Matthew Scarlett

Matthew Scarlett (born 5 June 1979) is a former Australian rules footballer, who formerly played for the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A fullback, who is tall and weighing , Scarlett is the eldest son of former Geelong footballer John Scarlett.

Scarlett was selected by Geelong with the 45th overall pick in the 1997 AFL draft under the father–son rule, and made his senior debut for the club in the final round of the 1998 AFL season. Scarlett played predominantly as a fullback, and has garnered a long list of individual accolades. He is a triple premiership player from Geelong's premiership-winning teams of 2007, 2009 and 2011, has won a Carji Greeves Medal and been selected to six All-Australian sides, the most selections for a Geelong player. As well as this, Scarlett has been inducted into the Geelong Football Club Hall of Fame, represented the Victorian state team in the AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match and represented Australia in International rules football.

Scarlett is currently serving as a development coach with the Geelong Football Club.

Early life Matthew Scarlett grew up in Geelong, Victoria, the son of former Geelong Football Club player John Scarlett. Despite this, Scarlett supported Essendon as a child, citing Michael Long and Matthew Lloyd as his favourite players. He was educated at St Joseph's College—the same school as his father—where he played junior football alongside future Geelong teammate Cameron Ling. Scarlett entered the next phase of his junior career when he was selected to play for the Geelong Falcons in the under 18 TAC Cup competition in 1997. His achievements with the Falcons were recognised when he was chosen to play for the Victorian Country representative side at the AFL Under 18 Championships, as well as being selected in the full-back position of the TAC Cup's Team of the Year.

AFL career

1998–1999: Debut and early career Scarlett was drafted by the Geelong Football Club under the father–son rule with their fourth selection in the 1997 AFL draft, and was the forty-fifth overall draft pick. Scarlett did not make his senior-level debut until the final round of the 1998 AFL season where he was matched up against Essendon full-forward Matthew Lloyd.

Scarlett did not play again until midway through the following season where he was once again matched against Lloyd. Scarlett later credited these match-ups with Lloyd as assisting his long-term development as a player – acknowledging that it was a challenging start to his career. However the majority of the year was spent playing with the reserves team, where he placed third in the best and fairest. Scarlett additionally signed a deal to play in the Geelong Football League for South Barwon in 2013.

In 2016, Scarlett joined the Geelong Cats as an assistant coach. He resigned from the role at the end of the 2021 season.

In 2020 he was named in the St Joseph’s College team of champions, recognising the best VFL/AFL players to have attended the school.

Scarlett joined the Melbourne Football Club as a part-time specialist coach in 2026, reuniting with former teammate and newly appointed coach, Steven King.

Statistics

284 17 23 2711 1497 4208 1414 437 0.1 0.1 9.5 5.3 14.8 5.0 1.5

Honours and achievements + Season Votes 1998 — 1999 — 2000 — 2001 — 2002 2 2003 5 2004 5 2005 6 2006 2 2007 3 2008 2 2009 3 2010 — 2011 3 2012 — Total 31

Team AFL Premiership (Geelong): 2007, 2009, 2011 McClelland Trophy (Geelong): 2007, 2008 NAB Cup (Geelong): 2006 (Captain), 2009

Individual All-Australian: 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011 Carji Greeves Medal: 2003 Leigh Matthews Trophy nominee: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007 Australian representative honours in International rules football: 2002, 2003 Geelong F.C. Hall of Fame Inductee: 2006 Geelong F.C. Life Membership Inductee: 2006 Geelong F.C. Coach's Award: 2000 Victorian Representative Honours in AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match: 2008 AFL Rising Star Award Nominee: 2000 Victorian Country Representative Honours at the AFL Under 18 Championships: 1997 Named in the TAC Cup Team of the Year: 1997 (Full-Back)

Personal life Scarlett married his longtime partner Milla Warren in October 2007, which capped off his premiership-winning year and the addition of the couple's first child, a daughter Charlie, to the family in May. and is eight years older than Charlie.