AFL great joins all-time legends

Hawthorn champion Jason Dunstall says he feels “a hint of embarrassment” after being elevated to Legend status in the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

The AFL announced Dunstall, the third-most prolific forward in league history with 1254 goals, would receive the honour on Monday in a special announcement two months ahead of the Hall of Fame dinner.

The four-time premiership player, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2002, will become the 32nd player to be elevated to Legend status and the first Queenslander to achieve the honour.

“I’m a little overwhelmed at the moment, it’s an incredible privilege. I feel very humbled, almost to the point of embarrassment, when you consider there’s just a tick over 30 Legends in the game, it’s the highest honour you can imagine,” Dunstall said.

“I feel incredibly grateful to the AFL, it’s been a massive part of my life and to sit among names which are synonymous with the game now, as I said, incredibly humbling.

“I’ve loved being part of the AFL, it’s basically given me a life I’d never dreamt of, and to have this honour bestowed upon me is just top of the tree.”

Dunstall’s selection was well earned. He kicked more than 100 goals in a season six times in (1988, ’89, ’92, ‘93, ’94 and ‘96), with a best of 145 goals in 1992, the same year he booted a personal-best 17 goals in a single game against Richmond in round 7 at Waverley Park.

He twice finished second in the Brownlow Medal, was a four-time club best and fairest winner and a four-time premiership player with the Hawks whom he also captained for five seasons. Dunstall was the AFL leading goalkicker three times, the Hawthorn leading goalkicker 12 times and is in his club’s Team of the Century.

AFL great joins all-time legends

AFL chairman Richard Goyder said the decision to announce Dunstall’s elevation early was made partly due to the difficulty he would have keeping the news secret in his prominent media role with Fox Footy.

Dunstall, 59, had received a call from Goyder with the news while he was with media colleagues at a game earlier this season and had tactfully responded ‘Oh, yep, thanks’ to the chairman’s call to try to avert suspicion.

He said he wished to continue “deferring” to Hawthorn’s fleet of outstanding midfielders during the 1980s and 90s who had given him excellent supply on his way to three Coleman medals.

“I was at the end of the production line at Hawthorn – when you’re full-forward, you’ve got all these great players further afield that continued to pump the ball down to you,” he said.

“I always defer to my teammates. I was blessed to be on the receiving end of some of the most skillful players to have ever played the game.”