Brent Kite (born 7 March 1981) is a 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 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. A

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

international, and

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 ...

State of Origin A State of Origin competition is a type of sporting event between players representing their state or territory. State of Origin began in Australian rules football on 8 October 1977 between Western Australia (WA) and Victoria, at Subiaco Oval ...

representative front-row forward, he played club football 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 regions of New South Wales. The club has competed in the National Rugby League since 1999 after a joint-ve ...

Manly Warringah Sea Eagles The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. The team colours are maroon and white, while their namesake and logo is the sea eagle. They compete in Australia's premier rugb ...

and

Penrith Panthers The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the western Sydney suburb of Penrith that competes in the NRL. The team is based west of the centre of Sydney, at the foot of the Blue Mountains. Penrith ...

. Kite was named the

Clive Churchill Clive Bernard Churchill AM (21 January 1927 – 9 August 1985) was an Australian professional rugby league footballer and coach in the mid-20th century. An Australian international and New South Wales and Queensland interstate representative ...

Medallist for his performance in the 2008 NRL Grand Final, in which he helped steer Manly-Warringah to a 40–0 thumping of the

Melbourne Storm The Melbourne Storm are a rugby league club based in Melbourne, Victoria in Australia that participates in the National Rugby League. The first fully professional rugby league team based in the state, the Storm entered the competition in 1998. ...

, scoring a try.

Background

He was born in

Queanbeyan Queanbeyan ( ) is a city in the south-eastern region of New South Wales, Australia, located adjacent to the Australian Capital Territory in the Southern Tablelands region. Located on the Queanbeyan River, the city is the council seat of the ...

New South Wales, Australia ) , 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 ...

. Kite is of Tongan descent.

Early career

And played junior football with the

Queanbeyan Blues Queanbeyan Blues United Rugby League Club is an Australian rugby league football club based in Queanbeyan, New South Wales formed in the late 1920s. They conduct teams for both junior and senior teams. Notable Juniors * Johnny Hawke (1949-52 S ...

. He represented 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 ...

side their tour of New Zealand in 1998. He spent three years with 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 ...

' lower grades sides following his graduation from Erindale College.

Professional playing career

In late 2000 he travelled to Europe to play for the

Tonga national rugby league team The Tonga national rugby league team ( to, timi līki ʻakapulu fakafonua ʻa Tonga) represents Tonga in rugby league football. They are currently the second ranked team in the world. The team was formed to compete in the 1986 Pacific Cup, an ...

alongside

Willie Mason Viliami William Marshall Mason (born 15 April 1980), also nicknamed "Big Willie", is a former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. An Australia and Tonga international and New South Wales State of Origin rep ...

in the 2000 World Cup tournament.

St George Illawarra Dragons

Kite made his NRL debut for the St George Illawarra Dragons against the

Cronulla-Sutherland 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 league ...

Aussie Stadium The Sydney Football Stadium, commercially known as Allianz Stadium and previously Aussie Stadium, was a football stadium in Moore Park, Sydney, Australia. Built in 1988 next to the Sydney Cricket Ground, the stadium was Sydney's premier recta ...

on 17 March 2002. Kite moved from the into the front-row following injuries at

St George Saint George (Greek language, Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin language, Latin: Georgius, Arabic language, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christians, Christian who is venerated as a sa ...

in early 2004. After showing good form in early 2004, Kite was selected for the

Country Origin The Country New South Wales rugby league team is a representative rugby league football team. Between 1987 and 2017 there were two tiers: the Origin team that consisted of professional players who originated from clubs of the Country Rugby Leagu ...

side. Kite was also selected to represent

, playing all three games in the

2004 State of Origin series The 2004 State of Origin series was the 23rd time that the annual three-game series between the Queensland and New South Wales representative rugby league football teams was contested entirely under 'state of origin' selection rules. A pre-serie ...

. Kite left the

Dragons A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

at the end of the 2004 NRL season with both parties citing salary cap constraints as the reason for his move to the

Manly Sea Eagles The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. The team colours are maroon and white, while their namesake and logo is the sea eagle. They compete in Australia's premier rugb ...

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles

Kite moved to

Brookvale Oval Brookvale Oval (also known by the commercial sponsorship name 4 Pines Park) is a sporting ground located within Brookvale Park at Brookvale, New South Wales, Australia. The ground is owned by Northern Beaches Council and is primarily used by th ...

for the

2005 NRL season The 2005 NRL season was the 98th season of professional rugby league football in Australia and the eighth run by the National Rugby League. The lineup of clubs remained unchanged from the previous year, with fifteen teams contesting the 2005 Telst ...

, with Manly beating off the likes of

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

for his signature. Kite was recalled to the Blues side for the 2006 State of Origin series, where he played the first two games. Kite was also selected to play at international level for

, where he played in the

2006 Tri-Nations The 2006 Rugby League Tri-Nations (also known as the Gillette Rugby League Tri-Nations due to sponsorship by Gillette) was the second Rugby League Tri-Nations tournament hosted by Australia and New Zealand. The tournament followed the same format ...

series off the bench. Kite was selected to play for the Australian national team at prop forward in the 2007 ANZAC Test victory against New Zealand. Kite played all three games of the

2007 State of Origin series The 2007 State of Origin series was the 26th year that the annual best-of-three series of interstate rugby league football matches between the Queensland and New South Wales representative teams was contested entirely under 'state of origin' sel ...

. Kite played in the 2007 NRL Grand Final defeat by the

. Kite was selected for the Centenary Test against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

at the

Sydney Cricket Ground The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in Sydney, Australia. It is used for Test cricket, Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as, Australian rules football and occasionally for rugby league, rugby union and as ...

. Kite was controversially not selected for any game of the 2008 State of Origin series. Brent Kite Wave 2008

He played for Manly in the 2008 NRL Grand Final, again against Melbourne. His powerhouse display which included a try in the 59th minute helped Manly to decimate the defending premiers 40–0. For his effort, Kite was awarded the

Clive Churchill Medal The Clive Churchill Medal is the award given to the player judged to be man-of-the-match in the National Rugby League's annual Grand Final. The award was created to honour Clive Churchill, one of the greatest rugby league players in Australian ...

as man-of-the-match. Kite was named in the Tonga training squad for the

2008 Rugby League World Cup The 2008 Rugby League World Cup was the thirteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup since its inauguration in 1954, and the first since the 2000 tournament. The tournament was held in Australia from 26 October, culminating in the final b ...

. In August 2008, Kite was named in the Australia train-on squad for the

, and in October 2008 he was selected in the final 24-man

squad. In May 2009, Kite was named in the 17-man squad to represent

in the opening

match on 3 June 2009, in Melbourne. He was selected for

in the one-off test match against

on 8 May 2009. In 2011, Kite won his second premiership with Manly as they defeated the

New Zealand Warriors The New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as ...

in the 2011 NRL Grand Final. In April 2013, Kite captained

in their

Pacific Rugby League International The Pacific Rugby League International is a rugby league test match that has been played between two Pacific Island nations during the National Rugby League's annual representative weekend since 2013. The fixture was held at Penrith Stadium for ...

fixture against fierce Pacific rivals

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono Island, Manono an ...

. He led his team to demolish Samoa by 36–4. In October 2013, Kite once again captained Tonga, this time in their

2013 Rugby League World Cup The 2013 Rugby League World Cup was the fourteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup and took place in England, Wales, France and Ireland. between 26 October and 30 November 2013. It was the main event of the year's 2013 Festival of World ...

campaign. However, even though he was a great leader, Tonga could not advance past the group stage. He played in all 3 of Tonga's matches.

Penrith Panthers

Kite moved to the Panthers in the 2014 season. In his first season at Penrith, Kite was part of the side which reached the preliminary final after defeating Eastern Suburbs 19–18 in week one of the finals before being defeated by Canterbury the following week and missing out on a first grand final appearance since 2003. In 2015, Kite announced it would be his final year as a professional

footballer and retired at the end of the season.

Coaching career

In 2018, Kite coached the

Tweed Coast Raiders The Tweed Coast Raiders is an Australian rugby league club. It was formed in 1980 and currently field male and female teams in all junior grades of the Northern Rivers Regional Rugby League and Gold Coast Rugby League. The club is based at Les ...

to win a

Northern Rivers Regional Rugby League The Northern Rivers Regional Rugby League (NRRRL) is a rugby league competition run in the far north of New South Wales, Australia. It is run under the auspices of the Country Rugby League. The league formed in 2005 as an extended Group 1 Rugby L ...

premiership and the NSW Country Rugby League's

Clayton Cup The Clayton Cup is a trophy that was awarded by the Country Rugby League to the NSW country rugby league team with the best overall record for that season. To be eligible, the team must win the highest level of competition in its region. Usually t ...

References

External links

2015 Penrith Panthers profileManly Sea Eagles profileState of Origin Official website Rugby League Player Stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kite, Brett 1981 births Living people Australia national rugby league team players Australian people of Tongan descent Australian rugby league players Clive Churchill Medal winners Country New South Wales Origin rugby league team players Manly Warringah Sea Eagles captains Manly Warringah Sea Eagles players New South Wales Rugby League State of Origin players Penrith Panthers players Penrith Panthers captains Prime Minister's XIII players Rugby league players from Queanbeyan Rugby league props Rugby league second-rows St. George Illawarra Dragons players Tonga national rugby league team captains Tonga national rugby league team players