Leigh Matthews

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For Leigh Matthews, the 21-year-old South African student murdered in 2005, see Leigh Matthews (South Africa)
Leigh Matthews
Statue of Leigh Matthews outside the MCG
Statue of Leigh Matthews outside the MCG
Personal information
Full name Leigh Raymond Matthews
Date of Birth March 1, 1952 (1952-03-01) (age 56)
Place of Birth Frankston, Victoria
Recruited from Chelsea Football Club
Height/Weight 178cm / 86kg
Position Forward (retired)
Playing Career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1969-1985 Hawthorn 332 (915)
Coaching career³
Years Club Games (Wins)
1986-1995
1999-		 Collingwood
Brisbane Lions		 224 (125)
223 (136)
¹ Club statistics to end of Round 8, 2008 season
² Representative statistics to end of {{{repstatsend}}}


Leigh Raymond "Lethal Leigh" Matthews AM (born March 1, 1952) is a former player and current coach of Australian rules football. He played for Hawthorn in the Victorian Football League (now Australian Football League) from 1969 to 1985, coached Collingwood from 1986-1995, and has coached Brisbane since 1999. As a player he was voted the "Best player of the 20th century", and is one of the most successful AFL coaches of all time. [1]

Contents

[edit] Playing Career

[edit] Early Career

Matthews played his junior football at the Chelsea Football Club, and joined Hawthorn at the age of sixteen, having already played senior suburban football. Part of a footballing family, Matthews' brother Kelvin had played 155 games at Hawthorn and Geelong Matthews made his senior debut for the Hawks in 1969, winning the club's Best First Year Player award, despite playing only five senior games in the season. By 1970, Matthews had earned a regular place in the team as a rover rotating forward.

[edit] 1970s

In 1971, Matthews established himself as one of the league's elite players, earning his first of fourteen Victorian guernseys, his first of eight Hawthorn Best and Fairest awards, and his first of four playing premiership medallions, at an age of only nineteen. Throughout the remainder of the 1970s, Matthews won five more Best and Fairests (1972, 1974, 1976, 1977 and 1978), and two more premiership medallions (1976, 1978). Matthews prowess as a goalkicker grew through the 1970s. Matthews topped the Hawthorn goalkickers' table twice (1973, 1975) in the 1970s, and was the league's leading goalkicker in 1975, scoring 68 goals; while this was an unusually low tally, it was a rare result for a non-full forward to lead the competition. In 1977, he scored 91 goals, which was the record for goals kicked by a non-full forward (broken in 1990 by Peter Daicos from Collingwood, where Matthews was then coaching).

[edit] 1980s

In 1980, Matthews was selected as the captain of the Victorian State of Origin team for the only time in his career, and he won his seventh club Best and Fairest. In 1981, he became the captain of Hawthorn, a position he held until his retirement in 1985.

Matthews was the club leading goalkicker four times in a row from 1981 until 1984. He won the Best and Fairest for the eighth time in 1982, the same year winning the VFL Players' Association's inaugural Most Valuable Player award. In 1983, Matthews would win his fourth premiership medallion, his last as a player.

In 1982, Leigh Matthews famously broke a behind post at Windy Hill. A piece of the post (measuring about one metre) broke off, hitting the boundary umpire, after Leigh ran into its base. It is believed that, to comply with a VFL directive, groundsmen at Windy Hill had glued an extension to the top of the post, which broke loose after Matthews collided with it.

[edit] Retirement

The 1985 season was Matthews' last. During the season his forearm struck Geelong player Neville Bruns in an off-the-ball incident, breaking Bruns' jaw. No report was laid because video review facilities were then unavailable. However, after much public outcry, the VFL launched an investigation and subsequently deregistered Matthews for four weeks. He was also charged by the police and fined $1000 - this was a major factor in his retirement. Matthews 332nd and final game was the 1985 Grand Final loss to Essendon.

Upon retirement, Matthews had scored 915 goals, which remains the highest tally by a non-full forward. At the time of his retirement, it was the fourth-highest tally by any player; since surpassed three times, he is now seventh all-time. Matthews also accrued 202 Brownlow Medal votes in his career, the third-most of all-time, and most by a player who has not won the award.

[edit] Coaching Career

[edit] Collingwood

Following his retirement, Matthews turned to coaching, immediately taking the head coaching job at the Collingwood Football Club. He coached 224 games in ten seasons with the Magpies. Under his guidance, Collingwood won one premiership, in 1990, Matthews' fifth premiership medallion, and for which he would later be retrospectively awarded one of his four Jock McHale Medals. In that Grand Final, Collingwood beat Essendon, ending the 32-year premiership drought generally referred to as "the Colliwobbles." Matthews was sacked as Collingwood coach after the 1995 season following an unsuccessful season finishing 10th .

[edit] Brisbane Lions

After three years, Matthews was coaxed out of retirement by the struggling Brisbane Lions, who had won the 1998 wooden spoon. Matthews impact at the Lions was immediate, lifting the team from sixteenth to fourth in 1999, and making the finals again in 2000.

In 2001, Matthews famously used the Predator quote "If it bleeds, we can kill it," to inspire his team for its Round 10 game against Essendon, who sat atop the ladder, was the defending premier, and had lost only two of its previous thirty-four games; Brisbane finished as 28 point victors. Throughout the remainder of the season, the Lions were undefeated, eventually meeting and once again defeating Essendon in the Grand Final for their sixteenth consecutive win. The winning streak would eventually end at twenty games.

Matthews guided the Lions to four consecutive Grand Finals, including triumphs over Collingwood in 2002 and 2003, and losing to Port Adelaide in 2004. These wins gave Matthews his total of eight premiership medallions. In 2007, he coached his 200th game with the club, making him the first person to play or coach 200 games with three different clubs.

Matthews' coaching style at the Lions is reportedly incredibly strict, although obviously successful. Despite his four premierships as a coach, Matthews has never coached a team to the minor premiership.

[edit] Post-Career Honours

Matthews was named "Player of the Century," inducted as an inaugural official Legend of the Australian Football Hall of Fame, the highest individual honour which can be bestowed upon a football personality. He was also named in both the AFL and Hawthorn Teams of the Century, in the forward pocket for the AFL and as rover for Hawthorn.

In 2002, the AFLPA MVP award, of which Matthews was the inaugural recipient, was renamed the Leigh Matthews Trophy.

[edit] Outside Football

Before coaching the Brisbane Lions, Leigh Matthews made several media appearances as guest commentator. His celebrity status in both Melbourne and Brisbane has seen him become the face of Devine, a residential development company based in Brisbane with projects in Melbourne and Adelaide.

[edit] References

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Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2006)
  1. ^ Real Footy: 'Lethal' on verge of code's elite level
Preceded by
Doug Wade		 Coleman Medallist
1975		 Succeeded by
Larry Donohue
Preceded by
Inaugural award		 Leigh Matthews Trophy
1982		 Succeeded by
Terry Daniher
Preceded by
Bob Rose		 Collingwood Football Club coach
1986 - 1995		 Succeeded by
Tony Shaw
Preceded by
Roger Merrett		 Brisbane Lions coach
1999-		 Succeeded by
Incumbent
v • d • e
Brisbane Lions Football Club – current squad

1 Clark • 2 Proud • 3 Sheldon • 4 Johnstone • 5 Harding • 6 Power • 7 Adcock • 8 Notting • 9 McGrath • 10 Moody • 11 Sherman • 12 Hawksley • 13 Schmidt • 14 Henderson • 15 Tyler • 16 Brown • 17 Brennan • 18 Corrie* • 19 Charman • 20 Black • 21 Merrett • 22 Collier • 23 Leuenberger • 24 Patfull • 25 Mills • 26 Macdonald • 27 Garner* • 28 Selwood • 29 Roe • 30 Copeland • 31 Polkinghorne • 32 Stiller • 33 Hooper • 34 Dalziell • 35 Rischitelli • 36 Bradshaw • 37 Austin • 38 Kiel* • 39 Drummond • 40 Hamill* • 41 Clouston* • 43 McDonald • 44 Lappin • 45 Dzufer* • 46 Begley* • 47 Tippett* • n/a Hanley* • n/a Smith* • Coach: Matthews |}

* denotes Rookie Listed players