Michael Vella is an Australian former professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer who played in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. A

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

State of Origin A State of Origin competition is a type of sporting event between players representing their state or territory. State of Origin began in Australian rules football on 8 October 1977 between Western Australia (WA) and Victoria, at Subiaco O ...

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

NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

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. The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, and thei ...

, and in the

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of ...

for

Hull Kingston Rovers Hull Kingston Rovers are a professional rugby league club based in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England, that competes in the Super League, the top tier of British rugby league. The club has won five league championships, and one Challenge ...

, 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 northern part has been ...

in Round 11 1998 at

Willows Sports Complex The Willows Sports Complex, currently known as 1300SMILES Stadium through sponsorship, is a grass football stadium situated in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. It has been a predominantly rugby league ground as the home ground of the North Q ...

. 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 State of Origin series, annual three-game series between the Queensland rugby league team, Queensland and New South Wales rugby league team, New South Wales representative rugby league foo ...

. 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 The 1999 Rugby League Tri-Nations series was contested by Australia, Great Britain and New Zealand in 1999. It was the first multi-national rugby league tournament to feature the sport's three world powers since the 1989–92 World Cup (the 19 ...

tournament. After that he represented Australia during their successful 2000 World Cup campaign and the following year went on the 2001 Kangaroo Tour. 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 club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. They compete in Australasia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. Playing in red and blue, th ...

. 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 Australian rugby league players Australian people of Maltese descent Australian expatriate sportspeople 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