Chris Judd's glittering AFL career has been saluted with his induction into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.
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Judd was among four inductees on Tuesday night in a television broadcast event alongside former St Kilda star Nathan Burke, Perth and Richmond great Rob Wiley and women's football pioneer Debbie Lee.
South Australian master coach Jack Oatey and Western Australian champion Merv McIntosh were elevated to Legend status.
A Brownlow Medal winner at two clubs, Judd retired in 2015 after 14 seasons and 279 games with West Coast (134) and Carlton (145).
The brilliant midfielder won the game's most coveted individual award for the first time in 2004, his third season at AFL level, and claimed the Norm Smith Medal in a losing grand final against Sydney the following year.
Judd captained West Coast in their nail-biting 2006 grand final win over the Swans, having taken over as skipper when troubled star Ben Cousins was stripped of the role earlier that year.
He left the Eagles at the end of 2007 to be the face of Carlton and claimed a second Brownlow in 2010, but could not repeat his premiership success with the Blues.
A six-time All Australian, Judd is due to step down from his role as a Carllton board member at the end of this season, ending his formal association with the club.
Judd said the 2004 Brownlow Medal ceremony - arguably best remembered for the iconic red dress dress worn by his now-wife Rebecca - not only changed his football career, but the couple's life.
"It was an incredible honour and very strange at the time to be a third-year player and still a baby in an AFL football sense to be heaped with that sort of award," Judd said on Fox Footy's Hall of Fame broadcast.
"It was a thrill, but it really did feel like a 'before and after' event.
"Some wonderful opportunities opened up from it, but life was just very different with things around privacy and having a partner who was seemingly public property as well.
"There were a lot of things to get used to and my memories are of a really special night and an exclamation point between life before then and life after it as well."
Oatey and McIntosh were both elevated posthumously, taking the total number of official Legends of the game to 31.
Oatey coached more than 500 wins with Norwood, West Adelaide and Sturt in a career that reaped 10 SANFL premierships, and had the competition's grand final best-on-ground medal named in his honour.
McIntosh was a three-time Sandover medallist and seven-time best-and-fairest winner with Perth.
He famously won the Simpson Medal as best afield in Perth's 1955 premiership, an instrumental figure as they overturned a 34-point deficit at half-time to upset East Fremantle.
Lee is the first female inducted - a quarter-century after the Hall of Fame's inception in 1996 - and was recognised for her years of service to football as a player and administrator.
Lee is now the general manager of women's football with the Western Bulldogs.
Burke, who coaches the Bulldogs' AFLW team, made his name as a tough midfielder for St Kilda (323 games) and Victoria (11).
Wiley starred on both sides of the country, playing in two WAFL premierships with Perth (1976-77) and one VFL flag with Richmond (1980).
He won eight best-and-fairest awards with the Demons.
Sydney's Indigenous champion Adam Goodes declined induction to the Hall of Fame this year because the game failed to adequately support him towards the end of his playing career.
Goodes retired in 2015 after persistent booing by crowds and the AFL has since apologised for its handling of the situation.
Norwood games record holder and dual premiership player Garry McIntosh also declined induction this year because he did not play the game for personal honours, Hall of Fame selection chair Richard Goyder said.
Australian Associated Press
