Nathan Brown (born 31 July 1973) is an Australian professional rugby league football coach who was the Head Coach of the New Zealand Warriors in the NRL and former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. He played as a for the St. George Dragons and St. George Illawarra Dragons in the National Rugby League, also coaching the latter. He then spent time in the Super League coaching the Huddersfield Giants and St Helens, with whom he won the 2014 Super League Grand Final, before returning to Australia to coach the Newcastle Knights in the NRL. Playing career At the end of his debut season Brown played for the St. George Dragons in the 1993 Winfield Cup Grand Final loss to the Brisbane Broncos. He also played for them in the 1996 ARL season grand final loss to the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles. Brown played for the newly formed St. George Illawarra Dragons at hooker in their 1999 NRL Grand Final loss to the Melbourne Storm. He was forced to retire following a neck injury in a 2001 NRL season trial game. Coaching career St. George Illawarra Dragons Brown was appointed coach of St. George Illawarra for the 2003 season, becoming the youngest non-playing coach in years in the NRL at age 29. During his first season, at a match on Sunday, 13 April 2003 against Manly at WIN Stadium, a frustrated Nathan Brown berated captain Trent Barrett, Brett Firman and Lance Thompson on the sideline in the 53rd minute with the scores locked up at 12-all. Brown slapped Barrett across the cheek and grabbed the jerseys of Barrett and Thompson. The incident was seen by the crowd and other players on the big screen and proved a decisive turning point as Manly ran in five second half tries to win 38-12. After the match, Brown was apologetic to Barrett and was later fined $5,000 by the NRL. On 19 July 2005, Brown was fined $10,000 by the NRL after claiming that referees are biased against St George Illawarra. Brown made the comments after his team were penalised 9-3 by the referees. Despite the penalty count, St. George Illawarra still managed to defeat Manly 36-10. After finishing second in the 2005 competition, Brown's team lost the preliminary final to the eventual premiers, Wests Tigers. Following many injuries and team losses throughout the 2007 season, he was under