Big read: Gareth Ellis joins RL Cares

Player are at the heart of what Rugby League Cares does.

As well as delivering welfare services to the professional and semi-professional game, the independent and trusted charity is also supporting the health and wellbeing of retired players via its new Brain Health Fund.

The RL Cares staff roster includes a host of celebrated current and former players: ex-Wakefield, Wigan, London and Hull KR prop Francis Stephenson is Transition Manager; former Warrington forward Paul Wood manages the hugely successful wellbeing programme that is transforming the lives of frontline NHS staff in the North West; and Keith Senior, the ex-Leeds, Sheffield, England and Great Britain centre heads up a busy community health team featuring retired Ireland international Bob Beswick, and former Leeds, Halifax and Wales three-quarter Damian Gibson.

RL Cares already enjoys good working relationships with the stars of today, often through its close links with the clubs’ dedicated welfare managers, who are in daily contact with the charity’s Director of Welfare Steve McCormack, the former Scotland RL coach, and his colleagues Stephenson and Steve Hardisty.

Those relationships are being enhanced by a significant ‘close-season’ signing by RL Cares, who have appointed one of the most talented and respected players of the modern era to a new role of Wellbeing Programme Manager.

During a glittering career, Gareth Ellis gained a reputation as a player who never gave less than 100 per cent, be that at club level or internationally.

Having started his career at Wakefield Trinity in 1999, the Castleford-born centre or back row went on to make almost 500 first grade appearances, including 33 caps for England and Great Britain.

He was a two-time Super League Grand Final winner with Leeds Rhinos in 2007 and 2008 before embarking on a successful four-year spell in the NRL with Wests Tigers, where he was named player of the season for three years in a row.

Ellis returned to the UK in 2013 to become a legendary figure at Hull FC, for whom he helped end their Wembley hoodoo by captaining the East Yorkshire club to Challenge Cup final success in 2016 and 2017.

He called time on his playing career not once, but twice, stepping out of retirement in 2018 to play 28 more games over the next two seasons before joining Hull’s backroom staff as football manager and then assistant coach under Tony Smith.

When Ellis let slip that he intended to leave Hull at the end of the 2023 season to pursue a new challenge, RL Cares moved quickly to bring him on board in a role that will see him involved in most aspects of the charity’s work.

Given one aspect of that work is encouraging players to plan for the next stage of their working lives once their playing careers are over as early as possible, there is some irony in the fact that Ellis concedes this was his biggest oversight during his playing days.

“I always knew how important it was, but I simply kept putting it off,” he said. “One part of me thought I had all the time in the world and that I had to be fully focused on playing. At the same time, I realised that committing all my energy into being the best player I could be was just an excuse and my lack of planning was a constant worry.

“If I had prepared, I might have worried less, but then I may not have enjoyed playing as much as I did. I’ll never know.”

While he enjoyed his three years on the backroom staff at Hull, Ellis slowly came to the realisation that it wasn’t for him.

“I’d never had ambitions to be a coach and, ultimately, I knew I wasn’t prepared to make the sacrifices and commit the time needed to succeed and enjoy it.

“I learned a lot during those three years, and learned lot about myself as well.

“Initially, like a lot of people, the temptation was to take a completely different direction, but I quickly realised I loved the game too much and still had a passion to give something back.”

A meeting with Rugby League Cares chief executive Chris Rostron, who spelled out the charity’s vision to forge stronger links with current and retired players, as well as the wider rugby league family, provided Ellis with a career option he could not resist.

“I knew a fair bit about RL Cares and was familiar with much of what they do having seen the presentations and workshops they’ve run at Hull over the last few years,” he said.

“I was impressed with the direction RL Cares are taking and the opportunity Chris offered me was very exciting. I’m just a couple of weeks into my new job and still finding my feet but absolutely loving it.”

Ellis’s role is an evolving, all-encompassing one that will see him involved in most aspects of the charity’s work, including working with the community team that delivers health programmes like Movember Ahead of the Game, Offload and Rugby League Cares for the NHS.

But perhaps the most important aspect of his involvement will be developing closer links with players, and sharing his own rich experience in Super League and the NRL with them. That work will involve regular visit Super League, Championship and League 1 clubs to meet players before and after training to chat about the services they can access through the charity, including grants to offset the costs of gaining academic and vocational qualifications.

He will also keep tabs with the England players who are forging careers Down Under, and ensuring they receive the support they need to become the best they can be.

The scope of this new position could be daunting, but Ellis has never been one to shirk a challenge, as the title of his recently-published autobiography, Never The Easy Option, suggests.

“I’ve found out so much over the last few weeks about the difference RL Cares makes to the lives of people across rugby league communities and still have a lot to learn,” he said. “It’s a great organisation and a very exciting role which I’m very much looking forward to make my own.”

Never The Easy Option: The Gareth Ellis Story is available from scratchingshedpublishing.com, priced £13.99.

A version of this article first appeared in Rugby League World magazine.