Reece Simmonds (born 7 January 1980) 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 2000s and 2010s. He was born in
Sydney, and played in the
National Rugby League
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 ...
(NRL) for the
St George Illawarra Dragons
The St. George Illawarra Dragons is an Australian professional rugby league football club, representing both the Illawarra and St George, Sydney, St George regions of New South Wales. The club has competed in the National Rugby League since NR ...
(2002–2006; 2011) and the
South Sydney Rabbitohs
The South Sydney Rabbitohs are a professional Australian rugby league club based in Redfern, New South Wales, Redfern, a suburb of inner-southern Sydney, New South Wales. They participate in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and are ...
(2007).
Playing career
An Eagle Vale St Andrews junior, Simmonds worked as a greyhound handler before he made his debut with St George Illawarra in the opening round of the 2002 season. He played 14 games at fullback in 2002 and 2003.
2004 was Simmonds best year. Switching to the he made 23 appearances and scored 14 tries.
However, the next two seasons with the Dragons were less successful.
In 2007, Simmonds joined the
South Sydney Rabbitohs
The South Sydney Rabbitohs are a professional Australian rugby league club based in Redfern, New South Wales, Redfern, a suburb of inner-southern Sydney, New South Wales. They participate in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and are ...
in the
National Rugby League
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 ...
competition, but played in just 7 games that season. At the end of the 2007 season, Simmonds played for South Sydney's feeder club side, the
North Sydney Bears
The North Sydney Bears is an Australian rugby league football club based in North Sydney, New South Wales. The club competes in the New South Wales Cup, having exited the National Rugby League following the 1999 NRL season after 90 years in the ...
in their
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 reserv ...
grand final against Parramatta at
Stadium Australia
Stadium Australia, currently known as Accor Stadium for sponsorship purposes, is a multi-purpose stadium located in the Sydney Olympic Park, in Sydney, Australia. The stadium, which in Australia is sometimes referred to as Sydney Olympic Sta ...
. Simmonds scored a try with 15 minutes left before
Joe Williams kicked a field goal with 3 minutes remaining to make the score 15–14. Norths then lost the grand final in the last 20 seconds of the game after Parramatta player
Weller Hauraki crossed over for the match winning try.
From 2008 to 2010, Simmonds worked as a coal-miner and played in the lower-tier based rugby league competitions, with Collegians in Wollongong and Wests Illawarra. He retired in 2010 after breaking his leg for a second time, but was persuaded to return to playing, winning a local premiership for Wests. He was also captain of Illawarra Division in the
NSW CRL Championships.
In 2011, Simmonds was called into the Dragons' NRL team to help compensate for nine players out due to injuries and
origin
Origin(s) or The Origin may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Comics and manga
* ''Origin'' (comics), a Wolverine comic book mini-series published by Marvel Comics in 2002
* ''The Origin'' (Buffy comic), a 1999 ''Buffy the Vampire Sl ...
commitments. He returned to retirement at the end of the season to coach the Wests Red Devils in the Illawarra League.
References
External links
NRL profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simmonds, Reece
1980 births
Australian rugby league players
St. George Illawarra Dragons players
South Sydney Rabbitohs players
North Sydney Bears NSW Cup players
Rugby league wingers
Rugby league fullbacks
Living people
Rugby league players from Sydney