AFL great reveals wake-up call that set him on road to glory Spida’s tough lesson
HE has nearly 300 games under his belt and is a household name for any AFL fan, but the path to becoming a Hall of Fame inductee wasn’t always an easy one.
Next month, Gold FM radio host and former highprofile AFL player Peter ‘Spida’ Everitt will be inducted into the St Kilda Hall of Fame after 183 games and 10 years with the club.
Everitt said he began playing for the club in 1993 when he was 17 or 18 years old and remembers the St Kilda club doing a countdown of the most professional to the least professional of AFL players.
“It was the main way we used to have to judge the players, from one being the most professional player, to 51, the least professional player,” he said.
“I came in 50th, for being one of the most undisciplined and unprofessional players. That was a real wake-up call to be more professional.
“They’d stand up at the front and tell us (the results) in front of everyone.” But Everitt says that little push helped to ensure he matured into a solid player, coming up from the under-19s, then reserves, then seniors, before finally moving on to Hawthorn, where he spent four years.
He then spent the following two years playing for Sydney before retiring.
While Everitt has lived on the Gold Coast since 2010, St Kilda still felt like home for him in many ways.
“I walk back in there after 15 years, they have the same doctors, trainers, the same volunteers … there’s that passion about the club,” he said.
Everitt said one of the greatest honours was being able to play among other players such as Tony Lockett and Nicky Winmar, while one of the funniest memories he had was having to tie a helium balloon to the back of his daughter’s dress when she was a young child so he could keep an eye on her when they spent time at the social club.
Everitt will be inducted into the St Kilda Hall of Fame on March 7.