David Barnhill (born 8 June 1969) is a former Ireland 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 112 ...

footballer who played as a Second row forward in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. His club career was 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 ...

St. George Dragons The St. George Dragons is an Australian rugby league football club from St George District in Sydney, New South Wales that played in the top level New South Wales competition and Australian Rugby League competitions from the 1921 until th ...

, Sydney City and the

Leeds Rhinos The Leeds Rhinos are a professional rugby league club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The club was formed in 1870 as Leeds St John's and play in the Super League, the top tier of English rugby league. They have played home matches at Headi ...

Background

Barnhill was born in

Wagga Wagga Wagga Wagga (; informally called Wagga) is a major regional city in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, with an urban population of more than 56,000 as of June 2018, Wagga Wagga is the state's la ...

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 ...

, Australia. He was employed as a PE teacher at Kaleen high school in Canberra.

Club career

A Canberra junior, Barnhill made his first grade début with the Raiders late in the 1989 season as a replacement in a match against the

South Sydney Rabbitohs The South Sydney Rabbitohs are a professional Australian 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 pla ...

. He became a more regular first grader the following year, primarily used off the interchange bench and was a member of the Raiders' victorious 1990 Grand Final side. By 1991 he was first grade regular and appeared in all 26 Canberra season and finals matches that year. Barnhill joined the

in 1992 and was in the run-on side in 25 of the club's 26 appearances that season. He was a member of Saints' Grand Final sides which lost to

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

and 1993 and was still with the club for the ARL Grand Final of 1996 when he came on as an early replacement for Kevin Campion. In 1997 Barnhill joined 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 ...

and spent three years with the club where he mainly played in the Front row. The Roosters were serious Finals contenders in each of those years. All up Barnhill took part in five first grade

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 ...

s (four of them in consecutive years) but with only one victory – his first appearance with Canberra in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

. In ten of his twelve years of Australian first grade appearances Barnhill played in the Finals – exceptions being 1989 and 1994. In 2000 Barnhill finished his playing career in a season with the

. He cut short his two-year contract with Leeds at the end of 2000 and returned to Australia.

Representative career

Barnhill first represented for the New South Wales Blues in

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 Ov ...

off the interchange bench in game I of 1994 and he appeared in all three games of that series. The following year he appeared in games II and III and he entered Origin folklore when footage of the all-in brawl of game II showed him standing and slugging it out blow for blow with Queensland's Billy Moore long after the rest of the melee had calmed down. Following a two-year representative absence Barnhill returned to the Origin arena in 1998 and played in all three games. The last match of his nine match Origin career was game I of 1999. Barnhill represented Ireland in the 2000

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

Post playing

After retiring as a player Barnhill returned to Australia to take-up a position as defensive coach with the

ACT Brumbies The ACT Brumbies (known from 2005–2022 as simply the Brumbies) is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), The team competes in Super Rugby and named for the feral horses which inh ...

rugby union club in 2001. In 2002 he was appointed as Assistant Coach to Nathan Brown at

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 ...

. In 2005 he relocated to his home town of

where he manages a hotel. He is the son of the former general manager of the Country Rugby League, David Barnhill, snr. In 2013 he coached the New South Wales Country Residents on a tour of South Africa.Government to recognise South African rugby league's status
''smh.com.au'', 20 October 2013

References

External links

Profile at leedsrugby
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnhill, David 1969 births Living people Australian people of Irish descent Australian people of Ulster-Scottish descent Australian rugby league coaches Australian rugby league players Canberra Raiders players Country New South Wales Origin rugby league team players Ireland national rugby league team players Leeds Rhinos players New South Wales Rugby League State of Origin players Rugby league players from Wagga Wagga Rugby league second-rows St. George Dragons players Sydney Roosters players