Matthew Armstrong (Australian footballer)

Matthew Armstrong
Personal information
Date of birth	(1967-03-01) 1 March 1967
Original team(s)	Hobart (TFL Statewide)
Height / weight	177 cm / 76 kg
Playing career¹
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1987–1994 1995–1996 Total	Fitzroy North Melbourne	132 (71) 043 (18) 175 (89)
¹ Playing statistics correct to the end of 1996.

Matthew Armstrong (born 1 March 1967) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Fitzroy and North Melbourne in the VFL/AFL. He was a regular interstate representative for his home state of Tasmania.

Armstrong played in many positions, as an on baller, half back, centre or wingman. He was with Fitzroy from 1987 to 1994 and played 132 games. In 1995 he moved to North Melbourne and was the season's second highest disposal getter for the club. Despite missing just five games in the 1996 home and away season he was omitted from the side which defeated Sydney in the grand final.

He was sometimes involved in spectacular solo efforts to win games breaking out of the centre melee with a direct run at goal, but would only do so at the end of close games. Otherwise he was frequently unnoticed on the field, perhaps due to his relatively short stature or perhaps mainly to the blink-fast speed of his disposal of the ball, usually to great effect.

He seemed to show a singular strategic sense and his handspeed resulted in an unparalleled ability to break lines of defence and an uncanny number of plays involving or commencing with him resulted in scoring shots, sometimes several disposals later. This ability was recognized by teammates but often overlooked by coaches and selectors; testified to by Wayne Carey making special mention of the non-selected Matthew Armstrong in his 1996 Premiership Cup acceptance speech.

He later became coach of the Tasmanian Devils Football Club.

External links

Matthew Armstrong's statistics from AFL Tables
Matthew Armstrong's profile from AustralianFootball.com

Victorian team – 1989 State of Origin

Victoria 19.12 (126) defeated Western Australia 10.12 (72), at the WACA Ground, 16 May 1989, crowd: 20,993 Victoria 22.17 (149) defeated South Australia 9.9 (63), at the MCG, 1 July 1989, crowd: 91,960

Both games	Bews Brown Collins Daniher Dunstall Langford Lovett Lyon Madden (c) Murphy Scott Stoneham Weightman Coach: Goggin

vs. Western Australia	Ablett Armstrong Ayres Lambert Larkin Maginness Schwass Stynes Williams

vs. South Australia	Brereton Bruns Couch Darcy Lockett Mitchell Morwood Pritchard Watson

Coach: Goggin

1986 VFL national draft

First round	1. Martin Leslie 2. Steven Sims 3. Steven Febey 4. Richard Anderson 5. Michael Taylor 6. Richard Cousins 7. Chris Lindsay 8. Grantley Fielke 9. Andrew Payze 10. John Brinkkotter 11. Jason Taylor 12. Dominic Fotia 13. Clayton Lamb

Second round	14. Scott Adams 15. Andrew Wickham 16. Matthew Febey 17. Trent Nichols 18. Mark O'Keefe 19. Matthew Mansfield 20. Brenton Harris 21. David Robertson 22. Kieran Sporn 23. Lyndon Dakin 24. Matthew Armstrong 25. Doug Smart 26. Darrin Pritchard

Third round	27. Adam Garton 28. Darren Mansell 29. Craig Walker 30. Matthew Sexton 31. Glen Keast 32. Wayne Mahney 33. Malcolm Shippen 34. Craig Kelly 35. Peter Reid 36. Donald Thompson 37. Chris Duthy 38. Simon Minton-Connell 39. Matthew Queen

Fourth round	40. Stephen Williams 41. Brett Jaffray 42. Anthony Lovell 43. Andrew Gray 44. Tim Britt 45. James Pyke 46. Gary Brooker 47. Brendan Hogan 48. Stephen Riley 49. Craig Elias 50. Alastair Lynch 51. Andrew Herring 52. Robin McKinnon

Fifth round	53. Michael Templeton 54. Paul Page 55. Darren Jarman 56. Greg Whittlesea 57. Michael Billman 58. Perry Meka 59. Wayne Morrissey 60. Wayne Tanner 61. Andrew Underwood 62. Laurie Menhenut 63. Peter Winter 64. Darren Newlan 65. Tony Symonds

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