Speech is broken up with interview in the YouTube version, but it has vision of him delivering it.
16 June 2015, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
So game day boys, yeah?
So when you walk out today, think about one thing.
You think about the person in your life, as I’ve always said to you, could be your mum, could be your dad, could be a brother, sister, uncle, grandfather, partner, friend, coach,
Somebody in your life, that, when you started, believed in you more than anybody else.
And when you said, I want to play football, and you were passionate about it, they’re the ones who made the sacrifices, they’re the ones that pushed you.
That when people said you’re not good enough , they’re the ones that picked you up and said, ‘nah nah, keep going.’
Think about that person. Think about how that person is going to feel when we win tonight.
When they’re at home and the text messages start coming through to them.
And people ringing them. And people sharing the experience with them. And when they wake up tomorrow morning in Australia and everyone wants to talk to them.
They’ll feel like it’s them that’s achieved it, and you know what, it is them.
Cos that’s who you’re walking out with tonight.
When I walk out, my old man’s next to me. He’s a hard man, my old man, still is, today. But he’s the one who kept saying, ‘no you keep doing what you’re doing. You’re going to love this game, and you’re going to make it to the very top’. Hard man though. When we won the Asian Cup, fucken went to his place because he can’t travel, and I said, ‘here’s the Asian Cup medal, dad’. And he goes, ‘well done son, but if you’d made that substitution earlier, and you’d stopped that playing out from the back shit, it wouldn’t have gone on into extra time, and it’d have been fine.’
Still a hard man, can’t please him. That’s who made me. He walks out with me tonight.
So reckon if my old man were out there, he’d be afraid of Germans, of Argentinians, of Brazilians? That’s not what he instilled in me when I was young.
That’s not what the people who made that sacrifice for you in your life, that’s not how they raised you.
So let them walk out with you tonight.
So when the opposition are looking across at you tonight , they’re not just looking at you, they’re looking at what made you. They’re looking at the people who made you.
I want to wake up tomorrow morning and the papers they’re not talking about the next AFL player who fucken farted, or the fucken NRL player who did something stupid, or some rugby union thing, I want them talking about our fucking game.
I want them talking about us.
You wouldn’t be sitting here today, unless there was a person in your life, who gave you the most enormous love and belief.
But you know what> I don’t give a fuck what people say about me, what happens to me, what challenges I have, I’m going to make it.
Alright, enjoy your lunch.