After two decades where playing rugby was all he knew, Liam Messam admits he was daunted about the prospect of finding his purpose in ‘the real world’.
In a career which started with Waikato as a 19-year-old, and last year came full circle when he brought up his century of caps for the province – after, of course, becoming the Chiefs’ most-capped Super Rugby player and captaining them to their two titles, earning 43 tests for the All Blacks, representing the Māori All Blacks and All Blacks Sevens, and also having stints in Japan and France – this year was the first since 2003 that he hadn’t laced up the boots.
So ingrained is the game in him, though, that despite coming up 40 in March, Messam still struggles to definitively define himself as ‘retired’. It’s all part of this tricky transition from long-time player to the big wide world and what to do next.
Making Messam’s bridge that bit easier to cross, though, is a job he’s got back at the Chiefs – employed on a seven-month contract for the coming Super Rugby Pacific season as an ‘athlete development manager’.
With a particular focus on off-field mentoring of players, it was a new role created by the franchise, specifically for the man who is the absolute epitome of the Chiefs, and all they stand for.
Chiefs chief executive Simon Graafhuis notes it was a “no-brainer” to get back their 183-cap legend, renowned for his huge work ethic and high standards, involved. It was something that had been in the works for a couple of years, but which came to fruition now chiefly because of the loss of some “all-time greats” in the playing ranks for 2024 in the form of Sam Cane, Brodie Retallick and Brad Weber.
It’s a role which will also see Messam work with the franchise’s under-20 players, while he could also be a valuable resource for the women’s team in their Aupiki campaign.
“For me, it’s just a blessing and a great opportunity to come back into the environment,” Messam says. “This is all I’ve known since I first moved up to Hamilton [from Rotorua], it’s been my family for a long time now, so to be welcomed back with open arms, I have to make sure I make the most of it, and leave a real positive impact.
“It’s a bit daunting when you retire and not knowing what you’re going to do... I still couldn’t decide to hang up the boots, I was still hanging on till the wheels fell off, and they slowly fell off.
“I might get a couple of club games in, but I just needed to decide when I was going to pull pin, and when this offer came I thought it was a great opportunity to get stuck in. It took a lot of hard work, but I’m just really thankful to Donk [coach Clayton McMillan] and Wayne [Maher, the Chiefs’ general manager rugby] to give me this opportunity and see where we can go from there.”
So far so good with this “very fulltime” gig, which has got underway in the pre-Christmas training phase, even if it has taken some adjusting to.
“On the contract it’s 8.30am to 5pm, I know it’s not the ‘real world’, or ‘real life’, but I’m there Monday to Friday, and when I get home from work I’m pretty knackered and I’m in bed by 8 o’clock,” Messam says.
“I’m not used to it, trying to keep that level of concentration for the whole day. A lot of black coffee – I’m trying to take that out of my diet because it’s not that good for you – but just really enjoying coming into work, there’s a lot of coaches and management in this team that I’ve got a lot of respect for and spent a lot of time either playing with or working with, so it makes it a lot of fun, we take the mickey out of each other quite a bit.”
That banter extends to the players, too. But the mana of the man ensures he commands their respect, not least thanks to the shape Messam still keeps – including still taking on boxing bouts – as no-one is spared from his critical analysis in the gym.
“Shaun Stevenson has been my little project the last couple of weeks, just making sure he’s pushing the right amount of tin and he’s not taking any shortcuts,” Messam says.
“He always makes sure that he doesn’t have eye-contact with me, I always pull him aside. But he’s been impressive the last couple of weeks, I think he might have hit a PB.”
There is a danger, of course, that all this might just fuel the fire, and mean there is still some playing time left for him yet. Messam did, of course, add to his Chiefs caps with four appearances in 2021 after being dramatically whistled up as an injury replacement.
Having seen the first week of pre-season, and with his knees the way they are, he reckons his mouthguard will indeed be thrown away, though still won’t yet bring himself to fully close the door on the idea of taking the park again.
“Well, you apparently haven’t retired until you post it on social media,” Messam laughs.
“So if it’s not on Instagram it hasn’t happened yet, eh. So we’ll see what happens.”