Anthony Mundine - Rugby League

Rugby League

Mundine was born in Newtown, in the inner west of Sydney in 1975. Both his parents are indigenous Australians and his mother was part of the Stolen Generation. Mundine played junior rugby league for Hurstville United, and while attending Kingsgrove High School, he played for the Australian Schoolboys team in 1993. That year Mundine signed with the St. George Dragons as an eighteen year-old. He has also attended Canterbury Boys' High School and Cleveland Street High School.

In 1994, he represented the Junior Kangaroos, the team that beat Great Britain's under-19s in the curtain-raiser to the Australia v. France Test at Parramatta Stadium.

In 1996, he played in a losing Grand Final, against the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles. That year he was the victim of racial vilification when league player Barry Ward called Mundine a "black ****". Ward was fined $10,000 for the offense. At the end of that season he announced that he was signing with the Brisbane Broncos in the Super League competition.

In 1997 he played 18 games for the Broncos, scoring three tries. He also played in his first winning Grand Final team, beating the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks.

In 1998, after turning his back on the Broncos, he returned to the Dragons.

Mundine was selected to play for New South Wales state rugby league team in each of the three matches of the 1999 State of Origin series, scoring a try in Game I. That year he also assisted the Dragons' run to the Grand Final, with a hat-trick against the Sharks in the Major Semi-Final. The following week the Dragons lost to the Melbourne Storm in the 1999 NRL Grand Final during which and Mundine, playing at five-eighth knocked-on over the try line early in the second half, which proved to be a major turning point in the match.

Mundine was disappointed that further representative honours did not follow, and believed that his representative opportunities did not reflect his abilities and achievements at club level. He raised the issue of racism as a possible explanation for this, but this explanation was refuted by another Aboriginal player who represented New South Wales.

Anthony Mundine left rugby league halfway through the 2000 season, after being inspired to go into boxing, when a friend, Abdi Osman, showed him a video of Muhammad Ali. Mundine was intrigued and felt that he could compete comfortably in the world of boxing. He later cited what he claimed was racism in NSW, concerning rugby league, as one of the reasons he quit rugby league to take up boxing.

In 2005 Mundine was reported to be making a comeback to the NRL, but this did not eventuate.

In 2007 Mundine was appointed Indigenous Liaison Officer at the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

Mundine has close family ties to rugby league: he is a relative of Wes Patten, Amos Roberts, Beau Mundine and Reece Robinson, all NRL footballers. He is also the brother-in-law of Tyran Smith who married Mundine's sister, Kellie.