Cam Luke | Aussie Rules Expert Discusses Upcoming AFL Playoffs

0:00Spoiled at this Father's Day at Chemist Warehouse, with Wagner Bodyside's Premium Rist support adjustable now 1749, save 750 and save 15% on reach total clean toothbrush, soft on medium 6 pack on a 699 each. Chemist Warehouse great savings every day. In the AFL playoffs continue this week, Ken, after a free mental disappointing in the open round the table toppers, they have to now play a semi-final against Jolong, while Brisbane Lions who got spanked by the Sydney Swans take on the Adelaide Cros in the other semi-final. Chem Luke works for 70, also works for S&N and he's all over the AFL and he's with us now. Chem great to catch up with you mate. Thank you very much. Look, free mental, very disappointing last week, kept to 40 by Hawthorne in the now-faced Jolong as I say and that feels like a team that you probably wouldn't want to face at the stage of the season, how likely do you think it is that Frio, table toppers go out in straight sets? Look, you're right, the last team you want to play in this situation is Jolong and when

1:04they lost Jolong lost their Ferry mantle around 16 and then Chris Scott after the game said, I'm very comfortable, I must come back here at some point and maybe getting it done. But what I will say is that this is just a mental fragility situation. If free mental can handle it, if they can handle the first half hour, can they get to quarter time okay, they'll be okay, they'll be fine, they didn't handle the moment last week, that's a big question mark. But I am going to go in and leave here boys, I think they'll still win the flag. Wow. I think they'll beat Jolong, I think they'll beat Jolong, I think they'll beat Sydney and I think they'll get to the MCG. Huge head. Yeah, I think, funnily enough, it is dumb as this sounds, the two teams who are most disappointing on the weekend, free mantle and Brisbane, I think they will be the teams will end up getting back to the grand final. But they do have to live and free mantle in particular, have an entire club's history of pressure on their shoulders, if never want to flag, they've been the best team all year, but they've got to play as you touched on, they've got to handle a moment against the

2:10team that's done it a million times before. But I think they'll do it. I would have just on your predicted grand final, would a free mantle, Brisbane, grand final go down well with AFL HQ? I think they're always would like a Melbourne based team in there, but I think the fact is that I gather round of which of course is early in the AFL season, it's in Adelaide, it was dominated by purple, the free mantle fans, you've got a sense already that the team was going to be good, there's a lot of fans there, they've also only been in one grand final in their history. So there would be a lot of Western Australians who are willing to make the trip, and a lot of those making the trip would drive over the nullable, which is insane, but probably lends itself to the fandom of which our sports fans traditionally do lean into. But would they prefer a Melbourne team? I would say yes, but I think Brisbane going for like an historic three-piece, which hasn't been done very often, and then free mantle going for their first ever, I think that that would be okay with it.

3:11On that Brisbane side of things, as you say, the two-time defending Premieres who now need to win three straight to win the flag, wiped off the park last weekend by the swans, how do they bounce back against Adelaide? What wasn't good? What needs to be a lot better? I think they've just been at different times caught being a little bit lackluster, and it happened in the middle of the year, and a lot of people were like, I'm going to say, can we ride in this team off? They got belted by free mantle, they got belted by the giants, and all of a sudden we thought, have they got it? And we've seen it boys in all aspects. It's not just winning the last two flags. They've been in the last three grand finals. They've been top four since 2019. This is a really historic kind of round that they're on, and it can fatigue you, and you need to find different ways to motivate yourself. I mean, that sounds ridiculous to suggest they were just outhustled and out-motivated and out-to-side last week, but that's what it absolutely felt like with the Sydney situation. They've been here before.

4:11They did the exact same thing last year, and along belted them into qualifying final. They went to Queensland, they won the Q-Class, they come back to Melbourne, beat Colin within one of the flag and absolute cancer. So, I mean, is it ideal? No, is it one that you most certainly don't lose much trust on them because of it? Absolutely. Because I think they'll beat, they're much better in Adelaide. They'll be in Adelaide this weekend, but again, they're going to go to the MCG to beat the Hawks. Yeah, I think it's just a mental thing with them from the other aspect. They can switch off, and I think they'll switch back on this week. Can I be honest with you? I might have put a little wager on Sydney to win the flag the other week, because I thought it $21, despite everything that's happened, that's massive overs for a team that still has pretty good talent across the park. I know they're obviously without a handful of their best players for the remainder of the season with everything that's gone on, but so much as you mentioned, so much motivation they have this current crop that are there now to prove everyone wrong and put everything

5:12behind them and get everyone talking about the on-field stuff again. But is there a worry that they've played their grand final and that they can't keep relying on that kind of emotion and motivation? Yes, to an aspect, because you've got to be up, down, up, down. They've had obviously the down, now the five players who are suspended, they deserve to be suspended. They've got no one to blame for themselves, but there's a bunch of, you know, there's 40 other people on the list who a month ago were striving and working towards getting back to grand final day and writing some of those wrongs. They've been really bad in the last two grand finals, and a couple of those guys like the Dane Rampies and Jake Lloyds and the World, they're into that twilight of their careers, and there's not a huge amount of opportunities left. What I was going to say about Sydney is that they're still a very good team. I know when you take out, so out of the five fear listens, you may not know who has been suspended. Three of those are your top five players in the team, and two of those are probably top 10 in the A-Fell and Heaney and Warner.

6:13So you're taking a lot of five power. They just wanted it more. Dan Cox coach extremely well. They were great. Now, my concern is, I think they'll beat Freemant in a pre-limit. I think whoever gets there will probably beat them. My concern is actually the week after, because you get a week off here. So they've had two weeks into last weekend to be able to find the right emotional balance. If they're able to do it again into a pre-limit, it's actually very viable. They can do the exact same thing and rely on that emotion, but can they actually do it off of one week break. Look off of one week break back in a grand final. And if they do, and they win it, it will be the greatest A-Fell grand final win in modern history. Without a doubt. And again, again, I don't want to trivialize football. And I want to obviously know the fact that what may or may not have happened, what is alleged to have occurred in that hotel room is most certainly should be the forefront of people's minds, because that's way more important than football.

7:13As the police investigation goes through, but for the football sense, they are missing so much firepower. And they're captain who has led the way brilliantly off-field in the wake of what has happened over the last three weeks. Does his ACL on Saturday, and he's not going to be there for the rest of the year as well. If they're a winner, it's the greatest A-Fell premiership in modern history. Well, see, just lastly on the A-Fell, I know much is keen to chat to you about the NFL, but aside from the playoffs, there's a fairly big story around concussion in the game and the A-Fell announcing a limit to the amount of contact training allowed per week. What has been the reaction to that? It's an ongoing conversation. And as it is in all sportsguides, it's something that, as we learn more about the brain and we learn more about the heat, I apologize, I'm on a train. But as the time moves on, stuff that we didn't know five years ago is now a lot more obvious. Stuff that we didn't know ten years ago, 20, 30 years ago, and it was a badge of honor. If you got knocked out in past generations and you went back on and you got your team

8:17to win, even if you can't remember it, it's a badge of honor and you held in the highest esteem. And here we sit in 2026 and we just know that is a ridiculous way to look at it. So the A-Fell is in the middle of lawsuit, there's civil action, it's a lot of past players who were saying that they were unfairly treated at different points in the past. And unfortunately, as time goes on, the A-Fell, like all sports, need to tweak what it actually looks like going forward. So they're trying to settle a lawsuit. And also on the run, try and make sure what's the best practice for all of these players to make sure they're looked after in the moment. And then of course, in the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years, once they're retired, that it doesn't negatively affect their life. So they're trying to find ways. I think there's probably stuff that's introduced now in sports that in ten years' time has probably seen as something that didn't need to be done because it doesn't actually affect. But I think that the older generation, like back in our day, yeah, we just got on with it. And we're going to have to have a younger generation who are unfortunately seeing some of these

9:19past players in the troubles and the challenges they have going. Yeah, I don't really want to take the risk of getting hit at training if I don't have to, knowing that I accept the responsibility and the game as a chance to happen. We've just had a situation which along with a waiver that the waiver wasn't about not looking after the player. It was simply to say that at the end of it, if your career is halted by concussion, you essentially can't ask for financial payout. That is something that the thing that's stuck with the long situation that's happened in the last month, six weeks, is that if something in 20 years' time will be the norm, gelong just went about it, just a little different without everybody who needed all the key stakeholders being involved. And it have been done correctly. I think it would have been the blueprint going forward. I think that at some point in contact sports around the world, players are going to have to put their hand up and admit, hey, you know what, I'm doing this, I'm signing a deal, I'm signing a document to give the responsibility on me in some aspect.

10:23As long as the clubs look after me from a medical point of view, but I know that if I go out there as a chance I could get hurt and I can't sue in 30 years' time. Cam, here's something I thought I would never say in my lifetime. Friday morning football at the MCG in the Anya Fowl. Now the Los Angeles Rams have got an incredible roster, especially that front 4 on D, Aaron Donald's out of retirement, Miles Garrett's been stolen from my Cleveland Browns, but not only that, Kobe Turner had 7 sacks last year on the other side of the ball, they've got the reigning MVP, Pukin' Akua, Devonta Adams. Now for the Niners, there's no days on love, but they do have CMC, Kittle and Mike Evans. This is an absolute blockbuster game today, Boo, in the NFL and Australia. How do you see this one? Because I know the Rams are flying straight in and straight out. Will that affect them or do you think they have too much class for the Niners here? Look, I do think the Rams for a number of reasons you put forward.

11:23I'm worried that Miles Garrett and Aaron Donald are going to severely hurt someone like it. I mean, the strongest men on the planet and Aaron Donald just says, I'm going to come back and just hunt down quarterback and you'd like to, whoever draws and get around it. What I will say is that the vastly different approaches in how the teams are approaching the game are remarkable. So I just hosted a NFL event just in the last 15 minutes and there's this wildly different opinion that it's been using and going to work. Now I'm not jet late. I'm not jet late, go ahead. And when I say that, I spend a lot of time on the West Coast here in the United States. So I want to go there. I just try and push through. It might be a work thing. It might be a play thing. You might have a beer or two and you just get a little bit tired, but you're like, you know what a adrenaline can get me through. I don't know if that counts when you're playing professional sport in the NFL and it's the first game of the year and you're playing in a totally different country. So the answer is I hope the 49ers wins because I don't want the Rams coming here on one

12:26day and belting them. And then other teams going forward do the same thing. And I think it robs the Melbourne sporting public or the Australian sporting public of an opportunity to see what the 49ers have done really, really well and immersed themselves in the local community. So from a selfish point of view, I hope the 49ers win. So the next time they get the Rams or be it whoever else it might be, don't say, you know what, we're going to get there 24 hours out. They are working, they are working backwards so they don't have much of a jet lag situation going home. So they will be on Melbourne time in California knowing that the jet lag or the, you know, climatizing back to the California time zone is okay. But it kind of sucks for us because we'd love to see Matthew Stafford at the football or go to answer a local coffee shop and see Miles Garrett eat 2,000 eggs. I'm not going to be on the pool, but I guess the proof, the proof will be in the game.

13:29If the Rams win and they are, I think the better team, it'll be interesting to see how it's received going forward. You are a gun. You're across all of it, mate. And it's bloody good to have you on our show and catch up. I know you're very busy, so I'll let you go. But thank you so much, Cam. Great man. Top man. I can't believe I got through a conversation here with you guys without you telling me that well, well, written is going to win the next five cups of plates. I appreciate it. She is. She'll come over. She'll come over and she's a great horse and she was brilliant again. She'll come over and run. You know what I'll tell you this? She should actually have a crack at the Empire Rose talking about a great New Zealand man from a generation. She should come over the Empire Rose on the first day of the Cup Carnival. She would win that. She would win that. She's a horse who most certainly will have a fair bit to say in some group ones. I still think she's behind the shoes. Alibis and all the will. But yeah, come on. Come on, mate. You're safe. Hey, Adjinnerman. We'll see. What was that unbeaten philly you sent over a couple of weeks?

14:32You had around 13th. The cool feel. I don't remember it. Was that Laura? Was it? Most certainly. How are you boys? I always, I, I, phones always on boys, but anyway, and I love chatting. You're a great man. I'll talk to Steven Marsh. Don't you worry about that. Cheers, Cam. Thanks brother. Yeah, bloody legend. Talk soon, mate. Yeah.