With a family name famous in WA football, Brandon Matera hopes he can continue his 2017 form and draw his family back to Fremantle.

The Matera name is famous in WA football with Brandon’s father Wally and uncles Peter and Phil forging a career at South Fremantle in the WAFL prior their AFL days, with Wally winning three best and fairests during his 142 games for the Bulldogs.

In the AFL, all three represented West Coast and Wally also represented Fitzroy, playing 32 games for the Lions between 1989 and 1990.

Now a Fremantle Docker, Brandon Matera says he hopes to draw his family back to their roots.

“We all keep in contact, Phil is probably the main one besides my dad, who calls me quite a bit,” Matera said. 

“He was trying to pull me to West Coast, but I said by the end of this year we’ll have him in a Docker jumper.”

Despite the family connection with West Coast, Matera said he wasn’t going to prioritise joining one club over the other.

“Not really, I grew up being an Essendon supporter,” Matera said.

“I went to a lot of West Coast games to watch my uncles. So when my manager called me to say Freo were interested, it was pretty awesome just to come home. 

“Obviously, I’ve got a lot of family and friends here so I took that opportunity and I’m really looking forward to it now.”

Matera is currently living at home as he finds a place to live in Perth and joked about living with his harshest critic – his father. 

“I’m obviously looking forward to playing back here with family and friends,” Matera said. 

“My family’s always said I’ve played better in front of them so, hopefully, that’s right and I can get a few more good games in front of them.

“If you’re coming off a game where you haven’t played well there’s already three or four missed calls (from my Dad). He’s a hard critic but it’s good for me as well.”

The 25-year-old was working on a career-best season in 2017 with Gold Coast, kicking 22 goals from 10 games before being struck down with a foot injury.

Matera played 101 games and kicked 124 goals for Gold Coast from 2011 to 2017 and was traded to Fremantle for a future third round selection.

“My career was probably a bit up and down, I had a few injuries, (especially) this year, but I was probably in my best form before that,” Matera said.

“(I’ll look to) carry that into this pre-season and into the next three years at the Fremantle Dockers.”