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Mark Gasnier has announced his retirement from all football, effective at the end of the current NRL season. He is 29 years old.
From the outside, this seems a very unusual decision. After reviewing his recent decisions, it is just the latest and probably last in a series of poor decisions.
Of course, it is his life and career and he is more than eligible and entitled to make this decision. It primarily affects himself and his family the most.
The possible explanations for this decision are:
1. He already has a burgeoning career outside the game;
2. He has been very poorly advised or
3. There is more to this than meets the eye.
He has made at least nine unusual career decisions in the recent past. On several occasions, he has failed to extract the full recompense, after taking significant risk and putting in lots of initial work.
I acknowledge that:
1. He is married to a French woman;
2. Even without the weight of expectation of the Gasnier name, the NRL is a demanding, goldfish bowl;
3. He has achieved an NRL premiership win and representative honours at state and national level.
4. He has had major injuries that can dull a player’s performance and/or interest.
5. He is about to turn 30 years old.
Since 2007/08, he is almost imperceptibly losing form or maybe interest, slowly but inexorably, and is partially playing on reputation.
1. He still manages to sign a large, long term contract with Dragons, loaded with third-party money (Why sign a long term contract and then give up this opportunity and damage his Gasnier brand with those third-parties?)
2. Mid-contract, he decides to leave the NRL and enter rugby (Why go to a code he has never played before?)
3. This is not just a code jump, but a jump to a high profile club in a large city and in a new country, France (Why jump countries, languages, goldfish bowls and cultures?)
4. Then, just when he is getting fully acquainted and comfortable with rugby, he leaves. (Why leave the code after doing the hard work to acclimatise and learn the game?)
5. On the strength of his dedication to learning rugby in France, he became an interesting prospect for the nascent Rebels and the ARU and was in line for a big money deal in time for the ultimate challenge and footballing experience, a rugby World Cup. (Why didn’t he take these opportunities?)
6. He returns to Dragons, mid-season, out of touch and out of form, gets another large, long-term contract from Dragons, supposedly backend loaded, due to the salary cap and with third party deals (Why do a back-ended deal but leave before the backed money arrives?)
7. Just 12 months later, he retires mid-season and says that he had made his mind up at the start of the season but didn’t tell anyone (Why did he apparently, make this decision so soon, after arriving back in Australia?)
8. His decision is to fully retire, ignoring the Hornby-style retirement from Representative teams and the pension-enhancing English Super sabatical. (Why not maximise his earnings in the last contract of his career?)
9. And he is only 29 years old (Why retire so young?)
Imagine how much more he could have achieved and earned, had he taken more considered decisions and made then stick in his favour.
There are others to whom he could have turned. At a national level, Tuqiri, Sailor (partly) and Rodgers maximised their lifestyle, earning potential and personal achievements in their prime years in both codes.
At an international level, SBW has and continues to do the same.
Craig Gower has also made the most of his more limited options. Equally, Lockyer, Johns, Hindmarsh, Daley and others, achieved much by remaining at one club in one state, one country and one code.
It is more than likely that there is more to this than meets the eye. Given his previous apparent, random and poor decision-making, Gasnier may reconsider his latest decision.
The reality of life after football strikes hard and fast for those unprepared for it. Gone are the big pay-cheques and minimal working hours.
The unwanted goldfish bowl scrutiny remains and delayed but essential education and training beckons.
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