Shaun Valentine (born 13 April 1976) is an Australian former

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 for the

North Queensland Cowboys The North Queensland Cowboys is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, the largest town in North Queensland. They compete in Australia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL). Sinc ...

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 ...

. He primarily played or .

Playing career

A Brisbane Brothers junior, Valentine played for the

Wests Panthers The Western Suburbs Panthers, often simply referred to as Wests for short, are a rugby league club based in the western suburbs of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The club is the oldest in the QRL and despite absences from the top grade in rec ...

in the

Queensland Cup The Queensland Cup, currently known as the Hostplus Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the highest-level regional rugby league football competition in Queensland, Australia. It is run by the Queensland Rugby League (QRL) and is contested by fo ...

from 1996 to 1999. In 1998, he started at centre in the Panthers'

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

loss to the

Norths Devils The Northern Suburbs Devils, or North Brisbane Devils, or often simply referred to as Norths for short, are a rugby league club representing the northern suburbs of Brisbane, Australia. The team colours are sky blue, navy blue and gold. They p ...

. In 1999, due to a partnership between the Panthers and

, Valentine joined the NRL club. That year he was selected to represent the

Queensland Residents The Queensland Residents rugby league team is a representative rugby league team consisting of players who compete in the Intrust Super Cup (Queensland Cup) competition. They currently play an annual fixture against NSW Cup Representative Team ...

side. In Round 14 of the

1999 NRL season The 1999 NRL season was the 92nd season of professional rugby league football in Australia, and the second to be run by the National Rugby League. With the exclusion of the Adelaide Rams and Gold Coast Chargers, and the joint venture of the S ...

, Valentine made his NRL debut in the Cowboys' 8–22 loss to the

Cronulla Sharks The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Cronulla, in the Sutherland Shire, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. They compete in the National Rugby League ( NRL), Australasia's premier rugby leagu ...

at Dairy Farmers Stadium. In Round of 17 of the 1999 season, he scored his first NRL try in the Cowboys' 32–18 win over the

Sydney City Roosters The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional 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 fifteen New S ...

. Despite joining the club as a , Valentine transitioned into the forwards at the Cowboys, starting at and eventually moving to . In

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, Valentine played 18 NRL games, the most he would play in a season. Valentine suffered a number of

concussion A concussion, also known as a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), is a head injury that temporarily affects brain functioning. Symptoms may include loss of consciousness (LOC); memory loss; headaches; difficulty with thinking, concentratio ...

s during his career, playing just 10 games over the next seasons. He was released by the Cowboys at the end of the 2002 season and subsequently retired.

Statistics

NRL

: ''Statistics are correct to the end of the 2002 season''

Post-playing career

In 2011, Valentine, who suffered seven concussions in an 18-month period during his career, agreed to donate his brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original c ...

after meeting with the foundation's co-founder Chris Nowinski.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Valentine, Shaun 1976 births Living people Australian rugby league players North Queensland Cowboys players Rugby league players from Brisbane Rugby league props Rugby league second-rows Wests Panthers players