Ben Galea

Ben Galea (born 16 August 1978) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer. A City New South Wales representative forward, he previously played in Australasia's National Rugby League for the Balmain Tigers and the Wests Tigers (with whom he won the 2005 NRL Premiership) and also for English club the Hull Kingston Rovers and Hull F.C. of Super League.

Ben Galea
Galea in 2005
Personal information
Full nameBen Aaron Galea
Born (1978-08-16) 16 August 1978
Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia
Playing information
Height178 cm (5 ft 10 in)
Weight95 kg (14 st 13 lb) [1]
PositionLock, Second-row
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1999 Balmain Tigers 2 0 0 0 0
2000–07 Wests Tigers 150 32 0 0 128
2008–12 Hull Kingston Rovers 126 36 0 0 144
2013 Hull F.C. 15 3 0 0 12
Total 293 71 0 0 284
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2001 City Origin 1 0 0 0 0
Source: [2][3][4]

Background

Galea was born in Parramatta, New South Wales, and is of Maltese descent.[5] While attending Marayong John Paul II, he played for the Australian Schoolboys team in 1996.[6]

Playing career

After struggling to make an impact in the lower grades at the Parramatta Eels, Galea signed with the newly merged Wests Tigers.

National Rugby League

In 2000 Galea in made a handful of NRL appearances for the Tigers from the bench. In 2001, Galea became a regular member of the Tigers' team.[7] He represented City and was named the club's player of the year.[8] After missing the first 2 games of the season, he played in every other game.

In 2003, Galea played 14 games before his season ended when he needed a shoulder reconstruction.[9]

Galea played at second-row forward in the 2005 NRL grand final victory over the North Queensland Cowboys. In the moments after the grand final victory, Galea was interviewed by Channel 9 sideline commentator Matthew Johns and was asked how it felt to be a premiership winner. Galea replied “This is unbelievable, f***ing all the boys have stuck together all year, we won the comp, we’re number one, f***ing ...”. In the following days, the Wests Tigers club issued an apology for the inappropriate language used by some of their players.[10][11]

As NRL Premiers, Wests travelled to England to play against Super League champions Bradford Bulls in the 2006 World Club Challenge. Galea played at lock forward in the Tigers' 30-10 loss.

When Galea moved from the Wests Tigers at the end of the 2007 NRL season, he was the joint venture's second most capped player with 150 games, and second highest try scorer, with 32 tries. In 2017, Galea was made a Wests Tiger Life Member.[12]

Super League

From 2008 to 2012 Galea played in the Super League for Hull Kingston Rovers. On 13 September 2012, Galea confirmed that he had reversed his decision to retire in order to sign a one-year deal for former West Tigers assistant Peter Gentle at Hull FC.

Highlights

Referee

As of the 2014 NRL season, Galea works regularly as a video referee in the Australian competition.[13]

References
  1. "Hull KR The Official Site of the Robins". web page. Hull Kingston Rovers RLFC. Archived from the original on 14 August 2011. Retrieved 12 August 2011.
  2. NRL Stats
  3. SL Stats
  4. RLP
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 3 April 2010. Retrieved 9 September 2009.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. "SportingPulse Homepage for Australian Secondary Schools Rugby League". SportingPulse. Retrieved 10 October 2008.
  7. "Ben Galea". Rugby League Project. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
  8. David Middleton (editor) (2010). "2010 Official Rugby League Annual". Alexandria NSW, 2015: News Magazines for the National Rugby League. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link) CS1 maint: location (link)
  9. Greg Prichard (17 August 2003). "Tigers set to turn dollars into sense". Sun Herald. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  10. "Matty Johns relives the infamous aftermath of the 2005 Grand Final". news.com.au.
  11. "Tigers apologise for bad language". Sydney Morning Herald.
  12. "2017 Presentation Night Awards Winners". weststigers.com.au. Archived from the original on 6 September 2017.
  13. Carayannis, Michael (7 August 2014). "Bulldogs coach Des Hasler urges NRL to set up video referees' bunker to help ease frustration". Border Mail. Retrieved 12 August 2014.
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