Joseph Grima (18 April 1973) is an Australian 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 ...

football coach, most recently head coach of the

London Broncos The London Broncos are a professional rugby league club in London, England. The club competes in the RFL Championship. It was a member of Super League from its inaugural season in 1996 until the end of the 2014 season, when they were relegat ...

Managerial career

Grima has extensive experience in the

NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

as an assistant coach at

Parramatta Eels The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta that competes in the National Rugby League. The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, and their ...

Cronulla Sharks The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Cronulla, in the Sutherland Shire, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australasia's premier rugby league ...

and the

St George-Illawarra Dragons The St. George Illawarra Dragons is an Australian professional rugby league football club, representing both the Illawarra and St George regions of New South Wales. The club has competed in the National Rugby League since 1999 after a joint- ...

. He was appointed as the assistant coach at the capital

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 ...

club,

ahead of the 2014 season after being recommended by

Jamie Soward Jamie Soward (born 13 November 1984) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer. A New South Wales State of Origin and Indigenous All-Stars representative , he previously played for the Sydney Roosters, Penrith Panthers and ...

to former head coach

Tony Rea Tony Rea (born 25 July 1966) is an Australian professional rugby league football coach and a former head coach for Super League club, London Broncos. A former , he played club football in the Brisbane Rugby League for Brothers, in the New Sout ...

. On 14 May he was appointed as head coach of the English capital side and signed a deal until the end of 2015. His first game in charge, London lost to

Huddersfield Giants Huddersfield Giants are an English professional rugby league club from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, the birthplace of rugby league, who play in the Super League competition. They play their home games at the John Smiths Stadium which is sh ...

16–30 at

The Hive Stadium The Hive Stadium is a stadium in Canons Park, North London, on the former site of the Prince Edward Playing Fields in the London Borough of Harrow. The stadium is home to National League football club Barnet, London Bees of the FA Women's Cham ...

on 10 May and at the Magic Weekend on 17 May they narrowly lost to

Catalans Dragons The Catalans Dragons ( French: ''Dragons Catalans'', Catalan: ''Dracs Catalans'') are a professional rugby league club from Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales department, France. The team competes in the Super League and are the only team from ...

22–24 at the

Etihad Stadium The City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England, also known as the Etihad Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is the home of Premier League club Manchester City F.C., with a domestic football capacity of 53,400, making it the 6th-largest ...

. His first 2 games in charge were the two best performances by the Broncos in 2014. On 13 July 2014, Grima's

were relegated to the

Kingstone Press Championship The Championship, known as the Betfred Championship for sponsorship reasons, is a professional rugby league competition. It is the second-tier competition organised by the Rugby Football League, the governing body for the sport in England, a ...

. Grima started to rebuild all aspects of the club signing/resigning 17 players to date from the academy, current players and players in key positions such as

Richard Mathers Richard 'Richie' Mathers (born 24 October 1983) is an English former professional rugby league footballer. An England international representative , he started his professional career at the Leeds Rhinos, with whom he won the 2004 Championship ...

William Barthau William Barthau is a French retired international rugby league footballer who most recently played as a scrum-half for Toulouse Olympique in the Betfred Championship and the French national side. Background Barthau was born in Villeneuve-sur- ...

Nick Slyney Nick Slyney (born 2 November 1988) is an Australian former rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. He played at representative level for the Queensland Residents ( captain during 2018), and at club level in the National Rugby ...

Josh Cordoba Josh Cordoba (born 29 January 1984) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a for the Parramatta Eels and the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the NRL, Hull F.C. in the Super League and the London Broncos in the ...

and Rhys Williams in preparation for life in the 2nd tier for the 1st time in 20 years. After 12 consecutive defeats for Grima in charge of the Broncos, he won his first game against Super League giants

Leeds Rhinos The Leeds Rhinos are a professional rugby league club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The club was formed in 1870 as Leeds St John's and play in the Super League, the top tier of English rugby league. They have played home matches at Headi ...

40–36 at The Hive. On 9 October 2014,

announced Grima had signed a 2-year contract extension to keep him as head coach until the end of 2016. He won his second game as Broncos head coach 26–22 against

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

in the Broncos' first game in the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

. On 2 March 2015, a day after a 12–25 defeat away to

Leigh Centurions The Leigh Leopards are a professional rugby league club based in Leigh, Greater Manchester, England, who compete in the Betfred Super League. The club was founded in 1878, and is one of the original twenty-two clubs that formed the Northern R ...

, Grima announced he was to step down as Broncos coach with immediate effect due to family reasons, moving home to Australia.

International Management

Between 2004 and 2006, Grima was the head coach of

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

after founding the MRL (Malta Rugby League).

Statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grima, Joe 1973 births Living people Australian rugby league coaches London Broncos coaches Malta national rugby league team coaches