On episode 13 of Behind The Roar we chat with Brent Naden leading into Wests Tigers Indigenous Round match against the Cowboys at Leichhardt Oval.
Behind The Roar drops every Wednesday afternoon and is available on Apple, Spotify and YouTube.
Currently serving the final match of a three-game suspension, Naden is a proud Indigenous man, a character, a joker, a father, a leader, and a bloody good footballer.
He’s also got quite a creative side and played a pivotal role in the design of the Wests Tigers 2023 Indigenous Jersey, which the boys will proudly wear at Leichhardt Oval this weekend.
He’s immensely proud of the jersey, which is a collection of stories depicting the club’s Indigenous players, and their respective journeys to Wests Tigers.
He’s dirty, however, that he won’t be out there with them on Saturday.
“I’d do anything to be playing this weekend with the boys, wearing this jersey,” he said.
It’s more than a round and more than a game this weekend to every single Indigenous player in the NRL.
Brent Naden
“It’s our time to showcase our art and our stories.
“We always play for our families but this weekend we will also be playing for all the Indigenous boys in our team.”
Naden talks about how he’s hated watching from the sidelines over the past month or so, due to either suspension or injury.
A ‘brain fart’ shoulder charge against the Panthers saw him rubbed out for three matches, meaning he’ll miss not just Indigenous Round, but also Luke Brooks’ 200-game milestone.
“He’s one of the nicest blokes you’d ever meet Brooksy, and I wish I could be out there with him," he said.
Naden covers a range of topics, some serious, some not so. He talks about fatherhood, about self-development, about his proud Indigenous heritage, and that of his teammates.
He recounts that ‘crazy week’ last year where, in the space of seven days, he played both for and against Canterbury Bulldogs, after a mid-season, mid-week shift to Concord.
He also talks about some of his Indigenous childhood heroes, and about the annual NRL Indigenous All Stars camps which he says are "the best things I’ve ever been to”.
With another little girl soon on the way, Naden opens up about how fatherhood has so drastically changed his life, for the better.
“Honestly, I feel like a different person,” he says.
I was at the lowest of lows a few years ago but having my son has put everything into perspective.
Brent Naden
"It’s been a huge change, I’ve pulled my head in, we’ve just bought our first home, and we’ve got a little girl on the way.”
There is a human side to NRL players that often goes unnoticed. Nice stories that often go untold.
Like this one for example where a caller rang a Sydney radio station earlier this week, purely to thank and congratulate Brent Naden for his good deed at the Rabbitohs game last weekend.
In short, he went out of his way to put a smile on a young fella’s face.
Hear about that and much more in this week’s edition of Behind The Roar.
