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MR. MOFFAT'S TRIBUTE
Yeoman Services to Game
'I exceedingly regret to learn of Phil
Matson's death." said Mr. A. A. Moffatt,
president of the W.A. Football League
and of the Australian Football Council,
this morning. 'League football has
been deprived of one whose loss will be
difficult to replace. Western Australia
has had many fine exponents of Aus-
tralian football. With the exception of
the late A. J. Thurgood, I cannot recall
to mind another player whom I would
place in front of the late Phil Matson
as the finest footballer who has thrilled
the public of our State. No position
on the field would find him misplaced.
At all times the ball was his objective,
not the man. His judgment was un-
canny, and once he placed his hand on
the ball it was gripped as if in a vice.
His aerial flights were spectacular and
thrilling, and being possessed of excep-
tional football brains, the results of his
play were often confounding to oppos-
ing teams.
Apart from his qualities on the field,
he was an outstanding judge of players,
and as a tactician was not surpassed.
Over a period of very many years Phil
Matson had rendered yeoman service as
a player to the clubs with which he had
been associated on the goldfields and in
the metropolitan area. To his adopted
State of Western Australia he gave of
of his best, and as a representative in the
carnival games, in which he participat-
ed, was always one of the outstanding
players. The Sturt Club and the South
Australian public had many appreciative
opinions of his exceptional ability as a
player during the time he played in
that State.
GREATEST COACH OF ALL.
"On his retirement from the playing
fields he became celebrated as a coach,
not only to his club, but to State and
carnival teams. In this he was equally
as successful as he had been as a
player, and in my opinion was the great-
est coach the Australian game has
known, not excepting even the famed
Collingwood mentor, Jim M'Hale. Play-
ers and others associated with the game
will fully realise the great loss his death
means and the difficult gap thereby cre-
ated. With the players Phil Matson
seemed to be a super-coach, having a
personality which enabled him to ex-
tract from those he was handling the
best that was within them. His pre-
match and half-time addresses were of
such a nature that players and others
privileged to hear them became inspired
with the sound advice he tendered.
Words were never wasted, and he al-
ways, succeeded in striking the target
at the right spot.
"The record of successes achieved by
him will be a lasting memorial to his
greatness, and, in conjunction with many,
others, I deeply deplore the untimely
severance of his connection with the
national game in which he was such an
outstanding personality."
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