It’s not day-after-day {that a} member of one of many world’s greatest bands goes out of their option to make contact with certainly one of Perth’s elite athletes. It’s even rarer for that particular person to spend a live performance performing within the participant’s uniform.
But that’s exactly what occurred when Kings of Leon performed at RAC Arena on Wednesday night time.
The Oklahoma band reached out to Perth Wildcats import Brady Manek earlier than coming to WA, given he’s from the identical state and instantly, Manek’s quantity 45 jersey was being worn by drummer Nathan Followill throughout the live performance.
Wildcats gamers, together with Manek and captain Jesse Wagstaff, then not solely met the band backstage, however had a photograph which Followill Tweeted to his followers.
Manek had a difficult begin to his life in Australia, however produced a breakout recreation towards Adelaide on Saturday with 25 factors. Coach John Rillie stated no person had ever doubted Manek’s means, however that they had no concept how well-known he was in America.
“It’s a great example of someone like Brady Manek and his social profile,” coach John Rillie stated.
“They reached out to him. They swapped messages and the next thing I know half of our team is back stage at a Kings of Leon concert. It’s a very cool story.
“The tough times Brady’s been going through, some of that stuff can get lost in the shuffle of it all. He got to take some teammates who are massive fans to that. All a sudden people are going ‘Brady is a well connected dude – street cred, very high.”
The Wildcats have the week off because of the Australian Boomers taking part in on the World Cup qualifiers and are utilizing that point to construct consistency after a 4-5 begin to the season.
Rillie stated it was an excellent time for the workforce to mirror following Saturday’s win over Adelaide.
“The idea is simplifying, re-visiting what was working, what isn’t working and why we do have patches in-game where we look really great and then have patches where it’s not so good,” Rillie stated.
“The pleasing factor towards Adelaide is we acquired down by 5, a scenario we’ve discovered ourselves in in earlier video games and we fought our approach out of that and got here out with a 14-0 run. It’s a piece in progress. I feel most groups across the league are a piece in progress.
