Matthew Rosa (born 23 November 1986) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who played for the

Gold Coast Football Club The Gold Coast Suns, officially the Gold Coast Football Club, are a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club is based on Queensland's Gold Coast in the suburb of Carrara. The ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL). Originally from

Warracknabeal Warracknabeal ( ) is a town in the Australian state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, located in the Wheatbelt (Australia), Victorian wheatbelt. Situated on the banks of the Yarriambiack Creek, 330 km northwest of Melbourne, it is the bus ...

and later boarding school in

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) () is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Ballarat had a population of 111,973, making it the third-largest urban inland city in Australia and the third-largest city in Victoria. Within mo ...

, Rosa played under-18 football for the

North Ballarat Rebels The Greater Western Victoria Rebels is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Talent League, the statewide under-18s competition in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. They recruit players from the Ballarat, Wimmera and Sou ...

in the

TAC Cup The Talent League (also known as the Coates Talent League under naming rights and previously as the NAB League and TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representative competition based in Melbourne and run by the Australian Foot ...

before being drafted by the

West Coast Eagles The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 and first competed in 1987 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known ...

in the 2004 National Draft. He made his debut for the club in 2005 and was nominated for the

AFL Rising Star The AFL Rising Star is an Australian rules football award presented annually to the player adjudged the best young player in the Australian Football League (AFL) for the year. It was first presented in the 1993 season, and was won by Nathan Bu ...

the following season in 2006. He played 168 games for West Coast but at the end of the 2015 season, requested a trade to the

Gold Coast Suns The Gold Coast Suns, officially the Gold Coast Football Club, are a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club is based on Queensland's Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast in the ...

. Having played 207 games, Rosa hung up the boots at the end of the 2018 season. In October 2018 he joined the

coaching panel which he left at 2020 season's end. As of 2024, Rosa is the list manager of

Essendon Football Club The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers or colloquially the Dons, is a professional Australian rules football club that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCrac ...

Career

Rosa was recruited with the number 29 draft pick in the 2004 AFL Draft, hailing from the

. He made his debut for the West Coast Eagles in Round 17, 2005 against the

Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a Austral ...

. He was selected for first two weeks of the 2006 finals, but was dropped for the last two weeks of finals, being named as an emergency for the

2006 AFL Grand Final The 2006 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 30 September 2006. It was the 110th annual grand final of the Austral ...

, which the Eagles won. The 2007 season brought new opportunities for Rosa, who played 22 games for the home and away season and was selected in the squad to play in both the two games in the finals series. He suffered from shin splints in 2008, restricting him to just 8 games for the season.Eagles secure Lynch and Rosa with new contracts
/ref> He returned in 2009 to play all 22 games. Rosa played his 150th game in 2014 and re-signed with the club for two more years, however, in October 2015, Rosa was traded to the Gold Coast Suns. In August 2018, Rosa announced his retirement from AFL football after 13 years and 207 games. After retiring from football Rosa joined the coaching staff at the West Coast Eagles for two seasons, after which he took on the role of Football Operations Manager at

Peel Thunder The Peel Thunder Football Club is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). The team is based in Mandurah, Western Australia, with their home ground being Rushton Park. The ...

, the WAFL representative side of the

Fremantle Dockers The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Dockers or colloquially Freo, is a professional Australian rules football club competing in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The team was founded in 1994 to represen ...

. In 2023 Rosa joined the Essendon Football Club as its Talent and Operations Manager, the following year Rosa would take over from his long serving predecessor Adrian Dodoro as Essendon's List Manager.https://www.essendonfc.com.au/news/1435422/update-football-department-changes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rosa, Matt 1986 births Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Living people Greater Western Victoria Rebels players North Ballarat Football Club players Peel Thunder Football Club players West Coast Eagles players People from Warracknabeal Australian people of Italian descent Sportspeople of Italian descent Gold Coast Football Club players People educated at St Patrick's College, Ballarat