Jason Donnelly is a New Zealand 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 represented

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 ...

. His position of preference was on the wing.

Early years

Jason Donnelly was born on 28 June 1970. Donnelly was originally an athletics champion and was the New Zealand junior

decathlon The decathlon is a combined event in Athletics (sport), athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek language, Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ...

champion before rugby league took precedence.Coffey and Wood ''The Kiwis: 100 Years of International Rugby League''

Playing career

Waikato Rugby League Waikato Rugby League is the local sporting body responsible for the administration of rugby league in the Waikato region of New Zealand. The WRL are represented by the Waikato rugby league team. They are currently part of the Upper Central Zone alo ...

player, Donnelly started his professional career in England playing for

Keighley Keighley ( ) is a market town and a civil parish in the City of Bradford Borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is the second largest settlement in the borough, after Bradford. Keighley is north-west of Bradford city centre, north-west of Bi ...

before moving to Australia. There, Donnelly played most of his career with the

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 ...

, scoring sixteen first grade tries. The Dragons made the Grand Final in both 1992 and 1993. He then later played for the Bulldogs. In 1993 he because a

tourist and played in three test matches. While on tour in France he was injured along with

Stephen Kearney Stephen Peter Kearney (born 11 June 1972) is a New Zealand professional rugby league football coach who until 2020 was the head coach of the New Zealand Warriors in the NRL and a former player. A New Zealand national captain and second-row for ...

when a balcony they were on collapsed.Kearney may not play game again
''The Independent'', 25 November 1993 He was linked with the new

Auckland 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 ...

franchise in 1994 but negotiations ultimately fell through and he stayed with the Dragons. In 1997 he moved to the new

Adelaide Rams The Adelaide Rams were an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Adelaide, South Australia. The team was formed in 1995 for the planned rebel Super League competition. The Rams lasted two seasons, the first in the Super Le ...

side in the rebel

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 ...

competition, playing just 6 games and scoring no tries for the club before retiring at the end of the year.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Donnelly, Jason 1970 births Living people Adelaide Rams players New Zealand rugby league players Keighley Cougars players St. George Dragons players New Zealand national rugby league team players Junior Kiwis players Rugby league players from Christchurch Rugby league wingers Waikato rugby league team players