A LEGEND AT LAST: HALL OF FAME HONOURS ONE OF THE AFL’S FINEST

WHAT to ask Kevin Sheedy that hasn’t been asked before?

Umm, how do you fit 50 years of football into two tables of 10 at the AFL Hall of Fame dinner? “It will be all family,’’ he says. Sisters Barbara, Kathleen and Anne-Marie and brothers Patrick, John and Bernard filled one table.

“I haven’t see them for 50 years,’’ he laughed before becoming reflective. “My family has given so much for not seeing me, they should be there. It’s out of respect to your mum and dad, they were fantastic people, good hardworking people.’’

On the other table were Sheedy’s immediate family, wife Geraldine and grown children Renee, Sam, Jessica and Chelsea. “Geraldine has been a superstar. What do I say about having to put up with me?’

Not there last night was his mum and dad. His dad died at 50 when Sheedy was 18. Sad, isn’t it — his dad missed it all.

His boy wasn’t even at Richmond when he passed away. You have to wonder if dad could see then that shimmer of ruthlessness, which would create a legend at Richmond as a player and which would make a legendary coach at Essendon?

“I think about him all the time,’’ Sheedy said. “His name was Thomas Edward Sheedy, without a doubt a true hardworking man of Australia.’’ Reflection and introspection come on nights like last night, when your life is presented in terms of football and then family, when in fact it’s always family then football.

Sheedy was officially recognised by the AFL last night when the back-pocket plumber — which Tommy Hafey coined him in a speech at halftime of the 1975 preliminary final — and acclaimed Essendon coach was elevated to Legend in the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

That Hafey narration undersold Sheedy as a footballer, but never mind, it is as coach Sheedy now resides beside the likes of Reynolds, Barassi, Matthews, Jesaulenko, Bartlett and Blight.

They may have been better footballers than Sheedy, but their legend does not shine brighter.