Former Warriors star Elijah Taylor is beginning a new chapter in his life after retiring from rugby league. He wants to use his experiences to help the next generation of sporting stars avoid mistakes similar to the ones he made. He speaks with Ben Francis about his journey and what’s
next.
For Elijah Taylor, the desire to help others is more than a passion – it’s a drive born from the setbacks he endured in his youth and all the way through his 15-year rugby league career.
After recently hanging up the boots, the former Warriors and Kiwis international has made it his purpose to help the next generation through the highs and lows of sport with his Instagram page, Footy Hacks, which he was encouraged to start by two former teammates.
In nearly two years, he has accumulated over 27,000 followers and is looking at growing his content with online workshops and e-books after settling into his new post-playing life in Rarotonga.
His page focuses on the personal challenges many face in sport, such as dealing with injuries or how to handle getting dropped, important life skills needed to succeed instead of things like how to catch and pass a ball.
His inspiration came from some of the hardest lessons of his life that he endured at the beginning of his career and he doesn’t want others to fall into the same traps he did that nearly had him walk away from the sport.
“There’s no pages on how to react when your coach gets fired, how to react when you get dropped, how to react when you have a season-ending injury,” Taylor told the Herald. “There’s a bit of a niche there.
“All my stories that I’m posting, they’re all designed to give the young kid all the tools he needs to try and have a successful career in professional sport.
“I just want to help kids make the most of their careers, make wise decisions and not make the same mistakes I did. That’s my motivation and what drives me.”
One mistake Taylor made and which is also the best piece of advice he can give anyone, is be careful who you can trust, after the shock and hurt he felt when he discovered his former manager, Ian Miles, misappropriated nearly $400,000 of his money over a four-year period.
A total of 937 unauthorised transactions were made, spent on things such as overseas holidays, gifts for his wife, motorbikes, clothing and furniture, but it was the ultimate act of betrayal for Taylor because Miles was more than a manager – he was a father figure.
“I trusted him so much and it got me burnt,” Taylor said.
“I’m always bitter towards that because I like to think I’m a loyal person and I know a lot of young kids coming through don’t have father figures, so as soon as they get that father figure, they’re going to become loyal to them and sometimes that loyalty can get in trouble.
“I’m a lot more cautious with who I’m speaking with or if I meet someone new and I’m a bit more paranoid than I was or less naive than I was.”
Elijah Taylor in his rookie NRL season in 2011. Photo / Photosport
The pair met when Taylor first joined the Warriors system and Miles was brought in to do mental skills coaching.
In 2011, when Taylor and his then agent Stan Martin were negotiating a new deal to stay at the Warriors, Miles convinced him he was worth more and later that year became his manager after becoming accredited.
The following year, Miles suggested Taylor open two BNZ bank accounts and the manager was given access to both.
The same thing happened the following year in Australia. As Taylor was preparing to make the move to the Penrith Panthers for the 2014 NRL season, Miles told him to open two Westpac accounts.
Taylor was headhunted by then Panthers boss Phil Gould and former Warriors coach Ivan Cleary to provide much-needed leadership at the club.
Over the next few years, Miles would accuse Taylor’s wife of erratic spending, which created friction, and it wasn’t until the end of his first season with the Wests Tigers in 2016 – having made a mid-season move from the Panthers – that Taylor made the shocking discovery after meeting with their personal banker.
By the time the matter went to court, a further four years had passed, with a judge eventually ordering Christchurch-based Miles to pay $484,824 in damages, but he declared bankruptcy, leaving Taylor without restitution.
Miles has previously refused all requests to comment and basically denies any wrongdoing, as cited in a Facebook post from 2021.
The mental toll of what happened impacted Taylor greatly as he lost all the money he had earned at the Warriors and Panthers, and when Tigers coach Michael Maguire told him he wouldn’t be re-signed beyond his deal at the 2020 NRL, he wanted to call it quits.
“I put the cue in the rack,” Taylor said. “It was four years of stewing over losing your money.
“I tried knuckling down at the Tigers where I played decent, but I got to end of 2020 and that’s when I found out he’d declared bankrupt. I was just like, what the frick?
“I pretty much gave up on league. I was like, I’m done with this. Thisis bulls***.”
During this period, Taylor had begun thinking of life post footy and after completing seven exams over 15 months, he obtained his commercial pilot’s licence.
After everything he’d been through, Taylor was ready for a fresh start and would have hung up the boots then, but due to Covid and the continual uncertainty around travel, he knew he had to keep playing.
“All the airlines got shut down and I was like, ‘oh, s***, I need to keep playing here’. That’s when Salford [Red Devils] offered me a contract and that’s how I ended up in the Super League.
“It had a huge effect on me mentally, financially, obviously, but I was done with the game by the end of 2020.
“If Covid didn’t come, I’d probably be in the airlines right now, to be honest. I was done with the game, but it wasn’t to be.”
In England, Taylor was based in Manchester and played for Salford (2021-22) and Featherstone Rovers (2023) before ending his career at Oldham (2024-25) in the Championship, the second tier of English rugby league.
Taylor said he had an Instagram page focusing on music, but with a desire to help people, two of his teammates at Featherstone pushed him to change tack.
Elijah Taylor made 41 appearances for the Salford Red Devils. Photo / Getty Images
His first video was on advice to rookies playing in their first NRL trial matches and the page took off after that, with hundreds of videos now available to view.
Lots of the videos are based on his own personal experiences or of others who have challenging journeys to the top or had to overcome adversity. His content is often shared by many other former players.
Resilience from adversity
Taylor‘s journey started in Hāwera, where he grew up playing rugby union, watching the Hurricanes and idolising the likes of Christian Cullen and Tana Umaga.
Things got tough for his family and Taylor found himself sleeping in the car with his brothers and eventually, they moved from Taranaki to the small Northland settlement of Herekino near Kaitāia, to live in a shed on family land.
Taylor then moved to renowned rugby league school St Paul’s where he picked up the 13-man code and that’s where he was spotted by the Warriors, who asked him to come train once a week.
He had the option to join Auckland’s rugby system or the Warriors’ U20s programme, but with a clearer pathway to the top with the latter, he felt that was the best option.
Those struggles in his early teenage years had him seeking a way out.
“I remember I wanted to sign with the first manager that I got in contact with when I was a teenager,” Taylor said.
“I wanted to get out of my circumstances and I thought as soon as I get a manager, I can leave. That was my mindset, I was that desperate to sign with anyone just to try and give me a contract.”
That adversity made him resilient and he is aware of the pressures many kids face in today’s society who are getting snapped up by agents and teams, some as young as 13, but many are often trapped in the system after taking a signing bonus to help ease financial pressure.
Taylor said lots of messages he receives on his pages are from parents and how to handle managers from things like how to get their kid out of a contract with an agent because they can feel trapped.
“Kids that come from well-educated, financially educated families, they’ll make better decisions,” Taylor said.
“Whereas you come up in a family that’s struggling all the time, you don’t really have sound advice for making some decisions.
“It’s a vicious cycle and that’s another motivation for the page is just giving kids the heads up of just to be careful like, who you trust.
“Make sure you keep your receipts, email threads, screenshots, just that type of advice because I know that could help some young kid out there, definitely.”
Most people who ask that question usually follow up by asking if Taylor would consider representing their kids, and while there is an appetite to be helpful, it’s an avenue he’s hesitant to explore.
“If I was going to be a manager, I’m taking nothing, no money at all,” Taylor said.
“I can see the attractive side to it, but you’d have to be a bit two faced and I don’t think I could sleep at night.
“You’ve got to be cut from a certain cloth to be a manager because I wouldn’t want to promise the world to a young fella and then just not be able to get him a deal, that would burn me.”
Taylor feels managers have much power in the game and they can influence player contracts, potentially leverage media attention for a player’s benefit and manage both players and coaches within the same agency.
Elijah Taylor was a member of the Wests Tigers when he made the discovery about his former agent, Ian Miles. Photo / Getty Images
Taylor made the decision to hang up the boots this year and his decision was made easier after copping a few head knocks during the season, admitting he should have probably done it a year earlier.
The 35-year-old was one of many former Warriors who were honoured in the retiring class of 2025 before the NRL grand final, where the Brisbane Broncos beat the Melbourne Storm.
He was surprised to get the call from Joe Galuvao – who runs the past players and transition programme for the – and to feature in the presentation, and says it was a special moment.
Others who played for the Warriors who were also honoured include David Fusitu’a, Ken Maumalo, Chad Townsend, Kieran Foran and Shaun Lane, although he was unable to attend.
A major regret
Taylor finished with 186 NRL games and a further 93 in the UK, plus 11 tests for the Kiwis.
He feels the sport is thriving down under, but in the UK it’s struggling and Taylor believes the NRL must step in to save the integrity of the sport.
That is highlighted by the financial issues in the sport, including by one of his former clubs in Salford that was unable to pay players for periods during the 2025 season.
Even though there were plenty of career highlights, including doing the haka alongside Adam Blair and Issac Luke, there is one major regret he has.
“I worked my ass off, but I don’t have like any silverware to back it up,” Taylor said. ”That’s going to sting me for a while.
“I put in so much effort over the years. There was some great times, but not winning anything, gee, that burns a bit.”
Despite spending a decade in the NRL, Taylor played in only two NRL finals matches in his debut season. The first being the 20-12 preliminary final win over the Melbourne Storm, who many regard as the Warriors’ greatest performance, along with the grand final the following week, losing 22-10 to the Manly Sea Eagles.
Taylor scored a try in the final. He was playing in the unfamiliar position of centre when he caught a pass from Shaun Johnson, breaking the tackle of Steve Matai before sliding over in the corner.
Elijah Taylor is presented with a jersey by Dean Bell after his final match at the Warriors. Photo / Photosport
Even though he has some great memories, Taylor admits he feels embarrassed by the lack of silverware, but acknowledges that’s how tough the NRL is.
Taylor doesn’t count the title he won captaining the Warriors’ U20s side to glory in 2010, and his jersey collection is with him mum.
The U20s competition back then was a big deal with all matches broadcast, while the Warriors were the most successful team with three titles between 2008-17.
Slowly does it
But now his focus turns to the future as he settles into his new life in Rarotonga, where his wife is from, and he’s enjoying the peaceful and slow lifestyle compared with the bustling Manchester city where he’d been based for the previous five years.
Along with creating content, he plans to focus on getting his commercial pilot’s licence back in order, having completed his studies during the Covid years.
He has to complete some medical exams and improve on the 300 hours (at the time of the interview) of fly time as he looks to start doing some inter-island flights.
“It’s very peaceful and slow,“ Taylor said. ”When I first met my wife, I always said I wanted to retire here.
“A lot of people, they probably couldn’t handle living over here because it’s a bit too quiet, it’s a bit too slow, but I enjoy that aspect of it.”
Taylor said he had no plans to get into coaching, although he has made a few trips to one of the local clubs in Rarotonga, admitting he doesn’t watch much these days.
Taylor’s focus in rugby league now is to help, and when all is said and done, that’s how he wants to be remembered.
“Someone that helped mentor young kids,” Taylor said. “Especially with the page.
“My motivation is just to help kids, make the most of their careers, make wise decisions and hopefully, not make the same mistakes I did.
Ben Francis is an Auckland-based reporter for the New Zealand Herald who covers breaking sports news.
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