Matt Gidley
Personal information
Full name	Matthew Gidley
Nickname	Giggles, Gids, Matt
Born	July 1, 1977 (1977-07-01) (age 32)
	Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.86 m)
Weight	14 st 11 lbs (94 kg)
Playing information
Position	Centre
Club
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
1996–2006	Newcastle Knights	221	68	0	1	273
2006–	St Helens	61	23	4	0	100
	Total	282	91	4	1	373
Representative
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
1999–2004	Australia	15	7	0	0	28
2000–2004	New South Wales	11	5	0	0	20
2005	Country Origin	1	0	0	0	0
As of 22 August 2008
Source: NRL Stats and Rugby League Project

Matthew "Matt" Gidley (born July 1, 1977 in Newcastle, New South Wales) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer for St Helens RLFC of the Super League competition. He has also represented New South Wales and Australia. Matt is the older brother of Newcastle Knights full back and captain Kurt Gidley.

[edit] Career

While attending Glendale High School, Gidley played for the Australian Schoolboys team in 1995.^[1]

Gidley played all his junior football in the five-eighth position, however with Matthew Johns taking up the position in the Knights line up, he slotted in to right centre.^{[citation needed]} He is only the 4th Newcastle Knight to play more than 200 career games.

Gidley has won one NRL Premiership with Knights, in 2001 (defeating Parramatta Eels 30-24).

2006 saw a rejuvenation of sorts for Gidley seeing him recapture some of his old magic flick pass play with Knights winger Brian Carney. In 2006 Gidley retired from representative football, aiming to focus on playing well at club level. This move was questionable as it was right before the annual City vs Country Origin clash, where many thought Gidley was going to make the Country side in the centre position.

Gidley joined St Helens RLFC in the English Super League as a replacement for Jamie Lyon in 2007 when Lyon joined the Manly Sea Eagles.

He was named in the Super League Dream Team for the 2008 season.^[2]

He played in the 2008 Super League Grand Final defeat to the Leeds Rhinos.^[3]

He has recently put pen to paper on a one-year contract to keep him at Knowsley Road for 2010. ^[4]

[edit] Football Combinations and Style of Play

Gidley became famous for his wing/centre combination with former Knight Timana Tahu. A common play was for the ball to be sent out to the right side of the field where Gidley would run, draw one or two players in before doing the famous Gidley flick pass to Tahu or placing a grubber kick down the line. This play was used at both club and representative level.

Gidley is often merited on his selfless play as he normally chooses to promote the ball to his winger instead of trying to run the ball himself.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Representative games

• State Of Origin: Played 11 games in total for New South Wales
• International: Played 11 tests for Australia

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• St Helens profile
• Matt Gidley NRL Player Profile
• State of Origin Official website Rugby League Player Stats
• 2001 Ashes profile