Brad Mackay (born 1969 in

Sydney, New South Wales Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountains ...

) is an Australian former

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. A versatile for the

St George Dragons The St. George Dragons is an Australian rugby league football club from St George District in Sydney, New South Wales that played in the top level New South Wales competition and Australian Rugby League competitions from the 1921 until th ...

Illawarra Steelers The Illawarra Steelers are an Australian rugby league football club based in the city of Wollongong, New South Wales. The club competed in Australia's top-level rugby league competition from 1982 until 1998. On the 13th of December 1980, th ...

Western Reds The Western Reds were a rugby league football club based in Perth, Western Australia. Founded in 1992 as the Western Reds, they entered into the Australian Rugby League competition in 1995 before defecting to the rival Super League competition i ...

and the joint-venture of St. George Illawarra Dragons, he also represented

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

in the

State of Origin A State of Origin competition is a type of sporting event between players representing their state or territory. State of Origin began in Australian rules football on 8 October 1977 between Western Australia (WA) and Victoria, at Subiaco Ov ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

Playing career

A St George junior from the Brighton Seagulls club, Mackay was graded by the Dragons in 1987 and then played 117 games with club over eight seasons until 1994 scoring 22 tries. Playing all positions in the backline bar halfback, he was most remembered for his lock position in his peak. Mackay debuted for the New South Wales Blues as a reserve in game II of the 1989 State of Origin series. He went on to play 17

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games between 1989 and 1995, scoring three tries at that level. Mackay had his best season in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicis ...

, making his test début for

in the mid-season test against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, becoming only the second player to score a hat trick of tries on début for Australia. A month after the France test, Mackay went on to play in a one-off test against

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. Following the season he was selected for the 1990 Kangaroo Tour, coming into the test team for the winning 2nd and 3rd Ashes Tests against

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before playing in the two tests against France. After failing to hold his test place in 1991, Mackay was selected for the first two tests against Great Britain during the Lions 1992 tour of Australasia but missed the last match of the series through injury. After playing in a World Cup qualifying match against

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

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, Mackay was used as a replacement in the Dragons 8-28

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loss to the

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and missed a place in Australia's World Cup Final winning team. 1993 saw Mackay continue his good form and he was the starting lock forward for NSW in all three

games in the Blues 2–1 series win over

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

. The return from injury of Bradley Clyde would see Mackay on the bench for Australia in the 1st and 3rd Trans-Tasman Tests against New Zealand. Later that year he became one of only four players (the others being Bradley Clyde in

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Daly Cherry-Evans Daly Cherry-Evans (born 20 February 1989) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a for the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles in the NRL and Australia at international level. He captains Manly and won the 2011 NRL Grand ...

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and Jack Wighton in

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) to win the Clive Churchill Medal from the losing side when the Dragons went down 6–14 in the

, again to the

. St. George's form dropped markedly in 1994 and Mackay could only make the Bench for NSW in their

1994 State of Origin series The 1994 State of Origin series saw the 13th year that the annual three-game series between the Queensland and New South Wales representative rugby league football teams was contested entirely under 'state of origin' selection rules. Mark Coyne ...

win over

, with NSW coach Phil Gould preferring Bradley Clyde at lock. He made his final test appearance for Australia from the interchange bench in the 1994 mid-season test against France at

Parramatta Stadium Parramatta Stadium was a sports stadium in Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia, 23 kilometres west of Sydney's central business district. The stadium was the home ground of several western Sydney-based sports teams, at the time of closure ...

, but the Dragons poor form, which saw them fall to 11th on the premiership ladder, saw Mackay overlooked for the

1994 Kangaroo Tour The 1994 Kangaroo Tour was the 18th and last Kangaroo Tour played in the conventional format, where the Australia national rugby league team (known as the XXXX Kangaroos due to sponsorship reasons) played a number of matches against British and Fre ...

bringing down the curtain on his international career. Mackay decided to leave the Dragons due to a poor relationship with coach Brian Smith, later saying, "Brian had signed an extension on his contract and so I felt like I needed a change or I'd go down the drain as a player." Mackay joined the

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, accepting the foundation captaincy of the

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

-based side, but moved back east when they joined the

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of w ...

franchise from 1996. He started playing for the

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, staying for three seasons over which he played 56 games. A return to his best form and season-long consistency in 1997 earned him the BHP Medal as the Steelers' player of the year. Mackay later became part of the new St. George when the joint venture was formed in 1999, playing 24 games, including an appearance from the bench in the

1999 NRL Grand Final The 1999 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the 1999 NRL season. It was contested by the competition's two newest clubs: the Melbourne Storm, competing in only its second year (having finished the regular season ...

loss to the

Melbourne Storm The Melbourne Storm are a rugby league club based in Melbourne, Victoria in Australia that participates in the National Rugby League. The first fully professional rugby league team based in the state, the Storm entered the competition in 1998. ...

. Mackay had played a total of 248 first grade games over 12 years. Mackay played out his career in the 2000 season with the

Bradford Bulls The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the Championship. They have won five Challenge Cups, six league championships and three World Club Challenges. The team jersey is predom ...

in the UK, winning the

Challenge Cup The Challenge Cup is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, with the exception of 1915–1919 and 1939–1940, due to World War I and World War II respectively. It involve ...

Final with them.

Post playing

Brad Mackay is a committed Christian. In 2003, he was active in fund raising for the Joanne Mackay Helping Hand Foundation following the 2002 passing of wife, Joanne from breast cancer. He lives in the Illawarra area with his second wife, Tracy and is a fireman.

References

External links

State of Origin Official website Rugby League Player Stats

Joanne Mackay Foundation website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mackay, Brad 1969 births Living people Australia national rugby league team players Clive Churchill Medal winners St. George Dragons players Illawarra Steelers players St. George Illawarra Dragons players Bradford Bulls players New South Wales Rugby League State of Origin players New South Wales City Origin rugby league team players Rugby league locks Rugby league second-rows Rugby league hookers Rugby league players from Sydney Western Reds players