THE AUSTRALIAN Football Hall of Fame welcomed six inductees and elevated Fitzroy great Kevin Murray to Legend status at Melbourne's Crown Palladium on Thursday night.
Following are highlights from the ceremony's acceptance speeches.
Kevin Murray
Upon being welcomed to the stage by his former Victorian teammates:
"It's an amazing feeling really because you heard Allen Aylett before and you heard Bobby Skilton and we just had something special going when we played for Victoria.
"I'm very fortunate. Football's been very good to me, [but] it's been hard work, it hasn't been easy."
Tony Shaw
"I played this great game for 17 years - I was short, slow and couldn't kick so I'm pretty happy to be up here as a matter of fact.
"I knew my position within the game, I knew my position within the team and I knew my limitations, so you play to that. I did whatever I was asked to do [early] and later on you just start to get enormous belief, you get prepared and make sure that you survive."
On playing in two premiership sides in one week - for Melbourne under Checker Hughes in the VFL then West Perth in the WAFL - while enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy:
"I said, 'I can't come up and train and I can only get off every second weekend' and [Hughes] said, 'Well, just come up and if you pull your weight you'll be in the side' and fortunately I did.
"[Then] I was posted back to Fremantle, I left on Monday, got off the troop train on Thursday and got asked I'd like to play in a grand final. I said, 'If it's legal I will, yeah' and we won by eight goals."
Ross Smith
On the influence of master coach Allan Jeans:
"Going to St Kilda I was very fortunate to have someone like Allan who I guess nurtured a very young 18-year-old and, over the course of my time at St Kilda, found a place in the side for me.
"Like any coach he recognised certain skills and abilities and he found a role for me to play in the team. I grew into it and I guess tonight is the result of all that encouragement."
Gavin Wanganeen
"When you're young and strong and healthy you just feel like you're invincible so you just go out there and don't care whether you get hurt or whatever. You just love it.
"You'd have a meeting with your coach to go over some vision, and once in a blue moon the coach would show a bit of vision of someone pulling out of a contest that they shouldn't have pulled out of, and I never wanted to be one of those guys. Thankfully I never got on there."
Brian Dixon
On missing out on the 1955 grand final after defying Norm Smith to play in a grand final for Melbourne University commerce faculty against Allen Aylett's dentistry faculty:
"We won but there was somebody who reported this to The Age, so in The Age the next morning was that Commerce with Dixon had defeated Dentistry with Aylett.
"Smith said to me that night when I turned up for training, 'Is this you?' and I said, 'Yes' and he said, 'Well, you're out'.
"It was fair. He'd told me not to play, he didn't tell me what the punishment would be so … so I played in five premierships for Melbourne and one for the Commerce faculty."
Wayne Carey
"This is an individual honour but you wouldn't be standing here without your teammates.
"One reason I'm here is because we were a very good side, the Kangaroos, throughout the '90s. It gets overlooked that we played in seven preliminary finals in a row and three of those grand finals. It's for that reason that I stand here.
"One thing about a team is that when you've got your backs to the wall or you're not in good form, your teammates are always there to pick you up.
"On the other side of that life, when things aren't going well you have your family and close friends to be there. If it wasn't for those people … I wouldn't be standing here."
