Not long ago he was an NRL superstar earning more than $500,000 a season at the Canberra Raiders.

Now he's working in the nation's capital as a labourer on $40 an hour. The lime green jersey has been replaced by a white hoodie and old shorts.

Welcome to the new world of Josh Dugan.

The Sunday Telegraph found the former Blues Origin star on a building site on the outskirts of Canberra on Friday.

He was painting a new house. Earlier in the week he was lopping trees. Anything to keep up the mortgage payments.

It's a heartening sign that the former Raiders fullback is not just sitting on his backside, drinking, gambling or getting into strife on social media.

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He was dumped by the Raiders when he posted a photograph of himself and Blake Ferguson having a drink on the roof of a house early last month.

Dugan would not speak to us on the advice of his player agent company SFX, but by all reports he is doing well. After a meeting at NRL headquarters, we're told Dugan is undergoing regular counselling.

He keeps himself fit by training before or after his days on building sites.

It's still uncertain when or where he will be playing his next game of rugby league.

We're hearing St George Illawarra are still favoured to get his signature, although English clubs are now showing lots of interest in him.

His manager Paul Sutton is in no hurry to do a deal and denies he was involved in a punch-up at a wake last week.. Sutton is following NRL advice and wants to be sure Dugan is ready to play before doing a deal with a club.

What Dugan is experiencing now is a lesson to all young footy players who fall off the rails.

Earning big money playing NRL is obviously more appealing than $40-an-hour odds jobs as a labourer.

Good on him for having a crack at it, but the sooner he's back playing footy the better.