“He was always happy and good, and he always wanted to have a laugh. He loved his family and friends around him.”
Layne represented West Coast across all age groups during his schoolboy years, played for South Island representative sides and was named in three Junior Kiwis teams.
He moved to Christchurch in the early 2000s to play league before relocating to Griffith, New South Wales, in 2006, with his brother, Cole.
He met his future wife, Mel, during a year in Nowra in 2008, where he played first-grade league, before moving back to the West Coast to work in a mine.
In 2010, he returned to Nowra, where he had remained ever since, Royce said.
Despite spending many years across the ditch, he never lost his connection to the West Coast, twice fundraising to bring his son’s under-15 Australian team, the Berry Magpies, to tour the South Island.
Part of his motivation was getting his boys to experience playing at Wingham Park in Greymouth, the field he loved running out on the most, Royce said.
Layne Green playing for Berry Shoalhaven Heads Magpies RLFC in Australia. Photo / Berry Shoalhaven Heads Magpies RLFC
League was in Layne’s blood; his father, Bernard (Hurgi) Green, played several matches for the Kiwis in the early 1980s. He died in 2006, aged 47, after an accident in the Roa coal mine at Blackball, near Greymouth.
Two of Layne’s sons are signed with NRL academy sides, Brodee (17) with the Bulldogs and Cooper (14) with the Sharks.
During his time in Australia, he worked in different coal mines before starting his own company, which contracted miners for work and had around 90 employees.
He travelled frequently on business but made sure to call his family every day and did so on the night he died.
Layne’s proudest achievements in league were coaching his four children and bringing his sons to New Zealand to play at Wingham Park, Royce said.
Tributes to Layne have been made by many on social media, including West Coast Rugby League, which said his legacy in the region would remain.
“He was a man who achieved so much but never lost sight of his beginnings, his people or the place he called home.”
The Berry Shoalhaven Heads Magpies club said Layne would leave a big hole in the local football community and their thoughts were with his family and friends.
Layne is survived by his wife, Mel; children Brodee, Cooper, Sammie and Pearl; mother Rose; siblings Tyrell, Cole, Royce, Cherish and Karina; and best mates Terry, Garick and Amy.