years, which was extraordinary, um, because I love drama and he was a drama teacher, and also uh he was one of the athletics coaches. I think he coached me in footy one year. I might have set some type of record. I was a reserve in the athletics team four years in a row. I never got to run on APS Day. I was uh I was a reserve each year. It was always in the real age four guys better than me, but that's okay. They're all good fellas. Um I remember um Mr. Truman, who was my accounting teacher in in year 12, and Mr. Carlson as well, who was um a legal studies teacher, um great great people. And Mr. Truman, because I I decided with wanting to get into the media, I stupidly, thankfully it didn't cost me, stupidly, I decided to do English literature in HSC, thinking that it'd help me get into the media do another. And about a week into year 12, Mr. Truman, he was mates with a legendary broadcaster by the name of Lawrence Coston, uh, who was probably most he used to be on 3DB, he was most famous for hosting at halftime of the finals in the reserves final, the old Sun Kick, the school boy who could kick the longest footy out in the middle of the MCG or VFL Park. And uh and he had a chat to Lawrence Coston for me and came back with some notes, and one of them was that you didn't have to tailor your course to get into the media. So English lit was a bit of a uh bit of a dead loss. Um Wendy Anderson, um, my English teacher, yeah, look right throughout Rev Kerr, um you know, coached in in footy, Mr. Park, so I'm probably remembering more now with with who were my you know footy and cricket coaches, but um yeah, they're they were they're all legendary.
unknownYeah, nice.
SPEAKER_01I guess Haley Bury's also had another profound um impact on yourself, especially uh year 11, where we've had uh another Haley Buran by the name of Stephen Phillips that also was impactful for you. Tell us a little bit about that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, uh the late Stephen, the late great Stephen Phillips. Um, in year 11, 1984, um, so Aikman Hall as it is now, which was known as the Great Hall back then, it was only about a year old. Uh dad was on the fundraising committee from that, for that from memory, and and Mr. Aikman was obviously still the principal. So uh in 84 they did a series, I think it might have been in second term, of former students that had really done well in their professional lives to come out. It wasn't compulsory, um, but for them to come out and talk about their career and and you know what they loved about their profession. And as soon as I saw that Stephen Phillips, who at the time he'd occasionally host World of Sport on a Sunday, um, you know, he was really front and centre for for Channel 7 at the time. He ended up at Channel 9 and uh sadly passed away prematurely from from cancer. But uh I think I was about the first one in the hall for that uh for that talk. And uh he gave a talk on what a typical Sunday was like at World of Sport, which was the iconic, you know, three-hour sports show on Channel 7, which ran from 1956, I think the Olympic year, first year of television in in Australia, in fact, until the late 80s. And I walked out of of that talk and just thinking, I just have to get into this industry. I'd already worked out, I wanted to be involved in sport at the highest level. I worked out that I wasn't a good enough footy player, cricket player, or runner that I was going to be representing Australia or playing League Footy as much as I loved it and tried my best. Um, and so that and I remember I wrote to Stephen Phillips and uh and he he wrote back there were no sort of cadet chips at the time then I was still only doing year 11, but that did have a that's huge, that had a profound effect on me. I mean, a lot of what he said was about the hilarity of the day because it used to be organized chaos with the likes of you know Lou Richards and Bill Collins and Uncle Doug Elliott and that, but I just thought this sounds so much fun. This doesn't seem like work.
SPEAKER_01Just fun, right?
SPEAKER_02Just fun. And they say if you you know if you love what you do, you know, you never work a day.
SPEAKER_00So speaking about work, let's talk about your work career now. So you began your career, like you mentioned earlier in our chat before this at the Herald in I believe it was 1986.
SPEAKER_02986 famous day, in fact, January 29, 1986, a Wednesday. It was January 28 in America, and I walked into the Herald building to start my cadet ship, 44 to 74 Flinder Street, in the city, and it was about three or four hours after the first space shuttle had blown up. Oh so it was a massive news day, and it had happened in what they say perfect Herald time because the sun had been put to bed in journalistic terms. The final edition was already well and truly out that had come out at you know one or two in the morning. Um, so it happened about 3:30, 4 a.m. Melbourne time. Um, yeah, and it was so we were meant to get all these talks and that on the first day, but they were bringing out special editions and it was such it was all seven astronauts passed away. It was the first time a civilian went up into space as well. Um Christine or Christina McCaula was the school teacher who was one of the so yeah, I couldn't remember my first day at the Herald. Not that I did anything, I was just a wet behind the ears, still 17-year-old. I didn't turn 18 until the march, so January 86, it all started.
SPEAKER_00So, what what did those early days look like? So, three things in particular the first roles in learning your craft, uh, you breaking into the sports reporting in 1988, and the early challenges and the most pressure moments during that time.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, um, good questions, Pav. Um okay, when you uh when you get a cadet ship, I was actually classed as a copy boy, so you sort of had to almost uh you're almost like a glorified messenger for the first year, and you had to run errands and that, but you virtually were observing what the senior journos were doing, and they'd they probably didn't even realize they were teaching you. You had the middle day of the week, was you got some lectures and you had to learn shorthand, the secretarial skill, because this is before many tape recorders, let alone mobile phones, were in to take notes from interviews and stuff like that. So that was your day of training, because at the time um the major newspapers they didn't really rate the uh the journalistic courses at uni. They did take some uni graduates, so they preferred to train you them themselves. Um so that first year I spent four months, my first four months in finance. So you had to take notes and like like you know what the stock market was doing, but it was just numbers and that. You weren't writing any stories, and I had very I mean the highlight where the finance department was was having to open the door for Lou Richards when he was coming in to write his column in the in the sun and that because he'd forget his mill key, his security key. Then I had four months in in general, and that was in the editor's office. Now, the first I was probably always destined to end up at 30W because my editor in the first year was Neil Mitchell, who went on to be you know one of the greatest talkback hosts in Melbourne slash Australia over his long career. Uh Steve Price was chief of staff, who also ended up in radio at 30W for many years. And the features editor was uh Clark Forbes, who ended up program director at 30W. So I was in the editor's office. Uh you do you'd be doing things as as menial as making cups of tea, but you're also taking phone calls and you had to work out now, we're right on deadline. Is that important enough to send through to Neil, who's out on the floor, you know, putting together the front page? And so the big story in the middle of 86. Well, in in fact, I'll jump back a bit. I said about the the space shuttle uh seven weeks after that, the Russell Street bombing, which was on the eve of Easter, uh late March of 86. I remember it happened around lunchtime. Um, I was actually on a tram going up to get my learners from the uh RTA in Lycon Street. So heard the blast, was only as the you know, it was only a couple of blocks away from it and the tram rattled that. But I remember when I got back to work, had no idea what had happened. There's all these, because this is pre-digital cameras and that, there's all these photos spread over the um one of the main desks there, and I'm just sort of as I'm walking back to my spot having a look, what on earth's happened. But then in the middle of the year, there was the two Australians, Barlow and Chambers, who were hung in Malaysia um for drug trafficking. And at the time, I remember it was quite ironic, the four overseas correspondents for the Herald, their Christian name was Bruce. Um, and I honestly can't remember which one was covering it because there was Bruce Baskett, Bruce Dover, Bruce Guthrie, and Bruce Wilson. Um, Bruce used to be a popular name, believe it or not. And uh I took the call from whichever Bruce it was, to which had to be patched through to Neil straight away. I would have been one of the first people in Australia to hear that they had been hung, that the that they were dead. And um, and I remember taking that call being told when Bruce, whichever one it was, got a feeling it might have been Bruce Basket, but anyway, um, that has to go straight through to Neil, even if he's on it, you know, you've got to scream out the door. Because then they were he was, I think, basically filing the copy over the phone for the uh for the uh for the front page. So that was the middle four months, and then the final four months of of my copyboy year of my cadetship was in features, and so that was a bit slower paced because a lot of the features that were being written, you know, they weren't timeline specific. They might be written over a couple of days, and again, got to meet the likes of Andrew Rule and Mark Harding and you know, great writers and and and great sort of mentors, yeah. So I think that's part one of the questions.
SPEAKER_00Part two was um in 1988 when you broke into sports reporting.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I made it known to them um not in a not in our I certainly made it clear in the conversations from time to time that I got to have with um with either Neil or um Steve and that and well the thing is at the end of 86 the Herald Weekly Times was then bought out by Rupert Murdoch, it was bought by by News Limited. Um so there was a big change in staff right throughout '87. Um I'd made it known Eric Beecher was the new editor. Um I made it known that I wanted to get into sport. Sport was and you had the opportunity in your first couple of years, in your own time, to write some stories and and you know, which they'd either sometimes they'd publish, sometimes they wouldn't. So I predominantly focused on sports stories. But then um I I was put on, I was on general, I was put onto a features page for a while, but then I started on sport March 1, 1988. For about the six months before then, I was on police rounds, and I'm glad I got I was on a first-year cadet then. Um I missed having to cover Hoddle Street, but I did have to cover Queen Street, which happened in December of 1987. And for a 19-year-old, that was um it was pretty tough. The toughest form of journalism, uh, without a doubt, is a thing called intrudes, where if you're on police rounds and there's been uh a tragedy, a horrific crime, and in the 24, 48 hours afterwards, you try and get an interview with the next of kin of of a victim. And obviously with Queen Street there was seven victims. And um, yeah, I had to go and do two intrudes and still remember it to this to this day. And that was it almost I I love my time on police rounds, got a lot of front pages as well, which was a you know, as a it's just a 19-year-old journey, still wet behind the ears. Was yeah, you always loved it when you picked up the paper and you saw your byline anywhere, let alone if it was on the front page. But it sort of strengthened my resolve that I wanted to get into I wanted to get into sport. And then um Jeff Slattery, who I'm still very close friends with now, was the sports editor, and they decided to start a school sport. So here's the irony, a school sport um column most days on the Herald, and I got plucked out of police rounds. They knew I wanted to get into sport, and March 1, 1988 was my first day on the Herald sports desk, and I've never done anything else but cover sport ever since. So what are we talking? 38 years.
SPEAKER_00Do you remember the first uh story you covered in the sports?
SPEAKER_02Yes. Um I've got a feeling if it wasn't the first, it was in the first two or three. It was a uh it was a kid at Scotch and he was Bob Cowper, who made a triple test century on the MCG. It was either his uh grandson or his nephew, and he'd picked Peeled off about three or four APS tons in a row. Can't remember, he was a cowper, so it was on the dad's side. I can't remember his first name. Um and it was um uh amazing because some of the uh some of the stories you did on these school sports um, you know, went on to be great sportsmen. Max Holmes, the star of Geelong, so his mum Lee Naylor, who ran for Australia, um I interviewed her as a 15 or a 16-year-old. Um Richard Green, the golfer, had a really successful, long professional career on the European Tour and the Veterans Tour. Interviewed him when he was 15 or 16, just well, he wasn't hacking around, he was probably already playing off three or four or something. So yeah, so that was my lead in, and then I'd assist outside of the school sport column, I'd assist with some of the AFL coverage and it sort of slowly built up from there.
SPEAKER_01So you uh majority of your career started off in the print side, and then and then you sort of knew okay, um, you wanted to get into other forms being in the broadcasting side. When when did that when did you sort of start to know that?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, um I said radio was a was a passion. I didn't think I had a very good head for television, although um fair bit fitter and had a full head of hair back then. Um so uh a guy by the name of Shane Templeton, who was a terrific sports journalist, terrific racing writer, um, still a dear friend, he left the Herald and joined what we now know as RSN, the racing network in Melbourne. It used to be 3UZ, it then became the greater 3UZ good sports. Um Shane joined them and I had a chat to him and said I wouldn't mind doing some some stuff if you've got I mean, footy and cricket was my main sort of sports that I covered and the tennis, but boxing was a real passion. And then even though Shane was there, it was actually Brian Taylor, it was actually BT, who his first uh radio gig was hosting the evening sports show on Sport 927 as it was then, and he'd do general sport in between the final few races from the dogs or the trots on on weeknights, and uh I'm not sure how we connected. I'd interviewed him maybe once or twice anyway, and he said, Do you want to come on on a Tuesday night and do um do some boxing reports? And I'm just trying to think whether it was BT first or Shay, but my first appearance on radio was on the home phone, sitting at the kitchen table at about like 20 to 11 on a Tuesday night, giving a on the phone. On the phone, giving a giving a update. Yeah, giving a boxing report. Yeah, not and it wasn't like covering a live fight, but just what had been happening in the in the fight game. That was that was my first appearance. That's the first time a voice went on uh went on radio. Wow. Well you're nervous, absolutely shaking like shaking like a leaf. Shaking like a leaf, yeah. Well, yeah, yeah, but um, but the thrill of it, yeah, live radio. People often say with radio, it's the old version of Twitter or X or Instagram because it's it's just so immediate. That's that's the beauty of it.
unknownYeah, wow.
SPEAKER_01Now you mentioned that sport was a huge passion for you. Um, was there any moment early on where you realised that this is what I want to be doing and covering for a living?
SPEAKER_02Basically, from the time I got onto the Herald Sports Desk and the Herald Sports team, it was full of iconic names uh of all eras as well. So they were a great team to learn off. There was a few guys who were only a few years older than me, but were you know developing as gun sports writers, Nick Place, Richard Hines, Jared Wright, and there was the you know, the real and the son had a great sports team as well. Um, but the guys like Peter Stone and Ron Reid, Jeff Polter, who became probably my biggest mentor along with Jeff Slattery. Pardon me, um, I ended up sharing a desk with Polts, who was chief footy writer. Um, so I had to passive smoke alongside him for a few years, back when you could smoke in the office. Yeah, I didn't smoke, but Polts did. Um, so I just once I was in that environment, I was just um yeah, I was it was like a duck to water. I just yeah, I just loved every second of it.
SPEAKER_00So let's go to 2009 now when you started at 3AW. Yeah. Um what does it take to stay relevant, trusted, and sharp in such a fast-moving media landscape?
SPEAKER_02Well, I I guess we can go back a step because I'd um I'd been out of SEN for I think it was exactly 18 months. So I was an original on SEN. Um my first I'd spent a year at Sport927 full-time in 1992. Uh that hadn't really worked out. Uh, it was an Olympic year, long, complicated story. So then went basically back into print journalism. So I got on to I got a gig at S EN from I was one of the originals producing uh Kevin Bartlett and Hungry for Sport, the morning show. First day of SEN was the day that David Hooks died, uh the tragedy after being struck by a bouncer outside the Beaconsfield Hotel. So it was January 2004. Um I was there for three and a half years, um, probably only the first year and a bit producing, and then I was full-time on air. Um, I was tipped out of SEN with a situation I didn't see developing, and probably learned a lot from that. And uh so which that set me back though. Um obviously when you're in your mid to late 30s and you're um you you're shown the door. Um it was interesting then. I I thought I was going okay, and it wasn't anything to do with my my talent, I don't want that to sound big-headed, but AW approached me pretty quickly after that. They offered me a producer's role on sports today and to produce their footy coverage, and they weren't gonna split the roles. And I said, look, I've been on air for the last couple of years, and my footy calling, which while I was there at SEN as doing studio stuff, for me it was all about calling live sport. That's what I knew. I was, and this is gonna sound really big-headed, but I I was already by then I started calling football for the National Indigenous Radio Service in late 2001. I'm not indigenous, but at the time it was just all white callers. Yeah, uh, all the experts were were indigenous. Um, I'd never practiced a dummy call in my life. From the I was very lucky the first time I ever called a game, it was the record comeback when Essendon came from 69 points behind North Melbourne early in the second quarter. It's more like a basketball game. Final score was 27 goals to 25. Um, and I remember the senior guy he turned to me at quarter time, he said, You sure you've never done this before? And I said, And uh so that that's that was my calling, pardon the pun. So I knocked AW back. I know I'm jumping around a bit here, I knocked them back because I didn't want to just go back to full-time producing. Through W Sister Station, 6PR in Perth, uh, with Brad Hardy and another huge mentor of mine, Graham Smokey Dawson, um, they approached me and said, We've got an opening next year for you calling three or four games a weekend on 6PR. And I couldn't sign on the dotted line quick enough. I was to call like about 70 games of footy. So I was sort of in the stable, but I wasn't, I was calling for the Perth Perth station. Um and then late in 08, uh Jared Healy approached me and said, I've managed to talk AW into splitting the roles, so will you come on board as to produce sports today for me and me and Dwayne? And I said, Yeah, mate, uh absolutely. And he said, Look, you know, you'll probably get an opportunity calling the footy um at some stage as well. So when I got there and and those crazy few weeks, you know, oh nine, I've just gone, what is it now? 17 years. It was February the 2nd, was the day I started at AW. Um our youngest daughter, our youngest child, she was born on January the 20th, three and a half weeks prem. She's now doing year 12 here at Hailerbury. Uh it was around the time of the Black Saturday um the bushfires. It was just a horrendous time in Melbourne and in Victoria. And here I am starting a starting a new job, and I've already, you know, got also a almost four-year-old son and a seven-year-old daughter, almost seven-year-old daughter. So uh even that first couple of weeks at AW, we weren't always doing a normal sports today every night because of the bushfire crisis. Quite often the general programming was running into our sports show. But it's a very long-winded answer, I know. But uh the AW rightly, because the ratings say it, it is the number one station in Melbourne. So you're just always on your toes because you just know, yeah, we're in the in the sports department, but with high ratings comes um a high demand to stay at a level of excellence in turn and and back then as well, like SEN was only um you know, a few years old, and there wasn't all the other um options, if you like, in the media. So like sports today was still the the show with Jared and Duane, which made it easier in terms of getting guests and and stuff like that. So yeah, it was a um Yeah, and and Jared as close as I was to Jared, like he was a demanding, demanding host. And um, yeah, so you certainly didn't ever take a um not so much a cheeky day off, but you're you're always alert to what was um and and that's the beauty of the media generally, is I was gonna talk about this a bit later. You literally go into whichever department you're in in the media, whatever your is your um special subject, you go to work every day literally not knowing what's going to happen. Um I know that's a bit like with calling a football game, calling a cricket game, boxing match, tennis match, whatever. You literally go, it's the best reality of all because you have no idea what you're about to observe and describe.
SPEAKER_00So just just about calling the sporting games. What is what was your favourite um game that you called?
SPEAKER_02Uh a particular game or sport?
SPEAKER_00Uh let's go, let's go a particular sport and a game if there is one.
SPEAKER_02I get asked this uh a lot, and I honestly can't split footy and cricket, and I love calling the boxing as well, so I it's almost you know triple dead heat. Um I I miss uh calling uh the tennis. I haven't called the tennis for a long time. Used to call the tennis for uh for AO Radio and 3RW used to call. Uh we've just changed ownership, so who knows? We might actually uh might get back to to calling the tennis, but boys are back. The boys are back, yeah. Okay, so um call basketball for a yeah. Uh yeah, uh as long as you're prepared and you and you know the sport and learn the lingo and add your own flavour to it, um, I like to think that I am a I'm an all-rounder.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So you you basically you can once you've got the once once you've got a bit of the knowledge of the sport, you can call any sport effectively, you reckon.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well I reckon you should be able to. I mean, there's plenty of commentators out there that just focus on their known just for like the legendary Phil Leggett, um, the cycling commentator, um in England Martin Tyler with the world game. Um but I mean I've there's a lot of us in Australia that uh there's probably where we're dwindling in Australia is um commentators that are just professional commentators. We haven't played sport at the highest level because more and more you're finding, you know, players or participants come out of their sport, yeah, particularly in football and cricket. Yeah and they then say, Yeah, this looks pretty crude. I you know, I want to get into the media. And it looked, um there's been some terrifying and continues to be some terrific ones, and it goes, you know, all the way back. I guess you think back to you know Richie Beno and that with with the cricket and and Ian Chappell and Bill Laurie and Tony Gregg and the iconic Channel 9 commentary team, but we know you know so many callers in football these these days have played at played at the highest level. But that's where I think you know being a all-rounder and being flexible is you know, the more strings you can have to your bow, it's an old cliche, the the better it is.
SPEAKER_01When I see you calling footy, and you're in like I see some clips of you doing uh calling footy, and it's like synchronized swimming the way that you guys are just talking amongst you and Huddo and just going through it. How do you get to that level where you're almost like screaming into the mic and you're following the game?
SPEAKER_02It's great, drawing up the screen, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And you've got your binoculars, you're looking at the game, you're looking at the screen. Like, how do you get into that rhythm and that motion?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's when I say it takes pre it it takes connection and chemistry with your um with your co-caller. I call so I do three games of football a weekend for 3W. Um I'm off Sundays this year, back onto Friday night, so I'll be doing Thursday night, Friday night, hosting Saturday footy preview with Caroline Wilson and Lee Matthews, and then calling me early game on a Saturday. Thursday night I'll be calling with Huddo, Anthony Hudson, Friday night with Matt Granland, Saturday early with Tony Leonard, all different personalities, all different types of callers. I've called with all of them a lot, though. And it's really it's the chemistry. There are the cameras in the box have only been a recent phenomenon. Uh 3RW is the last to the party of that as well. That makes it even more important that I lose the 10k need to lose. It's uh we actually had our season launch yesterday, and they played some of the clips and that most of them were of Huddo, of course. He's the superstar, and you know, and I'm looking at because it's a wide shot, so you can see all of us in the box and thinking, no, don't really don't wear the the panels across that way. Anyway, don't we? Yeah, it just I mean, there's the old tap on the leg. So there's some well, we have some golden rules in terms of you know, you you you don't call it up and down, up and down, up and down. My calling style, because I'm got a quite a fast-paced style, suits short, sharp bursts anyway. If there's been a score, you automatically change over out of bounds. Right. But not if it's out, like if it's back in the centre, restart, ball goes out to the wing straight out of bounds, you hold the call. But it just comes from um working with someone for a long time. And you can even like with Huddo, I can tell with the pitch and tone of his voice when he's gonna throw to me. And then occasionally, you know, work a lot with Jimmy Bartel and Matthew Lloyd, like and you know, you'll either get a little tap on the shoulder or you can just sense if you're not corn, you'll look over the shoulder and like you know, Lloyd just puts your finger up or whatever. So there's the little tricks of the trade, but then a lot of well, it's not practice because you you know you you're on on the jobs, you're in the mix, yeah. Yeah, you um, but it yeah, you do feel that chemistry, and it's it's something we all love. Lloydie talked about it uh yesterday at the launch about how we think we've got the best commentary team in the country, and the um yeah, the ratings tend to tend to agree.
SPEAKER_01Well, it's amazing to hear, even like when you see like the pat on the back, the thumbs up when you're in the box and and going through it, it's like yeah, it's it's you like synchronized swimming the way you guys are doing it. Yeah, it's up real.
SPEAKER_02No, it it is good. And occasionally, you know, we have a lot of fun as well. I mean, 3RW's motto with our football team, and I think we're up to it's the longest running, it's the longest running, certainly in Australia, um coverage of a professional sport. I think it's 81 years it's gonna be this year. So with that comes a lot of you think back to the icons that have been, you know, just like we had BT for five years, Rex Hunt was just you know a force of nature. Yeah. Um before Harry Beitzall, I've grown up as a kid, like the big H, Harry Beitzel, who the lead caller on on um on 3W football, before that, you know, Norman Banks, Tony Charlton, uh like you know, there's it's really been the the breeding ground for the greatest sports broadcasters we've seen in this in this country.
SPEAKER_00So who have you modelled your calling on? So who who have you really like looked into and kind of modelled the way you the your style of calling?
SPEAKER_02A guy called Graham Smoky Dawson, an iconic ABC commentator. Uh again, dear friend, great mentor. At the same time, I'll only go as far as to say modelled myself on him by the style, a very fast-paced style, a lot of information. Always remembering there should never be dead air on on radio. Um, the former general manager at 30W, great caller as well, Shane Healy, used to have his favourite comment was about painting the picture. And and really these days you are, I know a lot of people now, you know, turn down the TV volume and listen on the radio or at the ground, they'll listen to the radio, but the bulk of people still they're in their car, out in the garden, or or wherever. So you have to um you can never tell them enough where the ball is, what the score is, what time of the quarter it's at, which quarter we're in, given all the different time slots and and stuff like that. So Smokey, um, I just loved his high-energy, fast-paced style, but it's very important, and you know, occasionally over the years you see some callers come in and they you just know they're trying to be the next Rex Hunt or the next Dennis Comedy with maybe a bit of a put on. I and this was said to me as well, try and be the first Bruce Eva. Don't try and be the next Smokey Dawson. You've got to have your own flavour and colour and and style. But but smoke was one that I certainly leant into. That's the new phrase in it.
SPEAKER_01You've got to be your own authentic self. Definitely. Yeah. No, very good. You've gone on to wear many hats, broadcaster, journalist, author, MC. How did you go about finding your voice, literally and figuratively?
SPEAKER_02Well, I guess it goes back to where we where we started in terms of being a uh a talkative teenager and and uh always having an opinion, uh, always having a particularly around sport, couldn't tell you what I had for breakfast yesterday, but you know, can remember the final scores in the 1970 grand final type thing. So with that base of knowledge, um it certainly has uh it's sort of known as my strength, the fact that I have got such a vast reservoir of sporting knowledge. Um, and there's some Tony Leonard is excellent like that, John Anderson. There's just so many that uh that are of of a similar bent, if you like. So that has helped me develop into an MC. Um it does come back to preparation though as well. I MC a lot of um sportsmen's nights and and functions and the like, and the confidence you get from um from being on air, um you do grow, and it's with experience as well. Uh we said earlier about like the first time I was ever on the radio on the home phone doing a boxing report. I I can't even remember what it was, but the first couple of times when you're emceeing an event and you just want like a an early laugh, or yeah, you know, you don't want to fall over your words, and yeah, you think back when you're younger doing it, you get the dry mouth, and um so a lot of it is just you know the experience. You you you can't put a an old head on young shoulders, I guess. I know it's another cliche, but particularly in the media that that certainly does apply.
SPEAKER_01Do you think it's passion as well? The passion, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, um well I'm Shank, I'm glad you brought that up because um I think that's well I've been told a lot over the years that my passion for sport comes through in my broadcasts. And and really when you know, when you're there like sometimes you're at the MCG and there's 80,000 people, you're in the best seat in the house, like level two, centre wing, uh, you're sitting there with Australian sporting icons. Yeah, you described the guy, but you know, I said this to someone yesterday actually, one of the clients of it. I said, yeah, like I sit with Lee Matthews on a Saturday. I get to talk footy with Lee Matthews every Saturday afternoon. How's your job going? Sort of thing. Like, you you know, once again, Smokey Dawson, it's um it's not being disparaging to the because it is a craft. It is a craft, it's a profession. Um, but the old line, you know, we'll get a real job one day. Why on earth would you want to do that? Because it is so much fun, but you've got to be passionate about it and you've got to respect the people that you call with who are you. know brilliant at their at their craft and it's interesting in the last few years as well like some of the players just coming out of um coming out of the game I mean last year and and they're sort of learning on the job so we've added Joel Selwood and Rory Sloan and Sam Doherty to our call team in the last 12 to 18 months and I mean someone like Joel Selwood who I didn't know at all I I obviously interviewed him on the phone a couple of times or you know when he's joined us in the rooms after the game that he wouldn't have known me from Adam. And um the first time I met him we were calling Geelong Fremantle round one last year and we all know the tragedy that he endured last year with two of his brothers passing away and I'd met him and then neither of us was on air yet because the footy preview Tim Lane was still doing footy preview. But I've known him for between five and ten minutes and I'm standing next to him in the commentary box at GMHBA Stadium or Cadenia Park and the tributes come up on the big screen to his just deceased brother and I'm thinking I've known this bloke for five minutes and he's got no other sort of so I just sort of automatically I just sort of put my arm around him just gave his shoulder a couple of pounds I think he like he appreciated and it was tough for him and then and this was before we'd introduced him on air for the first time on 3RW Footy and 10 minutes later I'm then welcoming him to 3RW Footy because Tim's finished the preview he's off I'm on to call the game with Tony Leonard I'm welcoming him to 3RW football I'm passing on condolences from the football community and the 3RW family. I'm asking him how he's feeling having just seen the tribute so sometimes you know you're confronted with situations trying not to get emotional yourself trying to stay professional and that's where what I said about earlier where you go to work virtually every day and you just don't know what's what's sort of going to be thrown at you your role sounds amazing. Now for people that don't have an idea of what you do or what does a working day look like what does that look like uh heavily backended in terms of the week uh people say what do you do you just play golf Monday, Tuesday Wednesday I've got a couple of slow-moving books on the go. It does give you a lot of flexibility like you know your roster obviously I always say uh particularly because football is the fabric of this city the MCG is the heartbeat of this city not just for footy but cricket and concerts and all sorts of events as we know um so yeah so you know first half of the week you're just playing golf and going out for long lunches it it's so you pack so much into um such a short period of time you're pretty cooked usually on the well I'm not calling Sundays this year but um you know your first if you're doing three days in a row it's amazing how many past players when they come into radio in particular and they get off air and they say how mentally tired they are completely different feeling to you know playing chasing the footy around for for two hours um and that even at the start of the season I know in the first few weeks of the year when you're calling three games you'd be pretty stonkered in the first couple of days afterwards just the because you're just concentrating so hard you're just on you're just on as soon as that light's on and that microphone's on you just can't afford to sleep. Yeah we all make mistakes but you you're just you're just on so I you know usually take take it pretty pretty casual and that for the first couple of days but the Thursday Friday Saturday I do a lot of prep because I haven't played at the highest level I always what does prep look like when you say prep what does that look like yeah well I love um so if it's Carlton Richmond the Thursday night coming up March 12th so I'll do a lot of well calling at the start of the year is the hardest time of the year to call players have changed clubs players have changed hairstyles players have changed numbers even sometimes players are going to be more suntanned than than they were at at the end of the previous year. So and new players the draftees that have uh that have come in the young kids like I remember last year with Richmond there were so many kids in that game against Carlton where they came from seven goals down. Don't remind me Bruce don't remind me so you you know in the next couple of weeks we're only I'm calling state of origin calling state of origin more night's gonna be because in you haven't seen these guys in WA or Victorian jumpers ever. Yeah let alone with the like I noticed on the news the other night I thought oh Bond's had a bit of a haircut hasn't he's not as long anyway so just a lot of um early in the season you try and watch as much vision as you can like we haven't got the old preseason comp anymore there's only one match sim and then there's you know practice games so I I statistically I like to find lots of I'll go through every player before a game um even like is it going to be his birthday the next day or the day just something that'll give you another little it's amazing how many players play on their on their birthday you've you've just got to check that is the week after going to be his 150th game or is it is it a milestone game? Lots of different things like that. I I really dig into that just just for something extra which can be a um talking put you mightn't use it but you might also if that guy's having a set shot and something's happened where there's some extra seconds to kill this comes back to you don't want to have any dead air so um yeah so you people might say oh that's great you're just pouring over previous games and well that's the other thing I do you always check how did that player go the last time against that team um was it maybe a milestone did he get injured last last time there's always little angles that you that you can flush out.
SPEAKER_01Well you can use a lot of the research skills from your print days and bring it back.
SPEAKER_02Yeah and probably the other thing which I haven't mentioned my biggest side hustle or freelance gig is uh this I still can't believe how big footy cards are in the market trading cards. There's two major companies that do them one of them select which are sort of the high end cards so for the last 20 years this will be my 21st year any select footy card that's got a player profile on the back I'm the one that's written it. Oh really so the and I've given away my anonymity there because it hasn't got pile on it. But that helps with your research as well. So wow yeah so that's um so that that keeps me busy early in the week when I've got sets of footy cards to uh to write or anything just the just the footy cards right yeah yeah yeah they used to do some cricket cards but now they just do footy cards. How's that?
SPEAKER_01How do you score a gig like that?
SPEAKER_02Yeah well again uh I sort of inherited it from uh I think it was now the late Greg Hobbs that used to do it former chief footy writer on the Herald I got the gig in 2005 uh the design company that does it for them the two guys that own it um I used to work with them they're very close mates we used to work with them at Inside Footy Inside Football magazine and then the football record when I was worked on the footy record for a few years and they apparently I was the first one they thought of with again that statistical grounding and and you know history of the game I do a lot of proofing for them as well because it's amazing how many mistakes you pick up not in my writing but just with the stats so yeah so it's always a full week it's always a full week in an era when where media's changing so dramatically you've got social media you've got podcasts you've got 247 news what's the one constant that's remained the same yeah well with with mentioning the modern I I'm a dinosaur uh I'm not I only listen to one podcast and that's uh interesting John Sylvester's Naked City. I know I need to so Hutto and I were having a chat about this a few months ago he consumes podcasts like you have your breakfast seal every every morning I said oh no I I only listen to this one there's so many of them the markets saturated um the well the one constant in in radio is as I mentioned earlier is the immediacy of it I mean and okay I'll talk about my area football yep like football has changed so much over the years but when you go to Call of Goma footy I was going to say that is going to change this year as well the umpire's gonna bounce it the scores are zero zero one side's kicking one way one side's kicking the other and you still have to yeah the lingo's changed a bit so um I reckon particularly with sport in Melbourne I reckon this is like a looking at a broader canvas our whole calendar is built around our events and and and our sporting events now blend into the social fabric and particularly in the hospitality area and that and you just have to go through the you know the tennis the Grand Prix the footy season the big one-offs we get with you know the soccer tours the like the spring carnival the cricket it's just like Melbourne in particular it's a it's a tag which we do wear with with pride we are we like to think of ourselves as the sporting capital of the world not I think we are because I don't think there's any other city that has a major one of the slams and a Grand Prix for example um we know our football code the great irony like we're Australia's divided in the football codes we know that but then you look at the crowds that Melbourne Storm get across the railway line at Amy Park and they're probably apart from the Broncos and that they're probably the best home and away attendances in down the eastern seaboard and we're meant to be just you know Neanderthals when it comes to embracing NRL so we you know we we just sport makes our city tick and that makes it even better to be be a part of it.
SPEAKER_01Here's a controversial question. Do you see in the medium landscape with obviously now digital being uh a presence do you think that there's a a change in that?
SPEAKER_02In the media the media only survives through advertising. Yeah unless you work for the ABC where the taxpayers pay for it of course um I know for um with 30W for example um particularly in our footy space or our digital space um as they gradually get to monetize um the the digital side of the business with reels and um the stuff they do out of their commentary box for example you know and how like the the people that view those short reels and that are just I can't get my head head around it. So that's other forms of of media that they're trying to attach clients to um and and that's just what makes the whole business tick. So as I said I I am a dinosaur though I don't try and pretend that I maybe it's too late for me. I'm about to turn 58 um I know how to turn a microphone on and turn a microphone off. I still do a lot of handwritten notes. I work the computer okay but I don't like it when it when it plays up on me. You know I I I'm only on Instagram to sort of see what my kids are doing. I don't tweet that often um let alone I the main thing I have to do on Instagram like you get posts shared with you by 30w that you've got to share and then you see the mushroom effect of of of the engagement how many people it's getting out to so I'm I'm being dragged to that yeah right not reluctantly but but slowly as I try and get my head around it.
SPEAKER_00But sorry Bruce with with with Twitter or X now it's called isn't that such a big platform for like people that call sports?
SPEAKER_02Right in terms of some broad prolific yeah I know probably a couple of the more prolific tweeters out there like Rowan Connolly who I'm good mates with I just don't um when I say I've fully embraced it I mean I jump on to see what's happening and it's where you get your news like the way we found out I know we're not time specific with this chat but so Tom Green from the Giants gun midfielder he's done his knee this morning and so you first saw that on on Twitter on X where where it comes out that he's been injured at training. So yeah I saw that on social media before I heard it on the on the 3W news so that's the place it's it's taking in the across the whole spectrum yeah Bruce now not only you're a journalist and broadcaster but you're also an author you wrote your first book when you were 22 yep sold about six six thousand copies.
SPEAKER_01Correct good research and you're now about to do another book I've got two books on the go.
SPEAKER_02I've written or I've written all of a book or part thereof of about eight or nine uh haven't had one come out for about 20 years of two of the slowest moving pieces of literature in Australian publishing publishing history. I'm writing a book on the MCG and I'm writing Trevor Barker's biography. It'll be 30 years in April since Barks passed away it's ridiculous how long that one's been going on for and I've still got so much to do. But the MCG one I'm confident is going to be out by the end of this year. I want to because the MCG is hosting two Tests this coming summer Boxing Day against New Zealand and then next March the 150th anniversary match against England to celebrate the start of Test cricket in 1877. It was from an idea there's been a couple of books written on the MCG but I don't think well in fact I'm sure one hasn't been written like this back in 2004 when I was working at uh AF publishing of the footy record we also did other uh other books um it was an Olympic year so it was sort of the back half of 2003 into the 2004 Athens Olympics uh myself and another uh very good journalist very good sports writer by the name of Sean Callender were given the task of writing an Australian sports diary a famous Australian sporting anecdote male or female anywhere in the world any sport that has happened on every day of the year and uh it it was a lot of fun it was a lot of fun while we're working on that and we're now talking just over 20 years ago I remember thinking I wonder if something noteworthy memorable controversial worth recalling has happened at the MCG every day of the year every date of the year all 366 let's not forget February 29 every four years uh and I just started chipping away they I didn't tell anyone I just started chipping away at that and it wasn't just footy and cricket games it was concerts and Pope visits and Billy Graham the evangelist Olympic games and 56 Commonwealth games um the the whole lot of the full spectrum um I wouldn't touch it for a couple of years we then got the cricket rights at 30W which I was in charge of that so I was literally 12 months of the year for seven years there and then when we lost the cricket rights um back in 2020 when Channel 9 bought us um I thought wonder how much of this book I've actually done okay no I've still got hundred or so dates to fill so got back stuck into it and anyway cut a long story short I'm now into the final editing process there's a couple of dates in October I'm still not happy about but uh I've only got about yeah about I've got the anecdote I just need to flesh out I've got about 120 to go where I've written a few lines but every anecdote will be sort of between a hundred and some of them are up to about 250 words. I'm making only one anecdote per date. Right. So it's going to lead to a bit of debate and discussion in terms of what are you gonna what are you going with on December well what are you going late September with all the grand final dates. We've had grand finals played through all the way through until October 23 yeah with replays and that as well and it's not just you know it's the sc when the scoreboard caught on fire for example another Richmond Carlton game.
SPEAKER_01So there's been uh and and a lot of the you know the great marks the great goals some of the incidents where you know players have been suspended Greg Williams pushing the umpire things where people look and go that's right either I was there um I remember where I was when that happened when that happened I remember who I was with because let's face it round the water cooler at the pub and that it comes back to sport being the fabric as well MCG is such a part of it and yeah most people I've spoken to about it go yeah that's a great idea I'd like to get a copy of that yeah it'd be a great read for sure I'm hoping great conversation starter you can leave it up as a coffee table book leave it up there flip it open that's it bang and just have not only conversations but have a few argy barges now let's move into the lessons that you've learnt along your journey after nearly four decades in media what are the biggest lessons that you've learnt uh and that touching on longevity credibility and pressure the biggest lesson over the four decades and it has just gone forty years exactly is to listen now that sounds very simplistic but um when you're a journalist or when you're a so this is different to calling life sport of course but uh you can never you can never listen enough you can never learn enough and I know I I look back and I think about the you know going throughout my twenties and that and everyone thinks they not that they know everything but it's just amazing how much you continue to just try and be a sponge.
SPEAKER_02Just try and try and be a sponge and one of the first days at the Herald um when we used to get the old lectures and stuff like that our cadet counsellor who's long passed on he was an elderly gentleman at the time a journalist by the name of John Holden and he had a couple of mottos and mantras which still hold true to this day. It was um inaccuracy is a curse and it's not about necessarily being first but it's about being right and that comes with preparation knowledge research but listening and I think it's why a lot of print journalists have made good radio commentators and when I say commentators I'm talking about with I come back to Neil Mitchell um because when as a print journalist when you're interviewing people you've got to get and then you leave them you've you've got to have all the information you've got to have asked good questions to get the necessary information to write a good story. And then it's the same in radio when you're interviewing um people like sports interviews in the main are a lot easier to do than probably news and current affair interviews because so much of our news and current affairs is bad news. Although these days you know with some of the sports stories that uh that come out off the field uh lend itself to some some tough questioning so it's just you've got to be and it's one bit of advice I give to any um young journo coming through and this applies this even goes into the MCing field. So often you see people when you know you've got a you're emceeing an event and so you're doing I've been fortunate enough in the last few years for example uh to do quite a few gigs with Ian both them comes out every every summer to Australia he loves spending time in Australia and New Zealand he doesn't do keynote addresses he'll only do QA I've been for he loves working with me I've done quite a few gigs with him and it's just so I always tell myself you've got to listen to the answers. So many people sometimes it might come down to nerves yeah you've got your sheet of questions that you want to ask as as you guys have today um and sometimes though you you you've got to if you don't listen to the because listening to the answer might give you another question you didn't even think of you can you delve deeper into a certain topic yeah you can extrapolate on that you can the threads of that conversation can go in a in a a pathway that you didn't think was there and that's where I always say you must listen because or else if you're not listening to what they're saying you're just gonna go into your next question. You might have missed an absolute diamond in the rough yeah an absolute pearl that that you could you know what did you mean by that or can you expand on that because you just said that so that that's probably the the golden rule listen.
SPEAKER_00Yep yep and what advice would you give to young Hale Burians who want to get into journalism um broadcasting or any creative careers yeah um I've held firm on this look it's the media is a tough industry to get into I never should
SPEAKER_02Sugarcoat that, yeah, it's it's it's a massive industry, it's what we rely on for our communications. Tell me who doesn't get through a day without watching the news, listening to the radio, reading a paper or magazine, or social media, Twitter, Instagram, whatever. Um, plenty of people multitask, so there aren't as many positions out there as there used to be. And on top of that, there's so many different courses now. People come out of uni, whether they've done journalism, professional writing, media studies, you know, people that go to radio schools and the like. So, and I'll use a couple of examples. Um, if you get an opportunity, you can prove to yourself how much you want to get into the industry by what you're prepared to do to take that opportunity. And by that I mean don't think you're just gonna walk into a cadet ship, but um, I don't think they're even called cadet ships anymore, internship or whatever they are, at one of the Metropolitan Dailies or at one of the major radio stations or one of the major TV stations. Um if you get offered an opportunity on a country newspaper, uh interstate newspaper, radio station. I was fortunate. I and I knew I was fortunate enough. Yep, I got into the Herald straight out of school. Um great mate, one of the best sports photographers we've got in the country, bloke called Michael Klein. He started two weeks after me on the Herald. Uh, he wasn't even a cadet chip, he was just a messenger. No promise of being able to get into, he wanted to become a photographer. He was a messenger for at least at least two years. Back then, pre-digital photography, he um uh we had you know the dark room and that stuff like that. So he talked about doing the hard yards, he was just a low-down messenger, delivering mail, stuff like that. But he was there under their eyes. And and my um my partner Leslie, her cousin, uh, I've got to think of her married name, Kara Monson. She was Cara Irving. She got her first opportunity in journalism in a regional paper in country, country Queensland, uh, I think it was Gladstone from memory. Worked her way back, uh, got a position on a regional paper in Victoria. I don't want to say whether it was Ballarat or Bendigo, because I can't quite remember. She is now the food critic on the Herald Sun.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_02Um, so from having to go two states away, away from her family, not knowing anyone, young lady forging her path. So they're two great examples. If you want it bad enough, you'll um and that's just I often say to young people that are doing a course or whatever, when an opportunity comes up, don't even think twice about it. Don't never think, no, this is beneath me or this is gonna be a dead end. Just get that foot in the door, get that foot in the door, and then that at least gives you the chance to show your where's go over above and beyond, show how keen you are to learn and you know expand your experience, so to speak.
SPEAKER_01That's awesome. Um, and from your ex um perspective, um, why do you think that a strong alumni network like the OHA matters, not only just professionally, but also personally?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, the well the bond is uh obviously can only speak from personal experience. The bond is as strong with our cohort 40 years on um as it was when we walked out the gates here at the at the end of 1985. And I think it's uh we used to refer to it as the old school tie. Um it's hard to explain and hard to understand when you're here at the school, but you can see it um again, it it's it's nothing really tangible, although at a couple of you know tough periods in my professional career, particularly after I left S E N, the OHA like Russ Davidson just does such a great job running the OHA. Um he was one of the first person the first people to um to reach out to me and anything we can do to help. And just to know that support is is there. Um so it sounds probably very keeping it very simple, but that's yeah, it's it's a really hard feeling to uh describe, but um I think for people the the further you uh disappear, the mists of time, your school days behind you, uh those bonds with the people that you went through those times. Haylebury in the 80s was it was a it was a tough school. It was a really it was pre-being parallel education. There were no girls to show off in front of. Uh it was um you know, it was competitive and it was um but I reckon it made it it wasn't for everyone. I know quite a few blokes who you know didn't enjoy their didn't enjoy their their time here, but I mean but I loved it and um and I love the the threads that still um that still uh bind us together.
SPEAKER_00So this podcast this podcast is about going beyond the blazer. So when the mic's off, what keeps Bruce Eva grounded?
SPEAKER_02My kids that's a good start. Yeah, yeah, definitely well they're not kids anymore. They're 23, 20, and just turned 17. Um they keep you I guess uh when you work in the media, you do have a certain I mean your your profile is higher than if you're a you know an accountant or something like that. They're they're probably much more qualified, but yeah, you've got a recognisable um name or voice or head. Um I said I've done very little. The only TV I've really done has been in the boxing space. So people the way your voice sounds to yourself isn't the way that people hear your voice, and I keep getting told that I've got a recognisable voice. I can't hear that, but you get told that. And got a recognizable name if you follow sport. So over the years, I like to think everyone in the media has got to have a fairly healthy ego because it's just sort of you don't want to sound up yourself, but um, you know, you've got to have confidence that that what you're doing, you're doing well, and um, but that's the thing. I I've got um I'm not saying I haven't got any mates in the media, but like your kids, your your family generally, um the mates I've got through my local cricket club and through St Kilda Footy Club, which I've just got a such a passion for, IMC, about 90% of the club's functions, but all my mates that I watch the footy with when I'm not working, which they cover the full range of occupations and we're just all St Kilda Tragics. So, you know, you certainly don't walk around with any swagger when you're with with those blokes from Moravan Career Club or East Berwood Career Club. The bulk of people in my life would never let me uh would make sure I keep my feet well and truly on the ground.
SPEAKER_00All right, Bruce, let's finish off strong. We've got a spitball round. All right, here we go. Hopefully I don't sit on the fence too much. I know radio or print radio, footy or cricket?
SPEAKER_0250-50, can't split them.
SPEAKER_00Calling a game or analysing it after. Calling? Live radio or pre-recorded? Live, early start or late finish.
SPEAKER_02Late finish, and that's the most I love sport under lights. I love so late finish. Favourite sport to call? Again, you're gonna say I'm sitting on the fence and getting splinters. Literally cannot split football, cricket, or boxing. A third each.
SPEAKER_00Hardest sport to cover.
SPEAKER_02Uh race call. I've never done race calling professionally. Uh I've tried athletics a few times. I'd say calling horse racing or athletics, I would uh suggest. Best stadium in Australia. The MCG. Best atmosphere you've experienced. Anytime you're at the MCG, there's 75,000 plus, and the place is heaving, and that is across football or cricket, it is spine-tingling. Deadline pressure. Love it or hate it. Love it. Biggest career break. Getting the cadet ship on the Herald straight out of school.
SPEAKER_00Toughest interview.
SPEAKER_02A Scottish golfer by the name of Sam Torrents, who, when I was hosting the evening show on SEN, he was being brought out, I think it was to celebrate the centenary of the Australian PGA, which he was a winner of. And I was uh did a radio interview with him. Virtually every answer was one or two words. I'm not sure why he got out of the wrong side of bed that day. I probably he gave me absolutely nothing. I probably had to ask him 40 or 50 questions. That was thinking on your feet. Most memorable sporting moment. Uh I'll divide this into personally, seeing St Kilda win three preliminary finals. I'm still yet to see them see them win a uh a grand final, of course. Professionally, probably too many to differentiate, but um, in hindsight, not that I knew it at the time, being the person that named the awesome foursome is uh is pretty damn memorable. So you name you coined the term. Yep, even though I didn't know it at the time. It was a story on the Herald. Story on the Herald. They hadn't even won their first Olympic gold, they'd just won the world championships, I think, in Lake Barrington in Tasmania. I was sent down to interview these four rowers. What I knew about rowing, you could have written in 24 point on a postage stamp, and I sent down to interview these four guys on the banks of the uh the Yarra this one morning, and it was at the time the uh the mean machine, the four by one hundred freestyle relay team, were just sort of finishing up in swimming, and I mentioned the late like trying to get the closing part of the conclusion was I was really struggling with it, and I just said, you know, they're about to finish, you know, in the water, maybe on the water. Um, but I'm paraphrasing here, I've got to dig the story out. Uh, these guys could be our awesome foresome, and they loved it and they picked it up and they ran with it. Amazing. That's unreal. Yeah. So never seen a cent for it though. Whenever I whenever I bump into them, we do have a laugh about it, but they do they acknowledge it in the book they wrote. And at any it's amazing how many people have tried to claim that over over the years, but no, that's my that's my claim to fame. Wow. Preparation or instinct? Both. It's got to be instinct when you're calling live sport, but you've got to be well prepared.
SPEAKER_00Media today, better or worse? Worse. Advice you'd give your younger self.
SPEAKER_02Try and get into radio earlier and maybe get a manager.
unknownYep.
SPEAKER_00Yep. One word to describe journalism. Challenging. One word to describe broadcasting. Invigorating. One word to describe Halebrew. Awesome. And one word to describe the OHA community.
SPEAKER_02Strong.
SPEAKER_01That was Sharp, bros. Thank you very much for playing along.
SPEAKER_00And thank you for sharing your journey, your voice, and your experiences.
SPEAKER_02Thanks, guys. It's been great to take a walk down memory lane with you. I look forward to listening to uh all the other episodes you're gonna do with other uh Haylibury alumni. Um it's a great school, continues to be a terrific school, and it's been good to have a chat with you today.
SPEAKER_00It's been a pleasure to have you on, Bruce. Thank you very much. Cheers.
SPEAKER_01To all our listeners, thanks for staying connected.
SPEAKER_00Because once a Haleborian, always a Hayliburian.
SPEAKER_01And remember, we go beyond the blazer because every Hayliborian has a story worth telling.