Shon Siemonek is a

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 ...

-born ex-

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player for the

Ballymore Tornadoes Brisbane City is an Australian rugby union football team based in Brisbane that competes in the National Rugby Championship (NRC). The team is one of two Queensland sides in the competition, the other being . Brisbane City is organised and mana ...

in the

Australian Rugby Championship The Australian Rugby Championship, often abbreviated to the ARC and also known as the Mazda Australian Rugby Championship for sponsorship purposes, is a now-defunct domestic professional men's rugby union football competition in Australia, which ...

, where he played as a loose-head prop. Siemonek is a current director of Brus Media Pty Ltd a mobile gaming affiliate network and development studio.

Early life

Siemonek attended what is now called the

Wellington Institute of Technology The Wellington Institute of Technology, also known as WelTec, is a New Zealand polytechnic based in Petone, Lower Hutt. WelTec was formed in 2001 by an amalgamation between the Central Institute of Technology (established in 1960) and the Hutt V ...

in early 2000 completing a Bachelor in Information Technology by late 2004. After graduating, Siemonek completed post graduate study specialising in ASP .NET before moving into his first job as a

web developer A web developer is a programmer who develops World Wide Web applications using a client–server model. The applications typically use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in the client, and any general-purpose programming language in the server. is used f ...

. After moving to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in 2005, Siemonek pursued curiosity of the entrepreneurial lifestyle and started, succeeded and failed with many small endeavours. It wasn't until 2013 that Siemonek moved into

mobile marketing Mobile marketing is a multi-channel online marketing technique focused at reaching a specific audience on their smartphones, feature phones, tablets, or any other related devices through websites, e-mail, SMS and MMS, social media, or mobile app ...

and

mobile gaming A mobile game, or smartphone game, is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone), tablet, PDA to h ...

before forming the now fast growing and successful Brus Media.

Rugby

Born in Napier,

Hawke's Bay Hawke's Bay ( mi, Te Matau-a-Māui) is a local government region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region's name derives from Hawke Bay, which was named by Captain James Cook in honour of Admiral Edward Hawke. The region is ...

, New Zealand, Siemonek attended St Bernards College in Lower Hutt where he played in the school's 1st XV rugby union team, 1st XIII rugby league team and excelled in cricket and croquet. After leaving high-school Siemonek continued his rugby union career at Hutt Old Boys Marist Rugby Football Club in Lower Hutt where he played with the

All Black 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, ...

Piri Weepu Piri Awahou Tihou Weepu (born 7 September 1983) is a retired New Zealand rugby union player. Weepu played most recently for Wairarapa Bush in the Heartland Championship. Generally Weepu played as a half-back but also played at first five-eight ...

, and Hurricane

Jeremy Thrush Jeremy Thrush (born 19 April 1985) is a rugby union lock who plays for the Western Force. He previously played for in Super Rugby and Wellington Lions in the ITM Cup. He represented the Junior All Blacks, New Zealand Under-19 and New Zealan ...

. During his last year of high school Siemonek switched from the wing to prop and he continued his development in this position before moving to Australia in 2004. In 2007, Siemonek was selected in the Ballymore Tornadoes squad to contest the inaugural Australian Rugby Championship. Siemonek is a powerful scrummager and a damaging ball runner.

References

External links

sunshinecoastdaily.com.aulinkedin.com
Living people New Zealand rugby union players Australian people of New Zealand descent Rugby union players from Napier, New Zealand 1981 births {{NewZealand-rugbyunion-bio-1980s-stub