Sam Thaiday (born 12 June 1985 in Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australian, with a proud Torres Strait Islands background; he is a professional rugby league player. He plays for the Brisbane Broncos in the National Rugby League competition. His favoured position is the Second Row but he has played Prop and Lock on numerous occasions in his career.

Career

Sam Thaiday was born in Sydney, but later moved to Queensland. He made his debut for the Brisbane Broncos against the Canterbury Bulldogs in Round 18 of the 2003 season, at the age of 18. He had played just 10 games before 2005, and in 2005 he still only played 14 games.

It wasn't until 2006 that Sam Thaiday's career, still at a young age of 20, started to lift. Solid form in the first 10 weeks of the Broncos season earned him a spot on the Queensland bench for Game I of the 2006 Origin series. He was also selected on the bench for the following 2 games for the Maroons, who went on to win the series. After that, when the Broncos were in the "slump that wasn't a slump", coach Wayne Bennett moved Thaiday from the bench to the starting side. This, among other changes, saw the Broncos' season turn around, and they ended up winning the premiership.

Thaiday was selected for the Australian Tri-Nations team in 2006 and made his international debut in Game 2 against New Zealand after concussion ruled Willie Mason out.

In the 2007 NRL season Thaiday suffered an injury to the bone around his eye socket and missed all three games of the State of Origin series for the Queensland Maroons while waiting to recover. Thaiday made his 50th First Grade Appearance in the NRL in 2007 and re-signed with the Brisbane Broncos until the end of 2009.

In the 2008 NRL season Sam was back in form and started the year on a bang winning back to back man of the match awards in round 8 and 9 to earn himself a starting spot in the 2008 State Of Origin series.

He has been named in the Australia training squad for the 2008 Rugby League World Cup.^[1]

On 15 September 2008, a 24 year old women lodged a formal complaint about a sexual assault two days earlier. The people alledged to be at the centre of the incident were Hunt and Brisbane Broncos team mates Darius Boyd and Karmichael Hunt. The alledged players are co-operating with police and the outcome is likely to be known by the end of October. It is unknown what consequences Thaiday will face in terms of his future at the Broncos who have had a strict policy on off-field behaviour.^[2][3]

Career highlights

• 3 state of origin for Queensland
• Junior Club: Townsville Brothers
• Schoolboys: Kirwan State High School
• First Grade Debut: Round 18, Brisbane v. Bulldogs at Suncorp, 11 July 2003
• First Grade Record: 44 appearances scoring 3 tries
• Australia selection Tri-Nations 2006
• Australian debut, Game 2 Tri-Nations

References

External links