Peter Matera

Who is Peter Matera?

Peter Matera is a former Australian rules footballer for the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League.

Matera is widely regarded as the finest wingman of his generation and one of the best wingmen of all time. His remarkable skills and ability to seemingly make something out of nothing made him one of the truly elite players of the 1990s. Matera is nicknamed 'Roo', dubbed so by team mate Chris Lewis due to his supposed Kangaroo like appearance. He wore the number 30 for the majority of his career with West Coast.

Hailing from the West Australian country town of Wagin, Matera was born of an Italian father. He has 7 siblings, two of which were his older brother Wally Matera, and younger brother Phillip Matera, who both played football at the elite level. Matera played soccer as a youngster and was influenced by the success of Wally in playing Australian rules football.

Matera was recruited from South Fremantle in the WAFL with the 4th selection in the 1989 National draft and made his debut in 1990 for West Coast. Playing just 5 games in his debut season for the Eagles, Matera broke through as a star youngster in 1991, finishing 4th in the Brownlow medal and earning All-Australian honors. Matera followed up with an excellent 1992, unlucky to miss AA honors once more but capped off the season with an outstanding finals series.