0:02

A listener

0:03

production. Okay,

0:05

are you recording?

0:10

Howdy podcast people. Today, we

0:13

come to you from Chandigarh in

0:15

Northern India. Chandigarh, magnificent

0:18

part of the world. As the most excellent

0:20

IPL adventure continues, you fine

0:22

folk are listening to episode 181 of

0:26

the Howie Games Part A featuring former

0:28

sports reporter, now sports media

0:31

mogul, Craig Hutchison. Good

0:33

evening, welcome to Footy Classified. What a gather

0:35

round it was. So many stories and postscripts

0:38

to the big weekend and a major success for the AFL.

0:40

We'll get to that soon. Hutchie

0:43

is a very good man. We actually used to spend a lot of

0:45

time together, firstly through work, then a

0:47

love of playing cricket and footy with our mates, then

0:49

some travel,

0:50

then as many of you know, life gets busy, a couple of kids

0:53

and work for me. And Hutch, well, he has been

0:55

building what can only be described as

0:57

a media empire. But back when

0:59

he was the leading newsbreaker in AFL footy, the

1:01

best I've seen. Captain Wayne Carey could

1:04

be forced into an early retirement as

1:06

soon as tonight after a bitter

1:08

internal furor with a teammate. Now, their

1:10

allegations stemming from the party of another

1:13

teammate's house earlier this week that

1:15

splintered the kangaroos to their very fabric

1:18

and prompted crisis meetings today. People used

1:20

to ask me all the time, you made

1:20

Hutchie. What's he really like? My

1:23

response was always the same. Craig

1:26

is loyal, incredibly loyal to

1:28

those around him, especially his old

1:30

schoolmates from where he grew up in country Victoria

1:32

in Warragul. Gears, Mazza, Dratter, the boys

1:35

do anything for them. And I love that about him. Yes,

1:37

well done. He's done it at last. Greg Norman, 69, the champion

1:39

for 1986. So you search and try to

1:43

find, but you don't know where to go.

1:49

So

1:51

many thoughts flood through your mind.

1:54

You're confused and want to know. Mystery,

1:58

what is to be? much

2:00

more than meets the eye. Listen

2:02

to me, time is your key. You

2:05

will find out by and by.

2:08

For some unknown reason to me, people have spent years

2:10

trying to drag the big fella down. Maybe a bit

2:13

of professional jealousy, maybe the tall

2:15

poppy syndrome, maybe both. Anyway,

2:17

they have said when he was breaking news, nah,

2:19

he's no good, this can't last. When he was hosting his

2:22

own footy reality TV show, when he was hosting

2:24

the footy show, when he started his own business, nah,

2:26

nah, this won't work, this won't work, give it

2:28

up. When he purchased his first radio

2:30

station, when he grew and grew and grew

2:32

his business to its now massive size,

2:35

it'll never work, they said, it won't work,

2:37

hachi, it won't

2:38

work. Let me tell you, it

2:40

is working in a massive way. Added

2:43

to that, he is providing hundreds of

2:45

jobs in sports media. So many

2:47

lost and left behind, and

2:50

no one seemed to care. Those

2:52

who should seems like they're blind, pretending

2:55

they're not there. Can't

2:58

they see they're all the key? Could

3:00

make things better if they try?

3:03

Oh my jajaj, tell me why won't

3:06

they open up their eyes?

3:08

Quick disclaimer, because I'm fortunate

3:11

enough to call hachi a friend, you probably hear more

3:13

from me in this episode than you would

3:16

in the normal show. I'm reminding hachi

3:18

of stories, old times, not usually the way I

3:20

like to roll on the podcast. Don't worry, I won't make

3:22

a habit of it, but some of these stories are really close

3:24

to my heart. Good time spent with good people. So bear

3:26

with me in this episode. Hutch, he

3:29

could have been a four hour episode. He has lived a

3:31

life and a half, and only seems to be just warming

3:33

up. At the risk of sounding

3:36

corny, I'll say it anyway, I'm really

3:38

proud of hachi, because he has built a wonderful

3:40

life, a wonderful business, and

3:43

gee, he is having a go. He's having a crack,

3:45

something that I really rate. Enjoy

3:47

the story of Craig Hutchison, a country

3:49

kid and a self-made man.

3:53

So when you search, and then you're

3:55

fine, and know just

3:57

where to go, and thoughts at once,

3:59

you're right. used to cloud your mind. You

4:01

see clearly and now you know, mystery,

4:05

what is to be.

4:07

Revealed in King Selassie. Come

4:10

on, children, trod with me. We

4:13

want to reach Mount Zion. Well,

4:16

this is a treat because rarely do you get someone

4:19

you call a good friend on your podcast. To

4:21

get an hour and a half with this man is

4:23

an effort in itself. He comes in here. He's checking

4:25

out the technical setup. People are handing him

4:27

resumes looking for jobs. To

4:29

get an hour and a half with you, Craig Hutcheson,

4:32

I feel truly blessed. Welcome to

4:34

the Howie Games, mate. G'day, Howie. How are

4:36

you? It's good to see you and congratulations on what you've built here.

4:38

It's pretty incredible. Very proud of you. And

4:41

I haven't been a very good friend in recent years. So

4:43

we all get a bit of time, Paul, and that's

4:44

no excuse, but at least I could do. Yeah.

4:47

It's right off the top. You are so busy. How

4:50

do you balance that? Because I was thinking to myself, an

4:52

hour and a half with Hutchie, I would not have had that

4:55

for 10 years. 10 years. And

4:58

when anyone asks me what's Hutchie like, I'm

5:01

like, he's the most loyal bloke I know. That's the first thing

5:03

I say about you. And you're really loyal to your mates

5:05

back in Warragool. But how do you squeeze it all

5:07

in? And what has to give, mate?

5:09

Well, I think unfortunately, you deprioritise friendships,

5:11

which is the bad part of it. In

5:13

fact, an interesting footnote on that. So you

5:16

remember this well, but you have a friend of the year, which

5:19

you nominate every year, which I think is so cool. You've done

5:21

well to remember that. And you nominated me your friend of the

5:23

year back in times when I

5:25

led Les on. Congratulations, you were probably

5:27

like the 2009 friend of yours. I reckon

5:29

it was eight or nine, one of those years. You announced

5:32

it at the Torquay pub. We

5:34

were having a farmer. I reckon I was halfway

5:36

into a bowl of chips and a second vodka

5:38

and soda. And you nominated me, explained

5:40

first of all, the significance of friend of the year. And

5:42

then I thought, oh, it's a great story. And then you nominated

5:45

me as your friend of the year. So I take to this

5:47

day very close to heart. This

5:49

is how bad things have got. I've actually taken

5:51

that theme and now I have a reverse piece

5:54

of that. I have a thing called Bad Friend Day. Right

5:57

where you get around. Get everyone together about Bad Friend Day and

5:59

say so.

5:59

Sorry, generally in New York, because I'm not there

6:02

as often, hardly ever at all, but

6:04

a lot of friends there as you know, and you do too. So I have a bad

6:06

friend in New York, come and celebrate me, my

6:08

lack of contact. It was the

6:11

friend of the year. The friend of the year came

6:13

up. Who else has won friend of the year by the way? Well there's lots, the

6:15

current friend of the year is a guy called Paul Raff, who

6:17

owns a company called Mavis Peanut Butter, moved

6:20

to Barwon Heads, he's young though. So you've

6:22

commercialized the friend of the year? Well, it's because he

6:24

supplies us with peanut butter. Not

6:27

in stock. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

6:29

See, I haven't looked at it like that. This is how

6:32

you've changed, because you've commercialized

6:34

it so far. For me it was just about who your old mates are. All of a sudden

6:36

now, who supplies the peanut butter? Friend of the year. That's

6:38

disappointing. Friend of the year. Your authenticity of

6:40

you is part of your character. I'm disappointed

6:42

you hear that. You've commercialized this, I haven't,

6:44

but if you want to get your hands on the best peanut butter out

6:46

there, it is part of the peanut butter. Friend

6:49

of the year was someone you met that year that

6:51

you hadn't met before, that had a positive impact

6:53

on your life. Had to be within the same year period, right?

6:56

You couldn't grow into it like the brown line, you know? You've been

6:58

a good friend for a couple of years. Only 365

6:59

days of qualification category.

7:02

I remember handing it over to you. Women are support, really. Looking

7:04

back, I took it to heart that

7:06

I was, that it'd be a whole series of people, but you

7:09

might've only met three or four people that year. An hour and

7:11

a half in all seriousness. Just

7:13

run me through how much you have on

7:15

on a typical day. We'll get to where

7:17

you start and what you're up to, but how much

7:19

you've got on and how your prior torporage your time.

7:23

Yeah, I don't want to be one of those guys that sits here and says I'm busier

7:25

than the next person, because I think the way the world's

7:27

gone, everyone's really busy, right? The days of you having a holiday

7:30

or turning your phone. Oh no, you're probably the exception of

7:32

most of these rules. Now think of it. I realize you're

7:34

all talking differently. Well, tell the Costa Rica story there. So

7:38

I met you in New York and I'd been in Costa

7:40

Rica. I think it was with Erica, wasn't it? In LA, it

7:43

was in LA. And I had

7:45

come up from LA and you said, I've seen your text.

7:47

And I think I was on Erica's phone. I was like, you can't,

7:49

I don't have my phone with me. You don't have a phone or

7:51

an email. You were

7:53

betting I'm horrified. I was like, who's this

7:55

guy? So

7:57

yeah, so I think the days of having.

8:00

For most busy people when most of the world

8:02

is busy because of the pandemic forced a whole bunch of conditions

8:04

on everyone that Have largely stayed you

8:07

can't you don't you can't go away turn your phone

8:09

off having an hour yourself It's not practical

8:11

these days and in order we expect that of

8:13

each other right even if even on the extra weekend

8:15

And phones going all weekend and you don't even feel bad

8:18

Some people don't feel bad even connecting

8:20

it might have half apologize So I think everyone's

8:23

busy, but I always live the seven-day work

8:25

life since I was young anyway So this is not really any

8:27

different. It's just a bit of a more

8:29

amplified version of it I guess so you got your

8:32

phone there next to you is that on or off on? On

8:35

so if I sort of took that and gave

8:37

it to Tommy instead right Tommy's gonna bring anxiety in 24 hours

8:40

What what level of anxiety hi? I

8:44

would never go to a restaurant where you check your phone at the

8:46

door for instance or rather you would though wouldn't you

8:48

yeah? Well when I catch up with people potential

8:51

friends of the year I have a rule so

8:53

I catch up with certain mates a certain period of time And

8:55

I've said to them write a phone on airplane

8:57

mode, and it brings different levels

8:59

of anxiety I just watched the masters you'd be no good there.

9:02

Have you been to the masses? You can't take the phone. Yeah, that would

9:04

that would be a

9:05

problem for me I reckon with that said I think

9:07

one of the only times I feel a little In

9:10

my own space is on an airplane because if

9:12

when the airplane has got no Wi-Fi I find

9:14

myself celebrating it now I'd say good because

9:17

you've got no choice and you're in that position

9:19

You might do a bunch of emails and land and go whoosh

9:23

Which is not a great thing to do either by the way, but at least

9:25

you're in your own mode or your own mind That's

9:27

why do you love the level

9:30

of like yeah, it's funny

9:33

Years ago no no it's fine. He's

9:35

fine. You can check it. We had Elise

9:38

Perry on this show

9:40

Four years ago, and I said to her at the start it's gonna

9:42

be tough for you because you are so modest So you don't like

9:44

talking about yourself?

9:45

Believe it or not for a TV person which

9:48

you are now a radio guy. You're a really modest

9:50

person So you're gonna have to let

9:52

things off a little bit so when you say everybody's busy

9:54

everybody is busy But you are the busiest person

9:56

I know and have been for 20 years. I

9:58

reckon

9:59

I think those I see that as

10:01

a floor because if you

10:03

were genuinely smart

10:05

at solving problems, you wouldn't need as many hours

10:07

in the day as it takes me to do it. So I'd just

10:10

see work rate as my only

10:13

ability to compensate for...

10:15

There's people who are making

10:17

much, much, much more money than me working

10:19

far less. They're the smart ones, right? Don't

10:21

you think? If you can choose your path in

10:23

life, you've got it down

10:25

pat, you've got everyone running around

10:27

to compensate for you going to the... IPL.

10:31

The IPL and all your other employers have

10:33

to fall into line while you take off from your little

10:35

year. And then... Let's not go

10:37

down that far. When I last saw you in Sydney, you were like, I said, what are

10:39

you doing next week? I'm off to Costa Rica, phone down.

10:42

You've got it now. So I'd say a damn duration. So

10:44

I don't see it as a badge I wanted to be working 15 hours

10:47

a day. It's just I don't have it yet found any other

10:49

way to do what I want to do without doing it.

10:52

How many people

10:53

would work?

10:55

I would say with rather than for

10:57

you because I know the way you approach your staff.

11:00

How many people do you have working with you

11:02

currently at the moment? If you look across SCN,

11:05

your businesses, your basketball club, the

11:08

footy record, countless other things that I don't

11:10

even know about, ballpark entertainment, going to the

11:12

States, your

11:13

podcasts, how many people do you reckon? There's probably

11:15

in the ecosystem is about 900, but

11:18

there's about 450 or ish, 430, I think

11:22

maybe, who are full-time colleagues. And

11:25

then there's another

11:26

about that that come and go on here,

11:29

identities who you're in essence business partners with

11:31

or

11:32

more casual labour who work for others as well,

11:35

but are also a big part of your world. So that's kind of,

11:37

I think roughly where it is. And you

11:40

try as a leader to have a relationship

11:42

with all if you can. And when you

11:44

start with one or two, you're kind of used to having

11:47

that one to one connection. I'm a big believer in hierarchy

11:49

or roles or someone reports to someone. We've got all that,

11:51

don't get me wrong. But I think you need to be able to work with people,

11:53

right? And so I'm not saying

11:55

I'm any good at it, but that's kind of my lot

11:57

in life. It's a tremendous number of people.

11:59

questions that are obvious spring off the back of that and I'm

12:02

sure it's public record. You talk about it as much as you want

12:04

to say within

12:07

the SCN group itself. Can

12:09

you give me an idea because the question

12:11

follows on from there of your overall

12:14

wage bill? Like what

12:16

you're putting out in wages

12:17

annually? Is this on the record or not?

12:20

Yeah, well we

12:23

turn over the best part of 100 million last year, it's all on the public record

12:25

so you can say that and that'll grow again. And so

12:28

our wage bill is pro-routed of what you'd expect of

12:30

that in any business. Well I'm not at that level

12:32

mate, I got Tommy here so I don't know

12:34

does that mean like 10 million, does it mean 20 million?

12:37

Give me a general number. Yeah, I think it's

12:39

in the neighbourhood of, I shouldn't

12:41

know this as the CEO of a probabilistic company but it's in the

12:43

neighbourhood of 35-40 million bucks of wages.

12:46

Okay, so this is the

12:48

gist already of what you are. That's all we can afford

12:51

you obviously. Well we'll talk about the opportunities that I

12:53

had to work there in the past and how that turned

12:55

out. So you got 30 or 40

12:57

million dollars in wages a year. When

12:59

your head hits the pillow

13:01

do you have clarity to be able to go to sleep or

13:04

do you think we need to generate ex-revenue

13:06

to keep all these people in jobs and keep

13:08

them secure in their families and with their

13:10

mortgages and their car payments and their happiness

13:12

and a chance to go and hire them. Does that weigh or not? Yeah,

13:15

big time. That's a big number mate. No,

13:17

big time. That's a huge driver. It's

13:20

a responsibility for all of our, we've got to

13:22

go to a great executive team

13:23

so that's all of us but it

13:26

is on all of us as a huge responsibility

13:28

and I think

13:30

by and large we've

13:32

had people that leave us like any

13:34

business and go and grow their careers out of the way but we haven't

13:36

made too many changes of our own along the

13:39

way. For all of our issues

13:42

we've had to deal with we haven't been

13:43

flipping people over. I pride myself on

13:46

trying to make a staff

13:48

relationship go as long as it can and it suits that

13:50

person and I've been blessed to have 15, 14, 13, 12 year,

13:53

in essence partners in

13:57

the business who are employees of the business but who care about

13:59

it and I think that's a

13:59

and run it like their own. And that's the best

14:03

fun part of it. But you do

14:05

have

14:05

that sense of responsibility

14:08

that, like the pandemic, for instance, like you're thinking your

14:10

way through it and how you survive and what you need to do.

14:12

So that's, yeah, it's no doubt. And that's,

14:15

I'm sure people have their own businesses around, they're listening

14:17

wherever you be around the world now would relate

14:19

to this, that drives you more than

14:22

your own circumstance. And the flip

14:24

side of that, the amount of people you've given opportunities

14:27

to, as I said at the start, people

14:29

that won't know you may or may not think this, you're a

14:31

humble character, but the number of people

14:33

you've given opportunities to, is that

14:35

the positive side

14:35

of what you do? Yeah, it's cool, isn't it? Mate, it's fantastic.

14:38

You look at, and I know I give him a bit of a hard time

14:40

on the sounding board, it's a bit of fun, but you look at, say, Mitch Clary

14:42

over at Channel 7 and the way he's grown through, he

14:44

started off young in our business and grew

14:47

through. You look at even, you know, Damo

14:49

who left newspapers and then went on a different path

14:51

and how well he's gone, he went to Cane Corns

14:53

and gone from a fireman, really, in essence,

14:55

to being one of the biggest cut-through media identities in

14:57

the country. And that's all been all of their

15:00

work, but you've been part of

15:02

the platform on the way through or the,

15:04

you know, the other type of things that are great fun. You

15:07

don't probably don't reflect on them enough because you're too- But

15:09

you should. You're too caught in today's moment

15:11

and today's problems because there's always an issue. And

15:14

we'll get to dealing with issues. Of all

15:16

the people like, of all the people

15:18

that I know fall under your umbrella, one that

15:20

I find closest to my heart is Ian

15:22

Smith. And you've got him doing breakfast radio out

15:25

of New Zealand from home.

15:27

He's,

15:28

for mine, the greatest commentary I've ever

15:30

worked with. I look up to him tremendously. Who's

15:33

the person that you've signed up

15:36

and you've thought, wow, I can't believe

15:38

I'm providing an opportunity. Again, no time for

15:41

modesty because there's people that work for you that will have been

15:43

your heroes, that will have been work mentors.

15:45

Who's the person you've looked at and thought, wow, I'm

15:47

just pumped that I can be in a situation

15:50

where I can work with someone? Well, I think it's

15:52

pretty much all, right? Like it's

15:55

an honour to be around crowdy people, women

15:57

and men who are fantastic what they do. Smitty

15:59

is...

15:59

he one of those. What a legend.

16:02

Sport is our religion and here is

16:04

Smithy Sermon. Well

16:07

one of the reasons I love the Masters Golf Tournament

16:09

each and every year is because someone

16:12

described him to me recently as the most beautiful

16:14

mix between your next door neighbour, your best

16:16

friend and your great uncle. Yes. I thought that

16:18

was a pretty good description. Yeah it is a good description.

16:21

But a lot of those identities who work

16:23

for us in other markets have not probably

16:26

ever heard of me or us beforehand. Like

16:28

we're in the New Frontier world in New Zealand. You

16:30

look at say Matty John's in Sydney or Cameron

16:33

Smith in Queensland or even Gillie in WA is

16:35

a close friend of yours. Yeah. Who we

16:37

work with a little bit along the way. So it's yeah it's that's

16:40

that's the fun stuff and then you call my start

16:42

fresh and I was trying to approach it like a business

16:44

partnership because that's in essence what it is. Particularly

16:47

in new markets where you almost borrow from

16:49

their persona more than they do. Well you do borrow

16:51

from their persona more than they do from yours. Well if you're

16:53

going into New Zealand and you've signed Ian Smith

16:55

and you had Brandon McCollum like apart

16:58

from probably Richie McCall that's as big as it gets in New Zealand.

17:00

And New Zealand's been a complete eye

17:02

opener. Like to be able to go into another country

17:04

and set something up

17:06

and then deal with all the things that come

17:08

with that. It's been quite in and McCollum's coaching

17:11

of England didn't see coming. No. But to get to work

17:13

with Smitty isn't awesome. And

17:14

he's like very authentic.

17:16

Authenticity is a great thing in radio. That's why

17:19

your podcast is the biggest in the

17:21

country because it relies upon your authenticity.

17:23

It's

17:24

people soon see through you if you're not feeling them. And

17:26

you pick good people it actually

17:28

lasts longer. Were you in the room

17:30

when and I know Smitty listened

17:32

so he'll be grinding his teeth

17:35

now. Were you in the room when he sung Country Road?

17:40

Yeah it was

17:45

my half more half

17:47

more.

17:49

It

17:56

was your whole fingers all up because I know

17:58

Smitty and there's no age.

17:59

doing that in public. Yeah. So

18:02

he, well, I knew he loved the song because he's

18:04

great, Smithy's great love is his three

18:07

boys. Yes. And his

18:09

three boys are just like his first, second and third

18:11

best mate. And his relationship with them is beautiful.

18:14

Just awesome. They can drink beer together those lads.

18:16

And they all love the same things. Beer

18:18

and a punt and watch some sport. And

18:20

so one of them played at Virginia College.

18:22

They played soccer didn't he? College.

18:25

He used to go over and watch and they'd play that song. I knew he loved the song.

18:27

I waited all night in the night. I asked if we could dial

18:30

out a couple of bars. And that just happened to be filmed?

18:32

And yeah, just happened to be caught. And then I did

18:34

ask for permission to distribute. At what time

18:36

of the night? The next day. I didn't

18:38

get a no, I didn't get a yes, but I interpreted the... It

18:41

would have been, oh, hachi, hachi. And

18:44

then when you picked up on Fox it took on a whole new life.

18:46

No, we loved it. We loved it. Where

18:49

did it start? Yeah, a Warrigal boy. Interestingly

18:51

on Smithy, I know you know this, but

18:53

I borrow a bit from your things. But I have an Ian's

18:55

lunch

18:56

every year. Right. And this was two days

18:58

later and it's his first appearance at the Ian's

19:00

lunch. We took the Ian's lunch to Queenstown

19:03

to in part accommodate Smithy. And now he's so

19:06

loved in the... All the other Ian's love

19:08

Ian so much. So it's just all Ian's.

19:11

Every year. We have about 20, 25 Ian's a year

19:13

at lunch. Right. He's

19:15

a star. He's a star. Warrigal,

19:17

what were you like at school?

19:19

Well, you were up the road in Turogan, right? We didn't know each other at the

19:22

time. No, we didn't know each other at the time. But

19:24

what year did you finish year 12?

19:26

90 the

19:28

year before the World Cup final. So 91.

19:32

Everything goes in cricket. Yeah, so it was 92 as the World

19:34

Cup. I

19:36

was 92. Right. I was an underachiever

19:38

I guess. Like I

19:39

didn't know... You know, English was probably the

19:41

only thing I tried at. Everything else I was

19:43

just okay at and didn't get great marks.

19:46

Didn't miss out on the first round uni offer to give you an example. Did

19:48

you?

19:50

Yeah. So had been working as a journalist as a kid

19:52

since I was 12 or 13 and I was a bit prefixed

19:54

on that being a thing. How did you... Like

19:57

writing for the local paper that wore a gazette and

19:59

calling local sports. like just anything I can get my hands on.

20:01

You were calling?

20:02

Well, yeah, I'd call the trots or

20:04

the trotting trials. Yeah, pretty much

20:06

anything I could throw my hat in, I'd write the column

20:08

on the local footie, the local cricket. Yes. Sunday

20:11

morning, Dad would come along with a big ghetto blaster, hit record

20:13

and play at the same time. Over those days, we didn't hit record

20:15

and play at the same time. But

20:18

I just tried to jump in where people weren't otherwise

20:20

doing things. So there was no one writing local papers,

20:22

so I did that. But that didn't match up to

20:24

academics. I didn't...

20:27

I don't know whether I was... To this day, be the Andy

20:29

authoritarian. So school probably represented

20:31

a little bit of that. And what was the fascination with

20:34

the trots or writing in the paper or...? Just wanted

20:36

to be a journalist. So anything that sort of

20:38

added to the resume to get there

20:39

by the age of 18, I wanted to have a...

20:41

I knew I was going to have a bunch of marks that wouldn't

20:44

get me anywhere. So I wanted to have a fair resume until

20:46

I'd done. And in those days, you couldn't self-publish,

20:48

so you had to rely on other people's platforms

20:50

to do it.

20:51

So you end up at the Herald Sun? What

20:53

was it called at the time? Missed the first time around, Herald Sun.

20:55

Yeah, I went for the Care Chip Test at the end of 1992 and

20:58

missed by a mile.

21:00

Went and did a year of professional writing

21:03

and editing in St Albans. Hang

21:05

on, I didn't know about this. What did that involve?

21:07

And that was really tough yards. And

21:10

then went back again at the end of 1993 and got a Care

21:12

Chip.

21:13

So what is a Care Chip at 1994 in Melbourne?

21:16

It was absolutely like... It wouldn't

21:18

pass many HR... It'd

21:22

be a HR inquest, I reckon, into it. And

21:25

I say that with love, because it was the best

21:27

education you could get, but they

21:29

were sweet years. And so what the

21:32

Herald Sun system was, was if you're

21:34

a graduate of one year, but if you were a non-graduate

21:36

like me, it was a three year, and you would get... You'd

21:38

have to do classes, so you'd come in in the morning and

21:41

you'd sit in classes and be taught journalism.

21:43

You'd get... You'd do shorthand, 120 words a minute. You

21:46

have a shorthand class every Wednesday. How'd you get

21:48

that? Terrible. Eventually passed

21:51

with a bit of cheating. And then... How

21:53

do you cheat a shorthand? Well, it was a bit common that they would... They

21:56

would half-help you cheat at the end of the day, thought

21:59

you had a chance. The

22:01

late Loretta who was the Canadian Councillor,

22:03

bless her soul, now I know where the spurs... Right.

22:07

...had waved a few through that she thought... So she just sort of waved

22:09

you through, did she? She'd leave the book open and

22:11

turn it by night. But

22:13

then it was like you'd do two months in

22:16

cooking, two months in funerals, two months at the weekly

22:18

times, running in our cows, two months in overnights,

22:23

the police rounds, two months in five point, which ended

22:25

up being eight months, eight months of typing in results

22:28

into a system at five o'clock. And I thought, and then

22:30

really, and then getting coffees and all those things.

22:32

Well, they were tough, they were hard years,

22:35

but they shape you. You're two months

22:37

in cooking. So there's various

22:39

stories in my head that we've spent

22:41

time together and one relates to cooking.

22:44

So I'm going to jump to it. You were living at one point,

22:46

we'll get back to where you left off, with

22:49

a fellow called Chris Jones, who now

22:51

is the executive producer of Channel 7 cricket.

22:53

Yeah, it's an awesome business. Doesn't mean he's done. He's

22:55

done a great job. Just to call him rookie. Still tend

22:57

to when I see him. Yeah. And he's

22:59

a boss of seven. Yeah, that joint in Richmond. How long

23:01

did you live there? Cutter Street. Yeah, four or five years.

23:04

So I don't know how I got roped into probably

23:06

because I had a ute. I got roped into the

23:08

move. I don't know if you recall this. And

23:12

you folks were moving out. Did you help me

23:14

move house back in the day? Yeah,

23:16

Cutter

23:16

Street. That's what the Port Melbourne. I

23:18

was. Yeah, we're moving to Port Melbourne. I

23:20

had stuff in there. I played on your love at Port Melbourne. Yeah, well,

23:22

that's right. The back of the Holden ute. But I remember you said

23:24

everything was good. And for whatever reason, I

23:27

just thought I better check there was nothing

23:29

like oven trays or anything left in the oven.

23:31

And you'd been in the joint four years.

23:34

Now, this is without a word of a lie. I opened

23:36

the oven and the instructions

23:38

were still in the oven in

23:41

a plastic pocket guru. So it

23:43

fascinates me what you did

23:45

in the cooking beat at the sun. I don't

23:47

think I used the kitchen there. No, it makes the

23:49

instructions in the oven. So

23:52

what did you learn in cooking?

23:53

On the cooking beat, did you have to write cooking

23:55

articles? Well, it

23:58

was brutal because it just didn't.

23:59

The editor I think was Dorothy

24:02

Carter at the time. And she'd

24:04

say, I need you to pump out a recipe on the

24:08

blue grenadier whitehead, blue grenadier fish

24:11

with some rice. And I was

24:13

like, where do I get that from? I just figured it out. Well, you can't go on

24:15

the Google machine at that point. No, you couldn't Google it. No, you'd just,

24:18

you know, you'd ring your auntie or something. I was.

24:20

So how did you, how did you? But what

24:22

I worked out

24:23

early was, there

24:26

was eight hours that you were required to do that. But

24:28

it felt like there was 12, 13 or 14 hours in

24:30

the day. Right. So if it started nine to five, I'd

24:33

get there at 5.30 AM and I'd leave

24:35

it 8

24:36

PM. And I'd try and use the three hours

24:38

at the front of the day and three hours at the back to get published. And

24:40

so I'd run around the departments, terrorize everyone and try

24:43

and get published. And that was the fun bit, which justified

24:45

the painful bit in the middle. And

24:47

then I

24:48

started to get published. So I started to get

24:51

stories in the PM edition and the other cadets

24:53

weren't necessarily getting published. They

24:55

were following the more traditional route. So I felt a

24:57

little lucky that I

24:59

got published. I wasn't, I was

25:01

the worst of all the cadets. I nearly lost the gig, but

25:04

I was getting enough stuff in the paper. And then I realized

25:06

that was kind of going to be my life was just to

25:08

work a bit harder, I think.

25:10

So what was your first ever front page?

25:13

Can you remember?

25:14

Yeah, well my first, my

25:17

first back page was a story at St Kilda

25:19

about three injuries. I turned up at Moorabbin

25:21

on a Friday. I read in the paper that they're having a practice match

25:24

on the Friday night during the by. I thought that's risky.

25:26

They've got injuries. Maybe no one will go, it's a

25:28

Friday night, it's five o'clock.

25:31

Other guys might not turn up. So I

25:33

rolled down there on my own, sat

25:35

in the grandstand, and it feels a bit

25:37

bad to say this, but I was hoping for

25:39

something to happen in the game. And an injury was

25:41

probably not what I wanted, but something

25:44

that newsworthiness to do. And

25:46

there was three key injuries in the game.

25:48

I got, and maybe it was Stan Ells afterwards and rang

25:51

the news desk and said, I'm the kid in

25:53

cadet room and I've got this story. I'm in the

25:55

cooking department. And they want to tell you to go away, but when you tell

25:57

them what story is, then they

25:59

try and...

26:00

Farm it out the one of it. Well, I've got words from the car.

26:02

Okay, you better come in So I drove in and so

26:05

outside the the print till midnight

26:07

till it got published front page was the I Think

26:10

it was the Fitzroy

26:12

Death right

26:15

or merge and I really didn't

26:17

deserve it. I was the second byline of two You

26:20

still on the one do the other one was I think might have been Daryl

26:22

Timms Okay I had some

26:24

words or an interview with something that was of in

26:26

that story and it got merged into one pot and

26:28

then I ended up on the front. So I

26:30

feel like my name's on that historical front page But

26:32

as the second name and that feeling

26:36

Which I've never worked in newspapers,

26:38

but I presume when for the first

26:40

time It's like if you get your first new

26:42

TV story on air when you're

26:45

hanging out by the pressway So you see your name

26:47

come out on the back of the front for the first time? Yeah,

26:49

I used to have an area upstairs called firepoint which they used to

26:51

actually cut there from the stone of the least to

26:53

cut The copy nice to go and say go

26:55

and wow of that like it was addictive

26:58

It was so if that

27:00

that was what I had wanted to do until that point and

27:02

then when you start to get into that rhythm I'm

27:04

sure you see today with all the journalists. I still get quite

27:07

driven by

27:08

Byline and placement, but in those days the pre-digital

27:10

area was everything

27:11

and it was Yeah, it was like

27:14

You felt a ruthless want to get

27:17

the next story and then You

27:19

know inside of the overplayed in your mind by a

27:21

fair bit It's big at the time like

27:24

it's like as a 20 year old kid When

27:27

you've been published in the paper and your mates are in here. It's

27:29

like pretty cool Did you cut it out or keep it or anything

27:31

it back then?

27:32

Yeah, yeah, I've still got it

27:34

somewhere. Well worst thing I used to do. Yeah The

27:39

five I talked about five. Yeah, so you

27:41

don't want to go to the newspaper now There's still two or three

27:44

pages of like tiny your sports results

27:46

from around the world Oh, yeah, like like

27:48

the master schools. Oh, yeah, by the way,

27:50

I'm having a sock Oh, yeah, German. Yeah, it's a good

27:52

example the bunge leaguer. Yeah It

27:55

can be sometimes in a paper two three four pages

27:57

of those in those days these days. It might be one or one

27:59

and a half

27:59

So you have to compile all those. In those days you

28:02

had to actually manually write them in

28:04

and type them in. And then you'd... and the reason

28:06

was called Five Point, that was the size of them, and then you'd get sent

28:08

off to the stone upstairs. But

28:10

after about seven or eight months of being in Five Point, the

28:13

amount of my mates... HE LAUGHS

28:15

..that achieved historical sporting things...

28:19

One of my Warrigal mates beat Yanchakarn twice and squashed...

28:22

HE LAUGHS The Pakistani squashed

28:24

virgin! Another mate of mine,

28:27

I think he put on 300 with a Graham Hink in a county

28:29

game... HE LAUGHS ..bad

28:32

things looking back. Little subtle things. But

28:35

the things you do as a kid when you're trying to amuse yourself through,

28:37

pretty tough. And you're...

28:40

And I've heard you talk about this before. I

28:42

don't know the exact

28:43

expression about break or breakthrough,

28:45

but basically just to push your

28:48

way into where you need to get to. How

28:50

did that translate in a newspaper

28:52

journalist form for you? Yeah, I was really

28:55

unpopular there. So the

28:57

bulk of the journalists just

28:59

couldn't cock me at all. There was a hierarchy

29:01

there and it was well established

29:04

and you had to do your time. And so

29:06

you didn't get given opportunities to

29:08

write on the sports pages. You had to do a 10 or 15-year

29:10

apprenticeship and there'd be 50, 60 people queued up

29:12

trying to get a sports role. And I just was

29:14

naive. I didn't... In my head, I wasn't being

29:17

rude. I was just

29:18

ambitious.

29:20

And I didn't really have the social awareness to understand

29:22

the rules. So if the cricket writer

29:25

went away for two weeks, I would just start writing

29:27

cricket for two weeks and he would come back and I'd be published

29:29

seven times. And of course, carnage in his patch. That

29:33

happened with... I reckon it was Trent Bouts went away. Peter

29:35

Dezira, soccer, one of the great soccer writers. So

29:37

you'd just jump in and start writing stories. Well,

29:39

there'd be a gap in the paper because there was generally rounds.

29:42

And so I'd just jump into the rounds and start

29:44

writing. And in my head, I didn't understand

29:47

what I was doing, but

29:48

then you'd get published and they might

29:50

have had 10 or 15 years of knowledge of that sport

29:53

or the politics of it. And you'd come in and give

29:55

the people who had never had a voice a voice. So

29:57

I could understand that they got back or they

29:59

probably...

29:59

And those days I probably weren't ready online, right? They're

30:02

probably in Europe in holidays. They come back after two weeks

30:04

and some young kids come in. But how

30:06

are you getting the story? Like when you're moving into

30:08

soccer, very specific, especially

30:10

in this country in the 90s, it's very different to

30:13

how it is now. What are you just getting on the phone

30:15

or like? Pick the telephone up, yeah. Right. I

30:17

just ring and ring and get a list of people a day, try

30:19

and make 80 calls a day and go. 80 calls

30:21

a day. I don't know how often I got

30:23

through that in those days, but that was more as my aim. Yeah,

30:26

just pick the phone up and ring people and

30:28

just see what happened. They weren't gonna ring you.

30:31

Yeah.

30:32

And then naivety

30:34

was probably part of the help because you didn't know

30:36

what you didn't know. And then you'd start wanting some things and you'd

30:39

get a couple wrong, but you find a story

30:41

here or there. So mate, as a kid, how did you

30:44

handle,

30:45

like you sort of play that, you know, shambling

30:50

sort of unkempt,

30:52

like I always get- Shambling unkempt?

30:54

Yeah. Well,

30:57

that's the sort of role, like I only say that because

30:59

everyone says to me when I'm doing stuff,

31:01

they say, you know,

31:03

you have the ability

31:04

like Craig Hutcheson to make a $2,000 Fox footy

31:06

suit look

31:09

like it's worth 150 bucks. So I take

31:11

that as a thing of pride and

31:14

you said you're an authoritarian, but that's, you

31:16

know, you're sort of this sort of, you know,

31:18

I don't know, Inspector Clouseau bumbling your

31:20

way through persona you gave, but that wasn't

31:22

you on the inside. But how did you take

31:25

it

31:26

as a kid when you're walking into the office

31:28

and you're getting desk stares from senior journalists?

31:31

Well, I just, I don't know. I didn't know

31:33

any other way. Right, so it didn't worry you? Been unpopular

31:36

since it started. So I didn't- Right, so that was

31:38

part of the job. Wasn't like I started out liked

31:40

and then fell out. Right, you just

31:42

start, not like, and push it that way.

31:45

Just, that was just how it was. So I didn't, and

31:47

again,

31:50

I think I said this the other day on maybe

31:52

might've been the sounding board, but I got

31:54

a mug from my partner, Claire for

31:56

Christmas that said, I'm totally

31:58

self-aware in my lack of self-awareness. I was

32:01

like, I just didn't recognise that I was

32:04

being disliked until everyone said, gee, you're not liked.

32:06

I'd say, what do you mean? And so that's, yeah. But

32:09

looking back, I contributed to the bulk of

32:11

that, because I didn't play the politics.

32:12

I just went about trying

32:14

to get some stories. And because I was only there for a short period of time every day,

32:17

I was like, okay, I got three hours before the Cadet

32:19

classes go, so I'm going to be on

32:21

the phone. Back

32:23

to Hachi in a moment. Next up, an athlete

32:26

in the goat conversation in his chosen

32:28

field, the greatest of all time. We love a goat, five-time

32:31

male international hockey player of the year,

32:33

Jamie Dwyer. Now Jamie provided

32:36

Australia with one of the greatest sporting

32:38

moments I have had the pleasure of

32:41

seeing live.

32:42

So I flicked the two before, and he saved

32:45

them just, actually a pretty good save. So I thought,

32:47

I'm going to flick this again. Out

32:49

of the corner of my eye, the guy was on me. It

32:52

was a little bit higher than what he normally

32:54

was. So as the ball was coming over to

32:56

me, I was

32:57

like, I have to hit this. So in that

32:59

split second, I've changed from flicking

33:01

to hitting. So

33:03

I hit it, come off sweet,

33:06

and missed his foot by about one or two centimetres,

33:08

went in between the keeper's pads, up

33:11

into the goal. And

33:13

I remember it just,

33:15

it was like, I don't know, the movies where

33:17

it just stopped. Everything just completely

33:20

stopped. I was like, yep, I

33:22

hit that. It got a deflection. It's in the goal.

33:24

That's a goal. And

33:27

then I looked over to the umpire, he

33:29

blew a goal, and then I ran off like

33:32

a crazy man and celebrated

33:34

for a while. That

33:37

is Jamie Dwyer, next up on the show.

33:40

All righty, let's get back to Huchie.

33:43

You mentioned the sounding board. It was remiss of

33:45

me at the start, not to say that

33:47

you have brought me seven or eight years of joy, because it's

33:49

my favourite podcast. You know that, to the point

33:51

where I save it. So if

33:54

I'm going to the footy. So what I'm driving

33:56

up today, I was listening to

33:58

an IPL podcast that I wasn't interested enjoying, but

34:00

I needed to listen to, to get information about the IPL.

34:03

On the trip home, I listened to you and Damo.

34:05

So when I get

34:07

time that I think we're all going to relax now in the car, it

34:09

brings me a tremendous amount of joy. So we'll get to the podcast,

34:11

I should have think to me. That's a huge compliment coming from

34:13

you and what you've built here with the How again. So I know

34:16

you're a Damo fan. So that's... You know I am,

34:18

but I'm a U fan as well. It's like me listening to

34:20

two mates having a laugh, which is why I love it.

34:22

So how do... When does a big, big juicy

34:25

TV offer come from this little

34:27

dude from Oregon who's causing trouble at

34:29

the newspaper?

34:31

Oh, the TV? Yeah. Oh, there's journalism

34:33

back in the day? Yeah. Well,

34:35

how did they come about? So I was in Herald Sun Sport,

34:38

then went to Breakfast Radio as a... in

34:41

the third year... It's

34:43

a bit of a boring story, but you can edit it out. We won't edit

34:45

it out. We won't edit it out. In the second

34:48

year of the mic of their chip, they

34:50

broke a rule and gave me a six month stint in sport,

34:53

which I don't think had ever happened. So it was a first

34:55

offer. First time it happened. I made my relationship

34:57

with everyone else worse because I've been...

35:00

So they made an exception pretty much based on

35:02

the volume of stuff I'd had printed. So Phil Gardner,

35:04

who I had enormous respect for,

35:06

the editor in chief, fantastic

35:09

editor and still

35:11

very influential in universities these days and still

35:13

stay in touch a little bit. He

35:16

carroted a world for me to get six months in sport.

35:18

Then was getting published regularly, you

35:20

know, that back and front, whatever. And then at

35:23

the end of that six months, as cadets fell out of the system,

35:25

they had to backfill those roles and I was pushed back into

35:27

the system. He only got a six month exemption. So

35:30

come year three, I'm back doing... Like I've gone

35:32

from having a taste of it to being cut off. And

35:36

it was only in the third year and

35:38

then I got a breakfast radio off from

35:40

Kevin Bartlett and Dr. Turf.

35:42

First time I met Dr. Turf was on

35:44

the day of the meeting around sport 927. The

35:47

now RSN. And I

35:49

thought,

35:50

I rang my dad. He goes, nah, I wouldn't

35:52

do that. And

35:56

my dad's quite... And that was a good conservative

35:58

advice, but I just thought, oh. I'm just gonna

36:00

do it anyway and take it on. And so

36:02

I went there and then I was producing breakfast and

36:05

had Kevin's support. And

36:08

at the end of

36:09

maybe six months, I got an opportunity at 10, but

36:12

fellow was being a bit

36:14

poor to the radio. So I

36:16

said, you know, you'd be interested in a year or

36:18

six months. And then they came back again,

36:21

a great friend of mine, Tim Cleary, who you know well,

36:25

who was at the Herald Sun at the time,

36:27

knew of me via sport. He went to 10 as the producer

36:30

and he gave me the opportunity to be his footy guy. So

36:33

in 1997,

36:34

resigned from RSN and went to 10. And

36:37

my first screen test was horrendous. In fact, it

36:39

still exists. Well, Hachi, I wanted

36:41

to ask this because Eddie still exists. So

36:43

who's got it? Tim's got it. Tim's

36:46

got it. So I'll be able to get the audio from Tim. And he holds it against me

36:48

as collateral endlessly because it's really bad.

36:50

I only want the audio. It's bad.

36:53

Will he give me the audio to play here? Yeah,

36:55

he'd probably drive it here. He's in Byron Bay, he's dying

36:57

for someone to run it. What type of gear

37:00

is it? Just before we roll it in? Sun's in my eyes,

37:03

I can't compute the sun.

37:04

So I'm blinking like a madman. My

37:07

voice is too rehearsed. I misunderstand that it's terrible.

37:11

Another positive to emerge from

37:12

the match was the performance of keeper Darren

37:14

Berry, who broke Richie Robinson's

37:16

Victorian record. And

37:21

did you go through that crash or crash

37:23

through approach into, like who was the established,

37:26

because so people that are listening to this, not

37:28

from Victoria, you know, Channel 10 was Steve

37:31

Quartermain.

37:32

It was Eddie Maguire. It was Bruce McAvain.

37:35

You know, these are the creme de la creme that got

37:37

their start there at 10. Who was the big

37:39

dog when you rolled in? Did you get your start there or your seven?

37:41

I started at seven, but with a great deal of success and

37:44

went to 10. We'll get to your and my seven days.

37:48

So yeah, so Quarters was reading. Tim

37:50

was a producer and it was 22 years old,

37:53

23 maybe Chapel Street. It

37:55

was fun. Yeah. And

37:57

it was manic, manic couple of years. But

38:01

yeah, my approach was again,

38:03

the same crash or crash. The great thing about 10 is

38:05

they had time and they would let

38:07

you develop right. They would throw you in and

38:09

live with the consequences, whereas seven and nine

38:11

were more refined. That was the best thing about 10.

38:13

Best. Let you do what you need to do. Not many people who

38:16

started at 10, who have worked there

38:18

speak

38:19

badly of it at all. That's a fantastic place to be. It's

38:21

a great way to, and the culture is us

38:23

against the world. We've got limited resources, but we'll show them.

38:25

So I'm full of admiration for you. Yeah, the

38:27

bottom of the latter team, occasionally landing a blow

38:30

on the big boys, but not very often. And you love

38:32

it when you do.

38:32

And so how did you go about developing

38:35

a contact list to be able to consistently

38:39

break big stories?

38:41

When the stories used to get broken on

38:43

the news, because you didn't have to put them online or

38:45

et cetera, you'd turn onto the news and

38:47

Craig Hutchison would have a breaking story and

38:49

they'd promo it. And then you'd have to sit and wait to the sport to

38:51

see what the big boy had come up with. Well, I was lucky

38:54

to have Tim. He was as driven as me. We'd often

38:56

be sitting there at 9.30, 10 o'clock at night, streaming up the

38:58

next day and pushing each other. Like

39:00

so that was, he was young

39:02

and motivated as well. So we were

39:04

pushing each other to be disruptors. And we actually thought

39:06

we were generally, you know, like you look

39:08

back now and you convincing yourself

39:10

you're having an impact on the others when you're

39:12

not really, you just convince yourself. Secondly,

39:15

you got the time. Third thing you got the pressure.

39:17

So you got off on the rundown three or four

39:19

or five minutes to fill. And so that's a

39:21

long time to be talking about something that is an interesting

39:23

one. And then you got to go first,

39:25

which was the best. And then you got to sit and watch if

39:28

anyone else reacted to you. First by the fact

39:30

that you're- 5.40 PM. So

39:32

I ended up getting slotted into the 5.35 funny story,

39:34

but before the sport of that, that was my

39:37

area. Yeah, you and Tim Bailey. Yeah, that's it. And

39:39

Granddendja. So the traditional

39:41

news is seven and nine and come on at six. So you

39:43

had the 5.31 swing. So give

39:45

me a, and I know you don't like to tell stories,

39:47

but give me a story about

39:50

a different way to approach

39:53

a story that paid off for you. Give

39:55

me one in your mind. Or I loved

39:58

going on the road. and

40:00

competing against the other, because in

40:03

a normal newsroom, you

40:05

are competing against the other networks for

40:08

unknown content. All right,

40:11

so my story today might be about someone

40:13

who's injured, your story might be about a political situation

40:16

and the third story might be about a coach getting sacked, but no

40:18

one knows what anyone else is chasing. When you go on the road with the

40:20

other networks, you're competing on

40:23

largely known content. If you're on a State of Origin

40:25

trip, it's so you can get the best State of Origin story.

40:27

If you go on a trip for Essendon's game of the finals

40:30

in Adelaide, you're competing on

40:32

what you can, you know, who can get the best Essendon's

40:34

story. So I loved that stuff because I

40:37

would back myself to win the unknown content,

40:39

but I loved trying to play tricks

40:41

on the others on the known content. And

40:43

that got me into trouble a little bit over the journey, but trying

40:45

to out-pit the others, it

40:48

was never personal, it was just business

40:50

and fun, right? So stuff

40:52

like that. I can recall, I don't

40:57

know when this was, but I'd hurt my knee playing

40:59

footy, which will get to us playing sport together. I'd

41:02

hurt my knee playing footy, and I'm not gonna mention where

41:04

I was going, but I was going to see a doctor

41:07

and I was telling you this, and I reckon

41:10

you gave me some beers

41:13

to give to someone that

41:16

worked within the area of the medical

41:18

facility. And I was gullible

41:21

at the time and you're like, oh, this is just a mate, you know,

41:23

I just gave him some beers. But looking back to

41:26

me, he was one of your people. As

41:29

a journalist, I put a premium on sets of eyes. So

41:32

it didn't matter to me whether they were a coffee

41:34

attendant, a gardener. I think it was

41:36

a gardener hutch. I think this float was a gardener.

41:40

Building, someone who worked in the building has always, you

41:42

know, or crossed the road, because like

41:44

one of the great things in journalism is seeing

41:46

something happen and all getting a camera there quick enough.

41:49

So that was an area I fished

41:51

in a little bit back in the day. Some of those things

41:53

probably weren't fair and reasonable things to do

41:55

in the last day. But you must have had a Christmas payoff

41:58

where you had to go around and...

41:59

Repay. I trade in

42:02

beers and tickets and all that sort of stuff. Footy tickets?

42:04

Yep. Clever. Yep. Understanding

42:08

what someone's interested in. I think the other thing is if

42:10

you've got a, if you've got a,

42:12

I shouldn't say this, if

42:15

you've got a job that you're not excited by, and

42:18

you can help someone's job make it a little more

42:20

exciting, then they, good

42:22

things might happen from that. Everyone's a winner. Yeah.

42:25

So I love the idea stuff like, and

42:27

you love this too, you have an idea

42:29

that manifests the story. It's far greater

42:31

fun than learning any

42:34

information. Absolutely, it is. The

42:36

ones that spring to mind were,

42:39

and Kevin Sheedy had done this whole routine

42:42

about,

42:42

playing as trains and automobiles, we're going to Adelaide,

42:45

we're going to beat Port Adelaide in the first final. And

42:47

you know, he's dressed up all week and like he was all

42:50

in on getting Essendon fans, and they knew they couldn't

42:52

otherwise win. And so

42:54

planning to see with him about, what are we going to meet the

42:57

Overland, train together at 4.30 in the morning.

43:00

When the Essendon fans get off, they see the coach on the platform.

43:02

So you've teed up with him? I plan

43:04

on the idea with him. Right. What about, how

43:06

good would this be from a vision point of view? And what

43:09

an amazing story, and it would make you look really great,

43:11

Kevin, because you're there meeting the fans.

43:14

You've said, come, and now they turn up and

43:16

you're there with a whistle on the platform. And

43:19

that was cool because

43:21

then he rang my hotel room at 4.30

43:23

in the morning and said, well, do you want to go and do this or not?

43:26

Wake the camo up, you know how hard camera another wake up? Who's

43:28

the camo? Well, probably Damo, I love

43:31

Damo. Johnny. I love Damo. So

43:33

we're down at the train station

43:35

at five, with the coach

43:37

in the back of the car. We

43:40

set it up,

43:41

all these bleary, I Essendon fans get off in their

43:43

ears with a whistle. You know, welcome to, let's go get them.

43:45

And then you go back to the hotel at six and play

43:47

dead for the day. So the other news is don't know you got

43:49

it. And then they get to watch it on the six o'clock

43:52

news. They've got a boring cross

43:54

and you've got the Essendon coach on the platform, 5.30 this

43:56

morning, stuff like that.

43:59

We're in the start of Origin team out

44:02

of their hotel on scale

44:04

one day.

44:05

I can't remember if we used Secret Buses

44:08

or how we got underneath there, but I got them all into

44:10

a pinball parlor in Brisbane. A whole lot

44:12

of them. A whole 25 of them for

44:15

an hour of content with the 25 best players in

44:17

the comp without

44:19

the other crew outside the hotel knowing I'd moved

44:22

the whole team. And

44:24

then got these beautiful pictures for the news of, you know,

44:26

like, ahead of tonight's game, they've relaxed and

44:28

they've got players shooting hoops with each other or

44:30

shooting, you know, all the pistols

44:32

and the plane. The Galaga.

44:35

Yeah.

44:35

And interviewing like the best players in the game and

44:38

then going back to the hotel and pretending you haven't

44:40

got anything for us today until they watch it on the news. That

44:42

was the fun stuff. And how... Those

44:45

were good days. How flattening for them. So we

44:47

first met... No fun when it happens the other way though. No.

44:50

No. We first met at Channel 7

44:52

where you were the main newsman

44:55

and I'd moved into the sports

44:57

department and this is where

44:59

we first came across each other because we

45:01

had to produce... You were producing. Yeah.

45:04

I produced your footy segment. Now your

45:06

producers have their own producers. Well yeah. Times

45:09

change. But you have to work hard, don't you?

45:11

So I was producing for Sports World your

45:13

footy segment with you and Rex

45:16

Hunt. Yep. Can

45:19

you recall... And David Swartz for a World's Eve. And David Dunstle for

45:21

a World's Eve. Yeah. And the Chief

45:23

as well. So I used to come in... I

45:26

used to come in at 5.30 and do the

45:28

whole footy segment and used to come in...

45:30

Used to come in three minutes before we went to air and

45:33

I'd hand you the sheet and you had an amazing ability

45:36

to take in that information and then put it out on

45:38

TV. Do you remember the morning

45:40

where Rex had been on

45:42

an interstate flight

45:45

and had done something with a

45:47

fork? Yep. Something snapped in my brain

45:49

so I just went up to Qantas Club, grabbed

45:52

a handful of forks and took them on board. A

45:54

passenger complained and Hunt was officially

45:56

interrogated by Federal Police

45:58

on arrival in... And it was a big

46:01

blow up story. It was a click bait before

46:03

it was click bait. Yes, it was click bait. So Rex had

46:05

got in trouble at the airport and you, I

46:07

remember I had the rundown and you said, oh,

46:10

I just got a couple of props and you pulled out

46:12

a metal knife and fork. I thought, I don't know how

46:14

this is gonna go, but it was golden TV. It

46:17

was golden TV. Rex was, in

46:20

that era, he was compelling content.

46:22

Unstoppable. And he was in everything and he was bigger

46:24

than the game. And yeah, so I had a period of working

46:26

with him at seven in that environment.

46:28

We see the tips on Friday nights too on the

46:29

news. That's very, yeah, that's right. And then had the ability in our

46:32

early AFL Live days, regional footy

46:34

to have him call for us for a period of time.

46:36

And yeah, he's, having grown up, you talk about having grown

46:38

up, listened to someone and as

46:41

an 18 year old, listening to him's description of footy,

46:43

it lit a fire on you. And so to work with him for

46:46

that period was an honour. The other thing you would not do,

46:48

so they brought in a, was

46:49

it called Ian Pierce? What was the computer

46:52

system called? What was that system called?

46:55

It was nearly the death of you.

46:57

So there was a computer system

46:59

where everyone had to put their stories in

47:01

the rundown for the first time. And

47:03

you were, you were the great avoider.

47:06

You would do everything. Explain.

47:09

Well, I've never really been,

47:12

I'm not a computer or tech savvy guy.

47:16

No, you're not. I'm a content. How many times

47:18

over the years have you misplaced your car?

47:21

Oh wow, this just took a turn. How

47:23

many do you reckon? Well, I haven't had

47:25

a car for the best part of a decade. Because

47:27

you kept misplacing it. But yeah, I would lose it semi-regularly

47:30

back in the day.

47:31

I would just get. Guru,

47:37

can you pick me up? I'm not sure what the

47:39

car is, but I remember being in South Melbourne.

47:42

And this has nothing to do with alcohol. This, you had so much

47:44

on your plate. Yeah, I would just, I'd go to work. So

47:46

I'd go to the footy. There were times when I went

47:48

to the footy for a Friday game. I

47:50

would leave the footy on a Friday night, not remembering

47:53

I'd driven there. I'd work. And then I'd

47:55

get busy for the next three days without a car and get

47:57

to Tuesday and realize, where's my car?

49:59

you that just formed our own cricket team

50:03

at Middle Park. Yep. And that progressed

50:06

into a football team

50:07

at the Two Blues. I'm often fascinated

50:10

how you came up

50:11

with our own cricket team.

50:13

It was at Middle Park. I've never asked

50:15

you this. Did you just go to the club?

50:18

Do you remember how this happened? Yeah, loosely. When

50:22

I grew up in Warrigal, all my

50:25

mates, we all played for different teams. So

50:27

we didn't really get to play

50:29

sport together. We were all in pockets

50:32

of the region. And so we're all mates at school

50:34

or wherever. And then

50:36

we'd try and get together and play in rep teams. But

50:39

you wouldn't always get picked. And

50:42

you couldn't just pick your mates. We

50:44

had a good run there for a while. We'd pay once a month.

50:47

We'd pay for Warrigal and District against the others.

50:50

So we would always talk about this. And

50:52

so in Melbourne, it was an orchestrated effort

50:54

to play together for once. I had mates

50:57

like

50:57

these, and they were mainly team, but Gerada

50:59

and Giers and Mazza and all these guys

51:02

who we hadn't actually ever played together. So I

51:05

think, I don't know

51:07

who I knew there, but I just went to them and asked if we could Middle

51:09

Park, put a Sunday team together. I want to start at least

51:12

Malvern initially, and then it couldn't

51:14

be done there. So we moved to Middle Park and why

51:16

it went. But a Sunday team that we

51:18

would have no association with the club

51:20

and we wouldn't train, but we could

51:23

take their Sunday team over. Yeah, it was just a pitch though.

51:25

Do what you like a Sunday team. These are the

51:27

terms and conditions. We're not going to train. We're

51:30

going to come and go. We understand if we don't want

51:32

us, but we're going to play somewhere and you

51:34

know. So describe yourself firstly as a cricketer,

51:37

because I've got great memories of us playing cricket together.

51:40

How would you describe yourself in modern parlance?

51:43

As a kid, I was so awkward in the field, I was known as pillar

51:45

in my team, because I moved like a pillar.

51:49

As a kid, I could bat a little bit. Wayne

51:52

is an adult, but I was okay as a kid. Kenny,

51:54

captain. And love taking

51:56

risk as captain. You were

51:59

David Warnock.

51:59

steroids as captain. Trying to do

52:02

something when there wasn't something to be done the whole time. The other team could

52:04

be chasing needing 10 to win

52:06

with six weeks in hand or the sudden you go

52:09

let's put five slips in. Just try

52:11

stuff. It was a good fun stuff. That was

52:15

a great way to... It was. And then that

52:18

lived long beyond me.

52:20

I then moved overseas mid

52:22

2000s. We started winning premierships after you left to be honest.

52:24

Yeah you did. Justin

52:27

became captain. Yeah. In cricket but

52:29

not football. So we played football together as well. You became a

52:31

very good bat there that period of time. A reading

52:33

specialist. A reading. Not

52:35

very flamboyant to be fair. Took your time.

52:38

But you know what I used to understand about cricket? The

52:41

blokes like mates of our Sneaky,

52:43

Deaky and Butsey would make 400 runs

52:46

for the year and average 75.

52:50

But I understood the

52:52

batting qualification was 150 runs. So I'd

52:54

make a series of eight not outs. Make 152, get dismissed once and

53:00

win the batting average. And you'd thank everyone

53:02

like you were the diamond

53:04

pro pro. That's right. That is the

53:06

end of Craig Hutches and part A. So

53:08

much more. So much more to come

53:11

in part B.