Long Read Interview: Jy Hitchcox

Jy Hitchcox is a name familiar to many Castleford fans. The Australian winger was part of their historic 2017 side that won the League Leaders’ Shield and got to the Super League Grand Final.

Whilst he is mostly widely known for his time at Wheldon Road, he also spent time at Bradford, Toulouse, Rochdale and most recently Leigh prior to his retirement from the sport last year.

Since retiring, he has been on a rollercoaster which has seen him return to Australia. He has been speaking exclusively to Serious About Rugby League about his life since retirement.

“I had a bit of a rough time, really, because I had a deal that I thought was going through before I left England. Well I had a few options really, but some of them came up shorter than I’d liked. I was going to stay with Leigh and do a sort of a commercial role with them so like with sponsors and Match Day and stuff like that,” said Hitchcox.

He added: “That sort of fell through because I think they sort of underestimated their new membership tiers. That didn’t take into account that it was like say if one person’s a large in a t-shirt and that person gets this. So they had to go through each individual sizes on like six and a half, seven thousand season tickets or whatever. So they were just totally strung out with work, and my visa ended up expiring and I had an option to like renew my visa myself but I didn’t really want to pay £6,000 with no guaranteed job. So, yeah, that all came about really quickly and within a week I was on a plane to Australia but that was without my partner and kids, so I’ve not actually seen them since then.”

Hitchcox also explained how he is now working down coal mines south of Wollongong. He said: “I did a four-day coal mining course, and I got a job with a company called CH4 Drilling. I looked into this coal mining and I did a course in Singleton, a four day like induction evacuation safety course.”

He added: “It’s something new, it’s pretty daunting. I think we’re about a kilometre down underneath the surface of the Earth and then 13 kilometres in. So it’s sort of like a slow winding road that takes about 45 minutes to get to the bottom. It’s black, wet, damp and all different temperatures depending on what’s happening. And yeah, it’s a bit daunting, and I’m lucky I’m not claustrophobic, but yeah, it’s pretty wild.”

Hitchcox also spoke honestly about how he hasn’t seen his family since his return to Australia.

“It’s been pretty tough obviously being away from my family”, added Hitchcox.  “But it’s something that I couldn’t really control too much. I’m sort of the type of person that if I can’t control it and affect it straight away, I’m trying to keep it out of my mind as much as I can. And then it’s been extra tough working because I’m working nights. So I can’t really get the chance to speak to the kids because when I’m off going to work, it’s at 10pm, 9pm, kids are already in school and then I’m sleeping during the day. So the only time I’ve got to speak to them is a tiny window just before footy training where they’re getting ready for school. So it’s pretty rough.”

Luckily, this situation has now been resolved and the family are about to be reunited. Hitchox said: “so I’ve just got the kids’ citizenships and they’ve been cleared and then I’ve just got to get my partner’s working visa now. So she’s going to come here, so they move to Australia in the end of this month, so the 28th”

Life has moved pretty quickly for Hitchcox since retiring at the end of last season. During the interview, he also revealed his retirement didn’t last long either.

“I didn’t retire completely because I signed with West Illawarra Devils,” said Hitchcox. “Yeah, signed with West Illawarra Devils in the Illawarra, I think it’s called the Mojo Homes Cup. I’m playing here with Grant Millington and Josiah Feke.”

“But yeah, the comp I play-in is probably similar to the Championship. There’s only six teams in the comp and it’s all pretty close, so everyone can beat everyone. But yeah, I think it’d probably be a mid-table championship sort of quality. Yeah, it’s a good standard of footy. Pretty good players floating around. We’ve got four or five guys that made the country team in our team, and then you’ve got guys that play in Australian school boys, you’ve got Milo (Grant Millington) and Feke who have got a fair bit of NRL experience.”

Whilst Hitchcox is currently down under, he still keeps a keen eye on Super League and in particular his former employers Leigh and Castleford.

Speaking on Castleford’s season so far, he said: “Well, to be honest, when they signed Jacob Miller and Gareth Widdop and they kept a lot of their stronger players and the players that have been there a long time are sort of pushing the Cas culture, like Nathan Massey and Adam Milner, I thought they’re in for a pretty red hot season. But, yeah, it’s pretty obvious that something’s not right down there because otherwise they’d be getting the results. You look at teams that they’re playing and you think, well, they’ve got these guys covered and then it’s just another tally up really. So, yeah, I’m not 100% sure what’s going on there. It’s pretty sad to see because I know how passionate the Cas fans are. So they’ll be getting it from everywhere, the Cas players at the moment, which is not great to see.”

Hitchcox also reflected on his time at Wheldon Road, saying: “from my time there, I can definitely say that we had one of the best team cultures I’ve ever had in footy. I mean, I don’t think anyone would disagree that if you looked at that 2017 team, we didn’t have any superstars. we didn’t have, you know, your 200,000 pound players. Like, you know, our biggest player, our most played player wasn’t even probably in the top 15, top 20 in Super League. So, the team culture we had, the laughs we had, the jokes we had, we just had a really good mix of different people that were really driving a good, fun team culture. I’ve said it before in other interviews, if it was beers or if it was pizza after a game or if it was coffees before or if it was a golf on the weekend, everyone would sort of show up.

He added: “I can’t speak too much about what it’s like now because I’m not there, but we definitely just had a team culture and a really good vibe. It felt like no matter who we played, we were going to win.”