PETER Bedford, who won the Brownlow Medal in 1970, has been elevated to Legend status at the Swans Hall of Fame event on Saturday night.
Before an audience of more than 750 people at the Bayside Grand Hall of the Sydney Convention Centre, the brilliant centreman who played 178 games in the red and white was made a Bloods Legend, to join Bob Pratt, Bob Skilton and Paul Kelly, who were named as Legends at the inaugural Swans Hall of Fame in 2009.
Bedford captained the Swans from 1973 to 1976 and won the Club Best and Fairest award five times between 1969 and 1975.
In an emotional speech, Bedford, who grew up in Port Melbourne barracking for South Melbourne, spoke of how moved he was to receive the honour.
"I didn't play my first league game until I was 21 but I had so many good people around to guide me,'' said the ever-humble Bedford.
"Whenever I went out to play I took the attitude that I wanted to help make my team-mates the best players on the ground.''
Bedford said he was proud to be associated with the red and white for such a long period of his life. "I love the way we go about our football. I came up a few years ago to the Guernsey Presentation and to hear the leaders speak there, I know our club is in good hands.''
A total of 27 former champion players and coaches, selected from the past 137 years of Swans history, joined the 23 former players who were named in the Hall of Fame two years ago.
There was a strong presence from those who were involved in the historic 2005 premiership. Premiership coach Paul Roos, the Club’s games record holder Michael O’Loughlin and his fellow premiership players Brett Kirk and “Leaping’’ Leo Barry were inducted.
O’Loughlin and Kirk have just returned to Australia after being involved with the AIS-AFL Academy team which toured Europe.
Kirk is only back in the country for the weekend and will then return to join his family on their trip around Europe.
O’Loughlin played 303 games for the Swans in a brilliant career that spanned from 1995 to the end of 2009.
Swans chief executive Andrew Ireland paid tribute to O’Loughlin. “It’s almost impossible to describe in words the impact that Michael has had on this Club as a player, leader, ambassador and personality.’’
O'Loughlin said he'd had the greatest job in the world, playing football, and was red and white forever.
The man Kirk has described as his “mentor’’, former captain Stuart Maxfield, was also inducted in the Swans Hall of Fame. “He was the architect of much of this Club’s success and culture and my mentor,’’ Kirk said.
Maxfield, who stepped down as captain in early 2005 due to an injury, said it had been an "honour to captain this great club''.
"You surround yourself with people who want to make a difference and want to improve and that's what the Swans are all about,'' Maxfield said.
Another of the Swans’ favourite sons, Mark Bayes, was also inducted. Bayes played 246 games and kicked 174 goals in a career that spanned from 1985 to 1998.
One of the Swans most talented and flamboyant players, Warwick Capper, also had the honour of being named in the Hall of Fame.
Capper lapped up the attention, took charge of the microphone and said the Swans would never regret inducting him into the Hall of Fame!
Famed for his tight shorts, long blonde hair and high-flying antics, Capper was also a brilliant goal kicker and one of the Swans most recognisable figures in the early days in Sydney.
He played 90 games in the red and white, kicking 317 goals. He was the Club’s leading goalkicker for four consecutive seasons from 1984 to 1987. In 1987, he became only the second player in the Club’s history, after the legendary Bob Pratt, to kick more than 100 goals in a season.
Gerard Healy who won a Brownlow Medal while playing for the Swans and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2009, said Capper was a remarkable figure.
“Unless you were in Sydney at the time, it’s hard to believe how big a personality he was, which in turn significantly lifted the profile of the Club - and the game as a whole. And it helped that he could play a bit as well.”
Sydney Swans chairman Richard Colless also announced that the Club was establishing its own Heritage List to honour significant places, events and objects in the Club’s history.
Colless unveiled the first six items:
*Leo Barry’s extraordinary mark at the end of the 2005 Grand Final
*The Club song "Cheer Cheer'' based on the Notre Dame Victory March
*Lake Oval in South Melbourne which was the Swans home ground for 100 years until 198
*The Swan emblem which came about in 1933 after a prominent journalist facetiously referred to the Club as the Swans because it had recruited so many players from Western Australia, where the Black Swan was the state emblem
*The red and white striped jumper worn in 1880 (which was reprised during last night’s game against Carlton)
*Long-standing principal corporate partner, QBE Insurance, which began its support in the 1980s when the Club was at one of its lowest points.
"There is no equivalent relationship that has ever existed between any major sponsor and an Australian sporting team,'' Colless said.
The full list of 2011 inductees follows:
Peter Bedford (elevated to Bloods Legend) 1968-1976, 178 games, 325 goals, 1970 Brownlow Medal, Captain 1973-1976, Best & Fairest 1969, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1975, Leading goal kicker 1971, 1972, 1973, Swans Team of the Century, Swans Hall of Fame inductee 2009
Henry (Sonny) Elms, Captain of VFA Premiership teams 1889, 1890, 1891, Coach 1918-1919
William (Bill) Windley 1897-1905, 129 games, 36 goals, Captain 1900, 1902
William (Bill) Thomas 1905-1913, 135 games, Coach 1910-1911, 1909 Premiership team
Len Mortimer 1906-1915, 153 games, Leading goalkicker 1906, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912, 1909 Premiership
Charlie Ricketts 1906-1912, 82 games, Captain-coach 1909, 1912, 1909 premiership
Edward (Ted) Johnson 1923-1931, 136 games, 385 goals, Leading goalkicker 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928
Len Thomas 1927-1938, 187 games, Best & Fairest 1931, 1938, 1933 Premiership, Captain 1938
William (Bill) Faul 1932-1938, 117 games, Coach 1960-1961, Swans Team of the Century
Jim Cleary 1934-1948, 222 games, Best & Fairest 1942, 1944
Jack Graham 1935-1949, 227 games, 233 goals, Captain 1946-48, Best & Fairest 1945, Champion of the Colony 1945
Bill Gunn 1952-1959, 104 games, Captain 1955, Leading goalkicker 1956
John Heriot 1958-1968, 153 games, Swans Team Of The Century
Graeme John 1964-1969, 77 games, Coach 1973-1975, All-Australian 1966
Rick Quade 1970-1980, 164 games, Captain 1977-1979, Best & Fairest 1976 Coach 1982-1984
Graham Teasdale 1975-1981, 125 games, 138 goals 1977 Brownlow Medal, Best & Fairest 1977, Swans leading goalkicker 1975, 1977
Tony Morwood 1978-1989, 229 games, 397 goals, Leading goalkicker 1979, 1982, Swans Team of the Century
Stephen Wright 1979-1992, 246 games, 247 goals, Best & Fairest 1985, 1990
Rod Carter 1980-1990, 217 games, 1 goal
Warwick Capper 1983-87; 1991, 90 games, 317 goals, Leading goalkicker 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987
David Murphy 1984-1993, 156 games, 92 goals, Swans Team of the Century, All Australian 1988
Mark Bayes 1985-98, 246 games, 174 goals, Best & Fairest 1989, All Australian 1989, Swans Team Of The Century
Andrew Dunkley 1992-2002, 217 games, 11 goals
Leo Barry 1995-2009, 237 games, 56 goals, All-Australian 2004, 2005; 2005 Premiership, Co-Captain 2006-2008
Michael O’Loughlin 1995-2009, 303 games, 521 goals, 2005 Premiership, Leading goalkicker 2000, 2001, All-Australian 1997, 2000, AFL Indigenous Team of the Century
Paul Roos 1995-1998, 87 games, All-Australian 1996, 1997, Coach 2002-2010, Jock McHale Medalist (Premiership Coach) 2005
Stuart Maxfield 1996-2005, 200 games, 87 goals, Captain 2003-2005
Brett Kirk 1999-2010, 241 games, 96 goals, All Australian 2004, 2005 Premiership, Best & Fairest 2005, 2007, Co-captain 2006-2010
