Menu
Sign In Search Podcasts Libraries Charts People & Topics Add Podcast API Blog Pricing
Podcast Image

The Howie Games

268: Jackson Irvine (Part A)

12 May 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

2.613 - 4.067 Unknown

A listener production.

0

4.996 - 20.853 Howie

Okay, are you recording? Hey team, thanks to the good folk at Powerade, welcome to episode 268 of the Howie Games Part A featuring Socceroo, Jackson Irvine.

0

20.893 - 44.281 Unknown

Leckie almost getting in each other's way, Boyle into the area, he's done brilliantly, the cut back and the goal from Jackson Irvine. The suits are waiting, Goodwin's delivery, back post, it's 1-0 Australia, it's Jackson Irvine who's torn, turned the ball home. Still going, here's Jackson Irvine, it's there for Australia. Jackson Irvine. Shuffle again from Craig Goodwin.

0

45.123 - 47.388 Unknown

Oh, lovely header, Jackson Irvine.

0

47.408 - 48.17 Howie

That's a peach.

Chapter 2: What inspired Jackson Irvine's journey from Melbourne to Europe?

49.252 - 62.353 Howie

Jackson is a very cool cat who has played football all over the globe, currently in the Bundesliga. Good name for a comp.

0

62.373 - 67.667 Unknown

The Bundesliga.

0

71.597 - 94.213 Howie

Jackson. He's captain of St. Pauli, yes, in the Bundesliga. He's also been the skipper of the Socceroos and he's set to head to his third World Cup. Phenomenal, really, for a bloke from the suburbs of Melbourne. Personally, I can't wait for the World Cup. Jacko comes to us courtesy of Powerade, powering your game. Hydration's the key. Pros like Jacko can tick over 14km of running in a game.

0

94.233 - 116.117 Howie

Look after yourself, stay hydrated when you're putting in the hard yards. Spaniard Lamin Yamal is Powerade's new global ambassador. Can play, maybe we need to get him on the podcast. Anyway, thanks also to the star, that is Shannon Beck from TGI Legends, who made this episode come together. Let's get straight to it with Jackson Alexander Irvine. Very interesting.

0

116.317 - 116.918 Unknown

Very cool.

120.003 - 150.038 Howie

So when you search and then you find And know just where to go And thoughts that once used to cloud your mind You see clearly and now you know Mystery, what is to be Revealed in King Selassie's eye Come on children, stride with me We want to reach Mount Sinai Well, this guest comes to you courtesy of Powerade, but I've never met this bloke. I've seen him for the first time on Riverside.

150.199 - 163.401 Howie

He's in Germany, but I don't know why, but he is my favourite Socceroo because he's a very cool character. I've read, I've watched, I've fully invested in where he's at in the world. Jackson Irvine, I'm pumped, mate. Welcome to the Howie Games. How are you?

163.421 - 166.827 Jackson Irvine

Thanks, Howie. Thanks for having me, mate. Yeah, buzzing to be here, mate. Looking forward to it.

166.874 - 183.668 Howie

Well, as I said, I think it's as simple as I like the long hair, the tats and the moustache and watching you play in the Socceroos, I think that's what got me in. And now I've read that you are a style merchant. So, yeah, a big – I don't know. I like a man with long hair. What can I say?

Chapter 3: How did Jackson navigate the challenges of moving to Scotland at 16?

416.366 - 443.685 Jackson Irvine

But I would say there's two things that are very niche and specific to Hamburg. One is a thing called Fischbrotchen. which is like I actually hate it. I think it's great. But it's basically a fish sandwich and it's like a real thing here that people go down because it's a harbour city, which is why it's all about that. So everyone goes down either at the end of a night out at like 6, 7 a.m.

0

444.126 - 459.536 Jackson Irvine

or if you're up in the morning to go for breakfast, people go down to the fish market and they get these fish brochins and it's such a – wild sight to see. It's like people with fat, like young people and like families and stuff going for like the fish market in the morning.

0

459.556 - 468.079 Jackson Irvine

And then you've got like people stumbling in at the end of a night, like six, 7am and everyone's gone to eat these fish sandwiches. It's quite bizarre, but that's very Hamburg.

0

468.464 - 489.308 Howie

So I have an enormous love for people with creative interests, which you do, which we will explore music. But I am a very unfashionable character. I would say so. You've got to look. No. Well, I've gone a straight white tee today, Jackson, because I thought I'm speaking to a fashionista, so I'm just going to go straight down the line. But describe...

0

490.537 - 505.325 Howie

You've got the Bend It Like Beckham poster in the back. I don't know how much you were influenced by David Beckham, but your clothes are a thing with you. We'll get to football and sport, but I'm not going to know the answer to this. How would you describe your fashion look? To me, it's cool, but what are you rolling with? What are you going with?

506.367 - 528.07 Jackson Irvine

Everything that I... like and wear has generally got some kind of connection to me, either through like some form of nostalgia. Like people know I love the retro football shirts. I love, you know, even like Adidas equipment. This was like such a 90s range. You know, it's all things that I can – that I don't know, I've got some kind of story or connection to and things that I like a lot.

528.09 - 547.916 Jackson Irvine

I wear a lot of band tees, stuff like that. Things from, yeah, of course there's a fashionable aspect to everything, but generally I just try to wear what I like. And I think you can make things cool when you wear it in your own way, I guess. And, um, yeah, I don't know. It's, uh, I tend, I would say generally though, it's a combination of music and football.

547.936 - 552.522 Jackson Irvine

Nostalgia, I would say is definitely my, my aesthetic thing.

552.586 - 568.65 Howie

And when you're rolling up in the Bundesliga, which you play, and you're heavily involved in the fact that your team is in the Bundesliga, which we'll get to. So, you know, you grew up in an AFL town where you have to wear your club polo and your slacks. Obviously, you're the Americans in the NBA. You wear what you want.

Chapter 4: What was Jackson's experience like playing for Celtic?

1101.175 - 1108.408 Jackson Irvine

How good? I know, I know. And I was at the game in 01 as well when we beat Uruguay at the MCG. Oh, Musket.

0

1108.428 - 1115.421 Unknown

Musket scored a penalty, didn't he?

0

1115.442 - 1115.722

Yeah, exactly.

0

1115.742 - 1119.89 Unknown

Oh, Kevin Musket. A Melbourne boy.

0

1119.91 - 1120.551

Focused. Concentrating. Focused.

1121.898 - 1141.873 Jackson Irvine

I was a part of that world for as long as I can remember. I was a fan of the team. But also, yeah, European football too. I used to get up and watch the Champions League at 4.30 before school on a Tuesday. Yeah. Loved it. Obsessed with it. Just couldn't get enough. Who was your team? Always been United.

1142.053 - 1161.675 Jackson Irvine

Like that was my, I think in the nineties with limited access pre-internet, pre-streaming, pre-everything at that, that was the most accessible team in the world. And of course I took immediate shining to a certain Dave Beckham and it made quite the impact on me.

1161.757 - 1177.808 Howie

Always makes me feel not as old when I speak to someone about the pre-internet days because my kids don't actually think those days existed, Jaco. They're like, what a world without internet. I ask this to everyone. I've asked it for 10 years of this podcast and I use the same analogy and I'll use it with you. Were you...

1177.889 - 1190.922 Howie

Ricky Ponting, who was always talented enough and destined to play for his country, or were you Justin Langer, who has had to work and fight every moment of the way? Like, were you a freak talent as a kid or not?

Chapter 5: What does going on loan to clubs like Kilmarnock and Ross County entail?

1988.861 - 2006.421 Jackson Irvine

I never broke through and managed to maintain a place at the club. In hindsight, I probably wasn't ready from the footballing level. But yeah, amazing to have, what a place to play your first professional game. And as you say, it's such a famous, famous jersey.

0

2007.515 - 2019.856 Howie

So, Jacko, a question here. So, 13-14, you go on a loan to Kilmarnock. 14-15, a loan to Ross County and then Ross County. So, what does a loan mean? What does that actually mean?

0

2020.196 - 2044.178 Jackson Irvine

It's essentially when you're a club, you're maybe not at the level that you need to be to play for the club that you are contracted with. So, but they still say that there is potentially a future there for you with some more development. So what they do is obviously you get put to, I got, I had two fantastic loan moves in the same league. It's not often you go on loan within the same league.

0

2044.238 - 2059.608 Jackson Irvine

I guess you would normally go down a level to kind of progress back up. But fortunately I was able to play both my loan seasons in the Scottish Premier League. So for me, it was an immediate success. I was immediately playing at the top level in the country and playing against the... So you play against Celtic?

0

2059.668 - 2060.49 Howie

No, you're not allowed to.

2060.55 - 2062.375 Jackson Irvine

Even though you're a Celtic player? No, you're not allowed to.

2062.395 - 2065.723 Howie

Oh, so when you come up against Celtic, they've got to stick you on the bench. You can't play that day?

2065.823 - 2084.495 Jackson Irvine

Can't play that day, yeah. That's interesting. Yeah, it's a little bit of like... it negates elements of risk. You know, if you're involved in an incident or a tackle or, you know, I don't know, you score the goal that, you know, denies them the league title at the end of the last day of the season or something. And then you're, you know, and then you have to go back.

2084.535 - 2098.778 Jackson Irvine

It kind of takes away the drama a little bit. I get it. Yeah. Yeah. So no, I was never able to play against him when I was on loan, but those two, it's invaluable experience for a young player to go away and play against

Chapter 6: How does Jackson handle the pressures of professional football?

2323.136 - 2335.932 Howie

Because we're seeing that a lot now. Yeah. We don't need to go into some of your teammates having to decide whether they're going to play for the Socceroos or other European powerhouses, let's be honest. What was the decision-making process for you, mate?

0

2335.952 - 2364.402 Jackson Irvine

So for me, I had a complicated relationship with Football Australia in the beginning of my career. So actually during that phase when I first went to Scotland – My international clearance wasn't given by the Australian side. So actually I wasn't allowed for the first like near six, seven months, I wasn't actually allowed to play competitive games in Scotland, even under 19 level. At all?

0

2364.722 - 2389.415 Jackson Irvine

At all, no. Why? Because they wouldn't give me the international clearance. But why wouldn't they? Because at that time there was a whole thing about players under the age of 18 moving to Europe. which was kind of crazy because I was never a part of any elite academy system. I was never part of any, you know, I kind of wasn't part of the system.

0

2389.435 - 2406.713 Jackson Irvine

I wasn't part of any of the youth national teams, Joey's or anything like that, AIS, VIS. I wasn't selected for any of these programs. So it wasn't like my path to Europe came completely through, you know, kind of a bit of luck and, you know, it was kind of not because of that.

0

2407.214 - 2422.566 Jackson Irvine

So, you know, I had a little bit of – I didn't feel like the Australian system had really given me anything at that point in a lot of ways. You know, I played in – Vic Schoolboys at under 11s. I think that was the last representative team I was selected for before this.

2424.631 - 2443.429 Jackson Irvine

So when I got given the chance to play for Scotland, I've always had an extremely strong connection to the Scottish side of my family. My dad, I used to like... A lot of people... often said to me when I was young that they, you know, because I used to try and copy my dad's voice. I used to want to have a Scottish accent. So I always had this kind of weird in-betweeny accent, even as a kid.

2444.191 - 2468.083 Jackson Irvine

And then, yeah, I got the chance to play, you know, living in Scotland, being half Scottish, playing for the biggest club in Scotland. At that time, I'd also never been selected for any Australian national teams and it was a chance to play international football. So at that time, it wasn't a decision because there was no decision. I'd never been selected for anything from the Australian side.

2468.644 - 2489.751 Jackson Irvine

So then I played for Scotland. I loved it. Like, it was amazing. I went to this one tournament where I played three games, but I immediately kind of knew it wasn't. It wasn't for me. You know, when I think about my life growing up as a Socceroos fan, as my relationship with the Australian football, it was the only team I ever wanted to play for, really, was the Socceroos.

2490.733 - 2496.201 Jackson Irvine

And then after kind of, yeah, that kind of transpired, that...

Comments

There are no comments yet.

Please log in to write the first comment.