Ryan Papenhuyzen says he may not play NRL again and may turn back on career in sport

Ryan Papenhuyzen isn’t sure if he will ever play professional sport again, the former Melbourne NRL star declaring his future a “blank canvas”.

The 27-year-old says he has no regrets about walking away from the final year of his Storm contract and hasn’t been impacted by the delay of rebel rugby competition R360 because he never intended playing sport, apart from golf, next year.

“I’ve always been pretty set on next year as a gap year for sport in general, so the only sport I’ll be playing is golf,” Papenhuyzen said after the Australian Open pro-am at Royal Melbourne on Wednesday.

“The plan was to always have a year off and try a few different things and see how that goes so that hasn’t changed for me.

“Life’s only short so if I’m my 80-year-old self looking back now, what’s something I regret not doing? It’s probably taking a chance and doing something else.

“I’ve been in rugby league for nearly 10 years now and sport for 10 years, so why not pivot and try something else and there’s always an option to come back, which is great.

“I feel like I’m at a point now where I’ve really progressed as a human and athletically as well, but there’s more things I want to achieve in life and why not have a punt at that now?”

Asked if he could picture himself some time in the future strapping on footy boots again he said no.

“Maybe playing touch footy at a local park or something like that but honestly, right now, no,” said Papenhuyzen, who played in Melbourne’s grand final defeats in the past two seasons.

“I’m sure I’d weigh all options up if I got to that feeling again, but right now I’m just looking at it as a blank canvas and I get to write that next chapter.”

Becoming an avid reader and deep thinker during his long injury stints on the sidelines, psychology has become a keen interest for Papenhuyzen and he’s currently doing some mental performance coaching with a few young athletes.

“Who knows, that could be the new career path, but I really like that side of things and I really benefited from my career so hopefully I can share that message with other people who are finding troubles and we’ll see how that goes,” he said.

“I’m really enjoying this stuff now, doing the mentoring and getting to play golf and going up to Sydney and seeing family, which I didn’t get to do too much the last few years.”

Papenhuyzen said the only event on his sporting calendar was the invitational golf tournament at The Cathedral Golf Club in country Victoria next week.

“I’m actually caddying for Daniel Gale next week at the Cathedral Invitational so that could be the new career, we never know.”