Keegan and Company

While Luke Bateman was playing in the NRL, his mum was paying his mortgage and ordering food to his door. Gambling had taken every cent he had, and hundreds of thousands more he didn't.
This week Keegan sits down with Luke Bateman: former NRL player, now an author, keynote speaker and one of the more honest voices going around on shame and addiction. We get into the gambling that spiralled in 2018, the suicidal low that followed, rehab and the 12 steps, and the tiny one-minute promises he used to start trusting himself again. He explains why vulnerability is the antidote to shame, why he hid his love of books from teammates for twenty years, and the fantasy novel that handed him a blueprint for who he wanted to become. Also in here: values as a decision filter, boundaries, and why he says he wouldn't change any of it for himself but wouldn't wish it on anyone.
For more just like this:
#101 Kieran Foran: "I Just Wanted to Have Peace". NRL Star on mental health, grief and finding peace after football: Spotify | Apple | YouTube
#146 Harry Garside: Masculinity, Vulnerability & Boxing: Spotify | Apple | YouTube
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This episode discusses suicide and addiction. If it brings anything up for you, Lifeline is 13 11 14 and 13YARN is 13 92 76.

In 2016 Kieran Foran had just signed a $4.8 million contract to be a leader. Privately he was gambling, barely sleeping, and had started to think his two young kids would be better off without him - a thought he goes on to be his biggest regret...
We recorded this with Kieran in January 2025 and it is one of the most honest conversations we have had on the show, so we are resurfacing it as a Moment. He takes us right back to learning to cope the wrong way as a teenager, the loop of therapy and relapse, the night he decided he was done, and what recovery actually looked like after that. Two rehab stints. Handing his finances to his wife. Just wanting a peaceful sleep. Almost ten years on, he is in a very different place. Since we spoke Kieran has retired and stepped straight into a head coaching role, and it has been nothing short of incredible to watch. He has earned it.
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#185 Kori Sampson - Ultra-Marathoner: You Can't Outthink Your Mental Health — Sobriety, ADHD & the Marathon Majors: Spotify · Apple · YouTube
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Jason Cadee spent 15 years as a professional basketball player, 424 games across the NBL. It nearly ended before it began. At 18, not long after breaking into the Australian senior set-up, he was hit side-on by a semi-trailer at 100km/h on a Sydney freeway and trapped in the wreck for 90 minutes. He came out with a broken pelvis and, somehow, barely a mark on him.
This week we sit down with Jason to get into the crash and what it did and didn't teach him, why becoming a dad landed harder than any near miss, the single piece of leadership advice that changed how he led, and what it actually takes to walk away from the only thing you've ever known and start again. Both his parents played for Australia, so basketball was never optional. Stopping was the hard part.
For more just like this
Aaron Booth on medical retirement and starting again: Spotify · Apple
Jordan Kahu on life and business after footy: Spotify · Apple
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We recorded this with Tim Tszyu last year, and his shower story keeps coming up in recent episodes, so we have pulled fifteen minutes of it back out of the vault. Tim is a former world champion from Sydney, and boxing runs deep in the family. His dad Kostya was an undisputed world champion and Hall of Famer, and his younger brother Nikita fights professionally too. Since we spoke he has strung together back to back wins, the most recent over Denis Nurja on Easter Sunday, and on 26 July he steps in with Errol Spence Jr in Sydney, the biggest fight of his career. We appreciate him making the time back when he did.
In this section, Tim describes what a flow state actually feels like from inside the ropes. The place where the world switches off, time slows down, where he can "hear his opponent's heartbeat". He explains why there is no such thing as a fluke punch, and how one clean right hand is really years of repetition. We get into stacking days, staying hungry when success comes easily, and why he refuses to get comfortable. He talks about the emptiness of his first loss and how it made him want to reclaim his throne, the five weeks between that loss and his wedding that finally gave him some balance, and the shower ritual he uses to wash off a hard day and reset before a fight. Plus the training methods he chose not to inherit from his dad, and the grandfather who still tells him he looks fat.
Listen to the full episode with Tim Tszyu: Spotify · Apple Podcasts
If you enjoyed this, you may also enjoy:
Harry Garside on masculinity, vulnerability and boxing: Spotify · Apple Podcasts
Skye Nicolson on losing her greatest teacher and finding peace: Spotify · Apple Podcasts
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Charlotte Caslick has played three Olympic Games, two Commonwealth Games and three rugby World Cups, and the moment that shaped her wasn't a win. It was a friend texting her that young girls watch her play and think trying hard is cool, because she makes it look cool.
This week we sat down with Charlotte while she's pregnant with her first child and still training through it, broken Broncos and all. We talked about the season she debuted out of position and cried at training while secretly hoping to fall pregnant, the leg break that took the World Cup and the pregnancy off the table in the same week, finding a new sense of purpose before she'd stopped playing, and the one line she posted after Paris that ended up in the New York Times. Full episode out now.
For more just like this
Millie Elliott on the NRLW and coming back after her daughter: Spotify · Apple
Alexis Fernandez on the neuroscience of connection, creativity and heartbreak: Spotify · Apple
Jacqui Louder on the psychology behind peak performance: Spotify · Apple
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@keeganandcompanypodcast · @keeganhipgrave · TikTok @keeganandcompany
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