George Gatis (born 25 March 1978) is a 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 as a in the 2000s 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 ...

and the

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

. He played for 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 ...

, and 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 two separate spells 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 ...

, and the

Huddersfield Giants Huddersfield Giants are an English professional rugby league club from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, the birthplace of rugby league, who play in the Super League competition. They play their home games at the John Smiths Stadium which is sh ...

in the

European Super League The European Super League (ESL), officially The Super League, was a proposed seasonal club football competition that initially would have been contested by twenty European football clubs, twelve of them being the competition's founding members. ...

. After a few overcoming injuries, Gatis quit football and took over management of his family business 'Simply Tops Seafood Bar'. This was declared the best Seafood bar in North Queensland according to the Australian Seafood Committee's (ASF) 'Best Seafood in Queensland' contest in 2016

Background

He was born in

Townsville Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 180,820 as of June 2018, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland; it is unofficially considered its capital. Estimated resident population, 3 ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, Australia and is of Greek heritage.

Playing career

In his junior years playing Rugby League Gatis would play for Souths Townsville and Centrals in the TDJRL. Gatis originally 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 ...

and the Easts Tigers 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 four ...

North Queensland

He made his

first grade First grade (also called Grade One, called ''Year 2'' in England or Primary 2 in Scotland) is the first grade in elementary school and the first school year after kindergarten. Children are usually 6–7 years old in this grade. Examples by r ...

début for the

in 2001. Gatis played 24 games for the Cowboys between 2001 and 2003. A broken arm in 2003 followed by a knee reconstruction kept Gatis out of first-grade for several years.

New Zealand Warriors

When the

visited Townsville in 2005, assistant coach Kevin Campion offered Gatis a chance to come and spend the pre-season with the Warriors. Gatis accepted the offer and, in 2006, he was signed by the

. He played in thirty nine games for the club over two seasons.

Huddersfield

In August 2007 Gatis signed for the

for the 2008 and 2009 seasons. However, just three months into a two-year contract with Huddersfield, George quit the club due to personal reasons.

Retirement

Gatis returned to Australia and helped his parents

fish and chip Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

shop. During the 2008 season he signed with the

, and played one NRL match for the club, starting at hooker. For the majority of the season he played with the Northern Pride in the Queensland Cup. Gatis retired at the end of the season.

International career

Gatis, of

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

heritage, played for the Greece national team several times in non-test fixtures. He received Greek citizenship in November 2007.

References

External links

Huddersfield Giants profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gatis, George 1978 births Living people Auckland rugby league team players Australian rugby league players Australian people of Greek descent Counties Manukau rugby league team players Huddersfield Giants players North Queensland Cowboys players New Zealand Warriors players Northern Pride RLFC players Mackay Cutters players Rugby league hookers Rugby league players from Townsville Wests Panthers players