Tim Brasher

Tim Brasher
Personal information
Full name Timothy Brasher
Born 16 March 1971
Australia
Playing information
Height 180 cm (5 ft 11 in)
Weight 86 kg (13 st 8 lb)
Position Fullback, Centre, Wing
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1989–97 Balmain 185 82 105 0 538
1998–99 South Sydney 40 14 0 0 56
2000–02 North Queensland 19 4 0 0 16
Total 244 100 105 0 610
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1992–00 New South Wales 21 3 9 0 30
1992–98 Australia 16 8 0 0 32
Source: Rugby League Project and Yesterday's Hero

Tim Brasher is an Australian former rugby league footballer of the 1990s and 2000s who played primarily as fullback. He began his career for Balmain Tigers, where he played the majority of his career. He then moved to the South Sydney Rabbitohs for two seasons, before finishing his career with a season at the North Queensland Cowboys. During his career he also represented New South Wales on 21 occasions and Australia on 16 occasions.

Balmain

While attending Grantham High School in Seven Hills, Sydney, Brasher played for the Australian Schoolboys team in 1988.[1] In 1989 Balmain Tigers coach Warren Ryan called up Brasher, still in high school, to make his first grade debut where he played from the bench in Balmain's 6-4 loss to Western Suburbs in Round 5 at the Campbelltown Stadium. Balmain reached their second Grand Final in succession that year, with Brasher partnering English import Andy Currier in the centres. The Tigers led 12-2 at half time, but their opponents the Canberra Raiders came back in the second half and scores were locked at 14-all at full time. In the 20 minutes of extra time, the resurgent Raiders scored a try through replacement forward Steve Jackson to win their first premiership 19-14. For Balmain it would be the clubs last ever Grand Final appearance.

After a solid season in 1990 where he played 24 games, scored 12 tried and kicked 32 goals to be the Tigers equal leading try scorer (with winger Steve O'Brien) and the clubs leading point scorer with 112. The Tigers were bundled out of the finals with a 16-0 loss to Manly-Warringah. After a strong season with the Tigers where he played mostly in the centres or at fullback, Brasher was considered unlucky not to be selected to the 1990 Kangaroo tour.

Without their inspirational captain Wayne Pearce who retired following the previous seasons Quarter-final loss to Manly (and despite still having representative players Garry Jack, Steve Roach, Benny Elias, Paul Sironen and New Zealand captain Gary Freeman), Balmain struggled in 1991, winning only 8 games, drawing 1 and losing 13 to finish in 12th place, 5 games outside of the finals. Brasher, playing every game in the centres, again had a good year finishing with 8 tries (second only to Will Robinson and James Grant who scored 9 each for the club), but was the Tigers second choice kicker behind Brian Smith and finished second highest point scorer for the club with 58.

After a strong start to the 1992 NSWRL season, Brasher was called up for the New South Wales squad for the final game of the 1992 State of Origin series. His impressive display in the second half of the third and deciding game of the series at the Sydney Football Stadium saw him pull off two try saving tackles on Queensland replacement winger Mark Coyne and Mal Meninga, as well as kicking two pressure goals. During the 1992 season, Balmain coach Alan Jones mostly played Brasher on the wing, a move that would prove fruitful for the speedy outside back as he went on to be the joint top try-scorer in the premiership (along with Western Suburbs winger Mark Bell) with 16 tries.

His impressive Origin debut, as well as incumbent test fullback Andrew Ettingshausen being unavailable due to injury, saw Brasher selected at fullback in Australia's 1992 World Cup Final victory over Great Britain in front of the world record attendance for an international rugby league match of 73,631 at Wembley Stadium. After dropping his first bomb in front of the goals, Brasher's confidence grew and he turned in a solid debut as the Kangaroos retained their crown and defeated the Lions 10-6. Despite some indifferent form in the Kangaroos lead-up games in England before the Final, coach Bob Fulton preferred Brasher over Newcastle Knights fullback Brad Godden due to Brasher's big game experience having been the Australian Schoolboys fullback in 1988 as well as playing in Balmain's 1989 Grand Final loss and also having played Origin for NSW.

Following long-serving Garry Jack's departure from the club at the end of 1992, Brasher was moved to fullback for the Tigers. He impressed at fullback for NSW in the 1993 State of Origin series, but lost his place in the Australian side to veteran Queensland utility back Dale Shearer (a long-time favourite of Australian coach Bob Fulton and Manly-Warringah's premiership fullback under Fulton in 1987) for the mid-year three game test series against New Zealand. Despite Brasher's good form and NSW winning the Origin series, there were surprisingly few complaints about 17 test veteran Shearer's place in the Australian side after his impressive displays at fullback for Qld in the final two games of the Origin series.

The great form of Canberra fullback Brett Mullins meant that Brasher, who again played fullback for NSW in the 1994 State of Origin series with Mullins on the wing, could only make a place on the bench for his official test debut against France at Parramatta Stadium in 1994, won 58-0 by the Kangaroos (at the time World Cup matches were counted as international matches, but not as Tests). At the end of the 1994 season he was selected as one of the fullbacks (along with Mullins) for the end-of-season Kangaroo Tour of Great Britain and France, the 18th and to date the last tour of its kind by the Kangaroos. Brasher played 15 games on tour (six as a substitute), scoring six tries and kicking eleven goals. He was a substitute in the final Ashes test against Great Britain at Elland Road in Leeds, as well as the record breaking 74-0 win against France in Béziers, the final game of the tour.

Balmain was re-named the Sydney Tigers for the 1995 ARL season and the club also moved its home games from their long-time home Leichhardt Oval to the Parramatta Stadium. The move was not a success as the Tigers finished in 15th place with a 7-15 record. Brasher played 18 games and scored 9 tries for the Tigers in 1995, playing mostly in the centres with three games at Five-eighth.

Despite not playing at fullback for his club side, Brasher played at Fullback for NSW in the 1995 State of Origin series (with both NSW and Qld only able to select ARL loyal players). With rookie coach Paul Vautin not being able to call on players such as internationals Allan Langer, Willie Carne, Michael Hancock, Steve Renouf, Steve Walters and Kevin Walters, Queensland had gone into the series as extreme outsiders but came away with a shock 3-0 series win. Brasher was one of the Blues better performed players in the series and in the absence of the Super League loyal Brett Mullins, finally made the Australian fullback spot his own in 1995 and he was selected there for all three tests against New Zealand in the Trans-Tasman Test series (again, only ARL loyal players were selected, which saw only three players, Brasher, new captain Brad Fittler, and Rod Wishart retain their test places from the 1994 Kangaroo Tour). Australia would win the series 3-0, the first time they had swept the Kiwis in a series since 1986.

This was followed with selection for the 1995 World Cup, with again only ARL players selected. With what many would label a 'second-string' team without the inclusion of the Super League players such as Laurie Daley, Ricky Stuart, Bradley Clyde, Steve Walters, Brett Mullins, Glenn Lazarus, Allan Langer, Steve Renouf and Andrew Ettingshausen. After losing the opening game of the tournament against England at Wembley, Australia reached the final, again playing England, after a tense 30-20 Semi-final win over New Zealand that went into overtime after the scores were locked up at 20-all after 80 minutes. On 28 October 1995 at Wembley Stadium, Australia won their 4th straight World Cup with a 16–8 win, with Brasher contributing the winning try in front of 66,540 fans.

1996 however was perhaps Brasher's finest year, with some considering him to be the best player in the world at this time. Brasher single-handedly carried a very weak Tigers side to within one win of a final berth that year, and his Origin and Kangaroo performances continued to be exceptional.

1997 however proved to be the last we saw of the best of Brasher. As a result of the Super League war and his excellent form in previous years, Brasher began to see himself as a marquee player who deserved to be paid much more than the Tigers could afford. He declared that he would be the first player to achieve a $1 million contract and his form began to suffer as his mind was obviously focussed on other areas.

After the Super League had become defunct and the reunification of the game had occurred in 1998, Brasher's hesitation over his future with the Tigers resulted in the club terminating negotiations, and he was forced to find a new club (it was widely rumoured that he had knocked back an offer of $500,000 p.a., only to then change his mind but find that the offer had been withdrawn). Brasher was in talks with the Canberra Raiders, but after talks with the club stalled, it was announced that Brasher had signed for the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

Brasher enjoyed a very successful career with the Tigers playing in 185 games, which included 182 starts and 3 replacement appearances, and scoring 538 points, which included 82 tries and 105 goals. Brasher was named on the bench in the official Balmain Tigers Team of the Century.

South Sydney

In total he played two seasons for the Rabbitohs where he made 40 appearances and scored 14 tries, totalling 56 points. After moving to South Sydney, his impressive form in a struggling Rabbitohs squad again earned him a call-up to the State of Origin side in 1998. After the club was excluded from the 2000 season, Brasher was forced to find another club, and decided join the North Queensland Cowboys.

North Queensland

Brasher moved to the North Queensland Cowboys in 2000, and was appointed captain in his first season with the club, in which he made 16 appearances, scoring four tries, and being voted Players Player of the Year. After signing for the North Queensland Cowboys, Brasher was again selected for the New South Wales side in 2000. In all he represented New South Wales in 21 appearances, which included 20 starts and one replacement appearance. After the 2000 season had ended he was injured during the off-season, which ruled him out of the entire 2001 season. The career-ending injury was widely reported at the time as a knee injury as a result of Brasher falling from a chair cleaning a fan. However, it has since been discovered that the injury was the result of an accident that occurred during a trail biking adventure with former Cowboy's halfback Nathan Fien. Much speculation still exists as to why the Cowboys chose to conceal the events of Brasher's injury. He decided to retire due to the injury. In his only season with the Cowboys he made 16 appearances and scored four tries, totaling 16 points.

Brasher did however make a very brief comeback (albeit to English rugby union) when he filled in for a depleted Bath side during the 2003 Rugby World Cup. Due to the attention that the World Cup drew in Australia, little attention was paid to this aspect of Brasher's career.

References

  1. ↑ "SportingPulse Homepage for Australian Secondary Schools Rugby League". SportingPulse. Retrieved 10 October 2008.

External links