THE ELEVATION of South Australian goalkicking great Ken Farmer to Legend status in the Australian Football Hall of Fame kicked off an historic night on Tuesday as trailblazing AFLW greats Daisy Pearce and Erin Phillips were celebrated alongside AFL champions Garry Lyon, Luke Hodge and Nick Riewoldt. 

Farmer, whose statue stands outside Adelaide Oval, became the 33rd Legend in the history of the game and was celebrated as a goalkicking marvel who booted 100 goals or more for 11 consecutive seasons between 1930-1940, retiring with a still-SANFL record 1417 goals.

The North Adelaide great, who passed away in 1982, was acknowledged with the long-awaited honour on a night that celebrated players for their careers across generations and competitions on the 30th anniversary of the Hall of Fame.

The other new inductees were champion East Perth ruckman turned umpire George Owens, Tasmanian great John Leedham, and South Adelaide ruckman Peter Darley, with Hodge, Pearce and Phillips all ‘first-ballot’ entries after serving the required time in retirement.

Riewoldt, meanwhile, agreed to the honour in 2023 when first eligible but was part of this year’s ceremony after living abroad with his family in the United States during the previous two seasons.

A change to criteria last year allowed AFLW players to be inducted one year after their retirement, allowing Pearce and Phillips to jointly become the first AFLW players included in the Hall of Fame after their recent retirements in 2022 and 2023 respectively. Women’s football pioneer Debbie Lee was previously the only female inducted.

Farmer joined the Hall of Fame in 1998 after a 224-game career in which he was held goalless only once when injured early, leading North Adelaide’s goalkicking between 1929-1941 and the SANFL’s goalkicking from 1930-1940.

The most prolific goalkicker in South Australian football history, he captained his beloved Roosters in three separate stints from 1934-35, 1937-38 and in 1941, going on to coach the club to premierships in 1949 and 1952.

His playing career finished when he enlisted in the Air Force for the World War II effort, hanging up his boots with a slew of incredible goalkicking records. He averaged 6.3 goals a game across his career, booted 10 goals or more in a match 35 times, and enjoyed a career-best return of 23 goals in a single game.

An AFLW icon who was the face of the League through its formative years, Pearce joins the Hall of Fame after a trailblazing career that ended after she lifted the Premiership Cup with her Demons in 2022.

A three-time All Australian, Pearce was the first player picked by the Demons for a pair of exhibition games against the Western Bulldogs in 2013, dominating those early showpiece matches and once the competition proper started in 2017.

She helped pioneer the women’s game through the VFLW and VWFL, winning 10 premierships with Darebin between 2006-2017, and is now leading a new generation of stars as West Coast’s AFLW coach.

Phillips joins the Hall of Fame as an inaugural inductee from the AFLW having retired in 2023 as the competition’s most decorated player in a stunning 66-game career with Adelaide and Port Adelaide.

A champion midfielder/forward who captained clubs in six of her eight seasons, Phillips retired in 2023 after three premierships with the Crows (2017, 2019 and 2022),  three All-Australian selections, two club best and fairests and two AFLW best and fairest awards.

An elite international basketballer, she returned home to play in the AFLW when it was formed in 2017 and now joins her father Greg, a Port Adelaide SANFL and Collingwood champion, in the Hall of Fame.

Hodge is the most recent of the AFL greats inducted on Tuesday night having retired at the end of 2019 as a four-time premiership player with Hawthorn across 305 games, capping his career with two seasons at Brisbane as an influential playing mentor.

The triple premiership captain of the Hawks’ famous 2013-15 three-peat, Hodge retired as a dual club champion, three-time All Australian, and a Norm Smith medallist in the 2008 and 2014 flags.

The No.1 pick in 2021 ‘Super Draft’ was among the AFL’s premier midfielders in his prime and one of the modern game’s most revered leaders, always boasting a sharp football mind but transforming his fitness and professionalism under Alastair Clarkson.

Riewoldt retired in 2017 after 336 games and 718 goals, with his induction into the Hall of Fame two years’ overdue, with this year being the first opportunity he has had to attend with his family.

The St Kilda champion is the first player to join the Hall of Fame after being drafted with the first selection in an AFL National Draft, having joined the Saints from Queensland at the end of 2000 and settling as a centre-half forward at AFL level.

A six-time best and fairest and five-time All Australian, the athletic and hard-running goalkicker became one of St Kilda’s greatest players, captaining the club in 2005 and from 2007-16 and spearheading its charge to the 2009 and 2010 Grand Finals.

Lyon‘s induction into the Hall of Fame comes almost 26 years after his retirement in 1999, with the popular and respected media figure recognised for a 226-game career with Melbourne that started in 1986 and saw him excel at both ends of the ground.

A captain of Victoria at the height of State of Origin popularity, Lyon was a dual All-Australian as a centre half-back early in his career before moving forward to win three more selections and kick the bulk of his 426 career goals.

A key driver and later captain of the Melbourne team that reached the unsuccessful 1988 Grand Final and two other preliminary finals, he was on hand at the 2021 Grand Final in Perth to hand over the Premiership Cup to his Demons.

Owens was a champion player for East Perth between 1917-32, playing 195 games in the WAFL, 17 representative games for Western Australian and winning seven premierships for the Royals.

The 1925 Sandover medallist as the League best and fairest later turned his attention to umpiring and joins 14 other whistleblowers in the Hall of Fame, with the ruckman keen to give back to the game after retiring as one of Western Australia’s football greats.

Leedham, who was an inaugural Legend in the Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame in 2005 and an Icon in 2014, is widely considered the State’s greatest player to never play in the VFL/AFL.

A ruck-rover and captain-coach with both North Launceston and North Hobart through his 238-game career, he represented Tasmania in 13 games at national carnivals and was the State’s first player selected as an All Australian in 1953.

South Adelaide ruckman Darley was a SANFL star in the centre square during the 1960s, playing 206 games for the Panthers, winning seven club champion awards.

A charismatic figure, he featured in the stunning 1964 premiership that saw South Adelaide rise from last to first under coach Neil Kerley, also starring in 13 games with South Australia and earning All Australian selection in 1969.