Semi Valemei (born 20 January 1999) is a Fijian 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 plays as a er for the

Canberra Raiders The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby ...

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 ...

and Fiji at international level.

Background

Born in

Labasa Labasa (pronounced ) is a town in Fiji with a population of 27,949 at the most recent census held in 2007. Labasa is located in Macuata Province, in the north-eastern part of the island of Vanua Levu, and is the largest town on the island. Th ...

, Fiji, Valemei attended Seaqaqa Central College and

Natabua High School Natabua High School is a co-educational school based in Lautoka, Fiji. It is one of the biggest schools in the Pacific with a total student number of 1200. The school was founded in 1930 as a boarding school for boys and was moved to its present ...

, where he played

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

. In 2017, he was scouted by former

player

Wise Kativerata Wise Kativerata is a Fijian professional rugby league coach who is the head coach of Fiji and a former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s for the Fiji national rugby league team. He played as a for the St. George ...

and moved to Australia to play

. He moved to the

Sunshine Coast, Queensland The Sunshine Coast is a peri-urban region in South East Queensland, Australia. It is the district defined in 1967 as "the area contained in the Shires of Landsborough, Maroochy and Noosa, but excluding Bribie Island". Located north of the ce ...

, playing for the Caloundra Sharks before being signed by the

Playing career

In 2018, Valemei played for the Raiders'

Jersey Flegg Cup The Jersey Flegg Cup is a junior rugby league competition played in New South Wales, contested among teams made up of players aged 21 or under. The competition is administered by the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL), and is named for East ...

feeder side,

Mounties The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal and national police service of Canada. As poli ...

. In 2019, he played for Mounties in the

New South Wales 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 ...

and for the Raiders in the Jersey Flegg Cup, scoring a hat-trick in their Grand Final loss to 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 October 2019, he represented Fiji at the

2019 Rugby League World Cup 9s The 2019 Rugby League World Cup 9s was the first staging of the Rugby League World Cup 9s tournament and took place on 18 and 19 October 2019 at Sydney's Bankwest Stadium. The tournament featured teams from 12 International Rugby League membe ...

2020

In Round 10 of the

2020 NRL season The 2020 NRL season was the 113th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 23rd season run by the National Rugby League. Teams The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 14th consecutive year. ; Notes : : : Pre-season ...

, Valemei was named to make his NRL debut against the

Sydney Roosters The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional Rugby league, Rugby League Football Club based in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) and parts of inner Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The Roosters have won ...

. He played in all three of Canberra's finals matches including the preliminary final defeat to Melbourne. He played a total of ten games in his debut season.

2021

Valemei made 11 appearances for Canberra in the

2021 NRL season The 2021 NRL season was the 114th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 24th season run by the National Rugby League. Teams The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 15th consecutive year. Regular season Ladd ...

which saw the club finish 10th on the table and miss out on the finals.

References

External links

Canberra Raiders profileNRL profileFiji profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Valemei, Semi 1999 births Living people Canberra Raiders players Fiji national rugby league team players Fijian rugby league players Mount Pritchard Mounties players Rugby league wingers People from Labasa