Jacob Lillyman

Australian rugby league footballer

Jacob Lillyman (born 7 March 1984) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer. Throughout his career, he played for the North Queensland Cowboys, New Zealand Warriors and Newcastle Knights in the National Rugby League, while representing Queensland in State of Origin as a or .

Lillyman was born in Richmond, Queensland, Australia. Lillyman attended Columba Catholic College, Charters Towers, where he was a boarding student for a while. His youth club was the Richmond Tigers in Northwest Queensland.

Lillyman made his debut for the Cowboys in round 22 of the 2003 season against the Newcastle Knights. He then went on to play sixty two games for the club, showing good enough form to earn State of Origin selection. In 2008 Lillyman was forced to leave the North Queensland Cowboys due to salary cap pressures, and that year there ended abruptly for him when he suffered a season ending injury in Round 15, playing against the Melbourne Storm.

In June 2008, it was announced that he had signed a two year deal with the New Zealand Warriors for the 2009 and 2010 seasons. At that time he was joining a strong Queensland contingent at the club, which included former Cowboys Nathan Fien and Micheal Luck and well as fellow State representatives Steve Price and Brent Tate. In August 2010 he signed a one year extension and a further two year extension followed in May 2011 when Lillyman re signed for the Warriors until the end of the 2013 season In April 2014 he re signed until the end of the 2017 season, which would make it a straight nine years with the club. On 3 April 2016 Lillyman became the 11th player to mark 150 games for the New Zealand Warriors in their 32–28 win over the Sydney Roosters at Gosford, NSW, making 159 metres, with 31 tackles.

After 188 games with the New Zealand Warriors, Lillyman decided it was time to return to Australia, signing a one year contract with the Newcastle Knights starting in 2018. In round 1 of the 2018 season, Lillyman made his debut for the Newcastle club in their 19 18 golden point extra time win over the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles. In August 2018, he announced he would be retiring at the end of the 2018 season.

Lillyman made his State of Origin debut for Queensland on 14 June 2006 coming off the bench in the 53rd minute. Lillyman was recalled to the Queensland State of Origin team for the first match on the 2011 series. In the week leading up to Game II of the 2013 State of Origin series, it was announced that Lillyman would replace injured Sydney Roosters forward Martin Kennedy as the 18th man for Queensland in the next game of the series, marking his return to representative football. Lillyman played for Queensland in games two and three of the 2014 State of Origin series and in all three of the 2015 State of Origin series. A week before Game II of the 2016 State of Origin series, it was announced that Lillyman would replace injured Manly Warringah Sea Eagles prop Nate Myles for Queensland in the next game of the series.