Griffin McMaster (born 2 June 1983) is an Australian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a goalkeeper for

FC Bulleen Lions FC Bulleen Lions is an Australian semi-professional football club based in the Melbourne suburb Bulleen. Founded in 1974 by Melbourne's Italian community, the club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria 2, the second highe ...

in the

National Premier Leagues Victoria The National Premier Leagues Victoria, commonly known as NPL Victoria, is a semi-professional soccer league in Victoria, Australia. The league is a part of the National Premier Leagues, and is the highest level within the Victorian soccer leagu ...

Club career

McMaster started playing for the

Palm Beach Sharks Palm Beach Soccer Club is an Australian amateur soccer club based in Gold Coast, Queensland. The club was formed in 1966. History Palm Beach In 1964 Eddie Wardell organised a group of boys, one of which was his son, to play football out of Pal ...

and

Surfers Paradise Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitabl ...

before moving to the Queensland Lions. In 2005, the

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

was formed and Queensland Roar (now

Brisbane Roar Brisbane Roar Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Brisbane, Queensland and has won the domestic title on three occasions, as well as holding the longest unbeaten record of 36 league matches without defeat. Brisba ...

) were given a license to be a part of the new 8-team competition. McMaster trained with the club under then coach

Miron Bleiberg Miron Bleiberg ( he, מירון בלייברג) is an Israeli-Australian football (soccer) manager. Biography Bleiberg was educated at the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa, Israel. A former captain in the Israeli Navy, Bleiberg commanded patrol bo ...

and played in the Brisbane state league for Brisbane City and

Mt Gravatt Mount Gravatt is a southern suburb of the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and a prominent hill and lookout within this suburb (). In the , Mount Gravatt had a population of 3,366 people. Geography The suburb is situated in the south-e ...

. In July 2007, McMaster signed as a replacement for injured goalkeeper Matt Ham under new coach

Frank Farina Frank Farina OAM (born 5 September 1964) is an Australian football (soccer) coach and former player who played as a forward. His playing career spanned Australia, Belgium, France, Italy and England, and was a major player for the Australian ...

. He was understudy to

Liam Reddy Liam Rhys Reddy (born 8 August 1981) is an Australian professional football player who plays as a goalkeeper for A-League side Perth Glory. Early life Reddy comes from a successful sports family. His father is Australian former rugby league int ...

. Following an injury (broken thumb) to keeper

, McMaster made his A-League debut on 5 January 2008 against

Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victory e ...

and was named man of the match. McMaster played another man of the match performance in that season in a finals game against

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was fo ...

. He was replaced by Reddy for the following match, however he re-signed for two more seasons. McMaster received limited game time under coach Farina before the sacking of Farina in October 2009.

Ange Postecoglou Angelos Postecoglou ( el, Άγγελος Ποστέκογλου, ; born 27 August 1965) is an Australian association football manager and former player, who is the current manager of Scottish Premiership club Celtic. Born in Greece, he moved ...

was appointed the new coach and Reddy succumbed to another injury. McMaster played 12 games under Postecoglou before he was released by

in March 2010 and joined

Victorian Premier League The National Premier Leagues Victoria, commonly known as NPL Victoria, is a semi-professional soccer league in Victoria, Australia. The league is a part of the National Premier Leagues, and is the highest level within the Victorian soccer leagu ...

club

Oakleigh Cannons Oakleigh Cannons Football Club is a soccer club based in the south-east Melbourne suburb of Oakleigh, Victoria, Australia. The club, established by members of Oakleigh's Greek Australian community, currently competes in the NPL Victoria. The cl ...

. In August 2010, McMaster was signed by

Wellington Phoenix Wellington Phoenix Football Club is a professional association football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. It competes in the Australian A-League, under licence from Football Federation Australia. Phoenix entered the competition in the ...

on an injury replacement deal for injured goalkeeper

Reece Crowther Reece Crowther (born 28 November 1988) is an Australian goalkeeper. Club career Crowther played all his junior football at Mulgoa who play in the Nepean Competition in Sydney before moving onto Representative football with the Marconi Stallion ...

. McMaster signed for

Heidelberg United Heidelberg United Alexander Football Club (founded as Alexander the Great-Melbourne Soccer Club) established in 1958 is a football (soccer) club based in the northern Melbourne suburb of Heidelberg West, Victoria, Australia. The team currently ...

to play in the 2011 season and won

keeper of the year. Towards the end of the 2011

season, McMaster was trialing with

Melbourne Heart Melbourne City Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in the south–eastern Melbourne suburb of Cranbourne East, that plays in the A-League, the top level of Australian soccer, under licence from Australian Profession ...

. He fractured his tibia in round 19 of the

against

Northcote City Northcote City Football Club (Iraklis) is a soccer club based on the border of Thornbury and Northcote, Victoria (Australia). Formed in 1960 by local Greek Australians, the club currently competes in the NPL Victoria 2. In 2011, Northcote w ...

and was sidelined for 10 months. In March 2012, McMaster signed with sport marketing company Upper90 Sports for 2 years. He also made a successful recovery from his broken leg for

Moreland Zebras Brunswick Juventus FC is an Australian soccer club based in the Melbourne municipality of Merri-bek. The club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria 2 and is based at CB Smith Reserve in the suburb of Fawkner. The earliest ...

against

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at t ...

in the

. He left

at the end of round 19 to join

Bentleigh Greens Bentleigh Greens Soccer Club is an Australian semi professional soccer club based in Cheltenham, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria. The club was formed in 1986, by the Greek Cypriot community and currently competes in the National Premier Leagues ...

for the remainder of the season. On 30 November 2012, McMaster joined the

for a second injury replacement stint this time as cover for

Glen Moss Glen Robert Moss (born 19 January 1983) is a retired New Zealand goalkeeper who played for New Zealand at international level. A foundational member of both the New Zealand Knights and Wellington Phoenix, Moss has competed in 14 seasons of the ...

. In 2014, McMaster made a return to

in the inaugural NPL season in Victoria. He has been making consistent appearances under coach George Katsakis. He has made a number of occasions on SEN radio on the football segment with Mark Fine. In February 2016, it was confirmed that McMaster had left the Bergers to join the newly promoted

Adam Goodes Twitter Incident

On 29 July 2015, McMaster attracted negative attention and criticism following a series of racist tweets which were directed at indigenous Australian AFL player

Adam Goodes Adam Roy Goodes (born 8 January 1980) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). Goodes holds an elite place in VFL/AFL history as a dual Brownlow Medallist, d ...

. In McMaster's tweets, he criticised Goodes' view of

Australia Day Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Observed annually on 26 January, it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove and raising of the Union Flag by Arthur Phillip following days of exploration of Port Ja ...

as "

Invasion Day Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Observed annually on 26 January, it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove and raising of the Union Flag by Arthur Phillip following days of exploration of Port Jack ...

" (a term used by some Indigenous figures and their supporters to refer to 26 January), attacked Goodes for "not celebrating Australia Day", and called for the Aboriginal Australian to be "deported" from Australia. He soon deleted the tweets, in the face of significant controversy and criticism, followed by an apology. McMaster was subsequently omitted from a

FFA Cup The Australia Cup, formerly known as the FFA Cup until the 2021 season, is the national football knockout cup competition in Australia. This annual competition is organised by Football Australia, formerly known as Football Federation Australia ...

game on the evening of 29 July. The following statement was made by

Football Federation Australia Football Australia is the governing body of soccer, futsal, and beach soccer within Australia, headquartered in Sydney. Although the first governing body of the sport was founded in 1911, Football Australia in its current form was only esta ...

(FFA), as reported by ABC news: "Football Federation Australia (FFA) applauds Heidelberg United Football Club for standing goalkeeper Griffin McMaster down from tonight's FFA Cup match following a series of offensive tweets this afternoon".

A-League statistics

¹ - includes

final series statistics
² - includes

FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The competition was first contested in 200 ...

statistics;

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition ...

statistics are included in season commencing after group stages (i.e. ACL and A-League seasons etc.)

References

External links

Queensland Roar profile

Wellington Phoenix profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:McMaster, Griffin 1983 births Australian soccer players Living people A-League Men players Brisbane Roar FC players Association football goalkeepers Sportspeople from the Gold Coast, Queensland Soccer players from Queensland Brisbane City FC players Wellington Phoenix FC players Oakleigh Cannons FC players