Reggie Cressbrook (born 23 October 1974) 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. Primarily a , he was a foundation player for 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 ...

Playing career

Born and raised in

Woorabinda, Queensland Woorabinda is a rural town and locality in the Aboriginal Shire of Woorabinda, Queensland, Australia. In the , Woorabinda had a population of 962 people. It is an Aboriginal community. Geography Woorabinda is in Central Queensland, inland abou ...

, Cressbrook is the first (and so far only) person from the small Aboriginal community to play first grade rugby league. In Round 15 of the

1995 ARL season The 1995 ARL premiership was the 88th season of professional rugby league football in Australia, and the first to be run by the Australian Rugby League following the hand-over of the Premiership's administration by the New South Wales Rugby Leagu ...

, he made his first grade debut in the Cowboys' first ever home win, a 31-12 victory over the

Western Suburbs Magpies The Western Suburbs Magpies (legal name: Western Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club Ltd) are an Australian rugby league football club based in the western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales. Formed in 1908, Wests, as they are commonly r ...

. He finished his rookie season with 8 appearances and five goals. In 1996, he played 15 games for the Cowboys, scoring two tries and kicking 12 goals for 32 points, finishing as the club's second highest point scorer. In 1997, his final season with the club, he played 11 games, scoring three tries. Following his departure from the Cowboys, Cressbrook played for the

Townsville Stingers Townsville Stingers Rugby League Club are an Australian rugby league football club based in Townsville formed in 1998. The team played in the Queensland Cup The Queensland Cup, currently known as the Hostplus Cup for sponsorship reasons, is ...

Burleigh Bears The Burleigh Bears are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Gold Coast, Australia. They compete in Queensland's top rugby league competition, the Queensland Cup. Since their admission to the competition in 1997, the ...

and

Ipswich Jets The Ipswich Jets are an Australian rugby league football club based in Ipswich, Queensland. Their name comes from nearby RAAF Base Amberley, one of the largest airbases in Australia. The Jets compete in the Queensland Cup competition. Originall ...

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 ...

, playing a total of 143 games between 1998 and 2006, scoring 89 tries and kicking 366 goals for 1,089 points. He played in five Grand Finals, winning two with Burleigh in 1999 and 2004. As of 2020, he currently holds Burleigh's most points (964) and most tries (69) records. In 2015, he was named at centre in the QRL's

20th Anniversary Team.

Achievements and accolades

Individual

Queensland Cup 20th Anniversary Team: 2015

Statistics

ARL/SL

Post-playing career

In 2017, Cressbrook returned to Woorabinda to coach the Woorabinda Warriors A-Grade side.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cressbrook, Reggie 1974 births Living people Australian rugby league players Burleigh Bears players Indigenous Australian rugby league players Ipswich Jets players North Queensland Cowboys players Rugby league fullbacks Rugby league players from Queensland People from Central Queensland