Thanks to our partnership with Dare Iced Coffee, Bradley Hill and Paddy Ryder discuss the importance of family, taking time away from the game, and asking R U OK?
Cousins Bradley Hill and Paddy Ryder have a different bond to many others at the club.
In late 2019, the two boys made the life changing decision to come over to Victoria and become Saints together.
Leaving behind family and friends behind to move interstate is never an easy decision, but the proud Noongar men leaned on one another for support to make the transition as easy as possible.
It hasn’t been a smooth ride for either Bradley or Paddy in 2021, with COVID-19 keeping both boys from seeing their families and communities over in South Australia and Western Australia, but they’ve found comfort in their connection as ‘brothers’.
Now two seasons in, the pair are closer than ever and while the hard times may come and go, they know that family will always be forever.
Who’s the listener and who’s the talker out of the two of you?
BH: I probably talk more in general; I don’t shut up a bit sometimes, but we both share the roles as listeners and talkers.
You guys have a different bond to others, how important was it for you to have someone here at St Kilda that you were close to?
BH: Before we both moved to the club, we knew we were talking to St Kilda at the same time, so I rang Paddy and said, ‘if you go there, I’m going as well and it’d be good to play alongside one another,’ it was exciting for us and the family.
PR: Everywhere I go, you won’t find me unless I’ve got a close friend or family member there, so moving back to Victoria and having Bradley/my family at St Kilda was the biggest thing for me.
You go through highs and lows with footy, how do you know when to reach out to one another for support, or is it ongoing?
BH: We live with each other, so we go to and from footy together and go through things with one another.
We talk about things and try and stay positive. If we’re not going great and we’re feeling flat, we try and pick each other up and get back to feeling positive so we can get back to playing good footy.
Living together, how do you pick yourselves up from potentially not having the performance you wanted to have?
BH: We try and have a little bit of fun and try not to focus so much on footy, just talk about what we normally would, day-to-day stuff and have a little bit of a laugh.
PR: For me it’s separating our personal lives from footy altogether, that’s what I’ve learnt from Bradley, he’s really good when footy isn’t going well – he knows how to push it away a little bit.
I know it sounds a bit silly but sometimes you need to forget about footy and focus on other stuff.
How important is it to have each other’s backs?
BH: No matter how we’re doing on the field, you’ve got to have your teammates backs, but especially us two, we stay together and when we go through those hard times we’re there for each other so we can talk about things and feel comfortable doing that.
How would you describe your friendship in one-two words?
PR: Two words; family, love.
BH: Care.
