North Coast Marlins

Take us back to that first phone call, mate.

I remember this pretty clearly as well, but you... entering two teams into our first Lions Premier League comp and we've actually got Bailey, one of our stalwart photographers, he was there that day as well shooting some of the shots and your team was highlighted in a few of them but do you remember that first year?

Yep, I do.

It was – I think it was everything we probably – we thought it was going to be when we saw, obviously, the talk about the ex-NRL boys.

And, yeah, it was just amazing, the concept.

It was really good for our club at the time, Roachdale Tigers.

I was just coaching sort of opens footy at the time, and it was a good time for them to sort of come down the Gold Coast, meet a few different people, and then obviously the second side, which was mix and match.

they were all the delinquents I like to say all the boys I just hammered and said you need a play and like we had guys turning up on the day that I'd never met and they were actually the team that actually went on and I think they played semi-final that year so the delinquents got the job done but yeah it was everything at the start for us so it was really good

And last year we were very fortunate, obviously, to host almost as a favour back to you for putting in those two teams at Rochedale.

Your wonderful family and the Rochedale Tigers community had hosted us for our first ever Brisbane qualifier.

How was that taking this concept and competition to your club that you're a life member at?

Emotionally it was tough because obviously our Brisbane team was so invested in that place.

We made sure they trained there and they understood the story behind it and the hard-working people that had been there for a really long time.

Obviously my parents had been there for over 25 years.

So I think I took a moment when we got knocked out in the quarterfinals, the Kings, to sit back and actually look at the – I remember looking up at the clubhouse and looking at the grass and I've never seen that many people – You know, KO, the field was amazing.

I think, yeah, it was one of those moments in football that you, you know, you don't get a lot of, I suppose.

So it was massive.

And I'm so grateful for 9PL, obviously, giving Roachstall a chance and helping them out in that way as well.

No, well, I mean, yeah, I suppose the...

The same thing goes back to yourself, your sister, your parents.

You know, they were wonderful to work with and super inviting, accommodating a competition that we didn't really have any real idea of sort of what or how it was going to land.

But I think for the first year, there was no better place for us, no better support.

So huge thank you, obviously, to yourself and to your family and the Rochedale Tigers.

Does anyone know how hard this is? Like, does anyone know how hard you work behind the scenes and what you do in terms of putting these teams together?

There's probably a few people who know.