266: Koby Stevens (Part A)
4/21/202656 min
A story of dreams, nightmares, anguish and redemption...
Koby Stevens played 91 AFL games spanning the West Coast Eagles, Western Bulldogs and St Kilda... his career came to a premature end after a 15th concussion.
The way he details the moments his childhood dreams were ripped from him, and the fear of an invisible injury for a professional athlete is admirable, inspiring and bloody scary, all in one.
His drive to re-find his own purpose, uncover his brain injury, commit to his rehabilitation and recovery is as moving as anything we have heard on the show. Not to mention his passion of story telling and film making...
This story will change and save lives. You don't always need a Premiership or a Gold Medal to show how powerful you are.
Thanks Kobe.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsNeroli Meadows· Soundbite0:00
[upbeat music] A listener production.
Speaker 10:04
Okay, are you recording?
Mark Howard· Host0:06
[upbeat music] Hello and welcome along to episode 266 of The Howie Games Part A, featuring former AFL footballer Koby Stevens. Now, at this point of the podcast, Tommy typically rolls in a highlight of the guest and away we go. We will roll that highlight in now, but this episode is about so much more than footy.
Koby Stevens· Guest0:27
[crowd cheering] Stevens, he found some room as well. Tumbles it towards the square, and the Bulldogs have managed to fashion a goal from nowhere.
Speaker 4· Soundbite0:34
Stevens nails it. Six in a row for the Dogs.
Koby Stevens· Guest0:37
Koby Stevens hard at it.
Speaker 10:39
Man, he smashed it.
Koby Stevens· Guest0:40
And absolutely pole-axed the Lions player.
Speaker 4· Soundbite0:43
Comes in. They need a steadying goal, and this one is a beauty.
Koby Stevens· Guest0:47
[crowd cheering] Oh.
Speaker 10:48
Look at this.
Speaker 4· Soundbite0:48
Oh, what a kick, Koby Stevens.
Mark Howard· Host0:49
[gentle music] For quite some time, I guess you could say years really, we've been wanting to do an episode that revolves around concussion. It was a part of surfer Aaron Wright's story on episode 189 of the show, and of league legend Wally Lewis's story on episode 238. But in the world of AFL football, it's been a difficult thing to bring to the table due to legal issues involving concussion in the game. It became even more pressing in my mind to do an episode like this after an involvement in junior football last year and seeing the varying approaches and attitudes to the game and head knocks, some great, some not so great, as well as differing levels of care and understanding. So for this episode, I am indebted to Koby.