Caroline Wilson: 'I was accused of giving votes to only the good looking players', Tackling the Sport of Men, Deakin University David Parkin Oration - 2016

20 July 2016, Deakin Edge, Federation Square, Melbourne, Australia

Titus O'Reilly: 'Each year I can claim my Demons membership as a charity donation when I do my tax', Sydney Swans Redbacks Coterie Lunch - 2016

7 May 2016, SCG, Sydney, Australia

Titus O'Reilly is a footy satirist who has followed the Demons since 1809. He delivered this speech at a Sydney Swans Redbacks coterie function, that he was lured to by the prospect of an open bar. The Swans were playing Essendon that day.

Thank you ladies and gentlemen. I feel in good company being amongst footy fans.

What a great club you have in the Swans, so well run.

I’ll give you an example of how well run it is.

They saw that you play Essendon today and thought, these people are going to need a couple of hours of drinking to face that, so here we all are.

It must be nice to have your membership money go to a well-run club. Each year I can claim my Demons membership as a charity donation when I do my tax.

I actually felt quite nervous coming here and speaking to you this afternoon.

It’s hard to follow the comedic performance Collingwood put on for you all back in Round One.

Wasn’t that something? I bet you all felt very sorry for them and didn’t gloat at all.

They’re a club that’s caused you a lot of problems in recent years.

Not on the field of course.

Collingwood haven’t caused anyone trouble on the field in some while.

I mean how good was Eddie’s decision to take the Collingwood coaching position off Mick Malthouse and hand it to Nathan Buckley.

Collingwood have been lower on the ladder every year since and Malthouse going to Carlton has probably set them back a decade.

Talk about killing two birds with one stone.

I can’t remember a single decision that has made so many people as happy as that coaching change has.

At least not since no fault divorces were introduced in Australia.

Really, we should all be thanking Eddie.

Especially given you guys managed to also palm off Jesse White onto them.

That was just cruel.

They already had Travis Cloke and you gave them another forward that can’t kick goals.

Still, Collingwood have caused you a lot of problems.

You may remember Eddie McGuire’s disastrous attempt to promote musicals.

And as you know, they’re a big reason you lost your Cost of Living Allowance. 

That’s when a bunch of Victorian clubs got upset that you were correctly following an AFL policy.

There’s nothing more upsetting than when a club follows the rules.

So the AFL took away your COLA and that made the VFL people very happy.

Oh, except then the AFL went further and slapped you with that trading ban.

That really taught you a lesson for obeying their rules.

Remember, this is a sporting body that fined Melbourne for being found not guilty of tanking.

Now we still don’t really know the reasons why the AFL imposed that trade ban.

In all honesty, they can’t really come out and say they did it just to stop Eddie bothering them, even if that’s a perfectly understandable reason.

I mean, if someone said to me, ‘I’m doing this so Eddie stops contacting me every single day’ you’d understand.

Anyway, you guys seem to still find great players despite the ban.

I actually thought the lockout laws would cause you more problems.

At the very least, I expected the lockout laws to void a few of your existing contracts.

But despite all that you’ve got players like Tom Papley, Callum Mills, Tom Mitchell, Isaac Heeney, the list goes on and on.

The next move might be to just ban you from having players altogether.

What’s worse about the ban and the stripping of COLA is that hasn’t actually stopped the Victorian teams from complaining.

Now they’re complaining about zones.

They’re furious because the Giants have won a few games. This is a side that lost to Melbourne not that long ago.

Suddenly, the Riverina is being fought over like it’s the holy land.

It’s the heat that comes on any interstate team when they’re good. It’s lucky the Gold Coast are an absolute mess. No one is complaining about them.

Not even their six members.

I feel a bit sorry for the Giants, after all the AFL makes them regularly visit Canberra.

Surely that more than offsets any benefits they get in recruiting.

What we should look at instead is how many Victorian teams keep shooting themselves in the foot.

As a supporter of a Victorian club, I can tell you, they make enough mistakes to keep themselves out of the finals, let alone what anyone else is doing.

The problem with a lot of clubs is they’re run almost as badly as the Shane Warne foundation.

I was shattered when Warnie shut down his foundation. I don’t know how to donate to his parties now.

Anyway, speaking of badly run organisations brings us to today’s opponent, the Essendon Football Club.

Essendon are like the band Nickelback. They're terrible and the majority of people can't stand them but they still have a massive following.

The Bombers have been more a legal defence fund over the last three years than a football club.

That’s who have been the big winners out of this, lawyers.

Every year on James Hird’s birthday, lawyers light a candle to him.

Essendon members can actually choose when they sign up whether to sponsor a barrister or a Queens Counsel. It’s a lovely touch.

The Bombers, may not have the Riverina as a recruiting problem but they do have Melbourne University law school.

Today, you’ll get to see what happens to a team that has had its twelve best players banned from playing.

Yet they’ve still got one more win than Fremantle.

That’s also one more win than James Hird has had in court over the last few years.

This week he lost a case to get Essendon’s insurer to cover his legal coasts.

It’s the first time I’ve ever barracked for an insurance company in a court case.

Poor James. If the Victorian teams really wanted to stop the Giants they should try and get Hird to coach them.

It's sad that you can be run out of a club just because your players have been injected hundreds of time with unknown substances.

I’m going to go out on a limb here today and tip you guys to win.

It’s not just because I’m here at this event, it’s because I saw Essendon play Carlton last week.

It’s OK, I’m receiving counselling.

Did anyone here see it?

It was arguably the worst game of football I’ve seen and I’m a Melbourne supporter.

The whole second quarter had not one single goal scored.  

I would have been quite happy to have died during that game. I actively wished for it.

Yet no matter how much I wished for it, death did not come.

I must say in finishing, you really are very lucky to have such a well-run club, to have seen Premierships and great players like Tony Lockett, Adam Goodes and Paul Kelly.

I know it hasn’t always been that way.

Because the opposite is worse. So much worse.

I’m a Melbourne supporter and barracking for them has taken a decade off my life.

The only good news for me, is that means ten less years of having to watch them.

Good luck to your team today and thank you.

Prince Harry: 'You will see people who by rights should have died on the battlefield – but instead they are going for gold', Opening of Invictus Games - 2016

8 May 2016, Orlando, Florida, USA

The Invictus Games is a sporting competition featuring injured servicemen and women and veterans from 14 countries.

I cannot tell you how proud and excited I am to open the second Invictus games here in America.

I’m a long way from London tonight. But when I look out and I see so many familiar faces, servicemen and women, their friends and their families and all the people who have got them here – I feel like I’m at home.

I spent 10 years in the British Army and I was deployed to Afghanistan twice. I served alongside soldiers from all over the world. I saw the sacrifices you and your families made to serve your nations. I learned about the importance of teamwork and camaraderie in a way that only military service can teach you. And when I travelled back from the battlefield on a plane carrying the body of a Danish soldier and three young Brits, fighting for their lives, I began to understand the real, permanent cost of war.

I joined the Army because, for a long time, I just wanted to be one of the guys. But what I learned through serving was that the extraordinary privileges of being a Prince gave me an extraordinary opportunity to help my military family. That’s why I had to create the Invictus Games – to build a platform for all those who have served to prove to the world what they have to offer.

Over the next four days, you will see things that in years past just wouldn’t have been possible. You will see people who by rights should have died on the battlefield – but instead they are going for gold on the track or in the pool. You will be inspired, you will be moved, and I promise you will be entertained.

While I have your attention, though, I want to briefly speak about an issue that for far too many of you is shrouded in shame and fear. An issue that is just as important for many of you watching at home as it is for those of you in this stadium tonight.

It is not just physical injuries that our Invictus competitors have overcome. Every single one of them will have confronted tremendous emotional and mental challenges. When we give a standing ovation to the competitor with the missing limbs, let’s also cheer our hearts out for the man who overcame anxiety so severe he couldn’t leave his house. Let’s cheer for the woman who fought through post-traumatic stress and let’s celebrate the soldier who was brave enough to get help for his depression.

Over the next four days you will get to know these amazing competitors. They weren’t too tough to admit that they struggled with their mental health, and they weren’t too tough to get the help they needed.

To those of you watching at home and who are suffering from mental illness in silence – whether a veteran or a civilian, a mum or a dad, a teenager or a grandparent – I hope you see the bravery of our Invictus champions who have confronted invisible injuries, and I hope you are inspired to ask for the help that you need.

To end, can I just say thank you to all of you guys. You are fierce competitors. You are role models that any parent would be proud to have their children follow. You’ve made me a better person. You are about to inspire the world and I’m proud to call you my friends.

So, let’s put on a hell of a show in memory of all of our fallen comrades who didn’t make it back.

We are Invictus!

Martin Crowe: 'I guess that means I’m the first North Islander!', ICC Hall of Fame acceptance - 2015

28 February 2015, Eden Park, Auckland, New Zealand

Martin Crowe's induction into the ICC Hall of Fame was made more emotional by fact he was battling cancer. He died on 3rd March, 2016.

Wow! And I’m talking about New Zealand cricket team’s performance this afternoon. I just want to share my total admiration for their brand of cricket. Their courage and their skill that they’ve displayed for us today, long may it continue after the dinner break.

Thank you everyone, to see so many faces, a record crowd here just as it was on my debut match here all those years ago, is quite breathtaking.

Thank you for your kind wishes these last few months. It’s made all the difference.

Thank you to New Zealand cricket. To the ICC and members, for this prestigious honour, especially joining my great friend, Sir Richard Hadlee and the wonderful Debbie Hockley, our two greatest ambassadors.

In joining these two, we now have three New Zealanders sitting in the Hall of Fame. I guess that means I’m the first North Islander!

I wish to dedicate this cap to my father, Dave, and mother Audrey, for their unbending devotion to family and supporting the game here at Eden Park for nearly forty years together.

Finally, to Brendan (McCallum) and the boys, we love you, and we dare to believe.

Together, we can do this! 

Thank you!

Babe Ruth: 'You know this baseball game of ours comes up from the youth', Dying Babe Ruth Addresses Fans - 1947

27 April 1947, Yankee Stadium, New York City, New York

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.

You know how bad my voice sounds -- well it feels just as bad.

You know this baseball game of ours comes up from the youth. That means the boys.

And after you're a boy and grow up to know how to play ball, then you come to the boys you see representing themselves today in your national pastime, the only real game -- I think -- in the world, baseball.

As a rule, some people think if you give them a football, or a baseball, or something like that -- naturally they're athletes right away.

But you can't do that in baseball.

You've gotta start from way down [at] the bottom, when you're six or seven years of age. You can't wait until you're fifteen or sixteen. You gotta let it grow up with you. And if you're successful, and you try hard enough, you're bound to come out on top -- just like these boys have come to the top now.

There's been so many lovely things said about me, and I'm glad that I've had the opportunity to thank everybody.

Thank you.

Rick Davies: 'If you're going, nick off, if not, shut up about it', AFL Hall of Fame acceptance - 2013

4 June 2013, Parliament House, Canberra, Australia

Andrew McLeod: 'There were certain periods in my career, and games and moments, where everything was in slow motion', AFL Hall of Fame induction - 2014

5 June 2014, Crown Palladium, Melbourne, Australia

Whateley: Twice he went to grand final day, on both occasions we walked away with the Norm Smith Medal, along with the premiership medallion. Andrew McLeod, welcome to the hall of fame. Tell me Andrew, when notification of this arrived, what did you go through? What were your emotions?

It was quite interesting, I was heading out the door with my wife, and I can't remember where we were going, and something caught my eye in the letter box. So, I marched over and grabbed it, and I get a lot of mail from the AFL being a 300 game player, and I looked at the letter and I saw Tony Peek's name on the back, and I went: "Geez, I don't often get mail from Tony Peek, so something's going on." And I walked back to the car, and my wife Rachel was sitting in the passenger seat, and I handed her the letter, and said: "You better open this, because if I do, I think I'm going to cry." So, I got her to open I, and she was like: "What are you going to cry for? What's going on?" And I said: "Well, have a look at the letter." I'm like: "No duh, Tony Peek."

 And she opened the letter and started reading it, and for about ... I guess it's like a bit like when you were ... When the premiership, that first 15 seconds, just the emotion of it. And all these thoughts went through my head, freaked out, there was a couple of tears. And yeah, I just was like: "I've got to ring my dad." You know, so that was probably my first instance ... My first instinct, from there, ring my dad, tell him about it. And yeah, like I said, then after that emotion had settled down, I was like: "Phew."

Whateley: Does it hit home, how far you've come? A displaced family after cyclone Tracey and Katherine. All the way to presenting before the United Nations, honoured backer footballer, and here you are in the hall of fame, it's quite the journey.

It is, yeah I often think back and go: "Well, wow." You know, a little pudgy boy from Katherine, growing up and you know, got the opportunity to follow a dream, play on a bigger stage that I could ever have imagined. And you know, play a game, I loved it for my career of 16 years, I couldn't ask for anything better. And I've got this thing in my head that, one of my mates was mentioning before about my brother always said ... My dad said to me when I was a young bloke, that you can't eat footballs, and you know, can't be a footballer as a career, but I proved him wrong.

Whateley: Your football journey actually goes back through the generations. The Genesis is your great-grandfather.

It is, and my great-grandfather was one of the first Aboriginal [inaudible 00:03:54] players to be registered to play. You know, back in the Territory, back in the early 1900s, his name, or my family name - the Amat name is emblazoned on the entrance gates at TIO Stadium, it's named after my great-grandfather. So, I guess it was inevitable that I was going to play footy, you know, he played for the Darwin Buffalos, or back in the day they changed names a lot of times, the Vestey's, now the meat works was part of that. And yeah, I guess it's one of those things you don't realise until you're a bit older, that I guess what that impact is on you as a person. But back in those early days, you know, he paved the way for myself and a lot of the other guys that've come through.

Whateley: And did you always have a strong sense, when you played, that you were representing your community?

Oh, always, you know. Coming from the Territory, I was pretty lucky in ... My favourite player was Michael McLean, growing up - Magic McLean. And he's married to my cousin, so I was pretty fortunate that at Christmas lunches, I got a bit of time with him. And I was just a pest I guess, and asking him 100 million questions about footy and what it's like to play in the big smoke. And he was real good to me, and then I had guys like Maurice Rioli to look up to. Michael Long, who I saw here earlier, Gilbert McAdam, Darryl White, and the like, that were fantastic role models for me. And you know, when I got the opportunity to pursue my dream and a career in footy, I want to be just as good a role model as those blokes were. So, it was something that ... And because of, you know, the impact that my family have had, and my grandfather and his story as well, that it's important for me to be able to ... A little snotty nosed kid from the Territory, that I could actually do something, and give other kids the aspiration to be able to reach their dreams.

Whateley: You're a beautiful footballer to watch, and I don't doubt it was exhilarating to play. Can you put us inside it, when it all lined up for you. Was it like playing the game in slow motion?

Yeah, it was in certain times. It's one of those things I get ... I think as a footballer, you love to be able to bottle those moments, when you're caught in certain periods in my career that ... And games and moments where everything was in slow motion, and I think that's when ... For me, it's when I played my best football. There was always ... I felt like ... It felt like I was one step ahead all the time, and I could read the play, and I knew where the ball was going to go. And you know, I was fortunate enough ... I wish I could have produced more of those moments, as we all do. You know, in our careers, that didn't happen as often as you'd liked it to do, but in those moments when it did happen, you know, you almost felt like you were unstoppable. But you know, you could ... And that's what footy did to you, and that's ... I mean, that's what I did in the living room in my moms and dad's house, when I used to break my moms vases growing up, kicking socks around the house, and in the back yard breaking their palm trees, and used to get sworn at out the back window.

But that's just the things that I was doing as a kid, in the back yard. And when I played, you know, on some of the biggest stages in the world, in terms of the MCG, or at AMI stadium, or wherever that was. It just felt like I was doing ... I was recreating those moments, that I was playing as a kid.

Whateley:  And those two grand finals, which are such a part of the focal aura of your career. Two Norm Smith Medals, and playing in front of 100 000 people, which would have been more than the whole population of where you grew up. How do you reflect on those two memorable days?

I was very lucky that, you know, we obviously had Malcolm at the time, who was just fantastic in ... One: being able to put things into perspective, and give you confidence, and allow you to go out and be calm. But that was one thing in the grand finals, I wasn't ... I was never really nervous when I played in the GFs, I was quite comfortable, because like I was about playing those games, I've played in 100 grand finals, in my Mum's lounge room. And, you know, I'd been there before, so I knew what to expect, sort of. But until that moment, and you walk out onto the MCG, and there's nearly 100 000 people, and the first thing I did was go: "Wow, there's more people here than where I live, than where I come from." And that was the most scary thing, and then it was like: "Oh, what did Blighty say?"

You've got to soak it all up and embrace it, and don't get caught in the moment, but yeah it was just fantastic days. And like, you go out there and for me as a ... And the other thing too, was the pressure I always felt because, the only two guys that have ever played in the grand final before me, one was named Maurice Rioli, one was named Michael Long, and they both won Norm Smith Medals. So, I sort of felt that pressure a little bit, but I think it is nice to be able to embrace it. And them, two of my great idols growing up, how good would it be to be able to emulate that.

Whateley: And emulate it, you did. You've left us with so many great memories, maybe a thank you or two as you finish.

Yeah, I would ... Yeah, I think I better thank my wife first because she's an integral part of obviously, my life and from growing up in Katherine and ... Sorry, in Darwin, and going to school together. You know, as a young bloke, and we embarked on this dream, I was a bit wet behind the ears, didn't know what was going to happen. And a bit like some of the other guys who I just wanted to play one game, and I was lucky to play it for 16 years. And you know, my wife has been a special part of that, and I thank her dearly. She's ridden a lot of the highs and the lows, and you know, she's ... I guess she's my rock as well.

To my two beautiful children, you know they ... It's one of those things in your footy career, when you have children, and before that everything is about yourself, and the way that you go about it, and your preparation. And trying to do everything you can, and then your kids come along and then you find yourself, you know, getting inspired and fired up by the Wiggles, or something like that. You find out quickly that you're not that important. So, my children, they keep me humble and grounded, and I'm just dad to them, and that's what I love about it.

To my mum and dad, who I guess I'm indebted to, I owe a lot to. They drove me to training as a kid, and gave me the opportunity to pursue a dream, and to ... You know, they just ... They sacrificed so much, and I do wish my mum was here to be able to share in this moment.

But also to my brother, who's not here, I wish he was here but my brother is one of those people that puts things into perspective a lot. And when I told him I was getting inducted into the Hall of Fame, he said: "I already thought you were there." But like most big brothers, I always wanted to be like him, and he was my hero.

Who else have I got? Oh, my mates that are sitting over there on the table, four of my great mates who have been there through most of my career, growing up and as a kid, continue to inspire me and give me great strength. And I appreciate your friendship for that.

To the Adelaide Football Club, who's part of my family, and has been part of my family for a long time now, for about 20 years. I will forever be indebted to the Adelaide Football Club, they gave me an opportunity as a boy, to pursue my dream and turn me into a man. So, all the past and present at the Adelaide Football Club, I thank you very much.

And to the game of football itself, along with my family and my friends, I am forever indebted, thank you.

Whateley: He's given us another beautiful memory tonight, Andrew McLeod, as a member of the Australian football hall of fame.

Tony Wilson: ' By the end of tomorrow we’ll know which side will miss Chris Yarran more in season 2016', Uni Blacks AFL Season Commencement Breakfast - 2016

Tony Wilson welcomes supporter of the University Blacks FC in the VAFA to the Arts Centre for a commencement breakfast.

23 March 2016, Arts Centre, Melbourne, Australia

Ladies and gentleman welcome to the Arts Centre for 7th annual Uni Blacks AFL Season Commencement Breakfast.

My name’s Tony Wilson ... I’m in my sixth year as MC of the breakfast. I had one year off in the middle there. A lot of my playing mates over on the table there know that I’m angling for life membership through this very unusual route of only providing twenty minutes of service a year, I asked Andy Smith how many breakfasts I’d have to do, he’s been the time keeper for over 50 years, and he said I’d have to do 187 years before I’d get life membership of the club, so thank you Andy.

That first commencement breakfast, seven years ago at the Australia Club we had Joel Bowden and Chris Connolly as the guest speakers in that inaugural year... the former because he could play great football while looking like he wasn’t trying ... and the latter because he was assistant coach of Melbourne, whoplayed terrible football that year while actually not trying.

My welcome that day went as follows:

“Hardly anybody has commencement breakfasts. I’ve always thought this was a shame, as breakfast is at the commencement of the day, and so that if you’re really serious about commencing something, you should do it at breakfast time. But people don’t think like me. If you google "commencement dinner" you get 820,000 hits. Google "commencement breakfast" and you get 4070. This very function is listed twice, at number one and number three. That means at the one minute mark of the club’s first ever commencement breakfast, we’re the most prestigious commencement breakfast, not just that’s occurring anywhere in the world right now, but that’s ever occurred anywhere in the world. It’s a lofty place from which to start. We can only screw it up from here”

I know what you’re thinking. Some of you are thinking - shit I hope we’re not paying him much this year. He’s just reading out his intros from seven years ago.

And others of you are thinking - shit, 4070 google matches for "commencement breakfasts" in 2010! That’s fascinating, tony. Please tell us how those google numbers have changed, so I don’t have to look it up for myself when I get home.

Well I’ve got good news on both fronts.

The  Blacks hierarchy are continuing to resist the temptation to pay me too much;

And …  hold onto your socks … the 4070 matches for commencement breakfasts seven years ago has … plunged to 3,490. That means, since we started this event, 680 commencement breakfasts have been erased from commencement breakfast existence, have ceased to be, … and … yes, I’ll save you asking later …  we’ve lost our number one spot to the Peace Prize for International Students at NYU. Honestly - it seems ridiculous to me. We’ve won an A-Grade flag since then, and have the international students at NYU brought World Peace? Syria anyone? It’s an outrage.

We’re still at number 10, locked in a first page of google relegation fight that will go down to the wire, and later on this morning I’ll be talking to senior coach Cam Roberts, and my first question will be whether it’s worth investing in Google adwords  to see if we can hold off the challenge from the #11 commencement breakfast, which just happens to be the Melbourne Football Club’s Commencement Breakfast, or at the very least offer them some incentives to stop trying.

We are now one big sleep away from the AFL season proper, and by the end of tomorrow we’ll know which side will miss Chris Yarran more in season 2016.

Yes it’s just one more sleep until  another blessed season takes hold.

And only three sleeps until the Gold Coast take on Essendon at Metricon.

I’ve decided to set my recorder for that one. Not just because I want to spend time with the kids on a Saturday afternoon , but also because there’s a great episode of Diff'rent Strokes running on 7Flix at the same time.

What a season this should be. It’s such an even year. The battle to find out who gets thumped by Hawthorn on the last Saturday in September has never been this wide open.

As a Hawthorn supporter, I realise there is a certain insufferableness to this seemingly never ending tide of success. A St Kilda supporting friend of mine said to me the other day, ‘but don’t you think you’re missing out on something? Don’t you think your footy life is too easy? Don’t you think you’d appreciate it more, if you had to climb and climb, and fall along the way, and you scuff your knees and blister your hands, but eventually you climb that mountain, and the view from the summit is all the grander for what you’ve gone through, for the brutal journey, for the suffering?'

And do you know what I said?

No.

Another Western Bulldogs friend said to me, ‘I wish you a spectacular demise. You deserve it. The Hawks hubris is unbelievable.’

I wasn’t exactly sure what he was talking about, but I think Hawks Hubris but from the alliterative sound of it, I think it might be the successor game plan to Clarko’s Cluster, and if Mitchell and Hodge can stay fit, I’ve no doubt it will be unbelievable.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for supporting the Uni Blacks with your attendance here today .

...

Bob Murphy: 'Long may we serve the game that at times let us fly', AFL Life Member induction -2016

17 March 2016, Etihad Stadium, Melbourne, Australia

I have long wondered if more books would have been written about Australian Rules Football if Mike Brady hadn’t penned the song ‘Up There Cazaly’.

In one succinct line he captured the whole damn thing, ‘there are days where you could give it up, and there are days where you could fly’

A love of football is not always an easy love – even as we gather here tonight basking in the optimistic new season and the glory it might bring, we all know that there will be a few potholes along the trail.

 In the beginning though the love of the game is free, light and full of fun.

For me it started with kicking the ball with my dad and brother – and if they weren’t around kicking the ball to myself.

Reading the bounce of the ball as it hit the power lines overhead and fell back to the bitumen.

A child’s imagination is boundless but for me the magnetic pull of the crowd was too much to resist.

Like many of the men standing up there with me tonight the schoolyard is where the dreams of becoming a proper footballer came into a sharper focus.

My primary school didn’t have an oval, in fact we barely had any grass at all, what we had was a car park with loose gravel.

As was custom at my school, play wouldn’t start until teams were picked – each boy or girl that wanted to play would line up with their backs against the red brick wall.

Captains were nominated and the brutality of the schoolyard would bare its teeth.

One by one players were picked until no one was left, then, the ball would be hoisted in the air to commence play – that’s when I got the bug.

That moment will be different to the rest of the inductees but if you ask them, and you should, there would be some good stories to be told.

A love of the game is one thing, but what does it all mean.

The pull of the crowd, the desire to stand on the wall to be picked, the exhilaration of running out with a swarm of teammates just with the expression of wanting to win or it could be about something much bigger.

It might just be that we want to belong to something.

It is my great honour tonight to speak on behalf of this year’s group of AFL life members.

Like a grand oil painting these inductees have brought different shades to the game with their talent, character and service.

Doctors, administrators, umpires, superstars and lowly half back flankers.

As has been done in the past on this night I was tempted to single out each one and sketch a portrait of them with a paragraph or two of my own.

But, are a few words enough?

After musing about the vision of Bill Kelty, the integrity of Matt Stevic, the grace of Shaun Burgoyne or the chiseled cheekbones of Scott Thompson I’ve decided to keep this year’s inductees together as one – a beautiful mish-mash of colours and textures.

Paul Chapman, Shaun Burgoyne, Brendon Goddard, Scott Jeffery, Chris Judd, Justin Leppitsch, James Kelly, Stephen Milne, Sam Mitchell, Drew Petrie, Matt Stevic, Scott Thompson, Dr Hugh Seward, Geoff Walsh and Bill Kelty.

If this were to be a painting on the wall, perhaps a landscape of the Australian bush it would surely have a river running through it that represents our common thread – a deep love for the game, the spirit that it’s played in and the reverence we hold for those that have gone before us.

If I was the last inductee picked by the AFL this year that would make me the 250th AFL life member.

What an art gallery that would be to wander through and sit in front of for a while.

These last couple of months have provided an opportunity to ponder the enormity of the honour.

When it comes to matters of football and ceremony I often defer to my Bulldog hero John Schultz, he himself an AFL life member.

He took me aside in the change rooms just last week and told me in his gentle way that the honour will mean more and more to me the older I get.

It already means a lot.

A life in footy means that time and again we put our backs to the red brick wall, hoping to be picked to play, to be part of something bigger than ourselves.

Perhaps never for once thinking that the game might eventually pick us – it doesn’t get much bigger than that.

On behalf of this fine group of men I accept the game’s invitation to join the blessed group of life members.

Long may we serve the game that at times let us fly, or at least feel like we could.

Giovanni Trapattoni - “These players were weak like an empty bottle!”, press conference post Bayern loss - 1998

10 March 1998, Munich, Germany

Press conference was delivered 2 days after a 1-0 loss to FC Schalke

Es gibt im Moment in diese Mannschaft, oh, einige Spieler vergessen ihren Profi was sie sind. Ich lese nicht sehr viele Zeitungen, aber ich habe gehört viele situationen.

Wir haben nicht offensiv gespielt. Es gibt keine deutsche Mannschaft spielt offensiv und die Namen offensiv wie Bayern. Letzte Spiel hatten wir in Platz drei Spitzen: Elber, Jancker und dann Zickler. Wir mussen nicht vergessen Zickler. Zickler ist eine Spitzen mehr, Mehmet mehr Basler.

Ist klar diese Wörter, ist möglich verstehen, was ich hab’ gesagt? Danke.Offensiv, offensiv ist wie machen in Platz.

Ich habe erklärt mit diese zwei Spieler: Nach Dortmund brauchen vielleicht Halbzeit Pause. Ich habe auch andere Mannschaften gesehen in Europa nach diese Mittwoch. Ich habe gesehen auch zwei Tage die Training. Ein Trainer ist nicht ein Idiot! Ein Trainer sehen was passieren in Platz. In diese Spiel es waren zwei, drei oder vier Spieler, die waren schwach wie eine Flasche leer!

Haben Sie gesehen Mittwoch, welche Mannschaft hat gespielt Mittwoch? Hat gespielt Mehmet, oder gespielt Basler, oder gespielt Trapattoni? Diese Spieler beklagen mehr als sie spielen!

Wissen Sie, warum die Italien-Mannschaften kaufen nicht diese Spieler? Weil wir haben gesehen viele Male solche Spiel. Haben gesagt, sind nicht Spieler für die italienische Meisters.

Strunz! Strunz ist zwei Jahre hier, hat gespielt zehn Spiele, ist immer verletzt. Was erlauben Strunz?!

Letzte Jahre Meister geworden mit Hamann, eh…, Nerlinger. Diese Spieler waren Spieler und waren Meister geworden. Ist immer verletzt!

Hat gespielt 25 Spiele in diese Mannschaft, in diese Verein. Muß respektieren die andere Kollegen!

Haben viele Kollegen, stellen sie die Kollegen in Frage! Haben keine Mut an Worten, aber ich weiß, was denken über diese Spieler. Mussen zeigen jetzt, ich will, Samstag, diese Spieler mussen zeigen mich, eh…, seine Fans, mussen alleine die Spiel gewinnen. Muß allein die Spiel gewinnen!

Ich bin müde jetzt Vater diese Spieler, eh…, verteidige immer diese Spieler. Ich habe immer die Schulde… über diese Spieler. Einer ist Mario, einer, ein anderer ist Mehmet. Strunz dagegen, egal, hat nur gespielt 25 Prozent diese Spiel! Ich habe fertig!

This translates as: (Translation by Oon Yong Hong)

There are moments when these players forget what profession they belong to. I don’t read many newspapers but I have experienced most of these situations.

We did not play offensively. There is no German team playing offensively and Bayern defines the name ‘offensive’. In the last game, we had on the field three forwards: Elber (Giovane), Jancker and then Zickler. We must not forget Zickler. Zickler is more a forward – Mehmet (Scholl) more of (Mario) Basler (*who was primarily a winger).

If these words are clear, is it possible to understand, what I have said? Thanks.

Offensive, offensive is made on the field.

I have made clear with these two players: to Dortmund perhaps need at half-time break [sic]. I also have other players in action in Europe after this Wednesday. I have also seen two days’ training. A trainer is not an idiot! A trainer can see what is happening on the field. In this game, there were two, three or four players who were weak like an empty bottle!

Did you watch on Wednesday, which team has played on Wednesday? Did Mehmet play, or Basler play, or Trapattoni play? These players complain more than they play!

Do you know, why Italian clubs do not buy these players? Because they saw other things than what these players could offer! These players are not fit to play for Italian champions.

Strunz! Strunz has been here 2 years, had played 10 games, is always injured! How dare Strunz! Last year’s Champions (Bundesliga) primarily with (Dietmar) Hamann, eh…. (Christian) Nerlinger. These players were players and became Champions. Is always injured! 25 players played in this team, in this club. Must respect the other colleagues!

Have many colleagues, question credibility of the colleagues! Having without courage at words, but I know what these players think! Must now show, I want, Saturday, these players, must show me, eh…the fans, must alone win the game [sic]. Must alone win the game!

I’m tired now to ‘father’ these players, eh…always defend these players, I have always owe…over these players. One is Mario, another is Mehmet. Strunz, doesn’t count, no matter, only 25 percent today in this game!

I have finished.

Peyton Manning: 'I’ve fought a good fight. I’ve finished my football race', retirement speech - 2016

7 March 2016, Denver, Colorado, USA

In my very first NFL game, I completed my first pass to Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk. I threw a touchdown in that same game to Marvin Harrison, who would be inducted into the Hall of Fame this August.

The quarterback for our opponent, the Miami Dolphins, was — after my dad, my favorite player — Hall of Famer Dan Marino, who on the first third down of the game completed a 25-yard skinny post. And it was the damndest throw I’d ever seen. Later, I completed a pass to tight end Marcus Pollard down the middle and somebody hit me really hard and after I got up, I told myself, ‘I know I can play in this league.’

Later in that struggling season, we played in and lost to Baltimore. It was the first time that the Colts had returned to Baltimore since they had moved back in 1984. We didn’t exactly get a warm reception that day. The fans were screaming at me and I kept thinking, ‘Hey, I was only 8 years old then, get off of my back.’ I had met him once before, but when the game was over I had the chance to shake Johnny Unitas’ hand. He told me, ‘Peyton, you stay at it. I’m pulling for you.’

Well, I have stayed at it. I’ve stayed at it for 18 years and I hope that old No. 19 is up there with his flat top and maybe his black high tops on and I hope he knows that I have stayed at it, and maybe he’s even a little proud of me.

There is just something about 18 years. Eighteen is a good number and today I retire from pro football.

I want to thank the people of New Orleans and south Louisiana. New Orleans is my hometown and of course they support their own team, the Saints, but they also support their own and that city and state have backed me from the start.

Almost 19 years ago to the day, I announced my decision to forgo the draft and stay at the University of Tennessee for my senior year. It was one of the smartest decisions I’ve ever made. I cherished my time in Knoxville, especially my senior year. And I want Vols fans everywhere to know the unique role that you’ve played in my life. Thank you to the Indianapolis Colts organization and all the fans across this country. You can’t fathom how much I enjoyed my 14 years there or the warmth that my family feels for you. I’d be wrong not to mention Jim Irsay, Bill Polian, some great coaches, support staff and a host of wonderful Colts teammates, many of whom will be lifelong friends.

When I was drafted by the Colts, Indianapolis was a basketball and a car racing town but it didn’t take long for the Colts to convert the city and state of Indiana into football evangelists. We ended my rookie season 3-13 and in the process I set the NFL rookie record for interceptions, a record that I still hold today. Every year I pull for a rookie quarterback to break that record. Andrew Luck, Matthew Stafford, Eli Manning, Cam Newton. I still kid Eli that he would have broken it if he would have started all 16 games.

In the beginning of my time in Indy, the team’s struggles were agonizing. My grandfather would call me weekly to ask if his favorite announcers, John Madden and Pat Summerall, would be broadcasting our game. ‘Paw Paw,’ I’d say, ‘we’re only 2-8 right now. We’re playing the 3-7 Bengals. Madden and Summerall don’t broadcast those kinds of games.’

Fast-forward to my second year when we had gotten things going a little bit. We were playing the Dallas Cowboys and Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin and Deion Sanders. I called Paw Paw: ‘Guess what, Madden and Summerall are broadcasting the game.” He said, ‘I can’t believe it.’

He was elated and he was very proud, and we beat the Cowboys that week and we let the world know that the Colts had arrived. Make no mistake about it, we were coming and we went on to do some phenomenal things like winning at least 12 games seven years in a row and of course winning Super Bowl XLI. And I was truly honored and proud to be a part of it.

There’s a saying that goes, ‘treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he could be and he will become what he should be.’

When I visited Denver four years ago, if John Elway had sat me down and said, ‘Peyton, here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to win over 50 games, win four straight division championships, lose only three division games in four years and none will be on the road, we’ll beat the Patriots in two championship games and you’re going to win NFL Comeback Player of the Year, another MVP, your offense will set single-season passing records, you’ll break a couple more all-time records, and we’ll go to a couple of Super Bowls.’ I think I would have taken that deal.

John, you did tell me that, didn’t you?

Grateful is the word that comes to my mind when thinking of the Denver Broncos. I want to thank Pat Bowlen and his family, Joe Ellis, John Elway, John Fox, Gary Kubiak and their staffs and all the support people in this great organization. To all of my Denver teammates, thank you for what you’ve done for this old quarterback. And of course my gratitude to the Broncos fans everywhere.

Over my NFL career, I’ve had five head coaches who have helped me become better at my craft and have helped me become a better human being: Jim Mora, Tony Dungy, Jim Caldwell, John Fox, Gary Kubiak.

While I’ve obviously changed teams, I’ve had the same football representation for almost two decades. I owe Tom Condon many thanks. He has represented me with class at every juncture and he’ll always be a great friend. I want to thank a tremendous group of friends who have supported my football career and been at my side at games from high school to Tennessee, Indy and through that incredible Broncos Super Bowl win last month. You know who you are and what you mean to me.

There is no way to measure or properly express what a family like mine can mean. Mom, Dad, Cooper, Eli, extended family, you are the best. Ashley, your support is as potent a motivator as any man can have.

Ashley’s and my kids, Marshall and Mosley, have only been around for a couple of years but they have changed my life forever. A week before the Super Bowl our daughter Mosley asked me, ‘Daddy, is this the last game?’

‘Yes, Mosley, it’s the last game of the season.’

‘I sure do want you to win that trophy.’

‘I do, too, Mosley. And that’s what we’re going to try to do.’

Then she asked, ‘Daddy, is this the last game ever?’ And that’s just when I shook my head in amazement because I was thinking, ‘Mort and Adam Schefter had gotten to my 5-year-old daughter to cultivate a new source.’

When someone thoroughly exhausts an experience they can’t help but revere it. I revere football. I love the game. So you don’t have to wonder if I’ll miss it. Absolutely. Absolutely I will. Our children are small now, but as they grow up, we’re going to teach them to enjoy the little things in life because one day they will look back and discover that those really were the big things. So here are the seemingly little things that when I look into my rearview mirror, have grown much bigger.

I’m going to miss a steak dinner at St. Elmo’s in Indianapolis after a win. My battles with players named Lynch, Lewis, Thomas, Bruschi, Fletcher, Dawkins, Seau, Urlacher, Polamalu, Harrison, Woodson and Reed. And with coaches like Fisher, Ryan, Belichick, Kiffin, Phillips, Rivera, LeBeau, Crennel, Capers, Lewis, the late Jim Johnson, and so many more. I always felt like I was playing against that middle linebacker or that safety or that defensive coach.

I’ll miss figuring out blitzes with Jeff Saturday. Reggie sitting on top of the bench next to me. Perfecting a fake handoff to Edgerrin James. I’ll miss Demaryius Thomas telling me that he loved me and thanking me for coming to Denver after every touchdown I threw to him.

I’ll miss putting in a play with Tom Moore and Adam Gase that ends in a touchdown on Sunday. On Fridays I’ll miss picking out the game balls with my equipment guys. Talking football with the broadcast crews and afterwards I’ll miss recapping the game with my dad. And checking to see if the Giants won and calling Eli as we’re both on our team buses.

I’ll miss that handshake with Tom Brady and I’ll miss the plane rides after a big win with 53 teammates standing in the aisles, laughing and celebrating during the whole flight. I’ll miss playing in front of so many great fans both at home and on the road. I’ll even miss the Patriots fans in Foxborough, and they should miss me because they sure did get a lot of wins off of me.

And this is important, football fans everywhere need to know how much they mean to me over the years. Fans, you’re at the core of what makes this game remarkable. I’ve received more letters from you than I can count. Fan letters that have touched me, made me think, laugh and moved me to act.

I’ve learned a lot through my mistakes, stumbles and losses in football. I’ve also learned this game is a mighty platform that has given me a voice that can echo well beyond the game. Football has taught me not to be led by obstructions and setbacks but instead to be led by dreams. Due to some good genes, I’m smart enough to know that those lessons can enrich who I am and where I go from here.

I’m totally convinced that the end of my football career is just the beginning of something I haven’t even discovered yet. Life is not shrinking for me, it’s morphing into a whole new world of possibilities.

Pundits will speculate that my effort and drive over the past 18 years were about mastery and working to master every aspect of the NFL game. Well, don’t believe them. Because every moment, every drop of sweat, every bleary-eyed night of preparation, every note I took and every frame of film I watched was about one thing, reverence for this game.

When I look back on my NFL career, I’ll know without a doubt that I gave everything I had to help my teams walk away with a win. There were other players who were more talented but there was no one could out-prepare me and because of that I have no regrets.

There’s a scripture reading, 2 Timothy 4:7: I have fought the good fight and I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.

Well, I’ve fought a good fight. I’ve finished my football race and after 18 years, it’s time. God bless all of you and God bless football.

Kevin Durant: 'Mom. I don’t think you know what you did', MVP acceptance - 2014

13 May 2014, Thunder Events Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA

Wow. Wow. Thank you guys so much. I’m usually good at talking, but I’m a little nervous today.

First off, I’d like to thank God for changing my life. It let me realize what life is really all about. Basketball is just a platform in order for me to inspire people and I realize that.

I come from a small county outside of Washington D.C. called PG County. Me, my mom, my brother – we moved so many different places growing up. It felt like a box. It felt like there was no getting out. My dream was to become a rec league coach. That’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to stay home and help the kids out and be a coach. I love basketball so much and I love playing it. I just never thought I would make it to college, the NBA or stand up here today in front of you guy and be the NBA MVP. It’s just a surreal feeling.

I had so much help. So many people believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself. So many people doubted me and motivated me every single day to be who I am. I fell so many times and got back up. I been through the toughest times with my family, but I’m still standing.

In the game of basketball, I play first off because I love it. I love to have fun. I love to run up and down the court. I told Grant Hill back there – I just got done playing against him – as a second grader I had a Pistons Grant Hill jersey. That was the first time I walked into a gym. That’s when I fell in love with the game. My mom, I think she just wanted to get me and my brothers out of the house for a few hours. When I walked into the gym, I fell in love with the game. I didn’t fall in love with it just because it was me playing. I fell in love with it because I’ve got guys like this – like these guys every single day that push me to be the best that I can be.

I want to single them out. Vets of this team. Fish, Nick, Perk, Thabo, Caron, Serge, Hasheem. I just want to say thank you to you guys, man. Y’all mean so much to me just because I could walk in and have a terrible day and I can see Hasheem smiling at me at 7-3 with small pants on. That’ll change my day.

Or I can see Fish, just a button-up like a mayor, like a president. Just demands so much from his teammates, has played with so many great players but still respects everybody. He’s 38 years old – nothing else to prove – I said, “Fish, you want to come get some shots with me?” First thing he says is “yes” because he always wants to learn even though he’s done so much in this league, played with so many great players. He always wants to learn and that motivated me to know that it’s never a point where you can stop getting better. He’s the guy that made me realize that.

Perk, from the minute you got here…I hated you before you got here. The moment you got here, man, you just changed my whole perception of you. Just one of the best teammates I ever had. I just thank you so much. The late night calls after tough games, you texting me, telling me I’m the MVP. That means a lot to me, man. Thank you.

Sorry. I’m going to keep going.

Nick, you know, the first guy I met when I first got to Seattle as an 18 year old. You took me in. You believed in me from the beginning. You knew that I had potential. Every single day, I know I can look at you and know that you respect me as a man, as a player and you’re going to ride with me to the end. And I thank you.

Thabo, when you came to the team, man, I didn’t know if you spoke English or not, so I didn’t know how to approach you. You were always so quiet, but I could tell you were about the team first. You came in and you went to work from Day 1. You also believed in me, always gave me confidence. When I’m having a tough stretch, you always come to me and hit me on my chest, just tell me “let’s go,” and I know what that means from you. I appreciate you so much, man. You being here, being a part of this journey with me means a lot. I thank you.

Caron, even though you just got here a few months ago we’ve grown so close over these last few weeks and I can remember when you first got here you wrote a piece of paper in my locker … I don’t know why I’m crying so much, man … you wrote a piece of paper in my locker and it said, “KD MVP.” And that was after we lost two or three straight. I don’t really say much in those moments, but I remember that. I go home and I think about that stuff, man. When you got people behind you, you can do whatever. I thank you, man. I appreciate you.

Serge, my ex-next door neighbor. You still can’t speak English, but I know what you’re talking about. Our relationship is definitely like a brother relationship where I squared up with you one day in practice ready to fight you. The next day as soon as we got back into the locker room, we were hugging. We were talking about how we were going to be better the next game. And when Russell was out, you stepped your game up for me, for the team. There were nights where you made me look way better than I am. You clean up so many of our mistakes, man, and we appreciate that. From everybody on the team, we appreciate that, man, and I thank you so much for giving me confidence when I didn’t have it, for always being there when I wanted to talk to you, when I wanted to call, for arguing with me all the time, making me better and realizing I’m not always right. Thank you, man. I appreciate you.

I can’t forget about my young guys. We had a group text after Game 5 and I forgot to put my young guys in there and they felt some type of way about it. Jeremy, Perry, Andre, Steve and Reggie, Grant. You guys make me so much better without even knowing, man, because I know I set an example for y’all. I know there are days where I have my bad days. I say some words I’m not supposed to say sometimes, but when I need an extra push, you guys are there, man. I appreciate that. I appreciate that because I’m not always the best leader. I’m not always the best player. I don’t always shoot the best in the games. But our little handshakes we do before games, that gets me going.

Andre, you are one of my favorite teammates ever and I thank you so much, man. Your spirit, just your smile. It means a lot to me.

Perry, Jeremy … man, just knowing you guys look up to me and I can help you out so much. I can pull you to the side when we’re working out and just as much as you think I’m making you better, you’re elevating my game.

Reggie when I first met you, you didn’t say two words to me. I didn’t know who you were, but we instantly clicked. You became one of my best friends, man. Words can’t explain how much I care about you, your well-being, how you’re feeling. Not even just basketball, but off the court, making sure you’re alright. You’re such a humble person, man. You do everything for the team. You always put yourself last and I learn a lot from you. Thank you, man. Thank you.

Steven, Big Kiwi. I didn’t know who you were when you first got here, but you made me realize with the screens you set in practice … you elbow me when I come down the lane. You let your presence be known, man, and you’re just such a fun, spirited person. Never change who you are, man. You mean a lot to me. You inspire me, too. You’ve been through so much at a young age and I relate to that. I know your story. I don’t really talk about it a lot, but I know. Keep being who you are, man, because you’re a hell of a person. Thank you.

Grant, when we drafted you, once again I didn’t know who you were. But when we got together in the summer time, I seen how talented you were. I seen how much you wanted to learn and I wanted to be on-point every single day because I know how much you were watching me. I thank you for your support, just your kind heart, your spirit, everything, man. I appreciate you. Even though you’ve been here for a few weeks, you mean so much to our team. I’m glad you’re a part of it.

I love all you guys.

I know you guys think I forgot Russ. But I could speak all night about Russell. An emotional guy who will run through a wall for me. I don’t take it for granted. There’s days when I just want to tackle you and tell you to snap out of it sometimes, but I know there’s days when you want to do the same thing with me. I love you, man. I love you. A lot of people put unfair criticism on you as a player and I’m the first to have your back, man, though it all. Just stay the person you are. Everybody loves you here. I love you. I thank you so much, man. You make me better. You know, your work ethic, I always want to compete with you. I always want to pull up in the parking lot of the arena, or the practice facility, and if you beat me there I was always upset. I always wanted to outwork you. You set the bar. You set the tone. Thank you so much, man. Thank you. You have a big piece of this. You’re an MVP-caliber player. It’s a blessing to play with you, man.

Thank all you guys, I know we have a bigger goal in mind. We have a tough game tomorrow, but this means the world to me that you guys are here with me celebrating with me. Thank you. Thank you. I can’t express it enough.

I’m sorry. I’m almost done. Give me a couple more minutes.

Thank you to the organization for drafting me and believing in me from the beginning that I can be an MVP player.

Mr. Bennett, just giving me this opportunity. I thank you for always being there when I need you. Every time I see you under the basket for a game, I feel confident. No matter how the game is going, I look at you and I can tell, “If our owner is behind us, we can do it all.” I thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.

Sam Presti, thank you, sir. Your texts late night after a good game, after a bad game. I appreciate those. From the beginning, your support means a lot to me. I thank you for putting together such a great team and doing so much for us. Our community is blessed to have you. Our franchise is blessed to have you. Thank you.

Troy Weaver. Somebody I’ve known for such a long time. God directed our paths to work together and it’s been everything and more, man. Our relationship has grown day by day and I thank you for believing me and for always being on top of me and just keeping it real with me no matter what, always supporting my family. I thank you, man. Words can’t express how much you mean to me. Such a great man to your family, to this team, to this community. We all appreciate you.

To all the staff, I can’t name all you guys. All the staff members that take care of us every single day from Donnie Strack, Joe Sharpe, Tony (Katzenmeier), Dave Bliss, Josh Longstaff, Will (Dawkins), Wilson (Taylor), (Mark St. Yves), Dwight (Daub). I could go down the line. All you guys have made me a better player. I wish I had a Sharpie so I could write all your names on here because you had a hand on this. You made me believe in myself. You made me a better person, a better player. Your words of encouragement, your love, your positivity got me through. And I thank you guys.

Coaching staff, I know there’s days when you want to look at that film and kill me for not playing defense, for taking bad shots, getting too many techs. But you always believe that I can be the guy. Through the tough times, you guys never left my side. Always wanted to help me get better. Always wanted to push me to new limits. Always work with me. Took time out of your summers to come work with me. Took time out of your nights to come work with me. And it’s something I really appreciate. I never want to take you guys for granted. I thank you so much for being a part of my life, not just on the basketball court, but giving me talks about growing as a man first and a basketball player next. I thank you so much.

Scott Brooks, you mean the world to me. I love you. You as a man. I never met anybody like you, so selfless. You don’t take the credit for nothing, even though you deserve all of it. I love you and your family for always taking me in, believing me, texting me late at night when I was going crazy. Thank you. Thank you.

Beautiful fans of Oklahoma City, I can’t say enough about you guys. All the support you give our team. The home-court advantage we have is the best I’ve ever seen. We disappoint you sometimes, but we try our best every single night to win for you guys. And we want to win a championship for you guys. This city, all they want us to be is ourselves. You love us how we are. We’re all a work in progress as men and you still love us and I thank you so much for embracing us.

Last but not least my family. My brother Tony, I love you. Thank you for beating me up when I was a kid. I always wanted to follow in your footsteps. I pray for you every night. You’ve taught me to feel confident in myself, believe in myself that I can do it when I didn’t think I could do it.

Dad, it’s been an up-and-down road for all of us, but you’ve always been there supporting from afar, texting me Bible verses every single day, telling me you love me every single day. That builds me up and I thank you so much. I love you. I’m just glad you’re part of this journey with us.

My little brother Rayvonne, you always followed after my footsteps. I always want to set a good example for you, man. Thank you for all the support. I love you.

All my friends, Cliff (Dixon), Charlie (Bell), Vernon (Dixon), Tay (Young), Randy (Williams), Ryan (Lopez). You keep me sane every single day. There’s days where I come home upset from a game or practice and you just brighten my day up. I thank you guys. You mean the world to me. I wouldn’t be here without all you guys. This our trophy, too. I appreciate it. Thank you.

All the support from all my family, all my friends, over the years I appreciate it. My grandma couldn’t be here. I know she’s watching. She’s going to text me as soon as I get off the stage. Thank you so much for picking me up from school when I was a kid, fixing me peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day, texting me after every single game, telling me I need to stop getting techs and loving me unconditionally.

And last, my mom. I don’t think you know what you did. You had my brother when you were 18 years old. Three years later, I came out. The odds were stacked against us. Single parent with two boys by the time you were 21 years old. Everybody told us we weren’t supposed to be here. We went from apartment to apartment by ourselves. One of the best memories I had was when we moved into our first apartment, no bed, no furniture and we just sat in the living room and just hugged each other. We thought we made it.

When something good happens to you, I don’t know about you guys, but I tend to look back to what brought me here. You wake me up in the middle of the night in the summer times, making me run up a hill, making me do pushups, screaming at me from the sidelines of my games at 8 or 9 years old. We wasn’t supposed to be here. You made us believe. You kept us off the street. You put clothes on our backs, food on the table. When you didn’t eat, you made sure we ate. You went to sleep hungry. You sacrificed for us. You the real MVP.

Last, I’d just like to thank God again. You’re the first and the last, alpha and omega. I thank you for saving my life.

I appreciate everybody. Thanks to all the writers for voting for me.

David Parkin: 'The philosophy of Marx, the beauty of Shakespeare, and the passion of Churchill', Testimonial dinner for John Kennedy - 1977

August 1977, Melbourne, Australia

My own association with John has now spanned 17 years – firstly as a player, then as a captain, then as his assistant coach for eight years,  working for him on match committee, and it’s interesting to hear others talking about their association with him in other eras and in other capacities.

The effect that this man has had on so many people who were and still are Hawthorn, must be quite unique in the football world. It is not difficult to see why a man such as John is held in such high esteem (no it is more than that , revered) by those who made contact with him. This reverence comes about, not because of his physical achievements (numerous as they have been) but because of the respect of the qualities of the man himself.

Most of these personal qualities have been mentioned by previous speakers, but at the risk of duplication, I would like to speak briefly about some of them.

1.    His tremendous sense of humour, (for example Bremner/Moore ‘dollars on your backs’)

2.    His complete objectivity in decision making – I’ve met no other man in life in any situation who can make decisionswithout being influenced by personal feelings or relationships with others.

3.    His absolute single-mindedness, where nothing superficial or extraneous ever interfered with the achievement of an objective.

4.    His exceptional oratory ability, where players in particular, saw at its best the way in which the Queen’s English can be used to project the philosophy of Marx, the beauty of Shakespeare, and the passion of Churchill.

5.    His complete and utter humility – where as tonight he is embarrassed by the accolades of others. Hawthorn’s success  to him was due to the outward and visible signs, that is the players, nevber John Kennedy.

6.     His ability to pass through the pain barrier was an example for us all to follow, eg The Walk for Want 18 miles, to be beaten by Des Meagher who took a short cut.

7.    His ability to influence the character and lives of so many young men gave players purpose and meaning to what they were doing. There is no doubt, for this reason alone, all those who donned the brown and gold in the past 16 years have been better people, the Hawthorn influence through John for having passed this way .

When John sought leave of absence at the beginning of March this year, I called the senior players together at Scotch College – as they will recall. Immediately following John’s announcement, people close to the club and those not so close, were saying to me and the players, ‘we must forget John Kennedy and get on with the business of winning football matches’.

My response then, and still is now, is that I sincerely hope that John Kennedy is never forgotten at Hawthorn, by players, administrators and supporters too. For in being reminded of Kennedy is also being reminded of what Hawthorn is all about 

The present Club, and the application of the present team, is, in my opinion , a direct reflection of Johnhimself. The qualities which he has instilled into all of us – aggression, self sacrifice, dedication, resolution, determination, personal accountability and emotional control – will be the very qualities that will enable a successful passage through September. If they are forgotten we will be losing the basic ingredients that have made our club an honest and respected power in the VFL.

Finally, if this is a testimonial dinner, then the greatest testimonial we can give John is surely the 1977 flag.

Tadhg Kennelly: 'Football I owe you my life as you have given me mine', AFL Grand Final lunch - 2011

1 October 2011, Melbourne Cricket Ground, AFL official lunch, Melbourne, Australia

First of all I would like to thank the AFL for inviting me here today to speak about my journey in football and what football has meant to me.

To the honourable Prime Minister Julia Gillard and other dignitaries – welcome, I hope you all have a great day and enjoy the game, to the PM I’m sure the doggies will survive without Big Bazza – the Swans did.

My football journey began the minute I could walk. I grew up in a small country town called Listowel, in Co-Kerry on the south-west of Ireland where there are about 1500 people.

My childhood was no different to many other children’s in that I idolised my father and whatever my father did I wanted to do. The only problem was my dad had won five All-Irelands with Kerry so I had a lot to live up to.

So from as young as I can remember I had a football in my hands, practising, training, playing, doing whatever I could to be just like my idol, my father. Many, many hours were spent with my brother kicking the footy against the house wall. Within a few years of playing underage football I started to make a name for myself and was on people’s radar as the son of the legendary Tim Kennelly.

Then out of the blue when I was 17-years-old a phone call came from the other side of the world and I was asked the question: Would I be interested in coming to Australia to play Aussie Rules with the Sydney Swans?

Our house at the time in Ireland was above my father’s pub and when the Swans recruitment officer Rick Barham would ring, more often than not, mum would be upstairs getting dinner ready for us and the barman would call up from the bottom of the stairs shouting:

‘The man from Australia who wants to take your kid away is on the phone’.

At that stage I had never been out of Ireland. I had never been away from home. I had never been on a plane. I had never watched a game of Aussie Rules. And I never had any right to say yes I will go, but I did.

To be honest I really had no idea what I was getting myself into but the sound of kicking a football around, getting paid for it, sitting on the beach and the sun, all sounded fantastic to me.

Here I was all the way from Kerry to Coogee and I had no idea about Aussie rules but by God was I in for an awakening. Pre-season training as a professional footballer – holy shit all I did for my first six months here was eat, sleep and train. I knew one way around Sydney and that was to training and back home.

The first few months were really tough. Not only was I 15,000kms away from my family and friends but I was being challenged physically and mentally. My determination to succeed grew stronger and stronger. I was on my own, and I was going to make it because one thing is for sure I was not going back home as a failure.

In my early days there were a lot of sleepless nights, and crying myself to sleep. Homesickness was a huge factor but what I was slowly beginning to learn was that AFL – just like the GAA back home – was and is more than just a game of football. Its all about family and supporting each other and I soon had my own family, the Sydney Swans.

As my career began to take off in the beautiful surroundings of Sydney there were still a lot of challenges I had to overcome. Yes I was in a country that spoke the same language as myself but have you guys ever sat back and listen to the Australian lingo? Especially inside a football club, it’s like being in the middle of Russia! I had no idea what was being said to me half the time so much so that during a game in my early days the then senior coach Rodney Eade ran out at quarter time and came straight up to me screaming:

I must have had a look of utter bemusement as I had absolutely no idea what he meant and went straight up to our assistant coach to find out my instructions.

I remember one pre-season training session when I had just arrived back from Ireland after my Christmas break where the weather was, well let’s just say mild. We were doing a 10km run and let’s just say the weather in Sydney was a wee bit warmer than a mild Irish Christmas. I started to feel light headed and before I knew it I had passed out and I was in the back of an ambulance. I started to come around and our captain at the time Paul Kelly was with me in the back of the ambulance. One of the paramedics asked me my name and I said Tadhg and he said spell it, so I did and as I spelled it out he looked at Kell and said “this kid is off his head get him to hospital quick – what kind of name is that?!”

Once I got my head around the cultural differences, the homesickness, the distance from home, I was ok but then there was this one small thing I had to get my head around and that was the shape of the Aussie Rules football and I referred to it once as a rabbit when I first got out here, I’d go for it over here and it would shoot over there. It was a massive pain in the arse for someone who grew up with a round ball!

I used all these challenges the cultural differences, the lingo, my new surroundings, the distance from my family and friends. I used all this to motivate me throughout my career. I would often go back to it, say to myself I have sacrificed more than anyone to make a career in the AFL and nobody is going to take it away from me. I would use it in games against opponents thinking to myself I have given up a hell of a lot more than other footballers – I’m all over you today what have you sacrificed? It was the sacrifice of being so far away from my family that motivated me and drove me through the hard times and onto success.

Fast forward a few years to that fantastic year of 2005 where we started out the year having won one of our first four games, shaky start to say the least. We sat down as a group and we talked and we argued but we all agreed on one thing – that we were perceived in the competition by our opposition as a soft and weak team, with a soft underbelly. It was this perception that drove the team to success – I have no doubt about it.

We wanted to change the opposition’s perception of us, so that every time they played the Sydney Swans they knew that they were in for a long hard day at the office.

Yes we had players with different abilities, but no one was ever asked to do something that they couldn’t do. This is how the Sydney Swans Bloods culture began and why it will last a very long time because everyone is equal, everyone contributes whether it’s the CEO, the boot studder or the players, the club is what matters most and not the individual, we are all just passing through. It’s a “no dickhead policy” and something I’m sure we could use in parliament, what do you think Julia?

All that hard work, all those tears, all the blood and all the love I put into making it payed off on that last Saturday in September in 2005 when I was walking up to collect my premiership medallion. I knew people back home in Ireland were watching and I wanted to do something for them so once I received my medal I broke into a rendition of Michael Flatley’s Irish gig as best I could.

That day was made even more special as my Mum, Dad, Brother and girlfriend were all there to share that moment with me. My father was glowing with pride that day and it was like he was ten foot tall.

The grand final – what an occasion and look don’t get me wrong here I’m delighted to have been asked here today but I would much prefer to be out there running around. My experience of the whole week is just a buzz with excitement, anticipation, the parade, organising accommodation for the Irish contingent, then the small thing of playing infront of 100,000 people and trying to win the flag.

As my dad had experience on the big day he had plenty of advice for me even though he had never picked up an oval ball in his life. It was simple but I remembered it:

I remember running out onto the ground and all week the club was trying its best to protect the players from the distractions and trying to keep our minds on the game. Well for me that all went out the window when we ran up the race onto the ground for the start of the game, there was this huge roar and as I’m superstitious I always run onto the ground last so this puts me right beside the coaches. So when I heard the roar I just started laughing and smiling and turned around and there was Roosy looking at me and he said “Its good to see you’re tuned in and ready Tadhg”. In fact it was perfect for me as from that moment on I was in my element, I was relaxed and just soaked the whole game up and enjoyed it.

Unfortunately six weeks later my dad passed away from a sudden heart attack and it was an extremely difficult time for my family and I. To go through the emotions of extreme satisfaction and happiness to the worst possible emotion anyone can feel, the feeling of loss was very very difficult.

A few years later following this tragic time in my life, in 2009 I decided to go back and try and do what my father had done and win an All-Ireland medal with Kerry. This was a very tough thing to do. I had been playing AFL for 10 years and that rabbit had become more like a tortoise now, it was my friend. But also I had to get my first job at the age of 28 as Gaelic football is an amateur game and I had to prove I was good enough to get on the team.

I managed to do both, I got a job as a PE teacher and I got into the team after about four months. To make a long story short we had a shaky start just like I had in 2005 with the Swans but finished strong and again on the last Sunday of September I won an All-Ireland medal for Kerry – 30 years to the day exactly when my dad won his first and again upon my venture on the podium I managed to do another gig.

Following my success in Ireland I returned to Sydney to play the last two seasons with the Swans and earlier this year I decided to hang my boots up.

I came to Australia 12 years ago as a very fresh green innocent young lad. I was entering a phase in my life where all my morals, ethics and beliefs would be either tested or made stronger by my new environment.

I’m very happy to say that my morals and ethics have been made a lot stronger from my new environment, the environment of the Swans and the AFL. While I was playing and trying to make a career for myself a lot of great human traits have being taught to me along the way. Support your mate, discipline, no short cuts, honesty, integrity, you’re a footballer 100% of the time all the time. These are just a few traits that I have learnt from being a day to day footballer.

I’m a very passionate, enthusiastic person and I always wear my heart on my sleeve – that’s the way I played my footy and that’s the way I lead my life.

It’s the game of Aussie Rules that has defined me and made me who I am today. It has taught me to respect elders, respect women, always be honest and true to myself, always display my passion and love, but most importantly it has taught me how to be a human being with the utmost respect for other human beings.

Football I owe you my life as you have given me mine.

Thanks very much.

John Kennedy: 'Hawthorn has done more for me, than I have ever been able to do for Hawthorn', Testimonial dinner - 1977

August 1977, Melbourne, Australia

Mr President Ladies and Gentlemen

I am very sensitive of the honour that the Hawthorn Football Club have done to me this evening, and I thank very sincerely the committee and all those who are associated with arranging it and I thank very sincerely all of you people who have come and have done me the honour of coming here.

David can string words together perhaps better than I can. He is pretty good at this, and it’s probably he had an in for being coach. But I’ve always said this and can repeat it without any false modesty – Hawthorn has done more for me, than I have ever been able to do for Hawthorn.

You personally, as people, who have played for the team and barracked for the team and have been associated with the club may not look at it that way, but we know ourselves best of all and I know how much in the first few years of playing football for Hawthorn, a League club, gave me some sort of confidence that I felt I lacked. I never quite overcame it, but Hawthorn gave me a great start in that respect.

Hawthorn, too, gave me the chance to play League football, to be part of football and football for me has always meant two things. It’s meant the opportunity to play the game and to be judged according to your performance an d nothing else. It doesn’t matter if you are black, white, Protestant or Catholic. It doesn’t make any difference – you are judged by your performance and nothing else.

As I go on a little bit in life I wish it was the same everywhere else – I don’t know whether it is quite as straight as football. The score goes up on the board after every week and that’s the judgement that’s made. That is the way it is and I think that’s a great thing. It’s an attraction for me, it’s always attracted me to football and Hawthorn gave me the opportunity to be part of this.

But Hawthorn did more than that for me. Hawthorn gave me the chance to meet some wonderful people and over the years it’s been my privilege and pleasure to work with them. To meet the first president of our club, Dave Prentice, who has passed on since, to meet two people such as Dr Ferguson and Phil Ryan.

Sandy Ferguson was president of the club when I first came here. I think he was everything rolled into one then -- president, MO, and everything Dr – and he set a tone in the administration or the club. He set the goal before us players, and though we weren’t winning, the ideas were there, the dedication and selflessness was epitomised in the President who seemed to be there all the time, willing to give his time and energy and his medical acumen to the progress of the Hawthorn Football Club. And he still is this way. And Sandy has been associated with the club certainly for longer than I have, and I had the opportunity of meeting him, and becoming, I hope, his friend, certainly his friend, through playing for Hawthorn.

And Phil – who became president after Dr retired. Phil Ryan, I don’t know whether people really understand Phil. There has been a lot of talk about Kennedy and all of this but they say really that the best leaders in life are those fellows who, and those people, whether they are men or women, who are able to lead people in such a way that when the target is achieved, when the victory is won and the goals have been scored, the people will turn around and say, ‘Gee how did we do it”, and they look and say “yes, he was in charge”. They are not even conscious that they are being led in many way, and these are the best types of leaders and, in this way, I think Phil is outstanding – in this kind of way – as President of our club.

Phil heads a committee, a rugged lot of fellows. We have got all kinds of people on our committee. We’ve only got twelve now – we used to have twenty two and the meetings were quite electric when we had twenty two around the table. But Phil’s tolerance and broad acceptance of the part that everybody can play in the administration of the club just has to be seen to be believed, and so I believe that in Dr Ferguson and Phil Ryan, we’ve had the continuity of administration that has put us where we are today. And I don’t really want to individualise but I felt that I had to say that Hawthorn has given me the opportunity to meet these two men and to be influenced by them, and to copy, imitate – which is the sincerest form of flattery – some of their methods.

I am honoured to have here so many people this evening whom I know, and as always at hawthorn I always feel very remiss that there are so many people who I meet, and when I was coaching and when I was playing I scarcely had the time to say ‘gooday how are you’ or pass the time of day.

Always seem to be going somewhere, either coming from losing, or we won, or something like that, and you’re on your way, but to all of those people, I say, thank you very much. I said it at a previous occasion like this, and I won’t be Madam Melba I can assure you of that, but on a previous occasion like this, I said I would be happy to return and be assistant boot studder to Ted Laws, and Ted has been associated with the club for as long as I have, and once again it’s people like Ted Laws and Athol Taylor who was there for some time too. All of these people I’ve met and made friends with and I treasure the friendships I’ve made.

To hear Kevin (Curran), Graeme (Arthur) and Roy (Simmonds), people with whom I had the honour of playing, speak this evening has indeed also been an honour for me. ‘Dobbin’ we used to call him, he used to sing a song called ‘Jog Along Mr Dobbin’. I’ve always marvelled at people who could sing one note off key right through you know. You can imagine people who get out of tune, that’s understandable, but they are real geniuses that can drop a half key and go right through. – well Kevin could do that whether he was full or whether he was sober, he could still do that. You might think Kennedy trained hard, but nothing beside McCaskill. Kevin was associated the night when we ran round and round the ground. Bob, dear old Bob, he was a tremendous fellow but he had had a couple of whiskies this evening, and he was in good form and the rain was coming down, and the team was were going round and round the Hawthorn Ground until we almost got giddy. And it was punctuated by short sprints every now and then, and do a lap that way, and a little Fox Terrier joined in. It was Kevin that was with us that night, leading the bunch, and we ran round and round and the Foxie died – and there he was, lying on his back with his four legs poking up to the sky. Kevin said, ‘look the little dog’s dead’. McCaskill said, ‘get another dog – run on!’ Great feeling to play with him.

I have never forgotten the story that Graeme told me about Kevin. Greame played his first game for Sandhurst when he was about – well it started when he was sixteen, then he was fifteen, then fourteen, I think he must have been twelve when he played his first game for Sandhurst. He was only on the ground, Kevin had left Hawthorn by this stage and gone to captain and coach Sandhurst and when Mort (Graeme) came down to Hawthorn, he was talking about Curran, and said ‘when I played in thefirst game, I was knocked over in the first minute, someone whacked me behind the play, and down I went.’  He said, ‘I was looking around, I was a bit glassy eyed but then this big form came up and said, “don’t worry Mort. We’ll get that one back quick and lively”. And sure enough, about five minutes later, one of the opposition was getting carted off over the other side – Curran had ... great feeling to have a leader like that with you and not against you.

And I can remember at Footscray when Roy Simmonds and I were at the end of the cricket pitch, with Jack Collins in between us, and we were engaging in a bit of repartee. We were as long way behind in the game. There was a bit of mud slinging going on. Kevin got the ball at the other end of the pitch and took off. He was a fearsome sight when he was full steam ahead, and Jack looked up and he said to Simmo, ‘look out!’ He jumped one way, and Simmo went the other way,  because he was no respecter of guernseys, Kevin, when he was in full flight, didn’t matter whether you had his guernsey on or the other one, he’d take you just the same. But it was great to play with him, and great to have him on your side, and, as I say, to see him here tonight is a great honour for me.

And Jack Hale. I thank you Jack for coming here, and for your comments. My father used to go to football when I was so small I could hardly remember it you know. The only thing I could ever recall my father saying, he used to follow Essendon , he’d come home some times and there were two things he used to say. ‘You could kick me from here to Bourke Street if I ever go to another final” because they used to jostle him and so on, and another thing was he used to come home and say, ‘That Hale’s mad!’ – and little did I know, later on I was to meet that fellow Hale, and the description was an accurate one – but in the right way.

Jack had many – he won’t mind me saying it – he had many wonderful attributes as a coach, not the least of which was tremendous psychiatric ability.  Roy has referred to it, and I even thought after Jack left off sending players down there for psychiatric treatment, because if anybody had any problems injury-wise, Jack could guarantee to fix them. He had a way with him when it came to fixing injuries. David talks about single mindedness. Well Jack had single mindedness to the enth degree. There were no injuries for Jack, none, just none. Unless you had an obvious break, when the arm was broken you weren’t injured. And he’dalways point to his head and say, ‘it’s up there, it’s up there.’ And we had a memorable ten minutes before the game, these electric things were happening always, when Jack was coach. Mort (Graeme Arthur) had a bad shoulder and we were in the little room there before wetook the field against Fitzroy, and Mort said, ‘my shoulder’s pretty crook’. And I was brought in to act as an intermediary between Jack and Graeme.

Jack said, ‘Nothing wrong with your shoulder, nothing wrong with it, nothing wrong with it – it’s all up here’.

What are you talking about?’ said Mort. ‘My shoulder’s sore’

‘Nothing wrong with it, it’s all up here’ he said.

One thing led to another and things got pretty heated, but in all events,. Graeme went out and he played. He was best man on the ground.

‘There ‘are’  – said Hale ‘Nothing wrong with your shoulder’

And you see, after this comes over you for two or three years, it gets you in the finish, and there aren’t any such things as injuries.

The other aspect of Jack was the disappointed look on his face when he’d be talking to the team, and he’d see any player who had a bandage on him. These things used to worry Jack. I’ve seen him visible affected by a bandage. He’d be speaking to the players before the game and suddenly someone who had a piece of plaster on his leg, or a knee bandage, or even a slight bit of tape around his leg, and you’d see his eyes, they look at it, and you could see him distracted.  I’d say, ‘for god sake take the thing off and let him get on with what he’s saying’ because it really used to worry him. Nobody was allowed to wear bandages or anything like that. But it had its affect. It had its affect and it made all of us who played with Jack, and for Jack, and for Hawthorn, much better for having been with him.

Graeme – I’m very grateful for your being here, and I think it’s a great thing to have played football with you.  I suppose time goes on and the younger players now – Graeme Arthur is just a name. The newspaper coined a phrase when Graeme came down, or they used a word. The word was unobtrusive. Unobtrusive they said. We used to reckon he was so unobtrusive sometimes that you didn’t notice him at all, he just seemed to be not in the game at all. Some days he was more unobtrusive than others, but he was a great Hawthorn player, and it was great to have played with him, and to be privileged to coach the team when he was captain. And I don’t want to go through and enumerate people and start to single people out because I could do this for such a long time, but I say that I am very grateful also to see so many players with whom I was associated with in 1961 and 1976, and in between those years this evening. In a funny sort of way, I suppose I like to think that I’m friends with all the players.

Morton Brown is here, and I think if I can say I’m your friend Morton, I’m everybody’s friend.

In respect of that remark, I suppose of all players, between Morton and me there was an invisible le bond. I don’t know what it was made of -- if it was mutual distrust, or mutual antipathy. In all eventsI probably roasted Mortonmore than any player that I’ve ever known, and yet I can still see Morton Brown taking the mark that won us the [blank on page] ... a most gifted footballer.

I would say too, to the people ar4oudn the club, the administrators, Secretary Ivan. I think perhaps today’s Secretaries really don’t know how easy they have it. Sometimes they might think life’s hard, but in Hale’s day as coach at Hawthorn, you know anything could happen. This is a true story. I have vivid recollections of being in the Secretary’s office one night when he had to two young boys he was trying to sign up to play with the team. Our Secretary at the time was Bill Newton, a very fine chap – didn’t have much of a sense of humour, and you certainly needed a sense of humour, because he was talking to these two lads, and he had me there as Captain of the team, to sort of add the right wordsat the right time. And the Secretary’s office at that stage is where the two doors are where Jan is now, in between the two doors there. Standing there in the middle of signing up these players, the door burst open and O’Mahoney and Arthur came through one door, absolutely nothing on, straight out the other door, and flat out slammed the door behind them. Bill was absolutely flabbergasted. He said, ‘well what’s going on there?’ He got back on the trail, undaunted, , with the two recruits, and just sort of got the thing running again, when the door came open again and Simmo came through, dressed exactly the same, but carrying his sausage on a plate. Bill was still undaunted, though he was by this time getting disgusted, and I think it would strain anybody’s sense of humour, but he just moved into action again. Then, a third time the door opened and in came the coach, Jack Hale, absolutely starkers with a bucket full of water, running out the other door after them. He’s chasing them too –

Well at that time I sympathised with Bill. What can you expect when you have got the bloke in charge of them, and that’s what he’s doing?  So things have toned down a lot since then, and there’s less of that – more decorum, and a little more dignity associated with the place, but nevertheless they were happy days.

I thank to Lou (Richards) and Peter for their attendance here tonight, and what they have done, and their excellent comparing g of the show, and I should say perhaps – I can recall my fourth game of the year when we played Collingwood, and Lou was captain, and we were playing at Hawthorn, and we were getting beaten. It’s always impressed me, this. Lou mightn’t remember this, I don’t suppose he would, but he was captain. He was roving for the Collingwood side, and there’s as pretty big ruckman named Neville Waller. Lou and Neil Mann will remember him, and Neville must have got something wrong with him. He was down on the ground, lying there, and Lou ran up sand said, ‘get up!’ – so it’s not only Kennedy who says get up – Lou said, ‘get UP!’ And Neville went ‘oooooh’, he was winded I think,  and Lou said, I thought it was a bit tough, but Lou said, ‘well if you can’t’ get up, get off!’ and out they came the Collingwood trainers and took him off. And it struck me that Neville was such a big fellow, and Lou was rover, he was shorter. He was captain, and I thought it was an example of the tremendous control he had over them, and it impressed me, and I thought if ever we get knocked down, we’ll get up too. So all of you who have been blaming me for saying ‘get up!’, well blame Lou. He’s the one who started me on the bad road.

The present coach David Parkin, he obviously has a masochistic streak in him, because Dave had concussion eight times when he was playing. Anybody who’s silly enough to run into his opponent eight times and get concussion when he’s playing, well he’s got the first qualification for beinga coach.

And I saw the game this year against Footscray. At the bounce of the ball Scotty got one and was in agony. Scotty was doubled up in pain and down he went, rolling on the ground. A terrible act, and the umpire blew the whistle to give him a free kick, and Scotty, too bad he couldn’t take it, so he struggled manfully and got hold of the ball, and you know, in the best tradition, handpassed it to Rodney Eade, to get himself off the hook. And what did Eade do? I’m sure with Parkin’s instructions in mind, he kicked the ball straight back and hit Scotty in the head with it – deliberate.

Any coach who would instruct his players to that is absolutely heartless. But in all events, it had the right effect because Scotty forgot about his agony and he thought about his head,  and he sprang up and went back and kicked a goal, so there you are.

Alf (Brown), I must thank you for writing the very complimentary things you did.  I appreciate that because you usually say what you mean.  Those of you who know football probably don’t know Alf Brown so well, and a lot of people don’t like Alf’s criticism. I don’t mind Alf’s cricticism. I never have because he never jumped on the bandwagon blaming us because we didn’t play it according to the exact Marino rules you know. He has always been quite factual, but he also has his way of getting information, and I always recall when I was first made coach, he rang me and said, ‘if you can just help me with a little bit of knowledge about the team,  you know, who’s going to be where, it will help me write the article a bit,’ so we kept up this practice and I found out in the first week his technique was to choose any player, he’d say ‘Sted Hay’ for instance:

‘Sted’s no good is he?’

And straight away I’d jump in and say, ‘course he’s a good player, he can run and kick’ and he’d have the pencil out and he’d be writing all these things down, andI found that he’d do that. So I learned after that to shut up and say nothing when he said, ‘Ian Law wasn’t a good player’, ‘I’d say ‘No he’s out of form Alf, he’s not playing too well.’ So it doesn’t pay to come back. Never let them get you in. But I thank you Alf for your presence and for your good wishes and I do thank too the people who have come from opposing clubs here, because I suppose at Hawthorn we have tried to adopt the policy of not expecting any quarter, not asking any, and not giving any either, and we hope we have gained the respect of opponents.

Finally I’d like to not finish at all on a note of reminiscence but just to pause for a moment and think, ‘have I not said anything I should have said?’. Well if I have I can only just say again that my thanks go out to you all, and my sincere feeling is that Hawthorn has given me far more than I can ever give back to Hawthorn. Now I don’t want to finish on a note of reminiscence at all, though you might be tempted to do so when you see fellows like Kevin Heath here. Remember Heathy, that morning? Heathy and I used to run of a morning 5.30 AM outside Heath’s house. We went p4retty well until one morning I got there and I was whistling – I’ve always envied people who could whistle, S-S-S-T-T, like that. I was whistling in the dark, no sign of him, so eventually the door creaked open and the voice said, ‘is that you John?

I said, ‘yes,’

The voice replies, ‘It’s [Kevin’s father ] Joe here. I’ll get him out.’

So the door shut as I waited around for a while, but still not sign of him.

Ten minutes later, it’s still pitch dark but the cars are going past now, when the door opened again.

‘That you Kev?’ I said.

‘No Joe, John. He won’t be long.’

The door shut and again another ten minutes goes and finally the door opens and out he comes and he’s coughing and spluttering and we run up Bourke Road over Cotham Road and up to my place. But he had a bit of Johnny Peck in him – he always managed to put in a bit of a sprint at the end, and then he turned and back he used to go, and I’d trot off. But I hope you are still having that run, Kev. It makes a difference. It makes a difference.

Now one more before I finish. Thank you Noel for your good wishes. I can still see Noel McMahon in about 1952, it might have been the game Alan Nash mentioned, could scent victory you know, we didn’t win many in those days. We thought, here’s a chance to win the match. Jack McLeod had gone round the bend, as he usually did when he smelt victory – he was ready to knock anybody down who got in his way. The umpire was a bit panicky, and Denis Cordner and I had a bit of a practical difference of opinion at the previous knockout,  and Denis was just out of the action, and the ball was bounced up again and Noel was on the other side of the ring, and I can still see Noel wagging his finger, saying, ‘you’ll do me Kennedy’ and by this time I was round the bend too, and I was saying ‘right Noel, you’re good enough for me’. I don’t know how it came off. It was probably a pretty big collision, but I suppose neither of usis any the worse for it.

But what I want to say is that the best victories we’ve had at Hawthorn are the victories which we’ve had when we’ve had to come from behind. I don’t mean behind on the day – but when everything was running against us.

As Dave (Parkin) said, he mentioned he philosophy of Karl Marx, the underdog I suppose, I thrive on that a bit, but when all of us were down, and with respect to the Melbourne Football Club which I admire greatly, and I’ve always had tremendous respect, our best victory that I can recall in this sense was in 1961,  not in the Grand Final, but in the Semi Final, when we were in the right frame of mind, when every Hawthorn player who went onto the field knew what was ahead of him. When every Hawthorn player knew there was a chance.

We had to beat Melbourne because Melbourne stood between us and the premiership. We had a little bit of luck too, which made it even better, because its crook to lose when you have bad luck, you know. I know how Melbourne must have felt, but football is a ruthless game, but things went our way that day – a few things happened too that made a little bit of spice to it, a little bit of spice to the game. But that had happened to us plenty of time over the years – we’d copped it for year after year. 

So that day , as I said, when Morton kicked a goal, I think most Hawthorn supporters knew that we had the game and we had the premiership when we beat Melbourne that day, and that’s the sort of victory that stands out in my mind. Now to contrast that with our performance in 1975, when that was what was missing. My fault, I’ve said it all the time. Our team, our team was not in the right frame of mind. We were not prepared to pay the price that’s required when you are going to win a premiership.  Because everybody want to win a premiership, and it’s a big game, and it’s a big price that’s got to be paid, and there is no question in 1975 we just didn’t have it.

I had slipped a little bit, just enough to make a difference, and this is nothing to take away from the tremendous effort of North and Ron and the boys, this is not to take away from that at all, but it took that – to get into all of our heads, that we weren’t going to let that happen again in 1976, and it didn’t happen again. And though we didn’t play at our top, we had the right approach.

Dave, you’ll forgive me for saying this, because this is more important than whose testimonial it is – this is more important. This year we have seen, I believe, I can say this without any humility at all, tremendous improvements in the team. We’ve got a daring team who are prepared to do things that perhaps we weren’t prepared to do before with a more conservative approach. And don’t let us mistake our attitude when the final series come. All of us here and this important for the team, this is important for the present team because football after all is a game for the present, very much a game for the present. All of us here from 1961, from before that time, 1971, all those years, the players who are here tonight are Hawthorn players and the administrators are all together for Hawthorn’s sake. As Phil said, ‘it’s a great club, a wonderful club that it’s worth doing something for, absolutely worth doing something for. Now when we get into the final, into the finals this year, when we get onto that ground make sure, make sure, make absolutely sure,, that the eighteen we have got there, and Dave, and everybody is in the right frame of mind. If we are doing that, then I think we’ll get there, and it will be two in a row, and Dave will have his first premiership, and that’s what I want.

Thank you ladies and gentleman.

Thank you for this tremendous night, this tremendous life, at Hawthorn.

Daniel Bryan: 'I am grateful', WWE retirement - 2016

8 February 2016, Seattle, USA

So - just now I was able to close my eyes, and feel that. Like literally feel it, in a way that I’ve never gotten to feel it before.

Because when we’re here we’ve always got to keep our eyes open.

But just that experience, literally I’m never going to forget it.

I’ve been wrestling since I was eighteen years old. And within the first five months of my wrestling career, I’d already had three concussions. And for years after that,  I would get a concussion here and there. Or here or there. And then it gets to the point when you’ve been wrestling for sixteen years, that um, that adds up to a lot of concussions.

And it gets to a point where they tell you that you can’t wrestle anymore.

And for a long time I fought that, because this, I have loved this in a way that I have never loved anything else.

[Crowd: Thank you Daniel! Thank you Daniel!]

But a week and a half ago, i took a test that said maybe my brain isn’t as okay as I thought it was.

And I have a family to think about. And it is with a heavier heart, and the utmost sadness, that I officially announcemy retirement.

But if there’s one thing -- so I’ve gone through all of these complex emotions in this last little bit -- I’ve been angry, I’ve been sad, I’ve been frustrated, I’ve been all of that.

But today, when I woke up this morning, I felt nothing but gratitude.

I have gotten to do what I love for nearly sixteen years.

I am grateful. I am grateful, because of wrestling, I got to meet the most wonderful woman in the world. Who’s beautiful, she’s smart, and she completes me in a way that I didn’t even think was possible.

And that’s because of wrestling.

I am grateful.

Now tomorrow morning - I start a new life. A life where I am no longer a wrestler.

But that is tomorrow, and that is not tonight.

And by damn I have one more night to feel this energy, and to feel this crowd, so if I could just get one last ‘Yes!’ chant, I would really appreciate it.

[Crowd: Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!]

Jeremy Affeldt: 'I looked at my dad and I said "Dad I’m going to play here one day"', Retirement Ceremony - 2015

4 October 2015, AT&T Park, San Francisco, USA

This speech was delivered before Jeremy Affeldt pitched his last game for San Francisco Giants against Colorado Rockies.

It is so important for dad’s to encourage their sons and tell them that they’re proud of them.

When I was twelve years old in the Oakland Coliseum, and I looked at my dad and I said ‘dad I’m going to play here one day’, and my dad patted me on the head and said, ‘go for it kid’.

And I was twenty-two years of age, and I walked through that centre field fence, and I got on my cell phone and I called my dad, and I said, ‘Dad, do you know where I’m at?’ and he said, ‘yeah you’re in Oakland’.

I said, ‘Dad, I can see the seats we were sitting in when I told you I was going to play here. And I pitch tonight in Oakland’.

And my dad hung up the phone on me.

And I called my mom, and my mom answered, andI said, ‘what happened?’ and she said, ‘you’re dad’s crying.’

Later in the year you got to see me live in Safe Co, pitch in Seattle, and bases loaded and Mike Cain went up and it was a 3-2 count, and I struck him out, and my mom said my dad was yelling all over the stadium, ‘that’s my boy!’

To my bride. Girl, I love you. You know what that say, it’s my career. They say I’m retiring. They say congratulations to a great career, but it is not my career, and I’ll stand boldly before all of these men, and all of these people here today, and I will tell you this -- that it is not my career, it’s our career.

And you’ve been with me all the way from A-ball, to fourteen years in the major leagues. And I remember wanting to quit so many times, and I remember sitting on the counter in Kansas City, and I wanted to walk away from the game, and you looking me in my eyes, and you reminding me who I was, ‘cause I needed that.

And there are so many times in this game when I felt so alone, and I felt so ashamed of not doing well, and you, baby, you reminded me who I was, and I can’t thank you enough, for being who you’ve been to me, and the strength that I needed.

And to my boys ... man daddy’s coming home! Daddy gets to be home a lot more often.

And now you know about some of my other family ... my teammates.

I can’t do what I’ve done without them, and I’ve already said that, and I can’t name every one of them by name. But I truly love every single one of you, and I’ve really loved my time here.

But there are two that I can truly tell you ... I believe that there are friends that are closer than brothers. And I’ve got two on this team, that I can truly say that about -- Matt Cain and Buster Posey

I appreciate the road trips, I appreciate the times that we got to talk. I appreciate being able to meet your family, and know who you are, as men, and husbands, not just baseball players.

To Bruce Bochy -- man I can’t say enough about you.

Honestly they call these head coaches in major league baseball , they call em managers, but man, through all my experience of learning from a lot of leaders, you manage things and you lead people. And I truly believe that you led people.

So I know we call you managers but you’re one of the greatest leaders of men that I’ve ever met.

And finally to all of you ... the fans, man, talk about a family. You’ve been there, win or lose, day in or day out. You and the city have truly changed me.

And I’m gonna return home to Spocan, but I can promise you, I’m never going to leave this city.

And my son told me this morning, ‘he said Daddy I don’t want you to retire,’ and i said, ‘too late buddy I already announced it’.

And he said, ‘I don’t want you to retire because I’ m gonna miss coming across the Bay Bridge’.

And I said, ‘I’m gonnna miss coming across the Bay Bridge too, because when I see this place, I feel safe’.

Thank you San Francisco. Thank you for a very good seven years. I appreciate you all.

Thank you.

Ian McGeechan - 'Be special for the rest of your lives', pre game 2nd Test, Lions Tour - 1997

28 June 1997, King's Park, Durban, South Africa

There are days like this ... when many ruby players never have it. Never experience it. It’s special.

Jim and I have been involved in rugby a long time.

I can tell you , these are the things , these are the days that you never believe will come again.

It has.

And I can tell you. I’ve given a lot of things up.

I love my rugby. And I love my family.

And when you come to a day like this, you know why you do it all.

You know why you;ve been involved. It’s been a privilege -- is a privilege. Because we’re something special.

You’ll meet each other in the street in thirty years time, and there’ll just be a look, and you’ll know just how special some days in your life are.

We’ve proved that the lion has claws and has teeth.

We’ve wounded a springbok.

When an animal is wounded it returns in frenzy.

It doesn’t think. It fights for its very existence.

The lion waits, and at the right point, it goes for the jugular.

And the life disappears.

Today, every second of that game -- we’ve talked about what they’re going to do, or everybody else has -- we go for the jugular.

Every tackle, every pass, every kick, is saying, you’re a fucking springbok, you’re dying.

Your hopes of living in this test series -- are going.

And on that field sometimes today, all it will be between you is a look. No words, just a look. That will say everything.

And the biggest thing it will say is, ‘you are special’

You are very, very special.

It has been, and is, a privilege.

Go out, enjoy it, remember how you’ve got here, and why.

And finish it off.

And be special for the rest of your lives.

Good luck, go for it.

McGeechan's forwards coach, Jim Telfer also gave an extrordinary speech on this tour, aslo on Speakola.

Jim Telfer: 'From now on, gloves are off. It's bare knuckle f***in’ stuff', Lions tour, Forwards meeting - 1997

June 1997, British and Irish Lions tour, South Africa

Sadly, there is no full version of this speech left on YouTube, just the Gillette ad. It gives a feel, without the full majesty.

There are two types of rugby players boys.

There’s honest ones, and there’s the rest.

The honest player gets up in the morning and looks himself in the fucking mirror, and sets his standard. Sets his stall out, and says I’m going to get better. I’m going to get better. I’m going to get better.

He doesn’t complain about the food, or the beds, or the referees. Or all these sorts of things.

These are just peripheral things that weak players have always complained about. The dishonest player.

If I tell a player he’s too high, or he’s not tight enough, he’s too fucking high. He’s not tight enough. And that’s it. I’m the judge, and not the player.

And we accept that, and we do something about it.

I’ve coached Lions teams before, and we’ve complained and carped and this that and the next thing.

And I liken it a bit to the British and the Irish going abroad on holiday.

The first thing they look for is an English pub, the second thing they look is a pint of Guinness
and the third thing they look for is a fish and chip shop.
The only thing they accept is the sun. They don't take on anything that’s good or decent of different abroad.

If we do that we’re sunk!

We don't go back bitchin'. We don't go back carpin', Oh we've done it this way at Twickenham or Cardiff Arms parks or Lansdowne Road or Murrayfield!

No, no these days are past.

 What’s accepted over there is not accepted over here. It's not accepted by us -- me and you.
So from now on the page is turned. Were in a new book, different attitudes. We’re honest with ourselves.

And in many respects in the forward play, and let's be fuckin honest, we've been second best.
We can match them! But only if we get it right here (points to his head) and right here (points to his heart).

Two weeks. There’s battles all along the way. There’s a battle on Saturday. There’s a battle next Wednesday. There’s a battle the following Saturday. A battle the following Tuesday -- until were into the fuckin’ big arena. The one we’ll be there on Saturday. And by that time the fuckin’ Lions have to make them fuckin’ roar for us.

Because they'll be baying for blood. Let’s hope it's fucking springbok blood

We’re focussed. From now on, kid gloves are off. It's bare knuckle fuckin’ stuff. And only at the end of the day will the man that’s standing on his feet win the fuckin’ battle.

Related content: Ian McGeechan coach's address on same Lions tour, 'Be special for the rest of your lives', 1997.

"We’ve wounded a springbok.

When an animal is wounded it returns in frenzy.

It doesn’t think. It fights for its very existence.

The lion waits, and at the right point, it goes for the jugular.

And the life disappears."

Read and hear speech.

Geoff Lemon: 'Hey Shane Watson, let's go over the rules of the DRS', Lord's rant - 2013

19 July 2013, Lord's, London, UK

This video was produced as part of a 2013 Ashes tour diary writer Geoff Lemon was doing for The Roar.

Hey Shane Watson, let’s go over the rules of the DRS.

If you get given out, and you think you’re not out, you can review it, and then maybe you won’t be out.

If you’re not out, you keep the review.

If you are out, you lose the review.

That means, it’s good to be right. You may choose to remember this with the acronym, IGTBR, or the useful pneumonic, I Grow Tomatoes Bro, Respect!

The thing is, you’ve got two reviews,  and eleven batsman.

Mathematically that works out to LESS THAN ONE REVIEW PER BATSMAN.

The conclusion on that, you should base your reviews on evidence, not just preferring not to be out.

Let’s just have a look at the DRS analysis of your reviews, Shane.

GRAPHIC - DECISION: Terrible, WICKET: Early; IMPACT: Negligible; BITCHING; Outside off

See any problems here?

Hey Shane Watson! Let me pitch you a hypothetical. Let’s say you’ve got a batsman who gets nailed LBW every innings, and then has a review on a 50-50 call, in hope, and then he’s always out, and then his opening partner gets a really terrible call, but he’s not game to use a review, because he’s not a selfish dickhead, so then he’s out, so then you’ve got two batsman out, and one review wasted, and the rest of the team goes down for 100 in the rest of the day, and Chris Rogers was going to get a century, we could see it in his eyes, and what do you think about that, Shane?

Here‘s a question for you: Shane was inducted into the Hall of Fame on this ground today. What do you think he would have done? Do you think you’re worthy to share the eight letters you have in common with his name?

You know when’s a good time to use DRS? When you get out, but you KNOW that you’re not out!

Then, you’re probably going to end up not out.

You know when’s a bad time to use DRS?

When you’re out, BUT YOU JUST KINDA WISH THAT YOU WEREN’T!

Stop acting like it’s beach cricket Shane!

Stop acting like it’s a centre wicket practice session for your benefit!

Stop acting like ... Shane Watson!