Pete Rudland, James Hinds, Mark Strickland and Sarah Riordan have each served in the Australian Defence Force at different times, in different branches, in very different circumstances.
GMR spoke with all four about their transition out of service, and about what sport has given them since. Their stories are different, but they kept arriving at the same place: sport can help reignite the sense of purpose, belonging and identity that service once provided. That common thread is what prompted the Friends of Gallipoli Medical Research (FGMR) initiative in late 2025.
Pete served for 28 years in the Army before a helicopter crash led to a medical separation he never expected. “For a long time, I felt that I was useless,” he said. “I thought I wasn’t going to be productive.”
James was medically discharged after 12 years in the Navy and had to rebuild his support network from scratch after moving back to Queensland. “That name came off your chest and that ID went with it as well,” he said. “You felt you lost your identity somewhat, and you feel sort of alone.”
Mark’s transition, after 47 years across two armies, looked easier from the outside given his preparation for separation, until anxiety caught up with him around Christmas. “I had to reach out for specialist support,” he said. His counsellor traced it back to belonging.
Sarah is still serving after ten years this October and is the only one of the four who hasn’t faced that moment yet. “If I was to transition out or lose my job today, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself,” she said.
But she summed up something all four touched on: “I don’t think there are many differences between service life and sport. Both provide that sense of purpose, belonging and community.” It’s that overlap, between what service gives and what sport can give, that sits at the heart of FGMR.
For Pete, it was cycling. “After I got hurt, I didn’t think there was a space for me in sport,” he said. “So, when I found a sport, which was cycling, I really went after it.”
At the time he was living remotely on a WA farm. “Sport put me into a place where I was having meaningful conversations with people. It gave me, again, something to reach for.”
His advice to a veteran who feels lost is simple. “Find the veteran community and go to the RSL. If it’s not veteran community, go to an Aussie Rules club, go to the rugby club, go to the cricket club, but find something that gives you purpose.”
For James, coaching at UQ Rugby has filled a gap he says service left behind. “In that moment I felt comfortable to be able to rely on sport to help me, because it’s been a part of my life for so long.” His message to any veteran considering it was immediate. “I wouldn’t even think about it. I’d just do it. The fulfilment it brings, the connection you get, is unwavering.”
Mark never really stopped playing sport, first football, then coaching, and now on the board at the Redcliffe Dolphins Soccer Club. “The team spirit, the mateship, the one goal for everybody is definitely something that we have within sport,” he said. “So that’s why I align sport with working within the army.”
Asked what would have filled the gap without it, he pointed to the same instinct that drew him to sport in the first place. “I’d have ended up doing a volunteer at the RSL or something like that, just so that I could have that self-worth, that self-fulfilment.”
Sarah, weighing up her own approaching retirement from professional rugby, described what sport gives her that service doesn’t. “When I go to rugby, when I’m at Reds, I’m a Reds player. I’m not a soldier, I’m not a corporal, I’m not someone who’s in charge and needs to make decisions. I’m just a player.” She plans to lean on the rugby community when her time in defence ends. “I think it’s a great way for people to meet new people, make new friends, and just feel a sense of purpose and achievement.”
Across four very different histories, spanning Army and Navy, decades apart, different journeys, the same idea kept surfacing: sport can give back to current and ex-serving Defence members in meaningful ways. Whether it’s the structure of a training routine, the mateship of a club, or simply somewhere to belong, each of them found in sport something close to what service once gave them.
As Pete put it, “proving the link between veteran sport and health, both physically and mental health, is really important, because it benefits all of us. If we can get people who are struggling to the right thing early enough, we can get them on a pathway to good physical and mental health.”
