Anthony Watmough

Anthony Watmough

Personal information
Full name	Anthony Thomas Watmough
Born	(1983-07-10)10 July 1983 Auburn, New South Wales,Australia
Playing information
Height	183 cm (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	97 kg (15 st 4 lb)
Position	Second-row,Lock
Club Years Team Pld T G FG P 2002 Northern Eagles 8 1 0 0 4 2003–14 Manly Sea Eagles 278 71 0 0 284 2015 Parramatta Eels 17 1 0 0 4 Total 303 73 0 0 292 Representative Years Team Pld T G FG P 2005–07 City Origin 2 1 0 0 4 2005–14 New South Wales 14 1 0 0 4 2008–13 Australia 16 0 0 0 0 2010–12 NRL All Stars 2 0 0 0 0
Source:

Anthony Watmough(born 10 July 1983) is an Australian former professionalrugby leaguefootballer. An Australian international and New South Wales State of Origin representative forward, he played the majority of his career with theManly-Warringah Sea Eagles,winning both the2008 NRL Premiershipand the2011 NRL Premiershipwith them.

Playing career

2000s

A product of the Narrabeen Sharks,Watmough first played in the NRL in 2002 for theNorthern Eaglesclub. In 2005, Watmough was first selected for theNew South WalesState of Originteam. Watmough was awarded the 2007Dally MSecond Rower of the Yearaward. He played in the2007 NRL grand finaldefeat by theMelbourne Storm.He played in the2008 NRL Grand Finalvictory over the Melbourne Storm and was then named in theAustraliansquad for the2008 Rugby League World Cup.

Watmough in 2008

After being involved in an alleged incident where Watmough abused a club sponsors 21-year-old daughter and then punched the sponsor at the club's 2009 season launch,Watmough started the following season in good form, winning the man-of-the-match award for his two-try performance in Manly's victory in the2009 World Club Challenge.He was selected forAustraliain the one-off test match againstNew Zealandon 8 May 2009.

Watmough gave a dominant display to earn the man of the match award in game 3 of the2009 State of Origin seriesin what was described by commentatorAndrew Vossas one of the greatest ever Origin performances.He won his second Dally M Second-Rower of The Year award for the 2009 season and in doing so made sure Manly retained the award for the third year in a row as his teammateGlenn Stewartwon it the year before and Watmough won it in 2007. In the 3-year period from the start of 2008 season, Watmough was penalised in games 70 times, the most of any player in the NRL. To add, he had recently been caught urinating on a shopfront which caused a fan fume uproar.

2010s

For the2010 ANZAC Test,Watmough was selected to play forAustraliafrom the interchange bench in their victory againstNew Zealand.2011 was seen as a turnaround for Anthony Watmough both on and off the field. Off-field, Manly coach Des Hasler enlisted the help of his1987and1996premiership coach,Rugby League Immortaland club legendBob Fultonwhose private talk with Watmough put the 27-year-old back on the straight and narrow while his on-field form for the second placed Manly club saw him return to theNSW Origin teamfor games 2 and 3 of the2011 State of Origin series.

However, before the end of the season, reports emerged of another off-field transgression, with Watmough accused of trashing a hotel room after a State of Origin victory.

In the2012 State of Origin series,Watmough was the only New South Wales player who had ever experienced a series victory. Watmough was selected for Australia in the2013 ANZAC Testand played from the interchange bench. In what was the firsttest matchever played inCanberra,New Zealand were defeated.

On 28 October 2014, after a couple months of speculation of Watmough making a move to theParramatta Eels,he was released from Manly-Warringah to sign a four-year deal with the Eels starting from the2015 NRL season.

Following his first full season with the Parramatta club in 2015, with some time off the field due to injury, Watmough entered the2016 NRL seasonwith the club aiming for a premiership. It was early in the2016 NRL seasonthat he suffered a recurring knee injury which saw him sidelined once again.

It was also early into 2016 which saw the club entangled in salary-cap related controversy, and following a lengthy investigation, theNRLdeemed Parramatta to be non-compliant with the salary cap - the club was docked 12 competition points, and ordered to become compliant to be able to play for competition points over the remainder of the season.

This led to the club needing to move players on, and with Watmough having been rumored to be looking to retire due to injury earlier on in the season, this was something the club would want to make use of to become compliant.

It was on May 12, 2016 that Watmough's medical retirement was given the green light by theNRL.

Post playing

On 13 June 2018, Watmough unleashed an extraordinary tirade against Manly captainDaly Cherry-Evans,accusing him of holding Manly back over his financial demands. Watmough claimed that Cherry-Evans had turned into a "fuckwit" after the halfback's first season with the club in 2011, when they won the NRL premiership. Watmough said, "He just signed a four-year deal and he didn’t turn up to training. He said his manager told him not to. His idiot manager signed him for five years on no money because nobody thought he was good. In the end, [coach]Geoff Tooveysuccumbed to the board and [Cherry-Evans] was put on $500,000 after being on $50,000. Toovey chose the board and one player over the rest of the players and that’s where he lost me ".

External links

• NRL profile
• Anthony Watmough atManly Sea Eagles