The Overly Excited Podcast

This episode is brought to you by Swash Clothing and Sugar Life.

Welcome to the overly excited podcast hosted by Jack Watts and Dale

Sidebottom. Two friends with a passion for life, learning and all

things that get them jumping out of their seats.

Alright. Hello, everybody. Happy Friday.

We've got a very special episode today. Episode number 26,

Soddy. It's the one, mate. Not many get to 26, but we're

here. And, we've got a very good mate of mine, special

guest, superstar, captain of Melbourne,

bike riding extraordinary, wine bar owner,

restaurant owner, Callaway ambassador,

plays off about 4,000, but that's okay. Gets the free clubs

and the free gear and and lululemon extraordinaire

Maxie Gorn. Thanks for joining us, Max. Thank you, Sadie and Jack. I've heard

great things. Episode 26 Hey, mate. Apparently, if you get past 20 in the podcast

world, you're home. You're home. Well, count our chickens. That's a stat that

I thought. You are home. We got to I got to 70

with Angus Brashaw. Oh, yes. And then we we've pulled

up stumps now. Obviously, Angus is I will touch on Angus a bit later. Get

her at some point. But, yeah, I got to 70. Did you We were

weekly for 5 years. Weekly for 5 years? In in the

season. I had I had an episode on that. Yeah. You did come on. Yeah.

I think it came on 1. Did you enjoy it? I enjoyed it. We were

yeah. Obviously, we had a football flavor to it all night in the moment. I'd

choose so. Yeah. And that's when we started 2 of those, I guess. We're

neuroscience. Guys, I don't know. She never judge. And

Garcy would back himself in for neuroscience. But yeah. Congratulations

on episode 26. Thanks, mate. Thanks for coming along. Now we start

each episode with a question. It's called the overly excited podcast.

What gets you excited, Maxie? What gets you out of bed jumping out of your

skin? Obviously, we know you love your footy, but, is there anything

else? Well, I mean, you have to say 2

kids at this stage. Just apologies if I'm

my speech isn't great. I I I have got I've got some

anesthetic in my top lip. I've just went to the dentist so I can feel

myself. You get the nice little veneers up there, Maxie. Just I do look good

these ones. They look outstanding. I'm a very reactive with the dentist. I

go when my tooth hurts, and that was one of the the days today.

No. Look. I I, the kids is obviously 1. The other

one is I support sorry. Not support. I follow a sport

that is very niche. I follow cycling. And cycling

goes from March till December. Like, it's a

phenomenal season. And there's racing every night. So

it's like, Really? Yeah. There's obviously bigger races like

tour and whatnot, but there's races every night. So every morning, I get to wake

up and watch half an hour highlights of cycling from the night before with a

coffee, before the kids wake up, before Jess wakes up, and that's a pure

half. Yeah. So if I'm talking about what I actually wake up for, like, when

the alarm goes or when I wake up at 6, 6:30 It's a is to

go watch half an hour of silent highlights. We've all coffee. That's good, though. We

want the honest side. Yeah. We've got it, Steve. I knew you're gonna say the

kids. Obviously, feeling very important. But there's also other things that, you know, we

sorta glaze over sometimes because we wanna say the right thing.

Yeah. I love that cycling. It is such a oh, it what

a tough sport. Tough sport. Is that what is that what you love

about it? The how, you know, the endurance and the struggle and the I know

you you go off around the world most off seasons and take your bike and

No. I I get that narrative. Like, the David Goggins narrative. Like, I

just love all that, but I'm not that way inclined. I don't really care

about the heart rates and whatnot. Yeah. Like, there's a lot of cool little,

like, trade news and gossip and stuff that happens in cycling

world that's So it's still got the drama cycling? Got the drama.

I it's way too hard to explain but yeah. And then 7 and 7

o'clock hits and then George wakes up and then Yeah. You get to have a

pretty fun morning with George. Yeah. With the cycling, is it

all the same guys, like, from the tour and stuff? I I watched that doco.

Yeah. We were talking, weren't we? We started texting through that. Yeah. Van de Gap.

What's his name? Van de there's Van Aert and Van de Poele. That's right.

Yep. Do they race from March till December? Yeah. So All

those big dogs? There's a big race on Saturday night with Van Aert,

Van de Poele, Polka Car, the big dogs. Wow. But, yeah,

there's each team there's 20 teams Yeah. In the pro

cycling, and there's like a VFL that has another 50 teams.

Oh, okay. And there's there's 30 riders on each team. Yeah. And it only takes

7 riders to each race. So there's has to be heaps of races. So essentially,

it's like f one. Yeah. Like, to get It's very similar To get like a

ride Yeah. You've gotta be elite. The only issue that so f one's

just obviously 20 races Yeah. Where, this is

obviously a lot more. Yeah. But, yeah, I would say it's similar.

And if there was a sport, it'd be similar to f one. Yeah. Particularly, like,

through Europe and things because that's where they're all based, isn't it? Yep. Like,

you're not riding around sad places like this. Australia had a couple of races in

January. America don't get any, and they have got a lot of pro cyclists.

Stuff them. Yeah. They get everything else. Asia's got it. Asia and Middle

East have a little bit and then it's all Europe. Yeah. What about what's

your favorite ride that you've done? I've ridden a couple of times.

I was actually having this chat with my dentist this morning. My dentist Before he

could talk to me probably. Yeah. He was a kid. You wanna ask you questions

when you got all your stuff in your mouth. Bizarre. Just fix me

toothpaste. And he did bring it up because he'd

written some stuff that I I there's a there's a mountain pass called Stelvio,

which is Italy, Austria, Switzerland

border. Like, those 3 all made at one point, and it's the Stelvio.

And if you've watched the Italian job, it's a famous scene when the car is

going to the mountain. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was an unbelievable climb. And me

and Ed Langdon Ed Langdon and I managed to ride it in October

when October's a very dull season for Europe. Like, it's almost winter, but it's not

quite. Yeah. And we had a peach of a day. So there was no cyclist,

and there was also no skiing or snow. Snow. So we had the whole mountain

to ourself almost. And we rode up and it was, yeah, it was

pure. When you're riding those, like, because I know I've skied all those paced around

there. Yeah. You're going down. It's pretty easy, and then you get lift to look

at everything. I imagine riding up them and down them. Do you get to experience

or is it just a hard grind of the climb? Well, it depends where your

heart rate is at the time. Yeah. Obviously, you're not functioning with a heart rate

above 170, 180. You're not really looking. But if you find a little

part where you're backing off a tiny bit and you can sit around a lower

heart rate, I just said I don't like heart rates on top of that. Yeah.

Yeah. When I was in zone 2 Zero solids coming next, I'll tell you.

Yeah. I'm not into that heart rate. I just went on at 135, I can't

help with the rear. But, when you're sitting a little higher, you can take it

all in. The Stelvio, I'm not you said you've been in around those areas. The

the the Stelvio is some of the best views. Oh, incredible. Yeah. Like, I think

that's one thing Europe just has that we don't. I can see why, you

know, the riding and cycling over there is phenomenal because of

that. Yeah. You know, like, you're not gonna be riding around Melbourne or flat little

places that don't have these huge mountains or beautiful, you know,

culture and Well, everywhere adds to it. Everywhere you can ski is you can

ride on the sun. Don't sell all of his hill short, mate. Up the hill

up there in Frankston. And Arthur's Arthur's seat's the big one in our in our

sort of area. Oliver's hill is tough but just short.

Yeah. Arthur's seat is very steep. After yeah. That's actually

that's as steep as these European ones, but it just goes for 3 k, where

the European ones goes for 20. So you get a little

bit of, little bit of confidence after the seat. That's the practice. Pretty

good about yourself peacocking around, and then you realize you gotta triple it,

quadruple it. And Melbourne's a very I'm not sure if you thought you

were gonna go 10 minutes off the top with cycling, but, We

we don't have any blame. I'm more heart rates

I wanna stay with. Melbourne's cycling culture is very look at

me. Like, I'm not sure if you're driven down beach road Saturday morning, but everyone's

looking as good as they can. Like, the best locker, the best bikes. Yeah. But

they're flat track bullies. They ride on beach road Yeah. Just doing 50 k's an

hour, which is a talent in itself. But you get some of

these boys over to Europe, and it's just a different it's just a different playing

field. Separate. I meant from the boys. Yeah. I was actually I was speaking to

our good friends, the train goes, yesterday because I'm starting to

try and ramp up my You you would never believe this because, you

know, running was certainly not my favorite thing deciding when we were playing footy. I

was always right out the back, but I'm actually enjoying it for the first time.

Signed up to the Melbourne Marrow in October. So I messaged our

friends, the train goes, Jess obviously wanna she win gold at the Commonwealth

Games. So bronze in the Olympics. Bronze in the Olympics. Can't remember what she did

at the at the com I guess she must have won the Olympics. Yeah. The

Olympics says, that's impressive. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's real cool.

But she's just a freak marathon runner and trainers just went and ran his first

one ever and ran it in 3, 240 4 or something. You read

355 pays for something. It's just ridiculous. So I messaged them about

running and to give me a few, sessions Probably the

wrong people to ask. Yeah. Oh, I was gonna say that back to you. If

you're asking I said I said, Tanya, your first 2 k run of the 3:30

pass is even safer to me. But What were their heart rates? The

heart rates. That's what I'm saying. They said it's all about heart rate. It is

actually, to be fair, you have to go for like 20 k jobs where your

heart rate doesn't get above. Exactly. That's what Nathan Jones struggles with. Yeah.

Because he's He just wants to go. He just wants to attack every every everything

he's ever done. Little bulldog. Yeah.

What else? Well, speaking of Nathan Jones, any of the

boys that, who who do you sort of stay in touch with from, you know,

the older boys? Like, obviously, it's it's funny for me now, like,

your team are basically no no one left really. Like, you

and couple of the older boys, Brayshore and Petracker and Brayshore's

gone. Armeshore's gone, mate. Armeshore's gone.

But, you know, like, it's it's a it's a brand new team and

I'm interested to see how you, you know, how you have evolved and changed as

you've gotten older and all the young boys come in, you know, it must be

very different to when you're trying to make your way through and prove yourself.

And, you know, now you're the captain of the team. So you've got to set

the example and who saw that coming up?

Yep. Smoking darts on the way to train to a premiership captain.

But but you always sort of had a little bit of that in you. Like,

you had that drive and like, I think initially it was

probably more just personal from my point of view. Like you just wanted to

prove to everyone that you had it personally And

obviously that sort of grew to, you know, taking care of the

whole team club, you know. What aspects did

did you enjoy? Has it been tough? Obviously, you've had a bit of, you know,

there's been a bit of controversy this year and you were always the one at

the front of the helm, you know, answering questions and, what do you enjoy

about it? What what do you find difficult? It's, it's one hell of a

question. I feel like Great question. There's a well, there's a part

early that we that we we delved in and then we didn't so what

teammates I still sort of catch up with. You are

you still you still hang out with Peto and Pig Dog? That it was your

trio. So there was a trio on the football club, Cam Pettus and Jack Watts,

Adam Adam Riley. Yeah. We always get after training, have to stay

back and do some contested board work. Come on you

softies. Maxie, you just get off the track. Take

care of yourself. Yeah. That's actually you and the pedo

1 hour. That was Right. That's just some of the it was kamikaze.

And then obviously, my teammates have changed throughout, but I've

still got a great core group of friends. I

had a I had a 30th 32nd. I called it the 30th because it's on

the 30th December, my birthday, but it was the 32nd.

You double booked you at Christmas or something. Yeah. Yeah. And it's

funny a lot of the people that were there where there was only like 3

current players. It's all just, that's my group. I think when you

go through hard times like we did with the and the start of the

roos, you sort of you gravitate

together a bit more than almost the the the good times. It's almost like we

galvanize off the field more because on field was so shit. Yes.

I'm so close with these guys and they're my age. Mhmm. The

people my age with the football club now are Tom McDonald who I'm I'm I'm

really close with, but he's the he's the one. Mhmm. And then there's Melky who

came in from a different club, and Steven May. So there's not

many guys around my age. So you've had to learn

to adapt and you're looking back and go, how did we

ever communicate with Brad Green and Cam Bruce? Yeah. Because they were that

gap and now I'm that person.

And there's and Gen zed, I'm not sure if you guys come across many Gen

zed guys who know a lot of work, but they're, they're different.

They are different. Really nice way of doing it. They are they are

different. Our fashions way off. I mean, I've seen you

today. You're doing the same thing as me. Shorts above knees. Now it's shorts below

knees. Yeah. The denim. The denim. Shorts and. Yeah. It

was always tight pants like you used to wear ankle, you know, shoe

leather jeans. Now we're near that. Yeah. And have you tried to adapt?

I'm trying to but we're still I'm not going full Gen

Z. Because you're pretty you're you enjoy your fashion. You look absolutely

good. Well, I'm all decked out in Lulu. Yeah. Pretty much every everywhere I go,

which you 2 are now as well. Appreciate that. That's right. Not as soon we,

get presents when someone is on our show. So Yeah. We should mention that. Tick

the box big time here. Thank you, Lulu and, Maxi. The guest has given

the hosts the presence. The bar very high. If anybody does listen to our show

and you think you're gonna be a guest, start planning because Yeah. I'll tell you

what, I love Lulu shorts and you normally gotta pay a premium for them

because top quality. They are. They are top. They are top. And the golf

range that you've got. Oh my god. I You're gonna love that. I actually shot

30 5 points the other day. Oh, what are you off these days? 18. So

I'll never improve and never what's the opposite to

improve? Improve or blow out? I'll never blow out. I've I've been sitting at 18,

10 years. For a long time. Yeah. I'm enjoying and then the final question there

was, am I enjoying it? Yeah. I think I think

you've as soon as you stop enjoying it, I've been around a

lot of people in our in our club about a 100, I do say, teammates.

And you can see the ones when they stop enjoying it, their football goes,

their their their home life goes, and it

starts to spiral out of control. So you still gotta find there's a lots of

bits I don't enjoy about the job, but you gotta hone in on the bits

you enjoy and sort of double down on that. And that's what I that's what

I tend to do. Like, it's funny, like last our last week's podcast,

we spoke a lot about, you know, because on the pod, we speak a lot

about our issues and what we're struggling with and whatever, but we spoke about,

you know, focusing on the positives and actually, you know, we don't do

it enough. You don't tell yourself what you're good at, you know, and it's something

I found you're really good at is focusing on the positives.

You know, yes, you go through some hard times and, you know, you've had all

sorts of injuries and setbacks and whatnot, but you have that

ability to push through that and stick with the positives and

come come out the other side a better person, player, whatever it might be. Yeah.

So I think that's really important. We've got a pretty good inspiration at the moment

with Angus. Like, his career has just been taken

away. So we got almost every time you walk in the football club now,

you got this like, I've only got 2 more years. Well,

the way I played on the weekend, maybe a couple of weeks, but I've only

got a limited time a limited time left.

It's to really just enjoy every moment you can. Mhmm.

People, nonstop, I get it down the street going,

this last 6 months, you must be struggling. You're seems to be the guy in

the media. Seems to be copping the grunts of it. I don't feel that No.

Because I'm enjoying my job. There's obviously some

I'd love some stuff not to come up and not have to talk about, but

I'm enjoying my job. I'm enjoying being around. I would much rather be in a

press conference talking about Joel Smith and Clayton Oliver Yeah. Than working at Domino's where

I was pre football. So I'm still doing Sonic I Love.

It's obviously just at a high scale. Yeah. And that's like I think that's it

like, it's when you put things in perspective, like, yeah, it's really hard at the

moment, everything like that, but you haven't been told that you can't

play anymore. Yeah. Like, I I can imagine I can't imagine how hard that would

be for him, but for you, it's like, obviously, you did a podcast in 70

episodes, 5 years straight, very good mates. How did you

take that? Like, did you find that personally hard? It's almost there's

there's there's 2 parts to the Angus. One is the sense of

relief, which I'm sure you might have as well. He's

gone through a long concussion battle, and he'd come out the other side. His

last 5 years have been terrific. His scans have been unbelievable in those last 5

years. So he actually he'd cleared his previous concussion history, which is

really, that was that was going really good. And then

this one is a big hit. Like, this one is one of the bigger hits

the neurosciences have seen almost. And

for him to come back from this, it would have always put the family and

friends in a lot of stress. Yeah. So the sense of relief that it's been

taken out of his hands, that he's not coming back is kinda good. But then

there's the other side, like, you had the 5 year contract, you train the whole

preseason. If he had a retired after the Collingwood game,

I think we all would have seen it coming, but the fact he's done five

great months of preseason. And everyone's like, wow. He's turned around and he looks

like he's gonna be okay. And he's symptom free Yeah. Which is a blessing as

well. Like, a lot of the guys have retired with concussion, Patty McCardan,

Seedsman, Brad Shepherd, all these guys had symptoms.

Yeah. Where Angus is gonna retire symptom free, which is extremely lucky. It

could have been a lot worse. Yeah. And he's a very smart boy. He's got

his wine bottle. If you wanted to pick someone to retire Yeah. You'd pick

him. He's got a batch a bachelor in commerce. Yeah. He's

been working part time for the last 5 years. He can think on his

feet. I actually played golf with his boss from the place

that he's working at and he said he's killing it on fire and he's there.

They're, you know, he, he said, they'd love to have him on full time

blah blah. We'll just wait and see what he wants to do. So he's pretty

set up. He's he's opening Lenny's. Lenny's wine bar. Lenny's wine

room or bar? Wine room, potentially. I can't remember. Yep. Have

you, you know, taken him under the wing in that space? Obviously, East End

and now Motor. Gave him some advice. The 2, my 2 business

partners, sat him down and had a good little chat at some point as

well. I get a bit I'm excited for him.

Hospitality is fun. He loves it. You've thought about it a couple of times?

Yeah. I just didn't I wasn't quite on this sort of

$1,000,000 a year wage. You know, you know, and Gussie were doing. So for me,

it was a a big risk. The original Outlay is, a lot sometimes

with some of those bars, and I think he is, got a bit of the

finance in that. But, yeah. I I would

put all the money in the world to be in hospitality. I'd love it. Yeah.

And I reckon he he will as well. And it's a great while we play,

it's a great upskill. Like, I've been involved

in hiring and firing. I've been involved in balance sheets. Stuff that I would

not be involved in if I just did a unicorn

a university degree and play football. So I got I've learned some life skills,

which is good. East End Wine Bar is my

first one. We'll get into that now as well. Might as well. Yep. Which

is a staple. That's so podcast world, if you do 20 podcasts, you

made it. In hospitality world, if you last 5 years,

you're good for life. Really? And we have 5 year birthday this weekend.

Oh, stop it. Get down there, people. East end one, brother. So we're

good we are good for life now. And and you've gone through something called

COVID that Yeah. A lot of hospitality businesses would have never

experienced. Well, we did the, we did the there's sort of 2 options.

There's one that's just plow through COVID. And then there's the other one. It's just

shut up shop, and we shut up shop. Yeah. Takeaway wine

and pizza. There was, like, everyone was doing it. It was so we

just we were lucky. Our managers were owners. So,

we got them on the government funding and Yeah. Whatnot. And we just

closed up shop. And way the But almost was the better way. We didn't we

didn't get mentally drained, mentally stressed, and then we also weren't paying people with

money we didn't have. Yeah. And our landlord came to the party, which is

great of the boomer generation that own a lot of commercial real estate Yeah. That

decided to come to the party. Well, he's gonna it's gonna get a tenfold now

because Yeah. The the business is still there. Imagine Correct. If they didn't come to

the party, like Would have been abandoned. Because the reason I own so much commercial

properties Yes. Because it's not silly. Yes. I do feel I did feel for

commercial real estate at one point because some people own,

like, the whole street. Let's say Bridge Road. That's probably owned by one person,

which is great because they got in at a boomer price and did it. But

then not during COVID, not one of their tenants were paying

them. They got a lot of overhead. They got a lot of overhead. So I

felt so over them at one point, but they're probably over the hour. I think

they're doing okay. I think they're doing okay. I think they're if they if they

own all the bridge, I think they're fine. A lot of empty shops there though,

must admit. They're probably anything. I think they're charging too much rent. And what about

motor? Motor's the newer one. Yeah. It's a restaurant. Big restaurant. I'm feeling

alright. Just a completely different ballgame. Yeah. Wine bar, we got a

team of 6 staff. The mode of the restaurant, we

got a team of about 20, 25. Yeah. Margins

are, yeah, margins are harder. But it's fun. It's

fun. I the the the experience I'm gaining there

is another step on what I was getting to the east end. So what's your

capacity there, Maxi? So, obviously, you mentioned before, and I think this is

great advice for anyone having good business partners in any aspect of your

life. Like, if you're doing anything with somebody that isn't good, it's not gonna work.

No. Obviously, you're playing footy and lululemon and Callaway, your 2

kids' wife, like, life's busy. What capacity are you

involved with both of them at the moment? Early days, I had a bit more

of a input. Now and if they were

here, they'd probably laugh at this, but it's stepping off a tiny bit.

I've realized in football, one of the

great things that we get is we get to upskill in relationships. Like, it's we

almost work on relationships every day. So,

you learn people's strengths and weaknesses and whatnot, quite quickly.

And I've learned and in particular, Richard, who's one

of my business partners really excels and performs his best when he feels

like he's the man. Oh, yeah. And I'm more than happy to give him

that because I so if I park my ego coming in and don't need to

have my stamp and that's what when you have 3 business partners, sometimes

you just, I wanna do this. I wanna do that. I wanna do this. So

I've got complete trust in Richard in where he wants to take both our bars,

our bar and restaurant. And I feel like he performs extremely well

when he has that. So, that's a not it's a good way of saying I

I wanna do a sweet fuck all. I want I don't want him to do

all the work. Yeah. It's adding a better gen x. I'll do why. We've

articulated that one very well. Yeah. Yes. You can tell your personal

got a connection there. But, yeah, I I sort of just look at look

at Xero from a long way. Xero is the the Scanning

software. Canning software. Just look at that from a from from afar. From afar. As

long as you get the, the the money coming in monthly, Maxi, you just sort

of yep. Continue on. And show my face. And show your face. Yeah.

And you, you know, any sort of media opportunities you can pump it up and

blah blah blah. I could bring in podcast, give it a mention, a shout out.

Richard, you're doing a great job, mate. Yeah. You got a good one. Rich. Craig.

Craig. Craig. Craig. Come on, Craig.

Craig's actually yeah. He's he's 3 kids working full

time at a new restaurant. He's he's right in the deep end. Go ahead, Craig.

Yeah. Stick it up. My wife is a barrister. Oh, shit. Yeah. I don't think

I've been missing their kids at the moment. Someone else is doing a

job with their kids. Full time au pair. Yeah.

What about so so Max, you're what have you got 2 years left on your

contract? Yes. Well, one of the 1 in 1 in 9 months or whatever. No.

You play for another 5 years but post footy, have you

thought about it? Obviously like media, you know,

you're an incredible personality. Everyone loves you. You got the bars.

Have you thought about that much? You know, do you have a

clear idea or are you gonna let it sort of happen and come to you?

I think it always comes up in your mind the further you

go. I kinda like this could be

another great fancy way of saying I've got nothing planned.

I kinda like You can't tell us answers before you get a story.

I kinda like the idea of not having something locked

in the day I retire. So if I upscale myself in so

many different little ways in different areas, it sort of lets

me, be excited for what's next rather than have a

Chase chase a passion rather than being locked into something. Because you're not gonna you're

not gonna be short of options, really. Let's be honest. So I'm very keen in

hospitality, but I've worked out. I can also do sweet f

o and still be in hospitality. So,

I I love leadership and relationships and and and

that space, like a role that like a Jim Plunkett does

at our football club. I'd love to go to a different sport and do that

role. Mhmm. Preferably a sport that has world cups cause that would be

so much fun. Cricket? I'll come over for that. Cricket, soccer, rugby,

one of those and just go over the like, the rugby union one was just

in Paris. Yeah. Well, you get what about the, the Kiwis?

Get over and do something with the Kiwi Cricket team or something like I'll hand

my resume into the Australian cycling team. No doubt. Oh, yes. See if they

can take me to Spain, base myself in Mallorca. Oh.

That'd be that'd be lovely. So that so that's like sitting there in the back

of my head, and then there's, like, other parts that I'm slightly interested as well.

Definitely not footy, I don't think. Yeah. You don't see yourself, like, staying

in and going down the coaching path or No. I I I don't

have the work ethic in football for coaching. Like, I don't I don't I couldn't

see myself watching Watching film. Watching the film. Is it because you And

I'm not smart enough in the game as well. So I sort of You don't

reckon. Like, I can see it when they tell me, but I

struggle to see it out on the field, some of the real big scale

stuff. Like, I can see stuff in and around my area. So you just

how do you mean by that? Like, because obviously you're in the rock. You're dictating

terms. You're getting around the ball. Like He's just a big dumb rock when he's

Definitely not. A big dovey ball. Like, for example, I watch Carlton Richmond

last night, and I just watched the game and watching the bumps, the

bruises, watching the ball. And then I'll go in tomorrow and Goody will be

like, oh. Did you see how they used to do that? Did you see Kyle

and they just they just kept the ball inside their 50 with their defenders sitting

in front of their man. I'll be like, I just did not see that. Like,

I was just watching the ball. Just enjoying the game. Coach's box heaps when I'm

in injured. And I'll just I'd I'd I'd sit there and go fuck. Like, I'm

they'll ask me to go down and talk to the leaders at halftime. I don't

know what to tell them. I'm like, Vines, that was a good tackle. Doing my

voice. Come on, Lance. I've just been watch I've just been watching the game.

So that aspect, I don't reckon I could ever watch the game. I'll

backtrack on the football thing. I do see what I'm playing. Yeah. But when I

watch the game, I don't reckon I could ever not watch the ball. Yeah. You're

more of a fan. You're enjoying the game rather than And I don't wanna take

that away from my analyzing it and analyzing. In 20 years

when I'm watching at the g, I don't wanna be sitting there grumpy about the

game style. Yeah. Like, I just wanna be watching the game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Enjoying

it. Yeah. But the there's the media aspect, but I also don't think I

could call the game or special comment the game. So, I'm

doing a lot of media with triple m at the moment, which I'm enjoying. And

you, gave us a shout out this morning. Someone Yeah. I said I was doing

a podcast. I didn't know the name of the podcast, so apologies. I gave you

a shout out. I probably should've let you know.

That's goodbye, mate. Well, if it's in your Insta bio, I'm

sure it is. Is it? Put it in there because then

someone will go look in your Insta and then bang. Bang. We were just talking

about things like this, Jack. Yeah. This is where I, I Maxie, you know this

is where I fall down. Attention to detail Yep. My whole career. Jack,

you gotta get up and do this session. With me and Gordie over in the

states and him and Trent is out of bed up for this 8 k, 12

k run. I'll get it done later, boys. I'll get it done later.

So attention to detail not my Jack's best talent

and also his worst talent is being quadruple booked. It's all like

he can say he says, yes. If you ask him for anything, which is an

amazing talent, he'll say yes. But in a week down the track, he goes, oh,

shit. I've said yes to 14 things. All all at the same

time. No. You're telling me. I figured this out. It took me a while, Maxie.

And I'm like, he's got so much going on. Yeah. Because he'll double

it. I don't think I've heard him say no. Have

don't unfortunately. So it's that they know it's included. That's

what I I'm really keen, like, obviously, you've spoken a lot about

relationships. Relationships are the key to anything in the world. You know, if you got

good relationships everywhere, what's your relationship been like when you were playing? I

know we spoke about with Jez, like, about how hard it was at Melbourne

and, you know, you bonded through that and everything like that. Since

you're still in, you know, you're still playing, so part of Jack's

left, Have you has relationship changed? How do you how do you

maintain your friendship? I don't know. I'm always intrigued because you spend every

day together. Yep. And then all of a sudden, it's gone, and you've got your

gen x is coming through and, you know, Jack's off making beautiful shorts and Yeah.

Saying yes to everything. Well, there's no there's no hiding in the fact

that the day you retire, the game just keeps

going. Mhmm. And that's what Angus we've Angus was here last

night for dinner, and we like, that's what he's most scared about, and he

knows that the game the game has moved on from Angus probably or or the

media sort of stopped. Yeah. We've played a game now. Yep. The

game just moves on. And it's that's the scary thing about retiring or do

getting delisted or, retiring because of injury,

is you feel like people would just move on.

One thing that I feel like I'm one of my better qualities

is always checking in with, multiple people. My my best

mate is a former footballer, Matt Jones. And

I Chris Dawes who's living in New York, we call each other every

week. Mhmm. I've got what's the trainers, that we catch up

regularly. So I I try and make sure

I I I keep up those relationships. Us as a teammates,

we're all close. We live we live together for a year. That was fun. That

was fun. That was fun. Where was that? Where'd you live? We lived in Brighton

in a house that none of us could have afford.

Yeah. Big dog, was it? Big dog? Sam Blaze, Adam Riley, Clark

Clark, and, who else said Lee Kitchen.

We're our 4 housemates who rotated. It's a big obviously, a big house. For a

year, we had 4 housemates. Yeah. We had different dogs. Different ones. Yeah. We had

2 dogs and mine wasn't well trained and then led Jet

Australia. And then both of them got behind. No one else wants to live with

us today. Lee had to run to WA to get away from

us. But, yeah, we were we were good. But, I mean,

obviously, with at our time, we

had, what's he playing really good football, then

what's he injured, then me never playing, me injured, then me playing, then what's he

not playing. So we we we hardly really had time where we're both at the

top of our game at the same time, which meant we were always

had quite an interesting relationship because we're really on the same

schedule or one of us is at our peak and the other one's at our

low. Yeah. And definitely when we live together, I think that was the

case. I wasn't playing much at all, and Jack was probably having a better year

for him. And A better year, you know, some

sort of just a a a year where I was out there on the park

and not getting a few years. What year was the 5th? 27, 8 or 2016?

I can't remember. Yeah. You're doing There was a year there where It went really

well. You were the top of your yeah. Top of your game. Come top 5

in the 40 goals most likely? 40. Somewhere around there.

Yep. Probably rocked a little bit. Maybe. Yep. Maybe. Got smashed around

a bit a bit, but So realistically your friendship, I suppose,

you go you go through the highs and lows. So it'd be pretty, like, it's

unique, I suppose, in that aspect that you both were either playing or not playing.

You know, when you're on the top, life's easy. Everything's going well. When you're

injured and recovering, you're not playing Yeah. Like, that consumes you. I'm I'm

not sure. Yeah. We, like we footy wise, we didn't

really yeah. But we we were more mates off the field

like we're closer just, you know, getting along off the field. So

we yeah. We didn't probably experience a whole lot together

out in the field in terms of like achieving stuff and Yep. You

know, fuck the best we did was get close to a final series and

you know, that was about it. And then I'm guessing, you know, once I

left and you know, they started playing really good footy and that's probably what

you'd remember footy wise. Like that's how you're gonna be remembered in

your career. And whereas for me it was first 5

years we were getting thumped every week and we were just going out and getting

pissed and trying to forget about the week. And then, you know, some good

stories. Some good yeah. A lot of fun

off the field. We we won around 10 game after losing the

first nine. And we it was against Western Bulldogs and we're

45 points up at 3 quarter time and 1 by a point.

Like, we almost lost it, and we went to eve till 7. You're like Yeah.

Yeah. Absolutely. We celebrated like a genuine grandfather. Well, I mean, we knew

it wasn't gonna come around for the next 10 weeks. So I think we might

have won one more that year. Yeah. So, yeah, it was,

it was pretty tough going, but, yeah. I think

what I really like, it's interesting when I was on my way here, I was

actually thinking about this because you finish footy and you

think, you know, these guys are your best mates and we've I've got 30 best

mates here because you spend every day. But I've probably kept

in touch with 3, 2 or 3

blokes, you know, or maybe 4 or 5

until once you retire, and this is what

I'm interested in, I can't wait. It's almost like, you know, a bit of bittersweet

for you is I'm pumped when you retire, you

all of a sudden you become mates again with all the other guys that have

left the game because you sort of realize, alright, now we're going through

something that you've experienced. Right now, Gorny's on his own

schedule. I'm never gonna say him. You know, it's hard to catch up. Main

trainers and going to catch up every time. But

yeah, it's, it's really hard to stay connected when one of you is

out and one of you is still in it. Because when you're playing footy, you

do have to be somewhat selfish. It's like the your life

and you know, what you're doing revolves around you getting up for a week

So, but it's, once you

finish, you all sort of come back together. And that's what I found it really

interesting. Like when I finished, obviously finished my career over in Port Adelaide,

came back and then all of a sudden, you know, rivers and Jack

Grimes and pencil and row bail and Ricky

Petard and all these guys are all of a sudden you sort of start hanging

out with them again because you've got something in common. Something in common. Yeah. Yeah.

Makes sense. Well, you had something in common before, but then you step away and

you, I suppose, trying to figure out life. Yeah. Do you in a way, do

you feel yourself quite lucky, Maxie, that you've got, well, I've we spoke

about these lucky isn't a thing. You make your own luck, but you've got so

many options. Whereas, you look at a lot of people and that's the unknown,

scared, they don't have the schedule, they don't have to train, they're not telling me

what to eat. Like, it's a really daunting thing to, I suppose,

lead be in the real world. Yeah. I I mean, I saw Angus

last night as I said. He's,

drinking quite well for the last day. The man

can drink a red wine. I'll tell you what. And he's put on a kilo

or 2. Or 4. And he's already thinking about jumping on HelloFresh.

Because he he now has lost control of what

like, he was in he was in, like, an army for 10 years. Yeah.

Like, purely like this is what I gotta do to get up for games and

now he's that's not there and he's completely lost all schedule

and method of Yeah. And all of a sudden he can have that extra pizza,

and he can have the extra bottle of red. And then And there and it's

not only on the Friday night because it used to just be the Friday night

because then he's got 3 days off. But now it's he can do that on

the Tuesday and the Thursday, and it's it is it's a such a transition. And

there's a month in, and he wants to get back into structure and go to

HelloFresh. Yeah. That's funny. We're creatures a habit. One of the

one of the I would just wanna break a myth that you said at the

start. Football is a scene to be busy.

We had that much time off. Yeah. But it's always random

times. Like, it's always when everyone else is quiet. Drink. I

get that. Well, pub publicly.

I would say we're in a very nice room at the moment. It's Friday. It's

Friday. It's 11 o'clock, and I'm sitting here and got an hour and a half

free for a podcast, Which in You make time a good

podcaster. You 2 also have an hour and a half free for a podcast as

well. That's a big concern. We both work for

ourselves, Max. Okay. And we move heaven and earth to

come here, man. Yeah. We've got a lot of seats on hold to like really

make this happen. So No. But we get, like, a lot of my friends that

have gone into the workplace now, workforce. Like, we

get a PDM afternoon. So every, like it's

usually Tuesdays. We get we have to the AFLPAs, you have

to have, like, 12 till 6 PM off. So we get an afternoon off on

a Tuesday. We get a day off on a Thursday. If we play games and

it's further than 7 or 8 days apart, we get a day off after the

game. Yeah. Like, it's crazy amounts of time off. And that's that's

another thing, like, you know, it was funny for me and my career and, you

know, it was probably such a tough start. And then my

last, you know, 6 years, 5 years, I was fucking done. Like,

when you talked earlier about you can see guys that just lose enjoyment and then

everything else sort of, that was me. Like it just sort of, I was done

with footy, but you're getting paid well, so it's like, what else do I do?

We'll hang in there. We'll hang in there for as long as we can, but

you're not really given it everything or dedicating your life to

it. But and

it's funny because our whole career is the the old boys come in and they

say, make the most of it, boys. It's it only lasts for a little bit,

you know, make the most of it. And you think you got it so tough

when you're in it, but you go out and you go out into the real

world and it's it's not easy, you know, working away for

peanuts. You know Well, peanuts compared to what

you were on. That's right. That's right. I mean, you, you get used to a

certain lifestyle of earning, you know, a couple of $100,000 and that's just

standard. And then you, you get paid $5 to go do a talk over

in whatever and you know, that's like your life. You sort of get used to

that and then you get out in the real world and you're toiling away

Monday to Friday at a desk for $80 a year

and, you know, you're grinding. Are you trying to make Max feel sad here or

something? Why he shouldn't stop fighting? I mean, I've I've in my 1st

6 years, I was I'm sorry. I've gotta be careful because I was very well

paid for a kid who was 18 to 23 just kicking the footy.

But my first earn a lot. Compared to what they earn now. Do you know

they a 1st year player takes home, like, a 100 straight up,

and then they could play their way to a 200 in their 1st year. Like,

she's already got close to 2 100, 250 last year. My 1st

year, I was 39,000. Didn't play a game as

well. And then 42 the 2nd year, played a couple of games. So would have

got to maybe a 55 year. And then I signed

a contract to stay around for my 3rd 4th year for 8590.

So I still going up. I still haven't got to what a 1st year player

gets now. They get a 100. I get cost of living. Economy is going crazy.

But Lucky you've got that 85, 90 in your center console and you're

putting in the bloody highlights. Well, 56, I still, had a

quite broken in. I was in the like, I think it was 1 21:30, and

I was not happy as big and shit as I would be. 22 year old,

getting 100, 130,000. Yeah. Then 7th year, yeah, bang, the rest is history.

And then the rest is history. We're sitting here in the the $6,000,000

chateau in Glen Iris. Lived at home for a couple years as well which is

always handy saving money, isn't it? It is it is handy. I was actually

I was gonna ask like, you know, the whole money thing. It's

like a lot of people have, you know, stress with money

and struggles and, you know, we talk about on the pod what gets you excited

and, you know, for you, I guess, like, money,

it's not really gonna be a huge issue going forward. And

I'm interested to know, like, what, you know, what do you

I guess, obviously, your family and your kids, like, that's what, you know, is your

purpose in you. But is there anything else that, you know,

I guess, like, when money's not a huge issue, where's the passion go and what

do you sort of look to that, you know, this is where I wanna dedicate

my time because I have the flexibility to do this. Do you know what I

mean? Yeah. I'm, I'm gonna be paid well for 10

years, of my career, which is

incredibly lucky. When you say money is not gonna be

an issue, it will be if I don't set something up and spend wisely and,

because paid well for 10 years of your life, if you I mean, that

could you could turn that around day 1, you retire. You've got nothing. Yeah.

Well, I see you as that kind of person, to be honest. And then hopefully,

I land something that is nice post football, and I can continue

on. But, yeah, money

I was happy being a footballer without money, which I think is one

of the key things. That's the key. In my first 6 years as I said,

I wasn't paid extremely well. Depending which way you look at it, I probably was

paid well for someone not doing much. But I,

Leave New Brighton supporting Jack, man. That's Yeah. That's a 20 minutes. That's what that's

what I mean. I was living the high life still. I was in Brighton sharing

houses of Watson. I was going on end of the season trips

every year with the states for a good 5 weeks. Yeah.

We did. And states is not cheap, and we're spending 500 a hand

on budget. Like, I was living the

highlight. It just showed me got $5

in your bank account. I just wanna borrow money off

Taffy, Treaders. Oh, could I just borrow 2

grand? You'd be embarrassed about all what we did in Vegas. We didn't win we

didn't win a dollar. No. And we spent how long were there for? Let's say

a 100 hours. Yeah. 99 of them were spent at the tables. We didn't go

out. We didn't do anything. We just I missed the tables. No. I missed

a beach club party, which was like the one thing we'd booked like, to go

to this big encore thing. And I think, you know, I might have kicked

on this through the night or something and we were all pretty cooked. And I've

we've gone to the the hope the casino before

the this beach party and I've jumped on the tables. I must have started well

or something. And I said, oh, boy. Or not. I'll meet you there. I'll meet

you there. You know, I'll see you. I'm there 6 hours later on

this day. It was like, sad. Move. I just made made friends around the

table. Next minute, we're off with them. Like It's free drinks while you

play. Beautiful aircon. You can dart at the table, which is great.

They got the aircon. Which you made the most of. They've got the, I

think it's fascinating. They can't get out of the casinos Mhmm. And they

purify the air. Oh, there's no exercise anywhere. Like, it doesn't matter what day it

is. It doesn't matter if you feel that good anyway. The, the hotel lifts it

in the middle of the casino. Yeah. Yeah. So if you're coming home from a

night out, you have to walk past all these beautiful blackjack tables. We we

we we walked straight into brekkie. Remember? We just go come

home straight into the, hotel brekkie, get something away, up

the room, get a couple of hours and all that. Is any good at it

like? No. Alright. We we apparently we played the game that was the worst odds

that blackjack switch. Switch. Because we loved switching. I mean, even if

even if I win punting, I just give it all back anyway because you go

for that extra you try We're just 4 young kids and we did like the

typical flew into flew into LA, went to

Vegas, went to New York, and finished in LA.

You're the Republic of Sirius. Yeah. Hi. The Ford

Mustang. America. Mustang drive from LA to San Cruz. Incredible

Ford Mustang. Drive it down the coast. Oh, that's so cliche. It's so cringe. We

did the cliche trip of the sites. Oh my god.

But the question was, I can't even

remember. Yeah. I've sort of lost it too, but I Well, I think we got

the right answer at the Vegas trip. Yeah. Whatever the question was, I'm glad we

answered with Yeah. Is that a, a thing anymore? Because, like, I know a lot

of, like, country footy clubs and that, like, footy trips aren't what they used to

be, probably for a good reason as well. But do you still do one each

year? Like Certainly, if I you hear stories

because free agencies are massive things. So you get lots of players from different clubs

now. If you've watched the game of football now, this isn't the question, but if

you watched Carlton Richmond last night, you'd be hard to find many one club players.

There's a lot of 2 club, 3 club players plan, and they've all done like

a footy trip somewhere else. I'm bullish with the Melbourne ones, the OG Melbourne ones

my god. Were the best you you've ever heard of. Like, I managed to get

2 of them. What's your 3? Yeah. And then they started to delve off and

then Goody and Rosie came in and that was that was the end of it.

That was the end of it. What we sort of did, We, the Goody's this

ended. Goody's first year as an assistant coach were in

Maruchador for an end of season camp. Preseason camps or training camps. So it

wasn't even end of season? No. Preseason camp. So it was all training. But the

last day, he said, we'll have a drink. So we all go to the the

coach's house, which was a pad, and we end up drinking. And then we set

up a happy hour circle. We get drunk. And then Goody's sitting there, and he

sees 1st year players swim next to him naked in the lake. And, like, when

when Jones go in and rough him up? Jonesy and Bernie, good evening to sleep

and Punch him and like rough him up while he's trying to sleep. And he

just like we almost didn't drink a beer for another 3 years.

We went bang. That was actually yeah. I remember

like this is But I'm glad I've got to do some of the early footage

because they were Do you remember when we had the, we

had the marucci door, like 9 day, you know, it's

like the hardest sort of preseason camp just before Christmas. Is

that where you did the army stuff? No. No. That was another one. He's still

scarred by that. Are you Maxine? I still think about it. Oh,

he's scarred boy. He's got demons still. Well he got he got attacked

personally.

As personally attacked. How do I tell you? Still words still

words just on a small scale. But your whole sort of makeup

as a human being wasn't wasn't a tap and told that

you will not last in this in this The way I left the camp, like

Jess said, oh, how's the camp? I said, I think Watsy is the reason why

we're shit. That's what the army guy was

telling me. What was his name? No.

But back to back to this Maruchador. This is this

sort of shows the head space I was in. I thought it'd be good to

organize a, a trip up to the Gold Coast the 3

days before we started this camp to go to laneway

festival and have a big fat bender. And I think

so I think me, Gorny, pig dot, pig, Michael

Hibbett, and Trenton. Trenton. We we

we go up. Obviously, I'm the one that goes and gets a bit carried away

and off I go. And the boys are, you know, taking care of themselves, but

we go up for a big sort of festival for the weekend

before we go on this 9 day camp. And then we we all go

into this camp and I think we all got it. I got it. I got

it. I had a tight car. I think Pete's dog. Pete did a

hammy. Pete did a hammy, gorny. You might have already been a bit

injured or something. Yeah. I would have been. Something like that. Trent has battled through

but So laneway was a good Lameway was outstanding.

So we're very lucky. I reckon we've

played in the best year or maybe a couple of years earlier than it's better.

Nathan Jones, let's say that era, because they got, like,

6 or 7 years of, like, still slightly unprofessional in

football clubs, lot of drinking, no phones. Yeah.

You could really do whatever you wanted. And the

money was good. You're full time. So you're getting paid well. Mhmm. So it

really was the best year of probably being a footballer. Now it's very professional.

There's phones. You can't get away of a thing. Money's still very good. Money's better.

Mhmm. But you you're living like a genuine You're under the

microscope. Where 10 years ago, like the buddy Franklin, when he's first

on the scene Yeah. And he's getting paid 1,000,000 of dollars and there's no phones

and he's just living his life. Yeah. That is genuinely the best time to be

a pro bonoiser. Do you find it hard with that aspect? Like, because wherever you

go, it's not as if you you're a tall person, Max. You're like, you stand

out anyway. You're a big personality persona. People love you. Do you

find that hard that particularly if your kids and things like that, that you

you can't just be normal? And you you never will be normal? Like, is that

something you think about? In Melbourne. I I the the the lucky thing that

I have is I have a chance to escape. I can just go to another

country, which is I imagine being genuine famous where

you can't actually even do that. That would be hard. So I'm I'm

I've got quite a reputation here in Melbourne. Now I'd I'd if I'd hate it,

I wouldn't have a beard Yeah. And I'd probably wear my hat down to my

face. I was gonna say, you you enjoy it. But there's 2 parts of the

phone aspect that's gotten more and more in our career. 1

is the fact that you can't do anything. So you can be captured doing

doing whatever whatever. And also every single person can ask

you for a photo right there and then. The second part is

the access to social media is just that's what

I've seen ruined players more than the other side. Just like the fact that

you can do a bad kick and then read about your bad kick from 1,000

of people watching over and over and over. Seconds later. Yeah. Like, that wasn't a

thing when we first started. Like, you could play a bad game, and you would

not apart from the coaches, you're not getting any feedback at all from anyone.

So that's the more of the social media that's just come in that

you get it swallows people up. Like, we've got The media and the microscope that

runs on and the, you know, it's insane these days, isn't it? Like Yeah. I've

got to Sam Weideman, he's a good friend of

mine. And I've told this story before, so I hope he doesn't mind saying it.

But he was peak playing his best footy 2018 final

series, and his manager came out and said he wanted a lot of money. And

he really didn't, but, like and I think he ended up signing for the contract

that he was going to anyway, but his manager just spooked it for some reason.

Alrighty. And then and everyone got a hold of it and torn to shreds. Like,

he's not worth this. He's not worth this. And then he played a couple of

bad games, and they went to town on him. And then he'd went

off socials completely. And I'm I'm thinking it's so counterintuitive.

There's a Melbourne supporter, you're putting him, but the best version of Sam Weideman is

a guy who can look on his phone and be happy. So they're, like, adding

to the issue, and he had took out social media completely Yeah. Which

is not what you want yet. I'm on Instagram to follow my

favorite athletes, not to get into my favorite athletes and get

them to delete their account because they can't handle it. I always find that bit

weird. Yeah. The keyboard warrior is That must be like

I I speak about this a lot. You go, no profession does anyone abuse

you. Like, maybe a little bit, but people feel the right when they go to

a game that they can yell whatever they want with their kids sitting there and

then it's generational. Like, it's yuck. With socials, I live

I've got a simple rule and it's helped me in, like, great said

till now. Mhmm. Is I don't reply to any DM.

I've got an email account to my manager that's there. And then if

I know you, you're texting me or you sorry. The primary

DMs, the people I follow, I obviously reply to them. But any of those

requests to DMs or Twitter mentions Yeah. You're not going through that.

So sometimes that can be bad because that's a really

good opportunity for a company, but I like,

I trust them to go through the proper way. They say really bad.

Yeah. Proper channels. Sometimes it can be really bad and it can be a supporter

wanting a sick father to do a video, and you do feel bad, but I'm

not on cameo or Swish for that reason. I I just don't like putting myself

out there in that form, but you can get Christian Petracca pretty easily.

He says yes to a lot of things. He's he's expensive, but

so sometimes I feel bad for that stuff. But what it does, the fact

I don't reply to that makes me not reply to the bad stuff. Yeah. That's

true. And it makes it really easy for me to shun that off. And you

don't even take it in because, you know, you're not you're not engaging in the

high the highs and higher than what they should be and the lows are way

lower than you they should be. So if you can manage to stay somewhere in

the middle. The fact that I get sucked into the highs there makes it easy

to not get sucked into the lows. So I feel apology if you're listening in.

You've had a sick relative and you've wanted to shout out. I do Don't don't

do it. I don't apologize for that, but, it it it helps me

keep mentally mentally sane. I mean, you are one of those

absolute psychopaths that has

1,600 unread text messages. Oh, that gives me

anxiety. It is sickening like How can doesn't do you don't you look at that

and it makes you feel anxious? I'll see if we're there. What are we at?

What have you got? Well, it keeps it very setting itself. So it's got a

limit. 350 there, 161 missed calls,

758 emails. That is just it makes our skin crawl.

Saying I can't have that. Oh. That's a good skill to have. Yeah. That you

just don't care. Yeah. He just doesn't care. Oh. How do you teach that? Like

and is this something you got backwards? You ain't got to write bandwidth. You know

you can read the text with face ID before you unlock your phone. So you

can read the text. If it's something I don't reply to, I'll just never open

it. So if someone if it's like, let's say we've organized our time.

We are done, and then you all our text is done. See you at 11.

Yeah. I'm not opening that text because the text message is done. Does that adds

to the 350, you know? But then what if you do you lose do you

lose some important ones in the in the You just have to do some like

at night when you're in bed, you scroll through and make sure you did not

reply to someone. Oh, god. That's but I would put myself

as under category as a bad communicator via phone. Via phone. Or that

you've got good boundaries and you don't let it consume you. Yeah. That's true. I

would actually go the other way that because you're not getting back to people, then

you're actually living. In my mindfulness plan that I have sort of set

up weekly, I have phoneless periods. Like, I make sure I have phoneless

periods because another thing that I hate doing is going cold turkey. So if

I play 3 bad games in a row, I I also do the same way

to go. I'm just deleting Twitter for a week or deleting Instagram for a week.

But I don't like doing cold turkey. Like, that's not me being the best version

of myself. So having limits on all of it constantly throughout the week just

helps. Yep. Yep. Yep. I'm I'm like that people pleaser who has to get

back to every single, you know, like and I actually just went

off pretty much socials and Yep. You know, didn't like all the

Cold turkey does work for you though sometimes. Cold turkey. He's a yo yo. He's

a roller coaster. The ultimate bad night. Hello, fresh air.

Like, it's I'm either all in. You like cold turkey? I like

cold turkey. It works for me. But, yeah, it

was like with texts and getting back to people and stuff,

and, yeah, I was and and I guess that's probably why early on in my

career, it was like, yeah, I would I would feel

uneasy if I hadn't replied to people or if I hadn't done this

because I feel like, oh, that's the nice, you know, respectful

thing to do. Whereas it works against you, as you said, like, if you can

manage that and get a get away from it and actually just leave your life,

you know? Well, you can chew, boy, I suppose. Now, Max, before we let you

go, mate, you've you've had some great stories. Is there like I

love locks ledges and stuff. Cricket sledges are brilliant. Yeah. Along your

career, because obviously you still have a dart and all these different things.

Have you ever had any really good sledges or heard any? What's the best one?

I struggle with this question because I can't People ask it a lot. Don't remember.

And they're also not that funny when you retell them. They haven't

in the moment. They're funny at the moment. Ben Hudson Ben Hudson

stopped the umpire about a bounce, the first bounce. He goes, the umpires

always ask, like, are you ready to go, Rux, top setup? They don't do it

as much anymore, but they did. They used to. And, like, as he's about a

bounce, Ben Hudson stopped the umpire and said, no. I'm not ready. Go on. I've

got a dart if you want mine. I pulled like a cigarette out of his

sock. No. I didn't. So that was pretty fun. It was a that was a

And he played with a cigarette and he's That was no. It was a VFL.

It was a first bounce. It was a VFL game. Oh, that's good.

Jack Jack Rehwald did a ripper to Dean Turlich.

Oh. He was back in the day where he could flood the back line

before, in the center bounce. It wasn't 666. We I mean, there

was one day me and Voorhees were only 2 forwards against 3 o. We'd have

10 back. Not 10 back. Going on down there. That was a rough game. We

that's a the the story for another day. So, yeah,

Jack Charles was our spare and Jack went right up to him and, like,

purposely was trying to look at his number. And then he would look back at

time and go, 46. I got no idea who it is. I have

no idea who it is. Oh, what was

that? What was Dorsey's won against the cats when he was getting handed and they're

all saying you meant to be a superstar. You you guys, I'll just get

paid like 1. I don't need to play like 1.

He's got some balances actually. Why was he so quick, weird? He went and played

for Sereno and, was copping it in the locals. Like, people would,

like, head to head onto him trying to take him out after game. And he

just constantly, they go, mate, you're that slow and fat. He goes, I'm slow because

me premiership medals are fucking heavy, mate. That

heavy. And they go these best one is someone hit him and

he was getting into me. He goes, oh, you can tell your friends you hit

a premiership part. Oh.

Oh, it's good. That would actually if that would make them more

angry. You do? The condescending way that he's done that. That's

brilliant though. It's the only way you can win but Yeah. So I I I

like to think I'm quite quick out there but none of them are funny to

retell. Yeah. You're good with the umpires. I like that that little

interaction. And finally, let last last

question. Last question for the big fella because, he's gotta get out and help Jess

with the kids. But we ask

we ask We got 20 more questions, Jess.

We're doing a double. We're coming back to

that. No. I I'm interested for this one

because this is a good question. A lot of our guests come up with some

good answers and it's insightful. What are you

most proud of that you've achieved? You know, is

it is it I don't know. It could be a number of things.

A sporting career, the life that you've, that you've managed to create

for yourself, you know, your family, all the rest of it. What

are you most proud of when you look back at your life?

Good question. There's can I give you some different

answers? Yeah. Go. The floor's yours, mate. Go for it. So

football world is the very obvious one.

And it's been from literally 6 coaches in 1st

6 years to win the flag. Like, literally the bottom of the bottom.

And I was the bottom player to get into a point

where I was captain of a premiership team.

Like, that's that's pretty cool. I reckon I'll think it's cooler

the longer I get on in life. But certainly

that from football. There's not much else in football really that I'm that proud

of apart from that. Family, like, every time I

look at George is is is pretty cool. You got kids. Yeah.

It's certainly something that you don't think you're ever

gonna say, like, they're just kids. But he's a clone of you.

Like, they're clones of you. Like, Louie's obviously 13 weeks. There's not much going on

there. But, I will. He actually Louis looks like George. Yeah. He does a

little bit. So much. But George is just any

anything he does. It's like, you know, when, like, you run into when I

was not having a kid and you run into a dad and they go, oh

my god. He said you should have heard what he said today. He said, like,

hi, dad. I'm like, who gives a shit?

I've turned into that guy. I'm showing people I'm showing people videos of George at

home. I'm like, look at this. I'm like, what is that? He's walking

up the stairs. Like, it's not that cute. But I never look how he's doing

it. Look at his toes. Look how he's doing it.

So certainly that like, that's that's pretty cool to be able to to be able

to do that. And then I'm I'm very

proud of, what I've been able to do in the hospo

world. So one thing when you grow up is,

you don't realize it at the time, but you you mimic your parents. Almost what

I'm doing with George right now. You just wanted what your dad

or mom do for work, you think that's the best job.

So my dad was in machinery. Didn't think that, but my brother did, but my

mom was in hospital. She had cafes, and I thought that was the pinnacle. Like,

the pinnacle probably is what f one driver. I I don't know what who what

is the highest paying job in the world? Elon Musk. In IT. In

our in IT somewhere. That's probably the pinnacle. But my mom

making 60 k a year working from 5 AM till 5 PM.

I thought that was the pinnacle. So she was my hero. Making the

great scones down there at Sandy that we used to go down. Yep.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She was she's my genuine hero. And I

just wanted to do whatever she did. And now the fact that I've been able

to do that, slightly different to what she did. She

was the she was the talent. I'm sort of more the guy sitting in

the back row. But to be able to do that space and keep that

family stuff going and, sort of put a smile on mom's face,

that's something that I really enjoy as well. Yeah. I've become

a little bit more family orientated the older you get. That tends to happen with

most people. And, smiles on mom and dad's faces are pretty

cool. Well, I can tell you one thing, Sandra and big

Bobby would be very proud of you, mate. Cause, yeah, you're a ripping

person and I think, you know, that's one thing I've

always admired about you is, is how strong you stay to yourself and

your family and who you are and your values.

You know, and and sort of no wonder you you've created this life for

yourself and achieve everything you have, because of those

attributes. Attributes. There is a value. A couple of those I changed.

I went from my and I'm big on, like, I was public school.

And I was like Oh. Bottom of the barrel. Parents earning 50 k

a year in in jobs that they like, they started with $0 come

over from New Zealand. Like, great story. I love that story. Yeah. But if you

open my wallet now, my first three cards are MCC, Kooyong, and Porte.

So I've changed a tiny bit. I'm living in Glen Iris. I got a beach

house in Blake. I have changed a tiny bit. I turned into

that fuckwit that I said I didn't wanna turn into. The amount of shit

that we'd all got on Brian Grammer. Brian Grammer. I guarantee you,

Georgie's going to halibry up the road. He's on the he's on the shortlist

for call for grammar. There you go. There you go. You'll be in the NCC

before you know it. We're sitting in my wine room. It's not In the wine

room. I've turned into a bit of a dickhead, but I still have some core

values I like to think. You still got your roots. They're there. Just a bit

over the top of your head. You drive the Volvo up to Mount Bull or

some sort. I have to get into that Melbourne stereotype somewhere, don't I? You

play Melbourne. You gotta Yeah. You're a stupor. Everyone shining light. Everyone goes,

oh, Blake Gary, actually nice to get away from it all. I said, everyone in

in Blake Gary is a Melbourne supporter. Nobody's gonna afford that

part. Yeah. Away from it. Well, thank you very

much, mate. Thanks for coming on. Thanks, mate. Thanks to Lululemon. Thanks for

providing Get a look at the Polo. Yeah. Have a look. Come on. Well, we

got the golf shorts here. Beautiful. I think that's the polo. They're

they're they're the shorts. Oh, that's the polo. That's the polo. Oh,

very nice. Nice little tent. Minwu Lee come at me. Give me a

look. Stop it. Oh my god. How's it feel?

Thank you. Thank you. And, Lulu, if you're looking great

podcast, 25 in max. I tell you what, we're going pretty well. Yep. Had some

big names on 25 actually gone. Well, I can get you some big names. They've

got Min Woo in there. Yeah. Min Woo, big time. I'm a big fan.

Let him cook. He's playing at the Players Championship championship this weekend, so we'll

be supporting him. But thanks, big Maxie. Thanks, Maxie boy. Cheers.