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
BRENDAN WILLIAMS
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🎙️ People of the Pirates with LA | EP11 – Brendan “Jukebox” Williams 🏴☠️
A Noosa Pirates junior, premiership winner and one of the toughest blokes to ever pull on the Blue & Gold.
Brendan “Jukebox” Williams earned his nickname the hard way—delivering some bone-rattling hits that opponents never forgot.
These days he’s serving the community in Victoria as a K9 Police Officer, but his love for the Pirates has never faded.
In this episode, Jukebox shares plenty of laughs and great stories from his days at Pirate Park, representing the Affiliated States and Australia in Police Rugby League, and the journey that’s taken him from the footy field to policing.
An authentic chat with one of our own that every Pirate will enjoy.
🏴☠️ Enjoy the yarn, legend!
Episode proudly brought to you by Narellan Pools – bringing dream backyards to life with Australia’s trusted fibreglass pool specialists. Narellan Pools
This episode has been brought to you from the DGMS studios, the 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, legends, welcome for episode 11. We've got big bad Brendan Williams here up from Vico for Old Boys Day. How are you, brother? Good mate, thanks for having me. No worries.
SPEAKER_01Back in the old stumping ground, that's good.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's a couple of years since you've been up to News.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think about three or four years. Uh when I was listening to your podcast down there, I heard you're having an old boys day, and I said, Oh mate, I'm not missing out on that, the 06 uh final, so definitely coming back for that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, man. Well, we've got a couple of reunions this weekend. We've got the 50 year for the 76 Reggies and then A's and Reggies for 06. So that'll be cool. Be cool to get the band back together and get everyone around.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, mate. Yeah, it'll be a good weekend. So looking forward to it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02What's been happening in your little household down in Melbourne, mate?
SPEAKER_01My household down in Melbourne, mate. I'm just working. I'm a police canine handler now down there. So it keeps me busy. I've got a four-year-old Belgian Malamar that we work. I've got three beautiful young girls that are pretty much flat out into sport, like myself when I was younger. So we've got basketball, netball, athletics, swimming. Yeah, it's a it's a pretty full-on schedule down there. So mate, I love it though. I'd rather take the kids to sport all the time, taking them. It's all different ones and have them sitting around looking at the iPad all the time. So 100%, man.
SPEAKER_02Building good memories, hey.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, 100%.
SPEAKER_02And we were talking in the car over here, you're doing a bit of coaching and stuff yourself.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so mate, always wanted to coach my kids in rugby league when I was finished playing, and I wasn't lucky enough to have any boys. So I ended up with three beautiful girls, and yeah, my wife was quite into athletics. She was a bit of a hurdler, and she got my oldest girl into it. Mate, I always kept going down there and I was helping out with the car uh the officialing and stuff like that. And uh I was starting to turn into one of those parents that started whinging about how things were run, and I spoke to the president, he goes, mate, jump on the secretary or that the committee, sorry, help us make some changes, help some us do some things. So yeah, the first thing I did, I actually started up the coaching there. So there was absolutely no coaching for the kids. So yeah, I did a couple of courses and now I do a lot of coaching. I've got my own little squad down there teaching kids how to run properly and sprint, which had well saying to you, I said like all the years that I've played rugby league, no one ever actually taught me how to run properly or sprint properly. So yeah, and I started watching my daughter and I'd seen a few things that we could fix up with her sprinting techniques. So yeah, no, I did the coaching and now she's doing quite well with her sprinting. So yeah, we we got a bronze for the relay team last year, four by two hundred, which was good. That's my first medal, uh state medal. So no, I was really proud of that. Yeah, I coach all the events, so sprinting, long jump, triple jump, high jump. I'm a big fan of high jump because it's a big mental toughness event. So I'm a big fan of that. And you see kids grow a lot when they learn that it's okay to fail. That's pretty much what I teach my kids the most. Don't be scared of failing, make mistakes, because you'll learn more from making mistakes than you will from getting over the bar. So mate, I'm very passionate about it. Yeah, mate, see where it takes us. So I'm only in my second year, and yeah, it's good.
SPEAKER_02Mate, a sneaky nomination for coach of the year's pending at the moment, I hear.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, nah. So find out next week. I got nominated for emerging coach of the year, so it's only my second year coachings. To be nominated for that, mate, I'm absolutely rapped. So yeah, no, it's good.
SPEAKER_02I don't know if we'll have time to get you involved with the academy while you're up here, but we might have to get a couple little videos I can drop on the group chat with some sprint tech, hey?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, 100%. No, I actually had a couple of boys, like my mate's sons, play AFL, and they're like, we need to get quicker, like so. They joined they did a season of athletics last year, and I took about three seconds off their hundred metres, which is awesome, which is good. So, but yeah, like and just fundamentally teaching them how they run, they actually had a lot of problems with their ankles, so you could have built up a lot of more strength in your ankles to sprint properly. So, yeah, no, it's mate, it's very technical, a lot of science behind it. I just keep it simple. Yeah, so but yeah, no, I love it.
SPEAKER_02And we were talking off mic about podcasts and audiobooks and stuff like that. So yeah, you're always sort of professionally developing yourself on those those sort of platforms, eh?
SPEAKER_01Best way to learn, yeah. Like when I'm going to sleep, I've got my headband on, I just lit just chill out. And I listen to a lot of the um the experts and how they coach their kids. And you know, like I I'm like a sponge, like I take everything in and then I pick out what I think is good and what is not. So yeah, I love the podcast. And mate, that's how I was listening to yours. I was mate, I was I sent you a message straight after I heard the first one that you did, and I said, mate, that's a great idea. It's uh it's good for the club.
SPEAKER_02So good man. Glad you enjoyed it and glad it's uh it's getting some reach now, which is well, been getting some reach since we kicked it off, but yeah, it's all going really well. It's excellent. So, mate, let's wind it back a few years. Tell us about what it was like in the junior days.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, mate. I was born into the Noosa family, I think. My old man, Skeeter, he was he played a few games for the club and for the Dolphins. I think it was more so with the Dolphins than that. But yeah, I lived around the corner. I think I started for the Noosa Pirates when I was five years old. Played three years of under eights, I think. Me, Brumy, Greg, Broomy, Greg Robbins, and Jay Walker, mate. We kind of went all through the grades together playing with each other. And uh we're also ball boys out at the seniors, so I used to go out, be a ball boy on Sundays, do the scoreboard, sandboy. So yeah, we used to do that every Sunday for five dollars a can of drink and some hot chips. And mate, used to love it though. Like I you'll probably get embarrassed and pissed off at me, but uh yeah, Shane Payne, mate. I used to sit there and watch Shane Payne when he was going through, and mate, I used to love watching him. We used to I remember one year he had blades, so I went out and got a bear of blades because I wanted to be like Shane Shane Payne, but I was half Shane Payne and half Steve Renoff, mate. I was like I used to love Steve Renoffs as well, so yeah. So yeah, mate, so I yeah, I I did ball boy until I was about 10 or 11 years old, I think. Used to love it. But yeah, mate, I've been at the Pirates yeah, since I was about five. What we went through, I think I think I we won the under 15 grand final. That was my first one. Well, I was never we were never in a really good sides when we were going through. That's why I think I turned out to be such a decent tackler, because we weren't always in the best sides, but yeah, under-15s, who we have? We had Carl Servanac, myself, Cameron Wesling. Yeah, there was a few names. Greg Robbins was in it, Brumi, all those boys. So yeah, that was my first grand final under 15s. Yeah, then stuck with it. Under 17s weren't that good, but I was when I was under 17s, I was playing also playing under 19s, so it was a pretty full schedule. It was like I was meant to be in my final year of school and doing a lot of studying, but I was, what was I, training four days a week, playing two games on the weekend and playing touch football on the spare night that I had. So I was I was quite fit, but yeah, mate, I loved it. So when I was under 17s, playing up for those under-19s, we had Shawnee Watson, Paul Smith, Dunny, Hoggy and Myers and all those boys. So yeah, that was good being brought into the senior club. Then we didn't make it through that year, but I think the following, I think the following year was it, would have been around 2000. Is that when I think we had all three grades made it through in the through group 2000 or 2001 when we uh the under nineteen's what we won the grand final then? So that was good. Because we I think there was John O'Williams, Hoggy, and Chain Myers were all playing up front from under 19s, filling in a bit of the A grade, and then uh halfway through the season they dropped us back to the 9s, and we ended up taking it from about middle of the ladder, and we ended up winning the grand final. So that was a that was a great season.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, 19s. I went into the A grade when I was about 20, I think. We made the grand final that year, and that was the famous 44-nil against Namble when we got towered up. That was good, like it that was a good experience for me as a young fella as well. Like I was playing 5-8, I think, and I was playing along Shane Payne. So the guy had always grown up watching, and like even though we got flogged, but it was good, still good learning. Then I went back and had a bit of the break. What was I? Was it been about 21? Oh no, sorry, it would have been at 19, 1920s, had a bit had a year off and just had a bit of fun playing, and then I think that was the year Goldie joined in his lost the grand final that year, I think.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, five, I reckon that was. Yeah, it was my first year in grade.
SPEAKER_01So I remember going down and watching that, seeing that, and that was that made me a bit angry. So I was like, yeah, no, next year I've got to give it a good crack. So I'd come back and joined A-grade that year, played out in the center. I think I was centre, and Andrew Denny was outside me, but we ended up winning that year. That was the first year, 2006. Yeah, no, that was a cracker, mate. That was um, yeah, mate, to win an A-grade grand final with the club that you've always been with, um, was uh it was a great feeling. We have we had Wayne Bartram and stuff like that on our team, and I remember made him and Goldie talking about some of their stories on the bus trip. Oh mate, that was a great experience. And then we ended up going over to New Zealand, I think, and we all ended up with Golden Staff. I think it was the right year. Yeah, two days later we all ended up Golden Staff from the ground when we got to New Zealand, but it wasn't great. But yeah, and then come back in 2007, and then we was it I'd pushed into 5'8 that year, and we had Dale Gilbert. That was your brother, Dylan, wasn't it? Dylan Dylan Gilbert, yeah, he was playing up. Mitch Simpson was he? He was jumping up as well, I think. So I think a lot of the younger guys were coming up that year. So I was playing 5'8 outside of Goldie, and mate, that was a good season. I learned a lot playing outside of him. He wasn't too much encouraging with uh making mistakes, I'll tell you that. Yeah, no, he's good for a spray if you get it wrong. He learned a men though, Goldie. Yeah, so no, we had a good partnership going on. So yeah, we won. He'll be beat that year. We beat testing the memory now, that was Namble that year at Kowana. We won that one. I remember that. We were unbeaten that whole year, so yeah, no, that was cracker, and yeah, then 2008 come back and we beat Cobulture that year. So yeah, after I we did the three peat, I'd finished my apprenticeship. I was doing my apprenticeship at the time with Dale and Phil Campbell. Did my four-year apprenticeship with them and they looked after me, and that was amazing. That's one of the best things I reckon I've ever done is doing my apprenticeship. Yeah, sorted me out a lot, and I'm still very handy now. But I finished my apprenticeship with Big Dino, Big Dean Campbell, Chop Chop, and me and him went overseas. So we originally planned to go overseas and work on the Olympics and help out the better that and the credit the 2008 the credit crunch hit, and yeah, they they sucked about 400 people from the job we were lined up for. So we'll kind of stranded over there for a bit, and then Kaz Harris, I think he used to play over in England. And he sent it through a contact, and we ended up going up playing for Hemel Hempstead, which is probably an hour north of London. It's a bit funny because like I've heard you've had a few English blokes, so I knew now it's good to see someone going over there now. I'm playing, but yeah, so we played over in Hamel Hampstead, which was championship one or two, I think, that year. So yeah, we just they put us up in a house, started off with me and Chop Chop, then a few Aussie boys and a big Kiwi bloke come in, and I think there was about six or seven of us living in the house at the time. So it was it was a bit of an experience, but yeah, no, mate, like great experience. So we were travelling all over England playing rugby league, so like right up to the Scottish border. Our closest game was probably three hours, so there were some pretty big bus trips involved. But yeah, it was it was a good experience, mate. Some of their fields over there, they don't have the luxury that we've got over here. Yeah, I remember I played on one field and it was like I was playing on a hill. It was good running down the hill, not so good running up, but yeah, because like over there, rugby union's their biggest thing down around London, it's all rugby union down there, but further north, all rugby league. So Hamill, because they were so far south, close to London, they struggled to get the league boys in, so we we recruited a few Aussie boys. So yeah, and then so three, oh, where was I? I was we're halfway through the season, and me and a couple of mates went across to Spain because we had a buy that weekend. Went across to Spain, and me, Chop Chop, and another guy from Brisbane went across to Spain, and yeah, I ended up meeting my um now wife in uh an Irish pub in Spain. So sitting out there having uh having a few beers and she came up and asked what game we're playing. We're playing used to play the peg game. We used to play on Mad Monday. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, so she was quite intrigued of the peg game. So yeah, and that's how I met my wife, just sitting at an Irish pub in Spain.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, good.
SPEAKER_01And then uh went back and travelled another year with her and then uh come back down to Victoria and joined the police. So and then once I joined the police, so I started playing police rugby, so which is part of the reason why I always wanted to join the police force. I remember I went to a state of origin once and Blair Doran, I think he was playing for the Queensland police side. And I remember looking at it and going, how good's this? He's playing playing rugby league for a job and playing for Queensland. Like that's one of the things I always wanted to do. I always wanted to play for Queensland. But anyway, I joined Victoria and the Victoria Police and I always wanted to play. I was like, uh, I remember a hoggy going over to England and playing, and I was like, oh, that'd be good. So a guy called Dwayne Illies got in contact with me, and there was an affiliated states and territory side. So um you've got Queensland, New South Wales, and then you've got the affiliated states and territories, which is you know AFP, Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia. So yeah, he got in contact with me in our first when on our first tour, I went across to Adelaide, and yeah, like it was one of the best things ever done. Like I absolutely loved it. We get together a week for the actual tri-series, and then because we get to know it, we actually meet our teammates and stuff like that, whereas a lot of the other teams uh play together every week and stuff. So yeah, we spent a week together training and we played New South Wales and they they gave us a bit of a touch-up. And then the uh the next day we actually drew with Queensland, so which was awesome. Like I'd always wanted to play for Queensland, and then when we drew with them, I'm like, oh, that was yeah, that was just as good. Because normally we'd always be flogged like 40 hod to nil against Queensland and New South Wales, but yeah, to draw against them, put a little chip across. We were down by we were down by four or six to go and put a chip across to this young fella that hadn't played for us. He just played AFL, he'd never played rugby league before, and he he took the mark and scored the try, and that that's what drew the game in the last minute or so. So that was pretty good. That was my first year of playing police rugby, rugby league, and then yeah, so we went on. They're now the affiliated with the Melbourne Storm, so they're affiliated States and Territories Storm. So yeah, they're still they've got a game. I think in the 25th of July, they have their tri series. So that's one of the best things. Playing police rugby was unreal. Like uh Dwayne Illies and the team, they do a they did an awesome some job at getting the other team together from everywhere over the Australia. So yeah, no, I had a ball doing that. Made the Australian team a few times and did a few trips. They'd done a couple of tours to Fiji and New Zealand playing for the Australian police. Mate, playing those Fijians over there. We play, I think we played before the tri-series, the NRL tri-series and stuff like that. Yeah, but mate, those Fijians, I I tried to put a shot on a Fiji bloke once and I flattened him and he just kind of looked at me and said, Oh, good hit. My right shoulder was just tingling, and I was like, oh Jesus. And he just got up like nothing had happened. And I was like, holy crap. Big scary dudes, eh? Yeah. I think, I think just between you and me that they made some some Fijians that were in the uh rugby union sevens for the Olympics. They made them honorary police for the weekend. Oh, really? Yeah, there's a couple of blokes in there that they were police officers.
SPEAKER_02Give it to the Aussies.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but mate, yeah, like police rugby, mate. Oh, that's one of the best times. Uh beating Queensland, Hoggy plays for uh that was playing for the Queensland team, and I always wanted to have a run against him, and he's like, nah, nah, fuck that. He used to tell all the boys in the side, don't run a Brendan because he'll drop you. And I remember their hooker for uh Queensland ran at me once and I got him out of marker and I actually dislocated his old collarbone and stuff like that. And all all Hoggy said to him was um when he came off the ground, he goes, I fucking told you not to run a jukebox. Yeah. Yeah, never got to play against Hoggy, but uh that's good enough. I got to play with him, which was um which is unreal. So but yeah, mate, so yeah, play we I got to beat Queensland and New South Wales, which is I never got to play for a Queensland, but I got to beat Queensland and both and New South Wales down in Melbourne, which was yeah, which was great. Considering four four, like we got a team of blokes from all over Australia get together and yeah, play against these sides that are pretty well drilled, and that was that was good. Darwin, I think I finished up, was my last I tried to play, I played in Darwin, I coped um one decent head knock to the temple and it knocked me out. And I was seeing a bit of double vision there for a while, so I was like, I think it's time to pull the pin on the footy and wrap it up. Yeah. And I always said that I'd stop playing footy when I was scared of getting injured. And because I had just been given a new dog and stuff like that, just the thought of getting injuries is losing your dog, it's yeah, it's not worth it. So I'm now into the coaching role, so yeah, it's good.
SPEAKER_02So, mate, footy's Pirates Jr. Premiership glory as a young man, toured all over the world, yeah, state nozzle coppers. That's pretty cool, man. Did you play against the Fierys? We've got a couple of lads that Butter's playing for the Fierys now and Leachy, he's playing for the Faries. You don't I don't think we've got any coppers reps at the moment playing for Queensland and stuff.
SPEAKER_01Nah, it would have been good to play. Look, because league down in Victoria, it's growing. I must say it's growing, like there's some good league players down there, but it's just not as if like we have a game where like our Vicole team has a game against the navies, I think. That's way over the other side of Victoria Dandy Mornington and stuff like that, so that's kind of hard to get to. But yeah, no, they they try to organise games, the Vic Pole rugby league team, but it's yeah, we have a few teams with like games. I don't play it as much anymore, but we used to play against some of the like the local club teams and stuff like that, just uh you know, get around. We used to we had an annual game against some of the country teams just to try and build up rugby league. So we used to have the Blue Ribbon Cup, yeah, which is just like playing one against the country teams just so they could get boys together trying to start rugby league teams, which was good. But yeah, no, mate, nothing against the Faris and stuff like that would have been good. I remember the Australian team we played against the the English English Special Ops group or something like that. I think they were all rugby union boys because I think we belted them like 68 to nil. Yeah. So um, yeah, that was down in Sydney, but uh great experience playing for the Coppers and stuff like that. But just missed out playing against Hoggy though, though. That would have been good to have him run at me.
SPEAKER_02Because Hoggy's got uh he's in dog squad as well. Was that part of the reason you got into that field in the Coppers or just coincidental?
SPEAKER_01It's a funny story, mate. Me and Hoggy used to catch a school bus together when we were in high school. So and we used to sit on there and talk about joining the police force and joining the dog squad. Yeah, and then so like we'd both always wanted to join the police, and we both wanted to go to the dog squad because um, yeah, senior McGregor, Pete McGregor, he was uh he was a copper and Sam wanted to follow in his footsteps, but just wanted to go to the dog squad. And so when I was over in Seas living over in London, he told me he'd join the police. Like, hardly, that sounds good, that'd be good to do that. And I think when so as soon as I got back, I um went into the police force as well. And then yeah, we he told me got in the dog squad and I was applying for it as well because I actually put in to transfer back to Queensland Police. I got onto the courses the same day I was getting married, and I was like, Oh, sorry, I can't make it. Can I get on the next course? And then six months later, I was actually in the dog squad, so yeah, it was it was it was good because me and Hoggy still ring each other now and talk about jobs that we had and uh compare like the dogs and stuff like that, which is amazing. But yeah, it's just so funny. Two young fellas sitting on the back of a bus talking about their life dream joining the the dog squad, and now we're both where we wanted to be, which is unreal. But mate, it was it was funny when I joined the Victoria Police. It was a bit weird because like my first hosting in, I don't know if people know Melbourne was in Footscray. Footscray is not the the most known, like flashest area. It's uh it's uh a lot of a lot of junkies and stuff like that. So here I am, a little country boy just kind of joining uh the Vic Pole and they've thrown me in the deep end. I think second day on the job, had a it was a firearm job. So got me and this leaner leading senior Connie, and we're flying into the city uh the the main town, and he's got out of the car. We found the two offenders in the car, and he's got out of the car, he's got his gun out drawn at him. And you look at the footage of me, I'm getting out of my car, just worried about my pen and my running sheet and stuff like that. And he's got his gun out, and I'm like, oh, oh yeah, all right. So yeah, that was a bit of an eye-opener moving into Melbourne and footscray and stuff like that. So but yeah, I did two and a half years foot scray on general duties, and I was very lucky. I um I went for a ride along with the canine handler, and they're like, Yeah, just have a go. Because normally with a canine handler, you can't get there until you're about done six years on the job, like a senior conny. And I was only a first conny at this time, so I only done two and a half years, and so I went for it and they opened up a few jobs and I put in my application, and a lot of the coppers around me, like, you ain't getting you too junior for that. I was like, just put my best foot forward, so all the learning experience, and I ended up getting the job as a general duties handler. For people that don't know, like general duties handlers are they're tracking dogs. So if someone breaks into your house, you get a cane on there, they track from your house, someone steals your car, they dump the car and run. We track from the car and find the offender, and if it comes to it, the dog subdues and so but we also we also do missing people, uh missing people searches, property searches. Yeah, so it's it's it's an amazing job. Like I remember sometimes like I start my job and I I don't know what I'm gonna go to at the start. Like I start my job and you speak to the sergeant at the start of your shift and he goes, Alright, mate, you're getting in a chopper, you're going to Dargo to look for this missing suicidal person, or or you get told to drive up to the far north, or you get tasked all over the state when all this happy stuff happened with Desi Freeman. I was up there for two months. Yeah, right. Um, when all that kicked off. So but yeah, mate, it's and that's just the job. Like you just don't know what's gonna happen at the start of each shift, and that's what I love about it. I hate doing the same stuff every day, so cracking job.
SPEAKER_02Awesome, man. So yeah, no two days are the same, hey?
SPEAKER_01No, definitely not. So yeah, I've just come off night shift now, so bit of a zombie. It's it takes a little while to kick in, but had some cracking jobs, and we've got a fair bit going on down in Melbourne with our um cigarette wars and our firebombings and like that. So it's always busy down there at the moment.
SPEAKER_02For sure. Is there any a law that come back up to Queensland and work up here? You're bit pretty you're pretty settled in BicO now. Family's all pretty entrenched down there. Ray.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, mate. So we're we're down in Geelong. So I yeah, we're just outside. We're down in Geelong along near the water there. We've got a nice little house. We just bought a nice little house on the golf course. I need to start learning how to play golf better now. But yeah, no, it's a we've got a great spot down there. The family's good. My elder sister Leah, she's moved back from London. She's actually helping me coach athletics and that as well. She's jumped on board. So I actually wanted her to coach my middle daughter Billy on basketball because she was quite the basketball player. So I got her into a course and she's like, nah, I want to coach athletics with you, Brendan. I was like, that's gold, helps me out. So yeah. So when we started off at Karai, we had there was no coaches there at all. But yeah, now we get about 30 odd kids each Tuesday and Thursday to training. So mate, it's unreal. It's a bit like I was and I was going to talk to you about it. Like it's good to see how you guys are building the club back up to now, to like how good it is now, like from what I've seen. You've got all these programs going, which is assisting kids in like in the direction that they want to go and stuff like that. And I reckon that's awesome because yeah, like we never had that when we were growing up, so like um we just did what we thought was right, and sometimes we got a bit loose. And I was known for going out in the piss a couple of times before the games and stuff like that. So nah it's good to have that direction if the kids that want to actually go further now, you've given them the direction, which is unreal.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, and mate, credit to you too, you're doing it down south as well. So yeah, sport's such an important thing through childhood. I would have been ten times more of a rat bag if I hadn't had sport to keep me on task.
SPEAKER_01And that's the thing, mate. And that that's what I said to you on the way here. Like, this is what I miss about Queensland most. It's not the weather and that, it's just the club that like the club. I don't know where I would have ended up if I wasn't playing footy. Like you said, I would have been a brat. And I if I didn't have that sport, playing footy every week and training Tuesday and Thursday. And yeah, I was quite lucky I had uh because my mum was always working, my mum and dad had separated, but they were always working, and Jade Walker used to live around the corner from me, so I always used to bum rides with his his mum, Daryl and Sandy for training. So yeah, I was pretty lucky uh in that regards.
SPEAKER_02Mate, it takes a village. Hey, like a footy club's a big community, athletic clubs, I'd I'd imagine is a big community and stuff too.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, we're similar to you guys, we're trying to build that that Karaya, Karai Athletics Club that we've got. We're trying to build that. We've actually just got some we start up a bingo now to help raise a bit of funds, and that's made things a lot easier on the families. And yeah, athletics is all run by volunteers, and so we're always all clubs are doing it, all struggle to find the volunteers. But when you're passionate about it, mate, I love it. I love going down there and doing the uh officialing for it, doing it for all the schools now, and I'm teaching my daughters school, all the kids in their relay team. So I was just down there down there yesterday at Manifold Heights primary school, teaching the all the kids relays, just sport in general, like the people you meet playing through sport, yeah, it's so good for the kids.
SPEAKER_02Such a gift to be able to give back to people. Hey, yeah, so that's awesome, man.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's good.
SPEAKER_02Made on a completely different note. We were talking before about your whacking bloke. So you've got one of the best nicknames getting around in jutebox, and there's some awesome nicknames from that from that era in the Pirates, like one that springs mine's dog tits. Tell us about how jutebox come around.
SPEAKER_01So where were we? We were we're at the can't think of what year, maybe 2001 under 19 Queensland State titles we were. White Bay. Actually, one of our most successful uh seasons I had in the White Bay because we were unbeaten. We had a really good team, so there was John O'Wombs in it, I think Myers, Shane Myers, Hoggy, and myself. Yeah, and I uh we got moved into centre, I think, for first day. I think I was playing centre of five, I couldn't believe it. And the guy ran straight at me off the scrum, jumped right on my right shoulder, and I just upended him. And that night we're sitting there doing the footy review, and Hoggy's like, oh, you're like a hit machine, you're like a jukebox. And I was like, then that just kicked off from there and then worg it around. And then I think we're playing cabooltra at home one day. I just remember, like, because back before I went overseas, I was I was about 60, 60, 70 kilos dripping wet. So I was only a real skinny fella. So yeah, I used to fair few guys used to run at me all the time. And I remember this guy, he would have been about 6'2, he just came running straight at me. And the first time he ran at me, and it was front of the home noosa pirates too, which made it even better. I just picked him up and dropped him on his head and uh he lost the ball, and I was like, Yeah, that was good. The crowd all are into him and stuff like that. So he must have tried to redeem himself and he ran at me again. I did the exact same thing and he dropped the ball. And I think I did I got him three times in a row, and I think that's when the name kicked off when everyone realised that I was jukebox the hit machine. So yeah, good. And it kind of trailed off to a couple loose box, JB, Jukey, yeah. So it all just kind of spread out. So it went from chicken legs to jukebox. That's that's it all Darren, that's all Nullsy and all that used to call me chicken, chicken legs. Yeah, good. So but yeah, no, I've had a few nicknames over my time, so it's just willow now. That's what uh Willow Victoria is, it's just willow. If you guys know me as jukey, but yeah, yeah, it was good fun. But yeah, as I said to you, mate, I had to know how to tackle because uh played in some pretty bad teams when we were younger, and I had a fair bit of tackling practice. Yeah, we used to all my neighbours and stuff like that. We used to get all the kids out the front yard of my house and stuff like that, and playing footy. And there was one boy that used to live up the road and he used to run really straight and hard, and I think I learned a bit of tackling from him, just tackling him as well. So used to love it when I was a kid.
SPEAKER_02Getting plenty of reps in.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's exactly right. So the rocky boulders, I get a bit sore now, though. Um, I got into the high rocks. Have you heard of the high rocks?
SPEAKER_02No, no, tell us about that.
SPEAKER_01High rocks, uh, got into a bit of that lately. So a bit of BFT training, kind of hung it up now, but it's where you run a kilometre, then you do a standing row for a kilometer, then you run another kilometre. What are you then? Then you do a sled push, and then you run a kilometre, then you do a sled pull, and then you run a kilometer, and you do burpees broad jumps, then you run a kilometre. It's a bit of an endurance one, and it's for time. And yeah, mate, that was that was really good doing those. But yeah, the the old shoulders now they're they're starting to feel all these hits over the time.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I've had to hang up the towel with that one as well.
SPEAKER_02So we'll um I'll have to give you a tool through the gym while you're here and check out the new gym at the club. We finally got a gym at the club, which is good. So I feel the next generation of pirates coming through a bit bigger than the last ones.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I needed them when I was growing up, that gym. Yeah, but mate, no matter how long how much I work on my legs, they do not get any bigger. My old man said he had the same issue. There's I just keep working on them, and all I get is injuries, so I just yeah, my old skinny chicken legs, they never grow. But one of the guys I go to the gym with, he's got massive calves, massive legs, and stuff like that, but I can still lift more than him. So it's not about the size of the legs, it's how you use them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, 100%. So, mate, have you got any one penciled in for a catch-up while you're up here, or you just waiting to see the boys at Old Boys Day?
SPEAKER_01Mate, I've I've spoken to Jared Melville. Me and Jared Melville, we did uh apprenticeship together. So I've spoken to him. His um partner's mother lives down in Torquay, so whenever he comes down, he stops in and says hello and stuff like that. So it's always good to catch up with him. Organised hoggy. I've got to catch up with Gus Bus and I haven't seen Zippy for a while either. So mate, it'd be good to catch up with all those boys. And it's always good, like every time I've caught up with them, it's just like nothing's changed. So we still put a bit of shit aid on each other and stuff like that. But uh, no one else. I tried to get Broomy down here. I haven't seen Broomy for a few years, but he's he couldn't make it down. But no, it'd be good to catch up with all the boys. And from what I've heard, the uh the Royal Mail's a bit flashed now, so I've got to check that out there. I used to work at the Royal Mail when I was doing my apprenticeship. I used to work eight hours on the tools and then I used to finish up there and then go and do you know six or seven hours at the Royal Mail behind the bar and then do that on four or five days a week. And I may look back now and I don't know how I did it. Working two full-time jobs trying to flee footy, and that was a good experience though. Yeah, but I heard it's uh pretty flash now because my mum Jules, she used to work at she was at the TAB at the um the Royal Mall there. She was there for 30 odd years, I think. I can't remember how long she was there for, but no, it'd be good to stop in and have a look.
SPEAKER_02There's still a few of the old legends that used to work there back before the Renault's still there. So yeah, I'm sure you'll see a few familiar faces. Yeah, no, they'd be good. Good beer garden. Awesome beer garden.
SPEAKER_01Is that yeah? Hopefully get some good weather. I come up here for some good weather, but I must have brought the weather with me, the windy and cold up here. Yeah. Sounding exactly like Melbourne at the moment.
SPEAKER_02I hope the sun sticks around for the weekend. It's not rainy, eh?
SPEAKER_01No, nothing beats having a nice coldie when it's uh good weather, is it though?
SPEAKER_02That's it. Did you ever play against Coulomb in your playing date?
SPEAKER_01Coolam were around in my junior days. So when I was under eights, under nines, they were around. I think once we hit in under 11s and 12s, they folded. So and they they weren't in it yeah, up until I left to go overseas, they weren't involved. But I've heard they're back now and they're a pretty decent club.
SPEAKER_02Is that yeah, man, yeah, they've come come massive, massive way, hey. So yeah, they're real strong for juniors. Yeah, they've um been in A-grade for a couple of years.
SPEAKER_01Oh, good.
SPEAKER_02Throwing a bit of cash around, pinched a few of our players, just adds to the rivalry, hey. So yeah, it's always a good game when we play Coulomb. But we're playing for the yeah, Richter Kavanaugh Shield. So after uh after Sammy and Sammy Richter, yeah, that's good, great idea. So yeah, it'd be good to keep the shield at home.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, 100%.
SPEAKER_02And then yeah, the Coulomb side of it's after Pat Kavanaugh, who's been tied up in the school scene down around Coulomb for forever. So Pat'll probably be there on Saturday, I'd say, to present the shield. But um good.
SPEAKER_01Looking forward to it, mate. And that's that's some of the best memories I've ever had about playing for the Noosa Pirates is running out through that chant of the Noosa Noosa. That was one of the best, mate. I used to look forward to that every weekend. And having all the boys down in the Utes when you're playing your ground, you used to have all the boys lined up in their utes at the still happens, man.
SPEAKER_02Still happens.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you go down there and they're all giving you flack, and yeah, I used to love it. The banter and stuff like that, mate. That was some of the best days, and mate, I I was so lucky to be a part of that era and yeah, to actually do all that and play footy. Mate, playing for the pirates was um, yeah, as I said, the best things ever. And that's what I miss about Noosa the most is being part of that club, club family, and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_02So Oh mate, you're always a part of it when you come back. You're always one of the brothers. Yeah, yeah. Gonna be good to uh knock off a few frothies on Saturday and yeah, talk about old war stories, eh?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, mate. No, I'm looking forward to it. And uh, yeah, mate, I'm really glad I made the trip up for it. So it should be a great weekend.
SPEAKER_02Awesome, mate. Thinking where we go to next. We've talked over coaching, we've talked over a bit of junior footy, the copper stuff. Have you got any other funny stories from your playing days up here or old yarns you can share with the listeners?
SPEAKER_01I suppose we got we can talk about uh Hoggy's two front teeth. And let's talk about that. So, well, we've we were about 21, I think we were. Uh we were me and Hoggy were actually living together on Merindall Street there. So yeah, the two of us had a joint that we're renting there. And we went to Gimpy one day and we played against Gimpy. And Hoggy's come from one side, tried to hit this bloke with everything he had. And I've gotten down and tried to tackle him from the the left side, and Hoggy's hit him high and swung around and snapped off his two front teeth in my forehead. I got the scar there still to prove it. Nah, it was funny, yeah. So, like, it's I think that's the only time he didn't wear a mouth guard. The only game he didn't have his mouth guarded, and he snapped his two front teeth off on my forehead. So here we are, roommates, sitting in the emergency after the game. I had to get stitches and he's got to get something for his teeth. So there's heaps of memories, mate. Like, I just know where I didn't even know where to start. But just the yarns, like some of the footy trips that you went on with the boys and that, it's just it was I suppose it was a bit more of it was a drinking culture, but geez, it was a lot of fun though. Yeah, it was. They don't make them like they used to now though. But yeah, I remember I think I went on my first footy trip when I was 17 to that with Ben Swan and that up to one of the islands up north. Yeah. I remember sitting one of the mad Mondays, sitting there having beers with the boys and see all the guys still going to school, and I was meant to be at school, but it was a mad Monday and I wasn't missing out on it. So I hope none of my teachers heard that. But uh yeah, no, that's some great experiences. I've actually got a uh cracking story about one of the canine jobs that I had one time. Yeah. I got called to a job out in Melton. Melton's in the western part of Melbourne, probably half an hour, 45 minutes out of Melbourne. I got called out there for they they located a uh Black Ute Park toilets, like the public toilets area, and it was wanted for drive-by shootings and stuff like that. And they said the bonnet's still warm on it and stuff like that, so I rocked up there and anyway, so cast me dog around, drive the side of the the car. Anyway, the dog's picked up a track and he started tracking through this parkland, down into this little swampland, and the dog's up and about, and I'm like, oh geez, we might be on here. And like at the time, we were always tracking one up, so we're always by ourselves and stuff like that. It's a bit different now. Anyway, so I've tracked down into this bush and the dog's up and about and he's going frantic, which means there's like human scent there. So the dog's up and about. Next thing you know, he's dived into this bush, and I was like, oh Jesus, pulled him out. The dog's come out of the bush with this big black dildo in his mouth, and I was like, No, no, leave that, leave, leave. Anyway, so I've kind of moved him on and I'm casting around, and he kept coming back to this one bush with this dildo, and I was like, oh mate. So anyway, I've I've come up on air and I'm the highway patrol said to me, He goes, Look, last time we seen him, he was running across this paddock. So I've jumped in my car and I've driven over to where the highway patrol are. They're parked next to the council there. Anyway, so I've got the dog out and I'm casting over this area where he's last seen him. And the dog's got this track, I'm gone over this bridge, but we've ended up back and he's gone to this black dildo again. I'm like, what the hell is going on? This is not right. I can't get the track away. So I've kind of packed up, I've gone back to the highway, guys. I'm like, mate, sorry guys, I just he keeps going to this one spot in the bush, and like I can't get him away from it. So they're like, Yeah, no worries, we'll see you later, and stuff like that. So they drove off and I was parked just in front of them. So they were parked there and I was parked here, and the council was there. Anyway, so I put the dog away and I'm busting for this. I just put the dog away, and so I've gone over and it's all dark. You can't see anything. I'm sitting, there's no cars around, I'm pissing in this bush, and I've looked down and I'm like, what is that? I've lit it up. The guy's sitting there in the bush with his face down and I'm pissing on him. I'm like, Jesus. Because he wanted for firearm offences. I've pulled away, I'm trying to put my tackle away, I'm trying to get my gun out, I'm trying to come out on the radio. I'm like, I've got him. Poor guy, he he was just sitting there laying there, copping it, trying to be quiet. He put his hands up and came out and surrendered and stuff like that. And I was just like, mate, that is one of the funniest stories I've ever heard. Unbelievable, and so yeah, funny to say, like the the rest of that night shift. Whenever I didn't find the offender, I just kept pissing him bushes. Hopefully, I'd find the offender. But yeah, I've never had something like that happen to me before.
SPEAKER_02So was it a different bush than the dildo was in or the same bush?
SPEAKER_01No, it was a different bush. So this one was over near the council. So he was he was actually hiding in a bush right next to where the highway patrol were the whole time. Yeah, so he would have heard all their conversations and everything. And when they drove off, I just went for a piss and he was there. No, like some of the things you do on uh when you're working night shifts and stuff like that is just like I go through people's front yard and stuff like that, and I'm making heaps of noise and they didn't even know I'm there, and it's just like yeah, because like yeah, funny things, because offenders jump through yards, we track over fences. Like, I don't know, you would have probably seen some of the um what the males can do. Like they can jump over eight foot fences, they walls and stuff like that. So yeah, the other night we were jumping over ten-foot fences and stuff like that. I'll tell you what, fences are getting higher and higher. I started at the dog squad, mate. There are six foot fences, and mate, they're all about ten-foot aluminium fences now, so they're they're getting harder and harder to get over. I don't know if it's because I'm getting older, they're getting taller.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, the little legs getting them up there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, uh, but mate, yeah, I love my job still this much. I think I've been at the dog squad now for about 12 years, and mate, I still love it from the day I started. So it's always changing, like different crookses. So these new cigarette walls that were going on, where it's all different kettle of fish to what we had when we started. Like having a stolen car when I started the dog squad was a big thing, and now we've just got so many stolen cars down there, you don't know what to follow. So yeah, I don't think I'll be out of a job anytime soon down there.
SPEAKER_02For sure. And like, would you recommend being a copper to any of the young listeners looking for what they're gonna do with their life?
SPEAKER_01100%. Like being a police officer is amazing. Like, I'd recommend it to anyone that has got the nerve for it, but I think if you're gonna do it, get that life experience behind you first because it is very mental challenging sometimes. Like you've got to have some real strong mental toughness about you. Like you get in situations, I've been in some pretty hairy situations, and then yeah, like it's tested me mentally. So, yeah, I think having that mental toughness and that life experience behind you always helps, so a bit of travel. Working in a bar helps me out heaps now because like I can sometimes you gotta sit there and like having a conversation with a wall, like sometimes these people won't talk to you because you will talk to all different types of people, and you've got to know how to escalate situations, de-escalate them. And yeah, when I was working in Footscrow, and I thought that was one of the good things. I never had to go hands-on with anyone, I just kind of spoke to them and took a lot of patience, and so yeah, like a great job, like amazing. I do highly recommend it. Yeah, to any young kid that's out there, um, go along that path. I highly recommend it, but just make sure you you've got that background behind you, know what you're doing, get out of tough situations.
SPEAKER_02And when you've been in something a bit hairy and a bit tough, like do you have a certain way you sort of unpack it and deal with it? Does the the force put good support around you? Have you got your own little vices that you use?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, mate, I do. The Victoria Police now they've always got psychologists and stuff like that. Whenever you go through a a critical incident, so a critical incidents where someone dies, or you know, police have had to use serious force. So I have been in one serious one. We got I got actually got a chief commissioner's bravery award for. This is back I had a young dog, he was only two years old, I know he just pretty much qualified with him. We had a guy who'd uh don't know the full story behind it, but he'd run over his brother, like stabbed his brother multiple times, got the car and reversed over, driven over him a couple of times, and then went around to his sister's house. And he actually tried to kill his brother's family and kids and that in the house, and then he went around to his sister's house and tried to take out his sister as well. So we were we were out hunting. I'd only just started night shift and got the call at the start of my shift and went up there hunting this guy, and they actually found him he'd come back to his house. So the highway patrol actually got in a big pursuit with him and he crashed his car and it was in amongst all the dirt. So as the highway patrol pulled up, they've had this guy coming at him with the knife, so they've backed off, pulled out their firearms. But as they backed off, they've left the front door open to the highway patrol, and he's jumped in the car and fell on the highway patrol car. And so yeah, he was just yeah. So I seen him driving the car coming south on the road up near Tullamarine there, and he would have been doing about 200 kilometres an hour. And he ended up crashing the vehicle on Sydney Road, Campbellfield, dumped the car, and yeah, he's dancing down the Sydney, like the Hume Freeway, just like the Joker, just swinging a knife around, and had about eight coppers behind him just with their guns drawn on him, and he just didn't care. He's just running down the road. And I turned up with my young dog, and yeah, probably a bit out of his scope, went down there with those sort of things. You just got to try and do what you can to stop him and come down there, sent the dog, and the dog didn't know what was going on. There were sirens going on, there was people screaming, so I got the dog back to me. One copper actually tried to hit him and knock him over, and that didn't work. But as he's come for the bonnet, I've come over and tried to kick him and he's in the nether regions, and uh that kind of put him against the fence, but he kept running. The dog beat him on the leg, but he punched the dog in the head and kept running. The only option that was there was the old footy skills kicked in. So he's running with the knife, and I've got about eight coppers behind me with their guns on him, so I just ran up, tucked him, put my arms around him, locked the knife in down by itself, like a rugby tackle. Yeah, perfect rugby tackle, tuck it into the ground, and yeah, it was a it was a pretty tough night, like uh with my dog and stuff like that, because after something like that, we get held back and we get uh urine tests and or alcohol tested and do statements and that. So yeah, that was a pretty big night. But yeah, two years later I got a chief bravery award, so that that was good, good for me family, and that they did it uh a ceremony, so my daughters, my daughters actually got to come and watch me get the award and stuff like that, which is really good because half the time when we're at home, they think dad's a uh pretend cop. Because I don't wear the vest and I don't know a general duties officer. They're like, Dad, you're not a real cop. Alright, fair enough. But yeah, no, it was good for my daughters to come and watch me. And and that's I always try to you try to set these good examples for your kids and stuff like that, like them watching that. I take my kids to the gym all the time because I think that even that mentally watch them watching me exercise is good for them. So I was like, yeah, I love that sort of stuff. I love it.
SPEAKER_02Teaching good habits, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I love that's probably one of the going, sorry, going back to coaching and stuff like that. I think that's one of the things I love about coaching the most, just the psychology of sport. I love teaching kids, like I said before, that it's so good to make mistakes. Like uh I've got one girl, I don't know if they'll listen to this, but I'll say hello to them. Dilly, Nova, Sienna, Mason, Oscar, and Marley. If you listen, hello. But yeah, that's one of the things I love teaching them is teaching them to make mistakes because you they're they're so scared of making mistakes, they're holding themselves back. So one girl, Nova, she kind of held back on her mistakes and she did perfectionists. She loved doing everything. I was like, no, bringing as hard as you can. If you jump over, you jump over, and really good. She's come a long way. So yeah, a few of the girls they Mason, he he was a young fella that only just started with last year, and he's got actually got a silver medal in triple jump last year. So at the state titles with really good. And Oscar, he'd only done six months with me, but he got a he got a bronze in the long jump. So yeah, that's just but I just love seeing these kids come up to you after they've done a PB and stuff like that, and they're like, Yeah, I've just done a PB in the hundred and stuff like that, and just seeing them psychologically, you like, and that's what I say. I I love watching them enjoy the sport because if you don't enjoy the sport, might as well not turn up. Because like, yeah, and that's what I see a lot of you like, and I was even going down along that path as well. I was trying to push my kids into doing it, and that's mate, if the kids don't want to do it, you just can't push them, you can't force them to do it. The kids have got to want to do it themselves, and then they want to do it themselves, they'll do a lot better. So yeah, and that's what I try and do. I try I try and make training fun, try and let them enjoy it and just watch them grow and just keep reinforcing how much to them they're training and how much they're improving.
SPEAKER_02It's the the art of coaching's come such a long way. Hey, like all of the training we get from the NRL and the QRL and stuff, it's about game-based stuff, make it enjoyable. Yeah, Lee and the rugby league coach, like he's all about that too. That's sort of our internal ether. So it's good, man. It's good to hear.
SPEAKER_01The the one thing I think about coaching is if I can pass on one tip for coaching, tell the kids what you want them to do, not what you don't want them to do. That is the biggest thing I've and I catch myself still doing it. Good that I catch myself doing it, but you always tell the kids what you want them to do, not what you want them to do. Because as soon as they say even when you tell your kids don't drop it, you're like, Don't drop it, don't drop it. Like Carl Baron, I think, did a thing on it once. He says, Don't drop it, don't drop it. Oh, I should have dropped it. So, and just the the way you think about it, like what you think about is what you'll do. So you tell your kids I want you to drive that knee up, or you want you to, you know, tell them what you want them to do, not what you don't want them to do, is my biggest uh tip that I kind of live by.
SPEAKER_02Great tip, coach. Yeah, I know. So for any listeners, this your athletics is down around Geelong.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Where can people find you if they want to get their kids involved or want to come and have do a session with the super coach?
SPEAKER_01So no, mate, uh I've just yeah, Karaio Little Athletics Centre. So um we've got it pretty tough down in Karai because uh like Geelong's that's like a second biggest city and thing, but we've got Geelong Athletics Club, they're a massive, they've got about 600 people, so we're kind of competing with them. They've always been a strong foundation, they've got good coaches and that stuff that there. So Karai Little Athletics was always just like a little brother side of things to them. So yeah, I so when I joined Karai Little Athletics, mate, I love nothing more than beating Geelong athletes and stuff like that. So yeah, if you listen, anyone that's Geelong Athletics, sorry, that's kind of my little goal. I love beating you guys, and it's a good little challenge for me. So we did it last year, and because I was coaching the under-elevens in the relays last year, and yeah, we managed to knock over all the Geelong sides, which was unreal. Considering they've got 600 athletes and we're we're about 200, so they've got more numbers than we're still not over.
SPEAKER_02So must be the quality of coaches, mate.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, mate, I like to think that. So but we'll keep sticking with it. Like my sister Leah, I don't know if you've you met Leah, her name's Leah Mad Dog Williams. Um she's played footy herself, so yeah, she um represented Australia in the rugby league, the female rugby league, and so she's done tours across the new NZ and like she sits here and watch NRL with me now, and she's like, I used to play with her, used to play with her and stuff like that. So yeah, she was she was a bit like myself. She was I seen her do some tackles and crunch and dislocate girls' hips and stuff like that, and you're just like, oh, because she was my tackling bag when I was growing up. That's how she learned how to tackle, so but she was quite good. She was a good footy player, basketball player, so she played championship one in Brizzy, I think, level WMBL. So she was quite good at the basketball, and and having her teaching the young kids, because she did a lot of she was a kindergarten teacher as well. So having her there teaching the fundamentals to these six, seven, and eight-year-olds about how to run, how to, and just all game-based stuff is really good. And so, yeah, we're kind of co-coaching together and for the club. She she kind of keeps my head on straight sometimes when it's just when we're coaching, she's like, Brendan, you've got to take your time. Your Rome wasn't built in a day, you're just building the foundations for these younger kids. Look at the results we've got already with the older ones, keep these younger kids coming up, continuing those foundations, and they'll keep improving and stuff like that. So, yeah, she's really good at that sort of stuff.
SPEAKER_02Shout out to Mad Dog. Keep up the good work.
SPEAKER_01Uh she's good.
SPEAKER_02I'm looking at the time. I need to get down to junior training, so we'll wrap this up fairly soon. But before we put a pin in it, is there any last passing yarns, wisdom, challenges you want to put out to the listeners?
SPEAKER_01I spoke to Gus on the way here, and he's got to pull his thumb out and come and jump on this podcast, I think. If I've come all the way from Melville and jumped on it, he surely can uh make some time to jump on it and try and get Hoggy on here as well. Definitely. You might have to bring in the censorship with Hoggy though, because every second word's a C-bomb.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. We do have a little language warning, but yeah. We'll let him run with it and then we'll sort out something with Lee and some edits afterwards if we need to. So I'll put out the challenge to uh yeah, Gus and Hoggy to jump on here.
SPEAKER_01But yeah, that'd be good for a laugh.
SPEAKER_02Awesome, brother. Well, mate, thanks for making the time. You've literally landed on the plane and come straight here. So appreciate you making the effort. You're an absolute legend and a warrior of the club. So, mate, we'll have a good time on Saturday and thanks for coming in. Thanks very much for having me, mate. Appreciate it. Cheers, brother.