New podcast shines light on Southland rugby
Stags player Scott Eade is shining a spotlight on Southland rugby as the skipper of a new podcast which has quickly attracted a strong fan following.
The 27-year-old has combined with fellow Marist clubmen Jeremy Boyle and UK-based Bryce Morgan to create The Brains Trust rugby pod which describes itself as a look at all things rugby in the deep south, “a mix of serious footy chat with a bit of banter thrown in.”
At a time when rugby has been little more than a romantic memory and there was even less certainty about when, or even if, the season would get underway, the pod has scratched an itch and attracted about 2500 listeners after just eight episodes.
Not bad for what is a reasonably niche subject.
“We thought we’d just give it a crack and the first couple went alright and so we’ve just stuck at it,” Eade told SouthlandSport.com.
Eade, who combines his rugby with a role as a development officer with Touch Southland, studied journalism after high school and has an interest in media generally.
He’s also become a fan of the podcast medium and when lockdown provided him with a bit more spare time, the germ of an idea which he’d had for a while sprouted.
While working for Rugby Southland as the union’s women’s development officer, Eade had seen the decline in club rugby coverage and began thinking about ways the void could be filled.
“We’ve had a few messages from people who know us or have enjoyed hearing about club footy. There’s quite a few boys who are from Southland but are living in Aussie or the UK, it gives them an idea of what’s going on back here,” Eade said.
“I suppose that’s given myself and now Jeremy and Bryce the motivation to keep going with it. Now that we are about to start the season it will be good to get into some weekly wraps and get some guys on from different clubs and teams.”
Despite letting itself down somewhat with its unashamed green-and-black bias – full disclosure, I am a Blues supporter – the podcast has struck a delightful balance between the humourous, eg, the selection of a Southland all-time under 85kg team, and the serious, eg. the always contentious debate around the value of the Eastern-Northern Barbarians concept.
Another interesting recent debate centred around whether the standard of club rugby in Southland had declined over the past 20 years.
“When we started we talked about the fact people don’t just want to listen to serious stuff,” Eade said.
“We have a bit of a laugh about things, but we don’t shy away from polarising topics. We had Ben McKerchar on last week and he’s never short of a word. We knew that he would give his honest opinion.”
Another strength of a longer-form platform like a podcast is that it creates the time and space to develop a deeper story, as the Brains Trust has done with in-depth interviews with current and former Stags players Javaan Fa’amoe Ioane and Liam Howley.
It’s a chance to let the subject tell their own story, something that’s hard to encapsulate in 500 words.
The podcast has also provided Eade with a rugby outlet at a time when he’s desperately needed one.
His 2019 season came to an abrupt end at a Stags training run when he dislocated his shoulder so badly he had to go to hospital to get it put back in.
Surgery and then a long rehab followed. With the club season beckoning, Covid-19 stepped up and changed the game again.
“It’s felt like forever, to be fair, especially for me because I did my shoulder right back at the start of September last year. I was just in the process of getting back into playing and then (the pandemic) happened,” Eade said.
“There was that period when we weren’t even sure if we were going to play club and there were murmurs that there might not be a Mitre 10 Cup, or that Southland wouldn’t be in it. It’s exciting to be back with the Marist boys and just chucking a ball around really.”
Marist will take on Woodlands in a preseason game this weekend, another tangible sign that some sort of normality is returning to the Southland way of life.
Eade isn’t expecting to take over the world with the Brains Trust, but he’s interested to see where it goes next.
“I don’t really have any expectations of it getting too big, or anything. It was more just about entertaining people who have an interest in Southland rugby, want to listen to a few yarns and get an idea of what’s going on,” he said.
“We’ll just keep plugging away and hopefully a few people tune in.”
- The Brains Trust – Rugby Pod can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
