Phoebe Burgess lifts the lid on the NRL’s ‘weird’ subculture – including how teams indulge in a post-match poolside buffet that lasts until ‘two in the morning’
She was previously married to retired South Sydney Rabbitohs player Sam Burgess for four years.
And on Monday’s No Filter podcast with Mia Freedman, Phoebe Burgess discussed some of the ‘weird’ rituals and the subculture associated with the NRL.
The 32-year-old influencer recalled: ‘You would watch the game, and then you would potter down to the change rooms, and you would wait for the men to finish and come out and greet the families.’
After game rituals: Phoebe Burgess revealed the NRL’s ‘weird subculture’ during a tell-all podcast this week – including a poolside buffet that lasted until ‘two in the morning’
The former WAG said the ritual after the game was ‘all a bit bizarre’, and said they would eventually change locations from the football stadium.
‘We would actually drive from under the stadium and drive out to another location, which was an aquatic centre, and the boys would get into the water and warm down,’ she added.
‘We would be given a buffet at sort of, one until about two in the morning, and there would be kids running around. Yeah, it was a weird sort of, not a cult, it was a subculture.’
Bizarre: The 32-year-old Influencer said the players and their families would go to an aquatic centre and ‘be given a buffet at sort of, one until about two in the morning, and there would be kids running around’
Burgess stressed that the whole poolside buffet was very much ‘behind the scenes,’ ‘private’ and ‘lock and key’ as it was a space strictly for the players and their families.
‘If you were someone who was going from the outside to going to the inside, you were going in,’ she continued.
‘You were entering that world, that space, that environment that’s kept only for players and their families.’
In the same podcast, the former journalist also told Freedman of her dislike of the term ‘WAG’.
‘It’s throwing individuals all into the same basket and suggesting each and every one of them are exactly the same,’ she said.
‘Mixed bag’: Speaking of her fellow WAGs, Phoebe (pictured 4R during a 2019 match) said ‘some of the women I met were pretty atrocious, and some of them were my favourite people in the world.’ Burgess did not identify any particular WAGs or players in the interview
The mother-of-two continued, ‘Whereas some of the women I met were pretty atrocious, and some of them were my favourite people in the world.’
Phoebe said she found the term to be ‘such a male term’ and ‘so condescending’.
‘And it creates a hierarchy,’ she added. ‘Like it’s not spoken, it’s not said, but it’s there, and it’s an undercurrent.’
Labels: Phoebe said she found the term ‘WAG’ to be ‘such a male term’ and ‘so condescending’