yeah okay

so we were just all keen ads to play and then i just knew and you know you've seen it everyone knows a week in rugby league is a long time things just change so quickly so there's yeah just you gotta take everything in your stride yeah what we're talking about earlier there's just ups and downs and you just you can't get too high you can't get too low like um someone the other day I mean I've heard it before but touched on it again it's never as good as it seems it's never as bad as it seems yeah

okay

just with how old i was and yeah they sort of were just picking the same guys and i hadn't played footy and but i was like nah i want to be on the cusp of it you know if i can play good footy just to be in the conversation is uh i'll be happy with that and then yeah it's sort of strung a couple good games together and then started hearing like rumors that i was a chance yeah no way yeah yeah no way and then I remember Robbo pulled me into his office sort of just before game one, a couple of weeks before game one.

And he's like, mate, I've spoke to Madge, like you're really close.

Just going to keep playing well.

He's like, you know, there's a lot of external noise that comes with this.

Don't worry about it.

How does Robbo manage your energy during the weeks now?

Yeah, they're really good, mate.

Him and the performance staff's got a good understanding of, you know, how the boys are feeling, what we need.

This time of the year, you know, it's all about recovery and then getting ready for the next opponent.

We sort of, even after Penrith, after the loss last week, we moved on.

to the Sharks pretty quickly.

You know, there was a little bit of review, but not like sort of in the middle of the year when you might have a long turnaround where, you know, you do like a full day.

Was that just because the opportunities presented themselves or you'd prepared to do that? I think a bit of

So they might be a bit worried that some damage has been caused in transit or something like that? A condition check

happens whenever we loan an object, borrow or we lend ourselves.

So we know of lots of damage and stains and marks that are on the tapestry over its 978. history but we're now looking for anything that could have changed or could have been impacted by its travel this is a massive game of spot the difference and so far no difference it's not just what the tapestry tells us of the time but the way it's been displayed and stored and moved and viewed over history for hundreds of years it was essentially forgotten it went out of fashion as other forms of art came in

It's

painstaking work, so we're being very quiet to not break concentration.

Obviously you're looking at thousands and thousands of threads that make up singular horses and they are going through that by millimetre by millimetre.

And this work

And it was like watching you guys yesterday.

Well, I think, you know, I, I've said it before, but you've probably seen yesterday how much of rugby league is between the ears, Andrew.

It's not really just about, you know, the physical battle that happens.

It's about turning up with the right mentality every week.

So, um, yeah, it was...

And, and, and we didn't do it, to be honest.

They, um...

You're gonna be a father, brother.

What are some of the goals or have you thought about anything that you'd like to achieve at the club when you join?

Yeah, I think firstly, just what Chemis had touched on, you know, the money obviously opens the conversations for you.

You've got to be honest about that.

But I knew the first time that I went to Papua New Guinea when I did the Kokoda Trail and, you know, we were doing the trail in the middle of nowhere, no TVs, you know, not powering a lot of these villages.

And you walk through and they all knew who all of us guys were.

And that's what kind of started it for me.

It was, you know, just seeing how passionate the country is about rugby league and thinking, you know, I'd actually love to be part of the first team here.

How are the Roosters going?

Did you have a, a guy that you looked up to, uh, I suppose that was an Indigenous player that really sort of changed our game?

Yeah, I think for me, uh, being a fullback when I was a kid, so Matty Bowen was one of my favorite players.

Um, yeah, just the way he and Jonathan Thurston linked up for a long time there for the Cowboys, like, mate, it was just constant highlight reel, those guys working together.

But I remember when I played in, uh, my first All-Stars game, he was in the-- Matty Bowen was in the, um, was in camp with us as one of the assistant coaches, and, uh, we got-- we were playing some like, uh, it's called Drop Out game.

You'd, you'd probably know it, Lewy, but it's like a little sort of, uh, competitive game where one team drops out and then the other team's gotta try and score, and the defenders start with, you know, like three and then the, um, so you get three tackles and then, um, once that happens, you either score or you don't, and you get like points and then, you know, then you-- the next, um, drop out, you get four defenders and then five and then so on until it's say like seven on seven.

And we were a player short, so Matty Bowen jumped in with us and, um, we were on the last one, seven on seven, um, and it was even.

They dropped off to us.

How do you as a team go about things differently against Penrith?

How have you found that going from, you know, Origin camps and being part of all of that, to now being in the middle of the, the competition that, where some of your players aren't available, some of the opposition aren't available?

Yeah, obviously, I, you know, I'd love to be in that Origin setup.

That's the sort of always the goal starting every season and, um, it's been great to be able to do that the last couple years.

But, you know, b- being part of playing for your club side throughout this period is also, it's, like, exciting.

It's a different challenge.

You know, you got a lot of young guys coming in.

The other week we got to see, like, uh, what was it? Three guys make their NRL debut, Tommy make his club debut.

Yes.

But you had a bad run there before that.

And when I had that bad run, like I had the Achilles, I had my patella tendon.

Um, that was sort of when I started to actually think about, cause after the Achilles, at that point in time, some people were saying, this is like a career ending injury.

It's the science has got a lot better.

So guys are coming back and half the time they were now for an Achilles.

So I was sort of worried at that point and thinking like, what happens now if my career is over? So I did start to plan, uh, or search for passions outside of it and you know working in the charity was a big one like able to lean into that and actually um give back through that but then also gain business skill through you know being on the board um now president of the board as well so that sort of changed my perspective on things a little bit and then um just the evolution of starting this with Fletcher um we had the podcast when I was in Newcastle and seeing like the business side of that and you know, doing deals with sponsors and all this sort of stuff.

And yeah, I know that this is an area that I want to get into more when I'm, when I'm finished footy.

Because if it ain't cut through, no one's going to even look at it.

What was the trigger to deciding, yes, we'll take that two-year deal?

I think, you know, I've spoken about it sort of since I did Kokodi, you know, that I could see myself playing over there.

And for me, it wasn't really an issue.

I spoke about it when I was on ABC the other week.

And, you know, we're training every second day.

So for me, being over in a different country, you know, like, although there's going to be some different challenges with it, I'm going to be fairly busy the whole time.

So it's just sort of around getting my partner, Kiana, um, across it and making sure she was happy with that decision but I think just going there for that uh for that couple of days that we did in the last buy and just seeing how beautiful you know the people were the place was and um I think just also you know that adventure that will come with it the experiences of being part of the first ever Papua New Guinea Chiefs team like Yeah, I've said it a couple of times, but just, you know, that first training session, I can't imagine how many people will be there watching or, you know, the first game or the first fan experience and actually be able to have, you know, a really big impact just through football, you know, because it is the only country in the world where rugby league is the major sport and you see how much it means to people.

Is that how it feels as a player too?