Thirroul Butchers recruit Tyrell Fuimaono mastering the post-NRL trade

It's the rarest of reflections on an NRL career, but it speaks just how busy former Dragons back-rower Tyrell Fuimaono kept himself away from the footy field.

Simply put, the 27-year-old has more trade tickets than UFC megastar Conor McGregor has tickets on himself.

The Penrith product completed his carpentry trade, while there's nothing he's not qualified to do on a crane site. When the building's done he can even sell the apartments with his real estate license.

Ironically, he's yet to use any of them, having traded professional rugby league for shifts in the mines and weekend park footy with the Thirroul Butchers.

"Throughout my whole playing career, when I wasn't training, I kept pretty busy," Fuimaono said.

"I did my chippy trade, real estate, PT, my crane tickets, dogging tickets, rigging tickets. Now I'm in the mines so I don't use any of it.

"If I'd known that I might have saved myself some time, maybe played a bit more PlayStation or something, but I enjoyed it. I'm not the type of person can't really do nothing,"

"I'm pretty happy now working in the mines and obviously football is a weekend job, it's not work anymore. I can enjoy it and at the end of it I can take my footy hat off and go back to living my own life."

With a trade resume as extensive as his, it's hard to imagine a player more prepared for life post-NRL career, but the four-time Indigenous All-Star admits it's an adjustment; though one he's embracing.

"I know with professional footy, you sometimes get caught up feeling that when footy's not going good, then your whole life is not going good," he said.

"You get so caught up in it, and you have to if you're going to be playing at a professional level. I feel like everyone that gets there is obsessed with their career or with the sport in some way.

"When it's going wrong, it feels like your whole world's going wrong. You need to be able to detach from that and realise there's other good things going for you in your life and not get too bogged down in it.

"I feel like stepping away from professional footy now is going to allow me to do that. If it's a terrible game on the weekend, I've still got work on Monday.

"Obviously I'm here to win, I'll be filthy if we lose games, but it's not the same when you go home and you want to kick your dog kind of thing."

He may not be able to say the same about the famously passionate Butchers faithful, though it's supporter base still riding high from last year's Chataqua-like run to the title.

Having been in NRL pathways systems since his mid-teens, park footy's a new experience for Fuimaono, though he's been quick to adapt to the culture at Gibson Park.

"It's a real tight family club," he said.

"In the short time that I've been here, I get that sense straight away. We played a trial here and the crowd turn out and the amount of passion between the players and supporters is pretty impressive.

"I've never played local footy and it's all about passion here. You get paid a little bit but it's not like professional footy. These boys are just playing for their love of the game and passion for their club.

"I'm excited to be a part of it and see what it's like throughout the year and hopefully we can do well. I know coming off a successful year last year, it's going to be pretty hard to do that again, but it's exciting."

The season-opener on Saturday promises to be a crash course in what makes the Illawarra League tick, with arch-rivals Wests headed to Gibbo looking to snare their most prized road points.

With the Devils bringing their own arsenal of ex-NRL stock in Tautau Moga and George Jennings, it promises to be an explosive clash on the edges.

"It's a bit of a rivalry I've heard," Fuimaono said.

"Tautau Moga's one of my best mates and he's done a similar thing to me getting a mine job and playing with them. I'm pretty sure we're going head-to-head too.

"I don't know whether they be excited or scared of the big fella.

"It's going to be a challenge in itself, but these (Butchers) guys managed to do it last year, so hopefully after having a good preseason we can build on what they did."

Elsewhere on Saturday, Dapto will enter their third season under Blake Wallace against Collegians at the Showground, and Corrimal host De La Salle at Ziems.