New ABC series Plum is a hard-hitting take on masculinity and men's health that Brendan Cowell hopes will start a discussion.
A potentially life-saving one.
Retired rugby league player Peter "The Plum" Lum is a living legend in his home town of Cronulla. Then his life is abruptly turned upside-down. An accident at work reveals he has a brain disorder, likely as a result of the hundreds of head injuries and concussions he's suffered on the field.
Plum almost certainly has Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disorder. Neurologists tell him it's time to switch things up or dementia and death are imminent.
He has some important decisions to make ... and ignores them by having drink after drink with the boys at the pub.
But he can only hide from the truth for so long.
Based on Brendan Cowell's novel of the same name, Plum is created, written and executive produced by Cowell alongside co-writer Fiona Seres (Love My Way, The Great).
Cowell also plays "Plum" in a cast that includes Susie Porter (Wentworth, Cargo), Jemaine Clement (Avatar: The Way of Water, Flight of the Conchords), Charlotte Friels (The Dressmaker, Nitram), Crystal Nguyen (Erotic Stories), Talijah Blackman-Corowa (Black Snow), Andy Ryan (Janet King), Janet Anderson (Last King of the Cross), Jenni Baird (The Twelve, A Place to Call Home), and Matt Nable (Barracuda, The Twelve).
Keep an eye out, too, for guest appearances from rugby league greats Andrew "Joey" Johns, Mark 'Spudd' Carroll, Paul Gallen and James Graham.
"I didn't go out to write the CTE show. It's all about Peter Lum for me, it's about a character, it's about a man - a man who can't share - who learns how to share through poetry," Cowell says.
"I've written other stories about male communication. What if men talked to each other? Well, the fact is they never will.
"But what if a man expressed himself to himself? By writing things down?
"He doesn't yell at his wife, he doesn't yell at his kids, he doesn't go out and have 10 beers, he doesn't kill himself - because he's made sense of his own trauma, his own dilemma, his own despair, in his heart and in his mind."
Cowell is a rugby league tragic and a die-hard Cronulla Sharks fan who used the written word - including poetry - to help him through some tough times as a teen. How It Feels was his first novel, a coming-of-age tale about four school friends on the verge of adulthood. He originally wrote Plum as a comedy about a poetry-loving footy player.
Then he started to read about sports-related concussion.
"It kind of bolted on to the story but I never knew it would be this topical, let alone become a TV series," he says.
Contact sports and concussion is a big problem. A scary problem. Posthumous diagnoses of CTE are multiplying. Players are being medically retired at the peak of their careers due to the effects of repeated concussions.
The problem with CTE is that it can only be accurately identified when the sufferer has died. But it can explain a lot, in hindsight. The mood swings and the rage. The bursts of emotion and the forgetfulness.
High-profile former rugby league players gave Cowell an insight into how professional footballers are dealing with their mental and physical health after decades on the sporting battlefield.
"I've got a very good relationship with Spudd [Carroll], I trained with him for 10 years, and his symptoms are similar to Peter Lum's - shading on the brain and things like that," Cowell says.
"Spudd's trying all sorts of science to get rid of the anxiety and find out more about it, and good on him for tackling it head on and for sharing his experience."
Andrew Johns is a good mate of Cowell's and he approached him for advice when writing Plum, the book.
"He turned out to be endlessly erudite about his experiences," Cowell says.
"It felt almost cathartic to him, and that really helped because I wasn't about to write a story about something so sensitive without knowing what I'm on about.
"Every single word in the book and every single line of dialogue in the show has been checked and is there because of the research. There's nothing made up by me because I wouldn't do that to the players."
The characters and world of Plum were informed by in-depth interviews with neurologist Professor Chris Levi and Dr Adrian Cohen, who was the medical adviser during production of the series.
"I'm no doctor, I'm no profit, all I try to do is stir the pot, which I think is what art is for, and also what art has lost a bit now because people get very sensitive to things and are either thumbs up or thumbs down, I hate this and I love that," Cowell says.
"We exist in the middle, in the uncomfortable discussion.
"Art is meant to trigger you and this show will trigger you and I think that's a good thing, because we just might go and have a chat and do some healing and work some stuff out.
"All I'm trying to do is to provoke some positive discussion.
"I don't say I have the answers but I do have the skills and the talent to create a show where I open up all sorts of conversations that might help.
"The conversations are messy, they're grey ones, but so is life."
So, what does he think about the recent rule changes in rugby league? The HIA (Head Injury Assessment) concussion protocols where a player who is suspected of having a concussion must be taken out of the game or training session immediately, for example, and refereeing crackdowns on shoulder charges?
"You know, I think it's pretty straightforward - big hits are still welcome in the game, they just can't be high," Cowell says.
"A problem is that a lot of people are slipping and being hit in the head. A lot of damage comes from tackling, putting your head into a bloke's hip.
"A tough tackle around the ribs is man against man, force against force, power against power, your training against my training, my technique against your technique. A hit in the head is not a big hit, it's not a brave hit, it's not a clever hit. It's a cheap, lazy, tired hit that's damaging.
"I think the game is about strength and power and agility, it's not about shouldering the bloke in the brain.
"If we teach players where to tackle and where the best point of impact is, that should be how it plays out and that should be rewarded. Just don't hit a bloke's head."
And cutting them in half with a good rib tackle could have the added benefit of the opposition losing possession of the ball?
"Exactly. And it's beautiful to watch," he replies.
"There's reckless and there's intentional and the NRL are very much trying, but it's very complicated."
Cowell himself can't count the number of times he's been knocked out in his life, whether it's in the boxing ring, on the footy field, or as a result all the stupid things he did "on the piss" in his 20s and 30s.
"The fact that you can't find out about CTE until after life is a complicated issue. And we want rugby league and contact sports to be played forever. So how do we fix this situation so that can happen?," he says.
"If you challenge your brain, stay healthy, stay happy and positive and curious, you've got a chance, like with any disease, and that's kind of what the science is, and what I've heard from a lot of doctors.
"If you surround yourself with people who just agree with you, you're never gonna grow, and I guess that's one of the propositions of this show - there might be a poet in you, mate. There might be a painter. Who bloody knows?
"Be spontaneous. Wake up tomorrow morning five minutes earlier, put on a techno song and dance. Just try something else.
"I know people have ice baths to shock their system, I'm talking about having a spiritual ice bath. Do the opposite of what you're doing and I bet you'll find something that feels natural.
"I'm preaching now, aren't I?"
