David: good morning and welcome to another episode of my podcast on resilience. Now today we have a special guest. He is a maid of mine from Gatton. He was part of fatty Nevilles’ in 1995 which won the State of Origin series against New South Wales and I’ve been told under the definition of resilience, there should be a picture of him. [Terry laughs] David: it’s my pleasure today, to welcome a good mate of mine Terry Cook how are you going today? Terry? Terry: good thanks David. You’re too kind on the introduction. ]Both Terry and Dave laugh] David: well I’ve got to talk you up a little bit. Terry: I’m well and I’m out here at Jondaryan at the hotel David: that’s great that’s where you live most the time these days. Terry: we’ve been out here 25 years and live good David: if I could just go back to your early life Terry in Gatton you had the unfortunate Thing your father died when you were quite young Terry: we had five in our family, my dad, Well I suppose life was up and we are all heading that way I suppose. He had five children under the age of 15-16 and a credit to my mother, she trooped on and brought us up well. One of us passed away and we gained an extra one so life is good. David: yeah that’s what happens in life isn’t it? What affect I know you mentioned earlier your mother was a bit of a rock in bringing you up and I remember her as the librarian when I was growing up in Gatton Terry: yes she was the librarian for 15 years She enjoyed it thoroughly and was part of the community took us to football all the time. She was part of the local community and she still going today and lives in Maroochydore in a home. David: your nickname when you were young was turtle. Can you tell us where that came from? Terry: Well from birth my mother has called me Terry turtle since I was born and it’s stuck the local footy club sometimes called me turt and sometimes called me another adjective. [Terry laughs] David: where did your rugby league come from? At what age did you start playing Terry: I think it started from Dad , when I was seven and Michael was 10 and the Gatton Junior rugby league Dad was one of the instigators with Robbie chew Billy Chu Bill McNeil Bill Dwyer and John O’Brien I think all started the juniors off Jeff Leicester I think was part of it they started it off in 1972 I think either 71 or 72 and I just played I started as a seven-year-old and I finished as a 43-year-old David: David laughs and said that’s a fair stretch more than most Terry: I love the game passionately and my body is paying for it now but I wouldn’t change a thing. I love the game David: Any other sports that you played as a junior? I know the cooks were pretty synonymous with swimming. Terry: typical little town we got into all sorts of sports. Well I did. It was way of blocking out a bit of bad luck that I had in my life I suppose I played squash. I played tennis. I played table tennis with your cousin Peter Fitzgerald , who was a very good table tennis player in Gatton in my time? I think he was the number one player of the district. I was a bit of a swimmer, My younger brother Nikki was more of a swimmer than I was. Michael and Lee were more of swimmers too . We got into everything I played cricket for one season. I wasn’t very patient at that game. [Both David and Terry laugh] David: most people go to different sports and you need a fair bit of patience with cricket Terry: that’s my son’s game he loves cricket. He’s got a lot of patience David: you played rugby I think at Ashgrove a little bit Terry: yeah I played for two seasons at Ashgrove they call it the flats at Ashgrove and I was more at the rugby league down there rather than the rugby union I also coached two seasons in Downlands when Harry My son was in Downlands in 2000 something 2010 I think no 2006. I’m not very good with dates. David: yeah we all have our things that we’re better at don’t we! You played for the Gatton Hawks for a fare while? what are your memories of that? Terry: well I played juniors under seven and under 15s then I went away for school for a couple of years and then came back and played seniors under 18s then I progressed to the seniors and I broke my leg at 19 and spent two months in hospital in traction then I had the next season off to rehabilitate and then I started again with the seniors and ended up winning a premiership in Ipswich then continued into Toowoomba. We shifted to Toowoomba rugby league in 1986 and one a premiership with them and I ended up getting selected in a Queensland residence side which was sort of like an emerging side outside of origin. then continued into Toowoomba. We shifted to Toowoomba rugby league in 1986 and one a premiership with them and I ended up getting selected in a Queensland resident side which was sort of like a merging side outside of origin. We went to France for two months and then I stayed over in England and I had a season over there and came back and played for Beaudesert for one season and then I was picked up by the Gold Coast in the ARL seagulls and that catapulted me into the pros I suppose David: and what were your memories at the time with the seagulls? Terry: yeah they were good times many great people. I bought my first house in the old seagulls estate at tweed heads. They were good times had a lot of friends. I eventually got into the seagulls. Graham Edie was captain coach of Bilambil in the local league which Beaudesert played in and we played Bilambil in the grand final and beat them and then Graham was reserve grade Coach for seagulls the next year and asked me to come along and play and next thing I was playing A grade alongside Wally Lewis David: that must’ve been a dream come true Terry: yes every kids dream come true to play alongside the king, after four seasons with seagulls the crushes formed in the NRL, well it was started. It was the start of the split I played with two or three seasons with no it was two seasons with crushes then my journey was at an end so I came out here and bought the pub at the end of 1998. David: that’s all good but you’re missing your State of Origin how did you get into the State of Origin? Terry: the crushes were aligned with the ARL and super league were the opposition and anyone who signed with super league wasn’t allowed to play such as your Broncos and all your superstars and the Motley Crew was formed under fatty and I got selected on the bench and for three games and we were undefeated, the rest is history. David: that must’ve been a fairly amazing experience because the New South Wales team even though they were a little bit depleted they still had a lot of the Australian stars in them such as Brad Fittler, was the captain, he is certainly no slouch. Terry: they had 12 internationals in their side and we had one who was Dale Shearer and he got injured in the first 20 minutes and didn’t play the rest of the series and my claim to fame out here at the hotel, is I say I’m undefeated at origin level against Gus Gould, Joey Johns and Freddie Fittler [Terry laughs] Which is a good achievement I think David: it’s said that your involvement in the origin season series is Steven Bradbury sort of affect but you still had to be good enough to be there to take your opportunity, they say that Steven Bradbury still had to be good enough to get into the Olympic finals all about picking up your opportunities. Terry: exactly right? You have to be ready and prepared for it and focus and we were focused. There was no Eye in team. David: and probably your highlight of the series was the try you set up for Adrian lam in the second game I think that was down in Melbourne Terry: we were back to the wall. We were leading the series with a two Nil win up in Sydney which was fantastic so we were full of confidence. We went to Melbourne and there was a big fight we were all under. We were all fired up as you would say which was our motto. We ended up beating them and wrapping up the series and came back to Brisbane and smashed them again David: that certainly goes down in history as one of the greatest series and it was very traditional Queensland backs against the wall. Terry: yes it was and our captain Trevor Gillmeister, I felt comfortable going into the series because there were five crushes involved in it Tony Hearn myself Gilly Clinton O’Brien I think he got a start rowdy Dale Shearer and we all jelled so well and fatty even though he acts the clown he is a very smart and passionate Queenslander. David: yeah that comes out quite big Terry: and we had a manager called Tossa Turner. God bless him. He’s not with us today but he was very instrumental in everything. Queensland rugby league does and still does today because he started the fogs organisation which is former origin great which does great things in the community. David: I’ve heard it said that after the speech that one of your managers gave after the first game Paul Vautin came out and said we’re gonna win this I think that was choppy. Post Terry: yeah what happened, Was we all had to meet at the travel Lodge in Roma Street There back in the early days. Our first meeting as a team. Fatty assembled us all in a room and basically said congratulations boys blah blah blah and then I’ll hand you over to our manager choppy close he was that emotional and weld up. You could see what it meant to him and we thought well let’s go out and play now. Well Robbie Davies stood up and said give me a jersey now and everyone had the hair up on the back of their necks and that’s when fatty thought well were a chance here Queensland always when we got our back to the wall perform under pressure I think David: that’s wonderful. Certainly gave a lot of help to a lot of Queenslanders with our emotional state, things weren’t very good in other ways. That’s sensational and that would be very important to you I’m sure as a memory Terry: and it’s still exist. Queensland rugby league also reigns with New South Wales for so long we stick together and we do it for our fans cause they’re the most important people and it’s all about lifting our spirits in this great state David: that’s right now you had the 1997 you spent with North in Brisbane and after that, when did you buy the hotel Terry: yeah I broke my arm in 97 and I played 10 games for North. I knew that was my semi professional career over so I decided I had to make a decision for my family and what was I going to do for the rest of my life. I decided that I was always in the hotel trade before professional rugby league and I decided to buy the Jondaryan Hotel because my wife Jane is from Oakey and her parents, and I had two children 8 and 11 when I bought this. I’m a believer in your children should grow up around grandparents specially in their teenage years and special moments for them David: now you kept on playing football until you were 43. That’s a pretty good innings Terry: well all good things come to an end. I was playing C grade for Pittsworth and major semi-finals and I dislocated and broke my ankle in three places and I thought well that’s it , the body can’t cope any more and it’s telling me I should’ve got out a bit earlier when you love something so much and it tells you when it’s time. [Terry laughs] David: you still had involvement in league for a few more seasons and I believe you’re still involved in rugby league in some capacity Terry: no I finished up two years ago. Three years ago I called for about 10 years and then that came to an end as you get older, it’s time to let the younger generation have their turn. You can just guide people. I’m still a little bit involved with Dolby , but I don’t have too much to do with it. I was tied up with a little bit of West and Clydesdale and that but I’m more of a spectator these days. David: I’m pretty much a spectator these days too. You need the fans Terry: you do that’s what every sport is built on is your fans. They play a very important role. David: what is the major injuries that you had during your career? Terry: too many to count David. I’ll be here for two hours telling you my problems these days. [Both Terry and David laugh] David: yeah everybody has a few issues as they get older, I don’t think you’re Robinson Crusoe there Terry: yeah that’s right. David: did you suffer many concussions during your career? Terry: yeah I did but that was the game back then but we all have a bit of memory loss at times whether it purposely or accidentally [Terry laughs] David: do you think the game has got two sanitised these days Terry: it has got two sanitised but I don’t want to go into that side of it. That’s only my opinion and I don’t want to destroy other people’s opinions on that. David: do you have any final words on resilience? Terry: resilience truly every person in life has to overcome some sort of setback and all you can do is support one another love your family and try your best. That’s my motto of life. Health and happiness comes first. Your family comes first with it and keep on and get up every day David: what does get you up in the mornings? Besides the alarm clock? Terry: my wife, my grand children these days and my dogs David: it’s been an absolute pleasure to speak with you Terry just to catch up. I’ve learnt a little bit about you today and I’ve known you for ever and thanks for appearing and being on my podcast today Terry: too easy David and thank you , for the privilege of being on your podcast and all the best for the future David: thanks a lot Terry Terry: see you in the future