- David Gillespie reveals details about game addiction
- He says he was recorded in rehabilitation after a football race
The legendary hard man of the Rugby League David 'Cement' Gillespie has bravely shared his history of game addiction while sheding light on the struggles he faced after hanging his football boots.
Gillespie, who played 258 games for Canterbury, Manly and Wests, winning three great NRL finals, admitted that he developed a game problem that was out of control after retiring.
“Towards the end of my career I got into a little vice with game and poker machines,” said 60 -year -old player Steve 'Chimes' Gillis in the podcast chiming in.
'My marriage was breaking in the last years of my career as a player, so things did not crash at home, so I got into that spiral, that addiction.
“I ended up going to a rehabilitation joint for six weeks and that was probably three or four years after retiring.”
Footy's legend says he had to hit the background and had separated from his wife when a casual meeting changed his life.
David 'Cement' Gillespie has opened about his game addiction after the race
Gillespie, one of the toughest players of his time, ended up in rehabilitation for six weeks due to his serious problem with the game in poker machines
She was the sister of one of her former teammates, and the couple is still together today.
“I was not going anywhere quickly, I was in a descending spiral and, for her credit, I have been with her 20 years, now, during the first five or six years I was still in that spiral, and she had left me,” Gillespie explained.
'She didn't have to do it. She could have thrown me and told me to be at any stage. I am very grateful, and I have changed it and we are still together.
“If it weren't for her, I don't know where it would be.”
Gillespie admitted that his addictive nature also meant that he fought with his health when he stopped playing.
“In the midst of that addiction I got up to 130 kilos,” he said …
“I had finished playing about 108 kg … My weight shot three or four years after retiring.”
Since then, he has taken care much better, but says he does not believe that people really exceed their addictions.
Footy's legend (in the center photo while working with Wests Tigers in 2001) says that he stacked in the kilos after retiring, but now he is also on top of that.
'I don't think you've ever defeated him, you just have to keep upwards.
'I still have a pair of bets, I was never a great betr on horses, but the Melbourne Cup will have some trifes.
'I still see the races, I still have the tab application.
'Poker machines were my vice. As I said, you never won that, you just have to stop it. I have