Michael Vella 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, 2000s and 2010s. A

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 and Australian international representative forward, he played his club football in the

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 ...

for 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 ...

, and in the

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 ...

for

Hull Kingston Rovers Hull Kingston Rovers (often abbreviated to Hull KR) are a professional rugby league club based in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England. The club play home games at Craven Park, Hull, Craven Park and compete in Super League, the top tier of B ...

, who he also captained. In addition to representing Australia internationally, he has played for the Malta Knights as he is of Maltese descent.

Playing career

Vella made his first grade debut for Parramatta against

North Queensland North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its Tropical North Queensland, trop ...

in Round 11 1998 at

Willows Sports Complex The Willows Sports Complex (last known as 1300SMILES Stadium due to naming rights) was a grass football stadium situated in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. It was used predominantly as a rugby league ground as the home ground of the North Que ...

. Vella was selected to play from the interchange bench for

in Game II of the

1999 State of Origin series The 1999 State of Origin series saw the 18th year that the annual three-game series between the Queensland and New South Wales representative rugby league football teams was contested entirely under ' state of origin' selection rules. The series ...

. At club level, Vella was selected as the Dally M rookie of the year in 1999 and played 24 games for Parramatta as the club reached the preliminary final against Melbourne. Parramatta went into the break leading 16-0 but lost the match 18–16 at full time. At the end of the season he helped the Australian national team to victory in the final of the 1999 Tri-nations tournament. After that he represented Australia during their successful 2000 World Cup campaign and the following year went on the

2001 Kangaroo Tour The 2001 Kangaroo Tour was the Australia national rugby league team's nineteenth Kangaroo tour of Great Britain. The truncated tour featured only the three Ashes series Test matches against Great Britain. The 2001 tour was almost abandoned du ...

. Vella played for the

at prop forward in their 2001 NRL grand final loss to the

Newcastle Knights The Newcastle Knights are an Australian professional rugby league team based in Newcastle, New South Wales that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. Playing in red and blue, the Knights joined the top-tier competition in New ...

. In 2005, the rugby league world was shocked to learn Vella was fighting thyroid cancer. Vella returned to the field midway through the 2005 season and was part of the Parramatta side which won the minor premiership that year. Parramatta went into the 2005 finals series as one of the favourites to take out the premiership but suffered a shock 29–0 loss against North Queensland in the preliminary final. Vella played in the match from the bench. After time out of the game, he returned to the field for the Eels in 2006. Vella's final game for Parramatta was the 12-6 qualifying final loss against Melbourne. Vella then headed to England to play in the

for English club

where he was voted Players' Player of the Year in 2007. He also captained the club in his final year, 2011.

Post playing

Since his retirement, Vella has returned to Australia where he has owned a fitness business, worked in a variety of roles for the

, and is currently brand ambassador for the Parramatta Eels In 2016, Vella became a trainer at his junior club Cherrybrook.

References

External links

* (archived by web.archive.org
Hull Kingston Rovers ~ Captains
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vella, Michael 1978 births Living people People educated at Patrician Brothers' College, Fairfield Australian rugby league players Australian people of Maltese descent Australian expatriate rugby league players in England Australia national rugby league team players Hull Kingston Rovers captains Hull Kingston Rovers players Malta national rugby league team players New South Wales Rugby League State of Origin players Parramatta Eels players Rugby league props Rugby league players from Sydney