Name Kevin McGuinness | Role Rugby player | |
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Kevin McGuinness (born 10 November 1976) is an Indigenous Australian retired professional rugby league footballer of the 1990s and 2000s. He played for Salford City Reds in the UK Super League, the Western Suburbs Magpies, Wests Tigers and Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles in the Australian National Rugby League (NRL) competition. His position of choice is at centre.
While attending Sarah Redfern High School, McGuinness played for the Australian Schoolboys team in 1995.
McGuinness was graded to Western Suburbs in 1995 when he was 18 and played alongside his older brother, Ken, for two seasons.
In 2001, Kevin McGuinness, along with fellow Tiger, Craig Field, were banned by the NRL for six months after testing positive to illegal substances. After undergoing counselling, McGuinness returned to premier league two months before the ban was lifted and was back with the first grade team for round 23 against the Newcastle Knights at Campbelltown Stadium, where he scored a try.
McGuinness set the record for the most tries scored in a match by a Wests Tigers player on 4 August 2002, when he scored 4 tries against Souths.
In 2004, after a season at Manly, McGuinness moved to the Salford City Reds. While at Salford he became a firm fans' favourite, and earned the nickname "The Buddha." He left the Salford City Reds at the end of the 2007 season, and though quite a few players left at the end of that year, he in particular, received a standing ovation, with sections of the crowd chanting "Buddha, Buddha, Buddha," as a homage to the player.
After retiring from the highest level of a football, McGuiness won 2 premierships with Wollongong Wests in the Illawarra competition. In 2011, he joined the Queanbeyan Blues in Canberra's Group 8.