Mark O'Meley

Central Coast teenager made his first grade debut during Norths’ final season in the NRL before bursting onto the representative scene in two matches for NSW in 2001. The fiery prop’s ‘take no prisoners’ attitude could not help the Northern Eagles turn an uninspiring 2001 season, and an ankle injury and a suspension incurred in the final match of the season hurt his Kangaroo Tour aspirations. Financial troubles with the merged club saw O’Meley sign with the Bulldogs in 2002 and he gradually cemented his reputation as a hard-running forward. In 2004 he won a premiership with the Bulldogs before making his Test debut in Australia’s Tri Nations campaign in England. For a time O’Meley looked like being confined to the minor tour matches (he scored a hat-trick of tries in the ANZacs’ win over Cumbria) and he was not called into the Test team until Australia’s penultimate match, against Great Britain in Wigan. O’Meley scored a try from the interchange bench on debut but Australia lost the match 24-12. The tough, bald-headed prop then savoured Australia’s 44-4 thrashing of the Lions in the final a fortnight later before finishing the tour with the international match against the USA in Philadelphia. Since then he has become a mainstay of the NSW and Australian Test teams during the 2005-06 seasons.