Sportscafe

Three weeks before she died, Rachel Hunter’s mum told her the one thing she regretted. It changed the course of Rachel’s life, and sent her to India.

Rachel Hunter wanted to be a ballerina. Then an illness took dance away, and a run on a Glenfield beach set her on the path to New York, Sports Illustrated and supermodel fame.

On this episode of Sportscafe Legends, Ric Salizzo and Marc Ellis catch up with Rachel Hunter, calling in from Mumbai. She talks about the 80s and 90s supermodel era and why “it was all relative to that time”. She covers what landing Sports Illustrated really meant, and the paparazzi who chased her while she was pregnant. She explains why, at 57, she no longer needs to be seen as beautiful.

Then it gets personal. Rachel shares the regret her mum confided in her three weeks before she died, and how it sent her to India, where she now spends half the year running retreats. Along the way: Jay-Z and Beyoncé, gorillas, Rod Stewart fandom, and Marc’s dream of how he’d like to go.

Thanks to our partners: Sal’s Authentic New York Pizza · Southern Alps Brewing Co.

Murray Mexted joins Ric Salizzo and Marc Ellis, who still remembers the day his hero pulled up at the park and told him “good kick, lad” when he was eight years old.

Murray tells how Graham Mourie tracked him down in France with a whiteboard and changed how he played No. 8. He covers months alone in a French town where nobody spoke English, packing down beside Cowboy Shaw, and the 1981 test at Eden Park when the flour bombs fell. He also explains why switching off matters as much as switching on.

Plus: Stu Wilson driving golf balls down Tawa’s main street at 5am, the day Murray took ten years off his age, and how he met his wife at an airport baggage carousel.

Sportscafe Legends is brought to you by Sal's Pizza and Southern Alps Lager.

At 13 he was 128kg, two metres tall and couldn’t do a chin-up. Straight out of school he gave himself two years to make it. Brodie Retallick joins Ric Salizzo and Marc Ellis live from Kobe.
Brodie opens up on the 4.30am rowing sessions in Amberley that built him, the Chiefs pre-season where fights broke out every week, and the rivalry with Sam Whitelock that kept them both in the black jersey. He also covers the one thing he regrets about his career, whether a World Cup comeback is on the table, and why his daughters have seen him cry.

Plus: the muscle car show he bought, the All Black bus rule nobody tells you about, and Ric’s Japanese business dinner that ended on a hot plate.

Sportscafe Legends is brought to you by Sal’s Authentic New York Pizza, Southern Alps Brewing Co. and Gull.

Connor Watson has waited 11 years for his first NRL grand final – and on Sunday he'll (hopefully) line up against the Knights and his old housemate Kalyn Ponga.

It's the last Sportscafe of 2026, and Marc Ellis joins the crew for the season finale. Connor talks grand final week and facing Ponga's Knights, while the panel debates the hip-drop that cost Newcastle Phoenix Crossland, and whether the NRL needs an orange card. Lenny relives the Lions' four-minute grand final comeback from the MCG, Wharfie Time and all, along with the Norm Smith debate. Tayla hands out our end-of-season awards, Macca shares his hard-earned advice for a big night out, and two of the year's fan favourites return: the back-fence king and the Talbot Bay Birdwatching Club.

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It's finals season across both codes, and we've got the perfect guests for it.
Brownlow Medallist and three-time Brisbane Lions premiership player Simon Black joins us to gives us insights into AFL Grand Final, where he has the honour of presenting the premiership cup. He talks through what grand final week is really like, what he got wrong in his first one, the Lions' shot at three in a row, and why premierships are built over years, not a single season.

Knights great Kurt Gidley breaks down Newcastle's rise from last year's wooden spoon to a preliminary final, the Justin Holbrook effect, and what finals footy means to the town.

Plus: Connor on the semi-final win and Sam Walker's return, Chur Ma Bro demands an apology for Warriors fans, Joey's legendary 40-nil road graffiti, and the panel picks their AFL Grand Final winners.

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Connor breaks down the Roosters' qualifying final loss to Penrith, what has to change against Cronulla on Saturday night, and where Sam Walker's recovery is at.

Plus the crew debates the Sydney Sweeney betting ad, meets a 17-year-old who kicked the winner two weeks running, and our debate about the greatest sports movie of all time goes off the rails.

Timestamps:

• 00:00:00 Teaser
• 00:00:59 Connor Watson on the Panthers loss
• 00:04:54 Do-or-die against the Sharks
• 00:08:46 That pregame praying video on the NRL account
• 00:10:28 Joey on the Warriors: "I'm fine"
• 00:14:38 The Sydney Sweeney betting ad debate
• 00:20:10 Riley Carter: two clutch kicks, two weeks
• 00:26:24 Who'd you pick for the grand final pregame?
• 00:30:18 Greatest sports movie of all time
• 00:39:11 Chris Lynn on Cricket Australia's privatisation push

Laurie Daley joins us three days out from finals week, with a read on the premiership race, the Blues' Origin decider, and an answer on whether he'd ever take an NRL head coaching job.

Then Joey lays out an officiating theory about Mt Smart and The Warriors that's going to cost him a few friends in Auckland. Fair question or sour grapes?

Connor Watson on captaining the Roosters for the first time, the hospital pass that flattened his own halfback, and the off-season dinner he now owes him. Sharni Layton on Australian Survivor, the Commonwealth Games campaign she gave up to film it, and what happens to an athlete's identity after retirement.

Plus the Aussie squad for South Africa, the NFL landing in Melbourne, and three clips from the depths of the internet.

Roger Tuivasa-Sheck joins Marc Ellis and Ric Salizzo on Herbie for Sportscafe Legends.

He's played for the Roosters, the Warriors, the Kiwis, Toa Samoa, the Blues and the All Blacks. This is his last NRL season before a two-year deal at Wakefield Trinity - and with a knee reconstruction behind him, he's watching the Warriors' run from the sideline rather than the field.

Roger talks about growing up in Otara, being coached as a kid by Eric Rush, ringing Rushy to tell him he was leaving rugby for league, and why he picked 12 when he came back to union.

Timestamps:

• 00:00:00 Cold open
• 00:00:43 Welcome to Herbie
• 00:02:11 League fitness vs rugby fitness
• 00:02:53 Why he chose 12
• 00:04:31 Learning the game at first receiver
• 00:05:29 Eric Rush the junior coach
• 00:07:58 The phone call to Rushy
• 00:08:44 Why league suited him
• 00:09:53 Community and 40 memberships
• 00:10:59 The pathway out of school
• 00:12:05 A premiership in his second year
• 00:12:40 When he knew he had a gift
• 00:14:15 Getting knocked back
• 00:15:06 Blazers, kit and choosing union
• 00:17:32 Coming home to the Warriors
• 00:18:11 Saying no to mum and dad
• 00:21:39 Heroes: Rushy, Carlos, Benji
• 00:22:11 Eric Rush and the water slide
• 00:23:37 Watching this Warriors season injured
• 00:24:45 Two ACLs and the next surgery
• 00:25:36 All Black 1204
• 00:27:11 Wakefield, and letting go of the plan
• 00:30:41 His brother, LeBron and a PlayStation launch
• 00:34:15 The Herbie project
• 00:34:52 Otara was a village
• 00:36:42 What the travel cost him
• 00:39:15 What's changed at the Warriors
• 00:41:23 What it takes to win a premiership

On Friday night at Allianz, Connor Watson runs out against South Sydney in Jai Arrow's 100th and final game for the club - an appearance the NRL changed its interchange rules to allow after Arrow's MND diagnosis forced him to retire in May.

Connor, Tayla and Lynny break down the scenes on the Gold Coast last weekend and what Friday is going to feel like from the other side of the field.

Then Craig Wing joins us. He came through as a South Sydney junior, debuted for the Bunnies in '97, and ended up building most of his career at the Roosters after Souths were thrown out of the competition.

Nobody is better placed to explain this rivalry - and we asked him which one he'd actually pick. Plus: Neil Townley is 69 years old and still playing local footy every weekend. He gives the Sportscafe team a rev-up they will not forget.

In episode three of Sportscafe Legends, Marc Ellis and Ric Salizzo sit down on Herbie the housebus with Lucy Lawless - Xena: Warrior Princess herself.

She grew up in Mount Albert with no fences and no curfew, was nicknamed "uncoordinated" at school, and then spent six years and 24-episode seasons swinging a sword nine months a year. Xena big in New Zealand, but it was enormous in Italy, Turkey, the Philippines and Iran - and somewhere around episode eight, Lucy found out her character had become a global gay icon, via a stack of faxes from New York while she was standing on the side of set.

These days she'd rather direct than act, and keeps turning down offers from America to do it.

She also has a hobby that comes up about twenty-five minutes in, and it's not what you'd expect.

Marc and Ric get into what Xena did for the New Zealand screen industry, knowing Russell Crowe when he was running an underage nightclub, the first time in her life she felt proud of herself, and what Herbie is actually being used for.

CHAPTERS

• 00:00:00 Welcome to Herbie
• 00:01:27 A slow start to the day
• 00:02:20 Growing up in Mount Albert
• 00:04:34 Slightly delinquent
• 00:05:49 How the acting started
• 00:08:28 Becoming a gay icon by accident
• 00:09:19 Marc was an extra on Xena
• 00:10:16 Russell Crowe before Russell Crowe
• 00:11:35 "My nickname at school was uncoordinated"
• 00:12:31 Nine months a year, 14-hour days
• 00:13:13 What Xena did for the NZ industry
• 00:14:55 Watching a film a day
• 00:18:50 Why she's directing now
• 00:21:43 New Zealand needs to feed itself
• 00:24:01 When kids were allowed to disappear
• 00:24:42 The murder trials
• 00:25:33 The hearing
• 00:26:10 Why she goes
• 00:28:30 Pizza etiquette
• 00:29:30 Star Wars, Tom Selleck and the Ewok problem
• 00:32:29 The proudest she's ever been
• 00:34:48 Never Look Away
• 00:35:31 Working with Marc Ellis
• 00:38:44 What Herbie is actually for

Sportscafe Legends is presented by Sal's Authentic New York Pizza and Southern Alps Lager. Herbie is fuelled by Gull.