Xavier Willison: Biography, Height, Contract, Injury & NRL Stats

Few stories in rugby league are as quietly stubborn as Xavier Willison’s: an 18-year-old forward who tore his ACL weeks after his NRL debut, then spent four years turning himself into a mainstay of Brisbane’s forward pack. By Round 8 of 2026, NRL.com (league’s official site) counted 59 career games and 18 starts. Everything else — the height, the contract, the comeback trail — pulls from a short list of primary records, and this dossier sorts those into confirmed facts and open questions.

Date of Birth: 2 August 2002 ·
Height: 205 cm (official) ·
Weight: 123 kg (official) ·
Position: Second row / lock ·
Club: Brisbane Broncos ·
NRL Debut: 2021

Ten rows, one pattern: the official record on Willison is consistent on the big numbers, and the open questions sit at the edges.

The gaps are as telling as the numbers: nothing here depends on a single social media post, and the only discrepancy that keeps appearing — 199 cm versus 205 cm — is flagged later in this dossier.

What is Xavier Willison’s height?

The official answer is 205 cm and 123 kg. Both figures appear on the NRL.com Round 8 coverage and on the Brisbane Broncos’ own player profile, which makes them the most consistent numbers in his file. For a modern NRL forward, that is serious size: tall enough to dominate the middle, mobile enough that the Broncos use him at lock and second row.

In practice, 205 cm puts Willison in the same physical bracket as the NRL’s elite front-rowers — big enough to command double-teams, quick enough to shift wide. That combination is why his 46 post-contact metres per game in 2025 mattered more than the raw total.

Who is the tallest man in the NRL?

• At 205 cm, Willison sits among the tallest forwards currently starting in the NRL.
• Melbourne Storm prop Nelson Asofa-Solomona is the name most often cited as the competition’s tallest, widely listed at 203 cm.
• Club and league listings can differ by a centimetre or two depending on when a player was last measured.

That means Willison is near the top of the height chart even if he is not the single tallest player in the league. Searches for the tallest NRL player usually land on Asofa-Solomona, but the gap between 203 cm and 205 cm is well inside the margin of error of most club measurements.

What is Xavier Willison’s jersey number?

• Willison wears jersey 12 for the Broncos.
• That is the club’s second-row number, though he has also started at lock in 2026.

In the club’s current listings, 12 is the number attached to his name on team sheets.

What is Xavier Willison’s contract status?

The headline answer: Willison is committed to Brisbane through the end of 2027. The club announced the commitment on 1 November 2024, and Sporting News Australia (sports publication) reported at the time that the extension kept him at Red Hill until at least the end of 2027, after he had been due to come off contract at the end of 2025.

The November 2024 announcement came before Willison’s breakout 2025 season, which means the current deal was signed on potential, not production. His next negotiation will be priced on what he actually delivered.

Why did Xavier Coates leave the Broncos?

• Xavier Coates left Brisbane during the 2023 season to join the Melbourne Storm.
• His exit was driven by opportunity and contract timing rather than injury or performance.

Coates and Willison were never direct positional rivals — Coates is a winger — but the two names show how often Broncos fans track young talent through contract news.

Who is Brisbane Broncos Feeder Club?

• The Broncos’ long-standing Queensland Cup affiliate is the Wynnum Manly Seagulls.
• Young Brisbane forwards typically get regular minutes through that pathway before and after NRL selection.

Willison’s own route ran through the Broncos Academy rather than a long feeder-club apprenticeship.

What this means: the club already locked in its most important young forward through 2027. The next question is whether his production pushes Brisbane to open extension talks early, the way they did in November 2024.

Has Xavier Willison suffered an injury?

Yes — twice in ways that matter. The first and biggest was an ACL injury in 2021, sustained within weeks of his NRL debut. Brisbane’s official profile places it two games after his first appearance; the New Zealand Rugby League (national governing body) records it as three. Both versions agree the injury cost him the rest of his debut season and forced a long rehab before he returned to play for the Cook Islands in June 2022.

The second interruption came in 2025. The same club profile that records a fractured forearm costing him several matches also credits him with 111 running metres and 46 post-contact metres per game, plus 482 tackles at 95 per cent efficiency, across the premiership-winning campaign (Brisbane Broncos, official club profile).

By Round 8 of 2026, Willison was starting at lock while the Broncos worked through an injury crisis — NRL.com (league’s official site) noted he had been called on after Payne Haas left a game early.

What is Xavier Willison’s HIA status?

• No HIA (head injury assessment) protocol entry for Willison appears in the public records reviewed for this article.
• That means no confirmed concussion history is on file — and no public red flag either.

The absence of a documented HIA history is not the same as a clean bill of health, but it does mean there is no public concussion narrative around him.

Is Xavier Willison eligible for State of Origin?

• Willison was born in New Zealand, which normally points toward New Zealand or Pacific eligibility rather than Queensland.
• Origin eligibility can also be earned through residency or Queensland junior-club history; no NRL-confirmed ruling for Willison is public.

That question could surface in June if Queensland’s selectors look for size in the middle of the field.

What is Xavier Willison’s nationality?

Willison was born in Whatawhata, a Waikato town outside Hamilton in New Zealand, and was identified from junior rugby league in Hamilton before joining the Broncos Academy at 15. He is listed as a Cook Islands international, with his debut in that jersey coming on 25 June 2022, and he has also appeared for the Māori All Stars, first in 2024, per the New Zealand Rugby League (national governing body).

Is Xavier Willison married?

• No reliable public source confirms a wife, partner, or relationship details for Willison.
• His personal life does not appear in the official Broncos or NRL profiles reviewed for this article.

For fans searching personal details, the honest answer is that the public record is empty.

Where does Reece Walsh live?

• Reece Walsh, Willison’s Broncos teammate, is based in Brisbane, Queensland.

Walsh’s living arrangements are a separate fan curiosity with no bearing on Willison’s own profile.

The pattern: New Zealand birth, a Waikato pathway, Māori All Stars honours, and a Cook Islands international cap add up to a heritage that more than one rugby league nation could claim — which is exactly why the Origin question keeps coming up.

Who is the richest NRL player?

No NRL salary is published officially, so “richest” is always an estimate. The names that come up most are Nathan Cleary and Kalyn Ponga. Cleary’s Penrith deal is widely reported at around A$1.3 million a year, and Ponga’s long-term Newcastle contract has been described as one of the richest in the game. Among clubs, the Brisbane Broncos are routinely cited as the NRL’s highest-revenue club — which is the financial context for Willison’s 2027 deadline.

Three players, one question: where does a 22-year-old premiership-winning forward sit in the NRL money conversation?

Rookie and middle-tier contracts are rarely published in the NRL, so the biggest salaries dominate searches even though the median player earns far less. Willison’s value is better measured in workload than in dollars.

What is Nathan Cleary’s salary?

• Cleary’s salary is widely reported at around A$1.3 million per year.
• The figure moves with each renegotiation, so it should be read as an estimate, not a published number.

Cleary’s deal gets the headlines because he is the game’s highest-profile halfback, not because his salary is the only big one in the league.

Who is the richest NRL club?

• By revenue, the Brisbane Broncos are routinely listed as the NRL’s richest club.
• That revenue base helped Brisbane extend Willison early rather than let him reach the open market at the end of 2025.

Club wealth and salary cap are different things — the cap limits what Brisbane can spend, but the revenue side explains why they can afford to lock young forwards in before rivals make offers.

Why this matters: Cleary and Ponga own the salary headlines, but a young forward with Willison’s physical profile and premiership minutes is the player type whose second contract actually reshapes a club’s salary cap.

Xavier Willison: physical profile and career metrics

A dozen metrics, one profile: a large forward whose 2025 numbers show he is more than a big body, drawn from the club and league records cited above.

The takeaway: 111 run metres per game and 482 tackles at 95 per cent efficiency describe a starting middle forward, not a squad player.

Xavier Willison’s career timeline

The milestones below are drawn from the official club, league, and international records cited earlier in this dossier.

• 2 August 2002 — Born in Whatawhata, New Zealand.
• 2021 — NRL debut for Brisbane at 18; ACL injury within weeks.
• 25 June 2022 — International debut for the Cook Islands.
• 2024 — First of two Māori All Stars appearances.
• 1 November 2024 — Broncos announce commitment through 2027.
• 2025 — NRL premiership; 111 run metres per game; fractured forearm.
• 22 April 2026 — NRL.com counts 59 career games and 18 starts; starts at lock in Round 8.

The shape is clear: three interruptions since 2021, and a comeback that kept compounding. The next chapter depends on whether 2026 finally runs uninterrupted.

What’s confirmed, what’s not

Here is the record separated into what official sources verify and what remains open.

• Date of birth: 2 August 2002 — on the official club profile.
• Height and weight: 205 cm and 123 kg — consistent across club and NRL.com listings.
• NRL debut in 2021 and an ACL injury early that season — per Brisbane Broncos and NZRL records.
• Contract committed through the end of 2027 — announced 1 November 2024.
• 2025 premiership season with 111 run metres and 46 post-contact metres per game, plus 482 tackles at 95% efficiency.

• Height of 199 cm from a 9Moley Facebook post — contradicted by official listings at 205 cm.
• Marital status — no reliable public source.
• HIA protocol history — not documented publicly.
• State of Origin eligibility — no NRL-confirmed ruling is public.
• Some media reports describing a further three-year extension — not confirmed by the club’s official record.
• His best long-term position (second row vs lock) — still being tested, per NRL.com’s Round 8 reporting.

The pattern: most of the noise around Willison comes from outside — social media measurements and fan questions — while the official record stays unusually consistent.

What the experts say

Two voices are prominent in the coverage of Willison’s rise: a veteran NRL columnist and his own social media feed.

Xavier Willison is set to give the strife-torn Broncos a boost by signing a massive new three-year deal with the club.

The Mole, NRL columnist at nine.com.au

Brisbane Broncos 199cm beast Xavier Willison has shown glimpses of being one of the most damaging players in the NRL.

9Moley, Facebook post

The 199 cm figure in that post is worth flagging: official club and league listings now say 205 cm. The discrepancy is a useful reminder that even knowledgeable voices repeat numbers without checking the primary record.

The takeaway

If Willison stays healthy through 2026, Brisbane holds one of the most physically imposing young forwards in the NRL with a contract that runs through 2027 — a 205 cm, 123 kg middle forward who already averages 111 run metres a game and owns a premiership ring. If the injuries stack up again, the conversation flips from “how much” to “how available.” For the Broncos’ recruitment team, the choice is clear now: extend Willison on performance terms before 2027, or let another club bid on the upside.

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