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‘Totally lost myself’: Burgess’ journey from top of NRL to wilderness and back
‘Totally lost myself’: Burgess’ journey from top of NRL to wilderness and back
‘Totally lost myself’: Burgess’ journey from top of NRL to wilderness and back
www.foxsports.com.au
Former Rabbitohs premiership winner and captain Sam Burgess has gone from the top of rugby league to a downward spiral in retirement, but is on the way back via an unlikely route.
‘Totally lost myself’: Burgess’ journey from top of NRL to wilderness and back
‘Totally lost myself’: Burgess’ journey from top of NRL to wilderness and back
www.foxsports.com.au
The Times detailed Burgess’ journey from NRL superstar to feeling totally lost after his injury enforced retirement, which led to the lowest period of his life.
In 2020 Burgess had begun to forge a coaching career with the Rabbitohs when he stood down amid a storm of allegations from his ex-wife and father-in-law.
A conviction for intimidation of his former father-in-law was overturned and no charges were brought related to claims of domestic abuse.
Burgess spent four weeks in a rehabilitation clinic after he was pulled over by police en route to pick up his kids and traces of cocaine were found in his system, before leaving to participate in the SAS television show, which he won.
“In that time I totally lost myself,” Burgess told The Times.
“Initially I found retirement much harder than expected and I had so many other things in my life that were just getting plastered all over the press here, a lot of it untrue, and I found it very hard to manage for a while.
“I felt trapped. I had cameras outside my house. I couldn’t leave. I wasn’t doing what I had done for the past ten years, playing and competing. I just really found it hard to deal with, much more than I had expected.
Burgess was suspended by the NRL for 12 weeks for drug taking, which he described as “grossly unfair”.
“But rather than return to the Rabbitohs role, Burgess took an unlikely detour in his return to the coaching ranks.
Long time mentor Russell Crowe challenged him to coach the Orara Valley Axemen, a country rugby league team in Northern New South Wales and bring the club back from the brink.
When Burgess arrived the club had no players and before their first game the record-breaking storms that hit the East Coast of Australia flooded the team’s field.
“Our field flooded. Our merchandise shed and our canteen flooded,” Burgess said.
“Me and three of my players had to swim across the river that had flooded the field to save merchandise and money that we had in our equipment system and rescue it.
“Then we were stranded on the other side of the river because the water came up too high. That was an instance where you think, ‘Jeez, 12 months ago I was at the top of the game and now there are mice and rats and snakes all trying to escape the river too.’
“When Russell suggested I take this job he said it would be a great challenge.
“I asked him what the pass mark would be. He said that if we made it into the play-offs campaign that would be a great achievement. At that point we didn’t have any players.”
On Sunday, the Axemen will host South Grafton in the grand final.
It is clear the club has been as good for Burgess as he has been for the Axemen.
“Things in my private life are starting to calm down a bit, which is great,” Burgess said.
“Coming here, slowing down and getting back into the grassroots of the game, going back to where I began, has been a refresher. I have rediscovered what I am good at and where I need to be.
“I came through playing rugby league back home at a club called Dewsbury Moor. It was a really great junior club. I spent the majority of my childhood there with my father, my mum and three brothers.
“This has reminded me of that environment. I felt the responsibility, the importance of what these clubs can mean. That is why I have devoted so much energy and passion for this project.
“I feel I have made such a difference here in a short period of time. I learned early on that to get this up and running I would need to embed myself here to show how invested I was.
“If you could see my team, how close they are and how much they care about each other in a short space of time. It has been a great season.”
Wayne Bennett tried to lure Burgess to the Dolphins as an assistant, but despite his great respect for his former coach, Burgess chose to return to the Rabbitohs in 2023 instead.
“I am probably in a better position to now go back into a high-performance environment,” Burgess said.
“I have learnt so much about coaching and management styles. It has given me a place to come and learn and be myself, make mistakes and try to be successful out of the headlights.”
But first Burgess wants to win one more game with the club that has helped rebuild his life and career, the Axemen.
“There are some great stories in the team: their own personal lives; what they have given up to try to make it work; a few injured players; their families,” Burgess said.
“Up until three weeks before the first game I didn’t know how we were going to get on. Now we are in the grand final. The story is fantastic. There is one game to go.”
