Playing for keeps

Footballer Mat Rogers has triumphed over loss and heartbreak. When he returns to TV for Australian Survivor, he tells Tiffany Dunk, he’ll be doing it for the most important people in his life: his family.

- Tiffany Dunk

Back in 2000 there was a favoured tradition in the Rogers family home. Once a week, Mat would visit his parents’ house in Sydney’s Cronulla where his mum, Carol, would have made a roast and his rugby legend dad, Steve, was already sitting in front of the TV waiting for the latest episode of Survivor to start. The US series had just launched, and like many families around the globe, the entire Rogers clan was avidly tuning in for the action. “It was the original reality show that transfixed the world really, and we had Survivor night every week,” Mat – who is about to hit screens for the second time in an Australian All Stars season of the program – tells The Weekly.

“It was a fun thing to share with Mum and Dad because they loved it. I remember being blown away by how hopeless some of the Americans were in the outdoors. I was like, ‘Man, these guys are hopeless – let me at it!’ And then the opportunity came around.”

That first opportunity came in 2018 when Mat’s agent asked if he’d be keen to take part in the Australian show’s third season on Ten: Champions vs. Contenders. It was a firm yes.

Having played both rugby league and union at the highest level, Mat’s athletic prowess served him well during the gruelling game. It also won him a new legion of fans too young to have watched the glorious career he’d carved out on the sporting field.

“I met so many kids and they were like, ‘You’re from Survivor,” Mat, 43 chuckles. “They’d be with their dad and he’d be like, ‘You know he played for Australia.’ They were like, ‘What? I don’t care about that – he was on