Atelea Vea

Atelea Vea

Personal information
Born	(1986-11-27) 27 November 1986 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Height	183 cm (6 ft 0 in)[1]
Weight	103 kg (16 st 3 lb)[1]
Playing information
Position	Second-row, Lock, Prop
Club
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
2009–10	Cronulla Sharks	8	0	0	0	0
2011	Melbourne Storm	11	0	0	0	0
2012–13	St. George Illawarra Dragons	3	0	0	0	0
2014	London Broncos	23	2	0	0	8
2015–16	St Helens	39	10	0	0	40
2017–	Leigh Centurions	0	0	0	0	0
	Total	84	12	0	0	48
Representative
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
2009	Tonga	2	1	0	0	4
As of 24 September 2015
Source: [2][3]

Atelea Vea is an Australian-Tongan professional rugby league footballer who currently plays for Leigh Centurions in the Super League. He is by preference a second-row but can also play at loose forward. He has previously played for the Melbourne Storm, Cronulla Sharks, St. George Illawarra and London Broncos. He made his first-grade début for the Sharks in 2009. He was selected to play for Tonga in the 2009 Pacific Cup.^[4]

Playing career

2009-10: Career with Cronulla

Vea made his first-grade debut for the Cronulla Sharks away to the Penrith Panthers, in a round 10 loss, a game in which he came on off the interchange bench.^[5] He then featured in the 26–4 loss at home to the St. George Illawarra Dragons in the next round, where he was again on the bench.^[6] His first start for the Sharks came when the side hit something of a run of form. He started out in the second-row in a narrow 13–10 win over the Parramatta Eels,^[7] and he kept his starting place in wins over New Zealand Warriors (18–10),^[8] Canberra Raiders (24–22)^[9] and the thumping 46–16 thrashing of Brisbane Broncos,^[10] all of which were consecutive appearances. He was, in round 16 at the Sydney Roosters, shuffled to lock, where the Sharks lost their first game in four.^[11] He then had to wait another 10 rounds before being selected again, in the 26–24 loss to the South Sydney Rabbitohs.^[12]

2011: Career with Melbourne

In 2011, he played for the Melbourne Storm team, playing 9 games for the team, with all appearances of the bench. His performance in a losing effort in Round 26 against the Sydney Roosters was praised by coach Craig Bellamy given the injury toll on the night.

2012-13: Career with St George-Illawarra

He played for the St George Illawarra Dragons in 2012 and 2013.

2014: Career with London

He joined the London Broncos on the 24 February 2014.^[13]

Representative career

He made his international début for Tonga in a 44–14 defeat by Papua New Guinea, where Vea scored a try.^[14] As Tonga did not progress to the final, Vea's next game was in the third/fourth place play-off loss to Fiji.^[15]

References