Kurt Baptiste (born 15 March 1991) is a

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

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 plays as a for the

Sunshine Coast Falcons The Sunshine Coast Falcons are a rugby league football team based on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. They compete in the Queensland Cup and their home ground is Sunshine Coast Stadium. The Falcons are currently affiliated with the NRL team Melb ...

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 ...

. He has also previously played for the

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos Rugby League Football Club Ltd., commonly referred to as the Broncos, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos play in Australia's elite com ...

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 ...

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 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 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

Leigh Centurions The Leigh Leopards are a professional rugby league club based in Leigh, Greater Manchester, England, who compete in the Betfred Super League. The club was founded in 1878, and is one of the original twenty-two clubs that formed the Northern R ...

in the

Betfred Championship The Championship, known as the Betfred Championship for sponsorship reasons, is a professional rugby league competition. It is the second-tier competition organised by the Rugby Football League, the governing body for the sport in England, ...

Early life

Born in

Brisbane, Queensland 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 ...

, Australia, Baptiste is of Papua New Guinean descent through his

Samarai Samarai is an island and former administrative capital in Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea. The island is historically significant as the site of a trading port and stop-over between Australia and East Asia. Samarai town was established on ...

-born father Bevan. He played his junior rugby league for the

Aspley Devils The Aspley Broncos (formerly Aspley Demons and Aspley Devils) are a rugby league club in Brisbane, Australia. Aspley competes in the FOGS Cup and FOGS Colts Challenge competitions. In 2007 they competed in the Queensland Cup as a feeder club to ...

and attended

Wavell State High School Wavell State High School is a coeducational independent public secondary school based in Wavell Heights, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The school has a total enrolment of more than 1500 students from years 7–12, with an official cou ...

, where he represented the

Australian Schoolboys The Australian Schoolboys refer to junior teams that represent Australia in various sports. The name is mainly used in rugby league, rugby union and baseball. Other popular team sports in Australia such as cricket, basketball, association footbal ...

in 2008, before being signed by the

Playing career

Brisbane Broncos

Baptiste played for the Broncos'

NYC New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Uni ...

team from 2009 to 2011, scoring 28 tries in 67 games and being named at in the 2011 NYC Team of the Year. In 2009, he represented the Queensland under-18 team in their 24–6 loss to New South Wales under-18. In Round 12 of the

2011 NRL season The 2011 NRL season was the 104th season of professional rugby league football club competition in Australia, and the fourteenth and last run by the National Rugby League's partnership committee of the Australian Rugby League and News Ltd. The NRL ...

, Baptiste made his

debut for the Broncos in their 34-10 loss to the

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. The team colours are maroon and white, while their namesake and logo is the sea eagle. They compete in Australia's premier rugb ...

Suncorp Stadium Lang Park, also known as Brisbane Football Stadium, by the sponsored name Suncorp Stadium, and nicknamed: 'The Cauldron', is a multi-purpose stadium in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, located in the suburb of Milton. The current facility co ...

. He scored the first try of his

career in the Broncos' Round 16, 16-12 loss to 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 ...

Perth, Western Australia Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

. Baptiste only played 1 game for the Broncos in 2012, in the Broncos' 30-6 win over the

, spending much of the season playing for the

Norths Devils The Northern Suburbs Devils, or North Brisbane Devils, or often simply referred to as Norths for short, are a rugby league club representing the northern suburbs of Brisbane, Australia. The team colours are sky blue, navy blue and gold. They pl ...

, one of the Broncos' feeder teams, in the

. In 2012 and 2013, he played for the

Queensland Residents The Queensland Residents rugby league team is a representative rugby league team consisting of players who compete in the Intrust Super Cup (Queensland Cup) competition. They currently play an annual fixture against NSW Cup Representative Team, ...

against the New South Wales Residents.

Canberra Raiders

On 18 November 2013, Baptiste signed a 1-year contract with the

starting in 2014. On 3 September 2014, Baptiste re-signed with the Raiders on a 2-year contract. In 2016, Baptiste became a crucial member of the Raiders team, playing in 24 of their 27 matches. On 7 May 2016, he made his international debut for

against

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

in the 2016 Melanesian Cup. On 17 November 2016, Baptiste re-signed with the Raiders on a two-year deal. In December 2016, Baptiste ruptured his Achilles during pre-season training, which saw him miss half of the

2017 NRL season The 2017 NRL season was the 110th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 20th season run by the National Rugby League. The season started in New Zealand with the annual Auckland Nines, and was followed by the All Stars Match, w ...

. He returned in Round 14 of the 2017 season, playing just 11 games for the Raiders. In late 2017, he represented

at the

2017 Rugby League World Cup The 2017 Rugby League World Cup was the fifteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup tournament and took place in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea between 27 October and 2 December 2017. The tournament featured the national teams ...

, playing four games.

Leigh Centurions

On 18 December 2017, Baptiste joined English

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

club

on a one-year deal. On 4 March 2018, after playing just one game for the club, he was granted a release from his contract due to personal and family reasons.

Sydney Roosters

On 14 March 2018, Baptiste returned to Australia, signing a one-year deal with the

. In June, he came off the interchange for

in their 26–14 win over

. He made just 9 appearances for the Roosters during the

2018 NRL season The 2018 NRL season was the 111th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 21st season run by the National Rugby League. The main competition, known as the 2018 Telstra Premiership due to sponsorship from Telstra, featured 16 team ...

, spending the majority of the season playing for their

Intrust Super Premiership The NSW Cup, currently known as the Knock-On Effect NSW Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a rugby league competition for clubs in New South Wales. The competition has a history dating back to the NSWRFL's origins in 1908, starting off as a reserve ...

feeder club, the

Wyong Roos The Wyong Rugby League Football Club are an Australian rugby league club based on the Central Coast of New South Wales. The club competed in the New South Wales Cup from 2013 to 2018 and still competes in the Central Coast Division Rugby League ...

North Queensland Cowboys

On 11 October 2018, Baptiste joined the

on a one-year deal. After missing the entire pre-season and first two rounds due to injury, Baptiste played two games for the Northern Pride, the Cowboys'

feeder club. In Round 5 of the

2019 NRL season The 2019 NRL season was the 112th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 22nd season run by the National Rugby League. The Sydney Roosters became the first team to win back-to-back Premierships since the Brisbane Broncos in 1992 ...

, Baptiste made his debut for the Cowboys in their loss to the

Melbourne Storm The Melbourne Storm are a rugby league club based in Melbourne, Victoria in Australia that participates in the National Rugby League. The first fully professional rugby league team based in the state, the Storm entered the competition in 1998. ...

. Baptiste played just eight more games for the Cowboys in 2019 before tearing his

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are also called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation ...

(ACL) in

's loss to

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono Island, Manono an ...

in June, ruling him out for the season. On 13 September 2019, it was announced that he would not be re-signed by the Cowboys. In 2020, he joined the

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

Canberra Raiders (second stint)

On 4 August 2020, Baptiste re-signed with the

until the end of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

, following the cancellation of the 2020 Queensland Cup season.

Achievements and accolades

Individual

* NYC Team of the Year: 2011

Statistics

: ''Statistics are correct to the end of the 2019 season''

NRL

Championship

International

References

External links

North Queensland Cowboys profileNRL profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baptiste, Kurt 1991 births Living people Australian people of Papua New Guinean descent Australian rugby league players Brisbane Broncos players Canberra Raiders players Leigh Centurions players Mount Pritchard Mounties players North Queensland Cowboys players Northern Pride RLFC players Norths Devils players Papua New Guinea national rugby league team players Rugby league hookers Rugby league players from Brisbane Souths Logan Magpies players Sydney Roosters players Sunshine Coast Falcons players