“I’m glad I played in the era that I did, to have had those skills for after my football finished.

“It’s an extremely important point to make that a lot of players suffer after their careers finish. Some don’t, but I think a lot of players do.

“Life after footy, you know? Your whole life for 15 years is playing football and then it comes to an end. Not everyone has a loving wife and a family, or maybe they do and they’re not really happy with it; they think they’re looking for more than they’ve got.

“It’s a tough transition. I’ve played with guys who have suffered from depression; you didn’t think too much about that sort’ve thing 30 years ago, but now obviously you do. Life after footy can be tough. A lot of guys say they really struggled because your whole life, from what you knew, is just finished.

“Then you have to invent a new life after footy, so you have to try and prepare for that. It’s a good life while you’re there, but then it finishes forever. That’s a hard transition for a lot of players.

“Another thing that’s changed over the years is loyalty; the loyalty these days is not like it was back in my era. There’s probably no loyalty now. Everyone’s use-by date is eventually up. Obviously you have to perform, but loyalty, people talk about it, but it’s not like it used to be back in the ‘80s.

“I only signed a one-year deal with the Magpies when I began playing in Sydney; in that era, if you signed and then all of a sudden didn’t want to play, or you wanted to swap codes and go and play rugby for a month in another country, that just didn’t happen. Once you gave your word, that was it.”

(Originally published as "My Finest Moment" - Inside Sport, May 2017.)