Wes Maas, a former NRL player and wealthy entrepreneur, transitioned from being a lesser-known South Sydney Rabbitoh to establishing himself as the head of a $1.5 billion enterprise. With his accumulated wealth, he recently extended an enticing proposal to NSW Blues player Matt Burton.

Maas, who secured two reserve-grade championships with Parramatta before reaching the NRL with the Rabbitohs, currently dedicates his efforts to leading Maas Group. This expansive construction and property firm is publicly traded on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX).

Similar to Burton, Maas has deep ties to Dubbo rugby league, having played for Dubbo CYMS, a dominant club. There, he received mentorship from Dean Pay, who would later coach the Bulldogs, and played alongside Justin Yeo, the father of Penrith standout Isaah Yeo.

And look where he is now.

Maas employs more than 1200 people and runs a company worth $1.5billion, with his estimated worth pegged at $814 million in 2024.

Maas said business was always more important to him than his footy career.

‘I was probably one of the 10 per cent of people who wanted to work. I’ve always been a workaholic. That was probably to the detriment of my footy career,’ he told a Financial Review podcast.

‘I was a full-time football player. But I used to go to training at 6am in the morning, and then I finished footy training at 11 or 12, and then I’d get straight to work.’

He was a greenkeeper at Parramatta Stadium and Stadium Australia before moving into the hire and construction industry with Coates Hire.

The former footy player still owns 50 per cent of his company, which has four divisions: real estate, civil construction and hire, construction materials and manufacturing.

‘Most of the things we do, we do 80 per cent of in house. We’re quite different to a lot of developers who contract out,’ he told Fairfax.

‘Our cost is our cost. Obviously, we’ve seen inflation in house building, but we’ve been able to pass that on in house prices. We’ve maintained our margin.

‘On the infrastructure side the business is as strong as ever, on the construction materials side it’s as strong as ever. We’ve got a better forward order book than we’ve ever had.’

Burton, who has been the 18th man five times for the Blues, got a call from NSW management during his bye week leading into Origin game one this year.

The Bulldogs star was relaxing in his home town of Dubbo and was told that Stephen Crichton had injured himself and was in doubt for the Opener.

If Crichton couldn’t play, Campbell Graham would be called in to play and Burton would need to get to Brisbane to be the 18th man.

Burton decided to call Massa, who is a mate of his.

‘There wasn’t going to be a flight straight from Dubbo to Brisbane, they’d been booked up, and obviously you want to give Critta as much time as possible to be right,’ Burton told the Sydney Morning Herald.

‘Because they couldn’t make a call on Critta until 8am game day, the situation was pretty tight. Dubbo to Sydney and then flying to Brisbane, that was going to be too much running around and too tight again with not many flights.

‘I didn’t have any footy gear or anything either. I was on holiday. So I was ringing the Dogs and my manager for boots and footy kit, just having that ready in case.

‘And I had a good mate with a plane in Dubbo who was ready to go, and I think he was pretty keen to do it, to be honest. It would’ve made an awesome story, right?

‘Even to be there, ready to go. But even better, Critta came good and you saw how he played, so it all worked out.’