Hi, I'm Keisha Pedder and this is Not an Overnight Success brought to you by
Shurrum Partners Financial Services. In this podcast, our host Gus Wallin sits
down with some very successful people from the world of business, entertainment
and sport and they chat about their life's journey and what got them to the
position that they're in today. In today's episode, we are chatting with
Shani Williams. Shani was a shy kid from the town of Batlow, a place with a
population of just 1,300 people and she's gone on to become one of Australia's
most recognisable women's rugby players. She has played in three Rugby World
Cups, she's won a gold medal and trust me you will not believe the story of where
she keeps it right now. She's also won a Commonwealth Games silver medal. She's
captained teams through tremendous challenges to great successes. In this
chat, Gus and Shani talk about her path to becoming a professional athlete and
how that has evolved over the course of her career. They talk about pride in
sport and the importance of visibility. Shani and Gus are great mates and you
will absolutely be able to hear that throughout this chat. Shani's the kind of
person that you leave the presence of her and you just feel like you could go
and kick goals for the rest of the day. As for all of these podcasts, Shurram
Partners have generously donated $10,000 to the charity of choice of each of our
guests. We discuss who that money goes to in this chat. This podcast is produced by
me, Keisha Pettit and hosted by Gus Worland with production assistance from
Kelly Stubbs and Brittany Hughes. Let's get into our chat with Shani Williams.
Shani, g'day. Hey mate, how are you? It's good to see you. It's awesome to see you. What were you like as a kid and
where did you grow up? Give us your sort of family background. As a kid I was
probably pretty energetic. I wanted to play any sport that I possibly could.
Grew up in Batlow, very small country town, famous for apples and so I'm told
Shani Williams now. So that's pretty nice. 1500 people so quite small and I guess I
had to travel quite a lot for sport because there wasn't a lot of sport
around and just sort of playing with the boys, playing cricket and touch footy and
yeah just I was a pretty shy, quiet kid. Just that country grounded, country air
that kind of got to me. I think as I got older I definitely, you know, not as shy
anymore so that's that's pretty good. You're definitely a big personality and a
big character so that is something that's come with confidence as you've
grown into yourself? Yeah for sure and I think that's everybody too right? Like if
you allow yourself to be who you want to be I think you can be that vibrant
bubbly person if you want to be but it's not for everyone. As I said I'm
comfortable with myself and proud to be who I am. Now you might hear some, we've got
the dogs at our feet so if you hear any sort of you know claws or nails on
ground that's us because we're just doing this one because Shani, you and I
mates just at my house so just for all listeners. It's not me scratching trying
to get away from the podcast like let me out of here, we're all good. So how many
people in your family and like you say were you close to them? Were you a close
knit family? Yeah so there's four of us so mum and dad, hard workers. I
think I got my work ethic from them. Mum's a banker and my dad drives trucks
so that's where the mechanics side of me came from and then my sister, good with
academics so she was a singer and quite good with her math skills and things
like that and then turned into a hairdresser so she's actually just opened
her own salon which is a massive high achievement for her. When we're growing
up we're probably kind of close and I guess as I got older I've started to
drift away a little bit from them and that's just I think you know once you
get into your own family and have your own you know become an adult your life
views and beliefs and all those things evolve and I guess from being in a small
country town you know I love that country town I love that low but you
had to expand and you know I've traveled the world I've seen so many things I've
seen so many different cultures I've seen the way people behave differently
and and sometimes that doesn't align with your family because your family
just sort of stays with who they are and what they believe in and they expect you
to you know jump in line and this is what we were growing up to be this is
what our family supposed to be and when you don't fit that mold anymore it's
kind of like well you don't really belong in that family but that's not how
it should be it should be oh we're very proud of who you've become where you're
going and what you believe in and you know you're still shiny but you'll just
live more life than what we have. Yeah and that's just your experiences right
like you're really good at footy so you've traveled the world played for
Australia won a gold medal we'll get to all that so for me having three kids
myself I would just be like I want to learn from them you know like they've
gone past me and I want to learn and you never stop learning. Yeah for sure and
that's like the attitude that you would hope to adapt but I think it's that
control right so it's it's having that control over who I am what my
achievements are and that you know we got you there and it's like well you
didn't get me to the gold medal yes you as a kid you tripped me around all over
the place and I'm so grateful for that but the hard earned work the sweat tears
every day getting up going I'm you know putting my best foot forward to be the
best Australian rugby player I can be they didn't do that. At what stage Sharni
were you in battle going okay I want to try to make sport my life I want to
earn a living I want to be a gold medalist was that a dream from a young
age? Yeah I don't think I ever thought that would be able to make a living you
know that's that's the beauty of where we have come and the the proud part that
I do have about rugby is that we've taken those stepping stones to be then
become professional I do remember I was an eight-year-old kid that wanted to be
an Olympian and people look at me and go man that's crazy like how do you know
that and I was like well I was staying in the living room of my auntie's house
and it was the first time I'd been given a pair of joggers brand new pair you
know I'd had hand-me-downs from my cousins and things like that and I'd
made the cross-country team to be able to go to Sydney and that's huge for a
country kid right so I was racing against nine-year-olds you know come 54th
or something like that which I didn't mind but that was an achievement for me
and as it got on and kept performing and kept playing sport it was 2000 when I
saw Alison Ennan my idol in hockey roos and she's standing up on that
podium with a gold medal and that's where I went wow I could be a gold
medalist here I could go to the Olympics even though I was eight when I first
wanted to go to the Olympics it was it became more real after playing hockey
and then seeing it and that's what this is about is that visibility and that's
what I'm huge on is being visible for other people to be able to recognize
what they're capable of because if you don't see it you can't believe it yeah
so what made you go rugby not hockey or another sport yeah it was so strange is
because as I said at the start I played so many different sports and touch
footy was pretty big in Wagahara so I played a bit of that and that was like
around 16 and I had to try and choose between touch and hockey I think I sort
of looked at it and went well touch football is not in the Olympics but
hockey is and so you know to be able to be talented to be able to choose
between the two was you know probably a moment where I went well okay am I going
to make the right decision and yeah I chose hockey and you know got a
scholarship to go to ACT so 17 years old I moved away from Batlow into Canberra
never ever seen you know traffic lights before we don't have any traffic
lights we have two stop signs in Batlow and that's it and the town of roundabouts
like you go to Canberra and there's just roundabout after roundabout so you could
get quite dizzy being there but um you know as I said like playing hockey for
quite some time and then a friend that I was working at Sportsman's Warehouse at
the time just sort of said come watch rugby and I went oh that's pretty
brutal you know went and watched it and I went holy heck this is a sport for me
these chicks are smashing each other like I want to be around that you know
it had a bit of built-up anger as a kid and I'd always been a bit of a tomboy and
stuff like around my dad and you know my dad's my idol so I was like yep he'd
always played league and I'd wanted to go play it so 2008 I started playing and
I made my first Australian team straight away like just you can't count your
cards any any better than that like just to be able to go play for ACT and get a
touch on the shoulder and go oh you're pretty good we'll take you for the
Wallaroo camp and you make the Wallaroo camp and your first test matches is you
know four months later against the New Zealand in Canberra wow so hockey then
goes out of the system you're like okay I'm not gonna be a hockey wrong and I'm
gonna play rugby yeah is that an Olympic sport at that stage or okay so what does
that mean your Olympic dream in your mind is over but you love rugby so you're
gonna give it a crack yeah well I guess I saw some World Cups I saw that the
Wallabies played World Cups and I thought well surely the women get to
play World Cups and stuff as well and I dabbled with hockey and rugby for quite
some time because it was like Saturday rugby and then hockey on Sunday and it
was brutal you know like as well as partying as well like I was a kid that
was going out so you know I'd just come from Batler and I've never been to a
nightclub so yeah for the fact that you know rugby's ended up where it is that
was 2009 when it actually got accepted into the Olympics so that's quite some
time hmm you know played one test in 2008 for the Wallaroos which is 15s and
then those girls it was quite a different game back then it was more
bigger bodies and they were just sort of trucking it up and in Smash Fest where
now it's a lot more skillful and faster and a bit more intelligent I guess you
would say yeah and you talked about the mechanic side of things and your dad
being a hero growing up and being a tomboy and so forth I suppose you're
sitting there going well if things don't work out I can become a mechanic like
you did do training around that and stuff that was another not dream but I
suppose that was another avenue for you to look at your future yeah well I guess
you got to think about life balance too right is that if you get injured or
rugby doesn't work out or the sport doesn't work out then you've got to have
something to fall back on and you know that was probably one of the proudest
moments my dad had when I said I'm gonna go be a mechanic but I finished my
qualification in 2012 for Toyota so specialized in the Toyota side of things
helped out with the diesel so just started doing a lot of diesel injection
replacements and it was such an amazing time like you know you had these boys
just going who's this chick I'm like alright step aside you know I then
became one of the best workers you know I talked about that work ethic and
that's what you need that's one of those values that I have and so it was
like how many cars can I beat the next boy you make it into a competition and
you know these little Yaris's coming in you're like beauty like that'll take me
you know 20 seconds to get all this stuff done and just efficiency so it was
it's a good trade to have like in my back pocket mm-hmm
I've serviced the number of the girls cars of you know you had to go and help
survive them they've you know jumpstart their cars or teach them even where the
oil is to check and you know one girl has just recently had no cool and you
know car and I was like mate you cannot drive this like so it's coming handy with
the rugby side of things as well you're the team mechanic yeah as much as
everything else so Shani you're in Canberra you're trying to work out who
you are you're partying you're playing for Australia you're doing your your
mechanic stuff as well what about your personal stuff you know you're you're
openly gay you're very proud of that at what stage did you go okay it's girls
for me yeah that's an interesting question because you say that I was
openly gay but I actually wasn't in Canberra okay it's taken me quite some
time to understand who I am and that it's okay to be that way you know my
first girlfriend you know I'd been with her for six years we're engaged and then
I come back from a World Cup and we break up so for her as well it was
probably going to be quite hard for us she was quite open and I was quite
closed off so I couldn't walk down the street and hold her hand like I wasn't
committing enough like I look back on it now and I wasn't committing enough to
her I wasn't that good person in the relationship because it was like oh I'm
ashamed and to be in a relationship when you're ashamed is it's really hard you
know you're hiding it from everybody I was hiding it from my parents for quite
some time so you know how they would react and you're just sort of dealing
with with that that space and that's why I think right now that I'm so proud
of who I am and what I've been able to get through is such a big thing for me
and why I share it so much is because from where I was to where I am now in
my relationship with Mel who is the most amazing beautiful person you know we're
engaged as well two kids that we've taken on board so we've been together
for five years now and you know we've almost got a 21 year old on Friday and
then an 18 year old so we've had to navigate through quite a lot but I don't
think I would have been able to do that if I wasn't out and open and I think
that would just became because of society as well you know the yes vote
was huge it was a massive stepping stone for me to be able to go well hold on
people are voting yes there's that visibility piece again you know okay
there are people out in the world that actually accept me for who I am I think
that was just that was huge for me to to be able to do that and I'm in a really
great place now but everybody goes through things and I think yeah it's
definitely society in the picture that we we paint for us so I'm just I said
openly because you are so open now and I love that about you that you are
changing people's lives because people listen to you and go okay
Charney's won a gold medal she's rugby player she says it's alright people have
said that to me they've heard you and gone I'm coming out because of her you
know you're literally changing lives and it's an important person to be in
someone's life when you do that do you realize that did people come up to you
and tell you I guess sometimes but you just don't you don't know the ripple
effect right you don't understand that until someone does give you that
feedback but that's not what I'm doing it for that's what I'm looking for I'm
just trying to be me and you know as I said that visibility piece is huge and
if that ripple effect helps people and I'm happy for that that's awesome so
let's talk about Mel just for a moment because you said she had two children so
she made a change in her life as well after being with a man I've known you
guys for years and you're just awesome together it's pretty obvious that it's
it's absolute love what was that like for her you negotiating with her with
the fact that she had been with a bloke yeah I guess it was you know she she was
out to get me I had no eyes for her so yes she saw me walk through the doors at
one of our friends house and went oh I'm in trouble because she was sort of
trying to work it out herself yeah well she was she was trying to figure out
what she wanted next you know just in a marriage for 20 years you know that's a
long time and it's that piece that we talk about is trying to figure out who
we are because we've always been that person but we're actually able to evolve
and it's okay to evolve so yeah for her to evolve and do that and we just hit it
off like we were just chatty we were friends we did things together we never
thought that we would go to where it is now and it's so beautiful that it has
she's so creative I love it to pieces she knows that you know that as I said
but I don't think I had to help navigate for her she was all-in like I don't know
what it is must be my charm or something she taught me your arms yeah well true
true they were a little bit of a factor there but that's my protection mode you
know I always think I have to be protecting people so that's why I work
really hard in the gym you know we didn't really have to navigate things
things just clicked and things just evolved the way they did it's a
relationship that I've always wanted you know I've been brought up in a family
where there's been you know violence and arguing and yelling and I've always
thought that that's what family was and then till adventuring out it's like well
that's you don't have to be that way it's meant to be a loving place like you
get to choose who you want to be with for the rest of your life you don't get
to choose your family you have to put up with your family and you have to love
them yeah but you don't actually get to choose who they are and to be able to
choose your life partner is one of the the most amazing things in life and you
need to be able to make sure that you choose that right and you might not get
it right but that's okay you just make sure that you keep moving forward and
know who you are because that then makes means that you'll know what you want so
Shani let's go back a little bit you're in Canberra and you play a test match
and then all of a sudden sevenths is in the Olympics so what shifts in your
brain and what happens then for you to have your Olympic dream yes sir I think
like Cheryl Soon was the captain of the Wallaroos at the time they went away to
a World Cup in Dubai I was just fresh straight into it so I'd done a little
bit of training with them and then they went off and won the first ever World
Cup and that's where it started you know for women's rugby was huge you know
that they had never beaten New Zealand they went to the qualifiers in Samoa and
they beat them twice and these girls have then started to get confidence
right Shani Makai his Brumbies boy unfortunately was killed over in South
Africa on a Brumbies tour and we dedicate our medal to him every year he
was the coach at the time and amazing amazing coach very gifted and the girls
loved him to pieces so for them to then go over to the World Cup and and win for
him was a very special moment you know and then 2010 and Cheryl Soon's been
asked to be the representative for women's rugby and for sevens rugby to
put the bid in for the Olympics for 2016 Olympics hoping that she would be there
she was close but for an Australian and for a women's rugby player to go and and
advocate for for rugby and for the Olympics was a massive achievement and
you know she's just been inducted into the Hall of Fame and I think that's
where I you know I know that story right so that gives me goosebumps when I think
about that story because it's like well that was the start for me and I invested
myself and my time into those moments and heard them and it was like that's
what rugby sort of gave me over hockey did was that community feel and that
understanding that we're here for each other because really when you go out in
that field you're going to war like you're battling for each other like
you're putting your body on the line brutal smashing each other and you
don't get that in any other sport so I think that's what I loved about it so
much which made me go you know what I will die for this cause like what I get
out of this is is nothing I can ever replace right now and I want to go to
Olympics and I'm driven and my purpose is to be the best rugby player I can be
then I'm going to go and do that. Wow okay so we know what happens in Rio and
we'll get to that in the moment but how many times in that journey in those years
leading up did you go I'm in the team I'm not in the team like you're always
secure like what's it like when you've got such a dream and you've got so much
on the line injuries all that stuff like give us a bit of a snapshot of that
couple of years and they'll lead up to the announcement of the team in Rio. Yeah
I guess quite a lot went on because I obviously started playing and then 2012
I become captain and you go oh this little country kid that's really shy is
now captaining their country what do I do here you know like why do you pick me
yeah why did they pick you yeah what do you reckon I guess I just led by example
right that's how I always lead is by example I don't have to speak too much
and if I have to speak then you know that something's up but if I lead by example
then people just follow right so that's what I was doing and that's pretty much
the reason why I got it and I went okay well that's pretty easy that's easy to
captain cool and then I guess leading into that then became 2014 and we had
moved to Narrabin we've become professional so that's huge and we got
government funding from the AIS does that mean you can actually play the game and not have to
get another job like they paid you well enough for that to happen yeah so I mean 2014 2013 I
moved up to Brisbane thinking that that's where they were going to centralise it and got a job
with Toyota up there and so then I was working and training and you know like it looked the
days were huge like 5am start for gym and then you go to work on cars and your hands above your
head all day and then you'd go do your ACT training you'd go do your club training and then you'd
have to do your Walla-roos training is on top of that and you wouldn't be getting home till
10 o'clock at night so they were huge days too so for the fact that we could become professional
in 2014 and solely focus on being footy players was was unbelievable and especially for women too
like there wasn't there's no data out on women being professional players in any sport so it
was like okay well what does that look like how far can we push these women what injuries are we
going to get what do they look like in the gym what are their movements there's nothing out there
for any of these coaches to go off so we're just sort of like all these little guinea pigs running
around going all right yep i'm broken i'm i'm not i'm good so 2015 i tear the patella femoral
ligament off the bone so dislocate my kneecap that doesn't sound like fun no so get my first
ever surgery mel and i have just started dating she's absolute gem for me so that's where where
all this starts for us in our journey not nice to be able to you know try and weigh with your leg
that's in a brace nice and straight so that uh that developed a very close friendship straight
away but then that's that's also the mental battle for me right so i've never had an injury before
never had surgery before i go back to this little country kid that's shy because i'm like well what
do i do do i stick my heels in and go i can do this or do i you know have a tanny and go nuts
too much but there's an olympic games hanging there 2016 one year away but i'm going to miss
all of 2015 so i plan to do little things every single day and my biggest goal that i achieved
was getting a full cycle rotation on a bike just to try and get my knee to turn over and that was
that was one of the best days i had had experience through that whole rehab and as i said there was
no data out there so how do we you know move forward in this rehab world plus captaining
right so i've been captaining since 2012 right up to 2015 on my own because i'm injured we then go
to co-captaincy so now i have to share this captaincy with another girl lucky we're called
the bash brothers because we're the ones that go out there and create havoc on the field so
we've got a very close bond me and shannon so you're okay with it well at the at the start
but definitely not you know like you're you're dealing with injury right and you feel like
you've already been demoted like you're not getting to play and then you're not being around
the girls you feel very isolated you're like where's my purpose now like my purpose here is
to be the best rugby player i can be and now i can't play rugby so what does that look like
where's my life balance because i've just moved to sydney i haven't got a job my sole job is to be
footy player there's so many things that you have to go through so then i get through that right
to be able to then get rid of those demons get rid of that little country kid that's you know
reared its head to go hey you can't do this so then oh my god you actually got through this you
did it i play the last world series in 2015 and then we head off to the olympics in august
and when you go off to rio how exciting to be in rio initially like you know that's pretty
cool if you know unless you're in your home city for the crowd it'd be awesome to be in rio where
are you sort of ranked in the world where do you think you know you're gonna you know you're going
to be a gold medalist on the dice like what was the expectation yeah well as i said like i missed
that first preparation that whole season we ranked number one though right so we were able to secure
that in france which was which unreal but then you hunted and everyone thought that we would be
under pressure not being cocky but just going we're going to win gold you know i remember mark
beretta came out and interviewed me and he goes oh where are you guys going to place i said we're
going to play we're going to win gold he went oh yeah we're going to win gold and he goes well
you're adamant about that aren't you i said yeah we're a whole team is adamant because we are
driving for that gold medal we've just become professional athletes and we're going to show
australia that women need to be professional athletes because
when we win this gold it's going to change the world but we didn't know how far it would change
it was huge so you go to rio what's the whole thing like like getting your getting your gear
getting on the plane you know being around other athletes and what's it like in rio in in the
village the olympic village it's like no other you go to these world series and it's just rugby
all right now you've got multi sports you've got people that like rafael nodal's there serena
williams like you're walking into these like um lunch rooms and you're going wow all the i've
seen these guys on tv like this is nuts you know usain bolt's just down the road from me like all
those things were pretty cool but getting the kit like man that was unbelievable you know you look
at our kangaroo and emu and we always talk about that coat of arms of the kangaroo never taking a
backward step so you're always moving forward yeah really cool just quickly interrupting the
episode to say a very big thank you to the sponsor of this podcast and that is sure and partners
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and let's get back into the episode so you arrive in rio is rio everything you want can you go and
have a look around or are you just absolutely focused on the on the job at hand for this first
olympics it was just you have to be you have to be focused right we had tim walsh our coach who
was very structured so he had our standards and he had our beliefs and he had what our plan was
and that we needed to cross the t's and tick the i's and that's that's how it was and you just
formed in line because that's what the job was there to go and win gold it wasn't to go and
party or look at things or you know yes enjoy it enjoy the hard work was was our main cause
but the hard work hasn't happened yet so we can't just enjoy it we made a decision like we could
have gone to the opening ceremony but we made that decision not to go because you're just going to be
on feet too too much and none of the girls kicked up a stink it was awesome none of them were like
oh well this is our first olympics we need to go so yeah and just making that decision made you
just feel as a team too like you look around and you go yeah everyone's here for the right reasons
that's definitely why we won gold but to win gold even with all those things is a really
difficult thing you've got the kiwis you've got a lot of good teams the pommies the fijians and
so forth so once you win the semi-final you know you've won a medal is that is that right
yeah but it's gold or silver no it's gold and it's against bloody kiwis it's it's not any other color
gussy gold and it's hanging up on the crossbar right and we're defending it that's what our
coach had always said to us right defend that gold medal it's on that crossbar i love that
powerful hey sure is if the opposition goes underneath it and scores they're going to nick
it off you yeah so you have to regroup and go again because that's how brutal sevens is right
if you can't get the ball back you're in trouble so you've got to figure out how you're going to
do it without giving away a penalty with those pesty referees yeah well gotta love the referees
there'd be no game without the mate nicely said nice political answer okay so let's get to the
final let's focus on that so you play against the kiwis for the gold medal i remember watching it
like it was one of those like you know it was one of those sports for me that i just love sevens i
understand it i get it and i'm just like we're going to win gold today what was it like playing
in that gold medal match well the lead up to it this is where the lead up that you can't control
and i talk about the universe because there was an injury time in the game before and so we're
ready we've warmed up and then we've got the call that it's going to be delayed so we've gone okay
we'll go back to our sheds and so well she when he selected teams would do certain things we've
even been in like devitt's meat room once before because he's gone fire and ice you know like so
fire in the belly you know to get you going and then ice we chucked us in a cool room save the
fire was the candle and then chucked us in the devitt's cool room as part of the people don't
know devitt's is the local butcher here in here in narrowbeam coloroy which is an awesome establishment
excellent sausages oh amazing meat oh not sponsored either no plug here
and so he had this candle and it was called rio so he would light that candle with every team that
he would announce and so we went back into the room and he had the candle lit and it was dark
and the candle's just in the middle and so we all sat down and just had a moment sort of looking
around and i'm sure there were some thoughts going on and i was just looking you know a bit
smiling at everybody because i believed in every single person in that room and we're going to win
gold today we're going to we're going to do this sean horan was the the coach for new zealand and
he had written an article saying that you know australian are soft and you know they can't tackle
they're going to miss tackle so that's going to fire us up right so we had that sitting up on
the wall and you know every girl would go and look at it and read it before we'd go out
and yeah then it came to the game time right yeah so tell us about the game it's kind of a bit of
a whirlwind because it was we just started scoring these tries i remember charlotte just sort of
running it their captain gossi well she wasn't captain at the time but she's captain now and
just ran over the line and it was like well they're not really fronting up here so the first half we
sort of got it all and we're going well this isn't new zealand but hey we'll take it yeah we've we've
got the gold medal we've already won this like we're defending it elia scoring a try there as
well and then i remember being in a scrum with with chanel the hooker always breaks left their
captain hudiana who also is like our sheryl soon you know she's advocated for the new zealand
she's a legend yeah 100% and you know she scoots down the blind side i've gone oh here we go
and chanel just splits is out of the scrum and tackles her over the sideline and that was like
the play moment that was like we're we're on here we've got this so that was in that first half and
then we go into the second half and yeah i didn't play a lot of minutes into the olympics because
i was obviously coming back from injury and stuff but you know those moments that i got to play were
pretty amazing and that second half was unreal like it was 27 17 i think then end result there
was but they did come back yeah they came back in that second half it was a bit sort of nerdy there
for a while yeah and so that you see us you can actually see the reaction in in our faces when
we're defending that gold medal because that gold medal is up on that post no one can see my face
right now but you know the smile on it just thinking back to those moments feels like such
a long time ago now yeah and you know you still get to talk about it over five years yeah you
know but a gold medal is a gold medal yeah so you know you've won it you know you win it that
moment is just what's it like relief actual relief like the final whistle goes because they've also
scored a couple of tries on us and people are you can feel the crowd just sort of tensing a bit
but not us like you look around they score the try and it's like no next job we got this
and you can feel the belief within the girls that yeah we've we've got it even if they score another
try we've you know come so far that we've scored enough to to secure it and then once you win it
like just everybody jumping on each other like trying to search for each other you almost feel
a little bit gummy because you've got like all this emotion happening and you're like trying
to find people and you're like oh come here you know like i'm i'm a hugger like i love love giving
hugs so it was like somebody come in because i was so far away from people and then it was just
everybody was hugging each other and you know we're running up to our parents up into the stands you
know looking for mel you know seeing my parents there was yeah it was definitely a dream come
true it was pretty crazy and then you get to sing the national anthem again but this time with
something around your neck well it took me back right back to the 2000s of seeing alice and then
and up on that dice like for me to be standing there as the captain at the front as well as
as the leader you know like it was pretty crazy because we were like running back to go and put
our tracksuits on after the game because it was pretty much straight away the medal presentation
and as i'm running back one of the media guys has called me over and matthew mcconnelly is
standing there and he's like well done on winning gold and i was just like what
like this is crazy and then yeah just running back in to get changed and we're all sweaty and
we're just like chucking it on and singing our song and standing up on that dice and then
finally everyone's got their gold medal on and they're just lifting our hands above our heads
and looking at our family it's like it's the pinnacle of our sport so the fact that we go to
gold medal for the first time ever in rugby sevens for the first time in the in the olympics is
no one can take that away from you no one no one can take you being olympian away either like that's
that's a forever and it took me a while to understand that do you feel for the kiwis at
any stage as i said i felt i felt for porcelain women 100 that's hard hard to have to deal with
like the you know pretty heavy weight and i am a carer so i'm friends with a lot of those girls i
played a lot of footy alongside or just not alongside them but against them so you see them
every every toy that you go on you see them in the dining hall yeah and when they have things
gone for example when battler had the fires they really rallied around me and and helped me out so
as i said at the end of the day footy is footy and we're human beings so off that field your
friends and you look after each other and like that's something that you could use as a burden
as well like if you've knocked the ball on and then had to get sent off you know you think you've
lost the game for your team and for such a huge tournament but that doesn't defy you
and i think that's that's what as athletes we need to understand is these moments don't define
who we are and that we probably you know beat ourselves up quite a lot because that's our
profession right like we're professional athletes and this is what you want to be winners yeah and
we've got a lot of people looking for out for us like we've got a lot of community members that
rely on us to do our jobs and when we don't do it we get a serving right but then the day we're
human beings and everybody fails so i think we just need to be kinder to each other and that's
probably why i do feel for for new zealand but they have had their fair share of wins so yeah
it's quite nice to um actually have the Aussies winning a bit absolutely so we move forward to
Tokyo and we also move forward to just the work you do just by being you that is being a carer
being someone who you know gets it you know it's you're an athlete for a certain amount of time
but you're also a you know a great friend and someone that can change people's lives
what was it like the second time around with Tokyo in the lead up to that did you learn a lot
from Rio to make that easier was it harder obviously the squad was very different yeah i
mean there's so many uncontrollable things and there is in life but you know obviously
the postponement of the Olympics was was pretty hard you know getting on in my career it was
what does family look like for me as well you know i want to have a baby at some point
Mel and i want to be parents together we've already got our two two step kids but you know
i just think that that's such a beautiful thing that females can do and that it's something to
experience and and bring another life in into the world so i want to be able to experience that and
that was about timing and things like that once you retired you retired there's no real going
back and the game's getting faster and there's a lot more younger kids coming through and i
didn't want to take a position away from a younger kid to be able to flourish and
and earn their sport but it's also my time too so i can't be you know i have to be selfish sometimes
i remember talking to you in the lead up to the Olympics and you were
actually leading a lot of the challenges like the exercise challenge you were doing personal
bests in you were working so hard on your physical fitness that you were letting the
young girls know hey i'm the old bird and i'm beating your ass so let's go yeah and i always
loved that about you that you weren't just oh well this is my second Olympics i've already won
gold i'm gonna go to tokyo this is a bit of a farewell you were like i'm doing stuff that i
didn't do at rio yeah i'm better and stronger yeah and i i guess i thought that that's probably
what i didn't have in rio right so i come off an injury so it was like okay i'm going to better
myself i'm going to be my purpose back to my sole purpose is the best rugby player i can be
you know i suffered another injury in 2008 you know i did my syndesmosis so my ankle
was out of the commonwealth games but i got still got my silver medal which was great
after playing two games but i think that's where the drive is okay next challenge what is it
all right there's another Olympics and i have been to another to an Olympics and i've got my
friends still here i've got my rio girls but i need to look after these younger girls coming
through as well because you know we're getting girls out of straight out of school 17 years old
like they've got no life skills no life experience mum and dad have been doing
everything for them and it's like hey move to sydney and survive but as you were saying is like
with my your personal best and things like that that was my challenge it was like okay what do
what does the old girl shani look like you know these young girls are coming through but i'm going
to make you know that yeah i'm here i'm here for the right reasons i need to earn respect from them
and show that i have respect for them as well because that's how you create that good culture
within a team but then you see divide right so then you've got the young girls and the old girls
and i was never that person i always wanted to to be that middle person to go hey we all need to
to get on here and i guess yeah with that postponement you start to see that some of
the older girls obviously leave for those reasons i need to go and have my family or
my body's not cut out for it anymore or my mind's just not here for another olympus because it can
be quite draining and take a toll on you and i was never going to let that happen to me like
my mindset was like no you're going to another one i don't care how hard you have to push you
you'll go there i said that preparation for the next olympus we've got a new coach as well we
hadn't won underneath him there's so much chat through the media and stuff about things there
were no good stories coming out about women's rugby you know all the other women's teams are
going forward aflw nrlw you see all these stories the cricketers and we're sort of just stuck
there's not much happening for us because as i said it's all based on performance
so unless you're performing you're not really heard of which is that surprise and upset you
though because you won an olympic gold surely there can be some you know some good stories
about the young players coming through and they're freshening up with the squad like that's a
decision someone makes in news to go uh we're going to focus more on the matildas or the
cricketers who were winning world cups and that's the thing i love about being an ozzie sports lover
like the last 10 years the girls are just killing it yeah the most successful sides are the girls
in all the sports yeah yeah 100 tokyo itself after rio you know it was shattering you know
it was just like what was that like that for you yeah definitely you know like obviously you had
expectations of at least being on the podium you know um if it wasn't gold it was going to be a
medal and that probably yeah hit me pretty hard and it probably didn't hit me until i was around
family till i got home to mel and went oh god like became fifth we didn't even podium we
what what the hell what happened and then i started putting pieces together and and so
it's sort of seeing how the culture was and opening up to to that sort of stuff and went
oh not necessarily that the culture was bad it's not bad at all it's just little bits and pieces
of of how people were acting that probably should weren't professional
weren't to the standards of what i would expect so what about stuff outside of
footy for you you know because there's a lot going on there too like you're going to get
married to mel at some point yeah like at some stage you've got to walk down the aisle we're
looking forward to the party yeah for sure it'll be pretty amazing yeah yeah we haven't set a date
obviously we've we've talked about a lot of things songs and dancing i'm not a dancer who
the mc is going to be well i was looking across the table there mate it's looking pretty good for
me i can come up with a really good rate for you and then community community is my my friend like
i'm with slow coach so i do a lot of a lot of coaching through them working at f45 and just
trying to help people better themselves and charities like you're running got you for life
you know but yeah as i said just getting around the community and trying to to find my niche of
what's next where's the gold medal right because you're a disgrace let's just be absolutely honest
about this banging around in your car for so long chipped has it been repainted no it's still a
mint mate glove box how long does it live in the glove box i was in a sock mate it's okay
like that's that's the whole reason behind that was it's a community medal like yeah it might
be my only gold medal well it will be but the thing was is that only olympic gold like there
could be pot worth gold true true that yes nice good pick up um is that it's a community medal
right we can't go away to the olympics we can't have the olympics without taxpayers money
without the support of community volunteers referees you know organizations support you know
that's one of the reasons why i love just having in the club books you know lock it up people don't
know my rego number but it's to you know sometimes like you know whip it out and be like here you go
have you seen a gold medal before you know oh it's heavy and just having those conversations
with people because they might not ever get to see one and i sure as hell didn't think that i would
get one so i think it's special to be able to share that i agree with you and it's at the mint
now just for people to know it's getting a little bit of a re coating of the gold yes there's like a
couple of like green dots and stuff on it so we had to sort of check out what that was
the rio mint is actually shut down so we couldn't figure out what metal that was we'd send it to a
number of jewelers and they couldn't do things so i said the camber mint trying to get recoded and
see how we go i've sent a number of emails so fingers crossed let's let's hope we get it back
and when we get it back it'll be back out in the community perfect beautiful now let's talk briefly
about pride in sport and what it means to you being a leader within that what does what does
that mean to you what sort of legacy would you like to leave the sport with around you know same
sex and all that type of stuff yeah i mean it's it's come off the back of my head gear right and
that was huge to team up with gilbert and and create something like that you know the mighty
gra there was the first time that they had brought out a gilbert rainbow ball and i sort of said well
you could make a head gear in that you've got the print you've got the color let's do it and they
went yeah for sure let's go so i'm in chats with that to see if we can get that on the shelves
right and hopefully that that'll be you know another piece of visibility for these kids to
go out and wear the head gear diversity whoever you are you know like you see a rainbow and you're
just happy and it's also protective right that it doesn't protect concussion but it protects
any cuts and bruises and things like that to just help those kids be able to use their technique and
yeah i'm 100 about that as well because it gives those mothers a bit of protection and to get these
young girls out playing playing footy off the back of that head gear was priden sport sort of reached
out and i'd done a little bit here and there but i hadn't been known as out so when they had done
the olympics in rio i hadn't been put into the list as gay athlete where this time around they
really went hard on it and they're like shiny williams is in as a gay athlete and it took
some pride in that like you know there's so many more athletes that could have been on that board
you know the sponsorship side of things as well it's like well we're not going to sponsor you
because you're that way so i don't want that to be the case i want to sponsor us people like our
rainbow people need to be supported do you think we're getting better are we moving in the right
direction are we moving quick enough in your your eyes i don't think we're moving quick enough i
think we're moving but it's the same if you talk about women's sport too right is that took so
long like women have been playing rugby since 1939 also i think like that finally in 2014 we
became professional and it wasn't in the 15th game it's in the seventh game you look at some
of the pride rounds as well and they're amazing amazing to have pride rounds but what else are
you doing in your company yep you might be just visible for that month and that's it what's your
policy look like what's your count in your company if you got gay people in your company to be able
to go to and and talk to and ask opinions of that have had experiences or are you using the sports
index and then finding out how you compare to other sports as well so i think that's yeah that's
definitely something that you know i thought was pretty scary because i was like oh i'm going on a
board i'm you know i'm growing up here um but i'm i'm very passionate about making change in sport
i love that shani fast five questions oh here we go okay have you got a quote or a saying that you
live your life by is there something that you just go oh that makes sense for me yep michael jordan
yep never say never because limits like fears are often just illusions oh i love that have you got
a favorite holiday destination holiday destination this is no rugby or working out this is like
chilling i was like what's a holiday yeah um longest i've had off was tokyo after tokyo
holiday destination anywhere by the beach i live by the beach so daydream island that was pretty
great went up there near mccoy so mil would be happy with that answer anywhere the company is
the most important thing for me you know yeah for sure you put me in the best place in the world if
i'm by myself i'm not going to be happy yeah i need my my tribe i need my village yeah um are
you a reader have you got a favorite book i have a favorite book i read quite a lot i'm reading
green light at the moment by matthew mccoy hand so that's been pretty pretty amazing he's your
boyfriend from oh yeah from rio so hello you're looking for the piece where he goes
oh this is shiny william yeah that's it i got to say hello to shiny but no it's not in there
okay but i can relate a lot to to what he went through which is pretty amazing yeah favorite
movie oh i have to say home alone or mrs doubtfire oh yeah but home alone one absolutely love that
kevin yeah i love that but when he has the aftershave oh
he was a huge part of our life wasn't he growing up for sure brilliant and your favorite charity
and who you'd like to donate the 10k to from shaw and partners got you for life 100 you know not
just because of you but because of what you guys are about your values your beliefs for that hour
row i did 14.4ks but yeah just just the way that you rally around the community and provide the
tools and help people benefit in life i think it's really important there's a lot of suicide
in the world and especially on the northern beaches it's been pretty crazy since i've moved
here and i think it's really important yeah well thank you and you know just think about every
40 dollars of that 10 grand is another person that can sit in a workshop and that could really
help save someone's life or you know that a facilitator going out into a community that's
two and a half grand that's a week in the in the community out in the country with five or six
you know facilitators are there imagine how many kids might just get that little spark that allows
them to move forward so it means a lot yeah well it's that visibility piece once again we've
spoken about that quite a lot and as i said providing those tools for them like you don't
yes there's the internet these days but you know when you're face to face you learn so much more
being able to get out and get into those communities that are less fortunate to
provide those resources is is really important but shani look you've got so much on the next
couple of years you know with world cups sevens fifteens commonwealth games as well as setting a
date setting a date yes forget that think of mil think of mil that's actually once you give her
a date then she can start planning right even if it's a couple of years in advance but uh well she
is starting to be a celebrant so she might be able to marry you as well no that's not happening
look thanks so much for your time and for being so beautiful today so thank you thank you guys see
a big thank you to shaw and partners financial services who have generously supported this
podcast and also donated ten thousand dollars to the charity of choice of each of our guests
to thank them for their time shaw and partners are an australian investment and wealth management
firm who manage over 28 billion dollars of assets under advice with seven offices around australia
shaw and partners act for and on behalf of individuals institutions corporates and charities
for more info you can check out their website at shawandpartners.com.au that's s-h-a-w for
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