What to do after final whistle

By Selwyn Parker

Jason Barrell was one of the better-prepared of today's crop of professional rugby players for that dreaded time when the roar of the crowd is replaced by the routine of nine-to-five employment.

When the burly prop retired from the game at the start of the NPC season after breaking his neck, he already had a good idea where he wanted to go, thanks to a programme initiated by the Auckland Rugby Football Union.

At 29, a few years earlier than he might have wanted, Barrell plans to develop a new career in the fishing industry. He is headed in that direction with the aid of the ARFU and Getleys, a six-year-old Auckland-based human resource consultancy that is five months into a career development programme for the Blues.

The ARFU initiated the programme because, to put it bluntly, it doesn't want its stars to be just rugby heads.

Apart from the obvious advantages of having a career to pursue when rugby days are over, the coaches find the players spark on the field when they are studying, working part-time, or otherwise developing alternative employment.

"Our philosophy is holistic. We'd like them studying or working," explains Bruce Robertson, the former All Black centre who runs the ARFU's amateur programme.

"It helps them play rugby better. It stops them becoming stale."

With four careers behind him, Robertson is a good example of his own advice. He has worked as a primary teacher, in the wine and spirits industry, in the sports industry, and is now managing the academy.

There might be something in all this. Could Xavier Rush's excellent season be explained by the building apprenticeship he has started - or even the Blues' NPC victory by the fact that many of them have gone back to tertiary studies or part-time work?

The amateurs are following in the professionals' sprig marks.

Ninety per cent of Bruce Robertson's academy have staked out a career path. Two of this season's holistic stars are first five-eight Orene Ai'i, who has started studies at Unitec, and 20-year-old hooker Keven Mealaniu, an apprentice signwriter, both of whom came out of the academy.

"When they aren't making money [on an NPC or Super 12 contract], it's an ideal time to get hold of them," adds Robertson.

But don't underestimate these guys' capacity to adapt to life after rugby. The popular perception that professional rugby players have never done much more than a paper round in their lives and wouldn't know a real job from a round ball is apparently misplaced.

According to Valerie Wright, a director of Getleys, who runs the Auckland Blues programme, that's true of only a very few.

"Some have never worked, although they might have tertiary qualifications. Others have had only fill-in jobs in the summer."

Otherwise, collectively the players can muster an impressive amount of work experience.

They have been sales reps, McDonald's managers, teachers, farmers and quite a few have university degrees such as B.Com and B.Sc.

It's just that professional rugby, with its twice-a-day training, has sidelined them from the mainstream workforce.

Others won't need to work, especially the longer-serving professionals and those Auckland Blues who are All Blacks.

"Some players are financially independent, but they know their rugby careers will be over at 35 and that there's a long life ahead of them. They want to do something stimulating with their lives," says Wright.

She sits the players down one by one and runs them through occupational-based psychological assessments. "That builds a platform for a career path," she explains. "Then it's a step-by-step process of closing the gap between where they are now and where they want to be."

The ARFU management takes a close interest in this process, to the extent of checking up with employers that their star staff are meeting their obligations.

Sometimes employers are slow to get the point, preferring to use the players for little more than PR instead of providing the genuine work experience they need. This somewhat frustrates Colleen Getley, a director of Getleys: "I'd prefer companies to be more supportive but often it ends up in the too-hard basket."

Once they're headed in the right direction, though, most of the Blues have the right stuff.

"They are very motivated to succeed," adds Wright.

Barrell was better-equipped than most of his fellow professionals to start a new career because he already had one. Before signing an ARFU contract, he had qualifications in horticulture and ran his own aubergine-growing business up north.

But that was before he broke his neck. At the time of the injury, Barrell had already started the ARFU career programme and said it gave him some hope.

Married with two children, 8 and 6, he is studying to be a fisheries officer and working on a coastal skipper's course.

Barrell acknowledges it will be a very different, probably less exciting, life outside rugby.

"In professional rugby it's hard work just two or three hours a day. But there's a lot of stress too because you've got to perform at your best."

He's a great believer in career development for professional rugby players, but with limits.

"You need to have some sort of interest outside rugby to take your mind off it when you have to," Barrell explains.

"But you've still got to give rugby everything. I don't think you would want to run your own business."

Though he's resigned to a new life, Barrell sometimes sounds wistful about his abbreviated professional career. It's hard to leave behind the roar of the crowd.

* The second in the series on talented women managers will run next week.

Contributing writer Selwyn Parker is available at wordz@xtra.co.nz