Footballers Tyler Roos and Tom Wilkinson compete on The Amazing Race Australia
Tyler Roos has given up the creature comforts of Brighton to test his physical and mental strength on The Amazing Race Australia. But his famous dad — AFL great Paul Roos — wasn’t initially too thrilled with the idea. So what turned him around?
Inner South
Don't miss out on the headlines from Inner South . Followed categories will be added to My News.
After spending most of 2019 at airports and on planes, Tyler Roos is happy to have his feet firmly on the ground — for now, at least.
The 23-year-old footy player and son of AFL legend Paul Roos put his strength, fitness and stamina to the test to tackle the competition on The Amazing Race Australia.
Roos said the hardest part of the experience was getting by without the help of technology.
Live your best Melbourne life with a Leader Community News subscription
“The language barrier was hard, normally you can pull out your phone and use Google translate but we weren’t allowed phones so we had to get by the old fashioned way,” he said.
Roos, from Brighton, and his footballer mate Tom Wilkinson, of Mt Eliza, are one of 11 teams chosen to cross oceans and travel continents in pursuit of the $250,000 cash prize.
Roos said while the adventure tested the pair’s mental strength, their “bromance” was never under threat.
“We’ve lived together, travelled together, played footy together — we’ve basically been in each other’s pockets for the last six years so we knew what we were getting into and it was nice to be able to do this together,” he said.
But not everyone was thrilled with Roos’ decision to sign up to the show at first.
“Mum was like ‘go for it’ from the start but there were some mixed emotions from dad,” he told the Leader.
While living in Brighton, Roos was flying to the Gold Coast to play football for the Southport Sharks every weekend, but joining The Amazing Race meant he had to walk out on his team ahead of finals.
“Dad wasn’t too pleased with that — football has been a huge part my life and his life too, obviously, and he just didn’t like the idea of leaving the team in the lurch,” he said.
“But he came around when he realised what an amazing opportunity this was and that it was too good to pass up.”
The Sharks made the Grand Final, but lost by 76 points.
MORE NEWS
NETFLIX KILLS BAYSIDE’S LAST VIDEO STORE
DINNER AND DRINKS? NOW YOU CAN TAKE YOUR DOG, TOO
AUSTRALIA’S TOP BUBBLY DRINKERS REVEALED BY SUBURB
Roos says there’s no bad blood between him and his teammates over his absence in the big dance but he is looking for somewhere else to play next year.
“I’ve been on a lot of flights this year so I just want to stay at home a bit,” he said.
The Amazing Race Australia airs Monday, October 28 at 7.30pm on Channel 10.