Story courtesy of Brad Greenshields/Coffs Coast Advocate
SAWTELL/Toormina midfielder Luke Matthews is something of a lucky charm.
Just prior to moving to Coffs Harbour from the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne at the start of 2002, Matthews had played in an Under-18s premiership with Montrose.
In his first two AFL North Coast seasons, Matthews was a member of two premierships with North Coffs.
Since transferring to Sawtell/Toormina, the 31-year-old has played in another five flag winning teams.
In fact, in the past two seasons when the Saints have lost the grand final, Matthews has been on the other side of the country working and playing in Broome.
Perhaps his return in 2014 might be just the change Sawtell/Toormina needs to break its run of losing grand finals.
Matthews refuses to say he’s a lucky charm though. He thinks the Saints’ long run of success is because of the club as a whole rather than any one individual.
“For us, we’ve always had a core group through the club,” Matthews said.
He lists players such as Mark Couzens, Courtney Tune, Jai Hardy and Dave Meyers as personnel key to the team’s success which sees the Saints play in their ninth grand final in 10 years this weekend.
“We’ve also managed to get young fellas to come through and actually stick around,” he said.
In each of the seven AFL North Coast titles he’s been a part of, Matthews has always played alongside at least one of his four brothers – Dean, Scott, Todd and Beau.
This weekend Luke will run out onto the ground alongside Scott and Beau with Todd delivering the coach’s messages as runner.
“It’s awesome to be able to play with your brothers,” he said.
“You couldn’t ask for anything else. Especially having Scotty around the centre, it’s really good to communicate with him and then having Beau now, he’s really starting to play some good footy.”
Photo courtesy Leigh Jensen/Coffs Coast Advocate
Last Modified on 22/08/2014 11:42