Hardman Hipgrave
Keegan Hipgrave was a rising star of rugby league – until a series of head knocks and concussions prompted him to give the game away in his early 20s
KEEGAN Hipgrave walked away from rugby league in November as one of Australia’s most intriguing sporting enigmas. The Palm Beach Currumbineducated backrower was once billed a a future Gold Coast Titans captain. A serious academic and mental health advocate for Movember, a cause close to Hipgrave’s heart since the suicide of a mate while still a teenager, earned him a reputation as one of the NRL’S great gentlemen. But Hipgrave had another side, one he only permitted to emerge for 80 minutes per week and exclusively on the brightest stages in Australian sport.
The firebrand forward was a living, breathing NRL kamikaze, his total absence of selfpreservation carefully nurtured and encouraged from his earliest football days by coaches keen to harness his skills for the success of the team.
The big kid all grown up had never been afraid of the car crash-level impacts integral to his sport, nor of the opponents who dished them out at a rate in excess of 600 per match in 2021.
In 2019 three major head knocks forced Hipgrave to spend 12 months on the sidelines.
A season later the Titans elected against extending the former Queensland under-18s captain’s contract. And in the final round of the 2021 season, with new club Parramatta, Hipgrave suffered the fourth and final concussion of his NRL career.
On the advice of his neurologist, Hipgrave – one of the game’s former rising stars – called coach Brad Arthur and voiced out loud for the first time that he would give the sport he loved away for good, one game shy of his 50th match.
He was 24 years old.
NO MEMORY OF CONCUSSIONS
Hipgrave’s memories of his three major concussions in 2019 exist only on the screen of his smartphone.
The first, playing for Tweed in the Intrust Super Cup, he cannot remember at all. The latter two, suffered during NRL matches just 16 days apart, he has replayed dozens of times searching for any hint of wrongdoing on his part.
“It was the third one that really rattled me,” he said. “The second was a forearm from (Manly Sea Eagles enforcer) Marty Taupau coming over the top of a tackle and the third was a swinging arm from Matt Lodge (Brisbane Broncos).
“I went back through all the concussions and tried to see what I was doing wrong and what I could try to fix, whether it was my tackle technique or whatever, but it wasn’t: all three of those concussions were penalties or put on report.
“It was just an unlucky scenario and one of those things that happen in rugby league.”
Hipgrave shook off the effects of the Taupau head knock to start the next two games for the Titans but was dogged by serious symptoms after the Lodge incident. For the then-23-yearold, the biggest of those was a wildly fluctuating emotional state, spinning from joy to agitation to crushing melancholy all in the blink of an eye.
Memory lapses indicated to doctors this was no brain injury that would heal overnight despite symptoms clearing in just over a month.
“After that five or six weeks you feel fine, you go back to training and can do everything but the neurologists said you’ve got to take this time because if you keep going you’re going to be more prone to having these symptoms.”
The recommended six months away from contact sport dragged out to 12 when the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic prompted a major delay of the season, to Hipgrave’s advantage.
With a time crunch to impress his fourth head coach in four seasons, Hipgrave went on to record nine starts and a further four interchange appearances in his comeback season. He thought his issues with concussion were a thing of the past.
At a meeting with Justin Holbrook at the season’s end, the Titans coach told Hipgrave he had done enough and was keen to re-sign him.
That was the last time the former captaincy candidate heard from his coach. A message from his manager weeks later had a more jarring truth. The Titans would be going in a different direction, and Hipgrave was unemployed for the first time since his 17th birthday.
THE FORGING OF AN NRL FORWARD
The son of a teacher and a lift mechanic had always been drawn to rugby league.
In an active household Hipgrave and sister Katie, two years his elder, were encouraged to have a go at everything, with surf lifesaving, water polo and football the main sports.
Early starts were the norm, with the siblings racing each other out of bed to be first ready for swim or board training at 4.30am.
While the water sports had been his sister’s area of expertise that bedrock of training and discipline saw Hipgrave blossom on the back paddocks of Nerang Roosters rugby league club.
The pull of playing with his mates was the initial lure but the sport soon captured the eightyear-old’s imagination.
“I was never scared of other players or their size,” Hipgrave reflected, “I was just playing with all my mates and that was the main thing for me.
“Most kids love that crash and bash-y type of footy and I definitely didn’t shy away from that.
“I really did enjoy it and a lot of coaches encouraged that in me because they thought that was a rare aspect to have in a player. I had that aspect of going 100 per cent. I wanted to always cross that white line and give it my best. I wanted to be the hardest player on the field. That’s what stuck with me through my entire career.”
By 13, Hipgrave had clued on to his footballing gifts and began dreaming of following in the footsteps of family friend and former Newcastle captain Paul ‘Chief’ Harragon to the elite level.
A move to rugby league nursery Palm Beach Currumbin, where mum Lesley had taught decades earlier, was the first step. It was there in 2009, that Broncos scouts stumbled across the strapping teen and offered a pathway to turn his dream into reality. Fortnightly trainings at Red Hill from the age of 13 sharpened the natural instincts Hipgrave was already starting to display.
In his final year Queensland and Australian under-18 selections were followed by a four-year contract offer to join the Broncos NRL side for pre-season and play in the club’s under-20s. It felt like everything was clicking into place. “Once I signed the contract and was playing (in the representative) 18s I felt like I was ticking the boxes and achieving the goals I had set for myself,” he said. “I didn’t know when I would play NRL but I knew I wanted to play and make my debut before I was 20.”
TOUGH LESSONS
As Hipgrave’s career trajectory approached stratospheric levels, the death of a mate midway through his first NRL pre-season changed his perspective on football forever.
On Australia Day, 2015, Hipgrave’s world was rocked when news arrived from Townsville that his Queensland and Australian Schoolboys teammate Regan Grieve had taken his own life days before his 19th birthday.
The Mackay-born backrower had been on an identical path to Hipgrave with the Cowboys when a severe ankle injury ruled him out of contention for both Australian selection and his first NRL pre-season in Townsville.
“That put football back into perspective for me,” Hipgrave said.
“That was a pretty tough day, lots of tears. “We’d gotten to room together during our schoolboys time and he was a good friend of mine. He was always the happiest guy, so funny. It took me by surprise and it was one of those things I never thought of.
“How can guy this guy, an outstanding athlete and the happiest, nicest guy you’d ever meet, have this dark side?”
Hipgrave signed on to support the Movember men’s health charity as an ambassador the following year, raising awareness of an issue brushed over in elite sporting circles for many years. Hipgrave fought his own injury battles in the coming seasons with the knowledge that football was just one part of his life.
A promotion to the captaincy of the Broncos under-20s in 2016 was soured when a run of consecutive hamstring tears set back his development by years and ended his dream of an NRL debut by 20. More frustrating was the knowledge that Hipgrave’s own impatience was at least partially to blame.
I had that aspect of going 100 per cent. I wanted to always cross that white line and give it my best. I wanted to be the hardest player on the field
“As much as I don’t want that to be the case I think it definitely was,” he said. “The first hamstring tear I rushed back from too quickly because I didn’t know the extent of the injury. I’d wanted to play in the Australian under-20s and was pushing to play for that. There were a lot of things I wanted to do at that age where I was just immature and should have given it more time.”
While stuck on the sidelines others at the Broncos overtook Hipgrave in the club’s backrow pecking order and his prized NRL debut drifted further and further away.
It was at that point the Titans came calling with an expression of faith in a local junior the club had first attempted to sign while still a student at PBC. With opportunities aplenty on the Gold Coast, Hipgrave signed on to join the club midway through the 2017 season, amid the tumultuous final days of the Neil Henry-jarryd Hayne era of Titans rugby league.
A LONG WAY FROM RED HILL
Hipgrave entered the Titans organisation amid a civil war between head coach and marquee player but said drama at the upper echelons of the club never became a distraction for the footballers at ground level desperate to keep their heads down and win some games.
Leaving the Broncos famed culture to whatever the Gold Coast was building couldn’t discourage the optimism the ex-queensland under-18s skipper felt. In the decade-old Titans, Hipgrave saw an opportunity to lead a change and establish a winning culture of their own.
“It was just different – they were different cultures,” he said. “The Broncos are an old, experienced club and the Titans were still finding their feet when I came in.
“I was really excited to be part of the process of making it a successful club.”
Reuniting with old PBC teammates Kane Elgey and Karl Lawton, and playing alongside former PBC stars he’d watched in the stands as a youngster like Ryan James and Kevin Proctor, helped make the transition to his hometown team easy. Club captain James in particular would become a role model for Hipgrave’s approach to life in the NRL both on and off the field.
The ‘Rhino’ moniker suited James’ bullocking front row play while his banterous off-field persona helped foster the Titans brother-hood in quiet moments between training sessions. “I wanted to replicate that,” Hipgrave said. “Ryan James inspired me to be a leader at the Gold Coast. To this day I still don’t know a nicer bloke. He was willing to help guys on the field but even more off the field with their investments or how he went through certain things. I knew I had to keep working hard and playing great but one day I wanted to captain the club.”
Soon Hipgrave became the unofficial leader of the club’s welcoming committee, taking it upon himself to help smooth the arrivals of new recruits into the team environment.
Coach Henry was relieved of his job in August.hipgrave went on to make the debut he had always dreamt of, playing 60 minutes in a tight final-round loss to the Roosters in Sydney.
MOULDING THE MONSTER
Most Titans players’ definitive memories of head coach Garth Brennan between 2018 and 2020 involve ‘copping a spray.’ The ex-police officer could almost have been heard in the stands when trying to inspire some fight in the Titans when things weren’t going their way on the field. After 12 wins and 36 losses in Brennan’s first two years he had plenty of inspiring to do.
But there was something between the fiery coach and Hipgrave that clicked.
“Garth sort of encouraged my aggressive nature,” he said. “He’s a hard taskmaster and if you weren’t doing what he expected he was really quick to whip you into line.
“Halfway through a game or at the end of one it’d be all red face, spit flying out everywhere, but that just showed you how passionate he was about the club and wanting the club to have success. People passionate about the club clicked with that. He always says to me he loved the way I play.”
Hipgrave’s on-field alter ego, warts and all, rose to the fore under the guidance of his new coach. Finding the line between what was fair play and what was not became an issue.
Suspended twice in his first three career games, Hipgrave’s discipline attracted national headlines when he became the first player in 16 years to be sin-binned twice in one match.
“When I was younger I found it hard knowing where that line was,” Hipgrave reflected. “A lot of the times I stepped over that line but you don’t know where the line is until you cross it. Coming through I was just competitive and wanted to do the best I could and being aggressive was just natural for me on the field. That was what coaches encouraged me to do and I fed into it.
“An example would be pressuring the kicker – you want to pressure the halfback to kick before he is ready to, so instead of thinking ‘I’ll put some pressure on’, the mindset is ‘I’m just going to go and ‘sack’ him,’ and sometimes it might be a little late. I think that comes with maturity because I finally figured it out in my last year or two playing NRL.”
PARRAMATTA
Swapping the beaches of the southern Gold Coast for western Sydney was as dramatic a club switch as an NRL player could make but that was a major part of the appeal of signing with Parramatta. Joining a top four club who could take him to the first finals campaign of his career was another and Hipgrave was happy to take a pay cut to be a part of a winning culture.
Having joined the Broncos system at 13 and then meeting familiar faces at the Titans from 20, the foreign environment at Parramatta presented a chance for a clean slate. Here Hipgrave could get back to the grind of playing football without baggage of prior expectations.
“I knew I had to look elsewhere. I knew I wanted to be at a successful top four club,” he said. “(Coach) Brad Arthur liked the way I played and thought I could be a big addition.
“I was happy to take the pay cut. I’d rather take unders to get to a club like that than stay on the same and go to a club in the bottom eight.”
Hipgrave’s social charms won the friendship of one of the game’s elite forward packs while his relentless play saw him top Nrl-wide statistical counts for workrate in defence.
The Eels won eight from eight with Hipgrave on the field, until the final round of the regular season against eventual champions Penrith.
A collision with ex-broncos teammate Tevita Pangai Junior left the ex-titan with his first concussion since that 2019 season.
“Don’t get me wrong, that was probably one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make,” Hipgrave said. “The call to Brad was definitely the toughest. It was probably the first time I said out loud I wouldn’t continue to play rugby league but I was going off the neurologist’s recommendation. He said we all love rugby league but told me I had to think long-term. Looking back at the decision now I think it’s going to be the right call for me moving forward.”
Hipgrave says the acceptance of his decision from the rugby league world is a testament to how greatly the culture around brain injuries has changed in the NRL.
Origin captain Boyd Cordner’s retirement in June at age 29 followed Roosters teammate Jake Friend’s two months earlier, both citing their need to protect themselves from concussions.
Their decisions empowered Hipgrave that there was no shame in prioritising his future over his beloved game.
“The culture has definitely changed, even among the old boys I’ve spoken to,” Hipgrave said. “If you had a head knock even when I was growing up you get on with it. These last few years have definitely seen a shift which I think is a positive shift towards player wellbeing and health.”
Hipgrave returned to the Gold Coast after announcing his retirement but has since moved back in to the Collaroy home he shares with fiancee Izzy. His immediate future will see him focus on completing the MBA he started with his great mentor Ryan James. He bears no grudge against the sport for the physical toll it has taken.
“I love rugby league,” he said. “I’ve always loved rugby league so if there’s an opportunity there (to return to the game in some capacity) I’ll always be open to it. For now I’ll keep ticking away on my MBA and I’ll keep doing that until I figure out what the next step will be.”
Hipgrave was in so many ways the NRL’S model citizen. All work ethic, toughness and toil on the field, the consummate professional was never embroiled in an off-field scandal.
He was a young man moved by social issues to seek justice and support for members of the community at war with their emotions.
His journey on the field is now over but rugby league player was only ever one part of Keegan Hipgrave’s identity. With one chapter of his life closed the 24-year-old is ready to write his next.
It was probably the first time I said out loud I wouldn’t continue to play rugby league but I was going off the neurologist’s recommendation