The mental side of footy had Josh King on his knees, anxiety caused Alec MacDonald to get severe stomach pains during games, and depression took a hold of Will Warbrick after he tried to bottle it up for a year.
These are just some of the stories NRL players are dealing with, and it’s why the Melbourne Storm has launched its inaugural mental health round to “tackle tough together”.
It’s the first initiative of its kind in rugby league in Melbourne and will take centre stage on June 21 when the Storm host the Raiders in round 16 at AAMI Park.
Storm old boys will march to the ground to raise mental health awareness, mental health checks will be available for fans, and pins will be sold with all proceeds donated to Beyond Blue.
“We know that when it comes to men’s sport and men in general, we’re tough on the field. But for us, the importance of this round is saying that we’re tackling tough together,” Storm chief executive Justin Rodski said.
“This is about saying that tough isn’t just what you see on the rugby league field; real strength is checking in on your mates and speaking up if you need to.
“We want men to feel comfortable to talk about when they’re going through challenging periods in their life, we want men to be proud of being vulnerable around feeling down at times in their life and to then be able to share that with each other to ensure we can work through this together.
“Footballers appear tough on the field, but we don’t want them to think that their toughness means they can’t talk about what’s going on in their life.
“If we can help to encourage men – and women around men – to have the conversation to speak up, talk about their feelings, be vulnerable and see that as a sign of strength, I think that’s going to be a great start for everyone in life.”
KING’S PLEA
Josh King, 31, has been bashing blokes in the middle of the field since he made his NRL debut with the Knights in 2016.
And while winning has become the norm at the Storm since he joined them in 2022, life was much tougher for the Hunter local who lost 20 of his first 21 matches and was part of a team that collected the wooden spoon in each of his first two seasons.
“I’m happy to go get smashed every day of the week, but the mental side of it really had me at my knees for a little while there,” King said.
“I think at one stage in your life, you’re going to go through a time where you’re struggling mentally a bit and end up in a dark place.”
“I probably had that in the early stages of my career in rugby league in Newcastle when we weren’t winning too many games and I was only a new fella that probably got thrown in there early and copped a fair bit of criticism in a place where I didn’t really know if I even wanted to play footy professionally at that point in time.
“That’s where it first started for me in trying to recognise that I was a little bit detached from what I was doing and a little bit unhappy in life, and then trying to be able to put things in place to help that and get yourself back on the right track.”
King said it was “daunting” for a young man who wasn’t used to having his life in the spotlight.
“You can go to work Monday to Friday and you’re not criticised too heavily, but when your work’s posted all over social media and all over TV, it’s hard not to be criticised,” he said.
“I’ve never been big on social media, but it seems to just find you sometimes with the negativity on those platforms.
“I think it’s easy sometimes to get caught in a spiral trap of going down a negative path or into a dark hole and it’s hard to catch yourself, but luckily enough for me I was able to recognise that I was unhappy in what I was doing in my life and started to make some changes.
“I got off social media and that cut out a lot of that negativity. I started practising gratitude in a few different things, going to school, hospital visits, and that really put life into perspective.
“I started seeing a psychologist and was able to have some really great chats with him. And probably some of the best chats I had with him was when I was actually going well again and I could see the difference between when I was unhappy and when I was in a really good place.
“We all have our own battles and our own journeys, but just being able to have that support network around you is so important.”
STAR OFF THE FIELD
King is one of the many NRL stars who backs up his talk, with the veteran prop giving back to the Melbourne community as a Starlight Children’s Foundation ambassador.
The Storm recently raised more than $100,000 to support seriously ill children and their families, with King’s work starting back in Newcastle where he helped out at the John Hunter Children’s Hospital.
“Newcastle being such a rugby league dominant community, you go up there and you see a lot of people who really love rugby league and love the Knights,” he said.
“In Melbourne, it’s a little bit different. Not everyone follows rugby league or follows the Storm, but I think that’s one of the best things about going up there is they don’t really care who you are or what you do.
“You put on that shirt, they see you as someone famous in a respect. And to be able to go into that environment and help, put a smile on their face, take their mind off whatever they’re going through just for even five minutes, that’s a job well done for us.
“And I think early on for me that it was a little bit selfish in a way. It is all about the kids going up there, but the amount of perspective they were able to give me on my own life was eye-opening.
“I’m worried about going out there and having a bad game of footy, but yet they’re up there fighting for their life and able to still have a smile on their face while they do it.
“And you look at the families, I can’t imagine what some of those families and parents have to go through with their infant children going through the struggles they do. But they still are able to turn up each day and have a smile on their face and be really positive for their young one.
“I just sit in awe of those people and their ability to be so resilient and so positive in the face of so much negativity and terrible circumstances. I take so much away from that.”
LEARNING PROCESS
Alec MacDonald is in his fifth year at the Storm and is proud to be part of a club willing to “make mental health more mainstream”.
“I’ve come through a period where I was never under the impression it was frowned upon,” he said.
“I know that’s the stigma, but when I first started playing high-level rugby league, it forced me to start working on this stuff because it just put me in such a high-pressure environment where things like anxiety showed up more than if I wasn’t a professional athlete.
“I’m actually thankful for that because a few tough times around footy caused me to seek out means of working on my mental health and talking to people and being more proactive with the stuff which I’m hoping will set me up for life with a good foundation and good strategies going forward.”
MacDonald has grown up in an era where social media is life to some people, but he hasn’t let it dictate his existence with the forward setting up a routine where he’ll delete everything for a few weeks and then check in after a while just to catch up.
His experiences on the field have led to a major change away from footy that could see him one day helping others deal with their issues.
“I used to not even know what anxiety was,” he said.
“I used to get stomach pains on the field. I’d go to the dietitian and was trying to figure out what was wrong.
“And then what I ultimately came to was that I was getting so nervous that I was going into fight or flight mode which stops your stomach from processing food.
“That was causing the stuff so I decided I’ve got to tackle this so that way my stomach isn’t hurting and I can play better.
“And then as I went down that road, I realised it was helping with general life because if you’re in fight or flight mode then you’re not recovering.
“I started reading about it, doing self-help books, stuff like that. I actually study psychology now, so it kind of sparked that passion a little bit because I saw the benefits I was getting for it personally and how powerful I found it.
“At first it was almost like I can help myself get better by doing this, but then I thought how cool would it be to also potentially help others as well.
“I’m still doing it now and I’m not sure if I’ll end up going down the psychologist’s road, but I never would have thought I’d be doing this.”
BRICK BY BRICK
Storm winger Will Warbrick has bravely shared his experiences with depression in the past and has urged others to tackle it head on.
“I’ve seen the best of it and the worst of it,” he explained having grown up around people who just cracked on and bottled things up.
“I know people that struggled with it, so it’s a serious topic and I think it’s good that people and clubs with a platform are trying to shine more light on it so it gets the attention it needs.
“Because some things need the attention if we’re going to try and make things better.
“I’m pretty vulnerable about it. I’ve been diagnosed with severe depression before and that was something I was diagnosed with at a pretty young age.
“I got the help I needed and I started seeing counsellors and speaking to psychologists.”
Warbrick’s message to people is to seek help and to not go through the tough times alone.
“That was something I had bottled up for probably 6-12 months, and it got the best of me,” he said.
“I was pretty young so I had no clue what I was going through, nor what mental health and all these words were. They were just all words to me, and I couldn’t quite understand the feelings I was feeling.
“I actually had to go see a doctor and speak up. That’s when I was educated in a way about this stuff. And only then I was able to get the help I needed.
“That was one of those things you try to tackle on your own, but that’s not the way to do it. You need to be able to ask for help, but you can only ask for help when you recognise you need it.”
Melbourne Storm’s Mental Health Round is delivered in partnership with AIA Australia, supported by Beyond Blue with all involved encouraged to Tackle Tough Together on Sunday 21 June at AAMI Park.