Ex-Wolfpack players Ryan Brierley, Cory Paterson form sports management company

While elite athletes occasionally represent themselves in contract talks, Scottish rugby league international Ryan Brierley has gone one big step further.

Brierley, now playing for Hull Kingston Rovers, has joined forces with former Toronto Wolfpack teammate Cory Paterson to form a sports management firm called the Players Player.

The 28-year-old Brierley had planned to launch the company after his playing career was over but then unexpectedly found a first client — 18-year-old Jess Park, an England youth international forward on the Manchester City women’s soccer team.

“I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t take the opportunity there and then,” Brierley said in an interview.

“The journey started earlier than expected,” he added.

Brierley has a master’s degree in sports business management from Leeds Beckett University. That combined with a stint with the Wolfpack that turned sour led him down a path of “making sure that players are protected throughout all kind of circumstances.”

Brierley was signed from the Huddersfield Giants by then-Wolfpack coach Paul Rowley in April 2017, early in the transatlantic rugby league team’s inaugural season. Brierley had played under Rowley at the Leigh Centurions where he was a prolific try-scorer.

An elusive runner with a good turn of pace, the young halfback said the move to Toronto allowed him to rediscover his love for the game. He also welcomed the reunion with Rowley.

“Paul Rowley looks after us as people not players,” Brierley said in May 2017. “We’re all human beings and we understand how important our normal day-to-day life is away from rugby league.”

Rowley parted ways with the Wolfpack after the team failed to win promotion to Super League in 2018. Former Leeds Rhinos boss Brian McDermott took over and Brierley found himself down the depth chart behind captain Josh McCrone, Joe Mellor and Blake Wallace.

“The new head coach came in and for whatever reason — I don’t know, I never had a conversation with him — obviously I wasn’t in his plans and that was the end of that,” said Brierley.

McDermott, a straight shooter, has a different recollection of what happened but opted to take the high road.

“I find it slightly puzzling given all the dialogue that I did have with him, but I wish him all the best with his new business venture,” McDermott said.

After two loan spells with Leigh in 2019, Brierley left Toronto last December to join Hull Kingston Rovers on a one-year contract.

Without naming names, Brierley doesn’t hold back on the Players Player website on why he started up the company.

“A certain stage of my career was the toughest 2/3 years of my life. I was being forced out for no reason. If you ask any of my teammates, they would tell you I’m one of the most professional players they know. I don’t drink, don’t smoke so there was never any reason to force me out other than the coach just wanted to play someone else, which is fine, but morally there’s a way to do things.

“The constant harassment and bullying was getting too much and i didn’t know where to turn to.”

Brierley reached out for mental help during that period, saying every day was a struggle.

“I would go to sleep early trying to get to that next day, hoping it would come quicker and be the end of the tough time,” he said. “Which was tough and something very unlike me. I’m a person who loves playing rugby league, who loves coming to training, gets excited by stuff. And then to knock all that positive energy was hurtful.”

He hopes he can now turn that experience into a positive by helping others avoid what he went through.

Despite a season interrupted by the global pandemic, Brierley says he is enjoying his time with Hull KR, saying the club has been helpful and supportive from the get-go.

He is a big fan of coach Tony Smith.

“He just appreciates me as a person and he just looks after players as people rather than players. And I think that’s the way you’ve got to be. I can ring him up for a chat whenever I want.

“I needed an arm around my shoulder and Tony definitely offered that for me, which has been great. And I think it’s been reflected in my performances.”

Brierley still has an agent to handle his own career, saying it allows him to concentrate on playing.

His firm has experts to help with financial and brand management.

“It would be ignorant and insulting to not tap into those people who are obviously dedicated experts in that field,” he said. “We wanted to give our players the best possible advice.”   

Paterson, who turns 33 on July 14, retired in 2019 after playing for the Newcastle Knights, North Queensland Cowboys and Wests Tigers in his native Australia, and Hull Kingston Rovers, Salford Red Devils and Leigh Centurions in England in addition to Toronto.

Paterson, whose son is in the Liverpool football academy, counts a Manchester-area coffee house — Jacora Coffee — among his business ventures. It’s a haunt of some of the Man City women’s players, including Park.

“We kind of fell into business with each other. There was no major chat. There was no formal thing. It was kind of what felt right at the time,” said Brierley.

“Now we’re partners and looking forward to the journey.” 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 8, 2020.

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Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press