Brett White

Brett White is a former professional rugby league footballer who played for the Canberra Raiders and the Melbourne Storm in the NRL. Both an Ireland and Australian international, and New South Wales State of Origin representative prop forward, he played the majority of his career at the Storm, before signing with the Canberra Raiders from 2011.

Brett White
Brett White signing autographs.
Personal information
Born (1982-04-08) 8 April 1982
Cooma, New South Wales, Australia
Height188 cm (6 ft 2 in)
Weight110 kg (17 st 5 lb)
Playing information
PositionProp
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2005–10 Melbourne Storm 127 6 0 0 24
2011–14 Canberra Raiders 69 0 0 0 0
Total 196 6 0 0 24
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2006–10 Country Origin 5 0 0 0 0
2007–10 New South Wales 8 1 0 0 4
2009 Australia 3 0 0 0 0
2013 Ireland 3 0 0 0 0
Source: NRL Stats, RLP

Background

Born in Cooma, New South Wales, Australia and grew up in Berridale, New South Wales. White was educated at Monaro High School.

Brett played his junior rugby league with Cooma Colts. He was a promising junior and was graded by St. George Illawarra Dragons from school.

Playing career

White was a key member of the Dragon's Jersey Flegg Cup team but leg and ankle injuries halted his progress in 2003 and 2004. With props such as Luke Bailey and Jason Ryles ahead of him, White was unable to make his way into first-grade and he relocated to the Melbourne Storm.

White made his first-grade début in Round one, 2005, scoring a try against the Newcastle Knights at Olympic Park. At the end of the season he was named the Storm's Rookie of the Year after becoming Robbie Kearns' starting front-row partner.[1] He was a member of the Melbourne Storm team to face the Brisbane Broncos in the 2006 NRL Grand Final, losing 15–8. The next year he was a member of the winning grand final against Manly.

White played in the 2008 NRL Grand Final defeat by the Manly Sea Eagles.[2]

He played in the 2009 premiership against Parramatta.[3] In 2010, both premierships that White won with Melbourne were stripped by the NRL for major and deliberate breaches of the salary cap.[4][5]

In August 2014, White officially announced he would be retiring from the NRL at the end of the season.[6]

Controversies

White's first grade career have involved some controversial incidents. In round 14, 2006, White lodged a biting complaint against Parramatta's Fuifui Moimoi for which Moimoi was later exonerated after a lengthy judiciary hearing. He was also again in the act against Parramatta in 2007, accused of a chicken wing tackle on their captain Nathan Cayless in that year's preliminary final. In round two, 2008, White was sent off for retaliating to a Ben Ross elbow to team-mate Cooper Cronk which also saw Ross sent off. Cronk's kick found Israel Folau who scored the match-levelling try. He was given a four match ban.

In 2009, White was involved in an infamous Origin scuffle with Steve Price in Game 3 of the State of Origin series.

Representative career

In 2006, White made his representative début in the Country Origin team, defeating City by 12–10.

White was selected to represent New South Wales as a front-rower for game I and on the bench for game II of the 2007 State of Origin series.

In 2008, White made himself available for Ireland's 2008 Rugby League World Cup campaign and in August he was named in the Ireland training squad.[7][8][9] Although White was named in the Irish squad, he was forced to withdraw following the NRL grand final, when he was scheduled for foot surgery.[10][11]

White was also named in the 46-man Australian preliminary squad for the World Cup.[12]

White played in the opening two State of Origin matches for New South Wales in 2010, scoring a try in the second match, but was dropped for the third game.

Steve Price incident

Game 3 of the 2009 series also saw White return to State of Origin (replacing the injured Michael Weyman), playing a leading role in a controversial NSW victory. In the closing stages of the contest White was involved in a scuffle with Queensland prop Steve Price which left Price unconscious.

Footnotes
  1. "Storm's big unit ready to bloom". The Sydney Morning Herald. 16 September 2005. Retrieved 2 January 2008.
  2. "Grand final: As it happened". Fox Sports. 5 October 2008. Archived from the original on 4 December 2012. Retrieved 5 October 2008.
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 3 October 2009. Retrieved 5 October 2009.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-04-23/storm-punishment-too-harsh-geyer/407390
  5. https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/melbourne-storm-stripped-of-premierships-for-salary-cap-breaches-20100422-td91.html
  6. http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/canberra-raiders-vicecaptain-brett-white-to-retire-at-end-of-season-20140801-zzefm.html
  7. Collins, Ben: "Kelly eyes Cup sitr by Irish", pages 18–19. Rugby League World, April 2008
  8. "White Eyes a Green Jersey". RLWC08.com. 21 July 2008. Retrieved 30 July 2008.
  9. "Ireland Name World Cup 40 Man Training Squad". Rugby League Ireland. 1 August 2008. Retrieved 2 August 2008.
  10. "Cassidy included in Ireland squad". BBC. 7 October 2008. Retrieved 7 October 2008.
  11. "Ireland suffer White injury blow". BBC. 9 October 2008. Retrieved 10 October 2008.
  12. "Veteran Lockyer named in Australian squad". International Herald Tribune. 1 August 2008. Retrieved 2 August 2008.
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