James Hooper. The crash, alcoholism, getting the sack, and the new job | Chiming In EP034

This is charming. That night I had a lot going on in my personal life at the time, Choms, and the night before that night I drank a bottle of bourbon at home by myself. I don't remember being behind the wheel of my youth that night. I don't remember crashing into the cars. Immediately I knew I was going to be sacked, and rightly so I deserved to be sacked Choms. Someone could have died. Absolutely. How does that make you feel? She does. She saved me. My immediate reaction went on you that I'd completely f***ed my life was on at a dream. You're an alcoholic or just had a problem with alcohol? No, I'm an alcoholic every day of the week. I'm well aware of it. My man was an alcoholic without one to boy, I've got alcoholism littered through my family, I've got a lot of people who are not having a lot of time to be in the car. I've got a lot of people who are having a lot of time to be in the car. I've got a very bad decision, got blind drunk, crushed me out in a three-park car, was five times over the legal limit. It was reckless, it was stupid, and it hurt me a lot, so I got my receipt. I was just thinking normally with podcasts, we go back to the beginning of your career. But today we're going to start with the present, with where you're at with your life, with the mistakes that you've made, the pressure you've been under, and talk a little bit about the future as well. So take us back to that night, mate. It's July 31 last year, 2025. You'd obviously been on the drink somewhere. Yeah. That night I had a lot going on in my personal life at the time chance. And the night before that night, I drank a bottle of bourbon at home by myself. I was in a pretty bad place, and I thought the bottom of a bottle of bourbon had all the answers, since discovered it doesn't. But the night of July 31, I had gone to lunch with mates, had a couple of beers, actually called my wife, and said, listen, I've had too many beers here. I'm not going to drive home. That's a bad idea. And she said, I'll come and pick you up if you want. I said, no, no, that's all right, don't you know. It's a long way out of your way. So I had some family and like art, and the plan was I was going to go and stay there. And then, as I said, I was in a bad spot, Johns. I proceeded to get that blind that I got black out drunk. I don't remember burning behind the wheel of more youth that night. I vaguely remember bits and pieces of burn at the cop shop. And there's not a day it goes by that I don't regret my decision that night. It's changed my life irreversibly. I accept that. As I said, what I did was completely off tap. I'm very grateful and very thankful that nothing more sinister happened because when you're that out of control, and you get behind the wheel of a vehicle, well, you're putting other lives at risk as well. So I might not be sitting here talking to you now if something worse had happened. So I'm very grateful for that. We put in your own life at risk too. Absolutely. Three cars? Yep. So obviously some carnage. Yeah. A complete carnage. So I woke up the next morning, and I did so thought it was a bad dream. I had to look outside. I was in my son's room at the time. I had to look outside the window. And when I saw that my youth wasn't there, I went, oh, fuck. That wasn't a bad dream. This is real life now. So immediately I knew I was going to be sacked. And rightly so I deserve to be sacked, so I was like, I had a high profile gig. You're working for Fox Sports and appearing on NRL360, working on Triple M. So you are high-prop, a well-known. Yeah, absolutely. I've been doing it for a long time. And I just knew that I deserved to be sacked. It was a very stupid naive and reckless decision. It wasn't my first chance. I'd flown close to the sun too many times previously on the grog. I'm sure we'll get those atrocities in a minute. So I just knew that it was a crossroads in life. I had three options the way I looked at it, Johns. I could pull up a stool at the local pub, crying a miscuna about what I'd lost, and probably blurt my family and my life and everything else. I could curl up in the fetal position under the dooner and tell everybody that I was struggling with mental health. And that's not having a shot at people who do have genuine mental health issues, because that is a fair dink of issue in society. But it wouldn't have been fair if I played that card. Or in the greatest Australian tradition, I could dust myself off, get up off the floor, put the math card in, and try and put the left foot in front of the right foot and get on with life. Damage to the vehicles. Yep, well that's it, your bank. Because I assume you have no insurance if you have. No, no, no. There's no insurance. I don't know, in Bollering and the insurance companies, I knew that was straight up in smoke like my career. I think it was about 75 large from memory. And how do you find that kind of money if you could repair those? I'm in an enormous debt. That's why I'm sitting here with you in Helen. You know, we'll get to what I'm going to do next steps in life in terms of how I'm trying to put company dump, dump it back together again, but I'm in an enormous debt, Jones. It's been tough. So there was an allegation on the night that you ran away from the scene. Yep. Is that correct? Yeah, it's on CCTV. One of the good Samaritan neighbours who lived in one of the houses nearby release that immediately to Channel 9. That was where I first saw it. I don't remember that, but yeah, I did. So I've obviously come a crop, I stuck into three parked cars. And then I've fled the vehicle, blind drunk. I must have realised that this isn't a good scenario. And so I went back. And I do vaguely remember, son of the police, when they rocked up. Boys, you got me on blind. And then they took me to the shop and I went from there. So how do they find you? In the street. I came back. I came back to the scene of the accident. I knew that I'd stuffed up. I knew I'd done the wrong thing. As much as my automatic reaction, blackout and blind drunk was to bolt, I knew that wasn't going to solve any other problems. And I knew I needed to take ownership and responsibility for it. So that's why I went back. Handcuffs? Don't think so. Not that I'll recall. Back of the patty wagon? No, back of the whole way patrol car. To a police station? Yes. Fingerprinted. Can't recall. But locked up in the cell or released? I don't recall burning a cell. I was released because I made a mine come and picked me up. I vaguely remember the cops were trying to get information out of me. And I wouldn't say anything. All I would say is you've got me on blind. I wouldn't give my address. I wouldn't give my name. I wouldn't give any phone numbers. And thankfully I made a mine called. And so they answered the phone and told him what was going on. And he said, he look locally, said, I'll be there in 15 minutes. And he'd come and got me here. So you get home and you go to sleep? Yep. Wake up the next day and think, Jesus, I hope this is a dream. I'd said, did you think it was a dream, Jones? Like I, as I mentioned a minute ago, I'd open the front shutters and look outside the window to see if my youth was there or not. And when it wasn't, I very quickly realized that the school I had collapsed. I'd tip myself upside down and set my career in my life on fire. And it was about to be a hard ride for a while. It's someone could have died. Absolutely. As I make my film, she does. I'm very grateful that nobody was seriously hurt. Because, and I am grateful for that every day. Because I'm well aware of how it could have taken me more seriously. You know, it's the bullet there. 100%. So how long does it take for social media to light up that James Hooper's gone off the rails, wiped out these cars, fled the scene, been arrested? How long does that take? Thankfully, Jones, I'm not on social media. One of the best decisions I made years ago after one of my previous bosses at the Telegraph may be signed up to Twitter was to completely brush it. So I'm not on Instagram. I'm not on-- But within 12 hours now-- It's called an Alex. Oh, it would have been on fire straight away. As soon as, I mean, the reports were, as far as I'm aware, I wasn't following the rolling coverage. But as far as I'm aware, I mean, my phone lit up. That's going to save you getting calls from people. My phone lit up, like a Christmas tree, very quickly. And so I understood the magnitude of it. I understood that I needed to do a set full responsibility for it. And I quickly made a decision that, obviously, I needed to get off the grog, make some significant changes in life. and walk a hard road for all. So how long did it take for Fox Sports? So I assume you had a conversation with Steve Crawley the next day and you've told him what happened. Yep. How long did it take for them to dismiss you? It was only a matter of hours. It wasn't very long there and I understand and accept that. They had no option. I left them with no choice, John's, but to sack me. So what are you thinking when you hear those words mate, we're going to have to let you go. Sorry, you're done. What's the first thing that rattles through your brain? I just knew they were the cards that I dealt myself. Nobody else dealt them. I dealt them. It was my decision. I'd adversely affected other people's lives by crashing my youth into their vehicles. They were now massively put out and going through difficulties as a result of my drunken foolishness. I knew I was gone and I knew I quickly, my immediate reaction was, I needed to be strong from a family because I knew then that I at the Tell Lamp and I knew that they were going to be ripped apart. Take us through that mate. How did it go? Sitting the kids down your Mrs. Down and Zone? We're in big trouble. Yeah, my daughter was obviously understandably very upset. My son was pretty stout. He took it reasonably well, but then later on when the dust settled, later on when he was going to bed that night, I could tell that he was quite shaken up. They held onto the kids? They're third on and 12. So they're old enough to understand it, although we would have seen their reports. They go on YouTube. They're across all the social media stuff. And what did the boss say? Well, I expected or half expected the chest of drawers to be emptied on the front lawn. But mate, thankfully, more off there's a tantalumpic gold medals because she just clipped me around the ear or probably can't repeat on this family podcast, some of the colorful language that she used. But basically, she said it's words to the effect of your blood idiot. And then she said, but look, you've got to get some help and you're going to get through this. When you do something like that and you get caught, you make a mistake and it blows up. Do you carry guilt with you thereafter? I carried a lot of guilt, shame and remorse for a long time. Chimes. That's why I've gone and done the work that I've done in terms of Albert and Anakwid over the course of the last six months was I knew or I felt as though I'd lost the right to earn a living, working in the media. And I felt as though I just needed to go and just do something completely different. So the day after court, I walked into John Bull Remurls and Storage at Manavale. The lady who runs the office was sitting at the front desk there. I said, look, I'm just wondering if you've got any jobs going. She said, oh yeah, look, we're always looking for people. If you've done it before, I said, I did it when I was about 20 years old, you know, for about 12 months. She became a furniture remurlsist. Yep. Working on a trucker's base. Yeah. Working in the trucks every day. Were you driving while you weren't driving the truck? No, I wasn't allowed to drive the trucks, John. So no, I definitely wasn't. And I had to tell them that when I walked in, you know, I said, look, I was very honest with him. I said, look, I just got through a court appearance yesterday of Los Malosons for six months. I crushed me in the three-park vehicles. I'm on an 18-month good behaviour bond. I can't drive your trucks, but I'll work hard to figure me a go. I'll have a crack. And they rang me back 15 minutes later and said, can you start at 7 o'clock tomorrow morning? And that's where we went from there. So what's the logo? So, excuse me on a good way at Fox. Yeah, decent. Yeah. Good money. And all of a sudden, you're lifting furniture for modest money. Yep. How's that going down? How do you smell of that? I know. Other alternative, John's. I just start to accept it. I was grateful that they gave me a shot. I really enjoyed the people that I was working with. The other blokes were all terrific blokes. We had a lot of laughs. It's a tough job. It's a hard job. But if the people around you are good, then you can make the day go a lot smoother. Are they footy fans? Do they know who they are? Some of them were. Yeah, some of them were. Yeah, the big boss, the owner of the company, Brian Kabbalan, he's a mad South Sydney fan. He's got the rabbit otado there on the bicep. He came out here when he was four years old. They ended up living in Dullich Hill. But then they used to get a train and a bus from Dullich Hill to Redfern Oval, St. Merun's Church. It was a church that they'd go to and then they'd go and watch the bunnies after that. So, yeah, he he come up with me on day one. And he goes, "Whoops, are you sure you want to do this job?" I said, "Brahman, I need a job. It's as simple as that. If you'll happen to have me or I'll work out, I'll be on time." And he said, "Roddo, don't lift anything too heavy today." I said, "All right." And then there's on Karen, a bloody 60-70 kilo chef and he then cut the floor to stairs an hour and half later. I thought, "Yeah, I think he knew he was selling me a dummy there." That's a tough gig removerless work. It is. No, it is. But look, it's a tough gig, but it's an honest gig. There's a lot of good people who work in that industry. All the fellows who I work with, I can genuinely say, are great blokes. Some of them are footy fans, some of them aren't. They're all just doing their best, but they rock up the work every day. You never know how long a day is going to be. Some days you might only do 70 hours, but some days you might do 14. And it's a 14-hour days when you're earning your money. So we also knew you for your contribution to Triple M sport, a Triple M league coverage. How did that come about that they terminated you? Yeah, well, it was the appropriately named Sunday Sin Bin that I'd been a part of for a long time, Steve. I spoke to them. I said, "Look, Fox is going to sack me. If you guys want to do the same thing, I completely understand." They said, "How would you like to handle it?" I said, "Well, look, I'll stand down immediately right now." They said, "Okay, we'll we accept that. We're happy with that." So stand down and then we'll see where the cards fall, but I spoke to them before Christmas and they said, "Look, mate, no, sorry, we can't, we can't in a time possibly having you back in the current environment." And I understood that. I accept that. So mate, let's talk about the help that you needed to get for yourself. How you got to that position and what you went through that brings you to where you are today. So you considered you had a problem with alcohol? Yep. Clearly a serious problem with alcohol. What do you do? Do you check into rehab? Or do you get what sort of help do you get? Well, the people who I spoke to, they want to meet a check into rehab, but I didn't have private health insurance. John, so that was going to cost 40 grand. I didn't have 40 large just sitting around. Yeah, just damages to pay. Yeah, I've just called Gordon. Yeah, I've just saw it through park cars. I've got mounting debts. I was right up against the wall. So I didn't have 40 large to spend. Were your chance at losing your house? Oh, absolutely, every day of the week. Yeah, when I'm, you know, as I'll sit here right now, if I don't get back to work straight away, you got to pay the mortgage. Absolutely. Yeah. So the lawyer who I spoke to, Blake called Paul McGurray, he's a good fellow. He represents a lot of the league boys. He does. Very busy. I'm sure you know him well. Name well. On a first name basis. So he said, listen, the best thing you can do is ring this lady Jan Earl. I know Jan. Yeah. And so Jan is, and she doesn't like people referring to her as this, but she shandles mum. All right. But Jan does some fantastic work in the space of people who are struggling with addiction, but alcohol, be gambling, whatever your problem might be. Yeah. That's her forte. So I called her. She's a great connector too. She'll stay in the direction that you need to go to. Well, she, she saved me like she older being, I could have still been sitting at the RSL, um, crying into miscurned out if I hadn't met her because my immediate reaction when I knew that I'd completely fuck my life was I needed a drink just to settle the fucking nerves and try and get back on and even kill a bit. But she put the size 15 straight up the salmon and said, no, you're not doing that. You need to go to AA immediately. You go into 90 AA meetings in 90 days. Consecretive. Don't miss one. Don't miss one. Yeah. So I did that. She also said you got to go into the community service in Walla Maloo. There's a setup called the Strait Buffet where they feed and clothes that clothe the homeless every Sunday. So I went and did that every workload and up the court. Is that to convince the magistrate that you're good, bloke and you're trying to be better or is that part of the process where it helps you get better as a person? I think it's a bit of both. I think definitely it's the show, genuine remorse. So you can do bugger all before you get a court. It's the individual's decision. You just want to rock in straight out of the front bar with your shirt hanging out in a three day growth, honk on a grog, or you can. Or if you actually want to try show that you have, you realize you might have a genuine message. fuck up and you have also tried to take steps to alter the road that you are on then they'll take that into account. Jan said all of that up for me, her and assistant Karina very good people and so that was a road that I had to go down. What's A.A. like, man? What take us through? I'm not going to smart ask you, Choms. A big thing with A.A. I actually feel a bit uncomfortable mentioning it as an organisation. There's this big thing where you're not allowed to talk about it, you're not allowed to talk about what goes, I think the catchphrase is, what you see here, who you see here, let it stay here or something like that. So all I'll say is I'm at a lot of fantastic people. There are people who whose lives improve out of sight as a result of going in there and putting the steps that they advise in their lives and it really does help for hundreds of thousands of people around the world. How long does a meeting go for? Some of them go for 60 minutes, some of them go for 90 minutes. Okay. And do you sit in a circle? Not always, some of them it's like going in, you just, yeah. Without delving too much, you know, because we don't want to give away what the bit that you said should remain there. But to some people go and not share their stories, just sit there or they encourage to talk or how does it work? Yeah, like I said, look, I'm not going to be difficult about it, then you're very good at your job, Choms, because you're a former journalist. I think in a go at next one. It wouldn't hurt stuff. Just go and have a look. You don't have to keep going back. But if you go and have a look, there's a lot of good people in there. They teach you enormously valuable lessons around the dangers of grog. Certainly for me, it was daily drinking, mate. I'd become a daily drinker. My drinking progressed, you know, of no use since I was a young mate back then. I used to have, I was probably a binge drinker. Might have a few awake end or every couple of weekends. Then now that starts to snowball and before you know it. Probably one of the worst things that happened to me was I bought a house about 100 metres from a pub. I knew when I bought that house that I needed to stay wide of that pub for as long as I could. I probably did because my kids were a bit younger. I probably stayed wide of it for about 18 months. Then I saw some blokes coming out of it one morning at 9am in the morning. I thought, "Oh, shoot, is that joint open there?" That very quickly then became my Leandra in that hotel. That was what led me to where I got to. So would you drink in the mornings? Somedays. Would you drink at home? Yeah. We were at the stage where you'd hide empty bottles right after that. Oh, yeah. I know. I'd be stashing them and throwing them out before my Mrs. Concierge and my kids could so am. So would you concede you're an alcoholic or just had a problem with alcohol? Well, man was an alcoholic without wanting to boy. I've got alcoholism littered through my family tree on both sides. The way I grew up was surrounded by a lot of blokes who liked to drink and that's part of the Australian culture. I'm not winging about it. I'm not crying about it. That's how my family chose to live. I enjoyed it. I couldn't wait to get into it as soon as I was allowed to. I started when I was about 14 years old. So as soon you got through your 90 days? Yes. I'd like winning yourself of alcohol. She does initially. Horrible. You can't sleep even if you exercise every day. I always love my training. That was always something that I tried to keep in place to keep me on a newbie and keel chones. So I would get up even when I was hung over as hell. I would get up and make myself force myself to go to the gym. So I knew that I needed to immediately put that style of a routine in place. But the first few days considering what I'd done to my life, completely blame my career up. Anonymous debts mounting, trying to cling on to the house. And two kids going to Catholic schools. It wasn't an enjoyable experience. But I knew I had a lot of support from within the rugby league community. I knew that my enemies would have been celebrating under Melbourne Cup winner and that's fair enough. I'd fired a lot of bullets in the role that I had over the years. I accept that. I don't know the problem with that. What do you think journalists love attacking journalists when they hit a bottle? Well, I guess it's just how the media rolls. Is it rafry? There's probably a little bit of that. I think you buy the ticket. If you, these days, the way that the media is evolved, you're a public figure whether you like it or not. In the old days when you first started as a newspaper journalist, will you that much of a public figure? If you went to the public blokes, recognised out? Well, see nowadays because of TV and social media and the way that it's all morphed in the 21st century is your public figure. So you buy the ticket, you take the ride, you just got accepted. How did you handle the general public? Were you heckled in the street or were you at times supported in the street? What was the mix line? Most people are very supportive. No, I haven't been heckled. I'm sure after this podcast goes to air that we'll get a frank and honest appraisal from social media. I accept that chance. That's okay. I get it. But no, I reckon, I think primarily people could see that I'd toss a banana control and that I was obviously was in a bad spot. So most of the time the Aussie way is you're putting armour in someone if they're struggling and you get them a pat on the back. They could see what I was doing in terms of the work I was doing and the road that I was going down and most of them were pretty okay. So mate, we're yet with your drinking now. I assume some people told by doctors, you should never drink again. You're no good for you. I assume some people can manage their drinking. Where are you at now with your drinking? I've had enough atrocities over the years, Choms, that if you're on a team of doctors up every single one of them would tell me that I should never have another drink again. I understand that. I've done a lot of work on myself, of made significant changes. I'll never go back to being a daily drinker. If I ever am to get back into the mainstream media, no one's going to give me a crack if I'm a piss wreck. So I understand where it sits. I've done a lot of work. I understand the pitfalls of our whole better than most. Would you have a drink now? So a casual drink now? Or were you out with that? I haven't, because I've really got anything to celebrate. I haven't been having a drink lately. I've had a beer since the accident because Curial City killed the cat and I had a lot of people you know sort of saying, "I mean mate, you can't. That's probably not going to really work for your personality for the rest of your life." I had an aunt of you pass the Y and I'd go and catch up with some family and it's not really except that if you don't have a beer. So I have had a beer, but I'm well aware that I'm not going back to, I can't go back to how it was if I do then. I'll blow my life up. I risk my marriage or risk my family. Is the door shut and bolted at Fox Sports for you? Well I can't really answer that question. Can I chance? Because I understand they had to sack me. They had no alternative. I gave them no alternative and I accept for responsibility for that. I'm not sure yet after R.C.M. but I wouldn't think that they'd be opening it anytime soon. And I understand what. So we mentioned earlier that this wasn't your first knock-on. I know when you went to Vegas last year there were reports that you went MIA in Vegas and failed to fulfill your work commitments with Fox and others. What happened in Vegas? What happened in Vegas stays in Vegas, Choms? As I say, no. Again, all at the Grom wind, I'll let the Grom take over. So got on the plane to go to Vegas. The first thing they do on San and Yeglaza bubbles had that out a few more landed and then made the executive decision that would be good idea to go straight for a scourer and never regain control of the helicopter from there. So I went out drinking all day the first day that I got there on the Tuesday. I kept going on the Wednesday and by the Thursday I always went to Rishal, so I didn't know if I was Arthur or Martha. They just weren't functioning, couldn't function. I'd completely lost the jocky, crashed into the crowd. Were people trying to contact you and say, "Hip's when we need you on set?" Yeah, but I'll boost straight up. No, no. I'd managed to put things back together enough that I'd made the necessary phone calls. It's tell people that I wasn't going to be able to front up. And that rattled me a lot, that particular incident, because I knew that everybody in rugby league knew. And I'd never missed a work commitment of that magnitude or in those circumstances previously. That was the beginning of my downward spiral chalms to be perfectly straight up about it. To go back, I lost my bloody fine. I'm out one not blind, I'm going to blow a blow flounder and everywhere I've been in a complete pest on tibia and I lost my phone. And then so I woken up that next day. I was meant to be able to do a piece with the Raiders. Ricky Stewart had been good enough that he was going to let me come inside, be in a sanctum and watch some of their training sessions and the way that they were going over video and then go and watch the boys train and all that sort of thing and I lost my phone. And woke up and went, where am I? I blew my phone, so you hang on what day is it. And then I realised I was in a fair bit of strife. You could have got exclusive footage of the fight and the lift between the two raiders going to be on the ball. I might add my own one, I can't really recall. So clearly it's red flag, red flag. A couple years before there was an incident where you were charged by police with damaging property. So it goes back a few years. And if you freeze it there, comment down on my later, it's all a girl and I understand that. And anyone put their arm around you between, yeah, three or four years ago when there were signs that you were really struggling and said, "Hop, you need to pull your head in." Yeah, plenty of people. But I think when you're in the space where I was and you're letting the girl rule your life, you don't know, listen, you'll tell people what you think they want to hear. I know, I understand, I agree 100% I'll pull my head in. You mentioned the damaging property. My old man had died that year and again, that was just something that I struggled to wrap my head around. He died in alcoholic. You know, all your stuff together. How was it? He was. He worked in a state parliament. Yeah, 100%. And so, you know, I don't love hate relationship with Dad. The comment that nominated that we always had that United Asus mates was a grog. But he'd shot through when I was only nine years old and was a bit of a bumpy ride for a while there. But when he died, yeah, it just sort of was, it took me a long time to process that. Make any say was certainly that naughty hoops has gone and good hoops has here to stay? I'm doing my best, Steve. I'm not going to come on and make any bullshit promises that I can't keep. I'm a bloke, but I'm 47 years old at the same time. So I also need to be an adult. I hope I don't have to get sacked from anywhere else again. I'll go down to the more stupid roads because they've taken all the bark off along the way. And I'd like to think I'm uglier older and wiser. But I'm not going to come on and make any silly statements like I'll never ever have another beer again or I'll never ever ever get myself in strife again because then someone will just go fish this out and go, look at this pully boat. He doesn't know what day it is. How do you feel now about going out in public and you're a bit frightened to be seen out and about? Not really. Some people might say, this black's got a flat typical, he's got a flat. How do I get a flat? I've got sacked from a high profile job, both of them. And I'm struggling to put food on the table. So I failed to see how did I get a flat? There would be people saying I got what he deserved. Yeah, and that's sweet. I accept that. I did get what I deserved. And I've said that on this platform. And I don't find most foody fans are knock about people, John's. They're all pretty blue collar. They're all sold with the earth. And they accept that nobody's perfect. So I don't have an issue whatsoever. Go on and get in public. I have not had one person come up to me and so I make you a fucking idiot. And if they do, that's okay. I understand. I'll accept their view. There would have been players over the years and you as a journalist, wouldn't they have stuffed up your phone or grenade at them, I guess. Can you understand now why the grade might be coming back? Can you do it? Absolutely. And I don't have an issue with it. You buy the ticket, you take the ride. I will say I never enjoyed that part of the job. That part of the job when Blake's would come unstuck. I'm old enough and ugly enough to remember. Chippy Pralinguus used to walk into the telegraph office years ago. Chippy Pralinguus cote on the coat rack, jokingly remove his glasses and say any atrocities overnight boys. And that was just Chippy's way, you know, a lot in the mood and having a little bit of banta. But I never enjoyed that part of the job where Blake's would play up. But at that time, and you would remember, because you were one of Sydney's leading player agents at the time and still are. There was an expectation and there was somewhat of a direction that if Blake's did do the wrong thing, well, they were going to be in the paper. So I totally accept my fate. Did any in our role stars reach out to offer support or? Yep. Can you tell us a few top people that might have reached out? A couple of them might be in your stable jobs. No, look quite a few. I won't name names because I don't own embarrassed blokes. Now, the support was overwhelming. I didn't expect it here from any of my enemies and surprisingly I actually did once a dusted settle all over you. So you have enemies or rivals in your court? I'd say. I wouldn't know. I'm sure you've accrued a few of us. As much as everybody thinks you're an affable absolute champion. I'm sure you've also upset a few people along the way. And you're doing your job. You have to. That's the nature of the beast. But yeah, no, the support was overwhelming. You know, I'll still remember Johnny Lewis rang me. I think it might have been the second day or the third day after it come on start. And I had a long conversation with him and at the end of it he said, "I'd like to be put in a set of robes on your son because I know you're going to be alright." He said, "Just keep that mentality, keep that mindset and you'll be OK." Is it challenging every day for you? Yeah, it's challenging. Oh, look, it was harder initially. I sort of set up this routine where I'd get up every morning at 4.30 in the morning. I'd have to walk myself down to the bus stop because obviously didn't know me last until I'm rightly so. Get the bus out of a boxing gym at Mainervale, box for an hour, get the bus back and then not have to go off and do my AA and other various therapies and all that sort of thing leading up to court. And then once court was finished, well, I got myself a job at Johnball Remuvels and Storage and I also did some landscape laboring as well with another big company called Kiora up on the northern beaches. And so I was on the shovel, Steve, at 7 a.m. in the morning. The tip of truck would rock up with six ton of dirt or six ton of road base and there was your day. So, it's the clarity, mate, how long were you suspended from driving for? Six months. Right. And was there a fine incurred as well? Yeah, I think there's a couple of grind. A lot of them are, I can't. That's all of it. All the financials, all I know is. I'll never ever be able to jump over or pay all me debts off, but I will do my utmost for it. I went and met with one of the owners of the vehicle, offered him personal apology. I told him I was going to pay for all the damages. I paid for the damages for another vehicle that was only very minor. That was fixed, I think, within the first week of everything happening. I haven't spoken to the other bike. I haven't been able to get older, but I made genuine attempts to go and show remorse, contrition and. Yeah, for the vehicles of all being passed. Yes. Yeah. That's priority one for me. Yeah, that was sort of. Well, I want to get that right. What are the major straights, Eddie, in court, did he give you a dressing down? From memory. Yeah. Yeah, you just said look. Did you get a debt talker? Yeah. No, you definitely got one. I want to see again. Yeah, I think it was a female magistrate, and my lawyer was very good to me. He gave me a big wrap, and the magistrate pulled him up and said, "Look, it's very glowing where you're going, but that's called a big statement." And then gave me a clipper in the ear and said, "You look like you had your life together, but obviously you got some stuff going on. You better get it back together or otherwise, there's only everyone other place where you're headed." Certainly not defending your making excuses for you here, but a lot of people have done drink and drive. They do drive when they're having a limit. Some do it when they don't even know they're evident. I might think they're close to them in some reckless. What sort of advice would you give to someone in a pub? You just had a few beers and thinks he might be evident as bad to pick up his keys. Well, if you could have your time over again, what would you say to yourself? Don't fucking do it, you're a bloody idiot. You know, I knew that you don't. drink and drive. I know that. I have been in trouble previously when I can actually recall Ben behind the wheel. But this time, you know, to not even. I don't remember Ben behind the wheel of that yut. That's shocking. No, that's so fucking dangerous. So my advice to everyone out there, especially kids, but also blokes like us who might be a little bit knock about and a little bit rough around the edges and like having a beer and like socialising and relaxing. It's so simple. I've spent six months on public transport, get myself all over Sydney on buses, trains, ferries, you name it. There's always so many different safer alternatives. It's not just about you. It's about everyone else as well. It's one of the scourges on society is drink, drive and the amount of people who die because people do risk get behind the wheel. It's out of control. So just don't do it. It's pretty simple. If you go for a few beers, the car keys stay away. Now the good news is, there is a little bit of sunshine. You're on your way back. We might be about to see you back in rugby legally. Tell us a little bit what might be on the horizon for you. I think it's a long road backstead, but we might have just put a couple of shoes on Humpty Dumpty after he's come off the wall. Now look, the first bloke who has thrown me a life vest and I'm very grateful for that is Warren Livingston who looks after this podcast, looks after Kentie's podcast. Fanatics TV. Fanatics TV is also offered me an opportunity to come back and do something called Rugby League insider. So we're going to start up once the new season launches. We're not going to Vegas still. We're still in the scene bin after last year's performance and we're rightly so. So we'll accept that suspension on the chin. But I think Warren's going over and he'll fly the flag for Fanatics TV in Sin City. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Where am I, eh? No, well, he won't have any commitments for you to sleep. It'll be safe. As you know, Rugby League, the greatest game of all, never ever sleeps or remember any young bloke in years to say to me, hoops, it's 24/7, 365 days. And that's how it is. There is always something happening. There's always a story. There's always an origin, eligibility, rower. There's always a player looking to get out of a contract or somebody in my bed, a little bit disgruntled or whatever. Patents apply on the field, a team that nobody saw coming out of the left field and doing well. What the bulldogs did last year. So have you lifted your last count or your last count? No, no, I might have still on the tool. So I'll start tomorrow morning at 7 AM again. I'm working Saturday and then I'll work all next week as well. Actually, the landscaping boys contacted me a couple of days ago and said, "Can you work Thursday for a day?" But I knew I had to come and do this. But mate, I can genuinely say, I enjoyed that style of work. I enjoyed the people that you work with. I enjoyed the simplicity of going to work, ripping in, earning an honest style up. And when you knock off, you knock off the phone, don't ring. I've an email account for six months, which is a bone of breath of fresh air. And you can lead a simple but fulfilling life. I'll really enjoy that. If I could make as much dough doing that as what I can maybe make getting back into the media, I'd just remain doing what I'm doing now because I've genuinely enjoyed it. And there's a lot to be said for people out there who just get out there and have a great time. Did you give some thought to working in a mine at some stage? Yeah, so I was a fairway down the road to the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme, which is a FIFO setup. The tunnel in the Snowy Mountains that's underway. And I had a blight come over at Christmas time and he worked there as a dump truck driver. And we got chatting and he said to me, "I'll meet you. Look, what are you doing for a quid?" And I told him and he said, "Oh, have you ever thought about FIFO work?" And I said, "No, I haven't. Give me the rundown." And so he started working me through it and my wife had had a couple of glasses of champagne at the time. So I sort of raped her into and was going, "I might just explain to her and this blake's girlfriend was there too." And so we're chatting away and I couldn't believe it. My wife was all for it. She was going, "How much money can you make?" "Oh, okay, yeah, I'll know." So we sort of pushed the chips all in there and we were fairway down the road in that department. I needed to wait till I got my license back from a vehicle. You can't work down there without a driver's license. And so after I'd got that back, the plan was I was going to go and start down there. But then in the meantime, Orin had come knocking and he said, "Look, I think you might be going a bit out on yourself. I think that you can come back from where you are. And I think that you can still make a contribution." And I'd like you to consider this platform. Initially he wanted to do it, but he'd do it by myself. I said, "Mate, there's only a couple of lakes I reckon I could do that." Oh, the Maddy Johns, maybe Gus. I said, "The thought of me talking by myself for half an hour or 45 minutes, I reckon, send people around further around the twists and what they're doing." You don't have a job today, bad pukes. You're asking the questions, John. Hey, have you missed the rugby league or the media side of it? No, not so much. You get so much going on, you ever know? Yeah, no. To be honest, John, I still watch the footy. I still watch the footy every day of the week. But I stopped following the day today Manouche of storylines and narratives and twists and turns. And I stopped that for quite a while. I probably only started following it again around Christmas time and January. But I was happily blissfully ignorant towards the back end of last year. Something had happened that was big. What was the big shit fought towards the back end of last year? Something that was. Yeah, correct. Yeah. You might have been in the middle of it. Now, it wasn't Zach Lomax. I think it was something to do with the Tigers. Something to do with the Tigers. I might have been that ownership. That ownership, shit fought and the rich oak, leaving and made my debt debt set to know about it for about a week. And then mate, a good mate rang me and he said, "Fuck, what are we going to do with the Tigers?" I said, "What's happened now?" And he had to run me through it all. Yeah. So. You're going to have to get back up to speed. Yeah. Oh, that's all right. We've thankfully. We've had a little bit of practice over the year. So I'll wrap my head around it very quick, Steve. I'm sure we'll be all right. And how did you originally get from news limited as a reporter to Fox Sports? How did you go from print media to TV? Yeah. With your head untied? Now I wasn't head untied. I could sort of see that the media landscape was changed a lot, John's. And I could see that traditional media was half-by-start in a dial on the vine. That was before the internet had really taken off. And social media had really taken off. And I probably always had one eye on TV. I'd done some work on the back page on Fox Sports on a regular basis. I was constantly doing crosses as a journal from the telegraph all the time. And I thought, I reckon that's the new TV deal back then got done. They just went a new broadcast still done. And I knew that they were starting up a 24/7 rugby league channel. And I thought, okay, well, that's probably a pretty good space. That's something that I could aim at. And so I just contacted the bosses. I knew them from the work that I'd done on the back page. And so I contacted them and went and had a act to them. And I was silly enough to give me a star. It's been well publicised that Michael Chammiss, who's cracking journalists, is leaving the media to basically head up PNG and how they structure their footy department. How do you reckon you'll go? Good luck. Good luck, Ms. Shammy. Challenging gig. That's a monstrous job. That's a huge job. I reckon even for Phil Gould or Wayne Bennett, that's a big job. For a bloke who's got no experience, I saw P.V.L. in the paper the other week, like and Shammy to Eddie McGuire. Look, if it rings true, then the chiefs, the chiefs are going to be a force to be reckoned with. Someone's going to do it, haven't they? They have, but G.W. is for an L-plader who's never been on that side of the fence to be nice and fully. He does. If we ever put a roster together, previously. I'm sure you have some people around him who's going to help him with that. I wouldn't anticipate who are they. I don't know. Well, I'll need to be experienced and have some rounds. Would you consider going up there to help him? Fuck. Firstly, you wouldn't have me. There's a snowflake chance in L that Shammy would have me. Secondly, I couldn't do that role. I would never ever be foolish enough to convince myself that I could go and work in club land. It was funny when I was having wars with a couple of CEOs a few years back. I remember one of them. He said, "Mai, you just want this job, don't you?" I said, "Mai, are you serious?" I couldn't think of anything worse. I'd rather stick my head in the brass go every day first thing in the morning and press flush. then buy a city eye. NNN. - I'm a bit of a news you might have missed. - Yep, the great Phil Buzz Rothfield has retired. Are you across this? - I am across this. I spoke to Buzz this morning. I know you're all legally preparing to board the SS or the HMAs buzz and head out on the Sydney Harbour. - Celebrating 50 years. - The evening, yeah. Now look, that's a phenomenal achievement, you know. Of known Buzz, he's had 50 years of known him. How long is it now? Well, it'd have to be 26 years. So Buzz gave me my start. I'd failed at school. I'd worked in pubs. I'd worked as a removalist. I'd always had a bit of an inkling that I wanted to try and get into journalism, but I didn't know how. And so I started going to private college and yet I get work experience every Friday. So the old man, your buzz rang him up but went and met Buzz at the pub. And I managed to make a reasonable enough impression that he gave me work experience one day a week. Off the back of that, I've got some yarns and away we went, but Phil's career, it'll never be matched, Tom. So I mean, you've been around the industry your entire life as well. You think a chippy-frolingos is probably the only bloke that I can think that just consistently put runs on the board and was such a pivotal figure in terms of like this city, Sydney and Brisbane, they run on rugby league. Rugby league is the heart beat. Whether, you know, all the other sports, yes, they've got a role to play, but for blue collar, knock about people who get up and go to work every day, footies are religion. And Buzz has been at the epicenter in the coal phase for half a decade. That's half a century or other. That's phenomenal. Well, I don't think anybody will ever do it again. Not sure anybody would ever want to do it again. But for him to come through, hard attacks, all the major events that he's covered. And it isn't just rugby league that he's covered either. Like he's been to obviously, it's the Brazil and-- - They've been games. - Yeah, for soccer, World Cup, and Olympics. And yeah, it's a phenomenal achievement I'm very happy for. Who do you follow, Tom? So have you got a song? - No, no, I was not. - You must have. - I don't have a song. - Who do you follow as a kid? - I was a chook when I was a kid, but I-- - So you've got a soft spot too. - No, honestly, don't. - Really? - Yeah. - Because of work. - Yeah. - Yep. - Yeah, I used to go to the dressing rooms to give out the Dali-M. I think he won, but whoever's first to say, get a to me, I'll give him eight points. That's still a lot better. He's got a service of skate peat. Eight points. (laughing) - Price, skate rate. Seven points. That's how he used to give him in. - Well, first of March, I think you kick off the new podcast. You must be looking forward and ready to go. I hope you've done your research. We're looking forward to seeing you back on the screens, mate. - No, thanks, John. I'm so out. I can't wait. March the third rugby league insider. It's going to be on YouTube, Fanatics TV, and across all the podcast platforms, which is a world on quickly wrapping my head around. - You know what I'm saying? - Mate, thanks for your honesty today. It's never easy. And I think you've handled yourself really well, so. Good luck with the future, my friend. - Now, thanks, John. It's a pleasure. - Thanks for charming in. - Thanks for having me all my life. (upbeat music)