Episode 51: Maurie Soars, The Push up king

🎙️ EPISODE BLOG — WHO IS YOUR HERO

“The One We Couldn’t Cut”

Some episodes you plan…
 Some you structure…
 Some you split into clean little parts so they fit nice and tidy…

👉 This wasn’t one of them.

This episode…
 Just kept going — and for all the right reasons.

Because when the conversation is real…
 When the walls come down…
 When truth starts flowing without filters…

You don’t interrupt that.

You don’t force a break.

You let it breathe.

🔥 WHAT YOU’RE ABOUT TO HEAR

This isn’t a highlight reel.

This is the full journey.

The laughs.
 The heavy moments.
 The uncomfortable truths.
 The raw honesty that most people avoid…

And the kind of conversation that reminds you:

👉 We’re all carrying something.

There were moments in this episode where we could’ve stopped…
 We could’ve wrapped it up and said, “That’s Part 1…”

But it didn’t feel right.

Because life doesn’t come in neat little parts.

And neither do the stories that matter most.

💥 WHY THIS ONE MATTERS

This episode represents everything Who Is Your Hero stands for:

• Real people
• Real stories
• Real conversations
• No filters

Just truth.

And sometimes…
 Truth takes time.

❤️ A MESSAGE TO YOU (THE LISTENER)

If you’ve made it through this episode —
 If you’ve stayed the distance…

That says something about you.

Because not everyone is willing to sit in the raw.

Not everyone is willing to listen…
 Really listen.

So here’s your challenge:

👉 Don’t just listen — act.

• Reach out to someone you’ve been thinking about
• Say what needs to be said
• Tell someone what they mean to you

Because we say it all the time here…

Don’t wait for the funeral to give the eulogy.

🤝 THANK YOU TO OUR GUEST

To our guest on this episode…

Thank you.

For the honesty.
 For the vulnerability.
 And for trusting this platform with your story.

That takes courage — and it matters more than you know.

🚀 HELP US BUILD THE TRIBE

If this episode hit you…

👉 Share it
 👉 Tag a mate
 👉 Post it up

Because every share helps this message reach someone who might need it.

🌍 WHO IS YOUR HERO DAY — MARCH 19

This movement is bigger than a podcast.

On March 19…

Take 19 minutes and tell someone what they mean to you.

Say it now.
 Don’t wait.

And if you can — share your moment with us.

Let’s make this go viral in year one.

💛 SUPPORT THE MOVEMENT

If you believe in what we’re building…
 If these stories matter to you…

You can support here:

👉 https://ko-fi.com/whoisyourhero

 👉 https://gofund.me/a6e40c460

Every bit helps us keep these stories alive.

🎧 LISTEN NOW

This one’s not a quick listen…
 And it’s not meant to be.

Take your time with it.

Sit in it.

Feel it.

🎙️ FINAL WORD

This wasn’t just an episode.

This was a reminder…

That real conversations still matter.
 That people still matter.
 And that your story —

👉 It matters too.

I’m Buzz…
This is Who Is Your Hero

And as always…

👉 Hero up. ❤️

Transcript

SPEAKER_09 0:34

When tears are ready, your eyes I will drop them just.

SPEAKER_06 1:25

All right, welcome back, legends, to Who Is Your Hero? Yes, it's Buzz back again. The podcast where ordinary people with extraordinary stories step into the chair and remind us of what courage actually looks like. Today's guest is a bloke. Many of you in Townsville, you already know him. He's a Masters AFL legend. He's a former Townsville councillor, a bloke who spent decades serving his community, shaking hands, kicking footies, the push-up king, helping people and showing up when it really mattered. But today he's not here because of footy. He's not here because of politics. He's here because life has thrown in the hardest opponent he's ever faced, cancer. And if you know Maury Sawz, you know one thing, he's not the type of bloke to walk off the field when things get tough. He's the type who laces the boots, tighter and runs straight bloody at it. So today we're going to talk about the man, the footy, the community, the diagnosis, and the fight he's got ahead. This episode is about resilience, mateship, and what real courage looks like when the scoreboard suddenly doesn't matter anymore. So Townsville, Australia, wherever you're listening from, pull up a chair, grab a coffee, grab a beer. It's past midday, because this is the fight of his life. Maury Sores, welcome to Who is Your Hero? I'm good, buddy. More so, how are you today? And uh thanks so much for coming on with uh even if where you're sitting in life and the fight of your life, you've got the uh time for us and our listeners over half a million now that if they think they're having a bad day, we're gonna make them feel all right today, eh? You're doing a fantastic job there. Thanks, buddy. Thank you. We'll get right into it. Uh Murray, take us right back. Where did life staff you? What sort of kid were you growing up?

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Well, I suppose I probably had a bit of a rocky start. My dad unfortunately was um killed while doing national service when I was six months old. Uh so pretty well the fights had to start from there. I was a uh my mum remarried, I was adopted. Um and I suppose in that space going from the 50s into the sixties at the time. Um you essentially had to forge your own way.

SPEAKER_06 3:55

But you've never made excuses for that. You just got in, got down, got dirty, and uh how old are you these days?

SPEAKER_01 4:01

I just turned 70.

SPEAKER_06 4:02

Just turned seventy, so there's been a lot of learning and a lot of a lot of things going on. You never blamed anything though, you just you just went forward and did it, eh?

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Well, you've got to take ownership of what you do. I I I think um the reality is moving through life and there's no set pattern. I do think God's got a sense of humor, you know, experience it's the sort of thing you get right after you need it. Yeah. So um uh as we go through life we we've got certain ideals or or or focuses um uh that were important, you know, like at school they made it perfectly clear to everyone that uh if you want to get in right you had to be better than the next person, right? And uh they made no bones about that. They didn't make any excuses. There were no second priorities. There was only you came first or you didn't. As simple as that. So whether you're competing in a cross country playing a puddy game, or you're trying to get a better education, you'll get to make you could have the one you had. When I started school, junior uh look uh primary school, um grade eight was still at primary school, and you can actually finish school at that point.

SPEAKER_06 5:14

Yeah, it's quite amazing. Now you get a ribbon for everything. Participation first, second, last, cutting the oranges, um, turning up, and um I'm with you. I'm a fair few years younger than you, but I still remember wanting to win. And uh if you didn't win, there was no th such thing as second in my book, but life's changed. Hey, um what was footy? Uh was footy in your in your blood or did someone drag you down a footy field one day?

SPEAKER_01 5:40

Oh no, I I think um the school I went to uh at uh Oussie Wheels, or AFL as they call it now. Um and so uh at a fairly young age she got involved at the school level. I was I did have her moncles that played putty at the top level. Uh Wayne Stewart, Thomas Stewart, and uh they were great main and keeper who slash footballers in their day. Uh Wayne got me to go down with that. I started club footy in 1963. And I played it through my last season was 2023. So I did 61 season. So uh and it was only whenever I started to get sick that I had to give it away.

SPEAKER_06 6:24

Yeah, I remember uh we'll get into that uh down the track. I won't I won't start it uh so who were you who were your heroes growing up as a young fella?

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Uh I suppose I had a grandfather that was the uh president of the Redcliffe Footy Club. And uh he ran a business and that really impressed me, no end, and uh and I had uncles that played footy at the uh and played a rugged game of footy, and we're talking about a game back then. Um where violence was not only condoned, it was expected, if I can put it that way.

SPEAKER_05 7:00

Yeah, I got the back end of that. I got the back end, I still experienced it, but it was starting to taper off.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

But um you um the uh reality was that uh if you uh did you any good at footy, you had to um essentially train harder than anyone else there. It's uh it's a great collective of a game. Um and it does teach you some valuable lessons, I believe. Uh uh football because it's a team sport, it's a collective of the team, magnifies the outcome. Uh but it requires the individual inputs across the whole board. And if you buy all those things to life, I think you'll come out uh ahead more often than behind.

SPEAKER_06 7:48

Uh sort of leads into my next next question, actually. Mauri, what lesson did sport teach you early that stuck with you through your life? Sorry, was that the what what lessons did sport, AFL, well, if it was your predominant sport, did it did that what did that teach you and and uh early and that's what what was the moments that stuck you with stuck with life for through that?

SPEAKER_01 8:13

Well, i it it it it taught me um to get results you need to put effort in, but it it it didn't hand itself on a plate for you, right? And back where I came from, it's essentially um I got an apprenticeship which I had to compete for and had to stay in front of everyone within that space to keep that role. Uh and that stayed with me through my entire life as I went out of my teens into my 20s sort of thing, right? Um I therefore you had to work harder and deliver a better result than anyone else around you, essentially, or thereabouts, right? Um you definitely didn't give them reasons either to sack you or whatever, and that that went across not only your business life, your personal life and what have you. So that to um get the sort of outcome you're looking for, because you know, we're pretty dirt poor. Want to go back to the 50, right? Had had place nothing in those days. So we got fed, yes, we didn't starve to death, I get it. Uh but not much else. Uh so therefore moving into as as I we moved from the sixties and the seventies when I started work, it was seventy, and before I started working. Uh you just worked harder longer than anyone else, the same as you did on the footy gang round. You you trained harder, longer. And sometimes your physical abilities weren't equal to others. So you had to find ways uh of improving what you did have available to you.

SPEAKER_06 9:56

Yeah, work on work on your strengths, not your weaknesses. I suppose it's an old adage, but it's so true, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Exactly so. And uh, you know, like um I went to a school that you either had to learn how to fight or run. I was a bloody good runner.

SPEAKER_06 10:14

Yeah, look, um, I I I gotta throw a question in here because you you've lived that life of the the early 70s and young family and started work and and now we're in uh 2026, um 50 years on, I suppose. Um it was hard for you guys back then, and people think it's hard right now, but you know, my philosophy is knuckle down, uh pull in when you have to pull in and let go when you have to let go. And there's a lot of people worried at the moment what the world's doing. Um that there's this has happened before, I suppose, but everyone's like saying the clouds are gonna fall in, the the the fuel prices are up, you would have seen it, the the supermarket costs are up, you would have seen it. Um the the war's on, you would have seen it. What what's your message like for those people that that are really stressed at the moment, just uh relax a bit, you know? You're not you're not the only one suffering this, eh?

SPEAKER_01 11:09

We do have a society that is the collective, and regardless of what our opinion of those that lead us, whether that be high or or not that high, that collective will come to the forefront, right? As individuals, um gather yourself, see what your strengths are, what your weaknesses are, do a SWOT analysis, as I used to say, and um work on the areas you need to work on, right, to to get you through something, you know. Um have you got a veggie garden out the back? You know, do I really need to be running all these suppliances all the time? Can I drop my electric cock down? Do I need to drive somewhere? Can I do without going there? Right? I'm can't and me speaking now, don't can't we have Bruce when I live in towns or we built to make home. But once I get past my place, it was a bit like if I can refer correctly, um Buzz Tracky Cyclone Yassie. When we got hit by that sound, we lost power for quite a length of time. Now, I'd already built, designed and built my own solar battery kitchen back then because it was built in 2011, February 2011, which meant I had power. So my natives come over and whatever we could do to help, you know, if it was a charger battery, put a bit of milk in the fridge or whatever it took, you know. You know, sit down and watch the TV and get the latest news, you haven't got that, you know. We looked after everyone, especially. And I ran into a few guys, it was only about a year or so ago, and I asked them, I said, Well, it was over ten years since you asked me. I said, What have you done about your house to increase your resilience? And they said, Nothing. I said, Really? I said, What are you gonna do if something like that happens again? He said, Well, come over to your place. Uh we're not getting the lesson here, ladies and gentlemen.

SPEAKER_06 13:06

Yeah, yeah, great story, and what have you done about it? It it's a very good um very good analogy. If uh the young Maury could see the life you've lived, what would surprise him the most? Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Um I should have put it in harder.

SPEAKER_06 13:31

What you should have done 200 push-ups instead of 100 1A and it on a trip or I did do 200-1A, but that was correcting me.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Um Well, the thing is once you get in that profile, enough's never enough. You've never gone hard enough. How far could I stretch it if I'd done just that little bit more, right? Now that might seem strange to today's society, right? And I suppose we did uh we worked hard enough to cater for our needs. Not our wants, but our needs. Right. Um, and whether I was playing footy, when I think back, like uh, I'm not sure last year that I was uh inducted an Australian Hall of Fame. And that came out of um they mentioned the number of footy clubs that we've managed to start up in the region, right? But to me I always thought there was another one or two there we could have got away with, right? We could have should have started that.

SPEAKER_04 14:31

I want to stop this tremendous while we're talking to Maury Saws and want to tell you about something about this game that never leaves you. The jumper might get older, the body might get slower, but the fire, the fire never goes out.

SPEAKER_06 14:44

From every corner of Australia, from blokes and women who've lived a life to raise families, built careers, fought battles, we come back to wear it all again.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

The AFL Masters National Carnival, Newcastle 2026.

SPEAKER_04 15:01

Seven days, hundreds of things, thousands of stories, one guy that's still leading everything. When footy beats the coastline where the turf rolls in and the stories roll on. Newcastle like McLarrie is like gifts on and off the field. It's not just a carnival, it's a bloody reunion, a second chance, a reminder of who you can stop the boot, call the old teammate, pull the jumper back on because legend is done for time. They just come back for another carnival.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

Newcastle September 27th to October 3rd. Bring your story. Who is your hero? Not just for you. Get involved and see you in Newcastle 2026.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

They're still sitting in front of you. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does.

SPEAKER_06 16:10

I mean, that's putting a lot of pressure on yourself. But I suppose it's how we how we rolled. I remember back playing the semi-pro sport down in Melbourne. I I just trained harder than the bloke next to me, and I get what you're saying. I wanted that spot, you know, whether what was I overtraining? I don't care. And people were saying, Oh, give it up. You're you're too hungry about winning. And I said, if I have a bit of a spell, you're going to take my spot. And never forget, I was fortunate enough, Morray, to play in eight senior premierships uh over my journey, and you know, a lot of people don't get one. And that week before, you know, if your spot was a bit dodgy or there was someone coming at you on the training track, I tell you what, if you could kick him in the ankle in some bloody tackling competitions, you would to make sure he wasn't playing.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Well, exactly. Um a bit like yourself, I was fortunate enough to uh in a few uh premiership uh games down here in Brisbane. We're at a coach called Kenny Hayes, who was a monolith at the in the at the time, right? And he was being interviewed on radio, and the boy kept nudging him saying, What's the one thing that's gonna win this grand final for you? And Hazy was trying to be analytical, explaining it's not one thing, and he kept going and going. And in the end, he got the shit with the uh interviewer, because it kept pushing him. He said, All right, I do have one thing. He said, What's that? He said, You've got to have one crazy in the site. Right? And he said, Really? He said, You got one? You said, Yeah, we got Mozart.

SPEAKER_06 17:42

That's that's as true as my ass points of the ground, Moz, because we in all those premierships, I was half nuts, but not like some of them. I actually played a bit of football when I was younger. But uh, we had a few nuts, a fair few nut cases at one premier, and those guys were nuts. So you must have been a bit crazy for a coach to say that live on radio. Hey, look, mate, for people who don't know Masters Footy, explain what it is and why it's such a special community.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Okay, well, Masters Footy was originally organized. Um, what we had was a disconnect after guys had played in the local club competition or whatever competition they played in, right? About that 35 to 40 age grid. And suddenly all their um uh they stopped training, they stopped interacting with like-minded individuals, they ended up either on a hill or drifted off into uh uh parent land or whatever, went off in that direction. And the idea was to give them an avenue, it was primarily centered around men's health originally, but we now have ladies in both, so men and women's health. About getting them active, both mentally and physically, to have a better life by their participation than not. And uh well, I played a few games down Brisbane, and when I was up in town, so I had a boy called Bruce Benton, Wolfey. Uh he's unfortunately no longer with us. Um he rang me up one time, he said, I want you to get masters up and running in townsil. And we're talking about the late 90s at this streak. And so a boy called uh John Pym.

SPEAKER_05 19:25

Yeah, Finney knew him well, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

He's he's a legend. He told the two of us, get together and see what you can do. And so Finney and I got together. I uh did the marketing for the business side of things. Uh he went around, he got in those days that was Creep Stadium. Uh hadn't even been built. The uh Bulldogs Ground was there on the grounds of the Riverway there. And uh he came to me and said, We got trouble wise. He said, I can't get enough guys to come and we're trying to set up the first game. And it was in March for August 1998. And uh I said, All right. I said, No football is what I do, and we were both still playing club footy at the time, you know? And I said they all love a f a beer, and they love not better than a free beer. So tell them anyone that plays get free beer for the afternoon. And I had a business, the forklift business at the time. Well, don't you think we packed it out? They come from everywhere. Yeah. So that was the very first game. From there we uh promoted it and it it it organically grew over the years. Uh towns will end up becoming the largest Masters Puddy Club in Queensland.

SPEAKER_06 20:38

Right.

SPEAKER_01 20:39

So Well bigger than bigger than Brisbane clubs at the start. Way bigger than any single club. Well we we had one stage, uh we had over 120 registered players. Right.

SPEAKER_06 20:54

That's huge. Maureen, just before we go on there, I met you guys um in 2014 in Adelaide. Yep. I actually I probably met you uh the uh September before at the Early Beach Tropical Masters, I think. And it was actually the year Woofy died, because I remember Jack doing um you wouldn't call it a eulogy, a testimonial, what do you call a remembrance thing on the ground before we um played? Now I was still I was captain coach of Bakers Creek Tigers uh back then, but I'd had a marriage breakup. I was still heavily addicted to recreational drugs. My football career pretty much had finished down in Melbourne and and I'd had a uh marriage breakup at at the time. And um I moved to Mackay to build some sheds, ended up saying, Bloody hell, I'm I'm bored shitless and I'm I'm finding desire undesirable people again, like you do. I mean, if you shift towns, you've got to shift your mindset because shifting or hiding from something's not gonna fix it unless you start hanging around with good people. I mean, that's another Subject. But Jack Lumbee took me under the wing. Um, I had nothing, man. I I didn't couldn't rub two cents to my name, and I was coaching Baker's Creek for nothing. And Jack called me the kid. I was I was a 47-year-old kid, mate. All right. But that's what the great Jack Lumby called me. And he said, You're coming to Adelaide. And I said, Bro, I can't afford it. There's no way. He says, I'm I'm the Bald Eagles are paying for you. And frowning a mate, I get a bit of a tear in my eye when I talk about that story because it was 10 years ago. I've ended up back in Townsville through chronic kidney disease after visiting a great mate of mine now, Danny McLaughlin, who him and Marie put me up for four months till I got better. But that all started about Masters Footy. And when I I was so professional playing down in Melbourne, it wasn't funny. But as it ended on me, and I was thinking, what am I going to do every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday? I headed more towards naughty things in life. And I get entirely what you're saying. The masters brought me back into that something I love doing, I suppose. Yeah. I just I just needed to throw that in because you guys, you know, with the Queensland national side, I could almost I mean, bought me back to life. Yeah, well, this is the second time I've been brought back to life. So I've I've had a few lives, but I'd like to uh reiterate to our our listeners that yeah, if you want to talk about special community, it's a bloody special community to me.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

And you you're dead right, yes. Uh Walkley tragically passed away on the 14th of February, 2014. Um, he was actually coming up to spend a few weeks with me the night the he was uh hit with that one punch and kill. And Jack's 70 this year died. Uh when I find out the goats, I'll let you know. That'd be right, uh he down there, everyone on his property just uh dead uh just before possible.

SPEAKER_06 24:08

And another really great mate that I drop in every time I've been driving past, and I did it quite regularly, and you'd know the man himself, Timmy Monker. Yeah. Timmy Timmy was great makes with Woofie, and you guys would have had a lot of fun um pre-my arrival with uh Woofy and Monka and you and Jack and all that. The carnivals would have been crazy. You got a bit out of hand a few times. I uh I I wouldn't imagine that. But so you played a lot of footy Moz over the years. What's one moment it casts in the back of your mind you'll never forget?

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Oh um, one moment. Uh geez, that's a hard one, mate. I I I guess well, how about we go back to Adelaide 2022 and beating Victoria in the over 60s, Darth the over 60s to a national grand final win. In 2022.

SPEAKER_10 24:58

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 25:00

Right. And that and that meant a lot.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

Well, it not so much the win wasn't that important to me, but I could see how important it was to the boys. They could never beat Victoria, right? Because they got a very strong profile. Oh yeah. And year in, year out, they played only to just miss at the post. Just fall short. And to be able to pull together a side and get them through that game at 60 plus. 60 plus. And I even brought in older guys actually because I could see we had some uh shortfalls in a few of the positions. But I I said to one guy, I had to kneel down the night before, I said, if you can sit on the bench for me, he said, I'll give you a premiership medal. And that was RDD a premiership medal.

SPEAKER_06 25:51

Do you know a lot of those guys when you think about in 60? You've been lucky, you've played senior grand finals, and I've been very lucky. Well, we work for it, so luck's probably out of the equation. But a lot of those guys at 60s wouldn't have experienced any anything. Like people can go through their whole life without playing in a final.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

Exactly. And and and to have that experience. And there'd been a lot of history that'd been built up over the years, right?

SPEAKER_04 26:17

Townsville, let's talk about the wet season. Yeah, yeah, I know. Everything's flooding, grass is growing like some peptide, and your back lawn looks like the Amazon rainforest. And I'll tell you what, it's not slowing down. The brand new swing running to the Townsville Golf Club. This joint is open alive, and it's absolutely how many 15 minutes after golf line. Legends flying up to start one down the card. So we can get in the next place. Because right now, this is where the towns built is doing.

SPEAKER_03 27:36

Don't forget to tell them. But thank you.

SPEAKER_06 27:45

Oh, I know the Victorian. I'm a Victorian, but I've never played for them a flat for Queensland. And we knocked them off several times in the 45s of 50 with um with Nigger and Jags and that.

SPEAKER_01 27:55

That tends to be their vulnerable age group, but as they get older they get stronger. Alright? Yeah. And we actually had a side that was stacked, and I knew they were gonna stab it. And uh, well, and uh my insiders came racing to me and said, guess what they're doing? I said, they're always gonna do that, right? They gotta beat it. Well, this time we're gonna be one step ahead of it. And so we were able to uh secure the boys, we're able to secure that, and you should end it, blew them away. And that made you know it was so important to them.

SPEAKER_06 28:28

Yeah, and uh, if you don't understand the concept, on um presentation night in the Masters, there's something like 2,000 people in in the size of an entertainment centre with a band playing all Australian medals, grand final, all your peers, and you know, they maybe been enemies on there's still white line fever in masters, no doubt about that at national carnivals anyway. Um, and those nights there, and I was fortunate enough once again I won a couple of couple of Queensland things, but I I had a couple of All Australians in that, and I I'd honestly say that 2014 win in Adelaide myself when Paul Knoll and nigger was coaching us, and Fray's and and Moggs, and all those guys were playing, and I'd run some senior premierships, but in in the comeback of my life to win that was the boys and go to the Adelaide Convention or Centre and stand up and get your All Australian and your Premiership medal. And they even gave me a signed footy called the Crazy Ball that year, and I've still got it. But uh yeah, I've had a lot of individual efforts and that in football over my years, but I'd have to say, like you, that that masters win. Well, it was life-changing for me, and I've I met lifelong friends, hence that we're sitting here today, 10 years, 11 years on in Towns. Well, it's it's quite surreal, actually. It's quite surreal. But that's what Masters does. Um who were some of your biggest characters, mate? Were they were they on the field or in the change rooms or over the fence, or where were they, the characters you've met?

SPEAKER_01 29:57

Oh, I I think we're micked of them, you know. You you look at your bar with these uh uh Glenny Phillips, right? He's a real character. Uh you just look at people across, you know, Wolfrey back in his day. You know, with Bobby Templetons, your uh Jack Lumbee, you know, your guy from the Wig Tundas guy from um uh cans uh uh Montgomers. Uh we've had some really good players come out of uh Townshall. But then across the board down in uh Southeast Corner had some uh tremendously gifted individuals and committed individuals to the cause. Uh but we um we diverse a fair bit. It wasn't just all master footy. Uh I ended up becoming chair of the North Queensland Sports Foundation. Uh we were able to promote uh all forms of sport at all levels um across North Queensland. That was uh quite a privilege in that space. Um even as a councillor, I was chair of Sport and Rec and the ability to actually promote. Matter of fact, there was quite a lot how we end up getting the 2019 National Carnival to Townshill. They actually, the National Board really didn't want to come back to Townshill. They called it the Desert by the Sea, a garrison city. And I'd actually approached them, and uh, because we had a large um manufacturing uh Queensland Nickel shut down and put a lot of people out of work. We needed some economic activation at the time. So um I requested uh if I could speak to the National Board to convince them to get a national carnival back there to townselves they made it clear that they weren't really that interested. So uh uh the uh president at the time, Steve Urell, said, but you've been around pretty a long time. I'll tell you what we'll do. I'll give you 30 seconds to come up with something you can do in council footy wide that you can't do anywhere else in Australia. And I sat there for a minute. You've got to remember I just played a game in which I had the rat on my left eye knocked out. I'll do it like a Collingwood footboarder, uh or an umpire. Um so anyway, I looked up at him and I said, How would you like to pay footy on a tropical island on the Great Barrier Reef? And he sort of like looked at me and said, Can you do that? And I said, I've got a beautiful little footy ground on Raggy Island, of course we can. And that's how we got the 2019 uh carnival, the terror thing. It was probably the same thing when um I walked into the mayor's office in 2020, and I said to her, She was doing something on the computer, so I sat on a desk, which she used to hate. And uh I said, uh, have you have you seen what's going on in Victoria at the moment? She said, No, what? I said, Looks like they're gonna close down because of COVID retriction. And she said, so. I said, Well, they got a state of origin on this year. I was pretty certain they don't want to be playing that in front of the an empty uh grandstand. She said, Yeah, where are you going with this? And I said, Well, we got a brand new stadium that isn't doing anything. We don't have that treaching. I said, give your girlfriend down in Brisbane a ring and see if she might think it's a good idea to get great origin uh to council. And we did.

SPEAKER_06 33:20

Well, well, that's that's a a sit-on-the-desk moment, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 33:25

Yeah, that that that sort of like pulled that one off. And we've got a number of things that we've pulled off over the years that uh has created a lot of community benefit and raised a lot of money.

SPEAKER_06 33:36

What would uh what would a national carnival bring into a a reasonable town? Like it's going to Newcastle this year. Um it's been a town. What sort of you know, there's a lot of people coming to us and know, but what sort of money would it bring in, like into it?

SPEAKER_01 33:50

Depending on the um carnival, ours pulled in ten million, right, as economic activation. 3019. Between four and ten. Right. Jeez. So uh we know what we had a particularly strong one. Uh in that uh we had a a very good uh participation rate. And we had their people come up to town so that uh love the place that much. Uh we had numerous businesses and houses purchased by uh suddenly while they were up there.

SPEAKER_06 34:27

Yeah, it does. It does, it's more than the game, isn't it? Um that that sort of stuff. And uh kudos to um kudos to that uh state of ideas. I wasn't aware. Let's step out of footy for a minute.

SPEAKER_03 34:38

What?

SPEAKER_06 34:39

Uh let's step into your service of the community, which uh a lot of a lot of listeners here in towns will know anyway, but it's to those others around Australia and in Masters uh football. So you also stepped into local politics and became a councillor. What made you decide to serve uh the community in that way? You only actually that all.

SPEAKER_01 35:23

She posted me late in 2015 and said, Look, um she wanted to use my business connections, my sporting connections across the board to um uh get the votes up, but as she said, you can't win because you're up against the most popular counselor in council. They could make uh trail at the time, and he was very popular. Um so I said, Well, why not? And then when I went to my um my CEO at the company I was working with, and he said he didn't want me involved in local politics, and he strictly forbade me from getting involved. And I so I I quit my job, I rang Jenny and she uh Jenny Hill, and uh she said, I told her I just quit. I said, now we're going full-time, we're gonna give this one big shake. Before we're just pretending now we're going fair naked. And um she started crying, she said, you're over 60, you're unemployed, and you're about to uh engage in um winnerboy lecture. I said, I want Batman, I like those ice. So we uh we um had to took off. We uh can it was a very short campaign, only four weeks. We did had very little time to do anything, but we went and threw everything we had at it. We were working stupid out the family and some friends and that footy mates. I had footy clubs standing there handing out how to vote clo uh how to vote flyers. And uh well Ray was very unlucky. Uh turns out he was the second most popular guy in town. Did you win it did you win it with a leg in the air or was it close? Uh it was the closest election ever. Right? City's history. Uh it was a handful of votes in the end, you know. Okay. We're uh very fortunate. And then it's like, well, now what do I do? And it took uh uh it was a steep learning curve, but once we got our rhythm going and I could feel for what it was, it's an interesting pathway to take. Um we went as hard as we could to try and generate as much good as we could while we're there.

SPEAKER_06 37:41

Yeah, uh Simon and Goliath story. Is it? Was that who it was? I don't know. That sounds good. That'll do. Um what what did that experience teach you about people? I mean, you've always been very personable anyway, but did you learn some more lessons being in in that uh sector for a while?

SPEAKER_01 38:03

I it it it taught me how uh how governance works and it's nothing like people out in the real world know. Hey, let me tell you that it meant I had to rely on that uh ability to convince people to go a certain direction, right? It's a bit like trying to get uh I got AFL Premiership games to the city and the work that went behind the scenes to make that happen, right? You get people to come on board and say this will work and getting other people to believe in it as well. And that constant uh almost politicking in Hodson doing, right? And whether that's getting a new footy ground down the road there or a netball court, um like for example at uh North Ward, uh they came to me and they wanted to create this wonderful uh basketball arena at Northwood, at what I call the Red Track. And I said, Do you know the sport that has the most participants in it in the city? I was talking to uh Queensland Sporting Record, and they'd look at me and said, No what? And I said, It's Netball. And they don't have a single indoor court that they can call their own. I said, Don't you think you should be working towards that? You're getting the bright lights and dragging you away from the real world, right? It's constantly steering people into a uh better direction and trying to get out from whether it's on net or um it could be hockey, you know, where you you manage to get some good upgrades following the 2019 flight. Out there at um oh constant rope where the guys are. So it's constant pushing, it's sort of like um trying to protect our our open spaces. Now I managed to get some funny, convince the crew to put those boulders around the parts. That was my idea. And stop people driving onto the ground and destroying it. And more importantly, putting our community at risk while they're on those, right? We actually put in more exercise equipment in all those parts in four years than the previous 40. Just about the magnitude, right? And it's sort of like having a bit of vision and then trying to sell that vision is probably the our weak length in the whole propane. Come up with a vision, sell it, then get it funded and get it in and working. And it's only then you can sit back and take a deep breath behind it.

SPEAKER_06 40:51

Yeah, and you would have you you would have to have a very strong um resolve or constitution because damned if you do and damned if you don't, sometimes being a councillor, being a politician, being a mayor or something like that. But it's something that we'll we'll touch on in a minute with the uh battle you're facing at at the present. So what was your most proudest moment from the time helping shape the town? You mentioned the game, the NRL, the uh state of origin game to the the new stadium. But what's uh what's one other thing that make you made you very proud, do you think?

SPEAKER_01 41:22

Okay, well, as chair of the North Queensland Sports Foundation, every uh two years we hold what they call the NQ Games. And in 2020, the NQ Games. Yeah. And in 2020 they were cancelled because of COVID. And I and I could see if we didn't get a big uh lift in the next ones, we may lose the game forever. Okay. So I spent two years working on those games, and I managed to get them to come to towns all that year. I got they meant to go to Ants, I got Anne's to give them to me. And through everything behind it, we ended up making the 2022 games, the biggest game in the foundation 40-year history. 4,300 competitors, for example, right? Over$4 million economic activation, right? Over 11,500 people were involved in the game locally. So we're talking a massive increase to try and give them a road to go forward for a stronger and better uh circumstances. So if we've got something for the kids to actually aim for as a stepping stone, if you take them out, they've got to go to Brisbane to get in the uh sports they need to actually get recognition and perhaps go on to Olympics or whatever it might be, right? And the idea of the games is that brings that recognition into North Queensland. And working to get that done, I suppose, after the um get the stud origin, I suppose, the NQ Games, and then after that the uh uh Mark's national. I'm gonna few.

SPEAKER_06 43:08

Awesome stuff, mate. Let's move it along. We're gonna get into some um stuff that's uh news that's um in your life at the moment and and you're in the fight of your life, and once again I really appreciate you uh accepting the invitation to come on and uh trust us or trust myself to have a chat to you about this this stuff. But um the whole podcast is centred around helping others, and I know that's what what you do for a living, uh even even in the worst times you're in. Can you can you take us back uh to the day everything changed and uh when did you first realize something wasn't right, mate?

SPEAKER_01 43:50

Um oh w initially I'd been going to my doctor complaining about uh getting out of breath very easily. And uh getting fatigued very quickly. And this actually went on for two years. And all sorts of tests and what have you, just couldn't find what was going on. We ended up kept going on and then uh Christmas day last year I went the one just gone. I was very crooked and I s my throat was swelling up quite quite significantly. And um so we went to that um acute care facility at Harangawa that they have open there and they suggested it might only be a gland infection, so gave me some antibiotics. And then four days later on a Sunday, I think that was Tuesday on a Sunday, we went to the council hospital. It was getting worse. And this time they're checking a few things out, and this time they decided to do a PET scan on one neck. And then they came back and um the doctor saw I just leaned down in front of me and said, uh, we're just taking me upstairs, there's cancer, mate, and it's well advanced.

SPEAKER_06 45:11

Um, what was it like hearing those words? You have cancer.

SPEAKER_04 45:13

I want to stop this tremendous while we're talking to Maury's Sores and want to tell you about something about this game that never leaves you. The jumper might get older, the body might get slower, but the fire, the fire never goes out.

SPEAKER_06 45:27

From every corner of Australia, from blokes and women who've lived a life to raise families, built careers, fought battles, we come back to wear it all again.

SPEAKER_00 45:38

The AFL Masters National Carnival, Newcastle 2026.

SPEAKER_04 45:44

Seven days, hundreds of things, thousands of stories, one guy that still means everything. Where Footy meets the coastline where the turf rolls in and the stories roll on. Newcastle like McClory makes gift on and off the field. It's not just a carnival, it's a bloody reunion. A second chance, a reminder of who you are. Test off the boots, all the old teammates, pull the jumper back on because legends don't retire.

SPEAKER_00 46:15

They just come back for another carnival. Newcastle September 27th to October 3rd. Bring your story. Who is your hero? Might just be you. Get involved and see you in Newcastle 2026.

SPEAKER_01 46:43

Uh to me I felt thank God they found out what it is. We've been that all along. Now I've got a goal line to kick to, so to speak, right? Before that I was had nothing. Right? I was just getting sicker and sicker and sicker. And so uh from there the uh program commenced on what the treatment was going to look like. It's quite a uh horrendous treatment that they put you through and they don't give you all the practice before you start. And there's a good reason for that. I think a lot of people wouldn't take it on. Um well you can see just by me, necklace burns, there's a radiation burn. Uh and it's worse inside. So talking right now is quite painful, but anyway. Um so now we uh we've got a focus. We got okay, what do we gotta do to tackle this and get this out of here?

SPEAKER_06 47:44

And I just just thought in in that moment, like, you know, I got told my kidneys were at 3% and I had 24 hours to live. And but if I do I just surrendered to the doctors and the great, and while I got this moment, I s someone landed me in Townsville at the time. Danny Mack was moving into his house, or I was coming up to do something for him, a great mate who I met through Masters.

SPEAKER_10 48:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 48:08

Someone put me here at the timing I needed it because Townsville, um, and I think it was was Les and and your mob, but it is the best renal ward, if not in Australia, but if not in the world. And I've just got to take my hat off. I ain't got one on. But the nurses and doctors and specialists at the Townsville University Hospital, man, they are a special bunch of people, bro.

SPEAKER_01 48:34

Oh, they definitely are my my time up there with him. I'm only down here because uh we're short, a staff member at the time. Right. And because the speed they needed to start the treatment, meant I had to come down here and get into it. Yeah. But I I had no trouble, I would have no trouble at all uh going through this encounter. Matter of fact, it'd be a lot easier for me.

SPEAKER_06 48:57

Yeah, being home. I I bloody digress there. I was I get this podcast goes sideways and my bloody memory shot. They had me on steroids and all that. It's hilarious. I I can't for remember what I did five minutes ago, but it's quite funny living like that because you you I'm like Dan Andres now, I can't recall, you know. It's I can I can do anything I want. But I mean, where I was heading there and I digress, and for me what they told me was like a spin out. I've only got if I didn't come to hospital, I had 24 hours to live. Yeah, I didn't know I was shutting down, and I I didn't I felt a bit crooked. I was doing the old man thing, I'll be right, I'll be right, you know. So that went through, but what what can you give me an insight? It's what's going through a man's head when they say you've got cancer.

SPEAKER_01 49:44

Did they give you a time uh uh like lifespan on that if you did nothing or uh no, they that conversation they never engaged in, nor did they give me a uh you know stage one, two, three, four, right? They basically said you've got to do that or it will kill you.

SPEAKER_06 50:05

Right, so you're pretty you're pretty well into it.

SPEAKER_01 50:08

Yeah, and they said, and we need to start this treatment now. I think I was on the phone within 24 hours. Did that frighten the shit out of you or not, Maurice Hors? Okay, but it didn't frighten me, I was more concerned for my wife and my family. And uh and had been working for some time to get that all in order anyway. Um yeah, my concern with my family, uh I can't say the thought of being scared entered my head, but I can appreciate where that might go. I am 70, I've I've served my three score and ten, I think. Uh so I've been very fortunate in life, so um and uh I've got more out of it I feel than I deserved. So um no problem there. Uh but on the other side of things I said, all right, if we're if we've got a chance of beating this, let's give it every chance to make it happen.

SPEAKER_06 51:10

Right? Does it did the role of your sporting background play a part now you're approaching this?

SPEAKER_01 51:16

Well, I suppose you do. You inherently don't know you do, but you do. You just say, right, oh well let's dig in deep and let's make this happen. And uh straight away I started a small exercise program when the treatment was in its early phases. That's all I had to stop for a number of reasons. Um we're now getting towards the end stages of the program, and uh uh fingers crossed that uh we'll see a reasonably productive uh number of years out of me from here. Um they can't they won't be able to tell me we went on clear for a delete six weeks. Right. So you've got a fairly long uh hurry up the wait process, a bit like being in the army. So um we'll uh I know it's not answering did I feel scared? No. Did I decide then right, we're gonna beat the blood bloody thing? Right? And then we're gonna try and get back into it and do what we do, like at the moment. Through this whole period, even though I haven't been able to uh I tried to limit my communications to uh the guys, uh, I have put in to coach the over 65 side in Newcastle.

SPEAKER_04 52:34

Townsville, let's talk about the wet season. Yeah, yeah, I know. Everything's flooding, grass is growing like some peptide, and your back lawn looks like the Amazon rainforest. But I'll tell you what's not slowing down. The brand new swing rains in the Townsville Golf Club. This joint is opened alive and absolutely homie. Legends flying up the scrap one down the castle check it in the next place. This isn't just the golf course. It's one of the most open, well to make this class. Coming down to the townsville to golf club twing riders. Because right now, this is where Townsville is twining.

SPEAKER_03 53:52

The left one great. Don't forget to tell them. Buzz, thank you.

SPEAKER_06 54:04

Well, mate, I've been out of the game for a few years and I'm conjocting with that not the word, but I'm gonna do something silly, and I think I'm gonna walk from Brisbane to Newcastle and play one more game of footy at Newcastle for kidney health and research. So as silly as you might sound, coaching a game, I'm gonna try and play one, but I unbenoted, and I think Jag, Stephen Jagger, which you'd know, you'd know Steve.

SPEAKER_01 54:31

Yeah, I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 54:32

He reckons he's gonna walk with me. So hopefully I walk through a few towns and that, but I tell you what, I better start walking now, like Forrest Gubb, but uh don't we think of some silly things? So, all right, I'll give you another one. So you're you're always to me being a glass half full man, yeah? Yeah, that point. You'd you'd have to say that about Maurice Ours. Has this diagnosed diagnosis changed the way you look at life, or you really look at life and in the in the glass half full anyway? It's a reality check.

SPEAKER_01 55:02

It uh I thought I did smoke when I was younger. I thought it might have been that that caused it, but it wasn't. Yeah, HPV virus was the actual cause of it. It came through my tonsils, then into my uh gland, and then into my lip glands. Um so I said, yep. Uh and I think we can give this a big shake. We're almost there. And uh I reckon we can punt this uh out of bounds and then we uh pick up another footy and we'll a bit of luck, I'll be able to coach the guys down in Newcastle and we get another win up for 'em.

SPEAKER_06 55:43

What does the what does the support from the community mean to you right now and your family?

SPEAKER_01 55:48

Oh, they've been fantastic. I've I've not only got a phone call from the mayor, Nick, and the definite mayor, uh Jenny Hill came down here and spent a few hours with us. I've got old footy mates that have been calling in. Uh matter of fact, I've got one coming tomorrow that's with me back in 1963. Oh well. So we're gonna catch up. Uh but we stayed in contact all those years, of course. We have a reunion every year down at the Brecken Creek between our footy clubs, so uh that's always a good one. Um but uh we Yeah, as far as an SC a question, it's it's part of life. That it is just part of life, and you've got to either get if you don't ignore it, well you can't ignore it, you've got to move on. Or else you're gonna it let it control your life for you.

SPEAKER_06 56:46

Yeah, I'm starting to really wind um a day up and it's coming in two days, and March 19th is my birthday. Oh god. And I'm I'm very lucky to have another birthday after, you know, I didn't know last year could have been my last one, knowing what I had to fight this year. But I made it world who Who is your hero's day? And it's ringing someone you love, or that or even if you got no one to ring, go down the street and sit with someone for 19 minutes and uh tell them how much you like them or how good your day's going, or inspire something. And that's what's sort of made me appreciate life a lot more now by being, you know, about to meet my maker 24 hours off to now on on uh dialysis, but feeling quite good and actually doing what I um love doing, and it's coming to a point that I want to discuss with you right now because if I had not been so macho and so male and gone and checked in with a GP, you know, once a year or every six months, I ended up with that the sm my life probably caused it a little bit, but I ended up with vasculitis, so it was a different disease that jumped in after having a really bad flu that started attacking my vital organs and it it went for my kidney. Yeah. Um so whether they would have found it on a blood test six months ago, I don't know, but I probably had my kidneys were probably I've I've lived a very colourful life, as you well know, Maury. But um, you know, I have I own that and this is what they dealt me. But um if there's a bloke sitting around home right now scared to get checked, which there's a lot of 'em, what would you tell him?

SPEAKER_01 58:35

I think it's more scary not to get checked.

SPEAKER_06 58:39

But some of us like me, my my thing was I was too scared to know the answer. But that's bullshit, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 58:46

Technology today, their advancements in uh how they approach different issues such as cancer are beyond what they were in five years ago. Um look, it's no point being scared because that doesn't change anything. Uh it's not gonna prove it, that's for sure. Know what you're facing and then tackle that head on, and you're more likely to come out the other side and be a benefit to those that love you, those that need you. Uh and those that you can help around the world, you know? You're doing a great job here now, uh that with your uh podcast. Um you know, something like that. Uh making uh each milestone or each step a milestone is a fantastic way to keep pushing and pushing and pushing. And it gives it give purpose in life, I guess. It actually gives some real purpose in life, and I congratulate you that for that.

SPEAKER_06 59:48

Thanks, uh, thanks mate. It's um quite funny as we get we get a little bit older, things start playing on us. Mozart, if life was a song, what song would you play right now to typify the journey of Maury Saurs? Oh good on you. Um that's why I love this. I most of it, most of it are easy, but I do chuck in some wobblies.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:12

How about this one? Uh, what about bridge over troubled waters? Beautiful song.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:18

Simon and Garf Uncle, was it?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:20

Right, yep.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:22

I love it. And you'll find out the reason why I asked that question a bit later when I put this to air. Um when people talk about Maury Saurus in 20 years, what do they hope? What do you hope they say about it?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:42

Um hope they're not. I hope they got better things to talk about. Uh I've been told this right there to be a park or something with my name on the end of it.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:55

But what do what do you think they'll take most? Like I I I remember you. You you um I don't I don't know much about your cancer days, but I I mentioned it before, it's glass half full shit with you. Um you're running round the master's footy field at age 65, one eye. I got you one day too on your bad side. I got you, I got you at Helly Beach. But um you do, you run around the singlet, you run around doing bloody push-ups and and challenging young people to bet to beat you, I suppose. And that's not because of an ego thing, that is saying, come on, kids, get off your ass. I'm 65, you're 20. Can you do more push-ups? And the answer was generally no. Um, that's what that's what inspires me. There was always a smile on your dial. I'm sitting there looking at you right now, and you're you're going through the toughest battle of your life, and you're still smiling, and your glasses still half full. So if you can't answer it, I just did. Um that's that's what I and you shape communities. Um you've done a lot of shit, man, and it looks like you've you've you're kicking a few goals now, and you've you probably you get better, you're gonna do a lot more. You're not stopping yet, are you? No chance.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:03

You got uh too many things to do around here. So um, yeah. It's it's a you you f you don't stop playing the game till their final sign goes, right? So that's all we're doing now. Is that we're playing and we're playing as hard as we can at the final quarter, but we're gonna play it until the signs low. And then hopefully we've uh we've left behind us something for our kids and their kids. Uh, that uh improved their life just that little bit.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:35

And you know what I'm encouraging also people on March 19th is to to tell someone you love them um while they're still alive, not while you're doing a eulogy at a funeral. I think we don't do it enough. We get up there and we start banging on about how much we love someone when we're looking at a bloody pine box. Yeah. I'm I'm trying to get people to go and give someone a cuddle. Um, maybe your hero, maybe your dad, your mum, if you've still got them, your brother, your sister, someone that influenced your career. I mean, I had a great a great thing happen to me at um uh Danny McLaughlin 60th this year, and I am seated up at the golf club. And uh I I welcome, you know, Marie did a beautiful speech to it for him, and a few of his mates got up and I did a speech. And uh while I'm talking, the the little man's put his hand up, about 150 there at the golf club. He said, I'm still here, you know, I'm not dead. He says it's not a fucking eulogy. And from that moment on, this concept came into my head. Why can't we tell people we love them while they're here, not when they're gone?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:44

You're dead right, Dave, but uh uh we probably don't do enough of that. And even to our wives, our kids, yeah, whatever. It's uh need to do more of it. And I suppose it's just a matter of grabbing that opportunity and and doing it.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:03

Yeah, and it's something this little awakening I've had that nearly passed, that it's changed my life completely. But you just um I mean, I was heading to the uh the out for then and I'll still get there. But the unsung hero is is your beautiful wife, mate. And a lot of the times when we talk about mental health in males or or bad disease, we're focused on the person that's got the sickness or the illness. But uh it's just a few words you you say about your beautiful wife. I mean, she's going through this battle as hard as you are, and uh they're they're heroes in my eyes too.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:39

Well, they are they uh she went through a lot. Um last week we had a bit of a uh a blip, and she's standing in the room and all these alarms were going off and what have you, and I could see on her face. And I just uh grabbed one of the nurses, I said, Can you take care of her? Right. Um but uh she's uh yeah, she's an angel. I've been uh very privileged to have met someone like her. And uh we've got uh was it 43 years coming up with you? Uh she reckons I'm still only learners, but anyway.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:19

And uh the final question I ask everyone on this show and they find it very hard to answer. Maury Saurs, who is your hero?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:29

Um I would say uh 40 wise my uncle one short. Business wise, uh family-wise my grandfather, Morris Meyer, Michael. And I only wish my known my dad a little bit more than I unfortunately didn't get to know.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:48

Well, that was at a young age. Maury, mate, thank you for coming on and sharing that with us and the tribe because what you've shown today that is a current. Courage isn't always about winning. Sometimes courage is simply standing up when life hits you the hardest and saying, I'm still here. Townsville, if you know Maury, if you played footy with him, work with him, or shared a beer with him. Reach out, send the bloke some love. Because this is when the tribe shows up. Morris, we're all behind you, mate. This is who is your hero, and remember, legends, you never know what battle someone's fighting. So be kind, check on your mates and hero up. Mozart, thanks very much. I know how hard that was for you. We got it done. Thanks, heaps, for coming on the show, brother. Now that's legend. Thank you for everything, honey. Well done, mate. Good on ya. Alright, legends.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:44

If you're still here right now, you've ridden this whole journey with us from start to finish. First off, respect. Because this one, this wasn't just a podcast. This was a ride.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:58

This was raw. This was real. And honestly, there was no place for me to stop it. I tried, I looked for a moment to cut its foot in to make it neat and tidy into a couple of episodes. But life's not neat and tidy, is it? Some conversations, some stories, some moments of truth. They just have to breathe. And this funny deserved the full runway. What you've just listened to, that's what Who is a Hero is all about.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:29

Not the highlight reel, not the polished version, but the in-between moments.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:34

The struggles, the laughs, the uncomfortable truths, the lessons that hit you in the chest when you weren't ready for them.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:40

So if something in this episode landed for you, if one line, one story, one moment made you stop and think, Is it me? Don't just scroll on.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:51

Do something with it. Reach out to someone, check in, say the words you've been putting off. Because we say it all the time here. Don't wait for the funeral to give your eulogy. And if this episode meant something to you, if you felt it, help us grow this tribe. Share it. Send it to a mate. Post it up. Because every time you do that, you're not just sharing a podcast, you're helping someone else find their hero. Or maybe you become one yourself.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:24

To our guests, mate, thank you. Thank you for your honesty.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:28

Thank you for your courage. And thank you for trusting me, trusting us with your story. That's not something I take lightly.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:38

And to every single one of you listening, whether you're in a car, on the job site, walking the damn dog or picking up his dog shit, or just sitting there quietly taking it all in.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:51

We see you. We appreciate you being part of this. This is more than a podcast now. This is a movement. This is a tribe. I'm Buzz. Until next time, hero up, big love you bloody legends.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:17

TrueBlo. Is it me and you? Is it Mom and Dad? Is it a cockatoo? Is it standing by a fight? When she's in a fight.