Grant Rovelli (born 3 September 1983) is an Australian former professional

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 11 ...

footballer. From 2006 to 2010 he played in the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

(NRL) for the

New Zealand Warriors The New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as ...

and the

North Queensland Cowboys The North Queensland Cowboys is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, the largest town in North Queensland. They compete in Australia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL). Sinc ...

. He is of Italian descent and has represented Italy's national rugby league team. His usual position is halfback.

Background

Born in

Mackay, Queensland } Mackay () is a city in the Mackay Region on the eastern or Coral Sea coast of Queensland, Australia. It is located about north of Brisbane, on the Pioneer River. Mackay is described as being in either Central Queensland or North Queensla ...

Rovelli was a South Mackay Sharks junior playing for the

Junior system, Rovelli signed with the

Sydney Roosters The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional Rugby League Football Club based in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) and parts of inner Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The Roosters have won fifteen Ne ...

and moved to Sydney. In Sydney he played for the Sydney Roosters

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

team for three years, including the 2004 Grand Final winning side and the side that lost the 2005 Grand Final.

Playing career

New Zealand Warriors

The

signed Rovelli before the 2006 season. Head Coach Ivan Cleary had previously met Rovelli during his time at the Roosters. He made his

debut in Round One 2006 when he started off the bench. However, later in the season he managed to secure the role of halfback and by the season's end he was a finalist for the Dally M Rookie of the Year award. Rovelli won the Vodafone Young Player of the Year award in the club's annual awards night. His final two seasons with the club were marked by indifferent form that saw him move in and out of the first grade side.

North Queensland Cowboys

On 3 December 2008 it was announced that the Warriors had released Rovelli from his final year of his contract so he could join the North Queensland Cowboys. He signed for the 2009 and 2010 seasons. Rovelli also played for the

Mackay Cutters The Mackay Cutters are a semi-professional rugby league football club based in Mackay, Queensland. They compete in Queensland's top rugby league competition, the Queensland Cup. The club was admitted to the Queensland Cup in 2007, alongside th ...

in the

Queensland Cup The Queensland Cup, currently known as the Hostplus Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the highest-level regional rugby league football competition in Queensland, Australia. It is run by the Queensland Rugby League (QRL) and is contested by fou ...

. After the end of his Cowboys contract, he captained the

in the

and in 2011 was part of the

Queensland Residents The Queensland Residents rugby league team is a representative rugby league team consisting of players who compete in the Intrust Super Cup (Queensland Cup) competition. They currently play an annual fixture against NSW Cup Representative Team, ...

side that defeated the

New South Wales Residents New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

32–6. In 2012 he was named the captain of the

side. At the end of the 2012 season Rovelli was selected to play for Italy against Fiji. Rovelli would go on to retire from the Intrust Super Cup at the beginning of 2013 and would sign with Souths Sharks in the Mackay Rugby League A-Grade competition. He would captain Souths Mackay to premiership success in 2013 & 14 before losing the 2015 grand final to the Sarina Crocodiles. In 2016 Rovelli would come out of professional rugby league retirement to once again play for the Mackay Cutters in the Intrust Super Premiership. He would retire from rugby league at the end of the season.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rovelli, Grant 1983 births Living people Auckland rugby league team players Australian expatriate rugby league players Australian expatriate sportspeople in New Zealand Australian people of Italian descent Australian rugby league players Expatriate rugby league players in New Zealand Italy national rugby league team players Mackay Cutters players New Zealand Warriors players North Queensland Cowboys players Rugby league five-eighths Rugby league halfbacks Rugby league players from Mackay, Queensland