MENTORING YOUNG MEN

Q

Mental health has an increasing presence in the rugby league community. How can coaches do their bit to help?

A

We deal a lot with the suicide side of things and working closely with a lot of clubs with that sort of stuff. It’s a bit sad really. As coaches, realistically we may be the only male figure in their life. We don’t know, so it’s really important what we say and how we say it. You can be a bad influence or a good influence – it’s important as coaches that we are mindful of that. That is really important to me.

It’s not all about the footy, there is life around footy. It’s very important that we just instil the basic discipline and morality and make sure the kids understand that if you don’t make it, that’s OK. Just enjoy yourself.

Q

You had to miss Southport’s Round 1 game due to work commitments. What does life outside of footy involve for you?

A

I am a radiographer by profession and then after that me and a couple of other blokes started importing fitness equipment.

Then when I moved up here, I started with a company called The Fitness Generation which is now Novofit and we are a big multi-national company.

We import all the big ranges from all over the world and fit out the health clubs from all over Australia.

I’m the state manager for Queensland, northern NSW and Northern Territory but I do a lot of work basically everywhere.