HE is best remembered as a player prepared to put his body on the line and cop some fines and suspensions along the way, but this hard-nosed enforcer has recently swapped a corporate office job for a role where his fitness can come to the fore.

This week’s Where Are They Now looks back on the career of bullocking midfielder Matt Thomas and what he has been up to since leaving the footy field.

Thomas came to Port Adelaide with pick 8 in the 2006 pre-season draft, a year which also yielded the club the likes of Nick Lower, Alipate Carlile and Tom Logan among others.

He left after being delisted at the end of 2013 after 87 bruising games and 30 goals at AFL level for the club.

A two-year stint at Richmond started well before injury took its toll and he retired aged 28 at the end of 2015.

When asked where his allegiances lie now, Thomas feels like he has “two homes”.

“As a kid it was all Geelong and then it was like Geelong didn’t exist, especially when they pantsed us in the Grand Final in 2007,” he joked while chatting with portadelaidefc.com.au.

“I then went to Richmond and was a bit disgruntled at Port and had that jealous ex-girlfriend attitude where I was kind of watching from a distance but not watching.

“I still watch Port a lot now and have a keen eye on what’s going on at Alberton. I’m not a fanatic but I like watching.

“Having finished at Richmond and knowing a lot of the players I feel pretty welcome there.

“I feel blessed to have two homes so whenever I’m in Adelaide I drop in and catch up with people who supported me.”

Getting to know Port Adelaide

For a Victorian from Melbourne Grammar in the early 2000s, there was little chance to get to know Port Adelaide before he was drafted, but a friend’s obsession with the club meant he knew more than most before he arrived at Alberton.

“It’s funny because I went to school with a guy called Zac Kostas and he was a huge Port supporter and his idol was Gavin Wanganeen so I remember in the 2004 Grand Final when I was in year 12, Zac was carrying on like a pork chop that day,” Thomas laughed.

“I learnt a lot about Port Adelaide from him from that day on, about Warren Tredrea, Chad Cornes and some of those household names.

“In Melbourne you didn’t really hear much about the SA clubs, there was not as much coverage then as there is now but because of Zac knowing every player and telling me all about them during the Grand Final I actually was pretty familiar with Port when I turned up.”

When Thomas was playing with Port Adelaide, the club’s non-selected players were divided amongst the local SANFL clubs.

He was at Norwood, Port’s biggest SANFL rival.

It worked in his favour at the time and in his final year at Port, in 2013, he won the Magarey Medal despite only featuring with the Redlegs in 15 games.

“I’ve got the medal hanging in my loungeroom inside a glass frame. I’m proud of that and it’s a testament to how well Norwood fostered me in my first few years and in my eighth season I played about 15 games with them,” Thomas said.

“I had matured in my footy, I had a good group of friends there at Norwood and the club respected that while I wanted to play AFL footy, they knew that while I wasn’t I would be giving them everything I could on the field.

“There were some great young guys like Orazio Fantasia and Trent Dumont who are now back at Port and James Aish (Brisbane/Collingwood/Fremantle) as well. I feel like they were some of my best memories playing in that year with the Redlegs.

“It was a tough battle wanting to play AFL but a very proud achievement.”

Thomas was a fierce tackler who made plenty of trips to the tribunal because of his physicality.

A hard nut, former coach Mark Williams likened him to premiership player Michael Wilson, for his attack on the ball and fearlessness.

But it counted against him in his final year in 2013, when then coach Ken Hinkley wanted to prevent training ground injuries.

“I had to wear a bib during contact drills at training to make sure Ken and the coaches could see me because I wasn’t allowed to tackle anyone in case I hurt them,” Thomas remembered.

“I felt like it didn’t really matter how well I trained, I wasn’t going to be picked. I didn’t think I’d get much of a go (at AFL level) when that happened so I just focussed on bettering myself and doing what I could in the group.”

His delisting came just days before his Magarey Medal win.

His biggest disappointment came in missing out on reaching 100 games with the club, falling just 13 short.

“I wanted to be a one club player because I thought it would be amazing, for my son, to play at least 100 games for the club and have a father-son option,” Thomas explained.

“The idea of father-son, having my name on the locker was a boyhood dream and it was disappointing that wasn’t going to be achieved.

“I think if anything the AFL should look into changing the father-son criteria to anyone who has played 100 games in total, giving their son the choice of clubs.”

It was probably a combination of luck, injury and a handful of visits to the AFL tribunal that counted against him in the end.

“I look back on my career and everyone’s got a story – Brendon Lade used to say that – and mine is a funny one,” Thomas said.

“Every time I got into a purple patch with finding some form, I either got injured or reported and I think for a while I was pretty stiff with some reports.

“I was the first player to be reported for running into an umpire as he was backing out of the centre bounce and the first one to get challenged for a chicken wing tackle when I got Nathan Bassett in a Showdown.

“The sub rule came in during my career as well and that impacted me a lot and like the umpire backing out rule, that’s now gone.

“I felt like I didn’t get the rub of the green with some of those calls even though sometimes I got off on reports and Peter Rohde got me off a few reports, so a big shout out to Rohdey.

“I played right on the edge and my strengths were my strength and aggression versus my skill and speed.

“I’d much rather be remembered as someone who made an impact and played that way than someone who played 200 games and 150 of them were safely on centre wing.”

A second chance came then at Richmond.

He started strongly before a nasty knee injury effectively spelled the end of his AFL career, robbing him of his biggest strength – his running ability.

“I absolutely loved my first games with Richmond,” Thomas said. “It was a good sign when I was picked to play in round 1 as a new player but then I suffered a knee injury, similar to what Shaun Burgoyne had where they drill into your bone and make it bleed to create a fake scar tissue.

“Now I have no cartilage in my left knee. It happened early in my first season at Richmond and I had ten or eleven injections to manage the pain but eventually I had to go under the knife.

“My knee was never the same after that, I couldn’t run.

“I knew I wasn’t going to play much more. It never feels good having that conversation so I chose to retire. If I was offered a contract, I knew I wouldn’t play much because I couldn’t really run much.”

Thomas then went back to the grassroots, playing with friends at his former school side with Old Melbournians.

“That’s where my dad played and that’s where I finished up in the A-Grade amateurs. I played three seasons there,” he said.

“It was good to help me reintegrate back into Melbourne, reconnecting with a heap of friends after eight years away and feeling really disconnected.”

A job with a wealth management business also took his interest in November 2015, but it did not last long.

He felt a calling to return to the fitness world.

“After about eight or nine months I realised that a suit and tie in level 17 of Bourke Street just really wasn’t for me under the fluorescent light like a battery hen,” he laughed.

“I wanted to do something else and Cam Falloon, our old fitness coach at Port Adelaide and Daniel Stewart, my current business partner and housemate in Adelaide had a conversation about starting a fitness brand to rival F45, which at the time was the group fitness pinnacle.

“They were doing some really good things so we started a gym called Gymmy Squatz. We had three gyms within 18 months and then Cam came together with Hamish McLachlan and a guy called Richard Burnet, and they together created the brand Body Fit Training, franchised it and have since sold over 200 sites Asutralia and worldwide.

“They have about 150 gyms open and Daniel and I together own six of them and I’ve been working in the gyms for six years now, most recently in a managerial role.

“I’m still on the floor from time to time, I love my fitness and work out every day but I’m more running the business now.”

Family life

Married in 2016, his “beautiful” son Charlie soon came along before a divorce followed.

The five-year-old has been a breath of fresh air for Thomas, who credits his time at Port Adelaide for some important parenting lessons.

“I love being a dad, it’s such a great experience,” Thomas said.

“I learnt a lot actually from Russell Ebert and the Community Youth Program we used to run in schools when I was at Port Adelaide.

“I think I’ve always taken those lessons with me into the next phase and it all seems worth it teaching him and coaching him.

“He’s got my temper and he’s as cheeky as ever – we call him Cheeky Charlie – but he’s amazing and keeps me busy.”

While work and fatherhood keeps Thomas very busy, he always finds time for some old mates from Port Adelaide including former captain Warren Tredrea, who has long been a mentor.

And, another former skipper remains firmly in Thomas’ attention.

“(Tredrea) calls me Junior and I call him Skip and they’ll be nicknames forever,” Thomas said. “I was Thommo but then Adam Thompson was there too so I became Junior and it stuck.

“Steven Salopek was a groomsman in my wedding so we’re quite tight, Nick Lower is still one of my best mates and Chad Cornes, Kane Cornes and Tommy Logan – we all exchange texts here and there and we all keep in touch on social media.

“Boaky and I still message each other. I love seeing what he’s doing in his career. I’m very proud of him. It’s been great watching him grow and see how big he’s become in Port Adelaide’s history. I don’t think the club would be where it is without him.”