User:Tiburon/Sandbox/Luke Bailey

Luke Bailey (born January 5, 1980 in Port Kembla, Australia) is an Australian rugby league player for the Gold Coast Titans in the National Rugby League competition, he also previously played for the St George Illawarra Dragons. Bailey has appeared for New South Wales on nine occasions to date in his career and for the Australian national side twice. His position of choice is usually at Prop forward.

Bailey was originally a junior of the Shellharbour Sharks club before signing for the Illawarra Steelers as a teenager prior to their merger with the St. George Dragons in 1999, he made his debut for the merged club in round one of the 2000 season at the age of twenty playing against local rivals the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks. Since his debut he has gone on to make a further a further one hundred and eighteen appearances for the Dragons before becoming newly formed National Rugby League franchise Gold Coast Titans second signing for their inaugral 2007 season where he was eventually named co-captain with Scott Prince.

Childhood and early career
He originally began playing rugby league at a junior level for the Shellharbour Sharks at the age of twelve after several seasons of junior soccer. His talent was quickly noticed and while still an adolescent was signed to a junior development deal with Australian Rugby League club the Illawarra Steelers. At the completion of the 1998 season the Illawarra club was forced to merge with the St. George Dragons and Baileys contract was renewed with the newly merged entity the St George Illawarra Dragons.

St George Illawarra Dragons
After playing a sole season of lower grade rugby with the Dragons Bailey had impressed the clubs top tier coaches enough to earn a spot on the bench for the Dragons 2000 season opener against local rivals the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks ; a game they would eventually lose twenty-eight to twelve. Bailey would go on to make another two consecutive appearances from the bench but after a twenty-four to zero thumping at the hands of the Canterbury Bulldogs he was dropped for their round four clash with the Northern Eagles.

Bailey would remain in the lower grades at the Dragons before earning a recall to the first grade side against the Wests Tigers in round six and a week later was given his first starting berth by coach David Waite. After an impressive performance during the teams win against the Auckland Warriors during his first start Bailey would remain a staple fixture in the teams starting line-up playing in every remaining season fixture cementing his starting position in the clubs line-up by seasons end.

After an impressive first year Bailey began the new season where the last had finished off retaining his starting spot in the front row. He would go on to appear in the Dragons first four appearances of the season impressive with more strong performances until he tore a pectoral muscle during the teams loss to the Warriors ruled him out for the entire 2001 campaign.

The beginning of the 2002 season saw Bailey recover fully from the injury that had prematurely ended his previous playing year and while he missed all of the clubs trials including the Charity Shield fixture against South Sydney he made his return to the team for their opening round clash against Cronulla-Sutherland and would go on to appear in a further twenty consective apperances putting in several man of the match performances and along the way earning himself a call up to the New South Wales State of Origin side. During the Dragons round twenty-one loss to the Newcastle Knights Bailey found himself being severely reprimanded for the first time in his short career after opposing forward Josh Perry had claimed Bailey had bitten him on the forearm before withdrawing the allegation moments later. The seriousness of the allegation and the media frenzy that followed however saw Bailey being called up to face the NRL Judiciary however he was later cleared of any wrong doing.

Five weeks later when the Dragons again took on the Newcastle side the spotlight was again on Bailey for a disciplinary issue with Knights coach Michael Hagan claiming that a tackle from him had injured Newcastle captain Andrew Johns and ended his season, however he was not charged over the incident.

2003 started well for the Dragons with six victories from their first eight games but it would become somewhat of a forgetable one for Bailey after he injured his back during a fixture against the Penrith Panthers and was left with a severe lower back strain after being cleared of a suspected fractured vertebrae. This injury became a somewhat re-occuring one and hampered his season keeping him out of several matches throughout the year. Further injury at the completion of the year ruled Bailey out of the Australian national side for their end of season Northern hemisphere tour after he required surgery to fix a damaged ear.

After missing the Australian tour and having his first full off-season of training under his belt since 2002 meant that Bailey would play in the Dragons trial matches that year including their 34 - 8 victory in Charity Shield against the Rabbitohs. However the actual season would not start as positively with Bailey being placed on report for a dangerous tackle in the season opener against the Canberra Raiders and then subsequently being charged, forced to miss the round two clash with the Warriors. Bailey would return from suspension a week later in the Dragons loss to the Melbourne Storm and then go on to play the next few rounds for the Dragons with several strong performances earning him an Australian call up. Though injury would again hamper him again during a regular season fixture against the Sea Eagles in round nine where Bailey re-injured his pectoral muscle as he had also done in 2001 which meant he was in for another lengthy stay on the sidelines being ruled out for the entire regular season. He would eventually make his return during the final series but not even his presence could help the Dragons from narrowly losing to the Penrith Panthers and having their season over.

2005 looked a promising one for both the club and Bailey who would start the season without any injury or suspension clouds hanging over his head. A promising start to the season would continue for the club helped by lack of injuries to key players including 'Bull' Bailey who would go on to make a total of twenty-three appearances for the club guiding them to equal top position of the ladder after all regular season games sitting just behind Parramatta on points difference. The finals series saw Bailey put in an impressive performance in a tough game against the Sharks but all would be in vain as the Dragons would eventually lose in the preliminary finals to eventual winners the Wests Tigers.

Baileys last season for the St George Illawarra side would be 20006

Gold Coast Titans
On June 23 2005; it was announced that the newly formed Gold Coast Titans club was chasing the signature of Bailey for its inaugral 2007 season. It was confirmed later that month that he had signed a three year deal with the club beginning with the first Titans season and finishing in 2009. Since signing with the Gold Coast club Bailey has been heralded as the rock on which the Titans forwards will rely on to start their debut season as possibly best they can and while the club would end up losing its first match by two points to his previous club the St George Illawarra Dragons they would start the season with a 3 and 2 win/loss record earning Bailey a re-call to the Australian national side for the 2007 Anzac test against New Zealand.

New South Wales
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Australia
Bailey would receive his first call up for the Australian national side during the 2003 season where after some impressive performances he would play his first game during the 2003 Anzac test against the New Zealand national side. However injury would greatly hamper his international career with an ear injury ruling him out of the end of 2003 season Northern hemisphere tour and pectoral muscle and back injuries ruling him out of further selection in selective years.

He would make his second international cap during the 2004 mid season test match against the Kiwis and not make another appearance until being called up to the Australian side after several impressive performances for his new Gold Coast club for the 2007 test against New Zealand.