Matthew's Story
Key defender Matthew Butturini made his senior Australian hockey team debut in 2009. He immediately made an impact and was selected for the Champions Trophy team that year, putting in some great performances to help the team take the gold medal. Butturini continued to perform strongly and dominated at the 2010 World Cup on his way to numerous best player awards and World Cup gold. He again won the Champions Trophy in 2011 and started 2012 by helping Australia win silver at the Olympic test event.
Making his Olympic debut at the age of 25 in London, Butturini was one of the first chosen in defence by coach Ric Charlesworth. He scored in the opening 6-0 victory over South Africa before Australia- ranked world number one- beat Spain and Pakistan but drew with Argentina and Great Britain in the pool stage.
In the semi-final the Australians held a 2-1 lead over defending Olympic Champions Germany midway through the second half, but the Germans stormed home to win 4-2. The Aussie Kookaburras bounced back to knock off the British 3-1 in the bronze medal match. Butturini finished the tournament with three goals.
