Kurt Gidley

Early and personal life

Gidley was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia.

He is the younger brother of Matthew Gidley, and is the youngest of three brothers. He was an apprentice butcher when he left high school. Gidley's current partner is Brooke McNamara. He was a Hunter Mariners junior.

Playing career

2000s

Gidley made his NRL debut for the Newcastle Knights in 2001 at 19 years of age where he played Five-eighth in a round 24 loss to St George Illawarra. However Gidley did not feature in the Knights successful finals run.

After winning the 2001 NRL Premiership, the Knights travelled to England to play the 2002 World Club Challenge against Super League champions, the Bradford Bulls. Gidley played on the in Newcastle's loss. Gidley had a productive 2004 season (being 18th man for the NSW Blues). In round 10 of the 2004 NRL season Gidley made history when he won the Knights' first ever golden point match by kicking the winning field goal after 3 minutes and 26 seconds of extra time. The Knights were without Andrew Johns for the season. That game was against the Broncos at Lang Park (Suncorp Stadium). Gidley missed most of the 2005 NRL season due to injury.

In 2006, Gidley travelled to Papua New Guinea to play for the Prime Minister's XIII against the Kumuls. Gidley had a productive season in 2007. He scored multiple times for the Newcastle Knights as well as having done well at converting goals. He scored 15 points against the South Sydney Rabbitohs in their round 5 clash including 2 tries 3/4 goals and a field goal. He has also represented NSW in 2007 State of Origin.

2010s

In January 2010, Gidley was named in the NRL All Stars team to play on 13 February 2010. He was voted as the Knight's representative after beating Ben Cross, Chris Houston and Jarrod Mullen. Kurt suffered a knee injury in the game which left him side-lined until Round 6 of the 2010 season. For the 2010 ANZAC Test, Gidley was selected to play for Australia from the interchange bench in their victory against New Zealand. On 7 May, 28 minutes into the Test match, starting Australian Cameron Smith came off the field with a shoulder injury, which led to Gidley coming on and playing dummy half for the rest of the game. On 17 May 2010 Gidley was named as and captain of the New South Wales Blues. For the first time in Origin history, Gidley captained the side from the reserves bench for Game 2. During a team bonding session on 10 June 2010 Gidley's ex teammate and friend Andrew Johns who at the time was the NSW assistant coach caused controversy when it emerged that he had encouraged a player to attack Queensland player Greg Inglis, referring to him as a "black cunt". Gidley defended Andrew Johns as not a racist and stipulated that "He's obviously still going to be a great mate of mine." Game 3 of the 2010 State of Origin series saw Gidley again starting from the bench, and this time stripped of his captaincy. Gidley came on to replace Michael Ennis after 30 minutes and went on to play the rest of the game. Just before half-time, Gidley set up an inside pass for Paul Gallen to crash over the try line for New South Wales first try of the game. In the 47th minute, Kurt scored the next try for the Blues which narrowed the point deficit to just one. He continued to make several linebreaks and defended strong. Gidley was later awarded the Brad Fittler Medal for NSW's Player of the Series. At the end of the 2010 season, Gidley was selected to play for Australia for the Four Nations Tournament. He played in 3 out of the 4 games and played in the final against New Zealand. He played the whole 2nd half of the final in the s due to a knee injury to teammate Brent Tate.

2011 saw Gidley selected in the NRL All Stars team for a second year in a row after Wayne Bennett used one of his two personal picks for Gidley.

Gidley was selected for Australia in the 2013 ANZAC Test and played from the interchange bench. In what was the first test match ever played in Canberra, New Zealand were defeated.

On 5 May 2015, Gidley signed a 1-year contract with Super League team Warrington Wolves, with an option for a second year, starting in 2016, ending a 15-year stint in the National Rugby League.

On his Super League début for the Wolves, Gidley converted 2 goals in a man of the match performance against 2015 champions the Leeds Rhinos. In April, he picked up the Super League Player of the Month award.

He played in the 2016 Challenge Cup Final defeat by Hull F.C. at Wembley Stadium.

He played in the 2016 Super League Grand Final defeat by the Wigan Warriors at Old Trafford.

In June 2017 it was announced that Gidley would retire at the end of the 2017 season.

Personal life

Gidley is founder and co-owner of Steel City Beer Company with Andrew Johns, Matthew Johns, Danny Buderus, and Matt Hoy.

References

References

1. (31 December 2017). "Profile at loverugbyleague.com". loverugbyleague.com.
2. (31 December 2017). "Statistics at rugbyleagueproject.org". rugbyleagueproject.org.
3. (31 December 2011). "Hunter Mariners at rl1908.com". rl1908.com.
4. (2 October 2006). "ARL announce Kangaroos squad for Tri-Nations". Sports Australia.
5. Liam FitzGibbon. (1 August 2008). "Surprises in Kangaroos squad". "Fox Sports News (Australia)".
6. (1 August 2008). "Veteran Lockyer named in Australian squad". International Herald Tribune.
7. (7 October 2008). "Manly six win Australia call-up". BBC.
8. Wald, Tom. (3 May 2009). "Kangaroos selectors stick by losing World Cup team for New Zealand Test". [[Fox Sports (Australia).
9. Fitzgibbon, Liam. (25 May 2009). "NSW selectors go with form and not reputation for Origin opener". Fox Sports News (Australia).
10. Dillon, Robert. (2010-01-28). "Gidley backs All Stars in passion play: Kurt confident intensity high in both camps | Newcastle Herald". Theherald.com.au.
11. (14 February 2010). "Kurt Gidley and Darren Lockyer undergo scans after All Stars clash". dailytelegraph.com.au.
12. (15 June 2010). "NSW skipper Kurt Gidley says Johns not a racist". heraldsun.com.au.
13. (6 February 2016). "Bellamy Takes Positives". bunbury.igwn.com.au.
14. NRL. (5 May 2015). "Gidley decides on future - Knights". Newcastleknights.com.au.
15. (11 June 2016). "Gidley named First Utility Super League Player of the Month". rugby-league.com.
16. (27 August 2016). "Hull FC's Jamie Shaul's late try takes Challenge Cup away from Warrington". Guardian.
17. (27 August 2016). "Challenge Cup final: Hull FC 12-10 Warrington Wolves". BBC.
18. (8 October 2016). "Warrington 6-12 Wigan: Super League Grand Final – as it happened!". Guardian.
19. (28 June 2017). "Kurt Gidley: Warrington Wolves half-back to retire at end of 2017 season". bbc.co.uk.
20. (16 April 2021). "Newcastle Legends Behind Launch of Steel City Beer Co".
21. (18 March 2022). "Knights say cheers to stadium beers".