Andrew Ettingshausen

Andrew "ET" Ettingshausen (born 29 October 1965) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s.

It was these efforts which cemented his place in the first test against Great Britain at Wembley Stadium where the home side pulled off a shock 19-12 win, their first test win on home soil against Australia since the second test of the 1978 Kangaroo tour.

Despite the loss, Australia bounced back and secured The Ashes with wins at Old Trafford and Elland Road with Ettingshausen scoring his only try of the test series in the 14-0 win in the deciding test.

While attending Cronulla De La Salle, Ettingshausen played for the Australian Schoolboys team in 1982 and 1983.

Cronulla coach Terry Fearnley gave Andrew Ettingshausen his first grade début for the Sharks in round 5 of the 1983 season against the Newtown Jets at.

His début was somewhat of an uneventful affair, although he did cross for a try in the second half.

In the 1985 season, he scored a total of ten tries playing mostly from fullback or in the s in his third season and finally cemented his spot in the Sharks squad.

In 1987, Ettingshausen made his début for New South Wales on the wing in Game 1 of the 1987 State of Origin series at Lang Park in Brisbane.

Ettingshausen also made an appearance in the 1988 Australian television movie The First Kangaroos, which depicted the 1908–09 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain.

Also having a small role in the movie was his NSW teammate and captain Wayne Pearce.

The 1988 season was the high point of his early years when he was moved off the wing and into the centres where he would remain for the majority of his career.

He made the first of eight appearances for City Origin in 1988, playing on the wing in City's 20-18 win over Country Origin in the annual City vs Country Origin match.

He then went on to be one of the better players for NSW in the 1988 Origin series which Queensland won 3-0.

Off the back of these performances Ettingshausen was selected for his first test match for Australia.

After a successful 1990 NSWRL season in which he played fullback in all three Origin games for NSW which saw The Blues win the series for the first time since 1986, and after scoring 13 tries in 20 games for Cronulla, he was selected for the 17th Kangaroo Tour of Great Britain and France where he played in all five tests on tour against Great Britain and France.

Ettingshausen came of age on tour, playing in 12 games and finishing as the highest try scorer for the 28-man touring squad with 15, including hat-tricks against powerhouse English sides St. Helens and Wigan in the opening two games.

In almost a carbon copy of his 1990 Tour, Ettingshausen was the team's top try scorer with 15 from 11 games played which included all three tests playing on the wing against Great Britain and the single test against France.

Ettingshausen remains the only player to be the leading try scorer on consecutive Kangaroo tours.

Despite a slow start to the 1992 NSWRL season playing fullback for the Sharks, Ettingshausen was picked at fullback for NSW for all three games of the 1992 Origin series which saw NSW win 2-1.

He was then picked at fullback for all three tests against Great Britain in The Ashes.

Other than the 1992 Ashes series, this was the only time ET failed to score a try for Australia in a full test series.

He was selected on the wing for NSW for games 1 and 2 of the 1993 Origin series, and at centre for game 3.

He missed Australian selection for the 1st test of their two test tour of New Zealand & was selected on the reserves bench for the 2nd test played in Palmerston North.

For the 3rd test back in Brisbane he was again a reserve.

1994 saw Ettingshausen back at his best, seeing him score a total of 18 tries from just 18 games and leading the Sharks by example after also being awarded the captaincy of the Sharks.

Five of his 18 tries came in one match against South Sydney at The Sharks home ground, Endeavour Field in Round 22 as the Sharks humiliated the Rabbitohs 42-0.

At the end of the 1994 season, he was selected for his second Kangaroo tour.

Ettingshausen captained Cronulla-Sutherland to the 1997 Super League Grand Final, but they lost 26-8 to the Brisbane Broncos in front of 58,912 fans at the ANZ Stadium in Brisbane (the Broncos home ground) in what was the first night Grand Final played in Australia and the first not to be played in Sydney.

He then toured with the Australian SL team to Great Britain and France at the end of 1997, playing all four tests (three against Great Britain, and one against France) in the centres.

He played his first grade Australian club football for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, retiring at the end of the 2000 NRL season having played 328 first grade games for the club, the NSWRL/ARL/SL/NRL record for most games at a single club.

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 début at the age of 17, 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 eighteen seasons.

Ettingshausen was inducted into the NRL Hall of Fame in 2008

Ettingshausen was born in the southern Sydney suburb of Sutherland, and began his rugby league career playing for his local club side at the age of six.

He was subsequently scouted and signed as a junior to the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks.

This record stood for ten years, before ultimately being broken by Darren Lockyer for the Broncos in 2010.

"ET" as he was known, represented both New South Wales, and the Australian Kangaroos, and was twice a Kangaroo tourist.

With his 3rd try against Manly-Warringah in Round 5 (his 6th of the season), Ettingshausen brought up his 100th try for the Cronulla club.

He would finish the season with 112 tries for Cronulla.