Brett Kimmorley
Kimmorley in 2008
Personal information
Nickname	Noddy
Born	15 September 1976 (1976-09-15) (age 33)
	Belmont, New South Wales, Australia
Height	172 cm (5 ft 8 in)
Weight	91 kg (14 st 5 lb)
Playing information
Position	Halfback
Club
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
1995–96	Newcastle Knights	6	1	0	0	4
1997	Hunter Mariners	10	2	4	0	16
1998–00	Melbourne Storm	79	27	27	3	165
2001	Northern Eagles	26	11	0	0	44
2002–08	Cronulla-Sutherland	140	34	165	5	471
2009–	Bulldogs	23	4	0	3	19
	Total	284	79	196	11	719
Representative
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
1997	Australia (SL)	2	0	0	0	0
1999–05	Australia	20	5	1	1	31
2000–09	New South Wales	9	0	0	0	0
2001–07	Country Origin	3	1	3	0	10
2005	Prime Minister's XIII
Source: Rugby League Project

Brett Kimmorley (born 15 September 1976 in Belmont, New South Wales) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer for the Bulldogs club of the NRL. He has previously played for five other clubs (Newcastle Knights, Hunter Mariners, Melbourne Storm, Northern Eagles, Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks) and has also represented his country and state on several occasions. He currently plays at halfback.

[edit] Early career

Brett Kimmorley played early football for the Lakes United Seagulls. While attending Belmont High School, Kimmorley played for the Australian Schoolboys team in 1994.^[1]

[edit] Professional career

Kimmorley made his first grade debut for the Newcastle Knights against Manly on 21 July 1995 at Energy Australia Stadium (then known as Marathon Stadium). Although limited opportunities at his favoured half-back position with the Knights (because of Andrew Johns) caused him to move on.

After limited opportunities during two years with the Newcastle Knights, Kimmorley opted to sign for newly formed Super League club the Hunter Mariners who were also based out of Newcastle for the 1997 Super League season. Throughout 1997 the Mariners managed to make a seven win and reach the final of the 1997 World Club Championship. Kimmorley was the Mariners' only player selected to represent Australia in a three-test series against Great Britain at the end of the season.^[2]

With the shutting down of Super League in 1998 the Mariners were subsequently disbanded and with the newly formed National Rugby League starting up, Kimmorley was yet again on the move. He, along with several Mariners teammates moved to newly formed entity the Melbourne Storm on a three-year deal. His most memorable season for the Storm came in 1999 when the Storm won their maiden Premiership against the St George Illawarra Dragons, Kimmorley winning the Clive Churchill medal for best on-ground, leading a spirited Storm comeback against the Dragons outfit.

After enjoying a premiership victory with the Melbourne Storm under coach Chris Anderson in 1999, Brett Kimmorley left Victoria for the Northern Eagles in season 2001. He had an unhappy season, however, and when the merged entity split at the end of the season, he decided to follow his former Melbourne Storm coach Chris Anderson to the Cronulla Sharks for 2002.

In his first season with his new club he somewhat flourished and led the Sharks to the preliminary final and although they lost (to eventual runners-up New Zealand Warriors).

With the new season in 2003 looking promising, Kimmorley was awarded the captaincy of the team over David Peachey and was rewarded with a new five-year deal. At the end of 2003, in the Ashes tour against Great Britain, Kimmorley was pivotal to Australia's whitewashing with last-minute field goals to secure the first two games in the three game series.

2004 was a disappointing season for Kimmorley, who failed to take his club to the finals for a second consecutive season. He was also plagued with several injuries which caused him to miss the annual State of Origin fixtures, although he still gained a position on the end of season Tri-Nations tour to Britain and had several impressive performances which were key to the team's success.

The start of 2005 looked extremely promising for the club, with Cronulla and Kimmorley winning the first 6 games in a row to be on top of the NRL Ladder. However after Kimmorley's selection for New South Wales Rugby League team in the first State of Origin match, in which he threw the fateful intercept ball to hand Queensland a victory, his confidence was seemingly shattered and his club form suffered badly. Only Cronulla's excellent first half of the season and favourable results prevented them from falling out of finals contention.

2006 was an unhappy one for Kimmorley, failing to regain his spot at halfback for both representative teams (New South Wales and Australia) the Sharks struggled to maintain their strong start to the season, plummeting from 2nd place on the ladder to lose 10 games in a row and finish 12th on the ladder.

In 2007 Kimmorley's chance for success improved mainly from the signing of new coach Ricky Stuart a former representative halfback himself. Kimmorley was selected as halfback for the 2007 New South Wales State of Origin team for games 2 and 3, after Jarrod Mullen was dropped due to injury.

Kimmorley has agreed a move to the Bulldogs on a two year deal for the 2009 season. Kimmorley will play a senior role at the club, hoping to guide the Bulldogs to a final series and become the dominant halfback the club has missed in recent years. Kimmorley is also in line for captain of the Bulldogs.^[3][4] He has announced that he would look at signing with an NRLUS team if the opportunity came.^[5]

[edit] Representative career

Kimmorley has represented Country NSW four times and New South Wales two times as well as playing 15 times for his country including the 2000 World Cup. He has also played two Super League Tests.

[edit] Playing statistics

• Played 267 career first grade games with six clubs
• Has scored over 700 points including 76 career tries

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Brett Kimmorley's Official Profile
• State of Origin Official website Rugby League Player Stats

[[Category:Prime Minister's XIII players

[[Category:Country Origin players

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