Daryl John Halligan(born 25 July 1966[2]) is arugby leaguecommentator and former professional player.[1]A New Zealand international winger, he was the pre-eminent goal-kicker of his era, retiring as the highest point scorer in Australian premiership history. Halligan played club football in Australia for theNorth Sydney BearsandCanterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs,winning the1995 ARL Premiershipwith the latter.
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| Full name | Daryl John Halligan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 25 July 1966 Waikato,New Zealand | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Height | 192 cm (6 ft 4 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 96 kg (15 st 2 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Position | Fullback | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Position | Wing | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Rugby union
editThis section of abiography of a living persondoes notincludeanyreferences or sources.(September 2023) |
Halligan attendedHamilton Boys' High Schooland made theNew Zealand national schoolboy rugby union teamin 1984.
He played representativerugby unionforWaikato.
Rugby league career
editHalligan made his first grade rugby league debut for North Sydney against theCanberra Raidersin Round 1 1991 atNorth Sydney Oval.
Halligan made 25 appearances for Norths as they enjoyed one of their best ever seasons finishing third on the table. In the minor preliminary semi final, Halligan kicked six goals as Norths defeated arch rivalsManly-Warringah28-16. The following week, Norths opponents were minor premiers thePenrith Pantherswith the winner qualifying for the grand final. Penrith lead Norths 12-0 at halftime before Norths fought back with Halligan scoring a try. Unfortunately for Norths, Halligan had one of his worst performances in his career as a goal kicker as he only kicked one goal from five attempts. Norths would lose the match 16-14 despite scoring more tries than Penrith and fell short of their first grand final appearance since 1943. The following week in the preliminary final, Norths were defeated 30-14.[3]
Halligan spent two further seasons at Norths but they failed to reach the finals. Halligan then joined Canterbury-Bankstown in 1994 and in his first season there played in the club's grand final loss against Canberra. In 1995, Halligan became a premiership winning player as Canterbury defeated Manly 17-4 in the 1995 ARL grand final. Canterbury had defied the odds as they came from sixth place on the table to defeat minor premiers Manly in the decider who had lost only two games all season.[4]
In 1998, he played on the wing forCanterburyin their loss in the1998 NRL grand finalto theBrisbane Broncos.In the preliminary final a week before, Canterbury were losing to arch-rivals theParramatta Eels18-2 with less than 10 minutes to play until Canterbury staged one of the biggest comebacks in finals history scoring three tries in nine minutes and Halligan kicking two goals from the side line, one of which would take the game into extra-time which Canterbury would go on to win 32-20 at theSydney Football Stadium.[5][6]
Halligan retired at the conclusion of the 2000 season with his final game being in round 26 2000 against theNewcastle Knightswhere he kicked four goals from four attempts.
Playing style
editHalligan was renowned as a fine goalkicker, his 855 first grade goals coming at an impressive 80% success rate.[citation needed]Halligan is noted for revolutionising goal-kicking by using a plastic tee from which to kick, instead of the old method where kickers would set the ball upon a mound of sand or earth.[7]He has since worked to design the popular "Supertee" line of kicking tees, used by top kickers in both codes of rugby across the world.[8]
Records
editIn 2000, Halligan became the first person to score 2,000 points in the NRL. That same year he overtookMick Cronin's record for the most points scored in anNSWRFLcareer (1,971) - a record which had stood since 1986; Halligan's eventual total of 2,034 was bettered byJason Taylorin 2001. Halligan also scored 80tries,and kicked 4field goalsto amass that total.
Post playing
editHalligan is currently a commentator withSky Network Televisionin New Zealand.
References
edit- ^ab"Statistics at rugbyleagueproject.org".rugbyleagueproject.org. 31 December 2017.Retrieved1 January2018.
- ^Matt Logue. "Legend Q&A".Rugby League Week(23 April 2008). Sydney, NSW: PBLMedia: 30–31.
- ^"Eight tragic NRL finals performances".News.au.
- ^"Canterbury attempting to channel the spirit of 1995 Bulldogs, who won the premiership from 6th spot".Daily Telegraph.
- ^"Top 10 preliminary final heartbreaks".nrl.23 September 2015.
- ^"Memorable Match: 1998 Preliminary Final".bulldogs.au.12 August 2014.
- ^Alan Whiticker & Glen Hudson (2007).The Encyclopedia of Rugby League Players.Wetherill Park, New South Wales:Gary Allen Pty Ltd. p. 215.ISBN978-1-877082-93-1.
- ^"Our Story | the History of SUPERTEE Rugby Kicking Tee".
External links
edit- ^Heads, Ian and Middleton, David (2008)A Centenary of Rugby League,MacMillan Sydney