I'll never get sick and tired of speaking about Spud.

He had this great capacity to bring people together; that was his strength for those that didn't know him.

He lit a room up when he walked into it, he was full of mischief, full of fun. If things were a bit boring he'd try and find something to liven things up.

That was him, he loved fun. He was about mates and hanging out together.

I've got lots of great mates in the media, but he was the closest thing I had to a brother.

To have Spud in there with me so that I could turn up every Friday and Saturday night and have a laugh and joke... I knew he had my back, and that was a really comforting thing to know.

What this is now is going to be his legacy, and what a legacy it will be.

I've had my issues, we've all had some struggles along the way. The depth of them, only you know that. Some of us may be sitting there and have gone through a difficult stage and not felt comfortable talking about it, and others now are more comfortable coming forward.  

I don't know many people that resonated more with the general public – particularly our demographic, males – more than him. People looked at Spud and just said 'gee, that's a guy I want to have a beer with'. And yet he was having struggles along the way.

He was the embodiment of what we're trying to get across here and get over the top of.

And that is regardless of how well you think someone's going, or if you look at someone and think they've got their life under control and you think they're happy and are in a good space, unless you take the time to stop and ask –  pull them aside and really ask – then you just don't know.

We're duty-bound now to continue his legacy, and that's what this day is all about.