Tim Sheens

Sheens as coach of the Australian national side in 2009
Personal information
Born	(1950-10-30) 30 October 1950 (age 61) Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Height	178.5 cm (5 ft 10.25 in)
Playing information
Position	Prop
Club
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
1970–82	Penrith Panthers	166	11	0	0	33
Coaching information
Club
Years	Team	Gms	W	D	L	W%
1984–87	Penrith Panthers	98	43	4	51	44
1988–96	Canberra Raiders	219	148	3	68	68
1997–01	Nth. Qld. Cowboys	105	28	4	73	27
2003–	Wests Tigers	172	79	0	93	46
	Total	594	298	11	285	50
Representative
Years	Team	Gms	W	D	L	W%
1991	NSW City Origin	1	0	0	1	0
1991	New South Wales	3	1	0	2	33
1997	New South Wales (SL)	3	3	0	0	100
2006–08	NSW City Origin	3	2	1	0	67
2009–	Australia	6	5	1	0	83
As of 1 November 2009
Source: Rugby League Project

Tim Sheens (born 30 October 1950) is an Australian professional rugby league football coach and former player. He currently coaches the Wests Tigers of the National Rugby League and in 2009 was appointed coach of the Australian national team, the Kangaroos. He has won four premierships as a coach and broken the record for most top-level games in Australian rugby league history and has also served as New South Wales' State of Origin coach.

As a player, Sheens was a prop forward with Sydney's Penrith Panthers in the 1970s and 80s before he retired and became their coach. He then coached the Canberra Raiders to successive premierships before moving to the North Queensland Cowboys and later the Wests Tigers.

Playing career[link]

Born to a well known rugby league family of the Penrith area,^[1] Tim Sheens was educated at St Dominic's College in Penrith but spent his last two years of school at St Gregory's College, Campbelltown, where he was the school captain and first-grade rugby league captain in 1968.^[2]

Sheens had a lengthy playing stint with Penrith, playing 166 first grade games from 1970 to 1982 and scoring 11 tries. Starting his career as a backrower, he finished as a ball-playing prop.^[3] In 1974 he was named as the Panthers' Player of the Year,^[4] but had his jaw broken in the inaugural Amco Cup final against Western Division.^[1]

By 1982, Sheens had played a club record 258 games in all grades, but was unable to come to terms with the club for another season.^[3] Sheens was soon coaxed out of retirement though, playing one season with the Campbelltown City Kangaroos in 1983, captaining that club to the Group 6 Rugby League premiership that season.

In October 2006, in recognition of his contribution as a player, Sheens was named as one of the Penrith Panthers "Team of Legends".^[5]

Tim Sheens' brother, Bob, was also a first grade NSWRFL player for Eastern Suburbs.

Coaching career[link]

Although his first ever game as first-grade coach was a 24–12 loss to St George, Tim Sheens has a track-record of reforming under-performing teams to premiership victory. He brought Penrith to their first finals series ever in 1985 and he coached the Canberra Raiders to their first premiership in 1989, a feat he repeated in 1990 and 1994.

However, Sheens' time with the North Queensland Cowboys (1997–2001) was less successful and, after board discussions, a period of stress-leave and while News Limited launched a take-over of the club,^[6] he resigned from North Queensland on 25 May 2001.^[7]

In 2002, Sheens accepted the coaching position with the Wests Tigers for the 2003 season, replacing Terry Lamb. The feat of the Wests Tigers winning the 2005 Grand Final against the Cowboys has been largely attributed to Sheens.

Sheens has coached four premiership winning teams, making him second only to Wayne Bennett among current coaches. Sheens was awarded the Dally M Coach of the Year in 1984, 1990 and 2005.

In December 2007, Sheens' contract with the Tigers – due to expire at the end of the 2008 season – was extended to 2010.^[8]

On 3 May 2010 Sheens became the first coach in Australian rugby league history to reach 600 games. In 2011, Penrith Panthers offered Tim the job as head coach for the club. However, on 29 April 2011, Tim decided to stay coach for the Tigers and extended his coaching contract for until 2014.

Representative coaching[link]

At the representative level, Sheens coached the 1991 ARL City Origin team to a 22–12 win over Country. In the same year, as coach of the NSW State of Origin team, he led the side to a 2–1 series loss to Queensland. In 1997 Sheens coached the NSW super league side^[9] to a 23 to 22 win over Queensland in a Tri series competition involving NSW Queensland and New Zealand.

Sheens returned to the NRL representative arena in 2006 when he succeeded Graham Murray as coach for City Origin, a post he retained in 2007 and 2008.^[10] In 2006, City lost to Country, 12 points to 10 but won in 2007, 12 points to 6. The 2008 match was a 22–22 draw, with City retaining the trophy.^[11]

In February 2009, Sheens was appointed coach of the Australian national rugby league team following the resignation of Ricky Stuart.^[12] Sheens coached the Kangaroos to their first win in his charge, defeating the Kiwis on 8 May 2009.^[13]

Coaching record[link]

Footnotes[link]

Succession information[link]

External links[link]

• Profile at NRL.com
• Wests Tigers Official Site – current team
• Tim Sheens at The Rugby League Project

Beau Ryan

Ryan in 2009
Personal information
Born	(1985-05-11) 11 May 1985 (age 27)
Height	186 cm (6 ft 1 in)
Weight	85 kg (13 st 5 lb)
Playing information
Position	Wing, Centre, Fullback
Club
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
2007–	Wests Tigers	90	43	0	0	172
As of 19 May 2012
Source: League Central Rugby League Project

Beau Ryan (born 11 May 1985) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer for the Wests Tigers of the National Rugby League. He plays primarily in the backs.

Playing career[link]

Ryan played junior football with Wests Illawarra. In 2003, Ryan was selected to represent in the New South Wales Schoolboys team. In 2005 he won a premiership with the St. George Illawarra Dragons Jersey Flegg Cup team^[1] under coach Steve Price, but left the club as he was behind centres Matt Cooper, Mark Gasnier and Wes Naiqama.^[2]

Making his NRL debut in round 16 of 2007, Ryan played a further 2 games that year, scoring a try in his second appearance. The next season, he played in 15 games.

From 2009 onwards, Ryan was a regular on the wing for the Wests Tigers. He scored a personal best 13 tries that year, including seven tries in the last 4 games. Soon after, Ryan signed a contract to remain with the Tigers until the end of the 2012 season.^[3]

Injury hampered Ryan's season in 2011, and he didn't take his regular position on the wing until round 14. He scored 8 tries in the remaining 13 games, including the last try of the qualifying final match against St George as the Wests Tigers came from 12-6 down at half time to win 21-12.

Television career[link]

From 2009, Ryan began making regular comedic appearances on The Footy Show,^[4] and in 2010 started his own comedy segment, "Beau Knows...".^[5] He has also created two popular characters; DJ Yallah, an Egyptian-Australian DJ from Bankstown and Donnie Palmer, a Titans trainer who is obsessed with doing stretches.

Coach Tim Sheens said of Ryan's television appearances, "Some players play golf on their day off. He goes and has some fun doing some television. At the moment, TV is his interest and good luck to him as long as it doesn't overtake his football."^[6]

Career highlights[link]

• First Grade Debut – Round 16, 2007 vs Canberra Raiders at Canberra Stadium.

Footnotes[link]

External links[link]

• Beau Ryan at Wests Tigers
• Beau Ryan at the Rugby League Project

Mark Geyer (born 7 December 1967), is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer of the 1980s and '90s. An Australian international and New South Wales State of Origin representative second-rower, he is currently a rugby league media identity. In the 1990s, he was one of the code's more controversial players in Australia due to his ability to generate headlines regarding both his on- and off-field activities and publicised comments, which gained him at least as much attention as much as for his undubitable playing talent. Geyer's club career was played primarily with Penrith, with whom he won a premiership in 1991, as well as the Balmain Tigers and the Western Reds. He is also the brother of fellow footballer Matt Geyer.

Since August 2009, Geyer has been part of the Triple M on-air team for the Sydney breakfast show called The Grill Team. Since 2012, Geyer has been a panelist on NRL on FOX for Fox Sports.

Playing career[link]

In 1987, Geyer established a regular first-grade place with the Penrith Panthers and was selected for the City Seconds team after only a handful of top grade appearances. In 1987 he was picked in the President's XIII against the touring British Lions.

Geyer's reputation for controversy began that winter when he served a six-match suspension for the first five matches of 1989 with English club Sheffield Eagles, thus giving Penrith his services for four more games than they would otherwise not have had. Geyer gained a place in the New South Wales State of Origin team that year. His 1990 season was largely lost to a succession of injuries, but he came back to play in Penrith's grand final loss to Canberra and be selected for the 1990 Kangaroo tour, during which Geyer played his first Test. During the 1991 season, he received a five-match suspension for an incident in the second State of Origin game, which preceded an infamous confrontation with Queensland captain Wally Lewis, and had to battle continuing injuries. However, despite his problems during the season, Geyer helped his team win the grand final in a re-match against Canberra that year. He set up all three Penrith tries scored during the match and was only denied the Clive Churchill Medal by having been sin-binned earlier in the second half.

Following his breakthrough season, Geyer continued to attract controversy during his playing career. After missing the Australian tour of Papua New Guinea due to injury, he failed to play in Penrith's World Club Challenge match against Wigan due to passport problems. In 1992, a sensation occurred when he tested positive to marijuana in a random drug test and he was suspended for ten matches. Penrith then cancelled his contract and in 1993 he signed with Balmain, but was released from the team when he failed to attend training in January the following year. Geyer was rumoured to possibly play for South Sydney but, against the wishes of his manager, he spent a season with amateur club Umina on the Central Coast of NSW.

After moving to Perth in 1995 to link up with the newly formed Western Reds, Geyer showed good form despite a four-match suspension. The following two years, however, were decimated by suspensions totalling sixteen games and several injuries. Despite achieving the club's captaincy and some positive form late in 1996, News Corporation closed the door on the Reds a year later. Geyer spent the last four years of his career back at Penrith but concerns over his fitness limited his role (and playing time) to starting from the interchange bench.

In 2000, Mark Geyer was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his contribution to Australia's international standing in rugby league.

Post-playing career[link]

Since his retirement, Geyer has written extensively about rugby league for various newspapers and sporting magazines.

In May 2010 he spoke out about his mid career drug and alcohol battle that lasted from 1992 - 1995 ^[1] and how it almost ended his career. He said a large part of the drug usage was to simply trying to numb the pain of losing his best mate, Former Penrith player Ben Alexander, who was killed in a car accident in 1992.

Geyer was a regular panellist on rugby league talk show The Sunday Roast where he referred himself as 'the man of the people'. He also is on Triple M in Sydney, as a breakfast presenter on The Grill Team Monday-to-Friday 6-9am with Matthew Johns and Gus Worland since August 2009. He also appears on Triple M on Saturday mornings, presenting the 'Dead Set Legends' segment along side Ray Warren.

In 2012, it was announced that Geyer joined Fox Sports (Australia) as part of their Rugby League coverage. He is a Panelist on NRL on FOX

Geyer is actively involved in a number of charities, such as the Fight For Life charity boxing event,^[2] he is the ambassador for the Save Our Sons charity.

In response to the 2010–2011 Queensland floods, Geyer organised the 2011 Legends of Origin charity match which raised $455,345 for the recovery effort.

Personal life[link]

Geyer's younger brother Matt Geyer also played rugby league, initially with Mark at the Western Reds in 1997, before playing with the Melbourne Storm from 1998–2008.

Geyer is married to the sister of former fellow Penrith players Greg Alexander and the late Ben Alexander.

References[link]

Sources[link]

• Whiticker, Alan and Hudson, Glen; The Encyclopaedia of Rugby League Players (3rd edition); published 1998 by Gary Allen Pty. Ltd.; 9 Cooper Street, Smithfield, New South Wales, 2164.

External links[link]

• Mark Geyer at NRL Stats
• Twitter
• Mark Geyer at eraofthebiff.com
• Mark Geyer at the Rugby League Project