New mountain to climb
How ‘Rat Pack’ helped Rogers find fresh challenge to handle life after football
AS football great Mat Rogers racks his bike for today’s Tweed Coast Enduro triathlon he will be surrounded by a “Rat Pack” that have given him plenty of purpose in life.
The group of like-minded individuals are part of Rogers’ “team” who have helped him avoid the devastating pitfalls awaiting former athletes after their sporting careers end.
It’s an issue that has been painfully in focus for Rogers this past week after the loss of his good friend and former Wallabies teammate Dan Vickerman. Dual-international Rogers has opened up about his own challenges post-football and admits the desire to help his son Max, 10, and others with autism has become one of the driving forces in his life after giving the game away.
Rogers made his Wallabies debut alongside Vickerman against France in 2002 and was left devastated by his death. It is something that hits close to home for Rogers, who lost his father and league identity Steve, who suffered depression, in 2006.
“Me and Dan were good mates and when we played together he was just a tremen- dous human being,” Rogers said yesterday.
“It’s a really sad loss – I’m still shocked when I think about it. I can’t believe what’s happened has happened and what concerns me is that it’s happening too often.
“Talking to a lot of psychologists after I lost my dad I was like ‘why didn’t he talk to me’.
“Then you have to think the pain they must be in and the pain they must be going through and it just scares me.”
The former Gold Coast Titans star admitted he initially had trouble making the transition out of his sporting career after retiring in 2011 and was in danger of slipping into the same traps that catch out many others.
The 41-year-old said it wasn’t until he formed the Rat Pack in 2013 and devoted himself to charity 4 ASD Kids, a foundation Rogers and wife Chloe created to assist families dealing with autism, that he found his way again.
“I didn’t do anything for those two years,” Rogers said.
“I didn’t put a pair of trainers on. We set some things up so I could retire from football and retire comfortably so I literally just travelled for a couple of years.
“It was a tough couple of years missing that environment and I think I went back the third year and did some assistant coaching with Carty at the Titans because I was missing it and I thought I needed it.
“I realised it wasn’t that, it was just me trying to find my way. I probably ate and drank a little bit too much and probably did a little bit too much of everything.
“When you retire at around the age of 34 you think ‘well I’ve got another 40 or 50-odd years to live and nothing is going to be as good as what I’ve already done’. That can be a scary place to be.”
But Rogers, who has done multiple half and full ironmans, said he has something genuine to fight for after build- ing a life that has replicated his stunning rugby league and union career.
“What triathlon’s done for me post my sporting career is probably secondary to what giving back to the community has done. One became the other,” Rogers said.
“That gave me a real genuine purpose.”
Rogers will take on the 1.9km swim, 90km cycle, and 21.1km run in today’s event alongside the Rat Pack that helps raise money for 4 ASD Kids.