Champion Essendon defender Dustin Fletcher started his AFL career off-script as he lined up to contest the centre bounce against Carlton beanpole and premiership ruckman Justin Madden in his first match.
The father-son selection was 17, and Madden was 31.
Two hours later he was part of one of the game’s most memorable draws when a set shot from Carlton’s Stephen Kernahan to win the match after the siren went out on the full.
By the end of the season, Fletcher was Kernahan’s opponent in the grand final as “the Baby Bombers” stormed to an unlikely premiership with the 17-gamer playing full-back on the game’s best forward.
Kernahan kicked seven, but Fletcher ended the day a premiership player, having rocked up to pre-season expecting to combine reserves and school football.
During that opening season, when he turned 18, he missed a match against the Brisbane Lions to play for Essendon Grammar (where he was studying year 12) under the coaching of his dad, Bombers great Ken Fletcher.
But the Bombers’ coach, Kevin Sheedy, saw Dustin’s precocious talent and decided not to delay exposing him to the top level.
A week before the school game he had restricted Adelaide’s Tony Modra – who was at the peak of his powers – to just three goals, and in 33 one-on-one contests stopped the Crows hero from winning all but four. He was being paid $1000 a game to take on Tony Lockett, Gary Ablett and Jason Dunstall in a golden era for full-forwards.
At his induction to the Australian Football Hall of Fame on Tuesday night, Fletcher spoke about his debut against the Blues, telling host Gerard Whateley, “I think I played one game of schoolboy football and there was an injury to Anthony Daniher … I was summoned to come into Sheeds’ office on the Friday morning, and he gave me the news that I was going to make my debut against Carlton.
“I probably wasn’t expecting what was coming.
“I remember running out on the ground for the first time.
“He waved me down the race. I was near the back of the huddle … and he said, ‘Young fella, we’re going to change things up’. This is 10 minutes before the game started. ‘We’re going to move our ruckman from the ruck to full-forward, I want to have a look at you in the ruck’.
“Justin was about eight foot [tall] and probably weighed 120 kilos. I was 6′5″, 79 kilos and I think I got the first hitout, straight to Greg Williams, to Craig Bradley [by handball], the ball gets kicked to Stephen Kernahan, and I think he kicked a goal, so I never played in the ruck again, and I was absolutely rapt.”
One of the game’s most storied careers was underway, a premiership player before leaving school, a 198-centimetre defender with long arms who could tangle up forwards like an octopus in marking duels.
Having climbed to the top of football’s mountain at such a young age, it wasn’t surprising that he was struck with vertigo and wobbled for a bit as he cemented himself in the backline. Sheedy tried him in a variety of positions to give the youngster some respite as he developed physically and mentally. Fletcher also had to overcome a serious ankle injury.
‘I never played in the ruck again, and I was absolutely rapt.’
Essendon 400-gamer Dustin Fletcher, now a member of the Australian Football Hall of Fame
But once he became the key player in Essendon’s backline, nothing stopped him. He not only did his job but held the defence together – a brick wall with neat kicking skills to launch attacks on the rebound.
He could kick a torpedo out of sight and was used as an intercept defender, rather than a stopper, as Sheedy maximised the laconic redhead’s value to the team.
In 2000, his career peaked as he was full-back in the champion Essendon team, which only lost one game for the season on the way to his second flag.
He won the Crichton Medal to become a best-and-fairest winner in a premiership year, finishing ahead of the runner-up James Hird. Fletcher was also All-Australian for the first time (he earned his second All-Australian in 2007).
But it wasn’t the player honours that defined the brilliance of his career.
If the ball hit the ground, Fletcher was handy, too – his ability to play on talls and smalls so real he also played defensive roles on 171cm West Coast forward Phil Matera and Fremantle’s 211cm resting ruckman Aaron Sandilands.
His famous chase-down tackle on Carlton speedster Jeff Garlett in 2011 when Fletcher was 36 forced another draw against their arch rivals. Champion Essendon goalkicker Matthew Lloyd described his training opponent as “a freak”.
Fletcher did develop a habit of thrusting his leg out to stop opponents at one point, but corrected the issue and was impossible to fluster when the game was on the line.
His temperament remained calm, even through the drugs saga that overshadowed the twilight of his career from 2012 to 2015 and saw him become one of the 34 past and present players suspended by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2016 for breaching the anti-doping code.
But that did not make him ineligible for the Australian Football Hall of Fame, as the selection committee was able to consider the fullness of his career which had reached 347 matches by 2011.
He went on to become the third player to reach 400 games when he hit the milestone in round nine 2015, only to suffer a groin injury that kept him anchored on that number until he retired at season’s end.
That he lasted in the most mentally demanding role in the game was due to his unfussed approach to life and football. A gentle soul with the competitive streak of an animal, loved by teammates and supporters alike, he sat alongside Carlton’s Stephen Silvagni and Geelong’s Matthew Scarlett as the best defender of his era.
Dustin Fletcher played 400 games for Essendon and kicked 71 goals from 1993-2015, winning premierships in 1993 and 2000.
Elevated to Australian Football Hall of Fame Legend status
Bill Walker
Played 305 games and kicked 456 goals for Swan Districts between 1961-76, premierships from 1961-63.
The only player to win four Sandover Medals was announced as an Australian Football Hall of Fame Legend before the state of origin match in WA in February. A West Australian football great, he played in flags in his first three seasons after making his debut in 1961.
A classic rover-forward, he kicked 456 goals in 305 matches with Swan Districts and played 21 state matches for Western Australia. He finished his career in 1975 as a four-time premiership player and five-time club best and fairest. Of the 34 Legends in the hall of fame, he is the sixth who did not play some part of his career in the VFL/AFL.
On Tuesday night, Walker spoke of his pre-season training regime, which involved his wife, Glenyce.
“Haydn Bunton [jnr] was our first coach, and he used to have players running up and down sand hills,” he said.
“I’d never seen a sand hill. I saw one, one weekend, and went down to have a go at it … and said, ‘Well I’m not doing that again!’
“My training regime during those early days was my wife in an old ute I had – she’d drive the ute, I’d have a rope around my middle tied to the back of the ute, and she’d just go along at a certain speed and I’d be telling her to slow down or whatever it was. If we’d had an argument the night before, it wasn’t too good!”
Walker has spent time as a publican over the past “40 or 50 years”, but there’s something that’s set him apart there too.
“I’m one of those strange publicans – I don’t drink,” he explained.
“It comes because of football because I had an old dad who used to say to us, ‘You can’t drink beer and play football – if you do you’re going to play in the reserves’.”
Tuesday night’s other inductees
Gary Ablett jnr
Played 247 games and kicked 321 goals for Geelong from 2002-10 and 2018-20. Played 110 games for 124 goals for the Gold Coast from 2011-17. Geelong premierships 2007 and 2009, Brownlow Medals in 2009 and 2013, Gold Coast captain for 96 matches.
“The Little Master” has been inducted at the first opportunity after a brilliant 357-match career at Geelong and Gold Coast. Following in the footsteps of his famous father, he showed tremendous will and desire to develop into the game’s finest player over a stretch between 2007 and 2014 when he was named All-Australian eight years in a row. In that time, he played for both Geelong and the Gold Coast, where he became the Suns’ inaugural captain in 2011. He played in two Geelong flags and won two Brownlow Medals and six best and fairests in his time at the Cats and the Suns. A champion midfielder, his teammates and opponents were awed by his skill. His highlights video is ridiculous.
Tim Evans
Played for Geelong from 1971-74 for 59 games and 26 goals; then 232 games and 1019 goals for Port Adelaide from 1975-86, winning premierships in 1977 and 1979-81.
Originally from Penguin in Tasmania, Evans arrived on the mainland to play with Geelong where he managed 59 games in four seasons before Port Adelaide offered him a game and a full-time job. He took up the offer as a potential defender, given he spent most of his career there at half-back, but John Cahill took one look at him and suggested he play forward. From there, a South Australian star was born as he kicked 1019 goals in 232 games between 1975 and 1986. He is the final eligible 1000-goal player to be inducted into the hall of fame (Lance Franklin is not yet eligible) and a four-time premiership player. He kicked the ton in three seasons, including 146 goals in 1980, as well as ending three seasons in the nervous 90s.
David Kantilla
Played 113 games for South Adelaide from 1961-66, kicking 106 goals. Also played 180 (est) games for St Mary’s between 1958-59 and 1968-69. He won a South Adelaide premiership in 1964, St Mary’s premierships 1958-59, 1959-60, 1965-66 and 1966-67.
A Northern Territory football legend, he emerged from the Tiwi Islands to play for St Mary’s before travelling to South Adelaide, where he became a champion ruckman under Neil Kerley. Kantilla’s ruckwork was good enough to win three best and fairests with his two clubs and be best on ground in South Adelaide’s 1964 flag. Named on the interchange in the Indigenous Team of the Century, he was the first Tiwi Islands player to build a career in the SANFL. Under the law at the time, Kantilla was not considered a citizen, meaning South Adelaide had to regularly inform Northern Territory authorities about his activity. He endured that discrimination to forge his name, with the function room at Darwin’s TIO Stadium named after him. He died in 1978.
Hayden Kennedy
Umpired 495 VFL/AFL games from 1988 to 2011, including five grand finals.
Umpires don’t normally win popularity contests, but you would be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t like and respect Kennedy. He umpired 495 matches – which was a record at the time – including 39 finals and five grand finals from 1988-2011 before spending another decade at the AFL as umpiring coach. He continues to coach umpires at state level.
John Worsfold
Played 209 games and kicked 37 goals for West Coast from 1987-98 (captained 138 games and won premierships in 1992 and 1994), was West Coast coach for 281 games from 2002-13 (including the premiership in 2006), coached Essendon for 107 games 2016-2020.
Football’s Clark Kent was the bespectacled pharmacist by profession and the silent assassin in a West Coast jumper as a footballer. His bumps were famous as he showed incredible timing to strike fear into opponents and set the right tone for his more skilful teammates to control games. Worsfold became captain in 1991 at the age of 22 and led his team into three grand finals in four years for two premierships as a hard-nosed defender. The 1992 flag was the first won by a team from outside Victoria. He then became coach in 2002, leading the Eagles to their third flag in 2006. The Eagles view him as the most significant person in club history as he captained their first two flags and coached them to their third. He had a short stint as Essendon coach as they tried to recover from the crisis brought on by the drugs saga, before returning to the Eagles to support their football department.
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