Life after sport for athletes isn’t always as glamorous as the heights of playing in front of sellout crowds or lifting trophies alongside the teammates they’ve gone to war with for years.
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For some, sport is all they’ve ever known, as they progress through pathways from juniors to under 18s representative teams all the way to the elite level. With no skills outside of their specific game, some end up lost once their fleeting career is over.
Nowadays though, more sporting teams and clubs are offering work and training pathways for their athletes outside of their sport — this is even more important for those that are only playing at a semi-professional level.
The Canberra Raiders are one of the sporting organisations investing heavily in the career prospects of their players. Spearheaded by Andrew Bishop, the club’s NRL Wellbeing Manager, all players who are semi-professional and over the age of 18 are required to hold a job.
This includes players across the NRL Women’s team, the reserve grade NSW Cup team, and the younger age groups in the Jersey Flegg Cup (under 21s) and S.G. Ball Cup (under 19s).
The transport industry has become of the more popular areas for the Raiders to provide their players skills and training through their partnership with Beck’s Transport Training.
Beck’s is a family-owned and operated Canberra-based business which deals with heavy vehicle licensing for the ACT and surrounding New South Wales from light rigids all the way through to multi-combination.
The company has been partnered with the Raiders since 2021, helping to support the Raiders’ players and staff interested in gaining qualifications for their life outside sport.
Co-owner and director Kate Beck, who runs the business alongside husband Anthony, says the partnership with the Raiders has been a beneficial one for both parties.
“The Raiders reached out to us because they were looking for programs to be able to support players of any age group that wanted to have skills post their NRL career,” she says.
“A lot of the players came from families who were already in blue collar industries, building, construction and farming backgrounds. They had a strong interest in gaining skills for a heavy vehicle licence.”
The number of players interested in getting their heavy vehicle license has already increased dramatically since the partnership started.
It first began with a group of eight NRL players going through a package of various types of heavy vehicle, and other vehicle, training, including forklifts and excavators, before evolving to what it is now.
“Since the first group in 2021 we’ve started working with the Canberra Raiders women’s team and some of their players that have moved to Canberra as well as some of the under 21s and NSW Cup players,” Kate says.
“A lot of them are just out of high school and just starting their rugby league career, so they want to have a skill as a backup plan.”
While the initial group that Beck’s worked with haven’t yet gone into work in the transport industry as they are still full time professional, a number from the other pathways already have.
A player from a transport background has continued to improve his skills through training with Beck’s on the pathway to upgrade his licence.
“We have one of the guys that works in the NSW Cup, who comes from a transport background in his family in farming and agricultural work, he is still helping drive for the family when he can,” Kate says.
“We have worked with one of the female players who has a background in warehousing and forklift training in New Zealand. When she transferred here, we helped her with that high-risk licence to help her work for a local company.”
Many athletes look to areas that are already related to sport when their sporting career ends – this can include media roles, physio or fitness jobs.
But when there’s no guarantee of a career continuing beyond on the field, it’s no surprise that clubs and sporting organisations are preparing their athletes more for life after sport.
The NRL estimates that the average career lasts only 35 games, or not even two full seasons at the professional level. AFL is similar, with the average career spanning five years at the most. This is not to mention that injuries can end careers or change lives at any time, particularly in contact sports like rugby league.
Kate believes transport should be an area more sporting bodies look to as a path for players to move into once their sporting career is over.
“The transport industry is an industry that’s never going to disappear,” she says.
“We are always going to need qualified drivers. They may start out as drivers, but the industry can offer career progression to scheduling, to management, to wherever they could take it. It’s one of those industries where you can see quite a big amount of growth.
“I think that because a lot of these players come from backgrounds in industry that are associated with or have transport drivers in them, it gives them a better understanding and appreciation of taking on a career in that field. They’re very open to it as well.
“It’s kind of awesome what the NRL does to support their players through encouraging them to look at different career options. They support them with funding whether that be for the player or the program itself.
“Particularly for the women’s and underage groups, because they are required to hold a job while they’re playing, the transport industry does give an option of flexibility.
“They’ve been able to work with employers that can work within their training schedules. They can provide them with a career that doesn’t put them at risk of injury.
“The injuries they get during a game doesn’t impact on the jobs. It gives them options, that’s the beauty of the transport industry.
“It’s not just one skill or trade, you are open to doing anything from working with your local bus provider to driving building construction or doing freight work.”
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