Over the course of the season, we will be catching up with former Canberra Raiders players to ask them about their time with the club and see what they are doing now.
Nigel Plum
Canberra Raider #275
Appearances: 33
What do you do for work now?
I’m living out in Griffith which is in country New South Wales. I work with the Clontarf Foundation, so we work with Aboriginal boys out of high schools. We’re spread out all over Australia and it’s a program where we try and help these boys get through school and get jobs afterwards so I’m really enjoying life after footy.
What’s your favourite memory as a Raider?
Mate, there’s actually quite a few. Hearing the song Down Under was always good because it was the song that played when I scored a try. That’s an easy one that comes to mind because I got a couple of first try scorers down here which was good.
I also loved the community down here. Being a country boy, it was good to be pretty much living in the country. I always thought of Canberra as a big country town. The boys that were down here were so down to earth and we are all good mates. I loved my whole time down here.
What did it mean to you, to wear the Raiders jersey?
It was pretty special. Just to play in the NRL is a massive achievement for myself and to put on the green jumper that means so much to the country community. I grew up in Wagga which is only a couple of hours away, so whenever I watched footy as a kid I came to watch the Raiders play because it was the closest game. It was just good to play for a big country town and a great family club.
Who was your favourite teammate?
I’d have to say Dave Shillington. We played together at the Roosters and he moved down here a week after I moved down. There’s also Joe Picker and I lived with Brett Kelly. Brett Kelly was involved with my wedding, he was probably the funniest bloke to be around. Now I think about it, I’d probably have to say Brett Kelly!
Do you keep in touch with any of your former teammates?
Not a lot of them. I still keep in touch with Brett on a regular basis and I catch up with the other boys now and then. I’ve played for a few clubs so once you get to know a lot of people, you find it hard to keep in contact with everyone. As you grow up, life gets busier with kids and I’m back in the workforce so it’s a bit busier working five days a week.
What was your funniest moment as a Raider?
You’re pushing my memory back! It was probably playing games with Kel [Brett Kelly] at home. We had a young Under 20’s boy living with us for a little bit and we’ll play games and if you got something wrong, we would play sting pong and you got the ping pong ball belted into you. That happened regularly and then we’d have a lucky dip with chillies so every now and then you’d be eating a chilli. So, they were good times when I was living with Kel when I first moved down.
Do you have advice for any younger players?
The sky is the limit really. If you want something bad enough, do what you need to do to get it. Every young kid has similar abilities, it just comes down to who wants it the most so if you want to play NRL make the sacrifices you’ve got to make and never give up.
