School is back and Exporting Goods has what you need to win your year. We've got everything from cleats to sambas, dunks and more. Plus, the hottest looks from Nike, Jordan and Adidas. Find your first day fits in-store or online at dicks.com. SNWA breakfast, Tim Gossage and Ash Brazel with you. But I had a chat, of course, before we came on air officially today, with Lloyd Meek because he's coming back to WA. Of course, the Fremantle Football Club for a couple of years, played 15 games, he's already played 26 with the mighty Hawks and they're in a bit of form. They take on the Eagles on Sunday here at Optus Stadium. Lloyd, appreciate your time. Looking forward to coming back to WA. Thanks, Tim. Thanks, Tim. Yeah, always mate. Always love that at the Sunny West. It's been pretty bloody cold here in Melbourne, so no, absolutely. Always looking forward to getting back and, yeah, to be good. Hopefully, good trip flying over Saturday morning. And the boys are in a bit of form, which is a really good attempt to win five consecutive games for the first time since 2018. And you've been a big part of that success in more recent times. You've found your mojo and I think you've been well rewarded with the constant games and making a difference. Thanks, mate. Thank you. Yeah, it's been really nice for you to be recognition. And obviously, last year, I still managed to paint a few games, but, yeah, you always want to sort of be in that sort of top spot and to be able to do that, this is been really good. And, yeah, it's been fun that it's been really fun. And I think we've got a lot of energy amongst the young group and, yeah, really loving and obviously everyone loves winning. So hopefully, we can keep doing that. Everyone's on the right track, they believe, regards to Hawthorne and Sam Mitchell's coaching and his belief in the way the group has been constructed. And at the moment, you sort of in the mix for a possible eight, final eight berth and a finals appearance. Do you look that far ahead as a group? I would love to say no, and I'll take it while we look higher. We'll always please change that. I'd be lying to your face, mate. Everyone thinks about it and everyone talks about it. And at the end of the day, we all want to play finals. But whether or not that happens this year, next year, the year after, we'll be working towards it the whole time. And we talk about it, but you obviously can't let it distract you from the job at hand. And it's a tough competition. And I think this year, especially even the last month, like you see just from pretty results is, yeah, it's changed a lot from the first few rounds to the last two in terms of the latter position and who's hot and who's not. So yeah, hopefully we can just keep capitalizing onto momentum. Tell us a bit about your own form. Tell us a bit about what you did. Have you done anything different in 2024 as opposed to your first year with Hawthorne? I mean, we all talk about big men taking a long time, but you've been around enough now. And I've always vowed to a lot of people that you were for the size of you are. And not just hype, but also the bulk and the strength that you've got incredible below your knees when the ball's on the turf. Great follow-up. Has that been a part of your game, which you've tried to sort of dine out on again this year? Because you seem to have found something. You know, tackling rate is up. Disposals are better. And of course, they hit outs and go with it. Thanks, Frank. Thank you. Yeah, it's a funny one, Michael. I wish that I had some magic answer. And I think there's a few who have asked me this, and I feel like it's always a generic answer, but it's boring, but a lot of the time success is boring. And I feel like it's just been literally a case of 1% marginal gains over... This is my seventh or eighth year in the system now, so it does take time. And I used to hate when people used to say to me, "Oh, I'd like big details to take time." Like, you'll take a bit more time to come on. I used to get so filthy with them, but it's like, oh, seven years down the track, that I'll probably write. In terms of what I've changed, it hasn't been much. I think I was lucky that I was able to lay a really good foundation down with some great coaching at Freer. And then since I've come to Hawkes, obviously learning a whole heap of new ideas and whatnot. And I got a bit lucky at the start of the year. The couple of things that fell my way, like the ruck center dance rules changed, which sort of like helps someone of my dude more than the athletic club. Little things like that sort of fell helpful in my favour. But obviously, statistically, when you're around the ball a lot more, your numbers are going to look a bit better as well. So I've been getting involved in a lot more ruck on tests and, yeah, shouting a load, which I'm loving, so. Yeah, 45-hit outs, 46 and 45-hit outs. A lot of those, and I mentioned the tackle count. One area of your game, which you've never really been, it's never been your strength. And I think we get caught up in stats a lot of the time, but we always, you know, you would have known living over in Perth as long as you did. You know, Nat Nui doesn't mark the ball and Sandaland's never marked the ball. What's wrong with the ruckman these days, don't mark the ball? You're not a prolific mark taker either, and I don't think many ruckmen are in the true sense. Why is that? Yeah, it's a good question. And I don't think it's something that I really aspire to be. And I've worked on it a lot, and I feel like when I was playing some of my best waffle footy, it was really off the back of being able to take, you know, five, six, contest the mark of the game. And I think it will come for me. It's just at the next level, it's tough to do, especially when, like, you're often not one out, just one on one, like you are in a pack, and rucks in a tourist note to getting hangers taken on top of them and things, the sitting ducks. So that makes it a bit harder to clunk it as well, but I'm still working pretty hard on it. I think a lot of it is timing, and yeah, reading the flight of the ball, like you look at guys like Gawney, and he's one that marks the ball exceptionally well, and a lot of it, obviously, he's got incredible reach, but just timing and craft. And it's so many changing dynamics. So no marking contest is ever going to be the same as the one before it. So, yeah, I've had some games where I've been able to hang on to a few, and then my last early month, or around my injury has, yeah, not been as many, but definitely working on it, man. Definitely working on it, because I think it is something that's pretty pivotal to my role. - Yep, Lloyd Meek is our guest, head off Sunday's Crash, of course, with the West Coast Eagles. More on the match up there with Flynn and Bailey Williams. Why Hawthorne? Why did you choose Hawthorne? - Well, I know, obviously, a club comes to you, or your management that says, hey, he's the type of player we want, probably starved of opportunities at Freeo, because at Freeo, now I stand corrected on this, Meeky, but you played round 12 against Brisbane, and you don't play again to round 23 against the Giants. You were not interested in that time, will you not? - No, no, not. Like Touchwood had a really good run to that period. So, yeah, just falling behind, obviously Sean Darcy and Rory Log were holding the splits down. During that time, where you're not getting a game and you're putting your hard work in and training hard, and everyone could see that, you know, we're probably at a different club, you were gonna get opportunities, and now we look at Hawthorne. So, you know, we're crystal balling here down the track. Was it really frustrating, and were you looking? You and I had a funny little deli, on to speak, at a function, all right? So I said, come on, tell us what you're gonna be doing with your career. Had you decided at some stage that you were gonna seek to get out? Was it because you wanted to play more footy and you felt like you were gonna be behind Sean and whether it be Rory, but it wasn't Rory, it's now Luke Jackson. Did you, at the time when you were playing for Peel and not getting an AFL game, did you feel like you're always gonna upstumps and go somewhere? - Oh, yeah, obviously the number one goal always was I'm gonna crack into this team, and I'm gonna try and dominate the lower levels as much as I can to make sure that I'm in that team, and, yeah, you try and try and try your heart out mates for four or five years, and then sometimes you just gotta take a side step and not so much. I really didn't look at it as conceding that I wasn't going to be there, but it was, it realistically, like those two, like with Luke Jackson coming in, Sean Darcy staying, they're incredible players, and I was never, I've tried for five years to get ahead of them, and credit to them, they were, or credit to Sean mainly, like, obviously it's superstar, so, yeah, I had to look around, and it's always sort of in the back of your head, but I tried not to let it distract me, and I think that, sometimes it was a bit of a motivator, even 'cause it was sort of like I'm playing for more than just my spot in this team, when you are going back down to sort of, to play waffle footy, but yeah, and I realistically, I think rocks especially, you have to really have to look at it 'cause it's not just a specific role, and there's only so many in the team, you obviously have to look at your options, and yeah, luckily, hopes were happy to have me, and had a little bit of interest, which is probably rare for someone with my position, like you said, I'd only played 15 or so games, and I wasn't really lucky in a position to pick and choose too much, but I was lucky to have a bit of interest just 'cause of the way that the rock system works. So, yeah, I couldn't be happy with the decision in hindsight now and that. - Yeah, no doubt, and to doing some great things. Hey, a couple of weeks ago, you were out 12 and 13, you had Cyndas Moses, now, again, it's sort of like Cyndas Moses, it's a very special name, what is it? What was the injury? - Yeah, so, yeah, I thought the decision had been about this 'cause they sort of have a laugh and say, like, the Cyndas Moses pandemic on now, because apparently that's only any ankle injury that anyone does is now diagnosed as that, but the truth of it is that they're just a lot better at diagnosing it, and that this same injury would have been around for ever, obviously, but they just didn't know what it was. A long time ago, pre-all the scanning and whatnot, so. It's basically the ligaments that hold you and people that are together sort of then bend down around your ankle, until I just tore two of those, basically. So, it's essentially a bad ankle sprain, but then depending on the severity of it, they can sometimes require surgery, and then it's really just all based on your function as how quickly you can come back. Like, I was lucky that, obviously, annoying to miss two weeks, but some guys have missed, you know, seven, eight, or doing surgery, it's, you know, even more. So, luckily, it was able to get back for the Richmond game, and then brought up a little bit. So, that, funnily enough, had the buy, which has worked out kind of well in a funny kind of way, and I'm feeling really good this week, if I could have had a train earlier in the week and have a good hit out tomorrow, pre-coming over to take on the Eagles. - Yeah, big one, okay. Bayley Williams and Matt Flynn, you probably, did you play against Flynn when he was at the Giants? He's coming back, he's only a sort of month back from long-term injury as well. He would have played against Bayley Williams, I am sure, at some stage, they're not, you know, we're not talking, no one, don't be disrespectful, but they're not an agrade combination, but at the same time, he's Matt Flynn, he's tough, he's a big body, and we know Bayley Williams has got some serious hopes, so you know you're going to be up against it. - Yeah, definitely, without a doubt, and that's one thing I've really noticed this year, being able to string a few games together in the front half of the year was that every single week, like, Rucks are so one-on-one, you're coming up against a good player every week, like there's no weeks where you can sort of roll in and think, like, ah, this Rucks, you know, he's no good, because he's so raw or something like that, which you might get away with in the lower levels sometimes, whereas every week you've got to be on and at the top of your game. So, now those two, as you said, they're both great players and both have a good set of strengths. I think I've played Matt Flynn twice and Bayley Williams a fair bit through all of our waffle, and obviously the freer West Coast pracky games that will happen every start of the year and not so. Yeah, and be able to look at some old vision and work out a bit of a game plan and, yeah, looking forward to the challenge, right? - Gonna be huge. Hey, there's been a bit of talk this week, and a lot of it's been coming out of Melbourne, in particular, Jared Whiteley, and a few others have been talking about the condition, the aesthetics, first and foremost, of Optus Stadium, but also, Tom Barra said it's sort of, it's just painted grass and it's a bit awkward. J-Grow Meara said there's some really good patches, but some really bad patches at the same time. You've played there. What's your experience at Optus Stadium? - I love the stadium itself, obviously, the aperture of dudes and the way that it's built and everything's so modern. Obviously, it's probably a little bit different when you're playing there in a hostile environment, compared to when you're playing there with the purple arms behind you, and they're all spearing your arms, so we'll talk about that. And, yeah, no doubt, some boys will bring the metal studs over or the hybrid brutes, I should say. And for a bit of grip, but yeah, I couldn't be happy with the stadium. It's awesome, and I think all the every WA footy person that's been over there, I don't think anyone would talk too negatively of it. - No, very much so. And we've always talked, of course, the WA teams and you are part of that journey for the years that you're at Fremand, or traveling across, you know, your seven foot 47. So let's talk about business class and exit row seats at Miki. Or be it a sort of wet behind the years, and talk, do you get the business class? Do you get the exit row? Do they look after you? - I do get an exit row, mate, and that's all I'm after. I'm very grateful for a bit of legroom on the longer fly, but it's actually funny how many people within the Victorian clubs say, like, oh, I can't believe I'm free on West Coast, have to travel that far every second weekend. And it's like, yeah, it just sort of becomes routine. And I feel like, from, I know, within three or anyway, no one really ever complained about it. It was just what you did. And it's all you know, so, yeah, I think we're pretty lucky. We've obviously got our affiliation with Tazy, but the 45 minutes light doesn't even compare to the four hour, four hour one across the Malabore. So, now it would be a bit of downtime on the plane. And I think there's a couple of guys that might have died over a bit earlier, just to rest the body and get that extra day, but the rest of the team will fly Saturday morning. - Good stuff. Hey, mate, and when you come over here, do you catch up with some, will you catch up with anyone? You know, some teammates who are not traveling for the dockers or any sort of friends that you made over your time here in Western Australia. Could you hear for a long time? Do you try and do a bit of a catch up? - Yeah, yeah, I will, mate. I will, yeah, I've obviously got some close, close mates and always will have. And my partner's actually flying over as well, so she's coming over to see a few of her friends. And, yeah, we're going to all stay Sunday night after the game and see a few familiar faces, but, you know, something, which would be good fun. - Yeah, I'm going to be even better if you get the win against West Coast. It's going to be a real danger game. Harley Reid's back, too, if you didn't know. Making Harley Reid. - I had heard, mate, I had heard of the guy. - He'll be in the conversation and he'll be around your feet somewhere. He's sort of certainly lit up WA football, as you would know how isolated we are with our two team down, but he's certainly come out of plenty of attention. Appreciate your time to chat with me on our show today, mate. And travel safe, play well on the weekend, and hit him straight when you hit the golf course. - Yeah, thanks, Tim. Thank you. Not much golfing from now, unfortunately, but looking forward to it. Looking forward to getting over. Thanks for having me. - Good on you, mate. There he is. Lloyd, make joining us from the Hawthorne Football Club. We know him so well for his time at the Fremantle Football Club. This is a Goss and Ash. Ash Brazel, Tim Gossage with you on its Friday morning.
