Matt Thomas

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**Matt Thomas**
Personal information

Birth	February 27, 1987 (1987-02-27) (age 21),
Recruited from	Sandringham U18
Height and weight	184cm / 83kg
Playing career¹
Debut	Round 14, 2006, Port Adelaide Football Club vs. Richmond Football Club, at AAMI Stadium.
Team(s)	Port Adelaide (2006-) 12 games, 4 goals
¹ Statistics to end of 2007 season
Career highlights

Matt Thomas (Born February 27, 1987) is an Australian Rules Footballer, who currently plays for Port Adelaide in the AFL. Recruited at Pick number 8 in the 2006 Pre-season Draft from Sandringham, he has become known as a tough player. He can play as either a defender or a midfielder. Because he was drafted from outside South Australia, Matt was placed in the SANFL internal draft, which lets clubs choose which players they recruit when the said player is not playing for their South Australia AFL team. He was picked up by Norwood, and made his debut in the third round of the SANFL, against Woodville West Torrens. He ended up playing 10 games for norwood through the 2006 season, and scored 1 goal.

In 2006, after a few years of dominance, Port Adelaide struggled and realised that they would not make the finals. They started to blood some youth, and Matt was called in to make his AFL debut in round 14 against Richmond, after some impressive mid-season form with Norwood in the SANFL. His first kick in AFL football resulted in a goal, although Port Adelaide lost the match by 38 points. He was kept in the side that played Geelong the next week, and scored another goal. He then played another 6 games for the year, playing 8 in total and kicking 3 goals. In the showdown match against Adelaide in Round 21, Matt was involved in an incident with Adelaide's Trent Hentschel. Trent gathered the ball and was about to kick for goal, when Matt laid a tackle, forcing Trent's knee to be pushed in sideways, requiring a knee reconstruction.

In 2007, Matt spent time in hospital, after complications from having his appendix removed. He lost 15kg in just two weeks, after an abdominal infection following his appendix removeal. It was so severe that he had a section of his intestine removed^[1].

In 2007, he played just 4 games for Port Adelaide, from round 6 to 9.