Keith Lulia

Keith Lulia (born 17 June 1987) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. He previously played for the Wests Tigers, the St. George Illawarra Dragons, the Newcastle Knights and the Bradford Bulls. He primarily played as a centre and as a wing, but could also fill in at second-row.

Keith Lulia
Personal information
Full nameKeith Lulia
Born (1987-06-17) 17 June 1987
Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
Height192 cm (6 ft 4 in)
Weight99 kg (15 st 8 lb)
Playing information
PositionCentre, Wing, Second-row
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2007 St. George Illawarra 7 3 0 0 12
2008–11 Newcastle Knights 46 10 0 0 40
2012–13 Bradford Bulls 54 22 0 0 88
2014–15 Wests Tigers 12 5 0 0 20
Total 119 40 0 0 160
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2009–13 Cook Islands 5 1 0 0 4
As of 29 January 2019
Source: [1][2][3]
Lulia (in the center) playing for Cook Islands in 2013 Rugby League World Cup game against Tonga

Background

Born in Wollongong, New South Wales descendant from the Cook Islands Pukapuka AKA Danger Island where both his parents are from. Lulia Was educated at Illawarra Sports High School.

Keith began his junior rugby league career at the Port Kembla Blacks.

Playing career

St. George Illawarra Dragons

Lulia made his NRL début for the St. George Illawarra Dragons in Round 1 of 2007.

Newcastle Knights

Brian Smith signed Lulia to be a part of the new Newcastle Knights side of 2008. He played in 46 matches for the Knights spanning from 2008 to 2011.

Bradford Bulls (Super League)

In June 2011, the Bradford Bulls announced that Lulia had signed a 2-year contract with the Super League club.

In 2012, Lulia missed the all four pre-season games due to a biceps tear. He also missed the first 2 rounds. However he featured in 25 consecutive games from Round 3 (Wigan Warriors) to Round 27 (Catalans Dragons). He also featured in the Challenge Cup against Doncaster and Warrington Wolves. Lulia scored against the Wakefield Trinity Wildcats (3 tries), the Hull Kingston Rovers (1 try), Hull F.C. (1 try), the Widnes Vikings (1 try), Doncaster (2 tries), the Warrington Wolves (1 try), the Castleford Tigers (1 try) and the Wigan Warriors (1 try).

Lulia played in the pre-season friendlies against Dewsbury Rams and Leeds Rhinos. Lulia featured in seven consecutive games from Round 1 (Wakefield Trinity Wildcats) to Round 7 (Hull Kingston Rovers). He was injured for Round 8. He featured in Round 9 (Leeds Rhinos) to Round 20 (Warrington Wolves). He missed Round 21 due to the birth of his child. Keith returned in Round 22 (Hull F.C.) to Round 27 (Huddersfield Giants). Lulia also featured in the Challenge Cup against Rochdale Hornets and London Broncos. Keith scored against the Widnes Vikings (2 tries), the Hull Kingston Rovers (1 try), the Wakefield Trinity Wildcats (2 tries), the Catalans Dragons (2 tries), the London Broncos (1 try) and the Huddersfield Giants (3 tries).

Wests Tigers

On 18 July 2013, Lulia signed a 2-year deal with the Wests Tigers, starting in 2014. He appeared sporadically in first grade in 2014, covering for injured players Chris Lawrence, Tim Simona and David Nofoaluma.

In Round 19 of the 2014 NRL season, Lulia scored four tries against the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, equaling the club record set by Kevin McGuinness and Marika Koroibete. His coach, Mick Potter, said, "that was a great performance from him. His finishing ability was just second to none. A couple of those tries he scored, not too many people can do that sort of stuff."[4]

In August 2014, Lulia suffered a small vertebrae fracture to his neck and played no further football for the year.[5] He made no first grade appearances in 2015 and was released at the end of the year.[6]

Representative career

Lulia has represented the Cook Islands and was part of their squad for the 2009 Pacific Cup.[7]

He was also part of the team that took part in the 2013 Rugby League World Cup that was held in England and Wales

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gollark: I can probably still communicate with them by spamming webserver logs.
gollark: To try and unmute themselves, presumably.
gollark: Praise the R O B O D A N.
gollark: Selfmute, I can confirminate.

References
  1. Rugby League Project
  2. NRL Stats
  3. loverugbyleague
  4. Chammas, Michael (20 July 2014). "Wests Tigers smash Canterbury Bulldogs as Keith Lulia equals four-try record". Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  5. "Wests Tigers' Keith Lulia suffers broken neck as NRL injury list grows". ABC. 18 August 2014. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  6. "2016 NRL Transfers". Rugby League Week. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 18 December 2015.
  7. Roosters gain international stripes Archived 17 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine sydneyroosters.com.au, 7 October 2009
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