Anthony Watts (rugby league)

Anthony Watts born 12 September 1986 in the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia is a boxer and a retired rugby league player, having played at the North Queensland Cowboys and Cronulla Sharks. He mostly played at hooker.

NRL career

Watts made his NRL début for the Cronulla Sharks in 2007. He played in 5 games in the back half of the season, playing halfback or from the bench.

In 2008, Watts joined the North Queensland Cowboys. He scored a try in his first two games with, but his next ten games played were all losses. In 2009, Watts was still playing mostly from the bench, but towards the end of the year he made his first appearances as starting hooker.

2010 was Watts most successful year. He played in 21 games and scored 4 tries.

Watts joined the Sydney Roosters in 2011 on a 3-year deal.^[1]

Watts fell into disrepute when he was allegedly involved in an altercation with his girlfriend which resulted in him being charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm. At the time of the incident, Watts was in the company of fellow Roosters player, Todd Carney. Roosters CEO Steve Noyce said, "Anthony Watts has been suspended effective immediately and will be issued with a breach notice. The club has worked closely with Anthony in the past to address a number of issues, including anti-social behaviour, and this decision stands regardless of what the court decides."^[2] Watts never played first grade with the Roosters

He signed with the Widnes Vikings for the 2012 season where he hoped to revive his career.^[3] Anthony settled well into the new look Vikings team and played in several pre-season friendlies, winning plaudits from many of the Vikings fans for his ability and exciting attacking play, but on 19 February 2012 suffered a torn right anterior cruciate ligament just 10 minutes into his Super League début during the defeat by Salford City Reds, leading to an anticipated minimum six month lay off.^[4] Despite this, he signed an extension to his contract on 1 May 2012 which was designed to keep him at the club until the end of 2013. Barely a week later he was released by the Vikings, with immediate effect in order to return home for personal reasons.^[5]

Post-NRL

Upon the death of his father, Watts abandoned his plans for a NRL return^[6] and signed with the Tugun Seahawks of the Gold Coast Rugby League. Watts was playing for Tugun in 2013, when he was accused of biting an opposition player on the penis during a melee in a match.^[7] Watts was given an eight-week suspension, but denied the charge. "I was wearing a mouthguard and there’s no way I bit him on the dick. It’s pretty shithouse to be at the centre of something like this, even though I've been through a lot in my career," he said.^[8]

Watts became a member of The Finks and Mongols, bikie gangs under investigation for various gang-related crimes. In 2013, Watts was sentenced to jail. In 2014, Watts was out on parole when he was involved in a "drunken ruckus" and returned to jail.^[9] His second arrest was featured on Gold Coast Cops when he already disassociated himself with the gangs, but 50ml of Stanozolol steroids was found in his house.^[10]

Boxing

Watts won his first professional fight in 29 seconds. His second bout was against rugby league player Paul Gallen. The fight, which lasted only 88 seconds before it was called off when Watts suffered a shoulder injury, was described as "anti-climactic."^[11] The Sydney Morning Herald wrote, "The way Watts was swinging them, it's unsurprising he almost threw his arm out of its socket. If this was the fight which brought you to the main event, you were sorely short changed."^[12]

0 Wins, 1 Loss, 0 Draws[13]
Res.	Record	Opponent	Type	Rd., Time	Date	Location	Notes
Loss	0–1	Paul Gallen	UD	4	2015-11-03	SkyCity Convention Centre, Auckland City, Auckland	Professional debut.

References

External links

• North Queensland Cowboys profile