Kicking Back with Joe Brial at Ballymore

It’s an awesome time to be following Australian rugby. Super Rugby AU is about to kick off and Queensland is STACKED with talent.

Last week, I was happy to catch up with Reds forward Joe Brial. Now in his second season here at Ballymore, Joe has left his mark on the squad, making an impact in the number 6 and 8 positions.

I enjoyed chatting with Joe about his experiences here with the Reds, his favourite post-match feed and many plenty more! I hope you enjoy reading our conversation as much as I enjoyed having it!

This is Reds Rugby Rules, so I’d love to start with the Reds. How did the 2025 Super Rugby season go from your perspective? And what do you think is in store for the Reds, looking forward?

I think, obviously, results-wise, we wanted to win, obviously, so it was a bit heartbreaking. But I think, as I'm sure you've seen, it’s such a good group of boys, building a strong, consistent game. It’s pretty exciting. Obviously, you want to win, and, but I think what we're building here is a strong, great group of boys with great coaches as well. It's, yeah, it's really exciting.

Even now, we’re working on ways to do a couple better and bring that cup, so you can have a look at it.

I’m super stoked about Super Rugby AU. I think something like it has been needed for a while now. The first home game will be on Sunday, September 14th, at Ballymore. What’s your message to fans ahead of that game?

Yeah, I agree with you, you just need more games, you know. It has been needed for a while and it's only gonna make everyone better, so I'm really looking forward to it. Anytime you get to put the Reds jersey on, it's pretty exciting. 

My message to the fans would be come down and watch some exciting footy. You know, this is not just a couple of games for us, but we're really looking forward to this comp. We want to win, we’re playing for the State, so it's an exciting time to get down and watch us!

What’s been the highlight so far, over the last two seasons of playing with the Reds?

There's been a couple of good ones. You know, like, playing in Dunedin and beating the Highlanders for the first time down there in a few years.

Another one that sticks out for me personally, was that try I scored against the Chiefs in Hamilton. I kicked it and then put the ball down with my tummy… you can watch the replay, I don't quite put it down right. It's debatable, but it's a try, it got points, so for me personally, that's a bit of a highlight, you know, I haven't played too many super games before that.

But yeah, lots of highlights with the team: beating the Chiefs at home last year, the Blues this year - yeah, a lot of highlights. They just keep coming as well, which is good.

Who were the players you looked up to growing up, and have you had the chance to face or play alongside them yet?

Yeah, when I was a lot younger, people like Michael Hooper, Kieren Read, you know, those kind of loose forwards have definitely been people I’ve looked up. They’re people I’ve modelled my game off. And, yeah, I've had opportunity - not to play with them, but to meet them and talk with them through the years. It’s interesting, you kind of get a bit star-stuck at first - sometimes it’s hard to keep calm and actually have, you know, normal conversations, but then you realise that they're just normal people.

How would you describe your playing style, and what do you see as your biggest strengths on the field?

How would I describe my playing style… It would be, as a number eight or six, back-rower, I try and be physical, so that's with my ball carries and my defence. I think those are the ways for back-rowers to impact the game.

Knowing you, I’m sure you enjoy watching all all the big hits and big runs.

Yeah, that’s one thing I love about the game, I prefer that to a game with too much kicking! Who’s the hardest player you’ve had to tackle or play against?

Um, people like Ardie Savea - he's pretty elusive and hard to tackle. Then you have... even Harry Wilson at training, he’s hard to tackle - he runs pretty hard and fast.

And when we played for the AUNZ team against the British and Irish Lions a couple of weeks ago, going up against Bundee Aki… he's a big wrecking ball.

Is there an aspect of your game you’ve been focusing on improving this season?

Yeah, I’ve been working on my defence, trying to stay active and not to get beaten. So when I work hard to try and make a big hit or a tackle, how I can make more of them stick. So if that's with my footwork going in, or my positioning, that kind of stuff.

What do you love most about playing for the Reds?

In Queensland, there's such a pride for the Reds jersey. I feel pretty privileged to be able to put that on and play for the State - and how many people love the team. 

I think that's probably my favourite part, but also the group, the boys and the environment that we have is awesome. It makes coming into training enjoyable.

What are your personal goals, both inside and outside of rugby?

Yeah, inside of rugby would be the Wallabies. That's obviously a big goal of mine. So I'm always trying to work towards that - playing for Australia. 

That drives me day to day and keeps me training, which is good. Outside of rugby, I do enjoy learning, so as we talked about before, I went to uni and got a Bachelor's degree in commerce, which has been good. I think I want to continue studying, so I’m looking to do my master’s, potentially in business administration or something like that. 

While I have lots of resources and a bit of time, I’m trying to progress in that way. I enjoy it as well, which is good.

What do you like to do away from rugby to relax and recharge?

I play a lot of golf. I actually played with Jock Campbell and Jordy Petaia yesterday, which was nice, we had a good game with him.

What else… I like going to the beach, swimming, enjoying the nice Queensland sun, this time of the year at least, while it's not too hot. But yeah, I like to try and keep busy.

Do you have any pre-game rituals?

Yeah, I do have a few. Before home games, I tend to try and eat the same things. So my go-to is - it's probably a little bit weird - but I have a couple of ham, chicken and mayo toasties. And then, what I have been doing this year is quite a lot of, breathing and meditating before games which is pretty good. It helps me kind of relax and stay calm.

Reds 2026 season passes are on sale already!

And the last one… when we go out for the warm up, I pull my boots on, head out to the field, I have a look around, take it all in and then tie my laces up and then get stuck in to the warm up before the game.

Speaking of food, what’s your favourite post-game feed?

Well, whatever I get, it's a lot of food, but it can range from, getting a couple of pizzas from Domino’s, to the quick drive through at the Milton Maccas after the game, or KFC, but I think it’s just that, whatever I get, I get a lot of… and then, you know, you tend to go straight to sleep after that, you get a bit sleepy after a lot of food.

Thanks Joe, for your time and all the best for this year’s Super Rugby AU games and your Wallabies journey! See you at the club finals game Sunday!

Thanks Tom, awesome to chat mate! Really appreciate your support and you coming down.

Reds Star in British and Irish Lions Rugby Spectacle (Part 2)

In my last blog, I talked about the incredible rugby showcase that was the British and Irish Lions tour of Australia, in which many of the Reds starred. (Click here to read part 1.) There were so many great games that I had to save the Green and Gold games for part 2!

The nine-game Lions tour climaxed with an epic three-game mini-series against the Wallabies. I couldn’t be more proud of the whole team's effort, and I believe the future looks bright for Aussie rugby!

I wanted to profile the Reds players that played for the Wallabies against the Lions. And you’re very welcome to check out my past interviews with these players.

They are right ahead of two games in South Africa and the “Rugby Championship”, so it’s a perfect time to get to know these players! [Update… The Wallabies just beat South Africa, the current world champs. Maybe that needs another blog?)

Tate McDermitt

Tate McDermitt came off the bench in all three matches against the Lions - even playing out of position in the second match, after winger Harry Potter was injured. One of the best halfbacks in Australia, McDermitt is known as the “sniper” and he lived up to his nickname, ESPECIALLY in game three, with this awesome try. (He also scored in the first test in Brisbane, in front of all of us in his home crowd!

Catch up on some of my past interviews with Tate:

* Back in 2022 here.

* Last year during the Wallabies hub here.

* And back in 2018 here!

Fraser McCreight

Fraser played excellent footy at his usual world-class standards!

Check out my interview with him in 2018 here. (Fraser, it sounds like we're due for another official one soon!)

Catching up with Fraser and Harry in 2019 after they beat New Zealand in the Under-20s Oceania Cup

Tom Lynagh

Tom played extremely well in all three games, and I was gutted when he went off with a concussion while the Wallabies were ahead in game three.

Tom made a bold move when he left England for his family's country (and state) of origin. Right after finishing school, he chose to come to Queensland, and his move has paid off!

Check out my 2022 interview with him, a few months into his time here.

Harry Wilson

Reds fans couldn’t be more proud of Harry, who stepped up and answered the call, when Joe Schmidt chose him as Wallabies captain last year. One of the hardest working players on the field whenever he plays, Harry has led our country brilliantly and played with passion as we’ve always known him to. 

Catching up with Harry over a flat white at Ballymore

Check out my very first interview with him at Brothers Rugby club in 2019 and my recent interview with him at Ballymore.

Zane Nongorr

A forward-pack force to be reckoned with, Zane didn’t feature until the third game. Check out my previous interview with Zane here!

James Slipper

James currently plays for another team (we won't mention that...) but James was my very first interview with Reds Rugby Rules back in 2017. (Read that interview here!)

Just like they say: "Once a Red always a Red."

Catching up with James, as well as Harry and Scott Sio
at Wallabies training back in 2023.

Special mention goes to Hunter Paisami, Josh Canham and Filipo Daugunu, who didn’t feature this time around. I'm expecting them all to feature in Wallabies squads in the future though!

Reds Star in British and Irish Lions Rugby Spectacle

I love the Reds, I love Australian rugby, and of course, I love the Wallabies. Every time they play, you can bet I’ll be watching and following closely. So when the Lions came and toured Australia… I was pretty much glued to the screen for every minute!

What an epic chapter of Australian rugby it was. In particular, I was incredibly proud of the Queensland players who stepped up, in basically every game! Let me explain…

The Lions began their nine-game tour playing the Western Force. The Perth-based team includes some notable former Reds players, including BPA and Mac Greely.

The next week, the Queensland Reds took them on at Suncorp Stadium… I was fortunate to get to witness the event from my favourite spot in the stands. Led by Jock Campbell, the squad put on an incredible fight - especially in the first half. Lukhan Salakaia-Lotu, Kalani Thomas, and too many Reds players to name starred in the game.

Catching up with Lukhan during the Reds tour to Samoa back in 2017

The Lions versus Queensland. It was such an epic event. I was blessed to be interviewed by Stan Sport in the lead-up, along with a few other Reds super-fans. Click here to watch!

As soon as that game finished, the Lions were off to Sydney to play the Waratahs. It’s not too often that I support teams wearing light blue, but especially with Taniela Tupou and Lawson Creighton in the mix, I was cheering them on. (I think they lost by a pretty small margin for a game against a team of international superstars. Well done, Tahs!) The Brumbies put up a fight too, almost taking the Lions out. (Feao Fotuaika and Hudson Creighton were just a few of the Queenslanders in their squad!)

The Lions tour would culminate with three Wallabies games, but the build up wasn’t complete yet!

A special “AUNZ” team was put together, and not surprisingly, a number of Reds made the squad giving them valuable international experience. Lukhan Salakaia-Loto was the standout! I always love watching him play.

Then the centrepiece of the tour began in Brisbane… Wallabies vs Lions!!!!

I think I’ll save the three Wallabies tests for my next blog. (Let’s just say for now they were all very memorable!!!! And I am EXTREMELY proud to be a Wallabies supporter.)

Four days after the Suncorp test…. The Lions squared up against some more Reds players that were a part of the First Nations & Pacifica XV!

What a hit-out that game was, with the hosts almost pulling off an upset. Lukhan and Seru Uru were outstanding, along with Kalani Thomas, and Richie Asiata.

With Kalani Thomas during my interview with him late last year

I believe all of these experiences have made the Reds stronger and I'm looking forward to 2026.

See you here next week where I’ll talk about the Reds players that starred in the Wallabies squad in their three-game series!

Hanging with Harry: An Awesome Conversation With Harry Wilson

This morning at Ballymore, I had an awesome conversation with Reds legend-in-the-making Harry Wilson!

My first official 1-on-1 interview with Harry was back in 2019 right before the Brothers final (click here to go back in time and check it out!). Since then, Harry has grown into a mainstay in the Reds forward pack, and one of the best number 8s in the country. His hard work and experience culminated last year in being named as Wallabies captain!

I enjoyed asking him about that experience, but this is Reds Rugby Rules, so I started by asking him about this years exciting Super Rugby season.....

Hey Harry, thanks for making time to catch up. I’d love to start by looking back on the 2025 season so far. How do you feel the Reds are tracking at the moment?

Yeah, we've been tracking okay at the moment. Obviously, we would have liked to have a few more wins than what we have had so far, We had a really good performance against Blues a couple of weeks ago, which gave the boys a lot of confidence, but obviously it was a tough loss to Fiji on the weekend. And we have a pretty tough remaining four game, so we have to play some really good footy to put ourselves in a good finals position.

What's been some of the highlights of the Red season so far for you personally?

I guess for me personally, it might have been beating the Highlanders over in Dunedin, for the first time in probably 10 or 12 years. For me, that was the first time I've ever captained the Reds. So it was pretty cool to win that day and especially while missing a fair few of our really good players.

And I guess another highlight was seeing the boys smash the Blues at home. That was such a big win and just the energy in the place afterwards was awesome.

What do you think that will be the team's biggest battle looking forward to the finals?

I'd say next week and this week against the Waratahs. It’s always a tough grudge match, but hopefully we should be able to get the win. They're a tough team and then into the Brumbies the week after.

 

We've got an ongoing battle with them and it's a battle we've honestly been losing over the last few years, so it's a really good opportunity for the boys to win that battle and it'll give us a lot of momentum going on to the Hurricanes and then the Fijian Drua at home to finish off. 

I can't wait until the last two home games. I'll be there at Suncorp, cheering you on.

Yep. Thanks, Tommy. I'll be there playing, too, finally!

Awesome! Can't wait! I’d love to chat about your experience with the Wallabies last year. You led the team through a fantastic European tour at the end of last year.  What were your personal highlights of that tour? 

Yeah, it was obviously a really enjoyable tour. It was my first ever spring tour and I guess to be captaining was really special. I think that win against England at Twickenham is something I won't be able to go past as a personal and team highlight from that trip, to be captain, the Wallabies winning at Twickenham against England was really special and just the way we found a way to win there at the end was awesome. And then, even our last game against Ireland, who'd be probably one of the best teams in the world, to have an opportunity to beat them with a couple of minutes to go... obviously it wasn't a highlight because we lost, but that just gave us more belief as a team to know how far we've come.

What was it like when you first heard the news that you would become a Wallabies captain? 

Yeah, it was a pretty unbelievable feeling. It was something I definitely didn't expect, so when it was announced, I was trying to get my head around it pretty quickly and then once you hear that, it's about how can I do my job for the team from there and seek a lot of advice from the senior members of the team. They were so supportive of me and it really helped me grow into that role, because obviously at the start, I was quite new to “captaining” and being in that situation. So it was something I felt like I improved every week and grew into, but definitely took me by surprise. Yeah, it was such an honour. 

That actually links to one of the other questions I had prepared, which is... What's some advice from a mentor or a friend that has helped you over the last year or so? 

Hmmm. I've been pretty fortunate over the last year to be able to speak to so many special people and get advice. It's been nice to hear Reds old boys when you have people such as John Eales, Michael Lynagh, some of the greatest ever players of the game of rugby to be giving me advice, through the good times and tough times. What probably sums those two people up was when we got lost by 60 in Argentina, when it was a pretty low time and a tough time to be captain, that was when those two both reached out to me and I just remember, Ealesy giving me advice of just reflecting on the game about how everyone was feeling before, at post and during and just if you can take any learnings from that. So next time, if you feel the team's feeling a bit off or something like that, you can take your learnings from there and improve. I think that really sums them up, as human beings, not... I guess, just messaging in good times, they're really looking out for you when it's a bit tougher than, I guess, when it's a nice win against England.

How cool was it having the Wallabies home based at Ballymore last year? And what do you think the team drew from those experiences?

Obviously, when you representing Wallabies, you're travelling quite a lot. You're spending a lot of time in different countries, different states, different cities. So when you spend a couple of weeks here in Brisbane, even though you're not sleeping in your own bed, just having the normal, I guess, familiarities, training here at Ballymore always make you feel a little bit more comfortable and I know the boys really enjoyed their time here.

And I think it set us up for a good year, before the first few games against Wales and Georgia and the boys had a great result there too. And the boys get excited to get to see Tommy at trainings.

What else have you been learning about life and leadership recently?

Well, I guess, for me, the more I learn about leadership, it's just more probably about being organised in your life on and off the fields. So when you are in training, you can lead by example, you can do all the little things correctly and I guess one thing about leadership is making sure your own backyard is sorted and that's something which I really make sure I do have sorted. So when I'm in here at training, I'm in here to train, I'm here to improve and I’m trying to influence boys around me to do the same. Even at the moment when I'm injured, I still have an opportunity to come in with a positive mindset around the boys and help in ways that I can, even though I'm not out there with them, going to battle. Any way I can help them off the field, with a bit of positivity or just a bit of advice, to make sure you’re always there for them. 

What are your favourite things to do outside of rugby, at the moment, that take your mind off the game? 

At the moment is probably a key time to find those things, because normally I'd say playing some golf. I love my golf and I’m a very competitive person, so that always gives me my competitive fix away from rugby. But having a broken arm has meant that my off days haven't been as enjoyable as they probably normally are, when I'm trying to take some of the boys' money on the golf course. But a lot more time for me has been spent at the cafe with my partner, or with my parents. My dad works at home a bit when he's in town, so he and I have got to catch up quite regularly, which is always nice... And I've got a little dog, Bam-Bam, too. So I try and walk it regularly and it's quite easy to take your mind away from footy or whatever bad things are happening in your life or whatever, when Bam-Bam runs up to you, nearly weeing out of excitement every time it gets to see you. So they’re probably my two things, which are keep me busy and keeping my mind sane at the moment, when what I want to be doing is out there playing footy and training with the team.

Thanks, heaps, Harry, for making time. I know you've got a lot of responsibility at the moment... hoping for a speedy recovery and to see you out there before the season's done.

Thank you very much for the interview, Tommy. I really appreciate it and I look forward to seeing you at the next home game when I’m hopefully running out there, getting a win and getting a fist bump after the game with you.