Mathew Steve Rogers (born 1 February 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 112 ...
footballer who played in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. He also played rugby union at the highest level, becoming a dual-code international.
The son of the late
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks
The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Cronulla, in the Sutherland Shire, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australasia's premier rugby league ...
legend and chief executive officer
Steve Rogers, Mat played for the Sharks as well. He played in two
State of Origin series
The State of Origin series is an annual best-of-three rugby league series between two Australian state representative sides, the New South Wales Blues and the Queensland Maroons.
Referred to as “Australian sport's greatest rivalry”, the ...
for Queensland (1999 and 2000), and 7 Tests for the Australian national side (1998 to 2000) before his switch to union in 2001. Rogers played at fly half in his final season for the
Waratahs and started in a number of games for the
Wallabies
A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and so ...
in various positions in the backline. He returned to rugby league in 2007 with the newly formed
Gold Coast Titans
The Gold Coast Titans are a professional rugby league football club, based on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australia and New Zealand's national rugby league club competition. The ...
club and retired in 2010. With the Titans beset by injuries and poor form, Rogers announced his comeback to help out the club on-field in 2011, but a serious injury forced him to announce his retirement again just minutes into his first game back.
Rogers is also well known for another career path on the
Network Ten
Network 10 (commonly known as Ten Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network owned by Ten Network Holdings, a division of the Paramount Networks UK & Australia subsidiary of Paramount Global. One of five ...
revival of ''
Australian Survivor
''Australian Survivor'' is an Australian adventure reality game show based on the international ''Survivor (franchise), Survivor'' format. Following the premise of other versions of the ''Survivor'' format, the show features a group of contesta ...
,'' competing in both the
third
Third or 3rd may refer to:
Numbers
* 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3
* , a fraction of one third
* Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute''
Places
* 3rd Street (d ...
and
fifth seasons. Despite not winning either season, he is a massive fan favourite amongst the ''Survivor'' fanbase, being dubbed "
The Godfather
''The Godfather'' is a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, based on Puzo's best-selling 1969 novel of the same title. The film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, ...
" for his strategic gameplay.
Background
Rogers was born in
Caringbah, New South Wales
Caringbah is a suburb in Southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Caringbah is south of the Sydney central business district in the Local government in Australia, local government area of Sutherland Shire.
Caringbah once st ...
, Australia. He began playing junior rugby league for the
Engadine Dragons
The Engadine Dragons Junior Rugby League Football Club is a rugby league football club that was formed in 1958 and competes in the Cronulla-Sutherland District Rugby Football League. The club is based out of Engadine in the Sutherland Shire wher ...
.
His father, Steve, retired from professional rugby league in 1986 and the family settled on the
Gold Coast, Queensland
The Gold Coast is a coastal city in the state of Queensland, Australia, approximately south-southeast of the centre of the state capital Brisbane. With a population over 600,000, the Gold Coast is the sixth-largest city in Australia, the nati ...
when Mat was 9 years of age. He played his junior rugby league for the
Nerang Roosters
The Nerang Roosters were formed in 1977 and currently field male and female teams in all junior grades of the Gold Coast Rugby League. The club is based at Glennon Park.
Notable juniors
*Jaelen Feeney (2016 Newcastle Knights)
*Keegan Hipgrave ( ...
and attended
The Southport School
, motto_translation = Let him who deserves the palm of victory bear it.
, established =
, type = Independent early learning, primary and secondary day and boarding school
, denomination = Anglican
, headmaster = Andrew Hawkins
, ...
(TSS) during his high schooling years, playing both forms of the game. Rogers excelled in union at TSS, a well known rugby union nursery. He played in the Australian Schoolboys representative team in 1993, at one point playing opposite a young
Jonny Wilkinson
Jonathan Peter Wilkinson, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 25 May 1979) is an English former rugby union player. A Fly-half (rugby union), fly-half, he played for Newcastle Falcons and RC Toulonnais, Toulon and represente ...
, and future
All Blacks
The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987 ...
player
Jonah Lomu
Jonah Tali Lomu (12 May 1975 – 18 November 2015) was a New Zealand professional rugby union player. Lomu is considered to have been the first true global superstar of rugby, and consequently had a huge impact on the game. He is widely regarde ...
.
Rugby league career
After deciding that rugby league was his preferred career path, Rogers joined his father's former club, the
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks
The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Cronulla, in the Sutherland Shire, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australasia's premier rugby league ...
. Rogers formed powerful combinations with partner
Andrew Ettingshausen
Andrew "ET" Ettingshausen (born 29 October 1965) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. He played his first grade Australian club football for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks ...
and later
fullback David Peachey
David Peachey (born 21 April 1974) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. An Australian international and New South Wales representative , he played the majority of his club football in t ...
. he was an entertaining ball-running
winger during the mid-to-late 90s. He held several point-scoring records with Cronulla being a talented goal kicker and having an ability to score tries from the tightest situations. Rogers was chosen for the
Australian team to compete in the end of season
1999 Tri Nations tournament. In the final against
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 ...
he played on the wing, scoring two tries and kicking three goals in the Kangaroos' 22-20 victory.
Rogers expressed his desire to shift from his position on the wing to either
Centre
Center or centre may refer to:
Mathematics
*Center (geometry), the middle of an object
* Center (algebra), used in various contexts
** Center (group theory)
** Center (ring theory)
* Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...
or
Fullback. However, a serious injury to his shoulder rotator cuff at the conclusion of the Kangaroos’ successful 2000 World Cup Campaign destroyed his chance. Despite this he was the tournament's top point-scorer. After a complete shoulder reconstruction he was restricted to a handful of games during the 2001 season, his final year with the Sharks.
Rugby union career
Following his switch Rogers was an immediate success in rugby union. He made his
Wallaby
A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized Macropodidae, macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same Taxonomy (biology), taxon ...
debut with
Wendell Sailor
Wendell Jermaine Sailor (born 16 July 1974) is an Australian former professional rugby footballer who represented his country in both rugby league and rugby union – a dual code international.
In rugby league Sailor was a member of the succes ...
in a Test match against France in June 2002. Collectively at that point they became the 41st and 42nd Australian dual code internationals.
His transition had not been without controversy. Several times Rogers found himself the focus of media scrutiny after making comments regarding the state of Australian club rugby in comparison to training for the
Wallabies
A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and so ...
and after an alleged altercation outside an
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
nightclub with a fan in 2004.
His initial switch was less than smooth after coach
Bob Dwyer
Bob Dwyer AM (born 29 November 1940) is an Australian rugby union coach.
Early life
Educated at Sydney Boys High School, graduating in 1957, where he played 2nd XV for the school where he played alongside former Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs a ...
revealed that Waratahs and Wallaby stalwart
Matthew Burke would be moved from his preferred position of fullback to
outside centre
In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16– ...
in order to accommodate Rogers. His 2004 Super 12 season started brilliantly but a serious ankle injury suffered in South Africa ruled him out of that year's Tri Nations series.
An autobiography ''Off the Wing, On a Prayer'' was published in 2002 and written while his father
Steve Rogers was still alive and when he was married to Michelle Miller, the mother of his children – Jack and Skyla.
Starting in the 2005
Tri Nations Series
The Rugby Championship is an international rugby union competition contested annually by Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. These are the four highest ranked national teams in the Southern Hemisphere; the Six Nations is a s ...
, Rogers was shifted from
fullback to play at
fly-half
In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16– ...
following the injury of
Stephen Larkham
Stephen Larkham (born 29 May 1974) is a retired Australian rugby union professional player, currently in the role of head coach for Brumbies. He spent his career with the Brumbies in Super Rugby, for whom he played from the inception of the pro ...
. He continued to play in that position during the 2005 spring tour of Europe and remained there for the Waratahs for most of the new
Super 14 competition in 2006.
Coming on late in the second half in the second test against South Africa in the
2006 Tri Nations Series
6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number.
In mathematics
Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...
, Rogers scored a late try which allowed
Stirling Mortlock
Stirling Austin Mortlock AM (born 20 May, 1977) is a former Australian professional rugby union player. He has scored more than 1,000 points in Super Rugby, and nearly 500 test points for the Wallabies. Mortlock is a former Wallaby, Melbourne Re ...
to kick the winning conversion from the left sideline, for a 20–18 win.
It was reported on 28 August 2006 that Rogers had sustained a knee injury requiring arthroscopic surgery and was ruled out of the last test against
The Springboks but was fit for the
end of year tour. "I've had (the injury) for a couple of weeks and I was hoping it would have pulled up a bit better than it has," Rogers said. "I'm disappointed to miss out on the Springboks match because I feel that we've got a great chance of winning a Test on their soil, which hasn't been done for a long time."
''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
'' in 2006 sparked the question of how many games Rogers has actually not participated in due to injuries and quoted the following figures:
''Rogers has missed 21 out of 61 games for the Waratahs, some due to his father's death at the start of the year. For the Wallabies he has played 41 of 57 matches. Overall, he has not played for 37 of 118 games making him a spectator 31% of the time since moving to rugby union.''
Rogers was named in the 37-man squad for Australia's tour of Europe. He had been selected to play at fly-half with usual number 10 Larkham playing outside him at inside-centre.
On 14 December 2006, Mat Rogers was released from his contract from the Waratahs and the Australian Rugby Union.
Return to rugby league
In 2007, Rogers revived his rugby league career with the new club,
Gold Coast Titans
The Gold Coast Titans are a professional rugby league football club, based on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australia and New Zealand's national rugby league club competition. The ...
in the National Rugby League. He became their equal top tryscorer for the Titans’ inaugural season even after missing a handful of games late in the season due to a cracked
patella
The patella, also known as the kneecap, is a flat, rounded triangular bone which articulates with the femur (thigh bone) and covers and protects the anterior articular surface of the knee joint. The patella is found in many tetrapods, such as m ...
.
Rogers started the 2008 season with the Gold Coast Titans at five-eighth. Rogers had been suspended for the first time in his National Rugby League career after a dangerous tackle on
Parramatta Eels
The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta that competes in the National Rugby League.
The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, and their ...
winger,
Luke Burt
Luke Kevin Burt (born 6 June 1981) is a professional rugby league coach who was the interim co-coach of the Gold Coast Titans in the NRL, and an Australian former professional rugby league footballer. Burt and Craig Hodges were replaced by Jus ...
, during Round 5 of the league Premiership.
Roger announced his retirement from professional sport on 16 August 2010, and played his last National Rugby League game on 24 September, with the Titans losing the preliminary final to the
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 ...
. There was speculation that he would continue to play in 2011, with Rogers hinting that he would register with the National Rugby League in case of an injury crisis, but that did not eventuate
With the Titans playing poorly in 2011, Rogers had
agreed to train with the club and was intent on returning to the field.
He returned in Round 18 against the
New Zealand 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 ...
, with this match marking his 200th NRL appearance. However, Rogers broke his foot in the 22-6 loss, effectively ending both his season and his career for a second time.
Records and accolades
In 2000, Rogers was awarded the
Australian Sports Medal
The Australian Sports Medal is an award given to recognise achievements in Australian sport to commemorate Australian participation in major sporting events. Original recipients of the award included competitors, coaches, sports scientists, offi ...
for his contribution to Australia's international standing in the sport of rugby league.
He holds the standing record for the most points scored in an Australia-
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 ...
rugby league Test match with 24 (2 tries and 8 goals) scored in the Anzac Test of 2000 in Sydney.
In his five seasons with Waratahs, he became the third highest points scorer with 202 points. He equalled Matthew Burke's record for the most individual conversions in a match with six, achieved in the Waratahs 2004 round two clash against the
Sharks
Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimorp ...
at
Aussie Stadium
The Sydney Football Stadium, commercially known as Allianz Stadium and previously Aussie Stadium, was a football stadium in Moore Park, Sydney, Australia. Built in 1988 next to the Sydney Cricket Ground, the stadium was Sydney's premier recta ...
on 28 February 2004.
In the
2003 Rugby World Cup
The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup. Originally planned to be hosted by India, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispute over ground signage rights between the Indian Rugby Union and Rugby World Cup ...
, he set the Australian record the most points in match. It came in Australia's 142–0 victory over
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
where he scored two tries and 16 conversions for 42 points.
Whilst playing Rugby League with Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, Mat had set many records, including:-
Most career points (all grades) - 1321 points (1994 - 2001)
Most points in a season - 212 points (including 18 tries and 70 conversion goals - 2000)
Most points in a match - 26 points (3 tries, 7 conversion goals) versus Newcastle - 2000)
The records in the season of 2000 were set when Mat only played 23 of 27 games. Of those 23 games, Mat scored points in every game except Brisbane in Round 17.
Personal life
Rogers married model and media personality
Chloe Maxwell
Chloe Maxwell is an Australian model and television presenter who appeared as the "Jeans West Girl" in a Jeans West campaign. She was discovered by chance during an ''A Current Affair'' story, featuring a model recruiter who claimed they coul ...
on the Gold Coast on 26 October 2008. Rogers has four children: Jack and Skyla from a previous relationship, Max Danger (born 5 June 2006) and daughter Phoenix (born 21 September 2007) with current wife Chloe.
Rogers has been committed to raising awareness about
depression since the death of his father Steve in January 2006. His father battled depression for three years and, while suicide was initially suspected, his death after taking alcohol and prescription drugs was ruled an accident.
He has signed on to be an ambassador for
Movember
Movember is an annual event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November to raise awareness of men's health issues, such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men's suicide. It is a portmanteau of the Australian-Engli ...
, an initiative that encourages men to grow a moustache during November to raise funds for research into depression and prostate cancer. Rogers has said he fears inheriting a propensity for the mental illness. He has made a pact with brother Don always to be honest about their feelings and encouraged men to talk to family, doctors or mates.
He was a semifinalist in the
fifteenth season of ''
Dancing with the Stars
''Dancing with the Stars'' is the name of various international television series based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing'', which is distributed by BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC. Currently the forma ...
''.
Rogers worked for the Gold Coast commonwealth Games held in 2018.
''Australian Survivor''
In 2018, Rogers appeared as a contestant on ''
Australian Survivor: Champions vs. Contenders'', competing in the fifth season of the competitive
reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...
series ''
Australian Survivor
''Australian Survivor'' is an Australian adventure reality game show based on the international ''Survivor (franchise), Survivor'' format. Following the premise of other versions of the ''Survivor'' format, the show features a group of contesta ...
'' as part of the Champions tribe.
During the early portions of the game, Rogers used his physical strength to help his tribe win challenges and was avoided being targeted. Before a crucial tribe swap, Rogers had a core alliance with fellow Champion tribemates
Shane Gould
Shane Elizabeth Gould (born 23 November 1956) is an Australian former competition swimmer. She won three gold medals, a silver medal and a bronze, at the 1972 Summer Olympics. In 2018, she won the fifth season of ''Australian Survivor,'' becom ...
,
Lydia Lassila
Lydia Lassila (née Ierodiaconou) (born 17 January 1982) is an Australian Olympic freestyle skier gold medalist who competed in the 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympic Games. She is the 2010 Olympic champion and the 2014 bronze med ...
,
Steve Willis,
Moana Hope
Moana Hope (born 14 February 1988) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played in the AFL Women's competition from 2017 to 2019, including 13 matches over two seasons at and a further seven matches over one season at . Eac ...
, Samuel "Sam" Hinton, and Sharn Coombes. Rogers was able to make it to merge only losing one alliance member, Hope, but soon assisted in voting out Lassila and Hinton. On Day 37, Rogers had a plan to vote out fellow contestant
Brian Lake
Brian Lake (né Harris; 27 February 1982) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Western Bulldogs and Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He now plays for his local club Caroline S ...
, but was ultimately blindsided and voted out by tribemates
Monika Radulovic
Monika Radulovic; sr, Моника Радуловић, Monika Radulović (born 20 September 1990, in Zavidovići) is a Bosnian-born Serbian Australian model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Universe Australia 2015 and repres ...
and Benji Wilson. Rogers finished in 9th place and became the third member of the jury. During the Final Tribal Council between Gould and Coombes, Coombes's tacit betrayal of Rogers was highlighted and Rogers cast his vote for Gould, which wound up winning her the game.
In 2020, Rogers returned to compete on ''
Australian Survivor: All Stars''. He gained praise after forming an underground alliance with David Genat, after being on the bottom of the Vakama tribe. At the tribe swap, he was swapped onto a tribe with none of his former alliance members. Rogers was voted out on Day 22, after playing 2 idols throughout the season. He was the 10th person voted out.
See also
*
References
* Mat Rogers, ''Off the Wing, On a Prayer'' (2002), E.S.M Sports Pty. Ltd.
* ''Centenary Test Game Day Souvenir Program (2008)'', News Magazines, Surry Hills, Sydney
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rogers, Mat
1976 births
Living people
Australian rugby league players
Australian rugby union players
Australian Survivor contestants
Australia national rugby league team players
Australia international rugby union players
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks players
Gold Coast Titans players
New South Wales Waratahs players
Queensland Rugby League State of Origin players
Dual-code rugby internationals
Rugby union fly-halves
Rugby union fullbacks
Rugby league five-eighths
Rugby league wingers
Rugby league fullbacks
Rugby league centres
Recipients of the Australian Sports Medal
Rugby league players from Sydney
Rugby union players from Sydney