Matt Dunstone

Matthew Dunstone (born June 25, 1995)^[1], nicknamed "the Sheriff"^[2], is a Canadian curler originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba. In 2026, he skipped his team to victory in the 2026 Montana's Brier, his first Canadian men's championship title. Dunstone also has two Grand Slam titles, winning the Masters twice in 2019 and 2025.

Dunstone started curling at a young age. He went to Linden Christian School, where he helped the school win the Manitoba High School Athletics Association curling title in 2010-11.^[3] Dunstone won the Canadian Junior Curling Championships in 2013.^[4] He represented Canada at the 2013 World Junior Curling Championships, where he won the bronze medal. He was unable to defend his championship at the 2014 Canadian Juniors after losing in the finals of the Manitoba Canola Juniors to Braden Calvert. The following year he once again lost to Calvert in the final. The next time he would represent Manitoba was in 2016, after winning the 2016 Manitoba Canola Juniors. This earned the Dunstone rink a spot in the 2016 Canadian Juniors where he won his second title after defeating Northern Ontario 11-4 in the final, and represented Canada at the 2016 World Junior Curling Championships, once again winning the bronze medal.

Dunstone joined the Saskatchewan-based Steve Laycock rink for the 2017-18 curling season, initially as second, but later in the season began throwing fourth stones, while Laycock skipped and threw third. Dunstone won his first provincial men's championship in 2018 with Team Laycock. The team represented Saskatchewan at the 2018 Tim Hortons Brier, where they finished with a 6-5 record.

Team Laycock broke up in 2018, and Dunstone formed a new Saskatchewan-based team, with him as skip, Braeden Moskowy at third, Catlin Schneider at second and Dustin Kidby at lead. The team was invited to represent Canada at the third leg of the 2018-19 Curling World Cup. The team won the event, defeating Team Sweden's Niklas Edin rink in the final.

In their first event of the 2019-20 season, Team Dunstone finished runner-up at the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard to John Epping. Dunstone also won his first career Grand Slam at the 2019 Masters where he defeated Brad Gushue in the final. The team failed to replicate the success as they were not able to qualify at the Tour Challenge, National, Canadian Open, and finishing winless at the 2019 Canada Cup. The team was able to win the 2020 SaskTel Tankard, after falling into the C Event, Team Dunstone won four straight games including defeating Kirk Muyres in the final to win the provincial championship. At the 2020 Tim Hortons Brier, they finished the round robin and championship pool with a 8–3 record which qualified them for the 1 vs. 2 game against Alberta's Brendan Bottcher. They lost the game 9–4 and then lost the semifinal to Newfoundland and Labrador's Gushue, settling for a bronze medal. It would be the team's last event of the season as both the Players' Championship and the Champions Cup Grand Slam events were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[5] After the season, Team Dunstone added Kirk Muyres to their team, replacing Catlin Schneider at second.^[6]

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Saskatchewan, the 2021 provincial championship was cancelled. As the reigning provincial champions, Team Dunstone was invited to represent Saskatchewan at the 2021 Tim Hortons Brier, which they accepted.^[7] At the Brier, Dunstone led his team to a 9–3 record, qualifying for the playoffs as the second seed. Facing Brendan Bottcher in the semifinal, they lost 6–5 after Bottcher made a runback to score two in the tenth end. Team Dunstone would have to settle for the bronze medal for a second straight year.^[8]

Dunstone switched back to represent his home province of Manitoba with B. J. Neufeld as his third, Colton Lott as his second and Ryan Harnden as lead. In their first year together as a team they would finish second at the 2023 Tim Hortons Brier, losing the final to Brad Gushue.^[9] The following season, the team had another run at the playoffs at the Brier, but would lose in the playoffs to Mike McEwen. The team would make changes for the next season with Lott moving up to third and Harnden's brother E.J. Harnden joining with the team. The team would again make a run to the finals at the 2025 Montana's Brier. Dunstone beat Gushue in the 1v2 page playoff but would end up losing to Jacobs in the final 5-3.

The following year, the Dunstone team got off to a strong start, winning the 2025 Masters in September, and finishing as runner-up twice to Bruce Mouat in the 2025 Tour Challenge and 2025 GSOC Tahoe. Riding this wave of success, Dunstone was a favourite going into the 2025 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials. However, he would again suffer heartbreak losing three times to Brad Jacobs in the tournament.^[9] Dunstone would later say that "the two months we had after the trials, very difficult months for us. We had a really good reset. This was a major event that we wanted to perform at."^[9] After this disappointment Dunstone would fail to qualify for the playoffs of the next two Grand Slam events.

After this run of bad results, the Dunstone team wanted to finish the season off strong for the 2026 Montana's Brier, which would be E.J. Harnden's last event before retiring. The team finished second in their group, only losing to Kevin Koe. Dunstone would also curl two perfect games in round robin against the other Manitoba team led by Braden Calvert and Northern Ontario's Sandy MacEwan. The game against Northern Ontario was the first time ever that a third and skip had both curled a perfect game when he and Lott completed the task. Going into the playoffs Dunstone would again lose against Koe in the 1v2 game, but he would avenge his Olympic trials loss to Jacobs by beating him to get into the final. In his third match against Koe in the final, the Dunstone team would finally win their first national championship beating him 6-3. Dunstone later said that "we would have loved to have been the Olympic team, but this was next on our list. Given that this group isn't going to be together next year with E.J. retiring, this group owed it to ourselves to put our best foot forward and get a Brier championship."^[9]

Dunstone was a real estate student at the University of British Columbia,^[10] and currently works as a mortgage broker for Integra Mortgage. He is in a relationship with fellow curler Erin Pincott.^[11] Born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Dunstone officially moved to Kamloops, British Columbia to be with partner Pincott in 2018.^[12]

• Brier: First Team All-Star, Skip - 2023

• Matt Dunstone at World Curling