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I'm Mike Boris and this is Straight Talk.
Ladies and gentlemen, Anthony Minchella.
Welcome to Straight Talk.
And now Jared's eclipsed everyone 307.
You would have eclipsed all of them if you hadn't had those massive injury periods.
Mind you, maybe if Jared added up all the times...
Well, that's true as well.
He had a few suspensions.
He's been suspended.
The first six years, I didn't get injured.
And I played more games than anyone in a four or five year period
where we were making grand finals and I was playing for the New South Wales and Australia.
But 2006, it all come crashing down.
Chronic inflammation bubbling beneath my body was out of control.
You're eating out, you're drinking alcohol, prescription medication through the week.
So something had to give, right?
Two back operations.
I had a smaller disc bulge in my thoracic and then I've got this huge disc bulge in my neck.
And he goes, mate, I've just got your report back.
It's showing that you're like one millimetre away from your spinal cord.
That's when I really started to dive into nutrition and the role it plays in restoring the body.
I've got four steps.
I've got four steps with my nutrition that I still follow now.
So the first one is roosters have been my whole life, basically.
You know, I grew up as the youngster of the roosters
and they've certainly made me the man that I am today.
Mark, how are you, mate?
Thanks for having me.
Well, we're straight talk and as put together by the Sydney Roosters Business Club
and we want to thank our sponsors, MyHR.
Thanks very much.
And our live audience.
It's pretty cool doing a live podcast.
I haven't done one of these since the last one of a live podcast I did with Peter Flanders.
He told me at the end of that podcast that I sort of hypnotised him
and he said to me, I started talking about things I never thought I'd ever talk about
and I wouldn't let him into the edit room either.
So welcome, ladies and gentlemen.
Thanks very much.
So Rico was 301 games.
And now Jared's eclipsed everyone 307.
What did you think of Jared's game for his 307th game?
I mean, in terms of the way he presented himself for the game.
It was pretty fitting, wasn't it?
He got sent for 10.
He had blood running down his face.
It was just the perfect setting for him to break the record.
You know, I watched him come over from Manly when he was a young kid
and you could just see this sort of ferocity in his eyes when he crossed that white stripe.
Mate, loveliest bloke off the field.
You all have met him as well.
The way he treats the sponsors and fans and the people around the club.
But as soon as he gets on the field, he's an absolute beast.
And to sustain that from a young age to his age now,
I don't think I've ever seen a front row do that for so long,
which has been pretty phenomenal.
And yesterday was just an amazing day.
You know, we are the only club to have four 300 game players.
The only club in history.
That's a really proud moment for the club itself.
No one's ever achieved that.
To have three 300 gamers, four 300 gamers at the club.
I mean, we're going to talk about it a bit later.
But to be frank with you, you would have eclipsed all of them
if you hadn't had those massive injury periods for quite a long time.
And mind you, maybe if Jared added up all the time.
Well, that's true as well.
He had a few suspensions.
He's been suspended.
Maybe he might have eclipsed everyone by an even greater amount.
When I was walking here down George Street,
I walked past a rejuvenation clinic.
And the first thing I thought of is,
I mean, he never looks like he gets any older.
Actually, he looks like he's getting younger to me.
You and Wingy, I don't know what it is, but you and Craig Wing,
you both look like you're still 28 or something.
And to a large extent, and it's an important topic for me actually,
but to a large extent, it's about healthy living.
I want to go back to when you were a young kid.
Was this something that your family,
because you're an hour and a half living within our club
and outside of our club.
As a young kid, was that something that was drummed into you
or was that something you learned?
Well, it was basically just natural.
So we've got Italian heritage,
so we grew up on five acres just outside Liverpool,
southwest of Sydney.
Yeah, well, we had cows, we had chickens and eggs
and fruit trees and veggie patches and all that type of stuff.
Not together, Mark, just for the camera.
No, no, just for us basically, yeah.
So the Italian culture, right, is to grow your own,
cook your own if you've got the room at home.
So that's what we did.
That's what the Italian culture does
and my mum's a pretty darn good cook,
so she used to cook all that whole food and nutrition up
for myself and the family, my younger brother, younger sister,
and without even knowing it, how healthy it was,
it was just how we lived our lives, you know.
So now I think back to my childhood
and, you know, I never got sick, I played many different sports,
never seemed to get injured at all and then I signed
with the Roosters at 16 and I wasn't a big guy in the NRL.
I was like, I had to push heavy weights and eat heaps
to keep muscle bulk on and, you know,
when I made my first grade debut at 19, you know,
the first six years I didn't get injured basically at all
and I played more games than anyone in a four
or five-year period through that period
where we were making grand finals and I was playing
for the New South Wales and Australia.
But it all come crashing down and when I was 26.
Six, seven, two or six.
Two or six, yeah.
But if I go back to Anthony Minichiello as a kid growing up
in Liverpool on five acres and, you know,
Mark's your younger brother and you had a sister as well.
Younger sister, yeah.
Yeah, she's the youngest, yeah.
I often thought to myself if I was trying to create
a perfect specimen of a fullback,
and I've often thought this, I mean apart from having the genetics
to play the position and like someone like you or Teddy
and all those slated, they've got some genetics associated
with this, I would have thought, I thought to myself
gymnastics is a good base.
Who got you into doing gymnastics?
What's the story about that?
So that was my main sport as a young kid was gymnastics.
Gymnastics and little athletics.
And Mark as well?
So no, so Mark started league when he was six or five almost.
Just went straight into rugby league.
But I didn't want to play rugby league at that age
and my auntie's sister was a gymnastics coach
out at Macquarie Fields.
They had a big gymnastics centre out there.
And my mum just enrolled me and I just started doing tumbling
and trampolining at the age of six, seven.
And I did that from six to about 11.
And I was going to state for tumbling.
State competitions.
State competitions for tumbling.
And I was going to state for long distance.
I was cross country.
So I had a good aerobic base from athletics.
But then I had sort of the power core foundation from gymnastics,
which gymnastics game.
I think gymnastics and athletics and to an extent ballet as well,
they're all foundation sports that really springboard you
into other sports as you get older.
So when I went into rugby, I started league at 10 because of my mates
So we're all joining the local rugby league team.
So and I, well, my brother plays, I might join.
So I joined and, you know, the aerobic fitness,
I felt I was fitter than everyone because of the long distance running
that I was doing.
And then I had this sort of quickness and sharpness that was developing
because my brother went to state for 100, 200.
And I went to state for 1500, 3K.
And as he got older and had a growth spurt,
he moved into the forwards and I sort of started to get faster.
The explosive power definitely come from gymnastics.
I remember you when you're playing.
Well, obviously I remember when you're playing.
When you're playing, you're used to bounce off people.
And I want to talk to you about that in a moment.
I mean, I'm wondering if that was actually a strategy.
So I don't know whether you just hit people and bounce back
because of the weight difference or whether you actually hit people
and bounce and turned and then kept running as a part of your strategy
Let's talk about it now.
I mean, it was a pretty obvious thing.
And Teddy does that a little bit too.
Was that a thing?
Was that an Anthony Minichiello?
Well, you know, gymnastics, they teach you how to fall and dive.
And like, you know, when I was six, seven, eight,
like I was on a sprung floor in the gymnastics center
and they're teaching you how to just jump and dive and roll.
And like they teach you all that type of stuff and tumbling and all that.
So like being in space and twisting and all that just come natural to me.
Like jumping trampolines and doing backflips
and all that type of stuff was just normal because I did it for,
when I was so young.
So, you know, that teaches you spatial awareness, like, you know,
speed as well, it creates power.
So when you're in a game of rugby league, if you've got that acceleration,
that creates the power, that creates the tackle breaks.
And then being able to find little gaps and fall on your front
and always land on your front, that twisting motion as you're going down,
that all was natural because I did it over and over again in gymnastics.
So it wasn't like a thing.
It was just because of the repetition in gymnastics and the tumbling
and the trampolining that I did and diving and falling and rolling
and all that type of stuff definitely brought it over to the league circles, for sure.
But it seems to me that you had a bit of a, you had a pretty big engine as well.
Playing fullback, you got to have a big engine and, you know,
because fullbacks cover more kilometers than anybody else in the game.
Did you, do you put down your big engine to, you know,
you had a pretty big engine as well?
Did you put down your big engine to, you know, you had a pretty big engine as well?
Did you put that down to, again, as a genetics, did Mark have a big engine?
He was a big dude, but I don't know whether he had a big engine on him.
But do you put that down to the fact that you were more of a distance runner?
Because often, I mean, I remember Jack Gibson used to say to me,
the best rugby league player is someone who can do 400s, run 400s, like at speed.
If you can run 400, like not a 100-meter sprinter, but a 400 runner.
Do you put much weight in that discussion?
And the fact that you were a 1500 runner?
Well, the long distance running definitely helped my cardiovascular fitness.
There's no doubt about it.
But because growing up on a farm, but we're never inside.
We had motorbikes and, you know, back then it was slug guns and all that type of stuff
and patty bashes and cars and I like to chop wood.
That was one of my chores.
So I was always outside, you know, riding bikes, driving cars, chopping wood,
all that type of stuff.
So that just builds up.
That just builds up natural fitness and then add in the gymnastics,
then add in the long distance running.
So when I first got to the Roosters and we do pre-season,
I was always at up the top echelon of the fitness drills.
Well, let's talk about the beep test.
Where were you in the beep test?
Well, I was always in the top five throughout my whole career.
Just explain what the beep test is.
Well, the beep test is just a 20-meter run back and forth,
And the beep gets faster and faster and faster
and you just keep lasting as long as you can.
And how many repeats you can do becomes a measure of your fitness.
Based on, so in other words, the last 20 meters you might be doing,
they might be trying to get you to do it in six seconds,
whereas a lot of guys will be dropping out at that stage
because you've already done the whole lot.
It starts really slow and it's almost walking pace
and it just builds and builds and builds.
And, you know, you're there for almost 20 minutes doing this.
So it's like you can get inside.
It's like you're in someone's head as well.
But then the beep gets faster and faster and you've got to make the beep.
If you don't make two beeps, then you're out.
So, you know, but like the beep test back then,
like you get anywhere above like 13, you're doing really well.
Yeah, and I used to hear quite often you used to get a 14s and 15s.
Yeah, so we used to go like, you know,
we used to go up to 16 sometimes when you're feeling really good.
But then Ricky Stewart used to stop it at 14.
He goes, I'm happy with 14 if you make 14.
And we had the whole team getting 14,
even front rowers.
Back in Ricky Stewart days.
So 14 for me was easy back because we did it so many times.
So like, beep test today, whatever, it's easy.
But the front rowers were like, beep test, rah, rah, rah.
But Ricky was, we used to do it a lot with Ricky.
And by the end of sort of a preseason, you know,
Peter Cusack was getting 14.
Like, you know, Brian Fletcher, 14.
Like the front rowers and second rowers.
Well, Morley was a good runner.
He was actually a good runner, Morley.
He was a good rower too.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He could hit the rowing machine.
He trained hard, Morley.
Was Freddie getting 14?
The whole team was getting like 14.
And for everybody, being able to do 14 reps in a beep test.
As he gets faster and faster.
That's pretty intense.
One preseason with Ricky, we trained some of our hardest training sessions with Ricky.
But this was after New Year's Eve.
We had the two-week break.
You know, Christmas, New Year's.
We're at E.S. Marks.
And he goes, beep test straight away.
So we're straight into the beep test.
And, you know, the fitter guys get 14.
Other guys just miss it.
All that type of stuff.
And then he goes, go get a drink.
And he goes, gets everyone in.
He goes, we're doing it again.
And we're like, what?
Two beep tests in a row.
This is unheard of.
And he goes, we're doing it again.
And if you don't make the same marker,
then Ronnie's counting and we're going to add on hundreds.
So just say if you got 14, then I end up getting 13.
I missed it by 10 points.
So that's 10 hundreds.
And this is through the whole squad.
So we do it again.
And no one gets the same mark except Craig Wing.
He gets one better, right?
We go get a drink.
And Ronnie's adding up all the numbers that everyone missed it by.
And I thought Ricky's going to just get into us.
We've missed the mark by heaps.
And he goes, so Wingy, what happened?
You beat your – and Wingy's all proud of himself.
He goes, well, you didn't go hard the first time.
So he was in the Wingy.
But then we added it up and it was like through the whole squad,
it was almost like 91 or 92 points that we missed it by.
And we had to do – he goes, we'll have to do 92 hundreds.
Everyone's like, what?
Two beep tests in the 92 100-meter sprints.
That's 9Ks worth of sprints.
And Ronnie's like – even Ronnie Palmer,
he's like whispering to Ricky going, mate,
they've had two beep tests.
He can't do 90 hundreds.
Mate, just give them 50 50s.
So we went two beep tests in the 50 50s
and that was our first day of training.
I just quickly want to ask me about this because, I mean,
he's an expert in these sorts of things.
But, you know, today you've got all these –
and we'll go back to your career in a moment.
But today we have all these big name experts around the world,
like Peter Atiyah, et cetera, Dr. Peter Atiyah,
in talking about longevity and health span and life span.
But one of the tests that they keep talking about is VO2 max.
I don't know if you've done a VO2 max
or anyone in this room has done a VO2 max.
But basically what they're trying to work out is you're at stress,
at physical stress when you're either running or cycling
or doing rowing, could be rowing, your ability to use oxygen.
And what it is is there's a score you can get,
which is you can't just do the score like a beep test,
but the score is, you know, done through metered,
masks, et cetera, that take in and measure the amount of oxygen
and carbon dioxide you emit.
But today that is considered to be the gold standard of your –
as an indicator or a benchmark of your potential for life span, VO2 max.
Do you still think, and as you are a fit guy today,
do you still think those sorts of things are important
as you're in your 40s now?
Do you think those things are important?
Being able to do VO2 max and, well, let's call them a beep test.
Because you can do a beep test and do a calculation of what your VO2 max is.
Do you ascribe to those sorts of things today as Anthony Mircello,
the retired footballer, father, but generally speaking,
epitome of fitness and health?
Yeah, so I'm massively into nutrition.
We'll probably get into it a bit later.
But I'm massively into the health space and longevity space.
For me now, like my personal, say, weekly training regime is varied
and I know we'll talk about mini-fit later.
But if I'm running one of my PE programs in school,
I'm doing like 15,000 to 20,000 steps a day.
I'll probably go to the gym at Allianz now maybe once or twice a week.
And I play tennis once a week.
I try to play tennis once a week.
I'm loving tennis.
And then that's basically – so I'm always moving.
I'm always doing at least 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day just every single day.
So moving – like movement for me.
Movement for me is massive.
You know, the body is born to move.
So if we stay stagnant or sit in a chair for too long,
then all your tissues start to mold to what you do most.
So movement is huge for me.
So I don't really actually, you know,
flog myself too much anymore in the gym or go hard at any cardio.
My hardest probably is tennis.
Or if I just go for a sprint,
I'll sprint on the treadmill for a bit, just a short burst,
and then do some weights or something like that.
What would that be like?
Would that be like a two-minute sprint?
Yeah, well, I get on the – it's just a self-prepared sort of –
Yeah, another one.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I'll just do – I'll do like a 15 to 20-minute sprint,
have a break, 15 to 20-minute sprint.
15 to 20-minute sprint.
Second, second, sorry.
Second, second, second.
So yeah, 15 to 20-second sprint.
Just, you know, giving the body some type of adversity.
With all the longevity stuff too, it's like, you know, heat therapy,
cold therapy, fasting, giving the body some type of hormesis it's called,
so some type of adversity which really activates your longevity genes
and keeps you younger for longer, all that type of stuff.
And then, you know, there's heaps of stuff that you can do for your own health,
like, you know, that you're in control of every day is – the biggest one is what food you're putting
in your mouth, how much sleep you get, hydration, all those things done consistently over time.
That's when you get the real benefits, not just do it for a period of time and then stop,
and a period of time and then stop.
So with me, I'm big on nutrition and hydration.
I try and get eight hours sleep a night.
I try and do something – schedule in something that I love once a week, which is tennis,
and then I move consistently.
I try and do 10,000 steps a day and then, you know, lift some weights every now and again
for better, you know, testosterone production and all that type of stuff.
So I do a vary of things to keep myself sort of fit and healthy.
If I go back now to Anthony Mucello, the young kid at school, which school did you go to?
Petition Brothers.
Petition Brothers, Liverpool.
And you were playing footy there for the school?
Were you a good student or was school not something you gave a damn about?
I was all about sport.
Like PE was my favourite lesson, obviously.
I actually wish I'd focused a bit more on my studies, but I was all just – I never
sort of had the focus to study.
I was always focusing on playing sport.
I was – so Liverpool Petition Brothers went to year 10 and then the year 11 and 12 school
was called All Saints, which was at Kasool down the road.
So I remember I was in year 10 and I was in the science lab with one of my other mates
who was a bit naughty and we had these water bombs and we were doing some experiment and
we ended up throwing them at the blackboard and the teacher walked in and kicked us out
and we actually got suspended for a couple of days.
But two weeks prior to that, I got invited to play with Arthur Beetson, invited me to
Where we trialled again with the Roosters.
We trialled at Hanson Park.
And I remember I'd –
But as an SG ball?
It was for SG ball.
In those days it was under 15s or under 16s.
Under – I think it was under 17s.
Under 17s it was.
17s or 18s I think.
And I remember playing that game and look, I played – I was playing – I was right
centre back in the day.
And look, I played okay.
I went looking for the ball.
I did a few dummy – lots of dummy half runs.
And I went back to school and I was just wondering, oh, I wonder if they'll call or whatever.
And I ended up getting suspended.
And I got home and my dad just went off, you know.
And he just bought me a new car.
Well, it wasn't new.
It was a Laser TX3 where I chipped in half and he did the rest.
And he goes, that's it.
And, you know, I was doing all the chores for the next week because I was off school.
And I remember the second day in, Brian Canavan.
He rings the phone, the home phone back then.
And my mum answers and they put me on and he says, I'd like to offer you a two-year
Anyway, so I got offered a two-year contract at 16.
And I remember telling my family and – anyway, all was forgiven about the suspension at school.
And I had the rest of the week off and I thought I was killing it.
And I was like, this is what I want to do, I want to obviously play first grade for the
And I remember my dad saying, look, that's all well and good.
You can play footy.
There's no dramas there.
But you either finish year 11 and 12 or you get yourself a trade as well.
So, you know, obviously being all about sport and not focusing on school studies too much,
I went, oh, well, I'll get myself a trade.
So my dad drove me around to lots of different – I liked woodwork and metalwork back at
And so we drove around to lots of different joiners and cabinet makers around Liverpool
and Hoxton Park and Ostril and –
And plenty of Italian ones around.
Yeah, there's lots.
Lots of Italian ones around.
But I had to finish early every day to go train because I had to drive on the old M5,
which is almost one lane, and to get on Canterbury Road and go to Henson Park or go to ES Marks.
So it was over an hour to get there.
So I had to leave by 3 o'clock.
And most of the tradesmen or the bosses were like, nah, you know, if he's doing an apprenticeship,
then he's got to work till 5.
Anyway, so we went – I reckon we went around to about 20.
But that just – yeah.
Dad just kept driving another one and another one and another one.
Anyway, we found this guy who's Italian, Dominic Chimera, West End Kitchens out at Ostril.
And he said, yeah, I'll give him a go.
He can start at 7 and he can finish at 3.
And he can do TAFE on Thursdays and all good.
So I was obviously getting up at 6.30 and driving out further west to work and then
leave at 3 and then try and race into ES Marks.
By 4, 4.15 every day.
And then on Thursdays, I would go to TAFE.
And TAFE finished at 5 as well.
But I would leave at 3 in the afternoon tea break.
And my teacher caught on to me.
He goes, mate, what are you doing?
You're leaving at 3 every week.
What's happening?
What are you doing?
I said, I'm going to footy training.
I'm playing for the Roosters.
And he was like, mate, that's no career.
Like, this is a career.
What are you doing now?
This is a career.
Anyway, so I was like, oh, okay, right.
I'm going to play for the Roosters.
And he was like, mate, that's no career.
Like, this is a career.
What are you doing now?
This is a career.
So, mate, kept leaving at 3 and, yeah, made first grade at 19.
What was it like to meet someone like Jack?
Was it Jack or Arthur?
What was it like to meet someone like Arthur?
But did you know who he was?
I mean, you're a 16-year-old kid.
I mean, did you know who Arthur was?
Not at the start, no.
Did you follow rugby league?
Like, did you have a club?
Yeah, I used to love Laurie Daly.
Like, I used to follow the Raiders because I loved Laurie Daly,
the way he played.
And then my mum used to film every game of ours.
My brother's footy games, my sister's netball games, my games.
So a talent scout come up.
Well, I was playing for East Valley United.
A talent scout come up to my mum and said, oh,
do you have any videotapes because I'm interested in number 3 and number 10.
And she goes, oh, well, number 3 is my son, Anthony.
And, yeah, I've got heaps of tapes, yeah.
I've got tapes everywhere.
I've got tapes everywhere.
We show these every Christmas.
So she gave them to him and then he took those tapes
But, yeah, after I got signed to the Roosters,
then, yeah, you get to know a bit of the history of the club
and Arthur Beetser now.
He's a legend in the game and the stature that he had.
And then I had a really good relationship with him because,
you know, he signed me at the club but then, yeah,
we developed a really nice relationship and become great mates
over that period and, yeah, he was.
What do you remember of him?
Oh, he had a big aura.
Lumbered into the room.
And you could just, you know, as soon as Artie walked in,
you knew he was there.
And just subtle comments, you know.
Like he used to just come in and go,
I see you catching those balls.
Make sure you get your elbows in.
Or just like little comments that were like, hey, no worries, Artie.
But he loved to tell stories as well.
So everyone used to listen and, yeah, he was a top guy.
Who else was in the SG ball side, do you remember?
That we end up all knowing of?
Well, Mark Riddell.
We played with Mark Riddell.
He played first grade for the Roosters.
So we had heaps of talented guys in that.
We actually won that comp 17-16 I think.
We beat Newcastle at North Sydney Oval that year in 1997 it was.
And we had guys there that were more talented than me
but obviously they just didn't work hard enough or they got distracted
by alcohol or women or whatever it was.
All of the above.
And, yeah, so it was like out of the whole team it was myself,
Mark Riddell and Andrew Lomu.
And there was another guy called Nelson Lomi.
He only played a few first grade games.
Those are the only guys that really made first grade really.
All the rest had more talent but then just fell by the wayside.
It's a very interesting point you just made actually.
It's very interesting.
And, you know, we can all, probably all of us have at some stage in our lives
at school or playing ball or whatever it is,
have known guys and girls probably in female sports who are much more talented
than most of the other people in the group yet didn't get there.
And there's an old saying, talent is great but persistence is king.
And persistency is the most important thing.
Most of these individuals,
the ones I knew as well, just didn't stick with what they were doing.
They just gave it away and got distracted for some reason.
What is it that sets someone like you aside and other people?
Because here's an issue both sides.
Won the comp, only three or four paps ended up playing,
doing anything with their lives and probably you
and Riddell are probably the most significant of that particular side.
Every year this happens.
Every single year for the last 50 years.
I mean, I played SC ball, all the kids on my side,
only two guys ended up playing great.
But there were some really talented guys in there who should have played great
but they didn't because they just didn't hang in there.
What is it that brings persistence to a particular individual?
I mean, consistency is obviously an important thing but persistence,
in other words, stick at your game.
Why do you think that you stuck at your game and others didn't?
I mean, you just kept in front of everybody and just kept doing it.
What was it about you?
To be honest, I don't know.
I've always been sort of intrinsically motivated within myself.
As soon as my alarm went off in the morning,
I would get up out of bed straightaway.
I would go for a run by myself.
I didn't have to get pushed by my parents at all.
You've got to go out and chop wood.
Okay, yep, sweet.
I always felt like my mental prep, I always visualised my game
from a young age too.
And that's mindfulness, mental prep, that meditation,
all that stuff that's in our game now.
I just had a good ability to prepare mentally, I felt.
And I had an ability, I felt, that I could separate things.
If something was going wrong in, say, your family life or an argument,
whatever, I could come to training or just put that aside and I could
just focus on training and play my best.
Where some other people can't do that, it comes into their training,
they train poorly, they play poorly.
Well, I felt like I could always separate things and then visualise
what I needed to do and try and execute it to the best of my ability.
And then it was a repetition.
It's like as a fullback, you've just got to catch repetition,
ball after ball, ball after ball, until it becomes automatic.
Because, you know, in the pressure of an 80-minute grand final
when there's 80,000 fans.
People get overawed by it.
But if you've just caught that ball 1,000 times at training,
it's the same thing, really.
There's just a lot more noise around you.
But if you can separate that and persist and consistently do your bit
and train and train and catch and catch, it just becomes automatic.
And then, like, after you've done your physical prep,
then the mental prep starts.
And I was always visualising, you know, not doing, like,
You would visualise that.
But visualise, like, just immense fatigue but pushing through that
fatigue to do something good.
Like, that was my visualisation that I did weekly.
And so if I did my training regime and I did my catching and my extras,
then I did my visualisation prep, I always felt I went into a game
confident because I ticked all my boxes, all my prep boxes,
always went into a game confident.
And if I didn't do something, then you go,
oh, shit, I didn't do that this week.
It's in the back of your head straightaway.
And that brings doubt into your mind.
And when it's under pressure, you don't want doubt.
Do you ever remember having dreams the night before a game
or something like that that you perhaps forgot your mouth guard
or you had the wrong boots or you didn't?
I've heard stories from guys who played first grade and probably
in many grades where they had sort of dreams about not being prepared
for the game they were about to play.
But dreaming sort of could be a bit of a nightmare to some extent.
But did you ever have experiences like that?
Rico used to tell me those things.
You know, it's really weird.
I still have dreams now.
Like Robbo calls me back in and I'm playing.
I'm on the field.
Not all the time but it happens sort of quite regularly
where you get one more shot and, yeah, you play well or you feel
like you're out of the loop and you're, oh, shit,
I'm going to this big game.
And you get stressed.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I know, yeah.
No, I have some of those now still.
Yeah, that's mad.
I'm thinking back when I was playing.
I think I was okay with all that type of stuff
but I have more now I reckon.
And would you say that your ability to, as you just said,
like if you had some drama somewhere you could actually separate
that from what it is the task at hand, get on with the task at hand
and perhaps deal with the drama after it, that compartmentalisation
that you were using, do you think that's a bit of a superpower of,
say, in your case, someone like you because I know other people
who do the same thing in business and all sorts of things,
compartmentalisation of something, in other words, park something,
deal with it later.
I mean I have this process where I say I'll put, you know,
in a not in a real sense but I actually put something in a box,
close the lid, lock it, it's there.
Get on with what I've got to get on with.
That's just a technique I use.
Is that something you use as a superpower in terms of being able
to do your best on the field on the day?
I felt I had it mentally over other opponents because I could do that,
I felt, and, you know, the visualisation part was massive for me
and then like even like you see people when they come off contract,
they're always eager to sign a deal.
Like, oh, they get really stressed.
Like the last five years in my career,
I did one-year deals.
I would, you know, Dave Rolla, my manager,
would go to you guys on the board and Nick and we're going up,
he's feeling good, he wants to go one more year.
Okay, yep, let's work it out.
This was at the end of the season in September and October.
Yep, we'll go one more.
Yep, we're going one more.
So it didn't really bother me that I was on a one-year deal
or I was coming off contract.
It was fine but I can see in other players they get stressed,
I'm coming off contract this year and I need to get this deal done
and I need security.
Like that's why I've always felt I've seen other players get stressed
in different areas and I always felt that my mental prep was not better
than others but I could really excel and jump other players in that area
because, you know, in the NRL now,
everyone's pretty much physically matched up pretty well.
They're all strong, they're all fast, they're all powerful
but it's how you prepare in your head that really matters.
It really elevates you from good to great.
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You said confidence, your own confidence relative to perhaps, say,
the confidence others didn't have.
I know this is going to be a hard question to answer
or maybe not a hard, a complex question to answer
given personalities, et cetera.
When you ran on a field,
which front rower have you played with in terms of either for Roosters
or Origin or Australia that would give you the most confidence?
Because, you know, the smaller guys, the guys out the back,
like to know they've got the big guys up the front.
Which dude does come to your mind?
Well, it's pretty easy.
Both of them are pretty equally there that I'll have in any team.
As my front rowers,
which would be Adrian Morley and Jarrod, we're Hargraves.
Those two would be my front rowers any day of the week
at any player in the NRL that's ever played.
And, of course, both of the nicest blokes off the field.
That you'll ever meet.
Wouldn't say shit for a shilling.
But what was the characteristic, the common characteristic perhaps
for those two when they're on the field?
Well, as you mentioned, off the field, they were just like the loveliest blokes.
Like, buy you a beer.
Like, even Morley, even like back when the early 2000s,
wrestling wasn't in the game that much.
And then it sort of filtered into the game where we did wrestle sessions.
I remember Morley.
He was just used to cuddle you and just put you down to the ground
and didn't want to hurt your teammate.
Where now the wrestle session is a bit different, right?
The boys go hard.
But as soon as they get into the change room, same with Jarrod,
and they cross that white stripe and they run out and play,
they just absolutely rock.
They're just absolute beasts.
Like, Morley, his eyes used to flicker.
And you could see the glint in Jarrod's eyes, how focused he is.
You want to be playing with them, not against them, you know.
I played against Morley in 2003 when we played.
It was the last Ashes series ever played.
So it was Great Britain versus Australia.
And you probably remember this way.
Great Britain kick off.
And I think Darren Lockyer catches it, passes it to Robbie Kearns.
Anyway, Adrian Morley is five metres in front of his line,
of his own teammates, five metres in front,
coming down the bash, Robbie Kearns.
Robbie Kearns just puts a right foot step.
Morley hangs out the arm, clips him on the chin and knockout.
Robbie Kearns carried off.
Morley sent off one of the fastest send-offs in history.
He was just like a bull.
He just loved the aggressive nature of it.
And the same as Jarrod.
And those two guys you want to be playing with, not against, that's for sure.
Why is it so important for a back or someone in the back line,
why is it so important for you to have these guys up front?
Well, you know, they're the engine room, right?
So they set the platform, set the tone of the game.
So we're the little guys.
We can't make big hits.
So I'm at fullback, so I don't tackle that much.
So if you see your forwards going hard and they're making inroads
and they're building momentum.
That's what you want for us.
It gives you confidence.
Yeah, it gives me confidence and it gives us room to move, right?
So it's about them creating space for you.
Yeah, yeah, you want space and time.
And that's what happened in Origin 2 where the forwards got on a roll on
and they were pushing the Queensland forwards back.
And as soon as you spread it out wide, then the fence is on the back foot.
So you've got time and space and that's what you want.
And, you know, the forwards obviously create that.
For the people in the room, perhaps you can explain something
and it's often something I look at sort of more in a mathematical sense,
but looks like Joey, Freddie, those great halves always look
like they've got more time than everybody else when they've got the ball
But is that because the forwards are creating the space for them?
Because space and time are sort of related.
So the more space you've got, the more time you've got.
Because it always looks like everyone's hanging off them.
I mean, by the way, same applied for Lockyer, et cetera.
I mean, we've got a lot going on.
But like Queensland players are equivalent.
Is it because the forwards were making that space for you?
And how important is that in terms of selection?
Oh, it's so important.
I would say those three players that you just mentioned, Joey, Freddie
and Lockie, they're the best players I've ever played with equally.
But they're all different players, right?
And I think those three, even though the momentum wasn't in our favour,
those three could actually turn the momentum.
That's how good they were.
Whereas, you know, you need the forward roll-on,
which we just spoke about.
But Joey was a massive thinker.
So he would just, you know, work three players over,
get them tackling, tackling, tackling.
And he'll just mention to me, stay on the inside, tackle four.
And he would have outside support ready, inside in me.
But he would get those three players tackling on the inside
for the last three tackles.
So they're tired already.
And then Joey will go to the line.
And weave his magic and just pass it inside to me.
And if there's a half gap or a gap there, well, I'll go through.
He was all speed.
But he had like, he was like, he was a massive thinker.
So he would get the A, veer the B, you know, get these guys tackling.
He was unbelievable.
Even that Origin game where he kicked the ball back, hit the post
while I swooped in, he actually told me about it.
I roomed with him that 2005 series where we called Joey back in.
Game two, playing at Homebush.
And he said, Billy Slater, fullback, mate, really good fullback, smart.
I'm going to kick to the corner, corner, corner, corner for 20 minutes.
And he's going to start hugging the corner to get the ball in the full.
I'm going to kick back and try and hit the post.
I want you swooping down the middle.
I went, yeah, sweet.
So anyway, he kicks, 20 minutes, kicking to the corner.
Billy Slater starts hugging the corner.
And then I think it was only like tackle three or something.
I called for an inside ball because I was just always hanging inside Joey.
And he does the kick.
And what do you know?
Now I swoop in and score the try.
So it wasn't a fluke?
No, it wasn't a fluke at all.
He actually mentioned that to me in our room like two days before the game.
So Billy Slater is mortal.
So if I just go back to, I just want to cover off this before we move on.
I haven't even spoken about Joey or Lockie yet.
2002, Villa Santi put a good shot on Freddie.
And I don't know if everyone in the room remembers it.
But, you know, opened him up a bit.
And it was a bit of a shock to us.
And at that stage, I think they were leading, Auckland were leading New Zealand.
I think it was 12-6 maybe to us.
But they had all the momentum.
They had the ascendancy at that point.
We were under the pump.
What was Morley's response at that point?
He's like, you can see his eyes steaming.
So Freddie gets cut.
Half gets knocked out.
And Villa Santi is standing over him.
And then everyone comes in and he's like, I've got you.
He's just pointing at you.
Morley said that?
He goes, you're mine.
Anyway, so he's in the memory bank.
And the play goes on.
And then I think Stacey Jones gets the ball and drops it under to Villa Santi.
And Morley's just come out flying out of line and just whacks him and just knocks him over.
And everyone's like, eh.
Are they momentum changers though?
I remember one game in New Zealand.
We'll come back to the grand final.
But one game in New Zealand, Ned Caddick got hit by Owen Gutenbild, it was.
And it was a high shot and knocked him out, carried him off.
Anyway, Morley just went, you, mate.
He literally pointed.
And anyway, he didn't get in that game.
Anyway, a year later, a year later, we're back at Mount Smart Stadium.
And, mate, he just tore Owen Gutenbild to shreds.
He just bashed him.
He'd come out of the line.
And even Owen said, mate, I know Morley's coming for me today.
And that was a year later.
He had it in the memory bank.
He never forgets.
And then so back to that grand final, that momentum change.
And then Freddie kicks that 40-20.
And then we roll on and score all those points to win.
Because I remember Fitzy telling me a little bit after that.
He said to me that Freddie was behind the trial on one stage there.
And he said to the forwards, just get me down there.
Get me down to our trial line.
And I'll do the rest.
Freddie was unbelievable.
He could actually, the confidence you must have got from someone like that
just said, if you get me down there, I'll sort something out for us.
His instincts, Freddie's instincts was just phenomenal.
He was just a footy player where, you know, as you said,
just get me down there.
And then he would look for certain things, weaknesses into the fence.
Like he was so quick at picking something and just go, give me the ball.
And that was Freddie's superpower.
His instinct was unbelievable.
I spoke about Joey.
So, Lockie was different.
He was just a smooth sort of operator.
He would like, you know, skip this player, skip two players in a heartbeat
and put you on a block or an overlap every single time
because he's such a good mover.
And he could skip two players in, you know, so quick, overlap every single time.
So, those three players were some of the best players I've ever played with.
Who was the, in your opinion, put yourself out aside
because you can't talk about yourself, I guess.
Of all the fullbacks, we've had some great fullbacks,
not just here at the Roos, but just generally speaking.
Who do you think is a real standout fullback apart from Anthony Minichiello?
Oh, well, Billy Slater, there's no doubt.
So, back in the early 2000s, like fullbacks were known for all their attack.
But then as you get into the mid-20s, you know, there's a lot of them.
But then as you get into the mid to late 2000s,
then the fullbacks really control the defensive line, basically.
And what I mean by that is, you know, there's three people in the tackle
and they're trying to slow the tackle down for a slow play of the ball
and obviously two markers.
Then the third person comes out and gets back to the line.
But that third person needs to look at the fullback
and they're pointing him where to go, left or right.
So, you've got to get the defensive numbers right every single time
to give the best opportunity for your defensive line to combat their attack.
When it becomes goal line defence, that happens a split second.
You've got to pull players where to go, put them on the left or right.
You get it wrong, then there's an overlap for the attacking team.
Now, Billy Slater was one of the best defensive organisation fullbacks going around,
plus then adding his attack and being a ball player as well, like a second 5'8".
He was unbelievable.
Back in the, what was it, late 90s or early 2000s,
when Brett Mullins was on fire at fullback.
I used to love watching him play as well.
But there's been so many wonderful fullbacks.
But that's the big thing in today's game is how they can control the defensive line.
Basically, the defensive line is yours as a fullback
because you're controlling and putting the players where you need to put them.
Which means they've got to be super fit because they've got to be sort of…
Yes, you've got to think under fatigue.
Especially goal line defence.
You're doing 40-metre sprints just in case they get around the defensive line for you to cover.
But obviously, the defensive line makes the tackle,
so you've done a 40-metre sprint for nothing.
But you need to be there.
But then you need to look at the defensive line,
see where the players are, left, right, pull that guy there.
So you're under fatigue, but then you need to organise the line as well.
Billy was pretty good at that.
I don't dare say.
I dare say that you and Teddy's very good at that too.
He was unbelievable at that, yes.
He's still unbelievable at it.
And you saw a lot of great fullbacks come through.
Of course, Roger was…
We put Roger on the wing for a while and then it was the process.
We put him on the wing.
You were on the wing for a while.
Luke Phillips was fullback, I think.
He was fullback 2002.
And wasn't he fullback in the game where we played Brisbane too in the grand final?
Actually, talking about good defenders, I remember Wendell Saylor hurling down.
Yes, that's right.
He's not a big guy.
Completely nailed him.
He was one of the hardest players to tackle, Wendell Saylor.
And he had lots of skills.
So the general process, I don't know whether this is the case in other clubs,
but at our club anyway, you play wing for a while and you get chuted into the fullback position.
Into the fullback position.
So Roger was playing on the wing.
Were you playing fullback at the time?
So what happened was in 2002, we obviously won the comp.
And then in the pre-season that year, Luke Phillips retired, right?
And we thought Luke Phillips was still only 27, 28.
We were like, what are you doing retiring?
Because his shoulder was stuffed.
And I said, what are you doing retiring?
He goes, mate, I've been lying about my age for years.
That's what he did, yes.
He used to lie about his age.
Anyway, so he retired.
And then in the pre-season, we had Justin Hodges, remember, right?
And he played lots of fullback at the Broncos before he came to us.
And Ricky goes, mate, what do you think about playing fullback?
And I'm like, yeah, give me a crack.
I want to get the hands on the ball much more.
And he goes, I'm thinking about you or Justin Hodges.
And I said, oh, mate, give me a first crack.
Anyway, so he did, Ricky.
And I always praise Ricky for this because that sort of elevated my career to the next level
where I made origin.
So my first ever game at fullback was the World Club Challenge over in England.
When we were off the back and winning in 2002.
And we went on to smash St. Helens.
And that was the start of my fullback career.
And then later that year, making the Blues squad at fullback.
That was the start of the fullback career.
And then in 2014, when it was my sort of last year, I sat down with Robert at the start
And he said, we want to sort of get Roger a bit more involved.
What do you think about whenever we go across the 50-meter line when we're attacking, you
go to right wing, Roger comes into fullback.
And then all the defensive organization, all the defensive play, you're at fullback, Roger
And I went, yeah, yeah, no dramas if that, you know, that sounds like a plan.
I moved to the right wing.
I think I scored more tries on the right wing that year.
But it worked really well.
Just to give Roger a chance.
Just to give Roger a taste of playing fullback in the attacking zone where you can do some
ball playing and just feel out how much running he needs to do before he takes over in 15.
So that worked really well.
So your, I think it was 2006, 2007.
Let's talk about your injuries.
I mean, you had a horrific two or three year period with your back.
And as I recall, you had two back operations.
I've had three now.
But you had two during.
Most of this would be career ending back operations.
Just tell me quickly, I mean, given your abs are so strong, I mean, you know, you've
been a gymnast, a professional sportsman, very conscious about your health and strength
and speed and et cetera.
I'm sure in those days you were probably doing lots of agility stuff and lots of stretching,
Why do you think you had a back problem?
Was that caused by a game?
Was it caused by a game or was it genetic?
So I'll tell you the story.
So obviously I had that good foundation of when I was a kid, whole food, nutrition and
all that type of stuff.
But I, you know, as soon as I signed the Roosters, I moved out of home at 18 and I started living
in the city with the boys and all that type of stuff.
So you're burning the candle at both ends, right?
So you lose that home cooked meals, you're eating out every night, you're eating poor
Who were you living with?
Who was in the house?
2004, we called this house the House of Grouse.
We had a big five-bedroom house.
It was myself, Brett Finch, Chris Walker, Mick Crocker, Todd Payton.
And so that was a pretty mad house for a year.
And I remember we got the house and Ricky goes, no, you're not living together.
And we're like, well, you can't really tell us where to live.
If we're playing bad, then we'll move out.
That's the deal, Rick.
And he goes, all right, done.
All right, you play well.
You know, we were on fire that year.
But go back to...
2006, where the breakdown happened.
So, you know, you're eating out, you're drinking alcohol on the weekends and even prescription
medication through the week.
You know, everything like back then...
Voltarans and that.
Yeah, Voltarans and sleeping tablets, they were all around.
And 2005, I had some flare ups in my lower back.
But prior to this, right, we had professional nutritionists and dieticians on board and
all that type of stuff.
So, I was always lean.
I was the leanest bloke in the team.
And they were saying...
I played at 88 kilo.
But I was still really lean.
Skinfold's always the lowest.
And they were just saying to me, oh, you just got great genes and genetics from your parents
and grandparents.
You're one of the lucky ones.
You know, you can basically eat what you want, all that type of stuff.
So, you know, in your early 20s, when you get told that, you think you're bulletproof,
So, I was drinking all weekend and eating out.
And I was like, you know what?
I'm going to do this.
I'm going to do that.
I'm going to do that.
I'm going to eat whatever I wanted.
And I wasn't getting injured through that 2000 to 2005 period.
I thought I was bulletproof.
I can do whatever I want because I've got great genes.
But, you know, in 2006, it all came crashing down.
2005, I had some flare-ups in my lower back.
It was two bulging discs.
Two lowest discs in your back.
And I remember Liz Steed, our physical therapist, said, you know what?
I'm going to do this.
I'm going to do this.
I'm going to do this.
I'm going to do this.
I'm going to do this.
I'm going to do this.
I'm going to do this.
I'm going to do this.
So, 2015, I had some flare-ups in my lower back.
It was two bulging discs.
Two lowest discs in your back.
And I remember Liz Steed, our physio, was like, you've got to look after your back.
You've got to make sure.
I was like, yeah, yeah, it's all good.
I didn't even care about it.
I just kept doing what I was doing on and off the field.
And then, they went from back spasms one time for a day.
Then, I went to two or three days where they were back spasms.
then in 2006 pre-season i was just in a scrimmage down down the south coast and i just did this
little click i just got checked there wasn't even like a bad tackle or anything and i had this nerve
pain running down my left leg and i took two weeks to get over and this was leading into the season
where we were playing south sydney for the first game and i rehabbed it and i played the first six
games and i played with constant hamstring pain um but i thought it was hamstring pain but it was
actually nerve pain running down my leg into my toes but every time i warmed up it would fade away
but every time i'd warm down or i'm around the house it'll increase from week to week ever so
slightly i got picked in the anzac day test against new zealand i remember coming in tony
abe was a physio and he'd bend down touch your toes do all the things to get the tick of approval
and i was bending down and touch my knees before that sharp pain would dig in and i'll go back
up and he'd go what are you doing go back down and touch your toe i can't i've got this pain that
runs down my leg and he was asking me more questions and more questions and he said man
i can't let you play like this man he was no no no chance anyway he ruled me out of that game i was
i was angry at the time but he sent me up to a specialist and i had an mri and i had a ruptured
disc in my l5s1 the lowest disc in your back pressing on that sciatic nerve and i remember
the surgeon goes you need an operation you need to get that disc shaved off and through that four
year because it just would have been put but
the bit was protruding hitting on the hitting on the nerve yeah hitting on the nerve protruding
hitting on the nerve and that's that constant nerve pain that was always there um throughout
the days and trying to you know get your socks and shoes on was a nightmare um but you know i
thought i warm up fades away it's all good anyway so the the actually the surgeon explained what i
was experiencing and that you need an operation and i thought you know i played more games than
anyone through this four or five year period get this operation and come back bigger and
stronger um so i'll get the operation and i'm you know running within six weeks i'm now taking
more anti-inflammatories thinking they're helping me 2007 season rolls around i play the first 10
games and i'm in camp actually for origin get picked in origin side again uh it's game two and
i literally just roll out of bed to put my socks on i just click in my back my back goes in the
spasm this time nerve pain is running down my right leg so i sort of crawl to the floor lay on
the floor call lizzie in the physio and i'm in the physio and i'm in the physio and i'm in the physio
and i'm sort of i was sort of stuck to the floor for an hour or two anyway this was three days
before the game the bus was going out to home bush to stay last night so the obviously the bus stays
on course all the boys get leave and i'll get ruled out obviously because i couldn't move and
they called brett stewart in um go back up to the some vincent's the mri and the surgeons and they
go look the disc above has done the same thing l45 has ruptured it's hitting the sciatic nerve
do you want to come back and play a contact sport like rugby league again there's dr
tim steele no no it wasn't tim steele was uh richard parkinson yep at some vincent's and i'll
go yeah of course i want to come back and play i'm 27 of course i'm so young and he goes well look
well i had a laminectomy the first operation this one will do a micro dissecting it's a bit of a
smaller operation similar operation but a little bit smaller we don't affect the structure of your
spine if you're going back into contact i said and he said you got to take the recovery a lot
slower i said okay sweet get that operation uh again i take the recovery a lot slower but
i still hadn't connected the dots with lifestyle and nutrition and all that type of stuff yet i was
still doing the same things anti-inflammatories morning and night two in the morning two at night
i was doing four a day last i've had stomach ulcers and everything developed um a year after
that anyway so 2008 season rolls around and i'm uh preparing for that season i play the first six
games i'm on the bench press and i just push out a rep three days before a game i sort of pinch
nerve in my neck you don't really think too much of it go out and play that game towards the end
i get the water bottle i squeeze the water out i felt like my wrist and hand just didn't have any
power that's weird right and i finished the game off tell the doc and they're like that doesn't
sound right like knowing your back history maybe we should get an mri that was a sunday night game
monday mri and i'm i don't i didn't think anything of it i'm training on field it was a tuesday night
uh we're doing scrimmage against reserve grade and our physio tony ade come comes running out
down the tunnel not he's screaming my name mini mini mini come off come on come on come on come on
come off and i walk over to him what's up and he goes mate i've just got your report back you've
got a like significant disc bulge in your c5 c6 vertebra and it's like it's showing that you're
like one millimeter away from your spinal cord anyway so i was basically in shock i had two back
operations i had a smaller disc bulge in my um thoracic and then i've got this huge disc bulge
in my neck and we sit on the side of the stadium and a million thoughts are running through your
and they do another mri and this is when the surgeon was looking at my spine and he was like
like all your discs they're black the inner someone that has a healthy spine they should
be white they're your cushioning system for running grappling sprinting all that type of
stuff yours are all dehydrated this is why they start to bulge out tear and rupture and i was
like okay well how do you fix it how can i fix it how can i rehydrate my disc again and i and
he was like it's pretty hard to rehydrate one
let alone all of them you know so you know we've got access to all the best specialists you go see
another one you go see another one they're all giving me the same answers and uh i remember i've
met my wife prior to this and she was she's always asking me but you've got to find out the reasons
why your discs are black and someone else's isn't like that why kept ringing in my head
so i just went on i just tried to find anyone to give me some answers or how to repair my body
and i went conventional holistic i saw heaps of people
heaps of different people and towards the end of that journey i found uh you know he's a good
friend of mine now aaron mckenzie he's got a training studio in bondi junction i've been there
origin of energy does all the gymnastic stuff yeah it does all the gymnastics and functional
movement type training this is 2008 where functional movement training wasn't really
in rugby league yet and you know he sat me down he didn't even ask me once about my injuries he
asked me about my childhood and what i ate and all these lifestyle questions which i thought was
weird at the time but he was trying to get a picture of me and i was like oh my god i'm going to
get a picture of how strong my foundation was as a kid and what i'm doing now to improve my body
and he said to me you can repair your body if you're willing to make some sacrifices and do
things consistently and i was like pretty much invested in that straight away because you know
i um i saw on contract for another year at the roosters and i had three spine injuries in the
last three years i played minimal amount of games um so i started training with him where the last
part of our session he would film me and i would film him and i would film him and i would film
it send it to my phone and i'll bring my phone into the roosters gym put it up on the corner and
i'll do all this sort of functional type movement training which was all weird back then because
it was all how much can you lift and squat and all that still um but you know the roosters were
pretty good to me they let me do what i wanted because um they tried a lot of things that sort
of hadn't been working either uh so i felt the 2009 season now rolls around and i felt stronger
in my core i'm ready to start the season try and push out a full season and i'm ready to start the
season this year and it's round two down in canberra i'm doing my ligaments remember my
ankle i did a syndesmosis and a spiral fracture in my fibula i thought i broke my ankles i heard
this huge crack um so another operation i was out for 22 weeks i think so most of the season again
so that was four years in a row and i was coming off contract and um i remember you know you guys
gave me great support a lot of the board rung me and and said no no look we don't give you another
year um you know match payments and i said yep so i'm going to do that and i'm going to do that
i'll you know i'll take that and that's when i did one year deals for the rest of my career
but that's when i started really 2008 2009 that's when i really started to um
dive into nutrition and the role it plays in um healing and restoring the body and i really i
dived into it like 100 i went i took a deep dive into it and i was um really meticulous with lots
of the things that i still practice now i've got four steps with my
nutrition that i still follow now what are they so the first one is get to know the source of
your food and where it comes from um you know everyone's sort of the saying you are you eat
but i take that a step further it's you are what your food eats so meaning like you know if you're
eating beef or lamb it's got to be grass fed grass finished so they're on their own natural
diet so the animals healthy themselves before you consume it uh wild caught fish organic free
range pork and chicken uh seasonal fruit and veg spray free if you can
or or the washing process becomes important because lots of herbicides and pesticides are
sprayed on crops now um the process food uh cutting down on ultra processed food big time
um step two is the the process of your food now so if you you've got um just say you got a lamb
shoulder most people put it in the oven put it on 180 degrees and cook it way too quickly burning
all the enzymes and nutrition out of it so i'll just turn that dial down to 120 130 or put it in
a slow cooker cook it
over time old school stuff old school yeah and i was thinking this is what i used to do this is
what my parents used to say they used to cook right i didn't get injured so really it hit it
hit a chord with me it was natural so you know cooking with the right oils getting rid of all
the vegetables industrial seed oils which can harm um your health and then step three is the
cut down on the ultra processed foods uh and then step four which i practice now which i i didn't
have the research behind me then was the you know weaving intermittent fasting for
accelerated healing so they're my four steps of nutrition now and you still do that now yeah
big time yeah like i always create my foundation always i do lots of speaking on nutrition now as
well but i always create my foundation at home and through the work week so you have a good strong
foundation and then when you have a weekends i'm pretty relaxed or if you have a function
you know enjoy yourself the part it's part of life you gotta enjoy yourself as well
if you work towards the 80 20 rule 80 whole nutrient dense foods 20
what you'd like to enjoy but when i was back then i was like more 90 95 5 or 90 10 because i was
really honing in on decreasing the inflammation in my body i always show a photo of arthur beats
and when he was handing me the golden boot award in 2005 i'm playing for australia i'm over in
england you should you see the photo my face is puffy my eyes are almost closed over i had like
the oxidative stress and the chronic inflammation bubbling beneath my body was out of control so
i had to give right like if for an athlete that's an injury but for um a normal person that's
illness disease chronic disease and that can be all reversed through what we put in our mouth
because we have the choice every single day or what we put in our mouth you said something really
interesting in the beginning of this you talked about um you do a bit of resistance work in order
to help you with your hormonal balance in particular probably something like testosterone
because um particularly do legs um just trying to keep things in balance you're not trying to
pump it up you're just trying to give it a little bit of resistance and you're not trying to give it
a balance um how important is it um to to to have a a real in your case at least um a full picture
as to your not only nutrition and your exercise but things like hydration like you know like
because and and not take things like voltaren for example because anti-inflammatories especially
nasa it's like um voltaren which is as i understand it actually have an uh the negative effect on your
hormonal system they actually make you lose testosterone you're in there trying to build
squats for example or something like that and then the next thing you know you because you get a
sore back you should have a cup of voltaren down your gob and uh it reverses exactly what you just
did yeah so this whole process anthony minichella is really good at this how important is this whole
process oh massively like so you know obviously they have a short-term benefit if you got a really
acute sore back or whatever it is you take a voltaren it gives you some ease but if the long
term use of that um it 100% affects your hormonal
profile then it makes you gut lining compromised all that type of stuff but um also the biggest
thing that hurts testosterone is plastics as well if you like i so so do you stop eating fish though
as a result of that i mean what do you do like well like well that's microplastics yeah there's
a lot of research around there's lots of microplastics in fish if i get fish i try i always
try and buy wild caught but even then still there's um
there's some uh effects of microplastics in in the ocean no doubt but the things that you can
control more from your grass fed grass finished beef and more animal animal products rather than
sea products but the thing is if you put everything together right so if if you when i want to dive
deep into this and inflammation is the key driver to chronic disease everyone we all know that now
so how can you minimize your own uh inflammation uh inflammation and how can you minimize your own
well what can what can you can you control you control your food intake you can control your
sleep you can control your hydration um and you can natural sunlight's important but then
like the plastic thing like drinking out of plastic bottles consistently uh all the skincare and
all these products right they have just little micro toxins in them but if you're consuming
poor quality produce you're drinking tap water you're getting six hours sleep uh you're not
much sunlight using uh conventional products these are these are the things that all add up
and as we age the detoxification systems in our body just that slows down that's just the aging
process so in your 20s you can get rid of stuff quite easily 30s still 40s start to slow down 50s
and that's when your toxic load just keeps building and building and building and then
then what happens shit i've got chronic disease i've got i've got type 2 diabetes i've got this
autoimmune disease where does it come from it's just a accumulation of what we've done to ourselves
over a number of years and then we're like oh my god i've got this autoimmune disease i've got this
autoimmune disease um so i've gone deep into it like so my household i'm all natural products and
my whole house is filtered and i know so i'm i'm meticulous all this but then i'm not i'm not like
um obsessed obsessed yeah so you know everyone anyone knows me we're on a sponsor trip i'm
having a thousand beers i'm having i'm enjoying i'm enjoying my time right but i know that my
foundation is strong because i practice this and you keep coming back to your foundation yeah yeah
so i always keep coming back to my four
steps that i'm meticulous with at home with my nutrition then uh all the try and um
decrease all the the crap that's around um train you know eight hours sleep hydrate good quality
water uh reverse osmosis filter at home stop trying to drink out of plastics i had a mate
whose testosterone was really low his estrogen was really high right this is from blood tests
anyway so he cut out um he actually cut out
beer and he cut out drinking from plastic bottles and and plastic food containers got rid of all that
and his testosterone went up and his estrogen went down just from the plastic use and cutting out some
some beer as well i mean we haven't talked about your family and you have a wonderful family and
i don't think we'll talk about them today but i could talk to you for hours um but within the
interest of everybody's time what's many do now apart from you helping us helping us the roosters
and you know we see you all the time um i'm not going to talk about it but i'm going to talk about
you all the time down the grounds and you obviously you know all always beautifully
attired and you're a great representative great representative of our club what does mini do
day-to-day then in terms and you said earlier on you do you know 10 to 15 000 steps a day but
what are you doing to get those 10 to 15 000 steps up with the kids in particular
yeah your kids are the kids yeah my business is mini fit so i just registered the name mini fit
in 2010 um because i you know obviously throughout injury period i was like shit what if i don't come
i don't want to go back to cabinet making that wasn't really what i wanted to do um but i love
you know playing sport obviously and working with kids and roosters used to do lots of holiday
clinics so i thought minifield what a great name i'll just register that and then in 2012
um i sort of worked with a friend who was in the pe space in schools and she helped me get one
school was east lakes public school where i used to go in there once a week and run a p program i
used to get someone else to run it for me as well because i was still playing and i was still playing
and i was still playing and i was still playing and i was still playing and i was still playing and
playing footy but then when i retired in 2010 i still worked full-time the roosters and i always
say my transition was smooth but it's it was still like a four-year transition i felt for me to run
my own business um and feel comfortable doing that um so the transition was smooth but i was
at full-time at the roosters and i had many feet on the side and i started running holiday clinics
for the club industry so during the school holidays school holidays yep so clubs like
wenty and um mounties and reasonably workers club and all these big clubs that spend money on
community um i will go in there run a holiday clinic for them on their field and that was
really starting to take off and then i sort of started to transition um from the roosters more
into my own business and start to grow that because i always felt like i wanted to grow
something of my own uh and then then um a few years after that i had an email from
a past teacher of mine year six he was my year six teacher and footy coach and he was
obviously he's a primary school teacher uh he'd been working in hong kong for 18 years teaching
and he was moving back to australia and he said i follow you love the roosters and i followed your
career and i'll see if you've got mini fit now are you thinking about going back into the school
system uh we should have a coffee and so i've got him on board now and he's one of my head pe
and we've gone into the school program we found in the public school system they outsource a lot
of their physical activity where they don't have pe departments anymore like the private schools do
they just have pe coordinators and not many teachers want to really teach pe anymore and
in the syllabus you've got to have a minimum of 150 minutes of physical activity per week for the
kids really yep each kid yep every yep so that that's like two pe class a pe class p double say
on friday and then there has to be something else in there so a lot of the
public schools they outsource to companies like ours where we come in once a week and run a 10
week program for them in a term in a term yep so we'll go there say a school on a wednesday and
we'll go nine or three and we roll two or three classes will come out and and we roll out the
whole school in that day if it's a big school we go there two days a week but my model is pe teacher
and athlete delivering a program so the school loves that there is a pe teacher credited pe
teacher running it
and then an athlete which is the the kids love is a rooster and i employ a lot of the young roosters
through sheridan um here and it's and the nrlw girls and it's you know every under 21s player
needs to be working or studying otherwise i'm allowed to play in the nrl so there's a access of
a lot of the kids that want to work and have their working with children checks and
so i employ quite regulated yeah yeah yeah so that that's great so the kids love there's an athlete
who goes sat progressed as school loves that there's a um pe teacher there so that that's been
sort of growing nicely and then last year we so last year we went into the special needs school
space so my rick my head teacher is special needs trained and we just put on another p teacher that
worked in hong kong with him an australian guy who's special needs trained as well so we started
with one special needs school lucas gardens in the inner west which is moderate to severe disabilities
and now we're working with six this year already so that's a real similar era so it doesn't seem to be
like that right there you go like what's top five you know you've got four entire classes four of a
second you know but it doesn't matter either if you adopt any of those so far as long as they exist and
it's really early this year's we're just taking several classes in my public authorities were and so we actually
six this year already so that's a real area of growth for minifit this year where we can um
it's a much needed area that needs more attention really because those teachers they're like angels
they're looking after these kids with disabilities every day and they're trying to teach them
but then when it comes to sport um they sort of find it hard to um have kids maybe in wheelchairs
or non-verbal whatever it may be what do we do with them right so that's where we come in and
run that 10-week program for the disability kids and that's been working awesome they're they're
unreal they'll be fairly fulfilling seeing that yeah it's like i'll tell you it puts everything
into perspective that's for sure if you think you're having a bad day um going into a school
and seeing these kids and the challenges that they face each each day is phenomenal i guess
it's really good opportunity for you to be grateful to for what you have as opposed to what you don't
have yeah um and i i can't go i mean we talk about a lot of really serious topics and um you know
you're going to get a lot of people who are going to get a lot of people who are going to get a lot
get the good guy award for being Anthony Minichiello, the good guy.
But you were at one stage voted, I can't remember now,
some of the sexiest men in Australia.
What was that like?
No, I think I'd come fourth, I think.
I'm not sure about that.
Do you remember this?
Was it the 2002 or 2003 or something like that?
Yeah, before that it was Wingy, right?
He won Clio Bachelor of the Year and all the girls loved him after that.
They still do, yeah.
But, yeah, the NRL used to run the sexiest men in the league thing
and I think I got thrown in there once.
I think you won it.
I think you won it.
And just for everybody in the room, you had two nicknames, obviously many,
but the other one was Count.
And the players often referred to you as Count.
When they were being interviewed and they were talking about,
if players were being interviewed during your playing period,
they would talk about Count the Count.
What's the reference there?
So 2001 I made the City Origin team when City Country was around still.
And Brett Kenney was our coach.
And he's the guy that names me the Count.
He goes, mate, you look like a Count.
Out of Sesame Street.
Sesame Street, yeah.
Sesame Street, yeah, that's right.
So he was known as a Count.
He looked like the Count out of Sesame Street.
And then all the fans ran with that actually.
And then later in the 2000s it went to the Mountain Cat,
the Italian Mountain Cat, the Ming Cat, all that type of stuff.
Because back in the Monday sports section there was a section
where fans could write in little comments about anyone, players, whatever.
And one guy wrote, Anthony Minichiello reminds me of an Italian Mountain Cat.
He always lands on his front.
Anyway, Rico read this.
It's true though.
Rico read this and went, bang, you're the Mountain Cat.
That's how it started.
Mate, you've had a wonderful career and everyone in this room
would acknowledge that.
Obviously with a lot of Rooster fans here though.
But you've had a wonderful career just generally for both state, country,
importantly our club and our local area.
But you're also a great, in fact you're a prodigy of rugby league
in that not just your own rugby league talent,
but I'm not talking about just talent.
I'm talking about the outcome of Anthony Minichiello today,
being able to get through adversity and come out the other side
probably much better than you were prior to yourself going into adversity
and being able to be grateful and have a great family
and build a great family.
Build a great career post rugby league and still maintain your fantastic
and probably one of the most elevated reputations in rugby league.
You never really got yourself in any trouble or at least that we know about.
Well, there was no social media back then.
But in real terms and we think, I think and I'm sure I'm talking on behalf
of everybody here and everybody who supports Roosters that we think
you're just a wonderful example of what it means to be a Rooster.
Thanks very much, mate.
Thanks for having me.
It's, you know, Roosters has been my whole life basically.
You know, I grew up as a youngster at the Roosters
and they've certainly made me the man that I am today.
And, you know, obviously through adversity,
that's when you learn and evolve and adapt.
And that's through that mid part of my career,
that's where I sort of started to educate myself a little bit more
through those injuries.
And I had massive support obviously from my wife and my family.
And it's been a wonderful ride.
So I appreciate you having me today.
Ladies and gentlemen, Anthony Michello.
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