Blue collar Burleigh Bears who sparked the team’s surge into the NRL State Championship

Hayden Schwass and Sami Sauiluma are the blue collar men hoping to spark Burleigh to an NRL State Championship win. The pair of electricians open up about juggling full time work with a semi-professional football career.

HAYDEN Schwass and Sami Sauiluma are the blue collar men hoping to spark Burleigh to an NRL State Championship win.

The pair of electricians are just two of a host of Bears players who juggle full-time work with the demands of playing semi-professional rugby league.

They get up at 4.30am each morning, before the sun rises, with Sauiluma, 28, making the trek up the highway to Brisbane to work on new houses while Schwass, 24, largely spends his time on the Gold Coast, servicing many of the hotels while being prepared for call outs at any time of the day or night.

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“It can be mentally and physically draining sometimes but you just have to do it,” Schwass said of the rigours of backing up a physical job with playing league ahead of Sunday’s NRL State Championship game against NSW Cup winners Newtown at ANZ Stadium.

“You have days where you are not feeling like being at work or turning up to training but it’s something you have to do.”

Burleigh Bears players Hayden Schwass and Sami Sauiluma work together at Ray Beaufils Electrical, and squeeze training and playing League into their hectic schedules. Picture Glenn hampson

Sauiluma, who often has to go straight from work to training, said the traffic and long drives from the Gold Coast to Ipswich each day took their toll on his body and hindered his recovery.

“I pull up pretty stiff,” Sauiluma said.

“This is my first job. I haven’t had any other job. So that was hard to get used to the early starts four year ago but it’s all part of it.”

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So when Gold Coast Titans affiliated players are sent to the Queensland Cup side to train and play, they are given no leeway.

“If I see any of the Titans boys yawning at training I’m straight into them,” Sauiluma said.

Both agreed the support of their partners, Julia Sauiluma and Eden Cartwright, played a huge role in their ability to continue playing.

Schwass and Cartwright are due to tie the knot a week after the NRL State Championship.

“It’s a big sacrifice for the girls,” Sauiluma said.

“I don’t know how the boys with kids do it.”

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