Michael Bolt (born 6 February 1961) 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 1980s and 1990s. He played in the

NSWRL Premiership The New South Wales Rugby League premiership was the first rugby league football club competition established in Australia and contributor to today's National Rugby League. Run by the New South Wales Rugby League (initially named the New Sout ...

for the

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 ...

, as a . Bolt was the first Illawarra player to take the field as captain of the club's inaugural third-grade team in 1982Middleton, David (editor); ''Rugby League 1990–91'', p. 121 after having been recruited from Wollongong's Collegians club. However, when first-choice rake Barry Jensen suffered a neck injury, Bolt took over as first-grade hooker ahead of expected replacement Sean O‘Connor, and he became the Steelers' permanent top rake when a recurrence of Jensen's neck injury caused his retirement in July of that season. Bolt seized his opportunity so well that he would be the Illawarra "player of the year" in 1983, playing every game in the process. In 1984 Bolt would again play every first grade game for Illawarra, represent City Firsts and be regarded by observers as "one of the wiliest hookers in the competition". However, in the

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pre-season Bolt was unexpectedly overtaken by long-serving understudy Sean O‘Connor, and was dropped to reserve grade for the first half of what would prove a disastrous season for Illawarra. Bolt would, however, regain his first grade berth over O‘Connor before the season ended and would keep a firm grip on it during the three ensuing seasons, by which time Bolt was accumulating exceptional records for durability: at the end of

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he had played 122 consecutive grade games for the Steelers without missing one, and was Illawarra's "player of the year" for a second time. In 1989, however, Bolt lost his first-grade place to North-Queensland-bred rookie Dean Schifilliti, whose impressive performances for a consistently beaten team meant that Bolt would achieve his milestones for durability that season (his 150th consecutive grade game against Cronulla at the end of April) and

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(171 consecutive grade games, again against Cronulla) in reserve grade. When he retired at the end of 1990, Bolt had played in 187 consecutive grade matches, a then record in the

,Middleton (editor); ''Rugby League 1990–91'', p. 104 and was the Steelers' final foundation player remaining with the club.

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External sources

* 1961 births Living people Australian rugby league players Illawarra Steelers players Rugby league hookers Rugby league players from Wollongong 20th-century Australian sportsmen {{Australia-rugbyleague-bio-1960s-stub