ANT PLATER

Ant Plater

Current head of performance -Noosa Pirates. Former high performance consultant - Canberra Raiders (NRL side) Highly decorated former Australian Defence Force (ADF) Special Forces Operator and 2nd Commando Regiment Warrant Officer  who served for 27 years. A combat veteran with deployments in Somalia, East Timor, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Talks about his love of the sport, life in ADF, high performance and life in Noosa hinterland.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This episode has been brought to you from the DGMS studios, the home of Don't Get Me Started, Lethal and Money Live and SurfTown. Found at Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music, and wherever you listen to your podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

This is a feature of some of the amazing individuals we have around the Noosa Pirates Rugby League Club. Enjoy their stories. The opinions voiced on this podcast are our own and not the official position of the club or the league. And there is a mild language warning. Enjoy legends. Alright, ladies and gentlemen. We're very lucky to have Aunt Plater on with us today. So, mate, thanks for coming on. And yeah, let's dive straight in. Tell us a little bit about the Aunt Plata story and how you ended up in Noosa, mate.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Yeah, awesome. Thanks for the invite today, LA. It's it's always fun to do a podcast and tell your story. I guess I was born in central New South Wales in a place called Griffith. Didn't really spend a lot of time there. Mum and dad moved us to Sydney, where I think I got my first taste of rugby league playing for the um the mascot blues. We sort of traveled around a fair bit, moved down to Tassie, and then spent a couple of years sort of my towards sort of eight, nine, and ten, traveling around Australia with my with my folks. They were both chefs, so we did a working holiday for them. Saw plenty of Australia, which was pretty amazing. And then I guess my early teenage years was in a place called Catherine in the Northern Territory, where I played a lot of footy, AFL as well. You know, the NT sort of favours both both codes. So and then about I was pretty much there until I was like 15 or 16. We moved back down to New South Wales, and about I wasn't sure what I was gonna do. I sort of wasn't really interested in school, as most of us were sort of back then. I was very into the sport, playing league, sometimes playing AFL and league on different days on the weekend. So that was fun. I just frothed over, you know, sport and and that sort of stuff. And then I guess sort of had to come to a decision point, you know, what am I gonna do with my life? I suffered some injuries sort of in the 15, 16 sort of bracket when I was playing footy. About two weeks after my 17th birth, I found myself on the bus down to recruit training at Capuca.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

There you go. What a diverse childhood. Hey, do you think that's got a lot to do with who you've ended up as a as an adult? You've been exposed to a lot of things, seen a lot of different things, and probably not your average typical childhood. And then do you reckon that's what led you to being on the bus down to Kapuka?

SPEAKER_02 2:39

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there wasn't a lot of military in my background. I guess both my dad and and two of my uncles served, and and certainly one of my uncles, you know, he's served in Korea, Malaya, born here in Vietnam. So he spent 30 plus years in the military, heavily influenced by him. But I think, yeah, certainly travelling and and seeing a lot of Australia and definitely influenced my decision that I think back then we were pretty much a peacetime military, so it was all about travel and going to different locations in and around Australia. That was a big attraction, and certainly the defence shaping the way that they perceived Kapuka to look like, you know, there was a brochure and there was a golf course and there was a gym and there was all sorts of bits and pieces, but we didn't get to see the golf course or the tennis courts or anything like that. It was just it was hardcore, like 12 weeks of to the grind. But yeah, it definitely influenced my decision to join the military.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Would you say basic training is like rocking up to a senior preseason if you didn't know it was coming? Plus about a thousand times. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:37

Yeah, it was a massive culture shock to be honest. Like I was so young, I wasn't shaving yet, and you had to shave every day, so you had to learn to shave with a cutthroat razor pretty quickly, regardless if you had, you know, facial hair or not. But I had some great lads around me and I I sort of looked back finally with some of the lads who were in my room and in my section. This was early 19 I'm sorry, late 88 at this stage, 1988. So the world back then was very different to the world today. You did something wrong and you knew about it physically and mentally for that matter. But very fond memories of Capuca looking back now. Like it was hard work for 12 weeks, like you went on a journey, but I felt like day one I was a kid, I was just a boy, but by the end of the the three months I was turning into a young man. So yeah, a lot of fond memories of of that three-month period.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

And that led to a um a fairly long, prestigious career in the military. So after the basics, were you set on your path and just charging to the next goal?

SPEAKER_02 4:36

Yeah, so the next three months is infantry training at the School of Infantry at uh Singleton in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales. That's another three months, and then I was posted up to Townsville where I spent the first just under 10 years of my career. Yeah, like as I said, operations were few and far between back then. So it was we worked hard and we played very hard as well. Townsville in those in those days was very Flender Street East was a dangerous place to be on a Saturday and a Friday night, and pretty much, in fact, probably every night of the week, actually, because any excuse to go and have a few bevies was was taken up. You know, there was a lot of sport played and and we spent a lot of time in the field training. I was fortunate enough to spend four months in Bougainville towards the end of my time in in Townsville, and that was, I guess, a small, very, very small snapshot of you know operations, peace monitoring sort of job. But yeah, sort of really grounded my my skills and I had aspirations to to join special forces, which I was fortunate enough to be selected in early 2000.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

So amazing. I've listened to a few of your other potties and read a few things about selection. Is there anything you want to tell us about with that and what that period was like?

SPEAKER_02 5:43

It's 18 to 20 odd days of just relentless, on the move, unknown, no positive feedback of how you're tracking, no feedback at all. In fact, whether you're going good or bad, you just don't know. You've got to generate that positive self-talk on your own. Otherwise, you quickly tap out because you're hearing you're talking to other guys around you and they're like, Oh yeah, I've got this many checkpoints on the nav, and you're like, Oh, just only got half that amount, you know. So you've really got to be mentally and physically prepared. I still sort of monitor sort of mentor lads going on selection today, and and I've my strongest recommendation to them is to really develop that strong mindset and have a mental strategy as well because selection's probably 70% what's happening in between your ears and 30% physical. But yeah, it's just relentless. It's on the go. There's there's periods of limited food. You probably get about you know two to three hours not sleep each night. Sometimes you don't get any sleep, sometimes you might get an hour in randomly in the middle of the day. But it's just relentless, and it needs to be because we're selecting Australia's finest soldiers to go and do some pretty tough missions around the world. So it's there for a reason. It's not about the old boys' club or anything like that. We are selecting men to go and kill our foes, so to speak, and women for that matter now, these days. So it's difficult and it's hard to pass for a reason. No doubt you've heard the stories that 350 odd guys will apply and about 150 turn up for selection, and by the end of that 20 days, you probably get about 15 to 20 lads, but then you've got another sort of 12 to 18 months of training on the reinforcement cycle. So that 15 to 20 ends up being about 10 to 15 lads who will get borough qualified and and arrive in their respective units. So very tough, but again, fond memories of finishing and just people often ask, you know, how did you feel when you when you finished? And it must be a great feeling. And it is, don't get me wrong, like it's a proud, but you're so physically and mentally exhausted that Sorato, you know, like we're doing the footy field, it's about next job. What have I now got to focus? I get like five to ten day break where I got to rebuild my body because I've lost 10 to 12 kilos, I've had minimal sleep, so I've got to rebuild quickly to go into the reinforcement cycle where again you can quickly be find yourself in a dark hole if if you don't look after your physical or mental health. So find times to look back, and I do stay in touch with lads I pass selection with, and we laugh about different aspects of selection and what it looks like today compared to back then. There's not a lot of difference. There's a little bit more science behind it, performance science, which is good. Good times serving with some absolutely amazing humans who just, you know, next level cut from something that you just don't see normally. But yeah, it's as I said, it's there for a reason.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

You'd be talking about a group of human beings that the general populace wouldn't know about, wouldn't be across or aware or have any sort of general knowledge of what life is like and the day-to-day's life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

I like the term the ruthless pursuit of excellence. Don't get me wrong, I see glimpses of it, I guess, having worked in the Anna Roll and in around in and around elite sportsmen, there's that spectrum of high performance where, you know, you look at elite sportsmen and women, you look at elite soldiers and then those sports, Red Bull type sports, that type of stuff. And they're all everyone's in that same spectrum where we're chasing excellence. But when you look at guys who are either in special forces or attempting to get into special forces, it's that ruthless pursuit of excellence. No stone is unturned in preparation, the educated preparation that that is like it you've really got to seek, you know, what do I need to do? How do I need to prepare? What do I need to be doing physically and mentally to prepare myself to get to the start line? Because once you get to the start line, it's like every great plan goes to can go to custard as soon as you step out the door, right? It's the same with selection, you just don't know how your body's gonna react, you prepare and train, but once you step through that and that kickoff whistle goes, I guess like in a game of footy, you know, your best plans can go out the door. So you've got to have plan A, B, C, D, and and and so on. Don't get me wrong, we spent a lot of time, well, certainly my era, we spent a lot of time in in Afghanistan, Iraq, and East Timor and and these sort of places around the world. And a lot of lads in that in in that 15 to 20 year period spent a lot of time away from home. And I don't think the wider population truly understands what we went through in that 20 odd years. We lost 42 Australians in that period of time who came home, you know, with the flag draped over them. So it's 90 to 95% of our stories should be shared, and and the Australian population should have an interest in what we went through because of the freedoms we experience today. And then there's the other five that are sacred to us, actions that happened on the battlefield that are sacred to the men who were there on that day. So again, just we'll probably never see that. And I hate to say that because no one knew back in December 1999 that we're about to go into 20 years of Australian soldiers being committed to conflicts around the world. You never know what's on the doorstep, so to speak. And certainly I spent my first 10 years doing nothing but going on training exercises and playing sport in the ADF, and then the next 20 years being away for long periods of time and the sacrifices our families take and our children, it's massive, massive. So yeah, if you're seeing a digger on Anzac Day or anyone from the Navy or the Air Force, we all did our part. Give them a pat on the back, say, say well done, you know, thanks for your service type stuff, because a lot of men and women made massive sacrifices through that period of time.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

Definitely. Mate, thank you for your service. We've got Anzac Days just around the corner. We've got the the Trek for Vets coming up, we've got a few other initiatives coming up. Anyone that's listening to this, I'd really encourage you to get involved and immerse yourself in being a part of these things respectfully and openly, I suppose.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

Yeah, look, Trek for Vets is a really great initiative started by one of my mates back in 2015 who did Kakoda and then basically wanted to bring that feeling back here to Australia about sacrificing a night's sleep to support veterans. We've got sites in pretty much all capital cities, Gold Coast, NUSA now, for the first time last Anzac Day. But yeah, it's just about gathering, facing a little bit of a challenge, but sacrifice that night's sleep in support of veterans. For NUSA, for example, we'll we'll start and finish at Tawant RSL. So, and one of our mates is hopefully coming with me as well. We'll both share some stories about service along the way and sacrifices good times, funny times, bit of a bit of black humour as well. But it's a great initiative and it's growing stronger and stronger every year. And you know, we're Tok Pro Vets is a not-for-profit, so all our money goes back to supporting veteran initiatives. And one of those was Waves of Wellness, which is here at NUSA and obviously on the Sunshine Coast. It's a great program. It's uh what is it, eight weeks once a week where you learn to surf, but there's also some mental health strategies built in that two-hour period, and all the the stuff that support Waves of Wellness, they're a great bunch of guys and girls, and it's it's a common we talk about some mental health, and then we jump in the water for an hour. So yeah, as you said, Anzac Day is coming up and it's always a somber time, but it's also a reflective time, not only for what we've gone through in the last 20 years, you know, what Australian servicemen and and women have done for the past 115 years for that matter.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

Definitely. Does what's happening broadly overseas at the moment trigger you?

SPEAKER_02 12:57

Or uh it certainly brings back a lot of memories of what we went through prior to going to Afghanistan, like prior to my first tour in Afghanistan, I guess. People say, Oh, what was the job like being in special forces? And it's the best job I've ever had, to be honest. And I miss it every day, to be honest. I'd I'd go back in an instant if I could rewind time 20 or 30 years because it's just the best job. Surrounded by some absolutely outstanding individuals who were just driven and focused, well resourced, reasonably well led at different levels. Obviously, there's been a lot of publicity around uh war crimes and stuff, especially for special forces. But I guess to answer your question, yeah, it does, it is a bit of a trigger at times. And and like I don't listen to or watch a lot of news. I sort of shape what I owe myself to for for my own mental health. And that would be, I suppose it started a long time ago, but mindset training. Yeah. Absolutely, yeah, for sure. And like I pass on to the lads who are going on selection now, it's a it's about developing your own positive self-talk, developing your own mantra and having that ability to focus on what your end state is and I guess focus on your mental health as a vehicle to stay healthy.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

And mate, we're fortunate to have you involved with the the junior academy at Pirates. And we were at a gym session at CrossFit Noosa the other day. Shout out to the guys at CrossFit Noosa. And one of the takeaways I had from that session was a conversation you had with the kids around controlling their content that they're consuming for this exact reason. Gulping where your mindset is, following the right things on social media, because mate, in in all honesty, from what I've seen, the social media ban that's been rolled out is basically just a token thing. So I think the more we can put the message out to our young people that you're in control of what your algorithm looks like, and you can actively take steps to help protect your mindset and control it is a big message to push, hey.

SPEAKER_02 14:52

Absolutely. Yeah, big shout out to Colin and Mamiko at CrossFit News. So like those guys have swung the doors open for us and allowed us to train as a wet weather option and also for our academy kids. Yeah, absolutely. Like we should have, I guess, the understanding, and I guess it's an education piece in terms of controlling what comes in your feed on social media. If it's triggering you, we'll unfollow, delete, get rid of it. And like I tried to encourage the academy kids is if you're aspirational and and you want to find yourself in a pathway or you want to get to A grade in here in Nursa, we'll shape your feed, you know, follow strength and conditioning, follow guys who are from the NRL and now in the coaching space. Because there's a lot of good information out there to upskill yourself and the people around you, as opposed to no doubt some of the random stuff that kids are following these days. It's just developing those little small steps and I guess implementing little traits and the academy kids to fast track their progress because some really solid kids in that group, and you can say they want to learn, but it's just being patient with the whole crawl, walk, run type principle in terms of information flow and and what we invest in these kids. But yeah, I get a real buzz out of that. I'm a frother over human performance as as you probably know, and I get super passionate about it when people are doing the wrong things, but that's my piece to control and choose your battles type thing. But yeah, uh seeing those kids and the the fun and enjoyment they have, and they sort of they probably don't understand the benefits of this training, but in two, three, four years' time, they'll look back and go, Oh yeah, I remember when I was in the academy and we did this and now I understand why. So that for me is is a great buzz, you know. I love that stuff. And you know, I used to get it obviously in the military when you know you see someone pass election and or just seeing a successful operation go down and everyone's back behind the wire and safe. It's that same or similar buzz you might get from seeing people succeed in their pursuit.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

And for look, I I'm sure most of the people that'll be listening in on this podcast would have heard of our academy programme, which we've rolled out this year and have some awareness across it, but may not actually know what it's about. So look, it's not necessarily a NRL pathway, an excellence academy where we're handpicking the top couple of kids from every age group. It's it's specifically targeted at 15, 16, 17-year-old boys and girls. And it's about anyone that wants to better themselves, those foundational skills, those mindset pieces, the the intel to lift correctly in the gym and and benefit from the vast knowledge that you have and some of the great resources that we've got around the club. So I hope that we see this Academy role for years and years to come and this foundation crew see big benefits over a long period of time. Hey.

SPEAKER_02 17:30

It's a really good model actually because we're essentially mimicking what skills and attributes are built around, for example, like a an NRL system. You've sort of been in a pathway and I've I've certainly had my time at the Raiders, and all these attributes are there, but we get to water it down and and deliver it to these kids and how they absorb it and how they put it into practice, it's obviously up to them. But I I think it's it's up to us as leaders in the club and it's due diligence to invest in our young kids because these are the kids that we wanted to be playing first grade in, you know, five, ten years' time, both men's and women's. And obviously take the kids forward who who are potentially aspirational and and invest in them. As I said, obviously it's not a academy where we're just handpicking people, it's just it's voluntary at this stage, but that may change in the future in terms of how the academy rolls out. So no, it's good. It's it's a really good program and it's good to be involved. And obviously, with our gym sort of just about to swing the doors open in a couple of weeks, that'll add great value to the program and to get these kids moving safely and and moving well in the gym is is a great start for their careers.

SPEAKER_01 18:32

Yeah, and this may be too late by the time we drop this podcast on the accountability piece. Our academy members had to do a refs course to contribute to the club. And we're lucky enough to go through a CPR course with Vic from Queen Hearts Training as well. Some mandatory online stuff needed to be done with that. So I've got to go back and wave the stick around a little bit now and threaten the kids might get cut from the academy if they don't tick the boxes that we've stacked end and agreed to. So those accountability pieces are part of life, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 19:02

Absolutely. And no doubt some of these kids are uncomfortable with what we're trying to encourage them to do, I guess. But being uncomfortable is it's okay, right? It's you know, it's it's it's part of growing. Like it's okay to be uncomfortable because you will learn some good skills here. So embrace it. And you can see the I guess the different levels of buy-in, for example. But overall, we're doing good stuff, and it's it's great to see this program continue forward. And as you said, to look back and see where we are in 10 years' time and how the academy's tracking and the original academy kids will be no doubt looking back with with good memories.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

I hope so. That's the intentions. Hey, so yeah, I think we've got a great group of boys and girls, and yeah, I'm excited to see what they what they do over the next period of time. Now, mate, jumping to and from a few bits and pieces here, but okay. I thought it was worth mentioning the mindset training we've got coming up with Mel on the 24th. So we're gonna wrap up RSVPs for that by Friday, the 10th of April. Now, once again, this might be something that people have awareness of by the time this drops, we haven't pushed it out internally yet. But do you do you want to tell us a little bit about Mel and how you know her?

SPEAKER_02 20:08

So I first met Mel about two or three years ago, where we were both invited to present to a group of, I guess, who businessmen and women who work in the fine financial sector. They do like a performance seminar, which goes for like two or three days, and it was in Brisbane, where I first met Mel and and uh presented, and and Mel presented as well. And then I went to one of Mel's seminars last year that she oh it was actually the same one, but we we've sort of both crossed paths again. She's an awesome lady. Like she is, I think she spent you know 10 to 15 years in the military as a psychologist, and then has been out for a couple of years. She's the current Newcastle Knights sports psychologist. I guess her title is a performance psychologist. So she's coming to the sunny coast on on the Thursday, the 23rd, and then she'll be with us on the 24th, 5:30 to 6 30 at Pirate Park. So her seminar is is I guess it's targeted at I guess psychology for young athletes and everything around that. So it's open for coaches, parents, caregivers, and the athletes themselves if they if they think they can gain some value. So Mel will talk for about an hour, we'll have some QA and then have some yeah, have some food afterwards and crack the bar open and share a few bees. It's on Anzac Eve, so hopefully I'll get a couple of hours' sleep before I'm I'm up at midnight. And you be on Kukoda, so yeah, mate. Looking forward to that. Yeah, uh look, uh Mel's a really good presenter, and she'll pitch this perfectly for us. So I'm excited to bring her in and allow her to share knowledge amongst you know people who want to come along.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Amazing. And and mate, look, this has come from your relationship, so we appreciate it and thanks for yeah, giving back to the club in all the ways that you do.

SPEAKER_02 21:47

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

Now that we're talking about sort of NRL staff and and sort of exposure, tell us a little bit about your time at the Raiders with Sticky and the NRL team.

SPEAKER_02 21:58

For me, it was Right place, right time, certainly. I sort of left the military, spent a couple of years in the well got into the fitness industry based on the back of my thirst for human performance. Spent some time coaching CrossFit and then took a break from that. Was just doing some human performance, sort of like mentoring or sharing the word, I guess, amongst a small group of people and some business people that I was involved in at the time. And I guess to qualify this, like I grew up as a kid following the Raiders and frost over anything that was green or so to get the opportunity to work with the Raiders was like a pinch me, pinch myself sort of life moment. So I had to like thought, is someone pranking me almost? Like because Ricky rang me direct and said, Hey Ann, I was giving you a number, I'm keen to uh have a coffee with you and talk about some opportunities here with the Canberra Raiders, and I was just like, Well, what's happening here? We went and had coffee, and I was expecting it just to be me and him, but he brought the football manager, there's all the other high hitters in the coaching staff, and here's me sort of sitting back there telling my story, and yeah, things went from there. So I spent pre-season 2020 until end of the 23 season with the Raiders in the leadership and culture space. Had an outstanding time, like did a bit of travel with the team, so I sort of learnt how that rolls out. And strangely, the first trip away I did was back to Townsville where we played the Cowboys on Anzac Day in 2021, I think it was. No, it might have been 22 actually. And one of the other lads who looks after all the sort of the back house stuff at the Raiders, got by the name of Brett, he's an ex-military guy as well, and did some time in special operations as well. So Ricky said to me before the game, I want you to to have a chat to the boys about Anzac Day on Thursday before we play on the Saturday. And I was like, Yeah, yeah. Especially Ricky, he doesn't like too much emotional stuff to happen on game day. It's up to him to do the the pre-game primer, but he he likes to get all the sort of build-up stuff done early so boys can sort of reflect on it and take what they need from it. I had the honour of addressing the boys about Anzac Day, and and Brett did as well. And Elliot Whitehead was the skipper at this stage, and him and Rick approached me about leading the team out on Anzac Day to Cowboys Stadium, and I was just like, and it was an amazing honour to be honest. Like I had my medals on my chest, and Brett Dixon Deco was with me as well. And as I said, both gonged up and leading the team out was a pinch me moment. You know, after following the Raiders for all these years, and here I am leading the boys out of the sheds on Anzac Day was yeah, it's pretty surreal.

SPEAKER_01 24:27

What an honour and up the milk. Up the milk.

SPEAKER_02 24:30

Yeah, so I I learnt a lot through that three years about elite rugby league players and how they prepare and the rigours they go through and what they put their body through week in, week out for that 30-odd weeks of the season. So made some faint fantastic contacts in footy, and a lot of those guys I still stay in touch with today. And it was just a real three years in in my time, but a great learning journey and had some extremely robust conversations with Ricky and and Forty and Madge when he was there, and just about human performance and about military style camps, weirdly enough, and which is always a hot topic, you know, sort of pre-season, but thoroughly enjoyable three years. Amazing. Do you want to talk about IDQ on here?

SPEAKER_01 25:12

Do you want to touch on that?

SPEAKER_02 25:13

Yeah, absolutely. So we did one last year, which I guess was a bit of a nursery type setup, and then this year we sort of amped it up considerably, myself and Scotty and a and another lad, both all of us, obviously special forces backgrounds, and we put on a show for the lads. I guess it was about developing our connection and culture, was the I guess the everything that we did was tying it back to culture and connection. Don't get me wrong, the boys went through some adversity, but it brought us together. And you could see in those, I guess, those fiction moments where the lessons that we injected around it, because it's and I think there was a bit of perspective on in terms of oh, we're we're going on special forces selection. And like I said to the lads, don't get me wrong, we're going to use some techniques and bits and pieces that we all learnt from that. We're not about selecting SF guys. So it's about education throughout the day, which which we always made sure we ticked off. And you could see some friction points where we were really, really turning the heat up. But throughout the stronger guys, the leaders there on the day, the just their ability to adapt and their ability to come up with a quick plan and put that plan into action through communication or through body language was really good. So yeah, IDQ is about culture and connection, and it's about allowing the guys to just to bond before we go to battle for the next 20 odd weeks here on the sunny coast.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

It's amazing, and what an experience for our yeah, our top-tier senior squad to uh to experience absolutely that, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:40

And there were so many life lessons. You know, there's some young kids out there just absolutely slaying it up, but they will have all and since speaking to the guys, the energy we had last Tuesday after we did IDQ on the weekend was just it was infectious, yeah. You could feel it. And the boys were sort of talking about different stories, and you know, some of the lads who didn't come along were sort of sort of like listening in and wanting to know what happened and stuff. It's it's a great initiative by the club and and back, you know, our captain coach Tom, who sort of put this together or sort of came up with the concept, I guess, originally back at the end of 24, and we've able to we've been able to tick it off twice now. So and as I said to the lads and we wrapped up on Saturday night, it's the key now is we've given you lots of data points on how you perform under different stresses. So now it's up to you to reflect back and and to bring those data points forward into your life, into footy, into being a husband, being a dad, all those things, it it'll you'll grow as men from this period of time under the IDQ banner.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

What an amazing experience for the for the lads. And yeah, thank you again for putting it on. And mate, I suppose to put it into a real world sense, if you had a corporate sort of client, I don't know, would you have a corporate client do something similar to IDQ? Like what would that look like financially, I suppose. Yes. No, yeah, absolutely. To put a value equation to what the the guys have just experienced.

SPEAKER_02 28:04

Myself and Scotty have run these types of camps for corporates and for everyday punters off the street since about 2014, 2015. And Scotty, probably before that, he sort of got out 2012, 2013, I think, and we started up a business in Sydney. To put a dollar amount, like it's any depending on I guess people reflect it to the show SAS Australia. You know, obviously they've got a massive budget, they've got all the toys to play with. They're obviously putting on a go for views on on television, so they've got all the the bells and whistles, so to speak. But anywhere between five and ten grand for a corporate to attend these C-suite people, but anywhere from five to ten. But if you want all the toys anywhere from sort of fifty to seventy-five thousand per person, we'll put on a good show. So we're certainly in in Scotty and I in talks with some pretty high-flying you know corporates who who want to put on a three-day camp, for example. So yeah, that's one of the pieces we're sort of investing some time in, and it'll be interesting to see where it ends up in sort of 12 to 18 months from now.

SPEAKER_01 29:04

I haven't been on one yet, but from all the feedback and stuff I've had, worth every cent of it. And and obviously being a non-for-profit and your role within the club, it was all done on the the smell of an oily rag, which we appreciate and yeah, very grateful for. But I uh I hope that the people that had the opportunity to do it reflect on the fact that it's a bit of an honour to be able to be part of that group that got to do it.

SPEAKER_02 29:28

Yeah, you look, you could I I didn't, and I'm kicking myself now. I we s the focus is not capturing content about IDQ. It's a very minimal footprint. Sure, we had a one minute or whatever clip, but the part that I um sort of kick myself back now is when we said, hey boys, that that's the end, you've reached the end of IDQ, and I had the boys all sitting around the fire pit and there was a few other people sort of visiting and just sort of spectating at the back. And I wish I'd had captured that moment because of the joy and it's an achievement to push yourself through the hours that the boys did. And I won't give away the timeline for future IDQs, but the enjoyment that I get from seeing you know enjoyment on their faces because of what they've achieved, because to have the staff we had that day and and to put that on for these boys, like not many people get to experience that. You could see that joy and that celebration in in the lads themselves for you know what they've achieved that day, because it it's it's hard work, but the rewards and the benefits carries through on everyday life, not not just on the football perspective, but everyday life, which is again that's that's the buzz myself and Scotty get from these types of activities.

SPEAKER_01 30:32

Well, I think you said it earlier, like growth is uncomfortable, and if something's worth doing, it's probably gonna be painful in some respect.

SPEAKER_02 30:39

Absolutely. And it's okay to be uncomfortable because you're growing from it, right? It's it's not uh rushing off to the doctor saying I need some anxiety pills or whatever. It's just just just sit with it, enjoy that moment and sit with it and see where you're at, a couple of minutes or whatever. There should be more of it, to be honest. There should be more of it.

SPEAKER_01 30:55

Unfortunately, society is more and more going away from and digging in and finding the root cause of a problem. It's about the band-aid fix all the time, which just does not relate to a team sport or a real life in business or in the military or anything where you're trying to better yourself, I would say.

SPEAKER_02 31:13

Absolutely, especially for that 13 to 17 year old sort of age bracket where they're so easily influenced and able to go down the wrong path. We just need to re-educate. And that's one of the things that Mel's going to talk about in her presentation about it's okay to be uncomfortable, it's okay to be nervous, just sit through it, learn some lessons, reflect, and take those points forward with you. So I'm super excited about what Mel can give us. And as I said, I I froth over that stuff. So I'll certainly be up the back taking notes and speaking to Mel afterwards. That's awesome, man.

SPEAKER_01 31:46

And look, I can say honestly for myself, every time I before every senior game day, I'm nervous. Like it's just an inherent thing from being part of the pirates for so long. Every time I call an auction, every time I am seeing it, there's always a degree of nerves. If you're if you're not nervous, does it matter enough to you? I don't know. Of part of knowing you're getting ready for something.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

Absolutely. And like I I'll say it again, it's it's okay to be nervous, but one of the things I actually hopefully I'm not segueing too much, but one of the things I introduced at the Raiders was visualization and the power of visualization. And we all do it. Even driving here today, I was visualising what I was going to say and what how the messages I wanted you to get across. And it's one of the things I said to the boys at the Raiders, and I passed it on to the senior boys here, is visualize your performance, visualize what you want to say. And if you're in charge of a structured session where you need to deliver a message or deliver a skill piece, just sit back and actually visualize it and go through it. Because the brain doesn't differentiate what a thought is and what an action is. So you're actually mentally and not physically, but mentally rehearsing through visualization. It's such a powerful tool. Athletes were using this back in the 50s and 60s, I guess where it was sort of first recorded and researched back then. And elite athletes, military, fighter jet pilots, they all visualize missions or activities or information sessions they want to deliver because it's a mental rehearsal and it takes away that anxiety of what am I going to do now when I get to this point and I ask a question and no one's gonna everyone's looking at me with blank face. If you've rehearsed it and visualized it, you'll come up with a response straight away. So super powerful tool. And as I said, I froth over this space and I love developing people in terms of developing their skills about sure you're nervous, but it that's okay. It's okay. And the more we can sort of get that out there, that message that people will grow and they they won't be as nervous. The more times you present and do public talking or public speaking, the the better you get at it and the less nervous you get. Sure, you're always going to get nervous, like I always do, and like you said, you do as well. But it's about putting tools in there so you can reflect back on and go, well, that was good. That wasn't so good. If I had to do it again, what would I do differently?

SPEAKER_01 33:54

The reflection piece, yeah. So I I suppose anyone that's listening to this and got this far too with visualization, with breath, with any of those things that can have a bit of stigmatism to it. Like if you've not dabbled in this space because you don't want to be vulnerable, chuck that in the bin, hey. Like do your own research, look into content. I read some stuff about visualization, that there's lots of really tangible data that top performers in all sorts of fields all around the world, it's one of the common threads that nearly all of them share.

SPEAKER_02 34:26

Yeah, it took courage for me to introduce it at the Raiders. You got the likes of Jack White and Tarps, Papali, all these hard hitters, all the Pacific Island guys, and it's hard. Like I'd get the boys and it'd be like 7:30 in the morning in Canberra, and I'd actually get them to take their shoes off and we'd walk out to the middle of the training field and we'd all embrace each other in a circle and squeeze in, and then I would talk them through a five-minute visualization. Did it appeal to all of them? Definitely didn't. But it did it appeal to three to five lads who came and spoke to me afterwards and spike that curiosity. Because if you can spike someone's curiosity about a topic, then you've won half the battle because they now want to learn about it in their own time and in their own space and lifted that curiosity lid. From that point, like the boys more and more of the lads embraced it. So it it's just such a powerful tool if you allow yourself to be open to it.

SPEAKER_01 35:23

Mate, I think I was there the team chat at Pirates when you first spoke about performance breath as well. Would you say that that was a similar, similar scenario? Like I I think a lot of the boys were open to it. A lot of them have probably had some exposure to it. I think there was a few that probably rolled their eyes and went, This is a bit woo-woo. How have you found that the squads adopted that now?

SPEAKER_02 35:43

Yeah, look, it for us now it's it's second nature, we do it. But yeah, for sure, when I first started speaking about the benefits of breathing and performance breathing in a rugby league team, no doubt there was guys who didn't embrace it, and probably no doubt there's there's guys who don't embrace it now, they just go through the motions. But it was really good, I think it was the end of before we broke for Christmas last year, so it was like December, and Big George, George Burgess. So he, you know, I I hadn't spoken to George about it, but he sort of really reinforced about the power of performance breathing because he was on a camp that I supported in 2014, and obviously the race the Rabbits won the premiership in 2014. He spoke about the power of everyone being in sync in terms of the breathing in that circle before or after a try or collectively or individually during the game. And so to hear him and everything he's done in the game and everything he's achieved to reinforce it was just it was like a light bulb moment. Like I looked around and like boys are going, oh yeah, now I get it. Because he spoke about it with such passion and was able to sort of put a bit of storytelling behind it, and it it just sunk beautifully. And I was just like, Yeah, that was that was a good moment. Not everyone embraces it, but it's one of those one percenters you want to have in your kit bag that you can pull out in those moments where we need something, you know, someone needs to lift. Hey boys, let's breathe, let's just focus for three to five seconds and then refocus our energy and let's go again.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

And for anyone listening to this that is has not done much as far as sort of education around breath, there's a great book from James Nestor called Breath, which will give you a good baseline and probably challenge your your misconceptions on some stuff with breathing.

SPEAKER_02 37:24

There's some great stuff on if you just type in performance breathing on any of your search engines, there's so much information out there on your social media. There's some really great practitioners now who who spread a great message about the benefits of breath breathing and performance breathing.

SPEAKER_01 37:39

And at the end of the day, these are all tools in the tool belt. Hey, they all broadly tie back to mental health, to dealing with those things, sitting in your discomfort, different tools in the tool belt, which I'd encourage everyone to do.

SPEAKER_02 37:52

Yeah, it's so true, mate. Like a lot of the stuff that we do in football, you know, the guys and girls go away better people. They're they're playing a team sport, they're communicating, they're leading, they're problem solving, they're building team camarader on the day, win, lose, or draw. There's a lot of lessons that you can take away from performance in sport that carry through to life, and vice versa as well.

SPEAKER_01 38:14

That's it. From your time at the Raiders and living in Canberra for a while, how did you end up in the Noosa region? How did you end up at the Pirates? And tell us a little bit about that transition.

SPEAKER_02 38:25

To be honest, I I was sort of done with living in the cold, and you know, I love being by the ocean. I guess serving and some of the jobs that we did, you know, and some a lot of the training we did, you know, in and around the ocean and being in the ocean. I love it. Like I love swimming and I love surfing, even though I'm only learning to surf still. Just love being around the ocean. So myself and my partner Yel, we decided that time was we'd always sort of looked at moving to Byron, but a mate said to me, Have a look at Noosa. You're like the prices in real estate and stuff are pretty reasonable. Yeah, Yel and I sort of started talking, and she said, I like because she she's obviously got her business in Canberra there, and she said, like, I need 12 months from the time we decide to move to to obviously wrap up the business and sell it and stuff. So sort of started looking, and the first two weeks we found a bunch of properties, decided to fly up for the weekend, have a look, and we found our little slice of paradise up there at Ridgewood. And as soon as I jumped out of the car with with the agent, I I just felt like I was at home. It's just a such a beautiful space, and you've obviously been up there, it's it's amazing. It's I can shut the world out on a Friday and and not sort of come back out till you know Monday or whatever whenever I choose to. But I guess the the driver was just wanting to be by the sea in a warm environment. And one of the first things I I saw when I got up here was because down the road from us, Karoi, was obviously Christianson's um park with it. I was like, Do these guys play with the new supports? What's the connection here? I couldn't sort of figure it out. And then I started following you guys on social media and saw the call for um call for staff or whatever, and I was like, Yeah, I'm gonna go and do some work here with these guys. I think it was you I spoke to off the bat straight away. Yeah, and then Tommy gave me a ring, and uh, when we're all sort of building the the I guess the current staff we have now, but yeah, here we are. Uh I love it up here with two years plus now, never look back. You know, I I had a great time in Canberra and career-wise, finished off my military career in Canberra and then to transition into performance into the Raiders and then finish that three years with the Raiders and then move. Like, I I consider myself pretty fortunate to be in this position.

SPEAKER_01 40:29

That's awesome, man. I love the connection piece you get with rugby league people. Hey, it's just it is such a community, and yeah, we see just so many great characters, so many good stories, so many amazing people in their own respect across a rugby league club. Look, you're probably gonna get that if you get a sample of 500 people anyway. I think I'm very grateful for the the people we have involved at the Pirates, including yourself and the community that we have.

SPEAKER_02 40:56

It's so true. Everyone I met at the Raithers, I still stay in contact with. His daughter stayed with us a couple of weeks ago in in when she was on a break from Canberra. So it's so true, mate. It's just there's some great stories and and connection pieces that it's what we we stay involved with the game for, and you know, get involved with the game, I guess, after you're playing time, you know, being involved with various teams. But it's yeah, it's pretty special.

SPEAKER_01 41:36

It'd be remiss of me not to shout out to the mighty West Bell Conham Warriors. So I spent a bit of time down in Canberra as a young bloke and yeah, won a couple of premierships at Westie. So the Bulls were just down the road in a big rivalry. So yeah, the rivalry's still there today.

SPEAKER_02 41:51

It's it's some pretty ball there, but a lot of talent in Canberra, a lot of talent.

SPEAKER_01 41:54

There's um yeah, Canberra Cup was really good quality when I was down there, I'd imagine it'd still be the same now. Some pieces I see, it still looks like it's really good quality.

SPEAKER_02 42:02

Yeah, yeah. And there's a lot of lads who sort of finish their career and and then either play one or two seasons or get into the coaching space in in Canberra as well, which is a great reinvestment back into rugby league.

SPEAKER_01 42:13

Amazing, mate. The original plan for this was 20 to 30 minutes, and we're we're nearly about to tick over an hour. So, mate, I appreciate the time that you've given us and your openness on this conversation. Anything else that you'd like to put across to the listeners before we wrap up?

SPEAKER_02 42:29

No, just that 24th of April date with Mel at New Sapirates. Check out our uh new support socials and there'll be some info there. Get along, coaches, carers, parents, and even young athletes. And obviously, Trek for Vettes starting at midnight on Anzac Eve, sacrifice a night's sleep for those veterans that we're supporting. Again, check out Trek for Vettes on Insta. There's plenty of information there. If you want to get involved, come along and support.

SPEAKER_01 42:53

We've got a bit of delayed runway with the round on Anzac weekend. We're hosting the Anzac Round on the 2nd of May at Pirate Park to Walton. It's always one of the biggest days in our calendar every single year, and we love to have everyone down there. The A-grade boys will be wearing a special strip, which is I'm pretty excited about this one. You've seen the visuals for it too.

SPEAKER_02 43:14

Hey, it's pretty amazing. It's amazing. And we donated one of those to the 079 Foundation last season and benefits of the the raffle as well. I sorry, the auction, we ran an auction. So yeah, thanks to to the club for supporting the 079 Foundation, which is supports commandos and their families as well. So thank you.

SPEAKER_01 43:32

Amazing, mate. Well, aside from the pirates, thank you for all the stuff you're doing, community, and for non-for-profits in in different sectors, mate, and appreciate your time and thank you for coming. Thanks, LA. Cheers, mate.