Nathan Grima (born 5 August 1985) is a former professional

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er who played for the

North Melbourne Football Club The North Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Kangaroos, is a professional Australian rules football club. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Kangaroos also ...

and

Essendon Football Club The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, is a professional Australian rules football club. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCracken family in their A ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(AFL).

Early career

Originally from Tasmania, Grima played for the

Tassie Mariners The Tassie Mariners is an under-18 Australian rules football club representing the state of Tasmania. They currently play in the AFL Under 18 Championships and also played in the Victorian statewide under-18s competition (then known as the TAC Cu ...

South Launceston South Launceston is a residential locality in the local government area (LGA) of Launceston in the Launceston LGA region of Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , ...

, the

Tasmanian Devils The Tasmanian devil (''Sarcophilus harrisii'') (palawa kani: purinina) is a carnivorous marsupial of the family Dasyuridae. Until recently, it was only found on the island state of Tasmania, but it has been reintroduced to New South Wales in ...

and Central District, including in their 2007

SANFL The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport. Originally formed as the ...

premiership team. Grima was then rookie-listed by North Melbourne in the 2008 AFL Rookie Draft.

AFL career

Grima impressed in early training sessions and looked in line for a promotion before hyper-extending his knee in a marking exercise. The injury prematurely ended his season and raised doubts about his ability to retain a spot on the list. Despite this injury setback, North Melbourne promoted Grima to the senior list before the start of the 2009 season and the versatile defender was quick to show his potential, holding down a spot at full-back for North's reserves team,

Werribee Werribee is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Wyndham local government area. Werribee recorded a population of 50,027 at the 2021 census. Werribee i ...

in the VFL in the early part of the season. His strong form led to Grima making his debut in round eight against Geelong. He only missed two games for the rest of the season and combined well in defence with Scott Thompson and

Scott McMahon Scott McMahon (born 2 June 1986) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the North Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). McMahon played for Woodville-West Torrens Football Club in the S ...

. Grima scored his first goal in AFL football on Saturday, 17 August 2013 against Essendon at Etihad Stadium. An injury to Leigh Adams resulted in Grima being moved forward for the final quarter of the match. Having not scored a goal after 71 AFL games, he crumbed the ball from a marking contest involving Robbie Tarrant, and snapped a left-foot goal midway through the last quarter. The defender embarked on a wild celebration, being mobbed by teammates who came from all areas of the ground to congratulate him. Had he failed to score, he would have equalled a club record, with former player Ted Larsen having a 72-game drought before scoring a goal. In July 2015, Grima had announced his retirement, effective immediately, due to a back injury. Grima had been unable to fully recover from the injury that had seen him undergo surgery on his back on two previous occasions. Specialists had advised him that he would need a third operation, this time to fuse a disc in his spine. In February 2016, Grima returned to the AFL after signing with the

as a top-up player due to the club's supplements controversy.

Coaching career

In October 2018,

Sturt Football Club The Sturt Football Club, nicknamed The Double Blues, is a semi-professional Australian rules football club based in the suburb of Unley, South Australia, which plays in the South Australian National Football League. Founded in 1901 by the Stur ...

announced its appointment of Grima as senior coach for 2019. He was previously the coach of Strathmore in the Premier Division of the Essendon District Football League.

Statistics

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2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

, , 17 , , 13 , , 0 , , 0 , , 124 , , 85 , , 209 , , 65 , , 37 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 9.5 , , 6.5 , , 16.1 , , 5.0 , , 2.8 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, , 17 , , 17 , , 0 , , 1 , , 181 , , 137 , , 318 , , 99 , , 24 , , 0.0 , , 0.1 , , 10.6 , , 8.1 , , 18.7 , , 5.8 , , 1.4 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

, , 17 , , 12 , , 0 , , 0 , , 111 , , 77 , , 188 , , 50 , , 17 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 9.3 , , 6.4 , , 15.7 , , 4.2 , , 1.4 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

, , 17 , , 13 , , 0 , , 0 , , 132 , , 88 , , 220 , , 88 , , 31 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 10.2 , , 6.8 , , 16.9 , , 6.8 , , 2.4 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

, , 17 , , 17 , , 1 , , 0 , , 186 , , 84 , , 270 , , 91 , , 35 , , 0.1 , , 0.0 , , 10.9 , , 4.9 , , 15.9 , , 5.4 , , 2.1 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

, , 17 , , 14 , , 0 , , 0 , , 159 , , 71 , , 230 , , 69 , , 23 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 11.4 , , 5.1 , , 16.4 , , 4.9 , , 1.6 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

, , 17 , , 0 , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

, , 55 , , 2 , , 0 , , 0 , , 16 , , 11 , , 27 , , 10 , , 2 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 8.0 , , 5.5 , , 13.5 , , 5.0 , , 1.0 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 88 ! 1 ! 1 ! 909 ! 553 ! 1462 ! 472 ! 169 ! 0.0 ! 0.0 ! 10.3 ! 6.3 ! 16.6 ! 5.4 ! 1.9

Media

Grima has appeared as a guest presenter on

Fox Footy Fox Footy (stylised as FOX FOOTY) is an Australian rules football subscription television channel dedicated to screening Australian rules football matches and related programming. It is owned by Fox Sports Pty Limited, operated out of their Me ...

's light entertainment television series ''

Bounce Bounce or The Bounce may refer to: * Deflection (physics), the event where an object Collision, collides with and bounces against a plane surface Books * Mr. Bounce, a character from the Mr. Men series of children's books Broadcasting, film and ...

''.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Grima, Nathan North Melbourne Football Club players Werribee Football Club players South Launceston Football Club players Central District Football Club players Tasmanian Devils Football Club players Tassie Mariners players Australian rules footballers from Tasmania 1985 births Living people Australian people of Maltese descent Essendon Football Club players