‘I’d Sit In The Car In Tears’: Dale Thomas And Billy Brownless Reveal The Worst Moments Of Their Careers
During the premiere episode of Tanya Hennessy’s podcast, footy players Dale ‘Daisy’ Thomas and Billy Brownless opened up about the worst moments in their careers.
Both of the AFL legends were pretty open with Tanya throughout the first episode of her ‘Sexy Jungle Podcast’ -- so open, in fact, that Billy had no issue admitting the podcast host was one of the people he struggled to connect with most in camp.
The trio also quickly discussed how they would dispose of a body before getting into the more serious side of things. Discussing the highs and lows of their careers, Dale opened up about his divorce saying there were times before practice where he’d sit in his car “and be in tears”.
“Going through the split with the missus in pre-season, my daughter being removed from my care and only getting her every second weekend at best at the start, and then having to try and rock up to pre-season,” he said, “having to deal with that while still trying to be a professional athlete… at that point I really didn’t care.
“I was going to do the job, but I hated it. There was times where I’d rock up to training, sit in the car and be in tears,” Dale said, “then rock up and be the court jester to try and hide it… I was liked for that, but I knew I was being a fraud.”
Feeling like he didn’t know what to do, his club referred him to see someone and to work through the sadness he was struggling with, but admitted he was in a dark place for six to 12 months.
Billy also opened up to Tanya about his struggles following his very public divorce when his wife Nicky left him for his best friend and coworker Garry Lyon in 2015.
“It was so public,” Billy explained, “but also I had four kids involved”.
“That was very hard to take… I was on my own and about two years later my mum died, who I loved very much. There were a couple of tough years.”
Billy told Tanya and Dale that following the split, he was forced to leave his house renting in both Geelong and Melbourne.
“You’re actually like a homeless person, and if you wanted to have the kids you’d get them to the motel. It was shocking. Shocking two or three years.”
