Grant Doorey (born 3 February 1968) is an Australian professional

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

coach and former professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer.

Playing career

Doorey started his career in Australia, appearing sporadically for

Manly-Warringah The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. The team colours are maroon and white, while their namesake and logo is the sea eagle. They compete in Australia's premier rugb ...

and

Eastern Suburbs Eastern Suburbs may refer to: Places *Eastern Suburbs (Mumbai), India *Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), Australia **Eastern Suburbs railway line, Sydney, Australia Sports clubs ;Association football *Eastern Suburbs AFC, Auckland, New Zealand * Eastern ...

between 1990 and 1993. He moved to England in 1994 to play for

Keighley Cougars The Keighley Cougars are a professional rugby league club from Keighley in West Yorkshire, England who compete in League 1, the third tier of English rugby league. Keighley's home ground, Cougar Park has a capacity of 7,800. History Early y ...

where he played close to 100 games over 4 seasons including being Centenary player of the year and being part of the squad winning the 2nd division trophy in 1995. In 1997, Doorey moved to France to become a player-coach at

Villeneuve Villeneuve, LaVilleneuve or deVilleneuve may refer to: People * Villeneuve (surname) Places Australia * Villeneuve, Queensland, a town in the Somerset Region Canada * Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, a Formula One racetrack in Montréal * Villeneuv ...

, where he won the Treize Tournoi in 1998, and a European Challenge match against a Northern Ford Premiership XIII in 1999. Doorey was elected Coach of the year by the FFRX111 3 times in his 4 yrs in France after leading Villeneuve as head Coach to 7 titles in 4 years including the triple Cup Euro Cup and Championship in 1998, and 2 other occasions Cup and Championship winners. In 2001, he reached the quarter-final of the

Challenge Cup The Challenge Cup is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, with the exception of 1915–1919 and 1939–1940, due to World War I and World War II respectively. It involves am ...

with the team before losing to

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

side Warrington Wolves.

Coaching career

After leaving Villeneuve, Doorey later moved to

, where we worked in 2003 for Bourgoin CSBJ with Phillipe Sanit Andre and Laurent Seigne and Francis Leta in the French Top 14 competition, Doorey moved to Italy in 2003 as an assistant coach alongside

John Kirwan John Kirwan may refer to: * John Óge Kirwan (fl. 1530–1531), mayor of Galway * Sir John Kirwan (1650–1721), Irish entrepreneur * John Kirwan (cricketer) (1816–1899), English cricketer * John Kirwan (politician) (1869–1949), Australian ...

for the

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

including RWC 2003 and 6 nations championships in 2004 and 2005, helping Italy to its highest ranking of 9 in the IRB rankings. He went back to CSBJ in France for 2005-2006 leading CSBJ in the Top 14 with Christophe Urios gaining 2 European Cup qualifications before again joining Kirwan in 2007 with

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

RWC 2007 where he stayed until 2011, winning PNC championships in 2011 and taking Japan from 17 in the IRB rankings to 11 prior to RWC 2011, its highest ranking ever to date. In 2012 joined Kirwan to be assistant coach with the New Zealand Rugby Union of

Blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

where he coached for 3 years helping produce numerous new All Blacks including Frank Halai, Francis Saili, Charles Piutau and George Moala in the worldwide

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...

competition. In 2015, he was appointed as an assistant coach at

London Irish London Irish RFC is a professional rugby union club which competes in the Premiership, the top division of English rugby union. The club has also competed in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, the European Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup. While ...

.and in 2016 was appointed as consultant coach at Toulon RCT helping Diego Dominguez as skills and defence coach in preparation for the 2016 season. Doorey has also periodically worked as a consultant coach for Mitsubishi Heavy industries as a defence consultant, for IRANZ as a specialist coach and Auckland rugby as a coach education facilitator.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Doorey, Grant 1968 births Living people Australian rugby union coaches Australian rugby league players Manly Warringah Sea Eagles players Sydney Roosters players Keighley Cougars players Rugby league players from Sydney Rugby league second-rows Villeneuve Leopards coaches Villeneuve Leopards players