Past Sydney Swans players have paid tribute to former coach Tom Hafey who passed away on Monday.

After successful stints at Richmond, Collingwood and Geelong, Hafey coached the Swans for 70 games between 1986-88, including two finals campaigns.

Dennis Carroll

“It was terribly sad news. I was aware of Tommy’s illness but to be told that he had passed away is just tragic news for everyone, including his family and everyone in the entire AFL community, particularly the players and clubs he was involved with.

Tommy was an absolute disciplinarian and he took us from being a so-so team and took us to being a really competitive, fit and professional outfit. Tommy’s persona, which he lived daily, was about professionalism, fitness and a healthy lifestyle and he certainly passed on those key qualities to our playing group. Within in a very short time, he took us from being a middle-of-the-road team to contenders for the premiership.

His fanaticism, his positiveness, and his ability to get around the entire group and mould the club will be what I remember of him. Just his general positive outlook on life was something that has left fond memories.”

Warwick Capper

“It was a bit of shock and horror, but I was sort of expecting it because I spoke to his wife yesterday and she said he was in a coma and that things weren’t looking too good, so I was kind of expecting it. It was a bit of a shock with him being such an icon of the game itself and that everyone loved him and everyone went the extra mile for Tommy.

We used to think ‘gee, he’s training us hard’, but then we realised that he was doing the same thing, so we loved it. He was the only person who would look in the mirror longer than me, so it was good. We were both good-looking males, so there was a lot of mirror time for Tommy!

He had a simple game plan and we were the fittest team in the competition. We just missed out on the grand final two years in a row, so he got us to the finals. I kicked 195 goals under him in two years. He didn’t make it too hard. It was quite a simple thing with the SCG because it was so small. We kicked 30 goals in three weeks, which was a record in the VFL/AFL.

He will be dearly missed in the football world. He’s got a great family and he’s got a great wife and kids and grandkids. At least he lived every day to the fullest and he will be remembered as a great role model and a family man.”

Craig Holden

“The fact of the matter is that Tommy had, of those 82 years, I would have thought 60 years of feeling good every day because he was fit, he was healthy and he got himself out of bed and got involved in the day. Fundamentally, he died from a brain tumour, but when you get out of bed at 5:15am every morning and you engage the day, life is going to be good.

If you looked at Tommy’s game plan or game style, it was a very attacking game plan and was about really taking the game on, and I think that’s what he did in life - he took it on.

I enjoyed played under Tommy. It was pretty clear what your role was and what the expectations of you were and I liked the fact that we trained hard because we basically were really fit and we ran hard, but that was because we trained hard.”

Barry Mitchell

"When I first moved to Sydney Tommy was my coach.

He encouraged me to get really fit and I remember fondly he used to say "sprint away now Bazza boy".

He has been a great of the game and lived the values he spoke to us."

Rod Carter

“Tommy brought an incredible amount of professionalism to the Swans. He was a person who expected success and I think those were the first impressions we got.

I found Tommy very supportive, but he was very hard. He really liked his team fit but I found him to be very, very fair. I think if you performed okay, then he was very happy to back you to the hilt.

I got a phone call from him unbelievably just two weeks ago. He left a message just to say that everything was fine and that was it. I thought everything was fine and I hadn’t followed it up, but then I heard he was back in hospital again, so it came as a bit of a surprise. Because he was such a fit character and lived such a clean lifestyle, we all thought that he was going to live forever.”

Neil Cordy

“I’d heard that Tommy had been ill but it was definitely a shock because everybody who knew Tommy knew what how indestructible he was. If ever there was anybody who would live to 100, you would have really thought it would have been Tommy Hafey.

What Mick Malthouse said was right, in that he was a great coach but he was also a great man. He was a fantastic motivator. His great talent was getting the best out of people. He was only at the Swans for three years but he had a huge impact. Unfortunately we didn’t win any finals but we had a couple of top four finishes and with a little bit of luck we could have done a bit better.

He made a massive contribution and one of the things he did at the Swans that didn’t get a lot of recognition was that he moulded the existing players that were there and the stars that were recruited. That was Gerard Healy, Greg Williams, Bernard Toohey, Glen Coleman, David Bolton, Merv Neagle, who were all really talented players, but he made that group work and fit in with the existing players. He made it all work together and made it a really competitive side.

I really enjoyed playing for Tommy. The funny thing about him was the things he used to say. He had these funny old sayings like: “head like a boarding house pudding”, meaning that somebody was big-headed or if somebody was courageous he said they had a “heart like a cabbage” or if somebody couldn’t play he’s say “Look, the boy can’t play. Even his mother would tell you that!” He had all of these old sayings, which were fun.”