I’m told you built a motorbike a couple of years ago. True?

I did. I had motorbikes and other stuff growing up in Wagga, so I’ve always been interested in that kind of thing. Then a few of the boys went through – I guess I’d call it a phase – where we decided it would be good to get bike licences and save on some of the parking fines that we were getting at the beaches. I decided to buy a 1980s model motorbike that was on its last legs, and do it back up. I got a Suzuki GN250 and started taking it all apart.

We had a garage at our old house, when I was living with Matthew Flynn and Rory Lobb. So I basically started by just pulling the whole thing apart in there. It was in pieces in the garage for ages. The boys were giving me a hard time, saying it would never go back together. I swapped out a lot of the parts because being so old, a lot of them just needed to go. So I did that, stripped it all back and painted it all, re-did the air filters, the suspension, all that stuff. It came back together after about six months. I started it up, it worked and it’s still good and going. The only problem now is my bike licence has expired, so I can’t ride it at the moment. Which is probably a good thing. Mum thinks it’s a good thing.

She wasn’t happy?

I didn’t tell her for a while. Then I wanted to show her my project and she got suspicious and obviously started asking questions about why I was doing that. I had to break it to her. But I haven’t ended up using it all that much really, it was just the novelty of it, and the accomplishment of fixing it up. I’ll probably look to sell it soon and maybe even make a little bit off it.

How did you know what you were doing, did you make it up as you went along?

I had a decent idea. Like I said, I’d pulled bikes apart before. They were more off-road ones though. This was a bit more complicated. But I think you can pretty much find anything you want on YouTube now. I watched a fair few clips, looked into what to do with the fuel tank and things like that. I liked to work it out on my own as much as I could, but I definitely didn’t want to get anything wrong.

Was it a fun thing to do?

It was actually a good challenge. I wish I was doing it at the moment, to be honest. I might need to buy another one and do the same thing. It was just something different to do outside of footy. I’d get home from training and go straight into the shed and do that for an hour before dinner. It just filled in that time really well. On my days off I was spending a lot of time in there as well, it kept me occupied for sure. I just think it’s a good skill to have in general, knowing how to fix stuff up if you happen to get in some trouble. That’s something I learnt growing up with Dad, as well. Living on a bit of land, we were always fixing all sorts of things up. We lived on the outskirts of town but we had three acres that backed onto a reserve as well. We may or may not have taken down some fences and taken the bikes out there at times.

Did the boys really doubt you’d get it done?

I did cop a bit. I think some of them did doubt me. When I was painting the fuel tank I accidentally got a bit of overspray on Rory Lobb’s car. He wasn’t very happy about that. But I think he then just went and sold his car rather than getting it fixed. So I was copping a bit. They all thought it was going to stay in pieces forever, so that motivated me to make sure I got it done.

Surely they helped out?

A bit. I’m very into my 4 wheel drive and Lobby was as well, so we used to do heaps of stuff together with our cars. I think Flynny has taken over the project manager hat since then. He’s pretty much completely useless on the tools, but I’ve never seen someone who will just stand there and watch someone else doing something for as long as he does – and still be half interested. I’d say he was good for company. He has no idea, but he does love to watch and learn. If you need a bit of muscle to help lift something, that’s where he comes in handy.

Was it a good feeling then, when it did start back up?

It was. It had 3000 hours on it when I bought it and in the first two weeks after I finished putting it back together I think I put another 500 on it straight away with a ride every now and again. I was always confident, but it was a good feeling, a bit of an accomplishment, when it all turned out how I wanted it to.

What other projects have you got on the go?

I was doing graphic design but I’ve switched over to a business studies course now at uni. I wanted to do something a bit broader, and I’m enjoying that. I’m doing accounting at the moment so there are lots of numbers to keep me thinking. I have a lot of interests outside footy but I was doing those things anyway – graphic design, video editing – and one of my goals in life is to own my own business one day, so the new course should help with that. The other stuff I can always do for fun without having a degree in it. I’ve just started doing custom painted footy boots; I actually did Lachie Whitfield’s for the bushfire game. I had some other pairs I was going to roll out during the season, but they’ll have to wait and I might even get a few more done in the break. I made a clothes rack for my room last week, just out of some metal piping and timber. And I made, like, an interior bench seat out of some old pallets for Isaac Cumming and his girlfriend, for their house. 

Anything else?

Other than that I just spend way too much money on my car. Once you get into the 4 wheel drive world things start to get expensive. I found that out pretty quick. It’s good fun though and there’s about six of us now who have 4 wheel drives so we go camping on days off. It started with Dawson Simpson, he’s the one who got us all into it. Jye Caldwell is the latest addition; me and Jye drove to the beach up near Newcastle a few weeks ago, drove out on the beach and that was good fun. It’s a good thing to do to get away on a day off.

You’re living with Tim Taranto and Flynny – how is isolation going?

It hasn’t been too bad so far. The other two boys are in rehab so they’ve been busy with that. We’ve been doing a lot of cooking. We were talking about it the other day and saying it’s probably made us form some better habits, cleaning the house all the time and doing all this cooking. We’re all doing uni, so we’ve been putting heaps of time into that as well. Some of these habits we’re building now might even help us when it’s all over and we can get back to the club and start playing again. So we haven’t been too bad. We’ve been able to keep busy and find a bit to do, but give it a few more weeks and I can guarantee we’ll be sick of each other.