Luke Branighan (born 29 June 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 in the 2000s. He played 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

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 ...

and

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in the Sutherland Shire of Southern Sydney, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. Cronulla compete in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australasia's premier rugb ...

, primarily as a . He is the nephew of both Ray Branighan and son of Arthur Branighan.

Career

Branighan made his debut with St George Illawarra halfway through 2000. He remained in the first-grade team for the rest of the season, playing in the halves with

Trent Barrett Trent Barrett (born 18 November 1977) is an Australian professional rugby league football coach who is currently the assistant coach of the Brisbane Broncos and a former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s, 2000s and 2 ...

. He joined the Sharks in 2001, but made only one further

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 ...

appearance. While playing for

NSW Cup The NSW Cup, currently known as the Knock-On Effect NSW Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a rugby league competition for clubs in New South Wales. The competition has a history dating back to the NSWRFL's origins in 1908, starting off as a reserve ...

side

Balmain Tigers The Balmain Tigers (also known as the Sydney Tigers from 1995 to 1996) are a rugby league club based in the inner-western Sydney suburb of Balmain, New South Wales, Balmain. They were a founding member of the New South Wales Rugby League and on ...

in 2005, Branighan was selected to tour with the Malta Knights. In 2009 he played for the Gateshead Thunder and in 2010 he played for Halifax in the

Co-operative Championship The Rugby Football League Championship, (known as the Betfred Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the second highest division of rugby league in Britain (with one team in the league also being based in France) after the Super League. Intr ...

. Returning to Australia, Branighan played for

Mounties The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; , GRC) is the Law enforcement in Canada, national police service of Canada. The RCMP is an agency of the Government of Canada; it also provides police services under contract to 11 Provinces and terri ...

in the Bundaberg Red Cup in 2011. In 2012, he became captain-coach of the Young Cherrypickers in the

Group 9 Group 9 may refer to: * Group 9 element * Group 9 Rugby League *"Group 9", Australian arts collective, whose members included John Dowie {{disambig