Steve Renouf
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| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Stephen Renouf | |
| Date of birth | June 8, 1970 | |
| Place of birth | Murgon, Australia | |
| Height | 180cm | |
| Nickname(s) | The Pearl, The Prince of Centres, Bucko | |
| Senior clubs* | ||
| Years | Club | Apps (points) |
| 1988-1999 2000-2001 2004 |
 Brisbane Wigan Easts Tigers |
183 (568) |
| Representative teams | ||
| 1992-1998 1991-1998 |
 Australia Queensland |
9 (10) 11 (8) |
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* Professional club appearances and points |
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Stephen Renouf (born 8 June, 1970 in Murgon, Queensland) is an Australian former rugby league player of Aboriginal and European heritage, known generally as one of the best centres in the history of the game. He holds numerous records for the Brisbane Broncos club and is considered one of the greatest footballers to have played for the club.
After spending eleven years with Brisbane, Renouf left Australia to play for the Wigan Warriors in the English Super League where he played two seasons before retiring from the top level of rugby league competition. In 2000 Steve was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his contribution to Australia's international standing in rugby league.
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[edit] Playing career
[edit] Brisbane Broncos
After being developed with the Broncos since his teen years Renouf made his debut in the first grade side in 1989. He scored his first try for the club in 1990 then went on to be the Broncos' top try scorer for the seasons of 1991, 1992 (along with Allan Langer), 1994, 1995 (along with Michael Hancock), 1996 and 1999.
The 1992 World Cup final at Wembley Stadium set a record attendance for a rugby league international: 73,631 saw Renouf score the only try of the match with Australia beating Great Britain 10-6.
On the 23rd of April, 1994 Renouf broke the club record for scoring the most tries in an away fixture against the Balmain Tigers by scoring four tries in the game against them at the Optus Oval. Also in 1994, Renouf scored the most tries in a season in the club's history, leading the year's NSWRL premiership's try-scorers list, with 23 tries. He also holds the equal club record of four tries in a home fixture, at the time of his retirement, the only Broncos player to have done so. There are only 2 other players who have managed this feat Karmichael Hunt in 2004 and Justin Hodges in 2007. Renouf however, dubbed a 'try-scoring machine', scored four tries on five occasions:
- vs North Sydney Bears, 9 August 1991
- vs Canterbury Bulldogs, 25 July 1993
- vs Balmain Tigers, 23 April 1994
- vs Auckland Warriors, 27 August 1995
- vs Penrith Panthers, 28 March 1997
In 1997, Renouf scored 14 tries which included a hat-trick against the Cronulla Sharks in the 1997 Super League grand final on the 20th of September at ANZ Stadium in Brisbane's 26-8 victory. He is still the all-time leading try scorer for the Brisbane Broncos, having amassed a total of 142 tries.
[edit] Wigan Warriors
His Wigan Warriors debut came in round four of the Challenge Cup against Whitehaven at Central Park. Renouf scored two tries on debut in his side's mammoth 98-4 victory.
His final game for the Wigan Warriors and indeed his last game at the highest level was the 2001 Super League Grand Final. His side lost to the Bradford Bulls by 37-6 on the 13 October at Old Trafford in Manchester.
Upon his time at Wigan Warriors, Renouf quoted "The two years at Wigan were absolutely brilliant. I would have liked to stay but they didn’t want to retain me"[1]
[edit] Life off the field
At the age of 23, six years after signing with the Brisbane Broncos, Steve Renouf was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Renouf remembers that he "had been losing weight quite rapidly, [and] was always going to the toilet and though it was the start of pre-season, [he] had no energy, [he] couldn’t lift anything in the gym".[2] He decided to go to the doctor and found out that he had the disease. According to Steve "diabetes is not all doom and gloom, you can live with it."[2] His advice to young people who have diabetes is "Never think that it can stop you from achieving your goals. Just look after it, and you can achieve anything. I looked after it...I knew I had to if I wanted to keep playing football."[2]
Outside of rugby league, Steve Renouf has an apprenticeship as an electrician and has also worked in the industry of sales and marketing.[3] Steve is married and has five children, four sons and one daughter. Steve Renouf is currently working for the Get Active Queensland Schools Program which promotes physical activity amongst children.[2]
In February 2006, a biography of Steve Renouf was released. Entitled The Pearl: Steve Renouf's Story, the book details his career as a rugby league player. But it also covers his early life, including his family heritage and his childhood in the Queensland town of Murgon, but also about how he had to overcome prejudices from people around him as an aboriginal.
[edit] Quotations
"Getting him to training was a defining moment, then getting him to finish was another. We named the hill after him because he spent so much time sitting on it." Wayne Bennett, Brisbane Broncos coach[4]
[edit] External links
- Steve Renouf at the State of Origin official website.
- Steve Renouf at the Former Origin Greats website.
[edit] Sources
- ^ "Wigan Warriors - Steve Renouf" profile, URL retrieved 11th July 2006.
- ^ a b c d "Steve Renouf redefines victory" article, URL retrieved 31 March 2008.
- ^ "Role Models - Steve Renouf" article, URL retrieved 11th July 2006.
- ^ "The Pearl: the story of Steve Renouf" article, URL retrieved 11th July 2006.
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