It was a tight race for Josh and Mark, as both knew the likelihood of both of them sitting at the final Tribal Council was slim to none. Unfortunately, Mark was able to get in the head of Josh’s closest ally and convince her to make a move, voting Josh out of the game and making him the final member of the Jury.
“You can’t begrudge someone for playing the game,” Josh told 10 play following the finale. “I just thought it was too late to make the ‘big move’. You were with me for so long, what’s one big move going to do now when Mark’s played a more complete game?”
As Chrissy began talking about having to battle between her head and her heart, Josh knew his head was firmly on the chopping block. “I’m glad Mark won,” Josh revealed. “It’s hard for a big alpha like that, it’s understated to be the size of Mark and get through the whole game and end up taking it out, it’s very hard to do.
“He had a target on his back from the start, so it’s a great representation. I’m honoured to have him as our winner,” he continued.
Having played a quietly strategic game, post-merge Josh really emerged as a big player, always figuring out where to split votes and how the numbers would fall. On top of that, he was part of the firm majority alliance, which also happened to be full of big physical threats.
It was perhaps the most physically intimidating post-merge of Australian Survivor, and it was done with a purpose.
“We knew in Survivor the physical threats get taken out, so we knew we had to work together and take it to the end,” Josh said. “That made it riskier and harder to win challenges, it was a catch-22, but if you win too many you become the target. So it was a great working relationship with Mark.
“We both had similar personalities where we’d say something to each other, see the logic and we’d know both our hands were tied together again because if they took one of us out, the next one would be on the chopping block.”
Though he wasn’t able to make it to the final tribal, Josh hasn’t ruled out a return to the world of Survivor just yet.
“The experience of playing the game was so fun. Being out there was the best part of the whole journey! To do it with a loved one, and then to meet some awesome people along the way, I couldn’t ask for more other than the win, but it was a great experience.
“It would be interesting to see how I go early on. Will I have enough social skills to get me through the first few votes or will people think I’m too much of a threat? I wouldn’t be expecting too much from it, but it would be fun to try and navigate that again.”
