Retirement in sport is inevitable. It’s whether you get to leave on your own terms or not that can never be certain.
Many rugby league players succumb to injury or find themselves without a contract, and so the decision is made for them. There is a small group that gets to make the call on their own, and a select few that time it just right and get to leave the game on a high.
Fox League commentator Michael Ennis was one of the lucky NRL veterans who finished with the trophy in hand.
“It was crazy, I just couldn’t believe it, to be honest,” said Ennis of finishing his 273-game NRL career in 2016 with a 14-12 Grand Final win at the Sharks over the Storm.
“I remember those final moments, when I saw Marika Koroibete gets tackled, that moment of looking up and seeing the three zeroes on the scoreboard for the time – the noise was somehow deafening and also silent. It was just like everything stood still for a moment. And then to be able to share those moments with your family, with your kids and your teammates – just wonderful memories.”
Earlier that season Ennis was close to putting pen to paper for another two years with the Sharks, but it was during those negotiations that he realised he was done.
“It was the process that excited me of resigning, but when I actually dug deeper into if I wanted to really continue mentally and physically, the answer was no, I didn’t,” said Ennis.
“I was really enjoying my time at Cronulla, I probably felt like I was playing some of my best footy. Shane Flanagan and all the staff had done a great job getting me back to just being really confident and enjoying the game. And I was really grateful for that.
“I was coming off contract, Shane, my manager George and I had worked out that we were going to extend our time at the club, and it was probably during that process that I’d really started to think about retirement.
“I spoke to a number of people that I trusted, obviously spoke with my wife and spoke with George, who had been along for the journey with me throughout my whole career. I spoke with Wayne Bennett, who I have a really good relationship with. I felt like, I just didn’t know if I was going to be a better player the next year.
“I had achieved everything that I wanted to in the game, obviously at that point, I hadn’t won a premiership, but you can’t control those things sometimes. But I felt like I had given everything that I could, and I was optimistic and hopeful of how that back end of the season would go, but you can never be sure in footy. That’s probably how I came to that decision.”
An ACL injury almost ended the career of former Indigenous All-Stars prop Ryan James. But thankfully after 144 games on the Gold Coast, he was able to come back and play for the Raiders and briefly on loan at the Bulldogs. It was during this past season while at the Broncos that he knew he was ready to retire.
“I had two years off previously with the ACL. I know now if I stopped and didn’t try to come back then I would have been disappointed,” said James.
“But it was midway through this year, I think I played the majority of the games at the start, then I had a little injury. And it just took a little bit longer than it usually would have to come back and play.
“I was doing a bit of studying and my business outside of football was picking up so it just kind of made the transition a little bit easier. And then I wasn’t so much forced into retirement, I injured my middle finger, which required surgery, it just made the decision even easier. I was happy to finish. And then I think I played my last game against Melbourne. It’s just one of those things where I was like, ‘Oh, that’s it’.”
Like Ennis, James knew it was time to make the call.
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
“I was definitely ready. And then when I got that little finger injury, I knew it was my last year of football. I told Kevvie (Walters) midway through the year, just in case, he was thinking about re-signing. I said, ‘I’m going to hang the boots up at the end of the year.’ So I knew this was it.”
Both men know how lucky they are to finish the way they did, with many players having their bodies make the decision for them.
“One moment that really got me was the Brett Morris injury,” recalled Ennis.
“I really admired Brett as a player. He wasn’t the biggest winger, but he was so courageous and tough and just a wonderful finisher, great defensively. Just seeing him in the sheds at Newcastle with his brother embracing. Moments like that really get you as a player, when you see players forced to finish careers like that – it can be extremely cruel.
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“I remember a coach once said to me that the game doesn’t always love you like you love it and that’s so true sometimes.”
James has seen the aftermath of when a player is forced to retire.
“I’ve talked to heaps of players that have left through injury and they kind of left a little bitter and you don’t know what’s going to happen,” added James.
“It kind of gets all chucked at you all at once and you can see why people would be angry.”
While at one end of the spectrum you have careers cut short due to injury, at the other end there are those who hang on a little too long for financial security.
“I didn’t want to look Shane in the eye for the next two years after games and know that I was playing for the wrong reasons,” said Ennis.
“I would have been playing for money. That’s the truth of it. And I never wanted to do that. People will often say to me, ‘why’d you finish on 270-odd games, you could have got to 300’. But that never was my interest. I was grateful to play one game, that’s all I wanted to do, was to play in the NRL. And to get to where I did was something that I was so proud of.
So yeah, that was probably the moment when the climax of the negotiation came, I realised deep down inside me that I’d exhausted everything that I could and didn’t want to let people down.”
Not only did both Ennis and James get to make the decision to move on, but they were also both prepared for life after footy. Ennis has made a successful career in commentary, and as well as studying his for a Master of Business Admin at University, James is involved in a couple of different business ventures with former teammate Greg Bird.
Both know how fortunate they are, seeing many hang on longer than they should for the money, or leave the game not set up for the future.
“I’ve seen so many players retire and not know what they’re going to do,” said James.
“I think I was just lucky to see that over my last 13 years in the NRL. I knew I had to prepare. I was lucky enough that I was sort of on the good end, but I’ve seen people on the bad end and walk away with not much. I think there probably needs some more due diligence during the process of players’ careers because you can only earn this money for a certain amount of time. And then you just walk into, I guess, normal life because you’re kind of in a bubble when you’re playing in the NRL.
“For the retirement party, the NRL flew us all down to Sydney, we had all the guest speakers, all retired players, transition coaches, counsellors, everything that you can think of were there.
“And they tell you how to access your retirement fund, and just pretty much what to expect in life after football, and it was great.
“You get good money for a certain amount of time, and then you don’t. So, if we can help people set up in the meantime, that makes the transition a little bit easier. There’s a retirement fund, which obviously helps, but looking to grow people’s wealth outside of that would be optimal for players.”
Ennis agreed.
“I had great trust in my manager George. From when I was about 25, we started to put a road map of what life after footy look like. He had a set plan and I’ve been extremely grateful that came to fruition,” said Ennis.
“I was lucky that Fox gave me an opportunity. I did bits and pieces with them, but then up until two years prior to retiring, I got an opportunity to go on NRL 360 on those players’ nights. And at the same time, I was doing some commentary on the lower grades. I’ve been so lucky how they’ve allowed me to transition out of the game. They’ve been fantastic.
“And then Cronulla were equally as supportive through that period where they wanted to keep me around the club and gave me two years there. “To learn from Shane and Steve Price and James Shepherd in the coaching department, I got a good understanding of how the footy business works in the marketing and commercial side of things. And I was really lucky with this, how those two organisations, sort of stood by me and gave me an opportunity to transition because it’s a really, bizarre time to be honest.”
The other reason players try to push on, of course, is premiership glory.
“That’s everyone’s goal, to win a grand final. I never got anywhere close to that,” said James.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
“If you’re part of a really good system, like the Roosters, Melbourne and Penrith, if you’re a player towards the end of career, and you’re getting the opportunity to sign there, I could definitely see if they were searching for a title, they’d sign with those clubs, for probably a lot less to try and win a grand final.”
There are several players like former Manly prop Martin Taupau and Souths winger Josh Mansour who are free agents trying to land one last deal while veteran players at clubs that are already finals contenders have that extra incentive to play on potentially one year longer than they would have.
“Players aren’t naïve. When you’re in that window where you know you’ve got a side that’s really capable of pushing, and there’s only a few times really in your career, if you’re lucky enough, when you start a season, where you are really hopeful and you feel confident,” Ennis said.
“And if you’re in that window, I can absolutely see why players go ‘You know what? I’m going to hang here for another 12 or 18 months and see if I can jag another one or get the first get one.’
“If you’re a senior player at the moment, like, 32 or 33 at Penrith, you’d be thinking ‘I’ve got so many young guys here that I probably don’t need to play the major role that I used to, but at the same time, I feel like I can still contribute particularly in the leadership and experience aspects and play another season and then win another premiership.’”
Whatever the reason, we will no doubt say goodbye to more legends of the game throughout the 2023 NRL season. But who will get to write their own script or have the pages handed to them remains to be seen.
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