Chris Sandow (born 9 January, 1989 in
Kingaroy, QueenslandKingaroy is an agricultural town in Queensland, Australia, approximately or about 2½ hours drive north-west of the state capital Brisbane. The town is situated on the junction of the D'Aguilar and the Bunya Highways...
) is an Indigenous Australian professional
rugby leagueRugby league football is a full-contact form of football, played with a prolate spheroid ball by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. Rugby league is one of the two codes of rugby football, the other being rugby union...
player for the
South Sydney RabbitohsThe South Sydney Rabbitohs are an Australian professional rugby league football team based in Redfern, a suburb of South-Central Sydney. They participate in the National Rugby League premiership and are one of nine existing teams from the New South Wales capital...
in the
National Rugby LeagueThe National Rugby League is the top league of professional rugby league football clubs in Australasia. The NRL competition is contested by sixteen teams, fifteen of which are based in Australia with one based in New Zealand...
competition (NRL). He plays as a half-back.
Junior career
Sandow grew up in Queensland playing rugby league in the Aboriginal community of Cherbourg, a three hour drive north west of
BrisbaneBrisbane is the state capital of the Australian state of Queensland and is the largest city in that state. With an estimated population of approximately 2 million, it is also the third most populous city in Australia....
. He later moved to Brisbane where he attended
Marsden State High SchoolMarsden State High SchoolLocated on Muchow Road , Waterford West.is a secondary school in Logan City, Queensland, Australia, for students between years 8 and 12. Marsden High is between the suburbs of Marsden and Waterford West...
and played Colts and
Queensland CupThe Queensland Cup is the premier rugby league football competition in the state of Queensland.It is a statewide competition with the majority of teams based in South East Queensland but also including sides based in Cairns, Mackay and Rockhampton....
rugby for the Souths Logan Magpies. Sandow received Junior representative hounors when he was selected for the Queensland Under-17 & Under-19 Squads. In 2006, Sandow was selected for the Australian Schoolboys Squad that toured Wales, England and France, where he was awarded the man-of-the-match award in the game against the British Amateur Rugby League Association (BARLA) squad.
Sandow's first contract was signed with the
Gold Coast TitansThe Gold Coast Titans lead by captain Scott Prince, are an Australian professional rugby league football team based on the Gold Coast in Queensland...
where he spent two years in the lower grades. He was touted as a first-string back-up for star NRL half-back
Scott PrinceScott Prince is an Australian professional rugby league footballer and current co-captain of the Gold Coast Titans club of the National Rugby League...
but his contract was terminated in early 2008 due to poor discipline. It was later revealed through the media that Sandow's partner had given birth to their first child and he was struggling with the distance away from his partner and first-born.
South Sydney Rabbitohs
Sandow's junior rep performance had not gone unnoticed and South Sydney's recruitment manager Mark Hughes signed Sandow to a minor $30,000 contract with the club. Sandow began playing in the National Youth Competition for the Rabbitohs squad from the beginning of the 2008 season. In June 2008, the team's star half-back
Craig WingCraig Wing in Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australian rugby league and union player. A former New South Wales State of Origin and Australian international utility player, Wing played half-back for Souths, having previously played for the Sydney Roosters, with whom he won the 2002...
suffered a near season-ending injury and Sandow was named to replace him in the Rabbitohs’ NRL team. At the time Sandow was to make his debut the club was sitting at the bottom of the ladder after having slumped to 11 losses from 12 matches.
In Round 13 during the
2008 seasonThe 2008 NRL season was the one hundred and first season of professional rugby league club competition in Australia, and the eleventh run by the National Rugby League. The lineup of clubs remained unchanged from the previous year, with sixteen teams contesting the NRL's 2009 Telstra Premiership...
, Sandow made his first-grade debut against the
WarriorsThe New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league team based in Auckland, New Zealand. They compete in the National Rugby League premiership which is the Southern Hemisphere's elite rugby league championship...
in Auckland, New Zealand at Mt. Smart Stadium. On debut, Sandow kicked the game-sealing field goal in the dying seconds of the match to record Souths second victory of the season, defeating the Warriors 35-28. This marked the first time since 1999 the Rabbitohs had beaten the Warriors. In the following match, Sandow scored his first NRL career try against the
Gold Coast TitansThe Gold Coast Titans lead by captain Scott Prince, are an Australian professional rugby league football team based on the Gold Coast in Queensland...
helping his side to a tight 24-23 victory that saw them come off the bottom of the table for the first time all season. Sandows fairy-tale start to the NRL continued a week later in Round 16, when after trailing 28-4 to the
North Queensland CowboysThe North Queensland Cowboys are an Australian professional rugby league football team based in Townsville, Queensland. They compete in Australasia's top rugby league competition, the National Rugby League premiership....
and coming back to level the scores at 28-28, he kicked the game-winning field goal to win 29-28 in what became the second biggest comeback victory in the history of the National Rugby League.
Sandow finished his debut season in the NRL by winning the 2008
Dally M AwardThe Dally M Awards are the official annual player awards for the National Rugby League competition. The most prestigious of these awards is the Dally M Medal which is awarded to the Player Of The Year...
Rookie of the Year Award. He was recognised in the Toyota Cup
Team of the Year as the starting half-back and received the inaugural
George GreenEdward George Green , is reputed to have been the first Indigenous Australian to play rugby league at first-grade level in Australia...
Medal for the
Indigenous Rising Star of 2008.
Sandow earned selection in the Dreamtime team, the Indigenous Australian team that defeated New Zealand Maori 34-26 in a curtain raiser game at the
2008 Rugby League World CupThe 2008 Rugby League World Cup tournament was held in Australia from 26 October, culminating in the final between Australia and New Zealand on 22 November. It was the 13th staging of the World Cup since the inauguration of the tournament in 1954, but the first since the 2000 event. It was the...
opening ceremony in October.
Awards and accolades
- 2008
The 2008 NRL season was the one hundred and first season of professional rugby league club competition in Australia, and the eleventh run by the National Rugby League. The lineup of clubs remained unchanged from the previous year, with sixteen teams contesting the NRL's 2009 Telstra Premiership...
: Peter MoorePeter "Bullfrog" Moore OAM was an Australian rugby league administrator, particularly associated with the Canterbury Bulldogs, where he was Chief Executive 1969-1995, serving a record 26 years at the helm...
Award - Dally M Rookie of the Year
- 2008
The 2008 NRL season was the one hundred and first season of professional rugby league club competition in Australia, and the eleventh run by the National Rugby League. The lineup of clubs remained unchanged from the previous year, with sixteen teams contesting the NRL's 2009 Telstra Premiership...
: George Green MedalEdward George Green , is reputed to have been the first Indigenous Australian to play rugby league at first-grade level in Australia...
for the Indigenous Rising Star of 2008
- 2008: Toyota Cup Halfback of the Year
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