Tony Rea (born 25 July 1966) is an Australian 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 ...

football coach and a former head coach for

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of w ...

club,

London Broncos The London Broncos are a professional rugby league club in London, England. The club competes in the RFL Championship. It was a member of Super League from its inaugural season in 1996 until the end of the 2014 season, when they were relegat ...

. A former , he played club football in the

Brisbane Rugby League The Brisbane Rugby League is a rugby league football competition in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was first held in 1922 and for every year until 1997. The competition was reinstated in 2001, known as the FOGS premiership under the Queen ...

for Brothers, in the

New South Wales Rugby League The New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) is the governing body of rugby league in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and is a member of the Australian Rugby League Commission. It was formed in Sydney on 8 August 1907 and was ...

as captain of the

North Sydney Bears The North Sydney Bears is an Australian rugby league football club based in North Sydney, New South Wales. The club competes in the New South Wales Cup, having exited the National Rugby League following the 1999 NRL season after 90 years in t ...

, and in the

for the

, later becoming their coach. Rea also briefly coached

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...

team, the

Brumbies The ACT Brumbies (known from 2005–2022 as simply the Brumbies) is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), The team competes in Super Rugby and named for the brumby, feral horses whi ...

before returning to London to coach the Broncos.

Early years

Rea was born on 25 July 1966 in

Bundaberg Bundaberg is a city in the Bundaberg Region, Queensland, Australia, and is the tenth largest city in the state. Bundaberg's regional area has a population of 70,921, and is a major centre of the Wide Bay–Burnett geographical region. The Bun ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, Australia. He began his playing career in 1984 in the local Brisbane competition at the Brothers club.

Playing career

In 1988, Rea was recruited to play in the premier

NSWRL The New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) is the governing body of rugby league in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and is a member of the Australian Rugby League Commission. It was formed in Sydney on 8 August 1907 and was ...

competition by North Sydney, mainly playing in the hooking position and being appointed captain when

John Dorahy John Kevin Dorahy (born 28 August 1954), also known by the nickname of "Joe Cool", is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer and coach. He played in the Australian New South Wales Rugby League premiership and also represented ...

retired in the middle of 1989. He played seven seasons with the Bears, but lost his first grade berth to

Mark Soden Mark Soden (born 23 November 1968) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played for the North Sydney Bears for eleven seasons. Early life Soden, from Dubbo was captain of the 1986 Australian Schoolboys and played his ...

in the middle of

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

. Rea was recruited in 1994 alongside many fellow Antipodeans by the new Australian owners of the London rugby league club, who changed the name of the club from London Crusaders to London Broncos. He played for the club during the change of top-flight rugby league in England from the winter season to summer Rugby League, with the advent of the new Super League competition in 1996.

Administration

After 47 London appearances scoring 11 tries, Rea retired from playing at the end of the inaugural Super League season in 1996 to take up the Chief Executive role at the club. He stayed in the role until 2000. Key moments during his time as Chief Executive include:- *1997 - London Broncos defeat Australian side

Canberra Raiders The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby ...

in the ill-fated Super League World Club Championship series *1997 -

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is a British billionaire, entrepreneur, and business magnate. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields. Branson expressed ...

Virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

empire buy a majority stake in the club (Virgin sold stake in club in 2001) *1998 - Head coach Tony Currie leaves the club at the end of the 1998 Super League season *1999 - Club appoints

Dan Stains Dan Stains (born 28 June 1964) is an Australian former rugby league footballer and coach. He played primarily for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, usually as a and as a . Background Stains was born in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia. He atten ...

as head coach; Stains leads Broncos to first Rugby League

Challenge Cup The Challenge Cup is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, with the exception of 1915–1919 and 1939–1940, due to World War I and World War II respectively. It involves am ...

Final in the club's (

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

, London Crusaders, London Broncos) history. Broncos lose in the final against

Leeds Rhinos The Leeds Rhinos are a professional rugby league club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The club was formed in 1870 as Leeds St John's and play in the Super League, the top tier of English rugby league. They have played home matches at Headi ...

*1999 - Club sacks Stains after Broncos endure long losing streak during the 1999 Super League campaign. Rea appointed temporary joint head coach with Stains' assistant

Les Kiss Les Kiss (born 9 December 1964) is an Australian professional rugby union coach who is the head coach of London Irish in the Gallagher Premiership. He is a former professional rugby league footballer who played in the Brisbane Rugby League and ...

. Rea and Kiss manage to steer Broncos out of slump. *1999 - Club decide to move home, from Twickenham-based Harlequins' Stoop ground to south-east London

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

outfit

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

Valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between Hill, hills or Mountain, mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers ...

stadium (Broncos have subsequently moved to Brentford FC's Griffin Park in 2002 and back to the re-branded Twickenham Stoop in October 2005) *2000 - Club appoint

John Monie John Stephen Monie (born 6 October 1946) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1960s and 1970s, and coached in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. He is probably best known for his coaching career where he won p ...

as head coach. Monie only stays in the job until the last month of the 2000 Super League season, the club endured a mediocre season during his tenure. Rea takes over caretaker coach until the end of the season, Broncos sail to mid-table security

Coaching career

Rea was persuaded at the end of the 2000 season to become head coach on a full-time basis, so this meant he had to resign his Chief Executive role. During his time as head coach, he led the Broncos to two post-regular season Super League play-off appearances (in 2003 and 2005). On 8 July 2006, after a disappointing run of form for the team, the Harlequins Rugby League club announced a re-organisation of the coaching set-up. Rea was replaced as head coach by

' assistant coach Brian McDermott, but was appointed onto the club's board of directors. On 4 June 2008 he revealed he has accepted the assistant coach role with the

, the

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 ...

side based in

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

. He was appointed the Brumbies 2011 head coach after

Andy Friend Andrew Friend (born 24 April 1969) is an Australian rugby union coach and former player. He is currently the head coach of Irish province Connacht. He was previously head coach of the Australia Sevens team, the Brumbies in Super Rugby, English c ...

was fired two games into the season. In July 2012, Rea agreed to replace Rob Powell as interim

head coach until the end of the 2012 season. This was made permanent in August 2012.Tony Rea named permanent London coach
''rleague.com'', 21 August 2012 In 2014 Rea stepped down as head coach of the

and was replaced by his assistant coach

Joey Grima Joseph Grima (18 April 1973) is an Australian professional rugby league football coach, most recently head coach of the London Broncos. Managerial career Grima has extensive experience in the NRL as an assistant coach at Parramatta Eels, Cr ...

References

External links

"My life in rugby league: Tony Rea"
interview at ''TotalRL.com''
Tony Rea Quins ProfileQueensland representatives at qrl.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rea, Tony 1966 births Living people Australian rugby league coaches Australian rugby league players Australian rugby union coaches Australian expatriate sportspeople in England ACT Brumbies coaches London Broncos coaches London Broncos players North Sydney Bears players Past Brothers players Rugby league hookers Rugby league players from Bundaberg