‘I was right on the edge, I could have gone either way’: Quinlan

Bernie ‘superboot’ Quinlan was getting a chicken out of the oven when he started to feel “shocking”. Before that moment there had been no sign the fit Hall of Famer would have a heart attack.

Bernie Quinlan in 1979.

AFL great Bernie Quinlan is recovering from a heart attack.

Quinlan was rushed to emergency at Frankston Hospital and had two stents inserted after he suffered chest pains and dizziness at his home on the Mornington Peninsula and it was discovered he had a near 100 per cent blockage in one of his arteries.

“I am here to fight another day, but I am very lucky,” Quinlan said.

“I was right on the edge, I could have gone either way.”

Quinlan, 72, said he had no warning he was on the verge of a heart attack when he started preparing dinner on Tuesday, May 21.

‘Superboot’ Quinlan in 1983.

Quinlan marks over Pies Peter McCormack and Michael Taylor in 1984.

“It hit me around about 5pm when I was getting a chicken out of the oven,” Quinlan said.

“I was by myself and I just got this shocking feeling, hot and sweaty, and I had heaviness in the chest.

“Rather stupidly I took a Panadol to try to sort it out, but that was a waste of time.

“I thought ‘this has to be a heart attack’ and I called the ambulance.

“Fortunately I did not pass out or anything and when the ambulance got there they did all the things they had to do and they put the jumper leads on me in case they had to start me off again.”

Once the 1981 Brownlow Medallist, two-time Coleman Medallist and AFL Hall of Fame

member arrived at hospital, doctors did not muck around.

Quinlan, Bob Skilton and Barry Round at the 2009 Brownlow Medal.

Quinlan breaks away from Geelong’s Ian Nankervis and Gary Malarkey in 1983.

“I remember when they wheeled me into (emergency) there were about eight people on trolleys and it was “zoom” straight past them and straight in there,” he said.

“They took me straight in and put a stent in through my right wrist.

“There was another minor blockage and they put a second stent in on the Thursday.”

Quinlan, who is now home and feeling good, said his brush with mortality had come out of the blue.

“I had no signs something was coming along,” he said.

“I am not overweight. I don’t smoke, I might have a drink occasionally, but very rarely, so everything was looking OK.

“It just might be in my family history, my father died of a heart attack when he was 63.”

Nicknamed superboot, Quinlan was a star player for Fitzroy and Footscray during a career that saw him play 366 games and kick 817 goals.