Jason Bulgarelli (born 20 May 1976) is an Australian 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 11 ...

footballer who played in the 2000s. He previously played for 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 ...

, winning the club's ''Rookie of the Year'' award in 2003. He primarily played in the centres.

Playing career

Bulgarelli was born in

Brandon, Queensland Brandon is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Burdekin, Queensland, Australia. In the , Brandon had a population of 1,094 people. History Brandon was surveyed as a site for a township in 1882 and the first allotments were sold later that ...

and played his junior rugby league for the Burdekin Roosters. An

Illawarra Steelers The Illawarra Steelers are an Australian rugby league football club based in the city of Wollongong, New South Wales. The club competed in Australia's top-level rugby league competition from 1982 until 1998. On the 13th of December 1980, they ...

lower grader, Bulgarelli was playing with

Easts Tigers The Brisbane Tigers are a rugby league club based at Langlands Park, in the suburb of Coorparoo in Brisbane, Australia. Since 1996, they have competed in the Queensland Cup, having competed in the Brisbane Rugby League from 1934 to 1997, where ...

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 ...

, before joining the Canberra Raiders. Bulgarelli made his NRL debut in round 10 of the 2003 season at the age of 27, and was the club's rookie of the year. In August, 2004, he was named alongside club greats

Laurie Daley Laurie William Daley AM (born 20 October 1969), also known by the nicknames of "Lozza" and "Loz", is an Australian professional rugby league football coach and a former player who played as a and in the 1980s and 1990s. He represented Au ...

and

Sam Backo Sam Backo (born 1 January 1961) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a in the 1980s and 1990s. Named as one of the greatest Aboriginal players of the 20th century, he represented Australia and Queensland ...

when the Raiders selected a side representing the all-time best Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to have played for the club. Bulgarelli was sacked from the Raiders' club in 2004 after a package he allegedly tried to collect was discovered to contain ecstasy tablets. He later returned to the Queensland Cup with the

Ipswich Jets The Ipswich Jets are an Australian rugby league football club based in Ipswich, Queensland. Their name comes from nearby RAAF Base Amberley, one of the largest airbases in Australia. The Jets compete in the Queensland Cup competition. Original ...

. He had represented the Italian rugby league team

Personal life

On 15 March 2019, Bulgarelli pleaded to ten charges at Townsville district court including five counts of common assault and one count of threatening violence. It was alleged back in November 2017 that Bulgarelli had assaulted his then girlfriend by hitting her on the head with the handle of a knife and then pushing the knife into her torso. Bulgarelli then said "What a time to die on your birthday". It was also alleged that on 5 December 2017, Bulgarelli pushed his ex-partner on the road and assaulted her. Bulgarelli was sentenced to two years in jail over the incidents but was set free the same day having already served 464 days in pre-sentence custody.

References

External links

Jason Bulgarelli's NRL Stats
1976 births Living people Australian people of Italian descent Australian rugby league players Canberra Raiders players Eastern Suburbs Tigers players Indigenous Australian rugby league players Ipswich Jets players Italy national rugby league team players Rugby league centres Rugby league players from Queensland People from North Queensland {{Australia-rugbyleague-bio-1970s-stub