Admitting to weakness doesn’t come naturally to anyone involved in professional rugby league. But while rugby is a physical game, muscle alone cannot protect players from its pressures.

Like any professional athlete, a rugby league player’s performance is analysed and judged by coaches and fans alike. Pressure, scrutiny and the threat of injury are ever-present, and can be a heavy burden to bear. Further, people that no longer participate can feel bereft or even isolated without the dressing room support network of other players that they have been accustomed to.

Identifying the issue, the charity Rugby League Cares established the Player Welfare Programme to better protect and nurture players’ health and well-being. 

The role of the trained welfare officer

As part of the Player Welfare Programme, trained welfare officers are on hand at every Super League and Championship Club.

Nigel Johnston fulfils that role at Leeds Rhinos. Having been involved in rugby for almost 45 years as a player, coach, development officer and in other roles at clubs, foundations and the Rugby Football League, he is a wise, experienced and respected figure. Players trust him implicitly.

“Players come to see me with similar issues to anyone outside of sport – bereavement, depression, anxiety and family issues,” Nigel says.

“When players come to me with certain issues it helps to pinpoint when I, or one of my relatives or friends, has gone through a similar situation. I think to myself, ‘what did we do to travel that road and get through it?’ Athletes are judged week in, week out on their performance and that puts a mental strain on anybody. They knock seven bells out of each other. That’s real pressure.”

Nigel acknowledges that players with long-term injuries often need extra support. 

“I always relate it to the coal mining industry, which I worked in years ago,” he says. “There was that comradeship working underground and once you left that you’d lose a sense of unity and would feel very isolated.”

Rugby League Cares works with players to ensure that they have a contingency plan in case of career-ending injury or voluntary retirement. They help players to access education and vocational training, or to set up their own businesses. 

“It’s about creating a culture of having a dual purpose; being a player but getting that plan together for what might be next week, in the case of injury, or 10 years’ time,” Nigel explains.

The Offload project

Rugby League Cares has taken its interest in supporting mental health one step further with the Offload project, which they run in partnership with State of Mind.

Offload deliberately targets men in areas of deprivation, as statistics show that they are among the most vulnerable to mental health issues and suicide. 

As part of the project, six former professional players who all previously had mental health issues were trained to deliver a series of 10 mental health workshops (called ‘fixtures’) to male fans. These took place in the dressing rooms at the Super League clubs Salford Red Devils, Widnes Vikings and Warrington Wolves.

Health Programme Manager at Rugby League Cares Emma Goldsmith explains the process:

It has had a significant positive impact.

“It’s led to groups of men in our rugby league towns sitting together, talking and forming new friendships. Social activities have developed, they’ve joined touch rugby teams, set up Facebook support groups, they feel mentally stronger and that risk of suicide has been reduced.”

One of the men on the project, who is in his 30s, recently got married and four of his groomsmen (all in their 60s) were people he met while on the Offload project. “The strength of the bonds that form between them has really surprised us,” says Emma.

There’s no greater illustration of the project’s impact than the fact that 29 participants have said that Offload saved them from committing suicide. 

Offload's wider impact

As well as having a positive effect on participants, it has also been a therapeutic process for the six ex-players who shared their own mental health journeys when leading the sessions.

One of them was former St Helens full-back Phil Veivers, who coached Salford for 15 months before losing his job in 2013.

“I went through depression after losing my job as a coach and losing my identity. These things spiral down the line into suicidal thoughts,” Phil explains. “My nephew took his own life as well, so I’m pretty passionate about mental health and not letting other people suffer the same way me and my family has.

“All of the presenters [of the workshops] have been on their own mental health journey. For the guys to see someone high-profile, who they used to watch from the terraces, tell them that ‘it’s OK not to be OK’ and that they understand how they feel, is pretty empowering for them.

“I’ve had guys admit to me they were thinking about killing themselves, but to get an email after a few weeks saying that those thoughts [had] dissipated and they can see light at the end of the tunnel; that’s a massive outcome.”

It’s unsurprising that Rugby League Cares now want to scale Offload up across the whole sport by 2021.

Why offload?

Mental illness is the leading cause of disability in the UK and costs the economy over £70 billion per year. Almost one in 10 men will suffer from depression at some point in their lives.

In 2013, 6,233 people in the UK took their own lives. Whilst the national suicide rate was 10.7 deaths per 100,000 people, the rate was over 13 per 100,000 in many parts of the North of England. A staggering 78% of all suicides were male.

Rugby league clubs operate within the heart of their local communities, many of which show statistically higher than average levels of mental illness, especially in men.

Offload was born from the recognition that the game, working through the clubs, is the perfect vehicle to deliver help to some of the people who need it most.