Team Dunstone thrilled to finally represent Canada together
Team Dunstone thrilled to finally represent Canada together
https://www.thegrandslamofcurling.com/news/house-money-team-dunstone
Publish Date: 2026-03-24 11:45:00
By Adam Laskaris
On November 29, 2025, Matt Dunstone pushed himself about as far as he could’ve.
On a Satuday night in Halifax, Dunstone’s rink lost a decisive Game 2 of the Canadian Olympic Curling Trials to Team Brad Jacobs, who were just a few months away from realizing their dreams as gold medallists in Cortina.
Anyone who had seen the 30-year-old Dunstone curl in recent years knew he was the skip of one of the best rinks on the planet.
Dunstone’s team had risen as high as No. 2 in the world, despite never getting to represent Canada on the world stage as a four-person unit.
Heading into Halifax, they’d won the first Grand Slam event of the season in the AMJ Masters while reaching the final in both the Co-op Tour Challenge and the KIOTI GSOC Tahoe. In the ten-end game, however, Jacobs’ rink posed a different challenge to Dunstone, who beat them three times in Halifax, including twice in the best-of-three final.
It’s a challenge many strong Canadian curlers have run into: you might be one of the best teams in the world, but that chance to represent Canada
“The Trials loss was more difficult than I thought it was gonna be,” Dunstone admitted in a media call earlier this week. “But that’s all part of it. The sport owes you absolutely nothing.”
Dunstone went winless at the HearingLife Canadian Open in December, and missed the playoffs at the Crown Royal Players’ Championship. The Trials hangover was real for the rink, with the strong start to the GSOC season completely mirrored by a tough finish.
But with plenty of curling left in the season after the final Grand Slam finished up, there wasn’t really much choice for Team Dunstone to put up or shut up. “You gotta get back on the horse and keep going and chase your dreams,” Dunstone said.
A Brier win to remember
After flying nearly all the way across the country from his home base in Kamloops to Halifax, Dunstone found an extra gear to push himself a few hundred kilometres further…
