Born: 31 July, 1988 – Auckland Test record: 12 Tests (2011-13, 2015) – 0 points Tours: 2011 Four Nations, 2013 World Cup, 2015 tour of England
Ultra-consistent back-rower Alex Glenn played 12 Tests for New Zealand at second-row, centre, lock and off the bench during a stellar 13-season tenure with Brisbane Broncos.
The Northcote Tigers junior moved to the Gold Coast as a 14-year-old, moving through the grades with Burleigh Bears. He turned down age-group rep opportunities with Queensland to turn out for Junior Kiwis’ in their win over Junior Kangaroos in 2007 before linking with the Broncos.
Glenn captained the club to the inaugural NYC Under-20s grand final in 2008 – a golden point loss to Canberra – before becoming a permanent first-grade fixture from the start of the 2009 season.
Predominantly used as a centre by Broncos coach Ivan Henjak, he switched to the second-row under Anthony Griffin in 2011 and received a maiden Kiwis call-up at the end of that season. The 23-year-old debuted in the second-row a 42-6 loss to the Kangaroos in Newcastle before, bookending his start at centre against Wales with interchange appearances against Australia and England during the Britain-hosted Four Nations.
Glenn featured in the 2012 and ’13 Anzac Tests – off the bench and at lock, respectively – then featured prominently during New Zealand’s 2013 RLWC campaign. He was in the second-row for pool thrashings of France and Papua New Guinea, and was an interchange in the semi-final epic against England and the loss to Australia in the final.
An unlucky omission for the 2014 Four Nations and an underrated member of the Broncos’ 2015 side that reached the grand final only to lose an extraordinary encounter in golden point, Glenn played his last matches for the Kiwis at the end of that year. He came off the pine in the second and third Tests in England for an inexperienced New Zealand line-up.
Glenn represented Cook Islands in 2017 and ’19, the latter season seeing him play 20-plus NRL games for the 11th consecutive season and become just the ninth player (and only non-Queenslander) to bring up 250 appearances for the Broncos. He was installed as first-grade captain in 2020-21, though both seasons were impacted by injury for the previously indestructible forward and he hung up the boots at the end of the latter campaign.
Glenn’s 285 NRL games was the fourth-most in Brisbane’s proud history at the time of his retirement.