Former Fitzroy captain and Adelaide recruiter Matt Rendell dies after heart attack

Former Fitzroy coach Robert Walls has remembered Matt Rendell as the inspirational skipper who kept his team together, after the Adelaide Crows recruitment master died following a heart attack.

Matt Rendell was the “glue” on and off the field at Fitzroy and exactly the same as a coach at St Kilda.

His former coach Robert Walls and the man he was assistant to at the Saints, Grant Thomas, both used the word when paying tribute to Rendell who was universally known as ‘Bundy’ after the famous wrestler King Kong Bundy.

The 64-year-old tragically died on Wednesday, three days after he suffered a massive heart attack while out walking his dog.

His sudden passing has rocked the football world where he was a popular figure throughout the industry as a player, assistant coach, recruiter and media commentator.

Rendell played 164 games for Fitzroy between 1981 and 1991, including a three-year stint as captain. The ruckman then moved to the Brisbane Bear after initially deciding to retire, playing 13 games in the 1992 season.

The AFL world is mourning former Adelaide Crows recruitment manager Matthew Rendell.

Walls made Rendell captain at Fitzroy and his leadership spanned more than just his playing career for those who were with him at the Lions.

“He was very much the glue that stuck the Fitzroy boys together as a player and captain and certainly in the decades that followed,” Walls said.

“He was very very loyal to his teammates and supportive of them. We made him captain at an early stage and he led them on field and off field.

“The players loved him, the proof of that was 30 odd years later they still love him and get together and enjoy each other’s company.

“He was All-Australian, he won the club best and fairest when the team was a good team and they were playing finals. He had a really good football brain, he knew football inside out and he loved to play attacking football.

“I know he would have loved the way Collingwood are playing because that is the sort of footy that really appealed to him.”

Fitzroy's Bernie Quinlan (L) and Rendell (R) together in 1983.

Thomas first got to know Rendell on the nightclub scene when the pair were youngsters coming through the ranks.

“I first came across Bundy on the social scene because we were very good at that at St Kilda of course when I was playing and probably we were best off ground, a close second was sort of between Carlton with the (Mark) Maclure’s and the like and Fitzroy with Bundy, Scotty Clayton, all the boys,” Thomas said.

“We used to bump into each other in our younger days, all be at the bar having a drink at all the nightclubs and at parties. Then I had one unsuccessful year at the end of my playing career at Fitzroy when he was still there.”

When Thomas was appointed coach of St Kilda, the first man he called was Rendell.

“He interested me in several areas. First of all I think he was incredibly considered, he would think before he spoke,” Thomas said.

“He was very humane, considerate and caring. Humility was something that really impressed me and he was a student of the game who loved all the data and information and was ensconced in strategy and tactics.”

Despite both having big personalities, Thomas said the pair never had a cross word with each other.

“While Bundy had assertive qualities and strength I never heard a bad word said about him, he was able to manage that and juggle that in a beautiful way where everyone loved him,” he said.

“The first people to contact me today were Fraser Gehrig, Stephen Milne, Justin Peckett, Jason Cripps, these sorts of guys who maybe are a bit left field in some ways but they just loved Bundy.

“In a lot of ways he was just the glue at the club for a long period of time.”

Fitzroy's David McMahon with Rendell in 1983.

Thomas spoke to Rendell last week for their regular chats which dissected the state of the game.

“I was chatting to him last week about Daniel, his young boy who has gone overseas for seven weeks and stuff, he was hoping he looked after himself and James playing at Frankston footy club, how he was going and all that sort of stuff,” he said.

“We dissected the AFL as we always do, the game, the rules, the umpiring, all the rest of it which was always a lot of fun when we had our chats and we laughed our heads off of course.”

New AFL CEO Andrew Dillon led the tributes while the clubs Rendell had spent time at including the Brisbane Lions, St Kilda, Collingwood and Adelaide all released statements honouring the man they all knew as Bundy.