Jason King (rugby league)

Jason King
Personal information
Born (1981-03-21) 21 March 1981
Manly, New South Wales, Australia
Height 192 cm (6 ft 4 in)
Weight 111 kg (17 st 7 lb)
Playing information
Position prop
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2001–02 Northern Eagles 22 2 0 0 8
2003–14 Manly-Warringah 217 9 0 0 36
Total 239 11 0 0 44
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2005–07 City Origin 3 0 0 0 0
2010–11 New South Wales 2 0 0 0 0
Source: RLP, Herald Sun

Jason King (born 21 March 1981 in Manly, New South Wales) is a retired Australian professional rugby league footballer. King began his career with the Northern Eagles and also played for the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles of the National Rugby League (NRL). He also represented New South Wales in State of Origin and also played for City Origin as a prop forward.

Career

A Manly-Warringah junior, King made his NRL debut from the bench for the Northern Eagles in a 42-14 loss to the Brisbane Broncos at the NorthPower Stadium in Gosford on 1 September in Round 26 of the 2001 NRL season.

In 2002, King became a permanent figure in the Northern Eagles team, playing 22 games for the season and scoring two tries. He scored his first try in the top grade in a 36-12 win over the Canberra Raiders in Round 6 in Gosford.

From the 2003 NRL season, the Northern Eagles were no more and the Manly-Warringah club was back in the premiership (the Northern Eagles had been the result of an uneasy merger between Manly and their local rivals the North Sydney Bears). By this time King had cemented his place in the side and would remain with Manly for the remainder of his career.

After lean times with the Northern Eagles and in the first couple of seasons at Manly, things turned around at the club under the coaching of former Sea Eagles Australian international Des Hasler. After not appearing in the finals since 1998, Manly were back in the picture in 2005, though their season ended with a 46-22 loss to traditional rivals Parramatta in the Qualifying Final.

King's form in 2005 saw him gain his first selection for City Origin. He was selected on the bench as City defeated Country Origin 29-22 at the Oakes Oval in Lismore. King would also play for City Origin in 2006 and 2007.

Manly were one of the form teams of the 2007 NRL season and qualified for their first Grand Final since 1997. King's first Grand Final experience was soured as the Sea Eagles were defeated 34-8 by the Melbourne Storm.[1]

Manly, with Jason King forming a strong front row rotation with test forward Brent Kite and former Newcastle Knights prop Josh Perry, maintained their form in the 2008 NRL season and the Grand Final would again see the Sea Eagles come up against Melbourne. This time however the Sea Eagles were in superlative form after easily accounting for South Sydney and North Queensland in the Qualifying and Preliminary Finals. The 2008 NRL Grand Final would see Manly win by a record margin of 40-0 over the Storm.[2] Despite playing on the bench in the Grand Final win over Melbourne, King was later voted RLPA clubman of the year[3]

King then went on to play in the front row in Manly's 28-20 win in the 2009 World Club Challenge over Super League champions the Leeds Rhinos at the Elland Road stadium in Leeds, England.

In the 2010 season, Jason King was appointed co-captain of Manly alongside Jamie Lyon.[4]

Kings form improved during 2010 to the point where he was the 18th man for the New South Wales Origin team for Game 2 of the 2010 State of Origin series, and made his Origin debut at in the front row in Game 3 of the series at the Telstra Stadium in Sydney. His form continued for the season despite the patchy form of the Sea Eagles. Unfortunately for King injury ruled him out of the Australian Kangaroos train on squad for the 2010 Four Nations tournament.

On 15 May 2011, King was named in the New South Wales Origin team for game 1 of the 2011 series at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane where Queensland defeated The Blues 16-12. This would prove to be the final State of Origins game of Jason King's career.

Despite a strong start to the 2011 NRL season, a late season injury forced King to watch from the sidelines as Manly defeated the New Zealand Warriors 24-10 in the 2011 NRL grand final.

King returned to the team in 2012 as Manly made their way to the Preliminary Final. An injury interrupted 2013 season saw him play only four games and miss Manly's 26-18 2013 NRL Grand Final loss to the Sydney Roosters.

King was still co-captain of the Sea Eagles in the 2014 NRL season, though he played mostly from the bench. King retired at the end of the year after 22 games for the Northern Eagles and 217 games for Manly.

Footnotes

External links


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