Jonathon Griffin

Jonathon Griffin
Griffin playing with Fremantle in 2015
Personal information
Full name Jonathon Griffin
Date of birth (1986-01-14) 14 January 1986 (age 38)
Place of birth Western Australia
Original team(s) Karoonda JFC
Draft No. 21, 2005 rookie draft
Height 201 cm (6 ft 7 in)
Weight 101 kg (223 lb)
Position(s) Ruckman
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
2006–2010 Adelaide 41 (7)
2011–2017 Fremantle 56 (29)
Total 97 (36)
Representative team honours
Years Team Games (Goals)
2009–2015 Indigenous All-Stars 2 (0)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2017.
2 State and international statistics correct as of 2015.
Career highlights
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Jonathon Griffin (born 14 January 1986) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Adelaide Football Club and Fremantle Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A ruckman from Western Australia, Griffin played for East Fremantle in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) before being drafted by Adelaide at the 2005 Rookie draft. Upgraded to the club's senior list for the 2007 season, he debuted the following season, and played 41 games for Adelaide before being traded to Fremantle during the 2010–11 trading period.

Football career

Griffin (#12) competing in a ruck contest in March 2016

Griffin was born in Bunbury, Western Australia. His family moved to the southern suburbs of Perth when he was 10 years old, and he attended Booragoon Primary School and Applecross Senior High School, playing junior football for Karoonda JFC.[1] He was drafted by Adelaide from East Fremantle in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) with the 21st selection in the 2005 Rookie draft and spent the 2005 season on the rookie list. He was upgraded to the senior list for the 2006 season but spent most of 2006 playing reserves for Central District Bulldogs. Griffin got his chance to make his AFL debut in the early rounds of 2007 due to the departure of Matthew Clarke and injuries to Rhett Biglands and Ivan Maric. Although he was recruited as a key-forward Griffin was required to play as a ruckman. Many thought Griffin was not yet ready to play at the highest level as a ruckman because of his lanky figure, however Griffin managed to hold his spot for the first 13 rounds of 2007 before being replaced by the returning Maric.

Griffin started well in the 2008 AFL season, with strong performances against very good ruck opponents in Will Minson and Ben Hudson, of the Western Bulldogs, Dean Cox and Mark Seaby of the West Coast Eagles and Dean Brogan and Brendon Lade of Port Adelaide. In the 2009 season, Griffin only played 2 games for the Crows, with Maric and Kurt Tippett preferred as the main ruckman with James Sellar and Brad Moran also selected ahead of Griffin.[2]

Through his maternal grandfather's Bibbulman ancestry, Griffin is descended from the Noongar people of south-western Australia.[3][4] He was selected for the Indigenous All-Stars team in 2009.[5]

Since returning to his home state of Western Australia, Griffin has been used mainly as Fremantle's backup ruckman, competing with Zac Clarke and Aaron Sandilands for the ruck positions. Griffin played his first game for the Dockers in round 10 of the 2011 AFL season against St Kilda, after Sandilands was unavailable due to injury. A career-best performance against Gold Coast in round 15 saw him collect 26 disposals, 9 marks, 30 hit outs and 2 goals. He played the first seven games of the 2013 season before damaging his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), with the resultant knee reconstruction ruling him out for the rest of the season. He resumed his career in April 2014, through Fremantle's new affiliate team in the WAFL, Peel Thunder. Jonathon played in Peel's maiden WAFL premiership in 2016 but missed out in 2017, with a knee injury keeping him out of the Grand Final team.[6][7]

Griffin was delisted by Fremantle at the conclusion of the 2017 season.[8]

After being delisted by Fremantle, Jonathon returned to the WAFL in 2018 and was named captain of East Fremantle after having signed a two-year deal with the club.[9][10]

After three seasons with East Fremantle, Griffin announced he would be retiring at the end of the 2020 season.[11]

Statistics

Statistics are correct to the end of the 2017 season[12]
Legend
  G  
 Goals
  K  
 Kicks
  D  
 Disposals 
  T  
 Tackles
  B  
 Behinds 
  H  
 Handballs 
  M  
 Marks
H/O
 Hit-outs
Season Team No. Games Totals Averages (per game)
G B K H D M T H/O G B K H D M T H/O
2007 Adelaide 6 16 4 3 68 28 96 42 16 142 0.2 0.2 4.2 1.8 6.0 2.6 1.0 8.9
2008 Adelaide 6 12 1 3 40 55 95 29 17 202 0.1 0.2 3.3 4.6 7.9 2.4 1.4 16.8
2009 Adelaide 6 2 0 1 9 8 17 5 4 28 0.0 0.5 4.5 4.0 8.5 2.5 2.0 14.0
2010 Adelaide 6 11 2 3 44 51 95 32 19 143 0.2 0.3 4.0 4.6 8.6 2.9 1.7 13.0
2011 Fremantle 12 7 4 0 59 40 99 26 24 187 0.6 0.0 8.4 5.7 14.1 3.7 3.4 26.7
2012 Fremantle 12 13 4 2 86 59 145 37 45 321 0.3 0.2 6.6 4.5 11.2 2.8 3.5 24.7
2013 Fremantle 12 7 3 3 46 31 77 19 23 154 0.4 0.4 6.6 4.4 11.0 2.7 3.3 22.0
2014 Fremantle 12 1 0 0 3 0 3 1 1 7 0.0 0.0 3.0 0.0 3.0 1.0 1.0 7.0
2015 Fremantle 12 8 9 1 38 36 74 23 18 90 1.1 0.1 4.8 4.5 9.2 2.9 2.2 11.2
2016 Fremantle 12 13 5 2 51 71 122 21 39 289 0.4 0.2 3.9 5.5 9.4 1.6 3.0 22.2
2017 Fremantle 12 7 4 2 40 25 65 20 30 186 0.6 0.3 5.7 3.6 9.3 2.9 4.3 26.6
Career 97 36 20 484 404 888 255 236 1749 0.4 0.2 5.0 4.2 9.1 2.6 2.4 18.0

See also

References

  1. ^ Costa Kastanis (9 August 2013). "Freo Heart: Jon Griffin" – Fremantle Football Club. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  2. ^ http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/afl/goal-avalanche-part-of-plan-for-crows/story-e6frecoc-1225767866400
  3. ^ "…Griffin a Noongar from south-west WA…" Andrew Capel (19 May 2008). "Wealth of talent in Crows' super seven" – The Advertiser. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  4. ^ Emma Quayle (15 February 2009). "Keeping it all in the family business" Archived 4 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine – The Age. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  5. ^ Jennifer Witham (30 January 2009). "Indigenous All-Stars named" – Australian Football League. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  6. ^ "Subiaco v Peel Thunder - Grand Final - 2016 (League) | WAFL".
  7. ^ Reid, Russell (24 September 2017). "Peel Thunder go back-to-back in WAFL grand final with 16-point win over Subiaco". PerthNow.
  8. ^ "Fremantle list update". fremantlefc.com.au. Bigpond. 6 October 2017. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
  9. ^ "Griff to captain the Sharks". East Fremantle Football Club. 9 February 2018.
  10. ^ McArdle, Jordan (25 October 2017). "Dumped Dockers big man Jon Griffin signs two-year deal at East Fremantle". The West Australian.
  11. ^ "Jonathon Griffin Announces Retirement". East Fremantle Football Club. 8 September 2020.
  12. ^ Jonathon Griffin' player profile at AFL Tables
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