Shaw is the skinny, blonde-haired, half-back/winger who looks just as comfortable at Kurrawa Beach as he does on an AFL field.
Like many of his teammates, the 21-year-old was pushed around and muscled out of contests during his first two seasons.
The young Suns were immature both physically and mentally and won just six games through 2011 and 2012, yet already have five wins from their first 12 matches this season.
Shaw showed an appetite for the contest and has always been a hard runner, but now he is starting to develop the physicality to match the mindset.
The results have been a dramatic improvement in 2013, much like his team.
Through 12 matches, Shaw is averaging 19 disposals per game, of which seven are contested, up from 16 and four last year.
Gold Coast development coach Andy Lovell said the Suns' young list was always going to take time to develop, and both the players and public just had to be patient.
"We knew Matty was really well suited to play the modern game, but obviously he had a really light frame and needed to put on 12 kilos from the day he walked in," Lovell said.
"We're just starting to see the benefit of that persistence and patience that Bluey has shown with him.
"He's played 46 games now, and all things being equal he could get to 50 games this season, so that's a terrific effort from him."
Lovell said Shaw had worked tirelessly on his contested footy, both on the ground and in the air and had undergone repetitive one-on-one drills with coaches to make those things habitual.
"He's brave, he runs hard and he's really just starting to come to grips with the intensity of the game and is becoming a really solid, consistent player for us," Lovell said.
"He's always had that appetite to tackle and put his head over the footy. What he hasn't had is that frame and body to go with it.
"He's not massive but he's getting stronger. Against Geelong and Hawthorn and North Melbourne, three big bodied, strong, mature sides, Matty Shaw was able to stand his ground, which is a great sign."
Lovell has seen most things in footy career that spanned 164 games as a player for both Melbourne and West Coast and assistant coaching stints at the Eagles, Geelong and St Kilda before coming to the Suns.
He says there's plenty of similarities with a certain Geelong star in Shaw.
"When Joel Corey got to the Cats he was a skinny kid from East Perth. Over a number of years he worked extremely hard on his game and in the gym and he's obviously become one of the greats of the modern game with the Cats," Lovell said.
"They're probably built similarly and play similar positions. Joel Corey is just a great role model for Matty Shaw.
"If you're able to go back and see Joel Corey when he started, he was a skinny kid like Matty Shaw was two or three years ago."
If Shaw and the Suns have a third of the success of Corey and the Cats, there'll be a lot of very happy people on the Gold Coast.
Michael Whiting covers Gold Coast news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_mikewhiting
