Gold Coast coach Rodney Eade has seen first hand the devastation prostate cancer can cause to a family.

Eade’s father Brian passed away at the age of 72 after fighting a 15-year battle with the disease.

His two uncles also contracted it. What started as unchecked back pain ended up costing a life.

It was a stark wake-up call for Eade and something he was determined to not let happen to him.

So just a few years after finishing his distinguished playing career, the four-time Hawthorn premiership player began a rigorous health-testing regime he has continued to this day.

“I think males in general don’t like being checked for cancer or any illness, particularly older school men, because they think it’s not the right thing to do or it’s not manly,” Eade said.

“I’ve been checked since I was 36 and I’m still clear now, but I’m not taking anything for granted.

“I get checked every six months and am still vigilant about it.

“It forced me to be vigilant about other areas too – bowel, heart.

“I think it’s a message for all men – cancer, illness or disease doesn’t pick favourites. It’s not selecting by age or wealth or status or whatever you may think, we’re not bulletproof and we shouldn’t think like that.”

Eade is the AFL Coaches’ Association ambassador for Men’s Health Week, whose promotion is based around prostate cancer this year. It is inviting men over 40 to visit a Chemist Warehouse store and buy a Pee Ball (if the Pee Ball doesn’t disintegrate under direct flow of urine, then a visit to the GP is in order).

He said upon hearing his father contracted the disease, it forced him to take immediate action.

“I was 36 and really healthy and only finished playing footy four years earlier, and was reasonably fit,” he said.

“My dad was only 57 and I’d heard of men before getting prostate cancer in their 40s, bowel cancer, really fit guys dying of heart attacks in their 40s. It can happen to any of us.”

Eade is 57 and a regular at the doctors. He gets the prostate check every six months, tests for cholesterol and blood pressure in the same timeframe, and a colonoscopy to check for bowel cancer every three years.

He admits they’re not always the easiest procedures, but believes men have slowly overcome the macho attitude that previously might have kept them from being checked.

“I think with anything it’s the invasiveness, ‘you can’t touch me’, or it’s pride, ‘I don’t want people to know’,” he said.

“Bad luck, you’re dealing with your life. It’s not only about you, it’s about your family and your children and grandchildren. I think it’s selfishness in many ways.

“The check for prostate can be invasive. It just has to be done. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

“It doesn’t hurt you, but it can save your life and save your family so much anguish.”

Eade said the deterioration of one of his uncles was particularly painful.

“It’s your life you’re dealing with,” he said. “If you want to play any game of chance, whether you play the pokies, or play at the casino, you’re actually playing with bigger stakes, you’re playing chance with your life and you’re probably going to lose.”

It’s a mindset that has made Eade’s first year in charge at the SUNS easier to deal with.

After success with the Sydney Swans and Western Bulldogs, he came out of virtual coaching retirement to take the Gold Coast job.
After 10 wins last season, most outsiders expected the young list would keep improving and challenge for the top eight. But 2015 has been anything but a smooth ride.

Injuries to his best players and off-field controversies have all led to a year not many anticipated.

He has often said he came in with his “eyes wide open” and, despite the setbacks, has no less confidence in achieving ultimate success.

“When I first came to the job I wasn’t captivated like a lot of people were thinking footy is linear and you’d keep going up, go two (wins), four, 10 or whatever … it doesn’t work like that,” he said.

“I was fairly open-minded about when success would come and how long it would take.

“It was still a young list. You look at Hawthorn’s age last year when they won the premiership, it was as old as a premiership team’s ever been.

“Being through what we’ve been through and seeing how the players internally have reacted to the changes we’ve made, I’m certainly optimistic and bullish about the future to be honest.”

Eade said in a roundabout way, the crippling injury toll had brought everything to a head.

Gold Coast’s four best midfielders – Gary Ablett, Jaeger O’Meara, David Swallow and Dion Prestia – have spent large chunks of the season sidelined.

Not to mention Harley Bennell, Jack Martin and key-position players Rory Thompson and Steven May also missing multiple games.

“I know you don’t relate the two (off-field controversy and injury), but with the injuries being so broad and to key players, you’re obviously not going to get results,” he said.

“If we had those players available, we could be sitting 6-6 or 7-7 and therefore those issues you can work on, but they don’t become public so much.

“What it’s done in a good way, it exposes the depth of our list.

“The alcohol and drugs, they’re just a vehicle to show the whole standards needed improving.

“What we’ve been able to achieve internally so far, if we can keep building on that by the end of the year, and have some wins as well, I think that’ll give us a lot of confidence going into 2016.

“I’m very excited about the future.”