Mark Geyer

Mark Geyer
Personal information
Nickname MG
Born (1967-12-07) 7 December 1967
Playing information
Height 195 cm (6 ft 5 in)
Weight 105 kg (16 st 7 lb)
Position Second-row
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1987–92 Penrith Panthers 92 7 0 0 28
1993 Balmain Tigers 13 2 0 0 8
1995–97 Western Reds 32 2 0 0 8
1998–00 Penrith Panthers 43 2 0 0 8
Total 180 13 0 0 52
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1989–91 New South Wales 3 0 0 0 0
1990–91 Australia 3 1 0 0 4
Source: [1][2]

Mark Geyer OAM (born 7 December 1967), is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer of the 1980s and '90s. An Australian international and New South Wales State of Origin representative second-rower, he is currently a rugby league media identity. Geyer's club career was played primarily with Penrith, with whom he won a premiership in 1991, as well as the Balmain Tigers and the Western Reds. He is also the brother of fellow footballer Matt Geyer.

Since August 2009, Geyer has been part of the Triple M on-air team for the Sydney breakfast show called The Grill Team. Since 2012, Geyer has been a panelist on NRL on FOX for Fox Sports.

Playing career

In 1987, Geyer established a regular first-grade place with the Penrith Panthers and was selected for the City Seconds team after only a handful of top grade appearances. He also played in Penrith's 1987 Reserve Grade Grand Final winning team that defeated the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 11-0 at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Geyer was first selected in the second row for New South Wales team in game 3 of the 1989 State of Origin series, at Lang Park in Brisbane.

His 1990 season was largely lost to a succession of injuries that restricted him to just 12 games, though he did play in Penrith's maiden Grand Final appearance (an 18-14 loss to the Canberra Raiders) and from there was selected, along with Panthers team mates Greg Alexander, John Cartwright and Brad Fittler, for the 1990 Kangaroo tour. Geyer played in 11 games on the Kangaroo Tour, scoring 4 tries and earning his first Australian test jumper when he was selected on the bench for the first test against France at the Parc de Sports in Avignon. The Kangaroos won the test 60-4, though injury would keep him out of the second test in Perpignan.

Geyer's form for the Panthers in 1991 again earned him selection for NSW during the State of Origin series. Geyer received a five-match suspension for an incident in the second game at a wet Sydney Football Stadium, which was preceded by a half-time confrontation with Queensland captain Wally Lewis in which referee David Manson and NSW captain Ben Elias had to stand between the two who twice almost came to blows. He was cited for an elbow to the head of Queensland fullback Paul Hauff, which sparked an all-in brawl. His suspension saw him unavailable for selection in the first test of the 1991 Trans-Tasman Test series against New Zealand in Melbourne, though after the Australians lost the test 24-8 a number of changes were made and Geyer's form was rewarded with selection in the second test in Sydney and the third in Brisbane. The Aussies went on to win the final two tests to wrap up the series 2-1.[3]

In August 1991, he was thought to be out for the rest of the season after injuring his ankle ligaments in a training session, only to return for the major semifinal.[4] However, despite his problems during the season, Geyer helped the minor premiers into the Grand Final where they gained revenge on Canberra with a 19-14 win that saw the Panthers win their first premiership since entering the competition in 1967. Geyer had a hand in all three of the Panthers tries on the day and was judged to be their best player, though his sin-binning for dissent by referee Bill Harrigan during the second half was thought to have cost him the Clive Churchill Medal as man of the match.[5]

He spent the 1993 season with the Balmain Tigers and played for the Western Reds from 1995 until 1997, before returning to the Panthers in 1998.

In 2000, Mark Geyer was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his contribution to Australia's international standing in rugby league. He retired at the end of the 2000 season.

Post-playing career

Since his retirement, Geyer has written extensively about rugby league for various newspapers and sporting magazines.

In May 2010 he spoke out about his mid career drug and alcohol battle that lasted from 1992 - 1995 [6] and how it almost ended his career. He said a large part of the drug usage was to simply trying to numb the pain of losing his best mate, Former Penrith player Ben Alexander (rugby league), who was killed in a car accident in 1992.

Geyer was a regular panellist on rugby league talk show The Sunday Roast where he referred himself as 'the man of the people'. He also is on Triple M in Sydney, as a breakfast presenter on The Grill Team Monday-to-Friday 6-9am with Matthew Johns and Gus Worland since August 2009. He also appears on Triple M on Saturday mornings, presenting the 'Dead Set Legends' segment alongside Ray Warren.

In 2012, it was announced that Geyer joined Fox Sports (Australia) as part of their Rugby League coverage. He is a Panelist on NRL on FOX

Geyer is actively involved in a number of charities, such as the Fight For Life charity boxing event,[7] he is the ambassador for the Save Our Sons charity.

In response to the 2010–2011 Queensland floods, Geyer organised the 2011 Legends of Origin charity match which raised $455,345 for the recovery effort.

On Australia Day 2013, Mark was announced in the Honours List. He received an Order Of Australia medal for "service to the sport of Rugby League football, and to the community through a range of charitable organisations."

Personal life

Geyer's younger brother Matt Geyer also played rugby league, initially with Mark at the Western Reds in 1997, before playing with the Melbourne Storm between 1998 and 2008.

Geyer is married to the sister of former fellow Penrith players Greg Alexander and the late Ben Alexander. Mark and his wife have five children.

References

Sources

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/26/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.