# #82 | Tom Slingsby | The Hidden Mindset Behind The Broncos 2025 Success

An episode of [Backstage with Cooper & Matty Johns](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1729949087), 22 Mar 2026, 1 h 01 min.

Audio: https://p.podderapp.com/2544644999/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2fb3740d-3436-44af-8cc0-a91900716aa5/d7a60aed-0ec1-4a17-9f87-b248003b7796/6544868a-5a90-4b1a-9a63-b41500b77493/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=676e8df2-b284-47a4-9fbd-b248003b77ad

Olympic gold medalist Tom Slingsby joins the boys to talk sailing dominance, the America’s Cup, and elite mindset. He reveals his work with Michael Maguire and the Brisbane Broncos, and how high-performance thinking translates to footy. Subscribe, Watch, and Follow Catch the full episode on YouTube and stay updated by following us on social media: Linktree: Backstage with Cooper & Matty Contact Us For any enquiries, email us at: contact@johnsmedia.com.au 0:00-Intro 1:00 – Central Coast 2:50 – Michael Maguire 5:30 – America’s Cup 11:00 – Alcatraz 13:00 – America’s Cup 20:00 – Sports Psychology 28:00 – Broncos 34:00 – Bonds Flying Roos 37:00 – Mick Fanning Shark Attack 41:00 – Olympics 46:00 – Pressure Winning 49:00 – Sydney to Hobart 56:00 – Finishing Up See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Now today we've got a real truth in a suppose
[0:04] Speaker 1: in a country that's dominated by ball sports, we're talking
[0:06] Speaker 1: about cricket, rugby union, rugby league AFL, et cetera, et cetera.
[0:11] Speaker 1: Tom Slingsby is the name you might not know a
[0:14] Speaker 1: lot of, but he is. He's a legend of sailing,
[0:18] Speaker 1: not just not just in Australia but worldwide. Tom's won
[0:21] Speaker 1: America's Cups, He's won a gold medal at the Olympics.
[0:25] Speaker 1: He is the CEO, and he sails in the Sale GP,
[0:29] Speaker 1: which is huge around the world international tournament which his
[0:33] Speaker 1: organization now is also part owners a Hugh Jackman and
[0:35] Speaker 1: Ryan Reynolds. He's won, He's won Sydney to Hobart's. He
[0:41] Speaker 1: sailed with some celebrities on there have good stories about that.
[0:44] Speaker 1: But the amazing thing from a sports from a ragby
[0:47] Speaker 1: league perspective is people don't know that Tom provided the
[0:50] Speaker 1: narrative and the inspiration for the Brisbane Broncos to go
[0:53] Speaker 1: on that amazing end of season run and win the competition.
[0:57] Speaker 1: Today we're going to talk about all those things. So
[1:00] Speaker 1: really enjoyed. I know you're gonna love it. Tom Slingsby, Hey, Tommy,
[1:05] Speaker 1: welcome brother. You've you've made it. You finally made our
[1:10] Speaker 1: our wardrobe.
[1:11] Speaker 2: Here in the It's beautiful.
[1:13] Speaker 1: I love what you've done with a chalet John's.
[1:15] Speaker 3: Yeah, it used to be a sauna.
[1:17] Speaker 2: I did it really? Yeah that.
[1:22] Speaker 1: Don't listen to me.
[1:25] Speaker 3: How far where do you come from? Where are you
[1:27] Speaker 3: living now?
[1:28] Speaker 2: Living in Mossman now was Yeah, I've been living overseas
[1:33] Speaker 2: for a long long period of time, but also up
[1:35] Speaker 2: at Lake Macquarie a bit. I was born and raised
[1:37] Speaker 2: in Gosford Gosford Boy Yeah, rough.
[1:40] Speaker 1: Yeah, when you're growing up like it has. It has
[1:44] Speaker 1: changed a lot, no doubt about it. But such a
[1:46] Speaker 1: great joint up there in Central Coast. It's just a
[1:48] Speaker 1: shame that they do with everything they can to get
[1:51] Speaker 1: it going.
[1:52] Speaker 2: Yeah, it's unbelievable there, and I remember growing up my
[1:55] Speaker 2: years it was all about trying to get the rugby
[1:57] Speaker 2: league team and we built the stadium there and then
[1:59] Speaker 2: we've got the Bears Eagles for a while and then
[2:03] Speaker 2: turned into the A League, which was good, but they
[2:05] Speaker 2: always wanted their own team. But yeah, gossip, I love it.
[2:09] Speaker 2: I've got such fond memories growing up there and around
[2:12] Speaker 2: the area. But Yeah, it's I still love going up there.
[2:16] Speaker 2: For sure.
[2:17] Speaker 3: What was the There was a night club in Gosford,
[2:20] Speaker 3: wasn't It wasn't a club Trup Club Trop that's the
[2:23] Speaker 3: one right across from the stadium.
[2:25] Speaker 1: Yeah, the first time in Australia alcoholic jelly high times.
[2:30] Speaker 3: And yeah, and you're saying Bolt wasn't he at the
[2:34] Speaker 3: Mariners there? He was?
[2:35] Speaker 2: He was, He was around No, I actually met him
[2:39] Speaker 2: a long time ago the two thousand and eight Olympics.
[2:41] Speaker 2: Actually I had breakfast next to him one time. But no,
[2:44] Speaker 2: I never I wasn't living around there when he joined
[2:47] Speaker 2: the Mariners.
[2:48] Speaker 1: Playing soccer just shows that God doesn't give you everything.
[2:53] Speaker 3: Tommy.
[2:53] Speaker 1: Now we first met Michael McGuire had an appreciation you
[2:57] Speaker 1: have to win the competition. A couple of months ago
[3:00] Speaker 1: we found our sitting ourselves, sitting next to each other
[3:03] Speaker 1: bonding over this guy who was honestly Walter Goggins. This
[3:08] Speaker 1: fella and he measures salary cap right hand man. Anyway,
[3:13] Speaker 1: he just turned his guns on me. It was just
[3:15] Speaker 1: I found hugely unfair.
[3:18] Speaker 2: He definitely did. I think it was over just spotting
[3:22] Speaker 2: the next generation of talent or something like that. And
[3:24] Speaker 2: how do you know if someone's good. And then I
[3:26] Speaker 2: think it was I forget the player, but it was like,
[3:29] Speaker 2: oh yeah, I saw him. He had a lot of potential.
[3:32] Speaker 2: And then I think you said something and said, yeah,
[3:34] Speaker 2: he didn't go too far or something like that, and
[3:37] Speaker 2: from then on, yeah, he just switched to guns.
[3:39] Speaker 1: And I've just done the I've just done the numbers.
[3:45] Speaker 1: I run through the numbers on all the teams this year.
[3:48] Speaker 1: But you know your team, Galcos Titans going to come last? Right?
[3:51] Speaker 1: And was that true? Is that right? And and then he
[3:54] Speaker 1: goes Broncos, Mate, we're going to be yeah, probably going
[3:57] Speaker 1: back to back. And I'm like, oh really, so tell
[3:59] Speaker 1: me anyway, keeps counting. I can feel myself getting aggravad
[4:02] Speaker 1: and I said, fucking listening, We're going to do well.
[4:06] Speaker 3: Was right about the Titans, except except they're both They're
[4:11] Speaker 3: both are and two at the moment.
[4:14] Speaker 1: Now, Tommy, in the podcast, we're going to cover off
[4:16] Speaker 1: some of the big moments and achievements in your career.
[4:18] Speaker 1: There's just so many to talk about, but yeah, we're
[4:20] Speaker 1: going to sort of hand pack some, but I want
[4:23] Speaker 1: to let people know about And you provided the narrative
[4:29] Speaker 1: and a lot of the inspiration for that Broncos amazing
[4:31] Speaker 1: run with back end last year, an incredible run with
[4:34] Speaker 1: the hat. But the time Madge will put it this way,
[4:37] Speaker 1: Madge's got a lot of stick. There was the famous
[4:40] Speaker 1: harbor a Sydney Harbor cruz, which Buzz just hammered him
[4:44] Speaker 1: for said, how can you They've got to go in
[4:46] Speaker 1: the winning run? He take them on a cruise, you know.
[4:48] Speaker 1: And the thing about with Madge it was either trained
[4:50] Speaker 1: them too hard or going too soft on them people's opinion.
[4:54] Speaker 1: But what they didn't know is that you were the
[4:56] Speaker 1: reason why we're on the boat. And at that point
[5:01] Speaker 1: the Broncos needed to win, win, win, win win, not
[5:04] Speaker 1: just to play finals, but try to crack the top four,
[5:06] Speaker 1: and they're able to do that. Tommy, can we like
[5:08] Speaker 1: how firstly the relationship between you and Madge? How did
[5:11] Speaker 1: you meet?
[5:13] Speaker 2: I met through mutual friend Anthony Bell. Yeah, Anthony gave
[5:17] Speaker 2: me a call and I think he's on the Broncos
[5:19] Speaker 2: board and was helping Madge and he said, look, I
[5:24] Speaker 2: spoken to imagine love to do a talk with you
[5:27] Speaker 2: and the players. Is that possible? And I used to
[5:30] Speaker 2: do some talks and stuff after the Olympics back twenty twelve,
[5:34] Speaker 2: and I sort of thought, you know, that's not for me.
[5:36] Speaker 2: I'm not really that sort of person, and so I
[5:39] Speaker 2: haven't really done any of that sort of stuff for
[5:41] Speaker 2: a long time. But I've been a mad Broncos fan
[5:44] Speaker 2: my whole life, and I just saw, you know, I'm
[5:48] Speaker 2: happy to come talk to them. I'm not sure what
[5:49] Speaker 2: I'll help them with, but I'll, yeah, I'll come have
[5:52] Speaker 2: a chat with the players. And so I met Madge
[5:54] Speaker 2: that day.
[5:55] Speaker 1: And it was around that it was the twenty thirty
[5:58] Speaker 1: in America's Cup, Tommy, and we'll talk by bit through
[6:02] Speaker 1: what happened, because it's just an amazing achievement. But I mean,
[6:06] Speaker 1: we all remember in Australia, like the America's Cup of
[6:09] Speaker 1: nine to eighty three, like you know, like even people
[6:11] Speaker 1: who had never stepped on a boat before, like it
[6:14] Speaker 1: was for Coop and Jack.
[6:16] Speaker 2: It was.
[6:17] Speaker 1: I would say, if you're talking about the greatest moments
[6:19] Speaker 1: in Australian sport, you know it's on the days it
[6:22] Speaker 1: was incredible for you. It's the America's Cup. But what's interesting,
[6:27] Speaker 1: Tom's you're part of Team USA. Now do you have
[6:31] Speaker 1: to be an American citizen to do that or did
[6:33] Speaker 1: they head hunt you back then?
[6:36] Speaker 2: So the twenty thirteen America's Cup you didn't have to.
[6:39] Speaker 2: I think they might have needed like one American out
[6:41] Speaker 2: of eleven crew members on board. It was more of
[6:45] Speaker 2: a sort of head hunting and you race for the
[6:47] Speaker 2: highest bidder.
[6:48] Speaker 3: Really but like that, it's kind of like IPL and
[6:51] Speaker 3: cricket like that.
[6:52] Speaker 2: They just reduced the nationality rule. It used to be
[6:55] Speaker 2: a real country verse country competition, but as it got
[6:57] Speaker 2: more professional and you've got teams named Emirates New Zealand
[7:01] Speaker 2: and all the big money came to it, they also
[7:05] Speaker 2: sort of opened it up with the nationality rule and
[7:08] Speaker 2: allowed anyone to race for anyone, which I think it
[7:12] Speaker 2: went a bit too far, And then they've since come
[7:14] Speaker 2: back that you had to race for your actual country.
[7:17] Speaker 2: But I'm a US citizen, my mum's American. My mum
[7:21] Speaker 2: was born and raised in Seattle. I've had dual passports
[7:24] Speaker 2: my whole life, and Australia hasn't been in the America's
[7:28] Speaker 2: Cup since we had Young Australian ninety nine, but properly
[7:32] Speaker 2: since nineteen ninety five with one Australia, and so I
[7:37] Speaker 2: always said, well, if I can't race for Australia, I'd
[7:40] Speaker 2: race for my second country, which is the US. I mean,
[7:42] Speaker 2: I'm not Ossie as Ozzie Getz, and I'll always choose
[7:45] Speaker 2: Australia over the US to race for. But yeah, so
[7:49] Speaker 2: I got an offer. I got an offer from a
[7:50] Speaker 2: few teams, an Italian team and a few others, but
[7:53] Speaker 2: I said, okay, I want to go race for the US,
[7:55] Speaker 2: and I joined Oracle Team USA in twenty eleven.
[8:00] Speaker 1: Your role is strategist, so can you tell us what
[8:02] Speaker 1: that entails.
[8:04] Speaker 2: Yeah, I got hired. I didn't have a role, but
[8:07] Speaker 2: I ended up going into the strategist's role. So there's
[8:10] Speaker 2: a driver and there's a tactician. The tactician tells the
[8:14] Speaker 2: driver of the boat exactly, okay, let's tack here, let's
[8:17] Speaker 2: go over here, and the strategist basically paints a picture.
[8:20] Speaker 2: If there were no other boats on the race track,
[8:23] Speaker 2: where's the quickest way with wind, current, shifts, clouds, And
[8:27] Speaker 2: so I go, okay, we've start off, we'll go left
[8:30] Speaker 2: at the bottom, and then we've got to make sure
[8:32] Speaker 2: we cross to the top right because there'll be more
[8:34] Speaker 2: right hand shift there or something. So I would basically
[8:37] Speaker 2: talk to the tactician and say who was Ben Ainsley.
[8:40] Speaker 2: I'd say, Okay, I think there's better breeze this side.
[8:44] Speaker 2: We want to stay on the left hand side of
[8:45] Speaker 2: our competitor and then and then he would basically make
[8:49] Speaker 2: the decision and tell the driver.
[8:51] Speaker 1: So for you, is that intuition is a bit of everything.
[8:55] Speaker 2: Yeah, to be a good sailor, It's it's quite a
[8:57] Speaker 2: hard one to explain. It's there's a lot of intuition
[9:01] Speaker 2: and there is a lot of knowledge that you have
[9:03] Speaker 2: to build up. Like I've done a lot of study
[9:05] Speaker 2: of meteorology and how clouds work and is a certain
[9:09] Speaker 2: cloud going to affect a race course with wind? It's
[9:12] Speaker 2: got to do with the thickness of the cloud and
[9:13] Speaker 2: the density of the cloud and how close it is
[9:16] Speaker 2: to the water and things like that affect a race course.
[9:19] Speaker 2: So there's a lot of experience seeing it a lot
[9:21] Speaker 2: of times, but there's also a lot of study when
[9:23] Speaker 2: you're younger.
[9:24] Speaker 3: How do you like, I imagine leading into a race,
[9:27] Speaker 3: you can prepare a lot for weather that's coming, and
[9:30] Speaker 3: like looking at the course and being able to come
[9:32] Speaker 3: up with a strategy there. But how much stuff is
[9:35] Speaker 3: on the fly, Like you're on the boat looking up
[9:37] Speaker 3: you see a cloud, Like, how much stuff are you
[9:38] Speaker 3: going to have to make the show?
[9:39] Speaker 2: Ninety five percent is on the fly. You'll come up
[9:43] Speaker 2: with a rough strategy and you go, Okay, I think
[9:45] Speaker 2: I've got to protect the left hand side. If I
[9:46] Speaker 2: can get to the left of my competitors, I'm going
[9:49] Speaker 2: to make a gain. But all of a sudden the
[9:52] Speaker 2: current changes, or it's not doing what it's quite supposed to,
[9:56] Speaker 2: or all of a sudden the cloud moves in from
[9:58] Speaker 2: the right hand side, something like that changes. You've got
[10:00] Speaker 2: to just adapt all the time.
[10:02] Speaker 3: And obviously sport, like some team sports like it, you're
[10:06] Speaker 3: allowed to have like performance enhancing equipment or drugs for
[10:09] Speaker 3: you is like, no, I'm not talking about, but i'd
[10:14] Speaker 3: talk about, like would a watch that shows your current
[10:17] Speaker 3: wind and all that is that considered performance enhancing?
[10:20] Speaker 2: A Yeah, it can't really, There isn't anything like that.
[10:23] Speaker 2: We've got wind instruments on the boat and it gives
[10:25] Speaker 2: us a live readout. So basically there's a little windex
[10:28] Speaker 2: at the top of the boat and it's saying, okay,
[10:29] Speaker 2: the wind has just shifted a bit left on the boat,
[10:31] Speaker 2: but nothing can really predict what's happening on the course live.
[10:36] Speaker 2: But now in the league I do. Now sour GP,
[10:39] Speaker 2: we've got different things, like we've got the wind instruments
[10:41] Speaker 2: on the marks and we've got a coach who says, hey,
[10:44] Speaker 2: the wind's just gone left on the market. The sports
[10:46] Speaker 2: changed quite a lot now. It's kind of like tennis.
[10:48] Speaker 2: How Tennis players never used to be allowed to be
[10:50] Speaker 2: coached and needs to be all the subtle hand signals,
[10:53] Speaker 2: but now the coaches on the on the ground with you.
[10:55] Speaker 2: It's kind of the same with us. We've never been
[10:57] Speaker 2: allowed to talk to a coach during a race, but
[11:00] Speaker 2: now they say, we've got them in area in our
[11:03] Speaker 2: comms telling us, hey careful here, this boat's doing this
[11:06] Speaker 2: or something like that. So it's like another person on
[11:09] Speaker 2: the boat with the coaching, but knowing the wind up there. Yeah,
[11:13] Speaker 2: I mean, sailing's changed a lot. Previously I used to
[11:16] Speaker 2: go out and I had nothing when I did the Olympics.
[11:18] Speaker 2: You don't have anything now that you weren't even allowed
[11:20] Speaker 2: to watch or anything like that. Well, I watch other
[11:23] Speaker 2: than to tell your time. And now it's changed a lot,
[11:26] Speaker 2: and we've got lots of different instruments we can.
[11:28] Speaker 1: Use, so twenty thirteen. Like, it's one of the greatest,
[11:31] Speaker 1: most iconic bays in the world, but also probably the
[11:34] Speaker 1: most one of the most complex in San Francisco Bay.
[11:37] Speaker 1: And I mean there's a reason why no one escape
[11:38] Speaker 1: from Alcatraz. To say, if you hit in the water
[11:40] Speaker 1: feature percent, you're going to die. Yeah, And you look
[11:43] Speaker 1: at underneath the bridge, it's just like the swirling rips
[11:46] Speaker 1: and currents. Is that particularly difficult that area San Francisco Bo.
[11:50] Speaker 2: Yeah, it really is. It's such a hard place to
[11:53] Speaker 2: sort of understand. It's it's weird because it's almost the
[11:56] Speaker 2: same conditions, like every day during summer you get the
[11:58] Speaker 2: breeze filling in and like a funnel basically where it
[12:02] Speaker 2: sort of wraps in and but it's extremely complex, especially
[12:06] Speaker 2: with the currents around there. And yeah, like they say
[12:08] Speaker 2: about Alcatraz, if you're in the water there a it's
[12:11] Speaker 2: very cold, and then be the currents. You could never
[12:15] Speaker 2: outswim the currents. So if they did try to get
[12:17] Speaker 2: off our contraz, they would have to time it pretty full.
[12:19] Speaker 3: In your expert opinion, do you think the people that
[12:22] Speaker 3: escaped Atras are still out there?
[12:24] Speaker 1: This is the reason why I got you. Okay, that's
[12:27] Speaker 1: certainly just a trojan.
[12:28] Speaker 2: Horse for this information opinion.
[12:32] Speaker 3: What's the percentage of echo?
[12:34] Speaker 2: I think there's no chance really, yeah, I mean the
[12:37] Speaker 2: distance isn't that far to swim from Arcatraz to the shore.
[12:40] Speaker 2: I love where we going with this, by the way,
[12:42] Speaker 2: but a there's big great whites there as well. That's
[12:45] Speaker 2: another fact that great. What's in Yeah YouTube shark attack
[12:50] Speaker 2: at Alcatraz and you see this shark attack of seal
[12:53] Speaker 2: right right in front of Arcatraz. It's pretty full on.
[12:55] Speaker 3: Actually, I know the golden gates, isn't there, like whirlpools
[12:58] Speaker 3: and stuff like that.
[12:59] Speaker 2: Yeah, there are the current and absolutely rips a sort
[13:01] Speaker 2: of three four knots of current, which is yeah, you
[13:04] Speaker 2: couldn't swim against it at all, So I don't think
[13:07] Speaker 2: anyone could beat that.
[13:08] Speaker 3: Well, what a perfect segue, because Tom, we've got a
[13:10] Speaker 3: special guest survivor of arpatrack.
[13:15] Speaker 1: Yeah. Now the real question have you been to jail.
[13:19] Speaker 2: To Tom?
[13:22] Speaker 1: You're up against the Kiwi's. You were the defending champions,
[13:27] Speaker 1: but who are the favorites?
[13:28] Speaker 2: We were actually the defending champions, but the Kiwi's in
[13:32] Speaker 2: that America's Cup basically learned how to foil stably first.
[13:37] Speaker 2: So if you see our sport now, it always used
[13:40] Speaker 2: to be traditional boating boats in the water. Now we're
[13:43] Speaker 2: up on hydrofoils. In the America's Cup in sour GP
[13:47] Speaker 2: and basically the Kiwi's we were all starting to foil,
[13:50] Speaker 2: but we'd be on the foil for a second and
[13:51] Speaker 2: then crash and then get going again, foil crash. The
[13:55] Speaker 2: Kiwis came up with a foils and a control system
[13:58] Speaker 2: which allowed them to get up on the foils and
[14:00] Speaker 2: control it and get ripping around, and that changed the
[14:03] Speaker 2: sport really. But they so when we went into that
[14:07] Speaker 2: America's Cup, they developed it, and we were basically playing
[14:10] Speaker 2: catch up. We started foiling stably, but they were by
[14:13] Speaker 2: that stage, they were onto the next thing and they
[14:15] Speaker 2: were doing their maneuvers on the foils and they were
[14:19] Speaker 2: just along way better than us, and we were just
[14:22] Speaker 2: always playing catch up. And so in that match they
[14:26] Speaker 2: got out first to nine series. They got out to
[14:28] Speaker 2: a big lead and yeah, I remember it sort of
[14:31] Speaker 2: the first race. We're in trouble here, yeah, right, and
[14:34] Speaker 2: then to Niel three nil everyone for one.
[14:37] Speaker 3: They in sport, people talk about like momentum when you
[14:41] Speaker 3: gain momentum, and a lot of momentum is just sort
[14:44] Speaker 3: of in our head, like you know, there's no certain
[14:47] Speaker 3: thing that but people lose confidence and people who start
[14:51] Speaker 3: to win, they gained so much confidence. That's why they
[14:53] Speaker 3: get on a roll. When you're in that scenario, how
[14:57] Speaker 3: do you stop the hemorrhaging? Like how do you stop?
[14:59] Speaker 3: What you guys think? And when they start to get
[15:01] Speaker 3: out to a three one lead and then eventually to
[15:02] Speaker 3: an eight one lead, where your head's at and like
[15:05] Speaker 3: what were you guys trying to do to sort of
[15:06] Speaker 3: stop the bleeding there?
[15:08] Speaker 2: Yeah, it's I'm such a big I love sports psychology
[15:12] Speaker 2: and I'm such a big advocate for momentum. I don't
[15:14] Speaker 2: know if it's just our sport, but you see it
[15:17] Speaker 2: in so many sports. I watch all sorts of sports,
[15:19] Speaker 2: and once someone gets on a roll, I use this
[15:23] Speaker 2: saying from Mick Fanning two thousand and seven book I
[15:26] Speaker 2: was called White Lightning. Mick Fanning is probably my favorite
[15:29] Speaker 2: Pussie sporting hero, but he had this saying once a
[15:33] Speaker 2: man embarks on a mission, he can become impossible to stop.
[15:37] Speaker 2: And I like that was my motto for my Olympic
[15:40] Speaker 2: Games and all that sort of stuff. But talk about
[15:42] Speaker 2: that later. But when we were down three to one,
[15:45] Speaker 2: we're like, okay, we're slower. We need to what can
[15:47] Speaker 2: we do to mode changed the boat to get it quicker.
[15:50] Speaker 2: Obviously you're allowed to make changes as long as it's
[15:52] Speaker 2: within the rules. So we're like, okay, where we can
[15:54] Speaker 2: change the foils a little bit like this and this,
[15:57] Speaker 2: and Haven four to one, five one, six one, and
[16:00] Speaker 2: then I remember we lost the race at six to one,
[16:03] Speaker 2: and we just made a couple of mistakes and I
[16:06] Speaker 2: and I remember coming in that day and I said
[16:08] Speaker 2: to our coaches and our and our sort of CEO,
[16:12] Speaker 2: and I said, I actually think we're quicker than them now.
[16:14] Speaker 2: I think we actually are a faster boat. These changes
[16:17] Speaker 2: were making a working but we just got to not
[16:20] Speaker 2: make mistakes. And then my boss, Russell Coutz sort of said, well,
[16:24] Speaker 2: don't don't fucking make mistakes.
[16:27] Speaker 3: And so sorry for sweat nobly horrible things.
[16:36] Speaker 2: And then and then we went out the next day,
[16:38] Speaker 2: two races per day, and we lost two races straight,
[16:42] Speaker 2: and we were the faster boat, and we went down
[16:46] Speaker 2: eight one. We came in that day and Russell Coots,
[16:49] Speaker 2: the boss, sort of got me and a couple of
[16:51] Speaker 2: sort of leaders and the team together and said, like
[16:54] Speaker 2: how he just let us have it basically, like these
[16:57] Speaker 2: campaigns cost one hundred and fifty million dollars, Like they're
[17:01] Speaker 2: huge campaigns. You train for four years for the America's Cup,
[17:04] Speaker 2: and we're now the faster boat, but it looks like
[17:07] Speaker 2: we're going to lose first to nine. We're down eight one,
[17:10] Speaker 2: And I remember the talk sort of the next morning
[17:13] Speaker 2: when we're eight one down and we're going out to
[17:15] Speaker 2: race two more races, and were there chatting about it,
[17:20] Speaker 2: and then we said we're sort of saying to each other,
[17:22] Speaker 2: we're actually faster than them. We just got to not
[17:24] Speaker 2: make mistakes and we'll win this thing. And then there
[17:28] Speaker 2: was a joke that went around that Emirates had an
[17:31] Speaker 2: a three to eighty on the tarmac ready to take
[17:33] Speaker 2: the team home, and it was costing him one hundred
[17:36] Speaker 2: thousand dollars a day or something to sit on the
[17:38] Speaker 2: tarmac and then they'd hide out this massive penthouse for
[17:41] Speaker 2: the after party, which is they've rented for that night,
[17:45] Speaker 2: and I was costing them two hundred thousand dollars or something,
[17:47] Speaker 2: and it became like a catch cry, and the team like,
[17:50] Speaker 2: if we beat them in two races today and just
[17:53] Speaker 2: get to eight three, they'll lose four hundred thousand dollars
[17:57] Speaker 2: or something like that. And one day and we're like,
[17:59] Speaker 2: let's go out there and make them suffer and make
[18:01] Speaker 2: them lose four hundred thousand dollars. And for some reason,
[18:04] Speaker 2: that simple thing just sort of we're all just going around,
[18:06] Speaker 2: so I'd focused on hitting each other on the shold
[18:08] Speaker 2: of the garden, make them lose four underground.
[18:10] Speaker 1: Underdoor, Like yeah, let's just we're probably.
[18:13] Speaker 2: Not going to win this thing, but we can make
[18:15] Speaker 2: them lose four hundred grand if we have a good day.
[18:17] Speaker 2: We went out won those two races, then the next
[18:20] Speaker 2: day is the same thing. The plane still there, the
[18:25] Speaker 2: party is still booked. Let's make them lose another four?
[18:27] Speaker 2: Was that?
[18:28] Speaker 3: Do they actually have all that? You guys fabricated that?
[18:31] Speaker 2: I actually, I generally don't I remember getting told it.
[18:34] Speaker 2: I don't know if it's true. If it wasn't, it
[18:36] Speaker 2: was a pretty good it could have been great.
[18:38] Speaker 1: Yeah, well it's a Michael georgism, isn't it. Yeah, you
[18:41] Speaker 1: invent the narrative. If it like you're saying, it probably
[18:45] Speaker 1: is true, but if it's not, it's not important.
[18:47] Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, And then we just got that. And then
[18:50] Speaker 2: but then everyone started to believe and our boat, the
[18:54] Speaker 2: changes we're making, we're getting all of a sudden, we're
[18:56] Speaker 2: faster than them. And then it started going and then yeah,
[19:01] Speaker 2: four or eight five, eight, six, eight seven, and then
[19:05] Speaker 2: we got to eight all and then by that stage
[19:08] Speaker 2: for the poor Kiwis, we were just faster, and we
[19:12] Speaker 2: were all just on this sort of wave of momentum.
[19:15] Speaker 2: We're all just sitting there just going, how good is this?
[19:16] Speaker 2: We're going to pull off the greatest sporting comeback in history,
[19:20] Speaker 2: and like, and the whole thing to each other was
[19:22] Speaker 2: I've got your back. I'm not going to make a
[19:24] Speaker 2: mistake today, are you? And I'm not going to make
[19:26] Speaker 2: a mistake, and we just sort of like really had
[19:29] Speaker 2: each other's back. So we were like, I'm not gonna
[19:32] Speaker 2: let the team down because we're going to win this thing,
[19:34] Speaker 2: and I'm not going to be the one to let
[19:35] Speaker 2: us down. And it was really sort of it was
[19:38] Speaker 2: an amazing feeling with all the team just sort of
[19:40] Speaker 2: looking at each other and going I believe I'm not
[19:43] Speaker 2: going to make a mistake, do you believe? And you
[19:45] Speaker 2: were going to make mistake and we all just sort
[19:47] Speaker 2: of rallied together and then but by the end we
[19:50] Speaker 2: were a faster boat as well. And even in that
[19:54] Speaker 2: final race eight all winner takes all, Kiwi's actually got
[19:59] Speaker 2: the edge off us off the start led, but then
[20:01] Speaker 2: we just smoked by it.
[20:03] Speaker 3: It's fine, I can I can see why. I can
[20:06] Speaker 3: see one Madge probably got you in to speak to
[20:09] Speaker 3: the Broncos now going off you talk about being a
[20:11] Speaker 3: faster boat, yet for whatever reason, you just weren't jelling
[20:13] Speaker 3: as a team and mentally the other side were probably
[20:16] Speaker 3: just had that little bit of edge like the Broncos
[20:19] Speaker 3: probably last year with exact same I think everyone looked
[20:21] Speaker 3: at their roster. They're faster, They're a faster boat in
[20:24] Speaker 3: the sense where they were better better across the park individually,
[20:27] Speaker 3: but for whatever reason they weren't yelling as a team.
[20:29] Speaker 3: I want to ask you, have you spoke to the
[20:32] Speaker 3: other side who was at New Zealand, who were at
[20:34] Speaker 3: eight one New Zealand. Have you since spoke to any
[20:37] Speaker 3: any of the sailors in there about how they were
[20:39] Speaker 3: feeling when you started to come back.
[20:40] Speaker 2: Yeah, I know a lot of them and yeah, I
[20:44] Speaker 2: mean some of them said yeah. Like a couple of
[20:47] Speaker 2: them were saying, yeah, look, we started counting on it
[20:50] Speaker 2: too early, but thinking that they were going to just
[20:53] Speaker 2: get the win nine to one. Some of them were saying,
[20:56] Speaker 2: we saw exactly what you saw in that we could
[20:59] Speaker 2: see that it was turning quick. The tide was turning quick,
[21:02] Speaker 2: and you guys were starting to get faster and faster,
[21:05] Speaker 2: and then all of a sudden you broke even. And
[21:07] Speaker 2: some of them at eight one said to well, I
[21:10] Speaker 2: remember chaining to one of the guys. He said, I
[21:12] Speaker 2: brought it up at eight one that these guys are
[21:15] Speaker 2: now faster than us and we've got to do something
[21:18] Speaker 2: really right here to be to win this. And but
[21:21] Speaker 2: I remember him saying the alarm bells weren't listened to
[21:25] Speaker 2: wow that hey, no, just keep doing what we're doing.
[21:28] Speaker 3: It's over, Isn't that funny? Like the like the when
[21:32] Speaker 3: you become't when you're like when you're when you're the
[21:35] Speaker 3: front runner being hunted by the people who the people
[21:38] Speaker 3: who were coming, you know, the hunting versus hunted, Like
[21:40] Speaker 3: they're constantly trying to get better, find ways evolve, get
[21:43] Speaker 3: better every day because they feel like they're behind the
[21:45] Speaker 3: eight ball. But then when when you're coming first or
[21:47] Speaker 3: you're ahead of the pack, you're just you're so not complacent,
[21:51] Speaker 3: but you just don't want to make a mistake, so
[21:53] Speaker 3: you don't look to get better.
[21:54] Speaker 2: You just go, let's keep what we're evolving. What got
[21:58] Speaker 2: you there is by that constant evolution in any sport,
[22:02] Speaker 2: no matter if it's surfing, rugby league, sailing. The people
[22:06] Speaker 2: who are climbing the ladder are just constantly evolving, improving,
[22:10] Speaker 2: fixing their weaknesses and improving everything. And that's what gets
[22:14] Speaker 2: you there. And that's what you've got to keep going
[22:16] Speaker 2: like it's you've got to keep that same mindset and process.
[22:19] Speaker 2: Otherwise the leader, if he stays the same, he'll get caught.
[22:23] Speaker 1: It's just the way of life, isn't it funny. It's
[22:25] Speaker 1: like talking about psychology. It's what you steer at sometimes
[22:28] Speaker 1: and you're saying, there, oh, you know, like we don't know,
[22:31] Speaker 1: don't make mistakes yet. I imagine there were some some
[22:35] Speaker 1: mistakes made, but it's almost like don't fear mistakes, like
[22:39] Speaker 1: you know, it's almost like that's almost more accurate. Let's
[22:41] Speaker 1: just get out there. We're going to race really aggressive
[22:44] Speaker 1: and less not fear error. Let's just go after it
[22:46] Speaker 1: where the Kuwei's are ahead by a long way as
[22:48] Speaker 1: suddenly they're trying to be perfect and they're treading on
[22:51] Speaker 1: eggshells a little bit talking about that, how that underdog
[22:54] Speaker 1: mentality sometimes sounds so simple but it's really hard to capture.
[22:58] Speaker 2: It's a mindset thing. I'm probably made just as many
[23:01] Speaker 2: mistakes as I did before that, but it was kind
[23:04] Speaker 2: of that.
[23:04] Speaker 3: Like we've got each other's back aggressively.
[23:07] Speaker 2: Yeah, like I'm not going to mistake make a mistake
[23:10] Speaker 2: of you. I know I'm not going to make a mistake,
[23:12] Speaker 2: but it was like kind of like, Okay, if I
[23:14] Speaker 2: make a mistake, he's got He's got me. Now he's
[23:16] Speaker 2: going to make sure it doesn't turn into something bigger.
[23:19] Speaker 2: And yeah, I mean that's the I just think there's
[23:23] Speaker 2: so much momentum in sport with like getting a role on.
[23:27] Speaker 2: If you get momentum and you get that role, that
[23:29] Speaker 2: just it spreads like wildfire through a team where you
[23:32] Speaker 2: just sort of sort of go, no, I've got you,
[23:35] Speaker 2: let's just keep doing it.
[23:36] Speaker 1: At what point did you know you had them? Was
[23:38] Speaker 1: it eight three? Eight five?
[23:41] Speaker 2: I thought at eight five was the number I remember going.
[23:47] Speaker 2: I remember I think it was the first time I
[23:48] Speaker 2: said to the team said, we're a faster boat. Now,
[23:51] Speaker 2: if we don't make mistakes, we will win this. And yeah,
[23:56] Speaker 2: I mean there were still people who were just sort
[23:58] Speaker 2: of on the let's make him lose money, yep, and
[24:01] Speaker 2: that worked for them. And there were people like me
[24:04] Speaker 2: who were like, no, we're going to win the America's
[24:06] Speaker 2: Cup here, We're going to pull off great sport comeback
[24:10] Speaker 2: and people, but we're all motivated all the same.
[24:13] Speaker 1: And yeah, the Americans are like so parochial, so patriotic.
[24:18] Speaker 1: How are the celebrations after it and how how did
[24:20] Speaker 1: the country react?
[24:22] Speaker 2: Yeah, it was huge. I mean it was one of
[24:24] Speaker 2: those things Sailing isn't obviously, isn't it a big sport.
[24:27] Speaker 2: It's not hugely followed. But in America when we were losing,
[24:31] Speaker 2: we were the defenders of the America's Cup, and then
[24:33] Speaker 2: we were losing the America's Cup, They're like, it's gone.
[24:35] Speaker 2: But the event went over three weeks or so, and
[24:39] Speaker 2: so after the first week it's like, oh, they're going
[24:42] Speaker 2: to lose it, and then the second week they're mounting
[24:44] Speaker 2: a comeback.
[24:45] Speaker 3: This is pretty cool, everyone jumping on board.
[24:47] Speaker 2: And then everyone jumped on board all of a sudden,
[24:50] Speaker 2: like there was no clear spots on the foreshore. There
[24:53] Speaker 2: was like there was just completely full. And by the
[24:55] Speaker 2: end of it, Yeah, there's just a huge momentum wave
[24:59] Speaker 2: and yeah, skippers asking him to talk on sort of
[25:03] Speaker 2: good Morning America and all that before racing, and just
[25:06] Speaker 2: everyone's just sort of got behind it because they could
[25:08] Speaker 2: see that this could potentially happen.
[25:10] Speaker 3: How do you ask about the celebrations how in I
[25:14] Speaker 3: suppose a team sport, usually there's like some sort of
[25:17] Speaker 3: mad Monday. What did you sailors get up to?
[25:20] Speaker 2: Yeah? They I mean, drinking like sailors is a thing.
[25:24] Speaker 2: I was going to say that because drinking and swearing
[25:26] Speaker 2: like sailors, it's not myth. Yeah, I remember that night.
[25:33] Speaker 2: We had a really good time. I was I was
[25:37] Speaker 2: just completely empty the tank over the three weeks. I
[25:41] Speaker 2: started getting sick about five or six days before the
[25:45] Speaker 2: end and was just like trying to hold on and yeah,
[25:49] Speaker 2: and I remember I was sick for like the next
[25:52] Speaker 2: week in bed after it, and it wasn't actually the hangover.
[25:54] Speaker 2: I actually left the Hulfter party early, which is rare
[25:57] Speaker 2: for me, but I was just so cooked for three
[26:00] Speaker 2: weeks of just being fried all day. But I mean
[26:04] Speaker 2: it's something We've still got group chats from that time,
[26:08] Speaker 2: and if I ever see one of my teammates from
[26:10] Speaker 2: that America's Cup, it's just like you walk up and
[26:12] Speaker 2: give them a big hug and just like you've been
[26:14] Speaker 2: through something like amazing together.
[26:17] Speaker 1: That's surprise, isn't it.
[26:18] Speaker 2: Yeah, it's something you remember forever and the bonds you form.
[26:22] Speaker 1: How'd you feel when, Yeah, that the Sydney Harbor that day,
[26:24] Speaker 1: You're about to jump on a boat your lifelong Broncos
[26:26] Speaker 1: fans and look you're speaking to a group of almost
[26:30] Speaker 1: thirty rugby league players. Were you're nervous beforehand?
[26:34] Speaker 2: Yeah? I was really nervous, and I don't really do
[26:36] Speaker 2: public speaking much anymore. And I met Madge on the
[26:41] Speaker 2: dock and said, hey, mate, like, what would you like
[26:44] Speaker 2: man talk about? I don't really do much of this,
[26:47] Speaker 2: And Mattz just said, look, we've got an unbelievably talented
[26:51] Speaker 2: group of people. I think we've got the best team
[26:53] Speaker 2: in the comp But for some reason, we're just not
[26:57] Speaker 2: gelling and we're losing to teams we should lose to.
[27:00] Speaker 2: And at that point, actually they were losing leads.
[27:05] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[27:05] Speaker 2: They the following night after I did this talk, they
[27:09] Speaker 2: actually were fourteen mierl up against South I went to
[27:12] Speaker 2: the game and they and they lost Lattrell field golf
[27:15] Speaker 2: fifty meter field goal and they did that sneaky try
[27:18] Speaker 2: in the last few seconds. But yeah, they sort of
[27:23] Speaker 2: just were not sort of gelling as a squad, and
[27:25] Speaker 2: they were struggling in the second half, and he said,
[27:28] Speaker 2: I just I want to just try to unify the guys,
[27:30] Speaker 2: and so he asked me to talk about the America's
[27:33] Speaker 2: Cup and how'd you guys band together and what was it?
[27:36] Speaker 2: And so yeah, and then I sort of just got
[27:40] Speaker 2: on board and I just sort of went with what
[27:43] Speaker 2: I thought.
[27:44] Speaker 3: How did the players react? Like, did you up there talking?
[27:47] Speaker 3: Sometimes when I guess will come in and speak to
[27:50] Speaker 3: a team, you know, the boys might ask questions or
[27:52] Speaker 3: you can sort of see the leaders in the team
[27:55] Speaker 3: sort of stand up. Could you notice any of that
[27:57] Speaker 3: when you're on that.
[27:58] Speaker 2: Back Yeah, yeah, the same sort of thing. I mean,
[28:02] Speaker 2: it's not like I have a prepared speech. I'm literally
[28:06] Speaker 2: getting up and winging it and I've got I'm talking
[28:08] Speaker 2: to these guys for sort of half now forty minutes,
[28:10] Speaker 2: so I was trying to make sure I don't go
[28:12] Speaker 2: into sailing terminology and stuff like that and things that
[28:15] Speaker 2: they could actually relate to. But yeah, for sure, like
[28:19] Speaker 2: Pat Carrigan stood up a few times and asked questions,
[28:23] Speaker 2: and a lot of the guys actually were asking questions.
[28:25] Speaker 2: And it's hard to know whenever you do a public
[28:28] Speaker 2: speaking gig. You're just like, just did that actually enjoy that?
[28:32] Speaker 1: Or was it?
[28:32] Speaker 2: Were they just not there? But just as soon as
[28:37] Speaker 2: I finished talking to them, I had a beer. They
[28:40] Speaker 2: were all on the waters, but I had a beer
[28:42] Speaker 2: and was just chatting with them and they were asking
[28:45] Speaker 2: me a heap of questions after it finished. We're on
[28:48] Speaker 2: the boat for like another hour before we went in,
[28:50] Speaker 2: and they're asking a lot of questions. And then that
[28:52] Speaker 2: made me think, Okay, actually I think they really enjoyed it.
[28:54] Speaker 1: Yeah, like you were part of that not we had
[28:58] Speaker 1: the dinner you mate said, you're part of that team,
[29:00] Speaker 1: You're part of that run. Yeah, you bought in emotionally
[29:03] Speaker 1: in the players to what you said, how you must
[29:07] Speaker 1: have felt proud of doing that. That was just that
[29:10] Speaker 1: last six weeks of the Broncos. The way they played
[29:12] Speaker 1: their comebacks is some of the most amazing stuff I've
[29:14] Speaker 1: ever seen. Like the Canberra game, you do not get
[29:17] Speaker 1: a more dramatic game in that. What was it life
[29:20] Speaker 1: for you to sort of observe all that?
[29:22] Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, firstly, I get a lot of people go, oh,
[29:26] Speaker 2: you were part of the reason they made that comeback run,
[29:28] Speaker 2: and absolutely not was. I. I mean I happened to
[29:32] Speaker 2: chat to the guys like at a time where they
[29:34] Speaker 2: started to turn things around, but as I said, they
[29:37] Speaker 2: lost the next night, so I couldn't have been that inspiring.
[29:40] Speaker 2: But they the team did it themselves with Madge, they
[29:44] Speaker 2: were the ones that turned around. I just happened to
[29:46] Speaker 2: be there at a similar time. But I'm a mad
[29:49] Speaker 2: Broncos fan my whole life. Like nineteen eighty eight, first game,
[29:52] Speaker 2: I watched my dad and all my family and Manly supporters,
[29:55] Speaker 2: and Dad's like I think I was four years old,
[29:59] Speaker 2: and Dad said, you've got to this is our team.
[30:01] Speaker 2: You've got to support Manly And I said, I'll go
[30:04] Speaker 2: for whoever wins this match, and the Broncos trounced them,
[30:09] Speaker 2: smashed and that was their first year in the camp.
[30:11] Speaker 2: And as simple as that, I became a mad Broncos
[30:15] Speaker 2: fan and I got all the years of Alfie and
[30:17] Speaker 2: all that and the great years. Yeah, the runoffs and
[30:20] Speaker 2: the Walters and Runoff and Willie Kahnt and you've.
[30:23] Speaker 3: Had some tough years as well.
[30:24] Speaker 2: Yeah, smooth sailing last nineteen, haven't. I think you're.
[30:29] Speaker 3: Underselling yourself there a bit too top. Like I get
[30:31] Speaker 3: that they probably got beat the next night. Takes time
[30:33] Speaker 3: for those sort of you know, learnings to sink in sometimes,
[30:37] Speaker 3: but you look at that final series opposed to how
[30:40] Speaker 3: early in the year they were losing on a lot
[30:42] Speaker 3: of leads relative to your America's Cup story. Every final
[30:47] Speaker 3: series they were down at halftime, like you guys ate one.
[30:50] Speaker 3: I imagine a lot of those boys, the learnings and
[30:54] Speaker 3: messages that you taught them, just being able to stay positive,
[30:57] Speaker 3: stay in it, keep trying to you know, like your
[31:00] Speaker 3: strategize and get better. Because every single one of those
[31:02] Speaker 3: finals games they're down at halftime, looked, they look down
[31:05] Speaker 3: and out, particularly in that Canberra game, and they come
[31:07] Speaker 3: back in like the last ten minutes amazing and they
[31:09] Speaker 3: come back with all this momentum like a freight train.
[31:11] Speaker 3: They win all those games.
[31:13] Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean watching that was just unbelievable. I was
[31:16] Speaker 2: in Europe the whole finals part, and so I was
[31:20] Speaker 2: streaming wherever I was, but that was unbelievable. I mean, yeah,
[31:24] Speaker 2: Canberra twenty eight twelve down at half and then to
[31:27] Speaker 2: win after they lost it twice. Essentially, it looked like
[31:30] Speaker 2: that was one of the most amazing games. I remember
[31:32] Speaker 2: my friend had watched and I had to go sailing
[31:35] Speaker 2: and came back in. He's like, I'm not going to
[31:37] Speaker 2: tell you what happened, but sit down, quiet room. Watch that.
[31:41] Speaker 2: And then Penrith four time winners and then down four
[31:44] Speaker 2: was at fourteen, Miil at halftime, came back and won that,
[31:48] Speaker 2: and then twenty to twelve or something in the against
[31:50] Speaker 2: Melbourne and that those teams. I was just like shocked.
[31:55] Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean, whether it's true or not. Madge
[31:58] Speaker 2: sort of pulled me aside before that, and we've been
[32:04] Speaker 2: texting and stuff and chatting, but before that dinner and said,
[32:07] Speaker 2: look what you said really resonated. He said, halftime, there's
[32:11] Speaker 2: a lot of the guys are hitting each other saying
[32:12] Speaker 2: eight one eight one where we go. Well, I don't
[32:15] Speaker 2: know whether it's true or not. Mad just trying to
[32:17] Speaker 2: sort of pump my ties up, but I hope but
[32:20] Speaker 2: it sort of did help them. But maybe like after
[32:23] Speaker 2: the especially after the camera game, I was like, Okay,
[32:26] Speaker 2: now they've got the belief in that momentum, and like
[32:29] Speaker 2: I remember going into the final after they beat Penrith
[32:33] Speaker 2: and then they're down there again. In the they go
[32:36] Speaker 2: into the Grand Final, I said, Melbourne are going to
[32:38] Speaker 2: have to be twenty thirty points up at halftime for
[32:42] Speaker 2: them to actually think they're going to beat them. Yeah,
[32:44] Speaker 2: because what they just did to Camber and Penrith, I
[32:46] Speaker 2: was like, they're on such a run here that you
[32:49] Speaker 2: just can't stop that momentum and like the belief, and
[32:52] Speaker 2: I mean normally a team when they're down ten to
[32:55] Speaker 2: the Melbourne Storm, it's just over. Yeah, that's right, but
[32:59] Speaker 2: they just yeah, it's so cool to see that. It
[33:02] Speaker 2: was so inspiring as well, like even like obviously the
[33:06] Speaker 2: team did unbelievable, but like some of the runs by
[33:09] Speaker 2: Reese woldsh stuff like that, you just that running did
[33:12] Speaker 2: where he scored yeah under the post five defenders and stuff.
[33:16] Speaker 2: I was like that had me like jumping up and down,
[33:19] Speaker 2: but not so much for the try but for the
[33:22] Speaker 2: I'm just like you watch how much they get behind
[33:24] Speaker 2: them here now, like watch this team push.
[33:26] Speaker 1: Now infning with Reece Reese's both the people look from
[33:29] Speaker 1: the outside in and go, you know, he's a flash
[33:31] Speaker 1: Harry and he is, but he carries it. It's a
[33:33] Speaker 1: new generation and I just think it's so good for
[33:36] Speaker 1: the game. It's just so charismatic at what he does.
[33:38] Speaker 1: Did you A lot of people see it from the outside.
[33:41] Speaker 1: They don't realize what a sweetheart he is or how
[33:44] Speaker 1: much he actually really loves the game. Did you form
[33:47] Speaker 1: did you have much to do with Reese?
[33:48] Speaker 2: No, he was injured and he didn't come down. All
[33:53] Speaker 2: his runs had zero to confirmed.
[33:57] Speaker 1: We'll just cut that. Your career sale GP, which is
[34:02] Speaker 1: a huge international event with sailing, formed in twenty nineteen.
[34:06] Speaker 1: You guys have been the most successful one. You're you're
[34:09] Speaker 1: your CEO CEO. Well you're going ownership to in in
[34:13] Speaker 1: Bond's Flying Rules.
[34:14] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I'm a part owner and the driver.
[34:19] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[34:19] Speaker 1: Three times champion Now my right, and says Hugh Jackman
[34:23] Speaker 1: and Ryan Reynolds are bought in as well. Yeah.
[34:25] Speaker 2: Yeah, they bought the team June last year.
[34:28] Speaker 1: Yeah, right, So Bond's flying rules. Are we talking Bond's
[34:31] Speaker 1: clothing or Alan Bonds Bond's clothing.
[34:35] Speaker 3: They're a sponsor, They're our title sponsor.
[34:37] Speaker 2: So Hugh Ryan and Hugh bought the team in June
[34:42] Speaker 2: and they wanted to announce with a partnership, a big partnership,
[34:45] Speaker 2: and Bond's right place at the right time to sort
[34:48] Speaker 2: of jump on and become titled partner. And so yeah,
[34:52] Speaker 2: do you announce you wear them? Yeah? Wear them every day?
[34:55] Speaker 2: You got one.
[34:56] Speaker 1: Now here we go again.
[35:01] Speaker 3: Can I ask a little question. I want to ask
[35:03] Speaker 3: you to talk about currents and we were speaking about
[35:04] Speaker 3: Alcatraz before. How common is it for either a boat
[35:09] Speaker 3: to flip due to like heavy currents or people to
[35:13] Speaker 3: get flung.
[35:13] Speaker 2: Off the boat Back in the day, very common to
[35:18] Speaker 2: fall off the boat. And funnily enough, if your YouTube
[35:22] Speaker 2: oracle team you say capsize in you might even come
[35:26] Speaker 2: up with Alcatraz. But if you put that in, it'll
[35:28] Speaker 2: come up with a video of us in a seventy
[35:29] Speaker 2: two foot catamaran, a massive boat capsizing right near our
[35:33] Speaker 2: Coatraz and we capsize there, and really dangerous situation and
[35:40] Speaker 2: somehow we all sort of got out of it. But
[35:43] Speaker 2: the boat gets pulled by the current out into the wind.
[35:48] Speaker 2: So usually when the wind's blowing this direction, you go
[35:52] Speaker 2: with the wind, you get blown down wind. But when
[35:54] Speaker 2: the currents going against a wind, it sort of the
[35:56] Speaker 2: current overtook us and pulled us out underneath the bridge
[36:00] Speaker 2: and five miles out into the ocean.
[36:02] Speaker 1: Wow.
[36:02] Speaker 2: As we're trying to recover this boat and pull it
[36:05] Speaker 2: up right, Yeah, there's a YouTube video on it, but
[36:09] Speaker 2: you've actually been like capsized in the Alcatraz War, Yeah,
[36:13] Speaker 2: swimming around. Yeah, and we're trying to salvage this boat,
[36:17] Speaker 2: which yeah, just disintegrated basically as we're trying to It
[36:22] Speaker 2: was the first time a boat like this had capsized,
[36:24] Speaker 2: and we didn't really know how to write the boat properly.
[36:27] Speaker 2: And yeah, we destroyed a ten million dollar How cold
[36:31] Speaker 2: is the water? Oh? Waters icy there as icy. It
[36:36] Speaker 2: was seventh of October, I remember, so I was just
[36:38] Speaker 2: coming out of summer, so I probably wasn't as bad usually,
[36:41] Speaker 2: but yeah, I mean there's all sorts of animal life
[36:46] Speaker 2: out there too, And yeah, we're in the water just
[36:48] Speaker 2: trying to sort of save this boat.
[36:50] Speaker 3: Have you ever had an experience with any sharks out
[36:52] Speaker 3: in the water.
[36:53] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I've had a few run ins. I'm on
[36:57] Speaker 2: the water all the time, so I see them a lot,
[36:59] Speaker 2: and see with the invention of hydrofoiling, I see a
[37:02] Speaker 2: lot more now than I ever used to because there's
[37:05] Speaker 2: no waves hitting the boat. It's silence when you're up
[37:08] Speaker 2: on hydrophils, it's really quiet. Sometimes a little hum from
[37:10] Speaker 2: the foil, but sharks and fish and stuff don't hear
[37:14] Speaker 2: you coming anymore. So there's times how you can sort
[37:18] Speaker 2: of just go along and you can get really close
[37:20] Speaker 2: to a shark before it realizes that it's there. But yeah,
[37:23] Speaker 2: I've had plenty of around there.
[37:25] Speaker 1: I just spoke to two days ago with the hydrofoil
[37:27] Speaker 1: and we're having a chatter there. Something got around the
[37:30] Speaker 1: shark's price, surprise, what's been going on lately around here,
[37:33] Speaker 1: which has been quite tragic, terrifying, And he said to me, I.
[37:38] Speaker 2: Forget.
[37:38] Speaker 1: I said, you see much out there? And he said
[37:40] Speaker 1: I never used to, because he said I was on
[37:42] Speaker 1: the board and things like that. He said, but now
[37:44] Speaker 1: because I'm like the hydrofoil, he said that.
[37:46] Speaker 2: Everything everywhere every week. It's one of those things like
[37:50] Speaker 2: you see drone footage of like surfers and stuff, and
[37:52] Speaker 2: they have no idea, but this has been They've been
[37:55] Speaker 2: there forever, but we've never actually noticed it. But I
[37:58] Speaker 2: mean there are a lot of its time.
[38:00] Speaker 3: It's like snakes right like you walk through a bush.
[38:02] Speaker 3: There are more snakes than anyone would actually realize. But
[38:05] Speaker 3: they hear like they hear your vibrations come and they
[38:07] Speaker 3: sort of scatter around. That's snakes vants. But like your man,
[38:13] Speaker 3: Mick Fanning, that's what makes it so much more is
[38:16] Speaker 3: out there on a board in the middle of the thing,
[38:18] Speaker 3: and then the sharkest taxi punches.
[38:20] Speaker 2: On live on camera.
[38:22] Speaker 1: Isn't that?
[38:22] Speaker 2: I was watching that live? How cold?
[38:25] Speaker 3: Like that could have gone so bad for live TV.
[38:28] Speaker 1: My brother's got an eye for the dramatic. And anyway,
[38:32] Speaker 1: I'm laying there in bed watching some some movie actually,
[38:36] Speaker 1: probably Law and Order. Mate, it's a whole different story. Honestly,
[38:39] Speaker 1: I've seen every episode six times Trician Law in Order
[38:43] Speaker 1: c S I Miami. Anyway, but he ranked Joey rings
[38:49] Speaker 1: me and as I said before, he's got the he
[38:52] Speaker 1: has the eye for the dramatic. He may turn it
[38:54] Speaker 1: over and surfing fuel too. V Mick Fanning's just been
[38:57] Speaker 1: eaten by a shark and I was like, are you
[38:59] Speaker 1: fucking serious? So we waked it over and I thought,
[39:01] Speaker 1: thank god, yeah, for God.
[39:04] Speaker 3: That was Then he called me and said the same thing,
[39:08] Speaker 3: pass it around, Yeah, do you just before we move off?
[39:13] Speaker 3: Mick Fanning and surfers. Obviously, surfers have got to be
[39:17] Speaker 3: like very well equipped swimming but also breathing wise, because
[39:20] Speaker 3: you know, they get wiped out, they're under there sometimes
[39:22] Speaker 3: three minutes. Do you guys do a lot of that training.
[39:25] Speaker 3: We do a lot of it, like just in case
[39:27] Speaker 3: you end up under there.
[39:27] Speaker 2: Yeah, we do a lot of safety training. Basically, a
[39:31] Speaker 2: friend of ours in twenty eleven, Andrew Simpson Bart Simpson,
[39:35] Speaker 2: we just call him. Yeah, he got trapped under the
[39:39] Speaker 2: boat and drowned in a capsize. It capsized sort of
[39:43] Speaker 2: similar to the one we had I was just saying
[39:45] Speaker 2: in San Francisco. And since then, yeah, the sports sort
[39:50] Speaker 2: of changed that this sort of extreme. It's an extreme sport.
[39:53] Speaker 2: Now what we do we sort of rip arounded over
[39:55] Speaker 2: one hundred k's hour and these boats that when they
[39:57] Speaker 2: come together. There's a lot of image, but we've now
[40:02] Speaker 2: got on. We do all the training. We get sort
[40:04] Speaker 2: of held underwater by divers and then you go for
[40:07] Speaker 2: your air and they rip the air out of your
[40:09] Speaker 2: hand and you've got to think on the fly, Okay,
[40:11] Speaker 2: how do I get out of this situation. We do
[40:13] Speaker 2: a lot of that training, but we've got impact this.
[40:17] Speaker 2: We've got spare air bottles which that leads right to
[40:19] Speaker 2: our shoulder. We've got knives to cut our way out.
[40:22] Speaker 2: We've got helmets. Yeah, and we do a lot of
[40:26] Speaker 2: training and recently there was a month ago there was
[40:30] Speaker 2: a crash in Auckland between the New Zealand team and
[40:33] Speaker 2: the French team. Again you could probably say that on
[40:36] Speaker 2: YouTube and it's pretty bad crash, but one of the
[40:39] Speaker 2: guys had to use this. He was caught underwater for
[40:42] Speaker 2: a long time and had to and use his spare
[40:44] Speaker 2: air bottles and stuff. So it's it's a very sort
[40:47] Speaker 2: of we're all acutely aware that it's a really risky
[40:50] Speaker 2: sport and we have to be on top of our
[40:53] Speaker 2: on top of our safety because at one time it
[40:56] Speaker 2: happens to you and you're not could make the difference.
[40:59] Speaker 1: It's funny, Tommy, a certain point doesn't matter what the
[41:02] Speaker 1: sport is. I imagine a big wave of surfing with
[41:04] Speaker 1: those guys what you do even rugby league where you
[41:07] Speaker 1: let go of physical fear and all the fear is
[41:08] Speaker 1: fear of failure. But does physical fear still exist with
[41:12] Speaker 1: you with sailing?
[41:13] Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I'm the driver of our team,
[41:19] Speaker 2: I'm the CEO, but I'm responsible for my guys. I mean,
[41:23] Speaker 2: if it was just me, and especially before I got
[41:25] Speaker 2: married and they had kids, yeah, I would like if
[41:28] Speaker 2: there's the tiniest if my boat's nine meters wide, and
[41:31] Speaker 2: these cats, if there's nine meters and once in a meter,
[41:34] Speaker 2: I'm going for it. And I sort of had no fear.
[41:38] Speaker 2: Now it's weird. I'm older and race We're still successful,
[41:44] Speaker 2: but I do hesitate a little bit more. And it's
[41:49] Speaker 2: not as much because of me, but it's because if
[41:51] Speaker 2: something goes wrong, like I've got to go to the
[41:54] Speaker 2: wives of the kids of these guys and say, look,
[41:58] Speaker 2: I'm sorry, that was my mistake. Shouldn't have gone for
[42:00] Speaker 2: that gap and this happened. So, I mean, I think
[42:04] Speaker 2: it's I'd love to say I always like this saying
[42:08] Speaker 2: from Anton Center, if you see a gap and you
[42:10] Speaker 2: don't go for it, you're no longer a racing driver.
[42:13] Speaker 2: I'd love to say that's what is, but I actually
[42:15] Speaker 2: do hesitate a little more than I ever used to,
[42:17] Speaker 2: and maybe that's going to be just my natural progression
[42:22] Speaker 2: where I age out of the sport. I'm at forty
[42:25] Speaker 2: one years old, and yeah, my results start going down
[42:29] Speaker 2: because of this. I'll take myself off the boat quicker
[42:32] Speaker 2: than anyone, But yeah, you do. My fear is just
[42:36] Speaker 2: hurting my team.
[42:38] Speaker 1: Yeah, Tommy Olympics to a minute achievements. You want a
[42:41] Speaker 1: gold medal in twenty twelve, first of two. About two
[42:43] Speaker 1: thousand and eight Beijing, you went in as one of
[42:46] Speaker 1: the favorites or number one seed and finished twenty second.
[42:51] Speaker 1: How much did that weigh on you?
[42:55] Speaker 2: Yeah? That was huge for me and it sort of
[42:59] Speaker 2: formed a lot of my career after that. I honestly
[43:02] Speaker 2: don't think I'd be as successful now if I didn't
[43:05] Speaker 2: have that. I was a favorite. I think inside sport
[43:09] Speaker 2: put me as I was the top athlete that people
[43:11] Speaker 2: to beat your house on leading into that Olympics. I
[43:14] Speaker 2: hope no one did that.
[43:16] Speaker 1: As we were talking about the psychology of sport that
[43:18] Speaker 1: does a little switch in solidis as well.
[43:20] Speaker 2: Yeah. No, I was twenty two years old when in
[43:23] Speaker 2: I'd won every event in sailing. I was sort of
[43:26] Speaker 2: the young sort of up and comer, and I won
[43:29] Speaker 2: the two previous world titles, hadn't been beaten in nine
[43:32] Speaker 2: months leading into the Olympics, and I hadn't finished outside
[43:36] Speaker 2: the top three in three years. And I went to
[43:39] Speaker 2: the Olympics and finished twenty second, just completely choked. So yeah,
[43:45] Speaker 2: that was brutal. I mean at that time, I actually
[43:49] Speaker 2: was having a lot of mental health problems. Even leading
[43:52] Speaker 2: into the Olympics when I was winning everything, I was
[43:55] Speaker 2: having a few mental health problems as well. But in
[43:59] Speaker 2: what in two thousand and seven, I sort of I
[44:03] Speaker 2: remember I was. I kept thinking I wasn't sort of
[44:07] Speaker 2: well in the head. I was just sort of a
[44:08] Speaker 2: little bit depressed, and I kept thinking, Okay, but if
[44:11] Speaker 2: I win this world title, that'll make me happy, because oh,
[44:14] Speaker 2: and that'll make me happy. Then I'm okay, And then
[44:17] Speaker 2: I'll win that world title, and then I'm like, I
[44:19] Speaker 2: don't really feel much different, and then okay, well you
[44:22] Speaker 2: haven't won this World Cup event. If you go win that.
[44:25] Speaker 2: You've won all of them. I'll go got to win
[44:27] Speaker 2: that one. I'd go win that one and nothing would change.
[44:30] Speaker 2: And then I just yeah, I wasn't in a great
[44:35] Speaker 2: space for a while there and then and then I
[44:37] Speaker 2: went to those Olympics, going Okay, well, if I win
[44:39] Speaker 2: the Olympics, surely that's going to fix my problems. And
[44:43] Speaker 2: in the end it obviously didn't. Well I finished really
[44:46] Speaker 2: badly twenty second, choked, and I was actually quite depressed
[44:50] Speaker 2: for a while after.
[44:50] Speaker 3: Did you put all your happiness into like a saline
[44:53] Speaker 3: achievement result?
[44:54] Speaker 1: That was it?
[44:55] Speaker 3: Result based?
[44:56] Speaker 2: Yeah? What did that?
[44:58] Speaker 3: Four years from and eight to twenty twelve next Olympics
[45:00] Speaker 3: at London? So what did you figure out about yourself?
[45:04] Speaker 3: Like what did you sort of look elsewhere to gain
[45:06] Speaker 3: sort of happiness?
[45:07] Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I've realized that results aren't going to
[45:12] Speaker 2: make me happy, Like even if I remember thinking, even
[45:15] Speaker 2: if I won this Olympic, so it's still not going
[45:17] Speaker 2: to make me happy, I don't think. But I just
[45:19] Speaker 2: started for whatever reason, whether it's mates or girlfriends or
[45:24] Speaker 2: whatever it is, I just got in a much better
[45:25] Speaker 2: place after it. I sort of had to dig myself
[45:28] Speaker 2: out of that hole and go, Okay, I've got to
[45:30] Speaker 2: find the joy and everything again here. And it's two
[45:33] Speaker 2: thousand and nine. I had a year where I just
[45:35] Speaker 2: I'm just going to enjoy myself. I don't care how
[45:37] Speaker 2: I go. And I during two that nine I had
[45:41] Speaker 2: terrible results, but I turned it round and I started
[45:44] Speaker 2: going okay, and now I enjoy myself. And then I
[45:47] Speaker 2: started sort of embarking on the twenty twelve campaign and
[45:50] Speaker 2: just going okay, like, yeah, I'm going to win this thing,
[45:54] Speaker 2: but I'm going to enjoy the process, and yeah, yeah.
[45:59] Speaker 3: Just funny.
[46:00] Speaker 1: I was going to say, you know, it's funny, and
[46:02] Speaker 1: I think, you know, Jack and people in sport will
[46:04] Speaker 1: recognize this. And I say to young rookie footballers and
[46:08] Speaker 1: they're going first time, I said, really enjoy these rookie years.
[46:11] Speaker 1: I said, because the expectations are low and you're the
[46:13] Speaker 1: youngest guy on the squad and you're going along, and
[46:16] Speaker 1: I said, this is in a lot of ways the
[46:18] Speaker 1: most fun you'll have. It seems like for you you
[46:21] Speaker 1: went through that period and all of a sudden, then
[46:23] Speaker 1: it's all about the pressure of winning, and that two
[46:26] Speaker 1: thousand and nine's almost like a reset and start again.
[46:29] Speaker 1: It was what went right for you in twenty twelve.
[46:33] Speaker 2: So the venue, so I won't go into two thousand
[46:38] Speaker 2: and eight. The Olympics are in China. There's no wind
[46:40] Speaker 2: in China, like there's no sailing events in China. But
[46:43] Speaker 2: the Olympics isn't going to move for sailing, so they
[46:47] Speaker 2: put a venue on. There's a place called Chin Dao
[46:49] Speaker 2: in China, and there was basically no wind, and so
[46:53] Speaker 2: I lost a lot of weight lost basically was the
[46:57] Speaker 2: way I am now about eighty eight kilos and I
[47:00] Speaker 2: dropped down to seventy three kilos, lost way too much weight.
[47:04] Speaker 2: I was getting sick. I got glenne La fever before
[47:06] Speaker 2: the Olympics, and then yeah, and then mentally I just
[47:10] Speaker 2: wasn't there twenty twelve Olympics. It's in London. And then
[47:15] Speaker 2: the venue there was a place called Weymouth, two hours
[47:17] Speaker 2: south of London. And the first time I went and
[47:21] Speaker 2: started in Weymouth was in two thousand and nine. And
[47:23] Speaker 2: I got there and I just went sailing, and I
[47:25] Speaker 2: was just like, oh, this is what it's about. This
[47:28] Speaker 2: is there's wind, there's big waves. It's just a real
[47:31] Speaker 2: sailing location. And that sort of just go, Okay, this
[47:35] Speaker 2: is Beijing's in the past. Now I'm going to win
[47:39] Speaker 2: this one.
[47:39] Speaker 3: As a twenty two year old back in Beijing as well,
[47:42] Speaker 3: being like I've been expected to win. You know, you're
[47:44] Speaker 3: the favorite, and at this stage you're twenty two. You're
[47:47] Speaker 3: still young.
[47:48] Speaker 2: You know.
[47:49] Speaker 3: At that age a lot of athletes and people are
[47:51] Speaker 3: probably are reading into media and the best saying is
[47:55] Speaker 3: you're never as good as you go, and you're never
[47:56] Speaker 3: as bad as you go. And when people are hammering
[47:58] Speaker 3: in the media, they either they accentuate both ends. Did
[48:02] Speaker 3: that have an effect on you as well as a
[48:03] Speaker 3: twenty two year old, like were you did that pressure
[48:06] Speaker 3: of expectation?
[48:07] Speaker 2: If I'm honest, no, I twenty two years old. I
[48:14] Speaker 2: just sort of busted through every hurdle that I'd ever
[48:17] Speaker 2: been given. They said, okay, you're not going to win
[48:19] Speaker 2: the Olympic Trials. We've got Michael Blackburn who got bronze
[48:23] Speaker 2: before that, he's going to win. One person per country
[48:25] Speaker 2: goes he's going to win the trials. And then I
[48:28] Speaker 2: like went and won the trials, and then I won.
[48:31] Speaker 2: I remember just I used to use fuel anyone telling
[48:34] Speaker 2: me I couldn't do something I was just that that
[48:35] Speaker 2: young guy who just goes tell me I can't do something,
[48:38] Speaker 2: and then I'll be up at four am training the
[48:41] Speaker 2: next morning, like doing things that no one else will
[48:44] Speaker 2: do to make sure I prove you wrong. And that's
[48:46] Speaker 2: that was how I went into those Olympics. I was like,
[48:49] Speaker 2: you guys said I wasn't going to win a world title.
[48:52] Speaker 2: Now I've got two. And I went into those Olympics going,
[48:55] Speaker 2: you're saying I can't win in this venue China going
[48:58] Speaker 2: to I'm going to smoke it. And I just and
[49:01] Speaker 2: if someone offered me a silver medal the morning before
[49:04] Speaker 2: those Olympics, I would have said no, Like that was
[49:07] Speaker 2: my mindset. There was no for me. Second as always,
[49:11] Speaker 2: that's it's a loss. And I just remember, I remember
[49:15] Speaker 2: someone actually asked me before those games, would you take
[49:17] Speaker 2: a silver medal right now?
[49:18] Speaker 3: I said absolutely, no way, Ricky Bobby, Yeah, that was
[49:23] Speaker 3: first to last.
[49:24] Speaker 1: Coup of Thinks is documentary.
[49:27] Speaker 2: No, they made it after me.
[49:30] Speaker 1: What do you before you get go and get on
[49:32] Speaker 1: the boat on those really big occasions, get yourself in
[49:34] Speaker 1: the mood. What do you do you listen to music?
[49:36] Speaker 2: I'm super chilled. We have music sort of going and
[49:39] Speaker 2: I just walk around laughing, chatting, joking. We've got you
[49:42] Speaker 2: got heaps of people with their headphones on and sort
[49:44] Speaker 2: of pacing up and down.
[49:45] Speaker 1: So you so we're talking about you won America's Cup.
[49:48] Speaker 1: You want to go mid of the Olympics, Sydney to Hobart,
[49:52] Speaker 1: winning the Sydney at Herbart skipper in the Sydney at Herbart.
[49:54] Speaker 1: Where does that the three of them? Firstly, I'll last. Firstly,
[49:59] Speaker 1: is that the most Is that the most difficult race
[50:02] Speaker 1: in the world? Do you think?
[50:04] Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say it's the toughest race. Actually, the
[50:08] Speaker 2: Volvo Ocean Race where you're around we used to be
[50:10] Speaker 2: called the Volvo Ocean Race. You race around the world.
[50:12] Speaker 3: That was the toughest races around the world.
[50:15] Speaker 2: Yeah, but you do stop in certain locations, but there's
[50:19] Speaker 2: times there where they do a couple of months sort
[50:22] Speaker 2: of before they hit land. And when it was a
[50:26] Speaker 2: race with identical boats, I think it was back in
[50:29] Speaker 2: the early two thousands, it meant that the teams are like,
[50:32] Speaker 2: it's not one of those things where there's boats like
[50:34] Speaker 2: miles ahead of you. They're always like right next to
[50:36] Speaker 2: each other. So the guys were just like not sleeping
[50:39] Speaker 2: for days on end because they got to like, no,
[50:41] Speaker 2: we got to push, We've got to get ahead of
[50:42] Speaker 2: this guy. I think that was the toughest race that
[50:46] Speaker 2: sort of ended. And now they do have an ocean race,
[50:48] Speaker 2: but it's probably it's in much faster boats. They do
[50:51] Speaker 2: a lot quicker I think for a single race right now,
[50:54] Speaker 2: I think the roles you now, but it's the toughest
[50:56] Speaker 2: one going round.
[50:57] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, twenty third in the first time you did it, yes, yeah, yeah.
[51:01] Speaker 1: And on board you had and of course you know
[51:03] Speaker 1: some of the boats carry celebrities on the you had
[51:05] Speaker 1: Carl Steffan Avik, Larry Ender, AAU boss, Phil war and
[51:10] Speaker 1: a for legiend Jude Bolton. How did they go?
[51:17] Speaker 2: They're actually that the group that you are saying did
[51:20] Speaker 2: really well. I mean, if I'm honest, I mean you
[51:24] Speaker 2: have all sorts of celebrities. You have, yeah, your TV personalities,
[51:27] Speaker 2: you have your footy players, you have, yeah, all sorts
[51:30] Speaker 2: of people. But I mean the footy players, I've got
[51:33] Speaker 2: to say there, they can't do much. They can't steer,
[51:37] Speaker 2: they can't trim the sails, they can't do any of
[51:39] Speaker 2: these things. But moving the sales around on a boat
[51:42] Speaker 2: like that is really tough. They weigh hundreds of kilos,
[51:45] Speaker 2: so you need eight people on the side of a
[51:47] Speaker 2: sale and just go, hey, guys, we've got to move
[51:48] Speaker 2: this up there. And the footy players always sort of
[51:52] Speaker 2: got stuck in and go, okay, this is where we'regan xcel.
[51:55] Speaker 2: We're big, we're strong, we were good with teams, and
[51:57] Speaker 2: they go, so we'll just go, hey, warri It, get
[51:59] Speaker 2: your boys that needs to go there, and Warrior go,
[52:02] Speaker 2: Minie KB, Jude Bolton, whoever it is, let's go boys.
[52:06] Speaker 2: Like this is when we have to do our part.
[52:08] Speaker 2: And they are actually really good. So people say that
[52:11] Speaker 2: we're sort of just with the loyal program. We're just
[52:14] Speaker 2: taking celebrities and you must just they mustn't do anything.
[52:18] Speaker 2: It wasn't the case like they actually did help out
[52:21] Speaker 2: a lot, and even Carl and Larry and stuff like.
[52:23] Speaker 1: That underta a hilarious that so high lower.
[52:31] Speaker 2: But they had us in stitches. But they're all putting
[52:33] Speaker 2: in like this because there's certain jobs on the boat,
[52:36] Speaker 2: especially these big hundred foot boats, where it's just manpower.
[52:39] Speaker 2: And so even Sally Fitzgibbons and Aaron Molan came and
[52:45] Speaker 2: they just go, Okay, what can I do to help him?
[52:48] Speaker 2: Whether it's even just coiling ropes for the next deployer
[52:50] Speaker 2: of a sale or something like that, they were in
[52:53] Speaker 2: there doing that.
[52:53] Speaker 1: Kurt. I interviewed Kurt firmly. He told me when he did,
[52:57] Speaker 1: he sitting at a hobart. And of course, Kurt, people
[52:59] Speaker 1: don't know he's a Paralympics champion and he has no legs.
[53:04] Speaker 1: He's in the chair. But he just went right, I'm
[53:06] Speaker 1: all in for this. And he said they went down
[53:08] Speaker 1: below and there was all these chicken chicken legs and
[53:11] Speaker 1: the blokes are just eating them, eating them, tearing it,
[53:14] Speaker 1: and like the experience is going, hey, boys, steady on it.
[53:18] Speaker 1: He said, all the guys went upstairs, you know, like
[53:21] Speaker 1: the celebrities and the athletes. Next week, they started vomiting
[53:25] Speaker 1: all over the deck. Anyway, Kurt came up and actually
[53:29] Speaker 1: just slipped in it. He was basically the boat was
[53:31] Speaker 1: going side side. He was actually like a bowling ball
[53:34] Speaker 1: going backwards and forwards for everybody's vomit.
[53:39] Speaker 2: Yeah, it's true that.
[53:44] Speaker 3: Outside of food sickness on the chicken legs as well,
[53:46] Speaker 3: But I imagine like people not used to being on
[53:49] Speaker 3: boats going that quick, is there a lot of seasickness.
[53:52] Speaker 2: There's a lot of sea sickness. I even get a
[53:54] Speaker 2: little bit seasick on you. So I get so sick
[53:56] Speaker 2: on power boats. I don't know what it is. It's
[53:58] Speaker 2: the role of the boat. On a yacht, I haven't
[54:00] Speaker 2: been sick, but on a powerboat, I get, but I
[54:03] Speaker 2: get a little bit, sort of feel a little bit wheezy.
[54:05] Speaker 2: I've never been properly sick racing. But yeah, And the
[54:10] Speaker 2: problem isn't the seasickness, because a lot of people get sick,
[54:12] Speaker 2: a lot of great sailors. It's a guy called Chris
[54:14] Speaker 2: Nicholson who's a like sailing legend, and he gets He's
[54:17] Speaker 2: done the Wolver around the World race many times, so
[54:21] Speaker 2: he spent like years of his life off shore. He
[54:24] Speaker 2: gets seasick all the time, but he just learns to
[54:27] Speaker 2: deal with it and manage it. But the problem is
[54:29] Speaker 2: when the celebrities get seasick, they don't know a They
[54:33] Speaker 2: panic and they don't know where to go. You've got
[54:35] Speaker 2: to go to the back corner and you've got to
[54:36] Speaker 2: make sure you're vomiting off like not into the wind
[54:42] Speaker 2: down and where it could and if you have to
[54:43] Speaker 2: go on the boat, where's the place it could actually
[54:45] Speaker 2: wash off? They just go wherever it is. And I've seen, yeah,
[54:50] Speaker 2: the celebs who gets sick, like you just feel so
[54:52] Speaker 2: sorry for him because it's the worst feeling in the world.
[54:54] Speaker 3: But I remember we had my mate's twenty first birthday.
[54:57] Speaker 1: We had We had it on a boat like always,
[55:00] Speaker 1: same thing, America's fanships.
[55:03] Speaker 2: Same You think you've got a tough We were eight
[55:06] Speaker 2: to one beers down when I came back.
[55:11] Speaker 3: But I'm saying, Tom, the conditions out there when we
[55:14] Speaker 3: were there, and we had the unforgiving We were actually
[55:19] Speaker 3: around Watson's Bay, but it was we had to go
[55:22] Speaker 3: really close to the headland because there was a storm
[55:24] Speaker 3: coming anyway. I don't want to get too far inot.
[55:26] Speaker 3: But what I'm saying was everyone got sea sick because
[55:28] Speaker 3: obviously everyone was really drunk. But my mate's dad, I
[55:31] Speaker 3: don't want to name who it was, but my mate's
[55:33] Speaker 3: dad because he was he was a footy player twenty first.
[55:36] Speaker 3: He had swallowed all the seasickness tablets because apparently you
[55:40] Speaker 3: get a really good high from it. Hang On, hang on,
[55:44] Speaker 3: hang on.
[55:44] Speaker 2: He can't to me and offered me.
[55:47] Speaker 3: Offered me multiple sea sickness tablets and a red Bull
[55:50] Speaker 3: because it gives you a wicked high, in his words,
[55:53] Speaker 3: And then so wheneveryone got seasick, he'd had all the tablets,
[55:57] Speaker 3: so no one could have the medication. I haven't seen
[56:01] Speaker 3: that much spew.
[56:02] Speaker 1: Like in my life.
[56:04] Speaker 2: Was he okay?
[56:05] Speaker 3: He was fine, He didn't know who he was. He
[56:09] Speaker 3: nearly was levitating.
[56:10] Speaker 2: He got it, I reckon he got no hangover as well.
[56:12] Speaker 3: He could have grown wings and flow.
[56:14] Speaker 1: Tommy, you're saying forty one years now and you're starting
[56:20] Speaker 1: to go okay, you know my hitting that twilight? When
[56:23] Speaker 1: do you think you know? Or how can I? How
[56:25] Speaker 1: can I say this? Do you think by the time
[56:29] Speaker 1: you declare and you done, will it be a sadness
[56:32] Speaker 1: a relief? What do you think?
[56:34] Speaker 2: Ah? It's well, there's things like I only recently have
[56:39] Speaker 2: I started looking back on my career. I've always just
[56:42] Speaker 2: head down, Like even after the Olympics, I came back
[56:45] Speaker 2: to Australia for one week and then flew to San Francisco,
[56:48] Speaker 2: and the Olympics were a memory. I'm like, Okay, what's next,
[56:51] Speaker 2: What's next? And my wife recently said, you've got to
[56:54] Speaker 2: start enjoying it and like enjoying the especially when you
[56:57] Speaker 2: get a win, like enjoy it because you're going to
[56:59] Speaker 2: be you're going to retire and you're going to look
[57:00] Speaker 2: back and go, jeez, I wish I wasn't a concentrated
[57:03] Speaker 2: on the next thing straight away. So I've started enjoying
[57:07] Speaker 2: the process a lot more. With sailing, especially the way
[57:12] Speaker 2: the sailing's gone this is it's kind of a new way.
[57:14] Speaker 2: This so our GP racing now if people haven't seen
[57:17] Speaker 2: it and have a look on YouTube, but it's not
[57:19] Speaker 2: the sailing of old, so there's no we're all still
[57:23] Speaker 2: learning what the actual age sort of on a sailing
[57:27] Speaker 2: career is. There's a couple of guys who retired Jimmy
[57:29] Speaker 2: Spithill and Aussie and Ben Ainsley retired around the forty
[57:35] Speaker 2: seven forty eight range who are drivers for each position.
[57:39] Speaker 2: That's a bit different. The grinders, they're the physical power
[57:42] Speaker 2: on the boat. They might have to retire a bit
[57:44] Speaker 2: earlier if physically they can't keep up. My role. It's
[57:48] Speaker 2: about agility across the boat, so I've got to be
[57:51] Speaker 2: pretty fit, but it's mainly decision making and ability to
[57:56] Speaker 2: make split second decisions and not hesitate. I was talking
[57:59] Speaker 2: about how I start to hesitate a bit if I
[58:01] Speaker 2: start doing that too much. If I sit there and
[58:04] Speaker 2: I've got a situation coming and I'm contemplating it and
[58:09] Speaker 2: my competitor takes the move off me, and I'm like,
[58:12] Speaker 2: why didn't? I was too slow on that. I'll be
[58:15] Speaker 2: the first to sort of put my hand up. But
[58:18] Speaker 2: I think I'm forty one. I think I've got at
[58:21] Speaker 2: least five more good years, really good years left. But
[58:26] Speaker 2: once you're in your forties. Now I'm the oldest driver
[58:28] Speaker 2: in the fleet. It's one of those things like in
[58:30] Speaker 2: any sport. Now, from this point on, if my results
[58:34] Speaker 2: start to go down, people will just start questioning me.
[58:38] Speaker 2: I think it's the same in any sport. People will say, oh,
[58:40] Speaker 2: he's not as sharp as he used to be. I yeah,
[58:45] Speaker 2: And it's going to be results driven. Yeah, I mean,
[58:48] Speaker 2: because if the noises saying get him off, get loud,
[58:53] Speaker 2: I'll like, I'll leave. But it's we won the competition
[58:58] Speaker 2: three the first three year a sour GP and we've
[59:01] Speaker 2: had two seconds. We've made the final three five years straight.
[59:05] Speaker 2: No other team's done that, So I don't have those
[59:08] Speaker 2: people sort of knocking on the door and with their
[59:10] Speaker 2: pitchfork saying okay, replacing with someone younger yet, but that
[59:14] Speaker 2: will come over the next time. We'll go through a
[59:16] Speaker 2: period of bad results and people will depending on my age,
[59:20] Speaker 2: if I'm forty two, then it might not be is loud,
[59:23] Speaker 2: but if I'm forty five, when that happens, they'll just
[59:25] Speaker 2: be loud of voices.
[59:27] Speaker 3: Look at Volkonovski, he's what thirty seven.
[59:31] Speaker 1: Just take respite, you know when it comes to things
[59:34] Speaker 1: like social media that Tom, people are kind.
[59:36] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I know. I can. You're ever feeling down
[59:39] Speaker 2: and you have a bad race, and she should just
[59:41] Speaker 2: go and look at the comments and definitely hick you up,
[59:45] Speaker 2: very humbly.
[59:47] Speaker 3: And I'll tell you what though. So you're forty one.
[59:49] Speaker 3: Now you look bloody good for forty one. We saw
[59:51] Speaker 3: your patrolling out the front as well. He didn't couldn't
[59:55] Speaker 3: find the mouse. He was just lurking through the street.
[59:58] Speaker 3: And I said, Jesus, looking good for what do you want?
[1:00:00] Speaker 2: Appreciate it?
[1:00:01] Speaker 3: What's your secret?
[1:00:02] Speaker 1: Tom?
[1:00:02] Speaker 2: Oh, I'm a ranger and I'm in the sun every
[1:00:05] Speaker 2: day of my life, so yeah, I don't have the
[1:00:07] Speaker 2: great skin get.
[1:00:08] Speaker 1: Then does work, and Trisha is doing she injects Salmon's
[1:00:13] Speaker 1: spin a semen under her rye and I tear, what
[1:00:16] Speaker 1: my god, she looks she looks so much younger.
[1:00:20] Speaker 2: So let's let's get a class on that. On that.
[1:00:23] Speaker 1: Yeah, Tommy, congratulators, congratulations, unbelievable career, good luck going forward
[1:00:29] Speaker 1: sale GP. And you know, like you said before, that's
[1:00:32] Speaker 1: an amazing story. You know, to be eight one down,
[1:00:36] Speaker 1: win nine to eight and provide the inspiration for that
[1:00:38] Speaker 1: Bronco side. My question is going to be where part
[1:00:43] Speaker 1: owners of the Gold Coast Titans, have you ever come
[1:00:46] Speaker 1: from fifty to one down come back

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