Roy and HG have a podcast on ABC radio called Bludging on the Blind Side.
The Australian comedy duo is Greig Pickhaver as “H. G. Nelson” and John Doyle as “‘Rampaging’ Roy Slaven”. They’re supposedly an affectionate but irreverent parody of Australia’s obsession with sport.
They frequently mention greyhound racing on their ABC podcast but the parody seems more like cheerleading as they promote the dog-killing industry and read out press releases.
In 2024 CPG emailed the program five times, providing details about the industry’s inherent cruelty. They were informed about ongoing track deaths, the Brittan report, the 1,046 deaths in the FY23-24 GWIC annual report, and sent the video of Self Sink’s broken back.
They failed to respond. They continued spruiking the industry. Where is the ABC balance?
Many dog-loving ABC listeners would be disappointed to hear how their program parrots the propaganda of the greyhound racing industry, distorting the cruel reality of dog racing and ignoring the loss of dogs like Self Sink.
ABC complaints process: https://help.abc.net.au/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=6354974197519
Several podcast transcripts are below:
ABC RADIO: ROY AND HG: BLUDGING ON THE BLIND SIDE 5 April 2025
R I’ll tell you what I can get my head around, HG, that is the Golden Easter Egg.
HG The Golden Easter Egg!
R Isn’t that on shortly?
HG I think it’s next weekend.
R Next weekend. Now this is the highest, the biggest prize money for any dog event in the world. (That’s right) I think it’s $300,000 for the winner.
HG I think that’s right. It’s certainly up there. I don’t know if it’s just winner or not.
R Well, we might get to, I’m just thinking about great Golden Easter Eggs in the past. Remember when Mackenna might have won last year? That was a great win, but I think it was Tenthill Doll. We were there the night Tenthill Doll won, and we were there the night Zipping Bailey won.
HG Zipping Bailey, oh, that was incredible.
R That was incredible. God, we produce great dogs.
HG Okay, and if I’ve got a chance, apparently the, you’re right, $300,000 to the winner You’re right. Yeah. Group one Golden Easter Egg.
Here’s the field. Finally released. Jungle Johnny, Lakeview Emily, Kisses for Gran, Good Odds Cobber, Power and Glory, Big Energy, Flying Zulu, Paw Oswald and Miss Envy.
It’s a great field. It’s a great field. It’s on next Saturday night at Wenty Park.
So that’s something to really look forward to.
R Well, it’s something to put a bit of money on.
ROY AND HG: BLUDGING ON THE BLIND SIDE, ABC RADIO 14 Sept 2024
HG Now, directly after Papenhuyzen’s round in 2024 NRL commitments, he will quickly shift his attention to his second love of greyhound racing. Now, we broke a story recently about, rugby league players, might have been Grant and owning a few dogs. Now we’ve got Pappy with a couple of dogs, where he’s again signed on to be the face of, wait for it, Ladbroke’s Million Dollar Chase.
R Is he really?
HG The face of the chase.
R I thought he was the face of Greyhounds As Pets.
HG No, that’s Tim Cahill, I seem to remember. He could easily be the face as well.
R I think he is a face. A face of rehoming greyhounds, I think.
HG But not just content with being a forefront of the million-dollar event, Papenhuyzen has a genuine chance of living the ultimate dream, sharing in ownership of the series hopeful Nangar Larry.
R Nangar Larry.
HG Is that one of his? It’s one of his. At Goulburn last Friday, the prolific winning chaser stamped himself in the semi-final pick as a [social fashion?].
Now, he’s one win away from a grand final berth in what’s described as the richest greyhound race for dogs. We thought a month or so ago his best might have been behind him, but he’s really turned the corner. He’s going fantastic, just like Pappy himself.
The more I learn about the greyhounds, the more you see they’re like an athlete. When their confidence is up, they can ride it and keep going. And with Larry, we’re seeing that now.
I try not to get too carried away about what he might be able to do, but when you look at his prize for the million-dollar chase, you see bookies are giving him a chance. A bit of relief and momentum goes a long way. Fueling the attraction of the attending of the chase, the million-dollar chase, is Punt with Paps.
Punt with Paps.
R Punt with Paps.
HG Now, wait for it. This is a competition. God, they’re so complex, this stuff.
R Yeah.
HG Punt with Paps competition will see ten lucky trackside attendees have a chance to win $100,000.
R OK. Is that if you punt with Paps?
HG Punt with Paps lucky trackside attendees, so if you got a bet with Paps and they pull your name out you can be one of the lucky ten. During the final night on Friday October 18, obviously just over a month away, 10 winning ticketholders will attempt to kick a rugby league ball 40m into a wheelie bin to secure the rich prize. I mean, imagine that.
R What a great cross-promotion that is.
HG Incredibly dense, isn’t it? And layered. So I had a few goes at it the other week and got closer to it with the blindfold on than with it off, he quipped. It won’t be easy, but it’s not impossible, you see it in the NBA every now and then, a half court shot.
The Million Dollar Chase note last year, was great atmosphere and I can see the competition only adding to the event. I can’t wait for the Million Dollar Chase, I can’t wait, love that term, but for now the focus is on the Storm.
Now, that is an incredible development in greyhound racing.
R That is wonderful. I heard talk, HG, that the lure may be a rugby league ball smeared with mince.
HG Yes, that will take a bit of skill with the lure driving, won’t it? Yeah.
A rugby league covered, a ball covered in mince.
R Smeared, smeared with mince, yes.
HG Yeah, that’ll be a real trick. And to think that a million dollars, hang on, is that right? A million dollars is going off in the dog race. A hundred thousand is going off in the boot the ball into the bin race.
R That’s fantastic.
That is fantastic. And that’s the sort of cross promotion that’s going to bring that, you know, obviously.
R And I spoke to Pappy, HG, a couple of weeks ago, that’s Ryan Papenhuyzen, about his greyhound, it might be called Smiling Bill.
HG Smiling Bill, yeah.
R Which is one of his, a winner, won quite a few times, and he was telling me how moving it was to see Smiling Bill rehomed.
HG Oh.
R You know, after his racing. After his racing had concluded.
HG And was that something that Pap the Face had done?
R Yes.
HG Yeah, isn’t that great?
R Yeah, it is great. It is great. Because as you know, the difficulty is for a lot of greyhound trainers, is you get a dog that’s quick for a while, and then it burns itself out, or ends up going slow, or gets injured.
It’s a bit hard to say with, you know, communication, difficult often with a dog. And then you’ve got to do something with them, because they’re going to live for another, you know, eight, ten years. What are you going to do? Feed them every day for nothing, or do you get rid of them, i.e. rehoming as pets? And I think that’s a great idea.
HG It is. Has he got visiting rights? Can he go and
R visit Smiling Bill? Yes, he can visit Smiling Bill, as far as I know, yes. Which is great, yes.
ROY AND HG: BLUDGING ON THE BLIND SIDE, ABC RADIO 11 May 2024
H: “…now, <reading> the Broken Hill Cup Carnival kicks off on Sunday when the outback track hosts the first of six meetings before the end of June. The feature race of the carnival is the $10,000 prize to the Broken Hill Greyhound Club Racing FabTech Cup which headlines the card on June the 2nd.”
R: “Right…”
H: “FabTech Cup!”
R: “FabTech Cup.”
H: “It’s goin’ with the modern times, isn’t it.”
R: “Isn’t it ever.”
H: “That says ‘now’. The size of the crowd is gonna be dependant on the temperature, apparently it can, you know, uh, drop down a bit, at night. They’re gonna have live music, food vans…”
R: “Food vans!”
H: “Yeah, so that’s good. And, uh, things to liven up the night. It’s a bit hard on Sunday evening because people obviously have to work the following day, but the nights are starting to feel a bit fresher and the temperature can drop by 5 degrees, so wear something warm.”
R: “Right.”
H: “Trainers that come for the first time will love the atmosphere of our meetings, it’s a real outback experience. We’ve got about 20 local licensed trainers and there’s about 70 dogs in the district. So that’s a really good, uh…”
R: “Isn’t that great.”
H: “Really good, uh, something to aim for if you’re in that area. I mean, tomorrow to Broken Hill, it wouldn’t take that long to drive to would it?”
R: “No, don’t spose it would. No. No.”
<end segment>
ROY AND HG: BLUDGING ON THE BLIND SIDE, ABC RADIO 4 May 2023
H: “Now, coming back to a … email we got from people in Canberra concerning dogs rehoming”
R: “Oh yes.”
H: “Ah, look, this is an amazing story. This gives you an idea of the connection between Rugby League, or should I say football, and Greyhound racing.”
R: “Yes. Alright.”
H: “And I’ve gotta set this in context because I think I’m right in saying Thursday night there was a showdown in Adelaide between obviously Crows and Port Power, which the Crows had a great win in…”
R: “Yes.”
H: “Port Power look as though they’re really in trouble. Anyway, <reading> a quarter of AFL between Port Adelaide and Richmond at Adelaide oval last year could prove the ultimate springboard to four close mates revelling in a $500,000 windfall in New Castle on Friday night. Now, they must mean next Friday night as nearly as I can tell.”
R: “Right.”
H: “The Adelaide based four from Tungsten Racing Syndicate which races the ‘staying surprise packet’ Kenya Amy, one of the major players in the Ladbrokes 715, the world’s richest greyhound staying race. Now…”
R: “Oh, the Nugget’s not a staying race.”
H: “No. And the Easter cup, they’re not staying races. But this is the world’s richest staying…”
R: “What is a staying race? She’s just a longer distance?”
H: “A longer distance, yeah, but are you gonna ask me how long?”
R: “No, I, no, no. It’s just longer than the Golden Egg, that’s all I wanted to know.”
H: “Yeah. Now, <continuing> the daughter of Sinachi and Bombshell Bandit…”
R: “Oh, Bombshell Bandit was a fantastic dog.”
H: “Yeah. <continuing> that tips the scales at a mere 25kgs, Kenya Amy raced in the lucrative final at the gardens with the slashing 41 64 … victory last week to win 7 of her 20 career starts, so, ‘it was a bit surreal, to be honest,’ said the owner. ‘What she’s doing has really come out of nowhere. James and myself were at the footy last year when we got a phone call from our trainer in Victoria saying the New South Wales breeder had an unraced pup for sale. We had a few beers as you do when you’re at the footy, and I jumped on the phone to John and Dale and by the end of the quarter of footy I’d called Matt back and said we’re keen to go ahead!’”
R: “Isn’t that brilliant.”
H: “Isn’t that a lovely story!”
R: “Wonderful story.”
H: “You know, and <continuing> we bought her, we would’ve been sight unseen, raced unseen, we’d have been happy to win a few races in Melbourne, and here we are within a few months, in a major race as one of the most promising stayers going around anywhere in the world.”
R: “Isn’t that wonderful.”
H: “It just shows you where racing can take you and sometimes when you least expect it. <continuing> we’re all on cloud 9.”
R: “Yeah.”
H: “Isn’t that a great story.”
R: “That is a wonderful story.”
H: “And that’s what greyhound racing can do for you and has done for so many Australians.”
R: “That’s right. That’s right. The thing about it, the wonderful thing about greyhound racing, HG, you know, all dogs are born to run, but what you’re looking for is the dog that’s born to race.”
H: “Beautifully put. That’s right.”
R: “There is a difference. And you never know. You never know until you actually get them in the enclosure…”
H: “Yeah, put em in the box…”
R: “And let the bunny run. With other dogs chasing alongside you. That’s when you know when you’ve got a racer or a runner. Um, and that’s wonderful. Wonderful story.”
H: “And the idea that somehow the football can’t have been that entertaining to get together a syndicate and put the papers through and say ‘yeah, we’ll take it,’ and start racing, probably they mapped out a few races to put it in before half time!”
R: “Yeah. Yes.”
H: “Beautiful story.”
R: “It is a wonderful story, and you know when you have a few beers with mates… stories like this, you know, things like this… plans can be made.”
H: “Yeah.”
R: “I mean, they might look stupid the next morning when you wake up.”
H: <laughs>
R: “But in this instance! It’s not. You know, the decisions they made at the time were…”
H: “Were gold!”
R: “Were absolute gold.”
H: “Gold. So if you’re phoned up today and somebody suggests a dog, would you try and ring around and see if you could get something happening?”
R: “I certainly would. I certainly would.”
<end segment>