00:00:00
Speaker 1: I'd done some pretty cool things as a player that you could easily make a case to say I was doing it for cloud online.
00:00:06
Speaker 2: I picked up a fan at a bus stop on the way to a game in Canberra.
00:00:10
Speaker 1: So I used to pull into a coffee shop to get my coffee. I was a huge superstitious guy.
00:00:17
Speaker 2: So superstitious, it wasn't funny.
00:00:19
Speaker 1: So I almost, I remember I used to struggle because I had to get my coffee from this one coffee shop. But if we had an eight o'clock Friday night game or a Saturday night game the coffee shop would close at 5.30. So I used to have to leave to go to the game so early to make sure I could get to that coffee shop early enough that it'd still be open. So I used to pull into this spot and I seen a Raiders fan at the bus stop and I've gone, well, we're both going to the same place.
00:00:45
Speaker 2: Wouldn't it be cool if I just said, hey, jump in there?
00:00:47
Speaker 1: Because I'd always go to the games on my own. I wouldn't take the family. So I said, jump in. She got in and we went to the game and she quizzed me on all the players on the way.
00:00:56
Speaker 2: And I just like, I loved it. That was a cool experience for her.
00:00:59
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:00:59
Speaker 1: Within five minutes of her getting to the stadium, she told everyone that would listen that I drove her to the game.
00:01:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
00:01:04
Speaker 1: So you had 32 stories showing that I'd... But so then the teammates were like, oh, you.
00:01:10
Speaker 2: Did it for the clout and you caught Fox Sports yourself. But I challenge any footy player, like no matter what, if you think it's the right thing to do in the moment, go do it, man. Even if you do.
00:01:20
Speaker 1: Cop a bit of flack or even if it does seem staged, just go do it because we're so.
00:01:27
Speaker 2: I think our sport is so cool that we still do shit like that.
00:01:30
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:01:30
Speaker 1: I've spent time in England and I've watched Premier League footballers get off a bus and they don't even turn their head to someone screaming their name.
00:01:37
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:01:38
Speaker 2: And it's cool. Like that's a mad sport and they earn a lot of money, but they're dehumanized. Yeah.
00:01:43
Speaker 1: I think, I think we stay so in touch with who we were as kids and we try to make sure that we create experiences for, for our fans that we would have loved as kids. So, yeah, I just remember putting myself in the moment and thinking this could, I could cop some backlash for this, but I had to get in there and sort of simmer it.
00:02:00
Speaker 2: So, uh, really cool period.
00:02:02
Speaker 1: Aaron Molan come and done a story with us on the footy show. I, for my life for me, I can't track down the footage. Um, but I remember coming to train in the next day. And, um, I remember all the boys coming up and be like, Oh, coach, you owe us.
00:02:18
Speaker 2: When they interviewed us, we told them you're the best ever and you've saved our lives.
00:02:22
Speaker 1: And, um yeah man it was a really cool story come together really nicely yeah um and the boys loved it the boys loved being on the footy show and yeah um yeah i remember i remember mal mal seve being interviewed on the story and i remember in his interview he said blah blah blah this that it was just a really nice moment he's like yeah blake's the man you know he shows up for us blah blah blah this that and i was like These kids, man, they're the best ever, bro. They were such a mixed group. Like, we had a Sudanese boy that.
00:02:56
Speaker 1: The other thing was we had a few, like, nerdy... And I say this respectfully, but we had a couple of sort of nerdy Aussie kids.
00:03:03
Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
00:03:03
Speaker 1: But they got to hang out with the toughest kids from the area because they were in the same footy team. So when they were down the local shops, they got to wave to the tough kid and they felt protected because they were connected.
00:03:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, 100%. So I love what a footy.
00:03:15
Speaker 1: Team can do for so many different individuals. Our young Sudanese boy was the most beautiful kid ever. He went to a Catholic school as opposed to where all the others went. But as I said, he was a part of something. Yeah, I used to just love showing up. My son was five or six at the time. I mean, talking about Mal and Ella, like they were two of the ones that took my son under the wing the most. They were two of the, that my missus got along with the most because they were always so respectful.
00:03:41
Speaker 2: And come and say hello. And yeah, really cool period of my life. And I'm so glad. Footy's the way we give back. You know that.
00:03:49
Speaker 1: It's, I mean, you can go to a Vinnie's van or you can go, or you can just show up at your local footy and you can give back to everyone and anyone sort of down the local field.
00:04:00
Speaker 3: So. Me and my brother do that. We go to Micho, Micho Berry Jets, obviously help out the coach there that coached us. And yeah, we just try and give back. We also helped like a disability. We would play touch with them, like just get involved. I think it's just mad. Like you don't realize how much you mean to people until you're actually in the moment and you see how much kids look up to you. I think sometimes I can forget that, like that kids, you know, are wanting to be in our spot. And obviously we're from Western Sydney. They look up to us, they're heaps and, yeah, it's just mad. It's, it's surreal.
00:04:30
Speaker 2: So yeah.
00:04:31
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:04:32
Speaker 2: Go into detail with the drugs.
00:04:34
Speaker 3: And common issues you saw in those young kids.
00:04:37
Speaker 2: Uh, well, just what I mentioned, it was lack of people showing up for him. Yeah. They, they respected and were grateful for me because I continued to show up.
00:04:45
Speaker 1: Um, I think the lesson for anyone that wants to make a difference in anyone's life, whether it's your kids, whether it's any, anyone you want to, you want to leave a stamp on it, just show up.
00:04:55
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:04:55
Speaker 1: Uh, because kids from, from Doonside and Mount Druid and, They have so many kids that they just don't show up. I remember my dad. My dad used to help out, and he tells it as a bit of a joke. But he used to help out and run water for our school team. And he remembers a kid at school telling him that he was so proud at 10 to tell my dad, hey, Mr. Austin, my dad's coming to watch me today. And then he said, oh, but then again, he was drunk when he told me. That's what a 10-year-old told me. And it was like, it was a bit of a funny thing, but it is what these kids are exposed to, man. My life with my parents was never perfect, but they always showed up and I always felt like they were.
00:05:36
Speaker 2: There for me.
00:05:37
Speaker 1: And the way I was raised, I actually was jealous of the kids that didn't have a lot of parental experience.
00:05:44
Speaker 2: I think you always want what you don't have.
00:05:47
Speaker 1: So my cousin lived a couple of doors down and I love my auntie and uncle, but they weren't the most present parents for my cousin. And that's why I'm so proud of who my cousin is because they almost raised themselves in a way. But we were so jealous of her because she was never under any parental control at all. So if she wanted to go and do anything she wanted, we thought that was the coolest thing ever. Whereas- My parents were those parents, oh, you want to go to the house party? Okay, I'll drop you off at 11.
00:06:14
Speaker 2: I'll park down the street and I'll pick you up at 12. And I'm going, just fucking leave me.
00:06:18
Speaker 1: I remember wanting to go to my year 10 after party. And mum was like, you've got two hours and I'll come back and pick you up. And I was like, oh, I think everyone said they're just going to sort of sleep at the house or at the party. And they're like, no, no, we're going to pick you up.
00:06:30
Speaker 2: And as a teen, I hated it.
00:06:35
Speaker 1: I wasn't allowed to catch trains too often. It wasn't until sort of 17, 18 that we started Really using the trains. We got the train to school on that. But other than that, we weren't allowed to do a lot.
00:06:45
Speaker 2: And looking back now, I love it.
00:06:48
Speaker 1: Like I love the time and effort they put in. But I remember in the moment thinking, I want what those kids have.
00:06:53
Speaker 2: Because they get to go and do whatever they want. And that seems really cool.
00:06:56
Speaker 1: But I don't know who I would have. I mean, most kids like that don't. You know, you give a kid. Too much rope and they sort of hang themselves. So really, really fortunate. And speaking back on my cousin, that's why I'm so proud of what she's created because she did.
00:07:10
Speaker 2: It on her own almost.
00:07:11
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
00:07:12
Speaker 2: That's crazy because they used to be like us.
00:07:14
Speaker 3: Like, well, my dad, I wasn't allowed to go to parties or anything, but I was barely allowed to go to my cousin's house because he knew, like, because we weren't allowed to obviously drink Coke and all that, play the game. We weren't allowed to play the game through the weekdays.
00:07:25
Speaker 2: Watch MA movies.
00:07:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, like any of that, bro. So... Like, when we would go to our cousins, we knew. Like, even at the aunties and they'll be like, here, just drink this. And then, yeah, we'd play the game and, yeah, my dad would hate it. It would be a rare occasion if we got to go to my cousins, but I used to be jealous.
00:07:41
Speaker 2: You would have hated it too, right? Yeah, I hated it. 100%.
00:07:43
Speaker 3: Bro, like, him playing the game, I thought he was the maddest. Like, bro, your parents are so gone, bro. Like, you get to play the game, this and that. But, yeah, like, you get to eat this, you get to do whatever. Like, my cousin always used to get, like, money to go KFC after school and that. But, yeah, it was just... Yeah. I guess what you were saying, it's like that, you know, you want it like, yeah, but probably shouldn't.
00:08:03
Speaker 1: I used to watch kids make that. Like I said, under 15s, they all made their own way to a game after a party.
00:08:08
Speaker 2: Then I'm full. My, I was like, my parents were so.
00:08:12
Speaker 1: Involved that like, we'd have an under 13 A's rugby league trial, which is like an in-house trial at school. My nan and mom would be sat on the, on the sideline. I'm like, this is not a game you're supposed to be at. Like I'll go to the trial and then I'll get the train home and I'll.
00:08:24
Speaker 2: See you tonight.
00:08:25
Speaker 1: But they were so invested in like, I'm, My Nan, I actually, I remember, I remember periods of hating that my Nan showed up so much.
00:08:35
Speaker 2: Because I was like, it's a bit embarrassing that you're here. Like, you shouldn't be at this game. Yeah, I get what you're saying.
00:08:40
Speaker 1: But I lost my Nan in 2019, and I'd give anything for my Nan to come back.
00:08:45
Speaker 2: My Nan was the reason I got to represent Great Britain. Yeah.
00:08:49
Speaker 1: And I, like, I have moments where I'm embarrassed that I was embarrassed as a team that my Nan showed up so much.
00:08:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, I get it.
00:08:56
Speaker 1: But yeah, on the flip side, the kids that have got all that freedom, well, they'd give anything to have a nan that showed.
00:09:01
Speaker 2: Up every day. Yeah, 100%. So I think you always want what you don't have.
00:09:04
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:09:05
Speaker 2: But I'm extremely fortunate for how things worked out.
Speaker 1: I'd done some pretty cool things as a player that you could easily make a case to say I was doing it for cloud online.
00:00:06
Speaker 2: I picked up a fan at a bus stop on the way to a game in Canberra.
00:00:10
Speaker 1: So I used to pull into a coffee shop to get my coffee. I was a huge superstitious guy.
00:00:17
Speaker 2: So superstitious, it wasn't funny.
00:00:19
Speaker 1: So I almost, I remember I used to struggle because I had to get my coffee from this one coffee shop. But if we had an eight o'clock Friday night game or a Saturday night game the coffee shop would close at 5.30. So I used to have to leave to go to the game so early to make sure I could get to that coffee shop early enough that it'd still be open. So I used to pull into this spot and I seen a Raiders fan at the bus stop and I've gone, well, we're both going to the same place.
00:00:45
Speaker 2: Wouldn't it be cool if I just said, hey, jump in there?
00:00:47
Speaker 1: Because I'd always go to the games on my own. I wouldn't take the family. So I said, jump in. She got in and we went to the game and she quizzed me on all the players on the way.
00:00:56
Speaker 2: And I just like, I loved it. That was a cool experience for her.
00:00:59
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:00:59
Speaker 1: Within five minutes of her getting to the stadium, she told everyone that would listen that I drove her to the game.
00:01:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
00:01:04
Speaker 1: So you had 32 stories showing that I'd... But so then the teammates were like, oh, you.
00:01:10
Speaker 2: Did it for the clout and you caught Fox Sports yourself. But I challenge any footy player, like no matter what, if you think it's the right thing to do in the moment, go do it, man. Even if you do.
00:01:20
Speaker 1: Cop a bit of flack or even if it does seem staged, just go do it because we're so.
00:01:27
Speaker 2: I think our sport is so cool that we still do shit like that.
00:01:30
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:01:30
Speaker 1: I've spent time in England and I've watched Premier League footballers get off a bus and they don't even turn their head to someone screaming their name.
00:01:37
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:01:38
Speaker 2: And it's cool. Like that's a mad sport and they earn a lot of money, but they're dehumanized. Yeah.
00:01:43
Speaker 1: I think, I think we stay so in touch with who we were as kids and we try to make sure that we create experiences for, for our fans that we would have loved as kids. So, yeah, I just remember putting myself in the moment and thinking this could, I could cop some backlash for this, but I had to get in there and sort of simmer it.
00:02:00
Speaker 2: So, uh, really cool period.
00:02:02
Speaker 1: Aaron Molan come and done a story with us on the footy show. I, for my life for me, I can't track down the footage. Um, but I remember coming to train in the next day. And, um, I remember all the boys coming up and be like, Oh, coach, you owe us.
00:02:18
Speaker 2: When they interviewed us, we told them you're the best ever and you've saved our lives.
00:02:22
Speaker 1: And, um yeah man it was a really cool story come together really nicely yeah um and the boys loved it the boys loved being on the footy show and yeah um yeah i remember i remember mal mal seve being interviewed on the story and i remember in his interview he said blah blah blah this that it was just a really nice moment he's like yeah blake's the man you know he shows up for us blah blah blah this that and i was like These kids, man, they're the best ever, bro. They were such a mixed group. Like, we had a Sudanese boy that.
00:02:56
Speaker 1: The other thing was we had a few, like, nerdy... And I say this respectfully, but we had a couple of sort of nerdy Aussie kids.
00:03:03
Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
00:03:03
Speaker 1: But they got to hang out with the toughest kids from the area because they were in the same footy team. So when they were down the local shops, they got to wave to the tough kid and they felt protected because they were connected.
00:03:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, 100%. So I love what a footy.
00:03:15
Speaker 1: Team can do for so many different individuals. Our young Sudanese boy was the most beautiful kid ever. He went to a Catholic school as opposed to where all the others went. But as I said, he was a part of something. Yeah, I used to just love showing up. My son was five or six at the time. I mean, talking about Mal and Ella, like they were two of the ones that took my son under the wing the most. They were two of the, that my missus got along with the most because they were always so respectful.
00:03:41
Speaker 2: And come and say hello. And yeah, really cool period of my life. And I'm so glad. Footy's the way we give back. You know that.
00:03:49
Speaker 1: It's, I mean, you can go to a Vinnie's van or you can go, or you can just show up at your local footy and you can give back to everyone and anyone sort of down the local field.
00:04:00
Speaker 3: So. Me and my brother do that. We go to Micho, Micho Berry Jets, obviously help out the coach there that coached us. And yeah, we just try and give back. We also helped like a disability. We would play touch with them, like just get involved. I think it's just mad. Like you don't realize how much you mean to people until you're actually in the moment and you see how much kids look up to you. I think sometimes I can forget that, like that kids, you know, are wanting to be in our spot. And obviously we're from Western Sydney. They look up to us, they're heaps and, yeah, it's just mad. It's, it's surreal.
00:04:30
Speaker 2: So yeah.
00:04:31
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:04:32
Speaker 2: Go into detail with the drugs.
00:04:34
Speaker 3: And common issues you saw in those young kids.
00:04:37
Speaker 2: Uh, well, just what I mentioned, it was lack of people showing up for him. Yeah. They, they respected and were grateful for me because I continued to show up.
00:04:45
Speaker 1: Um, I think the lesson for anyone that wants to make a difference in anyone's life, whether it's your kids, whether it's any, anyone you want to, you want to leave a stamp on it, just show up.
00:04:55
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:04:55
Speaker 1: Uh, because kids from, from Doonside and Mount Druid and, They have so many kids that they just don't show up. I remember my dad. My dad used to help out, and he tells it as a bit of a joke. But he used to help out and run water for our school team. And he remembers a kid at school telling him that he was so proud at 10 to tell my dad, hey, Mr. Austin, my dad's coming to watch me today. And then he said, oh, but then again, he was drunk when he told me. That's what a 10-year-old told me. And it was like, it was a bit of a funny thing, but it is what these kids are exposed to, man. My life with my parents was never perfect, but they always showed up and I always felt like they were.
00:05:36
Speaker 2: There for me.
00:05:37
Speaker 1: And the way I was raised, I actually was jealous of the kids that didn't have a lot of parental experience.
00:05:44
Speaker 2: I think you always want what you don't have.
00:05:47
Speaker 1: So my cousin lived a couple of doors down and I love my auntie and uncle, but they weren't the most present parents for my cousin. And that's why I'm so proud of who my cousin is because they almost raised themselves in a way. But we were so jealous of her because she was never under any parental control at all. So if she wanted to go and do anything she wanted, we thought that was the coolest thing ever. Whereas- My parents were those parents, oh, you want to go to the house party? Okay, I'll drop you off at 11.
00:06:14
Speaker 2: I'll park down the street and I'll pick you up at 12. And I'm going, just fucking leave me.
00:06:18
Speaker 1: I remember wanting to go to my year 10 after party. And mum was like, you've got two hours and I'll come back and pick you up. And I was like, oh, I think everyone said they're just going to sort of sleep at the house or at the party. And they're like, no, no, we're going to pick you up.
00:06:30
Speaker 2: And as a teen, I hated it.
00:06:35
Speaker 1: I wasn't allowed to catch trains too often. It wasn't until sort of 17, 18 that we started Really using the trains. We got the train to school on that. But other than that, we weren't allowed to do a lot.
00:06:45
Speaker 2: And looking back now, I love it.
00:06:48
Speaker 1: Like I love the time and effort they put in. But I remember in the moment thinking, I want what those kids have.
00:06:53
Speaker 2: Because they get to go and do whatever they want. And that seems really cool.
00:06:56
Speaker 1: But I don't know who I would have. I mean, most kids like that don't. You know, you give a kid. Too much rope and they sort of hang themselves. So really, really fortunate. And speaking back on my cousin, that's why I'm so proud of what she's created because she did.
00:07:10
Speaker 2: It on her own almost.
00:07:11
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
00:07:12
Speaker 2: That's crazy because they used to be like us.
00:07:14
Speaker 3: Like, well, my dad, I wasn't allowed to go to parties or anything, but I was barely allowed to go to my cousin's house because he knew, like, because we weren't allowed to obviously drink Coke and all that, play the game. We weren't allowed to play the game through the weekdays.
00:07:25
Speaker 2: Watch MA movies.
00:07:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, like any of that, bro. So... Like, when we would go to our cousins, we knew. Like, even at the aunties and they'll be like, here, just drink this. And then, yeah, we'd play the game and, yeah, my dad would hate it. It would be a rare occasion if we got to go to my cousins, but I used to be jealous.
00:07:41
Speaker 2: You would have hated it too, right? Yeah, I hated it. 100%.
00:07:43
Speaker 3: Bro, like, him playing the game, I thought he was the maddest. Like, bro, your parents are so gone, bro. Like, you get to play the game, this and that. But, yeah, like, you get to eat this, you get to do whatever. Like, my cousin always used to get, like, money to go KFC after school and that. But, yeah, it was just... Yeah. I guess what you were saying, it's like that, you know, you want it like, yeah, but probably shouldn't.
00:08:03
Speaker 1: I used to watch kids make that. Like I said, under 15s, they all made their own way to a game after a party.
00:08:08
Speaker 2: Then I'm full. My, I was like, my parents were so.
00:08:12
Speaker 1: Involved that like, we'd have an under 13 A's rugby league trial, which is like an in-house trial at school. My nan and mom would be sat on the, on the sideline. I'm like, this is not a game you're supposed to be at. Like I'll go to the trial and then I'll get the train home and I'll.
00:08:24
Speaker 2: See you tonight.
00:08:25
Speaker 1: But they were so invested in like, I'm, My Nan, I actually, I remember, I remember periods of hating that my Nan showed up so much.
00:08:35
Speaker 2: Because I was like, it's a bit embarrassing that you're here. Like, you shouldn't be at this game. Yeah, I get what you're saying.
00:08:40
Speaker 1: But I lost my Nan in 2019, and I'd give anything for my Nan to come back.
00:08:45
Speaker 2: My Nan was the reason I got to represent Great Britain. Yeah.
00:08:49
Speaker 1: And I, like, I have moments where I'm embarrassed that I was embarrassed as a team that my Nan showed up so much.
00:08:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, I get it.
00:08:56
Speaker 1: But yeah, on the flip side, the kids that have got all that freedom, well, they'd give anything to have a nan that showed.
00:09:01
Speaker 2: Up every day. Yeah, 100%. So I think you always want what you don't have.
00:09:04
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:09:05
Speaker 2: But I'm extremely fortunate for how things worked out.
