Caught On A Bike At 38K: Berlin's Fake PB And Melbourne Race Week | EP 108

[00:00] In The Beginning podcast, episode 108. Courtney, how are you, mate? Liam Flanagan, I'm good, man. I'm good. Race week. This is it. It's Melbourne Marathon. A big shout out to everybody this weekend who is taking on any of the distances, especially the marathon on the Sunday. A few crew write in who are running. Like I always say, if someone from Melbourne or Victoria writes in, it's your local marathon, are you running? We've got a few crew. Good luck. Enjoy it. Hey, before we get into Melbourne, for those local, we've talked about the Goat

[00:36] Loop a lot here. So out at Nerang, our local trails, the Goat Loop. How would you feel about doing 35 loops of that? I'd feel terrible about doing 35. So for context, I think that's what, 8K? It's an 8K. Is it 8? It might be 6. It depends on which Goat. I'm thinking this is the official Goat Loop. The loop. Yeah. You can look it up. I'm going to pull up what happened on the weekend because this is worth locally shouting out.

[01:07] 35 laps. Well, look, even if it is 6K, there's at least 200 metres of elevation in it, probably, yeah, probably 200. 6K, 200 metres of elevation, you do 35 laps of that, you're talking in excess of 200K. 100%. So on the weekend... Is this good maths by me on the fly? It's pretty decent. With about 7,000 metres of elevation. So Gareth ran 35 laps replicating climbing Everest on the

[01:39] weekend for fun. So thanks for sending this in, George, because I missed this one in the local trails over the weekend. How long was it, running time? 50 hours. 245 kilometres in Nerang. I love Nerang, but I don't know if I love it that much. Did he rotate the ways, or was it always the same direction, or did he go clockwise, anti-clockwise? That sounds hellish. Oh, hang on, hang on, hang on.

[02:10] Yeah, Goat Loop 1.0. So what was that fellow's name again, the runner? Gareth. You know how I'm going to say it. Okay. Show me the surname. Footy commentator over there. Give me a... Yeah, that's what I would say. You were there. That was close. That sounds horrible. Good on him for going out and getting it done. I assume he now has the record, like local legend.

[02:43] This is wild. When Scott sent it to me, I was kind of in my head initially, like, oh, can I get Everest? And then I went, 245 kilometres out there. Well, for context, people who know cycling will know that Everesting is a thing. This is basically where cyclists will go out and find a hill or a climb and ride it as many times as necessary in order to summit Everest from an elevation perspective. It's interesting because earlier this week, Max Gawn and Ed Langdon and Hamish Blake...

[03:16] What did they do? I saw a photo. Everesting at Willunga Hill in Adelaide. On bikes. On bikes. Okay. But they did it on bikes, and I think that required 40 laps, 45 laps of Willunga Hill, which is part of the Tour Down Under for those of you that follow the race. But for old mate Gareth to go out and do that on foot, that's crazy. Isn't fitness just in its prime time at the moment? Yeah, it is. You could safely say there's never been more people doing more adventures. I'm going to give it a crack.

[03:46] Adventures. I'm going to have a crack. And it's cool. That's very cool. Might come around to a question if we get time later on around this. But yeah, we'll keep moving. The other question I had off the bat is Sean Bolger wrote in, he's got a dilemma and I thought you might be able to help him out with this, Liam. So you're going to shoot from the hip on whatever this is. You're going to Noosa. You're obviously in the Noosa tribe. I've heckled you a few times about Clydesdale, jokingly, but Sean's got a question, a dilemma around the Clydesdale category or age group.

[04:21] So it sounds like he's on the cusp. What's more impressive, a top 20 in the 30 to 34 category or a top five with the big dogs? Top five with the big dogs. Not even close. Top five with the big dogs. Not even close, Sean. But Sean, if you're running in this faux Clydesdale category, oh, you don't care, that's the 90 to 100 age group, you need to have some more KFC in the next four weeks. If you are a genuine 100 kg

[04:54] plus Clydesdale, own it, take pride in that, go win it, go top five. That age group is whatever. Don't get me wrong, they're all faster than I am. But still, age group is your age group. All right. At the end of the day, take your time and compare it to your age group. That's true. See how you would have gone against it. Actually, there's no reason you can't... Well, you can't compete in both officially. Yeah. But you can compare yourself to both. Compete in the Clydesdale.

[05:25] In my mind, the Clydesdale tier, it's elites, Clydesdale, age groupers. There you go, Sean. Enjoy it. Speaking of questions, and you talk about we are in our fitness era. We are. There's never been more adventures being had, people having a crack at everything. By the time people are listening to this, I will have sat at a breakfast event in Melbourne with the legend Eliud Kipchoge. It will have happened.

[05:58] It hasn't happened at the time of us talking now, but it will have happened. And we talked last week about the fact that I've been invited to this breakfast and I'd go down there and, who knows, maybe I'd be able to ask something, and you said if you get a chance to ask a question... Well, I got an email earlier this week that said, we're giving a small number of our media guests the opportunity to submit a question. Now, this event's being hosted by Steve Moneghetti, so Mona. It looks as

[06:30] though Mona is going to put the Q&A out to the audience, but it's preloaded. If there's something you'd particularly like to ask Eliud, please send it through and I'll add it to Steve's questions. But with your question, you asked me about my question. I'm all for you. You've got to go guns blazing with yours. This is your day. So I did ask you to send me through your thoughts. In the end, this is the question that I will have asked Eliud Kipchoge by the time people listen to this. Okay. How has your approach to running changed now that you're no longer solely focused

[07:03] on winning races? Perfect. Kind of combines it. Is that what you wanted to do? It kind of combines it. Yep. You've submitted your question, so we're not going to change it now. If you're listening along to our conversation here, when you're an athlete up there, I'm just wondering, what do you reckon is the question that would just kidney punch him, left side, unexpected? Because that's a pretty... and I want to know that, like that was

[07:36] similar to the question I asked around structure and a few things. And I'm assuming the majority of questions coming from a running media audience will be in that vein. But just for a moment, let's go completely left field. What do you reckon? He's up there ready, given the fact this is preloaded. So a good example was Albo the other day. Did you see the question he copped in America when he was accepting his peace award or whatever it was? It was an Australian journalist who pretty much just hit him with, hey, by

[08:09] the way, congratulations on winning your award, but how do you feel when back at home this is happening? Gotcha. What's a left field question you think would just stump him? Well, okay, let me just take a few steps back. I think with Eliud there's a language barrier, which means that he would want to know these questions in advance. Yes. I think he'll want to have time to formulate an answer in English around these questions. So we wouldn't be wanting to try and stump him necessarily. Also, I don't think that's good.

[08:41] At this sort of an event, and when I speak to people on radio or at press conferences and things, it's one thing to want to stump people with a question, but what does that achieve? What do you get if you... We're talking fictional for the podcast. No, I understand that. I would never. That's what I'm saying. I wouldn't put anyone in that position. But I'm just saying, what's interesting? And I'm not saying catch him off guard in a bad way.

[09:15] I'm actually just talking about, what is a question where it's, oh, wow, someone's never asked me that before. Pretty much. Because I was going to say, if you want me to stump him, I would just go, Eliud, can we get your thoughts on the recent ongoing positive tests that seem to be coming? I mean, yeah, let's not go down the negative track. I'm just saying something non-run related. If anyone's got one, shoot it through on the messages. But it's a good one, because those magic moments that you

[09:47] see turned into clips and viral moments with celebrities and actors and all the rest when they do press conferences is when you see them go, what a fantastic question, I've never been asked that before. Exactly. Exactly. So if I'm trying to generate one of those for Eliud Kipchoge, the GOAT of marathon running? Do you ever hate running? When was the last time you hated running? Okay. When was the last time Eliud Kipchoge hated

[10:19] running? See, I was going, okay, because it strikes me as though he loves it all the time. Yes. And he's always putting out a positive message around it. So I'd be fascinated to know, because we all have moments when we hate running. Yeah. I'd be really interested to know when the last time he hated running was. As you're saying that, this is where I landed. Okay. I was like, after any of your massive championships, have you ever just gone out on a massive bender? And if you have, who was it with? And what's your best memory of that?

[10:50] It's a good one too. It's a good one. Does he party? Has he ever? I mean, Usain Bolt we've seen in his element after events. As the distance running GOAT? Yep. That's a question I want answered. Interestingly, the key thing about both our questions is we're both trying to set him up to tell us a story about a moment in time. Yeah. And some interviewees aren't great at that.

[11:23] But look, here's the other thing about the question. He may not answer it. My question may not make the cut. Mate, mate, mate, get through the filter. So anyway. Speaking of Melbourne Marathon. How good. Speaking of Melbourne Marathon. Yes. It's here. You're running today as people will be listening to this. Yes. No. It's on Sunday. Oh, it's the half marathon on Sunday as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Have you decided on an official goal? So yes, kind of, yes. The classic Courtney Atkinson. Yeah, yeah.

[11:53] Kind of, sort of. Yeah, nah. I'll keep it to myself and tell you all afterwards. I was watching Jimmy Carr. Yeah, nah. He was over in New Zealand and I was watching those repeats. Yeah, nah. On the half marathon, there's this idea. You said it's the half marathon on the Sunday. So it is. It starts at 9:45am. What's the forecast? I don't know. I haven't looked. But the premise of that is, I think the idea is you can go to the stadium as a half marathoner to watch the finish of the marathon before you go to start.

[12:26] So effectively there's a chance that, you know... So get the half marathoners in there in the stadium to create a crowd. But my question is... I look forward to seeing how that goes. Well, my question is, the start line isn't in the stadium. It's down the road. How far away from the start line is the stadium? I saw it on a mud map, so it could be anywhere between 600 metres and 2 kilometres. I'm not sure. Down the road, let's just say. My question is, for the majority of runners, before you're trying to start a

[12:57] marathon, are you going to sit in a stadium to watch the finish of another race, or are you out warming up? You're probably not going to be warming up loosey-goosey. Yes, we'll see how it goes. Forecast, for what it's worth: mostly sunny, tops of 21, no rain. That's pretty good. It's pretty good running conditions. Well, it's probably not. And it should be cooler in Melbourne. Oh, so you're looking at running conditions in Melbourne? Yeah, yeah, Melbourne. Oh, okay. So that's the Melbourne forecast. So you won't have the humidity. Tell you what, I went for a run in Adelaide last weekend. And again, the lack of humidity is just a treat.

[13:29] If you come from one of the northern states and get to run in a humidity-free environment, you feel a lot fitter than you do when you come back up here and run. Anyway. This morning was one of them, with all that lightning around. Goal, please. Goal. Okay. So this is where I've landed. Right at the moment, I don't think I can run a half marathon. If I went to run a half marathon flat out right today, I think

[14:00] I'd pull up like a bag of shit. Okay. Very similar to Bridge to Brisbane. So where I'm landing is looking at going really conservative for the first half, kind of cementing that marathon pace I'm starting to try and look at, and then see how I can bring it home. And again, realistically, with the pace I'm going to go out at, a 75 will be a very tough task, to come home quick enough to make up for the distance.

[14:30] Because I had written down in front of me, 1:15:42. Yeah, I think if you'd asked me after Bridge to Brisbane, I would have said 100% I've got to be under 70, like well under 75. But realistically, after the last four weeks, we're thinking somewhere between 1:15 and 1:20. Yeah, the goal will be to get through halfway, or 10K, give or take, at marathon pace and then, you know, test out

[15:01] those new shoes and see how quickly the back end can come home. How are you feeling? I'm excited to race again. You've come off Bridge to Brisbane, illness. I'm not excited about the pace and the running, because it's not where I imagined I would have come up to after Bridge. Look, the plan's not going exactly right, but plans don't always go right. So that's fine. But what I am excited about is just getting out there with all the people racing, because I've just been away

[15:34] from these run events or racing events for so long. And Bridge to Brisbane, like I said, no one knew I was racing. Yeah, you were. Lucy Bartholomew signed up. She's coming down to race Melbourne Marathon. The marathon as well? I believe so, yeah. That'll be interesting to see. She's trying to get off the trails. Well, it's always really interesting to see when these trail runners jump in. Because we saw what happened with, oh, I'm going to forget her name, Luke's wife, Beth McKenzie, when she came off the trails and won the

[16:07] Sunshine Coast Marathon. Yeah. A couple of months ago, whatever it was. You bring that trail strength onto these road races and it can pay off. So I'm looking forward to seeing how Lucy goes. I'm curious to know what her top-end marathon is, a good marathon for her. Look, the thing coming off the long trails... I mean, Jan Frodeno was the example of this just recently over in Berlin as well. If you've been out doing 50K trail races, you're out there for four and a half hours, five hours. Yeah. So coming back to a marathon, the distance is no issue, it's all about pacing

[16:41] and structure. You've got the opposite problem, I always say. If you're from the trails, you've got the opposite problem with the marathon to what the majority of people are facing. Most people are facing an uphill battle against the distance, like I am at the moment. I want to run a certain pace; my challenge is, can I hold that pace over the distance? You're coming from the other side. You're like, well, I've been running and this distance is no trouble, can I speed up enough and maintain it? And I know where I'd rather be coming from.

[17:13] Quickly, speaking of Berlin Marathon, which you mentioned. I didn't have this one on the run sheet, but it had come across my algorithm. Have you seen Unofficial Official claim their biggest scalp from Berlin? I haven't seen them say claim the biggest scalp. I did see, well, Runner's World picked it up as well and quoted them. That's where I saw it. This is the Chinese fitness influencer who was spotted on a bike. Yeah. At the 38K mark, she was pictured on the back of a bike.

[17:48] She has 530,000 followers across social media and she's jumped on the back of a bike during the Berlin Marathon. Then she's come off and talked about what an incredible PB she just set. And then Brooks China, who was the account or the brand she was there with, has come out and apologised. Yep. Yep. I mean, to a degree.

[18:21] Let's just say to a degree. Now I think the onus... like, we've gone through enough years. Going back two or three years ago, this was all new. Having, let's just say, influencers, content creators really focused on running as a job, to be able to influence within running, right, as arguably some, not all, would be non-runners.

[18:51] So I think now we've gone through enough years where the onus is probably on the brand. I agree. To really audit those people that they want to use. Understand who they're using and then go, one, are they authentic? Yeah. Two, are they legit? And go through a bit of a process. But then on the flip side, the challenge to that, if I just sat on the other side of the fence, might be, well, even if that occurred, of the 500,000 people she reaches, do 497,000 of

[19:26] them even know? And I'm sure that's a conversation these brands are having internally every day: hey, is this a relationship worth pursuing even though it's a little bit inauthentic, because their reach is X? Or do we pursue absolute authenticity even though the reach is smaller? Yeah. We want to try and stay on the more positive side of running, but if you're more interested in this, go to Runner's World at the moment, because their last week has had not just that one from China, but

[19:57] they've had a few. Let's just say there's a few there that are in the, what do you call it, in the sights. Yeah. Well, speaking of staying positive, you're running Melbourne this weekend. I've entered a race. What have you entered, Liam? I have entered the Blackall. Oh, okay. 100, 21K race. The 21K. Oh. I thought you said 121K. No, no, no. The 21K race. But you're back at it. The 21K.

[20:28] I'm back to the trails next weekend. How? How? Well, this came about through friend of the pod, Mick Kelly. Okay. Who is an ambassador for Wild Earth. And after Mick came on the pod, Trail Trips as well... they reached out to Mick and said, oh, if Liam wants to come up and have a run around, we can help him out. So I'm headed up to... So this is not Steve's? Is this Steve's event? No, I think you're... Am I confusing them? Yeah. I think this is a Run Queensland. This is a Run Queensland.

[20:58] Yeah. Who put on some great events, especially up and around the Sunshine Coast. So this is the Wild Earth Blackall 100. Sorry, not trail trips, I've confused them. Yep. This is a Run Queensland event, presented by Wild Earth. They're the major partner. And I've jumped in on the 21K race. It's the first time I'll be back on the trail since UTA. Literally the first time. I'm excited because I've got that brand new pair of Nike Zegamas sitting there box fresh that have not been run in yet. Thank you to our friends at Nike. So I get to run in those.

[21:29] You're on. But I have stuffed up ever so slightly. What happened? This is where radio and running combine in not a good way. On the radio show at the moment, we currently own the Beachmont Hotel. For those of you that know the Gold Coast, up in Advancetown, it used to be called the Advancetown Hotel, it's now the Beachmont Hotel. Through the magic of radio, we've bought the pub for a month. Now the Blackall, the race is on the Saturday morning.

[22:02] Bib collection, everything's on the Friday. I've got to be at the Beachmont Hotel on the Friday night for our kind of final farewell thing. What it looks like, it's bringing back memories of when I did Noosa Ultra Trail a couple of years ago. You're looking at the car. Basically I'll be at Beachmont till this event finishes, jumping straight in the car, driving straight up to the Sunny Coast, a little camp down in the car and then onto the start line. Well, lucky you've got that huge car now.

[22:32] Yeah. But yeah, I've still got to figure out the logistics of how to make it work well, but I am excited because I get to get back on the trails. How good? Oh, yeah. I'm looking forward to it. I really am. Funny you mention that one, because I think we were talking about Blackall and I was like, I think I've done it, but I can't remember if I have. I can confirm I have done it. You've done it. And I've done the 21. Oh, you've done the 21. Okay, so I've got a time to chase. So I finished... This really shows how crap my memory is. I finished third. I've just Googled it myself.

[23:04] I finished third in the 21 event at Blackall. Oh, no. Who won? Tim Vincent? Yeah. Won. So that's okay. That's okay. Like, what's Tim now, a 2:09 marathoner? Yeah, he goes. Tate Herbst, who won the 50K at what's the UTM? UTA? No, no, what's the other UTA event? Yeah, so he won the 50K there two years ago.

[23:34] And you've come third. Got third. That's not a bad podium. I was only 20 seconds behind Tate, actually. That's not a bad podium. No, but I can remember this now, and I'm with you on the car. I was in the same situation. It was Ando from Wild Earth who I was with and another few crew from around the Goldie, and we all just rocked up the night before in our cars and parked in the... I don't think we were allowed to, but we just parked in the field. The area. The area, and just slept in the cars, got up, made our Jetboil coffees in the morning and then got into it.

[24:05] So, I mean, that's the beauty of these events, right? Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. And Mick tried to convince me to jump into the 50K, but for me the 21K will be more than challenging enough right now. So if the course is the same, you start down at the dam wall and then you go through a really nice, Gold Coast style, single track rainforest, and then you get up into roads and town and a range of stuff. Well, I'm looking forward to it. I've never run around there before and, you know, what we always talk about,

[24:38] that experience and running in new areas is half the beauty of running. You've got to go and explore new areas. So I'm looking forward to that. How good. The 21K is pretty... there's not a lot of mandatory gear required. Do you know, while we're on this, because it's a good segue, I want to give our local legend shout out right now. Go. For this week. Because Jordan Ryan sent this to us. Now, you've got it in the run sheet. You're going to help me with this Italian pronunciation.

[25:09] No, no, I want you to try. Jaime. Yep. I would say Casciaro or Casciaro. Casciaro. Yep. Okay. Probably Casciaro. That's fine. Yep. Jaime has been talking about Blackall. He's probably going to win it. Oh, really? Yeah. That's probably the easiest way I can say it. So what's interesting about Jaime, and this was a great call out for a local legend: in 2026, he won the Guzzler 50 in a course record.

[25:41] The Noosa Ultra Trail that you were up at. Yes. The ADK, he got first. Yep. And he won Bewer. He got third at the Blackall 50 in 2025. It says he's broken a course record in every single race that he's competed in. So that was Bewer, Night Trail, Mara, Noosa Ultra Trail, ADK, and the Guzzler 50K. But what's wild, and I reckon, if you're ever on the Gold Coast, we'd love to have a chat. And the reason is, it's not so much the results, it's the improvement he made from 2024 to 2026.

[26:12] So if you look at the Guzzler, for example, in 2024 he was at five and a half hours, still killing it, like sixth overall, but five and a half hours, to two years later, or even a year later, he's pulling nearly an hour out of that time to now, at the Guzzler, running course records. Hey, you know, this is someone that's doing the work, found something he loves and obviously... And the reason Jordan shouted him out is

[26:45] because he knew about him, because every time he goes out he's breaking a course record and beating him. Oh, yes, Jordan. Yeah, that's what Jordan said in his message here: I know if I see him at the start, I'm racing for second. And look, hey, Jaime, if you're down and you want to go for a run around, or come and have a chat with us, reach out. I reckon if you're heading there in two weeks, he's probably a hot favourite to take one of the events out. Quickly, I had one other thing I wanted to hit with you, and I

[27:16] just mentioned the crossover of radio and running. This is another potential crossover of radio and running for me. I've got to cop the gut shot. You talk about Eliud and hitting him with a gut shot of a question. I copped a massive gut shot on Sunday. Where? When I was in Adelaide. I got an email that came through and it was from Athletics Australia. So, Athletics Australia media release. I think I know where you're going with this.

[27:49] Nine becomes the home of Athletics Australia in landmark seven-year deal. Channel 9 has signed a broadcast deal with Athletics Australia to broadcast all those fantastic things we know, like the Maurie Plant Meet, the Adelaide International. Because they were with Seven. Yeah, they were with Seven. So all those fantastic events will be on Channel 9 till after the Olympic Games, which are also with Channel 9. Yep. For those that might not be aware, the radio station I work for is

[28:24] now a part of Channel 7. Yeah. Quickly on me, I was not in amongst it, but I had hopes or ambitions that maybe, with the work I do at the Gold Coast Marathon and the City2Surf and all the rest of that, at some point in the coming years... Made sense. I might have been able to just shoehorn my way into some athletics coverage as part of Channel 7. This was a gut shot. But here's the bigger reason. Okay. Where do we see Bruce now?

[28:56] Where will Bruce McAvaney be? Because I think he's the greatest sports commentator we as a country have produced. He has pulled back from his football commentary. Totally understand that. He's still involved with the horse racing, although Channel 7 doesn't have the rights to the Melbourne Cup, which is disappointing, that we don't get to see the best do the best. And I think Jason Richardson does an amazing job as well. I think Tamsyn Manou does an incredible job. I love their athletics coverage team, but particularly Bruce. In the twilight of his career, I'm really disappointed that the moments of Gout

[29:31] Gout and Lachie Kennedy and Torrie Lewis and Jess Hull and Cam Myers and this golden generation of athletes that I think we have, particularly on the track right now, won't have the soundtrack of Bruce McAvaney calling them. Do you think Nine will just contract him to jump ship? I'd be surprised if Seven let him. I don't know, maybe, maybe. But for me, I felt the personal gut shot, but that was more aspirational than anything. And then the reality, again, as somebody who commentates footy,

[30:05] when I picture rugby league games in my head, they used to have the voice of Ray Warren, Rabbits. Now they have the voice, in my mind, of Dan Ginnane. And when I picture AFL... The commentators paint the picture. The commentators elevate the moment. You think about Bruce and Cathy at that 400 metres, and Shane Gould as part of it as well, they always elevate the moment no matter how great it was. I still think Bruce, from a running perspective, is the best at elevating the moment. Yep.

[30:35] And I'll be disappointed if he's not there to elevate those moments because of broadcast deals. I mean, all things have to come to an end at some stage. And then it creates the opportunity, right, for someone, for a Liam Flanagan, to just step in. And for what it's worth, I think Brenton Speed, who commentates everything for Channel 9, is awesome, and whoever else they might pull into their world. Yep. But it was a good job. On that footy final again on the weekend. Oh, rugby league. Oh.

[31:06] Unbelievable. It was the NRL Grand Final, for those that might not have watched it. Roosters get it done by a point. Did you watch it? 100. Oh, mate. And who were you going for? Oh, Knights. Yeah. 100%. As everyone who's not a Roosters supporter was. Yeah, and you're just riding it with them. You're riding every time the bomb goes, oh, not again, and they just hold on, hold on. It was a great game to watch. To put it in... maybe you're not a rugby league fan, but maybe you

[31:36] love your running. To put it into a running comparison: imagine if in a marathon there are two runners going stride for stride the whole time, and then you see the data come out and one runner is just redlining. His heart rate's way too high. All the data says this bloke should not be in the race. Yeah, true. And then he ends up getting pipped on the line by half a second. I think an even better running analogy is you're running with someone, and one runner is definitely not as, let's say, fit, because you could see it

[32:10] was relatively a fitness thing as well. And the fitter person continually surges on them. And they stay. Yeah, that's better. And then they just run. The rubber band doesn't snap. This is better. I like this. And then they get back on their shoulder. Yep. And the fit one goes, what the hell? Like, what? And then they surge again. And they surge again. And they come and they come. And realistically, the field goal was like the last 100 metres, that surge, and the rubber band still didn't snap. It still didn't snap. But they just got there. They had nothing left. They half-stepped them.

[32:41] All the numbers, all the stats, all the data from that game says, and as Andrew Johns said, I was watching the Nine coverage of it, the Roosters should have won that by 50. Yeah. They should have won that by 50, and yet in the end the Knights go down by a point. But after the Lions game versus Freo, and then to have that happen the next week. Good stuff. Finals in both footy codes, I'm going to say it again, in the last few years finals for both codes have just been off the charts. The overall finals series. Just the series in general.

[33:12] The footy has been on fire. The pregame entertainment, he missed. Peter V'landys, it's the one miss he made. I don't... AFL wins that. Kylie versus what that was. Yeah. I know, yeah. Unlucky. Unlucky. Unlucky? I don't think it's unlucky. Well, yeah, sorry. I mean, yeah, bad. It wasn't well put together. Well, I think where he did do well on this is Australian artists work, and Kylie is an Australian artist as well.

[33:44] But I do believe we react to bringing in international superstars. Yeah. That works also in some elements. It can also go very wrong. Yeah, but true Australian artists that people love really work well on grand finals if they're pumping the crowd up. And this is where I'll go into this one. A few of the comments were, you're about to go into a grand final. And I understand the reason it was done, and all the... Yeah, no one's taking anything away from Jai Arrow here. But you're just about to try and get a crowd up to kick a footy

[34:17] game off for the grand final. Pump them up. Yeah, the choice to make it a sombre moment was a hard gear change to then go into his kickoff. Just on that, impromptu Liam's scheme, which isn't impromptu because I've actually suggested it before. If the NRL will let me into one planning meeting, here is the contract clause you insert for every musical pregame entertainment act moving forward.

[34:48] I don't care if it's Olivia Dean, who reportedly they were trying to get. I don't care if they end up getting the Rolling Stones out here. And I don't care if they end up getting Tones and I or some up and coming young Aussie act, Gang of Youths, whoever they get. Your fee is your fee, whatever we deem you to be worth, your set list is your set list. But just like the AFL always has Mike Brady up there playing, every band must finish with Simply the Best.

[35:19] Yep. In your own interpretation, do it in your own style. Because not only do I think that song most resonates with rugby league, it's locked in. It's the anthem of rugby league. But also then you start to build anticipation. Let's say, for lack of a better example, the Knights get back there and Silverchair gets locked in as the pregame entertainment because the wounds are healed and they've signed on to do it. Imagine all the buzz about, oh my gosh, I can't wait to see what

[35:53] Silverchair do with Simply the Best. Yeah. And then as time moves on, 10 years, 20 years from now, media outlets, whatever that looks like, radio stations are probably gone by then, but podcasts. And then you have these countdowns where it's like the five best versions of Simply the Best we've seen at the NRL Grand Final. And it creates consistency. It's for the game. And the crowd knows. It's an activation point where they go, here it is. What made me think, when you look at both, like Kylie at the AFL

[36:25] and some of their choices over the past few years, and then league and what happened this year. The question has to come back to, when they choose that artist, what are they trying to achieve by that artist being there at that time? Because you mentioned Olivia Dean. I think if they could have got her, that would have been next level, because every single... That age group and that entry point, young females

[36:56] who may have never tuned in before, they're all going to go in and watch, and at least you have the chance to expose them to a football game. Well, Lisa summed it up well on our radio show. To quote her, Kylie brought the girls and the gays. That's what Kylie brings to the AFL Grand Final. And if you're not already an AFL supporter but you're a Kylie supporter, suddenly you're there, and it's a different demographic that perhaps might not have been exposed before. Let's flip it. If your purpose is actually to celebrate your core, the people who do

[37:27] support you, are they actually bringing in acts all the time that contradict their core fans? Yeah, I would say they were. Like Macklemore four or five years ago when they brought him in. To your point, there's a Kiwi band called Six60. Now if you are... because I think I'm not... What are you saying? No, no, no. Rugby league, the participation rates, it's like 60% Pasifika.

[37:58] Yeah. So if you're actually about, you know, pleasing the majority, let's go find some Pasifika acts. Let's go find some New Zealand bands. Let's go find some Islander, Maori acts that represent the core of your sport. If that's your thinking. Hmm. Drum and bass. Six60 played here last weekend. A little bit of drum and bass wouldn't go astray before. See, now that would get the crowd pumped up.

[38:30] Absolutely. Absolutely. Anyway, let's move on from rugby league. I've got another... Let's go to some running. Another. This one was a prelim for the local legend, because we actually don't know who this local legend is. But Mitchell Woodbury pointed this one out to us. And again, when I talk local, this is local Gold Coast. So a young fella was spotted running up the Spit at pace holding a rubbish bag, picking up rubbish as he goes. Legend. That is a legend.

[39:03] Mitch was saying he was moving as he was doing this, with a full bag of shopping, kind of thing. Here's the other thing, because I saw that message from Mitch as well. The other thing I'd say about that fella is he doesn't look like he's filming it. No, no. Not that, you know, hey, we film stuff, I film stuff when we do stuff. But that's someone who's getting out and getting it done, whatever it might be, but they clearly respect and value their community and the environment that they run around in.

[39:35] He's got his purposes for being out. Obviously, the reasoning behind getting out there running... he's not quite in grey cotton but he's not far from it. If anyone knows who it is, let us know. Yeah, please let us know. We'd love to shout them out by name. Can we talk about, to go back to your world, the Olympic emblem? Yeah. What did you make of the whole process, the emblem itself? I'd love two-time Olympian Courtney Atkinson's thoughts. I kind of missed the boat on what happened, to be completely transparent, as

[40:09] in I was late to the party to the fact that... The jigsaw puzzle was happening? One, the jigsaw puzzle was happening, but two, that they'd really... It was an early release. It got leaked. It got leaked. Okay. But I like it. I mean, I don't like the fact it got leaked. I like the emblem. Okay. I mean... Say what you feel, Courtney, because you were at London and Beijing. Yeah, Beijing. Now, London's was a very controversial emblem.

[40:40] There were a lot of people saying, oh, it looks like two people being friendly with one another. Do you know what it was? It's impossible. Do you know what I will say? And I don't know why this is, but I felt like Gold Coast, and this may be because we're on the Gold Coast and not in Brisbane, but I just feel like there was a lot more atmosphere around the Gold Coast launch. Right, okay. Than the other towns where it came through. Yeah, and maybe not the emblem, but around... remember all the... and this is

[41:11] bad, I can't remember the... what was the mascot for Gold Coast? Borobi. Borobi. That's what I remember. For some reason, Borobi. We're still a long way out from these Olympic Games, and yet it is just the emblem. I like the fact that, if you talk about the cockatoo, Queensland, artistically it has something to do with Brisbane. It ticks all those boxes. When you're around that environment and working on it and part of it and

[41:45] everything else, in the end when you go to the Olympics, it's the Olympic rings. Yeah. Yeah. From a non-Olympian perspective, I think this is the greatest Olympic emblem of all time. Why do you say that? I think it ticks on every front. Is that because it's very understandable, it's not too far out there? Because sometimes emblems, you know, you need to interpret them.

[42:18] You need the artist to literally tell you the whole story to actually work out a squiggle. This is simple. If you see this emblem from afar, it could just be the Olympic torch. There's an Olympic flameness to it, right? Yeah. And then when you come in, you're like, oh, no, it's a cockatoo. Brilliant bird. If they try and get too clever and make the mascot anything but a cockatoo, I'll lose my mind, because it's right there. Don't overthink it. You've got it. Work out how to make it brilliant.

[42:48] And if you want to have a black cockatoo and a sulphur-crested cockatoo and the pink, great. And if you want to have a trio of them, fantastic. In fact, as I think about this now, impromptu Liam's scheme, that's what it should be. There should be three of them, right? But if they try and get too clever and go, oh, we're going to have a wombat, don't, just don't. It's there. You put it in the emblem. That's your mascot, okay? Yeah. But as you said, Olympic flame from afar, you get close to it, oh, no, that's the crest of a cockatoo. Brilliant.

[43:19] Then when you learn and you notice, again, I have unpacked this, when you unpack the fact that the map of Queensland is the rough outline. This is fantastic. The cockatoo giving a cheeky wink, I think that one's the hardest bit to notice, but nevertheless. And then when you look at the feathers, the fact that they're separated, three and two, to represent Brisbane 2032. I love it. The synergy is there throughout. I think the colours are fantastic. And I haven't seen... I'd love to see, because they said they shortlisted three.

[43:52] Okay. There were originally six, then they shortlisted three. This one was the overwhelming favourite. I would love to see what the other ones were, because apparently there was one that was an interpretation of the Brisbane River. But anyway, the other thing about this, my love of this emblem, I did a reel about it over the weekend on Instagram. It has resulted, with all due respect, Courtney Atkinson, two-time Olympian who follows me, in me now having by far the biggest, highest profile follower on my Instagram off

[44:25] the back of my reel. Brisbane 2032? It's not. It's bigger than them. Olympics? It's an individual who did not go to the Olympics. Let's play a quick little game. Okay. Guess. Go. Ask questions. Yes or no questions. Hit me. Sportsperson? Yes. Australian? Yes. Queensland? Yes. Multiple Olympics? Didn't go to the Olympics. Oh, sorry. Not an Olympian. There goes my memory. Not an Olympian. You told me that 10 seconds ago, didn't you? Not an Olympian.

[44:56] Cricketer? Not a cricketer. Footy? Not a footy player. Oh, God. Netball? Not a netballer. Not netball. What's the other one? Volleyball. Not volleyball. Beach volleyball. Not an Olympian. Okay, I was down the wrong track there. The sport is now at the Olympics. Surfer? Not a surfer. Skater? It is an individual sport, though. Not an Olympian. The sport is now at the Olympics. So skater, surfer, BMX. Put it this way.

[45:27] I don't necessarily think it should be at the Olympics, because it's definitely not the pinnacle of their sport. Golf. Golf. Who in golf? Someone you would be absolutely over the moon about. It's the first person I've ever been followed by that I've called my mates about. Adam Scott. Let it cook. Norman. The Shark. The Shark. I am now followed by the Great White himself on Instagram off the back of my just unashamed love of the Olympic emblem.

[46:00] Genuinely, when it happened, I picked my phone up and I'm like... I can't say I've ever looked at the Shark. Shark. Well, we've all seen that famous photo of the Shark. I spent a good five minutes just checking that it's actually him. So have you slid into his DMs? No, I don't want to start. I haven't posted anything since, because I don't want to mess it up. Look at him. There he is. Blue tick and all. There he is. So I don't want to mess it up, Courtney.

[46:30] I'm interested now what Greg Norman would... Anyway, interestingly, he was there at the emblem presentation. I can see he's posting, so he's involved. He's involved. So I know you're already involved, but I'm finding another way in for us to be the official podcast of the Olympic Games. I'm sure. There's someone I'd love to sit down and talk to, Greg Norman. We talked about our favourite dream guest the other week. Imagine getting to sit down to

[47:02] talk with the Great White Shark. Yeah, good. Just looking at his post on the cockatoo. Yes. It does look good. I'm going to come back around, Liam, and say it is a good looking emblem. I think it's a great emblem. It is a good looking emblem, and you can't mistake it. And I can't remember if it was Liveris or Schrinner the Mayor, but they talked about the idea of these logos too. Libby Trickett, who did the voiceover for it, I thought she did a fantastic job. She talked about how instantly it made her feel the right way, that

[47:34] gut feel that you get about it. And you imagine that logo emblem on pins and on shirts and on hats and it just works. I just went to Sydney's logo. Yeah. It's fine. I couldn't remember it. It's fine. Yeah. And look, again, at the time, I remember buying a Sydney Olympic hat when I was over in Sydney, because it was starting to appear on hats and all the rest of it. I think it's a pretty iconic logo too, but for mine I just love

[48:08] the guitar. Sorry, the cockatoo. This is the one I remember. Really like the lion. Yeah, that's the 2012 one. That one was very controversial because no one could interpret what it meant. Was it a lion? A lion? English lion? Is that what it was? See, I don't know. I don't know. The numbers are 2012, but I don't know what it was meant to represent. To me, that looks like a lion. Anyway, I think you've heard it here first that the mascots, plural, for the Brisbane Olympics should be three galahs.

[48:41] Sorry, cockatoos. You should have a black cockatoo, like a red-tailed. Yeah, the red-tailed black cockatoo. Do you know by far my favourite bird is the galah? The pink galahs. Yeah, pink galahs. Why do you like them so much? The reason I like them is when you're out in West Queensland and you're in the towns and you just get the big flocks of galahs. That makes me feel like being out there. What I have noticed, which is unique, around the coast at the moment, down at the Spit, when I'm running around, pink galahs are around.

[49:14] That is strange. They're not as common. But imagine if you have the three mascots, which is Blackie, Pinkie and Sulphie, for want of better names. You have a sulphur-crested, a pink and a red-tailed black. I couldn't agree more. On the money. Well done. On the money. All right. Onwards. Onwards. I'm still looking at the Shark. Who is the most high-profile person that follows you on Instagram, Courtney?

[49:45] Would you even know? Oh, no. If you had to guess, because mine is a very clear number one. High profile person that would follow me? I don't know. Who would I talk to? Have you got Jason Richardson on there? He's probably not the most high profile, but he's there. I'm flicking through yours very quickly. Oh, you've got football teams. Yeah. You've got the Newcastle... no.

[50:15] Hold on. Are you followed by... What are you doing? They don't follow you, surely. Stoner? Motorsport is always my... I mean, I don't really look at who follows if I don't know them. Some of my favourites, obviously being quite close to motorsport, people like Mark Webber, Casey Stoner, they're the ones I enjoy watching, what they get up to around the world, because they're retired

[50:46] now, but they still live such an interesting life. You know, Casey's still testing for Ducati. Mark's always around Porsche doing stuff. Well, Bathurst this weekend too. Yep. Have you ever been to Bathurst for the race? Which was the footy team, by the way? No, I thought the Newcastle Knights followed you, but I was looking at a different one. So you would have multiple. Do the Broncos follow you? I doubt it. Hey, Pendles is in town too, by the way. Have you already caught up with him? No. Oh, okay. There was a knowing wink from Courtney just there, off camera. No, no, no. I don't know. I'm excited.

[51:17] He looks weird in red. Talk about things that we like the look of. Have you seen him? Like the Olympic emblem. Yeah, they've dropped the first images of him in the Suns uniform. And it's a very cleverly put together video, jump on the Suns Instagram, because it starts with him in black and white. The whole video is in black and white. And then it cuts into colour and he's in the red of the Gold Coast Suns. I don't care what they do, there are going to be those meme videos, the AI ones. That's true. That was peak Gold Coast for him.

[51:48] But it was funny, because he went to the club and obviously came out wearing a Suns polo, and his daughter was there. And he's like, what do you think, kids? And the daughter said, Collingwood. Oh, really? Straight up. He's got a little bit more work to do on her there. But it's going to be interesting to see, because there's some people suggesting that he won't make the second year of his deal as a player. He'll obviously be on the list, but they don't actually think he'll make the field. I think he will. I think he'll go somewhere between 12 to 14 games in year one and probably

[52:20] somewhere between 10 to 12 in year two. He's a pro. I'm looking forward to seeing what he does. The club's on holidays at the moment, so... Yeah, I've reached out to the club. Not much. I can't imagine too much is going on over there. Yeah. Hey, I've got one listener question that I wanted to bring in today, and it's probably something we can come back to a little bit in the future as well. This one's from JA, so Jonty. Loved the ep last week. A couple of takeaways. And maybe you might need to translate this a little bit for me.

[52:51] Does allowing the Olympics to have coaches from outside of country allow the most growth and then just elevate the sport as a whole by having the best of the best coach? That doesn't make sense, does it? Say that for me. Does allowing the Olympics to have coaches from outside of country, yep, allow the most growth and elevate the sport as a whole by having the best coach? So maybe this is to do with rugby. No, no, this makes sense. So the idea... Well, yeah, I mean, we see it in rugby union in particular, when Australia,

[53:24] the Wallabies, historically before Les Kiss currently, had Kiwi coaches, Robbie Deans and all the rest of it. And we saw it with the UK, or with Great Britain, taking all our swimming coaches. Yeah. I mean, it's been happening a lot. Does allowing the Olympics to have coaches from outside the country allow the... Yes, I think dispersion of knowledge leads to growth, because you take a whole bunch of athletes, or you take a whole set of... This is really a question for you, not me.

[53:55] Yeah. The idea that... Oh, well, I'm like, yes, I'm with you. The performance we're seeing and the evolution of sports, especially, I'm talking more endurance now, there is no doubt that that's information being cross-pollinated across the globe. Globalisation of information is definitely when, you know, someone works something out and then they transfer it, whether they move to another country or it's simply

[54:27] given information out. You know, we talk about footy coaches jumping teams, but even in cycling, for example, if you're a coach at one team or you're a sports scientist at one team and then you go to the next team, you're taking that information, then sharing it with new teams, new ideas. So a hundred percent that's working. But my allegiance to country, I still feel very strongly about competing equal on your country's strengths, and that's where I always still struggle when I see

[54:59] one of our country's coaches going to coach another country. Yeah, we've gotten into this a little bit before. Yeah. Internally there's still a struggle for me with that. I get it, it's about business, money, a range of things, but if we're going to go to the Olympics and compete country to country, let's try... I see where you're going. Yeah. Let's try and keep the competitive advantage you have to the country you're trying to win for. We spoke about this, what was it, late last year or

[55:34] early this year, whenever the Commonwealth Games were, I can't even remember. They must have been this year, because there was that one coach who was literally replacing... Oh, no, it was at the Winter Olympics last year. Yes, and he was changing his top. And he was literally changing... Because he was coaching multiple athletes, yeah. His jacket, because he was coaching all these different athletes from different nationalities. It's funny though, and this is where the IOC has a really tricky job, because your individual Olympic committees have no responsibility

[56:06] theoretically to look after the other countries. I used to think this about Eddie McGuire. I'd sometimes watch Eddie, and I have enormous respect for Eddie McGuire, but I always used to look at him when he was the president of Collingwood and just think, oh, mate, you're the president of the wealthiest club, the biggest club, you've got everything. And yet you just seem to be always asking for more. And it was really only probably three, four years ago that I had a moment, I think it was maybe even watching Chris

[56:39] Scott at a press conference as the coach of Geelong. Someone asked him something about an issue going on elsewhere, and he said, it's got nothing to do with me, I'm the coach of the Geelong Football Club. Or words to that effect. And I kind of just went, even though in my mind I like the idea that these individuals in these positions of power, and I'm thinking about Olympic committees now, would want to do the right thing for the greater good, ultimately it's not their responsibility. Their responsibility is to do the best thing by their employer, whether it be

[57:14] the Collingwood Football Club or whether it be the Australian Olympic Committee. That's where the IOC are the ones that need to really go, hey, this might seem unfair to you, Australia, but it's the right thing for Mali, or this might seem unfair to you, America, but it's the right thing for Pakistan. Yeah, I mean, look, the ship's well and truly sailed, well before even the Sydney Olympics, on the globalisation of coaching and everything else. But I still do sit there and go, you know, especially around footy and

[57:46] you're like, ah, when it's countries' coaches jumping from one national team to the next, when the basis is they're competing for their country. How do you feel now that Kalyn Ponga is going to be representing New Zealand at the Rugby League World Cup? Yeah, I mean, I don't know. Still repping Queensland though. Yeah. We'll take him. Anything to help Queensland, we'll take him. Kind of goes against every argument I just made. Hello to all the New South Welshmen out there.

[58:16] And the other thing, which I thought we might be able to pick up in future weeks if we don't have time for this, is Johnny. From John D. Yeah, still on Johnny, saying we'd obviously talked about the placebo effects of some supplements, you know, whether they do anything or make any difference. Not just with supplements, what are some of those placebo things over time that we've seen?

[58:47] And his example was the balance bracelet, the Power Balance. What have we seen over time? And maybe we'll go and do some digging on this and come back with some. What are some of those things over time that we've seen, and then you'd go now, like, oh, what was everyone thinking? This is almost crossing the streams with what we talked a bit about last week with the shoe, Adidas' new shoe with a gear in it to change from soft to hard. We might be able to integrate a list of placebo effects in sport combined with, yeah, equipment,

[59:22] fads. What's come and gone? What at the time you couldn't do without, and now you would just laugh? Every golfer was wearing one of those balance bracelets and now I don't feel like you see them quite as much. I wonder if Whoop straps will start disappearing a little bit, or we'll see less of them, because it went through a phase where everyone was sporting a Whoop. I think they're still very popular. They're different though. It's unfair of me, because I think Whoop clearly provide data. It's different to a balance bracelet.

[59:53] It's very different. Yeah. We'll try and remember to do some digging on that one and come back. And anyone else who's got some thoughts on it, or ones that you've seen over time, shout out. Yeah. Nice one. All right. Is that us done? Yeah. Good luck to everyone running down in Melbourne. Is Gold Coast 50 this weekend or is that next weekend? It's this weekend. Good luck to everyone on there. Good luck to everybody running the Gold Coast 50. I met the Gold Coast 50 organisers the other weekend. Seemed like a great bunch. I hope that everything goes really well for everybody out there. We mentioned the Melbourne weather forecast.

[60:25] What's the forecast for the Gold Coast this weekend? If it's anything like this morning, it's steamy, shit running weather. It was proper lightning, thunderbolts. Rain, wind, yeah. Here we go, sticky days ahead. This is for the weekend. Oh, no. 28 and 29 degrees with showers, so it'll be sticky as well. It's going to be sticky. Have fun out there on the... Have fun out there on

[60:57] the concrete. We'll see you next week. See you next week.