Mike Anthony Eden (born 27 March 1960) 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 1980s. The slightly built Eden played for

Manly-Warringah 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 ...

Eastern Suburbs Eastern Suburbs may refer to: Places *Eastern Suburbs (Mumbai), India *Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), Australia **Eastern Suburbs railway line, Sydney, Australia Sports clubs ;Association football *Eastern Suburbs AFC, Auckland, New Zealand * Eastern ...

Parramatta Parramatta () is a suburb and major Central business district, commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district on the ban ...

and the

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 ...

in the

NSWRL premiership The New South Wales Rugby League premiership was the first rugby league football club competition established in Australia and contributor to today's National Rugby League. Run by the New South Wales Rugby League (initially named the New Sout ...

. Originally appearing in the halves, he later played at .

Playing career

A Manly junior who made his first grade debut for the Sea Eagles from the bench in Manly's 28-10 loss to Penrith at

Penrith Park Penrith Stadium (known commercially as BlueBet Stadium) is a rugby league and association football stadium located in Penrith, New South Wales, Australia. The 22,500 capacity venue is the home ground for the Penrith Panthers who play in the Na ...

on 18 April 1981. Eden only played two first grade games for Manly in the 1981 season, the other (also from the bench) saw the Sea Eagles come away with a 22-15 win over defending premiers

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 ...

at Manly's

Brookvale Oval Brookvale Oval (also known by the commercial sponsorship name 4 Pines Park) is a sporting ground located within Brookvale Park at Brookvale, New South Wales, Australia. The ground is owned by Northern Beaches Council and is primarily used by th ...

. The 1982 season saw Eden play 19 games for the Sea Eagles playing mostly at fullback due to the emergence of teenage halfback

Phil Blake Phil Blake (born 24 November 1963) is a former rugby league footballer and a professional rugby union coach. Originally a , Blake developed into a utility player and played first grade matches in all the backline positions, as well as at and ...

and injury to champion Manly fullback

Graham Eadie Graham "Wombat" Eadie (born 25 November 1953), is an Australian former rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s and 1980s. He has been named amongst Australia's finest of the 20th century. A New South Wales State of Origin and Australian ...

. Eden would be the Sea Eagles top point scorer for the year (the first time since

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

that honour would go to a player other than Eadie), scoring 2 tries and 71 goals for 148 points. Eadie returned late in the season and resumed the fullback role with Eden missing the Sea Eagles run to the Grand Final where they ultimately lost 21-8 to Parramatta. During the season, Eden was named the player of the series in the

1982 KB Cup The 1982 KB Cup was the 9th edition of the NSWRFL Midweek Cup, a NSWRFL-organised national club Rugby League tournament between the leading clubs and representative teams from the NSWRFL, the BRL, the CRL, the QRL and the NZRL. A total of ...

won by Manly for the first time. Eden's form in 1982, plus his goal kicking and utility value saw his name touted as a possible selection for the 1982 Kangaroo Tour of Great Britain and France. However, missing Manly's late season games and finals campaign would prove costly and he ultimately missed out on a place in the Australian squad for the

Kangaroo Tour Kangaroo Tour is the name given to Australian national rugby league team tours of Great Britain and France, tours to New Zealand and the one-off tour to Papua New Guinea (1991). The first Kangaroo Tour was in 1908. Traditionally, Kangaroo Tours to ...

. With Eadie back for the

1983 NSWRFL season The 1983 NSWRFL season was the 76th season of professional rugby league football in Australia. Fourteen teams competed for the J J Giltinan Shield and Winfield Cup during the season, which culminated in a replay of the previous year's grand final ...

, Eden signed to play for Eastern Suburbs and would become the season's leading point scorer, scoring 256 points (12 tries, 103 goals, and 2 field goals). He also won the competition's Best and Fairest award, the

Rothmans Medal The Rothmans Medal was the premier individual award in the New South Wales Rugby League and Brisbane Rugby League competitions, and later in the Australian Rugby League, which was given to the player voted by referees as the best and fairest ...

, in 1983. Eden later said, "Manly eventually told me they weren’t going to be able to go anywhere near what they were offering over at the Roosters, but that they’d still love me to stay. I just said, 'Look, you've offered me three grand, the Roosters have offered me 25 … I’m newly married and got a kid on the way … a university wage, help me out here.' So I signed with the Roosters.' After an injury interrupted 1984 season where he scored 96 points (5 tries, 36 goals) playing only 13 games mostly at fullback or , he signed with Parramatta for the 1985 season. He would spend 3 injuries interrupted seasons with the Eels, playing only 27 games for the club and like he had done in 1982 with Manly, he missed the Eels charge to the premiership in

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

. Eden signed for new club the Gold Coast Giants in

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

. That season saw him play 19 games for the club where he would be the team's leading point scorer with 79 points (1 try, 36 goals, 3 field goals) and had the honour of scoring the club's first ever try in their opening game of the season against

Canterbury-Bankstown Canterbury-Bankstown is a customary region of Sydney, Australia, in the south-western suburbs. The area is located around the Bankstown railway line, to the west of the St George region and to the south of the Inner West region. The suburbs o ...

. He played a further 12 games in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

for the poorly performed Giants and was again their leading point scorer with 63 points(3 tries, 25 goals and 1 field goal) before announcing his retirement at the end of the season. Mike Eden played 112 first grade games in his career. A player of rare ability who could kick both in general play and for goal with either feet with equal effectiveness, he scored a total of 701 points from 26 tries, 296 goals, and 7 field goals.

Family

Eden's uncle,

Harry Eden Harry Eden (born 1 March 1990) is an English actor who won a British Independent Film Award in 2003 for Most Promising Newcomer for his role in ''Pure''. Eden was born in Old Harlow, Essex. He attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School. He played ...

, was also a rugby league footballer, playing for

St George Saint George (Greek language, Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin language, Latin: Georgius, Arabic language, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christians, Christian who is venerated as a sa ...

, Eastern Suburbs, and South Sydney clubs.

Current

Eden currently works as a solicitor in Albury NSW and is also on the Committee for the Albury Thunder Rugby League Club in Group 9 Rugby League.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Eden, Michael 1960 births Living people Australian rugby league players Gold Coast Chargers players Manly Warringah Sea Eagles players Parramatta Eels players Rugby league fullbacks Rugby league five-eighths Rugby league halfbacks Rugby league players from Sydney Sydney Roosters players