Joe Grima

Joey Grima
Personal information
Full name Joseph Grima
Nickname Joey
Playing information
Position Hooker
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
Parramatta Eels
Coaching information
Club
Years Team Gms W D L W%
201415 London Broncos 19 2 0 17 11
Representative
Years Team Gms W D L W%
200406 Malta 9 6 0 3 67

Joey Grima is an Australian professional rugby league football coach, most recently head coach of the London Broncos.

Playing career

Grima spent 19 years at the Parramatta Eels as a player and later as part of the coaching set up.[1]

Managerial career

Joe Grima has extensive experience in the NRL as an assistant coach at Parramatta Eels, Cronulla Sharks and the St George-Illawarra Dragons.

He was appointed as the assistant coach at the capital Super League club, London Broncos ahead of the 2014 season after being recommended by Jamie Soward to former head coach Tony Rea.

On 14 May he was appointed as head coach of the English capital side and signed a deal until the end of 2015.[2] His first game in charge, London lost to Huddersfield Giants 16-30 at The Hive Stadium on 10 May [3] and at the Magic Weekend on 17 May they narrowly lost to Catalan Dragons 22-24 at the Etihad Stadium.[4] His first 2 games in charge were the two best performances by the Broncos in 2014.

On 13 July 2014, Joey Grima's London Broncos were relegated to the Kingstone Press Championship. 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, William Barthau, Nick Slyney, Josh Cordoba and Rhys Williams in preparation for life in the 2nd tier for the 1st time in 20 years.

After 12 consecutive defeats for Joey Grima in charge of the Broncos, he won his first game against Super League giants Leeds Rhinos 40-36 at The Hive.

On 9 October 2014, London Broncos announced Grima had signed a 2 year contract extension to keep him as head coach until the end of 2016.[5] He won his second game as Broncos head coach 26-22 against Doncaster in the Broncos' first game in the Championship.

On 2 March 2015, a day after a 12-25 defeat away to Leigh Centurions, 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 after founding the MRL (Malta Rugby League).

Statistics

As of 22 June 2014
Team From To Record
G W D L PF PA PD Win %
Malta 2004 [6] 2008 9 6 0 3 0 0 +0 66.67
London Broncos 5 May 2014[7] 2 March 2015 19 2 0 17 334 837 -503 10.53

References