Idolised as one of the greatest AFL players to have graced the game, former West Coast and Carlton superstar Chris Judd has opened up on his life after footy, and what motivates him now.
The two-time Brownlow Medallist hung up his boots in 2015 after a glittering 14-year career in footy’s top flight.
Since then, he has moved into the world of finance. He is the founder and director of Cerutty Macro Fund, an investment firm based in Melbourne that focuses on long-only equities.
While he may now work in an office, instead of kicking a ball on a footy pitch, some elements of his professional AFL career have remained, including his early 5.30am wake-up call.
Judd has always been an early riser, and the former midfielder starts his day by hitting the gym or going for a run before commuting to the office.
The 41-year-old, who famously captained the Eagles to their 2006 premiership victory, has always held an interest in finance.
Chris Judd (pictured with his wife Rebecca) has opened up on how he got into finance
Speaking on the Finance Friends Podcast with Fabian Ruggieri, the 2005 Norm Smith medallist, revealed he had used one of his first pay cheques as an academy player to buy his first shares.
‘I bought my first shares when I was 16,’ the West Coast great told the podcast.
‘I got some money from the AIS, an academy I was a part of. I looked at the old man and said: “What should I do with that?”
‘And he said: “I don’t know…”
‘So we walked down to the news agency and got a shares magazine.
‘And we bought shares. It was a toss-up between AWA, which was a small OEM manufacturer.
‘Or Woolworths, actually!’
‘We went with AWA, which fortuitously got bought out. It wasn’t a great company but we got out of jail on that one.
The footy great has founded his own financial investment firm in Melbourne and revealed his competitive nature as a footballer has made him a better investor
‘Woolworths would have been a good buy and hold from 26 years ago.’
Judd, who was seen enjoying a vacation with his former team-mate Ben Cousins on Cable Beach in Western Australia last month, revealed that he hadn’t necessarily grown up in a family who were that interested by finance, but added that his grandfather was very much into stocks and shares.
‘I didn’t grow up in a financial family at all. My parents had an interest in markets, my grandfather liked his stocks,’ Judd said.
‘So I’m not sure if the passion skipped a generation.’
Judd, who made a cumulative 279 appearances for both the Eagles and the Blues, explained his naturally competitive personality, which he developed during his footy career, meant he was perfectly suited to a life in investment management.
‘I think naturally competitive by nature, there’s an attraction to listed equities where there’s a real scoreboard every day,’ the 41-year-old said.
‘I’m not the sort of investor who says the scoreboard is wrong. That’s the scoreboard and then you work out if you’ve won or not. There’s something about accountability that I really enjoy.’
‘I think that’s the personality type. I score incredibly low on agreeability. Naturally, I am always urged to take the other side of someone’s view, which can be an annoying trait if you live with someone.
Judd (pictured right with Ben Cousins) won the 2006 AFL Grand Final with the West Coast before going on to play for Carlton
‘As an investor, I think that’s a useful characteristic. If you believed everything that a CEO told you when you meet with them, you’d be investing in every single company you ever met with.
‘That high level of disagreeability and competitiveness, while annoying in some instances in life, is useful for professional sport and investing.
‘Any time you invest you’re essentially saying that the market is wrong – how arrogant is that.
‘You’re saying: “The price that the market has given this asset is incorrect and I’m right because of XYZ”. So I think it’s a really tough career path for people who are highly agreeable.’
