EMERGING Canberra Raiders player Jeff Lynch struggles to say the word depression, but finally manages it.

“As much as I didn’t want to admit I had depression I knew that I had to see someone, because it could have cost my career,” says 21-year-old Lynch.

The reality is that NRL hopefuls are under extreme pressure, tragically evidenced earlier this year when three emerging NRL players took their own life in a six week period.

The NRL is for the first time recognising the need to support young players forming a committee to oversee the management of mental health issues among players at all 16 clubs.

Away from the stadium lights Menslink CEO Martin Fisk says pressures men in this age group face are intensified for athletes.

“Young men who have a high degree of pressure to succeed, who then have that potential for success taken away from them [through injury] and at the same time losing their support networks are at a massively high risk of suicide,” says Fisk.

Six figure contracts and flocking crowds are far from the reality for the vast majority of developing NRL players.

Most NRL clubs have about 100 players on their books at any one time but, only 17 players are selected to play first grade every week.

Teaching players that they are statistically unlikely to become professional footballers is a hard lesson but one that Dean Souter from the Raiders welfare and education unit says is an important part of his role.

“We talk to the boys that football is an opportunity, you shouldn’t call it a career, because most of you probably won’t make a career out of it. And that’s just the stone cold hard fact of it,” says Souter.

Lynch, a 105kg front rower, spiralled into depression when successive injuries sidelined him for two seasons as well as dealing a relationship breakdown and his parents divorce.

“I don’t know if I’d be at the Raiders today. Lucky enough I put my pride aside and went to see someone,” Lynch said.

There is no data available on mental health issues in the NRL but statistics are being collected by the league for the first time this year.

Souter said isolation issues have a big impact on emerging players.

“As they’re approaching 17, 18 years old we bring them into the system from out of town, so you have a lot of family adjustment issues,” Souter said.

“Half the squad comes from out of town.”

The Raiders have 123 players between the U16’s and NRL teams all trying to make football their profession.

Lynch was 16 years old when he moved from his small home town in country NSW to Canberra.

“Moving over here with no friends or family, I struggled a fair bit with homesickness,” he said.

“It was hard going on Facebook and seeing what they were doing compared with me being over here by myself.”

At the same time that a player is often dealing with a new city and losing their support network, work and football demands continue to increase.

The NRL’s rules state that players in the under 20s squad must either be working or studying full time in addition to their football commitments.

“You’ve got guys dealing with the world of being an elite athlete while they’re trying to work and study around football,” says Souter.

Mr Lynch’s day started before 4am and finished after 7pm to meet this requirement as well as attend his rehabilitation and gym sessions.

“Those years were the toughest years, I was pretty close to calling it quits,” Lynch said.

The watchful eye of the public is another stressor Fisk says is unique to these athletes.

“When you become a professional football player you’re almost picked up out of normal life and placed in this bubble,” said Fisk.

“Being in the public spotlight, having the threat of the public spotlight on everything you do, terribly debilitating.”

A tale of sacrifice and knock backs has so far been worth it for Lynch who is yet to make his NRL debut.

“Mum and dad kept me strong and pulled me through which I’m thankful for now.”

“At the end of the day, you’ve got to want it,” says Lynch.

“That’s [also] what pulled me through, was thinking about my family and my goals, where I wanted to be and who I wanted to be as a person and how much I wanted to be where I am today, said Lynch.

And Souter thinks that the NRL stacks up against other professions as a supportive environment.

“What the NRL are doing for it’s young people is far more than what you’d get in the government or private sector in terms of education grants, support for counsellors and looking after people once they’ve been tipped out the gate,” Souter said.