“I would have started playing juniors when I was about 12, and I’m 29 now,” he said. “I played my 200th senior game for the club last season.”

While Matthews would have liked to have given the Wimmera Football League a crack, he said he would always have finished his career at Laharum.

“I was never going to finish anywhere else but at Laharum, and I would never have played against Laharum,” he said.

“I wouldn’t have minded giving Wimmera league or North Central a go. I had a few injuries at the time I could have gone and it just never happened.”

The Matthews name is a familiar one at Laharum, with his father, Robert, a club legend. 

“I think dad played 317 games in the end,” Matthews said. “He came to Laharum when he was 21 I think, and then he played the rest of his career there. He was on the board and all that, so we always spent a fair bit of time there.

“I’ve pretty much given up on reaching dad’s number of games. I set myself a goal of playing 200, and I’ve done that. Now I’m just happy and every week is a bonus.”

As well as following in his father’s footsteps, Matthews has spent much of his time at the Demons alongside other family members. 

This season, he is playing with cousins Robbie Miller and Cam Streeter, while his sister, Leah, also plays netball at Laharum.

“It’s great playing with them, and that’s why Cam came back this year to play,” he said.  “Then you have Robbie’s brother-in-law Rhys Bennett, who played for us up until last year, and then my brother-in-law Brenton Askew also played from 2008 till about 2013. We tried to get all the family playing, otherwise we wouldn’t have seen too much of each other.”

Matthews has seen painful losses as well as success at Laharum. He was part of the senior side’s losing grand finals in 2005, 2008 and 2014, and then premiership teams in 2013 and 2015. 

Matthews believes having predominantly home grown players during the 2013 and 2015 seasons was a big reason why the side won those premierships.

“There was a lot of hard work done through our junior system, which went a long way to our success then,” he said. “There were about 15 or 16 guys in our senior teams that won ‘13 and ‘15 and lost ‘14 who played juniors at Laharum. 

“You don’t see that as much these days. That’s why we played better than what we probably were – we were all close and all knew each other. I played in a couple of losing grand finals in 2005 and 2008, and then we had more high profile recruits. They were really good teams, but it was more of a brought in team.”

Matthews said Laharum’s 2013 premiership meant a lot to not only the senior side, but all of the past players and members who had never tasted premiership success.

“When we actually won the grand final, my dad was one of the first on the ground and there were quite a few like him who never had the success premiership wise on the football field or netball court,” Matthews said.

“Those premiership wins were massive for all of them.”