Keith Lulia (born 17 June 1987) is a former Cook Islands 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 in the 2000s and 2010s. He previously played for the

Wests Tigers The Wests Tigers are an Australian professional Rugby league, rugby league football team, based in the Inner West and South West Sydney. They have competed in the National Rugby League since being formed at the end of the 1999 NRL season as a j ...

, 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 ...

, the

Newcastle Knights The Newcastle Knights are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. They compete in Australasia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. Playing in red and blue, th ...

and the

Bradford Bulls The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the Championship. They have won five Challenge Cups, six league championships and three World Club Challenges. The team jersey is predom ...

. He primarily played as a and as a , but could also fill in at .

Background

Born in

Wollongong, New South Wales Wollongong ( ), colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near wate ...

descendant from the Cook Islands Pukapuka AKA Danger Island where both his parents are from. Lulia Was educated at

Illawarra Sports High School , motto_translation = Blameless in Life , established = , type = Government-funded co-educational comprehensive and specialist secondary day school , educational_authority = New South Wales Department of Education , dis ...

. Lulia began his junior rugby league career at the

Port Kembla Blacks The Port Kembla Blacks (or Port Kembla Rugby League Football Club) were a Rugby League team from Port Kembla, New South Wales, Australia that competed in the Illawarra Rugby League competition from 1914 to 2008 before moving to the Group 7 Rugby Le ...

Playing career

St. George Illawarra Dragons

Lulia made his

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 ...

début for the

in Round 1 of the

2007 NRL season The 2007 NRL season was the one hundredth season of professional rugby league football club competition in Australia, and the tenth run by the National Rugby League. Sixteen teams contested the NRL's 2007 Telstra Premiership, and with the inclusio ...

against the newly admitted

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

side. He scored a try on debut in a 20-18 victory.

Newcastle Knights

Brian Smith signed Lulia to be a part of the

side of 2008. He played in 46 matches for the Newcastle outfit spanning from 2008 to 2011.

Bradford Bulls (Super League)

In June 2011, the

announced that Lulia had signed a two-year contract with 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 ...

club. In 2012, Lulia missed the all four pre-season games due to a biceps tear. He also missed the first 2 rounds. However he featured in 25 consecutive games from Round 3 against Wigan to Round 27 against the

Catalans Dragons The Catalans Dragons ( French: ''Dragons Catalans'', Catalan: ''Dracs Catalans'') are a professional rugby league club from Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales department, France. The team competes in the Super League and are the only team from ...

. He also featured in the

Challenge Cup The Challenge Cup is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, with the exception of 1915–1919 and 1939–1940, due to World War I and World War II respectively. It involves am ...

against

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

and

Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...

. Lulia played in the pre-season friendlies against

Dewsbury Dewsbury is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Hudder ...

and

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

. Lulia featured in seven consecutive games from Round 1

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats Wakefield Trinity is a professional rugby league club in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, that plays in the Super League. One of the original twenty-two clubs that formed the Rugby Football League, Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895, betw ...

to Round 7

Hull Kingston Rovers Hull Kingston Rovers are a professional rugby league club based in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England, that competes in the Super League, the top tier of British rugby league. The club has won five league championships, and one Challeng ...

. He was injured for Round 8. He featured in Round 9

to Round 20

. He missed Round 21 due to the birth of his child. Lulia returned in Round 22 against

Hull F.C. Hull Football Club, commonly referred to as Hull or Hull F.C., is a professional rugby league football club established in 1865 and based in West Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The club plays in the Super League competition and were ...

to Round 27

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...

. Lulia also featured in the

against

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

and the

London Broncos The London Broncos are a professional rugby league club in London, England. The club competes in the RFL Championship. It was a member of Super League from its inaugural season in 1996 until the end of the 2014 season, when they were relegat ...

Wests Tigers

On 18 July 2013, Lulia signed a two-year deal with the

, starting in 2014. He appeared sporadically in first grade in 2014, covering for injured players Chris Lawrence,

Tim Simona Tim Simona (born 20 November 1991) is a Samoan international rugby league footballer who plays as a and for the Blacktown Workers Sea Eagles in the NSW Cup and previously Wests Tigers in the NRL. Early years Born in Auckland, New Zealand, S ...

and

David Nofoaluma David Nofoaluma (born 28 November 1993) is a Samoa international rugby league footballer who plays on the for the Wests Tigers in the NRL. He previously played for the Melbourne Storm on-loan from the Wests Tigers and has played at representa ...

. In Round 19 of the

2014 NRL season The 2014 NRL season was the 107th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 17th season of the National Rugby League in Australia and New Zealand. The season started in New Zealand, for the Auckland Nines, replacing the Rugby Leagu ...

, Lulia scored four tries against the

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the NRL Telstra Premiership, as well as competitions facilita ...

, equaling the club record set by

Kevin McGuinness Kevin McGuinness (born 10 November 1976) is an Indigenous Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s, and 2000s. He played for Salford City Reds in the Super League, the Western Suburbs Magpies, Wests Tigers ...

and

Marika Koroibete Marika Koroibete (born 26 July 1992) is a dual-code international rugby league and rugby union footballer. He has been capped for Australia's national rugby union team, and plays as a winger for the Melbourne Rebels in Super Rugby. Koroibet ...

. His coach,

Mick Potter Michael Potter (born 24 September 1963) is an Australian professional rugby league football coach who is the interim head coach of the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in the National Rugby League, and a former professional rugby league football ...

, said, "that was a great performance from him. His finishing ability was just second to none. A couple of those tries he scored, not too many people can do that sort of stuff." In August 2014, Lulia suffered a small vertebrae fracture to his neck and played no further football for the year. He made no first grade appearances in 2015 and was released at the end of the year.

Representative career

Lulia represented the

Cook Islands ) , image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , capital = Avarua , coordinates = , largest_city = Avarua , official_languages = , lan ...

and was part of their squad for the

2009 Pacific Cup The 2009 Pacific Cup, known as the 2009 SP Brewery Pacific Cup due to sponsorship, was a rugby league competition held in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. The competing teams were the , , , , . Tonga, Fiji and PNG had their places in the draw co ...

.Roosters gain international stripes
''sydneyroosters.com.au'', 7 October 2009 He was also part of the team that took part in the

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 ...

that was held in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

References

External links

2011 Newcastle Knights profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lulia, Keith 1987 births Living people Australian people of Cook Island descent Australian rugby league players Bradford Bulls players Central Coast Centurions players Cook Islands national rugby league team players Macquarie Scorpions players Newcastle Knights players Rugby league centres Rugby league players from Wollongong Rugby league second-rows Rugby league wingers St. George Illawarra Dragons players Wests Tigers NSW Cup players Wests Tigers players Cook Island rugby league players Cook Island expatriate rugby league players Cook Island expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate rugby league players in England Australian expatriate sportspeople in England Australian expatriate rugby league players Sportsmen from New South Wales