Josh Schuster On Daly Cherry Evans Manly And Nrl Expectations
hey guys welcome back to ebbs and flows where we talk about the highs and lows and now it's
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Published about 2 months agoDuration: 0:34261 timestamps
261 timestamps
hey guys welcome back to ebbs and flows where we talk about the highs and lows and now it's
fears and doubts on and off the field i am your host isaac but you can call me ice shout out to
my brand partner sporting news australia for helping me bring this production together
excited today uh joined by joshie schuster one of the most talented boys coming through the nrl
right now part of the bird gang proud salmon and first podcast yeah first podcast so looking forward
to sort of meeting him bro thank you for jumping on that's all good my pleasure man um yeah so
we're just going to talk about a few different things on and off the field obviously your name's
one that usually comes through uh the media a little bit lately but like first of all how are
you bro i'm going good man um yeah like i said first podcast so i'm pretty nervous but um yeah
i'm grateful to be here yeah good little game on the weekend obviously going down to newcastle
we're sort of talking a little bit off air about a few of the boys coming through how do you feel
like your form's going at the moment yeah it's been good um had a month off um had to you know
do a reconditioning
block so um yeah uh two games in and um yeah feeling confident so with that reconditioning
blockers was that something that was communicated to you like through siebes and all that yeah it
was actually um my my decision i went up to went up to siebes and said um you know if i can have a
month off um so you know to get my body right and um get a reconditioning block and i if i look back
now it's probably um one of the best decisions i made so i'm feeling feeling fit now
feeling confident and um yeah ready to go for the rest of the year yeah you look like you're in good
nick bro so congrats on that and appreciate all the hard work thank you um so yeah the bird gang
obviously i got to um train at manly for one year and got to meet like dce and pretty good friends
with him uh you play outside of him in the sixth position what's it like having someone like chis
there to sort of guide you he's always very calm isn't he very very positive um tell us about um
his leadership style yeah um i don't think i can really put in words what a
what kind of impact he's he's had on my career so far as you know him you're pretty close with him
he's one of the best blokes man off the field um he you know he genuinely has has a care for for
the younger boys coming through through the grades especially me coming through so um to have him
next to me i still still pinch myself seeing him at training to be honest but um yeah to play
alongside him is um pretty special what's the best advice he gives you is he more so a mentor
on the field because obviously yeah he plays a lot of football he plays a lot of football
he plays his own style and i know you play your own style of football too and i feel like manly
i've always just um had very talented footballers that can play outside structure you're one of
those guys i think chis is one of those guys um what's some of the best advice he gives you on
the field and then we'll talk about off the field a little bit later yeah for well for on the field
he's he's probably main thing he's probably his main advice to me was just to always back myself
um do what do what's got you here um which was you know back backing myself um
playing with you know my natural ability um i think yeah he's probably main advice was just
back myself and play what's in front and um the rest will look after itself yeah um so we'll talk
about but your upbringing um the style that you play and i think it's obviously very unique like
you're a big body super talented soft hands uh we'll talk about tempo like a little bit later
how did you come to be the player that you are did you look up to someone did you have older
brothers that sort of play that style
just playing court touch yeah um ever since i was young man i've always i've always done
everything with the football i've always slept with the football when i was young um every time
i used to go to prime school i used to have no books in my bag just a footy ball and footy shorts
so um it sounds like all the footy boys i reckon but um yeah i've always had a big passion for the
game man i've always loved footy done everything in my football so i think passion is a big thing
i've always loved loved the game love watching it and um i've actually had two brothers i think
you played with one yeah yeah i played your brother yeah yeah um and i think they've paved
the way for me um since i was young and especially my dad um he's always just you know probably
grounded me with the football so it wasn't for those three i wouldn't be here who was your
favorite player growing up billy slater man oh was it i was a big melbourne storm fan when i was
young i used to love watching the big three yeah
you know done this stuff um but yeah billy slater was my favorite player i mean so what what sort of
age you got to the point where like obviously you said like you had older brothers that were
doing like pretty good things what was age where you sort of started to realize maybe i could make
it and how did you get from liverpool to manly because it's obviously you're in a catchment
area potentially you could go paramount a genius you're at westfield sports um you could have gone
to penrith why did you go to manly um so well i played for mounties um at the local and i was a
junior growing up i was playing with like you know matt dory stephanie to kimono boys like that
and um he's actually had a paramount trial where i had a random phone number that called me and it
was actually bozo bob fortin and um just an immortal just casually calling i was so young
at the time i was just i didn't know who i was talking to and then he said oh um yeah we watched
one of your games and we'll look we'll love to have you at manly just for a little trial so um
from there um i moved to manly um and i loved it ever since i was 14 15 yeah yeah so obviously um
yeah pretty crazy that you've got content what made you what was the types of things
he was saying to you or did he just make you feel wanted like what was the types of conversations
because not many people get to have a chat with him yeah i think i sat down with my family at
the time and they explained who i was talking to um and um sat down with the 14 family scotty fulton
um he was a recruitment manager at the time and i think they just you know spoke to me
and um told me that i'd be a good fit at manly and yeah a whole group of us from
from out west moved at the same time to to manly which was which is comfortable for me and um
probably yeah the best decision i made yeah because there's not too many islanders over
there is there yeah well now it's probably the whole northern business
so um at the time was really good but if i look back at it now it's pretty special to have all the
boys there bro who was the big part of your development like brother when i watch you play
and like i played half as well the amount of tempo that you can play with like i don't see too many
people know that at your age you know what i mean they sort of learn it as they get a little bit
older you played off a guy like fozzy who's just over the line and quick all the time bro who taught
you that i think
back to my childhood i've always just loved playing touch football um
used to try new things flick passes or stuff like that um
like i think it just comes naturally to be honest though i haven't really worked on my like tempo
stuff you're talking about you haven't no no i think it just came naturally um through the
juniors and stuff just tried everything and i think just crept in my game to be honest yeah
it's amazing to watch and i was like bro it's amazing to watch like like i said like you
played a guy like fozzy and obviously you're trying to get his position over time but what
were some of the lessons you learned from from playing outside of him when you're his back rower
oh it was very um he's very strict man if he wants something you have to run that line for him or
she's going to give it to you after but um man it was a pleasure playing with fozzy man he's
the ultimate professional as you know um he's been in the game for a while and if you don't listen to
him you've got to get ready for a spray yeah he's probably he's probably one of the best
boys i've played with um so far in my career how are you trying to find the balance between
obviously naturally gifted and like structure and and the fundamentals of the game of like
completing sense and kicking and i know you've got like brilliant touches on you but do you
know how to find that balance yet or any of your coaches talking about that balance yet yeah we've
been talking about it um for quite a bit now because um you're listening yeah i'm trying to
listen actually but um yeah like i'm i'm more of a eyes up footy no matter what the coaches tell me
i just play what's eyes up like you know what's what's in front of me i don't really listen to
the coaches to be honest in a good way but yeah but um yeah i just play footy man that's just
that's just my thing i don't not scared of um trying new things
yeah um i've sort of been your name's been sort of tossed up in the papers a little bit lately
and you're sort of talking about being a bit more professional and taking on
that and you said you're at a crossroads in your career at 21 that's kind of yeah you know what i
mean i don't really um but like what's what's some of the lessons you're learning off the
field to be a bit more professional you know i heard brad fiddler talk about you where um
you live in liverpool and you train in manly yeah you know think about moving over or
you happy where you are do you feel more complacent out there i'm definitely happy
where i live at the moment um trying to save as much money as i can living with my parents
it's very expensive for living out in manly i'm not at your boy bitch yet but
but um yeah hopefully one day i get to move out manly because obviously you know the travel
takes takes a bit out of you but um yeah talking about footy but um the
professional side of things um i'm starting to realize now that
you can't really there's no place to hide in on the nrl field um and just learning along the way
where like you can't really rely on your natural ability and your talent because it's only going
to get you so far in a way and i think i've come to realize that now as a professional
uh athlete and yeah there were some things that were said that that hurt me a bit but um that's
you know that's the reality of it um i had to make a choice and a decision and i've made that so
what was some of the comments there yeah bucks saying that i need to get
a release for manly stuff like that now i'm talking about my salary and it's just
stuff like that that really was unfortunate but yeah it's out there now so i just got to move
forward yeah um so you sort of when you start to hear those sort of things i've seen you sort
of take a break from things like social media um how did that help you definitely helped me
a lot actually um was off for two two and a half months so um not not reading stuff like that
helped me a lot so um i just had to put my head down and you know if i knew i had to work hard
um the results will come yeah yeah that's pretty mature decision to make must be hard at 21 so
like i'm here like 34 and like i've never been in your position in terms of talent and nrl but
like we've copped a lot of criticism and i sit here at 34 and sometimes i don't even know how
to take it and obviously you always want to bite back at different people but i think it's a pretty
much your decision that you've done bro so it's pretty good on you um so you're there
bro pretty exciting time went up against benji benji one of the greatest shout outs that you
get from someone who plays a similar style of football to you talk us about your debut game
were you nervous were you excited um i wasn't nervous to be honest um
like it's i think it's a confidence thing man i've always i love playing footy man and i think
before kickoff i was i looked across the field and i seen benji and i was thinking i was like
oh man this is unreal that's a verse someone that i used to idolize used to practice his steps at
school used to flick past like him but um he had to he said what he said after my first game was
pretty surreal yeah um so your coach at the time obviously you built a pretty good relationship
with him and you kind of went through your little off season and he was spending time with you
can you talk about that experience because i find that like pretty interesting and you sort
of made your preseason a lot longer yeah by doing all the work what was all like talking about your
preseason a lot longer by doing all the work what was all like talking about your preseason a lot longer by doing all the work what was all like talking
us through that experience this is desi yeah i'm dizzy yeah he's a hard man desi um
he's a different cat man um i think the best thing about him he just
says it how it is he doesn't really he doesn't beat around the bush do you like that yeah it's
well at the time i didn't really like it because i was a bit uncomfortable but i see where it was
coming from but um yeah for him to to stay back and to help me even when he um even when he got
he was still helping me train in the off season so i think that speaks volumes
about his character was that awkward oh i think it was but um knowing there's he just he genuinely
has a care for his players and um to have him by my side um to still train me take his time of the
day which which meant a lot to me and yeah yeah what about your coach now um see he was there when
i was there and i i enjoyed his company and i enjoyed his um coaching style very much melbourne-esque
like he brought that whole style to manly and at the time manly was going through this transition
phase with trim barrett and we had all the old boys there like stuart and they ran the club and
then he was trying to do all these things but i think now it's his team he's got a great coaching
staff around him what's some of the things you like about seeb's coaching style yeah he's probably
the opposite of desi um he's a bit laid back saves as you know he's just i like just the way
he goes about his business he's more he's just calm that's that's more the senior boys um takes
control take control and let's let us play footy that's probably one of the best traits i reckon
just let's just play footy yeah for sure i remember when i had him as a coach like he had a
great eye for detail too like and they were all like sort of really small parts in your game and
he'd always call you out on them but he
always done it in a like super respectful way yeah he was never trying to embarrass anyone
um but a really smart guy isn't he he's he's really good yeah we've got actually got a good
mixture of you know coaching stuff but jimmy dimick he'd be perfect for you wouldn't he yeah
definitely especially for the island the boys yeah jimmy and we've got flanno uh shane flanagan
as well so he's a good mixture we have my man what's flanagan's strengths
is he like the people person yeah he's our attacking coach
yeah very strong
smart coach um he plays to all our strengths now having turbo at the back chairs me and as
our spine and croaks so um yeah he's just a really good attacking coach man he just knows
what plays what's best for us and our spine and our team so um yeah we're lucky how do you like
to play yeah just off the cuff man whatever i see i just over call it i'll go as you know
yeah are you always calling me yeah i'll always call him man
yeah i just love playing what's in front do you like do you prefer
like a wide four split or do you like to go with wider percentages and you're at the back
yeah probably wider field positions yeah i like playing greater gray and then coming
back from at the back of chess and linking up with turbo it's probably
one of the main stuff um main players that i like yeah turbo's so great oh man it's hard to explain
turbo so great
him man he's just he's he's on that level man he's just a beast man look i can't really explain
what he does man he's just whenever you want him he's there he's just if he's calling arco you have
to give him the ball because he's going to score points for you yeah whenever you need points man
you just look at him and you just give him the ball man he just does his thing what about his
brother jakey you obviously just so it's just so much passion in defense man jakey so um he cleans
up the middle man he looks after our ruck he just cleans up so much stuff in the middle so many
things people don't see um just the effort on effort stuff he's just the beast man he can go
all day plays 80 minutes does his job and yeah loves the game how far do you reckon you boys
can go this year when you boys are say everyone's fit obviously jakey comes back from his calf
dc he gets through
you
and like i'll watch you guys it's probably over the past couple years there's been times where
you've just bullied teams and you guys got thousands of points in you then you come up
into the bigger moments and bigger games and something's just not quite there how far do
you reckon you boys can go i think obviously you guys want to say all the way yeah i think
obviously you can go all the way um just need to all be fit we just all need to stay injury free
i reckon yeah probably the main thing man for us is stay injury free get a couple wins um
um together man i think we've got a strong team man our four packs killing it um taneya poseca he's
coming bro he's the guy hey at the moment he's realized how how big he is um to use his for his
advantage but um yeah we've got a good forward pack and we just need us by um humming along and
i think it would be good for the email yeah that's pretty exciting obviously we're about to roll into
sort of origin um next is that sort of something that's on your radar we'll talk about some more first
maybe they're all good for the game uh next is that sort of something that's on your radar we'll talk about some more first
actually um talk about your sort of experience playing for them and growing up obviously proud
simon was it always a dream to play for them or yeah it was definitely a dream to play for samoa
all my family all my uncles actually played for samoa and rugby union because i come back i come
from a rugby union background yeah it's probably only me and my uncle john that played for the
knights was only played rugby league in our family so um to represent them and all my family samoa
was probably the highlight of my career so far yeah picture of you in the anthem um you must look
back at that and give you goosebumps you want to talk about your total time in the summer on camp
and obviously like i try to explain culture to a lot of people and it's it's hard to explain hey
yeah and it's not to try and sound rude or anything but like i remember when i used to go
play back and play for the cook islands and like you're just around sort of people that are when
you look at that person they look like you and they've grown up similar to you and probably got
hiding the same way you get the same reason you got the same reason you got a hiding before you
know what i mean so just want to talk about like that someone experience because they're like
they're almost a power they are a powerhouse now yeah that's how it's scary how good they've gotten
so um just want to talk about your simon like week leading up to that game yeah um man simon
camps are the funniest man there's four of clowns as you know me and islanders they're just the best
to be around with um heaps of head slapping on the bus
um you can't sleep on the bus or else you're gonna cop something but um yeah being around the boys
man like just you know you're so comfortable um you can joke around you can joke around with the
coaching staff it's just they get you you know it's all on the type of way but um obviously simon
camps are the best man yeah we um the not to go world cup was that was that your decision yeah it
was my decision just want to get yourself right i just wanted to get myself right um because i knew
i had to have a big year in the 5a role i had to get my body right and stuff so um it was hard
seeing them and making it to the world cup final but um i'm happy as for them but um
yeah it was definitely hard to see them um going all the way yeah so um yeah that's sick and like
guys like cryden and that just some of the moments that they come up to i think i think
the cool thing about when you learn about island culture when you go into camps and
there's already a hierarchy system isn't there so you can sort of play around a little bit in in our
hour but once you sort of go in and you've got papa there and june's there you're just going to
do what you're told aren't you quiet down there the big boss big dogs those dudes they'll slap
you too listen to them you see that video papa like kidding yeah no that was funny yeah um so
i've seen you in a few interviews lately and you say you want to be the best player ever yep um
pretty confident statement and i know you're a confident dude um where does that come from um
i've always had the confidence when i was young i knew what i wanted to do
and um and i truly believe man hopefully well one day that i will be the best player
and i know what it takes now so um it's just the beginning for me so
what do you what do you think stopping you from being that probably probably myself um
probably took it for granted the opportunity i had the last couple years um like i said before like
i think i realized now that talent's not going to get you nowhere and um you know hard work
beats talent and um i know that now so um confident um always been confident and
um can't wait to see what the future holds who's your manager mario mario tal tak oh okay
we have tyron smith and all that is that the same crew nah different group different career oh yeah
what's your sort of like obviously you're a talented footballer
and you see like i see players starting to move now as like sort of entrepreneurs you're wearing
some let's try like what's what's some interest you have outside of football or you just always
owned in at the moment i love golf man i'm starting to hit him all right hit him all right
not really but um i'm getting there i'm starting to play with the boys down in manly monobail and
stuff but um after footy i haven't really found anything yet i probably probably something to do
with footy yeah i have to say some coaching i think coaching would be a probably a good thing
that i reckon i'll be good at so um yeah i seem pretty chill bro pretty laid back dude laid back
man i'm not really a high person but um yeah just go about my business i guess okay what's the plans
for the rest of the year rest of the year um just want to play every every game for the rest of the
year i've been injured a lot
last couple weeks um so probably my main thing is just to stay injury free and um play some good
footy good man all right bro i just want to say thanks for jumping on appreciate your time i know
you're like a little bit nervous right first podcast man yeah is it yeah yeah i know you're
a little bit nervous so i thank you for jumping on and opening up and sharing those experiences
so i appreciate you my guy thank you man no worries
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