Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - BONUS: Keven Mealamu - The Nicest All Black!

Episode Date: April 18, 2023

We chat to Kevin Mealamu about the Big Little Sponsorship helping Kiwi kids!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Hits, the Jono and Ben podcast. Kevin Mielamu is an All Black legend. He's doing an awesome thing at the moment. He's ambassador for the Big Little Competition. He joins us in the studio to tell us more about it. Good morning, Kevin. Good to see you. Hey, good morning, teams. Thank you so much for having me this morning.

It's nice to see you again. How you been? Yeah, good. Thank you. Trucking along like most people. Family is safe and well, so you can't complain with life. Oh, nice. I'm going to go out on a limb here and i'm gonna say one of the nicest friendliest all blacks in history yeah that's would you say that about yeah every time i meet i love i love seeing you don't tell the other all blacks yeah how did

that well yeah how did it work you're obviously competitive on the park that's the change into like okay we're playing rugby now i was here hear from my older brother as well. We're just like, whether we were playing checkers or like playing cricket in the backyard, like he always used to say to me, I just had that competitive edge, just never knew when to give up. It's the Kiwi way, like, you know, we're just, we're respectful and we're just,

we do, we are who we are off the field. But once we get a chance to play for our teammates and, you know, do what we've got to do, just got to go and do the job, right? Are you nice on the field? Are you saying nice things to the opposition on the field? Or it was just, it was all game? Man, I can tell you my first training in a semi-professional environment,

I was training alongside Michael Jones. Like this is in my first Auckland era. And when you're playing alongside, you know, or training alongside someone like that where he's putting hits on everyone but he's picking everyone up with a smile and like you okay you know and there was there was there were heaps of the guys or heaps of the guys I looked up to they were like that so he set a good precedent for me and wanted to try and do the same thing you know and you're still doing amazing things so to do with sport as well I really love your thing the big Big Little Competition.

That's been running for a couple of years now. And as you said before when you came in, it's getting bigger and better. So how does it all work? Well, the AA Insurance Big Little Sponsorship is a great way of just being able to, we really want to try and enable our kids to get out and play sport. It's a 10K grant. And this year it's pretty awesome because for the last couple of years it's been something that's been pretty much in the North Island but this year there's two grants,

10 grand for the North Island and 10 grand for the South Island and really the big aim behind it is just to really get our kids into sport. I've been lucky enough to be a part of it growing up, me and my family, to be able to get this sports grant out to our schools. That's a good way to get the love of sport early. Obviously the health benefits, they're the obvious one. But also I find, and we're probably both, we're parents of kids heading into those, you know, those awkward teen years, to have them focused on something like sport or even

whether it's solo or a team yes uh keeps them off the streets mate keeps them off the streets oh most definitely like um there's so many there's so many benefits we've seen from sport we want to really sort of engage that love for sport early because if it's there early um hopefully it's something they can carry on through life so there's something that uh schools around the country can apply for yes the primary schools and what we're really trying to do is engage our communities to keep behind our schools because we want them to nominate. If they can get through to the AA Insurance website,

put down a few things about why you think your primary school is deserving of the 10K grant. Not to drag you into spicy territory here, but the All Black coaching situation over the last few weeks, as a former player, how do you think they've handled that? I think it's been pretty tough on the coaching staff, and they've been through the

most challenging time in our lifetime, you know, like being through COVID had to try and perform through that as well, so like the public, we're all fans, it's the public's team, so you just want to see the process being done right so that everyone's looked after well.

Is there one thing you miss and one thing you don't miss about playing out there at the highest level? I remember talking to someone yesterday. They asked me, do you miss playing when I was getting my haircut? And I said, I definitely don't. When you see the contacts, I just think, how the heck was I doing that? Yeah. Now that I look at it, the one thing I miss is just being able to catch up with my friends.

We had a 20th reunion for our 2003 Blues team, and it was just such an awesome time just to be able to sit down, see all the families, catch up with our mates. We had dinner, we had lunch the day before, and catch up at the game. So these are the moments that you miss you know because you've been able to achieve some amazing stuff with those guys yeah plus your ear points would be through the roof

hey indeed yes gold elite baby no I'm gonna I'll take a risk can I ask a personal question of course now you're a lovely guy

so I'm gonna go out there your ears now obviously a lot of scrummaging over the years cauliflower ears that's what they're called, right? Yeah. Does that hurt?

What happens? No, it obviously comes from the context. And I always say to our kids that this is what happens when you don't listen to your parents. Oh, sorry, this is what used to happen. Not nowadays. Not nowadays. I was actually lucky enough that they came after I got married. So, I had no choice with these ears.

But, no, it just comes from the context. And like scrummaging, sometimes catching, getting your head in the wrong place in a tackle or something. So, oh, man, I could probably name a hundred things that have happened to these ears, but they're still on and they still work when they want to. They've done a good job through this interview. Can you actually sit down and watch the sport?

Or are you just like, wouldn't have done that? It was quite hard, actually, when I first finished. And even just getting the chance to go in and visit the guys, you feel like you're trying to hang on. You don't want to be a hanger-on. So it probably took a couple of years, but now I love being able to go in, support them, and even go to games and watch. It's So it probably took a couple of years, but now I love being able to go and support them and even go to games and watch.

It's just heaps easier watching as a supporter, as a friend. I imagine it's a huge adjustment because it's something that you would have from teenage years, just being part of the program, part of the system, and then you get to the end of the career and you're like, what now? I know it's, it takes, you know, sometimes you, if you're lucky enough, you get a bit of time to start preparing yourself for life after sport. I was lucky enough to be in that position. So definitely it was something that I had my eyes on

as I was getting closer to the end. But what sport, you don't know, because injury, non-selection, it could just happen like that. So we just always encourage our young athletes to always have, I wouldn't call it a plan B, but it's just a part of the plan. You just got to have something going, you know? Yeah.

Kevin Mealamu, lovely hanging out with you. One of the great New Zealanders. And if you want to take part in the AA Insurance, big little competition, where can people head along? If you go onto the AA Insurance website, put some good stories forward for our primary schools and let's get in behind. We've already got great engagement already, and let's get in behind and support.

We've already got like great engagement already, but let's just try and get it further.