MUTTA AWARD

The Mutta Award in Loving Memory of

Matthew Stewart Anastasios

August 11th 1974 - December 8th 2002
Aged 28 Years

A cherished member of the Southside East Caulfield Cricket Club,
Matt played with heart, led with positivity, and brought joy to every game.
His spirit lives on in every innings, every cheer, and every smile.

He was a real-life Superman. His legacy of love, laughter, and strength lives on in all of us.

Forever remembered. Forever our teammate.

A heartfelt memorial tribute for the Mutta Award, honoring Matthew Stewart Anastasios and his legacy at the Southside East Caulfield Cricket Club.
by Stewart Burke.

I've always been proud of the great man Mutta, and it gives me solace
that I told him so while he was alive. Now, I am even more proud to have known him, been his friend and maybe even helped him to bear a small part of his pain over the last couple of years.

My name is Stewart Burke and I met Matt when he first started teaching at HPSC as a student teacher. That's of course where he met Melinda and just quietly, I've never seen him more proud of himself than on their wedding day. Matt and I quickly became great mates and over the years spent hundreds and thousands of afternoons getting up to pranks playing cricket, golf, fishing, bowling and just about any other game you could think of. Through all of that I had the privilege to meet many of his other great mates and also his beautiful and loving family.

Matt was so well loved by everyone that new him. The thing about Matt was that he had this amazing capacity to make people laugh and feel good about them selves.

Not long after we started playing cricket together at Southside, Matt instituted the MAC, mutual admiration club. But the MAC was more of a philosophy than a club. It involved everybody giving each other compliments and basically pumping each other's tyres up, especially when the chips were down. This is the sort of bloke that Matt was. Always helping to make people feel good about them selves.

His positive outlook, sense of humour, and incredible courage both in sport and life will be an inspiration to me, and many others I know, forever. He was a real life superman.

I'm going to miss Matt terribly. I already do. But I will honour his memory with a promise, to live a little better for having known him.

Thank-you.

Now I've been asked to introduce a special song from Mel to Matt. A song that gives Mel some comfort during the dark times.

Seven Shades of Blue By
Beth Nielson Chapman.