Petero Civoniceva
Encyclopedia
Petero Civoniceva is an Australian professional rugby league
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...

 footballer currently contracted to the Brisbane Broncos
Brisbane Broncos
The Brisbane Broncos are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the city of Brisbane, the capital of the state of Queensland. Founded in 1988, the Broncos play in Australasia's elite competition, the National Rugby League premiership. They have won six premierships and two...

 of the National Rugby League
National Rugby League
The National Rugby League is the top league of professional rugby league football clubs in Australasia. The NRL's main competition, called the Telstra Premiership , is contested by sixteen teams, fifteen of which are based in Australia with one based in New Zealand...

. A Queensland State of Origin
Queensland rugby league team
The Queensland rugby league team have represented the Australian state of Queensland in rugby league football since the sport's beginnings there in 1908...

 and Australian international representative prop forward, in 2009 he broke the record for most international matches for Australia of any forward in history.Civoniceva previously played his club football for the Penrith Panthers
Penrith Panthers
The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football team based in the western Sydney suburb of Penrith. They compete in the National Rugby League premiership, the top rugby league football competition in Australasia. For the 2012 NRL season they will be coached by Ivan...

 and before that the Brisbane Broncos
Brisbane Broncos
The Brisbane Broncos are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the city of Brisbane, the capital of the state of Queensland. Founded in 1988, the Broncos play in Australasia's elite competition, the National Rugby League premiership. They have won six premierships and two...

, with whom he won the 1998, 2000 and 2006 NRL Premierships. The Petero Civoniceva Medal is awarded to the Australian Fijian rugby league player of the year.

Early Life

Civoniceva was born in Suva
Suva
Suva features a tropical rainforest climate under the Koppen climate classification. The city sees a copious amount of precipitation during the course of the year. Suva averages 3,000 mm of precipitation annually with its driest month, July averaging 125 mm of rain per year. In fact,...

, Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...

, where his father, Petero Sr, was a rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 player. Civoniceva's parents moved to Redcliffe, Queensland
Redcliffe, Queensland
  Redcliffe is a residential suburb of the Moreton Bay Region in the north-east of the Redcliffe peninsula, approximately north-northeast of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia...

 before his first birthday. There he attended Humpybong State School, then Redcliffe State High School before finishing his senior schooling at Frawley College, now known as Southern Cross Catholic College
Southern Cross Catholic College
Southern Cross Catholic College , opened 30 January 1995, is a co-educational school based in Redcliffe in Queensland, Australia. The college was formed out of the amalgamation of several schools on the Redcliffe Peninsula; in particular: De La Salle College - both the Junior and Secondary College...

.

Brisbane Broncos

After 39 reserve grade games he began his NRL career as a centre with the Brisbane Broncos. He won the club's Rookie of the Year award in 1998
Brisbane Broncos 1998
The 1998 Brisbane Broncos season was the eleventh in the club's history. They participated in the newly formed National Rugby League's 1998 premiership and posted their three biggest ever wins in rounds 5, 7 and 15 before capturing their fourth premiership in seven seasons.Broncos trio Allan...

 and went on to play from the bench in Brisbane's 1998 NRL grand final
1998 NRL grand final
The 1998 NRL grand final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the 1998 NRL season. It was the first grand final since the National Rugby League's formation and featured minor premiers and the previous year's Super League premiers, the Brisbane Broncos against the Canterbury Bulldogs,...

 win at the end of the season.

Civoniceva missed the Broncos grand final
Grand Final
Grand Final is a predominantly Australian sport term used to describe a match that decides a league champion.It originated in Victoria and South Australia and has become specifically significant Australian culture...

 victory in 2000 due to injury, as well as Australia's 2000 World Cup
2000 Rugby League World Cup
The 2000 Rugby League World Cup was the twelfth staging of the Rugby League World Cup and was held during October and November of that year in Great Britain, Ireland and France...

 campaign. His international and State of Origin debuts came the following year. At the end of the 2001 NRL season, he went on the 2001 Kangaroo tour
2001 Kangaroo Tour
The 2001 Kangaroo Tour was almost abandoned due to the events of September 11, 2001. The tour was initially cancelled by the ARL but after strong public opinion in both Great Britain and Australia, it went ahead, though the only games played were the three tests, marking the first Kangaroo Tour to...

.

After the 2003 NRL season he went on the 2003 Kangaroo tour
2003 Kangaroo Tour
The 2003 Kangaroo Tour was a six-match tour by the Australia national rugby league team of France, Wales and England. The last three matches were all Tests against Great Britain...

.

Civoniceva won the Brisbane club's Player of the Year award in 2004
Brisbane Broncos 2004
The 2004 Brisbane Broncos season was the seventeenth in the club's history. They competed in the NRL's 2004 Telstra Premiership, making it to the finals again, but were knocked out of contention by the North Queensland Cowboys, their first ever loss to the club....

 and again in 2006
Brisbane Broncos 2006
The 2006 Brisbane Broncos season was the nineteenth in the club's history. Coached by Wayne Bennett and captained by Darren Lockyer, they won the NRL's 2006 Telstra Premiership, finishing the regular season in 3rd place before going on to win the 2006 NRL Grand Final against minor premiers the...

, when he played at prop in the Broncos' 2006 NRL Grand Final victory.

The following season, at the Broncos' 20-year anniversary celebration, the club announced a list of the 20 best players to play for them to date which included Civoniceva.

In round 8 of NRL season 2007
National Rugby League season 2007
The 2007 NRL season was the one hundredth season of professional rugby league football club competition in Australia, and the tenth run by the National Rugby League...

, Civoniceva played his 200th game for the Brisbane club, becoming only the eighth Broncos player to do so.

Civoniceva's Brisbane
Brisbane Broncos
The Brisbane Broncos are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the city of Brisbane, the capital of the state of Queensland. Founded in 1988, the Broncos play in Australasia's elite competition, the National Rugby League premiership. They have won six premierships and two...

 contract ended at the conclusion of the 2007 season. The Broncos
Brisbane Broncos
The Brisbane Broncos are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the city of Brisbane, the capital of the state of Queensland. Founded in 1988, the Broncos play in Australasia's elite competition, the National Rugby League premiership. They have won six premierships and two...

 decision to withdraw the contract to the prop was due to salary cap restrictions.

Penrith Panthers

Civoniceva signed to play for the Penrith Panthers
Penrith Panthers
The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football team based in the western Sydney suburb of Penrith. They compete in the National Rugby League premiership, the top rugby league football competition in Australasia. For the 2012 NRL season they will be coached by Ivan...

 for the 2008 season. The deal is for 2 years with an option for a third and is believed to be worth $370,000 a year.
Civoniceva's move to New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 and another NRL
National Rugby League
The National Rugby League is the top league of professional rugby league football clubs in Australasia. The NRL's main competition, called the Telstra Premiership , is contested by sixteen teams, fifteen of which are based in Australia with one based in New Zealand...

 team rather than relocating to England allowed him to continue to be available to represent both Australia
Australian national rugby league team
The Australian national rugby league team have represented Australia in senior men's rugby league football competition since the establishment of the game in Australia in 1908. Administered by the Australian Rugby League, the Kangaroos' are ranked number one in the RLIF World Rankings...

 and Queensland.

In January, 2008, Penrith Panthers announced Civoniceva as captain of the team for 2008.

In August 2008, Civoniceva was named in the preliminary 46-man Kangaroos squad for the 2008 Rugby League World Cup
2008 Rugby League World Cup
The 2008 Rugby League World Cup was the thirteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup since the inauguration of the tournament in 1954, and the first since the 2000 event...

, and in October 2008 he was selected in the final 24-man Australia squad.

His deal with Penrith was set to expire at the end of the 2009 NRL season. He re-signed with Penrith until the end of 2012.

Civoniceva was selected for Australia in the one-off test match against New Zealand
New Zealand national rugby league team
The New Zealand national rugby league team has represented New Zealand in rugby league football since intercontinental competition began for the sport in 1907. Administered by the New Zealand Rugby League, they are commonly known as the Kiwis, after the native bird of that name...

 on 8 May 2009.

He went on to play in Queensland's State of Origin victories in game 1 and then game 2, but suffered a season-ending foot injury in the first half of the second match. After sitting out the remainder of the NRL season, his next match was for Australia against New Zealand in the opening match of the 2009 Four Nations in London. By playing in the final, a victory against England, Civoniceva became the first forward in history to play forty internationals for Australia.

In 2010, Civoniceva led the Panthers to second place on the NRL ladder at the conclusion of the season, but in the penultimate round of the season he was sent off for a high tackle against the Bulldogs which resulted in him being suspended for two weeks. As a result, he missed Penrith's first qualifying final, where despite a brave effort the Panthers lost by just two points against the Canberra Raiders
Canberra Raiders
The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby League premiership since 1982...

.

In Round 5 of the 2011 season, Civoniceva scored his first try since Round 8, 2008, against the Canberra Raiders
Canberra Raiders
The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby League premiership since 1982...

 in the 36–10 thrashing at Centrebet Stadium. He was one of the stars of Queensland's victory in Origin 1, 2011, running for more than 150m and outperforming the NSW forwards.

Civoniceva scored his second try of the season in Round 16 against the North Queensland Cowboys
North Queensland Cowboys
The North Queensland Cowboys are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, Queensland. They compete in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby League premiership...

, which was a 30-20 victory by the Panthers. The try involved a skilful left foot step from close range that left several Cowboys players, including Matthew Bowen, grasping at thin air. This was the Women in League round, and also the rookie coach, Steve Georgallis
Steve Georgallis
Steve Georgallis is an Australian professional rugby league football coach and former player. Appointed as the Penrith Panthers head coach part-way through the 2011 NRL season, he played during the 1990s in Sydney for the Eastern Suburbs Roosters, Western Suburbs Magpies and Wests Tigers, as well...

' first game as coach for the Penrith Panthers.

Civoniceva's stint at Penrith ended on a low, with the Panthers failing to qualify for the Semi-Finals, and thrashed by the St. George Illawarra Dragons, 32-12, at Round 26. Civoniceva also succumbed to a torn pectoral muscle injury during the 22nd minute of the game.

Return to Red Hill

On 26 July 2011 it was announced that the Penrith Panthers released Civoniceva from the final year of his contract, within the week, it was final that he had signed to return to his original club, the Brisbane Broncos
Brisbane Broncos
The Brisbane Broncos are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the city of Brisbane, the capital of the state of Queensland. Founded in 1988, the Broncos play in Australasia's elite competition, the National Rugby League premiership. They have won six premierships and two...

 on a one year deal.

External links


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