Okay, welcome to a very special edition of Off the Record with Buzz and Webby. We promised you an international superstar and we've delivered.
Hugh Jack and Digner.
He's a legend of rugby league, of TV, of radio, newspaper, of podcasts and Las Vegas dive bars. He played one hundred and seventy six matches for the Newcastle Knights, including the nineteen ninety seven Aarl Premiership, twenty five games for the Wig and Warriors, twenty one for the Sharks. He also played nine matches for Australia four for New South Wales before injury forced him to retire. But Buzz here listening to me.
I'm listening Buzz.
This guy's football career was merely a tasty entree before the sumptuous main course of rugby league, analysis, impersonations and vague references to illegal activity. He's the star of The Late Show with Mattie John's, Sunday Night with Mattie John's, Morning Glory with Maddie John's, The Backstage Podcast with Cooper and Maddie John's, The Johns Family Podcast, and Maddie and Kronk.
I'm exhausted.
Some call him amla maniac.
Those who work with him call him attire and are very difficult to work for. Actually I'm yet to see it, but he is seriously one of the best humans I've ever met in footy and in life. And I'm sure buzz you feel the same way. Maddie, John's welcome.
Thanks for the invite. I'm enjoying the show.
Thank you.
I'm enjoying the show. Excellent. What an incredible mate. Even I'm blown away by what I've done.
It took to write that word. Very good, Buzzy, you lead off your.
The I don't know where to start with your Maddie, and so I'm you know, I've never interviewed you. I can't recall last time, apart from the Stinking newcast.
Had a stick in Newcastle. That was the one where you said he was six buzz brother Andrew, Brother Andrew. We were doing a training session at the field. And Andrew used to get in a mood sometimes and when he was in a mood, he would deliberately fire balls fire passes at the feet of the players, the fowards who worked with their hands him a mouthful. So that was the last training session heading into Christmas and We're all good.
We're going to this Vietnamese.
Restaurant that night, players, partners, coaches, wipes and all that sort of stuff. And the players were just off Andrew and I said, I can fix that. So I went to Joey and I just said it's been canceled. And he said, oh mate, I'm happy anyway, do you want to go? I said, well, you're in luck. So you know, we're sitting at the Vietnamese restaurant, Darling little restaurant there
on Delaney the junction. Yes, So I'm sitting there and I can hear rumbling coming down the street and as Andrew and his Poluka mates all blind drunk, and when I when someone came in side. Your brother's coming up.
Oh, here we go.
He's going to he's going to find out double crossed him. And of course he spots me in there and the whole team, and he starts screaming abuse. Might have been punching the front the glass. Well, anyway, he's giving me a mouthful. Everyone in the restaurant's horrified.
He walks.
I know where he's going. He's going down the Creektor's Arms Hotel. And I'm sitting there and I'm starting to stew and I said, Tricia sitting together the toilet. She goes, don't do anything to you. So I was just going to the toilet.
So I've ducked out.
Gone down there and walked into the part and of course he's in there with all these dropic mates birds of a feather and he's going, oh, here she is. She's arrived, and I said, come on out the front. Well, Tricia arrived and he when he came out the front, he was a little disorientated on the way out.
Little did I know that on the.
Way Tricia belled him over the head with a bag, got him at the sharp spot, obviously because he was but he was also full, and I thought, here, here we go. He's here's the victory, and just hit him with a couple of lefts. He drops and I say, you know my job's done, so ill I go. And then two days later we had a call from Buzz made our way and Phil Rosfeld here, I know what this is.
About, and he was in complete denial, complete denial, not knowing that I photos. I didn't have a vader, but made I went to school, I went to I was raised in new castlebody didn't know that. And I had a few of the regulars at the cricket his arms. I just happened to be at school with and make They're reliable people. So when I ring Maddie and he's in fulled denial, didn't happen everything sweet, I put Joey Ondra,
I said, well, it's a shame, mate. I was going to write that you bashed him, you know, and you clearly won the fight. And then he was you got me run.
We did run in the paper.
It was the lead to what's the bars? Tell me what happened? What's the bust?
And we had a dinner that night, a family dinner. It's fee to say.
The family dinner was a little.
Icy, a little bit, a little bit frosting.
And my daughter, my daughter, my sister who's ten years my junior, had her new boyf friend. It's the first time we'd met, and he's sitting in between Andrew and I at the dinner and it was it's night He'll never forget.
Are you guys?
Relieved that there was no such thing as camera phones back in the nineties.
Because TV for Djandre If I needed it for a cook.
It on your buzz yes.
I mean, you know it would have been different for a lot of football back then, veteran journalists.
Different society, society, isn't it. I mean, you've seen these things now on these different social medium mediums like TikTok, where people just walk up to people in the street start feeling them and political questions and things like that.
You just, well, your brother loves that stuff very good.
He really does. He's a people personally, he is people. He doesn't know.
I wanted to ask you because I've seen you in public money like, You're very good with the public.
I reckon you know, you make a pint of really.
I remember we were in Vegas earlier this year when you and I ran into each other in front of the Ballaggio, when neither of us were in a particularly great state to be talking to the public, but you had all these people coming up to you and your role with it. Look, do you make a point of not being a prick to people when they come up to you for a photo and the chat.
It's not a discipline at all. I actually like people, now.
That's just it's just part of my makeup. I'm a conversationalist and I like people, so for me, it's no drama.
It's just Andrews. Andrew's just different, it's not I've seen Andrew do.
Some incredible things for people, you know, for people you know, some people who are down on their luck, and you know some people who lived around the Newcastle area who were really doing it tough and we're at rock bottom.
I've seen him do some amazing things. I remember my.
Dear mate Brian Carney when he played in Newcastle. He said he was saying to me, he said, I used to tell all the former teammates back at Wigan, you wouldn't believe Andrew John. Sometimes there was the local bloke who's doing it tough. Alcohol and Joey once a week would have him up on his balcony and they would sit down in the afternoon have a beer and yeah.
He's misunderstood your brother.
How are you too now.
Buzz, We're actually good and the connection, the reconnections come through.
I heard the story Jack and.
My oldest son Jack. One thing about Andrew Andrew is a very good uncle. He's a very very good uncle, and he's very good to my boys. And they're they're really close, particularly Jack and he are really really close. You know, to the point that when I was away for a week or so, the neighbors were saying, when me and Joey had fallen out, he was They were like, oh, it's nice to see that Andrew was around the house.
I said, But now he's he's a very good, very good uncle to the two boys.
Good.
Hey, I want to go back, and I'm trying to think if things should never been asked before. You've done so well in life as a football player. Now in the mood is where he speiled off at the top. What were you like at school? You're smart.
At school. I struggled at school.
Bus I don't know, like you know all the today. There's all these terms for things and whatnot. And I've never gone and never tried to. But I had something going on because I could not hold attention whatsoever. You know, I'd struggling class.
Can you remember your HS suit?
No, it was completely I remember having a science teacher who was a terrific bloke, and he came up to me and it was about a month out from the HSC and he had my exercise books, of course, the day's before computers, the old exercise book and he goes, I hand it to you John's. He said, I want to congratulate you. He said, somehow you've got away from the last six months, not right, adding a single thing in this exercise book.
Yeah.
He said, I've got a lot of fears for your future. And I said, I've got a lot of fears, sir as well. But now I struggled to school.
Buzz, Were your mum and dad worried that you was a kid? Then?
Yes, yep, that they were.
For Andrew, it was always Andrew was actually a pretty good student. And for Andrew Buzz. You know, I'm not exaggerating here and saying that like Andrew when he was a kid was quite a phenomenon when it came to rugby league. He's certainly not one of those guys to go who would have thought and he just sprout wings like people Andrew was a kid that he would get the worst player in the side and tell him go down the other end of the field standing the end goal,
and Joey would beat everyone handing the ball. I put the ball down. He was pretty amazing. I'm not comparing into people like Wayne Greskin. I'm not for one second.
People knew from an early age He's going to be a special special football people knew.
I remember interviewing Wayne g Resky once and when I was working at Triple Am and Lovely Men by the way, and I said to him, I asked him about, what were you like when you were young? And he said, from as long as I remembered, I was always going to be the one they call him the great one special.
Yeah, And he said people would.
People would drive sometimes three or four hours just to come and watch me when I was like a seven year old. And I said, was that ever a burden went? No, because I always knew where I was.
Going to go.
And for Andrew, Andrew, just Andrew from being a junior all the way through, never endured any doubt whatsoever. The only thing he had to endure was I'll never I'll never forget were kids and he in the middle of the night he was having this agonizing pain in his legs, to.
The point that.
In a short period of time he could barely run, he could only really shuffle.
And what had turned out? Mom and Dad sought.
Diagnosis and no one could find it. Neil help and end up finding and it was oscar slats, you know, the growing disease and the leagues which can affect you know a lot of times affect young sportsmen, and they got it in the nick of time. He said, if this kept going, he was so bad and how he got his start at the Newcastle Knights. He was trialing for the end of fifteen side and I'll never forget this. I felt so sorry for him because he was out
there trialing and he couldn't run. He was basically it was almost like he could brisk walk and people were laughing, going, look at this kid, like you know anyway, David Waite, to his credit of course, former first grade coach at the Newcastle Knights, who at that point was wait, he was the development manager at the Knights that were in charge of signing young players. He just said, I'm going to sign that kid. He said him to go out there and play with what was going on and what
he was enduring. He said, he's got something about him.
I never knew that story when I look. I started my career in Newcastle and remember covering the Knights and when you guys were playing, you know, a Sunday afternoon marathon stadium bathes in sunshine and you guys would play there and the Knights would get on a roll like you were unstoppable. To me, it looked like you were in the backyard at sesnok all the park And is that what have felt like?
Yeah?
It was just it was so much fun. Particularly like you don't you like you think about for.
Whatever reason, some of those Newcastle size I played in, we were almost like we never felt the pressure because we're so tight. We're like we really were like a family. I never realized what a special group we had until I left Newcastle and you look back and again, you know, but it was like I would I wake up on the Sunday morning for the heart of Games, I go around the corner, I picked Joey up and we drive to the game, and you knew how big a crowd it was going to be by how far away from
the stadium just starts to the cars parked. So if you're playing the Broncos and those big sides, honestly, you saw the cars parking kilometers away and you're going, Okay, we're going to have a full house, this is going to be this is going to be something. And our dressing room before the game, it was like there were there were nerves, of course, but it.
Was more excitement. We used to have music blaring in there. It was just so much fun. It was.
It really was having with.
Wock had his way.
How late his career did the arrive in your.
Walk drived in ninety nine, So when I come into first crate, So I started getting a run around ninety ninety two. It was the David Waite years, and then went into Malcolm really for a number of years, and then Warren came along, so we had.
Did you get on?
Did initially have gone? Really good? It was it was did you first?
You did a lot of great play?
That was always yours to say that, he said, Rothfield and those blokes a call him shackles.
I'm just letting I grow up with Stephen Bimer and he kept telling me shackling me.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He had that revitation with us, not so much because we've been established buzz and I look back, you know, we did have I think it was a number of things. I look back at it now and I have to I take a fair bit of responsibility out of it. But there were circumstances. There was from my angle, I warrant may Warren had a difficult bedside manner he was well known for. I've noticed, yeah, great tactically, but from my angle, it's funny. As I get older, I start
to think about it more and it actually starts. I'm able to piece them the pieces. I put the pieces together. I've got a lot easier, and a lot of it is if I move away from talking out Warren for a second. For me, I had about four really big years heading into two thousand and I'll preface this by
saying I wasn't a natural footballer. Buzz I couldn't. I just couldn't wake up on a Sunday and just go out there and play like an Andrew could, or like a lot of those great players like a Monthster I Reckon would do that.
For me, I had to put myself with my writing skills.
I'm going to say that, buzz, but.
I had to put myself through the ringer all week to get myself to perform like I did, And that takes a toll. It takes a toll on you. So I came into grade three, ninety four, ninety six, ninety seven.
Those four years were really big years.
So ninety five Malcolm really arrives. We suddenly go from being a mid table side. We're starting to mature as a team. We get into the final four. At the end of that year, we go a way for the Australian side. We take state of Origin for the first time.
The next year is a.
Little bit of disappointment for the club, but we're still playing rep football. Ninety seven was ninety seven. It was just a mega year. Huge ninety eight we had a great season. Again, we had a lot of injuries, but what we started to find out it gave you a little insight. I can only imagine what penrith On threw
going for five in a row. But even being the defending premiers from playing the next year, mate, you're playing against sides that are just sky higher beats and we led we would joint minor premiers with the Broncos in ninety eight, and then we just went lost, loss and went out. We were just we'd run out of gas. But then ninety nine Warren arrived and I really channeled that much energy into ninety nine. Right, it's going to be a big season and I reckon it was the
best year of my career. Warren had a lot to do with that. I went away for the Try Nations. I was able to do something I could never do for the rest of my career for the previously and that was forced Freddy into Locke and.
I played six in the Australians.
It was a really big one, so we played and some of those games in that tri Nation. The final we played against New Zealand was without a doubt in miment for me, the toughest game I ever played my life.
It was ridiculous.
And then you go away and it was an abbreviated preseason because you've put a month or six weeks on the end of the year. There were at football and I remember coming back to training in two thousand and I just didn't want to be there and there was just something missing, something missing to the point that if you told me to run one hundred meters down the other in field in a drill, I'd struggle to do it.
I just.
I put so much into those previous five years, and particularly the twelve months before that, I just emptied myself out and and yeah, I started the season on the back foot. I got an injury in the trials and from then I was just playing catch up.
Uh and and so you know, I was.
I was difficult to I would have been difficult people to a person to deal with at that time. And of course on top of that, Warren could be a difficult guy to work with. Warren is no compromising man, you know. It's just like it's all about wins, it's all about loss.
You just have a blow up on the training paddic.
Yeah, there was a blow up in the tray. There was a blow up in the training paddic. I remember bas too.
He wrote about it. Yeah, it was something like there was a big bit going on and Warren had.
Said something to one of the players and and then I and then I chirped up and started saying something and things just sort of went from there and things were not really the same after.
You or not one of us, was that one of the things you said. I remember the stories from the time.
I don't know. I don't know where I read that. I don't know.
It was a lazy and it was and it was a difficult point at time because I'd always been a bloke that always got on very well with his coaches, you know, and becoming an easy teammate to get along with. That year, it wasn't at all, I was a really frustrated player and you know, and that's that's my side of it. I look at things that Warren, you know, could have done a lot better and whatnot.
But at the end of the day, right about his table manners or lack of.
Yeah oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah mate. He could hit.
So that was career.
Yeah he could hit you between the eyes with something because he was so articulate. And I believed he was an English too too.
Maybe can you tell us a story about Super League and Ken Cowley? Was it calling when you're at Sizzler?
Well, if we go back, this is like, it's just I'm.
Trying to remember the stories you've told me on the piece and how many.
I'm trying to the public. I'm trying to remember the stories.
And before you tell it, I reckon you and Andrews saved the a r L. If you too would jump ship with this Cowley story about to tell us, I reckon, that's the end of the r L. That's how big they were.
Were humility and modesty side.
I agree looking back now on hindsight, didn't appreciate it then, but you look back now and you see, I only understand I've only really understood in the last ten years how momentous our decision was going to going to be. We had no idea it started. It started by the fact Newcastle was always the lowest, one of the lowest paying clubs.
It was always it was always broke. It was always it was always broke. And I remember the club once we didn't have a This is a good one. This shows how nighive we were.
The club were looking to sign resigned Andrew and I and there was a bit of interest around.
It was a little bit of interesting.
Did you always ste a package too?
No, not really, I wanted to.
But there was clubs like the Western Reds at the time, because there was a lot of halves at the club, and we was about it was about nineteen ninety two and I had little touches of first grade but Mattie Rodwell and Mick Hagen was locked in and the Western Reds reached out about Andrew and I going over there and playing. There was a bit going on, but they
wanted to resign us. We didn't have a manager. And then I mean, can you believe this, Someone from the club said, oh, we know two blokes you should manage you blokes.
So they got these two blokes.
Fancy listening to a club ceo who you were negotiating with, till you you should get batmaners managers to negotiate on your behalf. Well, we signed. This was season ninety four, mate, We signed on big deal. We got a big contract. I was on fifteen grand and Joey was on.
Twelve and a half. How Andrews settled on No.
Brown paper bag, No brown.
Paper bags in those days. No cash, no cash in Newcastle, no cash at the Knights none.
That was it.
And you know what, I was happy? I was, mate, I was I was actually thinking I was going good. The only the only thing house, No, no.
You could fifty k you could about it.
First house I bought Newcastle shortly after I did a loan. I bought first house about one hundred and thirty grand.
I thought, as I.
Paid like a lot of people would lace, I'm never going to be able to pay this back. Super leagues to help with that. But it I went in ninety four. I'm on fifteen grand, right, and I'm thinking I'm going pretty good.
And I went down.
I got selected for country Origin and I'm sitting as I failed a fitness test. I'd hurt my need of the game before against Norse. But I'm sitting in between Ricky Stewart and Laza and they're talking across me, talking about contracts and the amount of money that Laso was on it at the Broncos and obviously there going.
Fucking hell, I think I've been had either he's lying I've been been had and I've been had.
And so we're fifteen grand, twelve and a half grand and Malcolm really comes to the club. We went about the first number of games in a row. Who just feel a momentous momentum, a big shift, a momentous shift in the club. And then we're going down to play Balmain Tigers at Paramount Stadium.
We all jump on the.
Bus and someone out of the blue just goes anything about this Super League. This was on the Saturday and it just broke. It's I've I've just gone past the news agents and there's a big thing. We're like, anyway, we get on the bus and it's just we turned on the radio and it's what is this Like it was Saturday morning. By the time that we reached North Paramatta, the ridges there, there were already a stack of managers at the hotel waiting for a stop, waiting for players. Yep,
because a lot of the Newcastle players. I think amongst the Newcastle players, only chief had a manager, his brother. Everyone else was basically open for business. And we no longer had our managers once we worked out that they're working for the club. So we're sort of we're by ourselves,
and me and Andrew check in to our room. We're in a room together and the phone just starts calling, but player manager after player manager, one player manager keeps calling back all the time them, I represent super League. If you don't sign with the Super League, this chance you and your brother your careers could be over. I'm the only one you'd be able to deal with. And we're like, mate, why don't you come down sign a Super League contract now? It's two hundred grand waiting for
you right now, and we go where are you? He goes, Okay, go to the window, look down at North param Madna McDonald's.
That's me waving. Yeah, have three waving.
So anyway, he keeps ringing, but he rings again. I just said make good a fuck off.
Moses around then or no, that was.
It wasn't my dear friend.
No, it wasn't chimes. It wasn't.
But the next minute he's banging on the door. He's banging, he's being in the hotel. So we rang the football manager, Robert Finch, and said, mate, can you get these blokes away? So he went down, He went went down to the reception and said no phone calls through to the rooms and basically yeah, they stood at the lifts and make sure no player managers were going to get up there.
But we don't play the game. We played the game, we beat Almain, We come back and we arrive and we go, right, we're going to have them.
There's a meeting upstairs at the club and we just totally know after what's going on.
We walk in there, start to form the picture. What's going to go on?
Where do we? We don't know?
And super do a presssentation Malcolm Node and it was someone else, I believe at the time. I've been told now where we through David Smith through your book, I wasn't David No, David Smith, now it was Malcolm Node. David Smith wasn't at that one ended up coming on and John he was a solicitor anyway anyway.
But in the Wolf your food, like I should.
Remember I wrote it.
Well that the the thing about it was is that we believe that it was going to be John Rubeau and a couple of others come down and sell.
Us the super League dream.
But unfortunately Wayne pulled out of a meeting.
That's right, that's what he said, Brisbane and he did. That's what happened. Had to go up there to sort of.
Wayne blew up, and I did the front page. I had about forty head shots on the front of the Sunday Telly sport YEP side sealed, delivered and Wayne's head was in there.
Yeah, that's what that's what's saying.
Wyne went absolutely batallistic pulled out of that you're talking about.
That's right. If they had arrived to that meetings, every chance that.
Basically how buzz changed the course of Super League.
Well, I'd sent you the page I did.
I've seen it, so it's in the book.
So that the presentation was pretty poll the overhead projector broke down. The players started jeering like and basically because no one knew who Malcolm and the other guy was, everyone's like still billies from Newcastle. So we start sledging them and all this sort of stuff. We only took it serious when they said, right, what we're going to do. We're going to conduct meetings now, are you were to
come in? Singularly Me and Andrew went in together, but singularly, if you've got a manager, call him he can come. But whatever we offer you, the super League has to remain completely. The first guy that went in was Darren Tracy. So Darren Tracy goes in.
He's probably on.
About ten grand, and he's sitting there and he comes. They can see they're sitting in a glass office, right, and we're at the bar.
And he walks out of the.
Glass office and he looks at us and goes, I've just been offered fucking two hundred and fifty grand, right, and they and they're watching him do that, right, and straight away everyone just went wow. So me and Andrew, Andrew and I go in there and they offer us three fifty a year for five years. We wow, Okay. I think it was about one hundred grand upfront. Good offer. So we go okay, we go away and they said we'd like you to sign it. We said, we don't want to do it yet because a lot of the
other players are undecided. We want to keep the team together. Anyway, one thing leads to another and the offers just keep getting bigger for Andrew and I. And the reason was was the chief. They got the chief. The Aral had got the Chief and he signed right, so that was a big blow to the super Bowl.
Is the Chief?
I don't know, but I don't know.
But he then he put us on the bus.
Put us on the bus.
So he the next day went and saw a chef and to his house, sorry that night, and we said, we've just been off of this.
We're going to go to the Super League.
And he was distraught and he said, boys, just can you do me one favor. Let me drive his down to the AARRL headquarters Philip Street tomorrow. Let's have a listen to what Kali Naco are going to offer. And then from there, you know, sweet, it was we all jump on the mini bus, right, this is hilarious.
Super League Super League.
Start making phone calls to people on the bus, so phones are getting passed around.
I didn't have a phone. Phones are getting passed around.
And players like there were players on there that they've been off at one hundred and fifty. Suddenly they go, we'll give you two fifty. So there were players on the bus that were going, oh, hang on a second, Chief, hold on a second.
Oh Jesus, I just forgot it's my sister's birthday. Let me. Players were literally hopping off off the bus as it was going down.
As it was going down, just Super League said, if you go into Phillips Street, basically no contract, that's the deal. So we go down, we speak to the aral. There were no offers given given to us then, but they were going to send a couple of representatives down that night after we trained, they're going to make offers. What happens in between as we're the phones are getting passed
down and it keeps getting pasted to me. So Andrew and I our offer went from three point fifty to as we're about to walk into Phillips Street five point fifty to as we're driving back home to Newcastle seven hundred right, five years a year, and it just it's
climbing right. We get to training and we're on the training field, the training seceession's just about over and someone who was involved with the club who wanted to go to Super Lee put his hand on the shoulder and went the office seven fifty year, seven hundred up front and for seven years. And I went in too, Joe and whispered to him, We're signed with the Super League, right okay, next person, we go up. We grab Chief, we said Chief.
He started crying. He was like, club's breaking up, you know. Anyway, he goes, boys, can you just give me two hours? He rings, Gus says, mate, this is what's happened. Gus says to Chief, tell him to hold on. I'm flying down the highway. So they came charging down the highway and Gus gets up and does this chur Chilean speech in front of.
The whole group. Is very good.
You know, Gus can tell.
And he goes and he understands that we're just young blokes from the Hunnah Valley, from coal fields. All we ever want to be is footballers, right, and all we want to do is play for the Knights.
So he goes tear.
What breaks my heart, boys, It breaks my heart the fact that my favorite players, a few of my favorite players of all time, Ricky Stewart, Bradley Clyde, Laurie Dailey, they will never play Roaby League ever, again, they will never play league.
Can you believe that? We're going? Oh the fuck?
The next minute, our CEO or football manager puts his head around the corner and Gus spots him and goes.
Hey, you, who are you? Who are you?
You know I'm the general manager or whatever his job was. He goes, let me ask you a question. Now, unbeknownst to us, the club want to go to Super League. Gus says, what do you want these boys to do? And he shits himself and goes, We'll do whatever the players want. He goes, perfect, thank you, See boys, it's up to you, blokes right, who wants to sign for the RL? And everyone put their hands up except Andrew and I and he just zeroed in on us and he's staring at us, and he goes, right, let's have
a meeting everyone. I'm going to talk to you one by one. YouTube blokes first. So we go in there and he goes, right, let's be straight up here. What deve ofphager?
Yep?
He goes, mate, letting you know now we can't match that. The Packers would skin me alive. He said, I'll tear what I'm going to do. I'm going to offer years three fifty a year two hundred and fifty up front, it's five years. We straight away with the wind put uppers and all the boys want to stay at the night. We want to keep the nights together. We said, it's half the money, mate, that's half the money. Fair play
to Gus, right, I'll never forget him doing this. Ire He's gone, mate, he'd be thinking to himself, I can't believe I'm about to do this with these two young blokes. So yeah, we haven't got a manager. He goes, right, fellas, this only stays between us. If the Packers find out about this, they will kill me. I'm going to give you boys a twenty four hour clause to get out of your contract, he said, anytime between now and then you can just tear the contract up and go the
Super League. But no one else is going to get that often, none of your mates and no one has No one needs to know about it. If the Packers or anyone ask you about it, Matthew, you have to say that you demanded it. I said, okay, no problem, So we leave. Honestly, boys, within twenty minutes of leaving the room, it's out that we've got a clause so that it goes up to eight hundred and just keep climbing. Anyway, I got to the point that I it.
Was just it was just getting it was.
Getting crazy, and we we just made a decision to basically not take any calls and to avoid everyone because we want to stay as a team and we don't want to know what they're going to offer us. And it comes up that there's one hour to go the next day before the clause runs out. The next afternoon, we've got about an hour an hour, hour and a half and we're sitting in Sizzler because that's what winners do, as do. They juice toast and the cheese shrimp.
Fry and the BArch and chicken.
And the manager of Sizzlely comes out and goes, hey, Maddie, there's a bloke on the pharn.
What he said in the you've heard that your blokes are here. I've gone. It's fucking bizarre.
So I've gone and I'm gone. Hello, yea, Matthew is ken Cally?
Sorry?
Who's can who? He asked, it's Ken Kelly, Matthew. Do you know who I am? I'm apologize, I don't, he said, I think yeah, News Limited and I went okay, and he said to me, he said, you and your brother are.
Very naive, aren't you.
And I thought, well, if I say, if I say no, it shows I am no if you and I say, and he said, you don't realize that that money we're offering you has got nothing to do with your football ability, nothing at all. It's the fact that we need a Newcastle team and af few blokes come with us and signed. We can build a team around YouTube blokes and we believe it will exert enough pressure that's super legal in
the war. So Matthew, what am I going to say to you is this just name a price, any price, because it's got nothing.
To do with football. It's just this is your decision.
Now.
I could win us all.
And I went, oh, can. Here's the problem I've got, mate. All of my best mates have followed me and Andrew and I in because we've signed and they ain't got a clause to get out. And he went right, He said, Matthew, with the money I can give you, you can buy a whole set of better friends.
And I just said it. I said, can.
I'm so sorry, but I said, mate, I just can't do it by conscience.
And I wonder why were you had to pay freeze on the editorial floor.
You couldn't do it?
And he went, you know what he said, I respect that.
Please tell me you did better out of the arl that.
It three fifty.
We had five years at three fifty and we had two fifty upfront, which when you're coming from fifteen grand a year, it's pretty good.
Well in comparison to your life post career, it's chicken feed, really, isn't that? Hey, listen, I want to I want to
let let's go into your career post post forty. Last year during Magic Around, you had the family podcast at that pub on and left His at Cactus Street, and I was lucky to be there and had all your Newcastle teammates there from back in the day and you and you, you and the boys and Tricia doing your bid up there on stage, and we were all pissing ourselves laughing, and I turned to Matt Giddley goes, this is exactly what he would do on the bus when
we were players. Did you ever envisage Maddie that you would be have the post career, post football career that you've got.
I didn't wear my trajectory. I saw as I would go in to I'd play and then basically as soon as I would retire, I'm looking to go into coaching. Right, because very fortunate in that Malcolm really would basically go to end, but also go to the playing group and go listen, we're playing mainly this week.
What do you reckon about these blakes? How were we going to play them?
And you know, I like looking back at Malcolm then, like it wasn't It wasn't about Malcolm saying, oh, you know, I don't know how to play these blakes. It was about the fact that if you're a coach, it helps a lot. You know, if the team believes in the game plan, and if they come up with a game plan, they're going to believe in it. And so we'd say, right, and Malcolm, I reckon, mate, what they'd like to do coming out of the yachts? They compress, so we'll push
the ball wide. Then we get an attack, they open up, we'll play through them, we'll play the game.
Yeah. Great.
So we'd all do this every single week, and you actually start to find yourself coaching and doing that sort of stuff. And in ninety seven the other one too in ninety seven was the fact that Malcolm going to that ninety seven season. I'm trying to get the order here right. I think it was Malcolm's father might have passed, so he went back to England for a couple of weeks.
So we sort of had to and some ultaneously Peter Sharp, who's reserve Groy coach, he got pinched by Paramatta to go there and these are the days before you've got me and assistants and all that sort of stuff. And so Malcolm that two weeks we blasically almost had We had to almost coach ourselves. And then when Malcolm come back, his other parent got very, very sick, so he had to go back again, and so we did it again. When he ride back and this is the mark of Malcolm what it like.
Champion he was.
He just ride back and goes right, how we playing and that's it.
And we just went from this.
So I always thought where he buzz that I would go into coaching. But right at the back end of the career they used to give me it some things on the Footy Show, and then after I retired they offered me a role on it and I just ventured into that part of my life and I've never gone back the other way.
Yeah, but t B, what was I going to ask next? Coaching? I spoke to you several months ago, and you're not under contract because.
Not a contract, not the new owners. But I'm still, yeah, what are you?
What are you going to do there? I don't know because I hear this Radio Winterest TV.
Yeah. Look, I've.
I haven't sought any other employment at the moment, Like I've I reckon, in my whole working life, I've never had a better time than I am right now working with everyone. The good thing after you've been doing for a long while is that you can pick and choose. You can pick who.
You want to work with.
And so you know with Radio Waby and then you know with the TV staff, with Fletch and iron In we had Gordon there for years. It's just you know it actually, you know, it reminds just what I was just talking about that about when you those Newcastle days where everyone's a family and when everyone's just pushing the
same direction, everyone gets on, everything's easy. And so once I started sort of pushing in the in that direction Buzz and saw the effect that it was having on coaching was having on coaches.
I never really had the desire go back.
I've had interest, I've had interest numerous times, but I've never made never made the jump.
You do a bit of one on one still, yep, yep, still do Yeah, yep, still do. Work with some handy players over the years, haven't you who else? Yeah?
Munster, Cooper Munster. The year there was Monster, there was the year Slater was coming up with the shoulder that was. That was a great experience. I worked with Melbourne for a number of years and then in twenty seven they made They won the comp in twenty twelve, and from there they'd had a couple of disappointing seasons. They got boot in the ground from twenty sixteen. Anyway, they reached out to me and said would you think about doing
our attack again? And I said, yeah, yeah, goold haves go and so mind you no money?
Yeah yeah, money.
It must have traveled how naive I am.
But anyway, but I enjoyed doing it and so what we started, what it was about that year was trying to attack a different way. But also on top of that, Slater was coming back into that side.
You know, Slater had.
Missed a year or two with that shoulder injury.
Months had been the fullback.
Suddenly Slater's coming back and there were a lot of doubts around Slater. But then if Slater's coming back, monster has got to move to six. And so we just go down the park and we bet all that combination down and it was great. And it just shows you how good the Melbourne Storm are. Right So on the northern Baches, those Blades could have stayed in five star accommodation in Manly or this great accommodation here there everywhere
they stayed in basically a hostel. They stayed They stayed in a hostel.
Those works, like it just says a lot about that.
How much you so you're doing, Like even now you're doing much work with halves.
I'll do a little bit, Uh, coach Halves will reach out individually.
Right, so there's about three in the comp that I'll work with, but it's if they reach out to me. Oftentimes I'll reach out to the coach and say, hey, listen, we're going to keep this really tight, but he's going to work right are you? Firstly, are you comfortable with that? And secondly, what does he need?
Trip Blake. You know we're talking about your now but technology. You got your mobile with you now? Do you use it?
I've got a mobile, that's it I've got.
Do you know how to log onto a computer? No, you seriously don't. I've never got an email on your phone. I wouldn't even know what it is. You've never said I've never seen an email in my life.
I have never.
Presume being in text.
Text I've don't actually be able to speak text relation. But I'll see what happened, buzz. So I used to rely on Trish.
I remember, remember I used to from England when he was in England and it was his handwriting.
Facts so in your sports editor, Yes you t do you bash it out?
No? I got someone else but Tria.
Trish used to Then when I used to send it via email, Trish would have to type it in and she'd send it by hers.
But then what would happen?
She'd hold it against me, you know if I was out late and you know, spent a couple of days drink and she'd just go, I'm not going to do your article this week.
I had to work.
I was responding, why you missed a few deadlines?
You must.
You must enjoy doing you know, the podcast with your family and your boys. Cooper's very much going down the same path as you in many respects than you, Reckon.
It's funny how Jack's the opposite to you and technology savvy.
O, mate, it is really funny, like Jack and I look similar, but Cooper and Trish.
Are just like Jack. Take he is just the Italian part of the family. Very sensible, mate.
I'm telling you right now, he's the glue that holds our family together. That kid, he's the glue. He actually, he's the glue that holds the extended family together in a lot of ways. Always has Andrew Jack also even when he was born, Andrew and I had gone through a little bit of a difficult period after that fight was unsurprisingly fight, and it was only when I reckon
when Jack was born that all that dissolved away. He's always been a bloke that sort of held the family together where and Cooper's just you know, he's working Colin Jackie all and everything at the moment.
Very gregarious.
Prot He burned the candle at both ends a little hard, but that's what you do when you first retire, I suppose. But it is great. John's here's John's he is but it's in the DNA. But it is great, mates, it's really good. And it come about, I mean it coming out. It was by accident.
We used to do that.
Just remember Buzz when we used to do that, when during COVID we go and sit in that room and it was just you know, like Crawls had to keep the business going for people who paid. So there's no game to talk about. So we should just go on to three outcasts. Yeah, just do live podcasts with the TV. Anyway, what happened there was a bit of a COVID scare again and you could only go into the building once a week, but they needed to do another one.
Yeah, yeah, it was right.
And I just said, bring the podcast here to the house and I'll get the family to a podcast. And they said it will it work. I said, if you met the family, it will work.
And now look at it. Good, very good. Just don't encroach on our numbers.
That's all that we worry about.
That.
I think you should bring us into your into the into the podcast.
Into the empire, into the bosom.
Listen, we could talk about your advertise with us your podcast while we're looking for a sponsor that'd.
Be good and one podcast sponsoring another send via email. We could sit here and talk all day, but we're getting wrapped up. Thanks so much for joining us, mate, You've been a great mate to both of us and colleague over the years. So thank you so much for being our first special guest on off the record.
Thank you very much, Webb Buzz appreciated boys, Thank you.
Thanks a lot, Matie, you are so important and to rugby league you really are that madness When is it Thursdays? Sunday night?
Thursdays and Sundays.
It's so stupid that seriously, you're such a big part of rugby league and it's been so good to either lobby this.
One to finish with the other night. We're got the we've got the audience there right and we're sitting there and Toby sext and and Max King and we're chatting away and I just lost it went where am I here?
Where am i?
And this blow from the audience goes, how funk a long you've been doing this for?
Mate?
To get.
Long? Good boy?
Thanks's Fatty