Jason Dunstalls elevation to Legend status highlights 2024 Australian Football Hall of Fame

Brownlow medallists Dane Swan and Kelvin Templeton have been honoured for their glittering contributions to the game with induction into the Australian Football Hall of Fame. On a night when Hawthorn’s champion goalkicker Jason Dunstall was officially elevated to Legend status, Swan and Templeton were named among six new inductees at Tuesday’s gala event in Melbourne.Best porn XXX. Inaugural Adelaide Crows captain Chris McDermott, Indigenous speedster Michael Graham, West Perth great Ray Schofield and New South Wales pioneer Ralph Robertson were also acknowledged. Much-loved by a legion of fans in the Magpie Army, Swan was a leader of Collingwood’s famous “rat pack” during their successful period under coaching legend Mick Malthouse and his successor Nathan Buckley. Swan was at times criticised for not looking like a professional athlete, and courted his share of off-field controversy, but was a genuine star of the competition on the field. The prolific midfielder was a key contributor in the Magpies’ 2010 premiership under Malthouse and won the Brownlow medal the following season, with what was then a record 34 votes under the 3-2-1 system. He was also an All-Australian in five consecutive seasons from 2009-2013 and won the Copeland Trophy – Collingwood’s best-and-fairest award – for three straight years from 2008-10. Malthouse insists Swan’s approach to football behind the scenes belied his public persona, and was crucial to his success. “Dane is the sort of player that gives the impression that he’s a bit loose … but he’s a very, very proud person. I can see the other side of Dane,” Malthouse said in a video tribute to Swan. “What a lot of people don’t realise is he’d go into the altitude room, put the heaters on to 30 degrees, pump it up to nearly 4000m, he’d get on the running machine and didn’t publicise it, and come away knowing that he could get through a match with the speed and power that he could take on any tagger and anyone in the middle. “That was his secret.” Swan retired in 2016 because of a serious foot injury after 258 games in black-and-white. Dunstall’s elevation as the game’s 32nd Legend was confirmed in April. A four-time premiership player with Hawthorn, Dunstall kicked 1254 goals in a glittering 269-game AFL/VFL career before injuries forced him into retirement in 1998. Only Tony Lockett (1360) and Gordon Coventry (1299) are higher on the competition’s all-time list of leading goal-kickers. Dunstall was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2002, as soon as he became eligible. Sign up to From the Pocket: AFL Weekly Jonathan Horn brings expert analysis on the week’s biggest AFL stories after newsletter promotion An immediate rule change was also announced at the Hall of Fame at Tuesday night’s induction ceremony in Melbourne, which will allow AFLW champions such as Erin Phillips and Daisy Pearce to be acknowledged earlier than expected. Only one female is currently in the Hall of Fame – women’s football pioneer Debbie Lee – and all six inductees on Tuesday night were men. Until now, all players must have been retired for at least five years before being considered for selection. But AFLW players can now be considered after just one year in retirement. It opens the door for the likes of Adelaide and Port Adelaide champion Phillips and former Melbourne star Pearce, now coach of West Coast’s AFLW team, to be included as early as next year – when the Hall of Fame celebrates its 30th anniversary. “We’ve altered our rules to allow us to induct AFLW players after one year of their retirement,” said AFL chair Richard Goyder, who doubles as the Hall of Fame selection committee chair. “But in future years, the great female players who built the AFLW will start to be inducted here as they continue to inspire both young girls and young boys to play our game.”