Matthew Elliott (born 8 December 1964) 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, commentator and former player. He has previously coached 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 ...

with the

Canberra Raiders The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby ...

Penrith Panthers The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the western Sydney suburb of Penrith that competes in the NRL. The team is based west of the centre of Sydney, at the foot of the Blue Mountains. Penrith ...

and the

New Zealand Warriors The New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as ...

, as well the

Bradford Bulls The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the Championship. They have won five Challenge Cups, six league championships and three World Club Challenges. The team jersey is predom ...

in the

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 ...

and the United States national team. Elliott is currently the Assistant Coach at 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-ve ...

Playing career

Born on

Thursday Island Thursday Island, colloquially known as TI, or in the Kawrareg dialect, Waiben or Waibene, is an island of the Torres Strait Islands, an archipelago of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait. TI is located approximately north of Cape ...

, Elliott grew up in

Townsville Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 180,820 as of June 2018, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland; it is unofficially considered its capital. Estimated resident population, 3 ...

in far north

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

. Elliott played for Bondi United and was an

Eastern Suburbs Roosters The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional Rugby League Football Club based in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) and parts of inner Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The Roosters have won fifteen ...

lower grade player. He played two seasons with French club, Le Pontet, winning the league and cup double in 1987-88. Between 1989 and 1992 Elliott played 61 games for the

St. George Dragons The St. George Dragons is an Australian rugby league football club from St George District in Sydney, New South Wales that played in the top level New South Wales competition and Australian Rugby League competitions from the 1921 until th ...

. At the end of the 1992 NSWRL season Elliott played for the Dragons off the bench in their

grand final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

loss against the

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos Rugby League Football Club Ltd., commonly referred to as the Broncos, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos play in Australia's elite com ...

Coaching career

Injury cut Elliotts playing career short and he became an assistant to Brian Smith at the Dragons.

Bradford Bulls

Elliott followed Smith to the

in 1996, before taking over as head coach. Elliott won the

title in his first season. In 1997 and 1999 he was named the Super League coach of the Year. He coached the

to the

1999 Super League Grand Final The 1999 Super League Grand Final was the Second official Grand Final conclusive and championship-deciding game of the Super League IV season. The match was played between St. Helens and Bradford Bulls on Saturday 9 October 1999, at Old Traffo ...

which was lost to St. Helens.

Canberra

After serving as assistant to

coach

Mal Meninga Malcolm Norman Meninga (; born 8 July 1960) is an Australian professional rugby league coach who is the head coach of the Australian national team and a former professional rugby league footballer. Meninga is widely regarded as one of the fin ...

during the

2001 NRL season The 2001 NRL season was the 94th season of professional rugby league football in Australia and the fourth run by the National Rugby League. Also called the 2001 Telstra Premiership (due to sponsorship from Telstra Corporation) it was contested b ...

, Elliott was made coach for the

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

premiership. During his tenure at the Raiders, Canberra won 59 and drew one of their 125 games, including four finals appearances in five seasons. Elliott's most successful coaching season was

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, when the Raiders won 16 of 24 games but were eliminated from the finals without winning a game.

Penrith

On 19 February 2006, it was announced that Elliott would coach the

from 2007 onwards, having signed a three-year deal. Elliott succeeded John Lang in this position. In September 2008, Elliott was criticized for Penrith's consistent poor showings and it was speculated that he would be prematurely sacked before he saw through his three-year contract with the club. Elliott however defied the pressure and criticism and managed to convince the board into letting him remain in charge for the 2009 season. After a promising start to the 2009 season, Elliott's contract was extended to the end of the 2011 season. In the 2010 season, the Panthers finished second in the ladder, but they did not win a match in the finals series. Their 645 was the most points scored in the regular season, the second highest being 559. On 25 April 2011, Elliott was informed by the Penrith board that his services would not be required beyond 2011. He vowed to continue at the helm for the rest of the season at the time, then on 20 June announced his resignation with immediate effect. He is the current coach of the United States national side.Elliott to join Roosters coaching staff in 2012
''rleague.com'', 29 June 2011 Following the

2011 NRL season The 2011 NRL season was the 104th season of professional rugby league football club competition in Australia, and the fourteenth and last run by the National Rugby League's partnership committee of the Australian Rugby League and News Ltd. The NRL ...

Elliott coached the

United States national rugby league team The United States national rugby league team represents the United States in international rugby league football competitions. The team is managed by the USA Rugby League (USARL). The United States competed with little success in some internat ...

to a 40-4 victory over

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

to qualify for the

2013 Rugby League World Cup The 2013 Rugby League World Cup was the fourteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup and took place in England, Wales, France and Ireland. between 26 October and 30 November 2013. It was the main event of the year's 2013 Festival of World ...

, their first ever. Matthew has served as head-coach of

USA Tomahawks The United States national rugby league team represents the United States in international rugby league football competitions. The team is managed by the USA Rugby League (USARL). The United States competed with little success in some internat ...

on three separate occasions, recording a 40-4 win against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

in 2001, a 40-4 win v

in 2011 and just one narrow 16-18 defeat to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

on 18 Sep 2011.

Sydney Roosters

In 2012 Elliott served as

Sydney Roosters The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional Rugby league, Rugby League Football Club based in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) and parts of inner Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The Roosters have won ...

assistant coach, again working under Brian Smith.

New Zealand Warriors

On 12 October 2012 Elliott was appointed head coach of the

for two seasons, replacing

Brian McClennan Brian "Bluey" McClennan (born 16 February 1962) is a New Zealand former professional rugby league footballer and coach. He was previously the head coach of the New Zealand national team (with whom he won the 2005 Tri-nations) and then England's ...

who was sacked during the

2012 New Zealand Warriors season The New Zealand Warriors 2012 season is the New Zealand Warriors 18th first-grade season. The club is competing in Australasia's National Rugby League. The coach of the team was Brian McClennan, until he was sacked on 21 August after Round 22, whil ...

. He resigned as the USA coach before the

, to concentrate on the Warriors' off season. On 7 April 2014, he was sacked from the Warriors.

St. George Illawarra Dragons

On September 28, 2020, it was announced that Elliott would be an Assistant coach to new Dragons Head Coach Anthony Griffin commencing in 2021.

Commentary career

From 2015 Elliott has been part of the

ABC Radio Grandstand ABC Sport, formerly ABC Radio Grandstand, is a live radio sports focused commentary and talk-back program which runs on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) local radio network across Australia and on one digital-only station. History Fr ...

commentary team.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elliott, Matthew 1964 births Living people Australian expatriate sportspeople in England Australian rugby league players St. George Dragons players Australian rugby league coaches Australian rugby league commentators Canberra Raiders coaches Bradford Bulls coaches Penrith Panthers coaches New Zealand Warriors coaches Rugby league second-rows Rugby league players from Thursday Island United States national rugby league team coaches