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Brett Stewart (born 27 February 1985 in Wollongong, New South Wales) is a professional rugby league player for the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles of the National Rugby League. An Australian international and New South Wales State of Origin representative fullback, he has played his entire NRL career to date for the Sea Eagles, with whom he won the 2008 and 2011 Premierships. ==Playing career== Born and raised in Wollongong, Brett Stewart and his older brother Glenn Stewart played their junior football for the Western Suburbs Red Devils, the same Illawarra Rugby League club that produced Manly-Warringah legend and rugby league Immortal Bob Fulton, as well as other noted Australian test players such as Garry Jack (also a fullback) and Steve Roach. After being overlooked by the region's local NRL club St. George Illawarra Dragons, Stewart was signed by the Manly Sea Eagles. As part of the deal in moving to Manly, Stewart insisted they also sign Glenn as the close-knit brothers wanted to play together. Brett Stewart made his NRL début for the Sea Eagles on 6 July 2003 in Round 17 of the 2003 NRL season as a replacement for injured fullback Brendon Reeves. In his only first grade game of the season, Manly were defeated 24-16 against the Parramatta Eels at Brookvale Oval. After playing from the bench in a 30-22 loss to the Wests Tigers at Leichhardt Oval in Round 7 of the 2004 NRL season, rookie coach and dual Manly premiership player Des Hasler moved former dual international Andrew Walker from fullback to five-eighth to bring Stewart in as the Sea Eagles custodian in Round 9 against the St. George Illawarra Dragons at Brookvale Oval. Manly defeated the Dragons 21-10 and Stewart made the #1 jumper his for the remainder of the season, cementing his place at the back for Manly and going on to score 14 tries from just 17 games. Stewart was second on the top try scorer list with 21 tries for the 2006 NRL season, one behind the South Sydney Rabbitohs' winger Nathan Merritt. As of the 2013 NRL finals, he has the best strike rate for tries versus games in the NRL, scoring in 76.8% of his games. Stewart is known as the "Try scoring wizard" because of strike rate in NRL games. In his first representative match playing for the Prime Minister's XIII against Papua New Guinea, he contributed to Australia's 28–8 win with a try. He made his State of Origin debut in Game 2 of the 2007 series, replacing an injured Anthony Minichiello at the last moment, and scored a try. Stewart played in the 2007 NRL Grand Final for Manly against the Melbourne Storm, but he was knocked out while contesting a bomb in the early minutes of the 2nd half by Storm forward Michael Crocker. Despite this, Stewart was selected as fullback for Australia's end of season test against New Zealand in Wellington, contributing with a try in Australia's record 58–0 victory over the Kiwis. After being overlooked for the Centenary Test against the Kiwis at the Sydney Cricket Ground in favour of in-form Storm and Queensland fullback Billy Slater, and again representing NSW in the 2008 State of Origin series, Stewart was one of the form players for Manly in their run to the 2008 NRL Grand Final, and was the NRL season's leading try scorer with 22 from 24 appearances. In the Grand Final, Manly faced their nemesis Melbourne for the second year running. 2008 would be very different however as the Sea Eagles recorded the largest ever GF win when they vanquished Melbourne 40-0 to send club legend Steve Menzies out with his second premiership win. While Stewart himself didn't cross for a try in the GF, he provided the last pass on a couple of occasions for team mates to score, including the last try of the game for departing Steven Bell. In August 2008, Stewart was named in the preliminary 46-man Kangaroos squad for the 2008 Rugby League World Cup, and in October 2008 he was selected in the final 24-man Australia squad alongside other Manly players Brent Kite, Josh Perry, Anthony Watmough, David Williams, and his brother Glenn. Unfortunately however, Stewart was forced to withdraw with a shoulder injury before the competition had begun. It had been rumoured that Stewart's late season form in 2008 saw him selected to the Kangaroos as the number one fullback in front of the incumbent Billy Slater. However, in Stewart's absence, Slater went on to cement his spot in the national side and was the leading try scorer in the World Cup with 7 in 4 games. Brett Stewart travelled with the Sea Eagles to England to face the Super League champions Leeds for the 2009 World Club Challenge at the Elland Road stadium in Leeds. Manly showed their class with a 28-20 win over the Rhinos, with both Snake and Anthony Watmough crossing for two tries. Stewart coud easily have become the first player to cross for a hat-trick in the WCC, but inexplicably dropped an easy pass from Watmough in the first half only 30 metres from the try line with no one near him. In the lead-up to the WCC, Manly became the first Australian side travelling to England to actually play a warm-up game, defeating the Harlequins RL at The Stoop in London, winning 34-26 and showing how serious they were taking the game (in Manly's previous WCC match against Wigan in 1987, the team, which included 2009 coach Des Hasler as a player, had gone to England fully expecting an easy win and treated the trip as something of a holiday resulting in a shock 8-2 loss to the English champions). Stewart featured in the NRL's 2009 television advertising campaign, alongside Storm player Greg Inglis as the "faces of rugby league". The campaign was launched in The Domain with Stewart declaring the start of the 101st season of rugby league in Australia. Legal issues then saw Stewart suspended from the opening four rounds of the 2009 NRL season. Without Stewart at fullback, Manly opened their premiership defense with four straight losses. The rot stopped when Stewart returned in Round 5 against the Tigers at Brookvale, scoring 3 tries as Manly won 23-10. He scored another two at Brookvale the next week against South Sydney before a knee injury forced him to miss the next 19 games. He made his return in Round 25 against Cronulla, but Manly were destined to be bundled out in the first week of the finals with a 40-12 away loss to Melbourne. The 2010 NRL season was one to forget for Stewart. In the first game of the season against the Wests Tigers at the Sydney Football Stadium he tore his Anterior cruciate ligament and missed the rest of the season. Manly were also without the services of star er David Williams who injured his shoulder in the warm-up for that game and was forced to also miss the season after having surgery. Stewart returned for Manly in 2011 and after scoring 15 tries in 20 games, helped the Sea Eagles into their third NRL Grand Final in five seasons. He played at fullback in the 2011 NRL grand final, scoring the opening try of the game in the win over the New Zealand Warriors (Glenn Stewart also scored in the game and would win the Clive Churchill Medal as the man of the match. As of the end of the 2014 NRL season before Glenn moved to South Sydney, Manly did not lose a game in which both Stewart brothers score tries). Stewart was then selected to make his return to representative football when he was chosen to play for Australia in the 2011 Rugby League Four Nations tournament, but again he was forced to withdraw from the team through injury before the series started. Stewart scored a try in the Sea Eagles' 2012 World Club Challenge loss to the Leeds Rhinos at Headingley in Leeds. After an injury-interrupted start to the 2012 NRL season with the Sea Eagles, Stewart returned to the field and his usual top form in time to be regain his position at fullback for New South Wales in the first game of the 2012 State of Origin series against Queensland at the Etihad Stadium in Melbourne. Stewart put in a solid performance in NSW's 10-18 loss and just missed out on scoring a try midway through the second half. The game was also the first time he and his older brother (and Manly team mate) Glenn Stewart had been selected for The Blues in the same game. Stewart played in the following two matches of the series which was won again by Queensland. After a heavy 40-12 loss to Melbourne in the 2012 Preliminary final, Manly remained strong in 2013 under the coaching of Geoff Toovey who had taken over the reigns following Des Hasler's shock departure to Canterbury-Bankstown only days after the 2011 Grand Final. Throughout the season there was constant media speculation that Stewart would leave Manly to join Hasler at the Bulldogs, though the rumours ultimately proved false. After coming from 14-0 down to defeat South Sydney 30-20 in the Preliminary final, Manly were controversially beaten 26-18 in the 2013 NRL Grand Final by the Sydney Roosters following many contentious decisions by referee Shayne Hayne. The 2014 NRL season saw Stewart and Manly remain at the top of the NRL, only losing the minor premiership in the final two games of the season to the Roosters following late season injuries to key players Matt Ballin and Jamie Buhrer. The season was also a tough one for Brett Stewart as his brother Glenn was out injured for much of the season with a foot injury and was ultimately not offered a contract which would lead him to signing with 2014 premiers South Sydney for 2015. After a disappointing finals series, Manly were ultimately bundled out in the semis by Canterbury who scored an 18-17 win in golden point extra time. The Semi-final was also Brett Stewart's 200th first grade game for Manly. Stewart scored 9 tries for the 2014 season, but was among the league leaders in try assists, giving out 22 in 19 games. Stewart started the 2015 season by scoring 3 tries in the first two games of the season. His two tries in the 24-22 home win over Melbourne in Round 2 were his 78th and 79th tries scored at Brookvale Oval in just his 86th game at the ground. The two tries also saw Stewart surpass former team mate Steven Menzies' try scoring record at the ground which had stood at 78 since his departure from the club following the 2008 Grand Final win. During a strong 32-12 win over the New Zealand Warriors in Auckland in Round 20 of the season (in which the Sea Eagles played the final 27 minutes with no replacements due to injuries), Brett Stewart scored two tries in the second half. The first was the 159th of his career and brought him to equal 6th on the all-time list alongside Matt Sing and Hazem El Masri. His second try (and his 14th of the season from just 16 games) was the 160th of his career and moved him to 6th outright, only four behind 5th placed Terry Lamb and five behind 4th placed Andrew Ettingshausen. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Brett Stewart (rugby league)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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