Universal Love RIP Russell Ebert. The greatest man!

[tribey]

That's an excellent example of what I mean by the 100 inaugural players and 10 inaugural coaches inducted were all Legends. What they achieved and did for the game should never be somehow re categorised into the 10% criteria.

I can only surmise that the movers and shakers at the AFL were probably too busy with all the wider Centenary Season celebrations (the Lightning Premiership!), prospective mergers, the death of one legacy club, the on-again/off-again entry of Port Adelaide, and the handover of Ross Oakley riding off into the sunset to put too much energy into vetoing the criteria for the Hall.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

I can only surmise that the movers and shakers at the AFL were probably too busy with all the wider Centenary Season celebrations (the Lightning Premiership!), prospective mergers, the death of one legacy club, the on-again/off-again entry of Port Adelaide, and the handover of Ross Oakley riding off into the sunset to put too much energy into vetoing the criteria for the Hall.

It was probably some marketing spin doctor at the AFL who sold it as a chance to have an elevation and therefore marketing opportunity every year and the Commission didn't give a stuff.

They pinched the idea from the Sports Australia Hall of Fame, which was set up at the MCG in 1985 and they introduced the Legend status in 1993 with The Don, Dawn and Hubert Opperman as the first ones elevated.

It sort of makes sense for that HoF to try and distinguish the truly great from others, but that is because there were a whole lot of sports involved, and played at various levels over the years, and the international and Olympic aspect, obviously given greater weighting.

No other major individual sports HoF that I'm aware of has this Legend status driven by the official body.

Baseball created the first sports HoF in upstate New York, in Cooperstown in 1936, to celebrate the games centenary (not any competition), and they don't have a Mickey Mouse Legend status.

In rugby league The Immortals concept came from the Sydney based Rugby League Week magazine in 1981, long before before the sport had a HoF. The panel voted for 4 players who were all test captains and who had also dominated the NSWRL comp - Clive Churchill, Bob Fulton, Reg Gasiner and John Raper. There was no formal link to any official body. Then in 1999 they added Graeme Langlands and Wally Lewis and in 2003 Arthur Beetson.

In 2008 the ARL and NRL to celebrate the centenary of the NSWRL comp, and the first comp in Oz, which became the ARL and then NRL, released a list of their team of the century which was 17 players selected from their list of the 100 greatest players.

Rugby League Week added Andrew Johns as an immortal in 2013.

Rugby League Week was struggling financially and soon to be wound up, so in 2017the ARL Commission took over the concept and in 2018 they formed the sport's official HoF and inducted the 100 players from 2008 ( and 7 others), which included the then 8 Immortals and they elevated 5 more, but there are no rules of what % and when the next elevation happens. Bottom line, the Immortals concept wasn't something driven by the official body.

And look at who was on the 1996 selection committee. A whole of media types who knew very little about footy outside Victoria.

South Australia: Max Basheer.
Victoria: Kevin Bartlett, John Kennedy, Lou Richards, Percy Beames, Peter Allen, Mark Patterson, Mike Sheehan, Harry Gordon, Caroline Wilson, Joan Kirner, Tom Reynolds.
Western Australia: Geoff Christian.

and in 2021
South Australia: Graham Cornes, Bruce McAvaney, Michael O'Loughlin, Patrick Keane, Mark Genge.
Victoria: Karen Lyon, David Parkin, Paul Marsh (who grew up in WA and spent time in SA).
Western Australia: Richard Goyder, Tania Armstrong, Ross Glendinning.

Thankfully when the great Barry Cable was elevated in 2012, he then urged the Commission to change the panel and widen the scope of players assessed, and recognise more of the past players from all the comps, not just those who played mainly in Victoria. Lucky for the game we had an ex Sandgroper in Mike Fitzpatrick as Commission chairman, follow by another Sandgroper chairman in Richard Goyder, to listen to Barry and implement his recommendation.

 

[PortPortPort]

Looked on the Russell Ebert book site and come across this.

A bit peeved about fake autographs tbh.

Is it the author or the great man himself?

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Anyone going to the club launch?

 

[Us against the rest]

I received my copy of the Russell Ebert book today, can't wait to get stuck into it, a true champion of the game and person.