Andrew Ettingshausen

Andrew Ettingshausen

Personal information
Full name	Andrew Ettingshausen
Height	182 cm (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	85 kg (187 lb; 13 st 5 lb)
Playing information
Position	Centre
Club Years Team Pld T G FG P 1983–2000 Cronulla-Sutherland 328 165 1 0 662 1986–1987 Leeds Rhinos Total 328 165 1 0 662 Representative Years Team Pld T G FG P 1982–1983 Australian Schoolboys City Origin 1987–1998 New South Wales 27 7 0 0 28 1988–1994 Australia 25 14 0 0 56 1997 New South Wales (SL) 3 3 0 0 12 1997 Australia (SL) 4 0 0 0 0
Source: Rugby League Project and Yesterday's Hero

Andrew Ettingshausen (born 29 October 1965 in Sutherland, New South Wales) is an Australian former rugby league player. He played his first grade Australian club football for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks. Known for his deceptive pace, good hands and ability to score tries, "ET" as he was known, represented both New South Wales and Australia. After his retirement from league in 2000, Ettingshausen went on to host and produce his own fishing television show titled Escape with ET.

Ettingshausen was originally signed to the Cronulla side as a teenager before making his debut at eighteen while still at school. He quickly cemented a place in the Sharks first grade side and ultimately played 328 first grade games with the club over an eighteen seasons. From a time in the early 1990s he was seen as the face of rugby league in Australia. His rugged good looks equipped him well to be pushed to the front by the marketers of the game at that time and Ettingshausen did not disappoint with his athletic skills attracting the interest of traditional fans while his looks appealed to a growing base of female fans.

Biography

Early career

Ettingshausen began his rugby league career playing for his local club side at the age of six, though he first began to make inroads while playing for his school side De La Salle where he was subsequently scouted and signed as a junior to the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks.

1983

Andrew Ettingshausen made his first grade debut for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in round 5 of the 1983 season against the Newtown Jets at fullback, his debut was somewhat of an uneventful affair although he did cross for a try in the second half; his second match was no improvement as he had a poor game and was substituted at half time to then be dropped the following week to reserve grade.

1984

For the next few years his career continued to be somewhat of a series of ups and downs scoring a total of six tries over his first two seasons before being sidelined for a considerable amount of time in 1984 following a foot injury meaning he would spend yet again further time in reserve grade.

1985-1991

The 1985 season marked the first season where Ettingshausen started to stamp his mark on the NSWRL and rugby league in general; he scored a total of ten tries from the wing in his third season and cemented his spot in the Sharks squad.

At the conclusion of the 1986 off-season, Ettingshausen signed a one year deal with English rugby league club Leeds. Originally to gain further first grade experience and confidence he impressed his adopted English club so much they expressed an interest in him to re-join them again when he could.

The following season, Ettingshausen decided to act on the previous seasons interest from Leeds and yet again moved overseas in the Australian off-season. During the beginning stages of the season ET voiced his desire to move from off the wing and into the centres a move that would pay dividends and on returning home to Cronulla, Ettingshausen played in the centre position for the rest of his career. For the next half a decade Ettingshausen's reputation continued to grow in rugby circles amongst fans and coaches alike, scoring 69 tries in the next six seasons as well as being selected for both New South Wales and Australia. The 1988 season was his high point in the early years when he was moved off the wing and into the centres where he would remain for the rest of his career. He went on to score seventeen tries that season including crossing the line five times in one match against the Illawarra Steelers setting a record for most tries in a game, he then went on to make his debut for the Australian side after impressing national selectors throughout the season.

1992-2000

The 1992 and 1993 seasons were somewhat quiet ones for Ettingshausen whom continued to battle injury through large periods, including missing the early parts of the 1993 season after contracting malaria on a fishing trip to Papua New Guinea. When fit, ET's form was good enough to be the first choice fullback for New South Wales playing all 3 State of Origin games there in 1992 and from the bench in 1993.

1994 saw ET back at his best, seeing him score a total of eighteen tries and subsequently bringing his tally to over one hundred for the club and leading the Sharks by example after also being awarded the captaincy of the Sharks.

Ettingshausen continued to be the marquee player both for the Cronulla club topping the Sharks scoring lists from the 1994 to 1996 seasons as well as becoming the face of the National Rugby League competition often heading marketing campaigns.

ET further succumbed to injury midway into the 1998 season, hampering his chances at playing for the Sharks and threatening to prematurely end his rugby career. Andrew battled back from injury to play for another two seasons of first grade before his back problem was diagnosed as being chronic in the 2000 season and he played his final game for the against the Auckland Warriors that year.

He ended up playing a total of 328 NRL games, all for Cronulla which became the record for the most games for a single club, and 5th highest overall, behind Terry Lamb (349), Steve Menzies (341), Brad Fittler (336) and Cliff Lyons (332).

Controversy

During the 1991 NSWRL season Ettingshausen filed a lawsuit against the Australian HQ magazine and photographer Brett Cochrane [1]. Cochrane had taken a photo of Ettingshausen while he was in the shower undressed on the 1990 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain. The magazine ran the shot in 1991 without his permission. ET successfully sued the magazine for originally $350,000 which was later reduced to $100,000 after appeal.

New South Wales

Ettingshausen made his New South Wales State of Origin debut in the 1987 season and over the next nine years went on to bring his tally of State of Origin games to twenty-seven. This stands in 2nd place for most appearances for NSW (behind Brad Fittler) and in 5th place overall for the most appearances. He made his debut on the wing but went on to cover both the position of fullback and centre scoring a total of nine tries.

In 2005 he was named one of the 25 greatest ever NSW players.

Australia

He made his debut for Australia in the Ashes series against Great Britain in 1988 on the wing and continued to be a regular member of the Australian side for nearly on a decade. Ettingshausen was selected for the 1990 Kangaroo Tour, and against Papua New Guinea in 1991 along with playing in a three test series against New Zealand playing wing for the 1st game and at fullback in games 2 and 3.

He played at fullback for all 3 Tests against Great Britain in the 1992 series impressing pundits with his defensive displays. Injury unfortunately prevented him from selection in for Australia's one off test against Papua New Guinea in [Townsville] a few weeks after the Great Britain series and also Australia's winning World Cup squad at the end of the 1992 season. After playing from the bench in the 3 tests against New Zealand in 1993 he played on the wing in a further Test match against France in 1994 before embarking on his second Kangaroo Tour, playing in all four Tests, and earning the distinction of becoming the first player since Bob Fulton to be the top try-scorer on consecutive Kangaroo tours.

ET played his final international in 1997 for the Australian Super League team, before retiring from representative fixtures in 1999.

Career playing statistics

Ettingshausen's 165 tries is the third highest tally in Australian first grade rugby league, behind Ken Irvine (212), and Steven Menzies (172).

Point scoring summary

Games	Tries	Goals	F/G	Points
328	165	1	-	662

Matches played

Team	Matches	Years
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	328	1983 - 2000
Leeds Rhinos	-	1986 - 1987
New South Wales	27	1987 - 1998
Australia	29	1988 - 1997

Post Playing

During the 1992 rugby league season, a game was developed and released by Audiogenic worldwide and Ozi Soft in Australia titled 'ET's Rugby League.

The game was a rugby league game with 2d graphics and was made available for Amiga, Commodore C64 and IBM PC on September 8, 1992. The game is also available as Wembley Rugby League in England, the only difference between the two versions being the inclusion of English competition sides rather than the Australian ones and the game runs at around twice the speed of ET's Rugby League.

After the 2005 Cronulla riots Ettingshausen was selected along with fellow sports stars Susie Maroney, Nick Davis, Mark Ella and former Sharks team mate Jason Stevens to head the $250,000 NSW government campaign to promote Sydney's beach suburbs as safe for everyone.[2]

During the 2005 rugby league season ET was appointed as a consultant with the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks first grade side.

In February 2008, Ettingshausen was named in the list of Australia's 100 Greatest Players (1908–2007) which was commissioned by the NRL and ARL to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia.

ET Stand

In 1992, the Cronulla club extended their ground at Endeavor Field, adding a new stand to the ground at a cost of 2.5 million dollars[3]. The club originally calling the stand the 'Western Endeavour' grandstand but with the retirement of Andrew Ettingshausen in 2000 the club decided to name it the 'Andrew Ettingshausen' stand in his honour.

Sharks Immortal

2003 saw the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks name the top ten Sharks legends of all-time as nominated by fans and picked by a panel of experts. Ettingshausen was named amongst the ten and was then further honoured by being picked as one of the three first immortals of the club along with Gavin Miller and Steve Rogers

Escape with ET

With his retirement from rugby league Ettingshausen launched his media career with his own television show on the Nine Network in 1997 titled, Escape with ET. The show is essentially a fishing show hosted by Ettingshausen though it also focuses on many water sports (such as white water rafting and wakeboarding), off-road 4WD driving and other outdoors activities.

The show has been currently running for eight years to date and in 2005 moved to rival network Network Ten. It will also usually have a celebrity appearing on each episode including former rugby league players such as David Peachey and Ryan Girdler along with others including Paul Kelly, John Barnes, Layne Beachley amongst others.

Quotations

"He had a shocker against Canberra in the heavy rain at Endeavour, was replaced at half time and dropped to reserve grade." (Rugby League Week magazine on Andrew Ettingshausen's second first grade game, 1983)

"I just went out to back up any breaks the forwards made and it worked." (Ettingshausen, after scoring 5 tries vs Illawarra, 1989)

"We used to sing the song about the wise man.. built his house upon the rock and I think those three guys were the rock." (Sharks coach John Lang on ET, Danny Lee and Les Davidson)

"He looked very white." (Coach Jack Gibson, asked how Ettingshausen looked after his return from an off-season for Leeds, 1987)

"It was classic ET... in his case, age seems to help, not hinder." (RLW magazine report on the first game of 1997)

"When he is in full flight it is like a goalie trying to stop a penalty" (John Lang on ET, after his five-star performance against Easts, 1994)

"Stars of the match were the rival fullbacks - Penrith's school teacher Mark Levy and Cronulla's schoolboy Andrew Ettingshausen." (RLW magazine on the Round 24 clash, 1983)

"He showed maturity way beyond his years and is ice-cool under pressure." (Coach Gibson after the 1983 KB Cup Final)

"ET's so quick he can turn the light off and be in bed before it gets dark." (Supercoach Gibson again, while providing commentary for the 1987 State of Origin series)

External links

• Andrew Ettingshausen scoring statistics
• Escape with ET, television show official website