Bob Skilton is at home in Melbourne today, making sure all is ready for one of his favourite events of the year … the AFL Hall of Fame dinner.

It’s like a reunion for the South Melbourne champion, who was one of 12 inaugural legends inducted  into the Hall of Fame in 1996.

Now one of 27 Legends in a Hall of Fame that includes 201 players, 14 coaches, 14 umpires, 15 administrators and nine media identities, 79-year-old Skilton loves nothing more than catching up each year with people he has met through 63 years in football.

“It’s one of my favorite nights of the year,” Skilton told Gerard Whately on Melbourne’s SEN radio this morning. “It’s just wonderful to mix with and talk to all those guys.

“It’s 60 years since I ran around but I idolised those blokes, and I’m sure kids today are no different. In some cases, they are guys I looked up to in the early days, and otherwise young guys who you hope feel the same about you.”

Skilton is especially looking forward to catching up with the man who so proudly wore his #14 jumper with the Sydney Swans, Paul Kelly. “He’s my favourite – I used to love watching him play,” said the triple Brownlow Medallist. “And I’m so glad Buddy (Franklin) plays for us,” he added.

Skilton confirmed he hasn’t been in the best of health lately, following back problems, and would need a walking stick to get through the Hall of Fame dinner.

“From the waist up I’m going really well, but from the waist down it’s taking a long time and I don’t walk too well,” he said.

In typical Skilton fashion, he added a rider … “I go to rehab at the Epworth Hospital and I see kids who will never walk again so I can’t complain about a couple of crook legs,” he said.

At a time when the health of the game is under siege, with a lot of critics suggesting it’s not the spectacle it once was, Skilton has adopted a contrary view.

“I don’t see a lot wrong with the game” he said. “Sometimes you don’t like this or that, but they were probably saying the same thing 50 years ago and will still be going it in another 50 years.”

And the Swans? “I’m happy they are sitting nicely in fourth spot on the ladder and we’re going OK. I love the endeavour of blokes like our captain … the best thing Hawthorn ever did was give us Josh Kennedy.

“We’re missing a couple of tall fellas .. someone like Sam Reid .. but overall the club is in great shape. We’re well coached, and well administered.”

Having played 25 times for Victoria, Skilton rues the fact that players today are denied that very special honour.

“To represent your State and run out with players like Whitten, Barassi and Baldock .. it was just so good even though we knew a week later we’d be out there belting all hell out of each other. It was a real highlight for me.”

Similarly, he rues the fact that the old-time after-match functions have disappeared. “I know I’m old fashioned and I live in the past, but I feel sorry for players today that they don’t mix with players they play against.

“I remember Ron Clegg (South Melbourne Hall of Famer) introduced me to Ken Hands (Carlton Hall of Famer) for the first time and Ken said to me, “you’re the kid who ran into my elbow”.

Skilton was one of three Swans among the inaugural Hall of Fame Legends in 1996, sharing this special honour with Roy Cazaly and Bob Pratt plus Ron Barassi, Haydn Bunton, John Coleman, Jack Dyer, ‘Polly’ Farmer, Leigh Matthews, John Nicholls, Ray Reynolds and Ted Whitten.

Swans favourites who were also inaugural inductees to the Hall of Fame in 1996 were Vic Belcher, Clegg, John Rantall, Laurie Nash, Mark Tandy and Peter Burns, who was regarded as the game’s first superstar, having played with South Melbourne in the VFA and being judged Champion of the Colony in 1885, 1891 and 1893.

Herbie Matthews joined the Hall of Fame in 1997 and was followed by Peter Bedford (1999), Gerard Healy (2000), Barry Round and Greg Williams (2001),  Paul Roos (2005), Paul Kelly and Frank Johnson (2007).

In 2015, on a massive night for the red and white, Tony Lockett, former St Kilda star turned Swan who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2006, was elevated to Legend status and Michael O’Loughlin and Austin Robertson were inducted as Hall of Famers. Barry Hall followed in 2017.

Other Hall of Famer inductees who played with the Swans but were more strongly aligned with other clubs are Terry Daniher and Len Thompson (inducted in 1998), Dermott Brereton (1999) and John Murphy (2006).

Tom Hafey, who coached in the Swans in 1986-88 at the end of a career which also saw him take charge of Richmond, Collingwood and Geelong, heads the Swans representation among coaches in the Hall of Fame, along with West Australian Johnny Leonard, who was South captain-coach in 1932.

Carrying the flag for the Swans in the administrator category of the Hall of Fame was 1996 inductee Likely Herman ‘Like’ McBrien. South Melbourne secretary from 1922-28, he later served as VFL secretary from 1929-56 and was instrumental in the League buying its first head office in 1929 and in negotiations with the MCG Trust that saw the finals played at the ‘G’.

At a stretch, too, the Swans can claim South Australian player turned coach turned administrator Bob Hammond, who was inducted in the administrator category in 2015. He was the Swans interim coach for three games in 1984 after Ricky Quade and before John Northey.