Matthew "Matt" Gidley is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer and administrator. Gidley played for the Newcastle Knights in the ARL Premiership and the NRL, and St Helens in the Super League, and for New South Wales in the State of Origin series and Australia at international level. He is also the former CEO of Football Operations at Newcastle.

The Newcastle Knights are an Australian professional rugby league team based in Newcastle, New South Wales that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. Playing in red and blue, the Knights joined the top tier competition in 1988, 79 years after the previous Newcastle based team, the Newcastle Rebels had departed the Sydney competition with the formation of a separate league competition based in the Newcastle region.