Brenden Santi (born 5 August 1993) is an

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

international

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 11 ...

footballer who plays as a or for the

Keighley Cougars The Keighley Cougars are a professional rugby league club from Keighley in West Yorkshire, England who compete in League 1, the third tier of English rugby league. Keighley's home ground, Cougar Park has a capacity of 7,800. History Early y ...

in the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

. He previously played for the

Wests Tigers The Wests Tigers are an Australian professional rugby league football team, based in the Inner West and South West Sydney. They have competed in the National Rugby League since being formed at the end of the 1999 NRL season as a joint-venture ...

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 ...

Background

Santi was born in

Bankstown, New South Wales, Australia Bankstown is a suburb south west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is 16 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district and is located in the local government area of the City of Canterbury-Bankstown, hav ...

and is of

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

descent. He played his junior rugby league for the

Chester Hill Hornets Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Local ...

before being signed by the

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the NRL Telstra Premiership, as well as competitions facilit ...

Playing career

In 2010, Santi was a part of the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs'

NYC New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

squad but didn't play a game. He joined the

and played for their NYC team from 2011 to 2013. During his initial period with the Wests Tigers, Santi captained the

Australian Schoolboys The Australian Schoolboys refer to junior teams that represent Australia in various sports. The name is mainly used in rugby league, rugby union and baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players ...

in 2011, and played in the Tigers' 2012 NYC Grand Final win over 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 ...

. He also played for the

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 ...

Under 20s team, winning the Players' Player award. At the end of 2013, Santi played for

at the 2013 Rugby League World Cup, playing three games from the bench. Santi signed a 2-year contract with 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 their ...

starting in 2014. Coach

Ricky Stuart Ricky John Stuart (born 7 January 1967) is an Australian professional rugby league football coach who is the head coach of the Canberra Raiders in the NRL and a former rugby league footballer who played as a in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. H ...

said, "Brenden ticks a lot of boxes in regards to the type of player we want to build our club around - no nonsense and tough with a high work rate." By the start of 2014, Stuart had been replaced as Eels coach by Brad Arthur. On 8 May 2014, Santi returned to the Wests Tigers mid-season on a contract to the end of 2015. Santi said, "I did what most young kids would do and left ests Tigersfor an opportunity. I wasn't filthy, because they had a lot of quality first graders in front of me. I got bought by Ricky Stuart, ut Brad Arthur had other plans at Parramatta. And I don't think I was in them." In Round 25 of the

2014 NRL season The 2014 NRL season was the 107th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 17th season of the National Rugby League in Australia and New Zealand. The season started in New Zealand, for the Auckland Nines, replacing the Rugby Leagu ...

, Santi made his

debut for the Tigers against the Canberra Raiders, in what was his only appearance for the season. Santi played in 10 games in 2015, all from the bench. He was not re-signed at the end of the season. In 2016, he joined the

Townsville Blackhawks The Townsville & Districts Blackhawks are an Australian semi-professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, Queensland. They compete in Queensland's top rugby league competition, the Queensland Cup. The club was admitted to the Que ...

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 fou ...

. At the end of the 2016 season, he joined the

Sydney 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 Ne ...

for 2017. In October, he represented

at the 2017 Rugby League World Cup. In 2018, Santi re-joined the

, after spending the entire 2017 season playing for the Roosters' feeder club, the

Wyong Roos The Wyong Rugby League Football Club are an Australian rugby league club based on the Central Coast of New South Wales. The club competed in the New South Wales Cup from 2013 to 2018 and still competes in the Central Coast Division Rugby Leagu ...

, 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 reserve ...

. On 21 December 2019, Santi signed for the

Newcastle Thunder The Newcastle Thunder are a professional rugby league club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. They play in the Betfred Championship competition, the second tier of rugby league in the United Kingdom. They play their home matches at Kings ...

for the 2020 League 1 season. On 30 October 2020 it was announced that Santi would join

for the 2021 season At the end of the 2021 season Santi signed a two year contract extension with Keighley tying him to the club until the end of the 2023 season. Santi was named in the Italian squad for the 2021 Rugby League World Cup.

References

External links

2017 RLWC profileItaly profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santi, Brenden 1993 births Living people Australian rugby league players Australian people of Italian descent Balmain Ryde-Eastwood Tigers players Keighley Cougars players Italy national rugby league team captains Italy national rugby league team players Newcastle Thunder players Rugby league locks Rugby league second-rows Rugby league players from Sydney Toulouse Olympique players Townsville Blackhawks players Wentworthville Magpies players Wests Tigers players Wyong Roos players