He played 30 games, and kicked one goal, with the VFA team St Kilda.
He played another 80 games, kicking seven goals, with St Kilda when it moved to become part of the VFL in 1897, making him the first St Kilda player to reach 100 games for the club.
In the round 7 match against Carlton on 18 June 1898, he was reported for using abusive language towards the field umpire Ivo Crapp.
The charge was upheld at a meeting of the VFL, and although he was only reprimanded,[3] the chairman, Arthur Hewitt Shaw (1859–1939), the VFL President, warned Matthews that, "if he came before the league again for any offence the lesson would not be a caution, but disqualification for life".
This Australian rules football biography of a person born in the 1870s is a stub.