Shane Elford is an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n rugby league

Rugby league

Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...

 player for the Penrith Panthers

Penrith Panthers

The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football team based in the western Sydney suburb of Penrith. They compete in the National Rugby League premiership, the top rugby league football competition in Australasia. For the 2012 NRL season they will be coached by Ivan...

. He has previously played for the Wests Tigers

Wests Tigers

The Wests Tigers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Sydney's mid-western suburbs. They have competed in the National Rugby League since they were formed at the end of the 1999 season as a joint-venture club between the Balmain Tigers and the Western Suburbs...

 in the National Rugby League

National Rugby League

The National Rugby League is the top league of professional rugby league football clubs in Australasia. The NRL's main competition, called the Telstra Premiership , is contested by sixteen teams, fifteen of which are based in Australia with one based in New Zealand...

 (NRL) and his position of choice is at Centre.

Elford had missed Penrith's 2003 NRL grand final

2003 NRL grand final

The 2003 NRL grand final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding match of the 2003 NRL season. In what was a contest of Sydney's east versus west, defending premiers and match favourites, the Sydney Roosters played against minor premiers and underdogs, the Penrith Panthers...

-winning team. Had he played he would have been the other dual-premiership winning player at the Tigers at the time (the other being Paul Whatuira

Paul Whatuira

Paul Whatuira is a professional rugby league footballer who currently plays for the Parramatta Eels in the NRL...

 who did play in Penrith's 2003 premiership winning team).

He is a member of the Wests Tigers' 2005 NRL Grand Final

2005 NRL Grand Final

The 2005 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the 2005 National Rugby League season. It was played on the night of Sunday, 2 October at Sydney's Telstra Stadium between 4th-placed Wests Tigers and 5th-placed North Queensland Cowboys, the only two clubs in the...

-winning team, playing at centre in their 30–16 win over the North Queensland Cowboys

North Queensland Cowboys

The North Queensland Cowboys are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, Queensland. They compete in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby League premiership...

.

Following injuries to Benji Marshall

Benji Marshall

Benji Marshall is a professional rugby league footballer with the Wests Tigers of the National Rugby League . A goal-kicking five-eighth, he is the current captain of the New Zealand national team, with whom he won the 2008 World Cup and 2010 Four Nations tournaments...

 and Paul Whatuira

Paul Whatuira

Paul Whatuira is a professional rugby league footballer who currently plays for the Parramatta Eels in the NRL...

 during the 2006 season, Elford was trialled at five-eighth during rounds 21 to 26. His first assignment was handling Brisbane Broncos

Brisbane Broncos

The Brisbane Broncos are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the city of Brisbane, the capital of the state of Queensland. Founded in 1988, the Broncos play in Australasia's elite competition, the National Rugby League premiership. They have won six premierships and two...

 captain Darren Lockyer

Darren Lockyer

Darren Lockyer is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer. He was the captain of the Australian national team, the Queensland State of Origin team and his National Rugby League club, the Brisbane Broncos. His professional career spanned between 1995 and 2011...

. The Tigers won that match 20–6 and were the third-last club to beat the eventual premiers before the finals. This was seen as a massive upset as the Tigers were without Marshall, Whatuira and captain Brett Hodgson

Brett Hodgson

Brett Hodgson is an Australian professional rugby league footballer for the Warrington Wolves of Super League...

 for the remainder of ther 2006 season, and the Broncos were at full strength.

Elford signed a one-year deal with his former club Penrith after being released by Hudderfield in 2008.

In 2010 Elford suffered a serious knee injury against the Bulldogs and missed the second half of the season.

Career highlights

• Junior Club: St Marys
• First Grade Debut: Round 21, Penrith v Canberra at Canberra Stadium, 2 August 1998
• First Grade Record: 109 appearances scoring 36 tries

External links