David Barnhill (born 8 June 1969) is a former Ireland international

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 Second row forward in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. His club career was with 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 Rugb ...

St. George Dragons The St. George Dragons are an Australian rugby league, rugby league football club from the St George, Sydney, St George District in Sydney, New South Wales that played in the top level New South Wales Rugby League, New South Wales competition ...

, Sydney City and the

Leeds Rhinos The Leeds Rhinos are a professional rugby league club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The club play their home games at Headingley Rugby Stadium, AMT Headingley Rugby Stadium and compete in the Super League, the top tier of British rugby lea ...

Background

Barnhill was born in

Wagga Wagga Wagga Wagga (; informally called Wagga) is a major regional city in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, with an urban population of more than 57,003 as of 2021, it is an important agricultural, m ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia. He was employed as a PE teacher at Kaleen high school in Canberra.

Club career

A Canberra junior, Barnhill made his first grade début with the Raiders late in the 1989 season as a replacement in a match against the

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 ...

. He became a more regular first grader the following year, primarily used off the interchange bench and was a member of the Raiders' victorious 1990 Grand Final side. By 1991 he was first grade regular and appeared in all 26 Canberra season and finals matches that year. Barnhill joined the

in 1992 and was in the run-on side in 25 of the club's 26 appearances that season. He was a member of Saints' Grand Final sides which lost to

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 ...

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

and

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

and was still with the club for the ARL Grand Final of 1996 when he came on as an early replacement for Kevin Campion. In 1997 Barnhill joined the

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 ...

and spent three years with the club where he mainly played in the Front row. The Roosters were serious Finals contenders in each of those years. All up Barnhill took part in five first grade

Grand final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final 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. Synonymous with a championship game in North Ameri ...

s (four of them in consecutive years) but with only one victory – his first appearance with Canberra in

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

. In ten of his twelve years of Australian first grade appearances Barnhill played in the Finals – exceptions being 1989 and 1994. In 2000 Barnhill finished his playing career in a season with the

. He cut short his two-year contract with Leeds at the end of 2000 and returned to Australia.

Representative career

Barnhill first represented for the New South Wales Blues in State of Origin off the interchange bench in game I of 1994 and he appeared in all three games of that series. The following year he appeared in games II and III and he entered Origin folklore when footage of the all-in brawl of game II showed him standing and slugging it out blow for blow with Queensland's Billy Moore long after the rest of the melee had calmed down. Following a two-year representative absence Barnhill returned to the Origin arena in 1998 and played in all three games. The last match of his nine match Origin career was game I of 1999. Barnhill represented Ireland in the 2000

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

Post playing

After retiring as a player Barnhill returned to Australia to take-up a position as defensive coach with the

ACT Brumbies The ACT Brumbies (known from 2005 to 2022 as simply the Brumbies) is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), The team competes in Super Rugby and named for the brumby, feral horses wh ...

rugby union club in 2001. In 2002 he was appointed as Assistant Coach to Nathan Brown at

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 ...

. In 2005 he relocated to his home town of

where he manages a hotel. He is the son of the former general manager of the

Country Rugby League The Country Rugby League of New South Wales (CRL), formed in 1934 and disbanded in 2019, was the governing body for the sport of rugby league football in areas of New South Wales outside the Sydney, Sydney metropolitan area until it merged with ...

, David Barnhill, snr. In 2013 he coached the New South Wales Country Residents on a tour of South Africa.Government to recognise South African rugby league's status
''smh.com.au'', 20 October 2013

References

External links

Profile at leedsrugby
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnhill, David 1969 births Living people Australian people of Ulster-Scottish descent Australian rugby league coaches Australian rugby league players Canberra Raiders players Country New South Wales Origin rugby league team players Ireland national rugby league team players Irish rugby league players Leeds Rhinos players New South Wales Rugby League State of Origin players Rugby league players from Wagga Wagga Rugby league second-rows St. George Dragons players Sydney Roosters players 20th-century Australian sportsmen