Brad Hodge enlisted the help of his two children, Jesse and Sophie, while preparing for the gruelling challenge of SAS: Australia vs England.
“ I said to my son and daughter: ‘Can you lock me in the boot of your car?’” Brad, 51, tells TV WEEK. “I was nervous about confined spaces, so they’d religiously lock me in there for 12 minutes every night.”
While that was confronting, it pales in comparison to this week’s brutal task: recruits are dangled 45 metres above a dam, have to rappel down, unclip and freefall eight metres into churning water before swimming 40 metres to safety.
It’s a task that claims multiple recruits but the retired cricketer and 7Cricket commentator tells us his physical breaking point came earlier.
“On day two I went to pick up my Bergen backpack that weighs about 15 kilos and I tore a few muscles in my back,” he says. “Physically, I soldiered on, but it was hard.”
Off-screen, Brad has faced his fair share of challenges – including a frightening health scare for his wife, Meg, who underwent heart surgery in 2008.
“It was intense because it happened during the middle of a cricket game and back in the day you weren’t allowed to take any time off sport,” he recalls.
“I also missed my son’s first 13 birthdays due to being away from home. These are the things that come back to haunt you. At the time you think you’re doing the right thing for the family, going out there trying to make money and play for your country, but, being a professional athlete, there’s always collateral damage.”
Despite a decorated cricket career, Brad admits he has lingering misgivings about not having reached his full potential on the pitch.
“I only got a handful of opportunities, and my skill set and talent said I should probably have played a lot more.”
He believes those reflections were something the show’s staff tried to tap into during the series.
“My wife said: ‘Part of your history in cricket is that everyone thinks you’ve got a bit of an unlucky story – you should have played 50 or 100 more games than you did,’” Brad says. “She thought they would do these things to test me on that. Like what they did with Toadie, when they’d partner him with particular people who would bring out his anxiety or stresses.”
And, while he admits he wanted to leave the show almost immediately, Brad pushed through. And, he says, he would do it all again.
“I remember when they put the balaclava on my head, and it would have been 45 degrees at seven in the morning, and then waiting for 45 minutes,” Brad recalls.
“I was struggling to breathe and I thought, ‘How long am I going to be here?’ But I’d love to go again.
“They should do a Masters SAS for the over-50s!” he laughs.
SAS Australia vs England airs Wednesdays at 7.30pm on Channel Seven and 7plus.
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