Russell Aitken

Russell Aitken (born 19 May 1985 in Sutherland, New South Wales) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer currently employed as the Assistant- coach of the Central Queensland Capras RLFC in the Intrust Super QLD competition. Russ was most recently with the AS Carcassonne rugby league club in France.
While attending Cronulla High School, Aitken played for the Australian Schoolboys team in 2002 After brief stints with Cronulla and North Queensland, Aitken signed for the Melbourne Storm at the beginning of the 2007 season. Aitken made his debut for the Storm against St George Illawarra in round 5 at the start of the 2007 season, coming off the bench as an interchange player.
Previous clubs:Nth Qld Cowboys, Cronulla Caringbah Black Cats.
Following Cameron Smith's controversial suspension after Melbourne's semi-final victory against the Brisbane Broncos, Aitken was selected at hooker to play in the 2008 NRL Grand Final after only a handful of first grade appearances. Melbourne went on to lose the grand final by a large margin after having achieved the rare feat of making three consecutive grand finals. During the subsequent off-season, Aitken was released by the Storm and chose to continue his Rugby League career with French club SS Carcassonne.
Aitken joined Co-operative European Championship team, Gateshead Thunder, in the summer of 2009.
In late 2009 Gateshead Thunder went into administration, Aitken returned to Australia in early 2010 and will play for the Newtown Jets in 2010.
After a stint in the Illawarra Carlton League with the Helensburgh Tigers in 2011, Aitken once more returned to play in France with his former club AS Carcassonne for the 2011/12 season.
In May 2014, Aitken was appointed the Captain/ Coach of the Campbelltown City Kangaroos in the Group 6 Rugby League competition for the period of June 2014- September 2014.