Attending the Hall of Fame dinner with Talking Footy SA

Two and a half minutes, they were told. Two and a half minutes to make a speech about being inducted into the SA Football Hall of Fame. Not likely!

The first speaker, Kevin Duggan, spoke for a hell of a lot longer than that and no-one minded. A natural raconteur, he enjoyed telling a few stories of his time on the Tribunal, the Boundaries Commission and the other roles for which he was being honoured. It was that sort of night, a celebration of the fellowship of football and we were all going to enjoy ourselves.

I can’t recall who introduced each inductee, but I’m pretty sure Kevin was introduced by the venerable Max Basheer. Now, when Max gets up to speak, I always expect him to remind us that this is an official meeting of the League. He didn’t this time, of course, but we didn’t care, he was entertaining anyway and he seems the perfect person to call venerable.

The inductees fitted three categories: those who made their mark in the AFL, those who have served the game so well in other categories , and Gary McIntosh.

Everyone spoke well, one or two possibly gave out a little bit too much information, but again, we didn’t care. It was a night to celebrate the greats and they all made it easy to celebrate them. The inductees weren’t the only legends. Fancy being inducted into the Hall of Fame by Barrie Robran. Or John Halbert. Or any of the greats who fulfilled that role last night.

Criticism is fashionable in some quarters, of course. We could argue (and will) about whether AFL players should be inducted into an SA Hall of Fame, but for those who were there, it seemed natural for Andrew McLeod, or Gavin Wanganeen, or Mark Ricciutto, or any of the others, to be so honoured. That was confirmed when they all spoke about their early days in football, their junior clubs, their SANFL clubs and what that meant to them. To me, they weren’t AFL players, they were boys who loved their footy and finished up playing AFL.

So, between entrée and main course, between main course and dessert, and afterwards, we listened to each of the eleven inductees tell a story. We listened to Don McSweeny. I didn’t know anything about Don, but the people in football, especially country football and especially around the Cummins and West Coast areas certainly did. They were proud of him and by the time his more than 60 years service was highlighted and we could see and hear the quiet pride and humility of his speech, we were proud of him too.

KG was honoured. MC, Mark Soderstrom was ready with tissues on hand for the inevitable tears, but they were surprisingly unnecessary. Just as surprisingly, KG did mention his wife, his children and his grandchildren in passing and again, we all loved him for being KG.

Richard Williams was introduced by Laurie Argent and that elicited another surprise. After 500 plus games where the standout feature was his obvious bias against whatever team we all followed, he turned out to be a normal bloke who just loved his footy. I have to confess, however, that I was disappointed that he didn’t walk to the rostrum with his hands crossed against his chest for a ball-up.

We listened to Ben Hart, who talked about his time at North and school footy, Simon Goodwin, similarly about starting at South, Warren Tredrea and the Magpies and we learnt two things. They were all kids once, with a will to succeed, a lot of talent, a little bit of luck and they hadn’t forgotten where they started and we also learnt that Michelangelo Rucci could be a very good speaker as he introduced Warren Tredrea.

Andrew McLeod spoke about the Territory, his love of Fremantle and coming to Adelaide. Hang on, I think I got something wrong in that sentence, I’ll check what it is later. By the time we’d hung off every word from Gavin Wanganeen and laughed at the down-to-earth stories of life at Waikerie from Mark Riccuitto, we’d had a fantastic night. Oh, Roo was introduced by Neil Kerley. Kerls is well in his seventies now, I suppose, but we would still have run through brick walls after listening to him. Legend.

Oh, I hear you say, what about Macca? Well, Macca was Macca. Not like this write-up, he was straight to the point and he was very funny. He was respectful as well and like most of the inductees, he thanked the people and clubs who he’d encountered along the way. He’s an SA footy legend, but to him, he’s a Hope Valley player, or a Tasmanian club team coach, or a part of every club he’s been involved in.

I was upset at only one part of what I learnt about him last night. He’d signed for Westies at one stage. Put pen to paper. Signed.

When I then heard the name David Shipway and that at the time he’d asked Macca for his ‘autograph for his niece’ (on an SANFL Transfer Form), I relaxed a little. It was that sort of night.

Well, that’s how I saw things. It was undoubtedly an honour to be there and I’m well aware this is a less than critical article. I’ll leave any criticism to others who enjoy it more, I just enjoyed being in the company of so many greats of our game on a night that celebrated the good side of football.

And forgive me for saying that Talking Footy SA was there.

Good read, cheers. Sounds like a great night . Good summary .