Australian Football Hall of Fame 2024: Behind the scenes as legends, footy greats inducted
The Australian Football Hall of Fame has become one of the most illustrious nights on the calendar. JOSH BARNES takes you inside the event, from awkward moments to the widespread affection for Chris Judd.
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Even when you are one of the stars of the hall of fame night, you still need to seek out your heroes.
Previous inductee Chris Judd was a popular man on Tuesday night, earning mentions on stage from inductees Dane Swan and Chris McDermott.
Then another inductee, Michael Graham made a beeline for the dual Brownlow medallist once formalities were over, keen to get a photo with Judd.
While much of the room wanted to congratulate Jason Dunstall on officially becoming a legend, they gravitated towards the Swan section as the night wore on.
Quickly becoming hall of fame folklore, Swan had three tables of family and friends at Centrepiece in Melbourne Park for the ceremony.
Heath Shaw stuck near his great mate later in the night and was in deep conversation with Mick Malthouse, who was glowing in pride for Swan.
Among Swan’s other members of the ratpack reunion were Chris Tarrant, Ben Johnson and Alan Didak.
Swan’s manager Liam Pickering received a rousing roast from the new inductee, after the Collingwood champion revealed he called Pickering in a panic fearing he was in trouble when he had a missed call from AFL chairman Richard Goyder, even though Goyder was only delivering the best news about his induction.
After McDermott made a thin promise to be out until 6am with good mate Stephen Kernahan to celebrate, Swan nodded to his fellow inductee and offered a hand to help him get there through the night.
McDermott revealed on Wednesday he didn’t make it to his goal, instead he “chose the wiser track” and pulled up stumps at 3am.
“Swanny has got a far better track record than I have. I stayed with Kernahan and though the old boys would huddle along on their own,” he said.
To the surprise of few, Swan contacted the AFL at 7.45am on Wednesday to mark himself as an apology for a media conference about three hours later.
Plenty of talk ahead of the ceremony centred on Collingwood accidentally sending out a media release congratulating Swan four hours before his induction was to be made public.
The Pies then politely asked media to hold off on mentioning Swan’s honour until the agreed upon embargo, but that was too late for TV news to put the Swan back in the bag.
The Brownlow medallist drew a big laugh from Malthouse when he mentioned he wasn’t yet in the Magpie hall of fame but had just been named in the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
“But they (Collingwood) know I can be bribed and bought pretty easily so they bought me a table for all my mates tonight so we are square,” he said.
McDermott raised some eyebrows by stating he “just shared the toilet” with one inductee, who remained nameless.
Another well received highlight – perhaps not by those on the league’s payroll – was Graham’s spiel about umpiring going backwards.
“Back in our day we had one umpire and two boundary umpires, that was it,” he said.
“Nowadays you’ve got four, two inside the boundaries, one in the goalsquare. And they still make mistakes.”
Even on a night dedicated to the legends and the greats of the game, the AFL couldn’t avoid the Zeitgeist discussion about the whistleblowers.
TRIP OF THE NIGHT
While Swan somehow managed to keep away from any slips of the tongue in his hilarious speech, it was interviewer Gerard Whateley who had the slip of the night.
When stepping away to allow Kelvin Templeton to go through thankyous, Whateley walked backwards off the camera shot and fell.
Always affable, when Templeton inquired about Whateley, the esteemed broadcaster said his move was “inglorious”.
Unfortunately for Whateley, just as the room was forgetting about the trip, AFL chairman Richard Goyder referred back to it at the end of the night
“Gerard you have done it (hosting) at personal cost and hopefully no injury cost,” the chairman said.
Hosting duties meant Whateley had to hand over his job on Fox Footy flagship program AFL 360 to Anthony Hudson for the night and ‘Huddo’ stayed sharp by shooing off Robert ‘Dipper’ DiPierdomenico when he yelled after the commentator while on the makeshift set during the night.
NEW LEGEND
In his opening address Goyder broke two news yarns, firstly that female players will only have to be retired for one year to be eligible for the hall of fame, as opposed to the five male players have to sit out.
Secondly, he announced a “deceased legend” will be elevated within the hall of fame next year.
Dunstall’s elevation was made public before time in an unusual move, likely due to his status as a media star meaning his honour would leak out before the night, so it is unknown whether the new legend will be announced early.
Whoever is moved up within the hall will be deserving.
Perhaps the great Lou Richards would be a worthy choice.
Nick Riewoldt remains a nominee who hasn’t actually been inducted yet after he decided not to attend last year while living in the United States.
The AFL remains ready to induct him when he is available and the race might be on now between the Riewoldts, given Jack will now be elegible in 2028.
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Originally published as Australian Football Hall of Fame 2024: Behind the scenes as legends, footy greats inducted
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