It's 7am Saturday in Canberra and midday Friday in Los Angeles and I'm ringing actor and former Kambah boy Matt Le Nevez to chat about his love for the Raiders and, to be honest, all we can talk about to begin with is Shane Warne.
I'd woken up to the news on Saturday morning; Le Nevez has sat with it for about five hours as news broke across the world the iconic Australian cricketer was dead at the age of just 52.
Le Nevez, who played Dennis Lillee in the miniseries Howzat! Kerry Packer's War, never met Warnie, but was shocked by his loss, one day after the death of legendary wicketkeeper Rod Marsh at 74.
"The news broke here this morning, almost instantly, about five hours ago," he said.
"Obviously only a day after Rod passed. It's terrible."
But, we're here to talk footy. And Matt does have a deep, abiding love for the Green Machine.
The Canberra Raiders play their first game for 2022 at Canberra Stadium on Friday night, up against the Cronulla Sharks.
A world away, Matt is the the car with his five-year-old daughter Wren, driving back home from an audition in LA.
He has lived in the United States for 13 years but his love for Canberra and the Raiders has only grown deeper by the time and distance apart.
Not content to just watch the games on his Foxtel app, Matt has teamed up with Canberra locals Blake Budak and Tim Gore on Raiders Review with Blake & The Pork, a proudly parochial and take-no-prisoners podcast.
Blake is well-known to Canberrans as the owner of Landspeed Records and Tim, too, not least as the son of Canberra royalty, the late Questacon founder Professor Mike Gore.
"Blake and I were both doing regular segments on ABC radio. Him music, me sport," Tim said.
"We both love the Raiders. He harassed me to do a podcast for ages. I relented, eventually. We are now up to episode 77."
Matt Le Nevez, meanwhile, is a rolled-gold Canberran, born and bred in the national capital. Raised in Kambah. Went to Telopea Park School and St Eddies. He and his dad played for the Woden Valley Rams. His mum Heather worked for Bob Hawke when he was PM.
The actor who won hearts everywhere as Dr Patrick Reid in Offspring was approached to be part of the Raiders podcast.
"He followed the show and we reached out to him," Tim said.
Matt gorgeously dons the Raiders beanie and jersey to do the podcast.
"I think my love for the Raiders has always been there. Obviously since their success in the late '80s, when I was in those really formative years," he said.
"I've been here in LA for 13 years and I really miss Canberra. It's often not until you leave the place you grew up in, that you realise how special it is. Now, going back there, I absolutely adore it. It's such a great place.
"I've done one podcast with the boys and I'll probably do another one. I mean it all seems so trivial right now with Shane, but the news of Jamal [Fogarty] doing his knee broke, so I just cracked a beer and I think I was about a dozen drinks in when we were doing the podcast. So it was pretty loose, but it was fun. I like talking Raiders.
"I watch every game, I watch every reserve side game, I watch every press conference that Ricky does. I love it. I'm a huge fan of Rick and the team and the entire organisation. I met them all two years ago when they were playing the Warriors in New Zealand and they're a really good bunch of men, that I will get behind. They believe in the community and I think they're going to have a good season."
Matt, 43, says it's hard to nail down a favourite player.
"In the past, it was Laurie Daley, Bradley Clyde. I loved Kenny Nagas, watching him run with it. And then, now, Jack [Wighton]. There's so much good young talent coming through," he says.
Matt was last home last year to film Celebrity MasterChef (he does get some sledging about that on the podcast) but COVID restrictions meant he couldn't get to a Raiders game.
"The last game I saw was in New Zealand but if I was in the city and they were playing, I'd go," he said.
Matt and his partner Michelle, have two children, Levi, 8, and Wren, 5. (Actually, five-and-a-half she tells me as she rides in the car with dad.) The kids understand dad's devotion to the Raiders.
"I used to get up in the middle of the night when Levi was born to watch the game and nurse him. They know when dad is screaming at the television, it's because the Raiders are on," he said with a laugh.
