| Webcke training with the Broncos in 2006 | ||||||
| Personal information | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname | Warhorse | |||||
| Born | 28 September 1974 Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia |
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| Playing information | ||||||
| Height | 183 cm (6 ft 0 in) | |||||
| Weight | 112 kg (17 st 9 lb)[1] | |||||
| Position | Prop | |||||
| Club | ||||||
| Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
| 1995–06 | Brisbane Broncos | 254 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 72 |
| Representative | ||||||
| Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
| 1998–04 | Queensland | 21 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 1998–04 | Australia | 20 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Source: Rugby League Project | ||||||
Shane Webcke (born 28 September 1974 in Toowoomba, Queensland) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer, who spent his entire top-grade career playing for the Brisbane Broncos. His position of choice was at prop forward and at his peak he was renowned as the best front rower in the world.[2] Webcke represented Queensland in the State of Origin on twenty-one separate occasions and has also captained the side. He also made eighteen test appearances for the Australian national side. Alongside Glenn Lazarus and Arthur Beetson, Webcke is considered by many to have been one of the finest post-war front-rowers to play the game.[3][4][5]
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Originally from Clifton, Queensland and having played for Toowoomba, Webcke was scouted by Wayne Bennett, whom he acknowledges as the greatest influence on his career, after seeing him play as a schoolboy in 1993. The following year Webcke's father was killed in a work accident when he was still 19 years of age.[6]
Webcke made his debut for the Broncos in the 1995 ARL season. Within two seasons he had his first premiership ring, when he helped Brisbane to victory over the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the 1997 Super League season's grand final.
Webcke made his first appearance for the Queensland Maroons in the first game of the 1998 State of Origin series and was named man-of-the-match in the third and deciding game that year. From his debut until his retirement from representative football following Game III in 2004, no other player wore the number 8 for Queensland.
He played at prop forward for the Brisbane Broncos in their win at the 1998 NRL grand final.
In 2000 Webcke broke his arm during the finals series that season but went on to appear in the Broncos' grand final victory.[7] Post-season he was a member of the Australian world champion team that won the 2000 Rugby League World Cup. Webcke was also awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his contribution to Australia's international standing in the sport of rugby league.
Following Australia's World Cup victory, Webcke and teammate Gorden Tallis wrote an open letter to players appealing for an end to scandalous behaviour amongst footballers which had been tarnishing the sport.[8]
Webcke won the Broncos' best player award for the 2001 season. Post-season he refused to tour with the Kangaroos in the wake of the 11 September attacks.[9] At the end of the 2003 NRL season, he went on the 2003 Kangaroo tour.
Webcke again won the Paul Morgan Medal for the Broncos' best and fairest player for the 2005 Brisbane Broncos season.
Having won premierships with the Brisbane Broncos club in 1997, 1998 and 2000, Webcke announced on 26 April 2006, that he would retire at the end of the 2006 NRL season. Webcke's final game was the Broncos' victory in the 2006 NRL Grand Final against the Melbourne Storm,[10] days after his 32nd birthday.
Post-football, Webcke went on to release his successful auto-biography, Warhorse and also ventured into media with the Seven Network in Australia. Webcke's pub at Leyburn, Queensland – the Royal Hotel – is the longest, continuously licensed premises in Queensland[1]. Webcke was set to become the first player to give the annual Tom Brock Lecture when he was invited to do so in 2007,[11] but this did not eventuate.
In 2007 at the Broncos' 20-year anniversary celebration, the club announced a list of the 20 best players to play for them to date which included Webcke.[12]
In February 2008, Webcke was named in the list of Australia's 100 Greatest Players (1908–2007) which was commissioned by the NRL and ARL to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia.[13][14]
A few months later the Brisbane Broncos appointed Shane Webcke, along with Allan Langer as full-time assistant coaches to work alongside new head coach Ivan Henjak from the 2009 season. However shortly after the start of the season Webcke quit his post in the wake of controversy surrounding the release of his new book in which he was openly critical of the Broncos administration not standing down star players Darius Boyd, Sam Thaiday and Karmichael Hunt when police were investigating sexual assault allegations against them in September 2008.[15] He went on to state that he was 'filthy' about the state of affairs at the Broncos.[16] He also wrote that Andrew Johns should never have been included in the Australian rugby league team of the century after his confessions of illicit drug use during his career.
Webcke was also hired by Channel Seven to provide perspectives on Brisbane Broncos and Gold Coast Titans feature matches. He also occasionally fills-in as a Sports Presenter on the Brisbane edition of Seven News. He worked on-screen with Matthew Johns in the first season of The Matty Johns Show.
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