Michael Witt

Michael Witt (born 1 January 1984) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in Australasia's National Rugby League (NRL) competition for the Parramatta Eels, Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and the New Zealand Warriors, before a season playing rugby union in the Air New Zealand Cup.

He then returned to rugby league, playing in the Super League for Crusaders RL and the London Broncos.

Witt then played one more season in Australia for the St. George Illawarra Dragons.

Growing up in Toowoomba, Queensland, Witt attended Harristown State High School where he was a champion junior boxer and played rugby league for the Newtown Lions in the local junior competition, and he later went on to represent Queensland in rugby league at the Under 15 level in 1999 and the Under 16 level in 2000.

During 1999 he was spotted by the Parramatta Eels as a player with much potential and he was offered a scholarship by the club, which he accepted, and in the following year he moved to Sydney to join his older brother Steven at Parramatta, where he spent the next three seasons in the lower grades.

During the 2002 season, Witt played in the SG Ball Grand Final, where his Parramatta team was defeated 18-16 by the Western Suburbs Magpies.

When Parramatta's regular halfback Paul Green was injured (causing his retirement from the game), Witt was promoted to the team as Green's replacement to make his National Rugby League début on 2 May 2003.

Despite a very promising début from Witt, Parramatta were soundly beaten 44-12 by the Sydney Roosters in a Friday night game at Parramatta Stadium.

Before Witt's debut, Parramatta had won just two games from seven in 2003, and were looking very likely to be out of the semi-finals race very early on in the season.

But Witt sparked the disappointing Eels to life, and the team won ten from their last fourteen games of the season to narrowly miss qualifying for the semi-finals.

In one of his early games in the NRL he encountered extreme disappointment in missing two crucial, but easy (by his standards) goals which saw Parramatta lose narrowly 18–16 to the New Zealand Warriors.

On The Michael Witt Story that aired on The NRL Footy Show later that year, Witt admitted that he felt like he had let the whole Parramatta organisation down with those missed attempts at goal, but he soon quickly overcame this early setback to become one of the form players in the NRL with many commentators impressed with his maturity and the sharpness of his skills.

Some of the highlights of his first season included the sideline conversion to seal Parramatta's come-from-behind victory over the North Queensland Cowboys at Parramatta Stadium, and his first half effort against the South Sydney Rabbitohs at Sydney Football Stadium, where his two classy tries set up Parramatta's easy 34–20 win.

Witt scored a haul of 18 points in that match, and was Parramatta's leading pointscorer in 2003 with 104 points from three tries, 45 goals and two field goals.

His great first season in the NRL saw him win Parramatta's Rookie of the Year award as well as being selected in the New South Wales Under 19 team to play Queensland in an interstate representative match.

Unfortunately though for Witt, a shoulder injury prevented him from playing.

He was also among the main contenders for the Dally M Rookie of the Year award, which was won by the Melbourne Storm's Billy Slater.

Witt was rewarded for his great form with a new, lucrative four-year contract to stay with Parramatta.

2004 started promisingly with Witt being named in the emerging Queensland State of Origin squad in the early part of the season.

However, he was very surprisingly not selected in first grade until Round 12, despite Parramatta's very poor form until that time and calls from many fans for him to be selected, wondering why Parramatta's Rookie of the Year just twelve months previously now seemed to be out of favour with Parramatta coach Brian Smith.

Witt's return sparked a limited recovery for Parramatta, which included an upset 26–12 victory over eventual Grand Finalists the Sydney Roosters, with Witt's pinpoint accurate bombs resulting in three tries for winger Luke Burt.

But the most disappointing occurrence of 2004 happened post season, when Parramatta announced that Witt was "not in their first grade plans" for 2005, despite him having another three years to go on his contract.

This came just weeks after he turned in a supreme effort against the New Zealand Warriors where he scored 24 points from two tries and eight goals in a 48–18 win at Parramatta Stadium, and had scored 72 points from three tries and 30 goals in his limited appearances during the course of the season.

However, Manly found wins hard to come by in the second half of the season, and Witt experienced the same frustrations that plagued his 2004.

In a match in July against the Wests Tigers, he received a one-week suspension for striking Liam Fulton.

And after a disappointing 36–10 loss to the St George Illawarra Dragons a few weeks later, Witt was dropped from the first grade squad after being targeted by the big Dragons forwards due to his perceived defensive deficiencies.

Manly coach Des Hasler used a number of forwards at five-eighth in subsequent games, but with very little success, and Witt was drafted back into the side for the semi-final against Parramatta.

However, upon his release by Parramatta, Witt was very quickly signed by the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles as part of their impressive build-up for the 2005 season and during the 2004-05 off season, Witt employed the tutoring of Australian soccer great Graham Arnold to further finesse his goalkicking talents.

Witt, along with fellow blue chip signings Ben Kennedy and Brent Kite, added much needed player strength at Manly in 2005 and the club qualified for its first semi finals series since 1998 and finished in eighth position.

For the first half of the season Manly was among the dominant teams of the NRL, and Witt's form correspondingly at five-eighth was some of the best of his career to date, prompting Manly officials to publicly thank Parramatta for releasing him.

Among the highlights were excellent performances in the victories over eventual Premiers Wests Tigers and in the amazing come-from-behind win against the Penrith Panthers.

Penrith led 26-6 early in the second half, before a Witt-inspired Manly team powered home to win 36–26 at Brookvale Oval.

Also during this period, Witt kicked 20 successive goals without a miss.

Despite Manly being hopelessly outclassed 46–22 to be eliminated, Witt sent the crowd alight by scoring one of the best tries of 2005, as he weaved through the Parramatta defence and sprinted fifty metres to score under the posts.

However, this great moment was marred by yet another two-week suspension, this time for a high tackle on Eels Mark Riddell.

Witt was among the leading pointscorers in the NRL for 2005, scoring 140 points from five tries and 60 goals from 19 appearances.

With Witt's two match suspension ruling him ineligible in Manly's two NRL-sanctioned pre-season trial matches for 2006, unproven rookie Travis Burns was able to take advantage of his absence and was preferred by coach Des Hasler as Manly's regular five-eighth for the season (despite Witt being the incumbent in that position at the end of 2005), and Witt was given only one start in first grade for the year against Newcastle in Round 17 (following Burns' suspension for one week).

Witt performed very credibly in his only appearance, despite Manly's 26–12 loss at Brookvale Oval.

But the Eels finished well down the ladder with just nine wins to finish 12th.

Adding to the disappointment was Witt receiving a two-week suspension for a dangerous throw in a game against the Newcastle Knights in June.