Port Adelaide great Greg Phillips inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame
When he first arrived at Port Adelaide as a shy country 16-year-old, Greg Phillips was in awe of some of the names who were now his teammates. He would become a champion of the club in his own right.
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Greg Phillips reckons if he had a shy moment in his life this was it, meeting his new Port Adelaide teammates at a 1976 pre-season camp in the McLaren Vale winery region.
Growing up on the South Australian West Coast, Phillips was playing under 16 colts footy at just 12.
He claimed an A grade best-and-fairest trophy at Lincoln South when only 16, the year before becoming a Magpie when he also represented Port Lincoln in the senior Mortlock Shield.
There were some tough players prepared to make their presence felt in the country, so Phillips had already had his character tested.
But here were Russell Ebert, Peter Woite, Carl Fragomeni, Brian Cunningham and Darrell Cahill and Phillips knew them as Magpies legends.
“Wow,” Phillips recalls.
“I just stook back and learnt from those guys.
“Here were all these Port Adelaide champions and I was just the new kid on the block. I was always nervous going to bed and thinking about training, you don’t do a pre-season on the West Coast.
“On the Sunday morning of the camp, (then coach) John Cahill took us for a run down at Maslins Beach. I was running with my cousin Neville Phillips and thought ‘what is this, we don’t have beaches like this back home’.
“It was an eye opener the day Jack took us to Maslins Beach for a session.”
In his early days with the Magpies, Phillips was “skinnier compared to now” and was used on the ball as a ruck rover.
Experience playing against men in Port Lincoln eroded any fears, even facing opponents like former Norwood heavyweights John Wynne and Neil Balme.
He also had the support of teammate Bruce Light, who before games would tell Phillips to let him know the numbers of any opposition players who “whacked” him.
“I didn’t know anyone in the opposition, so he was getting about three or four numbers a game and he would run in and get them back,” Phillips said laughing.
That was to be the start of a special career spanning 427 senior games, although it was as a defender Phillips established himself as one of the greatest Magpies of all time, as well as devoting four seasons to Collingwood.
He is a former Magpies captain, best-and-fairest winner, eight-times premiership player and state representative 20 times.
And now he is an AFL Hall of Fame member after being named among the latest inductees.
“It has blown me away to be in the Hall of Fame,” Phillips, 61, said.
“I was just a country boy on the farm, growing up with a couple of brothers, a sister and mum (Pauline) and dad (Noel).
“Farm life was pretty hard, there were a lot of bad years to go with the good ones. Like everyone else on the West Coast where they love their footy, I reflect back to where I came from and could not think of a better way to grow up.
“I loved playing footy as a kid. The opportunity to come to the big smoke and Port, I’ve been so lucky and it was so enjoyable.”
Phillips was no different to many kids, collecting football cards with the photos of his heroes such as Brenton Adcock, Bob Shearman, Malcolm Greenslade and Paul Bagshaw, all Sturt champions.
Farm life did not include a television, there was no 240-volt power with the Phillips clan relying on 32 volts to fire up an engine, they had a kerosene fridge and meals were cooked on a wood stove.
“We would listen to games on radio,” he said.
“Neville was also a Sturt bloke and we were Paul Bagshaw mad.
“It was quite enjoyable playing against Sturt the first time, playing against some of our heroes.”
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The move to Melbourne in 1983 was made easier with the appointment of Jack Cahill as Collingwood coach and another Port Adelaide star Mark Williams being captain.
The Magpies also secured Michael Richardson from Perth and Geoff Raines and David Cloke from Richmond and Phillips believes the side should have performed better given the talent at the club.
“I loved every minute of it at Collingwood,” he said.
“I became part of the Shaw family and every second Sunday I was over there having a roast, mixing it with Tony, Ray, Neville and Kelvin.
“Bob Rose took over as coach for my last two years there and he was such a lovely man and he had such a passion for the sport.
“As for Port Adelaide, it was a great club to be involved with and I was very lucky. This Hall of Fame honour is the icing on the cake for me.”