If you had asked 22-year-old Ryan Papenhuyzen what the most challenging aspect of being an NRL player was, he probably would have said it was finding enough room in the trophy cabinet. Just two years into a remarkable career, the high-flying Melbourne Storm fullback with the flowing golden mullet had already achieved what some players wait a lifetime for.
A string of impressive finals performances and a minor premiership under his belt, all in less than 50 games in the top grade, Papenhuyzen had quickly become one of the game’s most reliable two-way players. However, it was his Clive Churchill Medal-winning performance in the 2020 NRL Grand Final, which included a spectacular 70-metre solo try, that confirmed his spot amongst the league’s most electrifying talents. With that famous victory, the quiet kid from the western suburbs of Sydney officially announced himself on the national stage.
“It was surreal, honestly. I’m not really an emotional person, but I remember, as soon as that siren went, I went up and hugged Jahrome Hughes, and we just started crying in each other’s arms.”
“When you dream of playing rugby league as a kid, you dream of winning premierships, but it is another thing to then be picked up by a team that’s in a premiership window,” Papenhuyzen tells me. “The second year I was playing in the NRL, I was winning a premiership – that’s a very special feeling. Even just thinking about the day, you get goosebumps, you get the tingles, and hopefully, one day, I’ll get back in that picture and hopefully be able to lift it again.”
These days, Papenhuyzen is a wiser, more composed man than the one who famously hoisted the Provan-Summons Trophy aloft in 2020. Now 26, the electrifying athlete has faced his fair share of injuries and setbacks, coming out the other side with a renewed sense of purpose. No longer pinning his self-worth purely on sporting success, Papenhuyzen’s mindset has shifted, but his focus remains the same.
The Eye of the Storm
It’s a freezing cold Tuesday morning at the height of Melbourne’s cruelly bitter winter when I catch up with Paps. The city is starkly quiet, and I can almost feel the sting of the cold Bourke Street concrete rise up through the soles of my shoes as we walk. Somehow, Papenhuyzen looks right at home. An NRL champion in an AFL city, you can tell the calmly reserved fullback is more comfortable with a slight blanket of anonymity than he is being thrust into the spotlight, despite what his on-field endeavours might indicate.
He arrives abuzz with nervous energy, explaining that after a lower leg fracture forced him from the field a few weeks earlier, he’s finally got the all-clear to return to competition. It’s a good time to be back. His Storm teammates sit pride of place on top of the ladder, a few games clear, and prepping for what promises to be a fruitful finals campaign. For the high-flying fullback, the mixed emotions of watching his teammates continue to thrive despite his absence is a strange and bitter pill to swallow, but it’s a feeling he knows all too well.
For three straight seasons, Papenhuyzen has been marred by relentless injury and performance setbacks. A frightening concussion sustained in round 10 of the Storm’s premiership defence in 2021 was the first major blow, ruling the champion out for eight weeks. With that injury, Papenhuyzen lost a maiden State of Origin cap, fell out of the Dally M race and came, for the first time in his career, face to face with his own sporting mortality. It wouldn’t be the last time.
A hamstring tweak in early 2022 saw him sidelined again, before a season-ending kneecap fracture grounded the high-flyer for almost the entirety of the Storm’s 2023 campaign. Concussion issues, lengthy rehabilitation timelines, and a cautious reintroduction to contact have meant the road to recovery has been anything but easy. Ever the optimist, however, Papenhuyzen explains that his recent lowly stints on the sidelines have given him time to reflect on the early highs.
“It’s really a question of sitting down with yourself when you’ve been out for as long as I have,” Papenhuyzen explains. “Tasting success early was a big motivation for me. Just having that feeling that you really achieved something in life, and if I can come back from my injuries and achieve that again, it would just be an even greater feeling of satisfaction.”
As the NRL champion reveals, success at an early age can be a double-edged sword. In many ways, it can help to ignite your passion, but in others, it breeds complacency. At different times over the past few years, Papenhuyzen has found himself on both sides of the equation.
“It’s probably a little bittersweet in that because it happens so quickly, you think it’s easy, but with the last four years; going through the injuries I’ve had and the form as a team, we haven’t really been proud of our performances,” he tells me, just days out from his return to the field. “So while we’ve been in finals, we just never felt like we got to that top part of the competition. That feeling of being back there this year makes you realise how hard it actually is.”
“Through achieving success early in your career, you’re a bit naive to how difficult it is, but I think in the last four or five years, I’ve realised that.
“Especially after the last couple of years, where that opportunity got taken away through injury; it makes it even sweeter. Now, it’s just ensuring that I don’t take those things for granted and that we are really relentless with how we play our footy because it can turn pretty quickly.”
It’s an oddly self-aware assessment for an athlete in the prime of their career, but that is Papenhuyzen to a tee. One of the first things you notice when you talk with the NRL star is just how open he is. There is no sense of ego or self-importance, and perhaps that’s a result of knowing that circumstances can change in the blink of an eye, but I prefer to think that it’s because he understands the value of vulnerability.
You need only take a quick look at his social media accounts to understand what I’m talking about. Interspersed between highlights and golf swing updates, you’ll find a series of motivational posts sporting quotes on gratitude, resilience and mindfulness. As Papenhuyzen explains, the posts may have started as a personal mantra, but they’ve evolved to become so much more.
“I started with quotes that were relevant to me at the time and what I was going through. Off the back of that, I had people message me to say that it really helped them,” he says.
“On one hand, I’m helping myself, but on the other, you have people who were my followers, watching, liking and commenting about how much it means to them. That’s one of the purposes I’m really passionate about. Through my journey, I feel as though I’ve built a strong enough following to share that and be an inspiration in people’s lives; to be a good role model.”
“I’m very fortunate to be in the position I’m in; I get paid well and get to train with these amazing athletes, get looked after by physios and all the best sports scientists in the world. So if I can deliver a message that it is possible, that you can bounce back from injuries and get back to a higher level, hopefully, it inspires others as well. That’s my purpose.”
For most athletes, being a role model simply comes with the territory, an often-unwanted byproduct of being in the public eye, but not Papenhuyzen. The NRL star reveals that while it wasn’t something that he necessarily signed up for, he always understood what a positive influence could do for the next generation of aspiring athletes.
“When I was a kid, I was probably a little bit naive about what it took to be a sportsperson, and I had my inspirations. As I’ve gone through my injury hardships, I’ve been trying to attach myself with other athletes who’ve been through similar things,” he explains.
“I feel like it’s changed over time, but one thing I’ve always been strong on is being a role model. You’re on the big stage; it doesn’t matter what you do, kids are going to look up to you. Even people in the same position are going to look up to you. I’ve always looked up to inspiring people who make the world a better place or make themselves better individuals. If I can do that, then people will follow. And if people follow, I’ve done my job.”
“I want to know that I have gotten everything out of my body that I can, to know that I’ve pushed myself to the limit and there are no questions left unanswered.
“I’d like to say that I’ve helped the people around me. One of the biggest accolades that you can receive as a sportsperson in a team sport is that you’ve made your teammates better around you. Hopefully, when footy is done, I can still help out in that regard. I get a lot of joy out of helping people, out of seeing them improve, and then seeing the benefits and smiles on their faces from doing that as well. That’s the more the legacy I want to leave.”
Finding the Calm
For an athlete whose career has been defined by grandstanding moments under the brightest of lights, the irony is that Papenhuyzen’s most significant victories have been won in the quiet junctures of solitude. If you ask him, time spent in rehabilitation sessions and alone on the training track has played a more important role in shaping his journey than Origin nods and Kangaroos jumpers could have. But that’s not to say he isn’t gunning for those accolades.
With the Storm on the cusp of a remarkable premiership and the team back to almost full-strength, the Melbourne outfit has never looked more decisive. For the rest of the competition, Papenhuyzen’s return is a warning shot. Don’t count the Purple Army out; they know what it means to taste premiership glory.
“I never understood people who said that they needed to chase that feeling, but I definitely know what that is now,” he says. “It’s like this overwhelming feeling of joy and excitement, and you feel like you’ve achieved the greatest dream that you could have ever achieved; that’s the feeling. I think that’s why I’m so hungry to get another one; it was such an overwhelming feeling and one that I have never felt before.”
Papenhuyzen’s journey is a testament to resilience. An athlete at the peak of their powers, marred by injury and pushed to the brink, the NRL champion has seen both sides of the sporting coin, and he’s refused to let setbacks define him.
For the Melbourne Number One, getting back on the field may have been the first priority, but now the ball is in his court and he isn’t about to let it slip. In truth, Papenhuyzen is on the hunt for a new kind of success— one not measured in trophies, but in knowing you’ve weathered the storm and come out stronger on the other side.
