THE CURRENT PLAYER
At 26, Eoin McKeon knows he can’t blithely assume that his rugby career will continue indefinitely.
In his role as Connacht representative for Rugby Players Ireland, the back-row spends more time helping colleagues than planning directly for his own future, but he has a degree in engineering under his belt, and he has invested in a start-up company.
“My dad was very keen for me to put college first and rugby second, at least until I had broken into the pro game,” he says. “By third year, I was fully in the pro set-up, and it was a lot harder. I had to repeat the whole year because of one subject. There were a lot of exams, and labs were the killer.
“My big tip for lads doing courses is to make sure you meet all your lecturers face to face – it makes it a lot easier to ask for favours, if you have to miss classes or whatever because of rugby. I found it very intense: you’d be rushing straight from training to grab food, then college all evening.
“When I had it done, I was so glad to have evenings free again. But now it’s creeping in, what do I do after I retire? Through RPI, we set up a platform where players that are interested could get involved with start-up companies at the Business Start-up Hub in Galway
“I don’t know if I’d see myself going into engineering, but if I had to finish rugby tomorrow, and an engineering job came up, I’d grab it – I’ve seen lads have to retire suddenly.
“What we’re trying to do with RPI is make sure lads are as well equipped as possible to deal with it. Because while rugby might open doors, they might only be open a short time after you retire.
“You can be in a bit of a bubble. Some players don’t want to look any further than where they are at the moment, and you can’t make someone do something they don’t want to do. But there are so many opportunities to better yourself off the rugby field.”