This weekend’s CDFNL Let’s Talk Round holds extremely special significance for Max Blake. The popular local football commentator opened up to the Herald’s Ben Martin about a decades-long battle with depression to shine a light on the importance of speaking about our mental health.
DARK DAYS
One of the most recognisable faces in Colac district football says he may not be here today if a colleague hadn’t one day asked him “hey, are you all right?”
Colac district football commentator Max Blake has fought a battle with depression for the past two decades.
There have been plenty of highs and lows in that time, but after a particularly rough day commentating a match between Apollo Bay and Birregurra last year he hit an all-time low.
At 5am the following morning, Blake was sprawled out across a highway out the front of his house waiting to be hit by a car.
“Last year was seriously tough,” Blake recalled.
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Where To Buy“I went through a marriage separation, which meant separation from my kids, my best mate suddenly passed away and I was hating everything that I used to love including commentating football,” he said.
“I was self-sabotaging the things around me.
“So after a horrid day at Apollo Bay calling a game, the next day I laid on the highway at the front of my house and was waiting to be hit.
“I’m not sure what exactly got me to stand back up and walk off the road, but I found the energy to.
“I booked in to see a therapist and was able to quickly get myself in a better headspace.”
It was after that incident that Blake announced he was stepping down from his duties with local football radio show CDFNL Live to focus on his children and “build my happiness back up”.
“I had a lot of people reach out and they were fantastic with their support,” he said.
EARLY YEARS
Blake said his battle with his mental health started in his teenage years.
The Cobden export battled his demons on his own, unaware that anything was wrong and that help was available.
“I have seen some seriously dark days,” Blake said.
“Back in 2014-’15 I was in all sorts, I was undiagnosed and one way I coped with my mental health was eating,” he said.
“I ate a lot and I wasn’t exercising, I fell out of love with all the things I liked to do, and I weighed over 120 kilos.”
But after about a decade, he was diagnosed with depression.
“I personally think everyone in their lifetime goes through a mental health battle and more than once for that,” he said.
“For me, I think was suffering from depression in my teenage years, I had a lot of different issues going through my life at that point and found life confusing a lot.
“But because it wasn’t spoken about, I somehow managed it myself.
“When it became more spoken about as I entered my adulthood, I started to learn a bit more about mental health and depression, spoke to my GP and was diagnosed with depression in 2014.”
HOW HE COPES NOW
Blake says he is in a good place with his mental health now.
He is back calling games of Colac district football every week, and even gets to bring his youngest son Ollie to games to share his passion.
Blake doesn’t think he will ever overcome his battle with mental health.
But he has found ways to manage it.
“It comes and goes,” Blake said.
“I don’t think you can defeat it, but as you grow older you find ways to cope, learn how to control it in some parts but sometimes it can come back without notice and it hits you hard,” he said.
“But now I know what to do when I am feeling flat and depressed.
“I change my diet, I go for walks, I swim, and I read a list of every one of the people I love most and I need to continue on to be a part of their lives.”
Blake said he thanked the Colac district football community for getting him back into the callers’ box this season.
He said an overwhelming response when he announced he was stepping down last year had encouraged him to stick around.
“I wouldn’t be back calling today if it wasn’t for the people who reached out last year when I announced I was leaving,” he said.
“I had some random players who had been in our league for only a season, to the veterans of the league, who reached out and told me how much what I did meant to them.
“Jake Veale’s message really touched me and inspired me to return for last year’s final series.”
SPEAKING OUT
Blake was one of the guest speakers at Wednesday night’s special event which launched this weekend’s Let’s Talk Round.
Organisers teed up some of Colac district’s greatest sportspeople and personalities to share their mental health journeys to educate community members to treat their mental health as they do their physical health, break down stigmas and empower them to talk about it.
Organisers felt people like Blake were more effective at getting through to the community, with a focus on “community helping community”.
Blake said he wouldn’t be here if not for a colleague asked him an important question.
“I had a bloke at work just ask me ‘hey, are you all right?’,” he said.
“I brushed him off at first but five minutes later I absolutely broke down telling him I wasn’t.
“I’ll be forever in his debt because at the moment changed my mindset to speak to people close to me.
“That first conversation was very important.”
Blake said he, like many others, had kept their battles private for a long time, for a myriad of reasons.
“I always felt embarrassed by what was going through my head, and that’s why I kept it in for so long,” he said.
“I was diagnosed for a year before I told anyone about it – but one day on Mixx FM Kris Seabert spoke about his battles on air and it was a light bulb moment for me to speak up publicly about it.
“The more you can, the better support people can give you.
“The death of Robin Williams really hit me too, a bloke who could be so funny, but yet so depressed on the inside showed if I didn’t seek help that could happen to me.”
These days Blake is extremely open about his mental health journey.
He said he shares his story because he wants people to “live their lives to their fullest and happiest”.
“My motto now is ‘we literally live on a floating rock in space and only for a short time. Do you want to be unhappy and miserable for most of it? Be brave, speak up so you can enjoy this ride as much as you can’.
“I am now back loving the things in my life, especially football commentary,” Blake said.
“I get to bring my son Ollie every third week to the games and he shares my passion with the sport I love and that’s been a huge thing for me.”