Bulldogs players look to build a future

For the past few months, five Bulldogs players have been preparing for life after football by working towards completing a Certificate III in Carpentry. 

Following in the footsteps of former Bulldogs player Sam Perrett, who completed his carpentry apprenticeship whilst playing football, before going on to own his own business are: Ofahiki Ogden, Brandon Wakeham, Francis Tualau, Mason Cerruto and Zac Saddler. Each has been attending weekly classes with the goal of becoming qualified carpenters.

Under the guidance of their teacher Ryan Nott, from the Australian Skills and Training Academy, the players have been participating in theory and practical classes once a week since February They attend these after training or on their days off. 

“I teach the guys basic carpentary skills so they can hopefully go out and become carpenters eventually. They will get their Cert III certificate which will help the players enter a carpentary career. They boys were a bit slow to get started, but they’re actually doing well now. They’re getting the concept and enjoying it now,” added. Nott.

As part of their course, players gathered at Terry Lamb reserve on Thursday where they had to practise a ‘site set out’ – getting a building in the right position on a block of land using levelling devices and other equipment.

The Bulldogs place a high priority on education and developing a career off the field, with several of our current NRL players having already completed a trade, including Kerrod Holland, Rhyse Martin, Danny Fualalo and Michael Lichaa.  

Many others from the NRL squad such as Jack Cogger, Aiden Tolman, Dylan Napa, Jesse Sue, Renouf To’omaga, Christian Chrichton and Ray Faitala-Mariner, are also actively engaged in study in areas such as Business, Building and Construction, Economics, Fitness and Teaching.