Word has it you’ve been keeping quite busy during the shutdown…

I have. I’ve almost been working full-time as a carpenter. I started last year with one of our player sponsors, Greg O’Connor. He has a business called Oriel Building Services and has been doing work on the Walsh Bay Wharf area. We’re working on the flooring of the Sydney Theatre Company at the moment. They’ve pretty much gutted the area and are rebuilding, so I’ve been in there four days a week, pretty much. I take Wednesdays off to train and train on Saturdays as well, but squeeze in my weights and pilates after work. I’m working from 7am to 3.30pm, so it’s a fair bit of work I’m getting in.

I bet it’s been keeping your mind occupied as well as your body…

Exactly right. There’s a group of us who’ve been doing our cert 4 and diploma in building and construction, and I also have a lot of mates back home doing it as night school after working as apprentices, but I’ve been able to do it the other way around. The course is done now, so this is my work experience. My end game from here is to get my builder’s licence, not necessarily to work on the tools but to work residentially, whether it’s renovating or flipping houses or whatnot. That’s the plan for after footy, a bit of finger pointing action but having the credentials behind me to do it. I’m still trying to work out the best way forward, but that’s where I’d like to finish up.

Did you get started as soon as footy stopped?

Pretty much. I had one week away and then brought it up with the club that I’d love to get my work experience done. I wasn’t sure I’d be allowed to do it, because there’s 250 people on site and it’s huge, but they gave me the all-clear and really encouraged it, which was great. So the day after that I was on site working, and they’ve been good with me. Each morning we go through what we need to do, I get my own jobs, they show me what to do and away I go, they leave it to me. I haven’t been treated like the work experience kid at all. The only thing is I need to go and buy some new shorts. I only have one pair and have to wash them every night. They’re starting to shrink in the dryer, so that’s getting a bit annoying.

Has it been nice to meet some new people down there?

It has. I’ve got to know the lads on site pretty well, almost everyone is Irish or Scottish so I can understand the accents all right given my own background, which is good. And I don’t really have heaps of mates outside of footy in Sydney. A lot of my life up here has been dominated by footy. We spend so much time at the club and I obviously have great mates there, but it’s been good to make friends somewhere else and meet new people. This is the path I would have gone if I never got drafted, so I’m really passionate about it and want to learn as much as I can from these guys. My dad is a carpenter and my brother runs his own little plumbing business so I was always going to end up in some sort of trade, and working with tradies at some stage.

Has it kept you in a good routine over the last few weeks?

It has. I actually have a new puppy, a Hungarian Vizsla that I got in January, so I get up at 5.30am to take him for a walk, then head into work. If I don’t have anything to do when I get home I just crash, so that’s where it’s been good to do some gym, do some pilates and get that done. I’ve found it a bit similar to my first few pre-seasons, I’d get used to it if I kept doing it but at the moment I sit down and I’m gone, I’m that exhausted. The other thing is, it’s kind of similar to footy with the teamwork down there. I actually find it really impressive the way there’s so many people on site working together. There’s some really good leadership that goes on, I just like the way it’s structured and how everyone seems to be helping everyone. And everyone’s opinion is highly valued, which is really good.

How conscious have you had to be of safety, given what’s going on at the moment and all the social distancing rules?

They’re really careful down there. Everyone is fever checked, you have that done every day and you can’t get in there if you have any sign of fever which gives me great confidence. I’m not having to dodge people, which is good. We work mostly in pairs and that’s what we’re doing when we train as well, I train with Callan Ward and do my running with him. There’s a lot of safety guys around on site, it’s mostly just lunchtime where I stay out of the common areas and head over the road to a café.

Are you missing footy?

I miss hanging around with the boys as much as anything. We don’t do a whole lot of training in-season so I’ve been thinking about that. Before I started this job I had so much free time on my hands after footy stopped, so it’s funny how much time goes into recovery and meetings and preparing for the next week once the season starts. Having a kick with Wardy is good fun but he’s the same as me, we’ve both spent a lot of time in rehab lately so we’re used to training on our own and getting it done but we’re pretty keen to play. I definitely have my hands full at the moment though. I’m busier than I was when we were playing footy. I was saying to Cal yesterday, going back will mean going into a more relaxing routine than I’m in at the moment.

Have you still been able to take part in all the online catch-ups with other players?

I actually have Cal Brown in my group and so my Tuesday catch-ups are on Wednesday nights because he’s in Ireland and there’s the time difference. But I can go and sit in the car for things like that if I have to, and that works a treat. Because Greg is a sponsor at the club, he and the site manager are all across my situation and they let me do what I have to do. They’ve been good like that. And with some of the crap jobs, like lifting heavy stuff, they just say "don’t you dare do that." So I have a pretty dream run on site at the moment.

And it sounds like it’s a great head start for when life after footy comes along.

Exactly. To have things done and finished before I finish footy will be great. I think this whole shutdown has shown how quickly life can change. If you don’t have things in place, your life can quickly turn. Hopefully it means that when I’m in my last few years of footy I can just play and enjoy it without stressing about getting one more year, or whatever it is, because I have nothing to go to. I can see how people would end up playing better footy towards the end if they know what’s coming next and have things lined up. That’s the plan for me, and I have a real passion for it as well, so it’s working out well so far.