Brett Kimmorley

Newcastle halfback first came to prominence when he scored two tries in Newcastle’s reserve grade grand final victory in 1995. Kimmorley persevered for another twelve months but found it impossible to oust the Johns brothers so he joined breakaway Super League club the Hunter Mariners in 1997. Selected as a reserve in the first and third Tests against Great Britain at the end of 1997’s Super League season, the demise of the Mariners saw Kimmorley join Chris Anderson at the newly-formed Melbourne Storm in 1998. Kimmorley’s maturity as an organiser and deft kicking game were essential factors in Melbourne making the finals in its debut season. The architect of Melbourne’s second-half fight-back against St George I’warra in the grand final that year Kimmorley was named the Clive Churchill Medal winner after the Storm’s last-minute, 20-18 win. Kimmorley made his Test debut against NZ in the Tri Nations competition in October 1999 when Andrew Johns was unavailable because of injury. In season 2000 he was the preferred halfback in both the ANZac Test and the NSW team (despite Johns’ return from injury on the interchange bench Kimmorley thoroughly deserved the No.7 spot). But in what proved to be a killer blow to Melbourne’s title defence Kimmorley turned his back on the club and signed a two-year contract with the N’Eagles. After being prematurely sacked after NSW’s loss in the opening State of Origin match in 2001 he captained Country against City before being recalled to the NSW team for the deciding match after an injury to Trent Barrett. By his admission Kimmorley struggled during the season (although to be fair, he was playing behind a struggling N’Eagles’ forward pack) and he failed to make the Kangaroo Tour at the end of the year. With the demise of the N’Eagles club Kimmorley put himself back on the open market. In a bold move to resurrect his sagging reputation, he sacked his management (which originally threatened to sue the NRL for restraint of trade over salary cap restrictions) and signed a greatly reduced contract with the Sharks. Under newly-appointed coach, former Melbourne mentor Chris Anderson, Kimmorley returned to the stellar football he had played with the Storm. After a late rush of club form in 2002 - a season in which he scored a club record 28pts in the match against Newcastle and set a new season benchmark of 251pts - he was recalled into the Australian Test team against NZ in October. The following year he struggled with injury but returned to form and was the linchpin of Australia’s Ashes whitewash in England at year’s end. Kimmorley was able to put the distraction of Chris Anderson’s sacking behind him at club level and was chosen for NSW for the first time since 2001. Although a groin strain kept him out of the Blues’ team he returned to England – the scene of his greatest international triumphs – and played another vital hand in Australia’s Tri Nations victory in November 2004. The following year he was sacked from the NSW team after the Blues’ 24-20 loss in the first State of Origin match, which has been his final rep match to date.