While there’s no doubt he misses the game, there’s also no doubt in Plum’s mind he made the right decision to retire in 2015 following a string of concussions.

The former Penrith Panther always wanted to give back to the community and while he finds it hard to be a pure rugby league spectator, he’s now found another way of helping.

Plum started his role as operations officer with the Clontarf Foundation (CF) at the start of this year.

Clontarf has an academy at Griffith High School which sees Plum work with young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men to help improve the education, discipline, life skills, self-esteem and employment prospects.

Plum sat down with The Area News’ Ben Jaffrey to discuss everything from his new role, his career, life after footy and the prospects of ever playing the game again.

The transition back to regular life can often be a hard one for professional sportspeople.

Plum admits it was a big change but something he was able to adjust to.

He initially worked at ANZ before landing a job with Clontarf – something that made life after rugby league a lot easier.

Sport plays a big part of Clontarf’s philosophy. 

It's used, as Plum puts it, as a carrot to encourage kids to attend school along with discipline and routine.

And being involved in a role allowing him to continue a routine of his own has helped Plum just as much.

“The longer I’ve been in Clontarf, the more I find out how well I’m suited to the role,” Plum said.

“Even though I was in the bank for a year after footy, it was a good transition to go from footy to this.

“And there’s not too many jobs in the world where you get school holidays.”

The heart of Clontarf is to help kids and that’s what drew Plum to the role. 

In 2016, Plum was an ambassador for Penrith junior rugby league while working as a mortgage lender at ANZ.

The ambassador role gave him his first taste of working with kids.

Having already known about Clontarf, along with a few people within the foundation, Plum organised to help out at Mount Druitt and the rest is history.

“I was actually with Luke Swain, an ex-NRL player, I spent a day with him and loved it,” Plum said.

“Loved what they were doing and what Clontarf was about.

“I went through the interview process...they said there's a job going down in Griffith.

“It took me a while to convince the missus to move the family down here but I jumped at it.”

Plum does anything from picking the kids up to make sure they come to school, sitting in class with them to settle them in, delivering sports sessions to putting on breakfasts and healthy lunches.

Plum and his director Roger Penrith were told it could take up to five years before they’d see positive changes in the kids.

Luckily for the Griffith boys, the academy isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

“Clontarf will be here until we're no longer needed,” Plum said.

“That means that every young aboriginal boy comes to school goes to class, gets an education – until that day comes we'll be here.”

While they were told change wouldn’t come straight away, Plum is already seeing some positive signs.

“We've got one of the boys on work experience this week which he actually took it upon himself to organise,” Plum said.

“I'd spoken to him about it but he went out and did it. He's with the NRL development guys, so it's awesome to see that.”

It’s well-noted how often Plum was concussed. The man himself puts the number at about 50 throughout his professional career.

It’s an alarming number but luckily for Plum, there hasn’t been any permanent injury to his brain.

He heads to Melbourne every 12-24 months to have a check-up.

The Wagga boy’s last was in April where he was given the all clear.

Plum’s career could have looked very different if the NRL’s concussions rules were in place but it’s something he applauded the NRL for doing.

“It’s a pretty scary to think the damage I could have been doing,” Plum said.

“Scans say I wasn't which is a good thing.

“It’s certainly a great thing they’re doing but it is hard to gauge [if a player is concussed] with the testing.

“With the testing, what works for one player won’t work for another player because it's two different bodies, two different people.”

When asked if he would ever return to playing rugby league, it’s a tough question for Plum to answer.

“I don't know. The smart decision is don't play,” he said.

While he knows he shouldn’t play, physically he is able to and also finds it hard to let go of returning.

“All I ever wanted to do was, go back to Wagga [after NRL retirement] and play footy, that’s all I wanted to do,” Plum said.

Along with the all clear from the brain injury expert, Plum also had his final surgery on his elbow in April for a rare grass bug infection he picked toward the end of his career.

Plum was still told playing just one game of rugby league comes with a risk.

Hypothetically speaking, if he were to ever take that risk, there was only one club’s colours he’d pull on.

“If I was to play, I'd go back and play for [Wagga] Kangaroos, that's my junior club,” he said.

“I went there [Wagga] at the start of the school holidays. I was going back for an old boys reunion but ended up running water for all grades. I wanted to do it...I knew the kids would love it, and that was my way of giving back.”

As much as Plum enjoyed helping out his junior club, it was also hard to be so close to the action but not able to get amongst it.

“I did struggle when I got to running the water for first grade,” he said.

“That’s part of the reason I’ve been a bit selfish with myself, I haven't gone back a lot because I know when I do, I’d just want to play.

“It’s pretty tough to sit there and watch the boys.”