Cayless sold on future direction

LAWRENCE SMITH/Sunday News

CONFIDENCE: Kiwi hard man and World Cup winning captain Nathan Cayless is predicting a New Zealand win.

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Nathan Cayless has steeled himself for the inevitable all season - that final hooter sounding at Parramatta Stadium and the surge of acclaim, win or lose.

Once the sanctioned pitch invasion has cleared and Cayless has made the sanctuary of an Eels dressing for the last time of his National Rugby League (NRL) career tomorrow night, there will be time for reflection with his players, friends, family and those Kiwis colleagues across the tunnel from the New Zealand Warriors.

Having witnessed enough farewells during his 14 season first-grade career, the durable prop knows what to expect in the immediate aftermath of what will be his 259th and final game for Parramatta, the club he urged on as a kid from the mound that is now the Brett Kenny stand.

Even "Mad Monday" doesn't faze him, although Cayless again risks being an object of ridicule on the nudie run if he can't score his first try of the season, and his first since mid-2007.

Any jibes will be taken in jest, it's just the camaraderie Cayless has grown up with since being urged by current Eels assistant coach Peter Sharp to turn up to pre-season training fresh from finishing high school in 1996.

From his late teens to age 32, Cayless has followed the same regimen, so it is November that actually has him sweating.

"It's going to be really tough then when the boys go back to training," he said.

"That's when it'll hit me that it's really over, that's when I have to keep myself as busy so I don't get depressed."

Before the Bledisloe Cup rugby test in Melbourne in July, Brad Thorn - an old adversary of Cayless when the All Blacks lock was a Bronco and Kangaroo - spoke candidly of his fear of retirement and life after football.

Cayless understood Thorn's anxiety, but doesn't fear his own adjustment.

"I had four years to plan for it," he said.

"In 2007, that's when I realised that I want to have something confirmed when I finished playing footy.

"I didn't want to retire and go 'Well, what am I going to do now'?"

Cayless mulled over then discarded several options ... builder, architect, financial planner.

"I spent a fair while trying to work it out. When you go straight from school straight into fulltime footy it's hard to get a feel for what you might enjoy doing as a job."

Cayless found a new home with real estate in the commercial and industrial arm of Colliers International.

It's a sea change from league and the only other non-footy job on his CV: a glassie at Rosehill races who picked up empties for three meetings.

For the last three years he has combined training, playing, rehab and fatherhood with work experience at Colliers, a club sponsor.

Fulltime work starts on December 1, and for the first time since his senior debut in 1997 his weekends will now be relatively clear between November's first gut-busting training run and grand final day.

Naturally after leading the side for 220 games - an NRL record - Cayless cannot totally sever the ties that bind him inextricably to the Eels.

As a Parramatta junior, Cayless marvelled at the feats of Kenny, Ray Price and Peter Sterling when he was growing up, and now he looks forward to taking his own kids Eddy, Mia and Marli to watch the Hayne train once they've had their own run around.

"The kids will start their own sport soon so it's time to give some more time back to them," Cayless said.

"It's going to be good to be able to relax and spend more time doing what the kids want to do rather than focus on what I need to do to prepare for a game on a Saturday or Sunday."

Cayless is still willing to act as an unofficial mentor for Parramatta's up-and-comers when work permits.

"I definitely want to stay involved with the club but I won't be coaching or anything like that. I like my sleep too much and I've got enough grey hairs."

- NZPA