Laurie Nash is the best 99-game player in AFL history.

While any such claim is entirely subjective, the career summary of the great South Melbourne centre half forward of the 1930s makes a compelling case to support it.

In his 99 games he kicked 246 goals, was three times runner-up in the club best and fairest, led the club goal-kicking twice, was runner-up twice and third once, and finished top four in Swans Brownlow Medal vote count every year.

In six years he played in five grand finals, winning a premiership in his 18^th game in 1933 before finishing on the losing side in 1934, ’35 and ‘36 and, after an eight-year break from the game, in 1945.

Appointed South Melbourne captain at 26 after just 69 games, he did enough in his comparatively short time in the red and white to earn selection in the Swans Team of the Century, and inclusion among the inaugural inductees to the Swans Hall of Fame and the AFL Hall of Fame.

Of Nash’s 24 Team of the Century teammates only Gerard Healy (81), and Tony Lockett (98) played fewer games for the Swans, and they had fine careers elsewhere before joining the club.

When announcing their inaugural Hall of Famers in 1996, the AFL wrote of Nash: “One of the most gifted players ever. His career was half as long as many, but it shone twice as brightly as most. Considered by many judges the best player in the land”. 

So highly regarded was Nash as a Swans champion that when the club won the 2005 AFL premiership to end a 72-year premiership drought since the 1933 flag in which he had played, the Herald Sun featured Nash in a celebratory cartoon. It showed Swans players surrounding Nash, who was wearing his South Melbourne jumper while drinking from the premiership cup.

And, on top of all that, amazingly, he is among 16 people to have played AFL football and Test cricket for Australia.

The stocky 175cm blonde was clearly one of the most gifted sportsmen Australia has seen, and contrary to cricketing footballers of the modern era he never had to choose between the willow and the Sherrin.

From season to season he managed to combine his two sporting loves in a remarkable journey that mixed his majestic twin talents with a professionalism that was decades ahead of his time, a brash public confidence and a more private humility that that only those close to him saw often.

It was a career in which football and cricket were inextricably intertwined, and it is impossible to consider one without the other despite the reality that if things had worked out differently at times it could have been a completely different story, and the Swans could have been denied the artistry of the undersized key forward cum defender.

The Nash era at the Swans began 85 years ago, on 29 April 1933, when he debuted against Carlton at Princes Park, playing across half back. Despite five goals from Bob Pratt, who would later join Nash in the Swans Team of the Century, the Blues won by four points.

Nash was three days short of his 23^rd birthday when he began his short but glittering career in jumper #25 for the Swans, which in itself was a considerable achievement because he had been prohibited by his father from playing senior football until he turned 20.

Bob Nash had played 88 games for Collingwood, captaining the club in 1908-09, and been Footscray captain-coach in 1910-11 before their entry to the then VFL in 1925. But despite his own football pedigree he considered cricket a better and longer career option.

In 1929 Nash Sr put a further obstacle on the football pathway when he moved his family, including his multi-talented teenage son, to Tasmania.

In December of that year Nash, who had played two years of grade cricket in Melbourne as a teenager, made his first-class cricket debut for Tasmania against Victoria.

Four months later, just after his 20^th birthday, he made his senior football debut in the Northern Tasmanian Football Association with City, coached by former St Kilda and South Melbourne ruckman Roy Cazaly.

In his first season of senior football he represented Tasmania at the national carnival in Adelaide where, playing in defence, he won the medal for the State’s best player.

Nash played 45 games for City alongside brother Robert Jr from 1930-32, winning premierships in ’30 and ’32 and was judged best player in the NTFA in 1931 and ’32.

Still he was torn between sports, having made his Test cricket debut for Australia against South Africa at the MCG on 12 February 1932. Still only 21, he was the first Tasmanian-based player to play for Australia in 30 years and would be the last until Roger Woolley debuted in 1983.

The only genuinely fast bowler chosen in an Australian team which already held a 4-0 lead in the five-Test series, Nash took 4-18 in the South African first innings and 1-4 in the second innings as the tourists were routed for 36 and 45 in a match which finished in less than six hours of actual play.

He made 11 batting at No.6 in the Australian innings of 156 in which fellow debutant Jack Fingleton made 40 on a young Don Bradman, playing his 19^th Test, did not bat due to injury.

In the summer of 1932-33 England visited Australia for what was to become the famous Bodyline series. Nash was overlooked for the start of the series, but after England’s tactics of sustained and fast short-pitched bowling at the body of the Australian batsmen, Australian vice-captain Vic Richardson called for Nash to be included.

Richardson’s idea was to fight fire with fire, and was later supported by Fingleton, who wrote that the Australian selectors had erred in not playing Nash.

But the Australian cricket authorities, having protested about the English tactics, believed the inclusion of Nash would only aggravate an already tense situation, and Australian captain Bill Woodfull, believed the tactics to be unsportsmanlike, refused to follow suit.

Quickly, cricket’s loss became football’s gain. Several VFL clubs, believing Nash was a better footballer than a cricketer, vigorously pursued him and his brother.

South, with the help of Cazaly and City club president Hugh Cameron, a close friend of ex-South captain and committeeman Joe Scanlan, won the battle. It didn’t hurt, either, that they offered Nash an unprecedented three pounds per match, plus accommodation and a job in a local sports sore.

Such was the public interest in Melbourne prior to Nash’s commitment to the Swans that when Scanlan travelled to Tasmania to sign him he was smuggled aboard the trans-Tasman steamer Naitana to avoid media attention. And when he played his first game for South 432 days after his first cricket match for Australia a near record crowd of 38,000 turned up.

With Nash quickly becoming a huge favorite, South, coached for the first time by Jack Bissett, later to be named coach of the club’s Team of the Century, finished second on the home-and-away ladder, two wins behind Richmond.

They beat the Tigers by 18 points in the semi-final and repeated the dose by 45 points in the grand final to claim the club’s third premiership. Playing at centre half back, Nash took 13 marks, had 29 kicks and was generally considered best afield.

Later he was rated the best defender in the competition since World War I by the Sporting Globe and was runner-up in the club best and fairest to Harry Clarke, later a teammate in the Team of the Century.

Special moments for Nash thereafter were countless, but none were better than his 1934 debut for Victoria against South Australia at the MCG. He kicked two goals early from centre half forward, and after Big V full forward Bill Mohr was forced off through injury he moved to the goal square and kicked 16 more. His tally of 18 goals in a 105-point Victorian win was the equal of the all-time VFL/AFL single game record, set by Melbourne’s Fred Fanning in 1947.

Ironically, in the same year as Nash kicked his 18 goals for Victoria clubmate Pratt kicked an all-time record 150 goals for South.

In 1935 Nash was judged the VFL’s best player by the Sporting Globe despite finishing second to Ron Hillis in the club best & fairest, and in ’36, when he was appointed vice-captain, he was runner-up in the best & fairest yet again, this time behind Herbie Matthews, who finished third in the Brownlow Medal.

That despite Nash being judged "VFL Best Player" by the Sporting Globe again, "VFL Footballer of the Year" by the Melbourne Herald and "VFL Player of the Year" by The Australian.

Still, South lost the 1934 grand final to Richmond, when Nash kicked six goals, and in 1935-36 were beaten in the premiership decider by Collingwood.

Nash had had five years out of the cricketing spotlight, despite dominating district cricket, and although he never played a Sheffield Shield match he was chosen to represent Victoria against the visiting Englishmen in the summer of 1936-37, thereby becoming the first person to represent two different states in football and cricket.

He took 2-21 and 2-16 against England in the tour match and was chosen for the deciding Fifth Test of the Ashes series at the MCG.

With memories of the Bodyline series still strong, Nash’s selection reportedly caused much angst in the English camp and visiting captain Gubby Allen pressed for his exclusion. He even organised a private lunch with Bradman, by now the Australian captain, to push the matter.

Bradman refused to omit the tearaway quick, believing “his presence in the team would be a psychological threat to England whether he bowled bouncers or underarm grubbers”.

Allen then approached the Australian Board of Control. It was reported that they were about to agree to the tourists’ demands when the Australian selectors threatened to resign if Nash did not play. Allen then told the umpires that if Nash bowled one ball aimed at the body he would immediately take his batsmen off the ground.

After Australia made 604, with centuries to Bradman, Stan McCabe and Jack Badcock, they rolled England for 239 and 165 to win by an innings and 200 runs. Nash took 4-70 and 1-34.

Fifty-two days later, on 24 April 1937, Nash added another line to his extraordinary sporting career when he began a stint as South Melbourne captain. Appointed by new coach Cazaly, he found himself in charge of a team hit hard by off-season player losses.

In Round 9 Nash kicked a personal-best nine goals against Footscray at Western Oval, but despite his wonderful lone hand the Swans won just six games and finished ninth.

As yet again Nash put away his boots and pulled out his cricketing whites it was widely assumed he would be chosen for the 1938 Ashes Tour. But despite continuing to terrorise batsmen at district level, he was not selected for Victoria. And so, at 26, his first-class cricket career ended.

His career Test figures of 10 wickets at an average of 12.60 places sees him fourth on the list of averages for bowlers to have taken 10 or more Test wickets, and best by an Australian.

So, it was back to football, but not to the Swans. Instead he caused a sensation when he defected from the VFL to the VFA after the second-tier football body had launched an audacious bid to elevate the competition’s popularity.

In a series of short-lived changes designed to create a faster version of the game they legalised throwing the ball in general play, among other rule changes, and abandoned the requirement for players to obtain a clearance when transferring from the VFL to the VFA (or vice-versa).

Nash was the first player to defect, accepting an offer of eight pounds a week to be captain-coach of Camberwell in the VFA, three points a week to be captain-coach of Camberwell Cricket Club in the sub-districts competition, and a job with the Camberwell Council.

South Melbourne and the VFL objected amid threats of legal action and South made a public appeal for a suitable job for Nash in the hope that would lure him back, but nothing came of it. Nash played four years at Camberwell, kicking 418 goals in 74 games, including 100 in 1939 and 141 in 1941, and was banned from the VFL for three years.

On 2 February 1942, after war with Japan had broken out, Nash enlisted to join the Australian armed forces. Again, he found himself amid a raging controversy.

Realising the public relations value of the sporting superstar, officers recommended Nash be seconded to the Army School of Physical Training, where Bradman had been given a commission.

It offered greater pay and rank, and ensured Nash would not be posted overseas, but Nash refused, saying he did not want to be treated any differently to other recruits. So, he found himself in the Second Australian Imperial Force, where he attained the rank of Trooper.

He was posted to the 2/2^nd Pioneer Battalion, which had previously seen overseas action, and was sent to New Guinea, where a jeep crash caused further injury to Nash’s already bad knees and in February 1944 he was given a medical discharge. 

Despite his chronically arthritic knees, Nash traded his jungle greens for football attire. He sought a return to South, believing he had served his three-year suspension, but there were complications after he had played two games of football for his old boy scout troop while on leave in mid-1942.

It was initially ruled that, because they were competition matches, he had not sat out of football for three years, but after a South Melbourne appeal a special meeting of the VFL changed the rules so that ex-servicemen would not be penalised for playing in minor matches.

Nash was almost 35 when he returned to South in Round 1, 1947, and kicked three goals in his 83^rd game for the Swans as they beat St Kilda by 41 points at Junction Oval.

So bad were his knees that Nash spent most Sundays in hospital having fluid drained from them, but still he was a valuable player for new coach Bill Adams. He kicked a season-high seven goals in Round 12 against St Kilda and after six goals in Round 15 and Round 18 he topped his team’s goal-kicking with an even 50 as they finished the home-and-away season top of the ladder with a 16-4 record, one better than second-placed Collingwood.

He kicked four goals in the Swans’ 11-point semi-final win over the Pies and two goals in the grand final but was denied a fairytale end to his career when the Swans lost to Carlton by 28 points.

He trained with South during the 1946 pre-season but instead of playing he accepted a position as captain-coach of Wangaratta in the Ovens and Murray League for a salary of 12 pounds a week – four times what he would have earned in the VFL.

So well was he paid that he did not need to work, making him one of the first fully professional footballers as he led Wangaratta to the 1946 flag.

Remarkably, in the same season he also led Greta to the Ovens and King League premiership after taking on the job as a favour to a friend.

In 1947 he captain-coached Casterton in western Victoria, still on his 12 pounds a week, and after they lost the grand final by a point he retired.

His coaching success in country Victoria saw him appointed South Melbourne coach in 1953. After a solid start the team was hit hard by injuries and finished eighth in the 12-team competition with a 9-9 record.

Nash reportedly drew criticism for not being able to understand how players were unable to do things on the football field that had come so naturally to him, and although he was originally appointed for two years the club advertised the coaching job for ’54 and chose his long-time former teammate Matthews over him.

Instead Nash worked in the media, quickly establishing a reputation as a fearless commentator on football and cricket. He was also a publican until ill-health got him. He died on 24 July 1986 aged 76.

Richmond legend Jack Dyer once said of Nash he was: “Inch for inch, pound for pound, the greatest player in the history of Australian Rules", adding "He was the only man I knew who could bite off more than he could chew and chew it.”

Champion Collingwood full-forward Gordon Coventry, whose record of 1299 VFL goals stood for 62 years before it was bettered by Lockett, said if Nash had played at full-forward for his entire career, he would have kicked more goals than anyone.

In 1936 Coventry reportedly said that Nash was the best player he had seen: "No player is more versatile for he can play anywhere. He is fast, has great control of the ball, kicks with either foot and has that little bit of ‘devil’ so essential in the makeup of a champion of today."

In retirement, Nash was asked why he never won a Brownlow Medal. He replied, "I was never the best and fairest, but I reckon I might have been the worst and dirtiest. I played it hard and tough."

So is he the best 99-game player in League history? Hard to argue he’s not, but there have been others who had their own highly compelling 99-game careers.

Essendon champion Harold Lambert played no less than seven grand finals in his 99-game career for three premierships in 1946, ’49 and ‘50, a draw in 1948, and three losses in 1941, ’47 and ‘51. And he missed the 1948 grand final replay when the Bombers were beaten by Melbourne.

Melbourne Hall of Famer Peter Marquis squeezed four grand finals into his 99 games for wins in 1955, ’56 and ‘57 before a loss in 1958.

And, remarkably, the great Cazaly had not one by two 99-game careers. He played 99 games with St Kilda from 1911-20, including the 1913 grand final, and 99 games with South Melbourne from 1921-27.

Bert Franks also played 99 games for the Swans from 1906-13 for a grand final win in 1909 and a grand final loss in 1912, while John Pitura played 99 games for the club from 1969-74 before switching to Richmond.