Liam Richard Finn (born 2 November 1983) 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. An

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

international representative or , he played for Halifax,

Widnes Vikings The Widnes Vikings are an English rugby league club in Widnes, Cheshire, which competes in the Betfred Championship. The club plays home matches at the Halton Stadium. Founded as Widnes Football Club, they are one of the original twenty-two rug ...

Wakefield Trinity 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 Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895, between 1999 and 2016 the c ...

(two spells) and

Castleford Tigers The Castleford Tigers are a professional rugby league club in Castleford, West Yorkshire, England, that compete in the Super League, the top-level professional rugby league club competition in the Northern Hemisphere. The club have competed i ...

in 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 ...

, as well as

Dewsbury Rams The Dewsbury Rams are a professional English rugby league club based in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire that compete in the Championship. They play their home games at the Tetley's Stadium, on Owl Lane. The Rams' main fanbase comes from their hometo ...

and

Featherstone Rovers Featherstone Rovers are a professional rugby league club in Featherstone, West Yorkshire, England, who play in the Championship (rugby league), Championship. Featherstone is a former coal mining town with a population of around 16,000 and Rover ...

in the

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 ...

. He is the current head coach of

Background

Finn was born in Halifax,

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, England.

Club career

After brief stints in the

with Halifax and the

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 Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895, between 1999 and 2016 the c ...

as a young player, Finn spent most of his career in the

, playing for the

and the

. He returned to Super League in 2014 with the

, and played for them in the 2014 Challenge Cup Final defeat by the

Leeds Rhinos The Leeds Rhinos are a professional rugby league club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The club was formed in 1870 as Leeds St John's and play in the Super League, the top tier of English rugby league. They have played home matches at Headi ...

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

. In October 2015, Finn re-joined Wakefield Trinity Wildcats on a two-year deal. In September 2021, Finn announced that he would be retiring at the end of the season.

Testimonial match

A benefit

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 ...

testimonial match A testimonial match or testimonial game, often referred to simply as a testimonial, is a practice in some sports, particularly in association football in the United Kingdom and South America, where a club has a match to honour a player for servic ...

for Liam Finn, allocated by the

Rugby Football League The Rugby Football League is the governing body for professional rugby league in England, and until 1995 for the whole British Isles. The name Rugby Football League previously also referred to the main league competition run by the organisati ...

, took place at

during the 2013 season.

International career

Finn was named in the

squad for the

2008 Rugby League World Cup The 2008 Rugby League World Cup was the thirteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup since its inauguration in 1954, and the first since the 2000 tournament. The tournament was held in Australia from 26 October, culminating in the final b ...

. In 2010 he represented Ireland in the Alitalia European Cup. Also he followed up his 2009 Championship 1 Player of the Year award with a Championship player of the year award in 2010 for

in his first season back with Rovers. He was named as captain of Ireland in 2012, and was later confirmed as captain for 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 ...

campaign. He is Ireland's joint most capped player alongside Bob Beswick and is also Ireland's record point scorer. In November 2014, Finn was called up to play for Ireland in their final

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

game against Wales. He was a huge influence scoring a total of 18 points in their sides massive 42-14 victory. However, their performance wasn't good enough as Ireland needed to win by 41 points if they were to secure the European Cup title, a place in the 2016 Four Nations and

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 ...

. Unlike 2014, Finn was called up to the Irish squad in October before the

which began on 17 October 2015. In 2016 he was called up to the

squad for the 2017 Rugby League World Cup European Pool B qualifiers.

References

External links

Wakefield Trinity profileCas Tigers profileProfile at featherstonerovers.netIreland profileSL profile2017 RLWC profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Finn, Liam 1983 births Living people Castleford Tigers players Dewsbury Rams coaches Dewsbury Rams players English people of Irish descent English rugby league players Featherstone Rovers players Halifax R.L.F.C. players Ireland national rugby league team captains Ireland national rugby league team players Newcastle Thunder players Rugby league halfbacks Rugby league players from Halifax, West Yorkshire Wakefield Trinity players Widnes Vikings players