Matthew Dawson (hockey) played in all games of the Kookaburras’ successful Commonwealth Games campaign in Birmingham. It was his second Commonwealth Games gold medal, though he almost missed the Gold Coast 2018 Games after fracturing his eye socket in training on the eve of the tournament.

Hailing from Killarney Vale on the NSW Central Coast, the son of former Australian cricketer Trish Dawson took up hockey at the age of eight following in the footsteps of his older sister. He then progressed through the development ranks to Australian under-21 team and a gold medal at the 2013 Australian Youth Olympics. After making his Kookaburras debut against India in Perth in November 2014 soon after his 21st birthday, Matt was part of Australia’s 2016 Rio Olympic team and excelled at the 2017 World League Final which the Kookaburras won. International medal success continued with a bronze at the 2018 World Cup in India, gold at the 2019 FIH Pro League and silver at his second Olympics in Tokyo in 2021.

Matt was also a member of the NSW Pride that took out the inaugural Hockey One competition in 2019 and has bolstered his career by playing for Dutch club Amsterdam.