Mark Soden

Mark Soden (born 23 November 1968) is an Australian former rugby league footballer who played for the North Sydney Bears for eleven seasons.

Mark Soden
Personal information
Born (1968-11-23) 23 November 1968
Playing information
PositionHooker, Halfback
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1989–99 North Sydney Bears 170 28 1 1 115
Source: [1]

Early life

Soden was captain of the 1986 Australian Schoolboys and primarily played reserve grade with the club until he made his first grade debut on 2 April 1989 against the Western Suburbs Magpies.[2]

Playing career

Soden primarily played halfback up until the 1994 NSWRL season when an injury to former captain Tony Rea gave Soden the chance to play at hooker. The advent of the ten-metre defensive rule in 1994 seemed tailor-made to Soden's nippiness around the rucks and his great form kept former captain Tony Rea in reserve grade during the clubs run to the preliminary final that year. Over the next 5 seasons, Soden was a mainstay of the North Sydney team.

In 1996 he played 24 times and was in the side which lost to St George Dragons in the preliminary final. The following year, Norths made the preliminary final again against Newcastle Knights but missed the game due to injury. On 19 April 1998, Soden scored a controversial try against the Auckland Warriors involving a ball boy. Instead of placing the ball on the line to resume play, the ball boy threw the ball to Wade Horder who passed it to Soden. The Auckland players were not aware of what was happening and Soden darted off to score the try.

In round 7 of the 1998 NRL season, North Sydney suffered one of their worst ever losses when they were defeated 60-6 by the Brisbane Broncos. In the aftermath of the loss, it was revealed that Soden and fellow Norths player Ben Ikin had been at a nightclub into the early hours of the morning on the eve of the game.[3][4][5]

Soden's final game for Norths was against the North Queensland Cowboys in Townsville and which would also prove the final game for North Sydney as a first grade club. In his final game he was given a shot at goal towards the end of the match which he successfully converted. In total Soden played 170 games and scored 28 tries, he never played in a grand final but came close on 3 occasions in 1991, 1994 and 1996. Soden was a member of North's final campaigns in 1991, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1998.[6][7][8]

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References
  1. Rugby League Project
  2. "Match Summary (1972 - 2016) - Australian Secondary Schools Rugby League - SportsTG". SportsTG. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
  3. "April 26: 'Changa' calls time, Semi makes history". NRL.
  4. Carayannis, Michael (16 August 2014). "'You would always do what the players wanted': Former ballboy tells of his own sideline drama". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
  5. Ferguson, Shawn Dollin and Andrew. "NRL 1998 - Round 6 - Rugby League Project". www.rugbyleagueproject.org. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
  6. Ferguson, Shawn Dollin and Andrew. "Mark Soden - Career Stats & Summary - Rugby League Project". www.rugbyleagueproject.org. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
  7. "All Stars clash a good preview for selectors - Toohey's Group 11 - Seniors - SportsTG". SportsTG. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
  8. "Why ex-NRL star wants to put young players in sandpits". Daily Telegraph.
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