Wearing No.14 for the bulk of their careers, the pair played a combined 471 games for the Swans, captaining the club for a combined 19 years and winning four Brownlow Medals – three to Skilton and one to Kelly.
As two of the club’s most revered figures, Skilton and Kelly joined the present bearer of the No.14 guernsey, midfielder Craig Bird, to launch the Swans’ Hall of Fame on Tuesday.
Selectors Rick Quade, Jim Main, Mark Branagan and Dean Moore have compiled a shortlist of 90 players from almost 1500 who have worn the red and white.
The inaugural members of the Swans Hall of Fame will be announced on Saturday, July 18 at the Palladium at Crown in Melbourne after the club’s clash against Carlton at Docklands.
Skilton said the Hall of Fame was an appropriate way to acknowledge the contributions of those who had made a major contribution to the club’s history, alongside the all-time greats featured in the club’s Team of the Century.
“When you’re picking a Team of the Century, you can’t play your second and third-best centremen on a half-back flank or a half-forward flank,” he said.
“And it’s not just the players. Footy clubs are made up of more than just the players – the property steward, the guy who rubs you down year after year.”
Kelly – who Skilton nominated as his favourite Swans player – said the club’s history had become more important to him after retiring in 2002.
“You’re looking in from the outside and you realise what you did and who you were, whereas when you’re doing it, you’re just doing it. You’re just trying to be as good as you can be that week and better the next week,” he said.
“You’re aware that you’re a leader of the footy club as a captain and you’re setting an example, but when you get away and look back and you watch the blokes that are doing it now, you think ‘That was my role when I was there,’ and it makes you feel pretty good.”
Bird, the Swans’ incumbent No.14, said it was a “massive honour” to carry the famous number but he admitted to some trepidation when it was first offered to him.
“I knew about the history and the players that had worn it before me and I was taken aback a bit by it at first; I didn’t know if I really deserved to wear it,” he said.
“But I spoke to a few different people and they reckoned it was a good idea. It’s more just about worrying about my own sort of path and not worrying about the players that have worn it before me and the pressure that might go with it.”
There was no pressure coming from Skilton, who said he was simply pleased that his old number was still being carried on to the field each week.
“I just love seeing somebody run around in it. I didn’t like it and neither did Kell when no one had it,” he said.
“All I ask of anybody is that they give their best. I just say to the kids, ‘Go out and enjoy yourself. Make sure when you come off the ground that you couldn’t have done any better.’ If everybody does that, even if you lose, you can all hold your heads high.”
