Jye Linnane says it gets Newcastle’s rookies out in the “real world”, Taj Annan reckons it offers “a bit of insight if footy doesn’t work out”, and Kyle McCarthy feels it “keeps our feet on the ground”.
The three Knights players are talking about the voluntary work they’ve been doing at Newcastle Racecourse in recent weeks.
Every Wednesday, about a dozen of the club’s younger players who are training with the NRL squad have been switching their red-and-blue training kit for high-vis shirts and work boots.
The program is a joint initiative between the Knights and Newcastle Jockey Club (NJC), aimed at benefiting both organisations.
“It ties in with us being a development club, trying to bring young players through,” Newcastle’s NSW Cup and transitional coach, Michael Dobson, said at the Broadmeadow track on Wednesday.
“The program, for a little bit of work on their day off, which is a day off for the full squad, is to teach them to hopefully have an appreciation of what everyday people have got to do.
“Pack their lunch, get up at 530am to get here and work on their day off. When all the other boys get to rest and recover, they’re out here walking the track and working hard.
“If they’re going to be an NRL player long term, it hopefully gives them that appreciation for it.”
The program, while on a smaller scale, has similarities to how the Melbourne Storm send all new players – young or old – out for a week’s work, often on construction sites, before they begin training at the club.
NJC track manager Chris Nation was previously involved in a similar initiative with players from AFL club West Coast Eagles when he worked for Perth Racing.
“The five or so hours that they help us with is invaluable,” NJC chief executive Duane Dowell said of the Knights rookies.
“They start at 7am and go through to lunch time. They’ll do event set-ups with our events team, or they might be out on the track moving rail or repairing the track after gallops.
“It’s not easy work, and I think it’s good for their development.”
Outside-back McCarthy made his NRL debut late last season, but as he is only now training full-time for the first time, he has been put to work.
“It takes me back to when some of us boys used to work before footy. I used to do landscaping back when I was at home at Kiama,” McCarthy, 20, said.
“It’s been a while now, so this has definitely made me appreciate what we have – being a full-time professional athlete. It keeps our feet on the ground.”
Kurri Kurri junior Linnane left school in year 10 and was previously a trades assistant working on mining equipment, but he said the racecourse work was a timely reminder to keep pushing through pre-season training.
“It gets us out here in the real world and shows us a bit of hard work, and what life is like on the other side of football,” he said. “I definitely prefer football.”
Annan is one of the older players involved at 21, but having been part of a professional football environment since high school, it’s been a refresher for the Merewether product.
Annan was with Super Rugby club Queensland Reds over recent years but has returned home and crossed codes.
“Especially for the younger boys, and even myself, I went straight into a professional program when I was 18. I haven’t really had that taste of being able to work,” Annan said.
“Coming in and meeting the guys that work here full-time, it’s been good to see how their life is compared to ours.
“It gives us a bit of insight that if footy doesn’t work out, that it’s something we can get into and it gives us perspective.”
Dowell said the players were “getting the full range of what it’s like to work proper jobs outside of football”.
“They’re pretty good,” he said. “Some guys, I think it’s new to them. Even things like inductions at the start when they begin with us, is new to them. Work, health and safety, they’re the sort of things they probably haven’t been exposed to.”
A few players work at the track more regularly in a paid capacity, but both the Knights and NJC hope to run the program annually.
It comes after the Knights combined with TAFE NSW to put some of their even younger players through a broad range of training activities at the Newcastle campus last week.
“Nearly all these boys have only ever had to work a part-time job,” Dobson said.
“Some of them, like Cody [Hopwood] and guys like that, have come straight out of school and are going into the full-time [NRL] system.
“The reality is, for a lot of players their careers only go for four or five years, and then they’ve got to go and work in the real world.
“It’s to give them that appreciation so that they can knuckle down and have a long career, and so they know what they’re in for when footy finishes.”
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