How ex-AFL player Daniel Gorringe ‘faked it til he made it’ in footy
Former Carlton and Gold Coast Suns player Daniel Gorringe has revealed the social side of footy is what kept him in the game and tells why he had to “fake it” and take sickies to get out of training.
Fiona Byrne
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Former Carlton and Gold Coast Suns player Daniel Gorringe says he spent his AFL career “faking it” in the hope of “making it”, with the end of year footy trip his main motivation to get through each season.
“I honestly just played because I enjoyed the footy trip and social side (of the game),” Gorringe said.
The Melbourne-based former ruckman, who is taking part in Channel 7’s Big Brother reboot, said there were times when he arrived at training and called the club doctor from the carpark saying he was too sick to train.
“But I wasn’t sick, I just did not want to go in,” Gorringe, 28, said.
“I was hanging on and I was faking it til I made it.
“I trained my absolute backside off but when it got to the games, I knew before the game started, the morning of the game, that I did not want to be there. I was not as good as what those other guys were.
“I knew plenty of players, and plenty of my friends who are playing at the moment, that are the same and they don’t want to be there.
“I love AFL, I love watching footy, I enjoy the social side of it, I loved the footy trips but I did not like the playing or the training.”
Gorringe said while he had been in a “bad headspace” he had not suffered depression and had never felt comfortable explaining to his clubs how he was feeling about himself.
“When I was in the system it was like you were not a man if you spoke up and said, ‘I am not feeling great, I am actually sad to be here,’ because AFL footy is a blokey thing to do, so to come out and do something that was not so blokey was not really something that was done at that time,” he said.
“I’d go to training sessions some mornings and pull up in the carpark and call the doctor and say, ‘Look mate, I am sick,’ but I wasn’t sick, I just did not want to go in. I was in a bad head space. It is great now that players are comfortable to speak about their issues and the public is more accepting of mental health.”
Gorringe said he hoped he makes more headlines in Big Brother, which launches on Monday, than he did during his seven year, 26 game, AFL career which ended in 2017.
“The only headlines I made was when I got sacked a couple times,” he said.
“I am trying to be the big, tall, idiot of the house.
“I don’t want to make any enemies, I just want to go in there and have a good time and try to entertain.
“Footy did not go quite the way I had wanted it to and there had probably been a bit of a hole in my life since it finished.
“My real passion is to make people laugh. I just wanted a reaction. The joke can be terrible but if I get one laugh that is a goal kicked for me. I want to entertain.”