Sent home with not one idol, but two, it was one of the most explosive Tribal Council’s ever seen.
“Oh man, I definitely wanted to break some records, but that wasn’t one I had in mind. I think it will be a memorable episode,” Simon laughed while chatting with 10 play.
A massive player, Simon's fellow castaways saw him as a huge threat due to his brilliant social game and physical skills. Most of his tribe knew that he had an idol, but nobody knew he had two. Until he told his most trusted sidekicks, Dani and Chelsea.
“I knew as soon as I found the second one that it was so game-changing. It gave me a huge chance at winning, but I always made sure I never got too far ahead of myself. I know...I came across as too confident at times, but I made sure I kept everything in check.
“I was nervous, nervous as hell because there was no way that I wanted to go home with two like that. It’s just not what anyone would want to happen,” he continued, “but you’ve just got to have some faith in your relationships and the people around you. I thought we were sitting in a good spot, but they had other plans.”
When Simon realised Chelsea and Dani had turned on him, he said it was absolutely “heartbreaking”.
“They were my closest alliance since day one. It’s never a fun thing to realise. It’s one thing for your tribe to blindside you, but then it’s another thing for your alliance to turn on you. And I knew that being the leader, being the alpha of the group, it’s a really tough position to be playing from socially.”
Simon tried to keep his relationship with them strong, making sure they knew they could trust him and it didn’t feel like a “dictatorship”.
“I trusted them so much and I was ready to shield them with everything and use those idols for them, and that’s why I told them about the second idol because that’s an example of where information is power. I tossed up whether it was the right decision or not, but at the end of the day, I was bringing them in to show them that I was loyal to them and I was here to play for them and for us so we could go as far as we could in the game.”
In the game of Survivor, you can’t trust anyone, and at times it seemed that Simon was suspicious of his tribe. But he told 10 play that it wasn’t necessarily as easy to pick up on as it seemed.
“You always have to be suspicious, and you always have to keep your guard up, but I played back the last 48-72 hours of the game and there was nothing that jumped out at me. The plan had actually been in place for quite a while and everyone was already in on it and already knew what to do and what lines to feed me on the way through. So, it made me think the relationships I had with the Brains, with Hayley and Wai in particular, were going to be strong moving forward.”
Even during the Immunity Challenge, Simon admitted he had a feeling they threw the challenge. But he assumed they did so to get rid of Flick.
“I actually had conversations with Dani and Baden about potentially throwing the challenge to get Flick out, so seeing them throw it wasn’t a surprise to me. What was the blindside was me being the collateral damage of them throwing it, that’s what caught me off-guard.
“I was so gutted to be a part of a tribe that threw an Immunity Challenge and forfeited. I was so enraged. But I had to stand by my alliance and put on a happy face about it and I was happy to do so.”
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When Simon discovered Dani was the one who “enabled the blindside to go down”, he was surprised because Hayley was the one who had the control and Dani ultimately became the “collateral damage” if Simon played his idol.
“I know that I was a big threat in the game and big threats need to be neutralised, but I don’t think it was the right decision. I was a great shield for them and I think it was very short-sighted, the protection that I offered them both was huge. I’ve never seen someone go against their alliance so early in the game because loyalty is so hard to come by. So, from my perspective, I’m just excited to see how that affects Dani and where it leaves her and if she finds herself in a compromised position without me around. I hope she doesn’t go the distance and she goes out next,” he laughed.
Despite being the victim of the biggest blindside of the season (so far), and breaking an Australian Survivor record, Simon shared that he holds no hard feelings towards his tribemates.
“I have no hard feelings to anyone in the game at all... It is a game and I’d never hold that against anyone... but I definitely thought, given the shared experience that we had, I would’ve had closer relationships with people after the game with what we went through. But I’ve found that some conversations have been one-sided rather than going both ways,” he revealed.
Simon was voted off at the Tribal Council before merge, which was a “tough pill to swallow”. Had he noticed even the slightest hint of betrayal was coming his way, he definitely would have played his idol.
“It was my insurance policy to get me through to merge, I wasn’t hanging onto it for ego sake or for any other reason, and it just goes to show how much of a perfectly executed blindside it was. It's pretty heartbreaking, knowing that I was so close to merge.
“My goal in this game was to be in a position where you can help award or deny someone half a million dollars. And yes, it would be amazing to be one of the final two, but if I couldn’t be there, it would at least be amazing to impact that decision based on the game that person had played,” Simon said.
Simon has been watching every episode, reading every forum and tweet and enjoying it like every other viewer.
“I’m sitting on the couch watching this guy who I share all the same morals and values with and I look up to him and I really want him to succeed and even though I know the outcome, I am so nervous and so hopeful that he doesn’t fail and that he does succeed and that he comes across well and it’s just crazy that that guy is me.
“I loved the challenges and loved competing, that was just so epic and I was so in my element there, leading my tribe to so many victories and just being able to prove myself as a challenge beast and live in the moment and just smash it. I didn’t plan to come out of the gate so hard but I’m really proud of how I managed to hang around for so long in the game.”
