Blake Ferguson (born 20 March 1990) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer.
During his rugby league career he represented the Indigenous All Stars, Country NSW, and New South Wales in the State of Origin series. He was a part of the NSW Blues team that won the 2019 State of Origin series. He played for the National Rugby League team the Sydney Roosters that won the 2018 NRL Grand Final.
He previously played for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, Canberra Raiders and Parramatta Eels playing as a centre or fullback earlier in his career. Ferguson is also an amateur boxer.
Ferguson was born in Wellington, NSW on 20 March 1990. Ferguson is a cousin of Anthony Mundine. Ferguson is of Aboriginal descent from Wiradjuri people, and is eligible for the Indigenous All Stars.
He played his junior rugby league at Wellington Cowboys and Earlwood Saints.
Ferguson was the 2009 Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks season's top try scorer. He was just beaten by Jamal Idris as the rookie of the year at the 2009 Dally M Awards.
Following a clause in his contract that allowed him to leave the Sharks if coach Ricky Stuart left, Ferguson also left the club at the end of 2010.
Ferguson signed a 2-year deal to play with the Canberra Raiders starting from 2011. He was the Raiders top try-scorer for the season.
Following his debut Origin game in 2013 Ferguson's league career took a highly publicised downward spiral following an indecent assault charge. Ferguson finished the 2013 Canberra Raiders season as the club's top try scorer.
In May 2014, Ferguson signed with the Sydney Roosters, who beat out South Sydney Rabbitohs for his services. However, due to Ferguson's guilty verdict in his 2013 indecent assault charge, the NRL in late June 2014 rejected an application for him to join the Sydney Roosters for the remainder of the 2014 NRL season, meaning he had to wait until the 2015 season to play for his new club. As part of his rehabilitation, Ferguson completed a rugby league refereeing course. He was widely seen as the man to replace Sonny Bill Williams, who departed after the 2014 season.
For the 2015 NRL season Ferguson's healthy form led to Wendell Sailor considering him "the second best buy of the season". Following the departure of Roger Tuivasa-Sheck from the Roosters, after 2015, Ferguson was anointed as the player to replace him at fullback for the 2016 season. However, after just one game at fullback, he was moved back to the centres.
Ferguson was part of the Roosters team that qualified for the finals in 2017. In the qualifying final, Ferguson almost cost his side the game when he chose to bat the ball back into play when it was heading to the sideline enabling Brisbane winger Corey Oates to score a try and put Brisbane in front with minutes to play. The Roosters went on to win the game in the dying minutes thanks to a Latrell Mitchell try. In the preliminary final against North Queensland, Ferguson scored a try off a knock on from North Queensland player Justin O'Neill to make the score 16–12 with less than 15 minutes to play in the match and with Eastern Suburbs in control. In the next play from the restart, Ferguson lost the ball after being hit in a good tackle by O'Neill, who had lost the ball moments earlier. In the following play North Queensland scored courtesy of Kyle Feldt and Easts never recovered losing the match 29–16 in a huge upset.
On 4 July 2018, Ferguson signed a three-year contract to join Parramatta beginning in 2019. Ferguson rejected a similar offer by Newcastle and wanted a new contract with Eastern Suburbs but the club was only prepared to offer him a one-year deal.
In round 25 of the 2018 season, Ferguson scored his 100th try against his future club from 2019 onwards, the Parramatta Eels. His final game for the Roosters was the 2018 NRL Grand Final, in which it was revealed that he had played the second half with a broken leg.
Ferguson made his debut for Parramatta against Penrith in Round 1 of the 2019 season. Ferguson scored his first and second try for Parramatta the following week against arch rivals Canterbury in a 36–16 victory. In Round 5 against Canberra, Ferguson suffered a badly broken nose and bruised ribs in a 19–0 loss. Ferguson was subsequently ruled out of the following week and missed the club's 51–6 victory over Wests Tigers at the new Western Sydney Stadium.
On 25 July 2019, Ferguson was ruled out of action indefinitely as he had suffered an infection in his knee and required surgery. Ferguson was only expected to initially miss one match. It was reported that Ferguson also suffered a bad reaction to antibiotics. Parramatta coach Brad Arthur spoke to the media saying "His health is our No. 1 priority, We won't play him until he is 100 per cent fit".
After spending 7 weeks out of action, Ferguson returned to the Parramatta side for their round 24 match against the Brisbane Broncos which Brisbane won 17–16 in Golden Point extra-time at Suncorp Stadium. Ferguson scored a second half try in the defeat.
At the end of the 2019 regular season, Parramatta finished in 5th place on the table and qualified for the finals. In the elimination final against Brisbane, Ferguson scored a try as Parramatta won the match 58–0 at the new Western Sydney Stadium. The victory was the biggest finals win in history, eclipsing Newtown's 55–7 win over St George in 1944. The match was also Parramatta's biggest win over Brisbane and Brisbane's worst ever loss since entering the competition in 1988.