Today's guest is another Country born player who had his time in the big smoke where he played for the Canterbury Bulldogs in the NRL before returning back to the country town of Wagga Wagga.
This player was born in the town of Junee which is a country town just outside of Wagga where he now resides.
He spent his entire career at one club in the Canterbury Bulldogs which is very rare especially these days due to salary cap restrictions & player & club loyalty.
He played for 9 seasons at the Canterbury Bulldogs in the number 9 jersey. Playing 133 top grade games and winning the NRL Telstra premiership in 2004 which i’m sure was a highlight of his Rugby League playing career.
He was forced to retire in 2007 at the age of 28 due to an ongoing knee injury. After retiring from the NRL in 2007 he retired & returned to his home town of Junee to Captain coach the Junee Desiel’s for 2 season in the Group 9 Competition & giving back to the game that gave him so much
He also continues his coaching in the Group 9 competition with the Wagga Brothers & is also a Rugby League development officer based out of Wagga for the NRL.
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Playing information
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| Height | 170 cm (5 ft 7 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 97 kg (15 st 4 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Position | Hooker | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Notes
- There are not many jobs in the media or NRL coaching jobs after retirement for the amount of players that retire each year so for most players it's back to the norm or reality for the majority of retiring players
- Reality hits when you have to start putting your CV together at 28 & start looking for a job
- Adam Volunteered his time with Rick Keast as a CRL development officer during the last year of his playing career which helped him get a land a job as a CRL development officer based out of Wagga after retiring
- Adam says if he has his time again he would be a lot smarter at networking with the footy clubs sponsors who want to help the club & its players. Adam says he would have got out there & networked a lot more if he realised the importance of it back when he was playing which would have opened up opportunities to do all sorts of things after his playing career
- The Canterbury Bulldogs offered a lot of different courses (Business, computer courses) to its players which has helped Adam in his life & also in his current job as an NRL development officer
- The biggest thing he misses is the comradery of being around a group of mates he spend so much time alongside. And a way Adam overcame that was coaching back in the country where it all began at Junee.
- Adam did a course just recently & he wishes he had of done it 20 years ago or even in his transition back in 2007 & the course was “The Resilience Project” by Hugh Van Cuylenburg - https://theresilienceproject.com.au/ this course taught Adam all types of things but the biggest thing it taught him was to be grateful about the things he has in life & it gave him a lot of prospective & made him realise how lucky he is
- Adam loves what he does as a development officer where he mentors young kids & also coaches through their playing & coaching Career
Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-perry-810b9aa3/