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
TOM PROSSER
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
EPISODE 14 – TOM PROSSER 🏴☠️
This week on People of the Pirates with LA, we sit down with one of the OGs of this Pirates era — Tom Prosser.
From his days as a ball boy and coming through the junior ranks, to pulling on the Blue & Gold in A Grade as a young fella, Prosser has been there through the good times and the hard times and is now one of the stalwarts of the Pirates.
Now proudly Involved in coaching the next generation of juniors and with tightly involved with the senior playing group.
We chat about his journey with the club, the experiences and mates that have shaped him, and his role in keeping the senior playing group tight — from team culture to being the go-to man for organising the social side of things.
And looking ahead, there might even be a move into the coaching ranks on the horizon.
A Pirate through and through.
This bloke bleeds Blue & Gold. 💙💛🏴☠️
EP Sponsor - Symmetry Financial - Coaching & Connecting
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 podcasts.
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 to episode 14. On the mic today, we have Tommy Prosser. Welcome to the studio, Pross. Cheers, mate. Glad to be here. How's the day been, brother?
SPEAKER_01Not bad. Wake up in the morning, rain, so got to stay at home on a public holidays. Kids are at school because they got ewendy and that's Sunshine Coast. So nice quiet day. Nice little enjoyable day without the kids.
SPEAKER_02That's good, mate. And concreting lately, not rendering anymore.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, I just uh thought a little change of job was needed. Rendering got a bit old and got over it. Sometimes change is as good as a holiday, so got into it.
SPEAKER_02100%, brother. Well, mate, let's talk about the Tommy Prosser story. Tell us about what uh what life was like as a pup, mate, and take us from there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, I grew up here in New South. Well, we moved up from South Coast, New South Wales when I was like three, straight to Coolham for a year or two, then moved to Tawanton and we're in the same house for like 20 years then. So cool. Good little spot. What primary school? Tawanton, then Sunshine High. Proper local. There's not too many around that uh been here. Not anymore. Not anymore. The old prices have kind of moved everyone on or working away or that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, a bit of northern migration, hey.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, when I graduated was you that big mining boom, so everyone went so left, and only a few of us stayed around, which I'm not complaining. You go away and then you come back, and I'm like, yeah, I love home.
SPEAKER_02How long have you been a pirate for, mate?
SPEAKER_01I started playing at five, so what am I now? 35, so nearly 30 years. I've had a couple of years off, but nearly the whole way through.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, how good. And I remember you were playing A-grade with me in 2013, 2014. Yeah, that's earlier than that.
SPEAKER_01That first year we joined with Gimpy. Yeah. So we had a few games without him then. Yeah. So I joined then. Yeah, no, on the wing. So I don't know what you see to me. I think you were the coach and the captain's. No, it was enjoyable. It was a good year.
SPEAKER_02Mate, I remember, I'm sure people talk to you about this still. I remember you scoring a try, coming in off the sting, and you were falling from about 25 metres out.
SPEAKER_01I'd say falling. Well, I started stepping when no one was in front of me and then it kind of tripped over my own feet. And that was on the siren. We hadn't won a game that year already, and that was in the siren to like draw it up, but unfortunately our kicker missed it. But still we were pumped. Yeah, Pommy Joel, I think he missed the kick, but still was our first not lost, so it was a good day.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's it. That's it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think or who was it? Brocky Del Gleish in our centre. So yeah, he did all the work and I kind of nearly failed it at the end, but no, we got over. And I'm the one that made the news with the video, so it's a good laugh.
SPEAKER_02So good, man. Tell us about some stories from your junior pirates days.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I was never really a standout player. Like I made a little bit of rep under 11s and 12s, but you know, I was just always kind of there, always showed up, but you know, not never the standout player in the team. But we had oh, it was not the best team growing up. We didn't win too much. We were kind of up against Cool and that ended up with probably eight or nine Queensland players by then. So it was like, yeah, it was pretty hard going when you played those teams. But we had a good crew of guys, and not I don't think one of them, no, only the one boy come into senior footy, that was Corey D, but then he went over to Union. The rest of the boys kind of fell by the wayside.
SPEAKER_02Do you still many of the boys still playing?
SPEAKER_01I think Corey D's fit as a fiddle, and he's playing union and like CrossFit. No one out of my age group. And then the next age groups like you're Gladman and all that one coming through, so they add a little bit more, but not really my age, which was his footy, that's I guess.
SPEAKER_02That's it, man. And you yeah, you touched on that bloody the mining boom during that time.
SPEAKER_01Everyone decided to go away. I think Gladstone was building that gas plant, and like yeah, the mines are booming, everyone's like, I'm gonna go cash out when I could.
SPEAKER_02Curtis Island and those projects up today. Because yeah, I moved away in 2006, I think it was, end of 2006, and then come back in 2012, and like everyone our age had gone basically in that couple of years that I was away.
SPEAKER_01Well, was it the global financial crisis? Was that 09 or something like that? Yeah, yeah, 08, yeah. So everyone in the building trade, there was nothing here in Noosa, unless you were kind of in the few little jobs that kept on going, like the big mansions that were, you know, renewing and always Reno and Wither Circle. Other than that, yeah, there was no work, so I think everyone just had to kind of bail.
SPEAKER_02Mate, I feel like there's a lot more real money here now.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah. Soon as that Victorian money came up, everyone sits there and goes, It's actual money. Noosa was always, oh, you've got some big mansions, he's oh, you've got money. But now, like even talking to a few builders that have come up and end up working when I had my own rendering company there. One of them was laughing. He's like, Man, I had this little shack in the heart of Melbourne. He goes, I sold it for 1.9, and I think he bought in Noosa Waters on the water for 1.8. He's like, You can't compare this. And then, like, all then are coming up with real money. They're not trying to throw it around too. So it was good there. It's been a good couple years of booming work, so can't complain about that.
SPEAKER_02Mate, and what's next for you, big fella?
SPEAKER_01At the moment, I'm trying to change career paths, try and get out of the mines, actually. What am I? 35, just kind of just getting overbeating a trade, body's starting to break down, you know, years of footy probably haven't been kind on me, and just looking to lock in a career somewhere else anyway. We'll see how we go.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, because mate, a career as a concrete or a render, a mix and mud. I don't remember.
SPEAKER_01You don't see too many old tradies that are like getting around, what do they want? Retire at 75 these days or something like that. So I can't see me doing that if I'm continuing on. Saying the same thing, I'll be never moving away from Noosa. Like family, my kids, the footy club. I'm so in like integrated with it, I can't see myself going anywhere.
SPEAKER_02It's home, man, hey. Especially the like the countryside of town, the Tawanton sort of hinterland side of town. I love the community, hey.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, when you speak to people like, oh, I hate Noosa, it's so busy, I'm like, you're talking about Hastings Street and the junction. So there's way more to Noosa. Like I live out in Timbywell, I'd barely go past the bridge at Tawanton. If I do, it's to Nooseville on the river and that's where the locals go, so it's nice. If not, boat in, punch it up to the dog beach, or that's about as close as I'll go to Hastings Street these days.
SPEAKER_02A little sesh on the frying pan.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, a little sesh anywhere these days. The water's been so clear and the actual lack of rain and the big tides lately, the river's looking very nice. Do you have a bit of a fish? I love it. Absolutely love it. Kind of my little hobby now to get away is just shoot off door in the afternoon and yeah, get around it. The boys get into it? Unfortunately, they do. Not unfortunately. Fortunately, like I love that they love their fishing, they just don't know enough yet. So it's them fishing and then me fixing the lines, redoing hooks, baiting up. But like we just went to Northwest for a two-week holiday with the family, and it's great. But I was trying to sneak away every time I could just with my mother mate, so we could actually go fishing because it's like you know, dealing with kids is hard, but they love it, it's great.
SPEAKER_02I bet they love going fishing with dad.
SPEAKER_01Oh the youngest gets C6, so but he always wants to come. He's the most keen, but then he's getting C6, so it's like, oh, trying to juggle that. But he's yeah, no, I love it. My kids are the replicas of me, like both of them are in integrated with the pirates, both have been playing since they're five. I've coached both of them, they're loving it.
SPEAKER_02And mate, they love their footy, they're always bullboying down at the games and at every senior game.
SPEAKER_01At every senior game, in their juniors, like I think Seth, the oldest, he's I wish I had the talent that kid does. They're off to Townsville with the under-10s in two and a half weeks or three weeks. They love it. And then the younger one, he's just whatever his brother does, he wants to do, and he's a bull at a gate, kind of like his dad. That's my little mini me. Watching them develop and they're taking two different paths. Seth's more of like a back playmaker kind of stuff. And Harrison's, he's 100% just he's a forward. There's no way getting around it. He's just a buff head, head down, running to Speeble. To two totally different players, but both love the game. They love the pirates, they love everything. I'm glad because the pirates have been a big part of my life since I was five. Having them so integrated in the game, it's I love and the this club, it's great. Like I can nickel went overseas last year for like nearly two months. So I was just single dad in it, really. I was still playing at the time, so every um game I was like, what am I gonna do with the boys? Sorry, that's right.
SPEAKER_03That's right, it's all good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, what am I gonna do with the boys? And it's like all the girls' team or everyone that's just like they're there. So I'll look after him, I'll look after him. So that's you know, massive for us. It was a great time, actually.
SPEAKER_02That's a beautiful thing about a community sporting club, eh? It's a safe space, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, leave their kids. Now these days, Nicola's like, Oh, I don't want to go to footy. I'm like, I'll just take them. She's like, You won't watch them, like, they'll be right. And then I'll come off the field or do that. I'm like, where are my kids? And I don't know, they're off playing with some other one, or they're out the back tackling each other, or they're like you said, they're ball boy T-boys.
SPEAKER_02There's always a mad game of footy going on in the touch fields whenever there's a senior game, eh?
SPEAKER_01Even worse when it's even worse when it's wet and they're out the back and they're just covered in mud. I'm like, well, you're wetter than like the players and love it. I was doing the same thing at that age. I grew up just over next to the Neppel courts in there, and yeah, I remember sandboying and ball boying from seven or eight years of age too. So they're doing literally the same path that I did.
SPEAKER_02Have you got standout memories from back ball boying and being the sandboy and stuff for pirates?
SPEAKER_01Oh, I I actually do. It's a pretty funny one, but Troy Rowley mob? Yeah. Would have been a time, one of the games, I don't know what happened, but he got sent off the bin, and I was like, Yeah, I was sitting on the sideline like right where the exit was, and I don't know what happened, something happened. It was a hard old player, and he's been sent. I just remember keeping grabbing the ball and absolutely just booting the thing over the head, over the building, into the bush. And I'm like, oh right, now I'm there, ball boy, and it's like would have been a night game. I'm in the bush, like scared as like crawling through trying to find these balls. But that's probably the one as a young fella, I remember that. It was a funny day. Our parents, like my parents were friends with Troy, and that's just one of those memories that kind of sticks in my head. Or and running from the sand out the back, like you know where the back tap is between there, there's some big sandpile there, and you'd be like filling your sand, running out, spread it over. It's good days.
SPEAKER_02Like, do you have memories of the crowds back then? There was always good crowds.
SPEAKER_01There was always good crowds because dad was always over there. Dad didn't play no, so he was we're from Jerengong, so he was like south coast. But by the time we come up, dad's mates with everyone. I remember sitting there till we're way after the league final bell in the first grade, and then we'd be walking home back over like over the Nepal courts of stock and lights would turn off. But I can't really remember the crowds, but I knew they were rowdy. Like they used to have a good cheerleaders, it was yeah, it was good good old times. Yeah, I remember the cheerleaders. The fire picks, the fire pits, yeah. She was a lot more rowdy. Like, even that I used to have on the other side they have the camber, times have changed. But we're starting to get the crowds back, which is great.
SPEAKER_02It's like mate, crowds were awesome this year. Yeah. Yeah. And man, like it's it's probably good to get your perspective on this because you've been involved for so long. For like for a time, our crowds weren't fantastic, and we didn't have a lot of juniors coming to senior games and stuff like that. That big chip's all turned round now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's been well when I was a junior, it was actually well, you would have been the same. We were the noosa juniors and the noosa seniors, two different clubs. And who was it, Braddy Winkler that kind of got us to merge it up? It's been the best thing. I remember when I was coaching the sixes the first year and I hit up Winkler. I'm like, can I bring the sixes in? Like I remember playing at half-time when I was 11 or 10, like we do it. And he's like, Oh, and then I think I spoke to you at the time, and then we got it organized. I think it's nearly it's been uh every year they do it now. The more family oriented this club's got, the more it's getting around. Nothing's better than be able to drag your kids down, knowing like we're just talking about my kids. I can take my kids down there and I know they're gonna have fun. There's gonna be kids there, and then that obviously that draws in more and more families, which has been good. Yeah. Slowly getting around it.
SPEAKER_02And mate, everyone's looking out for each other and each other's kids, everyone's wearing the colours, and yeah, it's good. It's what community should be.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's definitely our brand has definitely got out there. Can't drive anywhere in no server and go, oh, there's a pirate heart or there's a pirate bag, or you just see our colours, you're like, Oh, I wonder who those. Oh, yeah, that's a junior. Yeah, good. Good in one way, some if they're not playing up, but we'll see.
SPEAKER_02Well, we do have to have that chat with them pretty regularly if you're wearing your colours. Yeah, maybe not.
SPEAKER_01Sure, you're representing the club. Don't worry, seniors. We can't have to tell them, like, maybe don't wear your colours out.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, 100%.
SPEAKER_01They won't change, all's the same, so it's been funny, but yeah.
SPEAKER_02So, mate, nine's in the big dance this Sunday.
SPEAKER_01Can't wait. So, this will probably be out after, but we'll see. Like, yeah. What are they just scraped into the top four? Cause it's four for them, but points, four and against, and then yeah, off to the big dance.
SPEAKER_02Mate, yeah, just momentum. Hey, they're hitting their straps and playing the best footy coming into the business end of the season.
SPEAKER_01Hey, yeah, Giants got them firing, so it's good. It's good to see like Lockie Britain hits probably the next star out of noosa, I reckon. What seven eight playing Australian or Queensland tag, men's tag, yeah. Yeah, and just yeah, that whole team's come together. And what I think that cloundra team they're playing is undefeated. And if you're gonna lose a game all year being undefeated, it's usually the grand final, they say. So let's go the nine eens, though.
SPEAKER_02Oh man, and you add in like Marley Baker, he's done a good apprenticeship.
SPEAKER_01Hey, absolutely bit of grade last year, basically grade all this year, but I think his mal kind of got him across the line due to eligibility, which is massive for us, and just his experience and work rate. I think the nine's need that extra head in the four pack for him.
SPEAKER_02He was one of our starting middles for A-grade towards the end of the season. Hey, so it just shows what ticker he's got for young middle Jackson back two men. That's a massive in.
SPEAKER_01I'd definitely be surprised if we um hold on to Marley if he's not playing Falc in the next year or two. Like starting front row at what 18, 19. She's only up from there, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02I hope the Falks offer him something, hey. I hope they look after him.
SPEAKER_01In the same sense, be good to hold on to him.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, mate, I was talking to him at training the other day and he's he's loving being around the club. Obviously, Brody is Brody his uncle.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Brody's sister's kid or something.
SPEAKER_02I think he loves having his uncle around the club and I think everyone's really made him feel at home and think he knows where his club is if he's playing park footy.
SPEAKER_01We're gonna definitely gonna keep him if we can, but yeah, him, Burrito, you know, there's a few of those young kids that you want to see them go elsewhere and succeed. You want to see people play better footy, better grade if they can. And those two are like probably the stars of this nine team. There's plenty coming up through the juniors. What the fifteens have got a few. There's yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, mate. Like I'm I'm actually really excited to be with where our juniors are at at the moment. So, from what did we have? Three, two boys thirteens and one girl's thirteens, and then every other grade had two or three below. Yeah, it's massive now. So that's that's solid.
SPEAKER_01It's massive. I remember as a kid we only had one team per grade. Yeah, and now I think, yeah, like you said, there's two teams every grade, every junior. That's great. Yeah, it's good to see. I love the juniors. I'm actually like I've been coaching my boys for the last 10, so it'll be five years now. I've been coaching or managing one of the teams. It's actually pretty good to watch the growth of a young fella, like from going from not knowing what's going on to where they are now, that under 10th team with uh Dane and Chris coaching them red hot. Like this, I think they went they lost one game this year, even though we don't count losses and wins, but they're very handy little teams, so it's good to see the their growth, they're running shape and stuff at 10. It's major.
SPEAKER_02It's good, man. Hey, people knowing how to play their roles and yeah, simplifying language, find with kids is really important so they know their roles.
SPEAKER_01Still let them play some footy, but kind of direct what kind of footy they're gonna play, which is amazing to see.
SPEAKER_02Did you get much value out of the rugby league coach stuff with Lee this year?
SPEAKER_01I did, but probably gonna take way more in when I hit the older grades, like having an I'm coaching the nines, and you know, those little things I took from him that was kind of works for him, but he was a lot more in the 13s, 14s, 50s. Even talking to Joshy Bull in the reserve grade about just some of the things he said, like don't make Tuesday training uh fitness. When we would grow up like Tuesday, you got hunted. I was like, man, you're never gonna get anyone to train in if you're gonna do that on a Tuesday. So we this year I know Josh he did it a lot. We just had fun on Tuesdays. Yeah, our numbers were great.
SPEAKER_02And you can get the con in, like the conditioning in, sorry, the con in games um in games. Yeah, 100%.
SPEAKER_01On in games, you don't need to just whip your your boys these days. Like I when I hit grade, we had Goldie as the coach, and uh that Rusty and uh what's uh Kenny, and she was just booz, booze, booze, but you know, it kind of did success. Goldie always said the fittest team's country footy or club footy, the fittest team's gonna win, and we were fit and they won.
SPEAKER_02100%. And I felt especially our seniors this year, our teams are all fit. But you look at the sport science behind how we did our players.
SPEAKER_01Having him involved is yeah, it's a massive asset, and now that gym's in, so we're going the right way. I think what will be the last team in the coast to nearly get a gym, I reckon.
SPEAKER_02You're probably right, yeah. But Noosa being Noosa too, finding a commercial gym that could that would do something with us has always been difficult.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the whole coast thinks we're rich up here, but Noosa's definitely we're actually in Tawanton and we've kind of got three or four different sporting codes that we compete against. So it's very hard to win. Like I know soccer kills at Union's massive here, AFL for Victorian fluck. To get sponsors will get money into the club as you're trying to take money out of a rich pool that's already been drained.
SPEAKER_02But we're we are very lucky how tribal Noose here is and how passionate the people here are about their sporting teams, whether it be rugby league or soccer or whatever. Yeah, we're lucky to get our little piece fang.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, great little town still.
SPEAKER_02It's good, man. And it it's a funny town. There's not a lot of big business here. Hey, there's a lot of mum and dad sort of operators and sort of small medium-sized businesses. There's not too many massive big pumpers here, just yeah.
SPEAKER_01Like if there's big pumpers, they're already kind of retired or they're out of it, they're the big CEOs. A lot of our houses in Nooser are all holiday on vacation. So, like you said, there is a lot of small businesses or small families, and that's what's kind of keeping Nooser afloat. Like I said before, we're not in everyone thinks Noosra is Hasting Street, the Noosa Sound junction and Sunshine Beach. Well, there's a lot more to it, and there's a lot more family-run businesses, small things that kind of keep this whole town floating for the whole year, other than the holiday periods.
SPEAKER_02And you got a the hinterland's got way more of a pulse now than it did 10 years ago, hey.
SPEAKER_01Oh, it's massive. Like our property's gone up 300, 400%. Yeah. The money that's come out here, like I've our neighbours bought sight unseen for over a couple mil, straight from Sydney, and like my kids go to your Monday, you rock up there, and it's just you spirit this little hippie town, there might be one or two little like hippie mums or something, hippie families dropping their kids off, and everyone else is in like 200 series cruises, brand new, like yeah, a lot of money influx out of that hinge land, but it's going good. Like your money's changed dramatically.
SPEAKER_02What do you reckon your money's gonna look like when the supermarket stuff happens?
SPEAKER_01I don't think it's gonna lose that little fam, like that little town business because there's not really too much you can buy. I think they're doing a development in next to the school, but a lot of it's already built out, so it's still gonna have that you know little town. I think that's why they've a lot of them have chosen to move around that area. That Croy, Pomona, like those little areas that still have a little town that feels like a town. I think they won't lose that aspect of them, but it'd be good to get a shop there. Like you go to the corner store, it's I don't know, seven bucks bread and some milk, or you gotta punch all the way into Tawanton or New Sisivic.
SPEAKER_02At the servo in your Monday, do they still fill your car up for you if you ask me?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, they still they won't let you fill it up. Oh, they still got to come out and see park up. You're like, but even then that's 20, 30 cents more expensive. So it's yeah, it's a novelty then, yeah. It's more of a do I need fuel right now, or can I just go to Croy? Or no, this they're actually like a great family that run that shop and they're nicest people, but yeah, it's still got the markets, you know, the the town still closes Wednesday and Saturday, and you can't find a park anywhere near it. But it's like anything, man. You've got to learn to do the growth. So many mates have moved away and they're like, oh, you know, noose is not the same, noose is not the same. It's like, no, where's the same? Growth is gonna happen no matter what. Like, we're a young country, you kind of got to deal with the growth.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, especially when governments bring in over a million migrants, you know, in a year to Australia.
SPEAKER_01Well, you don't change the dynamic of things. We haven't had that big influx of them. But like you go back down, I go back down south and go see my sister in Sydney and some places that spot the Aussie. We need it. I think that's all Australia's built on immigrants, so it's like my partner's Nicola's grandparents come over the Snowy Mountain, they were the Italians that come over there. Like everyone, you need it. You do need influx of people. Like what you look at the map, and we live on like the outer 10% of the whole country. We need more people, but I don't know how the housing's gonna go. We can't keep up.
SPEAKER_02Did you watch the gridiron this morning?
SPEAKER_01No, no. Went for a walk between the rain and went for a shop for our silly Sunday outfits, but no, I missed it.
SPEAKER_02Who have you got for silly Sunday?
SPEAKER_01Oh, I've got Hardy, and I can say now because I don't what this podcast won't be out before it. So our this year's theme is we've got 20 bucks each to uh spend at an op shop and then we surprise our partner on the day of what they get. I got uh Hardy's snorkel and wetsuit for the day, so he's in a wedding for the day. I know I'm gonna get stitched up by him, but it's it's gonna be a funny old day, I reckon. So by your partner, you've drawn drawn names out of a hat and you just get a random person and no, well, they kind of put it on ChatBT or one of those apps and you know sourced everyone out a partner, so everyone knows who their partner is, but they don't know what they're getting. I wanted just to draw out a hat, but then people are like, oh, what about sizes? And I was like, Oh yeah, fair enough.
SPEAKER_02I still have the old dress up box in the side.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, every year I remember you bring it down the end of the year, like, I got this, and it's like ooh, very funny times.
SPEAKER_02That dress up box has been sitting in my shed for five, ten years without being opened.
SPEAKER_01Door stuff not washed, I dare say. Like, nah, good. There's some funny times there we will not talk about, but that was times have changed. So phones are out these days, so you've got to keep reminding the young fellas, please probably don't take photos these days. Yeah. It does come back, so it's hard. That's changed the dynamic of your silly Sundays or your drinks a lot, but it's still fun. Still try to let the hair down.
SPEAKER_02Well, the girls are doing their end of season silly Saturday tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah. And then boys will uh will kick on after the grand final, hopefully celebrating a um a premiership from the 19s. And yeah, yeah, like you said, by the time this comes out, we'll uh the game will have been run and won one way or the other. So hopefully the boys rip in and uh play their best footy regardless of the result.
SPEAKER_01Hey. Oh mate, just to get there's massive. Like Jay's done wonders with that team. Like I think that the younger group of the nineteens, the 18-year-olds, was Joey Proctor's. Yeah, he coached them for a long time coming through, and they've been up there with them. But I feel like I'm stoked for those the kids in the year that are above, like the Christo and all that. That they've been they've had a battling team and they'll battle them for a while to see that that fruit come through and Jaya at the start of the year, you know, they'll get beaten quite convincingly. And he's done a lot for them this year.
SPEAKER_02And yeah, it's good to see the they've done a lot of growing up as a group, hey.
SPEAKER_01Massive man. I know it was the start of the year. Us Reggies, we're sitting around, would would finish our training, we look over and Jay's like, All right, oh Twenty minutes of duck tackle tacking the suck. Boy, he's got it. Fruits of his labour now, they're coming through.
SPEAKER_02But yeah, it just shows if you put the work in that it reaps rewards, doesn't it? And he's done the social side of things with the group really well.
SPEAKER_01And I like I really hope Jay stays around the club. Like what he's trying to do, and I've spoken to him a fair few times, like on the side of trying to build a culture. And obviously it starts with that first grade. This is what nine's is is the first in introduction to senior footies and what he's doing on the side of things, having little goose of the week and making them do stuff if they're screwed up.
SPEAKER_02It's the dice rolls.
SPEAKER_01The dice rolls, eating raw onions. It's good, it's a good laugh. He'll get us all in there and we'll have a good. No, it's good. Gy's massive. Hopefully, we can keep him around.
SPEAKER_02Big Gi enormous. Big normo. Big normo. So I haven't had that chat with him yet, but I I really do hope that we can keep him around in the club. I think I think he is too, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Having chats with him, he's I think he's gonna grow a lot moving forward. I think. One day he wants to be a head coach. Hopefully, we can keep him around for that long time.
SPEAKER_02We're in the process of of locking in coaches and stuff at the moment. So we've got a few announcements coming up. It's one of those things like we had AGM in October, and you you sort of know who the committee's gonna be, but you don't definitely know who the committee's gonna be, so you can't make sort of too many public announcements until you have things sort of locked and sealed.
SPEAKER_01Life changes pretty quickly, so you can lock something in there and someone, yeah, something can happen. But we will see.
SPEAKER_02Speaking of coaching, I've heard a couple little rumours that one Tom Prosser might be putting his hand up for a role next year.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, talking about coaching juniors, I kind of want to step away for one year and I want to have one more year of footy with in me, I think I've got left playing. And um, that C-grade team is it just needs that that constant little core group there. And if I don't get this job working away, like I'm probably gonna put my hand down in it. Awesome, mate. Coach player and see what I can do. I know there's a few older heads that are keen just to have like a run, but they can't commit or they only want to train one day a week, or and C grade's perfect for that. Try and blood the the crossover players between C grade and reserve grade, and then maybe play up some of the nine eens that need a little bit of seeing your footy, you know. It's a great comp. We were in it this year, just what let the boys down was obviously not getting enough players to a few games, having a forfeit. I I don't think they lost too many games that they actually played. So yeah, that group's there, and I don't want to lose your play lose those players because they're seagrad players, they're the ones that do everything. They're the ones you're gonna get at the barbecue, they're the ones that are always volunteering. They love the club that is obviously not not say not as talented, they just can't commit. Or there is gonna be players that I've played grade with that I know that are keen to play footy, but they can't commit anymore, or we're a bit behind the tooth and just want to have a couple more years of footy and have some fun.
SPEAKER_02I'm a big supporter of the C-grade team for that exact reason that you said, because there's so many good club people, so many legends around the the club that want to have a run when they can if we didn't have a C grade side, which ultimately it's not set in stone for next season. It's something that we're we're hoping to field again, but it gives that avenue for more people to play footy. That's what we're about.
SPEAKER_01It's also it's also a bit sad that I'd I'd love to see the comps actually fully merge, but I know it can't because you've got your you know your standalone teams like Mary Valley and all that. But having the boys away from the Reggies and the A grade makes it a little bit harder to get guys keen. So hopefully we can get a lock-in core group and then move forward from that. But if they could all play together, we tried this year. We got a few games and it was great to see. Just usually those couple of those guys that are C grade players, they're there, they've joined because their mates play. They might play first grade, reserve grade, they want to finish their game and watch their mates. But this year they're still travelling, and then I think the boys went to Kilcoy, and we were playing at Clown Reserve Grade, and by the halftime of reserve grade, there was the C grade boys coming from Kilcoy to go there. They're still travelling, still getting every game, so they love the club, which is good.
SPEAKER_02And I I suppose for context, for people that don't know, listening to this, so C-grade runs their own time slots and draws, so it's sort of lunchtime to mid-afternoon on a Saturday, all the C-grade games predominantly are, unless you do have a home game as a big club where you're all together. So you might have a team, the rest of the seniors might be playing at home, or they might all be playing at Marucidor, for example, and the C-grade side's playing a 12 o'clock game at Beach Mere.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well they do it, what don't they do a lot of the like your Mary Valley, your Beachmere? They'll do like those days. So like if Mary Valley's got a home game, they'll hold three games. So their game starting at 12, 1, 3, which gets those communities involved, and like those communities brings money into their club, which you can't take away from that. You'd love to follow the grade, but sometimes it doesn't work like that.
SPEAKER_02A lot of our noosa home games for C grade this year were at Yantina.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. So that sort of stuff. It is you've got to take the good with the bad, but what when we played Clouders fielded all teams, Cabo, Bewa, we got the full days there, and that's great. Like from what is it, 11 long day for some of the boys and some of the committee members. I know they're there from nine or eight o'clock, but yeah, it's good days. They're big days. Good to see everyone there, especially when the women start, got all three men's grades, women's at four men's grades, actually, nine eens, women's, C's, reserve grade, a grades.
SPEAKER_02Well, we're actually, yeah, we're looking for some more just general committee members for next year, just to help spread the load out a little bit more, too, because when we've got three or four games on a Friday night and then 10 or 12 games on a Saturday, it's it's a big stretch, eh? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, it's community footy, it's the hardest thing trying to get, I know, from coaching, just getting volunteers. It's hard to explain to them that you know no one's getting paid around here. Like we all build this, we're all one club. We need your help. Yeah, it does get hard. People like yourself, Gussie, Benny Williams, you know, they're at every game, every own game. Because I coach Ben Williams's son, Harry. Might a lot of the games this year he missed out. You know, he was running a junior because he's the junior coordinator for the pirates. He'd be running a junior game and you know, miss out. That's what he did for the club, missing your own kids' games, volunteering. So getting more hands on deck's not going to be a bad thing.
SPEAKER_02More people in the red vest. Yeah, that'll be a good one too. The old Red Vest is the the uh ground manager, so they're the one that's in charge of all of the operational stuff per field at any home game. So you cop a bit of chat sometimes and stuff in the Red Vest, it's a bit of a thankless job.
SPEAKER_01I think you'd cop a bit more at senior games, but I don't I think the junior is a lot harder.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, you get a big mix of people from all walks of society at junior 40. I think for the most part, Sunny Coast League does it really well. I think the QRL do it really well.
SPEAKER_01We're very sheltered up here, I think. Yeah. You hear what goes down in like northern New South Wales or down the Goldie Comps, a bit hairy.
SPEAKER_02Mate, I think like broadly what rugby league is doing from an NRL point, from a QRL point, can't say too much about New South Wales rugby league. I don't know too much about down there, but they're running a good race lot. They're doing a lot to support clubs that I feel other sports probably don't get from their governing bodies. But mate, it's it's always one of those things. There's always things that every avenue could be doing better, improvement points and stuff.
SPEAKER_01Hey, there's always there's always something better, everything's always got something you can improve in, but I love it. I had one little bit of incident this year, but we might talk about it. But other than that, like the juniors have run so nice, like it's smooth what they've done now where your north coast and your south coast, they've split the comps up till nines and they all play there. Like that's great, that's a great idea. Because I remember being seven or eight and driving all out of bribey for an 18-minute game. So it's long or going all the way out to Woodford for a half an hour game drive back.
SPEAKER_02Which and look, it's an interesting point because like up at Gimpy, all their mini mod kids play at the same field at the same time each week, and then you see their participation numbers drop off, drop off big time when they get to travel. That's hard. It's good to have some travel when they're little to get people, I suppose, into the mix. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, I was speaking to a couple of guys from Gimpy, yeah, they say that that's the biggest sport in Gimpy is who junior because it's at the same field every day, every week, so you know you're not going anywhere. Yeah, they hit that 12-13 have to travel, gets a bit harder. We had to do it. I know it's different times, but at least we're not out west where like I think I was listening to Macca on one of your podcasts. They got to travel three hours to each town. We've got it good here where the longest drives, well, Woodford, what is that, like an hour and ten?
SPEAKER_02But remember, when I finished playing up at well, Comets at the time at Capras, I took a gig out in Blackwater working in the mines as a pumpy for a little while to play footy out there. And some of our bus trip was three and a half hours. One senior team.
SPEAKER_01As a senior men team, that'd be pretty fun on the way home, but proper fun, like real fun. Trying to drag your nine-year-old three hours to a game might be a bit harder. Seniors is that's what footy's on. That's what footy's built on. That camaradership. I know I've been pushing it a lot with our culture and the seniors probably for the last three or four years, trying to organise drinks or getting the boys around doing spits or a few little things. Just you'll go out to war and battle with your mate a lot more than if you do it with someone just hauling a jersey on with every week and you don't really know him. So trying to build that mateship, I think, really important. Brotherhood. Brotherhood. I know I'm gonna get hurt from your mate, but I'm not gonna do it for a random, especially these days where work's so thinned out, where it life is first. Can't footi's don't paying the bills, we do it for the love of it. That's what I try and explain to a few of the boys. Like, we're here and we love it. We're not getting paid, we're here for fun and enjoy it.
SPEAKER_02Still get around each other, but do many of the boys have income protection and stuff outside of footy? Doubt I would doubt it. Only the few probably the business owners or that. Yeah. It's something we need to look at for next year. Yeah. We tried it a few years ago and a few of the lads took it up, but not.
SPEAKER_01Well, they take it, but then not the young fellas. It's hard getting blood out of stone. The young fellas, they'll gladly go spend 300, 400 on the weekend on the piss, but try to say 100 bucks to save your $100, $200 for the year to save your ass if you get injured.
SPEAKER_02Seems like they don't have it, but if you've got a good like, not trying to give financial planning advice or anything here, but if you've got a good planner, a lot of the time you can get those things in your super so you've at least got some decent level of cover. Because the QRL stuff, it's okay. Like it is what it is. It's it's for major injuries, really. Yeah, I wouldn't want to be relying on it for my.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, if you've got a home line or if you've got a lot on, I wouldn't be. You know, I know a couple of boys have gone through it, what it doesn't kick in for four or five weeks. Yeah, and there's I couldn't even explain it off the top of my head, eh? You know, it's there, but getting it extra would be good for the boys. I know some of them knees and wrists, you can't go to work. We'll see.
SPEAKER_02Especially if you're on the screen, mate.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's comp this year. Was where I held back. I was like, wasn't committed fully, trained a few days, and I was like, I'll play C grade when I can because I managed reserve grade and I was like, in and out, it's not worth doing it this year if I hurt myself and just wasn't committed. If you go into stuff half-assed, I think you hurt yourself. So that's why next year, if I'm if I'm around, I'm probably gonna go bullet a gate and full train, full pre-season, see if I can do it.
SPEAKER_02And I'm gonna get some some options together for people to do do some income protection insurance with some people I know. So if anyone's listening to this and they're interested in it, come up and have a yarn at me. We'll put something together from the club side.
SPEAKER_01It's definitely worth it. I know a few boys had it a few years ago. One of them done his knee on a sat day, income protection and private health. I think he's in surgery on the Tuesday, where one of the other boys nothing. I think he got surgery a year and a half later through the public. Sometimes it's worth it. Yeah, it is, man.
SPEAKER_02Well, that's that's fucking insurance. You've got it when you need it, not necessary because you like having it. Hey. No one wants to pay extra money, but yeah, sometimes you need to. The boys playing OzTag.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Seth is. He's pretty handy. He's off to Kofts probably another month or so. That Nationals. Harry's playing it. I don't know what they're gonna do this year. They keep changing, chopping and changing. I don't mind what they could do. I just said play sport.
SPEAKER_02The Noosa Junior comp starts next week. So yeah, it's bloody snuck up pretty quick, eh?
SPEAKER_01Oh, I know, because they've the boys have got that Sunny Coast Sonics training. Seth does, and a few of those guys are trying to get a lot of those Sonics boys to go down Maruchador and play like in that comp, which is I'm not really keen to go down there on a Wednesday or a Thursday, whatever day it is, but it always happens that rep level, they get everyone together and they're like, oh, we should just keep this team together. We'll see. I know Harry wants to, and Seth kind of he just he's got that Severs disease in his feet, so we're trying to limit the sport at the moment. Just his growth plates are giving him health, playing four days a week, five days a week.
SPEAKER_02Which is hard to try and get a sporty kid to come down and stop playing sporty day.
SPEAKER_01Boys are training to go to Gordon Taylor's cup like two weeks yesterday. Seth's got these foot wraps to try and like aid the and hold the plate every time I get the train, like, where are they? Oh, I forgot him. You just and then wake up this morning limping around, carrying on. It's like I told you, not running around today, dropping off, just run straight to the park. I'm like, oh, there goes him, won't listen.
SPEAKER_02Like my older boys are 14 and 12, and they're still hopeless with forgetting their stuff. We were driving to the pre-limb for Braxton, and he goes, Oh, Dad, did you get my mouth guard? I said, Man, it's not my job to grab your mouth guard and put it in your bag.
SPEAKER_01Your boys won, they won it, didn't they?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they did.
SPEAKER_01Good stuff. What was that? Because Beasley A's.
SPEAKER_02Bees, yeah. Or div two, fourteen div two. Yeah, we're working on 15 div one next year. Boys need a big pre-season. Probably need to get a few lads back that have drifted away from footy or get on the recruit for a bit more depth. Because we played the grand final with 15 kids playing against 19 when you got 15 lunchtime on a hot day.
SPEAKER_01I still got a double.
SPEAKER_02I've got always proud of them. God, it was uh such a massive effort.
SPEAKER_01Something I've always wanted to do was been in rugby league grand final. Never have done it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_01Other sports have done it, but yeah, not league, which is no one of those things, isn't it? That's footy.
SPEAKER_02You've been in grand finals and I haven't got a grand final league.
SPEAKER_01Been in the pre-limb a few times, been knocked out, but never been in the GF.
SPEAKER_02Mate, it's one of those things. Hey, regardless of what age group you're in, yeah, you've got to enjoy it, make the most of it when you get them, get there because, like you said, not everyone does, hey. No, no, you've got to take those moments. Well, man, I played, I don't know, 25 years or something of competitive footy, and I was in four grand finals. I was lucky enough to win three, but two of them were down in Canberra, and then the one in 2017, and one was under 15s or something like that as a junior before half your side signed to go down to North in Brizzy.
SPEAKER_01So you had a handy team, didn't you? That junior team coming through.
SPEAKER_02We had a pretty handy side. Yeah, but five, I think five or six of the boys signed with North down in Brizzy to try and get into a sort of a pathway thing when we were sort of midway through internationals, and I had a crack at it for one pre-season, played trials, and then come home and just wanted to play pirates.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well at 14 we all split kind of in our junior team because half us went to Sunshine Beach, half of us went to district. And back in the day you had to train at Croix. That's where the junior fields were. So it was a long travel from Sunshine Beach all the way to Croix. So a lot of us went to Union. I went to Union for three years, two and a half years, and that split our talent. If we I said it every week at training at um union, if we had two teams mixed together from the union and the league, man, it would have been unstopped. But they we're our union team. I was one of the smallest kids and I was at six foot. Yeah. We had some like we had some talented players through there, and they were the same. They didn't care what sport they played, they were just sunshine was closer, so they played there.
SPEAKER_02And do you reckon the comp was as good in union as league back then?
SPEAKER_01The union comp, I would almost say it was stronger because there's a lot more everyone was trying to get that scholarship path. Everyone was the union, it's hard to say.
SPEAKER_02Well, mate, not that I'm super involved with junior rugby union, but it seems like the rugby league comp's ten times stronger than the rugby union now.
SPEAKER_01Even the senior comp joke is what you play, play reserve game for Noosa and the Pirates, you go and play first grade in union. Not saying it all the time, but like yeah, I think it's not as it's a different game, totally different game. Can't take anything away from union. I enjoyed it, but yeah, Lee was definitely my bought. But yeah, she's a definitely seems like Noosa has been a very stronghold in the union. Cont's been running 35, 40 years. I think Noosa's been the grand final 30 of those years or something. It's ridiculous how much.
SPEAKER_02Noosa Dolphins do a great job.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they're great. Great club, great culture. I was lucky enough that the guy done my apprenticeship through render it out of mourning. He was a clubby over there, so I was fairly involved with them, even when I was over here playing senior footy. Great club, great people around it. Oh no, the fruits of success, they've got a good culture over there.
SPEAKER_02And they probably crack the code with getting their old boys really involved from day dog. It was something that fell away with pirates, and we had to really rally to get all the old boys back around to revive the club when we were in some hard times. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_01Their old boys' culture, I think they call them, even their old, like the things where I've got the grey beards, I think they have the droopy fins, their fundraising, what they do behind the scenes has always been pretty massive for them. I know it's come to benefit. You go over there, some of their dolphin days, or some of that kind of pretty fun. I've done some pretty funny stuff over at Union Fields with the old boss and a lot of coppers, a lot of what they call them, not wear blue collar, white collar.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01A lot of official people over there, and yeah, they let them let their hair down, which is good to be.
SPEAKER_02Did they have the NZ tool when you were playing?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so that's the year I joined. So I just joined, so that's been 15s, they went, and I started probably the week after they got back.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01So I started, did like the pre-season and the first game or two with Pirates at that age, and then I was like, nah, this is just too hard to try to get out here from school. So dropped back, and then a few mates that had come at the new schools, like, oh, come over and play union, and then they've just got back from the from the N Zen tour and you know, missed out on that. I know we lost a few players to over there this year in that age group, but somehow they found themselves way back by the end of the year, which is what we want.
SPEAKER_02And hopefully we can get our academy to a point where it does a does a little tour. That's massive.
SPEAKER_01What you guys are doing with that academy is one of the best things, I think, for this club. It's good to see. You get down to the gym, and you know the academy boys are all in there, even the academy girls, they're having a go, and then what you get them a reference. It's it's a great path. They don't have to be the most talented player, they just got to have a go. And that's sometimes all it needs. You don't need to be the best player. You need to have some of the best players I ever played with didn't go anywhere. Hit 17, 18, and they've gone. They're playing Queensland and then everything down it. All the non-talented guys seem to go, but they had all they're talented, but had all the drive and always wanted it. They got there. I think Moe was like Moe Embire. I think he he was always in the skilled player, but he wasn't the best in his team. Yeah, he I know he wasn't the most talented on his team, but I think what he's the only one who ended up making NRL. He had like Kirtley, Zach Fran, they had they had a red hot team, and you know, Moe just never stopped and put his head down, bum up, did the whole work for NRL, never gave up, and look where he is.
SPEAKER_02It's funny, we talked about this when Moe came on. He was just headset on he was gonna succeed. There's no other option. He was just all in on succeeding and being a professional rugby league person, which is awesome.
SPEAKER_01Years with the academy of having aunt and getting those people around and just tell them, point him in that right direction. Great to see. Talking about Moe, I think he grew up four houses up the road here, five houses up the road. Yeah, I'm the same age as his old brother Joseph, and he's the streets we used to cruise around on.
SPEAKER_02Mate Joey was a mad footy player back in the day. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Super quick, but one of those things fell by the wayside. I think what the younger brother Maddie, he's like a professional kickboxer. Very talented family.
SPEAKER_02Very talented family. Moe's coming up again soon for a holiday clinic, actually. We're just about to put it out. Can't remember the date, obviously during school holidays.
SPEAKER_01Is he just retired? So we never know what's going to happen. Might see him a bit more around the club.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, mate. There might be a little announcement coming with Moe for the next music.
SPEAKER_01I know he's just built a house in Tawanton there. The boys were doing some concrete in there the other week, so who knows?
SPEAKER_02Well, I know the from talking to him, like he's doing a good job at the Jets, and the Jets love him. Yeah, and he's got that radio job, and yeah, he's got a good gig down at the Jets, and there's plenty of upside in that. But I know, yeah, Noose's home and he's gonna be. Noose is always gonna be home, I think.
SPEAKER_01Him and his misses Maddie. I think Noose is always gonna be home to him.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, it'd be pretty special the kids going to school back up here where he grew up. Yeah, funny little kid. Yeah, well, just memories there from being age. 100%, man. Isn't it so funny? Like, as you get older and things were 25 years ago or something, they and you you think you think back to him like, oh shit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Noosa has grown a fair bit when you look at like Civic was never there, there was so much stuff that never was developed. Still this little town. Like, I grew up here at Taunton and then all through Outlook here, and it was we just played in the streets, street light was on, you went home. A little bit different dynamic these days, but still got that small town feel.
SPEAKER_02It's funny, even 10 years ago, like Outlook was in Shitsville a lot of people's eyes.
SPEAKER_01It's really, really disappointed. Growing up in Taunton and everyone's like, Oh, you're from Tawanton. I'm like, mate, you can't find a house under a mill now. Old Tawanton's that's where you want to go. It's good to see.
SPEAKER_02Bit of grass under your feet, bit of community around you, mighty pirate park around the corner.
SPEAKER_01Nothing better. I'm out in Timbeer one now and I love it.
SPEAKER_02But yeah, five-minute drive in. Do you get the liker on and have a bit of a pedal out there, mate? Oh that's the loop that we uh the training they did for Noosa Tries is biking up.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they come down mine street, they'd be like 50 of them in like one group. You're like, mate, literally just get on the side of the road. Yeah. They're just all in the middle of the road. Five or side. But I was out at Croyber before Darth Anderson, and that was the other training route, and it'd come past like four o'clock in the morning. You'd hear them roar, and it's but no, it's not bad. It brings a lot of money in that try and can't take anything away from anyone getting fit.
SPEAKER_02100%. What do you reckon's gonna happen with Falks next year when the the stadium's out of action?
SPEAKER_01Well, they're going out to Meridian, aren't they? Well, someone said that. I think they'll be training out there. Yeah, I was speaking to a couple of chippies, they've been doing the Renault out there on the footy fields, and I think they were saying, Oh, that's where they're gonna be coming, but change it up. There was talk of Albert Park, there's talk of Narimba, who knows where they would go?
SPEAKER_02I don't know. Yeah, if there's an opportunity to share it around the cup. Well, if there's an opportunity too, we're gonna try and host some games up at Portu Park. That'd be all right. I think we're we're going through all the business case stuff now. We've got to catch up with Flano sometime soon.
SPEAKER_01That game we did at Gimpy this year. We the reserve guide played Gimpy and then they had the Falks on after it. That was great. Like, man, packed crowd at Albert Park, watching that next level of footy is yeah, it's the boys enjoyed it. It's a cool place to play footy at Albert Park. I've got some good memories from there. I've said funny one that year we played with Gimpy, it was we had one of the games it was at night in Albert Park, lights on, music. It's yeah, great little field, funny stuff. I'm not gonna be mentioned on here, but yeah, like funny, funny games there. That year was a good year, actually.
SPEAKER_02So for for context for the listeners, so 2014 I I capped and coached and a few Gimpy lads came down because they didn't have enough to field a whole side.
SPEAKER_01It was both a mutual thing. We only had like it was about six and a half. Yeah, we had like seven or eight grade players. A couple of us, like me included, were probably just hanging on to that grade play. And there's no point just getting hammered every week. So I think we both just decided to join.
SPEAKER_02And it was sort of it was about a half-half team in 2014 to 2015. We dubbed it the Northern Outlaws. Big Zippy coached us and yeah had some legends from Gimpy come down again, and we we shared pwn games between Nooser and Gimpy, and we had an awesome team and a great group of blokes.
SPEAKER_01Some of those guys are good mates to this day. Like just the boys from there, Flammo and Greavesy and Reese Coleman. It was a good Timmy Wival. Got a little bit of my half for Gimpy how they're struggling now at the moment, but Me too, man. We went through it what we folded that year. That was the year I got bad concussion, ended up stopping playing for a few years. We end up folding halfway in 2016. Yeah, and a lot of the boys headed out to cutters or we hit by struggled, but you know, you've got to push through. Gimpy's a weird one. Like go from having your own comp 30 years ago to having what 16 comp, whatever they had, to struggling. You know, you want to see every team succeed. Same thing happened with Nambour, though. If you look at teams like BWR, I remember when I first started, BY was a C grade team, and they've gone through the whole group. A lot different with the growth around BR, Lansborough, and all the housing, but you know, they started, they were there at a stage and they've built to where they are. And then you have the opposite. Bribey was a first grade team out of all grades. Now what Bribey's struggling real hard and they've gone back down to seas. Comes and goes.
SPEAKER_02They got bloody got punted from the comp at the end of the year for that big all in blue. Yeah, it's a funny old space community sport and how different clubs operate over time and what it takes to get the big wheel turning. It sort of does start from the top a little bit. Hey, you need people involved in the club that love it, that give it good governance and time, and then it all trickles down there. And yeah, you've got good people at all the different layers doing their roles in a club that's humming.
SPEAKER_01Like you said, it starts at the top, it does start at your senior level, but then obviously that ties back into what you guys have done around the club at the moment with tying the juniors back into the seniors and making it feel like one club. That's where 90% of your players are gonna come from. Like you're gonna have to buy outside of it, but all your players moving forward, you want them to come to senior footy. So you want them to feel that they should be able to move up. And having like I know Ruccio or this year was having a bit of a struggle between their juniors and seniors, and it goes to show like if you've got two different entities going at something, something's not gonna work. You've got to work together.
SPEAKER_02You need alignment, hey? Look, I I do feel for clubs that aren't that are separate entities for juniors and seniors, and their their strategic goals are different.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and we're one of the lucky clubs on the coast, man. Like, how much did it rain this year? And it's like, all right, Taunton's clothes, you just can go train at Croy, and we're two fields of Croy we can train at, or two fields at Tawanton. You look at teams like Coulomb that I didn't think they had their field back to mid-March because they share their field with the cricket. So we're very fortunate here in Noosa to have two grounds and two things. But as they say, I think we're gonna I personally think probably got to use Croy a little bit more, probably through the juniors. Use it or lose it, great to have.
SPEAKER_02Did it feel like we used it more this year? Like it was a focus this year.
SPEAKER_01We change it more for juniors, definitely. I laugh at parents when they're like, Oh, we've got to go train at Croy. It's like that. That's where we were. That's what where the junior blood is. Feel lucky that we do get Joe games and stuff at Tawanton, but Croy's our junior heart. Like, shouldn't take it away. There are great fields out there. What are the Christians and overs? Christensen over. Great little area. Use it a little bit more.
SPEAKER_02Mate, it's just had a bit of a facelift, actually. Next time you're swinging by drop in and have a look.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it might have to.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, a bit of a lick of paint. The toilets just got done up there.
SPEAKER_01Nice.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. The uh community benefit scheme.
SPEAKER_01I think the gym, isn't the gymnastics getting they're gonna be granite, or they just got that done?
SPEAKER_02No, it's just just started.
SPEAKER_01I think that's gonna be pretty massive for them out there too. I think so. It's a great complex.
SPEAKER_02We are lucky that we've got two big sports complexes up here in Tawanton and Cloy.
SPEAKER_01Being so involved in that junior, like that younger junior grade at us, like having that mini mod, what have we got, like 1200 kids there this year? That Richie Johnson mini mod like 1,500 and something.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it was enormous. Like that's it was probably too big this year.
SPEAKER_01Like there was name another club that can hold it.
SPEAKER_02100%. And there's like 6,000 and something people there when you add in all the parents and grandparents and stuff.
SPEAKER_01Well, they had like seven coffee vans, it was still nearly a half an hour late, but it was like good to see. And the kids love it. That was my last year kind of involved as a coach and a parent. Both kids move up now. Yeah, it's been fun to get involved and off to the next mods. I used to not whinge, but be like, oh, this mini mod, and then Seth had his the following week in Bribey. So I was like, I had to drive to bribery at eight o'clock the morning, like maybe the crew one was good, but no, I love it. It's good to see.
SPEAKER_02Oh, and it's just I suppose you do it year in, year out as a club person, I suppose. Like you're a coach and you're coaching your kids, and then your your kids age out and you're still going along and helping and stuff, and you see the impact that it has on such a big group of people.
SPEAKER_01What's their last village it takes? It's those kids' last thing for the year. So leave them with a good note in their head, get as many kids as we can back next year. It's good to see. All around the comp. How many players and like all the young girls and that getting involved with the game? It's per it's great to see.
SPEAKER_02We had over 120 female players this year. Pretty cool.
SPEAKER_01I'm really looking forward to them moving into that seniors, senior women after actually having like no offense to the women, it's like they've definitely developed from that first year to where they are now. But to see when these next steps through the juniors have actually played for years and years, when these girls, these comp's going, it's going skywards, it's good to see.
SPEAKER_02100%, man. Or and and just you have more games under your belt, you get more representative training.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, not saying anything to the girls, it's like you can see that that's their first five to ten years at playing. You watch some of those 14-year-olds run around like they're playing it just as long. Just the ball handling, the kicking, you can see it, and there is definitely some there. I look forward to the girls, it's massive having them around.
SPEAKER_02Mate, it's almost like one of the considerations with how we did the academy this year is almost managing load sometimes. Because you you get kids that are playing school touch, school Oztag, club touch, club Oztag, rugby league, gala days. Yeah, everything. State cups, everything like that. It's it some kids you almost have to tap on the shoulder and say, Hey, like it's too much. You don't want to burn yourself up.
SPEAKER_01Because I can't say anything away from it, because I remember doing sport five, six days a week. And don't know how my mum and dad juggled it. When now I look back, I'm like, I did carpool a lot, and I did do it. And we lived right next to that sporting complex. I kind of played softball, played cricket, and then hoodie up in Croy. We try to juggle it, juggle it as best you can. But yeah, some of these kids, they're they've got a lot of load, they keep going.
SPEAKER_02I think families have lost the art of the carpool a little bit, too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, everyone's like, Oh, I can't play because my kid's there. I'm like, we'll just I'll take him. Like, it's what it is. Like different dynamic, I think. Like I remember there'll be like seven of us jumping to one of our coach had a van. So yeah, it'd be six or seven of us every week. That was us. Coming back from training in Croix, you'd get lift back or you'd do all carpool. It was just it was part of the youth. Good times, actually, playing around the bus.
SPEAKER_02Bit of sneaky Maccas sometimes on the way home.
SPEAKER_01Maccas was totally different back when we were kids. They used to throw parties there. It was yeah, yeah. Maccas was our like what are they playing in the match was always a Maccas voucher. Now they're getting Yochi or laser tag or something like that. The old Maccas, Maccas trip and ice creams was perfect. That's it. Look back, yeah. Well I talking about that bus, like that Woodford going out there. We used to be seven of us in this Woodford thing, and old um Marty Boyden would be our coach and driving us out there was whore. Like I could imagine me doing it now. I'm like, that'd be pulling my hair out. Going grey as it is, not grey and thinning as it is. People like that were the ones that help you get through, and you look back and you didn't appreciate as much now, like then as you do now when you're in that position.
SPEAKER_02The context of getting older, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you appreciate the things your parents did for you, the people that helped you, the coaches you had. Coaches, the volunteers. It's not until you do everything and you get so involved that there is a lot behind the scenes that happen. Like I think straight from here I head off to the um pub to go sell some raffle tickets for the reserve guy. That's it. And then from there I'm gonna go down to down to watch the nine eens train before their last training session before the grand final and trying to organise all the boys, and it's a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes that you didn't appreciate when you were just playing until now when you're there.
SPEAKER_02And man, credit to you for doing those things for the team too. Like you've been the lad that's organized the footy trips and done a few things like that for a few years. So, mate, someone doesn't put their hand up, those things don't happen. So, credit to you, brother.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I love it. Love being around the boys. Don't you notice it a lot more these days when I'm getting a bit older and like the boys, you're on the drink with them, and then you realize they've dragged you out and you're in the club. It's two o'clock in the morning. I'm like, I'm 36, what am I, 35? What am I doing? Like, I'm going home, but it's just it's still fun. It's I'm a sucker for it. I still love it. As I get older, it's obviously like a lot harder to step away. But doing that kind of management role was it was good this year, but I want to have one more crack of footy.
SPEAKER_02So good stuff, man. Let's put some work in over the off season together in the gym and get it. Yeah, utilize this new gym we've got.
SPEAKER_01There it goes.
SPEAKER_02Before we wrap things up, is there any last little stories or things you wanted to chat about, touch on?
SPEAKER_01No.
SPEAKER_02Call outs.
SPEAKER_01No, I'm like, oh yeah. Like you had Dane Campbell on the other day, other week. That was great to listen to. He gave me me a great debut. He was one of those coaches that some of the things you listen that he said to us still take him to this day.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Like his level of knowledge of the game was great to see. And like unfortunate incident would happen on the field and he fell away. But Dane was a great dude. Being in my junior or my senior level of eighteens was when Goldie was come through his three-peak, like just that level, that level of intensity. It's been a good journey. We've had some ups and we've had some downs in the club, like through my senior, senior playing. But yeah, no, it's been woody, I think.
SPEAKER_02Who do we need to get on here that hasn't been on yet?
SPEAKER_01Oh, don't know. There's plenty of guys. There's plenty of people still hanging around that are interesting to hear their stories. It would be a good one to listen to. It wouldn't shut them up, but as much as it'd probably be pain getting does or someone, some of those older heads around and get them chatting. You know, that's where the club was built. They've had they had a lot of success and they had a lot of knowledge coming around through those older boys. Who else was around there? Have you got Big Gussie on yet?
SPEAKER_02No, Gussie's booked in for some time soon. He's waiting for something to happen and then he's coming on. Yeah, nice. Yeah, nice.
SPEAKER_01Those guys there, the guys that were kind of stalwards when I first moved in, and it's good to see him, like Tony Heathwood. They've all got some great stories and some great times with all those guys. Like I'm in one of those weird age brackets where I played with all these guys, and then now a few of them's sons are just getting that to age, like Quinlan O'Donnell and his and that, and then his his old boy played with him. It's like wild. They've all got kids now. Or you're I'm in this weird thing. I played with some of the real old boys, and I'm starting to play with their younger kids and part of the furniture, brother. Yeah, yeah. Try and get me away from the club.
SPEAKER_02Ah, so good. Mate, it's been a pleasure to have you on. Thanks for coming on for a yarn. And yeah, mate, thanks for everything you do. No, that's all right. I appreciate it. Awesome, brother. Cheers, mate. Cheers, baby.