Brett Finch

Newcastle junior, the son of former St George centre Robert Finch, moved to the Hunter Mariners development squad in 1997 when his father joined the Super League club from the Knights. Brett Finch spent three seasons at Canberra but never quite stamped his imprimatur on the club. That opportunity came with defending premiers, the Roosters, in 2003 and while the next two seasons ended it grand final defeat for Finch and the club, the creative halfback managed to shine behind a hard-working pack. In 2004 he was brought into NSW’s State of Origin team for the second match of the series. Following Easts’ grand final loss to the Bulldogs in 2004 Finch found himself out of favour as his club slumped to miss the semi-finals in 2005. Called into NSW’s State of Origin team in the first match of the 2006 series, Finch scored a try and kicked the winning field-goal in the Blues 17-16 win. Used from the interchange bench and as a stop-gap hooker at the Roosters in 2006 he successfully gained a release from the final year of his contract to join P’matta for 2007.