Personal information
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Born |
Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia |
28 February 1981 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 172 cm (5 ft 8 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 85 kg (13 st 5 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Playing information
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Position | Hooker | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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As of 15 July 2016
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Nathan Friend, (born 28 February 1981 in Toowoomba, Queensland) is a former Australian professional rugby league footballer who played for the Gold Coast Titans in the National Rugby League. He previously played for the Brisbane Broncos, Melbourne Storm and New Zealand Warriors. He plays as a hooker.
Born and raised in Toowoomba, Friend started playing league at the age of five for Wests Juniors, staying with the club until under-15 level. He was then picked for the Toowoomba under-17 side, subsequently playing one season in the local A-grade competition. In 2000 he joined the Brisbane Broncos' feeder club, the Toowoomba Clydesdales and in 2002 he moved to Brisbane to train full-time with the Broncos. He made his first-grade debut later that year.
Friend joined the Melbourne Storm in 2003. In 2005 he announced that he would be one of the founding members of the Titans in 2007.
The 2006 season was the first season where Friend played regular first grade football. Out of the Storm's 29 matches in 2006, Friend played in 21 of the games including all three of the Storm's finals series matches. Friend only lost two games out of the 21 he played in 2006. He played in the 2006 NRL Grand Final for the Melbourne Storm as one of their interchange players. Melbourne lost the match 15-8 to the Broncos.
In 2007, Friend played on the interchange bench in the Titans' inaugural game, a 20-18 home loss to the St George Illawarra Dragons. He continued to play on the bench for the first eight games of the season. In Round 9, he replaced Clint Amos as the Titans' starting hooker and remained first choice hooker for the rest of the season. The Titans' Round 20 loss to the South Sydney Rabbitohs was the only game in the 2007 season that Friend did not play in.