Griffin McMaster (born 2 June 1983) is an Australian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a goalkeeper for FC Bulleen Lions in the

National Premier Leagues Victoria The National Premier Leagues Victoria (NPL Victoria or NPL VIC) is a semi-professional soccer league in Victoria, Australia. The league is a part of the National Premier Leagues, and is the highest level within the Victorian soccer league syst ...

Club career

McMaster started playing for the Palm Beach Sharks and

Surfers Paradise Surfing is a list of surface water sports, surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in Glossary of surfing, tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wind wave, wave of water, whic ...

before moving to the Queensland Lions. In 2005, the

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

was formed and Queensland Roar (now

Brisbane Roar Brisbane Roar Football Club is a professional soccer club based in Brisbane, Queensland. competing in Australia's premier men's competition, A-League Men, which is the top tier Australia's football pyramid. When Queensland Lions F.C. were ...

) were given a license to be a part of the new 8-team competition. McMaster trained with the club under then coach

Miron Bleiberg Miron Bleiberg () is an Israeli-Australian football (soccer) manager. Biography Bleiberg was educated at the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa, Israel. A former captain in the Israeli Navy, Bleiberg commanded patrol boats and missile boats, coverin ...

and played in the Brisbane state league for Brisbane City and Mt Gravatt. In July 2007, McMaster signed as a replacement for injured goalkeeper Matt Ham under new coach

Frank Farina Frank Farina Order of Australia, OAM (born 5 September 1964) is an Australian Association football, football (soccer) coach and former player who played as a Forward (association football), forward. His playing career spanned Australia, Belg ...

. He was understudy to

Liam Reddy Liam Rhys Reddy (born 8 August 1981) is an Australian professional football player who plays as a goalkeeper for NPL WA club Perth RedStar FC. He is also currently the goalkeeping coach for the Young Socceroos. Early life Reddy comes from a ...

. Following an injury (broken thumb) to keeper

, McMaster made his A-League debut on 5 January 2008 against

Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victory ...

and was named man of the match. McMaster played another man of the match performance in that season in a finals game against

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club, commonly known as Sydney FC, is a professional association football, soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. They compete in the top-tier men's league in Australia, the A-League Men. Established in 2004, ...

. He was replaced by Reddy for the following match, however he re-signed for two more seasons. McMaster received limited game time under coach Farina before the sacking of Farina in October 2009.

Ange Postecoglou Angelos "Ange" Postecoglou ( ; ; born 27 August 1965) is a soccer manager and former player who was most recently manager of club Tottenham Hotspur. Born in Greece, Postecoglou grew up in Melbourne from the age of five. As a player, he spen ...

was appointed the new coach and Reddy succumbed to another injury. McMaster played 12 games under Postecoglou before he was released by

in March 2010 and joined

Victorian Premier League The Victorian Premier League (VPL) is an Australian soccer league based in Victoria that was founded in 2023 and administered by Football Victoria. It consists of two divisions that were named after the VPL's breakaway of the National Premier L ...

club

Oakleigh Cannons Oakleigh Cannons Football Club is an Australian soccer club based in the south-east Melbourne suburb Oakleigh. As of 2025, the club competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria (NPL Victoria). History South Oakleigh Soccer Club was establ ...

. In August 2010, McMaster was signed by

Wellington Phoenix Wellington Phoenix Football Club is a professional football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. It competes in the Australian A-League Men, under licence from Football Federation Australia. Phoenix entered the competition in the 2007–08 ...

on an injury replacement deal for injured goalkeeper

Reece Crowther Reece Crowther (born 28 November 1988) is an Australian goalkeeper. Club career Crowther played all his junior football at Mulgoa who play in the Nepean Competition in Sydney before moving onto Representative football with the Marconi Stallio ...

. McMaster signed for

Heidelberg United Heidelberg United Alexander Football Club (founded as Alexander the Great-Melbourne Soccer Club) established in 1958 is a football (soccer) club based in the northern Melbourne suburb of Heidelberg West, Victoria, Australia. The team currently ...

to play in the 2011 season and won

keeper of the year. Towards the end of the 2011

season, McMaster was trialing with

Melbourne Heart Melbourne City Football Club is an Australian professional Association football, soccer club based in the South-Eastern Metropolitan Region, South-Eastern region of Melbourne, Victoria. They compete in the A-League Men, the Australian soccer ...

. He fractured his tibia in round 19 of the

against Northcote City and was sidelined for 10 months. In March 2012, McMaster signed with sport marketing company Upper90 Sports for 2 years. He also made a successful recovery from his broken leg for Moreland Zebras against

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at the 2021 ...

in the

. He left Moreland Zebras at the end of round 19 to join

Bentleigh Greens Bentleigh Greens Soccer Club is an Australian semi professional soccer club based in Cheltenham, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria. The club was formed in 1986, by the Greek Cypriot community and currently competes in the Victoria Premier League ...

for the remainder of the season. On 30 November 2012, McMaster joined the

for a second injury replacement stint this time as cover for

Glen Moss Glen Robert Moss (born 19 January 1983) is a New Zealand former football goalkeeper who is goalkeeping coach for Macarthur FC. He played for New Zealand at international level. A foundational member of both the New Zealand Knights and Welling ...

. In 2014, McMaster made a return to

in the inaugural NPL season in Victoria. He has been making consistent appearances under coach George Katsakis. He has made a number of occasions on SEN radio on the football segment with Mark Fine. In February 2016, it was confirmed that McMaster had left the Bergers to join the newly promoted FC Bulleen Lions.

Adam Goodes Twitter Incident

On 29 July 2015, McMaster attracted negative attention and criticism following a series of racist tweets which were directed at indigenous Australian AFL player

Adam Goodes Adam Roy Goodes (born 8 January 1980) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). Goodes holds an elite place in VFL/AFL history as a dual Brownlow Medallist, d ...

. In McMaster's tweets, he criticised Goodes' view of

Australia Day Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Observed annually on 26 January, it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet and raising of the Flag of Great Britain, Union Flag of Great Britain by Arthur Phillip at Sydney Cove, a ...

as "

Invasion Day Australia Day is Australia's national day, marking the anniversary of Captain Arthur Phillip's First Fleet raising the British Union Jack at Sydney Cove in 1788. After the Federation of Australia on 1 January 1901, the official recognition and d ...

" (a term used by some Indigenous figures and their supporters to refer to 26 January), attacked Goodes for "not celebrating Australia Day", and called for the Aboriginal Australian to be "deported" from Australia. He soon deleted the tweets, in the face of significant controversy and criticism, followed by an apology. McMaster was subsequently omitted from a

FFA Cup The Australia Cup (currently known as the Hahn Australia Cup for sponsorship reasons) is the national soccer knockout cup competition in Australia. This annual competition is organised by Football Australia (known as Football Federation Austra ...

game on the evening of 29 July. The following statement was made by

Football Federation Australia Football Australia is the governing body of soccer, futsal, and beach soccer within Australia, headquartered in Sydney. Although the first governing body of the sport was founded in 1911, Football Australia in its current form was only establ ...

(FFA), as reported by ABC news: "Football Federation Australia (FFA) applauds Heidelberg United Football Club for standing goalkeeper Griffin McMaster down from tonight's FFA Cup match following a series of offensive tweets this afternoon".

A-League statistics

¹ - includes

final series statistics
² - includes

FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup (FIFA CWC) is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (FIFA), the sport's global sports governing body, governing body. The compe ...

statistics;

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

statistics are included in season commencing after group stages (i.e. ACL and A-League seasons etc.)

References

External links

Queensland Roar profile

Wellington Phoenix profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:McMaster, Griffin 1983 births Australian men's soccer players Living people A-League Men players Brisbane Roar FC players Men's association football goalkeepers Soccer players from the Gold Coast, Queensland Brisbane City FC players Wellington Phoenix FC players Oakleigh Cannons FC players 21st-century Australian sportsmen