00:00:01
[Music]
00:00:27
Alex pler welcome to my podcast
00:00:30
yeah thanks for having me on it's great
00:00:32
to be here um the the chief that's the
00:00:34
nickname yep yeah there's a there's a
00:00:37
bit of a story behind that one I've got
00:00:39
um I've got several nicknames your wife
00:00:43
Mom no one calls me Alex anymore I've
00:00:45
got some sort of some sort of nickname
00:00:46
going on yeah what is it there's the
00:00:48
pledge Hammer I've heard that is that a
00:00:50
is that a legit one or is that just
00:00:51
something that um J and dunk at the rock
00:00:54
yeah I don't know who came up with that
00:00:56
one either um but yeah I've got that one
00:01:01
when I played for Melbourne um pend
00:01:05
became one
00:01:08
um um at one of the what do you call it
00:01:11
security at the airport someone said I
00:01:14
look like a man tree so that so that one
00:01:17
that one caught on for a little bit um
00:01:21
so yeah there's a there's a few a few
00:01:23
nicknames in the in the catalog what's
00:01:25
yeah so someone at the airport calling
00:01:27
you um a man tree I'm guessing that's in
00:01:28
reference to your height
00:01:30
um when I just met you at the door like
00:01:33
10 minutes ago uh you are like
00:01:35
overwhelmingly big you must um are you
00:01:38
self-conscious about how how big you are
00:01:40
you must get it every day someone
00:01:42
commenting yeah uh not really now like
00:01:45
I've I'm 36 and I've been this tall
00:01:47
since I was 19 so um it's kind of I'm
00:01:52
kind of used to it by now I kind
00:01:54
of you know you sometimes you notice
00:01:57
people staring or or whatever but but
00:02:00
yeah it's it's never really something
00:02:02
I've been self-conscious about or or
00:02:04
anything like that I just have to make
00:02:06
sure I don't scrape the top of my head
00:02:08
on the door and and and I'm all good
00:02:11
yeah well the the the the standard door
00:02:13
frame in the house is uh how how how
00:02:15
tall like 2 m just under two uh yeah I'd
00:02:18
say I don't know exactly but I'd say
00:02:21
probably around the 6 six six seven sort
00:02:23
of Mark and you are 71 yeah so you legit
00:02:26
have to duck to get under under doorways
00:02:29
it's um it's it's actually quite quite
00:02:31
interesting to watch yeah yeah you're a
00:02:33
big dude so so you were you were a big
00:02:36
baby uh I would assume so um yeah I in
00:02:40
terms of weight or or anything like that
00:02:43
but I was um I was always a big kid yeah
00:02:46
there was
00:02:47
no there was no kind of moment where I
00:02:50
was kind of around the same as kids of
00:02:52
my age and then just shot up one year um
00:02:56
yeah I was always um yeah quite a bit
00:02:59
taller than kids around the same age as
00:03:02
me um and yeah and towards kind of like
00:03:05
the middle of high school there was one
00:03:07
year how old would I have been 14 15
00:03:10
maybe I went from about 6'4 6'5 is what
00:03:14
I was at the start of the year and I was
00:03:16
6' 10 by the end of it so um so yeah
00:03:20
there there was one year where I did
00:03:21
shoot up quite a bit where I was taller
00:03:23
than most people my age and then by the
00:03:25
end of that year I was taller than
00:03:28
almost everyone but um
00:03:31
where does the height the height come
00:03:32
from is there any obvious like a
00:03:33
appearance to um I don't know to be
00:03:36
honest it's a it's a bit of a lottery in
00:03:38
our family on on both sides like my um
00:03:43
my dad's about 5' 10 which is around
00:03:47
average for a male I think and my mom's
00:03:49
about the same so my mom's quite tall
00:03:52
and my brother is 6
00:03:54
fo8
00:03:56
um but yeah there are some there are
00:03:59
some short ones there are some tall ones
00:04:02
there are some in the middle um yeah me
00:04:04
and my brother definitely the when
00:04:08
you're swimming through the Jean Pool we
00:04:10
definitely took the Tall part of it yeah
00:04:12
something something happened so so how
00:04:14
how old were you when you when you um
00:04:16
past your parents in height like 13 14
00:04:19
um I was 6' 3 when I started high school
00:04:22
and I was 12 so um holy [ __ ] that's so
00:04:26
I'm quite a tall guy I think I'm 6'2 so
00:04:28
you were you were sort of my height are
00:04:30
a little bit taller when you were 12
00:04:31
yeah yeah so I don't know how maybe 10
00:04:36
or 11 when I when I was taller than my
00:04:39
parents it's going to be a weird moment
00:04:40
for a parent yeah yeah I I can't imagine
00:04:44
but it's um but yeah I've I've always
00:04:48
yeah I've been taller than Mom and Dad
00:04:50
for as long as I can remember really and
00:04:54
um and in terms of sport and stuff has
00:04:55
it always been basketball or was there
00:04:57
anything else um not really no like I I
00:05:00
didn't really play basketball at all
00:05:02
until I was um or not just basketball
00:05:05
but any sport really up until um I was
00:05:08
about 16 I started
00:05:11
um yeah when I when I was a little kid
00:05:14
you know when you know 5 to 10 you know
00:05:18
you'd play your your rugby on Saturday
00:05:20
like most kiwi kids do um but yeah
00:05:23
between then
00:05:25
and yeah 16 my sixth form year of high
00:05:29
school I didn't really play any sport at
00:05:31
all and um yeah and I got into it
00:05:34
when
00:05:36
um I don't know how much you know about
00:05:38
New Zealand basketball history but um
00:05:40
around
00:05:41
2002 um is when the the tall blacks they
00:05:46
came fourth at the World Cup um which
00:05:49
kind
00:05:50
of kind of shocked the world a little
00:05:52
bit it was the first time that the
00:05:55
pretty sure it was the first time the
00:05:56
tall blacks had ever um had ever caugh
00:05:59
qualified for the World Cup and they
00:06:01
ended up um uh coming fourth and they
00:06:04
lost to the team then ended up winning
00:06:06
the entire thing um in the semi-final
00:06:10
and then not long after that was when
00:06:12
the breakers first came into the
00:06:13
Australian basketball league so at the
00:06:16
time um basketball was kind of the you
00:06:20
know Rugby's always it in New Zealand
00:06:22
but you know basketball kind of had its
00:06:25
little moment in the sun kind of in that
00:06:27
early early 2000s and and um yeah I kind
00:06:30
of kind of jumped on the bandwagon uh
00:06:33
from there well that's a quite like
00:06:34
Brook Bloomer then yeah yeah I
00:06:38
um yeah I I don't know why I never got
00:06:41
into it I cuz you know when you're a 61
00:06:45
15year old walking around yeah you must
00:06:47
get people all the time like teachers
00:06:49
parents whoever um suggesting you become
00:06:51
a lock yeah or a lock in a rugby team or
00:06:55
a basketball player yeah the um the
00:06:58
economics teacher Fraser High at the
00:07:00
time was a South African guy and he was
00:07:02
also the coach of the first 15 so every
00:07:04
day I walk past his class he was you
00:07:07
know begging me to join the the rugby
00:07:09
team CU they couldn't win a line out to
00:07:11
save themselves so um so yeah it was it
00:07:15
was kind of funny how I got into it cuz
00:07:18
um yeah I was I was just walking to
00:07:20
school one morning and um a guy his name
00:07:24
is Doug Courtney um probably not many
00:07:27
people would know who he is he
00:07:30
um uh he's he's just a basketball coach
00:07:33
um in New Zealand he's coached various
00:07:35
he coached the WTO team and the just the
00:07:37
domestic competition for a year or two
00:07:41
and he's coached various like age group
00:07:43
teams and stuff like that and he um saw
00:07:49
me walking to school one morning and he
00:07:50
pulled over on the side of the road got
00:07:52
out of the car and told me that the
00:07:53
school's basketball try out was on that
00:07:56
night and um kind of convinced me to go
00:07:59
to it so
00:08:01
I when I left the house that morning I
00:08:04
wasn't planning on
00:08:05
going and um and yeah he convinced me to
00:08:08
to go along to it that night and um
00:08:11
that's kind of how I got into it isn't
00:08:13
it amazing so just almost changed the
00:08:15
trajectory of your entire life kind of I
00:08:18
mean were were you any were you any I
00:08:20
mean just cuz you're tall it doesn't
00:08:22
mean you're going to be good at
00:08:22
basketball right no I was not good I was
00:08:27
yeah I um
00:08:29
yeah it took me about six months to
00:08:32
remember the rule that you can't spend
00:08:34
more than 3 seconds in the key at a time
00:08:36
what 3 seconds in the KE what does that
00:08:38
mean yeah well when your team has the
00:08:40
ball and you're down you know at the
00:08:42
offensive end you can't stand in the key
00:08:45
for more than 3 seconds without jumping
00:08:47
out and jumping back in took me it took
00:08:49
me about six months to figure out that
00:08:51
rule to remember that you can't do it um
00:08:54
took me a while to figure out that you
00:08:56
can't go endend um what what is that I'm
00:08:59
sorry you you're going have to treat me
00:09:00
like the but basically when a shot goes
00:09:03
up it obviously goes up and then when it
00:09:05
comes down so when it gets to the top
00:09:07
and starts coming down you're not
00:09:09
allowed to touch it so yeah quite often
00:09:11
I would yeah at the school's trial I
00:09:14
would just stand under the buset and
00:09:15
every shot that went up I would just
00:09:17
wait for it to almost hit the rim and
00:09:19
then just whack it away and for some
00:09:21
reason the coach didn't tell me you're
00:09:22
all weren't allow to do that so um yeah
00:09:26
so the entire trial you know when I was
00:09:29
on the court the other team didn't score
00:09:31
because I just basically just jumped and
00:09:33
stuck my hand on top of the basket and
00:09:35
whacked all of them away and then he
00:09:37
told me um when we first started team
00:09:40
practices that you weren't allowed to do
00:09:42
that so yeah so so your your position
00:09:45
now or the position that you've you've
00:09:46
played in for most of your career has
00:09:48
been centered what does that mean what's
00:09:49
that role um well in these in these days
00:09:53
basketball's evolved kind of to the
00:09:56
point where there are no positions
00:09:57
really these days um you have you know 7
00:10:01
foot plus guys shooting threes and
00:10:03
handling the ball like guards and but
00:10:06
traditionally a center is a guy who
00:10:08
plays close to the basket um you know a
00:10:11
lot of a lot of stuff close to the
00:10:13
basket um at the offensive end and the
00:10:17
defensive end you know protecting the
00:10:18
basket trying to block shots and get
00:10:20
rebounds that sort of stuff so um
00:10:23
traditionally that's um that's what a
00:10:26
center would do but uh yeah the way the
00:10:30
game has kind of evolved especially in
00:10:32
recent times um yeah it took people a
00:10:36
long time to figure out that three
00:10:37
points is worth more than two so um so
00:10:40
yeah kind of how the how the game has
00:10:43
evolved where there's a lot more
00:10:44
three-point shooting and you know bigger
00:10:47
players that were taught back in the day
00:10:50
you just run straight to the basket
00:10:52
everything's close to the basket now
00:10:54
it's kind of evolved to where kind of
00:10:57
everyone was quite versatile can do can
00:11:00
do a lot more things on the court but
00:11:02
yeah typically that's or traditionally
00:11:05
that's that's what a c would do and
00:11:07
that's what I did for for the majority
00:11:09
of my career yeah now now this this
00:11:11
might be a really dumb there might be a
00:11:13
lot of dumb questions and you have to
00:11:14
forgive me um but it comes from a place
00:11:15
of curiosity so by um New Zealand and
00:11:19
Australian standards you're you're as
00:11:21
good as what it [ __ ] gets right like
00:11:23
it's been an incredible career nine
00:11:25
Seasons with the break has four titles
00:11:26
we we'll get into all that um did did
00:11:29
you ever try and get in the NBA or like
00:11:32
how do how do you how do you make step
00:11:33
up to the NBA or how far away from the
00:11:35
NBA would you um it's it's kind of hard
00:11:38
to say like there was there were some
00:11:41
years um earlier in my career where
00:11:45
there were potential opportunities to
00:11:48
maybe dabble in the summer league and
00:11:50
see how that would go um
00:11:53
unfortunately some like foot injuries
00:11:55
and stuff kind of derailed that around
00:11:58
the time when I was was kind of
00:11:59
potentially looking at doing that um and
00:12:03
you know when I played for Melbourne
00:12:05
United we played preseason games against
00:12:08
NBA
00:12:09
teams
00:12:11
um and I played pretty well in a couple
00:12:14
of those games against um against some
00:12:17
pretty good players so you know I'd like
00:12:20
to think that when I was a little bit
00:12:22
younger if um you know I was able to get
00:12:26
over there and give it a crack that I
00:12:29
not necessarily have made it because you
00:12:31
know there's only 400 and something 450
00:12:35
or so roster spots in the NBA and there
00:12:39
are thousands and thousands of people
00:12:42
who want one of them so one of the one
00:12:44
one of the most loved sports in the
00:12:45
world yeah so um so yeah but um I would
00:12:49
have liked to have think I could have
00:12:50
given it a decent crack but um but at
00:12:53
the same time I was pretty happy with
00:12:56
with what I achieved and uh
00:12:59
don't and I don't really look back and
00:13:01
think what if what if I did that what if
00:13:03
I did that different um yeah [ __ ] it
00:13:06
must be must be frustrating though so
00:13:07
you're swimming in the same Waters so
00:13:09
you're you're there or thereabouts in
00:13:11
terms of of um talent and ability and
00:13:13
then um I I don't know what your net
00:13:15
worth is but I'm guessing it's a lot
00:13:16
less than Steven Adams oh soon as you're
00:13:19
in the NBA it's insane money right oh
00:13:22
yeah it's uh it's it's pretty crazy
00:13:24
especially now you know kind
00:13:27
of yeah the
00:13:29
I think I think the like the league the
00:13:32
league minimum like like the veterans
00:13:34
minimum is like two and a half million
00:13:37
do or something and if you're
00:13:40
uh just remembering trying to remember
00:13:42
numbers off the top of my head I think
00:13:44
if you're like an undrafted
00:13:47
rookie um it's about 900,000 so so yeah
00:13:52
even if you're kind of like a a even if
00:13:56
you're for NBA standards you know bottom
00:13:59
of the barrel type thing um you know
00:14:02
you're still making close to a million
00:14:04
dollars a year oh my god do you know
00:14:06
Steven Adams have you met him you played
00:14:08
with him um i' I've met him a couple of
00:14:09
times I I I don't know him that well I
00:14:13
we the breakers played a preseason
00:14:16
game um against kind of like a New
00:14:20
Zealand select team it was like just
00:14:22
players who play in the domestic
00:14:25
competition and yeah yeah it was just
00:14:28
like a and he played in that but he was
00:14:30
like 16 or 17 at the time so this is
00:14:32
before he went to to college in the US
00:14:35
and like he was kind of at that time he
00:14:38
was seen as kind of like the next big
00:14:39
thing and like an like a future like NBA
00:14:42
Prospect he he was he was a well-known
00:14:44
figure at that point but um so I played
00:14:47
against him
00:14:49
then and yeah and because he he comes
00:14:53
back to New Zealand during most
00:14:54
offseasons to for like his his camps and
00:14:58
uh and stuff like that and I've met him
00:14:59
a few times but I um I don't know him
00:15:02
super well but he's obviously uh uh you
00:15:05
know in terms of the world stage a
00:15:07
pretty pretty good Ambassador for kind
00:15:09
of New Zealand Sport and just New
00:15:11
Zealand in general yeah absolutely um
00:15:15
you first made the toall blacks in 2008
00:15:17
um by the way um I asked you I sent you
00:15:19
a message asking if you wanted a coffee
00:15:21
on arrival and you said long black um it
00:15:23
must have been very tempting to ask for
00:15:25
a tall
00:15:26
black yeah um
00:15:29
yeah that's just the the one I normally
00:15:31
go for I after having my bell
00:15:34
reconstructed a couple of times I'm not
00:15:37
an overly fun person to be around if it
00:15:39
has too much milk in it oh is that right
00:15:42
right so um so yeah I tried to I try to
00:15:45
avoid that as much as I can okay oh
00:15:47
that's an interesting interesting side
00:15:48
effect yeah I want to get into that
00:15:50
chapter because I feel like that's a
00:15:51
whole chapter on its own the whole Bell
00:15:53
cancer Journey which um you're doing
00:15:55
doing research for this
00:15:57
podcast [ __ ] what a a journey you've
00:15:59
been through like like harrowing awful
00:16:01
an awful patch of your life but you're
00:16:03
through that which is amazing um but
00:16:05
let's just um you focus on the
00:16:07
basketball for a bit so you make the
00:16:08
toall blacks in 2008 what what happens
00:16:11
uh do you get a phone call from the
00:16:12
coach are you on the radar you feel like
00:16:14
you're going to be selected what happens
00:16:17
um yeah well
00:16:19
they well that particular year 2008 I
00:16:23
had been in contact with the coach for
00:16:26
several months leading up to the the
00:16:29
trial um
00:16:31
so yeah it's like like you have to be
00:16:34
invited to the trial it's not like an
00:16:36
open thing where anybody can just rock
00:16:38
up and hey to see if we can make the
00:16:39
tall blacks um yeah so just being
00:16:43
invited is normally a pretty good
00:16:45
indicator that the coach thinks you can
00:16:47
either make it or you will you're kind
00:16:50
of on the radar for it in the future cuz
00:16:53
how old was I in 2008 um 21 21 yeah yeah
00:16:59
so um so yeah I was pretty young at the
00:17:02
time and yeah I went to the went to the
00:17:05
trial um and um performed quite well and
00:17:10
yeah when it comes to getting selected
00:17:13
um just at the end of the camp um I
00:17:16
think it was like four or five days
00:17:19
maybe um of practicing two or three
00:17:22
times a day and um at yeah at the end of
00:17:25
it they at the hotel we're staying at
00:17:28
just go to one of the meeting rooms and
00:17:31
uh they they announced the squad from
00:17:33
there and that's kind of how it went and
00:17:36
um yeah I was pretty I was pretty stoked
00:17:39
to because I didn't because it was the
00:17:41
first time I'd ever um I'd ever gone to
00:17:43
it so i' so you know some of the the
00:17:46
legends of New Zealand basketball you
00:17:48
know your pero Cameron and your Paul
00:17:51
hanari Dylan boutcher all those sort of
00:17:53
guys they were Kirk Penney you know they
00:17:56
were um they were still kind of all
00:17:58
there so kind of you know being being
00:18:01
around those guys and um they must have
00:18:03
been so intimidating so there you are
00:18:05
you're 21 you've only been playing
00:18:06
basketball like four or five years were
00:18:09
you like a shy kid around them what were
00:18:11
you um yeah I was I like I'm not
00:18:15
a just in my everyday life I'm not a
00:18:19
super um like I'm not a real chatty
00:18:23
person like I'm not a you know I'm not a
00:18:26
um what's the word you do like I'm not a
00:18:29
I'm not a peacock I'm not going to walk
00:18:30
into the room and go hey look I'm here
00:18:32
you know Stand Out stand out enough as
00:18:34
it is anyone anyone that's listening to
00:18:36
this i' probably get that impression
00:18:37
about you already like you you know
00:18:38
you're softly spoken you're just a quiet
00:18:40
humble guy yeah yeah but yeah it was it
00:18:43
was it was really cool to to kind of mix
00:18:45
it up with those guys and that that
00:18:47
trial for a couple of days and um yeah
00:18:51
to to hear my name called out um the
00:18:54
first time I ever tried out for the team
00:18:56
um yeah it was a it was a great honor
00:18:58
and I um you know can't remember how
00:19:02
many years I played to the tall blacks
00:19:03
probably 10 or 11 um and yeah so yeah
00:19:07
being selected for that first time and
00:19:09
you know getting to pull on the black
00:19:10
singlet um yeah it was a great honor
00:19:13
yeah was was
00:19:15
um was the peak of your time in as a
00:19:17
tall black in um the Commonwealth Games
00:19:19
2018 where you won a bronze or no would
00:19:21
there be something else no I think the
00:19:24
probably the biggest achievement that
00:19:26
happened for my time for the tall blacks
00:19:28
any anyway was um the second year I got
00:19:32
selected was in 2009 and we and it was
00:19:36
kind of like a bit of a transition time
00:19:39
there was um you know like perro Cameron
00:19:43
had just retired Dylan Boucher like when
00:19:45
I say retired I mean from playing
00:19:47
internationally like they still played
00:19:48
for the breakers and stuff but um you
00:19:51
know pero retired Dylan bouer retired
00:19:53
Paul henard had retired
00:19:56
um Phil Jones had retired you know there
00:20:00
were um and you know there were a few
00:20:03
and it was kind of like a time you know
00:20:05
it was kind of like when I was coming up
00:20:08
Tom abomi was coming up mea vona Cory
00:20:11
Webster so it was kind of like
00:20:13
a the the time you know when those guys
00:20:17
were leaving and we were coming in um
00:20:21
and yeah so we had a very young and and
00:20:23
outside of Kirk Penney I think Kirk and
00:20:26
maybe Lindsay tapate they were the only
00:20:28
ones that had been around the tall
00:20:31
blacks for you know more than a year or
00:20:35
two um you know we had a very young and
00:20:38
experienced team we had a very short
00:20:41
trip to Europe um and I think we played
00:20:45
like eight eight or nine games in 12 or
00:20:48
13 days it was it was pretty Whirlwind
00:20:51
it was travel play travel play travel
00:20:54
play um and the kind of the event that
00:20:57
we were building up to was the 2010
00:21:00
World Cup
00:21:02
qualifying um which and we were playing
00:21:06
against Australia and Australia uh I
00:21:11
think they're like top three in the
00:21:13
world at the moment um and at the time
00:21:15
they were probably in the top 10 and
00:21:19
highly favored
00:21:21
to highly favored to beat us in the
00:21:24
qualifying series because
00:21:26
um just because we had so many new faces
00:21:30
and we were inexperienced and had never
00:21:32
played games at that level before um and
00:21:36
it was it was a two game series and so
00:21:40
in the event of a tie it would go to the
00:21:42
points differential over the two games
00:21:45
and we lost we lost the first game in
00:21:48
Sydney
00:21:50
by um seven and then we won the second
00:21:54
game in Wellington by 22 so it was we we
00:21:58
don't beat Australia like in individual
00:22:01
games it's not super uncommon for us to
00:22:04
beat Australia but in a in a series like
00:22:07
that it was only the third time that
00:22:09
we'd ever beaten them and I don't know
00:22:13
if the record still stands but at the
00:22:15
time that was the biggest in terms of
00:22:17
just the amount of points we won by that
00:22:19
was the biggest win um that we'd ever
00:22:21
had against Australia so um for a team
00:22:25
full of young and in experien players to
00:22:30
you know to to walk onto that court
00:22:32
against um and to be fair the the
00:22:34
Boomers the that's what they we called
00:22:36
the tall blacks they called the Boomers
00:22:38
they called the Boomers that's un name
00:22:41
yeah especially especially yeah given
00:22:43
the circumstances taking on a team of um
00:22:45
young dudes young dudes yeah so they
00:22:48
they didn't they didn't have their
00:22:50
strongest possible team either but they
00:22:52
were highly favored against us and um
00:22:55
yeah to walk away from that series with
00:22:58
uh you know winning the the point
00:23:00
differential by by 15 points that was a
00:23:03
pretty um pretty significant moment for
00:23:08
all of us young players just knowing
00:23:10
that we can that we can play on that
00:23:13
kind of stage uh internationally and and
00:23:16
uh you know Come Away with some wins
00:23:18
against some big some good teams yeah do
00:23:20
do you think um you part of the um
00:23:22
enjoyment of that was that people people
00:23:24
had low expectations of you and had sort
00:23:26
of written you off in a way
00:23:29
um yeah maybe like I I wouldn't say
00:23:31
people had written us off but they
00:23:34
just you know it's just the way it works
00:23:37
really when you have a bunch of
00:23:39
unproven young players playing on that
00:23:42
stage for the first time um you know
00:23:46
that's just how it was we never we never
00:23:48
really paid too much attention to what
00:23:51
people thought was going to happen you
00:23:53
know we made that eight game trip that I
00:23:56
mentioned earlier um you know we we
00:24:00
played really well on that trip we made
00:24:03
a lot of improvements we played
00:24:05
against um you know some of the team in
00:24:08
terms of like European Talent you know
00:24:11
we weren't playing against the top top
00:24:13
tier you know we weren't playing Spain
00:24:16
and Serbia and you know those kind of
00:24:20
upper echelon type teams we're playing
00:24:22
kind of more midlevel teams you know we
00:24:25
played some really good ones like
00:24:27
Finland and Italy teams that quite often
00:24:30
qualify for the World Cup and and stuff
00:24:32
like that but then we played some more
00:24:34
midlevel teams like Estonia Portugal
00:24:37
that sort of thing um and we we had some
00:24:42
yeah we had some good wins against some
00:24:44
good teams we played we played Belgium
00:24:48
um on back-to-back games and um in
00:24:51
Belgium as well obviously and we lost
00:24:54
the first
00:24:55
one uh by quite 20ish like we yeah it
00:25:01
was out of those eight games it was
00:25:02
probably the one where we played it was
00:25:05
probably like the one where we didn't
00:25:07
play that well um and then we played
00:25:09
them again two days later and they added
00:25:11
an NBA player which you would which
00:25:15
would just increase their talent level
00:25:17
and make them better and um and we and
00:25:20
we beat them in that game so I think
00:25:22
that was kind of you know the and um
00:25:26
yeah I'm not much of a bragger but I
00:25:27
made the game winning shot in that game
00:25:28
as
00:25:30
well like AZ like a buzz of yeah yeah so
00:25:33
that was so that was pretty massive for
00:25:35
my personal confidence um having um yeah
00:25:39
it wasn't a fade away one legged shot
00:25:42
with two Defenders on me it
00:25:45
was uh lindsy Tate attacked the basket
00:25:49
drew a couple of players and he just all
00:25:51
of a sudden I was standing under the
00:25:52
basket and I just laid it in but um so
00:25:54
yeah it wasn't the the hardest shot to
00:25:56
make but um but just just for just for
00:25:59
the the overall confidence um yeah that
00:26:02
was massive and I think it just showed
00:26:04
the the Improvement that we made in such
00:26:07
a short time losing to that team by 22
00:26:10
days earlier then they add an NBA player
00:26:13
to their roster and we we turn around
00:26:15
and beat them so so yeah we were feeling
00:26:18
we were feeling pretty good about
00:26:19
ourselves um going into that two game
00:26:23
series against Australia but um yeah I I
00:26:27
definitely didn't didn't think that we'd
00:26:29
win a game by 20 but um but um but yeah
00:26:33
it was just one of those games where
00:26:36
everything goes right there was a little
00:26:37
patch in the third period where kind of
00:26:40
you know you need a little bit of luck
00:26:42
sometimes to go your way and a couple of
00:26:44
shots that we just threw up as the shot
00:26:46
clock was about to to go off that go in
00:26:49
off the backboard and you know someone
00:26:51
thr uh Mike fitchett I don't know if who
00:26:54
who know who he is but he's um you know
00:26:57
Co a coach of the Nelson Giants in the
00:26:59
domestic League he made a shot from
00:27:01
about 12 feet behind the three-point
00:27:03
line as as the third quarter buzzer went
00:27:05
off so yeah it was just one of those one
00:27:08
of those times where you know the the
00:27:11
you know those lucky sort of things four
00:27:13
or five of those happen in a row your
00:27:15
your recollection of these games and
00:27:17
they're like 14 15 years ago it's
00:27:19
remarkable is it is it like there were
00:27:21
um if I referenced like any sort of game
00:27:23
you could like pick bits of it um I mean
00:27:26
the reason I ask is this so many there's
00:27:28
over like 200 games for the breakers I
00:27:30
don't know how many games for the tall
00:27:31
blacks but there's so many games but
00:27:33
yeah can you remember like particular
00:27:35
moments or is it just memorable games or
00:27:37
moments yeah it's more the importance of
00:27:39
the game you know like like the breakers
00:27:41
playoff games through like the
00:27:43
championship Brands I'd be able to you
00:27:45
know recall specific things about those
00:27:48
games but you know the the Australian
00:27:51
League game uh season is 28 games so
00:27:54
could I remember a random thir Thursday
00:27:57
night game 17 of the season I probably
00:28:01
probably wouldn't have too many memories
00:28:03
of kind of the the grind of the regular
00:28:05
season but the you know the the
00:28:07
semi-finals and the grand finals um you
00:28:10
know kind of the the important ones i'
00:28:12
i' I'd have i' definitely be able to
00:28:15
recall the the big moments from those
00:28:17
sort of games yeah well since you
00:28:19
mentioned the breakers let's um let's
00:28:20
get into that cuz it's um an incredible
00:28:21
career there nine Seasons with the
00:28:23
breakers four titles were you were you
00:28:26
there from day one with with like when
00:28:28
the break has launched uh were you a
00:28:31
year one player no no well they they I'm
00:28:34
pretty sure their first year in the
00:28:36
league was
00:28:39
2003 and I was still in high school and
00:28:42
just started playing basketball then so
00:28:43
um definitely not from day one but I was
00:28:46
there um as a development player uh in
00:28:53
the 2009 season so the season that
00:28:56
because obviously the season starts in
00:28:59
one year and finishes and so the season
00:29:00
that started 2009 finished in
00:29:03
2010 um that was my my first year there
00:29:06
and I was a development player um so
00:29:10
yeah that's that's so how many years
00:29:13
they it was like their sixth or seventh
00:29:14
year in the competition when I when I
00:29:16
first joined cuz you you I mean you're
00:29:18
one of the breakers goats right like
00:29:19
there's there's only a handful of
00:29:21
players that have played more than 200
00:29:22
games I think it's like five players oh
00:29:24
I wouldn't call myself that but if no
00:29:27
you if if other people want to if other
00:29:30
people want to put that label on it um
00:29:32
is that um is that is that a is that the
00:29:35
um is it just a kiwi modesty thing or is
00:29:37
it just a personality type or I think
00:29:40
probably a combination of those two
00:29:41
things but um you you can acknowledge
00:29:43
that it's been a [ __ ] good career
00:29:45
though oh yeah yeah I've
00:29:47
been I I would guess I'd be in the top
00:29:51
five in games played I think for the
00:29:53
breakers I
00:29:56
played yeah I remember would have been I
00:29:59
think I think overall I played about
00:30:04
285 maybe something like that when when
00:30:06
you include the couple of Seasons I
00:30:08
played for Melbourne at the end so yeah
00:30:11
I'd say it would have been just over 200
00:30:14
for the breakers and 60 70 for for
00:30:17
Melbourne but um but yeah I I assume
00:30:21
that I'd be top five in most of the the
00:30:25
longevity kind of
00:30:27
numbers like the games played and points
00:30:30
and rebounds and uh all sorts of stuff
00:30:33
but um and four titles as well four
00:30:36
titles yeah yeah I um yeah I was one of
00:30:39
one of three guys to to be on all four
00:30:42
of those teams with um Tom abomi and MK
00:30:45
vona being the the other two and um Dean
00:30:49
vickerman and Jud feville were the two
00:30:52
they were either the head coach or the
00:30:53
assistant coach on on all four of the
00:30:56
team so yeah being one of five one of
00:30:58
five guys who was involved in in all
00:31:01
four of those um yeah that's a a pretty
00:31:04
special thing that I I look back on um
00:31:07
sounds like you're painting a very big
00:31:09
picture of you being one of the
00:31:10
goats yeah I don't know maybe it is just
00:31:13
uh you know you know what Americans are
00:31:16
like there say oh yeah but yeah I'm the
00:31:18
go I I'll let other people decide if
00:31:21
they want to put me in that kind of
00:31:22
class or not I like that I like that and
00:31:24
and what does um what what do those
00:31:26
titles mean exactly like how big a deal
00:31:28
is it how significant is it for some
00:31:30
anyone that's listening to this that
00:31:31
doesn't sort of I don't know actively
00:31:33
follow basketball or the NBL um well it
00:31:35
was it was significant for a lot of
00:31:37
reasons you know the breakers had
00:31:40
really you know they had a couple of
00:31:43
good years where they went on where they
00:31:45
made the playoffs and had some kind of
00:31:47
playoff runs but you know up until that
00:31:50
point the breakers had mostly struggled
00:31:53
you know they hadn't they hadn't won a
00:31:55
lot before that so so to kind of um turn
00:31:59
the corner and you know get over the
00:32:02
hump as they say for the first time um
00:32:05
was obviously very significant but the
00:32:08
the big thing was you know we're the one
00:32:11
New Zealand team in an Australian
00:32:13
competition you know similar to The
00:32:15
Warriors similar to how the Warriors are
00:32:17
the one New Zealand team and the Phoenix
00:32:19
are the one New Zealand team and um it's
00:32:22
a little bit different with the netball
00:32:23
because there's a bunch of New Zealand
00:32:24
teams mixed into it but you know no New
00:32:26
Zealand team um that plays in an
00:32:29
Australian competition had ever won
00:32:32
before um yeah so being being the first
00:32:35
the first New Zealand team in an
00:32:37
Australian
00:32:39
competition um with primarily uh New
00:32:42
Zealand core of players obviously we
00:32:45
have a couple of American players on the
00:32:47
team and there's always one or two
00:32:49
Australians mixed in there but having um
00:32:52
primarily like a New Zealand core of
00:32:55
players um and then you know kind of
00:32:58
having a strangle hold over the
00:33:00
competition for you know a five six year
00:33:03
period um yeah it was it was a pretty
00:33:06
significant kind of time for basketball
00:33:10
in New Zealand and it kind of Rose you
00:33:12
know basketball is like one of the
00:33:14
fastest growing Sports in the country at
00:33:16
the moment in terms of like the
00:33:18
Grassroots and like high school and
00:33:20
school type
00:33:21
level um and yeah it kind of row things
00:33:26
back similar to level where it was when
00:33:28
I first started playing in 2002 from
00:33:30
that tall blacks team that did really
00:33:32
well and you know when you yeah when you
00:33:34
combine the success that the breakers
00:33:36
had over that period um and with Steven
00:33:41
Adams making the NBA um you know it was
00:33:44
you know I I think those two things
00:33:47
combined were a pretty significant
00:33:49
contributor to why basketball has
00:33:52
increased in its popularity so much over
00:33:54
the last decade or so oh it's it's it's
00:33:56
it's massive it feels like it's as big
00:33:58
now as what it was like when the Chicago
00:34:00
blls were the peak when was that like
00:34:02
late '90s yeah yeah yeah it's incredible
00:34:04
so so those those Breakers wins those
00:34:06
four titles what what years were they
00:34:07
that you won
00:34:09
um
00:34:11
201 11 12 and 13 we won three in a row
00:34:16
and then we had a year where we weren't
00:34:20
great and then we kind of regrouped and
00:34:23
and won it again so there was a six-year
00:34:25
period um
00:34:27
where we made the Grand
00:34:30
Final yeah there was a six-year period
00:34:32
where we won the Grand Final for we made
00:34:35
it to the Grand final five times and we
00:34:37
won it four times so yeah it was a
00:34:39
pretty a pretty good run of um of
00:34:43
success yeah from a team perspective
00:34:44
it's it's you you'd call it a dynasty
00:34:46
wouldn't you it was massive yeah that
00:34:48
was that was a word that we started
00:34:50
throwing around you know that's kind of
00:34:53
um you know if you look like I my
00:34:56
history hisory of the Australian NBL
00:34:58
before the breakers joined in 2003 isn't
00:35:01
very good but um yeah I think it'd
00:35:04
struggle to find a team that kind of had
00:35:07
that level of sustained success over a
00:35:11
long period of time you know you quite
00:35:13
often have a you know flash in the pan
00:35:16
type moments where a team has a guy with
00:35:20
lots of money and they sign lots of good
00:35:22
players and then they win and all those
00:35:24
players go on and they they so they
00:35:27
might have a year or two where they're
00:35:29
really really good and then after that
00:35:30
they kind of fall off a little bit I
00:35:32
think kind of having a a sustained
00:35:35
period of time where we kept like no
00:35:38
team is ever going to be exactly the
00:35:40
same year after year after year but we
00:35:43
you know kept most of the same coaching
00:35:46
stuff and kind of like that same core of
00:35:48
players that the squad was built around
00:35:52
um and you know the turnover of players
00:35:55
wasn't overly massive like it is with
00:35:58
teams that um you know perhaps aren't so
00:36:01
good if you have that winning
00:36:03
environment no one wants to leave oh
00:36:04
yeah everyone wants in rather than that
00:36:06
yeah that kind of 2010 to
00:36:09
2015 um yeah it was a it was a pretty
00:36:12
good time to be what a to be a member of
00:36:14
the breakers was a absolutely and then
00:36:16
so you left the breakers in 2018 I think
00:36:18
your your final contract before that was
00:36:19
like a threeyear threeyear deal is is
00:36:22
the is the money in the NBL okay is the
00:36:24
money good um yeah it's pretty good it's
00:36:27
not it's not what it is in the
00:36:29
NBA but I think you I mean it's um it's
00:36:33
a professional environment and you have
00:36:34
to put all you guys have to put your
00:36:36
whole professional sort of careers or or
00:36:39
life on hold I guess in a way but um you
00:36:42
want to make sure you feeling
00:36:42
compensated for it is it okay yeah it's
00:36:44
it's really good especially you know
00:36:46
when you're
00:36:48
um you know when you're part of kind of
00:36:51
like a championship core um you know
00:36:55
they I I won't go into amounts but they
00:36:59
they look after you pretty well
00:37:01
yeah I like that I'm really I'm reading
00:37:04
a book at I'm curious about this because
00:37:06
I'm reading a book at the moment called
00:37:06
Relentless it's by a guy called Tim
00:37:08
Grover who's like the mental skills
00:37:09
coach for sh Jordan Kobe uh Lebron
00:37:14
Dwayne Wade um so I'm I'm curious after
00:37:17
reading this book because this book it
00:37:18
paints a picture of um all those guys I
00:37:20
mentioned as being [ __ ] [ __ ] to
00:37:23
play with like just intimidating and
00:37:25
scary and just focused on on winning
00:37:27
what would your teammates say about you
00:37:29
like what's your sort of demeanor in the
00:37:31
changing room or that environment yeah I
00:37:33
I was always more of a I was I was
00:37:38
never a super vocal yell and scream kind
00:37:43
of guy I was always more of
00:37:45
a you know do it by my actions kind of
00:37:48
person you know I'd always um I'd always
00:37:52
try to be as professional as possible
00:37:54
I'd always try to show up on time
00:37:58
and do all the things that you need to
00:38:00
do to be ready to play ready for
00:38:02
practice ready for games and just being
00:38:05
consistent with what I do um so I think
00:38:11
you know I was I always tried to be you
00:38:15
know an uplifting member of the team if
00:38:18
I'd see you know players with their head
00:38:20
down or that because that's something
00:38:22
that I struggled with early in my career
00:38:24
especially when I was younger um you
00:38:26
know when you'd miss a couple of shots
00:38:28
or a few things wouldn't go your way and
00:38:30
I think that's something that I got
00:38:33
better with over time you know I left
00:38:35
the um the yelling and the screaming to
00:38:38
Paul H Paul henard and M aona CJ bruten
00:38:42
let let those guys do do most of the
00:38:45
talking and I'd kind of be more of a
00:38:48
more of an actions person um and kind of
00:38:51
um you know try to be as professional as
00:38:53
I could um in that way so um um yeah if
00:38:57
you asked the guys I played with
00:38:59
hopefully hopefully that's what they'd
00:39:01
say because that's at least what I tried
00:39:03
to do yeah I'm intrigued about it from
00:39:05
reading this book because you know a lot
00:39:07
of people are probably confidence
00:39:08
players and it's like if you if you [ __ ]
00:39:10
up you know you're [ __ ] up the last
00:39:11
thing you need is someone else yelling
00:39:12
at you especially a senior team member
00:39:14
yelling at you telling you you're [ __ ]
00:39:16
up um but it's it's it's a just a
00:39:18
fascinating insight into that sort of
00:39:20
high performance environment yeah I I
00:39:22
guess it's just you know
00:39:24
different you know different
00:39:27
Styles different leadership styles work
00:39:29
for different people you know like the
00:39:32
yeah I don't know if you you know during
00:39:33
the lockdown period I don't know if you
00:39:35
watched that last dance documentary
00:39:37
about about the last season in Chicago
00:39:39
withal times but you know he
00:39:42
was you know he was kind of a dick you
00:39:46
know he was he'd he'd ride his teammates
00:39:48
he'd get on them he'd and um you know
00:39:52
you hear stories about like guys like
00:39:54
Kobe Bryant they're the same but then
00:39:56
you know you have your um you know
00:40:00
someone like Tim Duncan who played for
00:40:02
the San Antonio Spirits he was never one
00:40:04
of those guys or at least outwardly what
00:40:06
you'd see you know in the public he was
00:40:08
never that way he was always a you know
00:40:11
a lead by example uh you know he would
00:40:15
let his actions do the talking more than
00:40:17
just being one of those sort of guys and
00:40:19
it's the same with LeBron you know some
00:40:22
guys you know yell and scream and get on
00:40:25
their teammates it's like you know if
00:40:26
I'm doing like you know if you're
00:40:28
Michael Jordan it's like I'm the best
00:40:29
player on the team I'm doing all this
00:40:30
stuff there's no reason why you can't do
00:40:32
it whereas LeBron's kind of more of a
00:40:35
put put his shoulder around you you know
00:40:37
if he you know Kobe and Michael Jordan
00:40:41
were kind
00:40:43
of you know I put in the most work I'm
00:40:47
taking the shot give me the
00:40:49
ball I've earn this sort of thing
00:40:51
whereas LeBron's more of a you know he
00:40:55
puts his arm around around you you know
00:40:57
you know if you miss a you know if you
00:40:59
miss if he passes you the ball and you
00:41:01
miss a shot next possession down if
00:41:03
you're wide open again he's going to
00:41:04
give it to you again so you know there
00:41:06
are lots of different leadership styles
00:41:08
there I don't think there's one
00:41:10
particular way that works better than
00:41:12
the other I think it just kind of
00:41:13
depends on the individual and depends on
00:41:15
the other individuals on the team yeah
00:41:17
you got to do what's right for your
00:41:18
personality type a um in this book one
00:41:21
example they give us uh like Shaquille
00:41:23
O'Neal and how he could have had more
00:41:25
Rings um potentially but he was just you
00:41:28
he will go down as being you remembered
00:41:30
as a great teammate and people enjoyed
00:41:32
playing with him whereas Kobe more
00:41:34
successful more rings but um yeah just
00:41:37
like difficult to be around yeah like
00:41:39
there was when I played for Melbourne
00:41:41
there was a
00:41:42
um uh a guy who's the assistant coach
00:41:45
with the Los Angeles Lakers right now
00:41:48
he's um his name is Phil handy I don't
00:41:50
he's probably not a household name to
00:41:52
most New Zealand basketball fans but he
00:41:55
he's kind of world renown is kind of one
00:41:57
of the best like he's really like
00:42:00
individual development like skill
00:42:02
development and he's worked with Kobe
00:42:06
LeBron kawh Leonard you know like the
00:42:10
best of the best and he and I was I was
00:42:14
watching this this podcast episode he
00:42:16
was on coming board was caught and he
00:42:19
asked he asked Kobe Bryant one day who
00:42:22
said like cuz he'd yell and scream at
00:42:25
teammates he'd do this he' do that then
00:42:27
he' and he asked him one day he was just
00:42:29
like Kobe why are you such an [ __ ] he
00:42:32
was like why like why are you this way
00:42:35
and then he explained that you
00:42:37
know just the the amount of work and the
00:42:40
attention to detail that Kobe would put
00:42:42
into the game you know he'd show up to
00:42:46
practice 5 hours early and he'd get a
00:42:51
individual like skills workout in and
00:42:53
then he'd take a nap at the stadium then
00:42:55
he'd have another one and then the
00:42:56
actual practice would start and then
00:42:58
when practice was finished he' and you
00:43:00
know he there were times where he' just
00:43:03
the exact same spot on the floor the
00:43:05
same footwork the same shot he' just do
00:43:07
it Time After Time After Time for like
00:43:10
an hour straight and I don't know like
00:43:14
just the same footwork same shot
00:43:16
everything for an hour and you know and
00:43:20
he'd get frustrated when he was doing
00:43:23
all of this but then there were other
00:43:24
guys on the team that would show up up
00:43:27
10 minutes before practice started and
00:43:29
then they'd leave 10 minutes after
00:43:30
practice finished so they'd kind of do
00:43:33
you know the bare minimum so so his kind
00:43:36
of mentality is you know why am I going
00:43:39
to pass them the ball when they don't
00:43:41
put in the same amount of work that I
00:43:43
put in and you know that's that's kind
00:43:46
of the style that the leadership style
00:43:48
and his kind of mindset towards things
00:43:50
that's that's kind of how he worked and
00:43:53
it was obviously pretty successful for
00:43:56
for him and um but you know there are
00:43:58
guys who kind of do it the opposite way
00:44:00
and have just as much success as well
00:44:02
yeah I suppose the one big takeaway or
00:44:04
the one common link with um all these
00:44:06
high performances is just that there's
00:44:09
um um like natural Talent is is is it's
00:44:12
it's a thing but it's a myth to a degree
00:44:14
because um the one superpower all these
00:44:15
guys have is hard [ __ ] work yeah they
00:44:18
work harder than anyone else yeah it
00:44:19
kind of yeah like people ask me all the
00:44:22
time you know what does it take to
00:44:25
become a professional sports person
00:44:28
and um just saying oh you just have to
00:44:32
work hard that kind of seems like the
00:44:34
cop out answer just because it's easy
00:44:36
yeah but but at the end of the
00:44:38
day that that kind of what it is you
00:44:41
know there are lots of players who are
00:44:43
talented and they you know the the
00:44:47
younger levels but eventually you know
00:44:50
just being talented isn't enough you
00:44:52
know Talent just having a natural Talent
00:44:55
will get you to a certain level um
00:44:58
without hard work you're going to be
00:44:59
caught out eventually aren you yeah so
00:45:01
it kind yeah it's kind of it seems like
00:45:03
the easy answer just to just because but
00:45:09
it's also probably the most correct
00:45:11
answer like it's it's not some you know
00:45:14
there's not some secret club that tells
00:45:16
certain people the secret and doesn't
00:45:18
tell other people you know it's it's
00:45:21
it's it it really is that simple yeah
00:45:23
yeah so you you ended your care you you
00:45:26
ended on your own terms which I think is
00:45:27
um like if you're in this high
00:45:29
performance sort of domain I think
00:45:31
there's there's only two ways to go out
00:45:32
right unceremoniously dumped or getting
00:45:35
to leave on your own tombs and you you
00:45:37
were lucky enough to leave on your own
00:45:38
tombs so you finished with um the
00:45:40
Southland sharks um and they retired
00:45:42
your number uh number 35 um for anyone
00:45:46
that's not into basketball or doesn't
00:45:47
really understand the significance of
00:45:48
that can you explain it yeah well um
00:45:52
well it's basically I I don't it's kind
00:45:56
of f kind of hard to find a comparison
00:45:58
in other sports really but you know they
00:46:01
retiring your number essentially what
00:46:03
that means is they they typically do
00:46:06
some type of ceremony like they'll get
00:46:09
like
00:46:09
a like a banner type thing with like a
00:46:13
basketball singlet drawn on it and the
00:46:15
number and your last name they'll raise
00:46:16
it up into the rafters of the stadium
00:46:19
and it's basically just you know it's a
00:46:22
an honor to that they bestow on people
00:46:26
that have contributed
00:46:29
significantly to the club's history
00:46:32
whether it's being through multiple
00:46:34
championships or playing playing there
00:46:37
for a very long time or just being you
00:46:42
know a a significant member of that
00:46:45
Organization for a long period of time
00:46:47
and contributing to its success and um
00:46:51
yeah I was I was pretty I was pretty
00:46:53
honored and surprised as well when when
00:46:56
they well you're surprised yeah cuz you
00:46:57
they have to sest you can't suggest it
00:46:59
oh no no oh yeah yeah you don't walk you
00:47:02
don't walk into the office and go you're
00:47:03
retiring my
00:47:07
number so so they they say hey we're
00:47:10
going to do this for you and it's a
00:47:12
thing well well I I had no idea cuz we
00:47:15
at the um you know the last on like the
00:47:19
last home game that we played that
00:47:21
season when CU I told them that I was um
00:47:25
you know going to High two three weeks
00:47:27
before that and so you know they made
00:47:29
this big push for the last the last home
00:47:31
game and there was a pretty big crowd
00:47:34
there and then you know there were some
00:47:36
speeches and stuff at the end of the
00:47:38
game and and then all of a sudden I turn
00:47:41
around and this thing's being lifted up
00:47:43
and I was like yeah I yeah it's keep
00:47:45
keeping things from my wife is a pretty
00:47:48
hard thing to do and she had no idea
00:47:49
either so um so yeah being being deemed
00:47:53
uh worthy of that that honor there's
00:47:55
only
00:47:57
um you know there's only two well I was
00:48:00
the second player for the sharks um to
00:48:03
to have their number retired the other
00:48:05
one was um Kevin brazwell who played uh
00:48:09
who was a member of the first Breakers
00:48:12
championship team um so you to be one of
00:48:15
only two players um the you know to have
00:48:19
their number retired for that club it's
00:48:21
um it's a pretty big honor and um and
00:48:24
something that I'm very thankful yeah
00:48:26
and you made um you made a hell of a
00:48:27
speech um lovely tribute to your wife
00:48:30
Bailey as well [ __ ] how did you how did
00:48:32
you hold it together are you an
00:48:33
emotional guy like I like I was watching
00:48:36
it on YouTube and I had tears streaming
00:48:38
down my face it was such a such a
00:48:40
powerful moment um I'm normally I'm
00:48:43
normally pretty stoic I'm not uh yeah
00:48:46
I'm not I I I have found since the the
00:48:51
since the the the cancer diagnosis and
00:48:54
getting over it you know things
00:48:56
that wouldn't have caused that sort of
00:48:59
reaction from me would even things like
00:49:02
um you know like in you know like a TV
00:49:06
show or a movie or something um you know
00:49:09
like if you know someone having cancer
00:49:12
is a significant part of like the story
00:49:15
of the movie or the show it would have
00:49:16
been before Oh that's quite sad isn't it
00:49:19
um but now but now it's kind of like
00:49:22
actually know like you know you know
00:49:23
that um that that that Ricky ju
00:49:28
afterlife yeah incredible Netflix show
00:49:29
yeah at the end of that I don't yeah I
00:49:32
don't think I've ever cried so much at
00:49:34
the end of a TV show um so yeah it's
00:49:37
kind of um yeah but yeah she you know
00:49:41
what what she's done for me and the two
00:49:43
of us
00:49:46
um throughout that entire period of Our
00:49:49
Lives um you know
00:49:52
because in the middle of Co and
00:49:54
everything we were over in Australia and
00:49:56
we came back and we were down in
00:49:58
Southland when the diagnosis happened
00:50:00
and we moved back up to Hamilton and she
00:50:03
planned our wedding and it was just on
00:50:06
on top of watching me going through what
00:50:09
I was going through um yeah it takes a a
00:50:13
pretty special person to be able to hold
00:50:15
it together and just kind of carry the
00:50:18
two of us through a time like that yeah
00:50:21
she sounds actually I was going to say
00:50:23
she sounds incredible but you seem like
00:50:24
an incredible cap together like a Rob
00:50:26
power couple so let's um focus on her a
00:50:28
little bit and then we can um get into
00:50:30
the cancer stuff as much or as little as
00:50:31
you want so how did you and Bailey meet
00:50:34
um such a good we actually um because
00:50:37
we're both from Hamilton we actually
00:50:39
went to high school together but we we
00:50:42
actually same same age same year uh she
00:50:44
she was the year below me but we we
00:50:46
didn't re like we were aware that we
00:50:50
existed but we weren't like friends or
00:50:51
we didn't really know each other in high
00:50:53
school at all um but because she's tiny
00:50:56
right oh yeah she's like two feet
00:50:58
shorter than me yeah she she is not she
00:51:00
is not tall at all um but yeah so we
00:51:05
after the breakers won for the first
00:51:07
time um in
00:51:11
200 whatever it was we we were out
00:51:15
celebrating um we were out at a bar
00:51:18
somewhere in Oakland and the same night
00:51:21
was the
00:51:22
night of the um um what are their names
00:51:27
the the William and Kate wedding like
00:51:29
The Royal Wedding um so of the two
00:51:32
things that were happening at that time
00:51:34
it's pretty obvious what one she was
00:51:36
celebrating or what one she was more
00:51:38
interested in so I so we so I we ran
00:51:42
into each other in this in this bar and
00:51:47
we just started talking he like Oho what
00:51:49
are you guys all doing out here like oh
00:51:51
we just won the championship it's like
00:51:52
oh that's cool I just watched the Royal
00:51:55
WI
00:51:56
so so yeah so yeah she had no idea that
00:52:00
um The Breakers had just won the
00:52:01
championship I don't even know if she
00:52:03
knew who the breakers even were but um
00:52:05
but yeah we just started talking from
00:52:08
there we met up a couple of times it
00:52:11
kind of yeah wasn't like a we met that
00:52:14
night then we were just a thing it kind
00:52:16
of evolved over a little bit of time but
00:52:19
um but yeah we've we've been married for
00:52:23
two and a bit years yeah yeah two and a
00:52:26
half years but we've been together for
00:52:29
you know over 10 we've been yeah I think
00:52:31
um to time stamp it I think Will and
00:52:32
Kate's wedding was 2011 would that be
00:52:34
right 2011 yeah around about April April
00:52:36
May 2011 um so you yeah so you so you
00:52:39
got together in 2011 so you knew each
00:52:41
other at school but didn't really know
00:52:42
each other yeah yeah we we we just went
00:52:45
to the same school no school ball or
00:52:47
childhood sweethearts or anything like
00:52:48
that oh no definitely um you proposed on
00:52:51
a furus wheel did did a lot of thought
00:52:53
go into this or was it an tuna six um a
00:52:56
little bit of thought went into it in
00:52:58
the um in Melbourne there's um I
00:53:02
actually think it's shut down now I
00:53:04
don't I think it was a a CO casualty
00:53:06
unfortunately but um yeah there's this
00:53:08
big uh feris wheel in Melbourne um in
00:53:13
docklands I think the area is and um and
00:53:17
yeah it's it's not like a Fest wheel we
00:53:19
you just sit on the chair and they bring
00:53:20
down a barrier like an arm thing it's
00:53:23
like you it's like you're you're in this
00:53:24
big like cubicle type thing okay yeah oh
00:53:27
like the sort of um like the London Eye
00:53:29
yeah yeah it's yeah it's basically yeah
00:53:31
and um and we got there and we went in
00:53:35
line there weren't a lot of people
00:53:36
waiting but I wanted to I wanted to have
00:53:41
um have like one of those cubicle things
00:53:43
to ourselves I didn't want I didn't want
00:53:45
other people other people in there yeah
00:53:47
I didn't want other people in there
00:53:49
obviously so she was wondering what I
00:53:52
was doing cuz um she didn't know that I
00:53:54
was having the Ring made and she didn't
00:53:57
know that she had no idea that that was
00:54:00
this because I just got back from the
00:54:02
World Cup um in
00:54:05
2019 and so we hadn't been so we hadn't
00:54:08
seen each other for like six weeks so
00:54:10
she thought it was just like a date
00:54:11
night or something and um so we we went
00:54:14
there and every time I'd get to the
00:54:18
front of the line or every time we were
00:54:20
the only two people in the line thinking
00:54:22
okay we're going to have our little
00:54:23
cubicle thing to ourselves someone else
00:54:25
would join the line and I'd always be
00:54:27
like oh no no you guys can go ahead and
00:54:29
she was getting kind of annoyed at me
00:54:31
wondering like what on Earth are you
00:54:34
doing um yes but we eventually I I had
00:54:38
to tell cuz it had been close to an hour
00:54:41
and we've we we've been waiting and L
00:54:43
letting people go so I told like the
00:54:45
conductor person what I was doing so
00:54:48
they moved us over to this other area
00:54:51
and um yeah so they let us get one by
00:54:54
themselves and
00:54:56
um I waited until it got to the very top
00:54:59
and I told her just to like look out the
00:55:02
window and I pretended to be take I was
00:55:04
like oh take I'll take some pictures of
00:55:06
you while you're looking out the window
00:55:07
and then um when she turned around I was
00:55:11
fumbling around trying to get the ring
00:55:13
box out of my pocket and um and that's
00:55:16
that's kind of how that happened so yeah
00:55:18
so she kind of turned around and kind of
00:55:20
had no idea what was going on so that
00:55:22
was quite good oh how good was a special
00:55:23
moment and um yeah did you have to say
00:55:26
the words or did she just say yes
00:55:29
immediately um well yeah I rehearsed
00:55:32
what I was going to say several times
00:55:34
before we went and
00:55:36
then my mind just went blank so I was
00:55:39
just like I actually can't remember what
00:55:40
I said yeah I actually I actually don't
00:55:43
remember her saying yes either but I
00:55:46
don't know she she she snatched the ring
00:55:49
out of the box and chucked it on um so
00:55:52
she my action Lou than words sometimes I
00:55:54
guess so that was um when was that that
00:55:56
was uh uh 2019 2019 and then you got
00:56:00
married um June 2021 in Central otago
00:56:02
gibston Valley um and Sh then the
00:56:05
wedding invites that they they were sent
00:56:08
out the same day you got the cancer
00:56:10
diagnosis yep that morning yeah we oh we
00:56:12
sent them I don't know would have been
00:56:15
early afternoon maybe and then yeah
00:56:19
midnight that night I was a cancer
00:56:21
patient so yeah yeah it was uh
00:56:25
yeah it was yeah even earlier that day
00:56:27
we had cuz the cuz it was like a month
00:56:30
away from the Southland sharks season
00:56:33
starting and so you know the co the
00:56:36
coach um and our American players were
00:56:40
in um like the
00:56:42
14-day like I like the miq thing and um
00:56:46
but all of our local players and our
00:56:48
assistant coach with there so we'd be
00:56:49
doing you know three on three four on
00:56:51
four type things and um I was you you
00:56:54
know it was going really well I was like
00:56:56
[ __ ] like we have a chance to be a
00:56:58
really good team and then we sent those
00:57:00
out and then yeah it was kind of
00:57:04
the yeah the day turned on its head in a
00:57:08
pretty massive way yeah well um we'll
00:57:11
get back to that but these these two
00:57:13
sort of significant life events sort of
00:57:14
intertwine the the wedding and the the
00:57:16
cancer so yeah so you get married in
00:57:18
June 2021 and you you were sick at that
00:57:20
point were you're in the middle of
00:57:22
treatment yeah yeah it it hadj just
00:57:25
one part of the treatment had just
00:57:27
finished I I was diagnosed 4 days before
00:57:31
my 34th birthday in 23rd of
00:57:35
March um
00:57:37
and I finished I had five weeks of um
00:57:44
radiation treatment and chemotherapy in
00:57:46
dened so that was
00:57:49
um for five weeks it was every weekday
00:57:53
on the the radiation machine and then
00:57:58
there were these chemo the like there
00:58:00
were pills they weren't like an IV type
00:58:02
thing they were um they were pills and I
00:58:05
took seven of them in the morning and
00:58:07
seven of them at night um and they were
00:58:09
like just like your typical Panadol
00:58:12
sized pills which was a low and
00:58:15
apparently it was a low dosage but what
00:58:18
are they dirty do they they they knock
00:58:20
for six yeah yeah well the it was even
00:58:24
though 14 pills a day sounds like a lot
00:58:27
um it was it was the radiation was the
00:58:31
most important part and um from what
00:58:35
they were telling me the the point the
00:58:37
point of those pills was to make the
00:58:40
cancer more susceptible to the um to the
00:58:43
radiation so so yeah it was 5 weeks of
00:58:46
that and those 14 pills every day um and
00:58:51
I I finished that it was about three
00:58:54
weeks before before the wedding day when
00:58:55
I finished and there was some real cuz I
00:58:58
you know 3 4 days away I was still
00:59:00
feeling quite sick um it took the first
00:59:03
two weeks afterwards I could hardly eat
00:59:06
and could hardly get out of bed um and
00:59:10
yeah kind of the week leading into it I
00:59:12
was like [ __ ] I don't know what I'm
00:59:14
going to be able to I might be able to
00:59:17
walk myself down say I do then go back
00:59:19
to bed that's kind of what that's kind
00:59:21
of what it was looking like for a little
00:59:23
while guess
00:59:25
but um but yeah luckily it um I kind of
00:59:29
did that kind of final week leading into
00:59:31
it I did um you know I after that
00:59:35
initial period of recovering where I
00:59:37
felt like utter garbage um yeah I did
00:59:40
bounce back quite well and was able to
00:59:43
partake in the wedding uh the way I was
00:59:46
hoping to so when you look back on um
00:59:49
you know on video footage of that day or
00:59:51
photos of that day like how how do you
00:59:53
feel is it just a day overwhelming
00:59:55
happiness or from the perspective of
00:59:56
where you are now is that a sort of mix
00:59:58
day because you're sick you're not sure
00:59:59
if you're going to live or die really I
01:00:01
guess yeah and you marrying the love of
01:00:03
your life yeah it was It was obviously a
01:00:05
day of of happiness but looking back you
01:00:10
know we like like we were in America a
01:00:13
couple of weeks ago and we reshot our
01:00:15
wedding photos and you know not legally
01:00:18
because we were married already but you
01:00:20
know got married again um you know we
01:00:23
just found the photos to look at just
01:00:26
because
01:00:28
um like when the radiation treatment
01:00:31
finished I weighed 125 kgs when it was
01:00:35
finished 5 weeks later I was 102 so I
01:00:38
lost 23 yeah almost 25 kgs in a very
01:00:42
short amount of time and you know
01:00:44
that I don't know what you call it but
01:00:46
like that that cancer look you know that
01:00:49
gaunt kind of cheek sunken in really
01:00:52
thin looking
01:00:55
like you just like you just know that
01:00:56
look the people that are going through
01:00:58
chemotherapy and even the eyes eyes look
01:01:01
darker right yeah and that's and and
01:01:05
obviously it was a fan a fantastic day
01:01:07
with family we only had like 40 people
01:01:10
there it wasn't a ginormous wedding um
01:01:12
but so you know only the you know
01:01:15
closest family and friends were the
01:01:17
people that we had there um so it was
01:01:19
obviously a fantastic day but just kind
01:01:22
of yeah looking looking back at the
01:01:24
photos and stuff it does they they are
01:01:27
kind of hard for us to look at just
01:01:29
because it reminds us of such a a shitty
01:01:33
time yeah yeah is that why it was
01:01:35
important to do the second wedding in
01:01:36
Vegas um like a redemption or something
01:01:39
yeah well it was It was kind well we
01:01:42
planned on taking the photos um photos
01:01:45
by the way are amazing incredible yeah
01:01:47
we we planned on doing the photos again
01:01:49
but doing like a pretend ceremony that
01:01:51
was we were looking at maybe doing it
01:01:54
but it was it was like a spare of the
01:01:57
moment type thing but cuz Bailey was
01:01:59
working over there there's
01:02:01
a um you know like Bravo the TV channel
01:02:04
um there was
01:02:06
a like a like a convention thing over
01:02:09
there called bravoo con and um Bailey
01:02:13
was doing The Styling and makeup
01:02:16
Artistry suppose that's what you call it
01:02:18
for um you know that TV show below deck
01:02:23
um yeah there's a couple kiwi girls ktie
01:02:25
and as yeah that um that feature on
01:02:28
those shows quite prominently so she did
01:02:31
so um they hired Bailey to basically do
01:02:36
all the Glam
01:02:37
stuff um and yeah the with the night
01:02:41
that that had finished we were all all
01:02:44
out um just at the various places up and
01:02:48
down the strip and cuz we were planning
01:02:50
on doing it maybe if it was like a free
01:02:52
afternoon we could sneak off to to the
01:02:55
the chapel and have a little pretend one
01:02:56
but you know Bailey was busy on her feet
01:02:59
all day and by the time she was finished
01:03:00
she was just like no let's just go back
01:03:02
to the room I'm too tired room service
01:03:05
and sleep yeah and um yeah on that last
01:03:08
night um Katie asked Bailey like did you
01:03:12
guys ever end up going to the chapel or
01:03:14
not and then so yeah we were on this um
01:03:17
on this party bus and um she was like
01:03:21
why don't we just do it now so we yeah
01:03:23
so I wasn't dressed wedding appropriate
01:03:25
at all I was
01:03:27
just basically what I'm wearing
01:03:30
now JS and Jord um I think I had jeans
01:03:34
on but basically it might have been this
01:03:36
exact outfit actually if the if these
01:03:38
shorts were a little bit longer I
01:03:40
appreciate you wearing your wedding suit
01:03:41
to the podcast today but um but yeah so
01:03:45
it was kind of a you know kind of one of
01:03:48
those well you know one of the we're in
01:03:51
Vegas we might as well do it so um so
01:03:53
was this a little white chaper where I
01:03:55
think there's been Kardashian weddings
01:03:57
Britney Spears yeah it was obviously um
01:04:00
not an official one cuz we're married
01:04:03
already but um but we did that and then
01:04:07
um he then the next day there's this
01:04:10
maybe 20 minutes half an hour out of
01:04:13
Vegas there's this um it's like an art
01:04:16
installation thing called seven magic
01:04:18
mountains and they're just
01:04:20
these I think they're made out of
01:04:22
fiberglass I don't know what they made
01:04:24
of but the these tall kind of stonehinge
01:04:27
looking formation things and they just
01:04:30
painted a whole bunch of different
01:04:32
colors and um asa's partner um his name
01:04:36
scottt he's he he's a really good
01:04:39
photographer cuz he's um he's like
01:04:41
hardcore
01:04:43
into like per like hand gliding but like
01:04:47
doing it I don't but doing it really
01:04:49
fast and he has all the GoPro camera
01:04:52
stuff and he records himself while he's
01:04:53
doing it and we were like do you want to
01:04:56
take the photos and he was like yep so
01:04:57
we pulled out all this fancy camera
01:04:59
equipment and yeah so and he he took
01:05:02
some really uh phenomenal photos it was
01:05:04
a um it's a public place and there were
01:05:07
lots of people there so we couldn't tell
01:05:09
people to bug her off bug her off before
01:05:12
we take our photos um so yeah we we
01:05:14
photoshopped the people that were in the
01:05:16
background out of the oh actually
01:05:19
actually I don't tell people that that
01:05:21
ruins the illusion yeah so the real
01:05:24
pictures but there were people in the
01:05:27
background that aren't there in the
01:05:29
actual pictures but um that's awesome
01:05:31
yeah but at the same time it was a
01:05:33
really windy day um so in the background
01:05:36
that if you look at the pictures there's
01:05:39
a it's like there's a sandstorm in the
01:05:41
background like sand twirling around all
01:05:43
over the place like that wasn't camera
01:05:46
trickery either that was that was all
01:05:48
there so we got there and we walked out
01:05:50
of the car and it was just like we were
01:05:53
like is this even going to to be doable
01:05:55
but we CU it was it wasn't just a little
01:05:57
bit of wind it was really really windy
01:05:59
but um yeah we took we just waited for
01:06:03
brief little moments when the wind kind
01:06:05
of calmed down a little bit and yeah in
01:06:07
the desert with the the cactus or CAC D
01:06:11
and um the sand a little Sandstorm in
01:06:15
the background with uh um yeah just that
01:06:19
kind of desert kind of Vegas backdrop
01:06:23
yeah they were they were the the photos
01:06:25
turned out really good and yeah just
01:06:28
having having those ones you know if you
01:06:31
compare what I look like in those ones
01:06:32
to what I compared to what I look like
01:06:35
in the in the other ones it's yeah it's
01:06:38
a pretty significant difference in terms
01:06:40
of just physical appearance yeah and I
01:06:42
suppose like from a like a mental
01:06:43
perspective like in the first ones
01:06:45
you're um you're just of like I suppose
01:06:47
walking through the through the forest
01:06:49
and then the second one's in Vegas like
01:06:50
you're out of the woods yeah oh well I
01:06:53
never thought thought of putting it that
01:06:54
way but but metaphorically I guess
01:06:57
that's that's actually a pretty good way
01:06:58
of looking at it now um I so yeah you're
01:07:00
over there for this Bravo con thing and
01:07:02
um you guys had to sign you were parting
01:07:04
with the below deck people so you had to
01:07:05
sign NDA so you weren't allowed to talk
01:07:07
about anything that went not on I read
01:07:09
that somewhere is that right basically
01:07:11
yeah we we yeah I don't know I don't
01:07:15
understand TV people legality type you
01:07:19
don't seem like a gossip anyway so
01:07:20
you're yeah I'm not going to tell any
01:07:24
but um but yeah that's and that's why so
01:07:26
yeah there were yeah there were a bunch
01:07:28
of people there and um so yeah what
01:07:31
originally just started off as a oh
01:07:33
let's just go get a few go to a few bars
01:07:36
in Vegas and see what it's like um yeah
01:07:40
kind of turned into this pretty pretty
01:07:42
wild type of type of thing because I I
01:07:45
messaged um ASA for some Goss because I
01:07:48
been going backwards and forwards with
01:07:49
her getting her on the podcast and she
01:07:50
replied um hello oh man I wish I had
01:07:53
something juicier for you but I only had
01:07:54
one night with them and I was too busy
01:07:56
dancing with my cooch out on the
01:07:57
stripper stripper pole party bus so it
01:08:01
sound familiar um y that sounds that
01:08:03
sounds like something she would say uh
01:08:06
with my cooch out on the stripper pole
01:08:08
party bus to notice what anyone else was
01:08:10
doing um Alex is always very well
01:08:13
behaved hahaa please say hi from me um
01:08:16
and thank you I'm so scared of proud of
01:08:18
Scott for his photos have fun today
01:08:20
because I I mentioned how good the
01:08:21
photos look yeah yeah so that's cool
01:08:24
that must been special um so so you're
01:08:26
married now into settling into married
01:08:28
life this might be too much of a
01:08:29
personal question I don't know but um as
01:08:32
a result of the cancer are there any
01:08:34
fertility issues that you know of like
01:08:36
do you want to have a family no there
01:08:38
there aren't there
01:08:40
were there's as far as I'm aware like we
01:08:43
haven't tried but you know we we would
01:08:46
like to do that but you know we've you
01:08:48
know the first year and a half of our
01:08:51
marriage really was kind of that wasn't
01:08:54
your typical married life so we'd um so
01:08:58
you that's something that we talk about
01:08:59
often but we just for the time being um
01:09:02
just have a break and enjoy each other
01:09:04
kind of just we like a little bit of
01:09:06
time where it's just us before we kind
01:09:08
of before we kind of add to it so you
01:09:11
know that's that's definitely a thing
01:09:13
that we want to do down the track but um
01:09:18
but yeah we kind of just while we
01:09:21
getting our lives back on track and kind
01:09:23
of putting that chapter behind us um
01:09:26
yeah we're kind of kind of enjoying it
01:09:28
just being the two of us at the moment
01:09:30
yeah jeez I I Petty here eventually
01:09:32
giving birth to your kids they're going
01:09:33
to be big
01:09:34
babies yeah that's yeah we're going to
01:09:36
have a 5 fo three 5 fo three boy or a
01:09:41
610 girl there's what one it'll be one
01:09:44
of those two I think God yeah imagine
01:09:46
the doctor pulling the baby out like a
01:09:47
magician's hand key or
01:09:49
something um okay so yeah that we we the
01:09:53
okay the Bell cancer J we'll get into
01:09:54
that now and um is this hard for you to
01:09:56
talk about or can you sort of do it on
01:09:58
autopilot now or you quite relaxed
01:10:00
talking about it I I have no problem
01:10:02
talking about it at all I guess you know
01:10:05
the the the details especially in the
01:10:09
early part of it um you know it's it's
01:10:14
Blake yeah yeah it's not something that
01:10:16
you'd want to be talking about around
01:10:18
the dinner
01:10:20
table but um but yeah I've heard you
01:10:23
I've heard you talk about on a couple of
01:10:24
different podcasts and a couple of
01:10:25
different chats and um I mean the good
01:10:28
thing about a podcast is it's the the
01:10:29
platform that allows for it but BC is
01:10:31
such a big thing but it's it isn't
01:10:33
talked about because it's not a sexy
01:10:34
chat um but I think someone like you and
01:10:37
also Dean Barker who I've had on the
01:10:38
podcast talking about it I think it's
01:10:40
really good for awareness and stuff I
01:10:42
think it's really powerful yeah it's um
01:10:46
yeah it's it's the second deadliest
01:10:49
cancer in New Zealand and
01:10:52
statistically somebody body dies from it
01:10:55
every 8 hours you know it's you shocking
01:10:57
it's and unfortunately you know that
01:11:01
number is trending in the wrong
01:11:03
direction unfortunately um and yeah I I
01:11:07
guess it's because especially for men
01:11:08
it's it involves an area of the body
01:11:11
that
01:11:12
they don't feel overly comfortable
01:11:14
talking about and probably don't want
01:11:17
doctors and other people prodding around
01:11:20
and and having a look um so yeah it's
01:11:24
unfortunately one of those ones where
01:11:26
you know the Bell cancer
01:11:28
symptoms it's not always immediately
01:11:30
obvious that that's what it is you know
01:11:32
the Bell cancer symptoms are also the
01:11:34
symptoms for several other less serious
01:11:38
things and a lot of the time people and
01:11:41
unfortunately doctors and GPS as well
01:11:44
especially if you're a younger person um
01:11:47
you know they assume that it's one of
01:11:50
those other things especially if you're
01:11:52
a young and healthy person um you know I
01:11:55
saw multiple cuz I I I hadn't been
01:11:57
feeling well for months leading up to my
01:12:00
my diagnosis yeah so so go so go right
01:12:03
back to the beginning so um like how did
01:12:05
it start um appearing for you how did it
01:12:08
start manifesting like what what did it
01:12:09
look like in the early days um well the
01:12:11
main thing
01:12:13
was um like abdominal pain um sometimes
01:12:17
it was quite severe other times it was
01:12:20
pretty
01:12:20
mild um a little a little bleeding but
01:12:24
not much and you st yeah yeah um but the
01:12:28
biggest thing
01:12:30
was constantly feeling like I needed to
01:12:33
go and then I'd go to the bathroom and
01:12:35
nothing would happen that was the well
01:12:38
the majority of the time nothing would
01:12:40
happen um and some days it would be you
01:12:44
know every couple of hours that would
01:12:47
happen and then there were other days
01:12:48
where it was like it felt like it was
01:12:50
every 20 minutes it's like like I feel
01:12:54
urgently like I need to go go to the
01:12:56
bathroom nothing would happen 20 minutes
01:12:57
later same thing half an hour later same
01:12:59
thing and it was
01:13:02
just
01:13:03
um yeah so I I saw multiple multiple GPS
01:13:07
who kind of you know it
01:13:09
was it was a stressful time in
01:13:12
everyone's lives really cuz you know we
01:13:14
just moved back from Australia and there
01:13:18
was a pandemic and you know it was kind
01:13:21
of a stressful time cuz you you know
01:13:23
some symptoms can present themselves
01:13:25
when you're going through difficult
01:13:27
periods and everyone pretty much
01:13:30
everyone in the world was at that time
01:13:32
so um you know they kind of put it down
01:13:34
to that and I got like stress yeah
01:13:37
stress and um but yeah there was it was
01:13:42
uh the the the night everything was
01:13:47
discovered like the the day you know
01:13:50
where we had that really good training
01:13:51
and handed out the winning invitations
01:13:54
that day um that night before I went to
01:13:57
A&E um the little bit of blood that
01:14:00
would come out every so often turned
01:14:04
into
01:14:07
a you know a listers send their regards
01:14:11
type blood bath type thing for sorry to
01:14:14
gross anyone list but um no you lost you
01:14:17
lost leers of blood didn't you yeah and
01:14:20
so was it like a it was almost like you
01:14:21
were hemorrhaging from the from yeah
01:14:23
yeah it wasn't it wasn't like a tap like
01:14:26
it wasn't like I was just standing there
01:14:28
and it was just but just like a constant
01:14:30
drip something yeah like I mentioned
01:14:33
where I'd feel you know I feel like I
01:14:35
need to go nothing would happen 20
01:14:37
minutes later nothing would happen half
01:14:38
an hour later like that it was kind of
01:14:41
like I'd feel like I'd need to go and it
01:14:43
would and it would just be straight
01:14:46
blood and then it would stop and then
01:14:48
half an hour the same thing half an hour
01:14:50
the same thing so I was like okay well
01:14:52
something
01:14:53
that's definitely not supposed to be
01:14:56
happening um so yeah we we went to A&E
01:14:59
that night um they were obviously quite
01:15:02
concerned um so I they took me out back
01:15:07
and they measured the amount of blood
01:15:12
that I was
01:15:13
losing um and once they started
01:15:16
measuring they gave
01:15:17
me something I can't remember what it
01:15:19
was called but some sort of drip thing
01:15:22
um that causes like your blood to clot a
01:15:26
little bit just to to stop it um and
01:15:30
once that stuff had kicked in and it had
01:15:32
and it had
01:15:33
stopped um you know when they started
01:15:36
measuring and when it stopped I'd lost 2
01:15:37
and A2 liters and that doesn't
01:15:41
include the stuff that was at home and
01:15:46
when I was in the waiting room waiting
01:15:48
to be seen um you know obviously they
01:15:51
weren't counting that because I wasn't
01:15:54
in there yet but so it probably would
01:15:56
have been around four liters and you
01:15:58
have and you have just over double that
01:16:02
I think the the average person has about
01:16:04
10 liters you're almost bleeding to
01:16:06
death yeah so it was yeah it was yeah it
01:16:09
wasn't just a little bit of blood it was
01:16:11
a very significant amount I had to have
01:16:15
multiple um blood transfusions and um
01:16:20
either like whole blood or like the
01:16:24
you know particular like white blood
01:16:25
cells red blood like they they because
01:16:28
I'd be getting blood tests a couple of
01:16:29
times a day just to test the levels and
01:16:32
so yeah I was um yeah I had lost so much
01:16:37
that they yeah they they basically just
01:16:41
had to give me more so fact you must
01:16:45
have been just be you and Bailey must
01:16:48
have been just like bewildered petrified
01:16:50
scared yeah you must and you so the
01:16:54
cancer wasn't diagnosed then obviously
01:16:55
there's testing and stuff that needs to
01:16:56
go but you must you you knew deep down
01:16:59
yeah well when the bleeding had stopped
01:17:02
um one of the
01:17:04
surgeons came to check me out and he you
01:17:09
know did the old finger up the backside
01:17:13
test and he literally he said that he
01:17:16
felt it with the tip of his finger
01:17:18
that's why I I couldn't see his face at
01:17:20
the time but Bailey said cuz this the St
01:17:23
was a young uh a younger guy he would
01:17:27
have been probably not much older than
01:17:28
me
01:17:30
um and Bailey was telling me you know it
01:17:34
was
01:17:35
like the like the the moment he knew
01:17:38
what it was you know his face was you
01:17:42
know when you're a doctor you sometimes
01:17:45
have to give people bad news and yeah
01:17:48
just yeah he he he really struggled like
01:17:52
like he he was obviously he didn't know
01:17:55
for sure but just based on his
01:17:57
experience he told us he basically
01:18:01
didn't sugarcoat things and I think
01:18:04
because he was a younger doctor it was
01:18:06
perhaps the first time he'd have to get
01:18:08
he'd given someone news like that
01:18:11
because you know his voice was trembling
01:18:13
a little bit and he was as he was as
01:18:16
white as a ghost cuz he' kind
01:18:18
of I think he realized what he'd
01:18:21
stumbled upon yeah maybe dur he thought
01:18:24
he was okay with blood and then he saw
01:18:25
that amount of blood and was like this
01:18:27
isn't the occupation and then yeah when
01:18:29
he did that and it's like oh God I have
01:18:32
to tell this guy who's you know mid
01:18:35
early 30s that he's highly likely got
01:18:39
cancer and obviously that was confirmed
01:18:41
over the next couple of days with all
01:18:43
the uh all the tests and stuff so yeah
01:18:46
it was a pretty yeah the the the look on
01:18:51
Bailey's face will kind of be forever
01:18:55
ingrained in my brain I think I don't
01:18:57
think I've seen like a just worry like a
01:19:00
look of kind of Terror and just worry on
01:19:03
I don't think I've ever seen that on
01:19:04
somebody's face before so um what does
01:19:08
she say about the look on your
01:19:10
face similar sort of thing or you it it
01:19:12
was it was quite similar you know I I
01:19:14
put on especially for her and my and my
01:19:18
mom I put on kind of like a a bra like a
01:19:21
like a yeah I'm going to be all right
01:19:22
right I'm going to get through this kind
01:19:24
of outwardly that's what I put out but
01:19:26
on the inside I was I was like [ __ ] me
01:19:30
like it's like the the it took probably
01:19:34
two or three days for the between you
01:19:37
know when the doctor made that Discovery
01:19:40
before they done all the tests and got
01:19:41
the results and they knew what the
01:19:43
entire they knew exactly what we were
01:19:46
dealing with um and yeah that that was a
01:19:50
very long 48 is kind of hours just you
01:19:55
know you're you know people you know say
01:19:58
you know I you just got to remain
01:20:00
positive but you know when you're kind
01:20:02
of staring death in the face a little
01:20:05
bit it's kind of it's pretty hard not to
01:20:07
go to some kind of dark kind of places
01:20:11
did it did it feel like you were
01:20:12
steering steering death in the face
01:20:14
potentially um what what did they what
01:20:16
did they say to you when me I mean it's
01:20:17
all it's all speculative isn't it but
01:20:19
did they did they say like the chance of
01:20:21
survival or the chance of well they they
01:20:25
said
01:20:26
they cuz I I went after I got like the
01:20:29
MRI and the CT scan done we and they got
01:20:33
all the results back we went into this
01:20:35
room and the
01:20:36
doctor
01:20:39
um I guess they kind of just have to be
01:20:41
as emotionless as possible um but she
01:20:45
was just like oh yep it's curable and
01:20:46
it's this and it's and I was like
01:20:48
because the biggest question I had I was
01:20:51
the thing that was freaking me out the
01:20:52
most most was like had it spread
01:20:54
anywhere was it just there or was it in
01:20:57
a bunch of other places as well cuz I
01:20:59
hadn't been feeling well I mean I don't
01:21:01
know a whole lot about cancer growth
01:21:05
rates and how quickly it spreads around
01:21:07
it probably varies from person to person
01:21:09
but I was like I I so yeah I don't know
01:21:13
how quickly cancer develops and I and
01:21:15
I'd been feeling well unwell for you
01:21:18
know quite a while but not it wasn't
01:21:21
like it had been years or anything like
01:21:23
that but yeah so I was just like
01:21:27
so is so yeah like she showed me the
01:21:30
picture there was like this black dot on
01:21:32
it and I was like is that it and I was
01:21:33
like is that the only black dot that's
01:21:35
on this picture and she was like yep so
01:21:38
yeah it's all it's all contained in one
01:21:41
area it's in an operable area and we
01:21:46
think it's um you know it's definitely
01:21:49
curable which was um which I was very
01:21:54
kind of kind of Lucky but unlucky but
01:21:57
lucky at the same time in a way yeah yes
01:22:01
just going right back to the beginning
01:22:02
of this
01:22:04
like and and hind like what could you
01:22:06
have done differently because it seems
01:22:07
like you did everything right like you
01:22:08
you you know what I mean like so you you
01:22:11
when you had blood in your store you you
01:22:12
talked to Bailey about it yeah yeah yeah
01:22:14
yeah and and did she make you go to the
01:22:16
doctor or you just want to go to the
01:22:17
doctor on your own yeah well I I'd
01:22:19
spoken to my mom as well cuz my mom
01:22:21
works in the
01:22:23
medical field um she's not a doctor but
01:22:26
she does she works for the W District
01:22:29
Health Board um thought you did all the
01:22:32
right things yeah so she she was pushing
01:22:34
me cuz and you know there's
01:22:36
a not insignificant family history okay
01:22:40
on my mother's side as well so she was
01:22:43
really pushing me to go and like when
01:22:45
you'd go see a doctor push that you know
01:22:49
there's been family history
01:22:53
um but yeah I kind of just got I
01:22:56
wouldn't say I just got dismissed but
01:22:58
kind of I I I I did get the too young
01:23:02
you're too you're too young you know
01:23:03
being a sports person like you're you
01:23:06
know young healthy
01:23:08
people this doesn't happen to them so um
01:23:13
yeah so it's kind
01:23:15
of it is scary to think if that um you
01:23:19
know that mass I don't know that that
01:23:21
massive bleeding that happened I don't
01:23:24
know what caused it um but I'm pretty
01:23:29
lucky that it happened because if it
01:23:30
didn't
01:23:33
um you may not have got the action I I
01:23:36
I I'm not going to say I definitely
01:23:39
would have died or something like that
01:23:40
but you know I it definitely would have
01:23:44
been discovered at a much later
01:23:47
stage um
01:23:51
and God knows what would have happened
01:23:54
it's kind of not a thing that I like
01:23:56
thinking about too much but you you
01:23:58
don't seem like a like a a a guy that
01:24:00
holds on to anger or a grudge holder but
01:24:03
are you annoyed at those
01:24:04
doctors um I would be I'd be [ __ ] yeah
01:24:09
yeah it's kind of you
01:24:12
you yeah but also at the same time it's
01:24:15
kind of
01:24:16
like you know they they don't have X-ray
01:24:19
vision they can't just go oh and and you
01:24:23
know they probably see lots of people
01:24:26
who present with similar things and you
01:24:30
probably just can't automatically assume
01:24:32
that everybody has
01:24:34
cancer um so yeah it's kind of it's kind
01:24:40
of a thing that I go back and forth on
01:24:42
it's like you probably could have been
01:24:44
more thorough and you know the the young
01:24:46
person assumption is probably something
01:24:49
that people should stop assuming but at
01:24:52
the same time you
01:24:57
know it's yeah it's kind of hard to say
01:24:59
it's kind of you do you feel frustrated
01:25:02
and a little bit dismissed but at the
01:25:04
same
01:25:05
time I don't think you can just assume
01:25:09
like I don't think you can expect people
01:25:11
to just assume that everybody who
01:25:13
presents with a sore stomach and has
01:25:15
trouble going to the bathroom yeah I
01:25:17
don't think oh yeah you have cancer I
01:25:19
don't think that's the first thing that
01:25:21
you can always assume but it's kind of
01:25:24
it is just one of those tricky kind of
01:25:26
things yeah maybe they need to they need
01:25:28
to start like taking more care with that
01:25:30
stuff as well I mean there's um there's
01:25:32
there's big pushes now with bant and New
01:25:33
Zealand and uh you know the likes of you
01:25:35
and Dean Barker talking about this I
01:25:37
think that's fantastic it creates
01:25:38
awareness and hopefully the this um
01:25:41
these deaths every eight hours in New
01:25:43
Zealand from Bale cancer that number can
01:25:45
be reduced um but definitely a little
01:25:46
bit of help from doctors as well you
01:25:48
know taking these symptoms seriously
01:25:50
when they're presented um maybe go a
01:25:52
long way as well like I said so you're
01:25:54
diagnosed with um the cancer and then I
01:25:56
suppose the the real hard work starts
01:25:59
what's what's that like the treatment um
01:26:01
it was pretty brutal to be honest it was
01:26:04
you scared going into it yeah it it was
01:26:07
kind of it it was it was just cuz I'd
01:26:11
never been through anything like it
01:26:13
before and it
01:26:14
was yeah it was so I I started with the
01:26:20
cuz the thing that made mine tricky
01:26:24
was cuz it was it was it was stage three
01:26:29
a so for people who don't know like
01:26:31
there's you know like stage one 2 3 and
01:26:33
four but there's there's stages within
01:26:37
the stages as well you know there's
01:26:38
stage one ABC 2 ABC blah blah blah blah
01:26:41
blah and so on and so I was stage three
01:26:44
but I was closer to stage two than I was
01:26:46
to stage four if that makes sense so
01:26:48
stage four means there's no more
01:26:49
treatment they can do and no no stage
01:26:51
four doesn't mean terminal that means
01:26:54
that it's spread to other places so so
01:26:56
it's a
01:26:58
lot again it's not um simplifying it
01:27:02
probably oversimplifying it quite a bit
01:27:04
but um any on colist be like what's he
01:27:06
all about yeah but um but yeah so having
01:27:10
you know I over the course of the last
01:27:12
couple of years I've come across several
01:27:13
people who have had stage four diagnosis
01:27:17
and have survived it's just depends on
01:27:20
where it spreads to and how much it has
01:27:23
and but the but the thing so mine I was
01:27:26
stage 3 a so I was closer to stage two
01:27:29
than I was to stage 4 but so it
01:27:34
definitely wasn't great but it could
01:27:35
have been a lot worse but the thing that
01:27:37
made mine complicated
01:27:40
is where it where it was um like where
01:27:44
in the bow it was because um you know a
01:27:49
lot of the time you know it kind of
01:27:51
starts here it goes up and then across a
01:27:53
little bit and then up across and then
01:27:56
it starts down here so if it's kind of
01:27:58
look say it's in across the the part
01:28:01
across the top they can quite often
01:28:05
just you know find you know pick a a a
01:28:10
margin of how much on each side they
01:28:13
want to go and again very
01:28:17
oversimplified diff um kind of
01:28:20
explanation of what they do
01:28:22
essentially they cut it and cut it out
01:28:26
and then Stitch the two ends back
01:28:28
together um and that's kind of what they
01:28:33
do but the for me the thing that was
01:28:35
made it so complicated is mine cuz
01:28:38
obviously the doctor as I mentioned
01:28:40
before he felt it so it was close to the
01:28:44
exit for lack of a bit term so obviously
01:28:49
when they cut it they they they remove
01:28:53
it um and they attach the two ends
01:28:59
together there has to be another end to
01:29:02
attach it to so um and mine was so close
01:29:06
to the anus basically close to the exit
01:29:09
right that they were afraid that so I
01:29:13
that that's why I went through that
01:29:15
intensive radiation treatment because
01:29:18
they wanted to shrink it so that they
01:29:20
had a little more
01:29:23
tissue to work with when they removed it
01:29:25
and reattached it um and and the and the
01:29:30
CU it was right on the borderline
01:29:33
of that actually not being possible like
01:29:36
they they you
01:29:38
know they they going into the surgery
01:29:42
they thought after I'd done the initial
01:29:45
you know that 5 weeks of radiation
01:29:47
treatment they
01:29:49
thought the surgeon believed there was
01:29:51
enough healthy tissue there to make a
01:29:54
reection or reattachment a viable option
01:29:59
but they weren't going to know for sure
01:30:01
until they actually got in there um so
01:30:06
you know it was you know it was it was
01:30:10
on the board that they might not be able
01:30:12
to do that so they might just have to
01:30:15
you know they'd cut the top and I'd have
01:30:20
like a a sto pouch
01:30:23
permanently um and you know they'd
01:30:26
basically from there down they' remove
01:30:29
it and Stitch the old backside up and so
01:30:33
this patch like a colostomy bag yeah
01:30:36
they well I I knew that I was going to
01:30:38
have one of those right from the get-go
01:30:40
so knowing um they they were pretty
01:30:44
honest just because of where it was
01:30:45
located they they told me right from the
01:30:49
get-go that you you are having one of
01:30:53
these no matter what but the the only
01:30:55
question they couldn't ask answer was is
01:30:58
it going to be temporary or is it going
01:31:00
to be permanent and they're not they're
01:31:02
not going to know the answer to that
01:31:05
until they actually do the operation and
01:31:08
how effective that initial round of
01:31:09
treatment was so so in your mind I mean
01:31:13
this is a this is a huge like life up
01:31:15
upheaval isn't it but in your mind are
01:31:17
you thinking are you telling yourself
01:31:19
this is going to be temporary or are you
01:31:20
just saying okay you need to accept this
01:31:22
might be your new normal yeah I I came
01:31:26
to terms with the fact that that's just
01:31:29
that might just be how it is pretty
01:31:31
early on that's a lot to deal with yeah
01:31:34
um so yeah basically the the temporary
01:31:37
because what they wanted to do what what
01:31:39
what their plan for the operation was
01:31:42
was to you know above the tumor cut
01:31:46
below cut and obviously below there was
01:31:48
a very small amount of tissue that
01:31:50
they'd be able to attach to they and so
01:31:52
they wanted to reattach it and I'd have
01:31:56
a temporary
01:31:58
sto over here um while and I'd have it
01:32:02
for like a year or so while that healed
01:32:05
and then they'd reverse it and
01:32:08
theoretically everything would kind of
01:32:11
work not exactly the way it used to but
01:32:14
about as close to the way it used to but
01:32:16
if they got into the operation and
01:32:18
decided that that wasn't viable or or
01:32:21
what they saw on the MRI wasn't exactly
01:32:25
how it was when they got in there
01:32:29
um yeah so I going into the operation I
01:32:32
didn't know what I was going to be
01:32:34
waking up to um I guess you could say
01:32:37
that about any operation really but but
01:32:39
you know a
01:32:40
truly life or death like life altering
01:32:44
type one you know basically if I woke up
01:32:47
if I felt the bag on the side it was
01:32:48
temporary if I felt it on the side
01:32:51
that's how was going to be and that was
01:32:54
basically the first thought that entered
01:32:55
my mind when I woke up after the
01:32:57
operation I just went like this and I
01:33:00
felt it here and I was like okay so I'm
01:33:03
going to have this this is how it is for
01:33:04
about a year um and then we'll see see
01:33:08
how it all all functions when it gets
01:33:11
reversed so yeah it was a bit of a it
01:33:16
took obviously when you spend 34 years
01:33:19
of your life going the normal way then
01:33:21
all of a sudden you have this thing
01:33:22
attached to your front and uh that's
01:33:26
kind of where it goes um but I actually
01:33:29
got used to it quite quickly I think
01:33:31
obviously being told right from the
01:33:34
get-go whether it's temporary or
01:33:36
permanent we can't tell you but you're
01:33:39
having it no matter what so basically
01:33:42
wrap your head around it now so
01:33:45
um yes so kind of I did I read quite a
01:33:48
bit about what it's like and I was kind
01:33:51
of kind of a CO coincidentally um one of
01:33:55
the Sharks assistant well he wasn't the
01:33:57
assistant coach at that time but he had
01:33:59
been in previous
01:34:01
years um he had ulcerative colitis which
01:34:05
is like another inflammatory like bowel
01:34:07
condition so he had one of he had what I
01:34:10
had for um about a year a little earlier
01:34:14
on in his life so he told me a little
01:34:16
bit about what to expect and what it's
01:34:18
like and the process of changing it and
01:34:21
how they function and stuff like that so
01:34:24
I kind of um felt a little bit like I
01:34:29
knew what was going to happen obviously
01:34:31
you know
01:34:33
the just the weirdness of it um yeah
01:34:37
what what is it like like like what
01:34:39
would you just say to some if you having
01:34:40
the same conversation to someone else
01:34:41
that was about to go through it what is
01:34:43
it like and what is the process of
01:34:44
changing ad well the well obviously the
01:34:47
biggest that you have to have the pouch
01:34:50
on all all day every day
01:34:53
because you know unlike you know like if
01:34:56
you're sitting in the car and rush hour
01:34:58
traffic and you need to go you can
01:35:00
obviously squeeze and you can hold it
01:35:02
till you get home with this you can't do
01:35:04
that so when it's go time it's go time
01:35:07
and there's nothing that you can do to
01:35:09
stop it so can can you feel yourself
01:35:11
going or oh yeah you you can feel it
01:35:13
yeah like you can kind of it's kind of a
01:35:15
strange feeling that you get used to
01:35:17
every so often but you can kind of feel
01:35:19
it moving around and then you know when
01:35:21
it's about to happen like it doesn't
01:35:24
like it doesn't like it's like a
01:35:26
discreet type thing it doesn't make any
01:35:28
loud noises or or or or or anything like
01:35:31
that and and you didn't need to worry
01:35:33
about Panic buying toilet paper during
01:35:34
the pandemic that's that was that was
01:35:36
one bonus um but yeah so yeah so yeah
01:35:42
that that's the biggest thing you have
01:35:43
no you have no control over when it you
01:35:47
know when it decides to work basically
01:35:50
um so that's why you have to have the
01:35:51
pouch on it all the time and cuz what I
01:35:54
had was called an an IL ostomy or an
01:35:57
ostomy so it was the part that was it
01:35:59
wasn't the main like your large Bell
01:36:02
that they bought out to the surface it
01:36:04
was the end of the small one um so that
01:36:09
part is obviously a lot more active so
01:36:11
I'd probably have to go to the bathroom
01:36:13
just to empty the pouch five or six
01:36:16
times a day wow um so you constantly you
01:36:19
never sort of um forget that it's there
01:36:21
like con no you're yeah you're always
01:36:25
aware that it's there and then yeah so
01:36:30
um yeah so i' I'd have to change have to
01:36:33
change it every couple of days there was
01:36:35
the stuff that you put on around the
01:36:37
outside of outside of it just to protect
01:36:40
your skin a little bit just because you
01:36:41
have this adhesive thing stuck to it all
01:36:45
the
01:36:46
time um and yeah so I got pretty used to
01:36:50
the process of putting that stuff on
01:36:51
then cutting the hole in the back of the
01:36:54
because you have
01:36:55
to cuz you have you you don't just cut a
01:36:58
hole and put it on because you know you
01:37:02
don't want that stuff touching any
01:37:05
Exposed Skin So you kind of had
01:37:07
to make the shape of it so that it can
01:37:11
forms around it as perfectly as you can
01:37:13
so that you have as little Exposed Skin
01:37:16
as possible and um so yeah it took a
01:37:18
little bit of time to figure out that
01:37:20
process
01:37:22
and um and just figuring out how to do
01:37:26
it because it
01:37:28
does have a mind of its own like I said
01:37:31
before you can't stop it from working so
01:37:33
there were times where I I Chuck a towel
01:37:36
on the floor and I'd kind of just sit
01:37:38
there and I'd be cleaning around the
01:37:41
outside of it and just making sure it
01:37:42
was ready for the next thing and then
01:37:44
all of a sudden it decided it was Go
01:37:47
Time so I'd have to go through that
01:37:49
whole process again so there were so
01:37:52
yeah took there were a little it took a
01:37:54
little bit of time to figure out you
01:37:56
know
01:37:56
eventually once you know the swelling
01:37:59
and inflammation and stuff had kind of
01:38:01
settled down you know you get in I kind
01:38:03
of got into a routine
01:38:05
of eating at the same time each day and
01:38:09
so you'd kind of get some kind of
01:38:11
consistency when knowing when stuff was
01:38:14
going to when it was going to work yeah
01:38:16
just controlling the controllables yeah
01:38:18
so
01:38:20
um but
01:38:22
again it had a mind of its own so of it
01:38:25
decided okay well it's go time um
01:38:28
nothing you could do there was nothing I
01:38:29
could do to stop it and I'm sure um I'm
01:38:31
sure Bailey was um fine with it but what
01:38:34
about you did you find it embarrassing
01:38:35
or did you get over that pretty quickly
01:38:37
or n there
01:38:39
was like I mean I didn't walk around
01:38:43
going hey look what I've got but um so
01:38:45
yeah so yeah there was no there was no
01:38:48
kind
01:38:49
of yeah there was there was no embar
01:38:52
like no embarrassing things kind of
01:38:54
happened and I
01:38:56
wasn't um you know and if there were
01:39:00
times cuz I cuz I could like swim and do
01:39:04
stuff with it on and I'd just like tuck
01:39:07
it into my shorts and a little bit of it
01:39:09
was showing at the top but um so yeah it
01:39:12
was never something that I was
01:39:13
embarrassed like embarrassed about there
01:39:15
was one oh that's good there was one
01:39:17
time in public where the seal broke so I
01:39:23
kind of had to hold it down and I
01:39:25
quickly had to go home so I could change
01:39:27
it but outside of um stuff like that I
01:39:31
never yeah there was never any kind of
01:39:34
yeah yeah I'd wear kind of loose fitting
01:39:36
clothing so that you couldn't see like
01:39:38
the imprint of it so yeah it's kind of
01:39:43
yeah if you didn't know who I was um you
01:39:46
know you probably wouldn't have known
01:39:48
that um that anything was even wrong so
01:39:51
if if that um if things had been
01:39:54
different and that ended up being just
01:39:55
your reality for the rest of your life
01:39:57
that you still would have been sort of
01:39:58
okay with that oh yeah it would have
01:40:00
been fine like like it kind of cuz I had
01:40:04
it I had the main operation that I had
01:40:08
was
01:40:10
in SE yeah September
01:40:14
2021 and I Got It reversed in November
01:40:17
last year so I had it for just 14 months
01:40:21
yeah so just over a year and it kind of
01:40:25
It kind of just became like my new
01:40:26
normal like I got used to it
01:40:29
and yeah after the initial adjustment
01:40:33
period um that's kind of just how it was
01:40:37
um humans are adaptable we're very
01:40:40
adaptable so so the the the treatment
01:40:42
was done in denan so you traveling from
01:40:44
um Southland den and and this is um
01:40:48
during covid times so this is like
01:40:49
social distancing this is masks this is
01:40:52
only get treatment if it's absolutely
01:40:54
necessary so when you're lying in that
01:40:56
bed are you are you thinking of
01:40:59
basketball or your career at all or is
01:41:00
that the furtherest thing from your mind
01:41:01
you're just thinking about survival yeah
01:41:03
yeah that was yeah basketball
01:41:06
was I was put was very low on the list
01:41:10
of things that I was worrying about it
01:41:12
was
01:41:14
um yeah I I
01:41:17
basically I had very minimal energy to
01:41:21
put towards anything except just making
01:41:24
sure that I did everything possible
01:41:26
treatment wise and healthwise overall
01:41:30
and just making sure mentally I was in a
01:41:33
good space and um yeah it was that that
01:41:38
was really all that I had energy for
01:41:40
just because it was it was a pretty
01:41:43
draining a pretty draining kind of time
01:41:46
yeah mentally were yeah were you in a
01:41:48
good space at that time how was your
01:41:49
mental health
01:41:51
um well as I mentioned earlier that two
01:41:53
days between the initial this is what it
01:41:56
is and then we know what the full story
01:41:59
is um that that was pretty dark but um
01:42:03
but yeah after obviously my longterm
01:42:08
prognosis was obviously quite good you
01:42:10
know it wasn't you know a doom and gloom
01:42:13
you know Lance arm strong type thing
01:42:15
where have 5% chance of survival or
01:42:19
whatever it was for him um you know my
01:42:22
longterm like it was I was in for a
01:42:25
pretty rough year and a half through all
01:42:27
the through all the treatment and
01:42:28
surgeries and stuff but you know
01:42:31
longterm things were looking pretty good
01:42:34
so I had a lot to feel good about um and
01:42:37
you know some
01:42:39
people you know I I started making jokes
01:42:42
about it and like making like butt jokes
01:42:44
and stuff like that um like those kind
01:42:47
of things just to just to try and disarm
01:42:49
the people around you or just as like a
01:42:52
like a coping mechanism type thing like
01:42:56
like during the meeting CU you know you
01:42:58
lie in your bed and the doctors come
01:43:00
around and visit everybody tell them
01:43:01
what's happening and they were basically
01:43:04
going over the you know
01:43:08
the what the plan was and what they want
01:43:11
to do and you know what a sto is and how
01:43:14
that's going to work and all that kind
01:43:16
of stuff and I was like um well gives
01:43:20
new meaning to to the to the saying rip
01:43:22
you a new one doesn't it so um so kind
01:43:24
of you know it was you it was kind of
01:43:26
like uh you know some some people would
01:43:29
be like oh it's cancer why would you
01:43:30
joke about that but it's just kind of
01:43:32
you know it's like a coping mechanism
01:43:34
that kind of helped me get through it
01:43:36
yeah helps you get through it and also
01:43:37
it's very um I suppose it's quite
01:43:38
disarming for the people around you as
01:43:40
well like yeah yeah it was quite the old
01:43:42
Alex is still there yeah it was it was
01:43:44
quite good when they you know they're in
01:43:46
there obviously having a very serious
01:43:48
conversation and then you know just them
01:43:51
trying to hold back a little a few
01:43:52
laughs that kind of just made it feel
01:43:55
like it wasn't all doom and gloom yeah
01:43:58
and I mean to to spend 15 years at the
01:44:01
top level of um sort of any high
01:44:02
performance team um it takes a certain
01:44:04
amount of resilience and a certain sort
01:44:06
of person but um did you learn much
01:44:08
about yourself in terms of resilience
01:44:09
through this cancer Journey yeah tougher
01:44:12
than what you thought you would be yeah
01:44:14
and I guess
01:44:16
the it's hard to say exactly what you
01:44:18
learned about yourself but I guess the
01:44:20
biggest difference between me now as I
01:44:24
yeah it kind of just
01:44:26
puts you know all all the little things
01:44:30
that you worry about and you stress
01:44:31
about you know
01:44:33
their you know at the end of the you
01:44:36
know you know they're small things you
01:44:39
know I don't sweat small stuff as much
01:44:42
as I used to and it's kind of just i'
01:44:46
I've
01:44:47
learned
01:44:49
how I don't want to sound like I'm a
01:44:52
prophet or anything but like how much
01:44:55
how much power the mind has over your
01:44:57
body and how keeping a positive
01:45:01
mindset um and not kind of giving in
01:45:05
kind of like the the dark kind of
01:45:07
thoughts
01:45:09
how just how how much because there were
01:45:12
days where it was
01:45:14
just Doom and Gloom and I'd just be
01:45:17
sitting there thinking like what the
01:45:19
[ __ ] man what like why is this happening
01:45:21
to me and you know then you know I just
01:45:27
deci like but you know you compare how
01:45:30
you feel with those days compared to the
01:45:32
days when you're you know making jokes
01:45:34
and you know actively choose to you know
01:45:38
focus on the the more positive things
01:45:40
you know like the the long-term
01:45:42
prognosis is good and you know I'm
01:45:45
getting married soon and all that you
01:45:47
know focusing on the positive things how
01:45:50
much it just significantly has
01:45:53
over over just how
01:45:56
you're over how you feel um just
01:46:00
realizing how important that is yeah and
01:46:02
did you get to ring the bell at the end
01:46:03
of your treatment is is that a thing
01:46:05
Dean B was telling me maybe it's not a
01:46:07
thing in New Zealand oncology WS but he
01:46:09
said there's a a moment where you finish
01:46:11
your treatment where you get to ring the
01:46:12
ring a bell um the nurses and doctors
01:46:15
stand around clapping no I never rang
01:46:18
any Bell maybe maybe maybe the hospital
01:46:21
he had had a bell I don't know cuz yeah
01:46:23
after my after the
01:46:26
initial like after the main operation
01:46:28
like not the not the one where it got
01:46:31
the sto got reversed but the main one
01:46:34
where they removed the tumor um I had
01:46:37
six months of post-operative
01:46:39
chemotherapy after that um that was
01:46:44
because you know
01:46:47
they they cut it out they they removed
01:46:50
move the section of bell that it's in
01:46:52
and they look at the edge of the bell of
01:46:55
the part that they cut out and the edge
01:46:57
of the part that's still there and they
01:47:01
test to see if there are any and then
01:47:02
they remove lymph nodes from that area
01:47:04
as well and they test all of that for
01:47:07
can um for cancerous cells because you
01:47:12
know obviously a single cancer cell is
01:47:13
not going to show up on like an MRI or
01:47:15
anything so all of those tests came back
01:47:19
um
01:47:21
like positive so they all came back
01:47:23
clear like they didn't detect anything
01:47:25
and any of that stuff that they removed
01:47:29
um but they suggested just because I was
01:47:32
a young guy having that six months of
01:47:34
chemotherapy
01:47:36
afterwards um any Rogue cells that are
01:47:40
kind of left around in there it can help
01:47:43
get rid of those or it would get rid of
01:47:46
those and it and studies show that it
01:47:49
signif like nothing can ever guarantee
01:47:51
that it won't come back but it
01:47:54
significantly
01:47:56
um decreases the likelihood of it coming
01:47:59
back so yeah um that was that was a very
01:48:03
very long six months it was um 12 rounds
01:48:08
of um there was
01:48:10
one God I can't remember the name of
01:48:13
them now but they there was one that was
01:48:15
like an IV that they did at the hospital
01:48:17
took about 3 hours and then there was
01:48:19
another one they connected to the line
01:48:22
and it had was like in a little bubble
01:48:24
and a tube and that um I'd take that
01:48:27
home and would take about 2 or 3 days um
01:48:30
to kind of slowly pump that through um
01:48:34
and that was every two weeks for for six
01:48:37
months so that was that was a pretty
01:48:40
significant um yeah and it was kind
01:48:44
of um I I actually got off quite lucky
01:48:47
with some of the some of the side
01:48:49
effects
01:48:50
well because there was you know it's
01:48:54
they were saying that it they give you
01:48:57
the laundry list of potential side
01:48:59
effects before you
01:49:00
started um and you know the the more
01:49:03
significant ones were you know nerve
01:49:06
ending damage to your fingers and your
01:49:09
feet
01:49:11
and and making you really really
01:49:14
susceptible to cold so like touching
01:49:17
cold things drinking cold
01:49:20
cold things you were living in denen and
01:49:22
Southland as well I know I was back in
01:49:24
Hamilton okay yeah CU yeah cuz I cuz I
01:49:27
had the um the operation up in Hamilton
01:49:29
oh got you um yeah so I was back in
01:49:31
Hamilton at this point and you know
01:49:34
they'll say like they
01:49:35
said um you know when you get into the
01:49:39
thick of the
01:49:40
treatment you know if you get like a
01:49:44
like a like a non room temperature drink
01:49:47
like something out of the fridge it will
01:49:49
feel like you swallowing ice like I like
01:49:51
your swallowing glass like it's that
01:49:55
that that's how painful it is it's
01:49:56
painful to touch stuff that is cold and
01:49:59
I I got a little bit of that but not
01:50:02
really significant like it was a little
01:50:04
bit
01:50:05
sensitive During the period where I'd
01:50:08
have that take-home
01:50:10
thing um it would probably linger for a
01:50:13
day or two after and then it would be
01:50:15
okay um and as it went on that day or
01:50:19
two that it Ling good would be an extra
01:50:21
day or two an extra day or two and then
01:50:24
yeah so yeah it was 12 rounds and
01:50:27
luckily um you know some people I know
01:50:30
have had to finish because it can cause
01:50:32
permanent nerve damage and stuff like
01:50:35
that if
01:50:36
you if it affects you really badly so
01:50:39
quite a few people that go through the
01:50:41
same process that I
01:50:43
have um they don't get through the whole
01:50:46
12 rounds cuz it's kind of like fix ing
01:50:50
one thing
01:50:51
but create like fixing one
01:50:54
problem another one yeah so um yeah so
01:50:57
there are some people that you know they
01:50:59
get to the eighth or ninth cycle and
01:51:02
they just stop because you know they
01:51:04
can't feel the tips of their fingers and
01:51:06
they're walking around and they can't
01:51:08
really feel their feet or their toes or
01:51:11
stuff like that so I was fortunate that
01:51:13
I was able to well not fortunate cuz it
01:51:16
sucked but no I've noticed this you've
01:51:18
done this a few times you do have a good
01:51:20
this really good ability at looking for
01:51:22
the positives looking for the Silver
01:51:24
Lining yeah because um yeah I was lucky
01:51:28
lucky enough that I it didn't affect my
01:51:31
body badly enough that I had to finish
01:51:33
it before the 12 Cycles were finished so
01:51:36
you so during this um like how do how do
01:51:39
you not give up on yourself so you you
01:51:41
know you start this treatment like uh
01:51:43
it's growling it's hard you're tired
01:51:45
you're exhausted you you feel like
01:51:47
you've been beaten up and you know that
01:51:50
you've got round after round after round
01:51:51
to go like how do you just keep
01:51:54
going I I guess just because there's no
01:51:57
other option yeah there that's basically
01:52:00
it sometimes you're you're presented
01:52:03
with something and you're you kind of
01:52:05
just have to get on with it it's kind of
01:52:07
that that and that that's kind of what
01:52:09
my mindset was like right from the very
01:52:12
beginning like obviously if my long-term
01:52:14
prognosis wasn't as good um you know my
01:52:19
attitude towards fighting it would have
01:52:21
been exactly the same but you know if I
01:52:24
had stage 4 cancer I probably wouldn't
01:52:27
have been making butt jokes around the
01:52:28
hospital but um but um but you know so
01:52:32
you know it was kind of it it was kind
01:52:34
of my attitude right from the get-go
01:52:36
like once I'd had that initial meeting
01:52:39
about exactly what we were dealing with
01:52:42
and what the treatment plan look like
01:52:45
over the next year or so it was kind of
01:52:48
you know I had my week
01:52:50
or so to be angry and sad and cry and
01:52:56
laugh and just go through the whole
01:52:59
spectrum of emotion and then it was like
01:53:02
all right well I know what I have to do
01:53:04
now so now I just have to get on with it
01:53:06
so that was so yeah like like that
01:53:08
postoperative chemotherapy that wasn't a
01:53:11
surprise like I knew that that was part
01:53:13
of the overall plan um so I was kind of
01:53:18
I knew that after the operation
01:53:20
that that was the hard part but I knew
01:53:23
that I wasn't done um so yeah that's
01:53:28
kind of what got me through to the end
01:53:29
it was kind of it was around the point
01:53:33
where where I was around it like the
01:53:36
seventh or eighth kind of thing like I
01:53:38
was over the hump but I still had like
01:53:42
five more to go so it was like yeah it's
01:53:45
kind of I don't know if you ever did the
01:53:47
miq the two weeks in the hotel at any
01:53:50
point I don't know if you did that but
01:53:52
you know Day N and 10 were probably the
01:53:56
worst cuz it's like we've been in here
01:53:59
for like we're over halfway but they're
01:54:01
still so long ago and that that's kind
01:54:04
of what it was like it was kind of yeah
01:54:06
but as the Finish Line got a bit closer
01:54:09
and just knowing that that I was that I
01:54:12
was close to the end and and the the day
01:54:14
you find out you're cancer free is it a
01:54:16
dramatic Moment Like You know the
01:54:17
results are coming you wake up that
01:54:18
morning and you know you getting a phone
01:54:20
call and it's going to be good or bad or
01:54:22
do you have a sense it's going to be
01:54:23
fine and um yeah well
01:54:26
I like everything obviously the initial
01:54:30
diagnosis was
01:54:32
shocking
01:54:34
but everything that happened after that
01:54:37
had been quite positive you know the
01:54:39
when I cuz when the initial the the when
01:54:43
the five weeks of radiation therapy and
01:54:46
dened in had
01:54:48
finished um
01:54:50
I cuz yeah there was like 10 weeks
01:54:53
between when that treatment finished and
01:54:55
then when I had the operation cuz even
01:54:57
though when it finished when it's
01:54:59
finished it's it still works so um yeah
01:55:04
about a month after May yeah maybe not
01:55:07
long after our wedding a week or so
01:55:08
after our wedding I went back and had
01:55:10
some more tests done and um you know the
01:55:14
the Tuma had shrunk quite a significant
01:55:16
amount so you know that was obviously a
01:55:19
POS sort of thing and then when I woke
01:55:21
up um after the
01:55:24
operation you know the sto was on the
01:55:26
side which
01:55:27
means they believe the reattachment or
01:55:30
the resection was viable that was
01:55:32
obviously a positive thing so yeah I
01:55:36
everything had gone well um up until
01:55:39
that point so when I was waiting for the
01:55:41
phone call after the operation when they
01:55:43
done all the testing on the on the
01:55:46
section that they removed you know it's
01:55:49
not like I was was sitting I wasn't
01:55:50
sitting at home going oh I've had two or
01:55:52
three good things in a row I'm Jew a bad
01:55:54
thing you know yeah I wasn't thinking
01:55:56
like that at all I was um you know I had
01:55:59
no reason to
01:56:01
believe that anything had gone wrong
01:56:04
everything that they had told me posttop
01:56:07
posttop when I woke up they said it went
01:56:11
basically exactly how they thought or
01:56:14
how they hoped it
01:56:15
would um and yeah when I got the phone
01:56:17
call saying they've they've done done
01:56:19
all the testing and um yeah there wasn't
01:56:23
a cancer cell in sight that was um there
01:56:27
were a few a few happy tears around the
01:56:30
The Pledger household like I cuz at the
01:56:32
cuz we just moved back up here and we
01:56:34
hadn't moved into our house yet so I was
01:56:36
staying at my mom's house um and my mom
01:56:39
wasn't at home and the phone rung and I
01:56:43
put it on speaker so Bailey could hear
01:56:45
and we were both just sitting there like
01:56:47
this and then yeah when he s of
01:56:49
expecting the worst but hoping the best
01:56:51
yeah yeah when when he gave us the news
01:56:54
um yeah um yeah there were a few a few
01:56:58
happy tears around the household yeah oh
01:57:00
I can imagine just the Gratitude yeah
01:57:03
and the weight off your shoulders hey
01:57:04
thanks for being so open about all this
01:57:05
today is it is it hard to talk about now
01:57:07
or is it quite sort of methodical or no
01:57:10
it's not hard to talk about but I I
01:57:12
really only talk about it if people ask
01:57:14
me yeah I'm not going to just R like oh
01:57:17
hey hear about that time I had cancer
01:57:19
um yeah so I like if people ask me I
01:57:22
have no problem talking about it at all
01:57:24
but um as I said it's not for any sort
01:57:26
of gratuitous reason it's just um
01:57:28
because I think it's incredibly helpful
01:57:29
the more aware people can be it can
01:57:31
potentially um you save me or some other
01:57:33
people that are watching or listening to
01:57:35
this going through the the the hell that
01:57:37
you've been through yeah so it is um
01:57:41
yeah it is nice well it's not nice to
01:57:43
receive messages like that like this
01:57:45
because it means that somebody else is
01:57:47
potentially going through the same thing
01:57:48
but I have
01:57:50
received some messages on social media
01:57:52
and emails and stuff saying I heard your
01:57:55
story and I was feeling some of those
01:57:57
same symptoms so I went to see the
01:57:59
doctor and you know I had a colonoscopy
01:58:02
done and there was some precancerous
01:58:05
pops or some sort of early stage cancer
01:58:09
was discovered and yeah so hearing you
01:58:13
know just knowing that talking about it
01:58:16
and kind
01:58:17
of saying what the
01:58:19
sharing my
01:58:21
experiences knowing that that's um that
01:58:24
that's helped a couple of people um uh
01:58:27
just from going through potentially
01:58:30
something a lot a lot worse than what
01:58:32
they would otherwise um and yeah and i'
01:58:36
I'd encourage anybody to kind
01:58:38
of if you just if you notice any sort of
01:58:43
difference in the way you feel and the
01:58:45
way things function and um
01:58:50
um yeah I I I don't know if it's like a
01:58:53
a New Zealand thing
01:58:55
where you know having that area of your
01:59:00
body examined and having people poking
01:59:03
and pting around makes you feel I don't
01:59:07
know if it's like oh you know men don't
01:59:09
do that you know it's like a like like
01:59:12
like like an unmanly thing to do um yeah
01:59:15
that that I think that's just kind of a
01:59:18
you know if you have 10 minutes feeling
01:59:21
uncomfortable in a doctor's office
01:59:23
versus 18 months of Hell of the stuff
01:59:27
that I went through um it's not really a
01:59:30
choice yeah like yeah New Zealand me we
01:59:34
do need to get over that like um a dude
01:59:36
a dude or a female nurse having their
01:59:38
finger up your up your date for 10
01:59:40
seconds 15 seconds it's not a sexual
01:59:42
thing it's not even an embarrassing
01:59:44
thing you don't want the finger up there
01:59:45
they don't want their finger to be up
01:59:47
there but it's a medical procedure we
01:59:48
need to just get over it and get it done
01:59:50
yeah um so how say you were 100%
01:59:53
precancer how are you now you said
01:59:55
before you can't have like milky coffees
01:59:58
anymore like it's not that I can't it's
02:00:01
just that sometimes my um body doesn't
02:00:04
react to it very well so when I'm not in
02:00:07
the comfort of my own
02:00:09
home I uh I try to avoid the like most
02:00:14
things I can eat and I'm perfectly fine
02:00:17
um but there's a couple of things that
02:00:18
um
02:00:20
if I'm away from the house or if I don't
02:00:23
know where the closest bathroom is I'll
02:00:25
probably avoid them but um but yeah in
02:00:30
terms of yeah for the last like I said I
02:00:32
had the the sto reversal um in November
02:00:37
last year so just over a year ago um and
02:00:41
there were a couple of months you know
02:00:43
when
02:00:44
you when nothing goes through there for
02:00:47
14 months then all of a sudden sudden it
02:00:49
starts working again it takes a little
02:00:51
bit of time to
02:00:54
um basically cuz you know I had
02:00:58
virtually my entire rectum
02:01:01
removed so you know that plays a pretty
02:01:04
important role in being able to push it
02:01:07
out essentially um so basically the
02:01:10
lower part of my bell that was attached
02:01:13
down there basically has to learn how to
02:01:16
do learn how to do something that it's
02:01:20
sort of reprogram yeah basically
02:01:22
basically learn how to do something
02:01:24
that's never done before you know it
02:01:27
takes yeah it took um a month or
02:01:31
two for things to kind of start working
02:01:35
relatively normally you know things were
02:01:39
the lack of a better word were quite
02:01:41
erratic um for those first couple of
02:01:44
months it was kind of like you
02:01:47
know to to training basically I was
02:01:50
basically a 36y old
02:01:52
toddler but um but yeah so yeah once um
02:01:57
yeah once it all
02:01:58
started working normally again um yeah
02:02:03
it's life has been pretty much normal to
02:02:08
the point where you wouldn't even know
02:02:09
something happened um yeah kind of for
02:02:12
the last six months or so really and I
02:02:14
still I get uh um but I'm on a pretty
02:02:20
thorough um like surveillance program I
02:02:23
get a um
02:02:26
a a blood test every four months which
02:02:29
tests um like a tumor marker in your
02:02:33
blood um and that
02:02:37
is like everybody has it in that marker
02:02:40
in them at a very
02:02:43
insignificant level but you know if it
02:02:45
elevates to a certain number that's
02:02:47
where they can kind of be concerned
02:02:49
about it but it's significantly below
02:02:53
kind of that where the level is which
02:02:57
would cause them to be concerned and the
02:02:59
last four or five ones I've had it's
02:03:01
been trending in the downward Direction
02:03:04
um which is
02:03:06
good and yeah I get yearly um CT CT
02:03:12
scans just of that whole area and
02:03:16
um uh it's called a flexy Sig it's or a
02:03:20
flexible sigmoid oscopy it's kind of
02:03:23
like a colon oscopy but instead of going
02:03:26
all the way around they just look at the
02:03:29
initial part and it's kind of like a the
02:03:32
little camera thing is kind of like a
02:03:33
hockey stick like it goes in and then it
02:03:37
kind of bends Brown and looks back in
02:03:39
the direction that it came in CU that
02:03:41
lower area is where the cancer was so I
02:03:45
get those checks done every uh every
02:03:48
year and then the blood test every four
02:03:50
months so yeah I'll be on that um
02:03:54
surveillance regime for five years and
02:03:57
if I can go five consecutive years um
02:04:01
with everything being all clear that's
02:04:03
when they can officially say that it's
02:04:06
it's gone but um yeah I'm about almost
02:04:11
two years into that now and everything
02:04:13
has come back clear so far so I have I
02:04:16
have no reason to believe that uh
02:04:19
the that for the next three and a bit
02:04:21
years um those results won't be exactly
02:04:24
the
02:04:25
same but things are trending good jeez
02:04:28
um well hell of a year 2023 for you I
02:04:31
like retiring from it's it's a it feels
02:04:32
like it's a real Line in the Sand in
02:04:34
terms of your life you know what I mean
02:04:37
the basketball's over the cancer
02:04:39
touchboard is over um how you feeling
02:04:42
about the future you excited you're
02:04:43
optimistic you're hopeful yeah yeah of
02:04:45
course like what do you want to what do
02:04:47
you want to do next of career or
02:04:52
I I honestly don't know that's probably
02:04:55
you know people talk about life after
02:04:57
basketball and and all that kind of
02:04:58
stuff um you know things obviously got
02:05:03
thrown in a blender a little bit so I
02:05:05
had to re-evaluate basically my entire
02:05:08
life you know um you know I've got uh a
02:05:11
job at the moment which I'm thoroughly
02:05:13
enjoying doing um and um you know work
02:05:17
and business wife uh business wise uh
02:05:20
for for Bailey things are going very
02:05:22
well um at the moment as well so you
02:05:26
know we've got our we've got our own
02:05:27
place um uh that we bought quite a long
02:05:31
time ago in Hamilton so we're fortunate
02:05:34
enough to be um in a position where um
02:05:40
obviously things at the
02:05:42
moment cost a lot so um so yeah I guess
02:05:47
just I'm pretty fortunate to to be in a
02:05:49
or for us to be in a position where um I
02:05:52
don't have to desperately find out what
02:05:56
that next thing is going to be um but
02:05:59
yeah like as I mentioned before things
02:06:02
um you know Bailey had been my cheer
02:06:05
leader um my entire basketball career
02:06:08
you know she packed up her life and
02:06:10
would move around with me to various
02:06:12
places when things would happen um and
02:06:15
now she's you know on top of all of the
02:06:19
stuff that I mentioned that she did
02:06:20
during my treatment um she um you know
02:06:24
she also um you know started um a
02:06:29
business that she runs and things are
02:06:31
going pretty well with that so for the
02:06:33
time being you know she was my
02:06:34
cheerleader for for 10 years so yeah
02:06:37
it's kind of cool that kind of things
02:06:39
have flipped around and uh you know I'm
02:06:41
the I'm the biggest cheerleader for her
02:06:42
now yeah oh how good oh that's wonderful
02:06:46
yeah yeah what a great couple um yeah I
02:06:49
would say don't don't rush into
02:06:50
whatever's next because there's so much
02:06:51
life ahead of you uh
02:06:54
and I don't know anyone that's um that's
02:06:57
like to be as good as what you were at
02:06:58
the sport you did especially for the
02:07:00
length of time the longevity you had it
02:07:02
means you've got a growth mindset and
02:07:03
also a winers mentality so whatever you
02:07:05
do next you're going to do [ __ ] well
02:07:08
yeah yeah so I've got a you know like
02:07:11
for us um you know 2023 was kind of like
02:07:15
a you know cuz I've been fit and healthy
02:07:18
this whole year it was kind for us it
02:07:20
was kind of just a kind of like a say
02:07:23
yes kind of year whereas you know like
02:07:25
we you know we went to it was kind of
02:07:29
like a working holiday cuz she had the
02:07:31
the Bravo con thing over there but you
02:07:33
know so you know we went over there we
02:07:35
went to Fiji for a little little holiday
02:07:38
just the two of us it was it was
02:07:40
basically our honeymoon two years after
02:07:42
we got married cuz we couldn't go on one
02:07:45
when we actually got married so we did
02:07:47
that so yeah kind of things we kind of
02:07:50
yeah we just kind of decided that this
02:07:52
year was going to be the you know the
02:07:55
first year when things were back on
02:07:58
track um you know we're just going to
02:08:01
not overthink things and just enjoy enoy
02:08:05
and just enjoy life being normal again
02:08:08
just um um you know just the two of us
02:08:11
and um and yeah over the next year or so
02:08:15
is when I'll really you know start to to
02:08:19
focus on what that next step is but for
02:08:21
the for the time being I'm just uh you
02:08:24
know happy supporting her doing the
02:08:26
stuff that she's doing and um and just
02:08:29
happy to be to be healthy and and just
02:08:33
yeah just life being back to relative
02:08:36
normaly after the last two and a bit
02:08:39
years yeah I'm so pleased to sit down
02:08:41
with you today and pleased to see you're
02:08:43
looking so healthy like you read in the
02:08:44
checks you've just got that glow that
02:08:46
glow of a healthy person um um yeah
02:08:49
thanks for being so so open and generous
02:08:51
with um your experiences the good ones
02:08:53
and the bad ones I really appreciate it
02:08:54
oh no worries yeah I think it's
02:08:57
just yeah it's you know people talk
02:09:00
about mental health and and all that
02:09:02
kind of stuff a lot especially with men
02:09:05
around my sort of age and I think just
02:09:09
um you know talking to people about
02:09:12
things obviously I had a pretty
02:09:14
significant Health thing so that's you
02:09:16
know but fine you know what whatever you
02:09:18
you might be going through just um you
02:09:21
know finding people to to talk to about
02:09:23
those things because most
02:09:25
people you know you you'd be surprised
02:09:28
how many people actually want to help
02:09:30
you know there are lots of they kind of
02:09:33
people kind of feel like they're afraid
02:09:35
they don't want to share what's going on
02:09:37
because they think people might judge
02:09:38
them or they just kind of blow them off
02:09:40
or whatever but you you'd be surprised
02:09:43
how many people genuinely want to help
02:09:46
it's not as um it's an easy thing to say
02:09:50
now because things are looking quite
02:09:51
positive but um yeah it's it's not
02:09:54
always as when you when you're kind of
02:09:57
in your own head and you're by yourself
02:09:58
but when you voice those things and talk
02:10:01
to people it's um it's not as not as
02:10:04
Doom and Gloom it's it's not always as
02:10:07
Doom and Gloom as it as it might appear
02:10:09
yeah yeah one thing I found during this
02:10:10
podcast I've done almost 100 episodes
02:10:12
now is that vulnerability is sexy as
02:10:15
[ __ ] have you always been good with that
02:10:17
or is that just sort of something that
02:10:18
you've leaned into that's that's
02:10:20
something that I've kind of just
02:10:23
basically because I had
02:10:25
to when you were you know it's kind of
02:10:29
you know this isn't a thing that you can
02:10:31
kind of do on your own bottle up and
02:10:34
just kind of keep in you know it's you
02:10:37
know when you're going through something
02:10:39
as shitty as it was you kind of just
02:10:41
have
02:10:42
to at times you kind of just have to let
02:10:45
it out and tell people how you're
02:10:47
feeling and you know sometimes you know
02:10:51
I I went through some pretty dark
02:10:54
moments over the last couple of years
02:10:56
and it um yeah just having having people
02:11:00
to talk to about those things um yeah
02:11:04
it's yeah it's it's you know people as I
02:11:08
said before you know people will kind of
02:11:11
put their arms around you and you know
02:11:13
try to help you as much as they can
02:11:15
which um which you know sometimes just
02:11:20
you know a hug or a chat or just being a
02:11:25
set of ears for someone can just be the
02:11:28
just be what they need and yeah it's
02:11:32
yeah it's just I've I've realized over
02:11:34
the last couple of years just how how
02:11:37
significant and how helpful that kind of
02:11:39
thing
02:11:41
is I can't think of a more significant
02:11:44
or important message to leave it on I
02:11:46
think that's really good Alex pler one
02:11:48
of the goats of New Zealand basketball
02:11:51
cancer conqueror husband and so much
02:11:54
more thanks so much for your time mate I
02:11:56
really appreciate it oh no worries I had
02:11:58
a great
02:12:01
[Music]
02:12:14
time
