Plenty of rugby league players can find success later in their career, with some of the sport’s best still playing amateur level as an adult and a prime example of that is Kyle Amor who went on to win it all at St Helens with a Challenge Cup win over Leeds Rhinos and a Grand Final against Wigan Warriors.
Amor had started his career off representing Cumbria and playing at a lower level but a move to Leeds then saw him link up with hometown club Whitehaven, from which point he caught the eyes of Super League.
That Super League career spanned Wakefield Trinity, St Helens before a shorter stint at Warrington Wolves and then retirement with Widnes this current season.
Amor has now opened up on that retirement on the Out Of Your League podcast, joking that some may have wished he’d retired 18 months earlier, but he described the difficulties of leaving professional sport as well as the big career change he had planned.
“Once I stepped away from that with St Helens, I think as cheesy as it sounds, a small piece of me sort of died in terms of loving the game.
“I obviously went over to Warrington, hopeful that I could bring a little bit of what I felt that they might have needed at that time, but truth be told, I think mentally once you make that decision that you’re done then it’s very, very difficult to recapture that love for it and apply yourself properly.
“It was a difficult time for everybody at Warrington. A lot of people wanted the season over, a lot of the players did, a lot of the fans did, and it kind of got to a stage where I just wasn’t really interested in playing at that level and I don’t think I was applying myself properly at that level either.
“I took the decision to step away and then Widnes came in and transitioning out of full-time sport is incredibly difficult, it really is and you’ve got to almost imagine it’s like being back in school again, you’ve got like a 16 year old kid but this time he was 36, asking him what do you want to do with the rest of your life.
“At times it spirals out of control and you feel like you don’t really know who you are anymore, you don’t know what you want to do, you don’t know what you want to be and you kind of go into desperation mode where you know you’ll just grab anything that’s that comes your way just to make a means for your family.
“I’ve just finished and qualified as a teacher now in high school, so I’d planned my exit out of the game. I’d done my degree, knew that I was going into teacher training but it was still very very daunting.
“It was very daunting to go away from something that I absolutely loved doing, in playing the game and being around all the boys, to this different role where I’m stood in front of a classroom teaching high school kids.”
Ultimately Amor hasn’t taken to the class room yet but referenced that it’s an option he has “in the back pocket” should he need, but currently you’ll find him on your TV screens doing various media duties.
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