Matthew Denny Interview
Pumped to bring you another amazing interview today as we speak with Australian dual Olympian from the sport of Discus, Matthew Denny! Matthew gives a great insight into just how he got into the sport, and how he very much could’ve been a star in another sport instead. He also takes us through the unique nature of him competing successfully in both the discus and hammer throw, as well as which other field discipline he very nearly could’ve succeeded in more too. Added to this we learn just how much love he got online during the Olympics, and why Chris Hemsworth will be asking for his autograph by the time of the Brisbane 2032 Olympics. It’s an exciting and fun chat that will be the highlight of your day, so tune in now!
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.
BEN WATERWORTH: It is Off The Podium, An Olympics Podcast coming to you once again for another interview, another athletics competitor. I guess you call them an athlete, don't you, Ben? Matthew Denny, discus thrower, just returned back from Tokyo, five centimetres off a medal, fourth place he finished in the Tokyo Olympics. Also competed back in Rio. And this is a great chat with Matty. You're gonna definitely enjoy this one. Takes us through how he got involved in the sport, how he very nearly could have pursued a career in another sport completely to follow in the footpath of one of his brothers. And just a great insight into the techniques behind discus throwing, hammer throwing as well. He's heavily involved in the sport of hammer throw. Actually meddled at the Commonwealth Games in 2018 in hammer throw. So a very diverse range of skills Matty has here. And we know you're gonna enjoy this chat. A bit of a social media star now, Matty Denny. And you'll hear that straight away that led to some very interesting messages that he did receive before he got out of quarantine recently when he returned back from Tokyo. So here's our chat with Australian Discus slash Hammer Thrower, Matthew Denny.
BEN WATERWORTH: So excited for our next guest here on Off The Podium today. Recently just returned from the Tokyo Olympics, where he finished fourth in the Discus. Also a two-time Olympian, I should say, competed back in Rio as well. Commonwealth Games, silver medallist, World Youth Championship, gold and bronze medallist. And also more importantly, Brandon Stark's roommate. I think we need to clarify that one. Main thing right now, it's a pleasure to welcome Matthew Denny to the show. Matty, pleasure to have you on the show, mate. How's it going?
MATTHEW DENNY: Good, Benny, how are you?
BEN WATERWORTH: Doing very well, very well. I can imagine you're doing a little bit better though, having just come out of quarantine. Freedom, how is it right now to be free and out of a room that you've been in the last two weeks?
MATTHEW DENNY: It's been pretty good. Like I've obviously been able to walk about and be able to do normal things again, which is nice. But I also enjoyed the quarantine actually, a fair bit actually, it just could have gave me a bit of time to focus on getting back to people's messages and giving me time that I probably wouldn't have had when I got back with celebrations and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, it was definitely nice to get out, went straight to the Norman, had a 600 gram steak and a couple of gins, so it was nice. And then, yeah, just like, just back to normal now, got to move house on the weekend. So definitely a big reality check, that's for sure. So it's been good though, it's good being back.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which I mean, the whole aspect of sort of replying to the messages and everything must have been sort of something unique, because obviously, I can imagine you got a lot of support there from how you did in Tokyo. And obviously, sort of in normal circumstances, you might not be able to kind of look through these. So I mean, were you sort of surprised with the amount of messages of support and everything you got after Tokyo?
MATTHEW DENNY: Well, to say the least, my peak time on my phone over the time of quarantine was 16 hours in one day. So yeah, I know, I looked back at it yesterday and I definitely felt a fair bit of shame. But no, it was just like, it was nice to be able to get that engagement with everyone because there was so many people that were new followers and people that were joining my journey from that. So yeah, it was really nice. It was an influx of messages that was insane. And I kind of forgot about message requests because it was just endlessly, continuously growing, and I just didn't have the time. I spent that amount of time just replying to normal inbox messages from Instagram, Facebook, from emails and text messages and calls. It was just, it was nonstop. So yeah, I'm glad I had that time, but it was also just pretty awesome to see the amount of support that I got from the country just with competing and stuff.
BEN WATERWORTH: So what was the weirdest message? Did you get any kind of a little bit strange? I was thinking like, what the hell is going on here?
MATTHEW DENNY: So I got a lot of weird messages for sure. There was a couple that were very, very, very overly sexualised. Yeah, Benny, I was going to talk about Off, but anyway, that's all right. But no, it worked out. It was like, you know, there was probably about five or six that were pretty full on. But, you know, when you're a sex symbol now, it's, you know, it's what can you do, you know?
BEN WATERWORTH: You weren't tight clothing in athletics, right? It shows a lot.
MATTHEW DENNY: Yeah, exactly. So, but no, it wasn't too bad. Like, I wasn't too concerned. And I just kind of left those messages, didn't bother replying.
BEN WATERWORTH: So, yeah, it's all right. You can reply to me one day. It's fine.
MATTHEW DENNY: Yeah, I'll try and get back to you.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, no, I appreciate that. I always find it interesting with field athletes in athletics, kind of how you come to choose a discipline, because, I mean, we all have done school carnivals. You kind of give it a crack at everything. And some of us go on to sort of do little athletics and everything. But how do you kind of work out that you want to do discus? You want to do hammer throw? Or was it a case of these are what you were best at, and you kind of just tried everything? Or was there something more to it when you decided to take up these two?
MATTHEW DENNY: Yeah, I mean, like, it is definitely an interesting avenue to go, to say the least. But yeah, I was a very athletic kid when I was younger. I played a lot of footy. I did a lot of swimming, athletics, you know, motocross, you name it. So I was a pretty active kid when I was younger. So it was more in the fascination and like addiction to the event itself because of the fact that with throws, you have this component of having to be an overly, like good at basically every part of the discipline. So you obviously have to be very good technically. You have to be a very good weightlifter. You have to be, you know, the balance of a ballerina and a gymnast, you know, to have flexibility. You need to be, you know, the most explosive athlete on the planet. And you know, combine all those things while not being too heavy, but big enough and building muscle mass. And you know, there was just so there's so many moving parts, and especially the the technical aspect of it as well that drew me to it. You know, we might be throw like throwers when we compete, but as an athlete in general, you're doing everything in between. You have to be very good at everything to be able to actually be just good at one thing. So I think that's the addicting side of it is just being there's always different things you can try. There's always different athleticism stuff you can do to get better. And it wasn't really, hey, I'm just really good at this, let's do this. Like I had plenty of options, but I just enjoyed it the most. I enjoyed self-reliability when it came to training and development and being self-reliant when it came to my performance and who I could count on. And that was kind of what really, really drew me to it, which was, you know, I guess it's a very unique focus for anyone in sport. But you know, I'm glad I chose it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is there much crossover when it comes to people sort of picking up discus and hammer throw at the same time? I mean, I guess the spinning aspect of it is maybe closely related, but I mean, it's kind of not one of these sort of, you know, dual disciplines that I feel many people do. I mean, maybe like a long jump and a triple jump, sprinting and a long jump, things like that. But are there many other athletes who kind of focus on discus and hammer throw?
MATTHEW DENNY: So when I was doing discus and hammer at the same time, all the way up until Comm Games, I was basically the only athlete that was doing it successfully. I was the only athlete that was at the level that I was, and doing them at major championships and medaling, and being competitive overall, like being within, especially when I was younger, like going through the world ranks and stuff, like always being competitive in both, in the medals and potential medals and stuff. So yeah, and even in past history, there's only a couple that have done it very well. And I think I'm probably one of the only ones to, I think I'm definitely one of the better ones to do it. I don't know why. I think that kind of just came down to my fascination and like the way that I trained and the way that I was so dedicated to it kind of worked well for me. But when I started to focus on just Discus, it was purely a focus of financial. It was just, you can make a better living within Discus because you're in diamond leagues and hammer isn't, but yeah, they're totally conflicting technical aspects because Discus, you're focusing on a wide knee, leg sweeping rotation and it's more of a, yeah, it's more of a linear and rotation to lift. Whereas with hammer, still same aspect, but everything has to be much tighter. You're really centralised. You have four turning points as well as a different implement that focuses on length of the path and the technical aspects are totally different. So yeah, it's not that they converge. The only ones that do really converge is shot and Discus because you can do rotational disc and shot. Well, the only way to throw Discus, but you can also do rotational shot. So they're the only two that can, and the most common ones where people cross over. But the older I've gotten, the more I've realised that basically no one does it. Only a couple of people have done it successfully, so.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's sort of, yeah, just fascinating kind of seeing that crossover. And in terms of like training aspects, outside of the technicalities, is it sort of at least same parts of the bodies or are you training differently if you've got sort of focusing on a hammer competition more so than a disc competition?
MATTHEW DENNY: They're also very similar training aspects when it comes to like athleticism, when it comes to weight lifting, specific specificity training and all that kind of stuff. The only thing that varies is just the technical and the aspects of the way that you use certain training systems with overloading and underweight, all that kind of stuff, you still have the same principles. They just apply differently with different weights and obviously different events. So yeah, they're quite similar in that fact.
BEN WATERWORTH: I read that you grew up in a family, one of eight siblings, and it was sort of a very kind of competitive household. You mentioned footy before. Kind of as a kid, was the dream to play for the Broncos or join the NRL, or did you kind of have Olympic aspirations as well? Kind of as an athlete, as a kid, sort of what were you more focused towards, moving towards?
MATTHEW DENNY: Yeah, so basically my brother, Jonathan, he ended up playing NRL when he was late teens, early 20s. And he was one of the ones that I aspired to be like and play competitive rugby league. I always had this focus of being a professional sportsman because I love sport. And I just enjoyed the way that you operate as an athlete in the life that you live. But yeah, I originally was going to focus on being a NRL athlete and Broncos or whatever it was. But then, I thought this kind of took over and I wasn't enjoying the aspects of relying on other people when it came to team sports. And especially the injury and longevity aspect of it as well. Not that I was scared of getting injured, but I just didn't want to waste my time in putting so much effort into it where you can literally get injured off of sweet nothings from someone doing a dirty tackle on you and completely ruining your career. And then it's like, oh, okay. Whereas within throwers, obviously still have the potential to get injured and have those threatening career injuries. But if you're a smart athlete and you train the right way and have a good support crew, it's way less likely. And I just enjoyed everything about athletics more and you can travel, you can live a very exotic life in being a European traveller consistently every year. And also, the most pure competitive thing that you can do when it comes to mental strength and preparation. And it's an absolute thrill to be able to compete at the Olympics because there's so much that goes into it. And it's only once every four years. So it's a very rare, very intense experience to go through.
BEN WATERWORTH: Did you have sort of a moment when you started to represent the state, represent Australia, going to things like World Youth Championships, things like that where the Olympics was the end goal? Was this kind of something that all of a sudden clicked into gear that, hey, this is, I can achieve this, I can become an Olympian.
MATTHEW DENNY: Well, I think that when I started the sport, I obviously did half decently, but I wasn't really coached. But then I went to state champs in grade six and seven, got dead last in the state. So, I wasn't like this freak that just was good from the get go. But then I got a coach in grade eight and went from there. But then I made the decision to stop doing everything else and solely focusing on athletics in 2011, and then two years later, one world youth. But basically, whatever I was doing, and it still even applies to everything that I do these days, if I'm going to do it, I want to be the best at it. And I don't know why that comes in my brain, but if I'm going to do something, it has to be the fullest of my potential. And I put everything into it. I'm not very good at half-arsing things, basically. And yeah, that's basically where I went from, and went into athletics and world youth. Let's win world youth, world juniors. Let's try and win world juniors. And the end goal was to be a double Olympic champion in men's disc and hammer in the same championships, because obviously never done before. But that's obviously changed over time. But I always wanted to be the best, to say the least.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which it must be an incredible experience then to go to a world youth championships in the Ukraine, a place that none of us will probably ever get to go to in our lifetime unless you are maybe-
MATTHEW DENNY: Don't recommend it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Don't recommend the Ukraine?
MATTHEW DENNY: Don't recommend it, no.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right, there goes our Ukrainian listeners, but it's all right, we didn't like them anyway.
MATTHEW DENNY: Especially where we went to for world youth, that whole place has been bombed, like three months after we had the world youth champs, the whole airport got, they call it the War of Verdansk and the Battle of the Airport and stuff. So actually, you know Warzone, right?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, yeah.
MATTHEW DENNY: The game, so that whole area is based off of Verdansk. Really? Yeah, off of where we were in Donetsk, in Ukraine. So that whole war is basically what, where our world youth was and what Warzone is currently.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow. Your trendsetters, you basically made something up.
MATTHEW DENNY: Two months later, the whole stadium wasn't there. It was all bombed and wrecked.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow, that's crazy to think that. Geez, change the perspective then. So you're gold and bronze that you basically have more of a collector's item now because the place doesn't exist pretty much anymore.
MATTHEW DENNY: Basically, yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, but how long was that like to be able to go to an event like that? Because you won a world youth championship before you ever won a national championship. I mean, it kind of usually goes away the other way around, doesn't it? That's been pretty crazy. Oh, no.
MATTHEW DENNY: So I still won, well, like nationals and stuff. So the way that I progressed, so basically when I got dead last in the state, that was a grade six and seven. And then I carried on, and about six months later, I went from dead last in the state to second in the country. And then a couple of years, I think the year after I won nationals. And then, yeah. And then I won, so I won six gold medals at 2013 nationals, which was in both under 18 and under 20. So I did shot disc hammer under 18, shot disc hammer in under 20. So I went from there and then I went to... Had that ever been done before? Not in the throws events, I know that, but I'm pretty sure not really. I think it was a pretty... Yeah, no, it was good. It was good fun. I was so, I was cooked after that comp. Cause I like, when I was younger, and as we were younger, loved Red Bull, and I heard about the side effects of it. And yeah, after you do two Red Bulls per comp, and by the end of six events, after like seven days, whatever it was, yeah, I was basically like sweating, hot, cold, have temperature. The last comp that I did, I rocked up. I looked like a ghost. So yeah, do not take that much Red Bull.
BEN WATERWORTH: That is the secret to success. Don't do it.
MATTHEW DENNY: Just don't do it. I became such a better athlete after it when I didn't take it.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's the secret why Daniel Ricciardo left Red Bull. It wasn't because, you know, he wanted a new challenge. He wanted to just stop drinking the damn product. Yeah, exactly. Like, you know, I go on a reno. Drink French wine rather than drinking Red Bull all the time.
MATTHEW DENNY: You're filled by real stuff.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But I mean, that's fascinating to win sort of the triple, triple essentially, kind of there with that, because obviously, you know, on the world stage, you talk hammer and discus, but when it comes to shot, I mean, like how do you choose between them? You obviously mentioned before the discus came down to sort of more of the diamond league, but did you like one more than the other really? And you were kind of disappointed you couldn't continue sort of maybe the shot or the hammer?
MATTHEW DENNY: So I could have gone to world youth, all three. So I was qualified for both shot, discus hammer, but wasn't allowed to, I had to pick two, but I always was predominantly, I never trained for shot. I literally did it once, well, I did it for states. I did one session before state champs, and then I'll do state champs, and then I'll do nationals, that were my three comps. But because of my technique that I built when I was younger, through discus, and then swapping to a rotational shot throw, they both applied pretty, pretty well. The only thing was the hand was in a different place. So yeah, I didn't really enjoy shot that much. That's the reason I didn't train for it. And then, yeah, I just enjoyed, I enjoyed the flight factor of discus, and the building of momentum in hammer. I just loved it. It was, and I still do miss hammer, but I know that discus is definitely where I need to be at right now. So yeah, it was kind of, it was kind of just, you know, I knew what I wanted to do. And then when I was a proper professional doing it, I had to focus on something that was really gonna bring bread to the table and something that I still enjoyed. So it wasn't like I was selling off because of that. Like I genuinely was doing better in Discus at the time. And it was just a better choice for me. So.
BEN WATERWORTH: How heavy is a hammer in terms of when you're doing it? Cause they look bloody heavy. I can't imagine that.
MATTHEW DENNY: Yeah, 7.26.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow.
MATTHEW DENNY: Same as a men's shot, which is 16 pound. So they changed all the records over and everything to kilos and it went to that.
BEN WATERWORTH: And what about Discus? How heavy is the disc? It's a bit of a difference there really, when it comes to sort of the-
MATTHEW DENNY: Yeah, way, way different.
BEN WATERWORTH: The weight side of things. So in the lead up to Rio, do you remember the moment that you had thrown your qualifier? Cause I believe you went to the US for a bit and eventually threw a qualifying throw. I mean, kind of what was that like when you eventually had reached that target and boom, you're an Olympian at that point?
MATTHEW DENNY: Yeah, so basically we did a US season and then came back just short. I had 64, 88 in that season and then I needed 65 to qualify and I wasn't going to get through on the top 32 rankings and just with that, cause it was so tight. And yeah, so I said, nah, stuff it. I'm going to fork out the cash. I'm going to go back. I'm going to do it. And I flew back, competed three days later, got the quali, did another comp the next day, but it was terrible because I had one hour sleep cause I was that hyped up. But yeah, it was, it was, Rio was more about getting to Rio than what it was actually competing. I still thought that I was competitive and should have made the final at Rio, but it was a totally different circumstance to what Tokyo was where I was, you know, qualifying wasn't the issue. It was how well could I do? I actually had the chance to prepare and be ready for that. So yeah, it was, it was disappointing the fact that I didn't do as well as what I wanted, but, you know, no one, there was only like two other people that had ever thrown further than me at that age with the open weight. So, I mean, I can't complain too much. And I needed to say like my end goal is that one of the end goals I have being a track and field athlete is that I really want to make five Olympics, five Olympics. So I want to be able to make 2032 in Brisbane, which would be my last Olympics ever. That'd be five. I would never compete after that comp, but no one's ever made five in track and field ever. So that's kind of the goal. And Rio was part of that. I had to make Rio to make that possible. Otherwise it would have made it way more difficult.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's fascinating to kind of think that you can bookend that though with a home Olympics. I mean, that's crazy. I mean, perfect timing for them to announce at Brisbane. You guys have just gone, wow, okay. Well, that's a perfect way to close out my career.
MATTHEW DENNY: If I, yeah, if that all goes to plant, like if I continue the way I am and keep progressing and I am injured and be smart about that, I have a solid, amazing team around me, which will get me there. Yeah, my old, the last throw that I do at that comp, if I make it, it will be the last throw I ever do.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's fascinating, fascinating. Well, we know it's going to happen, Matty. We're definitely going to hold out for that. But when it came to the whole experience here in Rio, we always like to hear from our guests kind of just outside of the competitive section of being in the Olympics, kind of just the Olympic feeling.
MATTHEW DENNY: Yeah, get the real talk, hey? Get the real talk.
BEN WATERWORTH: The real talk. I mean, it's, cause obviously you've got that unique distinction too, where you had Rio, which is quote, a normal game. Tokyo obviously a little bit different, but are you able to sort of soak in the atmosphere of being an Olympian, sort of live around the village, kind of, you know, bump shoulders with the world's best and kind of take it in, what it is to be an Olympian outside of competing?
MATTHEW DENNY: Yeah, it's funny. I'm one of those guys that I'm not like, I don't, I'm not very fangirly kind of personality. Like obviously, you obviously see large amounts of top athletes, but I don't like, my God, I need to go get a photo with them. So it's, you know, I, to me, at the end of the day, I'm there to compete. And like, that is the job. That is what I'm there to do. And I refrain from doing a lot of things just in the focus of that and saving myself, saving my legs, saving my energy and, you know, putting my focus into what I need. So, you know, Tokyo and Rio were very, very different. We thought Rio was going to be the worst. And it was kind of up from there for what Tokyo was supposed to be. And it would have been, but obviously we were very wrong and COVID definitely proved us wrong. So, but, you know, it was still an amazing comp. Like at the end of the day, if you're not ready to compete, no matter what the circumstances, like I think you're probably doing the wrong thing. So, but at the same time, you know, the Olympic Village and the free food and the free stuff, and like, you know, just everyone, the cool thing about being, I think about being an Olympian is that there's always that instant recognition and like between athletes is because everyone understands of what they're going through, what they've gone through their dream, and everyone's at the same level. Everyone understands what that, them and what it looks like at the same time. So it's kind of that tip the cap, you know, well done, you got here kind of, kind of stuff. So I think that's the most enjoyable part about it. But yeah, especially Tokyo was very, was so much more intensified with being focused on competing, making sure you don't put yourself in a vulnerable position with COVID and protocols around that. So it was a very, and even with like, you know, myself, Brandon Stark, Shuin McSwain, Curtis Marshall, like we were all in the same room and we had a meeting before we all got in there. It was just like, don't put the team at risk. And Curtis got unlucky with someone close contacting him, with, you know, without his ability to stop it because Kendricks came up and hugged him from behind out of nowhere and just being, you know, overly friendly, whether, but Curtis was like, don't get off of me. So that was stressful, different games because of that. But at the end of the day, we all still was, you know, it was nothing to complain about.
BEN WATERWORTH: After Rio and your performance, kind of what did you take from that competition in order to strive to go that that next step in terms of, be it, you know, going to more major championships, you know, ultimately meddling at the Commonwealth Games and then aiming towards getting a final spot at an Olympics and then potentially pushing for a medal. Did you take any extra steps in the training, in the progression, kind of like what were you working on in the five years between the games?
MATTHEW DENNY: The way that my training changed was quite phenomenal, just because I ended up changing coaches in 2018. So I 2017, I had a terrible year, I threw terrible. I was on a large decline. It was just because my training wasn't the quality that it should have been. Like it was still quality, I was training my bum off, but it just wasn't working like the way that we were training. So I ended up 27, like midway through 2017, I had changed S and Cs, changed my whole support crew and bringing a few more people on in just regards to like professional help with nutritionists and S and C and sports psych and you know, all of these things, and then just kept progressing from there. And yeah, it was just, I lost 15 kilos leading into comm games. It was never that I had to change anything. It was a good change that I made in 2017. But like when I went to Rio, I knew that I could be competitive and I knew that, you know, the gold was doable. Like that's a possibility. I felt comfortable. I wasn't intimidated by guys being bigger than me. And I reiterated that fact until I just totally confirmed all my thoughts and I thought that I should have done better. I thought I should have meddled. Okay, but well, and all well and good to say it now, but yeah, it wasn't that anything changed. It was just that I made a few modifications validating what I was and proving on things slightly.
BEN WATERWORTH: So the whole Commonwealth Games experience must have been unique. I mean, we talk about a home Olympics, home Commonwealth Games, you know, obviously a Queenslander in Queensland and everything, you get the silver and the hammer fourth in the Discus. And I believe you were the first Australian in 68 years to compete at a Commonwealth Games in both hammer and Discus. I mean, what was that experience like? And to come away with a Commonwealth Games medal? I mean, kind of does that rank up there with the World Youth Medal? Is it more prestigious in your eyes? Kind of how did you take away that experience?
MATTHEW DENNY: Yeah, Comm Games, I think, was a big highlight of my what the occasion was in being at home games. And it was it was incredible. Like, it's hard to describe being eldest, you know, the age of 60,000 people and be able to name probably like 500 just with like people that you grow up with, with family, support crew, like everything, like everyone was there. It was disappointing because of the fourth that killed me because I failed to throw that would have got me silver, clearly. But yeah, to miss out on that opt to just make that kind of history, I would have been the first ever, I think first ever to ever medal in both Discus and An Olympics. So that was disappointing. But the whole experience in a whole was amazing. Men, you know, the hammer was a great experience. And you know, there was a lot of, there was a lot of story behind that with the way the comp went down and the crowd reacted and the way. You know, that still gives me ghost bumps thinking about it. But yeah, so hopefully Brisbane can.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm sure it will, yes. I think the Gabba is slightly bigger than Metricon, right? So it kind of might be, you know.
MATTHEW DENNY: Well, I'm trying to work out where there's chat. I think there's chat about putting it in like North side. So not at the Gabba, because I think the Gabba is going to be like the main, like the opening ceremony and stuff.
BEN WATERWORTH: Kind of like the Rio kind of separate.
MATTHEW DENNY: But I think the Athletics track is going to be separate. So I don't know where it is. I think it might be somewhere north.
BEN WATERWORTH: Interesting.
MATTHEW DENNY: Maybe one of the race courses or something.
BEN WATERWORTH: Maybe you can just, you know, I was going to say you can just sneak off to the Gabba between now and 2032 and just get used to it.
MATTHEW DENNY: Basically, just get a feel, just go do some T20 for a laugh.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, exactly. Join the heat.
MATTHEW DENNY: Hit the lines boys. Yeah, it'd be fine. Boys, let's want to get some experience. I don't know how to play, but we'll be all right.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm sure that bucket. Finals coming up, I'm sure that'd appreciate it. So at what point then was that decision made between Gold Coast and Tokyo to switch solely on Discus? Was it kind of just a case, as you're saying, the financial reasons, it was like, okay, I've got to focus on one, and kind of, was it a difficult decision to kind of put Hammer behind you?
MATTHEW DENNY: I think what was frustrating me, and I remember the day that I decided it. So I went in Europe competing, and Men's Hammer was on in the morning, and then I had to do the Men's Discus directly after. And I was in really good form for both, especially Discus and being competitive that way. But it just, you know, the killer of the fact that I was quite tired for Discus after that and not to be competitive. And I remember walking out, and my partner, Mia, she was standing there, and she was coaching me because she came over doing the trip with me. And I just walked out and I said, I can't keep doing both. Pacing opportunities and I can make more money in Discus. I was really eating at me. So I remember making that decision. And then by the time I got back from Europe, that trip, which was, I said, I'll put down a hammer until meantime, I thought that I was gonna go back to it after Tokyo. But now in a year later, I just said, I'm not gonna bother. I'll definitely go back to it. I just don't know when.
BEN WATERWORTH: So in terms of sort of the lead up to Tokyo with the delay, you got injured sort of the end of 2020 and kind of, I guess, worst timing to kind of in a, and what you wouldn't generally be a lead up to an Olympics at that point. So was it a case of that this was more of a hindrance or did it actually end up helping kind of have an extra year for Tokyo?
MATTHEW DENNY: Well, I mean, if Tokyo went ahead at the right time, then I wouldn't have been injured. It would have lasted out. It would have been well after Tokyo had happened. But yeah, I think it ended up working well for me anyway. I hated it, but I think it ended up working well in regards to performance and just a bit more time to just bridge the gap between a few guys. But yeah, that injury kind of immobilised me for about four months in regards to training and being able to throw and improve on my throws because I wasn't able to throw without pain. And it was a very, very tricky injury to deal with because it was all abdominal and rib base, which is where all my power comes from when it comes to delivery and all of that movement pattern. So yeah, it worked well that it was a year later. I didn't like it. And we obviously missed out on the European season last year. And then the rib injury made me miss out on the European season this year. So I missed a lot of money and earning potential with that. And also just competitive experience with a lot of those guys, because it's a different thing when you're throwing 65 here and versing guys that are throwing 50 metres compared to where you're in mid to high pack in the competitive scene. So it really, really helps you to learn when to step up and teaches you harder throws because you can't replicate those situations. You throw way harder when you're in those in those competitive environments, whereas when it's here and there's not many people in the crowd and you're basically versing yourself on of difficult to say the least.
BEN WATERWORTH: You mentioned working with the sports psychologist before. How important is the mental aspect in the throwing sports in athletics? Because I can imagine it's sort of one of these things where you probably know you can throw further. You just got to kind of get into that zone. I mean, how important does it end up being?
MATTHEW DENNY: I think if you go look at the scorecard from the Olympics and the consistency and execution side of things, I was definitely by far the most executed, most consistent, most competitive person in that field. And I know that, I mean, it sounds full of myself to say it, but it's nice to know that when it counted, I was able to step up, be in PB form, throw to the best of my ability and then some, and do it from round one. So, and that comes from my sports like, and that comes from all the work that I do around building my mental aspect and like being as bulletproof as possible and just focusing on the things that count when you need it and just executing simple things. So it's funny how simple it actually is at the end of the day. Your brain just loves to complicate it and think about more things because your brain wants to be able to control the situation in those kinds of environments. So it thinks that overthinking is the key to being consistent and to being a competitive athlete. But it's actually, you've done all that work. It's just basically executing simple cues and being an animal and just going for it. Like I think the scariest thing for everyone, especially in Olympics is to, especially in throws and field events because there's so many technical aspects that you could dwell on. It's just actually how hard can you commit to being scared of what could be. And if anyone says that they're not nervous or tense or anxious about the event or whatever they're lying to you. So it's just basically, can you stare that in the eye and just step up and go for it? So I was really happy with that in Tokyo. That was what I was happy that I did. Obviously, I'm annoyed that I didn't find a little bit more elevation on my throws where I could have probably got that 68, but at the end of the day, I was missing throws, but because I was committing, I was still throwing. I've never done a series like that before in my life. And that was from getting in good form and just basically committing as much as I possibly could to what I could control. So.
BEN WATERWORTH: And I can imagine that progression though, because you threw a PB to qualify for Tokyo and then to kind of end Tokyo with another PB. I mean, it obviously must be, as you're talking about that progression that you're moving on up. So by the time you get to that fifth Olympics in Brisbane, you're gonna be throwing a kilometre basically by that progression over 11 years.
MATTHEW DENNY: Yeah, I think probably the other thing that's killing me is that with that injury, I basically lost four or five months of full training. And then basically when we finished that, we fixed that, then it was rebuilding from there. So we only had like three to four months of full prep towards actually competing at Tokyo. Whereas usually I would have six to nine, even 10. And yeah, the form we were in in October, if we were able to add what we did over that after the injury, if we were able to add that onto what we did in October, then I think Tokyo would have been a completely different story as well. So yeah, I mean, it's all well and good in hindsight and stuff, but yeah, it is very good. We just confirmed everything. We know that my technique is one of the best now and we don't really need to, we just need to consolidate. And our peaking process is basically nearly perfect. And we also have a lot of other training ideas and systems that we can add in to give more. Like we didn't really, Eccentrics is a big part, the building high amounts of power for all those people who know are deep in S and C stuff. It's basically time under tension that creates more muscle recruitment throughout your body. And the more muscle recruitment that you have, the more power output you have, especially, and that's very high essential when it comes to throws. And yeah, we didn't, well, we weren't able to do as much as what we wanted to slash any because of that we had. So yeah, it's, there's a lot of good, and there's a lot about frustrating points to deal with, but in a whole, it's extremely positive, so.
BEN WATERWORTH: When it comes to sort of the qualification to get into the final, obviously you need to throw a long enough distance to make it into the top 12 to get into the final, but is there also a case of kind of reserving a little bit in the tank so that you don't kind of just go out and do what your best can do in a qualifying and then kind of have an empty tank in the final? Or is it kind of a balancing act there that you're gonna work on in order to get into the final and then go into that final and push towards that medal?
MATTHEW DENNY: Well, yeah, it's... Qualifying is a tricky base because there's a lot of people that become large head cases when it comes to competing and overthinking it because you only have three throws and, you know, oh, I don't want to waste my energy, but then I don't also want to not try enough. And that's where people come into the issue of, like, underperforming and really cooking their throws is by overthinking that. Like, for me, it was just basically, you know, I knew I was in amazing form and that I was able to throw 65 plus with ease, which I did. And, you know, yeah, the auto call 66, but nine times out of 10, it'll be, you know, 63 metres that will get you through to the final. So it's just throwing calm enough where you can have a good throw and be able to place yourself in the final. If you need to step it up a little bit, you can, but like I was kind of, I was kind of like that 85, 90%. But usually the best throws come from that anyway. So it's a very tricky thing to deal with for a lot of people. I felt quite comfortable and it was, you know, it's still stressful because you haven't paid it at a major since September, 2019. So, and obviously there was a lot of anticipation for this. So I think a lot of people definitely overcooked themselves and warmed up too much. And it was very early. So, you know, competing at 9.30 in the morning is like the last thing you want to do for throws because you want to be able to be awake in your system, like fully awake and alert. And that's why you saw such bigger throws in the final than what you did in the qualifying. So yeah, I think, I think it would have changed a lot of things if they held the qualifying in the afternoon. That's for sure.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is there much sledging in Discus? Do you kind of walk past the athletes and give them a bit of a dirty sort of word here and there, you know, between it, between your throws?
MATTHEW DENNY: This is a good question. So I'm a big advocate for competitiveness. Now, there's a difference between competitive chat and sledging. Now, I refer to sledging as in like cricket sledging, right? So like, you know, just like cricket sledging or footy sledging, like just very aggressive and very just, you know, aggressive, basically. And, you know, I don't sledge, I throw competitive chat. No, but I just have, no, I think I just bring, I bring like that Australian, you know, joking around sarcasm to the comp. And, you know, Europeans are very literal people, so some of them don't take it well. But I just like, I think I unsettle a lot of those guys because of the fact that, you know, I, I mean, my history of competing in major championships, I'm always like in good form, PBA form, perform and it counts kind of thing. But I think it's also because of the fact that I'm so relaxed compared to those guys. I throw like a lot of fun chat and joke around. And, but when I come to throwing, and then if anyone watches back the Olympics and the way that I competed, I was having a lot of fun in between rounds. But when it comes to that two minutes, three minutes before I'm about to throw, I'm like laser level focused and, you know, very aggressive in that fact. But when I'm, yeah, when I'm walking around, like I have some of them are my mates. And like, you know, Australian mates chat is always, you know, very fun and very, you know, just just stupid basically, but then there's some guys that if you're not mates with them, they don't really get it. And they just kind of, you know, like, what are you doing? But the other thing about it is as well, like, you know, if you aggressively sledge someone, people know that you're sledging them and it's not effective. But if you do stuff like very simple, subliminal, not subliminal, but like subtle chat, like it just, it's more about, you know, okay, here's an example. So basically you're sitting like in a classroom, right? When you're at school, you know, you're sitting there and everyone starts laughing. You don't know what's happening. And you kind of like laugh, you're that uncomfortable, like, I feel out of the circle kind of stuff. It's creating that if you can create that in chat and talking to people, it really unsettles them. And it's quite funny to watch. And, you know, the reason that I enjoy bringing that and it's not like, you know, at the end of the day, it's you versus me. It's you know, you know, we're searching for, you know, the glory of winning and stuff. And I think that creating that competitiveness between each other helps one better performances for the sport. People watch the sport more, as well as a little bit of rivalry. I enjoy rivalry. I enjoy the tense moments between because then it makes me lift when it comes to competitiveness. And also, like, that's why a lot of people watch, you know, team sports and fighting and all that sort of stuff, because there's always that you versus me competitive rivalry kind of stuff. And I think that athletics needs more of that. It's all everyone's so friendly, oh my god, amazing work, great throw. But like, mate, if I was sitting in first, and someone came and beat me in the last round and I had to respond to that, there is no way you think I'm going to say great throw, well done. Yeah, maybe after the comp, I'll say congrats, like, you know, very well done, and I'm happy to sit and have a beer with them or whatever. But in that comp and in that moment, you should be absolute caged animal, like, you've literally taken so much away from me. But when I see people being that overly friendly in a competitive environment really irritates me because I'm like, boys, we're all against each other here at this point in time, we can have beers after and we can have great chats. But right now, I do not like you, you do not like me, let's compete and make this like, let's make this a battle kind of thing. So I like trying to bring that and I think I did that in Tokyo because, you know, yeah, I was like, like, say vice hiding it, right? Like, you know, we say he got me by five centimetres, but just like fun stuff, like he was, he was walking around with this massive ice back, like Esky. I don't know what was in it. It was completely pointless. I was like, I was just like, I was like, mate, you going for a picnic or something? And like, just literal, like so literal, European, he goes, oh, yes, I have a couple of sausages and beer. And I was like, and then I was just like, all right, mate. And then he didn't know how to like react to that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just stuff like that.
MATTHEW DENNY: Like I thought that I just, it's just harmless fun, right? Like you're not, you know, you're not, I'm not saying F you or like, you're an idiot or like, you're terrible or this sport or like something about their mum. Like I'm not throwing that. It's just the subtle stuff. Like I remember, I'm sorry to continue on, but I remember in Doha 2019, I remember one of the boys was talking to me and he's very overly friendly athlete anyway. And I was getting annoyed. I was just like, mate, shut up. Stop talking to me. I'm like, I'm getting ready for this comp. We're already in the past, the first round. And it was literally like we were having a beer, just sitting back and chatting. And I was just like, mate, stop talking. And he kept chatting and I was like, you know, not really paying attention. I was thinking, oh, what can I say? And obviously in Doha, the hottest place on earth, and you know, never rains, I go, oh, mate, did you see the forecast supposed to rain in about five minutes? And he goes, what? And he's looking up in the sky. He's like, in Doha? I said, yeah, man. I'm like, it's like the one time out of the year it rains, but it's about to like pour down like 50 mils. So like get ready to throw it because it might get wet. I just stood up and walked off and old mate didn't know what was going on. He was like looking around in the sky. And like, I think he was like trying to dry his shoes ready just in case because the comp's going to get wet. Just like, it was just like, mate, come on, stop talking to me. I will like say stupid stuff to you like that. But yeah, it's very soft for a lot of other people listening to this, but it's enough to make people a bit unsettled.
BEN WATERWORTH: I like it. I always love finding this out in sports. I mean, I think you got an advantage to being Brandon Sarf's roommate. I'm sure his brother gives you some tips of what they do out there on the cricket field.
MATTHEW DENNY: I just think like it also, you know, it's just, I think it's just fun. Like it makes it more competitive and people, you know, realise they're in a competitive environment. Yeah, I don't know. It's just, you know, you can still be a nice person and a friendly person, but in a competitive environment, like no one cares. No one cares if you're like this really friendly dude, like everyone wants to win. It's just who wants it more and who wants to compete better.
BEN WATERWORTH: It actually makes more sense now that I think about it with with Nicola McDermott writing in a diary. That was actually just a psychological thing because everyone was questioning what she doing and then all of a sudden it's like, well, this is why she's just kind of people were put. She was putting people off and it works. She won a silver medal.
MATTHEW DENNY: Yeah, there's no like no joke like it's the simplest things that can throw people like and at the end of the day, no matter whether you're nervous or not, no one knows. It's how you present yourself so, you know, stuff like that, you know, it peaks people's interest away from what they're focusing on doing. And yeah, especially like say, for example, the water thing, it just puts their attention on something else. Would you say attention on something else in a split second in a competitive environment like that? You're already 20 metres behind 8-ball, so.
BEN WATERWORTH: Perfect. Love it. I'm loving these insights with it. You just mentioned it there, Matty, five centimetres, five centimetres off a medal. I mean, your last throw, 6702, your personal best, great throw. But I mean, it's obviously been a few weeks now, but how do you look back on it? Do you walk away going fourth in an Olympics, personal best, great? Or is it the five centimetres? And now you just look at a ruler and go, fuck five centimetres. That's my least favourite measurement now.
MATTHEW DENNY: Yeah, there's a lot of mixed emotions. I'm obviously very happy with the way that I was very competitive, and I took it to him from round one. And I was by far the most consistent, and I threw a PB, and I'm happy with that. But I'm also annoyed in the fact that I still felt that I had a lot more. And if anyone's ever watched me throw before, you know if I've completely nailed one. And I didn't show that, and I didn't feel that either. So that is eating away at me. I felt that I did have a 68 there, and I was informed to do that, and potentially even push the lead. So that is frustrating me. I missed out on a lot with five centimetres. I hate calculating it a lot, but I definitely missed out on a lot when it come to that. So yeah, and I look back at the way that the competition happened. The only thing that I would change is if I was able to get that cue that I changed in round five and six to make me throw further earlier. If I got that earlier, I think it would have been a way different ball game. But hindsight is a lovely thing sometimes.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, for sure. So explain what that cue is. What is that moment that does make you change it up a little bit?
MATTHEW DENNY: So the cue that I changed technically was basically when I was landing in the centre of the circle, so just before delivery, I was just shifting my eye line towards my right hand a bit more. So what that creates is more sling on the discus. So you create more tension through abdominals, and you're able to basically lag the throw with your shoulders more. So, you know, if anyone knows golf, it's simple to explain in golfing terms, is you're creating an X factor basically, especially when you're landing within the centre of the throw. So you're trying to create shoulder to hip separation and have a tall spine and creating tension that way. Basically, what I was doing was I was coming too early with the shoulders and that's creating less sling, less abdominal tension, and you're basically throwing the throw too early. So, you know, it's like having a slice or a hook. Like you're just not getting everything into that throw and the timing of that. And so I changed my eyesight on those last two throws. And originally, I wasn't supposed to. I wasn't, that wasn't the cue and I was doing drills. I'm like, this is the missing cue. And I did it and immediately, like the 66 that I did, I didn't hit well at all. I just, the cue made that much of a difference. So yeah, so that was basically what I changed. And if I, even that 67, if I just got a touch more elevation, like you're still a little bit too low and a little bit too flat, yeah, I think it would have definitely been a lot more. And a lot of people are obviously saying five centimetres from bronze, but I was also only 30 centimetres from silver. So, you know, and that's sweet nothings and discus, that's for sure. So yeah, it was frustrating, but I also confirmed a lot of things in my processes. And I know that I'm one of the best there is now. And it's just finding that the next comp and building on what we have now, that's the great part is we can build on this. It's just continuously up from here if we do the right things.
BEN WATERWORTH: Cause it's just that spurring on, I can imagine sort of towards Paris, but I mean, sort of in the meantime, next year is gonna be unique in the fact that there's a comm games and world championships in the same year and kind of building on that sort of success. So I mean, I guess kind of, yeah, there's that slight disappointment you don't walk away with the medal, but I mean, it's gotta be that confidence that you're continually building and you've got three more Olympics to go, Matty. So I mean, you got plenty of time to sort of get the bronze, silver, then gold.
MATTHEW DENNY: Yeah, exactly. Just time it out. I think so basically for Discus and for throws in general, like your peak age is between 28 and 32. So that's kind of the age that you're gonna, that you need to work with, with knowing when you should be in your peak form. Some people find it a little bit after, like it doesn't really matter. But yeah, that's kind of what we're looking at at the moment. I think by the time I get to Brisbane, I'd be very surprised if I was holding my peak form for that long. I think I could maybe hold it to 33, 34, 36 though. Don't know. Depends how well my coach continues to condition me. And, you know, especially when you get older, that's the other issue is like, is your adaptiveness to training. You always, the older you get, the less responsive you get to training, which then you may need to improvise and make new training systems and new exercises and new things that shock your body to be able to improve. And a lot of that needs to come out when you're starting to go on the decline, because that's what you need to keep up on that new level. So I'm not excited for that timeframe, but for the moment, like we're progressing well. So it's kind of like Paris'... Paris will be kind of like the start of my peak age. And then LA will kind of be still peak age-ish, and then Brisbane will kind of be dying off a bit, so.
BEN WATERWORTH: We talked to Riddian, Riddian Cowley recently about sort of the camaraderie that was within the athletics team during Tokyo. And it just really seemed to be very high spirited. I mean, obviously you got sort of a lot of publicity during Brandon's event that you were wearing, the Brandon Starves roommate. And so this is like the camaraderie we saw from the team cheering on the events. I mean, the athletics team walked away with three medals. It was a great sort of turnaround. And outside of that, you know, a lot of personal bests, a lot of national records and everything on the lines. I mean, just how was that to kind of be part of that team in Tokyo, you all just seemed so very close knit the whole tournament.
MATTHEW DENNY: I think that one made it the closest was because of the fact that everyone was very known and focused on being for the team. Because if anyone slipped up and put anyone in that compromising position, which, you know, we learnt very aggressively from what happened with Curtis and obviously not Curtis' fault. But if anyone else put the team in that position purposefully, you know, it would have been a very, very bad time for that person because everyone knew, everyone was sacrificing a lot and everyone was focusing on the sole team to be able to, you know, not be in a compromising position basically. So I think that made everyone go switch on. We're here to compete, that's it. We know that this game is not as Olympics-ish with, you know, everything around competition, especially from the Australian team and everyone being in unison and focusing on competing. So yeah, I think that's what really caused it. And obviously we all competed very, very well, but before the fact, like everyone just knew that we had been waiting so long to compete. We went, a lot of people went through a lot of things leading up to this competition and going through it all getting postponed and all of what COVID was for athletes and track and field athletes. We all understood that, you know, this is a long time waiting and everyone's been dying to do this. And we just had to be a team and support each other and just compete to the best of our ability and everyone understood that. So I think that's where the unity came from. But for me personally, like I've always been a big supporter of everyone and just making sure that, you know, we're in a stadium that has no spectators and you only had coaches and athletes that were able to come and spectate. So the more that you could provide that atmosphere and support while being at a games that isn't at home and a games that didn't have any support, you had to be there for other people, especially when you weren't competing. So, yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Close it out in just a moment with a series of fun questions we like to do it with, but just two quick things I want to touch on. Outside of your whole Brandon Starks roommate that you had, got bit known for some of your lockdown videos.
MATTHEW DENNY: Oh, God.
BEN WATERWORTH: They were kind of a bit of fun. Did you have a favourite out there? And kind of what brought about that fun little idea?
MATTHEW DENNY: So like in my past and stuff, I've always made stupid videos, but it's always been on my Instagram story, and especially through Snapchat and stuff, when Snapchat was a thing. And I always used to make those silly videos, but then the videos that I started to make at the end, the more professionally made ones, I've never really done that. I had to write scripts for that. I was like, okay, how have I got to shoot this? You know, angles and, you know, making sure everything tied up cinematically, if we're going to call it that or whatever. But yeah, I just, I wanted to try it. And I knew that TikTok was a big thing at the moment. And it wasn't, and it wasn't strategical either. I just kind of noticed that the videos that Channel 7 Olympics were doing, and especially the ones that they posted of me, were doing extremely well. And I knew the Brandon Stark thing was a big thing, but I never realised how big it was, especially back in Australia. So I said, all right, I'll go on my TikTok and I'll make a couple of videos or whatever, just some funny ones. And one was like stitching the one with Brandon jumping and me in the background, like cheering him on. And then another one of me competing and whatever. And obviously, I'm in lockdown, I love chocolate milk and I don't have it very often. And obviously people see track and field athletes and they think, don't do anything wrong. And I was like, no, like we are relatable people. Like we're not all stiffs. We're not all people that can't live a normal life. And I think I just, I showed people that, people were like, oh, like Olympians just do like things that I do as well. I'm like, yeah, dude, like I'm a sucker for chocolate milk. I love Nutella. Like, I dedicate my life to something else and I put that on hold whenever I need to. And so, yeah, I started making those videos and just having fun with that. And the Brandon Stark video that I stitched, it got 650,000 views and like 68,000 likes. I was like, wow, okay, time to focus on this a little bit in this two weeks because, you know, I'd be dumb not to. And yeah, and I just put some, I dedicated the next two weeks on my social media and building that and having fun. That was the main thing and making those fun videos. And it was a big creative process in my brain just to be able to come up with new videos every time and like, you know, adapt new trends or new videos to something that was specific to either being an athlete or quarantine or all that kind of thing. But also even like the beard one where I shaved my face, like, you know, that was something that I just thought, hey, I potentially am going to trim my face. I look like a kid. Maybe I could make something funny out of that. And, you know, I just went through the whole creative process of that, which was really enjoyable. Like, I really enjoyed doing that. But it was also, you know, somewhat tactical in the fact that it was more relatable for people. My social media was doing way better from that. And I enjoyed doing that. And I also want to get, build on my brand from a personality side of things, because at the end of the day, like a lot of people don't really care about Discus. And I totally understand that because it's not a mainstream sport. Like it's not a team sport. It's a very selfish endeavor. But I know that people are very related to me in the way that like, you know, I'm a happy-go-fun guy that enjoys, you know, good food and a good laugh and having fun and stuff. So people care more about the, like being relatable to a personality and having fun with that. And I now realise the avenue that I could go down with that. And I'm going to do more of this stuff because people enjoy that. And I want to give people something enjoyable to watch and to see on my profile and stuff. So yeah, it was a very big thing because I was just like, I'll do this as a joke in lockdown. And then, oh, these are doing really well. And I was like, oh, this is really fun. And then, oh, this works really well with my everything. So let's go for it. So it worked out really well for me in the end.
BEN WATERWORTH: You talk about being relatable. I've actually noticed a bit of a trend when it comes to a certain activity that you do and another fourth place finisher got, Mr. Peter Boll. You both actually podcast hosts. Now we talked this up during the games that if Peter was to get a medal, we're like, well, hey, hope the podcast hosts out there, look at us, we can medal at the Olympics. But is it just a case of podcast hosts can only get fourth? I mean, what's the deal here?
MATTHEW DENNY: Maybe, maybe it's a consistent thing. Yeah, no, it's... I actually didn't realise that Petey, does he have his own podcast?
BEN WATERWORTH: He does, yeah. I can't remember the name of it, but yeah, no, if you hit him up on social media, he sort of tagged it quite a bit.
MATTHEW DENNY: I must be totally like... He was one of my mates, and I totally didn't even know he had a podcast.
BEN WATERWORTH: How great is that?
MATTHEW DENNY: What a great mate. Yeah, no, I don't know. Yeah, I'm really enjoying doing podcast stuff. Like I've always wanted to get into radio and a lot of other stuff around that and presenting. And podcasting was a really great avenue for that. And then the more that I did it, the more that I realised that I just enjoy like fun chats with friends and by getting an actual narrative and getting something out there that was enjoyable for other people. And that came back to that entertainment thing that I enjoyed doing. So yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: So what, give your podcast a plug. What is it? What is it about? Where can people listen?
MATTHEW DENNY: So it's actually, the whole idea about it's kind of changed, especially over like the last couple of weeks with quarantine and revising and all that. But basically, so it's called Inside The Cage with Matty Denny. And it's a podcast where originally I was solely focusing on interviewing successful people around personality, sports and all that kind of stuff where, and creating that relatability, giving people an insight to people that are very successful, but showing that they're just real people that really enjoy what they do and showing key trends about just enjoying what you do in a whole. But now I'm actually going to focus a little bit more, still the same thing, but in a different format. So basically the way that I'm focusing it now is I'm going to have, continue having guest hosts on, and Starkey is going to be on the next one, but it's going to be more radio based, I would say. So we're going to have a few more segments where, even prank calling athletes, prank calling a lot of people, Q&A stuff from our following and a lot more things that people want to hear and even getting call ins and doing it around that. Obviously it's not live, but I think that it's making it more entertaining because people obviously want to hear stories, but people also want to be entertained. So if I can provide both, then that'd be amazing. So yeah, check it out on Spotify, and I'm also doing a video version of it as well, which is on my YouTube. And I'm also doing clips on my Instagram at Mattie Denny.
BEN WATERWORTH: Beautiful, beautiful. You can maybe prank call some Austria and ask him about that.
MATTHEW DENNY: Yeah, some guy, I know who he is.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, who's going on there. And Peter's podcast is called In My Spikes. So-
MATTHEW DENNY: Oh yes, I have seen that. I didn't realise that was his.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah.
MATTHEW DENNY: I'll get on to that for sure.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think I crossed in between there potentially kind of- Now we like to close off our interviews as a series of fun sort of get to know your questions. As we always explain, these are based off a Team Canada questionnaire they gave to their athletes before Rio and Pyeongchang and kind of just some randomness here. Now I've chosen here a Canadian javelin thrower from 2016, Liz Gledal. Not sure if-
MATTHEW DENNY: Oh yeah, Liz, yep. I know Liz, yep.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay, there you go, good. You might be able to guess some of her answers maybe, or just stick with your own. And there's always, there's homework aspects to this, Matt. If you want to, there is the ability to draw pictures. So again, we always open-ended. If you want to draw and send it in, we'll share it on our social media. Letting you know that. So the first one here is draw a picture of yourself. So if you want to, you're welcome to, and we'll share it.
MATTHEW DENNY: My sketching ability is just terrible.
BEN WATERWORTH: She did it. So well, well, hey, we'll see how you go if you want to. Your favourite, and you're allowed to answer your own Olympic moments here if you want to. What is your favourite Olympic moment?
MATTHEW DENNY: Kathy Freeman.
BEN WATERWORTH: Kathy Freeman.
MATTHEW DENNY: Sorry, generic, but it's just so amazing.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, you can't go past it.
MATTHEW DENNY: So amazing. You can't beat it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, it's, as I've said, sort of whenever it's brought up, it's one of those moments where we all know where we were, basically when it happened and kind of remember it. Yours will be the Kathy Freeman moment of Brisbane, though. Like you, by that point, what? 10-time world champion, two-time gold medallist, you'll carry the flag, light the flame, and win gold, like all.
MATTHEW DENNY: Living the dream, mate, I'll have the biggest party after that. That's for sure. Put advice hat on.
BEN WATERWORTH: The Gabba will be renamed the Matty Denny Stadium by then.
MATTHEW DENNY: Good luck, good luck pitching that. We'll see, we'll see.
BEN WATERWORTH: We have sway, don't worry.
MATTHEW DENNY: We have sway, yeah, okay.
BEN WATERWORTH: Both our listeners know people. Um, if you could choose any Olympic host city, what would it be?
MATTHEW DENNY: Um, Alara.
BEN WATERWORTH: How would that go, do you think?
MATTHEW DENNY: Oh, mate, you'd have more spectators than what the town is, so it'd be great.
BEN WATERWORTH: You'd probably have more spectators than Tokyo, so I mean...
MATTHEW DENNY: Literally, I'm pretty, yeah, be there about.
BEN WATERWORTH: Um, in your spare time, what do you most like to do?
MATTHEW DENNY: Um, play video games and photography.
BEN WATERWORTH: Nice, good combination there, I like it. Um, what is the weirdest instruction a coach has ever given you?
MATTHEW DENNY: Go that way.
BEN WATERWORTH: Go that way, quite open-ended. All right, that works. What is your favourite workout?
MATTHEW DENNY: My favourite workout? Um, max out.
BEN WATERWORTH: Max out, what's max out?
MATTHEW DENNY: Max out lifting, so going for PB lifts, and just basically pushing the limit. And that also goes for like hard out throws as well, like maxing out throws. It's just basically do the biggest you can.
BEN WATERWORTH: Show off, what's your PB in the lift? Come on, you know, impress people.
MATTHEW DENNY: Do you want me to give all of them, or like the most specific one? Okay, so best snatch is 125, best clean is 160, best behind neck jerk is 180.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow.
MATTHEW DENNY: Best deadlift is 275, best back squat is 320 for a double.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow.
MATTHEW DENNY: Best bench is 180 or 175, and best farmer carries is 130 kilos each hand.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm impressed that you just know them all off by heart. Like that's impressive in itself.
MATTHEW DENNY: I mean, when you live your life trying to beat them all the time, it's kind of, you got to know them, cause it's like, they're literally the enemy. It's like, nah, gotta beat that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Gotta do it. I can imagine you'd be terrible to play video games cause you'd be so bloody competitive that you just wouldn't give a shit.
MATTHEW DENNY: That is literally the fact.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow. Okay then. If you could have lunch with any one person, who would it be?
MATTHEW DENNY: Oh, that's... Chris Hemsworth.
BEN WATERWORTH: Ah, good choice. All right. I'm sure your girlfriend probably would come along to that one too, wouldn't she? She'd be first in line. What is your favourite sandwich?
MATTHEW DENNY: Favourite sandwich? Oh, that's a good one. Just a simple ham cheese toastie with red onion. And a bit of barbecue sauce. It's all best.
BEN WATERWORTH: I like it. Underrated, barbecue sauce needs to be in more sandwiches. People will use it in the old ones. We're gonna have that, but...
MATTHEW DENNY: Yeah, it has to be toasted though. If you have it dried, definitely not, but it toasted, it's mint.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yep. Another drawing here. Draw a picture of a Canadian animal, but I do love Liz's answer here. She's just left it blank and put an albino bear in a snowstorm. So, that works well. Pretty clever. If you could have any super power, what would it be?
MATTHEW DENNY: Super speed.
BEN WATERWORTH: Super speed, I like it. I'm actually just thinking about your Chris Hemsworth answer. You could get him into hammer throw. That would be perfect for Chris Hemsworth.
MATTHEW DENNY: I tried to make an Atcom games. I made a hammer throw joke saying, two best hammer throwers in Australia. And then I put him side by side with me as a joke. Never responded, so I'm sad.
BEN WATERWORTH: Chris, come on.
MATTHEW DENNY: Chris, come on, man. You should definitely know a sub-par.
BEN WATERWORTH: He'll be regretting that come the Brisbane Olympics. He'll be like, I could have been friends with him.
MATTHEW DENNY: He could have shown me how to really throw a hammer. Then he'll be tagging you in the future, and you'll be ignoring him.
BEN WATERWORTH: When his career falls down and soarings. The best candy in the world is?
MATTHEW DENNY: Oh, you know, what's those string ones, the long string ones that you get at the shops, and it's like the Coca-Cola stuff I've ever had.
BEN WATERWORTH: Are they like the straps sort of thing?
MATTHEW DENNY: Kind of like the straps, except for they're like tubes. They're like long.
BEN WATERWORTH: They're called twizzlers in North America, aren't they? I don't know what they're called here.
MATTHEW DENNY: Yeah, they're amazing.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yep.
MATTHEW DENNY: They're so good.
BEN WATERWORTH: God, you're making me hungry during this season.
MATTHEW DENNY: Anything by like, by Haribo.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, yes, yes, like the gummies, the sours and all, yeah, good choice. As a kid, who was your favourite sports team?
MATTHEW DENNY: Oh, I probably Broncos at the time. Are they still your team or have you gotten smart? When I watch NRL now, I don't watch for a sole team, like I just, I just watch it to watch it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just watch it to watch it.
MATTHEW DENNY: I mean, if I was going to back anyone, I'd have to back Brizzy though.
BEN WATERWORTH: See, I lived in Brisbane, I actually don't mind all the Brisbane sporting teams. It's kind of one of these players. I'm like, okay, I'll kind of get behind them. But I just can never get behind the Broncos. I just, I just don't know what it is.
MATTHEW DENNY: I definitely get behind the Lions boys.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yep. Yeah.
MATTHEW DENNY: They're such, they're such legends.
BEN WATERWORTH: I got very close to the Gold Coast because I felt very bad for them. And we'd often go to the Metricon and I ended up in the Chi squad somehow. I don't even know how they were that desperate. So I've got a big soft spot for the Suns. So I'm a cult supporter, but Suns are probably out there. Yeah. Your favourite sports movie is?
MATTHEW DENNY: Oh, my favourite sports movie. That's a tough one. Obviously, oh, Remember The Titans.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, good one. Good one. I always ask this question to athletes from sports where there's not an obvious sports movie. But is there a Discus movie or a movie with Discus in it at all?
MATTHEW DENNY: I think there is one. There's one. It's like a biopic of Al Orta, so Al Orta made, I think, five or six Olympics. He's the most decorated, like, Olympic discus ever from America. But I've never seen it because I can't get it in Australia. I can't seem to find it online.
BEN WATERWORTH: We're learning a lot about these kind of different ones. I mean, it's obvious when we have like a golfer on Happy Gilmore or we've got a bobsled on Cool Runnings.
MATTHEW DENNY: Oh, that is, actually, what am I talking about? Yes, favourite sport movie is Happy Gilmore. What am I talking about? I totally like, I think I was just thinking serious, and then I totally forgot. Happy Gilmore by far. I just don't know why I didn't say that. Happy Gilmore.
BEN WATERWORTH: You've been on this show now for a bit over an hour, Matty. I don't know where you're thinking the word serious fits in, but hey, whatever you want to answer.
MATTHEW DENNY: We'll run with that. Actually, that or Waterboy.
BEN WATERWORTH: Ah, yes.
MATTHEW DENNY: Adam Sandler.
BEN WATERWORTH: Bobby Boucher. Everything Adam Sandler. Bobby Boucher. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
MATTHEW DENNY: Oh, definitely New York.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, yes. Great choice. Fantastic choice.
MATTHEW DENNY: Or anywhere in, or anyone like North Canada.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes. Like, like total snow, snow, North Canada. Are you talking?
MATTHEW DENNY: Oh, like, like, like Banff. I love that. Yeah. Like, like Louise, like that kind of like snowy, but like mountainous forest kind of stuff. Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Nice in summer. Nice in winter kind of, you know, Yeah. Nice balance there.
MATTHEW DENNY: Just pretty, yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: I love this question. This is the sort of a new one that's been asked the last few interviews. When you were little, what was one thing you always thought? That's a good one.
MATTHEW DENNY: What did I always think? My God. What did I always think? I'm not sure. I'm actually stumped with that one. That's such a good question, though.
BEN WATERWORTH: What a thought provoker. I love Liz's answer here. She always thought her dad played for the Vancouver Canucks and didn't realise it was a real team. Well, I mean, let's be honest, Vancouver Canucks aren't really a real team, but that's a whole other story. That's a totally different story.
MATTHEW DENNY: I can't even give you an answer for that one. There's a few things where I got older. I was like, oh, wait, hang on. Don't tell the public that you thought that way.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, I can't leave that one alone.
MATTHEW DENNY: No, but I can't think of them, though. That's the thing. I can't think of them. I know I've had those moments, but I can't think of the specifics.
BEN WATERWORTH: Messages later. I want this to come out, you know, finally. Matty, pleasure to chat with you. You kind of alluded to your social media before. Give another plug for it. Where can people find you if they want to see all these great videos and send you inappropriate messages as well?
MATTHEW DENNY: So Instagram at Matty Denny and then YouTube is Matty Denny and TikTok's Matty Denny and Facebook is Matthew Denny. But no, go check it out. Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Perfect. Matty, it's been a lot of fun, mate. Really appreciate your time. We look forward to seeing you bring home the multiple medals at the next three Olympics and we'll get you on to chat about your gold medal win in Paris. How does that sound after the game?
MATTHEW DENNY: Perfect. Come on.
BEN WATERWORTH: And a massive thanks there to Matty for his time. A lot of fun, and definitely appreciate joining us here on the show. Only our second ever field competitor, if I'm not mistaken, after our Derek Drewen chat a year or so ago. So we know how that turned out for Derek when it came for qualifying ahead of the Tokyo Games. So we know it's not gonna be the case with Matty. He's gonna go on to great success moving forward when it comes to his next three Olympics, because it's gonna happen, as you heard in that chat. But again, thanks to Matty for his time on the show today. Lots more interviews and episodes coming your way over the coming weeks. We have so many coming up. We are just filled to the brim with all these interviews. So the best way to stay up to date with who we've got coming on the show, hit us up on social media Off The Podium. Follow us on all of those, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And of course, on all the podcast platforms, search for Off The Podium. Find us on there, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, you name it, we are on there. We appreciate your feedback. Let us know what you think of the show. Leave us a rating. And if you got any guest requests, hit us up on the social media channels I just mentioned before. Let us know who you'd like to hear from On Off The Podium. And we will track them down for you and see if we can get them on the show. So, plenty of exciting things still to come On Off The Podium as we get closer and closer to Beijing. We may be getting further and further away from Tokyo, but we've still got so many athlete interviews from both the winter and summer games to get you in the mood for both. So, get pumped up, get excited. And keep tuning in to Off The Podium. Thanks again, Amadi. Thanks again for you for listening. This has been Off The Podium. My name is Ben and we'll speak to you next time. Good night.
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