“ I immediately thought when I came back to Australia from England that I wanted to do something within the community and try and use the profile I had with rugby league as a vehicle to try and create change with a particular type of charity or foundation .”
Life , love and giving back post the Knights
WORDS MICHELLE MEEHAN
It may have been his first year of retirement , but former Newcastle Knights player Clint Newton has been far from just sitting idly on the sidelines in 2016 .
As the General Manager of the Rugby League Players Association ( RLPA ), ambassador for both White Ribbon Australia and the Australian Childhood Foundation and an increasingly involved member of the team behind his father ’ s charity golf pro-am ( The Jack ), Newton has found more than enough to fill his time now that daily training sessions and weekly rugby league matches are no longer part of his schedule .
Throw in his responsibilities as the father of three-year-old daughter Hope and preparations for his upcoming wedding to long-term partner Carly early in the New Year and you can see why Newton wonders where all the extra time you ’ re meant to have when you retire from footy has gone . Not that the 35-year-old is complaining . “ It ’ s been great , I ’ ve only found myself really missing playing on a few occasions ,” Newton said .
“ I ’ ve loved stepping away from the game from a playing perspective , my body certainly feels better for it and I ’ ve enjoyed getting my weekends back to spend time with my family .”
Newton has also enjoyed transitioning into life after the siren sounds . But while he is keen to ensure he is known for being more than just a professional rugby league player , it
Clint with partner Carly and daughter Hope .
CLINT NEWTON
hasn ’ t necessarily been easy to step away from a 15-year career that included playing for three different NRL clubs , winning an NRL premiership with the Melbourne Storm , four years in the English Super League , representing the United States ( his country of birth ) in the 2013 Rugby League World Cup and captaining the Newcastle Knight ’ s NSW Cup team to victory in their 2015 grand final .
Newton said he does miss the physical nature and challenge of the game but admits the biggest challenge so far has been overcoming that sense of loss many professional sportspeople get when the element that has filled the majority of their waking moments for such a long time is suddenly no longer there .
“ I miss the collision in the sport , I miss the contact , I miss the camaraderie you get with your teammates , the mateship and the togetherness ,” he said .
“ But I think the biggest thing that a lot of sportspeople face … is just your identity . I recognised a fair bit before my retirement that I needed an identity outside of rugby league … because that ’ s when your identity takes a real hit , when you retire .
“ Everyone ’ s known you , in my case for 15 years for playing professional rugby league and you go ‘ Ok , who am I now , what do I represent now ?’
“ That ’ s why I really worked hard to try and set up the charity work I do with White Ribbon and the Australian Childhood Foundation and obviously now with my Dad ’ s tournament as well as the RLPA , it was really important to me that people understood that I stood for a lot more than just playing rugby league .”
And while mindfulness seems to be a buzz word in health and wellbeing circles these days , it is a technique that has also been promoted throughout rugby league circles and proved vital for Newton as he wound down to retirement .
“ I think one of the things that really helped me in that process was a guy called Hugh who runs the resilience project ,” he said .
“ He runs these seminars , which came out to all rugby league clubs and he ’ s now doing a lot of work around the world , and it just develops your sense of having a greater understanding around mindfulness , gratefulness and empathy .
“ I thought I had a lot of those traits anyway but as you ’ re about to retire you can find yourself being a little bit negative , saying ‘ my life ’ s over ’ from that sporting perspective and ‘ why is this happening to me , I wish my body would keep going ’, all those types of things .
“ But really increasing my sense of gratitude for the career that I had , really positioned me well post career where I was like ‘ no , I ’ ve had a ripping career really , having 15 years in the game and doing all sorts of things and meeting really great people and going all around the world , all because I was involved in rugby league ’.
“ So what have I got to be sad about ? I ’ m sad that I ’ m leaving my friends and that structure , but I ’ ve been able to be a part of something that not many have , so I should be grateful for what I ’ ve been given , not be bitter or sad about what ’ s been taken away .”
Instead , Newton focused on the future as he stepped up from his previous role as the Chairman of the RLPA to his current position as General Manager , advocating on behalf of players past , present and future , to the NRL .
“ The main role and our vision is to ensure the wellbeing and empowerment of all our players and their families . Our mandate is to protect and advance the interest of future , current and past rugby league players and proactively contribute to the development of the game ,” he said .
“ That ’ s been really rewarding to have an ability to try and influence the game I love and try and make the day-to-day lives of our players and everyone associated with the game better , which has been great .”
Outside of football , Newton has also been advocating to try to make life better for another group of people – the victims of domestic violence and abuse . He has been an ambassador for White Ribbon Australia since 2012 .
“ I immediately thought when I came back to Australia from England that I wanted to do something within the community and try and use the profile I had with rugby league as a vehicle to try and create change with a particular type of charity or foundation .”
“ White Ribbon really resonated with me for a number of different reasons , and I just thought it ’ s an incredibly big issue , we ’ re forever seeing just how big of an issue it is with more awareness and more reports and research .
“ I got involved , immediately became an ambassador and since then that ’ s been really great to be involved .
“ It ’ s troubling and disturbing that you ’ ve got to be involved with foundations such as White Ribbon and the Australian Childhood Foundation .
“ But unfortunately that ’ s society and that ’ s what we have to deal with within communities . It ’ s given me a great opportunity to go and position myself within these communities and try and help further educate and prevent some of the things that are actually happening out there at the moment .
“ That ’ s the great opportunity that sport provides - it ’ s said that sport will engage more than anything in the world , more
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