Jock 2 Jock featuring Tory Taylor - "Final Show (featuring Stuart Taylor)"

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Thank

you for watching.

This one will be the final football episode of the season, featuring my guest, Tori Taylor.

But I thought we would make it a special episode of Jock to Jock.

A special episode in that we welcome Tori's father to the program.

Please introduce yourself, sir.

Stuart Tyler, Tori's dad.

He is busy for having me sober on.

Absolutely.

And thank you for taking time.

Stuart is with us right now.

He is in Australia.

Tori, how often do you talk to your

dad?

Probably about I'll be what three or four times a week then yeah, I'd say at least yeah, probably probably three or four times a week I mean, it's kind of like hard because I'd say like most Sundays or pretty much every Sunday here and then yeah a couple more times Talk to my dad more than anyone in terms of like a phone call or anything like that I don't really chat to too many people by a phone Back home made my little brother or my mom or grandparents here or there a fair bit, but yeah, I'd say

I'm at that at least three or four times, for sure.

That would be right.

Stuart, when you have, as your boys are growing up, did you ever imagine that one of them would join a team on American football, join in college, go into America to play as a punter on a football team?

Never.

Never in a million years.

My wife and I had no idea.

We were more alluding to the fact that if you choose

whatever sport or vocation as long as you're enjoying yourself that's the main thing but I must admit when Tori informed us about the whole pro kick program and the possibility of going to the US we were hey you know it is what it is and you've got to do what you've got to do and we were more than more I suppose encouraging him to do it.

Was he a kid that grew up playing a lot of sport or was he an individual that had something else in mind?

They played a lot of sport, for sure.

It was, I suppose, from a parent's perspective.

He and the others were never pushed, in our opinion, anyway.

And they did what they wanted to do, and Tori played Australian rules, as you well know, and cricket, basketball, they were the three primary sports.

And it was always on a Sunday, we were either off to matches,

and or off to training and doing whatever so it was um there's a few trips in the car there is no question about that

that's one of the things uh here in Iowa that a lot of parents know about is is having to travel whether it's for you know baseball softball t-ball uh getting into soccer football as it were or traveling basketball teams football teams that that was happening for you as well how far would you have to travel for some of these

um i'll be actually become um

a little bit more knowledgeable on that because friends of ours, Kate Saffras and Steve, her husband, they are always telling us in bearing stages of their lives where they are and they travel miles and miles.

But from our perspective, generally the sport is more community based, I suppose, and you're very rarely travelling more than say 10 or 15 kilometres or 10 miles in your

Sure.

So

Tori, when your dad's coming out to watch you play a match or watch you play Australian rules football, is that something where you're trying to make him proud or how does that work for you?

Not necessarily something that I thought about growing up or anything like that because like my dad said, they always just said that as long as you're doing something and you're enjoying it, that's the most important thing.

But I probably started thinking that way when I joined the same

Football club that or team as such That my dad used to play for so I would think about that too.

It was also easy knowing that it didn't really matter how I performed As long as I gave it my all and as long as as long as I was doing something I feel like that's what was most important and I'm sure my dad will attest to that was that they've always said Always do something you enjoy, but you can never just be sitting around being a bum or anything like that.

So I've always kind of

I wouldn't say that I'll slave away at many things or anything like that, but I've certainly trod my hand at a lot of different things.

Whether it be sport or life, it took me a while to kind of find the right thing.

And whether this is the right thing, I don't really know.

But for now, I enjoy it.

I

forgot to include Brian.

Golf was the other sport, the primary sport.

And soccer.

I played a bit of soccer too.

Yeah.

So, Tori, you had said on one of the earlier podcasts that golf, there wasn't as many courses in Australia because I mean, Blade is at a premium.

Is that right?

Yeah.

Well, so golf now is really starting to gain popularity, especially in that kind of 18 to 30 year old bracket.

Whereas in the past, it always had always kind of been like an older gentleman's game as such.

And it wasn't frowned upon or anything like that, but it just wasn't very popular amongst young people.

But I enjoyed playing it like my grandparents would always take me down there and I'd play and I'd meet a couple other guys down there and a lot of relationships that I had with people back home now are from golf.

Yeah, still have really strong connections to people I grew up playing with and literally one of my best friends is someone that I probably met there a good 15 years ago at the golf club and we still chat every single day.

Stuart, this will be one of the couple of times that I put Tori over.

He's an individual that when I had a chance to meet him face to face was a very, very well mannered individual.

Was that something that you instilled upon all of your children as they were growing up and just making sure that they understood, you know, like, look, when you're out there, you're presenting not only yourself, but your family?

That's a very good question.

I suppose as a family, have a little bit of a different views of that.

His mother is a little bit more stricter than me.

But it's, it's the old adage that if you treat people the way that you want to be treated, you're halfway home.

That's pretty much it.

And what's your peace and queues and yes and please, it all comes for free.

Yeah, that's what I was about to say.

I feel like manners is always a big thing to me.

And if someone doesn't have them, it really actually bothers me a lot.

Like to the point that I'm just like, there's something wrong with this person.

But at the same time, you've also got to understand that everyone's different.

And the way that someone operates is it isn't necessarily their fault.

It comes back to how their parents have brought them up.

So I'm probably lucky in that regard.

But like my dad said, it literally doesn't cost anything to be nice or to be well-mannered.

And I feel like you're better off being well-mannered than not because it's going to take you further in life.

So Stuart, you'd kind of mentioned this earlier when Tori decided to follow the

Process of going through pro kick.

Can you tell me about that from your perspective and what you were seeing him getting himself into?

Um, we certainly We did our homework on it.

There was no question about that and Nathan Chapman came to our house to explain the process in macro form and When this came out of the blue, which it did we were a little bit apprehensive about

the possibility of his son going halfway around the world to the US or wherever for that matter.

And when Nathan came down, it was virtually like he sat at the end of the table with around about six or seven piercing eyes at him.

The only thing that was missing was the bright lights and question time, but he was put through the ringer.

And once that was done,

we were satisfied that wherever Tori may have ended up, whether it be some small technical school in US or a Big Ten or in Alabama or wherever, it didn't matter to us.

But once he, I suppose, got the training started with Pro Kick, we didn't see him.

He was doing that for days on end.

So it was just a process.

Oh, where's Tori?

Is that Pro Kick?

Where's Tori?

Oh, is that Pro Kick?

and so on and so on.

Then all of a sudden, here he is.

When Tori started to get the idea or had the opportunity to then visit with the Iowa Hawkeyes, now this becomes more real at that point.

Did you or anybody else in your family really know where Iowa was at and what that meant for Tori?

That's a good question.

I certainly knew where Iowa was.

I wasn't aware of

their status I suppose in in a big 10 or in a competition and From a personal perspective, I didn't know how big they were and I must admit on a first glance I It just wasn't in I suppose at the front of my mind thinking that Tori would end up at a place like Isla Mm-hmm Because you only know the the biggest schools if that makes sense.

Yes

But once he got there and we started, you know diving into history

performance, all that sort of stuff, it made complete sense.

And I've said this many times to other people, if I was to choose, not that I've been experienced with other football teams, Iowa is perfect for him as a person.

In what way?

Iowa is full of, I think, Australians in American bodies, if that makes sense.

Now, we can only go on,

the first impressions and when we came through back in September via the West Coast, we found them a little bit standoffish.

And as soon as we got to Iowa, it was like, hey, these guys are like us, you know, friendly, having good fun, a bit of banter, all that sort of stuff.

So if I was to pick a place and maybe there's other places like Iowa, it seems suited.

That's the reason why.

Tori at the same time.

And I don't think we've covered this in our discussions prior.

When your dad says that Iowa has Australians and American bodies, would you agree with that statement?

I mean, you've been here around a little bit longer.

What do you think?

Yeah, there's certain things.

From a political standpoint, I feel like a lot of people in Iowa have quite the similar view of Australians.

But yeah, there are some aspects to it.

I mean, kind of like I've said before, a lot of American people that come to Australia, no one likes.

Kind of I feel like my dad will agree with that.

They're kind of a little bit snobby whether they're from the West or East Coast Yeah, they kind of think they're a little bit too good for one another so It's kind of the wealthier people that they come out to Australia So I kind of I guess built that image in my mind that oh, I don't really like American people This is gonna be interesting and then when I got here was the complete opposite And I think what my dad said that isn't a shot.

It is an island thing because I've been

I'm fortunate enough to go to other places and it's really not the same.

Interesting.

Stuart, he gets the chance.

He starts on the Iowa football team and there's a pretty hefty time difference.

Right now it's already what tomorrow as it relates to us for you.

How difficult is it to watch Tori play football when you're not sitting there in the stands?

Let's hope that Stacey Moss, Riley Moss's auntie is not listening to this.

Because there's been times I've made a couple of statements, but we don't care.

It doesn't matter.

I mean, the two o'clock and the three o'clock in the morning ones, they're hard to get up to.

But once you're up and you've got the TV on and the Hawks are playing, it's giddy up as we say.

So it wouldn't matter.

What's your drink of choice?

What do you like to have when you're watching an Iowa game in Australia?

it depends on the time of the day of course but generally it'll be coffee and toast because it's generally around six o'clock or seven o'clock in the morning and I would dare not say I'd open the can of beer at that time

okay yeah what about when we played in the big 10 championship game and I'm getting pictures of you guys drinking beer yeah that's a one-off yeah yeah gotcha

no fair enough

Yeah, and it was sort of a celebratory drink.

So it's like Christmas day, you know, when you have a champagne at nine o'clock in the morning, perhaps.

Tori had said on our Marshall Exchange program on the podcast, he mentioned a beer that is good to have in a pitcher as a VB.

Yes.

That's true.

The coffee he mentioned, he says 7-Eleven is the place to get a coffee.

Would you concur on that?

No, I totally disagree.

Okay.

And Tori, Tori in that regard, I think he's some

only saying seven eleven because it's cheap no

no listen to the no listen here mate if you listen to the episode i said if someone gave me five dollars and said you can go and get a coffee i said i would still choose seven eleven because i prefer it more yeah okay um so none of that talk bullshit thanks

Surely that would be on the on the back of having the thought that you would get three dollars change out of the five dollars But anyone

someone someone someone can keep the three dollars.

I don't care.

Right.

Okay.

Yeah, there you have it Brian But I I don't agree with the 7-eleven copy.

I mean, it's it's good for a When you don't have an alternative

you go have your arm of lattes elsewhere loser.

Yes

Yeah, so I drink almond milk latte.

Thank you, Tori.

Yeah, it makes me sick, Brian.

Oh, can you, yeah, can you go down and get me an almond milk latte?

But you told me that Melbourne was the best coffee in the world.

If an almond milk latte in Melbourne is the place to get it, I mean, I can understand why he might enjoy that.

Yeah, I disagree, but

that's

all right.

Okay.

Yeah, a little bit biased.

The coffee is good here and the

The original, I suppose the reason why is back in the middle fifties or certainly after the Olympic Games in 56 in Melbourne, there was a massive influx of immigration from Italy, Greece and others.

And the Italians brought their coffee with them and have made it a great place to have a coffee.

So with the extra money, Tori, the sausage roll that you had talked about earlier, can you explain?

My

dad boy tested his dad.

How good are sausage rolls?

Yeah, they're very good.

I would envisage that the first person, Australian American or otherwise, who sets up a meat pie and a sausage roll stand at Kinnick Stadium, will be driving away in a Bentley about two months later.

It might be, though, they would be very, very popular.

And I know that Ryan Gassandei totally agrees with that.

They may be that that's an option for someone to

be a little good at the pricing because all you need to do is have a like a warming oven cabinet and away you go.

It's someone by the truckload.

That's incredible.

Let's stay on the topic of food real quick Stuart.

What is it about Australian chocolate that is that makes Tori so excited about it?

Oh my goodness me.

I can't answer that Brian.

It's probably a more sweeter.

Um, and softer chocolate was supposed the best way to describe it.

Um, well, and I don't need a lot of chocolate.

I didn't haven't eaten a lot of chocolate in, in the States, but if you hold a bit of Australian chocolate in your hand too long, it melts very, very quickly.

And it's made down south in the cold.

So let's talk about your trip.

You and your family here in 2022 made the trip to Iowa long trip to get here.

But to sit down and be able to get to Kinnick Stadium for the first time, how much did it mean to you to watch Tori and the Swarm come out of the tunnel at Kinnick Stadium?

Unbelievable.

It was something like we've never seen before.

And, you know, the height leading up to that was, we were in all.

We were in complete awe.

And when

When you're looking around in the crowd and there's really a scattering of the opposition team, that makes it all, I suppose, all the more better.

In Melbourne, per se, in an Australian rules match, it's generally half and half.

And don't get me wrong, they're good atmospheres.

But to see the Hawks come out and knowing that your son's in amongst that,

You can see I wear glasses and it's hard to see at the best of times, but that was pretty inspiring.

And especially having an Australian song that they're walking out to too.

I was going to ask you about that with ACDC back in black.

Yes.

As a native Australian, did that make even a little bit more going on inside your chest at that

point?

Yeah, it was.

And in fact, I had this conversation a few times over there and there was some

have your fellow countrymen that didn't know that that ACDC were from Australia.

So we certainly claim them as ours and justifiably so.

The interesting part was I think it was in very early episode.

Tori, I think you started to admit that you didn't know about it.

Yeah, I didn't

know until probably, I would have been last year when that told me I had absolutely no idea.

And I think back in black is the second biggest selling album of all time.

If I'm

Next to thriller.

I didn't have any idea but then it kind of just hit me and really kind of to start make sense that Obviously the greatest things and the greatest rock bands are obviously going to be from Australia So it was pretty no naive of me not to know that

yeah, that's a

big call

I've heard that the great punters come out of Australia right now There's quite a few of them that are sitting in college football right now including yourself.

Yeah something like that

So then you get a chance to watch the game.

Since you were watching him on television, Stuart, with you and your family, now you're experiencing the game live.

How does that feel similar, different to an Australian rules football match?

Completely different.

You're more on top of the game or the field, closer to the action.

You can hear the bumps.

You can hear the air going out of some of the players' lungs.

Pretty damn impressive.

And I was asked the question whilst we were over there about the difference in players between the two codes.

Whilst maybe the AFL football is a little bit, I suppose, collectively speaking, a little bit more athletic because there's some big boys amongst the American teams, they would make mincemeat out of some of our AFL guys.

And some of the AFL guys are big, but

Generally speaking, some of those guys, when you hear it, can do some damage.

Torrey said, virtually on the first week, he was there and they were doing a training drill at the Hawks.

He said, Dad, you've no idea, you need to hear the noise of these body-on-body contacts.

I said, oh, really?

Okay.

Then when I went to a game at Kinnick, I actually saw what he meant.

Yeah, it was crazy stuff.

Did you get a chance to meet any of Torrey's teammates while you were in the States?

Many of them,

really lovely fellows too.

I met probably what Torrey, maybe 10 or 12 of them?

Yeah, I'd say so.

Yeah.

The most intimidating one at the Hawks training was Jack Campbell.

He's a big man.

Lovely man too.

Very pleasant.

But I suppose when he crosses that white line, he's a different kettle of fish.

He's got quite a few accolades that Jack Campbell does coming out of the season, as does Tori.

Tori, I wanted to congratulate you on everything that, you know, the postseason awards and some of the accolades that you've received.

And one of the things that I saw, and I guess I wanted to bring it up to the both of you, is that Mel Kuiper from ESPN had you as the number one punter on his draft board.

And I know you've said to me before, Tori, that that's just one person's opinion.

But coming out of the season that you had, what does that mean to you?

Um, I mean, it's obviously pretty special when, um, I guess people in important and, um, highly powered positions as such within the sport kind of see you as a, I guess a pretty good player.

And, um, yeah, obviously to be number one on each draft board is, uh, it's obviously a pretty cool thing to kind of say and pop up on my Twitter feed and people will kind of tag me in it and whatnot, but.

Yeah, I guess you kind of said it as well, and I've said it in the past, it's really just one person's opinion and when it comes down to it, no disrespect to Mal or anything like that or any of the other guys, but I really don't think they quite actually really understand the whole specialist aspect of football.

Mal might, and if he does, then that's great.

I mean, like I said, no disrespect to them.

They've got to do that for their job.

It's kind of like the media guys here.

A lot of them just are a bit naive and have no idea.

But to answer your question more directly, it is pretty cool to see that stuff.

But at the end of the day, it's one person's opinion.

And I really only value those around me who I know and their opinions.

So does your dad have a draft board?

Probably not.

No, not really.

Because we don't have the exposure on a day-to-day basis of other teams, other players, it's really hard for us to judge other than putting you on the special teams.

One boy from Melbourne on the top of the list, hey.

One of the things I was very happy to see, Tori, and this is after some conversations that we've had is not only yourself, but some of your

Other pro kick mates were on the the big draft board as well and those were guys that I was also like oh cool That's awesome that I see a couple of Aussies on that particular list too.

Yeah, it's always good to say I guess the Aussie guys doing well There's obviously quite a few of us over here doing what I'm doing

uh at different schools and different conferences and different levels and things like that so yeah it's always pretty special when you kind of have that common ground with other Aussie guys too.

So gentlemen uh normally I end with the Marshall Exchange program and I've done a couple of different things where I've read some news stories to Tori uh we've talked about things in Australia well since we have an expert with us in Stuart

Stuart, what are some common misconceptions that Americans have about Australia or some things that I could better be prepared when I make my trip to your wonderful country?

What are some things I could know in the Marshall Exchange program

today?

Oh, that's a very good question.

I think the spiders and the snakes may be one.

Yeah, definitely.

The kangaroos running down the main street of Melbourne and Sydney, that just does not happen.

The Safaruses are coming to visit us in March, and I am constantly sending reels of snakes in backyards that people post over here to Kate, and he's still a little bit worried about it, but I have, even though we go camping in the what we call the bush, the Australian bush,

I've only ever seen two snakes.

I mean, I used to work on a golf course, so I would say one at least every summer.

So I've probably seen maybe 10 snakes in my life, but the whole idea of them being in suburban towns and things like that is just a lot of bullshit, really.

It's like they're just taking up residence next to the coffee at 7-eleven.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah, we're the spotters.

Where are some places

that we should go, Stuart?

That's a vast land and it ticks most of the boxes for you can go to the tropics, you can go to the desert, you can camp.

There's 27,000 odd individual beaches that you could visit and certainly down in Western Australia and even in Victoria where we live, the beaches are awesome.

So if you're an outdoorsy person, this is the place to come.

And certainly for

For surfing or whatever, it's too much of a loaded question.

I'm sorry, Brian, too short a time to answer.

But I think if you need to see it to believe it, some of the places, and you've got certainly in the outback in the Western Australia, it is just a beautiful place like nothing you've seen

before.

I appreciate that answer.

One of the things that

Tori has mentioned is that you usually start your day with a swim.

Is that right?

That's right.

Yes.

Ocean swim, correct?

Yeah, that's right.

Yes.

Every morning, rain hard will shine generally.

Although I've been a little bit slack of late because I've been... Well,

what about Han Han?

What about 48 hours ago?

What do you mean?

Oh, it's too windy.

It's too windy.

We can't go today.

We can't go today.

No, well, that is true.

But the

The main reason is we've had a lot, a lot of rain here.

And the runoff has caused the water to be a little bit dirty and murky.

And the EPA over here did advise local swimmers not to swim in the bay.

So that's the real reason.

And Torrey knows that I go every day.

And he knows that if it's blowing a gale or it's not, I still go.

And along with, yeah, he and my mates do it at the same time.

I'll go to when I'm back in May, Brian, and it's 40, 40, 45 degrees or so.

I'm always down and grinding away to usually about a hundred yards ahead of them.

Brian, Brian, have you ever seen the movie Deliverance?

I sure have.

Well, there's a particular noise that one of the one of the characters makes that sounds very similar to Tory when he gets in the water there.

As soon as his toes or his ankles hit it.

They'll leave it at that.

Give her a rest.

Sorry, I won't even know what I'm talking about with deliverance, but I'm sure that everyone listening to this would.

There is one thing, though, Stuart, that Kate Saffras had mentioned on her last episode, and she had mentioned that the males of the Taylor family did not like the cold.

Today, it is currently 10 degrees below zero.

I'm in three layers right now because we're looking at blizzard conditions.

Can you confirm or deny what Kate Saffras had said?

Yeah, that is true.

Okay, that is true.

I'm not I'm not a rap for the cold Although in saying that I do swim in the cold, but you have a chance to get warm very very quickly in fact Kate's husband sent me over the weather report for Des Moines about two days ago And it was looking like about minus 35 or something in 15 or 20 centimeters of snow.

Yep Crazy

And I said to, uh, I said to him that I'll think of that imponder over sitting on the beach in 90 degrees F.

That's right.

Cause it's summertime in Australia right now.

It is.

It is.

People can't believe that we, um, we ate our Christmas dinner in board shorts and a singlet.

Stuart, as we wrap up the conversation, can you put into words how proud you are of what Tori has accomplished in some of his, uh, not only the accolades, but just what he's done here state side with the count the kicks program?

Oh, it can't really narrow down to me.

It's more a family-based comment.

Hittori will probably attest to this, that there's about six to eight people in our family that he's very close to.

And I think me and all the others are

you know, super proud of what he's done.

To go halfway around the world and, you know, first attempt at it, that speaks volumes in itself and all the rest will look after itself as far as I'm concerned.

You know, the, you know, the all-American and freshman, all-American in his first year, not playing in front of people, the list goes on and on and on.

we couldn't be more proud of it.

But look, in saying that too, you've got to have good support around you.

And from what we can see and what we can gather is the Iowa players and the Iowa football team, if you like, have provided that.

And that's a massive box that has been ticked from our perspective.

Stuart, I really appreciate you taking a few minutes out of your day today to join us on the jock to jock podcast.

Tori.

I appreciate you taking all the time this year to be a featured guest on the football edition of the jock to jock podcast.

And gentlemen, couldn't hear a better compliment or a better comment earlier in the show that say that some of us Iowans are just Australians and American bodies.

That to me made me smile and I feel pretty good about that.

I'm going to smile

today.

You will probably notice that Australians do speak the truth.

Sometimes it gets them into trouble.

And that's coming from the heart.

That's very, very true.

And they're good people.

No question about that.

The majority anyway.

There it is.

Tori, anything else you want to tell the audience on the final edition of our Jack to Jack podcast for 2022?

No,

just to the millions and millions of listeners.

Thank you for tuning in this year.

Yeah, I really appreciate everyone's support.

I know I've mentioned it a few times.

I really enjoyed doing this.

So yeah, thank you to you too as well, Brian.

Really appreciate the time and I hope you've enjoyed it just as much as I have.

Absolutely.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Jock to Jock podcast presented by Rock 108 and sponsored by I'm on communications experience the I'm on difference.