AGENT OF CHANGE
McHugh’s ‘holistic’ approach to clients
DAVID McHugh knows all about dealing with times of uncertainty. Having left his position as team manager with Michael Cheika’s Leinster in 2007, McHugh set up Line Up Sports with a vision to create a more holistic approach to sports management. Think of a more pragmatic version of Jerry Maguire and you get the picture.
No sooner had that venture got off the ground when the global financial crisis stuck. No matter, the business survived and thrived and in the present day it houses some of the biggest names in Irish rugby with the likes of Conor Murray, James Ryan, Tadhg Furlong, Rob Kearney and Jacob Stockdale all on board. There’s also boxer Kellie Harrington, the O’Donovan brothers, jockey Rachael Blackmore as well as Sevens international Greg O’Shea, or the winner of ‘Love Island’ as he is more widely known.
Fast forward to the present day and the sports industry is in the eye of the Covid-19 storm.
‘We have good days and bad days,’ McHugh admits. ‘I’ve furloughed staff because it made sense. Certainly, our revenue projections are probably down about 60 per cent from what we’d hoped for the year and that’s obviously a concern but we’re also using the time to be creative.
‘Essentially this is the second recession in 10 years for me and I take great pride in having built a business in a recession and grown it every year since I’ve started.
‘When I set the business up in 2007, I did it because I wanted to do it differently than what had been done before and I wanted to show that a sports agency wasn’t just about negotiating employment contracts and securing revenue on the field for athletes but that there was a bigger duty of care towards managing those people and advising them and mentoring them.
And the job doesn’t end when those athletes call it a day either.
‘When you get to that point in your career, it’s always going to be difficult to transition but it’s about making sure that you’re prepared as best as you can be rather than arriving at the edge of a cliff and falling off that cliff and being very uncertain about the future and where you might like to go or how you are going to get there,’ McHugh explains.
‘Whether you’re a boxer, a sailor, a hockey player or a rugby player or a rower, the principles are the same. High performance lasts for, on average, let’s say seven to 10 years but your working life is going to be 35 years beyond that, on average, so you’ve got to put a weighted emphasis on life outside of sport and there are very few sports people that have retired in this country who don’t really have to worry about what they do next.’
Professional sport can be a ruthless business and McHugh has implored his clients to upskill during this unprecedented sporting shutdown. He points to the likes of Ryan and Josh van der Flier who have taken the time to return to their college studies in recent months. Mike Ross, another client, made a virtually seamless transition into the tech industry after the former Leinster and Ireland prop hung up his boots in 2017.
The likes of Harrington (right) and the O’Donovan brothers were gearing up for the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer before their worlds were turned upside down by the coronavirus.
‘It was a bit of a shock to the system but I think athletes have so many skills that help them through life: resilience, determination, tenacity, coping and commitment,’ says McHugh, a renowned sailor in his younger years.
‘If you move the goal by 12 months, it’s a case of how you readjust and reset and plan for what you know and what you can control. Kellie is a really interesting one for me because she’s working in a psychiatric hospital now. She’s one of these people who isn’t just prepared to sit and do nothing.
‘I think Paul O’Donovan falls into the same category. He’s ploughing through his medical studies because he’s had a block of 10 weeks where he’s doing his daily training on an Erg (rowing machine)… but he’s using the time to study and keep up and get ahead of his studies.’
Preparing for life after the retirement is paramount. The new normal, to borrow a current power phrase.
‘You do see a lot of former athletes floundering in life until they find a renewed sense of purpose and passion. If you invest in that during your career it makes finding your path a little bit easier. ‘It is a blow, no matter what sort of career you had. What am I going to do when I wake up on a Monday morning? Who am I? What am I good at? What do I enjoy?’ It remains a stressful time for rugby players. The current climate makes contract negotiations and potential transfers all the more precarious. McHugh sounds a positive note, however, stating that ‘very few players’ in his stable have yet to be tied down on deals ahead of next season, whenever that may be. Navigating through times of upheaval is par for the course.