Ben Roarty (born 5 February 1975) 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 in the 1990s and 2000s. He played for the

Melbourne Storm The Melbourne Storm is a rugby league football club based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia that participates in the National Rugby League (NRL). The club plays its home games at AAMI Park, and wears a purple and navy blu ...

Penrith Panthers The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Greater Western Sydney suburb of Penrith, New South Wales, Penrith that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL). The team is based west of the cen ...

Huddersfield Giants The Huddersfield Giants are an English professional rugby league club from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. Huddersfield play their home games at the John Smiths Stadium and compete in Super League, the top tier of British rugby league sy ...

and the

Castleford Tigers The Castleford Tigers are a professional rugby league club in Castleford, West Yorkshire, England. They play their home games at Wheldon Road (currently known as the Mend-A-Hose Jungle for sponsorship reasons) and compete in the Super League, t ...

, as a or .

Early life

Started playing rugby league with St Christophers Junior Rugby League Club at age five, later playing junior representative games for

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

Playing career

Roarty played reserve grade football for

, winning the reserve grade player of the year in 1996. While with Canterbury, he was a member of Canterbury's reserve grade premiership team, but missed the grand final due to injury. Signed by

, Roarty played in their first game on 14 March 1998, winning against

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 13 December 1980, they were the ...

, 14–12. That year he was named the club's rookie of the year. In 1999, Roarty started on 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 seas ...

between Melbourne and

St. George Illawarra Dragons The St. George Illawarra Dragons are an Australian professional rugby league football club, representing both the Illawarra and St George regions of New South Wales. The club has competed in the National Rugby League (NRL) since 1999 after a j ...

. Roarty scored a try in the match and Melbourne won the game, 20–18. Seeking a regular first-grade starting position, Roarty joined the Penrith Panthers in 2002 but he was again primarily used as an interchange player. After being offered a place at the

in the

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

, Penrith granted Roarty a release and he left the Panthers half-way into their 2003 premiership winning season. In 2007, Roarty became the head coach of the Sunbury United Tigers first-grade team in the

Victorian Rugby League NRL Victoria (abbreviated as NRLVic, and formerly the Victorian Rugby League) is responsible for administering the game of rugby league in Victoria, Australia. Victoria is an Affiliated State of the overall Australian governing body the National ...

competition. In 2009, Roarty linked up as a player with the Hay Magpies Rugby League Club in Group 20 of the NSW Country Rugby League. He also won a reserve grade premiership with Hay, which was their first ever premiership in any grade since joining Group 20 in 2007.

Post playing

Since 2009, he has owned a strawberry farm north of Echuca. He is the head of Charity organisation ''Camp 4 Cancer''; the biggest donator of Peter Mac institute.

Footnotes

References

External links

Ben Roarty at ''NRL Stats''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roarty, Ben 1975 births Living people Australian rugby league players Castleford Tigers players Huddersfield Giants players Melbourne Storm players Penrith Panthers players Rugby league players from Sydney Rugby league props Rugby league second-rows