Gooda teen good a gribas hope you well, it's Harps, of course it is. It's Stiff, it's Tarps, it's Mark, it's Us, it's you. It's another installment of you know what my favorite? Actually, I wonder if this is my favorite podcast. I don't know if it is. It's definitely not my favorite podcast to listen to because as I hate my voice, Tiff, other than this show and your show. What's your favorite podcast? Do you have one or no?
I listened to things here and there, but I do listen little bit of Joe Rogan.
Yeah, I think if you don't say Joe Rogan, you're but I feel you're a bit cliche with Joe Rogan. But I'm the same. But I've been I was an early adopter. I was Joe Rogan before Joe Rogan was Joe Rogan. I was Joe Rogan's eight years ago. Mark BURRETTA, Hi, Hey, great, Hey Tiff, Hey mar thanks for coming on to you project. How many times a week do you do a podcast interview? Typically one, none fifty.
I might do one a month, So thanks for having me.
Well, thanks, As I said before the show, thanks Ben had we feel special do you do you listen to podcasts much at all?
Yeah, I do, and my wife got me onto them. So obviously I listened to Yours and Tips.
That's a straight up hey everyone that's called pr thank you, But no, I just look.
My wife's machine, Rache is onto them all the time. So she just says to you, look, haven't listen to this. And she's a good judge. She picks things that I should be listening to.
What kind of stuff does Rach listen to? What's the general genre or space that she plugs into.
I think she is almost a want to the psychologists, So she picks up things that to do with probably mental health, and because we've got two teen age kids, so we're very in that space at the moment. So yeah, she'll pick up things about, you know, just lifestyle and
balance and staying fit and healthy mentally and physically. So you know, I love way that she'll select things from me because obviously we've been married twenty one year, so she knows me pretty well, good and bad side of me, and she'll just say, look, you need to listen to this, and she's generally spot on, so I get something from it.
The latest thing she put me on it was Christian O'Connell had done a bit of stuff and I've been listening to him and read his book, so yeah, it was it was interesting.
Yeah, I mean it's amazing. There's I mean there's some crap, of course, but I think there's over four million podcasts in the world, and there's you know, there's some junk, but there's a lot of it's amazing that we have
all of these resources that. I mean, this is stating the bloody obvious, I know, but in terms of we've just got so much stuff at our fingertips that when you and I were fifteen years old right now, dragsters or our races around doing whatever, you couldn't even begin to imagine how much we would have at our fingertips, you know, forty years later or whatever.
It is. Yeah, it's a good thing. I mean it's instructional and it's reinforcing, and you know, it's just it's almost like having someone there to sort of hold your hand a little bit sometimes just to let you know that you are you know, you're sort of doing the right thing. You might be on the right track or that, but you're not really on the right track, or just
have some different ideas. You know that raising teenagers I have found an enormous challenge and so I'm always looking for ideas and new strategies.
Have you got boys girls one of each.
I've got a seventeen year old girl and a fifteen year old boy.
And do you have a particular I asked this with some trepidation. Do you have a parenting style or would that be overstating it, like, do you have a method or is it just fucking winging it?
Well, I would I've had to adjust because I've probably been a bit of I've probably been a bit of a strict dad, and I probably I grew up in a family full of boys, like I have two younger brothers, So parenting for me was, you know, was there were rules, and I've sort of probably tried to go down that path. And I'd say I've not been particularly successful this point, but maybe I have up to now. But it needs
to adapt now a little bit. You know, You've got to sort of go more from laying down the rules to sort of being there to guide and help and support. So I'm in that transition phase at the moment, which is this is a really interesting thing.
How do you think I didn't really picture us going here, mate, But it doesn't matter. It's all about the human condition. How do you think you've changed as a parent in the last year or two in terms of your approach to navigating problems and challenges and conversations.
I think I have become probably more that more conversational, so I've learned to talk to the kids more as adults. And the thing that there's probably I guess not shocked me, but it surprised me is how fast the kids grow up now and how much they know and the opinions they have and they I think a big thing at the moment is kids want to be heard. You know, teenagers really just want to be heard, and in today's world that can be diff So I don't have social media.
It's sort of helped them grap or not. I think it's obviously it's got goods and bads about it, and I said all of that, but I think for me personally, as a data found I've had to just just change gears a little bit, you know, just maybe just slow down a little bit and back off and just you know, walk alongside more than out in front leading the charge.
So look, at you getting all wise and philosophically, but.
I think, look, everyone's going through it all, you know, I know, everyone who's brought up kids or it's having a go at it, you know. You hell, it's it's full on, you know, and it takes a lot of your attention and a lot of your energy, and you know the end result is obviously very worth it, but cracky at times. You know, you're in the wars.
Yeah, yeah, well, you know, I mean there's and I think, as with many other things that we do in life, mark, there's there's no set model.
You know.
It's like there's no like getting in shape, there's no one plan diet, there's no one diet, there's no single parenting paradigm that is optimal because you've got different parents, different kids, different personalities, egos, attitude situations, and so there are certain kind of fundamentals, I guess, with a lot
of things that seem to be broadly relevant. But in the middle of all of that, there's so much stuff for you to figure out individually with each of your kids, who bring their own personality and their own physiology and their own psychology and sociology and experiences to the table. And so this whole four step kind of parenting model, I don't think it's ever going to work.
No, I think I think you're right. I think you know, you've just you've got to find your own way. You've just got to find what works for you at the time. And you know, I mean, obviously we've got, you know,
the ages of the kids. We've got friends who we've known through the kids' schools over the years, so they're all about the same age, and everyone's going through sort of different things at different times, which is surprising you think that, you know, as kids would evolved, they do the similar things at similar ages, but they all seem
to do different things at different stages. And you know, it's hard, you I mean, you talk to each other, but you know, everybody's experience is different, you know, and the way they tackle it is different, and it probably depends a bit on how you were brought up, what you learned along the way when you were growing up, and also sort of trying to adapt to a different state of mind, I guess, a different way of doing things.
And one of the things that you know, I'm fascinated with the human experience is this thing called subjective reality. And my PhD research is in self awareness, which is understanding you know yourself obviously, but there's a thing in science called metacognition, which is thinking about thinking and realizing that in every situation. You know, when you're having a conversation with your fifteen or your seventeen year old, I don't think like you, and they're never going to think
like you. And even whatever we're talking about, we're both bringing our own filter, our own you know, our own programming, our own conditioning, our own ideas, our own philosophy, and you know, sometimes it's very hit and miss because we think that our intention is going to be their experience. And so part of this metacognitive process is to think about, how do I talk about this thing with this kid or this person or this or my partner or whoever
it is. How do I talk about this in a way which you'll resonate with them and that they understand, and where I'm not being condescending and I'm being compassionate and aware and I'm not trying to I don't have an agenda. You know, there's this there's this whole kind of plethora of variables that come to relationships and communication to make it work, you know, and in the middle of that you just sometimes you just blurt out whatever, and even if it's right, it doesn't work.
Yeah, exactly right. The interesting thing too, I find with the kids is that the rejection of authority. They're at that stage where you know, authorities just just straight up no. You know, whatever you say is a native but a spot on. Sometimes we're just talking on different levels and we're just not going to meet at all. So I think that's that's up to me then to sort of be able to adjust that level and find that spot
where we're actually talking the same language. But it's, like you say, it's still hard because we come from from different experience. Plus, you know, with teenage girls who particularly you've got hormones going on, there's that there's a lot, you know, just a lot of different chemical balance that's happening at the moment, or imbalance it's happening at the moment. And then you've got you know, you've got a teenage boy who's just you know, they just grunt a lot.
And eat and sleep.
That's right. Yeah, So I said, the way we communicate mostly at the moment is all send about five or six text messages and get a three word reply eventually in the next sometime in the twenty four hours. So that's how munication.
And do they give zero shits that your mark forretta on the telly? Could they care less about that?
They use that expression so well, yeah, they absolutely couldn't. They could not because I guess it's a weird thing. But that's just the way they've grown up. You know, there's a stage when Abe was about three or four where should just assume that everybody's dad was on the TV and that's just life. Now they honestly, they ain't give a shit, to be honest. I love that, you know, I think that's really good.
Well, I think that's healthy, mate. I mean, where did you grow up?
Geelong in Victoria, the son of a plumber. Mum and dad are in their eighties now. I still see them a lot. I'll see them the next couple of weeks. But we're did a tight probably type family because we're all involved in sport together too. We've got two younger brothers. They're both still in Geelong. I love the place, love where I grew up, you know, just just love the family. And so type family has always been a big thing for me. So that's what you know, I would like
to be. I guess that I would like to have the family that I grew up in.
For my family, how old a mum and dad? You said, eighties? What are they eighty?
Mums just turned eighty and they're both going great. They live out of town. They've got about forty acres and they just you know, they lived the farmer's life, just a little hobby farmer. Think game on. Dad worked so hard his whole life. He's a plumber. So he started his own business and my middle brother took that over and he's going great. Guns. I should have stayed in the family plumbing business, to be honest, it would have been a lot better off.
You'd you make come more dome made.
Let's yeah, yeah, the alley rates not too horrible. Yeah, yeah, exactly so. And Dad's what, Dad's eighty three. Dad rides his bike forty k's every second day. Wow, And yeah, he just that's his thing and it keeps him fitting healthy. And he's I think because his work was always physical. You know, he always stayed he was always healthy and strong, and you know, he's just just stayed that way. But I just I admire them. You go go down there and they had to keep up with and they're just
doing stuff all the time. You'll turn around and they're gone, and that'll be out in the paddock somewhere doing something. So you know, it's great, it's really it's inspiring.
Well, that's good for two reasons. One because your folks are around and they're healthy, and you love them and you want them to be around. But two, that bodes well for you genetically. Mate, You're probably not going to drop off the perch anytime soon, and your brain's probably going to keep working for another decade or three. I always my mum and dad are both eighty two, and
the old Dahls had cancer three times. But she's the toughest fucker on the planet, right, She's just I'm a complete pussy compared to my mother, and I'm scared of her because she's she's five one on a good day and weighs about forty nine kilos, dripping wet. She's so fucking terrifying. She just keeps Ron and I in control. Right, It's good, but her brain, her body, the old man Dad, he's the same. They've I don't know why it must be just genetic. But they've lost you know, obviously their
bodies are ready two. But they still both drive, They both they socialize. They have great friends and relationships. The old man walks five six k's every day. Mum's healthy and fit. She works with the old people on Friday's mark. She's eighty two and she goes and works with the oldies. I'm like, how old are these people?
Good stuff? It's a great thing, is I mean, it's nothing better than seeing your parents, you know, doing well in their old years is pretty cool. And just to be happy and together and enjoying life, you know, that stage of life where you can actually sort of really really enjoy having the grandkids around. I know my moment don't get a huge buzz from that. Like all grandparents, their life becomes the grandkids, I reckon, so you know,
it's a big part of it. But they also like to see them all nick off as well.
What did you think you're going to be growing up or what did you aspire to be?
Helicopter pilot? That's all I wanted to do. Wow, and I got I got hit in the head with a cricket bat as a kid, and my eyes went a bit wobbly. So that was the end of my flying dreams and I went to work in the family business with dad and that lasted two weeks before he came to me at the end of the day after a couple of weeks and said, I think there's other things you should be doing marketing life.
Really I sort of got read you career.
Redirected by my dad. Went off to UNI, studied engineering and at Swinburn in Melbourne, and while that was happening, all I ever wanted to do was sort of stay involved in sport. And I was sort of getting to the end of my water skiing career, and so I thought, the only way I can make this last is to report on sport, which would be great. I imagined that, you know, it just wouldn't be working, it'd just be fun and you know it sort of thirty years later,
I was pretty right. So I got a job at the local radio station, which was then three g Linger along and that became k Rock FM. That was bought by Hoots Media that owned the Triple M network, and eventually I moved up to Triple Them in Melbourne and I would fill in Monday to Friday sport when Al called Eddie Maguire wasn't there, I'd step in for him and Eddie was great. Eddie got me into Channel ten in Melbourne, so I went to ten and then about a year and I commentated some basketball for a while
on ten. And then about a year later there was a job at at Channel seven and Jimmy Wilson rang me and said, listen, this could be for you. So I went round to Bill Cannon, who was the producer, and he interviewed me while he was having a smoke in the car park and in I got the good old days, and I got the job and that was
in what started nineteen ninety five, so wow. Yeah. And just a few months after that, which was pretty awesome, Seven announced that had had the deal for the Summer and Winter Olympics from Atlanta in ninety six or at
a Beijing in two thousand and eight. And I just walked in the door and I just said, yes, this is where I need to be so that this year, well in a couple of weeks I'll head off to Beijing and that'll be my thirteenth Olympic Games, which is just like I thought, I've ever got to one Olympic Games would be awesome. But yeah, thirteen.
Well, I actually just had a coffee just finished twenty minutes ago with somebody who is I don't know. I'm going to give you a quick pop quiz live. This could be terrible TIF. We might have to edit it out. She is a former Winter Olympian and she is I'm pretty sure, doing some presenting for the Olympics on Channel seven. I don't know if she's doing it with you. I used to train her when she was an athlete. She was a snowboarder who had a very bad accident and
broke her back. I also trained Jackie Cooper, who was very good at breaking stuff.
Yeah. Well I was there in Salt Lake City the day that Jackie didn't need which was just before you know, she was odds on favorite to win the gold medal and then Alisa Camplon jumped up and got the gold medal.
Yeah. So anyway, I had a coffee with Steph prem.
Oh yeah, flash back there.
Yeah, so she's she's a good lass. So do you love doing the Olympics?
Is it?
You know, what's what's is it the whole international cultural kind of high performance vibe or what specifically, do you love It's everything.
It is the greatest event on Earth. It is it's the best of the best, you know, Summer Games, it's ten thousand of the best athletes in the world. You know, the the energy and the color and the vibrancy and the enthusiasm and the sporting history is just incredible. When I first went to Atlanta, we sat in the meeting
and I'm like, I've just walked in the door. I'm like twenty something and I'm sitting here in Sandy Roberts, Bruce mcavany, you know, Drew morp Preterland, all these legends of seven And I turned to Sandy and I said, said, hey, what's it like. You know, what's the Olympics like? And he gave me the best descript never. He said, the Olympics is like two AFL Grand Finals every day for two weeks. And he was absolutely spot on. You know, that's exactly right, because every day there's an event that
is in sporting historical significance. You know, it's just just amazing. And the winners is about a third of the side. But the winters I love because it's just got even a friendler, more fun atmosphere. It's got that whole winter culture that you only get in winter sport where you ski and compete your ass off all day and at night you go nuts. You know, you're just party. So
you know, the winters are they're just they're amazing. And I love I love speed stuff, so I love my water skiing, my car racing, all that sort of thing. So for me now, the winters and the downhill events and the sliding, you know, all those sports just just blow me away. But the Olympics is, without a doubt, the pinnacle. You know, that's the greatest thing I've ever seen in my life. And I love it and I'm so glad it's coming back to Brisbane in twenty thirty two.
That's going to be awesome now for our you know, our kids and young Australians to actually see it and experience it because it has it just has such an effect on people, you know, it has such a legacy now when you think that Sydney Sydney Games were what twenty two years ago and people still talk about it.
It's crazy where they were and what they were doing and what they felt, which is just magic. And yet to think that we would get to, you know, to see that again in just thirty years. I remember a few years ago I bumped into John Coates from the AOC and I said, yeah, Coazy, how long do you reckon until we'll get to see the games back here?
And he said, not not this side of twenty fifty, so them here in twenty thirty two. It was like, wow, that's seriously good.
Yeah. Now, I do know you're a rev head and a bit of a bog, and at heart I love that. I did work for a minute with NIS and Motorsport, with the Kelly brothers training the Kelly brothers and Michael Caruso and James Moffatt. Ye, let's just say it wasn't always the most willing group. Let's just say that someone more enthusiastic than others in the gym. But I will tell you something funny, both of you two and our listeners,
was I went to I assume they're still there. They were based down in Brayside, right, and they had actually had a pretty decent gym setup and they had this they had this thing on the war barettes, which is a reaction time for Yeah, yeah, have you ever seen one of those tips? Bloody amazing.
So me.
Fucking hell like a dinosaur with Paul vision. Like I'm like a turtle with a spray and elbow, right, And so Rick shows me how to do it. Well, I knew how to do it, but I'd never done and I'm like, it's like, and I go, okay, now, I don't know. I think you have. I can't remember exactly what it was, but it's like forty five seconds or something, and you've got to touch as many as you can. I think in forty five seconds, like nineteen or something.
Rick Kelly, I think he got sixty one or something like.
Rick's one of the best. Rick's really good at that.
Crazy I can't even see He's hitting stuff like he's seen it and hit it before I've seen it. Yeah, like I think you're a cyborg.
Yeah. He's renowned for being bloody good at that actually, and he practices it. And it's all about reaction time, which you know for guys in what they do is everything another Formula one guys do it pretty much. Everyone different sports use that machine, but particularly in motorsport. You know everyone supercars, you know they trained that a lot, which is good.
Who do you reckon? I mean this is I asked this to athletes. Well, I haven't asked this question. Actually we interviewed Kurt Fernley Estate. Oh great legend, that dude, My goodness, yeah, he him and my mum the two toughest people I know. Like I reckon, Mary would crawl Kakoda with him if he gave her a chance. But you think about that, like he literally he literally crawled ninety six kilometers. And I was thinking today without using your legs, like you know, when we think crawling, we
think hands and knees. Well, he can't even do that because he literally he didn't really crawl. He dragged himself for ninety six kilometers if you think about And I was thinking, I was trying to get my head around that this morning, and I was I was thinking to myself, what would it be like my body, which is not tiny, but to drag myself by my elbows and hands ninety six meters not ninety six kilometers. I thought I would
probably be saw for three days. I'd be saw for three days if I got one hundred meter running track came back four meters and I pulled myself by my arms with no assistant from my lower body and then times that by a thout, and then do it in mud, and then do it uphills, and then do it in humidity, and then do it with mosquitos and.
Shit and rocks and tree stumps and branches and you know, I stuff. It's not all beautifully manicured grass the cocater trail apparently.
So mate, there are levels, aren't there? Who do you? And I mean this is just an opinion, This is not science or research. But I mean, you've been watching athletes. You were an elite athlete. I want to talk about your stuff too, because that's fascinating as well. But you've been around athletes your whole life, and you've been watching sport and commentating a lot of your life. Who do you think of the mentally toughest athletes slash sports men and women going around? And I know this is like
how long is a piece of string? And what's your favorite ice cream? So you don't need to be right or wrong.
Let me let me give you some as they come to mind. At the moment, I would say, Ash Barty is unbelievable. She's one of the even despite twenty five, twenty six, she's one of the most mature switched on strong sports people I have ever come across like she just you talk to her and you just go, wow, you know, she's just got it all going man. So yeah, I think her mental toughness is fantastic. You know, she can really slug it out and then she can go through it in a tough match and regroup and have
herself back again. But she doesn't get distracted. You know, she's got awesome focus, and she's built a team around her who compliment that, which is really impressive. Tough tough competitors. But a tough competitor is an interesting thing because you do I think, you know, you can be mister nicey. Craig Lounds is probably a good example of that. You know, here's Captain Smiley good times. You know, just you couldn't
imagine that he would. You know, he did bump you off a racetrack when he gets on the track and he's racing. Man, he is the most ruthless driver, and that I love that. It's great. Mark Skaife was another one who was just a tough competitor and you've got to I think to a certain point you've got to have a bit of that mongle you've got to, you know, you've got to when you cross that line, when you get on the field or on the racetrack or whatever. You know, it's got to be to you life and death.
You know, it's got to be everything at that time, and you've got to put aside every distraction that you have and you've got to give it you one hundred percent focus. Samantha Kerr strikes me as someone who does that really well too. You know, Sam Kerr when she's on a football field, while she's just going Tim kale just while I'm on football. You know, Tim Calee was a good tough nut as well. You know, he just
just really got in and got the job done. And the interesting thing is, I think you see, you just see the results that these people are getting, and it just tells you that to me, these are athletes who tick all the boxes.
So they do the.
Work, they do the preparation. They arrived there in the best shape they can be, They're well rested, their nutrition's done, they ticked everything on the way in. When it comes time to actually go and they are mentally they are going to win. Like they have the mindset that if you are in my way, you're my opposition, and I will remove you because I am going to win this
no matter what. And you know you're saying Bolt was another great one like that, you know what, incredible self confidence and ability, you know, and just belief in yourself and just knowing that you know you were going to step out there and get it done. And the thing is, these people often make it look so easy that you think that they don't care and they don't prepare. I guarantee you as you would know, Craig, they prepare harder than anyone, you know, because it is it means something
to them. And I see that watching, you know, watching kids come up through the ranks. Now you can tell pretty soon sometimes it changes a little bit and you get it wrong, but you can just see the kids that are really you know that they've got it. You know they've just there's something here that clicks. Yeah, you know, I am in this race and I want to win it and it means a lot to me, and I'm going to win it.
It's so interesting and it's like you you would have been around athletes growing up, being an athlete yourself, But I've been around athletes my whole life. I played sport from when I was fourteen. I wasn't particularly good, which is why I ended up coaching people because I was a shit athlete, you know, super enthusiastic though Mark, Yeah, well I was the fattest kid in the school for a minute, so that didn't help. Apparently I'm carrying around
ninety kilos when you're fourteen. It's not your ideal genetic start. But you know, I met lots of people and like I worked at some Kilda for four years, the footy club, and I remember meeting obviously I'm not going to say who they were, but young guys who would come in
and I would do the testing. They were bloody amazing that their strength, they're running their five k, their repeated sprint, their you know, their beep test, like that test off the charts, and you go, well, these are some good genetics. This is a good body. You know, if he's got half a football brain, he could be the next big thing and they'd be, you know, from our physiological point of view, potentially amazing, but just not the mind and
not necessarily just not a footy brain. That's part of it sometimes, but just not that preparedness to hurt, like can you get in pain and stay there and get there often? And can you work when you're in pain? I'm not talking about stupid, ridiculous pain, but just like how uncomfortable can you get and stay and for how long? Because that's going to because all these other guys and girls, depending on the sport, they're also very good. So if you can't hurt yourself and keep hurting yourself in a
productive way, you're not going to get there. And I saw lots of guys that I thought would be once I tested them, I thought they're probably going to be superstars who literally played three games.
Yeah, yeah, well why did you talk football? And other names? I've been doing a bit of bike riding with him.
Is Tony Lockett, my trained plugger.
He hated me, and no he didn't. He hated me and he hated the gym. He's like, fuck the bench, breass, fuck your ways. He's like he was, but such a good dude though, Yeah, go.
On, have you seen him lately?
Because he is an athlete, you obviously got through to him.
Because he is in such good nick. If he had been in that shape when he was playing, he would have done even even more amazing things. But his mental ability to just switch on and not be beaten. I think the thing about Plugger is he has this this thing in here that says, you are not going to beat me, you know. And I had a fun experience a few years ago. I got to toss the coin at the SCG at the start of the Swans and
Geelong match. And I know Joel Selwood and Goodsy really well, and so we got out there to toss the coin and I looked at these two guys toss the coin, looked at them both and I have never seen those blokes look like that, like they they would go to war. And I didn't know that either of them had it in them. But you look at Joel Sellwood and what he does on the free field. Sometimes that guy can have a lead chopped off and he'd still be running
rings around his opposition. A number of times they have reband each he's bleeding head and send him back out there, and he still does incredible things leading that team. You know. It's just I don't know what it is. If you can find it, Craig and define it and bottle it. But that thing, that instinct that just makes people incredible, incredible competitors and that want to get the job done. And you see, I mean you see it in all
walks of life too. You're see it in sales, you see it in seed, in defense, in the army, just blokes will just go the extra mile to make sure that the job's done and that there's no way that job's not getting done. But it's a great gift. I think it's a really I find it probably the most admirable gift someone that ability to get in and saying this, I've got this and I am doing it.
We just did. Where I'm doing my PhD, there was there was just a great big research project done on what they call cognitive fitness and and a lot of it was around being able to perform under pressure, so whether or not that's as an elite athlete or in the military or you know, first responders, or in other words, being able to keep your shit together work optimally when things are really hard like and there's another there's a really nice kind of concept of this in Eastern philosophy
called equanimity, which is being the calm and the chaos. And somebody who used to do that really well that I worked with, which you would be very familiar with was Robert Harvey, who who I you know, I was, I trained, had nothing to do with me, but I was just lucky enough to be training him when he wanted his two brownlows. Again, zero to do with me.
I just happened to be at the club. But he he just had an ability like I would look at him and I know how far he's run, I know how I know how many tackles he's later, I Miami kicks, I know what his data is at the moment, and I'm going, how on earth is he still running? And I'd look at him and go, that's it. He's done. He's dead, he's off. He's sprinting at one hundred and six percent. But we all used to see him hunched over like someone with Himphasema, who was gasping for air.
And like twelve seconds later he was running at MAC two chasing someone. Not that he was the fastest unit by all means, but he still ran twenty k's a day a game.
Yeah, yeah, no, it is. It's an incredible thing. It's yeah, as I say it, just it's a thing that I probably I find most attractive about sport is to see people just go to their limit and beyond like that.
Yeah, I think it's just because you.
Can see it. You can see what it's happening, you know, and you just you just admire it, you know. I just love it. And we're lucky. We see it a lot, you know. You see it in plenty of people, which is great.
I now I'm not all over this, but I do know that you do have a You were an elite water skier, that's all I know. I know that you were very You were in a multiple Australian chair. I actually don't have this in front of me, but you were a multiple Australian champion, weren't you.
I won won ten Australian championships. Yeah, and I did eight member Masters and made the finals there four times. But I loved it. Mum and Dad they were they loved water skiing when I was They taught me to ski when I was four, before I could even swim. Dad put a life jacket on me. And to be sure, because I couldn't swim, you put a second life jacket on the front of me, so I went on the back one on the front, so I bobbed up and down like Dennis Committee's cork in the ocean, the metaphoric
cork in the ocean. Every time he said that, I thought of myself as a four year old. But and then I learned to ski and I just I just loved it. I think I loved you just the rush of a being on the water and the speed of the thing, and like I guess, like a lot of people who get involved in sport, you just you just keep going, and you know, one day you get to a point where it's all going all right, and yeah, you've come a long way. And I've just really enjoyed
the sport. It gave me my best mates today. Like you know, people say this about their footy or their netball or whatever teams have been part of. But for me, my best mates and old scheme buddies, you know, we catch up. You know, we'll catch up maybe once a year or so, and it's just like you never you've
never been a part. So the sport was great for me and I love it and it's a it's a great family sport because for me, the good thing about it is you have to have other people there to do it, so you know, people in the boat and you need people around you. So that was it was awesome. I loved it.
How how old were you when you started competing, Pretz.
I remember I was eight years old when I got mom and dad sent me away to a training camp. The Victory and Association did a training camp a Bridgewater just outside to Go and I went to that and I was so bloody homesick every.
Day, princess.
And then about the third night I fell out of the bunk in the caravan. That was going really.
Well, I shouldn't laugh, but anyway, but that explains a few cognitive issues down the track, right exactly.
But look at and then gosh, I think I waited to make state teen when I was fourteen thirteen. I'm still doing it junior boys. Yeah, and won my first national title I think in Adelaide at Paddle alonga National Titles. That was nineteen eighty.
So yeah, coming out, this is something that me, as an XCISE scientist, have never thought about. TOI right now, So I'm gonna you're going to tell me what from a physiological point of view, body strength, endurance, balance, coordination, spatial awareness, apart from innate talent, what makes someone great at what you did? And I know you're going to be humble and stuff. But you're untended by the Australian titles.
So we know you were shiitt. That's okay, what like and training and all that and resources, We get all of that, but what are the physical requirements just broadly for someone to be great at that?
So I don't want to talk this up right, but I'll tell you I have done. As you know, I've dabbled in a lot of sport. I've never done anything as physically taxing a scheme skiing because your legs are working hard, your back's working hard, your arms are working hard. I just found there was nothing else that gave you the full body workout like scheme, and I still haven't found it. Because you know, you've actually a tuggle wall with the boat the whole time. That's that's what it is.
You know, you're sort of you're backing that leaning position away from the boat because to generate speed, you lead away from the boat and that gives you your acceleration. So the whole time you're basically just fighting against the boats. It's basically a tug of war for you know whatever, five to ten minutes whatever you're out there. So I think you're probably you've got a good all round build,
you know you certainly shoulder strength. Back strength is a big thing, and cardio as well, because you know you're doing if you if you're going well in slalom, which is the six boy course, and then when you make that, the rape gets short and you come back again, so you can keep doing that for sort of four or five runs. See cardio gets a good workout. Jumping was a jumping was all power. Jumping is a power sport.
Jumping's terrifying. Keep that.
Yeah. Actually, I think today at fifty five, I look back and I think, how did I do that? I was I thinking, because it is now there's a bit of risk to it. And luckily I never had a bad accident, but I've got some mates who did, and you know, it was it was just one of those
things that you just did. You know. I learned to go over a jump ramp when I was eight years old at that that ski school outside bender Game, and it took me a week to actually to away from a jump, and it was terrifying because at eight years of age, you're skiing up something that's more than twice your height. So it's just it's terrific, but god, it's satisfying. And when you when you nailed the right jump, it
was it was the greatest. And when you're on the Yarrow under lights in the night jump a bit and there's one hundred thousand people there and they're yelling out and the music's cranking, there's not many better feelings in the world, I reckon.
Yeah, well, you think how many athletes get to do their thing in front of one hundred thousand people, apart from you know, even some of the best athletes in the world, and you know, the best surfers on the planet never surf in front of one hundred thousand people.
Yeah, yeah, you know, that tournament I remember, was a just extraordinary thing. It was the biggest ski tournament in the world. And it just so happens that it started in the nineteen sixties on the Yarraw and it just just kept going and growing, and you know it had I mean for a while it was this and that's a big part of how I got to seven. Member was Seven's longest running continuous broadcast for up until sort of you know, I think it was ten years ago.
They didn't go on with it, but you know I was. It had been on TV in Melbourne for a long long time and you know, the sport grew. We used to have a celebrity slam on event and a lot of the footy players would come down and have a ski. Johnny Platten from Hawthorne was a great little sylum skier because most of the guys you know, had sort of grown up around Rivers and now a lot of guys from a Choker and you know, from South Australia and they just they knew how to ski and they were good.
So we had a great little event there with those guys.
I think about think about this Tiff and Mark but Tips a trainer and a bit of a fitness bunny and a guru. When you're skiing, right, you are unless I fuck this up? Correct me? Mark, but so he needs avent. You need a inflection the whole time, right Obviously you're not. You don't have straight legs, so you're in a semi squat the whole time, and so your quads and your glutes and your ass. Yeah, your hammies are under tension the whole like there's no reprieve.
It's like their shock absorbers. Your legs your shock absorbers. So when you're cutting back and forward, you're hitting the boat's wake and your legs have got it suck up that shock each time, and then the whole time, as I said, you're back in that arch position with your back, using your shoulders and your back to get you accelerated
across the wake, and we would hit that. Remember you'd hit the jump ramp at just over one hundred k's an hour, so you know the boat to be doing is about fifty six fifty eight, and then you know you would almost double that by cutting backwards and forwards behind the boats wake, so you generate this whiplash effect that eventually would get you onto the ramp about one hundred ks an hour. It was done, real exhilaration. I miss it.
I'll never do it again once again. Fuck that.
Keep.
That's ridiculous. How when was the last time you're on a pair of skis doing something more sedentary?
We have to go to this lot, okay, so last time? Right?
Oh here we go. Come on, hey, everyone, get the bean bag out, beat up. This is going to be good. Get comfy.
I've gone out and I'm up in Queensland and I've gone to there's an awesome water skir called Emma.
Shears before you tell us. She didn't let you go get in the way, did you.
Big Tom, big time. I love that. There's a few people there, and I'm thinking I'm going to I'm going to put on with Michelle here. So I've gone out a sylum course. I'm going all right, I'm ripping into it. And and I missed my second, my second last run. I missed the last boy, and Emma said to me, come on, you know, pussy, you have a bit of a go there, right. So I've come out of lasting right,
and I've done probably I'm in heaven. It's paradise. I'm having probably the best run I've had in like twenty years. I get to the fourth boy the Salem course, and all of a sudden, my front, yeah, it's on my bat name, and the left nee goes clunk, like just a just a bought clunk cent. I think that was weird. And I'm lying in the water and I've sort of got no control over it. I jump up on the boat and I sat on the back of the boat
and I fell out. So I had sort of no control of the knee and what I'd done was I'd actually pulled the quad muscle off the barn. Oh yeah, yeah, So if you can relate to that injury, it's about a twelve months recovery. So I flew back down to Melbourne, went into went straight into Rayal off Shaw Hospital and found a great surgeon who reattached it and began a long process for that one you're in, you're in a split. I was in a split zero movement for six weeks
and then you start rehabit. It's just like all the injuries. It's sort of you know, five degrees, ten degrees, fifteen, and it just takes forever.
And I bet when you came out of that cast you looked like my mum.
But it was some Yeah, I was being silly, but that's a good lesson.
That's a great story though. But I've not heard of too many people tearing so obviously at the knee, not at the hip. So it off at the knee, so the tell attendon correct yep.
And actually shattered the kneecaps. I broke the kneecap as well, So if you imagine it's it's sort of lost control and just just pumped through the kneecap as well, which was great. I felt good.
Yeah, and I can imagine I bet you were just I bet you a love and life.
You would know this though, Craig and people often told me this, and it was my first knee injury, so I was new to it. But often the worst it is the less it hurts. So it actually it wasn't too bad that the pain until I got back on sitting on the bank and I actually started to shake and got the shock shakes and that's when I thought, Okay, we better go to hospital and chick. Yeah, but that was the whole adventure.
Yeah, well that was definitely worth asking that question. Good job, Harps. I'll just pump up momentie and pat myself on the back. Tell us about the first time that they went, all right, mate, you're on National Telly tonight, don't fuck it up. Tell us about that.
Yeah. It would have been at seven Melbourne and I would have been I was reading the news with a guy called Dean Felt. It Mitch meet Peter Mitchell used to do the weekend news before you know it took over Monday to Friday, and Dean Felt and I were rostered on which probably means it was probably Christmas Day or something like that, and I was so I just so wanted to do it, you know, I was so excited, and I guess I should have been really nervous, and
I wasn't. I just really wanted to have a go at this thing because I'd watched it and watched it, and I'd seen it and TV has just got a magic thing for me, you know. I'm just I really like the industry and I love there's just a magic to it, you know, and it's something about it for me. And maybe it's just I'm old school whatever, but I just like TV. I'm obsessed by it and so to actually, you know, to be doing that was it just blew
me away. And I have times now often, you know, I regularly get very nervous about what I'm about to do. And that's sort of what I've been there almost thirty twenty eight, twenty eight years at seven. Yeah, so you know, you still get on edge of that stuff.
But I reckon that's good. I reckon that's good, mate, because it means you don't have a massive ego, and it means you, like I think I talk a lot about you know, when I was a kid. I was just this fat, insecure, overthinking kid that didn't fit in and thought I wasn't good enough and imposter syndrome and all that shit. And since then I've done okay, right, I've done okay. I'm not amazing, but I've done okay
and done some good stuff. But I still feel that self doubt, you know, And I still feel even talking to you. You know, I talk to lots of great people on this, and sometimes I go, am I smart enough to talk to this? But am I worthy? Am I? There's all that self doubt shit, and I think I think a bit of you know, we don't want to be overwhelmed, but I think a little bit of insecurity
and a little bit of it. Just for me, it keeps me on my toes and it makes me, you know, every podcast that I do, I want it to be the best podcast I've done. You know it won't be, but do you know what I mean. It's like I never want a cruise. I never wanted to take it for granted. I never you know, and whether or not it's opening my gyms, or whether or not it's you know, whatever I'm doing doing workshops and presentations, every time I do a workshop, I'm grateful every audience. I'm grateful every
time i'm I go. I want this to be awesome for them, and I think that I don't know, I think being for me. This sounds contradictory, but I always say that for people mediocrety was my gift because I didn't grow up being awesome at anything, but that not being awesome at anything made me work really hard because I wanted to be awesome or I wanted to be good. I wanted to be successful, I wanted to excel at something, and you know, for me, it just instilled this thing
in me that I kind of figured out. Well, you know, like even with this podcast Mark, we did three before it that didn't work. You know, they're okay, but they weren't setting the world on fire. And I kind of figured out along the way, what's the formula or what do people want? What don't people want? And we just signed with Nova, which is great, and we're doing lovely and the numbers are amazing and it's all awesome, but
we're nearly seven hundred episodes in. It's not like it was an overnight thing, and so people go, oh, you do an amazing. I'm like, well, yeah, all up. We've done about a thousand episodes and now we're doing okay. You know, it's not like you just persevere. You just roll up the sleeves, you know. And what I love about you and I'm not pissing in your pocket.
Like to you.
I didn't. I've never met you, but you now which I suspect. This is just how you are. If you and I were having a coffee, I think you'd be exactly the same. You're the same on Telly. Like with a lot of people, I get the vibe. There's a bit of a persona. Some people seem to be just themselves, very real, raw, authentic. And I can tell you fucking love sport. You're not in there doing a job for a paycheck like you love sport, You love athletes, you
love breaking it down. Especially when you're around the VH. You're like a kid in a candy store.
You know.
I go like, this is exactly what I expect. And I think that's why people would, you know, be drawn to you as a commentator and as an expert in that space.
Thanks Craig. That's that's an awesome thing, man. That's probably that's the kindest thing you could say to me.
Actually, because it's true though I think, you know, yeah, I do.
When I started this all those years ago, the one thing I thought I could do is tell athletes stories, because I felt like I had an appreciation or an understanding. And that's always been to me, that's been the most important thing, is to tell the story of the athlete and what they're going through and what they've done to
get there. And you know, if you know, and that's that's what gives your enthusiasm, you know, because God, I've seen some great careers, you know, I've watched people, you know, come from there their early days, just chipping away, chipping away, and then make it and you know, and beyond, and it's just it's the best thing. You know, it's just
just great. And I'm lucky to call you some of some of our great sports people are mates, and you know, it's a blessing because it's really hard because I'm so in awe of them. My old man told me something a long time ago. I remember, he was a tough old plumber. He said to me, you might not be the brightest person in the room, but you can always be the hardest working person in the room and that has stuck with me and I remember that every day.
You know, when your LAMB goes off at three thirty five in the morning, you know that that's not for everyone. You know that's not always easy to get up and do that, but you know you do it because you go that extra yard, you know. And I love the job and I love I love Summrise, I love the show. I love actually being up in the morning and doing that stuff. I love being sort of first with the
news from overnight. And Koshi was another Koshi is a very bright man and he said to me very early on, he said, when you when you come on to this show, he said, you'd leave your ego at the door because you cannot bullshit people four and a half hours. You just can't. It'll fall apart. And we can't lie about being friends if we're not friends. You know, we can't pretend to be mates because all that stuff, you know,
it all unravels now. You can't. You can't bullshit people. Basically, A great thing about Australians is we have this, I'd say, the world's best in built bullshit meetup. If someone is telling you porky pies. We seem to know very very quickly. And I think you know and everything you do you keep that in mind. You just straight up with people. So yeah, I think you know that that thing about
you know, being the hardest worker, and I tried. That's the one thing I would love to get through to my kids is that you you won't necessarily be that the one that everyone thinks is the star, or you won't be you won't be the one who's the most gifted or the best. But by crikey, if you can be the hardest worker in the room every time, you'll you'll get where you want to go.
And I think you know a level of fucking up and falling down and failing is a gift because it's who you become in the middle of that.
Mate.
I've done so many things that didn't work out, like three podcasts before this, like corporate speaking gigs that were a rock solid one out of ten. You know that so many things. I've done more things that didn't work than did work. But it's in the not working and it's well, do I call this a failure or do
I call this a lesson? And I know that sounds bullshitty philosophical But for me, it's out of the pain and the fuck ups and the trials and tribulations that I built skill, that I built awareness, that I developed insight, that I built resilience, that I became mentally emotionally tougher, that I could deal with shits. And and I'm okay, you don't like me. I wish you did, but it's cool that you don't. You didn't like that, that's cool too.
You know.
I get at least because I have a reasonable social media presence and we do lots of podcasts, I get at least one or two people a week who send me an email and go, you're a fucking and I go, hey, Brian, thanks for your feedback. Enjoy your week.
Jam. You just is what it is. You should think yourself lucky you just at one and two.
Well, that's just being conservd It happens in thousands when people think I'm better than I am. I just we're going to wind up because we can't talk forever. I would love to, though, you're a gun tell me about So when are you heading off to the Winter Olympics, Like in a week.
Or so, just two weeks. First of pep.
Yeah cool, So broadly speaking for that, but also more broadly speaking for all the other stuff that you report on and call and commentate on, how much prep tell us about the prep because you can't just I'm pretty sure you're not all over all the bloody winter sports, and I'm pretty sure you can't bullshit you are. I would give it a go because I'm that kind of person. I'm pretty sure you can't bullshit your way through the Winter Olympics.
You can't. You can't really, you can't bullshit your way through much at all life exactly. But yeah, yeah, heaps. I think this will be my seventh Winter a little bit game, so I've got a recently good handle on it and how it works in the events, but you still brush up, So I would spend probably been going for at least a month now, but before that you keep an eye on things, but probably two three months out you're really starting to, you know, to write notes,
to read things, to highlight, build folders. I've got a set of folders here, So yeah, it's pretty full on because you've got to you've got to be able to recall it like that pretty much. I mean, I don't know for me. Bruce mcavey has been the benchmark and there's no one better than Bruce anywhere in the world. I can tell you we're so lucky to have him here. But you go to Bruce's house and he has a wall of volumes of notebooks where he just writes notes.
Every day. He gets the papers, gets the results, writes notes about people. You know. He's just and that's how he drills it into his mind and it's there when he needs it. But yeah, preparation is a massive thing, a massive.
Things he has. Genuinely, I met him one said SCN and I'm like, he just his presence is a amazing but he's brain. He's rain man. He's the rain man. Like literally the ship that he doesn't know is not worth knowing.
Yeah, yeah, he's awesome. Same thing with Mackett. Two. I think I've learned a lot from guys like human and he's been very kind to me over the years, particularly early on too. I remember I did remember I used to have a show called Sports World on a Sunday morning and I stood in once to do the updates, and I had these scripts already and basically it all fell to poop and they just disappeared on me on the computer. He just looked at me. We're about to go to wear and do my update, and he just
looked across. He said, you'll be right, you know it. And I thought, shit, okay. Well, you know when someone just someone with that authority gives you that handy that I guess, the chalice of trust and says you know it, you can do this, and you just go, yeah, you know, I can do this, and I did somehow we got through it. But yeah, just an awesome, awesome human, you know. And like I said, honestly, he is renowned as the best in the world and we're so lucky he's an Aussie.
Did you feel like saying I wish I was as good as you think I am or my better?
You did this from Bruce.
I this is on a much smaller level, mate. But I you know, I used to do stuff at SCN for a long time, and I used to have I used to do a show called the High Performance Show. Then I did the Science of Sport for a long time. But but I used to do for quite a few summers. I would do weekends and it was called I forget five hours from midday till five, and I mean, have you have you've done a bit of radio.
Have you? Or triple yeah? I love radio. It's awesome.
But you know, so I would sit in the studio and it's just me in the studio and outside the other window is window is a producer, and then now and then some people would come in. But you know, you just you need to be really organized, especially when there's no music. It's all it's on talk right, so there's no no fucking get out of jail guard like,
it's just you. And anyway, we came out of the twelve o'clock news and it's like, you know, twelve oh four or five, and I'm like, I go Melvenheimer Sport. It's five million in the next hour. I'm doing this and that. And later on we've got this bloke and that bloke. I'm Craig Harper. I'm there, I'm all that kind of shit. And then right now and we're about to go out to Rodney hog at the MCG and I'm like and then and I throwed a hoggy and as I do that, the producer goes, we've lost him stretch.
I'm like, fuck stretching, I've got nothing. I mate, I just said everything I was And this was literally the first time I'd hosted a big chunk by myself, and it was the first two minutes I was on air. I was done. I do not know how I got. It was like running a marathon and I fell on my face in the first two meters.
I can only laugh because I know that feeling so well. As soon as you see this scene, it's.
Like, I'm like, what actly? Exactly? And I did a bit of stuff also, obviously nowhere nothing, just bits and pieces. But on the David and Kim Show on Channel ten, and I had to do an ob and outside broadcast and they're like, okay, we want you to use AUTOQ.
I'm like, no, you really don't trust me, you really don't.
They're like, I go just talk to me. I'll be fine. And so I had to fight on that because they wanted it anyway. But live TV and live radio, Mate, you're a much braver, braver and more talented and skilled person than me.
Hey, it's just practice, Craig, That's all just practice.
Like anything, we really appreciate you having the chat with us. You're a ripper. I so enjoyed it. How do people find you and follow you. Are you on the socials or are you a little bit too high brow for that?
I know I love the socials speaking so you see me in my life or having a bike ride this morning?
What's your INSTA hand or you all?
But I'm just at Mark barretta really simple on Instagram and Twitter. Yeah, we appreciate you. Stay there.
We'll say goodbye to the crew and then we'll come back and say goodbye to you off here. But thank you so much for coming and chatting with us on the new project.
I really enjoyed it, guys, and at any time, keen to come back. Thank you.
Don't say that. It'll be a regular before you know it. You'll be a highly unplaid regular before you know it. We're cheap as fuck. Yeah, Barrett's is back fourth time this week. Hates my guts, don't care. He made a promise. See everyone,