MOVING ON FROM FOOTY

QHow has the club supported you in your decision? Will they continue to provide support?

AThe support has been great. Tybo was unreal with the retirement. He said if I didn’t make the call, he was probably going to make it for me. I’ve always tried to prepare for the worst, so I was ready to have some pushback. I was prepared for him to say, “let me get the end of the season out of you, we’ll decrease your minutes” – I was ready for a fight and there was nothing. He was happy for me and wanted me to call it a day for my own health. I’ve been and got a million scans, they want me to go and get a million more, and I’m more than happy to do that. There’s no point putting your head in the sand. My grandfather died of cancer at a young age, because he just didn’t want to get it checked. I want to know what’s wrong with me, if there’s something wrong, and I want to start trying to fix it.

QIs the plan to step back for a bit and just enjoy being a spectator for a while?

AYes and no. It doesn’t feel like I’ve retired, it feels like a bye week. This week, I missed my first training session in nine years, but I’m going to try and keep going. There’s a few young forwards coming through and some of the fronties I can give a lot of advice to, because I came from bare bones myself. Nothing was natural, I taught myself every skill and hopefully I can teach them how I learned. Sometimes it’s nice just to have someone smile at you, because football can be stressful.