Confident Dunstone looking to make run at Brier with recharged lineup
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Matt Dunstone, skip of the No. 1 team in Canada, has spent plenty of time envisioning what it would be like to hoist his first Brier Tankard.
The 29-year-old Winnipeg native has been close over his previous six appearances at the Canadian men's curling championship, owning bronze medals from 2020 and 2021 as well as a runner-up finish in 2023 when he fell to Brad Gushue in the championship game from London.
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Sporting a recharged lineup with the addition of power sweeper E.J. Harnden, this year's Montana's Brier in Kelowna, B.C., might be Dunstone's best chance yet.
"You think about it every day [winning the Brier]. It's just a moment I've run through my mind, in my head, how it's going to play out, how it's going to feel, how it's going to look, you know 100 times," Dunstone told TSN's Bob Weeks on the latest edition of Rock Talk. "Just would love to get back into that scenario again. [I've] been close so many times already. Just been biting at every Brad's, every Kevin's heel, every Brendan's heel for the last handful of years. Just can't get through to the bone. This is the most confident I've ever felt going into a Brier."
Team Dunstone have been one of the best rinks in curling since making a significant lineup change in December. After a 1-4 showing at November's Grand Slam in St. John's, Dunstone and company made the difficult decision to cut veteran third BJ Neufeld and replace him with Harnden, who was a free agent after being let go by Team Gushue earlier in the season.
The move reunited the Harnden brothers, who were known as the best sweeping tandem in curling during their long run with Brad Jacobs in Northern Ontario. Out of the multiple rosters changes in men's Canadian curling this season, Dunstone's rink out of the Fort Rouge Curling Club in Winnipeg has had the most success.
With the new lineup, now featuring Colton Lott playing third, Team Dunstone is 22-3 and have won two of their four events, moving up to No. 3 in the world rankings.
EJ Harnden Board
"It probably never hurts that the guy's brother is on the team," Dunstone remarked on the addition of Harnden. "I think that just goes to show how many fans EJ has across our nation. How people were pulling for him to get back into a situation. I think that's why you saw it go as smooth as it did. Very excited to have the two of them back together. The Brush Bros - you could tell right away they hadn't really missed a beat."
Dunstone says his team has been more consistent this season after their up-and-down ride in 2023-24 which ended in a 6-5 loss to Saskatchewan's Team Mike McEwen in the 3 vs. 4 page playoff at the Brier in Regina.
"We're going on stretches now where we're playing like the top team in the world," Dunstone said. "That's something this team needed just based on the struggles we had last year."
As a pre-qualified team, Team Dunstone haven't played in an event since mid-January when they made the semifinals of the Masters in Guelph. The extra rest and time to practice could be advantageous heading into nationals, says the skip, who captured two Canadian championships during his junior career.
"Our September through December is a really busy time. You really don't have, maybe a week at a time, where you can really hammer home practice and get the body and the mind right," Dunstone said. "To have this five, six weeks to do exactly that, I know all of us have loved the five weeks off that we've had."
Dunstone, who lives just down the road in Kamloops, will help open the 2025 Brier on Friday night when his rink takes on Alberta's Team Kevin Koe in the opening draw from Prospera Place.