In-depth with Paps: Why the 🌩️ star is the happiest he’s ever been 💜 | Fox League

Storm superstar Ryan Papenhuyzen opens up on his recovery from a broken ankle, his trip to the US to work with Bill Knowles and reveals why he’s the happiest he’s ever been 💜

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Ryan papen thank you so much for your time I’m so excited to be able to sit down and chat to you I’m sure you’ve been asked this a million times but we’ll have to start with a health check on the ankle how is it A and B when can

We expect to see you back thanks Dary um yeah I guess it’s um it’s gone really well pretty much back to full training now and yeah expect me just to see me RA on I guess try get a few games in before and uh yeah it’s been been quite a

Smooth process this one that’s very exciting uh so what has preseason looked like for you uh when did you say you got back to full training uh I started full training probably second week of January um so preseason looked a little bit different this year before Christmas I went away

To America again and and did some rehab with Bill noes and um once I came back from that we sort of led into our Christmas break so it was a bit of a there was a bit of a weird transition this one because I pretty much

Went he much give me two two weeks of training like a big block but I had to do that over the Christmas break so I was like you generally you generally get a bit of time off over Christmas but I think this time was a bit more all right

Let’s knuckle down you’re back in here now so um a lot of the storm stuff would come in um over Christmas and yeah help me out and assist where I needed to be so it was a little bit different this year but um I think it put me in a good

Stad to be back full training by sort of the middle of January so you were a bit of a loner uh at storm headquarters over Christmas yeah no I think I went back to Sydney for three days just to see family and then um yeah other than that I was

Just sort of back at the club doing some training and yeah once once we sort of were back on January 4 um I was like a new human really I come back and I was I was running and I was changing direction and uh I think all the boys were a

Little bit surprised but I was at a point where I probably needed to do that two weeks block and yeah put me in good stad for our um jalon Camp which should be going once we return from Christmas I heard that it was all your decision uh

To go over to America and you actually paid for the trip yourself is that true yeah yeah that’s true W but um one one I think I needed to do mentally uh just to sort of clear that up and then to to see I guess the best

Person for the job to get me back in a in a good physical condition so um yeah a small sacrifice when you put it that way but yeah did off my own bat and um yeah I guess it’s one of those things that I’ll probably look back on um at

The end of my career and be really grateful that I was able to do it and yeah I guess hopefully have some success from then but yeah for now it’s definitely worth it tell me you at least treated yourself to business class no I would have made even more expensive

Trip economy just economy I did uh I did stop over in Hawaii on the way over there so oh um talk to me about this trip you know why why what does Bill offer what does he do that you felt like you needed to go back over

There um it’s just a different approach I think it’s I think usually you’re here and you’re sort of in an environment where you got 40 guys training with you and there’s only two physios um so I think one it’s hard for them to sort of oversee what I’m doing and and give me

Really specific things to do whereas with billets oneon-one for two weeks um you’re there every day you’re doing two sessions a day so um if you you’re sort of to put that together I’m probably training I’m probably getting a month or two’s work within two weeks and um yeah

Just the way he goes about his work he’s very passionate um never makes you feel like you’re sort of doing the wrong thing very encouraging and yeah I think that’s what I needed at that point I’m obviously very frustrated after this injury again and yeah I think the way he

Sort of framed it up and and goes about it um yeah it’s really encouraging really makes you want to be there and yeah gives you that confidence that when you actually come back and um you’re back working and back playing the NRL you’re going to be up to that level that

You were before is it all about rehab or is there an element where you’re like he teaches you to change your approach to I don’t know running or something like that yeah yeah I think that’s that’s probably a really good point like people think of rehab is um okay an ankle rehab

So I just do lots of work on the ankle but no he did a lot around um movement mechanics of the body and making sure that I’m being proactive to put my body in position um that won’t affect that area or that would take the load off a little bit so

Yeah it’s the whole range you sort of you’re in the pool you’re doing stuff with your core you’re doing stuff with your feet talks about like a feet and a hip connection so you’re not even talking about the ankle or knee um all you sort of have to worry about is those

Areas and yeah by the second week you’re doing things that you probably didn’t think you could do in the first week um and then I look back now come back in the training and I think the common approach is like you want to build up to

Run but his approach was no no no let’s break that down you want to be change of Direction that’s your game you’re fast you’re change of Direction you’re sharp so let’s build that first and then he said then we’ll start running because once you start running you’ll be doing

All that so just yeah just framed it up um a little bit differently than what I’ve heard before and yeah obviously had that experience with him when I went over for my knee and yeah the ankle just sort of confirm why he’s so good at what

He is and yeah now I’m yeah reaping the rewards of um yeah all that hard work and yeah hope they can put in the action realm up sounds like he essentially takes you back to basics almost strips you strips you down yeah well first two

Days I learned how to walk again so yeah it was weird like I think like anyone after an ankle injury they have that little limp um and my foot was really stiff so the first yeah the first two days we were just walking on his gym mat

And he’d like video me and critique it and then we go on the trampoline but it all built up for the third day which was you’d hop in the pool and he put flippers on my feet and I was just working through range like so and then

Once I’d done that and went back onto the land my ankle was like moving again I was like oh so I was just teaching the brain that it actually is okay to do that but how we get to that point is breaking it all down and going backwards

If that makes sense yeah so in a way you’re subconsciously afraid to make your ankle move to its full motion and he made your brain go no no it’s okay pretty much and I think that’s just part of being like a moon boot or a knee

Brace for so long is your body yeah like you’re right subconsciously your body goes oh can I do that or is that going to hurt me but yeah once you expose yourself to it and um yeah you have a few successful reps it just yeah changes

The whole way you go about it I’m really curious about Bill like he’s had a lot of rugby league players come over now um does he you know follow the game does he call it rugby like I think the first time I went over there called he called the footy a

Sneen not a Steen he called it a sneen I was like what is going on but um no I think that’s what’s also quite refreshing is like he he doesn’t know you from a bar of so when I first went over there he knew nothing he had to

Watch a couple Clips to see what I did but essentially we’re making some of the same movements as his NFL athlet so um he he declared ours is definitely physically tougher huge I’ll take that there’s there’s a bit more of a skill set but but a lot of the references

About changing angles and taking off and and being able to do that repetitively it’s probably an unhappy memory but I want to take you back to when you suffered the ankle injury what do you remember about that moment and how you felt yeah I think probably I the word

That sums up the most probably disappointment uh just yeah after sort of working so hard to come back from the knee and getting a few games in and getting into finals it was the first week of finals and all that excitement and H builds up up and um yeah got

Myself through to the 75th minute and um yeah we all know what happened from there but I think yeah it’s probably just the disappointment um you could see I was pretty shattered on the field and yeah looking back at it um I mean it’s it’s hard to watch but I guess it you

Sort of have to embrace those emotions because it makes the comeback a bit better and yeah it makes you appreciate what you do a bit more when you get back out there so yeah disappointment is probably the word but um yeah now probably the happiest I’ve ever been and

Um feel fit and yeah in a physically good condition as well did you um when it happened initially cuz it looked gruesome did you fear that it was going to be another very long-term injury um I don’t think it really hit me at the time I think it was more just

That instant oh no like something’s happened again yeah um and then Yeah you sort of look down at your ankle and it’s probably not where it’s meant to be and yeah then the pain of the swelling ding while your boots still on and yeah just a whole range of things but I

Think it probably hit me whether it was going to be a long-term thing once I went back under the ground and um yeah sort of everyone was around me there was the doctors and uh yeah that that probably hit me then in that moment I remember getting quite emotional again

And um yeah you just sort of think after being out for 14 months and gone through what you went through um you do feel a little bit sorry for yourself and yeah definitely in that moment um yeah it’s probably yeah once I got taken back under and

Probably a 5 10 minute period there where I yeah really felt sorry for myself but um yeah then the the green whistle kicked in andgot about it for a few hours it’s funny you you say you know you feel sorry for yourself and I was talking to jadden brayy recently who’s

Had a horror run with injuries himself and and he said when he did his ACL um you kind of have that feeling of why me I’ve done I’ve done my run on the sideline do you feel the same way yeah a little bit I think yeah pretty similar after you you feel like

That like what have I done um is there anything I could have done better but I think after processing it for a while I think both the injuries were freak freak injuries it’s not my body letting me down it was literally a external Force hitting me and um it just happened like

That so once I processed that I think I sort of got around it but no you definitely feel that and probably feeling like you’ve let your teammates down as well which is which sounds so silly in hindsight but it’s the genuine feeling you get once you much injured

You probably got inundated with messages of support um did you did anyone reach out to you that kind of surprised you or you know was there any you know rival teammates old coaches things like that anyone that reached out to you to give you some support uh the support was

Unbelievable um yeah I could sense yeah straight away um probably the memorable ones is just the boys I played against that night like the Broncos boys and the Bron Broncos social team put something up on their post and um um yeah that really meant a lot I think you sort of

Go out in the field and you’re battling each other and you probably hate each other for a lot of the time but for some of them to reach out and yeah I guess the bronos social team for for putting something out as well um yeah definitely

Helped when I woke up from surgery and yeah the support sense has been unbelievable I I can’t I can’t really put it into words much but um it does make the process a lot easier and I do hear it I do see all the messages um I

Do try to get back to as many as possible but yeah I think um um I could feel the love and it always makes it easy come back from that when you get that support were you better prepared for the um what goes into rehab were you better prepared this time around because

Of what you went through last time uh yeah definitely I think probably more at that stage where I was getting close to doing full activities again um I think the first time I was really conservative which I don’t have regrets about but um I probably just spend a bit

More time on this one just knowing that what’s required and um probably rather than taking my time just asking questions of of how I can do things better um and yeah I guess probably trying to find out more about myself in that period as well whereas probably

Felt sorry for myself in that with that knee injury and um I guess I had a couple people I could speak out to who have done a similar thing but it was never quite the same like they would experien things that I didn’t experience and then I would experience pain that

They hadn’t experienced and it was like just this big game of well is mine bad is mine worse is this where I should be but with the ankle it was um there’s quite a few AFL guys down here have done a similar injury and yeah sort of got

That Clarity around how it works and you you’ll feel like you know her after four months but like at four months on one day you’ll click and you’ll be flying and and yeah that that happens so yeah I was definitely better better prepared but also probably had more people around

Me who have experienced a similar injury so who were you um talking to that had experienced that injury the ankle injuries yeah yeah so there’s a couple boys at North Melbourne um who up there and remember the skipper reached out I me Luke MacDonald he’s he’s done a similar injury as well and

Um yeah he he pretty much just said like I think that the tough one is people will say you’re going to be all right but I don’t tell you those little details in between but he was sure to sort of give me those details um Jackson Hastings he was another massive one yeah

Reached out um did the same injury in the bugger redid it in his last game so um I remember sort of the first month or two after that we were just messaging each day being like Oh how’s your Sky how you feeling it was good to bounce

Ideas off each other and um yeah so like people within the game and yeah I guess you sort of see people on the way that reach out and send you a message of oh I broke this as well and um I think you’ll find this helpful and yeah sort of just

Grab bits and pieces here and um yeah here I am now you’ve spoken about um you know your time away from playing you’ve been doing a lot of reading and I’ve had some psychology meetings um let’s start with the books what were you reading yeah I’ve been on a big Journey

Actually um probably I wasn’t really a big book reader in high school and I remember Mom always used to say like you got to read books you got to read books and I just sat there and shook my head but probably wasn’t until I got Co when

I was um Co and then when I did my knee I thought you know what it’s probably a good opportunity to do it and um there’s a great book called The chimp Paradox that’s um I don’t know if you’ve read but probably it just explains uh the

Brain mechanics in a really simple way of how we’ve developed and while we’re thinking a certain way and from that book um it recommended others and yeah then I went down a financial pathway and then I went back to psychology and it was just a whole learning process so

Chip Paradox was definitely one um and then in terms of perspective there was a book called fre economics um where economists sort of look into different things that happen around the world but then they break it down in a way that actually really makes sense like you can

Sort of believe what’s happened in the media you can believe what’s happening here and there but they broke it down into a if you think outside the box a bit more that would be the reason why so I’ll give an example quickly that for um so they spoke about I think it

Was like crime rates in America between the 80s and 90s and um it dropped significantly and they’re all like oh like why is this all the media Outlets are reporting it’s because incarceration rates were up um there were more police on the streets and there was another

Reason but they sort of went over all this data and said no because that didn’t change too much from the year before but what did change was like abortion was legalized so it was like because families parents single parents weren’t having kids into like low socioeconomic areas like they were

Actually able to I guess have abortions which then which then was the impact of okay crime rate dropped in that area because kids weren’t being brought up um in homes where they didn’t have parents they weren’t going around a crime like so they pull new they bring in that they

Make you think about the other factors outside the box and um yeah once again that spur me on to read more books and yeah whether that was like I said chip Paradox free economics was a great one um and then there’s just like yeah your Rich Dad Poor dads why Rich getting

Richer reading at the moment I’m reading I’m reading the five love languages book at the moment so that’s where it’s taking we might lose you we might lose you from rugby league forever and you’re just going to become you’re going to have a book club yeah CL I might start on here see

That talk to me about your relationship with Craig Bellamy um especially during the tough times with your injuries yeah I think um yeah I think sort of ever since I’ve come log Craigs um yeah helped me out a lot and probably helps you out in a way that’s

It’s not sort of face face to face helping you out it’s probably just little comments here and there that make you you think a bit more or um want to work harder so yeah’s he’s not a massive um speaker I guess or or motivator but yeah just little comments he has here

And there about your game and um yeah you know that all the boys have his respect and yeah you just want to make him proud and yeah I guess that’s probably the feeling to have between me and Craig and you mentioned earlier that you had this feeling where you almost

Felt like you left let your teammates down when you get injured but I know they’re so supportive of you so what’s it like to have them you know gather around you and lift you up yeah so yeah teammate support because you see them every day so it’s it’s

Pretty special to see them um try to pick your your mood up whenever you’re down and yeah they were really good at that while I was sort of going through what I went through um whether it was a message um whether it was sort of the

Next day in hospital after a surgery um I remember HS of the boys come in and yeah I didn’t expect that at the time but that was something that um yeah made you feel really special and really connected while you why you couldn’t be connected with them out in the field so

Yeah they’re they’re very important um still this day you can sort of see how much care they have and around training and and asking questions and and wanting to make you better um and wanting to see you play again it’s it’s a nice feeling you mentioned earlier that you’re

Probably the happiest you’ve ever been so what are the factors that contribute to that yeah I think um yeah life outside football’s really good um I feel like I’m doing things in the background that um I guess I’m not doing University or anything but I’m I’m building my skill

Set in other areas that uh I can sort of say as an outlet um footy can be quite intense at times and and bring you down a little bit but yeah I’ve just got a good good group of friends around me um yeah fames down at the moment down here

Just helping me out with the house um I just moved into a new place and yeah I just feel really refreshed in my mind and I think like I said it probably goes back to all the reading and of self-discovery that you do and um yeah

Once you sort of bring up things from the past and and expose them and and speak about them um it just takes that weight off your shoulders and I probably didn’t know I needed that at the time but it’s um yeah it’s definitely helped and and made me feel a lot clearer and

Fresher now sounds like you’ve got a really good perspective um I guess you’ve realized that there’s more things in life than rugby league yeah I think so it’s um I think I knew that before but yeah it sort of took me to be out of the game for a

While to go okay yeah you do need to focus on some other things but I think that love for the game because it’s been taken away from me now and you sort of get a bit jealous of seeing the guys out in the field who are killing it and

You’re like I want to do that again you know I want to be that person so um yeah I guess my focus on that period was okay let’s just work on things I can’t work on things that I can’t control so let’s do some things I can control and that is

The mental side of the game and and that is studying the game and seeing what the trends are and um yeah once I am back and able to to be in good physical condition then I can put that into place so uh yeah I think all the mental

Stuff’s put me in a good stad and and now it’s just physical training get the Reps in my legs um yeah get the reps with my teammates um combinations and yeah I sort of had a bit of a feeling today and it’s just like why can’t it be

Better than what it was you know so yeah I think that’s exciting to feel like that and um yeah now you just want the season to start so you can get into it so what are your goals for this year what do you want to get out of

2024 yeah I think the goal easy one probably the longterm ones the Premiership um obviously experienced the feeling of that and that was in the co year so I wouldn’t mind um doing that and just having the celebrations and and coming back to Melbourne here and yeah

Sharing it with all our fans who who didn’t get to celebrate it with us in 2020 so that’s a longterm goal um shortterm goals are honestly just to keep being happy um yeah not taking too not taking life too seriously and um yeah just just being a good leader

Around the club and helping guys out around me so yeah I think that’s that’s a pretty important thing is um yeah making sure you’re lifting the guys up around you because a lot of the time it’s not you’re on the field you got the your 12 teammates around you and um if

You’re lifting them up to be there better within themselves whether that’s off the field being clear in their mind or physically preparing well um for the week ahead it’s generally going to help a lot so yeah it’s fun on those 1centers at the moment where I think I can add

Value and yeah hopefully trying to bring the guys out with me now while you were sidelined Nick meany filled in at fullback um what did you make of his efforts in that number one Jersey some of the boys are doing voice recordings next door and just BL out

Sorry I missed that okay while you were sidelined um Nick meany filled in at fullback so what did you make of his efforts there yeah he’s he’s a he’s a footy brain guy means he’s um yeah very good footballer uh obviously played a bit of fullback himself and I thought he

Handled it superbly last year the way he sort of come in and um like the brand of footy he plays is probably a little bit different to mine but he sort of went in there and did his own thing and um yeah made a name for himself which which a

Lot of guys have done from coming down to Melbourne and yeah he did that no differently so um I think you got most of our best and fairest votes towards the back end of the year so that just speaks volumes of I guess how the boys

Team as well and yeah I guess how well um like you guys from the outside see him go too what type of role can we expect to see him play when you’re back on the field yeah I think um I think he’ll have some license to roam around uh I think

Yeah he’s he’s too good a Foy player to just sort of leave out in an edge so um yeah I think you’ll see him getting on the getting on the ball um take his carries and yeah he’s just a smart footy brain so um yeah he’ll know when to do

That and yeah hopefully we can build up a good combination and yeah score some tries this year together we got a taste of um Su fongo what do you think of him yeah he’s pretty special isn’t he he uh yeah he’s he’s lightning um really wants to learn I think that’s that’s one

Of the great traits about the young guys coming through is I guess it’s probably some advice I could give is like just be someone who’s really Keen to learn and and he’s exactly that I remember sitting with him probably five years ago and he was sort of coming through the ranks and

He couldn’t speak a word of English I’m not even lying like he’s he was like yeah he could not speak English I remember trying to have conversations with him texts with him and it was just like see him from then to what he has become now it’s just credit to him like

How much he’s learned how much he’s sort of embraced the Australian culture and um I guess the storm culture as well so to see him developed in that way and then his footage just Blossom from there um yeah it’s pretty special to see and I’m sure he’ll get plenty of game time

This year as well but yeah for someone which was sitting downstairs here five years ago talking about fullback stuff and I don’t know if he was shy or couldn’t speak he definitely couldn’t speak much English I’ll tell you that much um and he’ll be right me saying

That but yeah now now he’s the loudest one in the sh and he’s he carries on and he plays the music but yeah for him to express himself like that once again once he Express yourself and you I guess feel like you’re building yourself off the field it just translate into your

Footy and I think some of his performances last year definitely shine up uh well Ryan pinous thank you so much for your time it’s been an absolute pleasure wishing you all the very very best for season 20124 hopefully we see you kicking some goals this year thanks Dary appreciate That