On the Bench with Mick and Gary 31.05.24
Old Bar captain-coach Mick Henry this week's guest On The Bench
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00:00 Good afternoon and welcome to this week's On The Bench.
00:05 We have the old co-captain coach Mick Henry as our special guest and of course today we're
00:09 back in our spiritual home at the Tenya Bridge Studio in Taree.
00:13 We went to Port Macquarie last week with Marty Borg at the Port News and of course we had
00:18 Tim Donovan as the coach of the Port City Breakers in for the morning and of course
00:23 we'll be going back to Port Macquarie a bit later on the year.
00:26 Gary we've got to get you to go to Port Macquarie one day.
00:29 I'll definitely go up there mate.
00:30 We might just stay there for a bit longer too if we can.
00:33 We'll negotiate that.
00:34 And of course it doesn't matter where we do, On The Bench is sponsored by Classic Design
00:41 Jewellers of Taree and we also have the minning hotel player of the week which is Simon Wise
00:45 from the Elbar Club.
00:46 He's having a good season.
00:47 Mick, Simon Wise.
00:48 Yeah he's unreal mate.
00:49 I'm very glad I'm on his side and not against him that's for sure.
00:54 Is he the centre?
00:57 He's the centre of the wing.
00:58 He floats between centre and wing as he sides the game.
01:01 The one that played against Taree.
01:03 Yeah we played against him in Taree.
01:05 At a blinder.
01:06 Big strong.
01:07 I'm a bit surprised one of the, having Newcastle, even in our Elbar Club hasn't had a look in
01:14 because he's certainly a player.
01:16 Yeah he gets down the jimmy trains pretty hard but he's strong as an ox.
01:20 He doesn't look too much but he gets to the ball and runs about 3000km's back at the
01:24 defence and he's hard to stop.
01:26 He certainly is.
01:27 Big news of course during the week, the signing of Ethan Ferguson by the Wingham Club.
01:32 I don't know if he's been cleared to play yet but if he doesn't play this weekend he'll
01:35 certainly play next weekend.
01:36 It's been a roundabout thing.
01:37 He signed with South originally then he signed with Wingham and then he ended up at the Northern
01:41 Hawks is it?
01:42 What comp do they play Mick?
01:44 They're in the Newcastle comp.
01:45 But they're not in the main comp.
01:48 No they're in the main comp.
01:50 They've sort of taken over the old Nelson's Bay Sharks team there so they're based out
01:56 of the Port Stephens area and I think they're mainly funded by the local Aboriginal Lands
02:01 Council or something like that down there but they're coming along pretty good there
02:05 as a first grade side so I think he's done a bit of trouble in this pre-season and what
02:09 not.
02:10 He's back in Tara now so he's obviously going to make Wingham a more formidable side.
02:15 Well we hope so.
02:20 He's sort of jumped around in the space of six months he's been to three different clubs
02:23 or something so you'd like to think he settles down and Wingham get the best out of him and
02:30 it's worthwhile having a young fella like that because he had all the potential in the
02:34 world didn't he?
02:35 He's just got to get out now and start playing.
02:38 He's trained this week with Wingham so Mitch Collins told me this week and he said if he
02:42 plays, if he's cleared, which they're hoping he will be, for this weekend's game he'll
02:45 play in the centres against the Bulls.
02:47 Speaking of the Bulls, Gary, your team, you tipped them in the comp.
02:50 Yep.
02:51 They're a pretty important game this one for them isn't it?
02:53 Very important game from this week.
02:55 They need to win this.
02:56 The last two games, they've been in the games until half time against O'R when they had
03:01 that catch up game and last week against Kempsey they were 8-0 up with five minutes to go before
03:06 half time and again went into half time at 10-8 down, this didn't turn up in the second
03:11 half.
03:12 I just think, just to me, and I was talking to Matty Mullen there last week and we were
03:16 watching it and I don't know, they just don't seem to be fit enough.
03:20 I know Christian wasn't in the usual position at half back or 5-8 where he plays, he was
03:26 out in the wing and he's trying to organise things from out there but yeah, this is a
03:30 major game for them this weekend.
03:32 They need to, off Wingham's loss last week, they wouldn't be happy with that so they'd
03:36 be ready to go too.
03:37 I'm thinking it's a quality game, let's hope the weather stays, not rain and everyone gets
03:43 up there and we get a full crowd.
03:44 It's going to be a pretty heavy field one way or another but they have a bit of rain,
03:47 it's going to be a really tough game.
03:49 We said at the very first game, first program of the season Gary, in our opinion, I'll get
03:54 you on this Mick, that the top four, which not necessarily is Audible, Port Sharks,
03:58 McLeay, Old Bar and Wingham and the rest of the sides, other sides will fight out for
04:02 that fifth.
04:03 I reckon it's pretty well cut and dried now, I can't see where we're missing out.
04:06 Mick, where are you looking at?
04:07 Yeah, no, there's been a bit of a surprise packet there.
04:10 We had them round one, they were probably a bit underdone there round one but yeah, they've
04:14 come along leaps and bounds I guess.
04:16 They've made light work of the breakers and then to beat Wingham, that was a fair upset
04:21 I thought as well.
04:22 So, they're travelling pretty well.
04:25 Yeah, I can't really, unless something major happens between now and the end of the year,
04:29 it's going to be hard for one of them other sides to unseat them there for fifth.
04:33 Yeah, you say they've knocked over two scouts, they've knocked over two top four sides, what
04:36 we thought would be top four sides, so that's a big plus for us.
04:40 Did Owen Blair play against you guys in the first game?
04:42 Yeah, Owen Blair played.
04:43 He was unstoppable up there with the way up there last week against Wingham and that's
04:47 some good forwards there, I don't know if they are in the...
04:50 Yeah, we sort of, our game plan was to nullify Owen and Tristan, that's where we thought
04:56 mainly their points would come from and I think if you can do a bit of a job on them
04:59 too, you can dull down their attack a little bit, but yeah, on their day, them two can
05:05 put some points on us.
05:06 Oh, he's got a couple of brilliant tries at Owen Blair, but that's some good forwards,
05:09 big strong forwards, a couple of New Zealand blokes in the forwards there, I don't know
05:12 if they played against you or not, but yeah, they were very, very impressive I thought.
05:16 And your guys, you've had a good start in the week, are you happy with the way the season
05:19 has progressed so far?
05:20 Oh, I'm happy with three wins.
05:22 We probably really haven't had a scratch of surface with how we can play.
05:26 We've had a couple of periods against Tahereh and against Foster, we played for probably
05:30 25 minutes, there and then games, we put on 30 odd points and that's our potential, that's
05:35 where we know we can be, but it's just getting in the right frame of mind to get that position
05:39 in a game each and every week, it sort of takes us to get couple of points down and
05:44 play a half of a shoot 40 for us to switch on a bit, so we're hoping we can come out
05:49 this weekend and put that behind us and start from scratch pretty strong and try and put
05:54 on a bit of a show this weekend.
05:55 I'm sure you've had a number of newcomers in, or guys have come in from outside the
05:58 area, come in to the side this year, it's going to take a little bit of time to settle
06:02 in.
06:03 It is, yeah, it is, and them boys haven't done a lot with the footy with us this year,
06:06 so it's a bit of a learning curve for us, we haven't had, obviously, the same as everyone,
06:10 but haven't been on the field too much to sharpen up our ball skills and whatnot, so
06:16 we knew it was going to be a slow start for us and we just wanted to keep our head above
06:20 water to start with and we knew back in the year we'd come home pretty strong, so to
06:23 be 3-3 to start with, that's always good.
06:26 Your last two games, I'm sort of suggesting that if Jordan's not playing, you might struggle
06:34 a fair bit because he dominated the game after he got Timby in a couple of times against
06:39 Tyree, and he came out and he dominated, and again last week at Foster, that half-time
06:43 was 10-0 and Jordan didn't play the first half, did he?
06:46 He came on and played the second half and things, so you want to hope that he sort of
06:51 stays, because he is a very good organiser.
06:53 Yeah, that's his main thing, he can come out there and not touch the footy, and we can
06:57 be a better footy side.
06:59 I think he brings a bit of a calm presence over us, calms a few of the boys down, we've
07:02 got a few blokes at Fillion for him and Slotty in there in the halves are a bit younger and
07:07 whatnot, and you can tell we get a bit excited sometimes and push a few passes we shouldn't
07:11 be, so we know he steers us around the park pretty well and he's our rocker and we just
07:18 need to go forward and hold the ball a bit and he barks in our ear and calms us down
07:22 that little bit and lets us complete sets and that's where we play our best footy.
07:26 And he did say against the Tyree, when he got Timby in twice, he sort of said, I'll come
07:32 back on and he proved that he was letting the team down by what he was doing and just
07:37 proved it, so you're exactly right there, it's just hard to put young blokes in his
07:43 spot in it because he's got the head on his shoulders.
07:47 100%.
07:48 He's back during the week, he's brother Tonga, Isaac, is he coming in?
07:52 Yeah, he's been in Fillion for me while I've been at work, at training and whatnot, he's
07:56 chomping at the bit, the big fella, he's come along really well with his rehab, he's spent
08:00 a fair bit of time in there with us, Bailey, the physio, so he's looking at playing maybe
08:05 the last four or five round games hopefully, get a bit of a run in before the semis and
08:10 then if we can get him in the back end of the year that's massive inclusion for us.
08:13 Of course that's also a cover for Jordan too because he left in '05, eh?
08:17 It is, yeah, he just wants to get back out there and start whacking people he reckons,
08:20 so he starts getting a bit antsy around the sheds, comes Saturday morning so he's got
08:24 to calm down a bit but yeah, he'll be good.
08:26 But that would be a remarkable recovery because he had the reconstruction didn't he?
08:30 Yeah, but that'll be coming along, I think he's aiming to be back after 11 months, so
08:34 that's, by the time he comes back and whatnot, it'll be around that 11 month mark which is
08:38 normally 12 months out, so he's doing really well.
08:42 What about Will Clark?
08:44 Will Clark, he's agreed to play again this year, I think his partner's agreed for him
08:48 to play this year, which is good for us.
08:52 Well it'll be good to see because he's...
08:53 He's still a week or so away, he's been keen, he's been kind of training again, he's been
08:56 starting up, so getting Tonga back and him back and then we had Dre Mercy and James here
09:01 who played their first games of the year last year, they're good for that run as well so
09:05 we're starting to get a fair few troops back here and it's just getting some minutes under
09:08 the belt and getting a bit of Canadian back.
09:10 Yeah, so you've got some troops, you've almost got too many, I mean I suppose you can't have
09:14 too many.
09:15 Yeah, you won't ever say that.
09:16 You can never have enough.
09:17 Yeah, but you can say you've got some, you're going to have a few selection headaches there.
09:20 We will, yeah, we will, but that's what's good about it, a bit of competition, if blokes
09:25 aren't making train or blokes' performance on game days and up to scratch, we can always
09:30 have that conversation and look at changing things around, which is good.
09:33 Well there's a bit of pressure on the spots, isn't there?
09:35 There is, 100%.
09:36 Are you happy with your forwards? There was a few question marks over your forwards at
09:40 the start of the season, but they seem to be doing their job.
09:42 They've been doing a great job. We've got Pat Mullaney, he's played the last couple of
09:47 games with us last year from reserve grade and he didn't look out of place at all then
09:51 and even this year he's probably been our best up front this year. He's been massive
09:55 for us, my brother as well, he's done a job for us at Loch because we've been a bit light
09:59 on in the forwards at the start of the year. Both them boys have been two of our best each
10:03 season, you can't shirk that. We've sort of said to them, having outside backs like we
10:08 do, they have a fair few carries and good hard runs, you don't need to do a hell of
10:12 a lot, just make your tackles and get through the sets and they've been doing their job
10:16 100%. We're proud of them.
10:17 And you play of course Port City up at Port Macquarie on Sunday. They've struggled, but
10:22 I guess you still might hold a few memories of the grand final from a couple of years,
10:26 you'll probably like to put a bit of a score on them.
10:28 Yeah, I don't know what it is, you always like to beat Port, especially up Port. And
10:33 yeah, they haven't had results go their way this year, Port, but you look at their side
10:38 and they've still got some pretty good footballers on that side, so definitely not going to take
10:42 anything for granted, that's for sure. So we're going to be going what they expected,
10:45 a dogfight. You never really go up to Port and expect an easy game. So yeah, obviously
10:50 the plan is to get two points, but we're not taking it lightly, that's for sure.
10:54 We had Tim Donovan, as I said earlier on last week, and he admitted that it's going to be
10:58 a bit of a tough season for them because they're a very young side. But they lost a lot of
11:02 players from last year, they've decided to replace them from within, not go on the market
11:06 for players, which is a bit unusual for Port City. But he said it might take a year, it
11:11 might take two, but they'll be back. But yeah, they're always hard on their home ground,
11:15 of course, as you said. Even so, it'd be nice to get a few memories back from, or erase
11:19 a few memories from a couple of years ago.
11:21 Yeah, they're pretty etched in my mind. But did a good job of getting rid of them last
11:25 year, but yeah. I think the way that Tim's doing up there too, and they're going to benefit
11:30 the club. It might be hard this year, but blooding them locals and whatnot, with the
11:33 whole points system and that now, I think two or three years' time, they'll pay massive
11:37 due dimes for that, that'd be good for them.
11:39 Yeah, well you said a lot of their players are working there too, so they're going to
11:42 be there long term, kids who will be leaving next year for school.
11:45 Yep.
11:46 Your club has done a great job in the junior football. Like they started, what, 10, 15
11:51 years ago, they only had a couple, every second grade or something, rather, now you've got
11:54 them every grade, haven't you?
11:55 Yeah, we've got every grade, every age, and there's a few grades there that we've got
12:01 two teams in an age group. I think we're the biggest junior club now in the group, which
12:08 is massive for us. The work that goes behind the scenes from Ryan Merrick, and even before
12:15 that, with Andrew Wilkes and whatnot, they did a lot of groundwork to get where we are
12:19 today. It's just a credit to where they are.
12:21 Same, as I was just saying with the breakers, hopefully that'll pay off for us in a few
12:25 years' time. We've got a good crop of kids coming through. Isaac Woolboy's coaching the
12:29 16s at the moment, and he's got a good little crop there that'll come through. Kurt Dark,
12:35 he had 16s last year, and they've come into 18s this year, and strength is up there, which
12:40 has been good. Your brother's coaching the 15s, they've got a pretty handy side as well,
12:44 so it's all starting to come together on that front with the juniors. League Tag, we've
12:50 pretty much got two teams in every age group in League Tag, which is massive for us. I
12:54 think in a few years' time we'll be a bit of a powerhouse there in the League Tag side
12:58 in the senior age group. Anything that sort of slows us down is our fields. We've got
13:05 two senior fields for such a big club that the juniors have to train on each week, seniors
13:11 have to train on, juggle it. Only really thing which we're hoping to get rectified pretty
13:16 soon with another playing surface to the north of our ones we have now. Hopefully, fingers
13:20 crossed, everything goes to plan. But yeah, that's the only sort of thing that slows us
13:24 up there with the juniors and whatnot is just area to train in and play in. Yeah, and I
13:29 think that's the problem that the council's going to have to look at. I mean, Ulbar is
13:32 a growing area, and it's a young area. It's not full of other places around there. They're
13:37 not on the bridge in my area, although there is, but the schools are the biggest in the
13:41 area. And they're going to have to find playing fields out there. That's just the fact of
13:45 life. And the ones they've got there aren't great. Even the ones that are trad field, they
13:49 get a bit of rain. Heavy dew and you can't play on them. Yeah, but then you get a protected
13:55 dry spell and they all crack up. But your fields, they could be battering 12 months
14:00 a year. Well, from the start of the season pretty well, every day there's foot traffic
14:05 on it. There's only the Sundays that they sort of get a break because we've split our
14:10 juniors into training Monday, Wednesdays and Tuesdays, Thursdays. So there's always people
14:15 on it. They're at your games on Saturdays. They play every Friday night out there. So
14:19 yeah, they cop a fair pizzling, but I don't really know the solution for the playing service
14:24 and whatnot, but an extra field or two would be absolutely unreal. Well, you've had a couple
14:29 of big games here in the semifinals, including the grand final in the last couple of years.
14:32 Are you still keen to do that this year? Yeah, I think it's always good to have home semifinals
14:37 and home grand finals and that. If I'm being honest, I think it was a blessing having that
14:41 grand final in Port for us last year. But yeah, obviously our goal as a senior side
14:47 is to finish up the top this year, whether that be one or two. And I think from there
14:52 you can sort of always have that chance of hosting a grand final and getting two cracks
14:57 of the cherry. So that'd be us this year to aim for the top two, I guess. And you'd be
15:02 happy to play the grand final if you qualified? Yeah, 100%. And you're going against Port
15:07 Sharks, which was deferred, obviously because of the rain. Any idea when that might be played?
15:11 There was talks. Us and Sharks agreed on the last weekend in July, I'm pretty sure. The
15:17 group came back and said that that was too late. They wanted to try and get it in earlier.
15:22 So we said the June long weekend, I think there's a few clubs happy to play that week.
15:26 We're happy to play that. Didn't work with Sharks, so I guess they've scrapped that.
15:30 We're asking for answers, but we're starting to run out of weekends, I guess.
15:34 Well, yeah, I mean there's two deferred weekends to go.
15:41 This is where the group should step in and say, "Right, this is when you're playing it."
15:45 Yeah. Yeah, because if you want to play, otherwise you have to take a draw and you get a point
15:52 or something. But this is when the group, instead of asking, saying, "Right, we'll make
15:57 the decision and you've got to play it this day." Which takes away, as you said, if you
16:03 leave it in the hands of the clubs, they'll go, "Oh, hang on, we're missing that player
16:06 there. No, we're not going to play that player." Yeah, well that's understandable.
16:10 We both agree with Sharks that we played that last weekend in July, which obviously both
16:15 teams are fit, full strength, and we're happy to do that. But then, yeah, I think they must
16:20 have a few away on the June long weekend. We'd be in the exact same boat. We'd have
16:24 a fair few blokes here, and you're versus another top team. You don't want to drop a
16:27 game just because blokes are away. But yeah, I think the only other weekend is the Indigenous
16:32 All-Stars weekend. Yeah, I doubt that'll go.
16:34 Yeah, it's looking like if that gets scrapped, then we're going to have to play that weekend.
16:39 But still got to hope between now and then there's no more rain games because then we're
16:43 screwed again.
16:44 Yeah, exactly. Plus Indigenous weekend too, there's the Sunday, there's a full round
16:47 of 188 games. So you're asking.
16:49 Yeah.
16:50 I mean, I'm a young bloke, so it should happen to that, I suppose. But yeah, you still got
16:53 to play Saturday and play Sunday, which is amazing.
16:55 Yeah.
16:56 We've spoken in the last couple of weeks here, Mick, and we'll get your thoughts on this.
16:59 Mitch Collins was here a fortnight ago, and he said in his opinion the comp's too short,
17:04 starts too late and it's too short. Tim Donovan last week didn't really have an opinion. He
17:09 said, "What Buddy said, 14 games is probably about enough." He didn't think you go too
17:14 far, your resources are stretched too much, particularly in your minor grades, or your
17:17 reserve grade. What's your thought? Do we start too late and do we not play enough games?
17:22 Definitely start too late. Yeah, like the big ones, the trial games, trying to organise
17:27 them. Start too late. I don't know about too short of a season. I'm 32 this year, so I
17:35 could be bloody hard, but nearly. I'd still be happy. But yeah, not so much. The first
17:40 grade boys are all pretty happy with playing another few games. They have to, but yeah,
17:44 a lot of teams have reserve grades hard to keep them boys motivated all year. I think
17:49 their season's pretty well good length for them, but yeah, whoever's making that decision,
17:53 it's a hard one because you play too long, it screws up a few sides and whatnot. But
17:59 I think the length's not too bad for us, so I think we're happy with two rounds. It's
18:03 a fair way of doing it, unless you go to three rounds after that, which is probably too long.
18:09 But yeah, I definitely don't see the reason in starting so late. I think we could definitely
18:13 start a month earlier.
18:14 Yes, and that way you could get trial games against teams out of the area.
18:18 Yeah, and then as well too, you get these washout games and that. You don't have to
18:21 have spare weekends, but you can push the season back a bit if you have to. The grand
18:24 final can go back two weeks or whatnot, and you can fit them games in before the semis
18:28 if you have to. It's not a mad rush to get the grand final played because we're so late
18:32 in the year, so I think definitely starting a bit earlier is a great idea.
18:35 I think from what I can understand, the consensus with the club was that they wanted to start
18:40 too late, but they also didn't want to finish midway through August, which would be...
18:44 If you started first week in April, you'd be all over, red rover, by second week in
18:49 August, which is still early, and people are just starting to get interested in it.
18:52 And that's where you can bring in, you can have your stand-alone weekend for your All
18:56 Stars game, it shouldn't get affected then. You don't have to worry about washout games.
19:00 It'll definitely go ahead. Have a week off for a rep game in there, a North vs South
19:04 game or something like that. Split it up, throw a few extra games in there that aren't actual
19:07 competitive games, or even have a pre-season competition, a red rover game or something
19:13 like that if you want more games. I think start earlier and spend the end of the year
19:17 to finish at a decent time, and then if you have to push it back that week or two to fit
19:21 in a game or two, let's do it.
19:23 Yeah, that'd be interesting in North vs South. That'd be a good place, wouldn't it?
19:26 Yeah, they do in the Hastings, they do a beach vs bush, which is on the Throatier, so you
19:30 can all your coastal teams, you have Port, Port, Foster and Oliva vs say Wingen, Warhope,
19:35 McLean, Tyree, something like that.
19:38 I like the bit on the coastal team.
19:40 Yeah, just a bit of a spectacle. There's different ideas you can throw out there, North vs South,
19:45 either or either either. And even start of the year as a bit of a trial match for a group
19:49 side or something. If blokes want more footy, there's a few ways around it, but it doesn't
19:54 always have to be a competition game.
19:56 If you're going to do those games, you don't want them to be played before a competition
20:00 starts because most blokes aren't doing a lot of training, so you want them to have
20:05 a week off in the middle.
20:07 We all said that earlier, I think, me and him, playing these group games at the start
20:12 wastes the time.
20:13 Yeah, you don't get much traction. And as well, you train pre-season with your club
20:17 and that, and you do it right by your club. You go out there and win the crippled by it
20:21 last year, they had a lot of blokes in it, and they got hurt in the rep games, and it
20:25 still is stuff this season in a fair bit, so that's another thing that you've got to
20:29 be wary of as well.
20:30 Yeah. You think your Port Sharks are going to be your own final opponents this year,
20:34 assuming you make it?
20:35 Yeah, I don't know. We were looking pretty good. I always said at the start of the year
20:40 we were going to be tough to beat, and now they've signed Ethan, I dare say they'll be
20:44 competition favourites, I'd say at the moment.
20:46 You blokes have been saying, you and Jordan have been saying this since the first of January,
20:49 we've got nothing. I was nearing tears at that Susan launch this year when Jordan was
20:54 up there telling me all the players you didn't have. He admitted to saying the blokes you've
20:58 got coming in at the club as well. Competition favourites, oh dear.
21:04 Are they the favourite on the boards? They would have drifted out a bit last week after
21:08 the war, eh?
21:09 Craig Martin thinks they're the favourites every year, so I think they should be up there.
21:13 Yeah, mate, honestly, it'd be hard to see Port not up there, and I don't want to run
21:18 into Maclay or Winger in the semifinals there, they're both tough sides to see in the semifinals
21:23 and whatnot, but yeah, out of one of them guys I'd say would be our biggest competition
21:28 this year.
21:29 Yeah, it's been a good competition, even apart from the run, it's been a fairly, well, it's
21:33 got a great start to the season so far, I think.
21:35 Yeah, and it's good to see sides that weren't going too great last year, as in your Warhope
21:40 and Foster, big improvers this year too, like we versus Foster last week, and they're in
21:44 a much better outfit this year than they were last year.
21:46 Yeah, they dropped a bit of ball, but it was 10-10 early in the second half, and then Jordan
21:52 sort of took control.
21:53 If Jordan is out for any length of time, who would you play in the halves?
21:58 We've picked up young Eli, he's picked our 5-8 now, and he does a good job, he's only
22:04 going to grow into it, he's literally just turned 18, he's still eligible to go under
22:08 18, so he's only a real young kid, and he's just going to take his time and take control
22:12 of our footy side, so he'd move into the 7 for us, and then he's got Hicks, his name
22:19 is, he's another New Zealander from over in New Zealand, sorry, and he's sort of a utility
22:26 back, and he does a fair job in the halves for us, so he's played full-back at the start
22:30 of the year for us in the pre-season, and looked pretty good with the ball there, so
22:33 he's another one that could slip in the halves for us.
22:36 Shane Nigel could slip in the halves, myself if I have to, could go back there and whatnot
22:41 and then look for someone to play 9, but yeah, let's not think about that too soon, hopefully
22:47 it doesn't happen.
22:48 So where do you get all these guys from New Zealand?
22:51 Yeah, well it's the way we've sort of...
22:53 I think they come in by boat, mate, because they are out in the open, they're snooking
22:56 in, I don't know whether they're registered in the...
22:58 John's in a private plane, yeah, he's been flown in.
23:02 But with Jamie as our manager, he just reads through the points system pretty religiously
23:11 and just sort of found a way that we can get the most amount of players with the least
23:15 amount of points, because that's the hardest thing, is getting everyone in these points
23:18 systems and whatnot.
23:19 The blokes that we've sort of targeted are blokes that aren't too many points to us that
23:22 we think can do a good job for us, and he's done really well with picking blokes like
23:26 that, and yeah, we're pretty lucky with the blokes we've brought in, they've all been
23:30 pretty handy for us.
23:31 Oh yeah, they haven't got a dad yet, they've brought up the one I can see.
23:34 Yeah.
23:35 Just off for a second, Gary, a great friend of yours and a former teammate, Steve Roach,
23:38 was inducted into the New South Wales Rugby League Hall of Fame this week.
23:43 This week, yeah.
23:44 A lot of your memories of playing with him, big blocker.
23:46 Big blocker, he's on the radio now, he's a front row forward, you wouldn't think that
23:53 it'd be too funny, but you just listen to him talk and he's a great character, everyone
23:58 loves him and he talks well, and back playing with him, he just, well, I remember the day
24:04 he just tapped the referee on the, or the touch judge on the head.
24:07 Yeah, that's right, yeah, got four games for that, yeah.
24:09 So, he's a good bloke and he comes up here occasionally to see us and yeah, he's a really
24:17 good bloke and then, you know, those blokes, it's totally different nowadays the way they're
24:21 playing, what they used to play back in those days.
24:23 Yeah, I was watching him when he was in RL360 and had a few highlights of his career and
24:27 I sort of remember he was a big tough bloke, he was charging the defence, but he had some
24:31 ball skills, didn't he?
24:32 Yeah, oh, very much so, I mean, I think he put me away for a Panasonic Cup try one year,
24:37 I had run 25 metres and it was off his pass, so, yeah, no, great bloke and, yeah.
24:43 He's pretty quick too, just going again.
24:45 Yeah, but those days, the forwards were, well, you'd be very quick for a forward because,
24:52 you know, they weren't athletes now, were they?
24:55 They were actually footballers.
24:56 Yeah, yeah, and you started at the Bellarmine of course, then finished up at the Roosters
25:01 where you had a bad run of the injuries, but did you, obviously you stayed pretty good
25:04 mates with the blokes from the Roosters, from the Tigers?
25:06 Yeah, well, I have, I've, Rilke mates with the Tigers, basically, because, you know,
25:11 we first fought five years there and, yeah, I like some Gary Jack and Wayne Pearce and
25:16 Benny Elias and Paul Seren and he lives up at Lennox Head now, so, they're all, we all
25:23 sort of grew up together, we were married around the same time, but, yeah, and we stayed pretty
25:28 close, so, Rilke made a mate of mine, David Brooks, he comes up for the charity day every
25:32 year and so.
25:33 He's out of Kenworth, why isn't he?
25:34 No, well, he still lives in Sydney.
25:35 Oh, does he?
25:36 Okay, right.
25:37 Yeah, he still lives in Sydney, but, yeah, I mean, there's a few people I've played with
25:40 Tigers, whether we're moving out to Foster, Mark Lawson's out there, Michael Markito,
25:45 they're ex-Bellarmine players and they've moved out there towards, so, yeah, but, yeah,
25:52 good era and justifiable for the selection of, of the pros.
25:58 Yeah, yeah.
25:59 No, he's, radio, he's on, he's on Fox Sports and everything and he's a caller and, yeah,
26:06 he's, you don't really think that front rowers do that sort of stuff, do they?
26:10 But, yeah, no, Rilke Brooks.
26:12 Yeah, the blocker's on Fox Sports and you're on the beach, Gary, so.
26:15 Yes.
26:16 Who's winning, who's winning?
26:17 Yeah, well, I don't think it's me.
26:20 What, you're at our company, mate, what more could you want?
26:23 Well, before we go, start Origin next week, gentlemen, what do you think, Mick?
26:26 I don't mind our footy side, I think it's a, it's a tough team which I think you need to have in Origin.
26:33 I think we might be a bit too light on the bench, I wouldn't mind Mitch Barnett getting on the bench for maybe Hudson Young,
26:40 but I still just like the aggression that they've gone with and picked and I think if we can beat them up through the guts we should be alright.
26:47 How about you, Gary?
26:48 Yeah, I'm just disappointed that they've picked four forwards on the bench.
26:51 I'm pretty sure that Matt Burton should be, if he's not in the team, he should be on the bench because he can cover a number of positions,
26:58 especially in the backs.
27:01 Mitch Barnett, great to see a local again, got a chance to be there, now he'll be there right through because he doesn't have to go back and play because they've got the ball.
27:09 Just wish he'd have been there too because he's playing some really good footy, isn't he, Mitch?
27:13 Yeah, well.
27:14 And I suppose a good thing about it, we've got, they've picked them on form, so there's some form players in that side and we're playing at ACOR, NSW home ground.
27:24 Speaking of Mitch, if he finally gets on the field he'll be of course Williams' first State of Origin player, but he was a captain of the Warriors last week,
27:32 Latrell Mitchell, captain of South, they're a fairly elite group of many products of captain NRL sides or Sydney sides,
27:41 of course Danny Medeiros and Boyd Corden and yourself, Gary, you were captain of Balmain a couple of occasions.
27:46 Yeah, a couple of occasions until they thought Benny might be a better captain.
27:51 Well, they'd usually been there away, wasn't it?
27:53 Yeah, in there doing it, but they were playing State of Origin and I think Benny was the next one coming through because Wayne Pearce was our captain
27:59 and when him and Brock and Jimmy and they left, so I had to play and give it to someone else.
28:05 Your last man standing.
28:06 Yes.
28:07 Lucky Gareth.
28:09 Thanks, thanks for coming in Mick and unlike one other captain and coach in the area, we didn't have to text you in the morning to remind you,
28:16 you remembered which was good, which was very good, but good luck on the weekend and hopefully the rain stays away and we'll get a bit of footy this weekend
28:23 and we'll see you back next Friday and on the bench again, back at the Tenya Bridge studio.
28:28 [Laughs]
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