Geoff Toovey
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| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Geoff Toovey | |
| Date of birth | June 17, 1969 | |
| Place of birth | Sydney, Australia | |
| Height | 168 cm | |
| Weight | 70 kg | |
| School(s) | Davidson High School | |
| Youth clubs | ||
| Years | Club | |
| Belrose Eagles | ||
| Senior clubs* | ||
| Years | Club | Apps (points) |
| 1988–1999 2000–2001 |
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles Northern Eagles |
238 (140) 48 (0)[1] |
| Representative teams | ||
| 1990–2000 |
New South Wales Australia |
16 (0) 13 (0) |
|
* Professional club appearances and points |
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Geoff Toovey (born 17 June 1969 in Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australian former professional rugby league player. He was a halfback then later a hooker for the Australia national team. Toovey played in thirteen Tests between 1991 and 1998.
Toovey was graded by the Manly Sea Eagles in 1988. At 168cm Toovey was small for a rugby league player but over the next 13 years in the top grade he demonstrated tremendous courage in spite of stature primarily through his courageous leadership, low tackling and clever attack.
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[edit] Club career
He debuted in May 1988 as a replacement for Cliff Lyons then was picked a few weeks later for Manly's 30-0 upset against a touring Great Britain side. Lyons at five-eighth and Toovey at halfback formed a long standing and strong partnership enabling Manly to be consistent finals contenders all through the 1990s.
He took over as Manly captain from Michael O'Connor in 1993 and led the side to three Grand Final appearances from 1995 to 1997. He won one premiership against St George in 1996 playing the match with a fractured eye socket and was honoured on the day as winner of the Clive Churchill Medal.
At the end of 1999 series with those clubs who were financially struggling needing to make changes to stay part of the new post-Super League amalgamated competition, Toovey was chosen as foundation captain of the Northern Eagles merger between Manly and the North Sydney Bears. He played in every match of the Northern Eagles first two seasons.
[edit] Representative career
Toovey debuted for the New South Wales Blues in 1990 and gained selection at at the end of that year for a tour of Papua New Guinea playing in all tour and Test matches.
During the 1995 season at the commencement of the Super League war, Toovey again played State of Origin and also appeared in four of Australia's five matches in their successful World Cup campaign in England.
In the 1996 State of Origin series Toovey and Andrew Johns experimented with the now commonplace hooker/half back positional and role interchange and Toovey showed himself to be a world class dummy half runner as he had ever been an exceptional grass-cutting defender.
In 1997 Toovey captained New South Wales to a State of Origin series victory and played a Test match against a Rest of the World side.
In 2000 he was hooker in NSW's clean sweep against Queensland.
[edit] Captaincy
At the height of the Super League war Toovey was honoured as Australian Test captain for the 1996 one-Test against the Papua New Guinea Palais (the ARL loyalist side).
[edit] Career after Rugby league
Toovey retired at the end of 2001. He is an accountant by profession and stood for a position on the board of the NRMA. He joined the Manly coaching staff when Des Hasler took over as coach in 2004. During the 2005 and 2006 seasons he was criticised as a trainer for spending too much match time on ground often barking orders and directing formation of the Manly defensive and attacking lines[citation needed]. In 2007 he was Manly's assistant-coach.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Geoff Toovey Stats. NRL Stats. Retrieved on 2007-10-29.
[edit] References
- Geoff Toovey at the State of Origin official website.
[edit] Sources
- Whiticker, Alan (2004) Captaining the Kangaroos, New Holland, Sydney
[edit] External Links
+Geoff Toovey at Silvertails.net
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