Ryan Tandy (20 September 1981 – 28 April 2014) was

international International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

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 11 ...

footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. He played as a in 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 ...

for the St. George Illawarra Dragons,

South Sydney Rabbitohs The South Sydney Rabbitohs are a professional Australian rugby league club based in Redfern, a suburb of inner-southern Sydney, New South Wales. They participate in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and are one of nine existing tea ...

Wests Tigers The Wests Tigers are an Australian professional rugby league football team, based in the Inner West and South West Sydney. They have competed in the National Rugby League since being formed at the end of the 1999 NRL season as a joint-venture ...

Melbourne Storm The Melbourne Storm are a rugby league club based in Melbourne, Victoria in Australia that participates in the National Rugby League. The first fully professional rugby league team based in the state, the Storm entered the competition in 1998. ...

, and the

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 facilit ...

, and in the Super League for

Hull Kingston Rovers Hull Kingston Rovers are a professional rugby league club based in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England, that competes in the Super League, the top tier of British rugby league. The club has won five league championships, and one Challen ...

. He was banned from playing professional rugby league in Australia after being found guilty of

spot-fixing Spot-fixing is illegal activity in a sport in which a specific aspect of a game, unrelated to the final result but upon which a betting market exists, is fixed in an attempt to ensure a certain result in a proposition bet. Examples include somet ...

during a match in 2010, and in 2014 died of a suspected drug overdose.

Background

Of Irish heritage, Tandy was born in

Gosford Gosford is the city and administrative centre of the Central Coast Council local government area in the heart of the Central Coast region, about north of Sydney and about south of Newcastle. The city centre is situated at the northern extr ...

New South Wales, Australia ) , 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 ...

on 20 September 1981. He played Junior

for the Kincumber Colts on the Central Coast of

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 ...

Playing career

Tandy's career covered stints with the St. George Illawarra Dragons,

, and the

in the NRL. He also played for the

in the Super League. In the National Leagues system he played for

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

Widnes Vikings The Widnes Vikings are an English rugby league club in Widnes, Cheshire, which competes in the Betfred Championship. The club plays home matches at the Halton Stadium. Founded as Widnes Football Club, they are one of the original twenty-two r ...

Whitehaven Whitehaven is a town and port on the English north west coast and near to the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it lies by road south-west of Carlisle and to the north of Barrow-in-Furness. It i ...

and Barrow. He was an

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

international. Tandy débuted for the

first grade team against the Brisbane Broncos in Round 15 in 2008. Tandy was selected in the

national team for the

2008 Rugby League World Cup The 2008 Rugby League World Cup was the thirteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup since its inauguration in 1954, and the first since the 2000 tournament. The tournament was held in Australia from 26 October, culminating in the final ...

, which led to a contract with

for 2009. He was a member of the victorious Melbourne squad in the

2009 NRL Grand Final The 2009 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the NRL's 2009 Telstra Premiership season. Played on 4 October 2009 at Sydney's ANZ Stadium was contested between the Parramatta Eels and the Melbourne Storm, the latte ...

against

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 ...

, but the premiership title was later stripped from the Storm due to salary cap breaches. The

Melbourne Storm salary cap breach The Melbourne Storm salary cap breach was a major breach of the National Rugby League's strictly enforced salary cap by the Melbourne Storm club over a period of five years. The discovery of these breaches in 2010 by the NRL resulted in it strippi ...

saw him sign with the

on 12 June 2010, and was sacked by them on 18 March 2011.

Betting scandal

After the 21 August 2010 Canterbury-Bankstown match against 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 ...

Tandy became embroiled in a betting scandal. The

Totalisator Agency Board The Totalisator Agency Board, universally shortened to TAB or T.A.B., is the name given to monopoly totalisator organisations in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. They operate betting shops and online betting. They were originally gove ...

(TAB) announced that 95 per cent of bets placed on the first scoring play of this match were for the unusual option of a Cowboys penalty goal. Friends and associates of Tandy placed a large number of bets, with the total windfall for a successful bet expected to be over $100,000. Tandy was then responsible for two actions in the match to allow the opposing side to score a penalty goal inside the first two minutes: first by giving away possession to the Cowboys in the opening moments of the match by knocking on, and then giving away a penalty in the play-the-ball ten metres in front of the goal posts. These actions put the Cowboys in a position where a penalty goal was a likely outcome; but they decided on an attacking option and scored a try instead. Tandy denied the accusations of deliberately giving away possession and a penalty to allow the exotic option on the bets to be successful. Despite this, he was arrested on 2 February 2011 for providing false evidence to a law enforcement agency during the investigation of the betting scandal. Tandy was in more than $70,000 debt at the time of the match, owing to losses from his own long-standing gambling addiction. On 6 October 2011, Tandy was found to be guilty of manipulating the first scoring point of the game. He received an intensive correction order for six months. It required: community service, supervision and curfew, but he could have been jailed for two years. He appealed the charge in January 2014 but lost the case. Tandy received a lifetime ban from NRL rugby league over the spot fixing.

Later life and death

In January 2014, Tandy was arrested and charged with kidnapping in connection with the recovery of a drug debt from the victim, police alleging that Tandy was serving as a standover man. Three months after being bailed, Tandy was found dead at his parents' home in

Saratoga, New South Wales Saratoga is a residential south-eastern village and suburb of the Central Coast region of New South Wales, Australia, located on a peninsula of Brisbane Water and part of the local government area. The suburb is characterised by its largely ...

, following what is believed to have been an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.

References

External links

Melbourne Storm profileWests Tigers profileIreland profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tandy, Ryan 1981 births 2014 deaths Sportspeople from Wollongong Australian people of Irish descent Australian rugby league players Rugby league props Rugby league second-rows Ireland national rugby league team players St. George Illawarra Dragons players South Sydney Rabbitohs players Wests Tigers players Hull Kingston Rovers players Melbourne Storm players Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs players Balmain Ryde-Eastwood Tigers players Doncaster R.L.F.C. players Rugby league controversies Sportspeople banned for life 21st-century Australian criminals Rugby league players from Gosford, New South Wales Drug-related deaths in Australia Western Suburbs Rosellas players Whitehaven R.L.F.C. players