Matt Bevilacqua details why retiring surf ironman Matt Poole transcended the sport.
Matt Bevilacqua has had a front row seat to Matt Poole’s incredible surf ironman career. As Poole competes in his final Nutri-Grain Series, Bevilacqua details why the outgoing superstar transcended the sport in the latest edition of Acqua Report.
Surf Lifesaving
Don't miss out on the headlines from Surf Lifesaving. Followed categories will be added to My News.
LEAVING home at 18 to chase a dream of becoming a professional athlete is a daunting one. Throw in moving into the home of the biggest, most confident upcoming star of the sport then you’ve got yourself a really intimidating situation.
This was what I faced a little over 10 years ago when I moved in with Matt Poole, who was on top of the world, recently signing with Red Bull and ready to take the sport of surf ironman by storm.
Since then, he has created himself a very unique legacy in the sport. Sure, we’ve had rockstars in the Uncle Toby’s Series who became household names like Guy Leech, Trevor Hendy and Dean Mercer.
But Ky Hurst, Zane Holmes and a bloke named Shannon Eckstein changed the game, they created a new level of commitment to all disciplines and demanded complete humility and analytic strategy to win and stay on top.
There was hardly room for entertaining, signing autographs and fan- fare, it was all business and the one percenters became everything.
Enter Matt Poole, the trail blazer. Armed with a passion for the sport and a never say die attitude. He wanted everything the sport had to offer, the results and the fun.
Bursting onto the scene at 18, he achieved results and had a hell of a time doing it.
Soon he was decked out in pink, yes pink hair, and leading Shannon Eckstein the greatest Ironman of all time in the Series points.
What proceeded was a career that took him all over the world, showcasing Ironman to the globe through his platforms at Red Bull and finally winning a coveted Nutri-Grain Ironman Series Title among many others.
I have never felt luckier to have moved in with him all those years ago and to have a front row seat for his rollercoaster in what was arguably one of the most influential careers an Ironman has ever had.
Not only for his results, but the way he went about it. He wore his heart on his sleeve for all to see, and I have tried to continue his legacy as much as I can as I’m sure many young Ironmen will do after him.
It’s an incredibly hard sport to be confident and entertaining in, as we compete in an environment that’s so unpredictable and uncontrollable.
It defeats the outgoing and over confident athletes that can excel in many other sports because of these traits.
Pooley, however could do it all. Entertaining and confident, but with humility he worked insanely hard for 15 years to achieve results but also bring a show to the crowd on the beach.
Thanks Pooley, for your enormous and influential contribution to the sport, and for taking a little Tasmanian kid in all those years ago and teaching him what hard work, success and passion looks like.
ROCK STAR EXIT FOR POOLE
“IT is a big moment in world sports today, with two of the GOATS retiring.”
It was a lighthearted quip from retiring ironman Matt Poole in reference to news NFL legend Tom Brady was calling it quits.
He wasn’t drawing direct comparisons but it shines a light on everything Poole was to surf life saving.
The 33-year-old has been a rock star of the sport.
Unapologetically authentic, as honest as they come, an aggressive race tactician and a man who breathed life into a sportthat has often struggled to stay afloat.
And now, after 15 years in the professional ranks and with the 2017 Nutri-Grain titles to his name, the boy from Dee Why on Sydney’s Northern Beaches has confirmed he will retire after completing this week’s final four rounds of the Series, startingtoday at Broadbeach, next week’s Shannon Eckstein Classic and the Australian Championships in April.
“I made the decision on Friday but I have been thinking about it for a while now,” Poole said.
WHERE DOES POOLE RANK AMONG THE SPORT’S BEST? FIND OUT HERE
“Fifteen years is a long time. I have done 86 races, 90 by the end of Sunday. That is a long time to be getting up at 4.45amin the morning (to train).”
Poole, who is engaged to social media star Tammy Hembrow, said the impending arrival of the couple’s first child togetherin June played a factor in his decision along with some injury issues he has had throughout the current summer.
“I am very excited to be a dad,” Poole said.
“That has been one of the factors. Coming into parenthood changes your outlook on everything.
“I have had my fair share of injuries and motivation never gets easier to come by as you get older.”
Even when thanking his friends, family, coaches and teammates, one of the sport’s most iconic figureswas Poole personified.
A larrikin at times, suggesting any tears were from the “humidity in the air” before taking pot shots at his best friend MattBevilacqua’s dress sense and celebrating on behalf of the coaching staff that “the circus was leaving town.”
“And for the last time, I never pushed Shannon (Eckstein), he tripped” he said in reference to the 2013 clash between thepowerhouse pair in a sprint finish.
But between the jibes were emotional tributes to his closest supporters who had seen the under-19 junior ironman championrise to become a champion of surf sport between stints at Northcliffe and Mooloolaba.
And after it is all said and done, Poole believes those in surf life saving will remember him just how he wants.
“For the good, bad and the ugly, I have always worn my heart on my sleeve,” Poole said.
“I have always been the black sheep in the room and that has got me in trouble from time-to-time. I’m a hard racer who willalways give you an honest answer, even when you don’t ask the question. I can certainly ruffle a few feathers and upset peoplebut I think everyone who gets to know me realises I’m an honest bloke.
“Even with the Shannon stuff. It’s a bit of a joke now. We are actually really good friends. He hated me at the time (of theincident) but he got to understand me a bit more and my style of racing.
“At the end of your career you want to win races but you want to be remembered as a good bloke. I think I’ll be able to dothat.”
Poole was a trailblazer for the sport. He entered the Nutri-Grain Series ranks at the end of a golden era where the moneyon offer was enough to sustain competitors who were full-time athletes.
He recognised the need to market himself to gain commercial partnerships and broadcast himself, good and bad, to the world.
He also teamed up with Bevilacqua to create the World Ironman Bali event that pitted eight men and women against each otherin a night-race.
“At the time we brought guys like Zane Holmes and Ky Hurst out of retirement to do it and they thought it was going to bea disaster,” Poole said.
“They came away saying it was one of the best events they ever did in their career and to hear guys like that saying it, itwas one of the best things I have ever been part of.”
Poole said he left the sport knowing he left no stone unturned in the quest to succeed.
“You ask any ironman or woman how much training they do a week in terms of volume and the demand on the body, the disciplineand sacrifices you make are massive,” he said.
“The thing that broken my confidence was a couple of years ago when I put everything into the 2019 Series. I had a flawlesspreparation.
“I went and did the Coolangatta Gold, a race I never thought I would do well in, and finished second in a sprint. I went toBurleigh and had what could be the greatest race of my career where I won by a minute and 45 seconds.
“Then through no fault of my own I picked up a knee infection before a round at Surfers Paradise and I was in getting surgery.
“As an athlete you put so much into sport and for it to be taken away for something you haven’t done wrong, it mentally ruinsyou.
“I had surgery on the Thursday and still lined up and raced at Surfers with 22 stitches in my leg.
“It is things like that where I look back and just know that I left no stone unturned.
“I never took my foot off the line and I gave it a crack,” Poole said.
I left no stone unturned. I never took my foot off the line and I gave it a crack.”
‘END OF AN ERA’ FOR WHOLE POOLE CLAN
IAN and Philippa Poole have been on the sand to witness every single one of their son Matt’s races and they are not aboutto start missing them now.
The parents of the retiring star have been in the trenches with Poole ever since he took up the sport at the age of five,two years earlier than most joined the junior ranks.
“He was two years too young but he just loved being part of it,” Ian Poole said.
“He has been racing ever since.”
While racing has always been his fortay, Poole and his parents still joke about his lack of desire to train in his formative years.
When Poole was 10 Philippa asked his coach why her son was always the first one out of training.
“Matt has a unique and different excuse every session to get out early. Today’s was that he fell out of a tree at school,” Matt Poole recounted.
“Mum never let me live that one down. As the years went on my discipline to train gradually got better but I was a long wayfrom a hardened athlete and still relying on natural talent at that point.
For Ian and Philippa, Poole’s exit from the sport will be an emotional one.
Ian said the phone call from Matt telling them of his decision to retire brought mixed emotions.
“It is an end of an era,” Ian Poole said.
“We have handled for him at every event.
“We have loved coming to see him compete at beaches all around Australia. Now we have to find our own holidays.
“He may not have always liked training but he loved board paddling.
“Even when I was his coach early on, all he wanted to do was catch waves. I would tell him he had to train hard for a bitand then he could catch the best wave or do what he wanted. When it came to swimming it was like pulling teeth.”
Poole dabbled in various football codes as a junior but the surf sport was his passion.
KING LABELS POOLE THE MAN WHO ‘MADE THE SPORT’
THE man who mentored Matt Poole for most of his career says the outgoing ironman “made the sport”.
King first linked up with Poole while coaching at Mooloolaba when the latter made the shift to Queensland as a teenager beforegoing on to coach him at Northcliffe.
“It was a real pleasure when he came to Mooloolaba,” King, a current coach at Burleigh Heads Mowbray Park, said.
“He attracted so many great athletes to the squad. He was a hard worker, dedicated and got all the accolades he deserved.He got everything out of himself.
“From the word go it was about reaching his potential and he did that. I am really proud of him.”
King said Poole was one of the most unique athletes he had ever come across.
“He wore his heart on his sleeve and you couldn’t put him in a box,” he said.
“If you wanted him to do things a certain way and he didn’t think it was right then he would talk and make sure he was gettingthe best out of himself.
“He was always true to himself. If he didn’t think something was right he would take you on and ask questions and that wasgood as a coach to get that feedback. When you look back on it now, he has made the sport.
“He is the rockstar of sport and he has done that himself because he knows promotion is a massive part of the game.
“Even with the pink hair, it was done for a good cause. People may think it was for attention but it was done for breast cancerawareness.
“That is the way Matt is, he is generous and good with his time and is always out there to help other people.
“Although he has been very driven and motivated to be the best he could, he had a really kind side to him.”
ATHLETES PAY TRIBUTE TO POOLE:
GEORGIA MILLER:
“It has been incredible to watch his career. I grew up on the Northern Beaches where he did and have watched him progressthrough the sport.
“He has always been such a character and brought so much to the sport. It is nice to know that he can retire on his own termsand not through injury or anything else.
“He brings so much life to everything he does. It is going to be sad to not see him on the beach racing. We always lookedforward to seeing what he did, whether it was punch a ski, knock someone over or produce a good race.”
MAX BEATTIE:
“He has ticked virtually every box in ironman racing. It is nearly poetic that he is back here at Northcliffe to finish up.It has been one hell of a career to watch.
“I have been racing him for the best part of 10 years and he is intimidating to race against.
“I remember as a young bloke in my first year paddling out next to him and I thougth I had made it because Matt Poole wasthere.
“That is the barometer of ironman racing for me and it was a surreal moment.
“He has got this aura about him. He has a profile out of the sport, a polarising personality where people love him or hatehim and that is the best part about him to be honest.
“He was an ironman but he was more than that.
“He cam from a generation of people who did just that and he showed everyone that you need to do more.”
HARRIET BROWN:
“It has been awesome to watch Pooley race for such a long time.
“He is an incredible athlete and also so fun to train with.
“I have been on quite a few overseas trips with him and he always makes them fun. It has been great for the sport having himaround, especially for the up-and-coming athletes.
“He has always done the type of training he believes is best for him. In the last couple of years he has had the confidenceto pull back a bit because overtraining is prevelant in our sport. It is inspiring to see him do that.
“He is so naturally talented that even when he doesn’t necessarily have the full load of training behind him due to injurythat he tends to still be able to turn up and race like no other athlete.”
Appin Girl can shine under lights with more luck
Trainer Matt Hoysted is confident Appin Girl can atone in Friday night’s Goldmarket at the Gold Coast after her luckless last-placed finish.
Ironman surf star drops retirement bombshell
Ali Day has dropped a bomshell about his future in surf as the 16 athletes to vie for the ironman and ironwoman surf series titles were determined at Newcastle. See who made the cut.