Phil Matson | |||
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Phil Matson circa 1923
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Personal information | |||
Full name | Phillip Henry Matson | ||
Date of birth | 22 October 1884 | ||
Place of birth | Port Adelaide, South Australia | ||
Date of death | 13 June 1928 | (aged 43)||
Place of death | Perth, Western Australia | ||
Height | 179 cm (5 ft 10 in) | ||
Position(s) | Utility | ||
Playing career1 | |||
Years | Club | Games (Goals) | |
1903 | West Perth | 1 | |
1904–05 | South Bunbury | ? | |
1906–08 | Boulder City | ? | |
1909–10 | Sturt | 24 | |
1911 | North Fremantle | 13 | |
1912–17 | Subiaco | 80 | |
1918–23 | East Perth | 35 | |
Representative team honours | |||
Years | Team | Games (Goals) | |
1908, 1911, 1914 | Western Australia | 10 | |
1909–10 | South Australia | 4 | |
Total | 14 | ||
Coaching career3 | |||
Years | Club | Games (W–L–D) | |
1913–14 | Subiaco | ||
1918–24, 1926–28 | East Perth | ||
1923, 1926–27 | Western Australia | ||
1925 | Castlemaine | ||
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1923.
2 State and international statistics correct as of 1914.
3 Coaching statistics correct as of 1928.
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Career highlights | |||
Player
Coach
Honours
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Source: AustralianFootball.com |
Player
Coach
Honours
Philip Henry Matson (22 October 1884 at Port Adelaide – 13 June 1928 at Perth) was a highly successful player and coach of Australian rules football in the early 20th century, chiefly in Western Australia.
The son of George Matson and his wife Emma (née Duffield), Matson was educated at state school in Adelaide before moving to Western Australia as a youth. There, he worked as a navvies' water-boy and began swimming competitively in 1902 and playing Australian football. During his swimming career, he held Western Australian freestyle titles from 100 yards (91 m) to a mile (1.6 km) using the now-obsolete trudgen stroke. He won the 220-yard breaststroke at the Australasian championships in the three years between 1905 and 1907, and eventually set a world record time for the event of three minutes and fourteen seconds. However, playing professional football at the same time precluded him from considering the Olympic Games, so he turned professional for a £20 stake in 1909. Matson married his cousin Gertrude Ethel Jean Pope in 1907 at Boulder, Western Australia, but they later separated.
Matson supported himself playing football during an era when the game was supposedly an amateur sport. He was a "gun for hire", and moved clubs frequently, playing outside the main leagues if the price was right. Thus, he played for South Bunbury in 1904–05, Boulder City in 1906–08, Sturt (in Adelaide) in 1909–10, North Fremantle in 1911, Subiaco in 1912–17 and East Perth in 1918–23. A fast, vigorous and versatile utility with an ability to take the big mark (despite being only 179 cm), he played at half-back and half-forward and took turns in the ruck. He played for both South Australia (1909–10) and Western Australia (1908, 1911, 1914) and captained the Sandgropers at the 1914 interstate carnival.