Melbourne Storm's Slade Griffin stops traffic in his home town of Greymouth in NZ as he makes debut Melbourne's Slade Griffin at a recovery session after the Storm's opening round win against the Dragons. Picture: Jamie Eastgate SLADE Griffin performed a remarkable feat when me made his NRL debut for Melbourne Storm on Sunday. The nuggety youngster stopped traffic in his home town of Greymouth on the west coast of New Zealand's South Island. That's not a bad effort given the town is so small it has no traffic lights and the cars usually flow pretty freely. But once word spread the local junior would be running out with the likes of superstars Cameron Smith and Billy Slater, everyone stopped to huddle around their TVs and get a look. He finished his debut game with a lasting memory too; seven stitches to a cut Griffin didn't even know he received until the trainers forced him off the field. I didn't want to come off, but they said I had to. I got back out there though after they stitched me up," he said. Griffin's ascension to the Storm first-grade team for the opening round came as a surprise to the 22- year-old, but so did the fact he was even still at the club. Standing in the showers after the opening trial of 2012 Griffin thought his time in Melbourne was over. He'd just ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament and, out of contract at the end of that season, thought he was cooked. "I was in the showers and I just thought "this is it." Then Craig came up to me and said "don't worry about anything, we are going to re-sign you,"" he said. That put my mind at ease and on the Monday I was straight back in to the gym. I didn't run for five months and just learning to run again was hard. But I took it slow, didn't do contact until just before Christmas and it feels strong. And to be where I am, to have played NRL, it's amazing. He found out last Thursday he would be playing against the Dragons and his thoughts immediately turned to his favourite part of the NRL champ's game-day routine. "I've watched every game for two years and when the boys run out to that music, the Thunderstuck song, I get goosepumps," Griffin said. It was something special. Griffin didn't get much from Bellamy post-game, other than a head nod and a handshake. But the coach gave every indication Griffin's wouldn't be a one-off showing. "He's a tough little rooster," Bellamy said. Hopefully we'll be seeing a bit more of him.