Geoff Bugden (born 6 September 1960) 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 1970s and 1980s. He played for Newtown and the

Parramatta Eels The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL). The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, and ...

in the Australian

New South Wales Rugby League The New South Wales Rugby League Ltd (NSWRL) is an Australian rugby league football competition operator in rugby league in New South Wales, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and is a member of the Australian Rugby League Co ...

competition. He won two premierships with the Eels and he primarily played in the front-row.

Playing career

A Newtown junior, by 1979 Bugden had progressed to first grade. He was the first ever prop to win the NSW Rugby League's best and fairest player award, the Rothmans Medal, in 1980. Bugden was a reserve for the Newtown Jets side that lost the 1981 Grand Final against the

. The next year, 1982, Geoff Bugden changed clubs and returned to the

Sydney Cricket Ground The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in the Moore Park, New South Wales, Moore Park suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is used for Test cricket, Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as, Australi ...

playing for Parramatta in their

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 ...

win over

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL). The Manly club debuted in the 1947 New South Wales Rugby Football League sea ...

. Bugden was selected to represent

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 ...

for games I and III of the 1983 State of Origin series. A serious injury to his chest in 1983 forced Bugden to announce his premature retirement from the game but two years later, he was back for Parramatta only to break his arm. In 1986 Bugden was on the field once more and was part of the Eels' 1986 Grand Final win over the

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 ...

, in which he played against his brother

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and earned himself five-minutes in the sin-bin for tackling Steve Mortimer without the ball. After a long career that was often curtailed by serious injury, Bugden did not start any of the last thirteen games of

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

but intended to stay with the Eels for the 1990 season. However, major ankle surgery in early March made it clear he would not be able to play the first half of that season,'Parramatta Axe Five Players'; ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...

'', 12 March 1990, p. 62 and when Parramatta became embroiled in a salary cap dispute over the contracts of Peter Sterling and Mark Laurie, Budgen was sacked by the Eels alongside Paul Taylor, Michael Moseley, Mark Robinson and Jeremy Ticehurst. Bugden was not wanted by any other Winfield Cup club and retired almost immediately.

References

1960 births Living people Australian rugby league players City New South Wales rugby league team players Newtown Jets players Parramatta Eels players New South Wales Rugby League State of Origin players Rugby league props Rugby league players from Sydney 20th-century Australian sportsmen {{Australia-rugbyleague-bio-1960s-stub