He turned professional in 1990 with the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles of the New South Wales Rugby League, and won the 1996 ARL Premiership.
Despite never having played a game of rugby league in his life, Ridge was signed by the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and their Kiwi coach Graham Lowe to play in the New South Wales Rugby League's Winfield Cup competition from mid-1990 (according to Ridge in a 2024 podcast, he signed for AU$35,000 for his first half year and that would increase to $60,000 from 1991 while getting $2,000 for a win and $1,000 for a loss.
[5] Ridge made his debut at fullback for the Sea Eagles in their Round 10 clash with Cronulla at Manly's home ground, Brookvale Oval.
[6] Just six games into his rugby league career, Ridge played his first test for New Zealand against the touring Great Britain Lions.
Despite good form for Manly in 1991, Ridge missed selection for the mid-season Trans-Tasman Test series against Australia due to a dispute over compensation between clubs and the New Zealand Rugby League (NZRL) which also ruled out Daryl Halligan, John Schuster and Kurt Sherlock.
This would also see him miss selection in the mid-season tests against Australia as well as the Kiwis end of season tour of Great Britain and France.
[citation needed] In 1996, Ridge a prominent supporter of Super League in the dispute which split the sport, sat out nine weeks of the season when the new competition was put on hold.
At the time of his retirement he was the all-time top scorer in international matches for the New Zealand national rugby league team with 168 points (6 tries, 71 goals) from 25 test appearances.
[11] Ridge later became a television presenter, working with his partner Marc Ellis in various sports-related shows like 'Game of Two Halves', and 'Marc & Matthew's Rocky Road to ...'.
[12] In 2021 he presented a TV series Designing Dreams on six New Zealand architects: Roger Walker, Pip Cheshire, Julie Stout, Nicholas Dalton, Anna Maria Chin and Michael O'Sullivan.