NRL Strongest Man: Royce Hunt sets 200kg bench press record | Every club’s biggest lifter revealed

Rugby League players are pushing the boundaries of belief when it comes to how much weight they’re lifting in the gym. We look at the biggest lifters in the league. Are they playing for your club?

Royce Hunt can claim the record for heaviest bench press in the NRL after successfully completing the double tonne.

But he’s certainly not alone in the league when it comes to lifting insanely heavy things and pushing boundaries.

So who are the biggest lifters and are they at your club?

Check out the top eight below and scroll down to read why Paul Gallen is to blame for Hunt’s achievement.

NRL’S STRONGEST MAN’S INSANE 200KG RECORD

Royce Hunt remembers walking into Cronulla’s gym on his first day two years ago and, up on the wall, eyeing a board with all the record lifts.

Think power cleans, squats, deadlifts and, of course, bench press.

Against that last of which, writ large in black sharpie, was the name Paul Gallen and 180kg.

“Which immediately” Hunt says, “I wanted to beat.”

Although not because this son of a Kalgoorlie miner thought himself better than Gal.

Or even wanted to brag.

Stream every game of every round of the 2022 NRL Telstra Premiership Season Live & Ad-Break Free In Play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Try 14-Days Free Now >

No, Hunt wanted that record for the same reasons he once travelled six hours just to play junior footy in Perth. Then afterwards with dad behind the wheel, drove six hours home again.

Wanted it too like he once chased AFL goals as an oversized teenager, or signed to Harold Matthews before knowing what that meant and, even now, off the back of major knee surgery, is fighting to keep his place in a Cronulla side sat third.

Put simply, Hunt enjoys a challenge.

A truth which has since seen this swole Sharkie not only devour Gal’s record whole, or even go bigger again, but recently claim that white whale of all NRL lifts — a 200kg bench press.

In over 100 years of Australian rugby league, not one first grade player has ever reached the double ton.

Or not officially.

Until now.

Cronulla strongman Royce Hunt pictured in the Sharks gym. Picture: David Swift

With Hunt’s new mark catapulting him right into the conversation for Rugby League’s Strongest Man.

Albeit, among a host of jacked new contenders, too.

Take Greg Marzhew.

That barnstorming Gold Coast winger who benches 190kg, deadlifts 270kg and boasts a rig so impressive, it’s become a study topic at Griffith University.

In Canberra, meanwhile, a prop named Ata Mariota is deadlifting 300kg.

At age 21.

Which is still older than Wests Tigers prop Fonua Pole, who is not only setting new club PBs — but doing them from Jersey Flegg.

Greg Marzhew PB 🤯💪🏽 pic.twitter.com/C9jNymbSiM

— Gold Coast Titans (@GCTitans) September 22, 2020

Elsewhere, Rooster Connor Watson benches roughly twice his weight, Parramatta’s Isaiah Papali’i hang cleans 150kg — another NRL record — while Penrith centre Izack Tago, well, he can haul himself up over a pull up bar, then complete crazy push up movements in repetitions of 10.

All this too before we get to Brisbane enforcer Payne Haas, who is so athletically gifted in terms of strength, speed, endurance, everything that NSW Origin Head of Performance Hayden Knowles calls him “the code’s Daley Thompson”.

But still, the biggest lift of this year belongs to Hunt.

Which again, is the culmination of a push beginning way back in 2020. When having eyeballed those records on the gym wall, he then shouted to Sharks trainer Mark Noakes: “Get ready to rub Gal’s name off, because mine is going up there”.

Gold Coast winger Greg Marzhew makes another barnstorming run. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

Which within weeks, it had — with a bench of 190kg.

But the lift which created NRL history?

That occurred only recently.

And on a day which started like they all do now for this Sharks prop — training alone because no one else can hang with him.

Or at least not on chest day.

“F … ing insane,” is how Gallen, now a Sharks staffer, describes the lift that blows away his 180kg.

A number, we can also tell you, Hunt now presses in repetitions of three.

But as for his double century?

“Started like any other,” Hunt shrugs of a session where he walked in, stretched, then loaded the bar to 100kg — for warm ups.

“Just 10 repetitions to get the shoulders moving,” he says.

Then from there, it was five repetitions of 130kg.

Then five more of 150kg.

After which, Hunt upped the load to 170kg – for three.

Then 190kg, for one.

At which point, this solo lifter suddenly found himself surrounded by fellow Sharkies.

NRL strongmen Royce Hunt and Tevita Pangai Jr Junior scuffle during a February trial. Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

“And all of them shouting for 200,” he grins.

So when he lifted it?

“Felt weird,” the 26-year-old concedes. “Like ‘did I really just do that?’”

Fair enough, too.

Especially when you know that among current NRL players, even famed Manly strongman Marty Taupau tops out at 195kg.

Elsewhere, Warriors prop Bunty Afoa benches 180kg bench. Same deal Parramatta’s Junior Paulo and Bulldogs recruit Tevita Pangai Jnr.

Which gives clarity to not only the Hunt lift, but those 195kg pressed by — gasp — a Gold Coast winger.

Weighing in at 104kg, Marzhew is a Titan in every sense.

With body scans revealing his rig not only contains almost 50 per cent pure muscle, but just six per cent body fat.

Numbers which shock even Griffith University professor Ben Desbrow, who works closely with Titans players on performance nutrition.

Same deal club Head of Performance, Klint Hoare.

“One of the strongest I’ve ever worked with,” says the trainer boasting 15 years experience in rugby league.

Which isn’t to suggest Marzhew is the complete package.

Nor that he will win Dally M Winger of the Year.

Manly prop Marty Taupau. Picture: Troy Snook

Same as nobody is suggesting Hunt will have anything like the career of Gallen.

But can’t we simply celebrate blokes who lift big?

Sure, each year this yarn sends certain NRL coaches, and their performance men, diving under tin foil hats.

Yet people love people who lift big.

Always have.

Just ask The Rock.

Or Schwarzenneger.

Ask Kapow.

That dreadlocked strongman who even now, according to famed Australian strength coach Sebastian Oreb, could quit footy, take up powerlifting and “become Australia’s greatest”.

Officially, Taupau boasts a 195kg bench press, 210kg squat, and 310kg deadlift.

“Absolute freak,” says Oreb, who has previously counted Taupau among global clients including Game of Thrones actor Hafthor Bjornsson.

“In powerlifting, it’s a huge milestone to lift triple your body weight.

“Plenty never achieve it, even while devoted to the sport.

“Yet Marty is focused on rugby league, an endurance sport, and has still deadlifted over 300kg.

“So given some of the world’s top powerlifters are in their 40s, that day he retires from footy I’ll be his first phone call.”

Parramatta backrower Isaiah Papali'i. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

While Taupau may still be top dog however, the competition is increasing.

Take Canberra’s Mariota deadlifting 300kg, a mark also hit by Sea Eagle Toafofoa Sipley.

Elsewhere, Parramatta winger Maika Sivo owns the NRL squat record with 285kg, while Papali’i also boasts an NRL hang clean record of 150kg.

Which again, is worth celebrating.

Especially when you learn how that particular lift, Papali’i has been learning to master since age 12.

When his uncle Jan, returning home from across the ditch, spoke excitedly about some new Aussie craze called Cross Fit.

“So my family started working out together,” explains the Eels backrower, who within three years had won two Oceania powerlifting golds.

Or maybe we dig into the numbers of Jackson Ford?

A Gerringong kid who went from being twice cut by Illawarra juniors – “and built like a twig” – to a Dragons backrower who now benches 175kg.

Even after being punted that second time, to begin work as an apprentice carpenter, Ford would spend every lunch break “scoffing down eight sandwiches and a box of Pizza Shapes” to gain weight.

Then at knock off, drive to the Gerringong footy club gym to lift with a determination that, even now, sees him drinking power shakes every night before bed to stay around 100kg.

Maika Sivo. Picture. Phil Hillyard

Same deal Rabbitoh Campbell Graham.

That lanky Maroubra Lion who went from “dusting off my brother’s old bench press set in the garage” to pound-for-pound No.1 at Redfern.

Oreb, meanwhile, reveals Taupau also lifts with such intensity, a heavy bag now hangs from his gym ceiling.

“Missed a lift one day and punched a hole through my wall,” he says of the Manly prop.

“Before every big lift, Marty gets so aggressive.”

Which brings us full circle to Hunt.

That unstoppable Kalgoorlie product now back in the NRL — and after rupturing the patella tendon in his knee no less — to continue a yarn born out of travelling 12 hours, total, for junior games.

“Which meant I couldn’t play every week,” he recalls.

Rabbitohs' strongest man Campbell Graham bench pressing teammate Damien Cook. Picture: Richard Dobson

Couldn’t lift real heavy, either.

“When I was signed to the Bulldogs Harold Matthews side, I didn’t even know what Harold Matthews was,” he continues. “And first year there, I couldn’t even bench 100kg.”

Yet by U20s, his PB was 160kg.

Then at Canberra in 2017, he partnered an NRL debut with a 190kg bench press.

But again, this isn’t to call Hunt the second coming of Gal.

Or even the strongest Shark across all disciplines.

“Nah, after last year’s surgery, it’s like I have two left knees,” he cackles. “So on deadlift, I don’t do much.

“I’m only around 230kg.”

LATER THIS WEEK: Don’t miss part II of NRL’s strongest man and a rundown of each club’s biggest lifter