Matthew Suckling (born 25 July 1988) 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

Hawthorn Football Club The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Mulgrave, Victoria, that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was founded in 1902 in the inner-east suburb of Hawth ...

and

Western Bulldogs The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition. Originally named the Footscray F ...

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). Suckling is known as a player with precision kicking and link-up play from defence. Characteristic of his style of play is his very long range, very accurate kicking.

Early life

Hailing from

Wagga Wagga Wagga Wagga (; informally called Wagga) is a major regional city in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, with an urban population of more than 57,003 as of 2021, it is an important agricultural, m ...

, Suckling played football with Isaac Smith in the Wagga Hawks for several years before both moved to the Wagga Tigers where they won two premierships.

Rookie

First drafted by the Hawthorn Football Club at pick 22 in the 2007 Rookie draft. He was struck down by

osteitis pubis Osteitis pubis is a noninfectious inflammation of the pubic symphysis (also known as the pubis symphysis, symphysis pubis, or symphysis pubica), causing varying degrees of lower abdominal and pelvic pain. Osteitis pubis was first described in pat ...

for most of 2007 but was retained on the rookie list for 2008. Suckling was redrafted to Hawthorn's rookie list by the club at pick 81 in the 2009 Rookie draft. At the 2009 rookie draft, where Hawthorn had agreed to redraft Suckling; the club mistakenly read out the wrong player registration number and accidentally selected the

Sandringham Dragons Sandringham Dragons is an Australian rules football club playing in the Talent League, the top statewide under-18 competition in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. They are based at the Moorabbin Oval in Moorabbin, Victoria, representin ...

' best-and-fairest player, Matthew Suckling He was then finally drafted to Hawthorn's senior list with pick 70 in the

2009 AFL draft The 2009 AFL draft consisted of four opportunities for player acquisitions during the 2009/10 Australian Football League off-season. These were the trade week (held between 5 October and 9 October), the national draft (held on 26 November), the ...

Career

He made his debut for Hawthorn in the opening round of the

2009 AFL season The 2009 AFL season was the 113th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured sixt ...

in the rematch of the

2008 AFL Grand Final The 2008 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football match contested between the Geelong Football Club and the Hawthorn Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 27 September 2008. It was the 112th annual AFL Gran ...

against

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung language, Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in Victoria, Australia, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River (Victo ...

. The 20-year-old defender was one of three Hawks playing their first game in the MCG blockbuster. Omitted the next week because of injury, Suckling was unable to break back into the side; he was listed as an emergency later in the year. In 2010 he played five games, and was on the verge of selection for most of the season. 2011 was a breakthrough year for Suckling; with his precision kicking and link-up play he became a key to Hawthorn's defence. Characteristic of his style of play is his very long range, very accurate kicking. Suckling was selected as the

Australia international rules football team The Australia international rules football team is Australia's senior representative team in International rules football, a hybrid sport derived from Australian rules football and Gaelic football. The current team is solely made up of players ...

's goalkeeper for the

2011 International Rules Series The 2011 International Rules Series (officially the 2011 Toyota International Rules Series) was the 16th International Rules Series contested between Gaelic footballers from Ireland and Australian rules footballers from Australia. The series was ...

in Australia. Australia lost the series 2–0, with a 130–65 aggregate score. Suckling was one of two Hawthorn players selected for the team, along with

Liam Shiels Liam Shiels (born 29 April 1991) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Mulgrave, Victori ...

. Suckling was one of three Hawthorn players to play every game in 2012. During the 2013 NAB Cup pre season competition Suckling tore his anterior cruciate ligament whilst playing against Richmond. Suckling missed the entire 2013 season due to the injury that required a full knee reconstruction. Suckling returned to the side in 2014, and would go on to claim his elusive premiership medal in the club's 2014 Grand Final win. He followed this up with a premiership win in

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, starting the game as a substitute and coming on late in the third quarter for David Hale; with the abolition of the substitute rule at the end of the

2015 AFL season The 2015 AFL season was the 119th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured eig ...

, this meant that Suckling became the last player to be substituted into a game. Following the Grand Final, Suckling exercised his right as a free agent and joined the Western Bulldogs. In his first season at the Western Bulldogs Suckling was unfortunate to miss the Preliminary Final and Grand Final victories with an Achilles injury. Suckling became a regular in the Bulldogs' backline but in 2018 after playing 11 games he suffered an achilles injury ultimately ended his season. He returned to form in 2019 playing 19 games but only managed 7 games in his final season. Suckling was delisted by the at the conclusion of the

2020 AFL season The 2020 AFL season was the 124th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior men's Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featur ...

, after 76 games for the club over his five years at the club. Suckling retired at the conclusion of the 2020 season.

Statistics

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2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

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2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

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2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

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2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

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2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

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2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

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2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

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2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

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2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

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2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

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2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

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2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

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2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

, , , , 1 , 7 , , 3 , , 0 , , 48 , , 22 , , 70 , , 26 , , 2 , , 0.4 , , 0.0 , , 6.9 , , 3.1 , , 10.0 , , 3.7 , , 0.3 , , 0 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, CareerMatt Suckling's player profile at AFL Tables
/ref> ! 178 !! 85 !! 90 !! 2379 !! 1199 !! 3578 !! 928 !! 292 !! 0.5 !! 0.5 !! 13.4 !! 6.7 !! 20.1 !! 5.2 !! 1.6 !! 12 Notes

Honours and achievements

Team *2× AFL premiership player ():

*2×

Minor premiership A minor premiership is the title given to the team which finishes a sporting competition first in the league standings after the regular season but prior to commencement of the finals in several Australian sports leagues. Origins The etymolo ...

():

Individual *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Suckling, Matt 1988 births Living people Hawthorn Football Club players Hawthorn Football Club premiership players Western Bulldogs players Box Hill Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Wagga Wagga Australia international rules football team players VFL/AFL premiership players 21st-century Australian sportsmen