Ken McGuinness is an Australian former rugby league

Rugby league

Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...

 footballer of the 1990s and 2000s. He played club football for the Western Suburbs Magpies

Western Suburbs Magpies

The Western Suburbs Magpies are an Australian rugby league football club based in the western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales. Formed in 1908, Wests, as they are commonly referred to, were one of the nine foundation clubs of the first New South Wales Rugby League competition in Australia...

, Wests Tigers

Wests Tigers

The Wests Tigers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Sydney's mid-western suburbs. They have competed in the National Rugby League since they were formed at the end of the 1999 season as a joint-venture club between the Balmain Tigers and the Western Suburbs...

 and North Queensland Cowboys

North Queensland Cowboys

The North Queensland Cowboys are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, Queensland. They compete in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby League premiership...

. His position of choice was at centre and he represented for New South Wales on five occasions.

Biography

McGuinness was one of nine Wests players to cross-over to the merged Magpies-Tigers

Balmain Tigers

The Balmain Tigers are a rugby league football club based in the inner-western Sydney suburb of Balmain. They were a founding member of the New South Wales Rugby League and one of the most successful in the history of the premiership, with eleven titles...

 club at the end of the 1999 season but he was unable to secure a regular first grade position at Wests Tigers in their inaugural year. In August 2000, McGuinness played for the excluded South Sydney Rabbitohs

South Sydney Rabbitohs

The South Sydney Rabbitohs are an Australian professional rugby league football team based in Redfern, a suburb of South-central Sydney, New South Wales. They participate in the National Rugby League premiership and are one of nine existing teams from the state capital...

 in two of their matches against Lebanon

Lebanon national rugby league team

The Lebanon national rugby league team is the representative side of Lebanon in rugby league football. They are nicknamed "The Cedars" after the Lebanon Cedar tree, which is also on the Lebanese flag. The team has been participating in international competition since 1998 and has quickly became one...

 and the Tomahawks

United States national rugby league team

-2008 & 2013 Rugby League World Cup Qualifying:In October 2006, The Tomahawks were to participate in a four team Atlantic qualifying pool for the 2008 Rugby League World Cup, but South Africa and the West Indies withdrew. As a result, The Atlantic qualifying pool was reduced to a single game...

.

McGuinness spent 2001 in the Queensland Cup competition and played for the Toowoomba Clydesdales

Toowoomba Clydesdales

The Toowoomba Clydesdales are a rugby league football club based in Toowoomba, Queensland, named after the Scottish horse breed. They played in the Queensland Wizard Cup since the competition began in 1996 but no longer play in this competition....

 in the grand final that year. After nine games with the North Queensland Cowboys in 2002, McGuinness announced his retirement from first grade at the age of 26, saying he had lost his passion for the game.

During his time with the Wests Magpies, McGuinness was selected for NSW Origin on five occasions in the 1997 and 1998 series, scoring one try.