Julian O'Neill

Julian O'Neill
Personal information
Born 14 October 1972
Hornsby, New South Wales, Australia
Playing information
Position Fullback, Five-eighth
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1991–95 Brisbane Broncos 105 33 202 10 480
1995–96 London Broncos
1996–97 Western Reds 26 12 63 4 178
1997–99 South Sydney 54 9 101 0 238
2000–01 North Queensland 47 14 122 0 300
2002–03 Wigan Warriors 30 12 72 0 192
2003–05 Widnes Vikings 60 13 157 7 338
2005 Wakefield Trinity 12 2 4 0 16
Total 334 95 721 21 1742
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1993–00 Queensland 10 2 9 0 26
1997 Queensland (SL) 1 0 0 0 0
1997 Australia (SL) 1 0 0 0 0
Source: NRL Stats, RLP and Yesterday's Hero

Julian O'Neill (born 14 October 1972 in Hornsby, New South Wales) is an Australian retired professional rugby league footballer of the 1990s and 2000s. A talented fullback and goal-kicker, he enjoyed a 14-year top-grade career with several clubs in both Australia and England, which included two NSWRL premierships, a Challenge Cup victory as well as state and national representative honours. However O'Neill regularly made headlines for his involvement in numerous controversial off-field incidents.

Early life

O'Neill's mother, Annabelle O'Neill, a nursing sister, was killed in a car crash when he was five. His father, Brian Allan O'Neill, a gynaecologist, died of heart disease when Julian was six. [1]

O'Neill was raised by his grandparents and other family members from time to time. From age ten he attended boarding school at St Brendan's College in Yeppoon, Queensland. He was a prodiguous young sportsman, holding school records in athletics and swimming. He represented as an Australian Schoolboy in both rugby league and cricket. [1]

Football career

O'Neill was signed to a sporting scholarship with the Brisbane Broncos at age fifteen and was selected for the Australian Schoolboys side in 1989. He was graded by the Broncos in 1991 and it was hoped he would take over the five-eighth position from Broncos great Wally Lewis. He showed greater form at fullback and played there in Brisbane's inaugural Grand Final victory in 1992. In the weeks following the grand final O'Neill travelled with the Broncos to England, where he played at fullback in the 1992 World Club Challenge against British champions Wigan, helping Brisbane become the first NSWRL club to win the match in Britain.

The following year, O'Neill first represented Queensland, coming off the interchange bench in Game II of the 1993 State of Origin series. He played at five-eighth in Game III. The Broncos reached the 1993 Winfield Cup Grand Final and again beat St. George for a second consecutive premiership title.

O'Neill is only 19 and he will play for Queensland and Australia. When I saw him play schoolboy football, I said to my president, Barry Nelson, 'We'll go big for this kid'. You normally give schoolboys $5,000. We offered him $40,000, and he still signed with the Broncos.

“
”
Canterbury-Bankstown CEO Peter 'Bullfrog' Moore following the 1992 Winfield Cup Grand Final[2]

O'Neill then played at fullback in all three games of the 1994 State of Origin series under coach Wally Lewis. During the 1994 NSWRL season, O'Neill played at lock forward for defending premiers Brisbane when they hosted British champions Wigan for the 1994 World Club Challenge. In 1994 and 1995 O'Neill was the Brisbane Broncos' top point-scorer. He was sacked by the Broncos in 1995 for drink-driving whilst in England.

O'Neill subsequently played club football in England with the London Broncos, back in Australia with the Western Reds (for whom he holds the club records for most tries and goals in a match), the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the North Queensland Cowboys. He later returned to England to play out the rest of his career. He made further appearances for the Maroons in 1996, 1997 and 2000 for a total of ten career State of Origin appearances. He was playing for the Super League-aligned Western Reds during the 1997 split competition and made one state and one national representative appearance for the Super League representative teams.

In 2000 he was named the Cowboys' player of the year.[3]

He played English rugby league with Wigan, enjoying victory in the Challenge Cup, until 2003 when he completed a mid-season move to the Widnes Vikings. In 2004 he had a season playing rugby union in France. He returned to rugby league in England in 2005 and played half the season with the Wakefield Trinity Wildcats, then switching back to former club Widnes Vikings until their relegation from the Super League that year. He then moved to also relegated Leigh for the 2006 season.

Off the field

As his fame and confidence grew at the Broncos, O'Neill found himself at the centre of a number of alcohol-fuelled incidents. At Southport Magistrates Court in 1995 he faced five charges, following an incident at Conrad Jupiters Casino where he was reported to have urinated under a blackjack table, including indecent exposure and offensive behavior. He was found not guilty, three fraud charges were dropped and he was awarded costs.[1]

After being released by the Brisbane Broncos, O'Neill played a season with the London Broncos but was released by them as well after a drink-driving offence. For a time he was engaged to Australian swimming star Samantha Riley, but the engagement ended after Riley, who (despite being embroiled in a drugs controversy herself in the lead-up to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics) was renowned for having a clean-living reputation, reportedly grew tired of O'Neill's alcohol consumption and subsequent reckless behaviour.[1]

He made a fresh start at the Western Reds in 1996 but was released in 1997 after being fined and disqualified from driving in 1997 in Perth's Magistrates Court.[1]

He made another clean start at the South Sydney Rabbitohs in 1998 but suffered immense publicity and a $10,000 fine from the club over a 1999 pre-season tour incident where a drunken O'Neill defecated in the footwear of teammate Jeremy Schloss. This incident became known as "the poo in the shoe" affair, and gained much media attention and public ridicule after O'Neill reportedly uttered the alliterative line, "I just shat in Schlossy's shoe," to his teammates.[1]

In 2001, O'Neill's 13-month-old daughter, Piper, was killed when a television set fell onto her in his family's home [1]

In 2004, while on a pre-season trip to Australia with the Widnes Vikings, he was accused of drunkenly attempting to set fire to a 13-year-old boy who was wearing a foam-rubber dolphin mascot suit whilst on a river cruise in Port Macquarie. To avoid apprehension, O'Neill stripped to his underwear following the incident, dived into the Hastings River and swam to shore, before hitchhiking and being picked up by a passing car. [4]

Sources and footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Australian Story article
  2. ↑ Masters, Roy (27 September 1992). "Broncos rejoice, but the plotting begins". The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia: Fairfax Media). p. 27. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
  3. ↑ Honours at cowboys.com.au
  4. ↑ Dolphin Suit

External links