On Wednesday night, six former players were inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

Below are some of the reflections they shared with the crowd at Crown Palladium:


HALL OF FAME MEMBERS

Glenn Archer
North Melbourne
"I think when you walk into AFL footy or when you play footy at any level you go in there thinking 'I don't want other players to think [I'm] not courageous.' So when you get to the end of a season and you're voted by your peers as the most courageous, it's very satisfying. Obviously to be voted that six times [in the AFL] is amazing and something that I will cherish for the rest of my days."

"I don't think I played one AFL game without fear. It was the fear of failure. I never thought I was good enough to play the game at the highest level. I played 311 games and I don't think before any one of them I wasn't feeling sick in the stomach, worrying what my opponent was going to do to me, worrying about losing. I had a coach (Denis Pagan) on the sidelines for most of my career who hated losing - more than me in lots of ways - I worried about what he was going to say as well."

Graham Cornes
Glenelg, North Melbourne
On football's role in helping him move on from serving Australia in Vietnam: "It was the most important thing in my life. I often say the Glenelg footy club saved my life. I'd been away for seven months in an infantry battalion so didn't have much time to train. (When I got home) I was able to get home with the infrastructure and discipline of the footy club around me but there were a lot of guys who came straight back ... into the suburbs or the farm and a lot of them had difficulties and continue to have difficulties so I'm sad about that. But I'm so grateful to the Glenelg Football club and football in particular."

On his former Glenelg coach Neil Kerley's influence on his career: "You need someone to see something in you and give you an opportunity, nurture you, put you back on the rails when you go off - and 'Kerls' did that. He was one man who had an enormous influence on me."

Shane Crawford
Hawthorn
"When I started my first pre-season at the end of 1991, Hawthorn had just won the premiership, Dermott Brereton was turning up in his Ferrari or his Harley motorbike all the time, Johnny Platten was a great help for me and Jason Dunstall was a very hard worker and always working on his goalkicking. So it was just a dream for me at a young age to get a chance to play AFL football and to be there and be part of it. I didn't say a word [at that time] I just made sure I did as I was told. I made sure I trained really hard.

"It's been a really long and hard journey. We really struggled as a club for a long time ... I've seen the very worst at a footy club and I've seen the very best. I'm really appreciative I was able to be part of the 2008 Grand Final, which was just a dream come true."

Chris Grant
Western Bulldogs
"I was a Carlton supporter as a kid and I had the pleasure of seeing Geoff Southby [tonight], so it's just such as honour to see someone like that and to be joining such an illustrious group of players like that."

On the aborted merger between Footscray and Fitzroy in 1990: "I think in a lot of ways that first game [after the merger fell through] gave me a taste of what the big league was all about. But it also probably entrenched [with me] the values of the football club. When I saw how much the club meant to so many people ... not only to the group of people who were involved with the club at the time but also the area, the people we represented and that stayed with me my whole career."

"It was a defining moment for me, realising that the club was bigger than just the individuals who played the game of footy. Ultimately football clubs are about people ... as a club to still be involved in the competition in our own right and flourishing, it is ultimately the people who keep that together."

Robert Harvey
St Kilda
"I'm greatly indebted to St Kilda for the opportunity I got. I never would have that opportunity if not for John Beveridge, our recruiting manager at the time who really worked hard to get me there. I was playing at Seaford and pretty happy there. It was dad who had to physically throw me in the car and take me to a training camp for the under-19s to get me to play there. In the end, it was 21 years later and I was still going.

On how he developed his renowned work ethic that defined his career: "When I started back in 1988 footy was semi-professional. Once I finished school I worked full-time for four years, so obviously being in St Kilda we weren't going so well at the time. I had some great role models and obviously some people there that I had to really try and look up to. There were a few in particular I sort of really grabbed the coattails of and worked hard. Trevor Barker was one and Danny Frawley was another. Obviously back then - and I think every club was the same - we loved to party hard but also the love of the club was really strong and it came through with a guy like Trevor Barker and his loyalty."

Nola Johnson on behalf of her late husband 'Big' Bob Johnson
(Melbourne/East Fremantle):
"He loved football. That's what he lived for. When I married him (in 1975) I think he was coaching and playing for Mackinnon and there was so many people coming to the games because he was such a big drawcard wherever he went. People loved to see his antics. He always said he was very modest. He always said he was a champion. He was very modest (laughing)."

"He just loved Melbourne and all the players. They were always good mates right throughout. They were all very friendly, they just got on so well together.

"At East Fremantle, it was half-time in a game Bob was coaching and playing and at half-time no one else in the team had kicked a goal but Bob had kicked six. So he said to the players, 'I'll kick 10 today do you think between the rest of you you could give kick five?' And Bob went on to kick 10 goals and the players did get five and they won on the day."