The Rollie Project
It started in the rooms most people don’t see — classrooms where boys were slipping through, hospital wards where families were stretched thin, psych clinics where things had already gone too far.
Fifteen years, working alongside young people and their families in the moments that actually matter.
Learning what it takes for a boy to feel safe enough to be himself. And what it takes for a man to meet him there.
From chasing it, to
understanding it.
Before this work, there was football.
Drafted to Hawthorn young. In the AFL system early. Chasing the dream most boys grow up wanting. The highs. The pressure. The identity that comes with it. And then — just as quickly — it’s taken away.
Delisted. Then 10 years at semi-professional level — learning what it actually takes to stay in it. From the outside, it looks like football. From the inside, it’s identity, worth, pressure, expectation.
That experience didn’t break me. But it showed me how quickly a young bloke can lose himself when everything he thought he was disappears.
Now — The Rollie Project.
The Rollie Project carries that ground-level experience forward.
Into sporting clubs. Into families. Into the spaces where boys are becoming men.
Same instincts. Same ethic. Different rooms.
This isn’t about fixing boys. It’s about giving them — and the men around them — something solid to stand on.
Our boys are flooded with information — but starved of real connection.
And a lot of good men want to show up. They just don’t know how.
Why this work matters
Boys struggle when the foundations around them aren’t strong enough.
Start with a conversation.
If you’re a father, a coach, a mentor — or a bloke who knows there’s more here than just “getting through”… start with a conversation.
No pressure. No performance. Just a place to figure out what actually matters.