{"id":324348,"date":"2025-12-03T05:59:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T05:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/324348\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T05:59:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T05:59:11","slug":"ryan-papenhuyzen-not-ruling-out-r360-move-in-his-future-gap-year-plans-stay-strong-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/324348\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Papenhuyzen not ruling out R360 move in his future, gap year plans stay strong for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ryan Papenhuyzen<\/a> has broken his silence on his future plans, speaking for the first time about his links to R360, and confirming whispers that he was looking at embarking on a gap year before continuing in elite sport.<\/p>\n

It has been just over a month since Papenhuyzen stunned the NRL and announced that he had been granted an immediate release from the final year of his deal<\/a> at the Storm.<\/p>\n

The star fullback’s departure only fuelled rumours that he was making the switch to rebel start-up league R360<\/a>, which was set to kick off at the end of 2026.<\/p>\n

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R360 organisers have since confirmed that the competition has been delayed and will not begin until 2028, leaving the fate of several stars in limbo.<\/p>\n

Since announcing his exit from the NRL, Papenhuyzen’s camp has been clear that he has no plans to sign with any team in any code next season.<\/p>\n

\"Ryan<\/p>\n

Ryan Papenhuyzen participates in the Pro-Am prior to the Crown Australian Open 2025.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

However, that does not mean he will not ever entertain lucrative deals, especially those from R360, over the next 12 months. <\/p>\n

“Next year, definitely I am set in taking it off from being a professional athlete,” he told 3AW reporter Kiara Parker on the course at the Royal Melbourne on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“It’s hard to say right now (if I will ever return to the NRL). If I really enjoy what I’m doing next year, then probably not.<\/p>\n

“I feel like people change careers all the time and I felt like my time was to do that for next year … if I like what I’m doing, then I’ll stick with that.”<\/p>\n

Asked if R360 was still on his radar despite being delayed, Papenhuyzen had a simple response. <\/p>\n

“Right now, I’m just looking at what’s next year,” Papenhuyzen said.<\/p>\n

“It’s hard to predict that’s gonna happen or what’s gonna happen.<\/p>\n

“You’d be silly not to entertain it, especially if you’re a younger player and you wanna experience that side of things.<\/p>\n

“For me, it’s really (about) diving into this field of giving back and helping out. We’ll see where that takes me if it doesn’t work out, maybe we’ll see.”<\/p>\n

Papenhuyzen has already started his plans to give back to the sports he has grown up playing, transitioning into a mental performance coaching role.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old said he has benefitted significantly throughout his career by working with mental performance coaches and hopes he can provide that help to others.<\/p>\n

“I want to be able to give back and learn. I feel like I have a lot to offer in that space,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Ryan<\/p>\n

Ryan Papenhuyzen in action for the Storm.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“I’m learning as much as I can, meeting up with life and mindset coaches to see how I can go about it. I am also getting some experience with some young athletes.<\/p>\n

“I am really enjoying it, I could see myself doing it too.”<\/p>\n

Papenhuyzen confirmed that the Storm have not attempted to lure him back after he cut ties with the club while still contracted.<\/p>\n

But one thing is for certain, a career change to golf is not on the cards. <\/p>\n

“For the first six holes, I thought it could’ve been [my next career],” Papenhuyzen laughed, preparing for the Australian Open Pro-Am.<\/p>\n

“Then it just fell off, so definitely not a career path going forward.”<\/p>\n

Watch the 2025 Australian Open live and free on Nine and 9Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryan Papenhuyzen has broken his silence on his future plans, speaking for the first time about his links…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-324348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}