People of the Pirates with LA
A behind the scenes podcast sharing stories, characters, and community that make Noosa Pirates RLFC more than just a club. From players and coaches to volunteers and local legends, hear the voices driving the pirates forward.
People of the Pirates with LA
ANTHONY ZIPF
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Anthony Zipf - "ZIPPY"
One of the pirate's favourite sons and a three time premiership winner, Zippy shares his journey from the Brisbane Broncos pathways as a young gun to etching his name into Queensland Cup history with a record that still stands today.
Reflecting on the golden years of '06, '07, '08 and opens up on the highs, the setbacks, and everything else in between - from player to mentor to coach.
A true Blue and Gold story of resilience and loyalty at the pirates.
This episode has been brought to you from the DGMS studios, home of Don't Get Me Started, Lethal and Money Live, and SurfTown. Found at Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music, and wherever you listen to your podcast.
SPEAKER_02G'day and welcome to People of the Pirates with LA. This is a feature of some of the amazing individuals we have around the Noosa Pirates Rugby League Club. Enjoy their stories. The opinions voiced on this podcast are our own and not the official position of the club or the league. And there is a mild language warning. Enjoy legends. Alright, for today's edition with the Midway Through the Pirates history blue and gold Ferrari with Anthony Ziff. Hey mate, how you doing? Good, mate, good. How are you? Good, good. Thanks for having us. No, mate, you're welcome. Thanks for coming on. Mate, let's dive straight into it. Tell us a little bit about the origin story of Zippy.
SPEAKER_01Mate, not a great deal to it. Born in a small town called Mundubra, about three hours northwest of here. Only about 2,000 people. The mighty Mundubra Tigers. It's my first junior club. And then we moved to Noosa when I was 13, I think. Junior Pirate, up until I left school, down to Brizley for a few years, and came back at 25 and been here ever since.
SPEAKER_02So, mate, you would have started Pirates up at Corroy. Coroy at that stage, yeah?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_02Who'd you play juniors with through those early years?
SPEAKER_01Don't just still around today. Rocky Olson was there. Shane Myers, Guy Travers. Yeah, I don't think there's too many of them still hanging around the club these days. Not many of them went on to play Grade at Pirates. I think, well Sam McGregor, I was there for him. Sam and Shane did. They were playing Gray when I was down in Brizzy. And for those that don't know, Sam McGregor, big hoggy. Hogsy. Hogsy. Yep. Then down to Brizzy. Yeah, went to Brizzy after school, trying to make a career out of footy. Didn't quite get there, unfortunately, but had a crack. Mate, you had a good crack.
SPEAKER_02So where'd you where'd you wind up when you went down to Brizzy?
SPEAKER_01First club, I was at the Broncos for three years. I did a lot of junior development with them through high school, spent three years at the club after school. Didn't quite crack first grade, unfortunately. Got a few trials and whatnot, but no NRL appearances, unfortunately. And then spent two years at the Norse Devils with uh Queensland Cupside.
SPEAKER_02Couple of records got knocked off while you're at the Devils, I believe.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, share that to Gus Stewart. He loves hearing about this. Yeah, mate, I got got a bit lucky one day. Scored seven in a cup game, which is still the record, I think. Yeah, good. Were you kicking goals then, too? I should have been. I would have scored 100. I was sort of kicking goals for reserve grade. I was up and down between reserve grade and A-grade. And I was kicking goals for reserve grade, but uh A-grade had their kicker.
SPEAKER_02Do you remember who you played against in that game you scored seven, huh?
SPEAKER_01The Noosa Legend, Trent Heathwood playing at the wing for him. That was a pretty funny story when we figured that out. We're both just drinking beers at the club, and it somehow came up in conversation. And Trent's going, hang on, I think I was playing that game. We're good mates now, but we didn't know each other then.
SPEAKER_02What Clydesdales, who was he playing for? Brothers. So a couple of years at CARP and then back up to Noosa.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. When I say carp, I was a lot more reserved, Brad than Queensland Cup, which probably helped make the decision to move back. If I was playing regular cup, I probably would have stayed for another year or so, but I was sort of in one week and out for four type of thing. I think I was cleaning gutters to support myself at the time, 40 degree heat and all that sort of stuff.
SPEAKER_02Mate, it's a slog when you're part-time footy and part-time, well, full-time work and part-time footy, it's a big commitment, eh?
SPEAKER_01One of my regrets, I suppose, is not making the full-time squad at the Bronx. You see the boys rolling and do their session. Like I was working at the Lee's club, so you'd see them from the balcony. They'd do their session, they'd piss off and play golf, come back in the afternoon, train again, but never quite got there either.
SPEAKER_02Talking to Moe about this the other day when he was up for the Sunny Kids Adapt holiday clinic, and he was saying the stuff they're rolling out at a cup level now is not too dissimilar to what he was doing over in Super League with the full-time guys. It's just they've got to balance it around everything else. They've got to fit it in.
SPEAKER_01That's yeah, I'd go to work all day, start at six, and then finish work, go straight to your weight sessions at sort of three o'clock. Come back an hour later for your you know field session and conditioning that it was a fair workload.
SPEAKER_02How good's a cue cup pre-season, eh?
SPEAKER_01It's tough. That's tough. Yeah. So I've got a big wake-up call when I left here for my first Broncos preseason. That was that was a big shock. That was intense.
SPEAKER_02And did you get picked up out of school or playing Pirates?
SPEAKER_01I was on a Broncos scholarship since I was about 14. I'm not quite sure how it happened. Legendary Cyril Connell spotted me somewhere. So I was always through the Broncos junior development stuff. Always playing fullback? Yes, in school when I I didn't get to play fullback at cup level. I was sort of on the wing or in the centres, depending on who was in or out. Would have loved a chance to play fullback at that level because I sort of wasn't good enough to be in that spot, but felt I could have achieved more if I got a crack, if that makes sense. You know, wing sort of wasn't really my position, and I was running around 87 kilos, and there was some big Fijian and Islander boys on the opposite wing to me.
SPEAKER_02How was your, I suppose, your injury toll and stuff through that time? Did your body hold up well with extra load and yeah, it wasn't too bad.
SPEAKER_01I had a quite a few soft tissue injuries, but nothing too serious. I was pretty good at that station.
SPEAKER_02And then you came back up to the Pirates and mate, not long after you got back up to Pirates was sort of the golden period for memory for me. Is that right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I came back in 05, halfway through 05. We made the grand final that year, unfortunately got beat. A halfback got sent off 20 minutes in, which didn't help. And then the next three years we yeah, won three in a row.
SPEAKER_02Oh five was my debut season, too. I was 18th man for that grand final.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that was a disappointing day, that one. Yeah, I mean it was a golden period for the club, and for me personally, it really just reignited my love of footy. I came back and all of a sudden I was playing for the club and for the team, not for my position and myself, if that makes sense. Mate, so good. It wasn't a job anymore. It was back to loving footy for the loving footy.
SPEAKER_02Well, yeah, mate, that season we're talking about. That was my first experience of senior footy, and I remember it being a lot of good group of lads. Yeah, it was great. Everyone enjoyed being around each other. I didn't know too much about getting under cans at that stage, but the group did. Everyone had a good time and ripped in together.
SPEAKER_01Definitely. Yeah. No, there were three very good years, very good years. And even a year after that, the footy wasn't quite as successful, but you know, that whole period for me was just a great part of my life.
SPEAKER_02Is that when you were living with Gus and Gus and Semi and Hobbsy?
SPEAKER_01Yep. So that was good fun.
SPEAKER_02Put up a little bit of mischief here and there. Oh, as you do, as you do when you're a young man. And then from there, so 06 premiers, 07 premiers. Undefeated. Undefeated, yeah, that was the undefeated year. And then was 08 the year where we got A's Reggies and 18s? Was it 18s or 19s then?
SPEAKER_01Not sure. 08 we sort of come from the clouds a bit. We weren't meant to win it that year. We said a good run in and then Caborcha Red Hot favourites in the final. We ended up knocking them off. I'm not sure how the lower grades went.
SPEAKER_02I think there was one year that we got all three grades. Anyway, if anyone's listening and they want to give us a bit of a history lesson, pop it in the comments below. 06, 07, 08. And then, mate, you were running around pretty competitively until 2013, 2014, something like that.
SPEAKER_01Somewhere around there. I snapped my Achilles in 2011, so I missed that year. That's when Dane Campbell was coaching, so I was pretty disappointed to miss that year. And then, yeah, pretty competitively up until well, up until I did my back, which was around there somewhere. After that, I was a bit more um inhibited, I suppose. And you still dabble, you're still pretty active, you're still playing masters and if I could still play, I'd still play footy. I love it. Yeah, the body certainly won't do it.
SPEAKER_02You'll have to come back and have a run with the Greybeards touch team.
SPEAKER_01See how we go. I love that too. I do actually miss that. Touch footy's good fun.
SPEAKER_02What are your any favourite memories that spring out to you from that little period of time?
SPEAKER_01That whole period, like I was living with my best mates playing footy, we were winning footy. Yeah, sort of. Like even though we lost in 05, like I said, I just I loved playing for the Pirates. I loved, like, I found my joy for footy again was a big difference for me. And I think it probably showed in how I played as well. Like I said, that whole, you know, I met my wife in that period, and I've got three, you know, three boys with her, so it's just uh yeah, really good part of my life.
SPEAKER_02And during that period, we had what Julian O'Neill playing Did She Raplay game or two in that period. Yep. It was a bit sort of reminiscent of the period that we're at at the moment with the pirates at the XNRL boys around, good strong squad, good depth, those sort of things.
SPEAKER_01Squad's the strongest I've seen in a while. You know, you said the golden years when we're winning those premierships, went through some pretty dark ones after it as well.
SPEAKER_02Definitely.
SPEAKER_01So it's good to see the club back in the position it's in because it's quite strong. I was around for those sort of dark periods well. So yeah, sort of been on a bit of a roller coaster with the club, the ups and the downs.
SPEAKER_02For all the for all the ups and downs on the roller coaster you're talking about, you've been one of the mainstays throughout it. So been there for a while. Thanks for sticking with the club.
SPEAKER_01And yeah, I love the club. I honestly do. It's um yeah, been a massive part of my life, my entire life. Is it good to have your young fella back playing juniors? Yeah, it's everyone when he wasn't playing, everyone said he'd disappointed. I was like, no, not really. Like they're loving their basketball, still loves his basketball. Basketball's indoors at the ledger centre every Saturday morning. You're not driving a bribe island or Stanley Rivers. Yeah, yeah. No one's asking me to coach, no one's asking me to do anything. But no, it's good watching him run around. It is. He's never seen me play, I sort of know much about my footy, so I try to tell him something. He looks at me like I don't know anything. That's a teenager, I suppose. It is, mate, it is.
SPEAKER_02And they've got a good squad, they've got a good group. The 13s, I'm helping out with the div two side at the moment. I think Coop's been playing Div one, hasn't he? Yeah. So yeah, good group of lads. Yeah. Just got to keep working hard. Good bunch. Pretty competitive, too, I think. So results-wise, round one. We only dropped 19s and 15 girls, I think, across all of the pretty handy competitive grades. Yeah. Pretty handy, eh? Very good. So it'll be interesting to see how it goes, round two for juniors. And obviously, we've got round two this weekend away. Swannee's down at bloody Narimba.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's an interesting setup, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02Are you going to be coming down and watching on Bar TV? No, I'll be down there. Yeah, beauty. C grade are playing Bribey at Kilcoy on Saturday.
SPEAKER_01Good luck there, boys.
SPEAKER_02They've actually got a pretty strong squad this week. So Q19s boys are stepping up because they've got the buy, so that helps.
SPEAKER_01It's a bit of a shame for me personally that they don't follow the senior teams now. Because I reckon if it was all in one spot, I'd probably strap them on at some stage.
SPEAKER_02It's a league level thing, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01Oh, I don't disagree with it, just for me personally, you know what I mean? Yeah. If they were, you know, they were playing at 12 o'clock and A grade was at three, I'd probably have a run here and there.
SPEAKER_02But there is a couple of games where they're at home with all the grades. So I'm Tess will probably shoot me for saying that's not here, but I'm planning on strapping them on it happening a few games later in the year once I've got back from Kokoda.
SPEAKER_01So I heard you're going to Kokoda. That'd be good. I've done it. It's awesome.
SPEAKER_02Have you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's amazing. Tell me about it. It's life-changing, it's absolutely phenomenal. It's tough, but yeah, at the same time, you sort of you forget about fatigue and whatnot because you're so entrenched in in the history of it and everything that's happening. It is really, really good. You'll love it. So good. Did you do it with anyone particular or? Yeah, I did it with my dad, my brother-in-law. Yeah, good sad. That was cool. Papi New Guinea and Port Moresby can go buy one, but um, when you're on the Kakoda Trail, it's good.
SPEAKER_02So, do you have a couple of social days in Port Moresby afterwards?
SPEAKER_01No, not really. We had to, we got there, had to stay one night in the hotel. It was pretty funny, actually. We drove into the hotel and there's gates and barbed wire and stuff everywhere. We're unpacking our stuff, and all of a sudden, dad's mate sort of knocked on the door, said, Oh, there's a big fight down the front. I'm like, Oh, okay, stuck our heads out and have a look. Walking down the hallway, you know, those swing doors with little glass panels so you can sort of see who's coming. There's little opening guys come the other way. He's got blood pissing out of his face everywhere, he's like naked to the waist, and we're sort of backing up against the wall like this, trying to get it hell out of his way. And he opens the door for us, after you, sir. He worked at the hotel, he just caught up in the shit. Just went across that's out of scrap. Yeah, good. So very polite to us, but yeah, blood pissing out of his forehead.
SPEAKER_02And then from there, did you fly to the other end of the track and walk back to Moresby? Is that how you did? Walked up and flew back. Okay. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it, eh? It's gonna be tough, but it is tough, but keep it real. It's got me doing a lot more research into the campaign up there in Kokoda and World War II and stuff. It's buddy eye opening, hey.
SPEAKER_01I mean you'll yeah, you'll see what they're walking through, let alone living in and getting shot at.
SPEAKER_02100%. Mate, next home game is the Anzac Brown, 2nd of May. So make sure you mark that one down in the calendar. That'll be a big one. So I won't be there. So you'll have to cheer the boys on for me. Can do. We're rolling from there. It's been interesting having this start to the season where we played round one, then the juniors have a month off, and seniors are on the road. It's weird. Easter just falls in that really yeah strange spot, doesn't it? Yeah, I don't know. There's be a lot of merit to just starting after Easter for everyone, wouldn't it?
SPEAKER_01The juniors, probably.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean the seniors you've got to get your round games in and whatnot. It probably doesn't affect them so much, but yeah, it's strange for the juniors to have one game and then what two or three weeks off.
SPEAKER_02It's not so bad for the teams that have got grading for three or four weeks leading up, but the little tuckers up to up to 13s, one game and then month off and back into it.
SPEAKER_01But is Brax back plan to see that?
SPEAKER_02He is, mate. He is, yeah. Stoked with that too, and he he's loving his footy. Yeah, he seems to be just vibing back in with the boys and everyone's ripping in and having a good time. It helps he's had a bit of a growth spurt. I think he got his eyes opened up a little bit down at Cabo against some of the monsters down there. But the boys ripped in and they were tough and they got a win down there, which is good for round one. After footy, so tied up in the family business, the Ziff's a pretty successful family locally, a few different business ventures and stuff. You were working within the family business for a time and you've stepped out and got your own business ventures now?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I went on my own probably four years ago, I suppose. Pretty big change, a lot more responsibility, a lot more stress and anxiety. Yeah, it's good. How do you manage it? Probably beers. Yeah, alcohol. Oh yeah, you just gotta find your outlets. You know, I play a lot of golf. Play golf with my old man uh once a week, which is good. Yeah, just like footy was really good for that. You sort of leave work and forget about it while you're at footy, but yeah, I'll get back there at some stage.
SPEAKER_02And mate, you've always stayed pretty active. You go to the gym pretty often, and you're always doing something by the sounds, eh? Are you still doing a bit of BJJ?
SPEAKER_01No, I haven't, man. That sort of fell by the wayside too, just a time thing. Yeah, you can't be everywhere at once. I do miss that. That's that's enjoyable. Very, very humbling, but enjoyable.
SPEAKER_02Definitely.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02It's funny those like the seasons we go through in our life, the stages in our our life when you're business owner, father, husband. It's pretty full on at the moment. Yeah. Yeah, all part of it, I suppose. You were pretty instrumental in setting up the grey beards, the old boys at at the footy club. Do you where do you think we go next with grey beards?
SPEAKER_01That's tough. That's some stage I think it's gotta go. It can cruise long as it is, or at some stage it's gotta go all in. We're never quite committed enough to take the full step and get what's the word, not accredited, but your own club. Yeah, like a constitution and stuff. Yeah, so we just run under the the pirates banner, which has been fine. I think that does leave the door open for issues, but so far, so good. I mean, everyone at the club gets along pretty well. And we've never really tried to do too much overstepping our mark either. Obviously, I've stepped away a bit now. But yeah, it was just the first couple years we did it, just get all the old heads back around, just to home games and things like that, social gatherings. It was um it was good.
SPEAKER_02And like in retrospect, looking at where the club is now to where it was five years ago, you can credit a lot to that, a lot of that towards the old boys getting back involved.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean it certainly helps. I mean, like I remember 12, 13, whenever it was, like we'd have a home game, get beat by 50, and there'd be you know six or seven people there watching. So it's certainly different now. I mean, the cam by down the end goes off. Yeah, people there to watch it and get around the club, get around the boys.
SPEAKER_02We're very lucky with our fans. Be great to yeah, next home game. I hope is an absolute pumper on the end back round. I think it will be. I think it will be too. Yeah, weather will be starting to cool down, we'll have the fire pick going, perfect, going after the uh the defending premiers, trying to knock them down a peg. It'll be good, they'll be strong. They've signed well again this year, Stanley. Hey.
SPEAKER_01Tom Operac?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Obacek. I think he was from originally out that way.
SPEAKER_01Handy pickup.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, very handy. I think Bib changed their squad, but it'd be interesting to see how they go rolling through the season.
SPEAKER_01I don't think there's anything there we can't handle. Our boys are pretty strong.
SPEAKER_02Like we've sort of alluded to before, like depth-wise, youth experience. Like, I'm I'm really excited about where our squad's at and how hungry they are. Like everyone's like, obviously, we've had a couple of underperforming years for the squads that we've had and and the momentum we've had coming into finals, not being able to polish and finish them off. But yeah, I think everyone's burning to correct that this year.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the last two years we're probably a bit short of the mark of where we should have been. But that's footy, you know, a bad night and it's all over. That's it. Honestly, that's what happened. I mean, two years ago, we lost Jai, we lost Pickles. Jai was having the best game of his career and then did his knee and just didn't go our way, and then still not sure what happened last year with Kawana. Like, don't know what happened there. Should have won that game every day of the week.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But like I said, that's footy. You have an off night and you're done, especially in semis.
SPEAKER_02Isn't it funny how much uh like as an old pirate for so many years, how much you ride the ups and downs, hey? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Credit to them. They turned up and played their footy, and we well they did, they played well.
SPEAKER_01Obviously, we wanted our best, but they they beat us on the day, so all credit to them.
SPEAKER_02Who um who do you think the big movies in the comp will be this year? Galandra. Yeah. Pato's a good lead. Like, obviously, he was an assistant with us last year, and he's he's great man, done heaps and heaps in the game. So, yeah, good luck to him.
SPEAKER_01Come second. He's a good bloke, he's a great coach, and he's recruited very well. So yeah, they'll be strong, they'll be tough.
SPEAKER_02We've got them at home in all grades for mental health round. I feel like it is. Round eight, I'm pretty sure, is mental health round and inclusion round. The leagues put an inclusion round on. So that'll be a big day. Yeah, it'll be a big day. Out of our senior squad, because mate, you've you've taken a bit of a step back now, but you've been an assistant coach right the way through preseason and all the way up until now. And who are you excited about in the playing group?
SPEAKER_01Keen to see Jenno run around when he gets back from suspension. Yeah, that's a good pickup. I think Ethan Bros is gonna be someone we haven't had in a long time, like a running half. You know, we we haven't had a running half for a you know a long time. We've had good ball players. Oh, sorry, obviously had Corey last year in and out, but um I think we've always had ball playing hards and not a running threat. I think that will certainly help us. Bloody Rowe can stay fit and he plays sixth, then that's another running option there, which is just gonna straighten us up, get us going forward and create the space for the new Ferrari. That's it, Patty at the back. Love Patty.
SPEAKER_02Top point scorer for the comp last year. Can play. The whole squad seems to be pretty fit and strong and in a good space at the moment.
SPEAKER_01Well, credit to Ant. The preseason he's put him through. It's been tough without being you sort of got to watch your levels a little bit at local league because you don't want to push the boys too hard or they fatigue out and hurt themselves. I think he found a really good balance this preseason. So credit to him there. Tommy's Tommy. He doesn't take any shit either. You get in, you work hard or you piss off.
SPEAKER_02So he's an intense dude. He's a really good leader. Great leader. Yeah. I poke my head into the change rooms just as I was leaving the club to say goodbye, and he was having a in-depth conversation with a couple of the boys, and I said, Oh, Z follows. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01No, he's he's an intense guy, but he's never gonna ask you to do anything that he doesn't do himself. So that's yeah, that's how he leads, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02He's a leader, and he's a leader of men. I'm very happy that we've got Tommy at the at the helm. Are you doing any halves specific stuff or anything with the squad moving forward, or are you just stepping back and having a bit of a break to get some balance?
SPEAKER_01At the moment, I'm not doing anything. I've got a few big things over the next couple months that hopefully I can get over, and then I want to get back. You know what I mean? If Tommy will have me in whatever capacity, I'd love to do that. I mean, Patty pretty much knows what he's doing, but I've done a lot of work with Patty over the years too. Just not so much sessions, but just bouncing things off each other, things like that. I don't care if I come back just picking up markers and running water, I want to get back at some stage. I just want to be involved.
SPEAKER_02I'm sure from a junior point of view, if you've ever got any time you can carve away now that you're trying to trying to get some more space. But if you do get some time you carve away and you ever want to do stuff with the juniors, like half specific or fullback specific, we'll uh we'll slot you in somewhere and sounds good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we'll do something with the boys and girls. Yeah, I wouldn't mind at some stage, not now obviously, but I think I'd enjoy coaching that sort of 15 to 17 year age group. Obviously, teaching footy, but teaching a little about life and respect and that sort of thing as well. That's sort of a lot of kids get to that age and they get smart arsey and carry on a bit. And I think if they've got good role models around them at that age, they can go a long way.
SPEAKER_02100%. Well, mate, like as a footy club, we're about helping people be good people, not just good footy players. So that's what the whole ethos of the club is about. I'm loving the academy stuff. Like maybe that's a good avenue for you to dip your toe back in every now and again.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Because that's 15, 16, 17 boys and girls.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I was listening to that with Anne's podcast, so it's a good setup.
SPEAKER_02Have you seen the gym? Yeah, love it. It's gonna be a big thing for the club.
SPEAKER_01Massive, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Where we cleaned out the old maintenance shed today, like literally shifted everything over into the new mower shed today. And yeah, I think we'll try and set that space up as a bit of a recovery room.
SPEAKER_01So Gus was saying that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, if you know any, if we've got any hookups on here for an ice bath sort of setup can uh can be done at love rates for the footy club. Get in touch. We'd love to chat to you. Get a blow-up pool, stick them in that. Be good to know a pool guy. If we knew a pool guy, he might be able to get a little pool. Be good to know a good one. Yeah, be good. What's next for the Ziff family?
SPEAKER_01I'm building a house, hopefully starting soon. One of the things that sort of made me step back was we had to sell a house and then try and build a house on top of running work and things like that. So we are homeless in about 35 days. So I've got to try and find a rental to find while we build. But yeah, that'll be exciting.
SPEAKER_02And you're moving into town, eh? Because you've been on acreage for a while.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we've been off in Timbiwa, which is great while the boys are young, riding their bikes and you know having fun down the back. But now they want to be, they want to be at the beach, they want to be around their mates. I hate mowing. So smaller block, smaller block, smaller house, just um easier.
SPEAKER_02Mate, especially when you've got a lot going on in your life. Last thing you want to do is spend your whole Saturday on the Friday afternoon and spend two hours on the mower. Yeah, that's it. Well, Saturday's taken up by footy and other bits and pieces, so it's yeah, Friday after, Sunday.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Saturdays are busy now. I think we start about 7.30 with basketball and finish after Cooper's football around 2.33. So full on.
SPEAKER_02And then try and get a bit of time for mum and dad somewhere in there as well. Somewhere. Then the NRLs on TV. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Straight to the pool room. See you mum.
SPEAKER_02Business wise, you've got so you've got a couple of businesses. You've got carpal call, you've got Tintacar. Is that you for the moment? Yeah, well. Yeah, 100%. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Just a couple of businesses, mate. Yeah. Yeah, that's easy. A bit too much at the moment, which is another reason why I had to sort of step back from footy, but um can't be everywhere, unfortunately. All Noosa based? So one Tinnicar in Calandra and one in Marichidor. Loose of Tinnicar as well, and then the carbocks in Noosa.
SPEAKER_02So if anyone wants a sweet deal on some uh some flooring or some tinting, reach out.
SPEAKER_01Yep, come see me.
SPEAKER_02Perfect. Yeah, that's good. Keeps me busy. Have you got any time away sort of planned or anything that working towards?
SPEAKER_01Not really, not this year. Last couple years, last two years in a row, we've been to Japan in January skiing. So we sort of spend the 12 months working up for that and then that's a really good week. Really good week. But the snow in Japan is just phenomenal. Everyone raves about Japan. Yeah, great place, great snow. My boys love skiing. Yeah, they were sort of like I said, spend the year, getting organized for that, and then have a great week in January.
SPEAKER_02Building a house that'll be what nine, twelve month build or something. So you look and be in there mid next year.
SPEAKER_01I'd like to say this year, but I doubt it. So we'll see what happens. It'll be 12 months.
SPEAKER_02Is this the first time? No, you built the house this time. Built one before, yeah. Yeah. You excited about it?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'd rather it was just done. Didn't have to go through it. That's fair enough. We had a really good experience the first time, but it was obviously a different situation. There's no kids and nowhere to, you know. But that experience will help us this time too. We know what to do and what not to do, when not to spend your money or waste your money and things like that. So that'll help.
SPEAKER_02Time for you. So you love having a hit at golf. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Love my golf.
SPEAKER_02Anything else that's top of the list with Mr. Ziff?
SPEAKER_01Not really, mate. Just trying to carve out a bit of time with the boys. That's not sport or school or activity related, the near gem as well, obviously. But but I'm pretty happy if we get to play golf once a week and work and group. I enjoy the Saturday sports with the boys. I love watching them. Yeah, it's great. Yeah, it's a big time commitment, but it's one of my favourite things.
SPEAKER_02Just enjoy being uh dad and watching your boys' three boys. Three boys. Yes. Going again, trying to get a girl?
SPEAKER_01No, I thought the missus would want to try again, but she's pretty adamant if we did, it'd be another boy. She's resigned herself to being a boy and mum and she's happy.
SPEAKER_02Do you get much involved in the dance sort of things with Jen?
SPEAKER_01Fuck no. That's all her.
SPEAKER_02Well you've danced around you've you've managed to weave that with three boys, eh?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, I think she would obviously would have loved the dancer. She might get one another boys yet, who knows? Like I said, she's I would have thought when Fletch came out she might want to go again and try for a girl, but no, she's happy with what we got.
SPEAKER_02It's a 20-year reunion for the 06 grand final this year. So we're gonna do a big old boys day. Gotta get onto that. Get the band back together. Who are you expecting to be the MVP of the 20th year celebrations?
SPEAKER_01A grade. Or oh no, the celebrations. Yeah. Jesus. Trying to think he was there. Wade and O'Donnell turns up, he's pretty good on the piss. But he played that year in the grand final. And he's around, he'll be there. He's just around the corner.
SPEAKER_02He'll just walk across the road and we'll get Matty McCool.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he'll come. Andy Danny's around, he'll be there. Trying to think. Rune will come back for it. Gus, obviously. Heathwood playing 06. No, he didn't come to the late. Trying to think who else. Get jukebox up from Melbourne. That'll be good. Yeah. He'll come, I reckon. He'll come. Yeah, I can't really think who else is there. Get the bloody Gimpy reserve grade coaching, Fitzgerald. Yeah. So it's good. Fitzy seems like he's doing a really good job up at Gimpy. And Rex as well with the 9-ins. Or yeah, Fitzy's reserve grades can't he's the 90s. Rex is doing some good stuff too, from what I've seen on the socials and that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_02Be good to see the devs get back into a good spot. Like obviously, you were coaching in 2015 when we joined with the Devils for Northern Outlaws. Yeah. I was still trotting around then. That was a great year. Great group for the lads.
SPEAKER_01The bunch of boys that we had and the way they came together and put all the club shit aside and whatnot and just bonded as a group and ripped in and played footy. It was amazing. It was really good. Same thing, we probably fell one shorter where we should have. We just got ambushed at by Marichidor and yeah, we blinked and it was 26-nil. That was the first 10 minutes, it was nuts. Just we couldn't change momentum at all. So it was disappointing. But that was one of my favourite years in footy. Just the group that we had was phenomenal.
SPEAKER_02Greevzy's been back around the club a little bit. I think he's gonna strap the boots on again. We'll call him out on here. Yeah. Man up, Greesy. He's been doing a bit of fitness and then tagging prosser in it on social for some reason.
SPEAKER_01I saw him at round one. He must have dropped about 20 kegs.
SPEAKER_02He's looking good, hey. Yeah, he's looking fit. I think he was close to pulling the boots on round one, so we'll see. We'll see what happens. Be awesome to have a shuffle around with him. And Papa's playing Reggie's, how was that? Papa's playing Reggie's, yeah. And he's looking fit and strong, and yeah, he looks like he's enjoying it.
SPEAKER_01Good, good. Awesome. I know. We'll have to gotta get on to organising that actually. I don't know if that's a grey beards thing or someone's got to take the home of it, but yeah, we need a reunion.
SPEAKER_02We've got to actually let me check the schedule. It's cool 'em at home in the second round. Sorry why I while I find this on the phone. Do you mind just singing us a song?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, sure, no worries. What do you want to do?
SPEAKER_02Here we go, here we go. 19th of July, round 14. That'll be good. Winter, nice and cold, fire pick going, some can bar singing. Saturday game. Big Saturday game, yeah. We'll have many rounds of Saturday games. We've got a fair few Sunday games this year, but all the big rounds will be Saturdays. Okay. Yeah, it'd be interesting to see how Coulomb goes this year, hey. I think they'll be strong. I do. I think they've had a big change in their playing group, too. Like, obviously, Bryce quite cart right. That's just come out in the media recently and good on them. Yeah, good for the comp.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I mean, same as Obachek and Rivers. Like, don't get me wrong, I think Coulomb and Rivers will both be strong. But if your boys up front aren't doing the job, then Bryce gets a lot easier to handle. Same as Tom out there. If your forwards aren't going forward and getting that momentum, everything becomes easier to handle.
SPEAKER_02They're big humans, X NRL players, hey. Like you look at Janko and he was the winger.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he's a big man.
SPEAKER_02He's a big dude, hey. He could easily play in the middle. He's probably hate me for saying that, but he's quick enough and skillful enough to be on the edge where he does his best work. But yeah, he's a big enough body to play in the middle.
SPEAKER_01He is good dude too. Yeah, you know what how big George is. Is he on TV when Nelson was standing like an inch over the top of him? That's a big human, Nelson.
SPEAKER_02How do you reckon George is gonna go when they have you done any pad work or no? No, I haven't, but I haven't seen much of George, but he's braver than me. Yeah, well, I just I hope he goes well. He's ripping in and he's training and he's going, well, he'll be on here next week or something like that. So I'll give him a few more questions about it. But the pirates will be behind you, big George. Go get him, mate.
SPEAKER_01I've done enough of that to know that I know nothing. It's not just something you can step into and pick up in a couple weeks.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, 100%. Mate, actually, that's probably a good talking point. So you've had a couple of you've you've never had a like official sort of boxing fight, it's always been charity. No, I've had a couple of official ones.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Tell us about that. Ah, really good experience. I've obviously done more of the charity ones with footy clubs than that, but yeah, it's scary and nervous, and like I said, it's not doesn't matter how good you think you can throw a punch. If you haven't done it before, it's it's very, very different. But yeah, it's rewarding to focus on something like that for the period leading in and get through it. And yeah, it's something very different for me. I had box as a kid, so I did have a bit of a background at it, but it's just phenomenal how fit you've got to be. Like and a different fitness. It's nothing worse than your legs going and some bass is sitting there punching your head and you can't move.
SPEAKER_02Pretty humbling when you jump into spa for the first time and you get cracked in the face.
unknownDefinitely.
SPEAKER_01Wow, this is what it's like. Someone washing the nose and your tears are flowing through, like that really hurt.
SPEAKER_02So when did you have your well like amateur amateur fights? Pro fights. No, no, no, no, amateur. So amateur fights, was that before you did the charity stuff? After you did the charity stuff?
SPEAKER_01Oh, a bit of both. Disclaimer here. I'm no boxer. I've had probably you know seven or eight fights. Yeah. Hope no one listens and thinks I'm actually a boxer. The charity ones are always fun with the footy clubs and that. Um good spirits. Couple official ones I had, I suppose. We're under Mark up at Impact in Croy. Oh good. He's a great bloke. If you got kids and they're half thinking about going off the rails, get him up to Mark, he'll sort them right out. He's a great man, hey. Great man.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And we did Ace did a pre-season session up there too, and he put him through the ringer.
SPEAKER_01He sure did. So I set that up and I said to Tommy, how hard do you want to go? And he said, you know, I want him to hurt. And Mark said, Rattle. And they did. It's it's a different fitness, you know what I mean? It's different muscles, different everything.
SPEAKER_02We're lucky to have some good, oh, like all of the sporting noose is strong. Like all of the codes are strong. You got good fight gyms, you got BJJ gyms. We're lucky here. We've got good resources at our hands, hey. Everything's available. Did you see a couple of your fights were out of box office as well?
SPEAKER_01They were the more the football ones, I think. So I trained with his for a while. He's a good dude, too. He's a great man. But I don't think I actually had an official one with him. That was just more for the yeah, the football ones.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you were you did my corner for one of the charity marks. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I think I was drunk.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I tried to win that fight by headbutting his fists the whole time. What is he saying, mate? You're not a boxer, you're a you're you're a brawler. So you're gonna have to eat a few to throw a few. You gotta be stitched up.
SPEAKER_01Okay, you gotta be stitched up there because Harrison had some background. And it's there's one of those sports that's so many levels.
SPEAKER_02Keep your hands up, kids, if you if you're gonna do any sort of boxing, keep those hands up.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, all day.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01No, they're good fun though. Those those football ones are good. Yeah, 16 out of clubs and eggy, no one's getting hurt.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'm just gonna thrash around. We should do one as a fundraiser later on this year, post-season one. Gus and I were talking about that.
SPEAKER_01We went and watched the Marichid all one. They did a good job of that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, good idea. Good fun. We didn't have anyone from Pirates fighting that one, hey. Do you reckon there'd be enough appetite around the club to try and get blokes involved or girls involved?
SPEAKER_01Don't know, it's hard to tell. We did speak about it, and I actually spoke to Mark. He'd sort of get a few of his kids in for exhibitions to fill the nights and that sort of fill the night. You're probably gonna need eight to ten fights as far as footballs and that and just fill the rest of the night with exhibitions. They're always good fun.
SPEAKER_02This would be a tester to see how many people actually listen to this. But if you if you listen to it and you can put your hand up, put your hand up.
SPEAKER_01Coming over yarn to us. That might not be the best test of who listens because many people are gonna come up and say, I want to go get punched in the head. That's so good.
SPEAKER_02Completely different note, but you're a Broncos man in the NRL. Yeah, I am.
SPEAKER_01Took me a few years to get over getting cut. So yeah. But I'm past that now. So yeah, I'm a Broncos fan.
SPEAKER_02To be honest, like growing up as a junior on the sunny coast, I wasn't. I didn't love what the Broncos did with a lot of juniors up here, not a lot of people that I know that got mucked around by them. But they seemed that their direction as a club at a grassroots level is a lot better. It's probably a lot to do with the Dolphins, I think, as well. Bit of competition, yeah. Reedy does a great job, Bernsey does a great job. Credit to all of the the GDOs across the coast and the different wearing the different hats because they're all doing an awesome job now.
SPEAKER_01There was a lot of kids on scholarship when I was coming through, like a lot of them. Whether those kids thought that meant they were going to go and play NRL or not, whether they were just sort of stopping them from going to other clubs. I don't really know. Too young to have an opinion on that. But I never had never had an issue. I had every opportunity, every chance. Just didn't cut the mustard in the end. So fair cool, man.
SPEAKER_02Have you got any advice? Any kids that are sort of scholarship kids breaking into a system, walking down this path?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, work hard. Just because you've where you are now doesn't mean you're gonna be where you want to be, if that makes sense. So you can't just take it for granted and think got this opportunity and it'll happen because it doesn't.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I don't think anyone plays NRL now unless they're an extraordinarily hard worker. Hey, you can't just get to that level on talent. Can you get to that level with A-grade footing? Do you think you can get through to just based on talent play A-grade locally? It's getting harder.
SPEAKER_01I look at the comp now compared to when I came back. Like I think about me playing back then to what the guys are doing now. I don't know if I'd have been strong enough or what enough to play to be a successful, you know what I mean? Look, short answer, I think you probably could because it's not the level of professionalism. What the professional is certainly higher, but it's probably not high enough where you know you have to be doing everything right, but it's certainly getting closer.
SPEAKER_02I was watching so the Regis game, like Kowana and Noose are both good Reggie sides. The quality of that footy round one, yeah, it was like A grade 10 years ago. Yeah, 100% agree. Like the A-grade footy is a complete different level than what it used to be.
SPEAKER_01Hey, back when I came back however long ago, 400 years, um, some guys were lifting, some guys weren't, some guys are fit, some guys weren't. Everyone in A grade is you know lifting to a degree now, they're strong, they're fit. And if you're not, probably gonna get found out.
SPEAKER_02Mate, it was it was funny. We do we do a barbecue and we do some beers for the players before every home game, as you know. Before round one, we did it up at Karoy, took a couple of cartons of beer out there, we did the sausage sizzle, and we didn't get through. I took two cartons because I thought we had all the grades up there. Well, we might go through more than two cartons, but we didn't even get through one carton of beer. Nearly all the lads wanted bloody cozy roads. We ran out of cookie roads, changed.
SPEAKER_01Well, not just footy, I think young people in general, there's more of an emphasis on looking after yourself and being fit. And the drinking culture is sort of dropping off a little bit with the younger guys, you know what I mean? Yeah. My older son, he won't touch sugar, like he's so worried about what he puts in his mouth, it's phenomenal. I gave zero shits at that age.
SPEAKER_02And do you think that's just societal pressure? Do you reckon it's social media?
SPEAKER_01I think so. It's um can't hide anywhere these days, so there's more pressure, and it's it's sad, there's more pressure on kids to be this and look like that and whatnot. But you know, the flip side is good too because not the social media thing, but you know, the drinking culture, taking a bit of a back seat is probably a good thing. It is, man.
SPEAKER_02Well, especially we did a lot of binge drinking when we were younger. Like it was just it was a generational thing.
SPEAKER_03Exactly.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think I'm a couple of years younger than you, but not not much younger than you at all. And when we first started playing senior footy, you wore your concussions like a like a badger honor. Yeah, if you could if you could get flawed and get back up and keep having a crack for the boys, everyone would give you a high five.
SPEAKER_01You might have made I was a fullback, I didn't do that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, fair well, yeah. I did have a fair share. Hey, and then you'd have 400 beers afterwards to to either celebrate or commiserate game.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, definitely. That's I think it's a good thing. Like I said, being a boy dad, one of my concerns is hitting the teenage years and the drugs and the alcohol, but especially my oldest, he doesn't seem to be interested as much in that sort of stuff. I'm sure he'll have a beer when he gets older, but yeah, I think the societal thing has changed a little bit there as far as that sort of culture.
SPEAKER_02Well, yeah, we're in this information abundant society now, too. So lots of misinformation, but lots of information too. So I suppose, like we were touching on the academy stuff before, but want to try and guide our juniors on making good choices and not preach to them but teach them about sort of risk reward and just effective decision making because everyone's going to get the opportunity, it's just a matter of what decision you make at the time, hey.
SPEAKER_01And I think that academy is really good too, because you know, back when we were juniors, it was separate clubs. So having them around the seniors and keeping that investment in footy, I suppose, like if they see where they can be with it, even if it is just local A grade, something to push towards, as opposed to being 17 in high school, and that's the end of your junior club. You think footy might be done, you know what I mean? Whereas if you go straight, if you're around the nine's and the reserve graders from that 16, 17 year age, you probably get involved a little bit more, even find some mates in the 90s and carry on with it. So it's got to be good for footy, good for the club.
SPEAKER_02Mate, I I love what Ash has done with the patrons and all the patrons. Obviously, it's the the boys and girls that that make it happen, but every junior team's got a senior player that helps them out. Love it, but the kids love it. It's a great initiative, yeah. Yeah, and the teams that aren't getting the love from their patron that some other teams are are starting to kick stones and get it competitive, so the the patron games are on. It's a good setup, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Because yeah, it's gonna keep those kids involved and keep them motivated.
SPEAKER_02Look, we've been going for a bit now, and and we'll uh we'll wrap it up fairly soon. But mate, any wisdom you want to pass on to the listeners, any stories you want to pass on?
SPEAKER_01And I'm certainly never been accused of being too wise, so probably not much to be honest.
SPEAKER_02All right, and before we wrap up, NRL premiers this year. Ooh, no idea, no clue. Bronx repeat.
unknownBronx.
SPEAKER_02NRL W premiers. This will sit you up.
SPEAKER_01Bronx repeat.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, there you go. Local league premiers. Nice pirates. There we go. Right answer.
SPEAKER_01Uh it's got to be this year. We're starting to be negative, but I think we're doesn't happen soon. We're gonna miss our window with the players and the squad we got this year.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think we've got the right mix. I think we've got the right hunger. It's up to the players now. I think they've got the right environment around them too.
SPEAKER_01So bit of sting from last year, probably hanging over a bit too, motivate them a little bit more.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's good.
SPEAKER_01I reckon we'll get it done.
SPEAKER_02I hope so. I've got confidence in the squads too. Yeah, well, mate, it's been an absolute pleasure. So thank you for coming on. Thanks for sharing your story with the listeners and dramas. Yeah, mate. Look forward to doing it again sometime soon. How many listeners have you got? Seven or eight? Yeah, something like that. We'll see. All good, man. Thank you. Thanks, mate. See you, brother.