#233 Nat Fyfe [Dyl & Friends]

This week on Dyl & Friends I’m joined by 2x Brownlow medallist and one of the greats of the AFL, Nat Fyfe.

Nat is one of the most down-to-earth guys you’ll come across, and it became clear that playing AFL football is only a small part of his story. We spoke about his passions and beliefs outside of footy, including his off-season surf trips, his business in India & his plans for retirement. Nat opened up on his own struggles with fulfilment & chasing success, and also spoke about the evolution of his hunger and drive throughout his career. A really insightful and different conversation with an all-time great of the game.

IG @natfyfe

If you liked this episode, have a listen to this:
#197 Nathan Buckley

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Dyl & Friends is produced by Darcy Parkinson
Video and audio production by Producey.

ILY xx

n how man I’m good deal thanks for having me man this is a long time in the making I think you came to me I did season one yeah and I don’t usually do season ones and she’s Haven you gone on to deliver since then well it’s a it’s a good one right you kept me uh Trad M cave and Kean is basically what we’ve we’ve worked out I’m honored to to finally land at the big dog in in Perth as well so first pot in Perth with the prince no thanks um thanks for coming across to wa sometimes it can feel like we get a a little bit forgotten over here we’re pretty isolated but not at all nice to have you in town mate it’s been honestly the best couple days as you can tell I’ve been chatting to half of Perth while we’ve been here we went to C paradisa oh yeah have you been there I haven’t okay it’s very nice we went to daisies yes in your side balls that’s yeah it’s very close to where I live we had uh we went to the cotso hotel the other night can’t miss and like nothing’s missed it’s been unbeli we’ve been staying in City Beach that beach there is up there with one of the best I you got a decent weekend of weather incredible like cuz people talk about the Freo doctor y I hadn’t heard of that before we got here but we it was yeah we didn’t see him he didn’t turn on for you well I mean the kite Surfers and wind Surfers love him when he comes in after lunch but you can you explain to the people maybe that aren’t from Perth what that is so like the wind just changes here does it pretty much cuz it’s really hot over the land during the day um sort of that inversion ledge that’s probably a bit technical the afternoon bre comes in from the southwest and just cools down sort of like all of the steaming hot land and it’s sort of 5 days out of seven during the summer yeah um so fairly consistent you are you a kite Surfer was I’ve just sold my kite gear that that trip ended but it was a really fun 8 or n years off cting why was it like have you just injury-wise or bodywise you didn’t want to do it anymore or is it just New Passion I don’t know you just with passions they come and go you go on that journey I kind of as a young man wanted to do everything fly helicopters um skates surf kite surf anything I get my hands on I wanted to do but as I’ve gotten a little bit older um that’s shifting some of those things that I was loving doing in my 20s are no longer doing it for me so man it’s crazy like sitting here with you today because it’s a it’s a really funny one for me very nostalgic and like I didn’t probably think about it as much until we got you on the Pod and you sort of start thinking about what we going to talk about and for me you’re a few years older than me but you know when you’re like 16 and anyone that’s like older than you in that 178 it’s just like they’re just like Heroes and the first time I sort of heard of you I actually went to a Vic Metro wa game and it was like the last year that I think it was like 16 17 year olds could get picked up was that in your drop was that the ru like you were B um born later in the year right I was September but it was like the 60 year I think it was like Jack Watts um all those players in your team you had like Nat Nei I was the next year but you were in that team though W you no no I wasn’t who was in your team Yar Moro Moro yes this is it morabo um Mitch Duncan Trev klier um Kane Lucas yeah yeah Mark hings we had a Nick winmar we had an amazing I think we won the cup that year you did and you’re playing like you know that forward role anyway you end up get picky up CU at that time he was super skinny I was skinny I was like man if I can be like this guy this going to be sick look things transpired you end up putting on a bit of weight um becoming one of the game’s best players but like that sort of birth into footy from wa being the number 19 tall forward in transition into like the Midfield changing of numbers like I’ve got this thing with numbers and when you change numbers it sort of changes the way you can play and be what was that sort of like for you at that time so I felt a strong level of impostor syndrome for the first maybe three years of my career in terms of um I just saw myself as this skinny kid from the country but I knew where I wanted to go and um and so I was just sort of hunting around trying to pick up Confidence from anything I could and so state level didn’t feel like I belong there but sort of scrapped my way through got onto a list didn’t really feel like I belong there but um through training and a couple of games started to yeah scrap together a little bit of confidence that just compounds from there and um and then I was number 13 and skinny really skinny and seven became available and I I think we spoke off here briefly about manifesting like I always knew I wanted to be number seven and have a long successful IFL career and I just had no idea how that was going to happen or how I was going to get there or what I needed to do but I had the vision and so changing to number seven was a part of that how did that so transpire so was one year in the 13 one year just one year in the 13 Dan Solomon was number seven he um he retired and became available in the offseason and I just went bang doors to down and said I just need to be in that number crazy um being from Perth as well like and then that sort of period like young draft piics like you see it now with like Harley Reed what’s happening and it’s such a it’s sort of like a small country town in a state over here how hard’s it been or how hard has it been or have you used it to your advantage do you think of playing in a big team in a small state yeah the the two- team Town thing is something you have to get your head around and I’ve never played in Melbourne so I don’t really know what that’s like you played up with the Giants it’s a little bit quieter up there I mean Adelaide is the two team Town situation where um it’s it’s um Boomer Bast it’s it’s always you going to win the flag or you’re going to win the spoon it’s sort of the the polarity which is what creates the cycle of hype and in the last maybe five or six years um that’s magnified incredibly as we’ve gone towards more um click perview advertising cycle they want stuff that that’s going to generate any sort of emotion um and you can get caught up in it quite easily as particularly as a young player coming through you you get told not to read anything not to um not to go searching for anything but it finds you because it’s everywhere um and anytime you do press conferences or you speak to the media um they’re looking for something that they can use to be able to create some sort of excitement or some sort of a thread that they can pull so um I was lucky that I had a great role model in pav McFarland Mundy sandlands these guys that were just stoics they just didn’t really have any interest in what was going outside of them what was happening in Melbourne um in terms of media and they would just focus on their preparation they would come in do their job was Never As Good never as bad just not ride the wave um and just built really good careers before we get into talk about footy today and again those Role Models have been huge obviously for you but one thing that’s sort of been sick to sort of see the outside like I love footing and I love the love the industry and I think it’s awesome but I’m also really big on guys and girls at play like discovering who they are outside of the game and obviously incredible career with with everything that’s sort of happened and is going to happen for you but I feel like the last couple years has been sick to see you like obviously on social media like you’re traveling the world doing different [ __ ] like you’ve obviously got a real deep thinker things have sort of like been doing awesome stuff around like I thought you went on a holiday with like hoe nicara like India where’s all this has this been something that’s been like a consistency for you from a young bloke or is it sort of like happened over time a bit of both I mean we’re all searching for something we’re all trying to figure out who we are to some degree um and becoming sort of a famous AFL player answered a lot of the questions I had but it also has asked even more and so part of the travel for me is a search it’s looking for meaning it’s looking for um for what else is out there to sort of broader my scope to get perspective to sort of get out of outside of myself um and connect back in with um um with different culture different ways of thinking because this landscape that we’re in here um it becomes very small very quickly it becomes all about you and your preparation what you’re doing well or poorly and your whole identi is wrapped up in that and that can become quite treacherous if things are going well or if things are going poorly if you’re measuring yourself against that um um your particularly for me feeling of belonging or selfworth um is really volatile because you’re allowing the external elements of your lifestyle to um I guess impede or impact on how you feel about yourself so that’s what travel does for me it gets me out of this bubble it gets me away overseas I can disappear you start noticing people not noticing you like perth’s a small place I’ve been playing for a while most people um at some level will have recognized me somewhere and so being able to disappear into another culture um is my way of nourishing and just getting quiet inside and and um and just opening my perspective back up love what you said at the start there about it the more you know the more you realize you don’t know and I found that more than ever this year like personally just on my own sort of trajectory around like I obviously have not had anywhere near as career as you but because of sort of the podcast and that sort of changing my life you expect all these things to just change for you be happier all these bits and pieces but I found that like even personally it’s probably I look back at when I was playing foot in Sydney on a rookie wage struggling to like living live in um our house like the happiest I’ve ever been and whil it’s now I’m still the happiest I’ve ever been it’s probably the hardest that’s ever been so it’s almost like the more develop the more you go through the more you actually achieve the more [ __ ] everything actually gets because you’re like trying to maintain and realize so many other bits and pieces yeah and that’s the false lead it’s that you were looking for something and trying to get somewhere to unlock a feeling inside um and most of those destinations you get there and they’re not what they needed to be but the journey to that point is so critical and so I had this moment when I um I won the first Brown low and I had 3 months of just euphoria just everything made sense to me all the decisions I’d made in my life up until that point were perfect exactly as they should have been cuz they revealed this space of bliss for me um the problem with that was I wanted it again and as sort of 16 17 18 um took off I was just searching for that feeling again and I knew a premise ship or potentially another Brown L would be able to unlock that and I got there again and it just felt so different um it was nice and lovely but it just was not the same feeling as it was previously and that kind of Shook Me To Pieces a bit because I thought all I’ve been hunting for this feeling I’ve got to the place that I thought was going to give me that it hasn’t now where do I go um and they sort of say that success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure um and and I didn’t feel like I’d fail but I just felt like I needed to look elsewhere and so that sort of transpired into what the last four or five years has been for me um I’ve had injuries with my body um some stuff outside of footy which has really sort of shaken up my belief system um we sort of dealt with the co situation we had to change a coach there’s a bunch of different things which all of a sudden everything felt in flux um but just an amazing learning environment to try and figure out what’s real and what you’re building yourself off um and start to detach from a bunch of those things that I thought were really important through my 20s oh man it’s it’s e really like again I obviously if sort of from an outside perspective understand not understand I’m aware of those situations for you personally but it’s sick sort of hearing that from you and this is the reason I love doing pods right like you chat to people that you think um just don’t experience things that other people might and as you’re saying that I’ve never really spoke about this either but I remember last year like me and my wife were trying to have a baby got this business everything’s like externally in the best place I’ve ever been like ever but just crashed like it it started to experience panic attacks all these bits and pieces where I was like why the [ __ ] is this happening now and it’s like a really similar journey in the sense that you’re always like going for the destination and when you get it that’s when I was there so my last s of 12 months has been being so aware that this is the fun part like this is the fun part now in terms of me like we talked about this earlier like when I hit you up in season one and we here now the fun part’s been in the middle like of getting to this pod so I’m like fully aware that the journey it’s such a cringe saying but the journey actually is more important than the destination you sort of said about the panic attack you can’t be like phony happy yeah you can’t be like this is the best part I love the journey um cuz that’s sort of fake you know that but the panic attack stuff is interesting because you’ve got no control over that subconscious it comes from inside and having dealt with a bit of that the last couple years myself and still dealing with it yeah where the body’s like lit really attacking itself it’s pumping out all these hormones into your system where you just you just can’t really operate at the level you did earlier in your life in career where um and once you start seeing that you get exposed to that you you know you know that there’s that scary place out there or within your own body where it could just start attacking itself at any moment and that’s been the fascinating part about trying to get back to playing high level footy for me is that it’s different to when I was um 2021 22 is that my my body is now reacting to stuff that is much deeper than my conscious thought it’s down in here it’s saying you are in um you’re in a vulnerable place I’m trying to protect you I don’t want you to do that thing and so trying to override that has been really difficult and where my world’s collide is and we spoke like the spiritual PA trying to understand who you are and sort of soften and deepen into compassion is very different to being a hardcore AFL player and you’ve got to be turbo mode with your preparation and your sense of self and your conf confidence and all those things and I find that those pull in different directions for me you know I need to be um a bit off my head to play footy at the level I need to a bit of a turbo but the journey that I the rest of my life is going on is the opposite direction it’s sort of softening it’s understanding it’s getting away from ego all those elements so um so the vehicle is whatever your curriculum is which for me is footy for you podcasts but it’s trying to it’s trying to walk that Journey whilst all the stimulus is getting thrown at you um and try to figure out your way through it all I’ve got to tell you about this book that I I read and like helped me the most was called dare and it’s speaks about like what you talking about before around the the mental stuff around it lives within you and whatnot and it changed my life in the sense of always trying to run away from things and this is dare is like an acronym of D and it’s got like four steps to it I don’t want to try and do it at the moment but I will give you the book I’ll send you the book it is unbelievable like cuz it’s all actually about you got to go into it and you’ve got to like sit in your body and anytime now like that that’s happened to me it’s you’ve actually got to like go come at me let’s go it’s so [ __ ] uncomfortable but it’s been the best thing ever cuz I started having panic attacks about having panic attacks like it was the weirdest [ __ ] thing ever chases itself around it was [ __ ] weird but I like because I’ve always been like scared of nothing yeah is sort of the the Mantra courageous on field um is sort of the thing that I wanted to build my brand around and I dropped my head in a game early in my career against Adelaide and got shown by the coach and then from then I was like I’ll never do that again um and so you build all of these things in and but then when and so I thought I was like getting close to being Invincible nothing bothers me anything any adversity any struggle any pain I can just deal with that no worries but um got to a point in my life where as you’re saying the opposite starts happening where your body starts attacking itself it’s got all these threat response mechanisms built in which I’ve got no control over I can I can do as many um like mantras or like um pump up talks or whatever I need to do and my body’s still going no way mate we are not going there so um so I like that idea of sort of of you’ve got to sit with it you got to take a take the risk um like the Going Through Hell keep going like all those things are I mean they’re Sage sayings because they work they are man they are you’re so obviously the physical and mental side I’m super passionate about I’m sensing you are as well around that spirituality and those sort of things too and we will talk about um fully later but I think that this is actually so much more important cuz like you’ve got to be a good you know human before you can do whatever else you want to do physically spiritually and and mentally where would you sort of obviously the body stuff at the moment or the last s a few years like how much did that impact you on the on the other two facets like do they work in tandem all together I’m still trying to figure out the answer to that and as we said before the more you know the less you know yeah um but I know that they’re all critical and so I was always a good healer I’d have had a lot of operations and I’d heal pretty quick over 25 wow um so that’s a lot of trauma on the body and what I started to noce I wasn’t healing anymore I had a shoulder operation and it didn’t heal the bone didn’t um mend to the other bone like it was supposed to and so I had to go back and have that operation again and when I had the second operation I got an infection from it and and this started to repeat itself um multiple soft tissues I had PL of fasciitis which then led to a broken foot and so I’m going what’s what’s happening I’m not healing like I used to and the easy answer is you just you’re getting old mate which is true um but for me that was like all right here’s a new game to try and figure out out um why is my internal system in a place where it’s not dropping into rest and repair and so I do what I do just start reading everything I can um going as far and wide as I can with information to try and figure out what’s going on so this relationship and you said it before and your body sort of keeping the score it knows the trauma that’s happened to it both physically and emotionally um and so starting to understand how those things within my body are being stored in this so I can be as strong and fit as I think I as I have previously been like in terms of raw metrics raw numbers but my body is just not harmonizing and sinking together and that’s what I found last year when I was playing I was um quite strong in the gym I could hit my numbers running but I just my body was not talking to itself and the messages from here were just not getting through to my system so they’re all intrinsically linked and the where the sort of spirituality side comes into it is um is the understanding expectation understanding the spes of sort of gratitude verus um needing something out of your your journey so um so that’s kind of where I’m at with that where do you think that leaves you for obviously a big career still to come like where do you think that leads you at the moment like what are you what are you feeling for for this year like do you put expectations on now or do you just sort of like let it feel it and just see what happens I don’t know and each game reveal be so honest about that well I mean I I I’m I’m not trying to hide anything and this is where I get myself into trouble in podcast I do I am candid because as I speak it out I get to test it for truth and go is this real is this what you actually believe so I’ve got another contract next year y but I’m playing playing the game at the moment with 21 22 23 Caleb song Hayden young Matt Johnson like Neil Rasmus like G these guys are weapons and I’m I’m seeing elements of their hunger that I had when I was younger and my Hunger now looks different it looks not more or less it’s just different and so I’m seeing that I have an important role to play as an evolved version of what I was there’s no need for me to go and do what they did or what they’re doing at the moment um or what I used to do um so all those questions um are constantly sort of spinning around in my head in terms of or what does it look like do I play for five more years is this my last year um and where I can keep coming back to is just right here what can I do this week to enjoy um my preparation and get ready to play next week and just don’t think too much broader beyond that do you live obviously all the time you’re trying to live in the present but do you reflect much on what you’ve done and what you’ve achieved like I think for me from an outsider now right like you’re talking I know you’re not you’re being extremely candid but like you have incredible energy and ability to to maintain doing what you’ve done before like you’re you’re obviously aware of that um do you reflect on on what you’ve been able to achieve like I don’t think there’s been a player be able to dominate the game like you have do you think you want like um not really we’re forgetting machines so you just get a version of what actually happened in your head um and it’s just not in any way motivating for looking forward like I am what I am now and um yeah the you used to be great thing does nothing for you I don’t definitely don’t mean it like they used to be great like you are great is what I’m saying well then whatever is well this is where I’m like this is where I’m kind of learning to detach from that perfectionist and harsh on myself which like is the hardest thing for me to do is Because unless where I’ve been is unless I’m playing really well or um or at a level I’m happy with then I’m not happy and that’s sort of that gap between expectation and what you’re able to deliver and so life teaches you patience it teaches you um a bunch of things which is what I’m kind of in at the moment and and yeah I want to just keep opening up to potentiality of what could I be what could what could the best version of what I’ve got now be um and not worry about like mistakes or not going as well as I hope it would or not going as well as I want it to go right now but how can I just keep cultivating that space of potentiality and just see where the story goes yeah sick what’s crazy at the moment even like obviously it’s round one and it’s early in the season but to see what a young team can do when potentially a Victorian Bas is not saying they can’t do it but like who knows look at Brisbane now two and zip at the start of the Year well the more I play the more it just does not make any sense to me at all I’m you know I’m not I’m not surprised by this but I’ve been doing this for a long time and I think that when you do a pod you can really get into an autopilot and just talk [ __ ] and it’s very easy for footballers cuz you talk the same things every day but you’re so right like it comes back to that thing if you pretend you know what you’re doing you’re lying we win and lose and we think that we take all the credit and all the blame for and is just so just so inaccurate we take credit and blame for our preparation Our intention um but there’s just so much out of our control yes we played Brisbane and they kick the first three we didn’t touch the ball first four I think we didn’t touch it and then after that it switched the other way now that wasn’t them deciding you know what we would just park the bus or us deciding all right we better get going the game just had other ideas the audience the supporters are as much a part of the creation and the art as what we were and um and the older I’ve gotten The more I’ve realized that we’re not really doing that much you’re playing before you said before a few names like song BR Shaw Hayden young guys that you’re playing with uh and also you played in teams as well like Loy Neil um I won’t say Tommy Sheridan but like Mick bar um you know a lot of a lot of good players how do they compare like who you know over the journey have you been sort of impressed with love teammates the most so younger players you want well anyone like we speak about a really you know a mutual friend of ours that I’m sure a lot of us have incredible respect for but someone like Matt dor and those sort of characters I mean there’s the superstars and you can you can probably imagine what I would say about those guys but then there’s players like mzungu subin dor Chris M um MC Balo guys that just heart and soul and just ring every single ounce out of their opportunity that they can and they’re the guys that you just love going to work with um during the week and on the weekend is because they just have no room for someone telling them they’re not good enough to be there and you just love playing and being alongside those people cuz they’re optimistic they’re positive they’re um they’re willing to do anything they can for the team at the detriment of the themselves and those characteristics lead on to the sort of humans they are outside of footy and in their life isn’t that you know it’s been a really cool thing for me and obviously you’re still in the thick of it but you know when there’s there’s athletes right and athletes business life we’ve said this the last few weeks it’s it’s eerily similar how crazy footy life business is it’s not it’s it’s habits like the whole thing is habits it’s not about like sort of what happens and you can look at guys that you play with that are really good players but you know like how are they going to go out of the game in other facets of their life and you do look at someone like dor where those habits translate postf footy and guys that maybe really talented guys that play the game on natural ability that aren’t maybe this not as hard working but not as process driven then leaving it sort of a bit harder yeah and I think there’s a genetics have has a lot to play like guys get into whatever it is that they’re doing in their life and they’ve got they’re hardwired for habits or for work ethic or for whatever it is um and in the west we really we really value that and it’s funny I’ve just been to India and they’re culturally very different here we we’re going places we’re building Empires um we’re progressing in some way and I think genetically has a fair to do but I also have seen within sort of my lens of football clubs people can catch on to that learn to build good habits learn to be reliable have integrity to themselves and and actually improve the quality of their performance and the quality of their life by learning how to fit into a jungle and an ecosystem in an effective way yeah well that was me like I had no [ __ ] idea what I was doing like half but not in a sense of like I was lazy I just didn’t know what to do you don’t know you don’t know you just don’t know you don’t know and I think you can you’ve got that’s why you be able to make mistakes and do those things but it is Habits Like if you think one thing’s not going to go well unless you change nothing else is going to work well the problem at the start of the Jungle is that you’re trying to figure out how to get valued like is it um is it what I wear is it what I say is it having the most friends is it um is it what I do on the weekend like all those things sort of sort of roll into this social hierarchy of being valued and sense of self and where you transcend that is you go okay what are the principles that are going to serve me Beyond just this environment which is that Integrity that work ethic um reliability loyalty those longstanding in principles that work whether things are going well or things are going poorly and when people crack that code they’re away what’s three pieces of content or lifestyle or like books tacos experiences that you’ve been through that you would recommend or think have had the biggest impact on You O tough on the spot question it is tough on the SP but it could be trips it could be a book that you’ve read could be could be [ __ ] Tik Tok that you’ve seen hey don’t underrate Tik Tok either I’ve had some I’ve had some good epiphanies on Tik toks okay I don’t actually know how to so that’s an you’d have to download the app to get access to it you don’t no I I’m I do like Instagram poy yeah I’ve got a a girl that doesn’t for me yeah I was going to say it’s very high level sort of content um she love that Shannon um okay three things I usually don’t do recommendations okay okay but I we reverse recommend because because you do and they’re in a different space and they go that’s that’s yeah if no but like to you let me give it a go um early days in my career Bret Kurt came along he’s my mentor he started to unlock um the beautiful pathway that is consciousness and one of the ways that he did it was he gave me the book The Peaceful Warrior right which is a really easy short book so there’s one and I read that every couple of years um and it’s yeah it’s it’s that sort of ego Journey about detaching from self and understanding what’s going on Beyond you yeah so that would be that would be one um trips wise um things that have had a big impact on me would be this is really difficult most recently I went to India and it’s there’s a recency to that but that was able to really shift the way that I understood uh my body and also understand culturally what they value so as I said here we’re building Empires we’re all trying to do something um we’re trying to get wealth status Fame all these things in over there from what I saw and I was fairly engrained in the community it’s not like that it’s family it’s um um raising your kids and then your kids walking your parents home as they get older it’s sort of that transition um spirituality religion all those elements are far more important seemingly than um than trying to get somewhere yourself so that there’s probably two um and then I’ve got a couple books at the moment that I’m reading which I’m loving the Rick Rubin book y creative fact if you haven’t read that one that’s a I I listened to the I haven’t read the book but I listened to his podon uh with Hub yeah yeah it was pretty it was pretty cool the the point you made then around the family um stff a real hit no for me like I’ve got a young boy now he’s nearly one and it’s been you know the best thing ever but it l brings in a whole another level of you know you don’t know what you know to you know it type situation and I’m incredibly like lucky like this weekend’s been so contrasting for me because like in one aspect we’ve come over sold out a show did a collaboration brought mates over I’ve had the best time ever but then there’s that all the feeling of going like well [ __ ] like my wife and boy at home like I really miss them and it’s like as much as it’s cool to at a live show and be there it’s like i’ actually probably just rather be at home and that’s where the that’s the pool right because they need you to be doing you being expansive and creating and creating a movement for this community here and broader but um they also need you there and that’s that was interesting to watch in sort of real time over in India is because it doesn’t mean don’t sit back and be lazy um and obviously there’s different issues that arise culturally but it was just so Stark the difference between here where yeah we’re we’re going places and doing things and they’re they’re having cups of t five six times a day with 15 20 people in a gathering house not like scrolling on Instagram while they’re talking well they still do a little bit of that they like Instagram they do okay that’s doesn’t make me feel like bad then well the funniest one of the funniest things I saw over there was um you go the slums they got like nothing but they’ll have an antenna on top of their cardboard wood house that they’ve built and they have a TV in there and they’re watching the cricket which is awesome because and they’re happy ass or like I went past a like a street vendor selling peanuts and I would go past her each day when I do my morning walk and I know she would sleep there overnight she’s got like the pile of peanuts and then she had the tap and pay sign sitting on top of the pile of peanuts so the world’s CL like the new Modern Wave of creating wealth generating with sort of just um the old ways of selling and surviving yeah and you sort of when you’re first go and you get exposed to that it’s quite confronting but I’ve been to a number of third world countries now and um you start to lose that lens of judgment in your eyes and you just start to see it as disharmony all kind of working together they get the same access to happiness and sadness and disappointment and hope and despair and all the elements that we get doing our thing um that they get over there as well and that’s that’s the beautiful element is and I was there for 6 weeks in India about 4 weeks then I started to want to upgrade and change things like if they just did that slightly better than and I had to soften away from that and go like it’s perfect exactly as it is there’s no errors how was that trip like where is where did you go what did you go for so I um have a business partner Tim who’s from Adelaide he’s building high performance carbon fiber mountain bikes in India and so cost of Labor resources is fairly affordable over there so he’s been over there living for three and a half years um just iterating they’re called V vbike if you want to look that up but we’re in the in this sort of um sort of iteration phase still designning we’ve got a couple bikes in New Zealand a couple here in Australia being test ridden hopefully we’re going to have some in Europe by later in the year but I just went over to spend some time with him and get an idea of the challenges that we’re facing it’s startup business and all the usual challenges of startup plus it’s in India um so yeah it was fascinating this could be the the just things I did not expect talking about today Nat 5 has a business in India building mountain bikes yeah yeah so he’s building it out of this Factory and I went and slept on the floor with him for about 10 days and then stayed in the in the city for another two or three weeks and then we he’s a really good Surfer so then we went down to go and got some waves for a couple weeks you’re huh yep you went with hoe yeah what’s like how did that come about hoe and I did you what’s better how are or you yeah um TBC can we come back to let you refle he hit me up early for the for the Pod and um he’d been around for a season or two at that point yeah digging myself out here so we did that he seemed like a reasonable fell and we chatted about surfing I was going to Costa Rica and he dropped me some mail this is where you have to go and he’s a he’s a big trouble dude loves it and loves surfing too loves humans the whole piece good fell his mail was dead accurate every place we went to and he suggested just nailed the trip and so we stayed in contact a bit and then I went to Nicaragua which is just the country next door to Costa Rica same thing gave me the mail and crushed it again sort of wrote me into some good waves and some good people and food so then he said right earlier in the year last year he said I’m got a surf trip spot available you can and I just sent a deposit I didn’t really know dates or times or anything like that but I was like yeah I’m down let’s do it there’s a million reasons why it won’t actually come to life but let’s just put some energy towards it and so on the way back from India I red into West samatra with the boys and um spent the week with Hoy and and um a couple of other his other mates and yeah had a great time it’s unreal man Favorite Places Travel I’ve traveled Norway three times surfed up there Northern Lights um is it like this could be incred no I have question I actually know the answer Dary wanted to know though is it cold in the water at Norway is it like a is it like icy there or is it like a beach like above the Arctic Circle um yeah that’s why D I was going to say before it’s like it’s yeah it’s cold mate yeah it’s cold like probably 0 to 6° when we were there 0 to 6° see I actually told him that but he didn’t believe it you’d bring a wet suit D if you went up there yeah so that was cold cool Norway Norway so Central America amazing um I haven’t done much like I’ve done Europe I haven’t done much of Eastern Europe I went to Poland this but I want to do Russia I want to China to bet or you’re not going to the you know the like top 10 sort of travel destinations are you sort of you want to get off the beat track my mate douge yeah who’s everyone knows douge um we’ve done about 25 countries together and early days we went to New York 20 21 yeah and we got pierced as crickets and then the next day we let’s go to the Statue of Liberty cuz that’s what you do y and we got there hung over and we um bought well went to get tickets and there was a queue to get tickets to see the Statue of Liberty and we waited and waited and waited and we looked over and there was a queue to get on the ferry to get over to see the Statue of Liberty and both of those looked about half an hour long at least and we sort of looked over in the distance and we could see the Statue of Liberty and we both looked at each other and went well we’ve seen it done and from that moment on on I’ve sort of just never done tourist destinations because of that reason you go and see the things that everyone else is lining up to see and you can just jump on Google and see them anyway I always felt like when you go overseas and like you know I’ve been likely to do some really cool places too I’ve done South America Europe States all the main you know sort of continents but it was crazy to like go and when you’re there you get in you like land in the city right and you do like a walking tour and I don’t know what the sort of reference would be in but it’s like I’m sort of walking around and checking out like the flender Street Station of Melbourne right now like I’m walking around like Federation Square like and then what melban or Victorian actually [ __ ] does this so you’re like I’ve always just like a contrast of like I know I’m here but like I know I’m not actually where people would go so the way that I’ve got around that is like Airbnb is amazing resource but I will go and stay somewhere for a couple of weeks and go to the same places um cafes um restaurants bars beaches surfs whatever it is and generally the host of the house as well and by a week in you’ve got a community of people and they will rope you into all the things so you stay with you don’t get your own house so if it’s an Airbnb I’ll stay at my like it’s my own place but generally it’ll be hosted by and I’ll check out who the host is and I’ll see what where they’re from in the world and their credentials and usually they’re people that think the same way and they want to have The Travelers come generally a surf person or snowboard person um within a week I’ve got a new mate hang out with them like Nick Raga for example stayed with Tim and um and his wife was from Peru um Cynthia and she was um and between the two of them they kind of just plugged me into the whole Community was in the paddle ball paddle racket or the racket ball championship and they went away for a week so I checked the guests into the house and Yeah you sort of just get to do the stuff that you’re not just doing flender Street Station in Kings Park and Statue of Liberty yeah and surfing in Norway yeah yeah yeah he what’s what’s the sort of next 12 months look like for you I know you’re staying present at the moment but do you what do you do now like yeah do you but on that then do you still look at the future like do you still think about definitely definitely but not so much that it spins me circles you try and get to the end all right if I have a good year this year that’ll be enough or if I have a good year then maybe that like cuz that there’s no answers to that so as soon as I start drifting too far into the future fut or reminiscing too far back it’s a reminder for me to just go back to right now and go and do your prep mate um so um in terms of what the next 12 months dishes up get through the season um building connection with the players building an understanding of what my body can do at this level and trying to get better hge weight CU that’s where happiness comes from progress so as long as next week I’m in a space where I feel like I can improve and be better than I was last week that you unlock all the elements of sort of a meaningful Journey there so um travel I’ll go back to India see where all my cash is going in that um bike business a bike valley. bike yeah you wouldn’t ride bikes why do you assume that uh very good at riding bikes I used to do dirt jump bikes as a kid con of scrap is that right I a red line yeah that was [ __ ] okay yeah take that to scrap is where um I’ll keep you in mind starting to ship to like people that need you know you got a fair profile now so yeah it’s pretty big it’s pretty huge so India another I think we got another surf trip planned as well with the same crew yeah really yeah um you don’t surf either I’m not a big Surfer I I’m more of a peddler like I just by the time I get out of the back I’m [ __ ] exhausted yeah and then it’s like [ __ ] and then the waves are like big and then you’re like I’m just going to Pedal back in right yeah but I I wish I got into surfing a bit more to be completely honest well I mean whil you’re in town it’s a good place to do it it’s pretty beach is a bit scary here to be honest like they’re beautiful but you don’t want to go out too deep sharks and stuff there’s no sharks here I would beg to differ from some reports yeah that have happened recently um hey just a real enough question because I I’m just really curious about this did you ever think about leaving Port P you think about leaving fre man who do you think you’re talking to who have you got on your mind at the moment I OE wi not TR B westof um oh what when he went to the wing how good was that um think about it all all the time that was really big news in Victoria like was it Collingwood St K was the main one but there was a Giants one too when was that would have played together in the N um like always consider everything is what I tend to do like test it out see how it feels and even um in the last couple of years when I was starting to really struggle with everything that was going on but never got anywhere near actually wanting that timeline to come to life yeah um so and I’m not bringing this up to scare any freemale supporters or anything like that but you talk a lot about the travel and getting out of experiences and stuff like I think the best thing I ever did not that it was actually a choice it just sort of felt that way was like when I went to a different environment that it just changed my life like so so and sorry that’s but that’s the that was the one that always tempted me cuz I I like to keep evolving keep moving I would if I so you know how you can look at those like those moments in your life and you think where would I be if this didn’t happen yeah like that period of like leaving car and being delisted to then getting to the Giants I always go back to that like wake up been a sweat going [ __ ] if that didn’t happen where would I where would I be okay I mean the dots all connect in hindsight don’t know um so but and that’s one of the elements so there’s part of me that’s like long-term games play long games um sort of allow compounding to build good results loyalty all that of course yeah but then the other part is just keep aoling put yourself into new spaces sh shake things up that allows you to keep sort of detaching from these setting your ways that you get and I’m doing these clinics now at schools and I’m they’re saying how long have you played for free manal 15 years that’s twice as old as you kids are really and so there’s a part of me that goes oh um it would have been interesting but that’s that’s as far as it goes um the club has been amazing for me built my whole identity I feel so connected to the freal community um and always will um and yeah it wouldn’t change it for the world you don’t strike me someone that would stay in football but is that I know you don’t we’re not looking to too far ahead but no idea mate yeah no idea um genuinely I want to write yeah articles or books no like like books yeah are you speaking to an author you’re doing one I’ve released one I’m sure you’ve read it I’ll have to pick that up as well as dare I’ll send both to you both of them that’ be good um but that’s about it really I mean I’ve seen some really fascinating um interesting intelligent well-rounded people say I don’t want to have anything to do with footy go and then come back in like it draws you back in then you definitely got to go and do something different detach for a bit well that’s what I want to do like detach I don’t want to be living in Perth I don’t think I don’t want to be living in wi I want to go and detach and start doing something completely different and allow that um there’ll be some tough years within that but do it properly like allow the collapse down moment where you detach from all this and then slowly start building back up again yeah M you’ll be yeah I know there’s a long time left but it’s I’m excited to see what you get up to in that next phase in in when five 10 years 10 years time optimistic no I’m very optimistic um but it’s it’s a bloody exciting time and I think with the your sort of character and what you’ve been enlightened to and doing over the last s a few years you’re setting yourself up for a really cool fulfilled life like not just in footy but whatever it is that you do yeah and you spoke about earlier about starting the scrap again like starting from the bottom again you got to drop the go and just [ __ ] learn something new I think there’s there’s real excitement about that and there’ll be tough days but starting and just like building something from scratch when you were saying before about like at the ABNB and like you know helping people check in and stuff like that’s the [ __ ] where if you’re in Perth you’re like I’m not doing this like not to get in your own head but when I finished I went worked at 3w just like answering the phones and someone asked me to like go get them go get the coffees and I was like do you realize you’re Speak No 41 game [ __ ] right now like have some respect but in my head I was like [ __ ] get over it mate no one cares anymore like not that they did anyway but like no no that’s that that’s that little dance that goes on up there where you’re sort of like you’re the main character of everyone’s story you’re in the movie but it was a really I think it’s one of the best things ever and I always refer to this but like Chris Juds says spoke about ego once he said like ego gets a bad rap like it’s actually a good thing if you’ve done the work m so I think for me it was about like all right ego is actually a really good thing if you’ve done the work to have the ego and and know when to use it too not like being an egotistic or Maniac but like internally just know what you deserve yeah I love that because I’ve seen both sides of it on the way up where you’ve done the work it’s compounding it makes sense people want you to be that guy but then it’s when it starts getting away from you and your performances aren’t working or whatever space you’re operating in all of a sudden you’re starting to lose your power um and then you have to as you said just get over yourself mate and start building something else up again um and recognize the timing of things that’s it’s so important sometimes it’s your time to lead sometimes it’s your time to follow sometimes it’s your time to be like knocked down on the ground and learn from that experience and other times you be killing it and so recognize that everyone has to face that timing um and the quicker you can see it recognize accept it and then you get power back from it because you can work in that space again no man I really appreciate your time today bro you’re an extremely busy man um it was an a to have you on the Pod finally um season Oregon 7 yeah took took a while and uh yeah really really blessed to get you on bro I appreciate it your openness honesty can’t wait to see what the next sort of 12 to 24 I don’t know how many what the next sort of mathematician of that is but like whatever the time is it’s really cool to see what goes on thanks for having me man thanks [Music] bro [Music] he