Collingwood housemates Brodie Grundy and Tim Broomhead are the classic odd couple
MEET Collingwood’s version on The Odd Couple. Brodie Grundy and Tim Broomhead are very different individuals, even their seasons have had contrasting fortunes, but they’re always there for each other through the ups and down.
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THEY are humorously referred to as “the Broommates” at Collingwood.
Brodie Grundy and Tim Broomhead could hardly be more contrasting in shape, size, outlook on life, and personality, but the Magpie teammates and inner-north housemates have been connected since they were young South Australians draft hopefuls.
“We are the Tim and Brodie package,” Grundy joked.
“We look out for each other, not just in footy, but in life,” Broomhead added.
Born within 24 days of each other, and chosen just minutes apart in the 2012 national draft, the pair have forged a bond that works for them and amuses other teammates.
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In many ways, they are the Holden Centre’s version of Felix and Oscar, of The Odd Couple fame … inseparable, interconnected, yet individually very, very different.
Grundy is planned and ordered. Broomhead is more laissez-faire and relaxed.
The ruckman confesses to being obsessed with planning for the future, keeping his options open for post-football life. The forward/midfielder is so immersed in the game he hasn’t got the same interest looking outside the sphere.
They’re even different in the kitchen. Grundy creates healthy dishes.
Broomhead’s featured fare, as his housemate reveals, doesn’t go much beyond his favourites of homemade pizza and butter-chicken nachos.
“Tim’s diet is horrendous,” Grundy says with a smile.
“In the almost two years we have lived together, we have honestly had less than a handful of meals together.
“He doesn’t like anything of a nutritional value that will benefit him as a footballer and as a human.”
Broomhead won’t argue: “We’re not kitchen mates … we both eat differently, so we eat separately.”
The pair have been living together in Grundy’s house for the past 18 months, along with Grundy’s partner Rachael and, at times, Broomhead’s Belgian girlfriend Dea.
The challenges on the home front have been tougher this year.
For Grundy’s best season as a Collingwood player — he is in All-Australian contention and is even considered an outside Brownlow Medal chance — has coincided with Broomhead’s worst.
During the Round 2 game against GWS at the MCG, Broomhead suffered a horrific double fracture of the tibia and fibula, ending his season just five quarters into it.
He threw his leg out to try to score on the goal line, but he hit the post and his leg snapped instantly.
Such an injury would have been cruel enough. That it came on top of Broomhead’s luckless run in recent seasons and at the start of the last year of his contract made it doubly harsh.
Grundy is contracted until the end of 2020; his mate had no safety net heading into what was meant to be a crucial year in determining his future.
“I didn’t actually know it was him (when it happened), but the whisper came up the field who it was,” Grundy said. “It’s hard because I have got such a good relationship with him. We played state footy together, we got drafted on the same day. We’ve sort of become family.
“Tim needed this year to set himself up and he was flying in the pre-season. Just to know how much hurt he was going through, not just the physical pain, but the trauma the injury was going to cause him … was tough.”
Grundy visited Broomhead in hospital that night, posting an Instagram of the pair lying in the hospital bed with one word attached: ‘Fam(ily).”
That moment solidified in their minds they wanted to work for each other for the rest of 2018.
Grundy has given Broomhead every support in his recovery, though there is conjecture about a supposed offer to switch bedrooms so that the injured Magpie could be downstairs, not upstairs.
“It was a bit of a throwaway line, saying I would swap rooms with him if I had to,” Grundy said.
“I had to double check with the surgeon he could get up the stairs (after his operation). There was no chance I wanted to do it, but I gave him the option.”
Broomhead recalls a different take: “I don’t remember that ever be offered.”
But he can’t thank Grundy enough for the emotional support that is still on offer.
“He was just there for me,” Broomhead said.
“I wasn’t a mess, but I was struggling a bit with the pain and with the frustration of what happened. Brodie and Rachael were very strong, and so was my girlfriend as well.”
Grundy insists his own stellar season has come off the back of Broomhead’s positive advice. Having told Broomhead he was dedicating his season to him in the days after the injury, the ruckman is now using his mate as a sounding board.
Broomhead calls himself Grundy’s “mental coach.”
“Brodie loves positive reinforcement,” Broomhead said.
“I am not playing this year, so I can probably support him with his actual games a bit.”
The pair speak in the rooms at halftime at each game, and while Broomhead plays down its significance, Grundy says it has played a key role.
“I am really receptive to positivity, and Tim gives me that sort of feedback,” he said.
Grundy’s relationship with Nathan Buckley — and the manner in which the coach now gives him feedback — has been another area of growth.
He said Buckley took a step back during the preseason and now has a wider view of the operations at Collingwood, rather than trying to be involved in every aspect.
That has led to roles being more clearly defined with a more collaborative approach, something Grundy is convinced has been partly responsible for Collingwood’s outstanding first half of 2018.
“In years gone by, it has been hard for someone who is a young player to come in and play in the senior side. It was four negative things to every positive one,” he said. “Now there seems to be a really connective feel to it all.”
Collingwood sits on eight wins leading into today’s Peter Mac Cup game against Carlton, with Grundy daring to dream the club can play finals again this season, and make a statement in September.
He played his only final in his first season — his seventh game — in 2013. Now, six games short of his 100th match, he wants more.
“If you don’t visualise or strive to be the best, it won’t happen,” Grundy said.
“That is not to say we are getting ahead of ourselves. For me, it is just more of an internal visualisation thing. But when you have the good wins, it is important to celebrate them because the camaraderie and mateship is why you actually play footy.”
Grundy has a multitude of other interests in life, but as a competitive beast, he studies his ruck rivals as thoroughly as he does the syllabus involved in the health sciences course (with an anatomy/physiology major) he is undertaking at La Trobe University.
“When I first started playing footy coming from a basketball background, it was basically about beating your direct opponent,” he said. “That hasn’t really changed in the nine or 10 years since.
“Before the Melbourne game, Tim was saying Max (Gawn) was going to get his hands on some hit-outs and it was all about trying to nullify the impact he has there and making sure I was doing all of the things that I do really well.”
The Grundy-Gawn match-up on Queen’s Birthday, like the game itself, fell in the Magpie big man’s favour, but he knows he can’t relax or stand still. He wants to get better and uses a range of sources for inspiration.
“I am in my sixth year now, and something I put that down to is having a broad range of interests away from the game and surrounding myself with like-minded people who are equally motivated no matter what field they might come,” he said.
“I get part of my energy from spending time with passionate people.”
Grundy is passionate about art and design, and he loves writing, recently penning a number of articles for Collingwood’s website.
Then, there’s his motor scooter, which is the 203cm big man’s mode of transport around Melbourne.
He has managed to convert teammates Tom Langdon and Taylor Adams, but hasn’t convinced Broomhead to follow suit.
They are different in that sense, but one thing they are united on is a collective desire to see Broomhead back in a Collingwood jumper next year.
“It’s hard for him at the moment because the team is going well and he’s not playing,” Grundy said. “But he is a part of it, and he is helping me out.
“He deserves some luck, so it would be great to see him play again.”
Broomhead is adamant he will do everything in his power — aside from the butter chicken nachos — to make that happen.
The ‘Broommates’ want to be teammates again.
GRUNDY’S HIGH AMBITIONS
BRODIE Grundy doesn’t just want to be an All-Australian ruckman — he wants to one day become a Hall of Famer as part of a successful Collingwood team.
That’s not an arrogant boast. Far from it, he is as measured and as grounded as almost any other AFL player.
But Grundy’s fiercely-competitive streak makes him desperate to be the best he can be in whatever he undertakes, whether it is in the middle of the MCG, the lecture halls of Latrobe University, or even working on potential landscape designs for his backyard.
Football is one of many motivating factors in his multifaceted life, and he’s determined to make as significant a mark on all of them as he can.
“I want to go to the next level,” Grundy said of his football future. “I want to be like a Hall of Fame ruckman … yeah, that would mean so much to me.
“Anything I set myself for, I want to do a good job at.
“You hear how people talk so highly of guys like Dean Cox, or even ‘Nic Nat’ (Naitanui). Even with Darcy Moore’s dad (Peter), I want to be that sort of player.
“To have someone one day say ‘Brodie Grundy, he was a South Australian who came across and was a little bit different in terms of how he played as a ruckman’.”
Grundy has always aspired to be a different type of ruckman, not one simply cast off an AFL production line.
“I have always thought the thing I could set myself apart from others was my ability to get around the ground … get a bit of the ball, and tackle and pressure and do all the other stuff,” he said.
“At times Bucks would sort of say. ‘Can you just do the stereotypical ruckman thing?’
“He was talking about things like getting down the line. I was pretty stubborn, I was like: ‘I will show you.’
“I have now found a good balance (between the two) and I think that is why I am having a good year.
“I’ve been able to take some good marks and do a bit more of the stereotypical ruckman-type things.
“Now there are times when Bucks will say, ‘You are not following up, you are not hunting the ball’. I will say to him (with a smile): ‘Do you want me to be a (203cm) ruckman or not?”
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Originally published as Collingwood housemates Brodie Grundy and Tim Broomhead are the classic odd couple