Matt Dunstone joins The Green Zone to talk about first Brier win

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

THE GREEN ZONE: What was it like watching that rock go down the ice knowing I just need to get rid of one and you’re going to be crowned a Brier champion?

Matt Dunstone: Totally insane. I think it’s what every Canadian men’s curler dreams of, or every skip dreams of. A totally surreal moment.

THE GREEN ZONE: Where did you guys celebrate on Sunday night? Was it just sort of spontaneous or did you guys go out? What did you guys do?

Matt Dunsone: It was pretty late already. It was about 10:45 p.m. when we got off the ice and they took us into a room. We had to get a bunch of logistical things figured out because Worlds is about two weeks away. So we had to get everything planned for how to get to Salt Lake City there and uniform sponsors — all that sort of stuff sorted out. So we didn’t get out of the arena until probably about 1:30 a.m. From there, the (Harnden) brothers had a 6 a.m. flight heading out, and Colton was at 1 p.m. S0 we actually just saddled up at the hotel bar for a bit — all of my mine and Colton’s family was there. So we had a few celebratory drinks with them, and then took it back to my hotel room. People slowly started to teeter out as they needed to go to the airport and whatnot, but shut her down at about 9 a.m. Monday morning.

THE GREEN ZONE: You reunited with a longtime friend of yours (Lott). You won juniors together. What’s it like to have Colton along for this ride to win a Brier with him?

Matt Dunstone: So incredible, man. I started curling with him in 2013 and for it to come full circle like this, and to win my first with him, and vice versa, I think means a ton to both of us. Everyone sees the chemistry that does exist between the two of us. I’m just so happy for Colton that he gets to show the world how good he is and, in my opinion, he’s the best curler we have in Canada and he’s getting to show that to the entire world now on a very consistent basis. I’m just super excited for him, for myself, for my whole team. You look across the board, there were a lot of story lines with each player on this team as to why this Brier would be special for them.

THE GREEN ZONE: Can we talk about that accidental three-rock takeout? Was it a Plan B at all?

Matt Dunstone: That was a Plan Y. I think Plan Z. That was complete and utter luck. In all my days, I had never seen anything quite as lucky as that on a sheet of ice and very fortunate. When you’re pulling off stuff like that — that you don’t even know exists and nobody knows exists — and it happens, maybe it’s just your year to go and win a Brier.

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THE GREEN ZONE: The knee injury. How much did that impact your final two games, if at all, after you tweaked it late in the week?

Matt Dunstone: I’ve never really talked much about that yet. It’s been lingering. This isn’t anything new, it just flared up. We’ve been managing it, navigating it ever since the season began, basically. It wasn’t a pain or anything that I hadn’t been dealing with all season long. It just kind of flared up on me in that moment. It was a pretty, pretty good secret that was being kept for most of this season.

THE GREEN ZONE: I’m curious, Matt, because we were having discussions with Russ (Howard) and on The Green Zone about your body language and how you looked a little bit more relaxed this week than you have in the past. Do you think that played a part? Was it something you were conscious about?

Matt Dunstone: I put a ton of work into exactly that over the last eight to 10 months. The trials loss in November hit me a lot harder than I would have expected it to. I had a lot of stuff to figure out and sort through and the three months we had between the trials and the Brier to try and do exactly that. It was just what you guys saw. Just all the hard work that I’ve been putting in the last three months to try and get myself right and ready to compete, because the narrative was, for the longest time, that Matt isn’t finding ways to win in big games and over the last handful of years, that began to ring true. I knew deep down that that wasn’t the case. In juniors and early in my Men’s career, I was a big game player and always had been. I just wasn’t able to show that. So it was a lot of hard and weeks putting in the work just to try to tap into that person and show everybody that’s who I am.

THE GREEN ZONE: So it’s safe to say that you secretly hated the Heartbreak Kid nickname.

Matt Dunstone: Yeah, I never would have picked the one. I certainly prefer the sheriff. Now the world can see that there’s a new sheriff in town here.

THE GREEN ZONE: We had Russ on before the Brier and after the Brier and when we talked about Matt Dunstone, he said, it’s just a matter of time. Do you feel that already where it’s almost a relief that you’ve proven to the world, and maybe more importantly, to yourself, that you can get this done? That you can win the big one?

Matt Dunstone: Yeah, it’s certainly a major relief. I think it’s hard not to compare yourself a little bit to some of your peers and other skips that have won certain things at certain ages. There was a lot of expectation on me for a long time to go and win some big things and it hadn’t happened yet. It hadn’t happened as soon as it had for some of my peers. It was tough at times to face that reality, but a lot of relief in getting that done. Whether or not it opens the floodgates, that’s hard to know. I think that’s the beautiful thing about sport, is it owes us absolutely nothing. There’s a lot of people grinding out there that want to win their first Brier just like I did. You got to put your head down and just keep on going. Dynasties don’t happen accidentally. Major runs for certain teams don’t happen accidentally. It’s from consistency year in and year out, regardless of how your results go. But it’s hard not to say that winning and competing in the bigger events isn’t going to be easier with this one under my belt.

THE GREEN ZONE: Tell us what it’s going to be like to wear Canada’s colours.

Matt Dunstone: I can’t wait, especially after what (Brad) Jacobs and (Rachel) Homan just did. Two very inspirational runs. Everybody knows the drama that they had to go through to get to that point. I thought it was two inspirational performances coming home with the gold and the bronze and to be able to wear those same jackets a couple months later, it feels completely honored. It’s been 10 years since I’ve been able to do that. I’m just super jacked. I can’t wait to go and represent an awesome country and hopefully we bring some of our best stuff and come home with some hardware.

THE GREEN ZONE: I doubt there’s going to be too many conversations we have on The Green Zone where we don’t reference the hog line violation, what happened at the Olympics. Our conversations were about that that might be actually good for curling. Is curling in this country, in a good place, in your opinion?

Matt Dunstone: You look at the hype that created from the Olympics there. I don’t see it as a bad thing for the sport. Curling has just always had a difficult time. How do we hang on to the hype that it gets in the Olympics? Everyone knows curling is one of the most-watched sports at the Olympics. The tale as old as time is that nobody’s been able to sort out how do we grapple onto that and make something of it? I think it’s in a good place. I don’t see much I would do differently, but anytime we can get some pretty notable people talking about our sport, that’s always a good thing.