Former Castleford Tigers, Leigh Leopards and Featherstone Rovers winger Jy Hitchcox was set to retire but has ended up continuing his career down under.
But he’s not only playing but is also coal mining. The winger, who played in the 2017 Grand Final for the Tigers, explained how this came about to Serious About Rugby League.
“I didn’t retire completely because I signed with West Illawarra Devils. I think it’s called the Mojo Homes Cup. I’m playing here with Grant Millington.
“Yeah, and I actually work with them too as well. So I did a coal mining course.
“Yeah, I did a four-day coal mining course, and I got a job with a company called CH4 Drilling.
“And yeah, that’s in the Dendrobium Coal Mine, which is about 20 minutes from where I’m living, south of Wollongong.
“Yeah, so I did that and I’ve been doing that for about a month and a half now.”
Hitchcox is now doing this alongside playing as is Grant Millington:
“I ended up going back to Byron Bay to visit my family and stuff, who I’ve not seen in quite a long time. And I just had two months to just chill out and unwind and stuff like that. And then, yeah, I looked into this coal mining and I did a course in Singleton, a four day like induction evacuation safety course.
“I moved down to Wollongong on the 1st of January and yeah, then I signed with the footy sandwich start of pre-season and yeah, we’re actually doing pretty good.”