Andrew Dunemann (born 6 October 1976) 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 112 ...

footballer and coach who played in the 1990s and 2000s. Primarily a , he played for the Gold Coast Seagulls,

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 ...

South Sydney Rabbitohs The South Sydney Rabbitohs are a professional Australian rugby league club based in Redfern, New South Wales, Redfern, a suburb of inner-southern Sydney, New South Wales. They participate in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and are ...

and the

Canberra Raiders The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby ...

in the NRL, and Halifax,

Leeds Rhinos The Leeds Rhinos are a professional rugby league club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The club was formed in 1870 as Leeds St John's and play in the Super League, the top tier of English rugby league. They have played home matches at Head ...

and the Salford City Reds in 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 ...

. After spending most of his career in the halves he spent some time later in his career as a .

Background

Born in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

, Dunemann grew up in

Toowoomba Toowoomba ( , nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar') is a city in the Toowoomba Region of the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia. It is west of Queensland's capital city Brisbane by road. The urban population of Toowoomba as of the 2021 ...

, where he played his junior rugby league for the Newtown Lions and attended Harristown State High School. In 1992, he started at five-eighth in Harristown's 16–17 Commonwealth Bank Cup final loss to

Patrician Brothers' College, Fairfield Patrician Brothers' College, Fairfield (abbreviated as PBCF) is an Independent School, independent Roman Catholicism in Australia, Roman Catholic Comprehensive School#Australia, comprehensive Single-sex education, single-sex Secondary School, seco ...

, winning the competition's Player of the Tournament award.

Playing career

In Round 18 of the

1993 NSWRL season The 1993 NSWRL season (known as the 1993 Winfield Cup Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the eighty-sixth season of professional rugby league football in Australia. The New South Wales Rugby League's sixteen teams competed for the J. J. ...

, at age 16 years and 299 days old, Dunemann made his first grade debut for the Gold Coast Seagulls in their 16–46 loss to the

North Sydney Bears The North Sydney Bears is an Australian rugby league football club based in North Sydney, New South Wales. The club competes in the New South Wales Cup, having exited the National Rugby League following the 1999 NRL season after 90 years in the ...

. This was his only appearance for the Seagulls that season. In 1994, he played six games, starting five at . In 1995, he became more of a regular in the side playing 13 games, scoring his first try in a 20–27 loss to the

Newcastle Knights The Newcastle Knights are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. They compete in Australasia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. Playing in red and blue, th ...

. In 1996, Dunemann signed with the

, joining his older brother Ian at the club. In Round 10 of the

1996 ARL season The 1996 ARL premiership (also known as the 1996 Optus Cup due to sponsorship from Optus) was the 89th season of professional rugby league football in Australia, and the second to be administered by the Australian Rugby League (ARL). Twenty team ...

, he made his debut for the club, playing alongside his brother in a 14–38 loss to the

Sydney City 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 New S ...

. In doing so, they became the first pair of brothers to play for the club. In his first season at the Cowboys, he played 16 games. In 1997, he played 14 of the club's 18 games, starting the majority at . In 1998, Dunemann's final season at the club, he played 21 games, scoring three tries. In 1999, Dunemann joined the

, playing just five games for the club before making a mid-season move to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

to played for the

Halifax Blue Sox The Halifax Panthers are a professional rugby league club in Halifax, West Yorkshire, which formed in 1873. Halifax were one of the original twenty-two rugby clubs that formed the Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895. They have been Rugby Le ...

in the

. Over three and a half seasons with the club, he played 74 games, scoring 19 tries. In 2003, Dunemann signed with the

, starting at halfback in their

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 involves a ...

final loss to 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 pre ...

. In 2004, he played 24 games for the Rhinos but was left out of their

2004 Super League Grand Final The 2004 Super League Grand Final was the 7th official Grand Final and conclusive and championship-deciding game of Super League IX. It was held on Saturday 16 October 2004, at Old Trafford, Manchester, and was played between Leeds Rhinos, who f ...

side that defeated Bradford. In February 2005, he started at in Leeds' 39–32

World Club Challenge The World Club Challenge is an annual rugby league competition between the winners of the Australasian National Rugby League (NRL) and the European Super League, for the de facto club world championship of the sport. The first such match was pl ...

win over the

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the NRL Telstra Premiership, as well as competitions facili ...

. In August 2005, he came off the bench in their

final loss to

Hull F.C. Hull Football Club, commonly referred to as Hull or Hull F.C., is a professional rugby league football club established in 1865 and based in West Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The club plays in the Super League competition and wer ...

His last game for the Rhinos was their 2005 Grand Final loss to Bradford, in which he started at . In 2006, joined the Salford City Reds, playing 25 games in his lone season at the club before returning to Australia. In 2007, Dunemann returned to the NRL after eight years, joining the

. He played two games for the club, coming off the bench in both before retiring due to injuries.

Coaching career

In 2008, Dunemann became head coach of the newly established Northern Pride 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 fo ...

. In his first season in charge, the Pride finished third and came within one game of the

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

. In 2009, the Pride finished second and qualified for the

, losing 18–32 to the

Sunshine Coast Sea Eagles The Sunshine Coast Falcons are a rugby league football team based on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. They compete in the Queensland Cup and their home ground is Sunshine Coast Stadium. The Falcons are currently affiliated with the NRL team Melb ...

. In 2010, Dunemann joined the

, serving as an assistant to head coach Rick Stone. In 2012, after two years at Newcastle, he moved to the

as an assistant coach of the NRL side and head coach of the club's under-20 side. In the National Youth Competition, he led the Raiders to the Grand Final, which they lost to the

Wests Tigers The Wests Tigers are an Australian professional rugby league football team, based in the Inner West and South West Sydney. They have competed in the National Rugby League since being formed at the end of the 1999 NRL season as a joint-venture ...

. In April 2013, Dunemann coached the Queensland under-20 team. On 20 August 2013, following the dismissal of Raiders' head coach

David Furner David Furner (born 6 February 1971) is an Australian professional rugby league football coach who was the head coach of the Leeds Rhinos, and a former player. He is the former assistant coach for the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the NRL, and th ...

, Dunemann was named as the club's interim head coach. After three losses from his three games, he was replaced in a full-time capacity by

Ricky Stuart Ricky John Stuart (born 7 January 1967) is an Australian professional rugby league football coach who is the head coach of the Canberra Raiders in the NRL and a former rugby league footballer who played as a in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. ...

for the 2014 season.

Statistics

ARL/Super League/NRL

Super League

Post-playing

In 2014, Dunemann became a referee's consultant for the NRL, a position he held for four years.