HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Anthony Butterfield (born 4 February 1966) 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 and 1990s. A
New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
State of Origin A State of Origin competition is a type of sporting event between players representing their state or territory. State of Origin began in Australian rules football on 8 October 1977 between Western Australia (WA) and Victoria, at Subiaco Oval ...
representative prop-forward, he started his club football career with the
Penrith Panthers The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the western Sydney suburb of Penrith that competes in the NRL. The team is based west of the centre of Sydney, at the foot of the Blue Mountains. Penrith ...
but played the vast majority of it with the
Newcastle Knights The Newcastle Knights are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. They compete in Australasia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. Playing in red and blue, th ...
, with whom he won the 1997 ARL premiership. He is the father of Australian YouTube personality and comedian Isaac Butterfield.


Playing career

Butterfield was born in
Penrith, New South Wales Penrith is a city in New South Wales, Australia, located in Greater Western Sydney, 55 kilometres (31 mi) west of the Sydney central business district on the banks of the Nepean River, on the outskirts of the Cumberland Plain. Its elevati ...
, and was signed from the Panthers reserve-grade to join the inaugural Newcastle Knights team for 1988. He remained with the Knights for thirteen seasons, retiring in 2000 as the club's most capped player – a record he later surrendered to
Andrew Johns Andrew Gary Johns (born 19 May 1974) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest players in rugby league history. Johns captained the Newcas ...
. In 1997 Butterfield was named in the Newcastle Knights Team of the Decade and again, in 2007, in the Team of the Era. Butterfield was selected for one NSW Origin match; game 3, 1998.


Players' Association

Butterfield was active as a representative of players both during and after his playing days. In the mid-nineties, he was Vice-President of the
Kevin Ryan (rugby) Kevin James Ryan, born 26 August 1934 in Ipswich, Queensland is an Australian, former state parliamentarian and local mayor, barrister and advocate. In the 1950s and 1960s he was an Australian dual-code rugby international representative and ha ...
led Rugby League Association and when that folded he became involved in the NRLPA in "99 and 2000. In 2000 Butterfield became the president and driving force behind the newly created Rugby League Professionals' Association. The RLPA was involved in unsuccessful negotiations with the NRL to improve players' wages and conditions from 2000 – 2003. In 2003 the RLPA was registered as a national trade union. It was the first sporting body in the history of Australia to become so registered. 2003 proved to be a turbulent year in the relations between the RLPA and the NRL. Negotiations for player minimum conditions had not gone well during the season. At the end of the season the NRL believed that the players would boycott the competition's major awards night if their demands were not met. Butterfield took a negotiating stance that if the NRL announce that they would accept a number of minimum conditions that would be sufficient to guarantee the players' attendance at the awards. In response, the
National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...
called the players' union's
bluff Bluff or The Bluff may refer to: Places Australia * Bluff, Queensland, Australia, a town * The Bluff, Queensland (Ipswich), a rural locality in the city of Ipswich * The Bluff, Queensland (Toowoomba Region), a rural locality * Bluff River (New ...
and cancelled the awards for that year. There was much media comment about the decision.
Craig Gower Craig Gower (born 29 April 1978) is an Italian-Australian former professional rugby league and rugby union footballer who played in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. He is a dual-code rugby international, having played rugby league for Australia and ...
was widely tipped to be the winner of the award for 2003 but never received his medal. Gower was awarded an honorary medal by the RLPA in 2004 in recognition of his support for the players' campaign. Following the controversy of 2003, and despite some reservations from one club, an agreement was finally reached in 2004. In 2004 Butterfield instituted the RLPA awards. The RLPA awards are based on peer review. At the end of each match, the players vote to allocate points to the three best players on the opposing team. These points are tallied and at the year RLPA holds its own gala awards night.


Awards

Butterfield was awarded 2004 Organiser of the Year by the
Labor Council of New South Wales The Labor Council of New South Wales, branded Unions NSW, is the peak body for trade unions in the state of New South Wales, Australia. As of 2005 there are 67 unions and 8 Rural and Regional Trades & Labor Councils affiliated to the Labor Coun ...
for his efforts in building up the RLPA. Butterfield retired from the RLPA in February 2006. He was replaced as head of the RLPA by former
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
teammate
Matthew Rodwell Matthew Rodwell is a former professional rugby league footballer. He played for the Newcastle Knights, Western Reds, St. George Dragons, St. George Illawarra Dragons, Penrith Panthers and the Warrington Wolves as a . Career Australia After m ...
. The RLPA was deregistered as a trade union in 2008 when Rodwell agreed to accept funding for the Association directly from the NRL.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Butterfield, Tony 1966 births Living people Country New South Wales Origin rugby league team players Penrith Panthers players New South Wales Rugby League State of Origin players Newcastle Knights captains Newcastle Knights players Rugby league players from Penrith, New South Wales Rugby league props