AFL athlete David Zaharakis is the latest to have his torch snuffed in yet another spectacular blindside on Survivor Heroes vs Villains.
The 33-year-old was in an alliance with Matt, Hayley, Nina, Shaun and Sam but with Matt and Hayley jumping ship to work with George and his spice girls, and with Liz playing her idol for BFF Shonee, David just didn’t stand a chance.
Months on from filming, David admitted to TV Week that he still suffered from some PTSD as to how his torch was snuffed in the game, especially watching it all unfold on national television.
David started the series on the heroes tribe.
(IMAGE: Ten)”It definitely brought back old emotions watching it but I’m fine now. It took me a month after leaving the game to really pick over everything and play out different scenarios in my head,” David tells us.
.png?resize=380%2C285)
.png?resize=380%2C285)
”It’s a very unique experience. Playing football, you watch your game back and then you move on whereas this is like six months later where you are watching it back and you’ve got to relive all those raw emotions.
”For months after I exited and went home to Australia, I thought about it.”
He put his AFL skills to good use during rewards and immunity challenges.
(IMAGE: Ten)Given David has spent so much time pondering his blindside, we had to ask if he had any regrets about his strategic and social approach, especially considering he was playing alongside several veteran players.
”Going into Survivor I knew I was going to be physically strong in the challenges and I was going to be socially strong and create strong relationships around me,” David says.
”Strategy wise I wanted to reach a certain point in the game where I could be strategic which I tried to do with Liz. Nina and Sam on the Hayley blindside before it turned into a mutiny.
”I don’t regret it out there, the only thing I would change though is trusting my instinct more. There were a few things out there where I really should have trusted my gut and followed it through with what I suspected.
”And I’d probably branch out with my relationships more and maybe communicate with a few other people out there that I didn’t necessarily get to. I had strong relationships with too few people.”
David formed a close friendship with fellow AFL veteran Shaun Hampson.
(IMAGE: Ten)So, what about that move at tribal where he tried to stop Liz playing her idol for Shonee?
Apart from the obvious that David’s alliance wanted Shonee gone, David says that his piping up was a ”test” for Liz to see where her alliances lay.
”Nina, Sam, Liz and I created a bond to try and get Haley out and that didn’t work when Liz told George and George wanted to work with Hayley. So, we were stuck in no man’s land going well where do we go from here and had no choice but to go back to the original hero’s strong alliance,” he tells us.
”With that conversation with Liz and tribal I was just trying to suss out that relationship and see if there was anything still there, I still wanted to potentially work with Liz at some point further along in the game.’
After a few weeks in in the heroes tribe David drew a new buff and joined the villains.
(IMAGE: Ten)Elaborating further on how he saw the game progressing, David said that George may be eliminated sooner than we think.
”Clearly running the show right now is George but usually the best strategic players don’t win because no one wants to take them to the final three because they have the best resume.”
”But this is just my gut feeling considering he has been the best strategic player so far and no one wants to sit next to him at final tribal.”
Nina and Sam formed a strong alliance with David as the game progressed.
(IMAGE: Ten)Whilst David has his hopes on Nina, Sam, Flick or Shaun taking out the title of sole Survivor, something tells us that the game will, in true Survivor fashion, continue to play out unpredictably.
”I played Survivor to play the game of Survivor, not to get on tv and I can honestly say that I did that and experienced everything out there from the blindsides to the paranoia to the challenges.
”I would without a doubt 100% no questions asked play again, in a heartbeat.”
.jpg?fit=126%2C128){kind=avatar}