PODCAST: Judd McVee Interview

[Demonland 73,879]

[gs77 4,552]

2 hours ago, Demonland said:

Great to hear his story - his work over summer has paid dividends. Thanks Andy/Demonland. He sounds like he's loving his time at the club so far. 

[Dee Zephyr 19,290]

Nice job Andy. What a surprise Judd has been, speaks well. 

[binman 44,719]

Great interview Andrew.

Sounds a top young fella

[DeeZone 10,485]

Thanks Andy another great interview Judd sounded relaxed and wasn’t frightened to talk openly with you. I enjoyed his story and was glad that it was easy for him to re-sign with the Dees he speaks so glowingly of the backline crew and the club. Another inspired pick up by JT.!!!

[Grapeviney 9,914]

On 4/19/2023 at 8:56 PM, dee-tox said:

Podcast tip. Be nice if it was a conversation rather than just a Q&A (set of questions he nervously answers!)

Not easy to do when you’re speaking to someone for the first time, without being in the same room or seeing each other.

And so much of it depends on the player, many of whom are young and not experienced storytellers in public. Judd was pretty good methinks, that would have been one of if not the first interviews he’s done. 

Sometimes you happen upon a diamond - the Jakovich interview is so good (and so long) because he was able to relive games in such vivid detail, kick by kick.

Andy does a good job setting up the discussion without falling into the trap of forcing or faking a non-existent bond, which can make for really awkward listening. 

[dee-tox 4,835]

7 hours ago, Grapeviney said:

Not easy to do when you’re speaking to someone for the first time, without being in the same room or seeing each other.

And so much of it depends on the player, many of whom are young and not experienced storytellers in public. Judd was pretty good methinks, that would have been one of if not the first interviews he’s done. 

Sometimes you happen upon a diamond - the Jakovich interview is so good (and so long) because he was able to relive games in such vivid detail, kick by kick.

Andy does a good job setting up the discussion without falling into the trap of forcing or faking a non-existent bond, which can make for really awkward listening. 

Fair enough! It wasn't personal, but a podcast is more than asking a bunch of questions and getting stock standard answers. There needs to be some real interaction.

[David-Demon 570]

On 4/19/2023 at 1:19 AM, Demonland said:

I'll be interviewing Demon rookie Judd McVee on the Demonland Podcast tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon. If you have any questions that you'd like Judd to answer let me know below. I'll post the interview here some time on Thursday evening so look out for it wherever you get your podcasts.

Just a question: ( through ignorance I suspect)  Is Judd still considered a "Rookie" now he is playing the elite level ? and is he upgraded to the Senior list ?

[Demonland 73,879]

21 minutes ago, David-Demon said:

Just a question: ( through ignorance I suspect)  Is Judd still considered a "Rookie" now he is playing the elite level ? and is he upgraded to the Senior list ?

My understanding is he can only spend x amount of time on the Rookie list. His contract extension that he just signed takes him past the amount of time he is allowed to be on the Rookie list and hence places him on the senior list at some point before this current new contract expires at the end of 2025.

I believe a similar situation occurred with Kade Chandler if I'm not mistaken.

[layzie 34,396]

Can't wait to get stuck into this!

[Demonland 73,879]

2 hours ago, dee-tox said:

Fair enough! It wasn't personal, but a podcast is more than asking a bunch of questions and getting stock standard answers. There needs to be some real interaction.

You are talking about an actual podcast where the hosts who are familiar with each other and are either in the same room or have visual cues with each other over video chat and are having a conversation. This is an interview over the phone with a kid who is shy and was nervous and has never done any outside media.

[layzie 34,396]

2 hours ago, dee-tox said:

Fair enough! It wasn't personal, but a podcast is more than asking a bunch of questions and getting stock standard answers. There needs to be some real interaction.

I think I understand a little bit where you're coming from, you don't want a robotic 'ask question, get answer, ask next question' flow to the show. In my experience though you need to have at least a rough structure to go by and you go from there. I'm not sure exactly how Andy does it but he'd possibly be sending his guests a brief rundown sheet with the important points to be covered. 

These guys are also really good at taking our questions and making it into a conversational back and forth chat with guests. I'm actually really impressed with the way they're able to do this while keeping control of the show and staying within time restraints. 

If you go into something like this with no structure or format and just plan on having an open ended convo it could go anywhere, the guest could be shy and give one word answers making for a tooth-pulling experience to the ears or they could be great talkers and the interview ends up going for 3 hours. Some sort of structure just allows you to control the controllables a bit more. 

[Demonland 73,879]

12 minutes ago, layzie said:

I think I understand a little bit where you're coming from, you don't want a robotic 'ask question, get answer, ask next question' flow to the show. In my experience though you need to have at least a rough structure to go by and you go from there. I'm not sure exactly how Andy does it but he'd possibly be sending his guests a brief rundown sheet with the important points to be covered. 

These guys are also really good at taking our questions and making it into a conversational back and forth chat with guests. I'm actually really impressed with the way they're able to do this while keeping control of the show and staying within time restraints. 

If you go into something like this with no structure or format and just plan on having an open ended convo it could go anywhere, the guest could be shy and give one word answers making for a tooth-pulling experience to the ears or they could be great talkers and the interview ends up going for 3 hours. Some sort of structure just allows you to control the controllables a bit more. 

That's all good and well if you have a guest for an unspecified amount of time to talk about anything. We have a very finite time with guests we get from the club. These type of guests are interviews. It's not a conversation. We simply don't have the time to build the rapport with someone you've just called on the phone and have 15 minutes to get all the questions you want to ask.

You're also confusing the podcast with an interview. They're two different things.

It would be a completely different situation if you had Judd on the podcast and were talking about a game of footy and each person is giving their take on something. That is a conversation and even if Judd (or another player) was shy and nervous after a while he or any player in that situation would loosen up. The podcast above is not that and it's not meant to be. It's an question and answer interview.

You also don't know what you're going get with any new player. They're people too who may be shy or not have experience talking with the "media" or doing interviews. They're not all like Max who you could definitely get on and just shoot the [censored].

Have a look at any interview Clarry does. He's not very good in that situation and he would probably be the first person to admit that. Not many people are naturals at that. I saw clips of him on a longer form podcast where it is more of a conversation and he seemed a lot more relaxed and natural. Totally different from anytime a reporter throws a microphone in his face.

To reiterate any of the interviews that we do on the podcast are not like this and due to the time constraints cannot be like this particularly with players who aren't experienced and are uncomfortable in that situation. There just isn't the time for them to be comfortable especially because it is not done face to face and is done over the phone cold. I wish it could be a longer form more relaxed situation but that's just not possible.

[Its Time for Another 4,306]

Thanks for another great DL interview.   Got a lot of interesting info from him. 
Interesting now important his fitness training away from the club over the break was to his significant improvement and getting into the team. 
Also found it really interesting how much he had to do with the other WA boys in junior footy before being drafted even tough he was from Geraldton. Including playing with Riv even though he was drafted 3 years ahead of him and even knowing Kossie through his Geraldton cousins. He sounds pretty happy and settled in Melbourne 

Edited April 21, 2023 by Its Time for Another

[old55 23,848]

Great interview Andy well done - very good preparation and smooth delivery. I got some good insights into Judd who spoke well and was very forthcoming.

Edited April 20, 2023 by old55

[layzie 34,396]

56 minutes ago, Demonland said:

That's all good and well if you have a guest for an unspecified amount of time to talk about anything. We have a very finite time with guests we get from the club. These type of guests are interviews. It's not a conversation. We simply don't have the time to build the rapport with someone you've just called on the phone and have 15 minutes to get all the questions you want to ask.

You're also confusing the podcast with an interview. They're two different things.

It would be a completely different situation if you had Judd on the podcast and were talking about a game of footy and each person is giving their take on something. That is a conversation and even if Judd (or another player) was shy and nervous after a while he or any player in that situation would loosen up. The podcast above is not that and it's not meant to be. It's an question and answer interview.

You also don't know what you're going get with any new player. They're people too who may be shy or not have experience talking with the "media" or doing interviews. They're not all like Max who you could definitely get on and just shoot the [censored].

Have a look at any interview Clarry does. He's not very good in that situation and he would probably be the first person to admit that. Not many people are naturals at that. I saw clips of him on a longer form podcast where it is more of a conversation and he seemed a lot more relaxed and natural. Totally different from anytime a reporter throws a microphone in his face.

To reiterate any of the interviews that we do on the podcast are not like this and due to the time constraints cannot be like this particularly with players who aren't experienced and are uncomfortable in that situation. There just isn't the time for them to be comfortable especially because it is not done face to face and is done over the phone cold. I wish it could be a longer form more relaxed situation but that's just not possible.

Just for the record I was agreeing with you. My second paragraph was about you guys in particular and being impressed with how you control the interview style shows. You guys also have the ability to make an interview entertaining 🙂

My point was about just that, structure and working to time constraints. 

Edited April 21, 2023 by layzie

[binman 44,719]

On 4/21/2023 at 8:47 AM, Demonland said:

You are talking about an actual podcast where the hosts who are familiar with each other and are either in the same room or have visual cues with each other over video chat and are having a conversation. This is an interview over the phone with a kid who is shy and was nervous and has never done any outside media.

And the other relevant contextual info is the club's media team offer up people to be interviewed - as opposed to being a guest on a conversation hour type podcast format.

This is an important distinction, because the expectation from the club and player is that it won't take more than 15-20 mins, is not onerous and follows an interview style structure.

Staff and players participate because they are obligated to do so as part of their responsibility to do media.

If players report back that interviews took too much time or were a hassle (eg having to organise a PC to video conference from, organise a decent mic and camera etc etc) the club would simply stop offering people to DL to be interviewed. 

Sometimes Andy might (and does) request to interview a particular person, but has no choice in who the club ulitmately  offers. It would be great to always speak to natural story tellers and conversationalists like Maxy, but Andy gets who he gets. And even if he does snag a great story teller, he still only has 15-20 mins. That is one Gary Pert answer. 

And almost always the club randomly contacts Andy out of the blue and offers someone to be interviewed, hence the sporadic frequency of the interviews and mix of guests. Often only a couple of days’ notice is given and Andy might be given only a few options for the interview time.

I'm guessing very few players would agree to doing an hour or so conversational style pod like the one Tmac did in the preseason (which is terrific by the way - but I’ll bet my bottom dollar the club did not organise that, but rather the pod went straight to tom, who they may well know.) 

Andy can’t go direct to players, even those DL sponsors, and ask if they want to do a pod. Well, he can, but the player would say speak to the media team, who may get their noses out of joint and stop offering players and staff up for interviews full stop.

Another issue is the club also sets the platform for how the interview is actually done - they give Andy a mobile phone number to call at an agreed time.

So, no podcast equipment at their end, no proper mike set up and no video conferencing tech (meaning the interviewer and interviewee can’t see each other). It also means no control of the physical environment at the interviewees end.

Compare that scenario to the set up for guests on the Gus and Gawny podcast - the guest is with them in a room that has been optimised for sound quality etc (by the by, from the handful of their pods I’ve watched, they don't really engage their guests in a conversation - but rather, just ask a series of often silly questions).

An example of the environmental challenges is during the Brodie Grundy interview he was doing some sort of building or gardening work whilst talking on the phone. It was quite annoying as you could hear all this really distracting background noise.

Similarly, Selwyn Griffiths was walking when being interviewed so there was heaps of distracting background noises (eg traffic). 

To those challenges add the time restriction and the fact that Andy has usually not met the person. 

Given all these factors, it is all but impossible to build the kind of rapport needed for a quality conversational style interview.

By the by, to be clear, it is brilliant the club put people forward to be interviwed and those they have have all been really fantastic, including the judster. They have so little time between games and the stakes are high so the club and the players and staff should be applauded for giving up their time and bringing such a great attititude. 
 

Edited April 22, 2023 by binman

[layzie 34,396]

15 minutes ago, binman said:

And the other relevant contextual info is the club's media team offer up people to be interviewed - as opposed to being a guest on a conversation hour type podcast format.

This is an important distinction, because the expectation from the club and player is that it won't take more than 15-20 mins, is not onerous and follows an interview style structure.

Staff and players participate because they are obligated to do so as part of their responsibility to do media.

If players report back that interviews took too much time or were a hassle (eg having to organise a PC to video conference from, organise a decent mic and camera etc etc) the club would simply stop offering people to DL to be interviewed. 

Sometimes Andy might (and does) request to interview a particular person, but has no choice in who the club ulitmately  offers. It would be great to always speak to natural story tellers and conversationalists like Maxy, but Andy gets who he gets. And even if he does snag a great story teller, he still only has 15-20 mins. That is one Gary Pert answer. 

And almost always the club randomlay contacts Andy out of the blue and offers someone to be interviewed, hence the sporadic frequency of the interviews and mix of guests. Often only a couple of days’ notice is given and Andy might be given only a few options for the interview time.

I'm guessing very few players would agree to doing an hour or so conversational style pod like the one Tmac did in the preseason (which is terrific by the way - but I’ll bet my bottom dollar the club did not organise that, but rather the pod went straight to tom, who they may well know.) 

Andy can’t go direct to players, even those DL sponsors, and ask if they want to do a pod. Well, he can, but the player would say speak to the media team, who may get their noses out of joint and stop offering players and staff up for interviews full stop.

Another issue is the club also sets the platform for how the interview is actually done - they give Andy a mobile phone number to call at an agreed time.

So, no podcast equipment at their end, no proper mike set up and no video conferencing tech (meaning the interviewer and interviewee can’t see each other). It also means no control of the physical environment at the interviewees end.

Compare that scenario to the set up for guests on the Gus and Gawny podcast - the guest is with them in a room that has been optimised for sound quality etc (by the by, from the handful of their pods I’ve watched, they don't really engage their guests in a conversation - but rather, just ask a series of often silly questions).

An example of the environmental challenges is during the Brodie Grundy interview he was doing some sort of building or gardening work whilst talking on the phone. It was quite annoying as you could hear all this really distracting background noise.

Similarly, Selwyn Griffiths was walking when being interviewed so there was heaps of distracting background noises (eg traffic). 

To those challenges add the time restriction and the fact that Andy has usually not met the person. 

Given all these factors, it is all but impossible to build the kind of rapport needed for a quality conversational style interview.
 

It's really good to know a bit more about all this and the distinction between types of interviews, cheers.

Also didn't know that the club sets the platform for an interview but it makes perfect sense. It also makes sense to have guests do their part of the interview over the phone as it's simple and setting up podcast equipment (even just a mic) can be time consuming. Sure you'll get some background noise but it's serviceable and I doubt people really pay much attention to things like that if the content is good, I would actually prefer the guest do their part over the phone rather than a laptop mic, they are usually not great.

I think you guys do a sensational job and still manage to sound engaging with the guest albeit the short amount of time allowed to do your thing. 

[Wodjathefirst 2,667]

Just listened to the interview. It was very good and very informative. Well done! That’s all.

[Jjrogan 1,466]

Great interview. This kid is a gun.  Great 3 step acceleration, contest work, decIsion making and is an above average kick.  Reminds me of Jadyen Short who also came off the rookie draft.  I think the FD is going to realise in coming years he's wasted down back. 

Edited April 21, 2023 by Jjrogan

[McQueen 17,867]

Was an enjoyable listen. 
 

A great part of Demonland that has gathered considerable momentum over the years is the chats/interviews with past and present players let alone Administrators and staff. 
 

Keep up the good work. 
 

Sing out if you want any advice on how to improve how you conduct one. 😉😉

🔴🔵

[Engorged Onion 10,224]

56 minutes ago, McQueen said:

Sing out if you want any advice on how to improve how you conduct one

I believe that is already freely given...😆

[monoccular 17,699]

Fabulous interview thanks.

Judd sounds like a very well adjusted, confident and committed young man.  There will of course be ups and downs but he is handling things brilliantly so far. 👏👏

[McQueen 17,867]

Dropping pints at the Gero hotel right bloody now. 🍺🍺🍺💪💪💪 
 

 

[David-Demon 570]

2 hours ago, monoccular said:

Fabulous interview thanks.

Judd sounds like a very well adjusted, confident and committed young man.  There will of course be ups and downs but he is handling things brilliantly so far. 👏👏

Does Judd automatically get upgraded now he has signed a contract.? OR is he still on the Rookie list ?