"The Things that Make us" Nick Riewoldt

[saintbrat]

Released Monday 23rd
Exerpt online at Herald Sun 6 pm Sunday 22nd

Article about a few of the events included
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victor ... 5d164b89d0

Eddie being Eddie and oppportunistic
Dissapointment in Ricky
Dealing with Anxiety and PTSD

[saintbrat]

1st excerpt printed in hard copy this morning
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victor ... 5d164b89d0

THE HARDEST TIME OF MY LIFE
MADDIE went into ICU in July, and stayed there for 227 days. Over the five years of her illness she spent roughly eighteen months in hospital, but nothing could prepare you for those last seven months. Maddie spent five of those seven months unable to eat or drink, on and off dialysis, and using a tracheostomy, which creates an airway through the neck to deliver more oxygen to the lungs. Sometimes we were allowed to take her out on the balcony; my memory is stuck in the last few months, when it seemed like every time we were out there it was a really hot day.

The hardest thing about that time, which still breaks my heart, is how thirsty Maddie was.

She was basically thirsty for six months. Occasionally she would be allowed to suck on an ice chip, then the nurses would say no more. Maddie’s eyes would just sink.

You question so much in a situation like that. If you’re going to lose someone, how would you prefer it to happen? Would you rather lose them suddenly? Or would it be better to have time to prepare yourself, but have to watch the deterioration of someone you love? To say we admired her courage is such a ridiculous understatement. I can’t articulate how strong she was and how proud of her we are. She became a shell of herself. She was unrecognisable from the beautiful blonde girl she’d been, but at the same time she was still our Maddie.

To say we admired her courage is such a ridiculous understatement.
James had been born on 4 December 2014. By Christmas it didn’t look like he would ever meet his Aunty Maddie. Then in January, with a new course of medication seemingly reaping results I got a phone call to say she was no longer infectious. I was so excited, I just grabbed James and Cath and raced in there. Maddie couldn’t talk, but I could still hear her over the ventilator — which you’re not supposed to be able to do — saying, ‘I love you James, I love you James.’ That’s one of my favourite memories, hearing her say my son’s name, telling him that she loved him. For a sliver of time, after so much darkness, everyone was happy.

[saintspremiers]

Thanks for the post.

I find it annoying all these extracts.

Unless you buy the book on day 1 the media give all the good stuff out as they probably have advanced copies but are
vetoed to say anything until Monday. Is it still worth reading if you know about all the big stuff?

I wonder if he delves into euthanasia. His sister surely must have had many times where she would've wanted it to end - even if she could only confide to a friend not family.

Fortunately in Victoria you don't have to have to fight like Maddie did if you lose the will to live and are in terminal pain anymore.

[saintbrat]

Excerpt on Saints site
http://www.saints.com.au/news/2017-10-2 ... k-riewoldt

This is an edited extract from 'The Things That Make Us' by Nick Riewoldt with Peter Hanlon (Allen & Unwin, $39.99, onsale now).

I clutched my right leg around the shin, pulled my knee towards my chest and looked up at the big screen in search of the replay. There’d been a ‘pop’, perhaps even more of a ‘bang’, loud enough that a couple of Melbourne players nearby said they’d heard it too. It didn’t look, sound or feel good at all. I screamed: ‘Noooo! Nooooooo!’

I’d had grand designs on playing until who knows when, or at least the 2017 season and again the following year if all was well. I’d given myself the best chance to do that. I was playing good footy, and I was in really good shape. In the final pre-season game a fortnight earlier, against Sydney in Albury, my GPS reading was close to a career personal best: 16 kilometres covered in the game, with 2.1 kilometres of high-intensity running, or faster than 20 kilometres an hour. They’re big numbers, especially in a shortened game. I was 34 and starting my seventeenth season, and I’d never been better prepared.

Now it was round 1 and I was sitting on the Etihad Stadium turf, surrounded by teammates, opponents and 36,000 fans but feeling horribly alone. And all I could think was, ‘That’s it.’ Even before our doc Tim Barbour and physio Andrew Wallis got to me, in that short space of time, there was reflection. ‘I’ve been doing this for more than half my life,’ I thought, ‘and this is the moment, this is the end. It’s over.’ I thought I had hurt my right knee in a marking contest but could see from the replay that I’d hyper-extended as I went to push off after landing. I’ve got great relationships with ‘Barbs’and ‘Wal’ and go back a long way with them. When they crouched down next to me I said, ‘I think I’ve done my ACL.’ And I could tell from their faces they thought I’d done it too. I remember saying to Wal, ‘That’s my career, isn’t it?’ He didn’t really answer.

[Sunil_saint]

SB....do you know whether the club may be able to offer signed copies ......??
Would be a lovely Christmas present.......

[Sunil_saint]

Addendum.....sorry Just noticed he was on a Book signing tour. But......not all of us could get to the appropriate venues.

[saintbrat]

SB....do you know whether the club may be able to offer signed copies ......??
Would be a lovely Christmas present.......

Buy through club
https://shop.saints.com.au/nick-riewold ... id=ban1190

MRV
https://www.mrv.org.au/store
early orders were going to be signed

Herald Sun offering some signed copies
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victor ... 5d164b89d0

From The Things That Make Us by Nick Riewoldt with Peter Hanlon, published on 23 October 2017 by Allen & Unwin.

Be one of the first to buy The Things That Make Us for $34.99, and receive a copy signed by Nick Riewoldt. Order online at heraldsun.com.au/shop or call 1300 306 107 from 10am Monday.

[saintbrat]

todays Interviews

3aw https://omny.fm/shows/afternoons-with-d ... with-denis

SEN this afternoon
https://player.whooshkaa.com/episode?id=149451

will be on all news casts tonight-

[saintbrat]

each interview provides more insights
https://soundcloud.com/fiveaa/nick-riewoldt-271017

I have heard you can be so enthralled ( as saints fans) that you can read it in a day or so

[saintbrat]

http://www.saints.com.au/news/2017-10-2 ... s-riewoldt

“Reflecting on a lot of the good times has been a real positive to come out of it as well.

“Only once I sat down with Peter Hanlon, my ghostwriter, and he prised a lot of those emotions out of me, I was able to reflect on the great memories I have of my little sister.”

Riewoldt, 35, launched his book ‘The things that make us’ earlier this week and said he didn’t want it to be another run of the mill football memoir, preferring to provide a relatable insight into the moments in time that has formed the person he has become.

“When I was first approached about going down the path of writing a book I really wanted to avoid writing another cookie-cutter football book,” he said.

“I felt like that had been done a lot of times before and to be honest, my story wasn’t all that compelling; there were players who have had won more premierships, had more success on the field and maybe more interesting football careers.

“If I did do it, I wanted to do something that was relatable and that people found interesting. The way I was able to do that was to show some vulnerability but to also open up and talk about the rest of my life and some of the events, relationships and circumstances that have conspired to make me who I am.”

[saintbrat]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/m ... bca71ed320

Through McIntosh’s connections he also hung out with Adam Levine, from Maroon 5, who was renowned for throwing a legendary Halloween party.

One year he took teammates, Dal Santo and Leigh Montagna, along with the highlight being the encounter with Perry.

“There was a two-person camel, like the old horse or cow get-up. Dal thought it would be a good idea to jump on the camel’s hump and go for a ride,” Riewoldt wrote.

“He leapt on and this voice from inside the camel suit screamed, “Hey, hey, it’s a girl in there!”

“The camel’s hump came off and it was Katy Perry.”

Dal Santo immediately asked for a photo with the pop star saying: “You can have a photo if you stop speaking in that ridiculous accent.”

When contacted about the Perry story yesterday, Dal Santo’s memory was a bit hazy but he conceded his teammate’s version rang a bell.

[saintbrat]

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/t ... z9x4p.html

Interesting to see where journo's take their review--- BUT to read the book your self is best option.

The Things That Make Us is a great read and so much more than a football story. Only a handful of footballers since the start of the millennium have been as famous and as loved as Riewoldt, but few have been prepared to open themselves up as he has.

He is so generous with his readers and so harsh upon himself at times you wonder whether this has been a form of therapy for him after such a shocking family tragedy navigated so often in the public eye.

[loris]

Well Nick won’t be able to pursue a career in federal politics unless he renounces that German passport.

From Chapter 1 in his book:

“........... At school kids might mockingly call you at Nazi, but I didn’t consider it racist. I was an Australian kid growing up in Australia - aside from the name there was nothing to indicate even that Dad was born there. It wasn’t like I had a German passport.

As an adult that has changed. When I realised that because of Dad’s birthplace I was entitled to one. I filled out the forms, drove up the Punt Road hill to the big white building of the German embassy, and a man named Wolfgang handed me my passport. I love it - the red cover with the gold eagle on the front, the words, ‘Nationality - Deutsch’ on the inside. The only time I use it is when I’m in America and you go to a bar and get asked for ID. Take out your Australian driver’s licence and they go, ‘What’s this? this isn’t real, it’s a fake!’ But they know a German passport when they see one. It’s cool.”

I had a nice little chat with Rooey the other afternoon at a book signing at a shopping centre in Perth.

I wanted him to sign a copy of his book for the only uncle I have left alive who turns 90 at the end of this year. This uncle has been following the Saints since the 1940’s. Nick was so interested, especially knowing my sister & I have been supporting the Saints since the early 1950’s. He said he has nothing short of admiration for loyal supporters who have hung with the Saints so long. He was such a polite young man to chat to, he nearly made me tear up. He was so interested in us and our Saints history, not at all full of himself.

My sister and I thought we’d go to the book signing at the shopping centre. We incorrectly anticipated not many people would be there, just a few Saint supporters who couldn’t attend the Western Saints formal 2 book signing functions. After all, Eagles & Freo players are the only ones that get crowds at shopping centres during the footy season and this is off season so we reckoned not many would be there for a Saints player.

We were so, so wrong. There were 2 tv stations, doing interviews with him before the signings and long queue of people that snaked up an down a long corridor of the shopping centre. I found it interesting that a number of people we spoke to in the queue weren’t even Saint supporters. People that held Nick in high regard for the way he played the game and because of Maddie’s Vision. It makes one feel proud that ‘Our Nick’ helps cross the boundaries of football rivalry.
A couple of people said they had heard Nick’s interview the previous morning on ABC radio with Geoff Hutchinson and thought what an interesting story he had to tell and how humble he sounded. One Freo supporter said, he was getting the book for his boy for Christmas, as he wants him to be influenced by the stories of players like Nick Riewoldt and Matthew Pavlich, champion footballers but more importantly champion individuals in their non-football lives.

Ofcourse there were the die-hard Saints in the queue. One fellow proudly bought out a very faded photo from his wallet - Bill Young. Most around him didn’t know who Bill Young was. He was relieved when my sister said, yes we saw the number 15 play all his games for the Saints!!

I’m so looking forward to seeing my uncle’s eyes light up when he reads Nick’s kind words to him on the page. Now he’s got to just live until his 90th birthday which we’ll be celebrating in Melbourne on New Years Day!

Oh and bye the way, Nick is a left handed - I guess that is to be expected. Most left-handed people in life that I meet are pretty special at something or another!

[remboy]

Thanks Loris. Great to hear how widely Nick is appreciated and admired. I always thought he was a great advertisement for the game.

[Trev from the Bush]

Love your story Loris, especially the bit about Bill Young. Twenty years ago Bill ran the Gippsland Saints supporters group. He mentioned that the supporters groups were invited to a function at Moorabbin and he was standing in front of a large photo of himself when a club minion came and spoke with him. The person asked him "Did you ever play football yourself, Bill?"

That pretty well sums up why so many ex-players have shunned the club over the years.

i saw Bill the other week going home from the senior citizens on his mobility scooter. His knees are both stuffed but he is 86 - time flies while we await the Saints second premiership.

[loris]

Love your story Loris, especially the bit about Bill Young. Twenty years ago Bill ran the Gippsland Saints supporters group. He mentioned that the supporters groups were invited to a function at Moorabbin and he was standing in front of a large photo of himself when a club minion came and spoke with him. The person asked him "Did you ever play football yourself, Bill?"

That pretty well sums up why so many ex-players have shunned the club over the years.

i saw Bill the other week going home from the senior citizens on his mobility scooter. His knees are both stuffed but he is 86 - time flies while we await the Saints second premiership.

Thanks for that story Trev. So glad to know Bill Young is still hanging in there.

I reminisced with this fellow in the queue about Bill Young’s miraculous goal kicking skills. Especially his art of getting the ball running in the opposite direction of the goals and without looking he would kick backwards over his shoulder and pop the goal through. He very rarely missed. Gee we could use his dead eye goal kicking at the Saints these days.

I can remember reading an article about his uncanny accuracy with his goals over the shoulder. He said something along the lines he either led or went for the ball in a certain limited arc. Knowing that the left or right goal post was directly in line with his left or right shoulders respectively,. Plus that he had to know his kicking range and not wander too far out of it, so when he tried the snap shot over the shoulder without looking it invariably came off.
Peter Hudson once said he modelled his over the shoulder snap shots on Bill Young’s technique. Huddlon didn’t do it as often as Young, I guess he had more strings to his bow than BY, but he was another who perfected it rather well. They definitely didn’t throw the ball on the boot and hope it would go throw.

[saintbrat]

Audio from the interview today - which was used as basis for Herald Sun article last weekend
player.whooshkaa.com/episode?id=150839