Ashley Harrison (born 18 May 1981) is an Australian former professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer who played as a in the 2000s and 2010s. He played for the

Gold Coast Titans The Gold Coast Titans are a professional rugby league football club, based on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership, Australia's elite rugby league competition. Since 2008, the ...

in the

NRL The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

. A

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

State of Origin representative lock forward, he also played club football for the

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Red Hill, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos compete in the National Rugby League (NRL) and play their home games at ...

(with whom he won the 2000 NRL Premiership),

South Sydney Rabbitohs The South Sydney District Rugby League Football Club, also known as the South Sydney Rabbitohs, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Maroubra, New South Wales, Maroubra that competes in the Nat ...

and

Sydney Roosters Eastern Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club, known as the Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), Eastern Suburbs. The club competes in the National Rugby Lea ...

Background

Harrison was born in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

, Queensland, Australia.

Playing career

Early career

Harrison attended Wavell State High School in

, and played junior football for Brisbane Brothers and Norths Aspley. He represented the Australian Schoolboys team in 1998.

Brisbane Broncos

Harrison made his debut in the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

for the

against the

New Zealand Warriors The 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 the Aucklan ...

on 20 February 2000 (Round 3). He played from the interchange bench for the Broncos in their 2000 NRL grand final victory over the

. Having won the 2000 NRL Premiership, the Broncos traveled to England to play against 2000's Super League V Champions,

St Helens R.F.C. St Helens R.F.C., commonly known as Saints, is a professional rugby league club in St Helens, Merseyside, England. Founded in 1873, the club is one of the oldest members of the Rugby Football League, and one of the most successful clubs in its ...

for the 2001 World Club Challenge, with Harrison playing from the interchange bench in Brisbane's loss.

South Sydney Rabbitohs

After moving to the

, he was named the club's player of the year, winning the George Piggins Medal in 2004, and serving as the club's captain for a brief period in 2005. Harrison was selected to play for

in Game III, 2005, becoming South Sydney's first Queensland Origin representative in many years. Shortly after, he was promoted to the Rabbitohs captaincy, which coincided with the team winning six of their final eight matches of the season to avoid the wooden spoon (the only losses in that period being against the eventual Grand Finalists,

Wests Tigers The Wests Tigers is an Australian professional rugby league football team, based in the Inner West of Sydney and South Western Sydney. The Tigers have competed in the National Rugby League (NRL) since being formed at the end of the 1999 N ...

and

North Queensland North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its Tropical North Queensland, trop ...

Sydney Roosters

Harrison moved to South Sydney's arch rivals the

for the

2006 NRL season The 2006 NRL season was the 99th season of professional rugby league football in Australia and the ninth run by the National Rugby League. The lineup of teams remained unchanged from the previous year, with fifteen clubs competing for the 2006 Te ...

. He managed 41 out of a possible 48 matches at the Roosters. Ashley Harrison

Gold Coast Titans

Harrison returned to Queensland to play for the

from 2008. At the Titans, he started at lock and performed well covering five-eighth also while Matthew Rogers was out on suspension. As a result, he was named 18th man for the 2008 State of Origin series for Queensland. He started in both the second and third State of Origin games. Harrison was picked ahead of his club captain

Scott Prince Scott Prince (born 27 February 1980) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. An Australian international and Queensland State of Origin representative, he played club footba ...

(who was only drafted into the squad after a knee injury sustained by

Darren Lockyer Darren James Lockyer (born 24 March 1977) is an Australian television commentator and former professional rugby league footballer. Lockyer was an Australian international and Queensland State representative captain, who played his entire profe ...

) to play in the second State of Origin on 11 June 2008. In April 2009, he was named in the preliminary 25-man squad to represent

in the opening State of Origin match for 2009. In the

2009 NRL season The 2009 NRL season was the 102nd season of professional rugby league football club competition in Australia, and the twelfth run by the National Rugby League. For the third consecutive year, sixteen teams competed for the 2009 Telstra Premiersh ...

, Harrison was part of the first Gold Coast team to reach the finals. Harrison played in both finals matches against the

and

Parramatta Parramatta (; ) is a suburb (Australia), suburb and major commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney. Parramatta is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, on the banks of the Parramatta River. It is co ...

. The following year, Harrison was a member of the Gold Coast side which enjoyed their best season on the field as they eventually reached the preliminary final before being defeated by Harrison's old club the

. In the

2011 NRL season The 2011 NRL season was the 104th season of professional rugby league football club competition in Australia, and the fourteenth and last run by the National Rugby League's partnership committee of the Australian Rugby League and News Ltd. The ...

, Harrison was limited to only 13 games as the Gold Coast finished last on the table and claimed the wooden spoon. Harrison was only selected for Game I of the 2013 State of Origin series in which

extended their record for consecutive series victories to eight. On 27 June 2014, he confirmed his retirement earlier than he wanted due to a neck injury.

Footnotes

External links

NRL profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, Ashley 1981 births Living people Australian rugby league players Brisbane Broncos players Gold Coast Titans players Queensland Rugby League State of Origin players NRL All Stars players Prime Minister's XIII players Rugby league locks Rugby league five-eighths Rugby league players from Brisbane South Sydney Rabbitohs players South Sydney Rabbitohs captains Sydney Roosters players People educated at Wavell State High School 21st-century Australian sportsmen