Luke Ricketson (born 5 February 1973) 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. An

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

and

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

international, and

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 ...

State of Origin representative back-row forward, he played his entire club football career for 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 ...

of 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 ...

(NRL).

Early life

Ricketson was born in

Forster, New South Wales Forster is a coastal town in the Mid North Coast, New South Wales, Mid North Coast region of New South Wales, on country of the Worimi, Worimi People, Australia, in the Mid-Coast Council Local government in Australia, LGA, about 308 km nort ...

, Australia. Son of former Easts player, Doug Ricketson. He started playing junior rugby league at the age of seven for Bondi United in 1980. He was then graded with Eastern Suburbs as a local junior, debuting in first grade in round 22 of 1991 season.

Playing career

Ricketson made his first grade debut for Eastern Suburbs in round 22 of the

1991 NSWRL season The 1991 NSWRL season was the eighty-fourth season of professional rugby league football in Australia. This year the New South Wales Rugby League experimented with a Draft (sports), draft system for the first time. Sixteen clubs competed for th ...

against Penrith which ended in a 42-8 loss. Ricketson was one of the ever present players at Eastern Suburbs during a tough period in the clubs history where they continually missed out on the finals. Ricketson started out his First Grade career as a , and gradually moved closer to the action in the middle of the field as his career went on, generally playing in the centres until he was moved into the second row in

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

. Ricketson played 14 games for the club in 1996 as they qualified for the finals. It was their first finals appearance since 1987. The club would subsequently qualify for the finals in 1997, 1998 and 1999. Ricketson played at

lock Lock(s) or Locked may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainme ...

for the Sydney Roosters in their 2000 NRL Grand Final loss to 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 ...

. In 2002, Ricketson broke the record held by Roosters club legend

Kevin Hastings Kevin "Horrie" Hastings (born 5 January 1957) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a and during the 1970s and 1980s. Hastings played for the Eastern Suburbs in the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL), ...

(217) for the most club appearances. In 2014, Ricketson's eventual 301 caps, achieved upon his retirement in 2005 was overtaken by

Anthony Minichiello Anthony Minichiello (born 24 May 1980) is a former professional rugby league footballer who captained the Sydney Roosters in the National Rugby League, and retired having set records for most games and most tries in the club's history. An Austr ...

(302). This record was subsequently surpassed by

Mitchell Aubusson Mitchell Aubusson (born 1 October 1987) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a and , spending his entire career with the Sydney Roosters in the National Rugby League (NRL). He won three NRL premierships w ...

(306) in 2020 and

Jared Waerea-Hargreaves Jared Waerea-Hargreaves (born 20 January 1989) is a New Zealand professional rugby league footballer who plays as a for Hull KR in the Super League and New Zealand at international level. Waerea-Hargreaves started his NRL career at the Manly ...

in 2024. Ricketson played for the Sydney Roosters at lock forward in their

2002 NRL Grand Final The 2002 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the 2002 NRL season. It took place on Sunday, 6 October 2002, at Sydney's Telstra Stadium. 80,130 people saw the Sydney Roosters beat the New Zealand Warriors 30–8. ...

victory 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 ...

. Having won the

2002 NRL Premiership The 2002 NRL season was the 95th season of professional rugby league football in Australia and the fifth to be run by the National Rugby League. The season was affected by the competition-leading Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs' salary cap breach f ...

, the Sydney Roosters traveled to England to play the

2003 World Club Challenge The 2003 World Club Challenge match was contested on Sunday, 16 February by National Rugby League season 2002 premiers, the Sydney Roosters and Super League VII premiers, St Helens R.F.C., St. Helens. 19,807 spectators turned out at Bolton's Reebo ...

against

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 ...

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 ...

Ricketson played at lock forward in Sydney's victory. In the

2003 NRL grand final The 2003 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding match of the 2003 NRL season. In what was a contest of Sydney's east versus west, defending premiers the Sydney Roosters played against minor premiers the Penrith Panthers. T ...

, he played at lock forward for the Sydney Roosters in their loss to Penrith. Ricketson missed the 2004 NRL grand final due to suspension. Ricketson retired from rugby league after the

2005 NRL season The 2005 NRL season was the 98th season of professional rugby league football in Australia and the eighth run by the National Rugby League. The lineup of clubs remained unchanged from the previous year, with fifteen teams contesting the 2005 Tels ...

having played 301 games for the Sydney Roosters, the last season as captain. He played his 300th (and penultimate) game in round 25, 2005, against the

Suncorp Stadium Brisbane Stadium (Lang Park), currently known as Suncorp Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium in the suburb of Milton, Queensland, Milton, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Nicknamed The Cauldron, it is a three-tiered rect ...

; the Sydney Roosters marked the milestone by winning the match 17–10.

Representative career

In 1996, Ricketson was first picked for

City Origin The Sydney Rugby League team, known as the City Rugby League team, or Sydney Firsts, or Sydney Capitals, is a representative rugby league team. From 2021, the men's team is to consist of players selected from the New South Wales Rugby League Ro ...

. He played again for City in 1997 but had to wait until 1999 to make his State of Origin début for

NSW New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a state on the east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria to the south, and South Australia to the west. Its coast borders the Coral and Tasman Seas to the east. T ...

, coming off the bench in all three games. He made his international début when he played four games for

at the

2000 Rugby League World Cup The 2000 Rugby League World Cup was the twelfth Rugby League World Cup, World Cup for men’s national rugby league teams, held between 28 October and 25 November and hosted between the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Ireland and France. ...

. Ricketson made his début for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

in 2003 playing in two tests at

against New Zealand. After that he was selected to go on the 2003 Kangaroo tour, on which he played all three tests against

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

as Australia retained

The Ashes The Ashes is a Test cricket series played biennially between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, '' The Sporting Times'', immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, ...

winning all three games. Ricketson scored two tries in the last test at the

McAlpine Stadium MacAlpine, McAlpine, MacAlpin or McAlpin is a Scottish surname. It may refer to: People * The Scottish House of Alpin * Its claimed descendants, the Siol Alpin and/or Clan McAlpin(e) * Kenneth MacAlpin, founder of said dynasty * His brother and ...

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confl ...

Post playing

He appeared on the fourth series on the Australian version of

Dancing with the Stars ''Strictly Come Dancing (widely known as Dancing with the Stars)'' is an international television franchise based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing,'' itself a successor to the show ''Come Dancing'' (1950–1998) ...

Personal life

Ricketson is married to journalist Kate Waterhouse who is the daughter of horse trainer

Gai Waterhouse Gabriel Marie "Gai" Waterhouse (née Smith; born 2 September 1954) is an Australian horse trainer and businesswoman. The daughter of Tommy J. Smith, a leading trainer of Thoroughbred racehorses, Waterhouse was born and raised in Sydney. After ...

. They have 2 children.

References

External links

NRL profile
*(archived by web.archive.org
State of Origin Official website Rugby League Player Stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ricketson, Luke 1973 births Living people Australia national rugby league team players Australian people of Irish descent Australian rugby league players Ireland national rugby league team players Irish rugby league players New South Wales City Origin rugby league team players New South Wales Rugby League State of Origin players Prime Minister's XIII captains Prime Minister's XIII players Rugby league locks Rugby league players from New South Wales Rugby league second-rows Sydney Roosters players Sydney Roosters captains People from Forster, New South Wales