Leigh Matthews
AFL Player of the Century and three-time Premiership-winning coach.
Profile
Leigh’s presentations reflect both his ability to draw the best out of people and the dynamic, inspirational approach that he has taken to his football career and his career in sales and marketing. He is an articulate and entertaining speaker, who provides much value for audiences in business and in life.
Current experience:
Now an AFL commentator on television with the Seven Network, on radio with 3AW Football and as a feature writer and commentator for the Herald Sun,
Previous experience:
Leigh Matthews’ career as both footballer and coach has been crowned with success. During his 16 years as a player with the Hawthorn Football Club he captained the team, led it to Premiership victory and took the club record for Best and Fairest and for goal kicking. Leigh has proven his skills as a coach by preparing Collingwood to clinch, in 1990, that long-time elusive Premiership and in 1994 was inducted into the Sporting Hall of Fame. As Coach, he led the Brisbane Lions to three successive Premierships in 2001, 2002 and 2003.
He is officially recognised as the ‘best player of the 20th century’ according to the AFL, is a Legend in the AFL Hall of Fame, is on the Hawthorn and AFL Teams of the Centuries, has polled the most Brownlow votes without winning a Brownlow, and is one of the most successful AFL coaches of all time. In 2008, he was named second behind Wayne Carey as part of Mike Sheahan’s list of the top 50 players of all time as published in The Australian Game of Football, released by the AFL to celebrate 150 years of the game.
Feedback
Leigh was excellent, and made our event very memorable.
An excellent presentation which was relevant to people from all different backgrounds and industries. Our function for 2009 was the highest attendance in eight years of running it and that was simply because we had Leigh as a speaker.
The presentation content, question time and interaction were excellent.
A very strong presentation - highly entertaining and the right message on the theme of building winning teams.
Leigh was perfect for our safety forum. He held the audience's attention throughout and was very accommodating with his time.
