Matt Kreymborg’s Southern journey: loyalty, legacy and the No. 88
A country club once asked Matt Kreymborg to fill in the blanks on a contract and name his price. He was tempted, but his loyalty has always been with St Paul’s, where he’s been an enduring star of the Southern league. This is his story.
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The spectator doing the heckling was clearly not a seasoned Southern league follower.
“No. 88! What kind of number is that? What kind of player wears No. 88?’’ he hooted as the St Paul’s forward lined up the goals in a match against East Brighton last year.
An outstanding player, actually.
Matthew Kreymborg has worn it to two Division 1 league medal victories and a premiership in Southern.
He heard the sledging that day at East Brighton. And after kicking the goal he offered the trumpet-tongued spectator another number. It involved two fingers. Someone took a photo of Kreymborg’s response to the niggler and he liked it so much he put in a frame.
As Kreymborg readily concedes, he himself has never been short of a word at the football.
He can sledge with the best of them. “I talk that much shit!’’ he says.
But he can back it up with regular brilliance: a spectacular goal, a soaring mark or a rousing run. It’s been that way since he started in the St Paul’s senior team at the age of 16.
His consistency marks him out as one of the best players in Southern in the past decade.
More, if the league had picked a 30-year team in 2023, there’s a good chance the St Paul’s No. 88 would have filched a forward flank.
“Definitely,’’ league oracle and Chelsea Heights mainstay Neil Lockhart says. “Good player. Powerful.’’
Jason Heffernan, who coached Kreymborg for seven years at St Paul’s, says: “There’s not much he can’t do.’’
He always thought the hardest part of coaching Kreymborg was where to play him: on the ball, at half forward or in the backline.
Heffernan remembers one season where Kreymborg was keen to play across halfback. “Trouble was, we were costing ourselves three or five goals a game,’’ he says. “You can’t have two of him, unfortunately. That floating half forward who can get behind the ball when you need him or bob up with a matchwinner when you need him, that’s the go with him, I think.’’
Heffernan appointed Kreymborg as senior captain for two reasons: he was the club’s “standout’’ player and his teammates revered him.
“I’ve never met a guy so loved by everyone,’’ he says.
“I mean, really loved. He’s a good dude. He’s good with people, Matt. He could walk into a room and not know anyone but at the end of the night have 10 new mates.’’
Loyalty is a big part of Kreymborg’s story.
At the end of every season he’s taken calls from clubs all over the state. Only once did he think about leaving. He had a met a Ballarat club, with one of its officials pushing a contract at him, leaving it blank and telling him to fill in the numbers. Kreymborg could have named his own price.
“I thought, ‘Wow’. Gary Ablett Jnr left Geelong to go to Gold Coast and I can see why. Obviously I’m not talking about millions but at that time of my life the money could have really set me up,’’ Kreymborg says.
“But I grew up surrounded by trust and loyalty. I always remember how they (St Paul’s) looked after me when I was young, the family that they were to me. My old man (Brad) was telling me stories. He’d say, ‘Do you want to shop around for money or do you want to leave a legacy at one club?’ And I’m like, ‘Fuck, I’d love to leave a legacy’.’’
*****
The old TAC Cup, the VFL and even country football are other parts of the Matt Kreymborg story.
After going through the Bentleigh and St Paul’s juniors, he joined Sandringham Dragons in 2010.
Kreymborg says he had some injuries and played “one or two good games’’. “To be honest, I knew I wasn’t the best player there but I had some good assets. I didn’t have the connection with the coaches that the others did.’’
The Dragons won the premiership in 2011 but Kreymborg was overlooked for the grand final team.
Most players would have been disappointed but he was delighted: it meant he could line up for St Paul’s in its Southern league grand final.
The Doggies won the flag under Paul Howroyd, with their young star kicking two goals against East Brighton and finishing with 28 for the season.
“I wanted to be at St Paul’s, because of the way they put their arms around me. I was loved. I was cherished. I was stoked,’’ he says. “For me, 2011 is always a great memory.’’
Two years later Kreymborg decided to have a dash at the VFL, joining Sandringham. He was to be a Zebra for three-and-a-half seasons, eventually leaving in frustration at his lack of senior opportunities.
He did not like the fact that no matter how well he played, St Kilda players got preference at the selection table.
Case in point: early in 2016 he kicked four goals against a Footscray team featuring Josh Dunkley, Will Minson and Mitch Wallis. Sandy’s best players that day included Tim Membrey, Jake Gresham, Myke Cook – and Matt Kreymborg. Yet two weeks later he was out of the side.
“I think were only five or six VFL players playing at the same time,’’ he says. “It was just such a hard team to crack into.’’
Why did he stay? Why didn’t he set off for an unaligned club, like Port Melbourne or Frankston?
“Part of the problem was I had such a comfortable life living in East Brighton. I had a job close to home, the footy club was close to home,’’ he responds.
“I’m a kid and they tell me, ‘We want you down here, you’ll get good opportunities’ and I’m like, ‘This is great, I get to play VFL, I get to train, everything’s close’. Another year goes, another year goes and I hear it again, ‘You’ll get opportunities’. Obviously I regret it now.’’
Fish Creek, which had a strong connection to the southern bayside area, heard of his discontent.
“I was at my fittest and I was training so hard,’’ Kreymborg says. “I don’t want to say I had a tantrum but I thought, ‘Stuff it’. I thought I might as well go and enjoy my footy.’’
He decided to play out the season with the country club – and it culminated in a flag, with Kreymborg taking the medal as best-afield. He enjoyed Fish Creek and its passionate community but was keen on a return to St Paul’s.
Kreymborg went back with the bang of the Division 1 best and fairest, the Ellis Medal. Polling 18 votes, he won by four. The following year he polled 33 and won by eight as the Doggies took the flag under Heffernan.
Sandringham came calling again after Kreymborg won his first league medal, but he declined.
“He would have done really well if he’d gone back … could have had a very good VFL career,’’ Heffernan, a former assistant coach to Gary Ayres at Port Melbourne, says.
“But he was very settled at that time, with his footy, with his work. And he was probably getting double the money he would got at VFL.’’
Kreymborg’s time at Sandy had put him in superb physical order and it gave him immense confidence.
He thought of himself as the fittest and strongest player on any Southern ground.
“I took every opportunity to play good footy,’’ he says.
He puts his rippling physique down to genetics.
“My old man’s a huge meatball. Both my brothers (Jack and Ryan) are solid units. I know for a fact to play my best footy I’ve got to be the lightest I possibly can be. Even this year I’m running around at 104kg after a shoulder reco. I’m not feeling at my fittest but I’m trying to take the advantage I have. I know I’ve got a bigger body and I’m trying to use it.’’
That shoulder surgery came after a dazzling 2024 in which Kreymborg finished third in the league best and fairest after playing 14 home-and-away matches.
He thinks it might have been his best season, as punctuated as it was with ups and downs. Playing his 150th game, he fractured his leg, but came back after six weeks. On his return, he hurt his shoulder – “Tore it apart,’’ he says – yet played through the finals, kicking six goals against Cranbourne and lifting his tally for the year to 57.
“I had one leg, I had one shoulder. To be honest, my body was stuffed,’’ he says. “If we’d won the flag, I would have had enough.’’
He had an operation on the shoulder last November and it kept him out of the early rounds of this season.
Again he came back in rousing style, helping the Doggies to a long run of wins before their surprise loss to Murrumbeena last Saturday.
He’s still captain, sharing the role this year with James Sziller.
There are other things he has to attend to, most notably the family business, Lustre Panel Works in Brighton. A player who has put a few dents on opponents removes them from cars. The business is also a St Paul’s sponsor.
“I’m not going to be around forever so hopefully I can lead him (Sziller) in the right direction and train him up and he can be captain for the next four, five, six years,’’ Kreymborg says.
As for the No. 88 jumper, he explains that he was born on the eighth of August – the eighth day of the eighth month – and he’s always had a fancy for the number.
The No. 8 jumper was taken when he returned to St Paul’s in 2017 and so he decided to take the No. 88.
“Two was better than one,’’ he says. Jason Heffernan realised that a long time ago.
MATT KREYMBORG ON
Paul Howroyd
“Can’t speak highly enough of him. Being as young as I was back then, he took me under his wing and taught me the right things at the right time. He made me feel secure and safe. That’s a big thing when you’re 16.’’
Jason Heffernan
“A classic. When I got back there the club had been in a bit of mess and then Jason came in. In his first year we made finals. In his second year we won the flag. He was incredible with the way he connected everyone. We were a really close team.’’
Andrew Scott
“He’s such an intelligent coach. Every week he puts everything on a plate for us. He has such good game plans. He’s a superior coach. Has the smartest footy brain I’ve ever seen.’’
Southern league
“I say this all the time: it’s got stronger and stronger every year I’ve played in it. And you know what? I love it. There’s no better feeling than winning, especially in a tight and even competition. I go back to the early days I played, because that’s when footy had the most influence on me, and I remember playing against Jay Bruno. He was a gun. He stood out because he was so quick. I’d never seen football that quick. Then there was Ezra Poyas. He was like an animal. It left a mark on me. I thought, ‘That’s what I’d want to be when I’m older’.’’
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