Summer loving: The league weddings set to rock this off-season

From players to coaches, the League world is about to see an abundance of weddings in the off season. Find out if your favourite star is getting hitched.

Tyson Jackson and Jonathon Moran

4 min read

October 17, 2024 - 5:00AM

Confidential

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It’s the summer of love for some of rugby league’s biggest stars.

After a gruelling 27 round competition, players and their partners are preparing to tie the knot, with off-season scandals hopefully taking a back seat to a summer of NRL and NRLW weddings.

From veteran players like Daly Cherry-Evans finally tying the knot to young guns of the game, there’s more than a dozen footy nuptials coming up before Christmas.

Just after his second season as an NRL fullback, Jahream Bula will marry teen sweetheart and Parramatta NRLW hopeful Aaliyah Haumono in the coming weeks.

Meeting two years ago, Bula, 22, instantly knew from the moment he met at the time 17-year-old Aaliyah, that she would become his wife.

“Some people might think it’s a bit short but we knew we were going to get married the moment we started talking to each other,” Bula told Confidential.

Wests Tigers fullback Jahream Bula and his fiance Eels NRLW hopeful Aaliyah Haumono

“It was only a matter of time until I dropped the knee.”

It was love at first sight for Bula and his fiance, but the Tigers’ full-back’s link with the Haumono family runs long before the couple met.

Jahream Bula and Aaliyah Haumono.

Bula and Aaliyah’s father, former Sea Eagle, Bulldog, Tiger and NSW representative Solomon Haumono are long time friends, with the 22-year-old crediting the former star with helping him in his career.

“We were always really close,” Bula said. “He used to come pick me up and drop me off whenever I needed to go somewhere. No matter what, he was always there for me.”

While the family relationship with Bula is long standing, the Tigers’ 2023 player of the year is glad that he can see traits of Solomon in his fiance, both on and off the field.

“He is a good bloke, and it runs in the family because she obviously has some talents too,” he said.

Jahream Bula knew Aaliyah Haumono would one day be his wife the moment he met her.

Jahream Bula of the Tigers. Picture: Getty Images

The relationship between Bula and Solomon isn’t the only thing that the couple has in common, with the pair both extremely passionate about their faith.

Both Aaliyah and Bula are devoted Christians, who found common ground in sharing their beliefs, leading to a wedding only two years after meeting.

“We have the same values, same beliefs so it made it easy for both of us, and getting married was something we definitely wanted to do,” Bula said.

Some of the other names getting married this off-season include Dragons NRLW star Raecene McGregor and her partner and teammate, Jamilee Bright, Sharks Briton Nikora and fiancee Sharmaine Slough, Knights hooker Jayden Brailey and partner Lil Brogan, Dolphins player Jeremy Marshall-King, Bailey Simonsson – marrying Fox Sports presenter Sarah Karaoglu, Bulldogs fullback Connor Tracey, and Sharks NRLW star Emma Tonegato and Jamie Verran.

Dragons five-eighth Kyle Flanagan and partner Caity Airey got hitched at the weekend.

Fox Sports News/Netball presenter Sarah Karaoglu and partner Parramatta Eels gun Bailey Simonsson are getting married this off-season. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

It isn’t just the players putting the off-season to good use, with Broncos assistant coach Matt Ballin preparing to marry his partner, Channel 7 reporter Alissa Smith.

Ballin formerly dominated the turf with Manly and the Maroons with the pair meeting by chance almost six-years-ago.

Not aware of Ballin’s rugby league prowess, Smith claims as soon as she met the 40-year-old retired player, he took her “breath away.”

The couple are getting married this weekend on a farm in Kingaroy, where the wedding is set to have an outback theme.

“We have asked our guests to dress normal, with a touch of country,” Smith said.

Former footballer Matt Ballin will be marring his Channel 7 sports reporter girlfriend Alissa Smith in a weeks time. Picture David Clark

This time last year, Ballin proposed to his now fiancee on the Brooklyn Bridge, and while wanting to get married as quick as possible, the pair told The Daily Telegraph, this is the only time they could get married.

“In footy, this is when everyone gets married,” Ballin said.

“This was the only time we really could do it, so we locked it in straight after we got engaged.”

Matt Ballin passes during the NRL game between the Manly Sea Eagles and the North Queensland Cowboys at Brookvale Oval. Picture: Gregg Porteous

Alissa Smith is Channel 7 Queensland sports reporter

Ballin and Smith, along with Bula and Haumono are only two of a long list of couples to get hitched this off-season.

Stephen Crichton and his partner Leone Lauafia are getting married in the next couple of weeks, with their wedding delaying a test match between Samoa and England, due to the sheer number of players attending.

Samoan teammate Spencer Leniu is also getting ready to marry his partner Alexia Loizou after getting engaged last year.

Manly captain Daly Cherry-Evans will finally tie the knot next month with his long time partner Vessa Rockliff after 16-years as partners. The couple have three children together.

Their nuptials are set for the end of November at Manly Pavilion with an after-party set for Blacket’s Bar at Hotel Steyne.

Some players are even preparing for next off-season.

Rabbitohs and Queensland forward Jai Arrow has taken his partner to Italy this off-season, where the pair got engaged.