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Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Born | Glen Innes, New South Wales, Australia | 17 January 1991||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 178 cm (5 ft 10 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 94 kg (14 st 11 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Playing information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Position | Hooker, Lock | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source: [1] As of 20 May 2019 |
Slade Griffin (born 17 January 1991) is a former New Zealand international rugby league footballer. His positions were hooker and lock. He is currently the head coach of the New Zealand Warriors in the NRL Women's Premiership. [2]
He previously played for the Melbourne Storm and the Newcastle Knights in the NRL. He won the 2017 NRL Grand Final with Melbourne. He played 1 game for the New Zealand kiwis before suffering a career ending knee injury the following weekend.
Born in Glen Innes, Australia, Griffin grew up in Greymouth, New Zealand. [3] He was educated at Greymouth High School.
Griffin played his junior rugby league for the Cobden-Kohinoor Keas, before being signed by the Melbourne Storm.
From 2009 to 2011, Griffin played for the Melbourne Storm's NYC team, scoring 13 tries in 46 appearances, [4] [5] before graduating to the Storm's New South Wales Cup team, Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in 2012.
In a 2012 pre-season trial match, he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, [6] ruling him out for the rest of the season, however the Storm decided to extend his contract for another year allowing him to come back from injury. [7]
In round 1 of the 2013 NRL season, Griffin made his NRL debut for the Storm against the St. George Illawarra Dragons. [8] [9]
In June, he re-signed with the Storm on a 1-year contract until the end of 2014. [10] He went on to play 11 NRL games in his debut season. [11]
In March, Griffin re-signed with the Storm on a 2-year contract until the end of 2016. [12] In April during a New South Wales Cup game, he tore his anterior cruciate ligament for a second time, this time in his left knee, [6] stopping him from playing any NRL games in the 2014 season. [13] In July, he received a two match suspension from the NRL after being found to have placed a bet on NRL matches. [14]
In April while playing in an Intrust Super Cup game for the Sunshine Coast Falcons, Griffin suffered a third anterior cruciate ligament injury, the second in his left knee, which would again rule him out for the season without playing any NRL matches. [6]
After 1056 days since his last NRL match, Griffin returned to the Storm line-up in round 15 of the 2016 season, starting at hooker. [7] [15] In October, he re-signed with the Storm on a 1-year contract until the end of 2017. [16]
In 2017, Griffin was able to break into Melbourne's line-up more regularly, coming off the interchange bench in their 2017 NRL Grand Final win over the North Queensland Cowboys. [17] He finished the season having played in 14 NRL matches. [18] Two days after the grand final, he signed a 2-year contract with the Newcastle Knights starting in 2018, in a bid for more first-grade opportunity with Australian captain Cameron Smith ahead of him for the starting hooker position at the Storm. [19]
In round 1 of the 2018 season, Griffin made his debut for the Knights in their 19-18 golden point extra-time win over the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles, scoring a try. [20] In June, he made his international debut for New Zealand against England in Denver, Colorado. [21] Just a week later, while playing for the Knights in their round 16 clash against the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, he was passing the ball from dummy half and his leg got caught in a position which ruptured multiple ligaments in his left knee, including a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee graft, ruptured lateral ligament and torn lateral meniscus. [22] This would be his third ACL knee injury to his left knee and meant he faced a 9-12 month recovery period. [22]
While working as a trainer and coach for the Knights during the 2019 season, Griffin ultimately didn't make it back from his knee injury, departing the club at the end of the season. [23]
In July 2020, Griffin was announced as the new coach of the New Zealand Warriors NRL Women's (NRLW) team. [2]
Griffin currently studies a Bachelor of Property and Real Estate at Deakin University. [24]