Brett O'Farrell (born 23 March 1980) is an Australian former professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. He played for the

Melbourne Storm The Melbourne Storm is a rugby league football club based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia that participates in the National Rugby League (NRL). The club plays its home games at AAMI Park, and wears a purple and navy blu ...

in the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

(NRL) from 1999 to 2001.

Early life

Played junior rugby league with Collegians Dragons before moving to the Warwick Cowboys, representing Queensland schoolboys at the 1997 national carnival.

Playing career

Moving to Brisbane, O'Farrell played with

Norths Devils The Northern Suburbs Devils, or North Brisbane Devils, or often simply referred to as Norths for short, are a rugby league club representing the northern suburbs of Brisbane, Australia. The team colours are sky blue, navy blue and gold. They pl ...

and was a member of the Devils' 1998 Queensland Cup Colts premiership. O'Farrell represented Australia in 1998 and 1999 playing for the

Junior Kangaroos The Junior Kangaroos side represents Australia in the sport of rugby league. They are commonly known as the Junior Kangaroos, after the native marsupial of that name. Since 2019, they are an under-23 side, with players selected from the NRL. Th ...

against the

Junior Kiwis The Junior Kiwis side represents New Zealand in the sport of rugby league. They are commonly known as the Junior Kiwis, after the native bird of that name. Since 2010, they are an under-20s side, with players selected from the NRL, Intrust Sup ...

. O'Farrell made his NRL debut for

in round 14 of the

1999 NRL season The 1999 NRL season was the 92nd season of professional rugby league football in Australia, and the second to be run by the National Rugby League. With the exclusion of the Adelaide Rams and Gold Coast Chargers, and the joint venture of the S ...

, playing a total of 20 games for Melbourne. After being released by Melbourne at the end of the

2001 NRL season The 2001 NRL season was the 94th season of professional rugby league football in Australia and the fourth run by the National Rugby League. Also called the 2001 Telstra Premiership (due to sponsorship from Telstra Corporation) it was contested ...

, O'Farrell played reserve grade for

South Sydney Rabbitohs The South Sydney District Rugby League Football Club, also known as the South Sydney Rabbitohs, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Maroubra, New South Wales, Maroubra that competes in the Nat ...

, later playing for the

Pia Donkeys Baroudeurs de Pia XIII are a French Rugby league team based in Pia, Pyrénées-Orientales in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. SM Pia XIII was founded in 1960 and were national champions four times before they dropped out of the Elite 1 division ...

before retiring. O'Farrell then became a contact and tackle coach and worked with the

Gold Coast Titans The Gold Coast Titans are a professional rugby league football club, based on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership, Australia's elite rugby league competition. Since 2008, the ...

New Zealand Warriors The Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as the Aucklan ...

Parramatta Eels The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL). The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, and ...

Australia national rugby union team The Australia men's national rugby union team, nicknamed the Wallabies, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for Australia. The Wallabies first played at Sydney in 1899, winning their first Test match (rugby u ...

and

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions are a professional Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that compete in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. Brisbane are the ...

References

1980 births Living people 20th-century Australian sportsmen 21st-century Australian sportsmen Australian rugby league players Melbourne Storm players Baroudeurs de Pia XIII players Place of birth missing (living people) Sportspeople from Warwick, Queensland Rugby league props {{Australia-rugbyleague-bio-1980s-stub