CHAMPION Port Adelaide midfielder Russell Ebert has been honoured for his remarkable career by being posthumously elevated to Legend status in the Australian Football Hall of Fame tonight.
Port Adelaide chairman David Koch reflected on Ebert’s extraordinary contribution to Australian football.
“No person has done more to promote the virtues of Australian football both on and off the field than Russell Ebert. His elevation to Legend status in the Australian Football Hall of Fame is a richly deserved recognition for an all-time great of our game, Mr Koch said.
"We congratulate his widow Dian, children Tammie, Ben and Brett and the Ebert family on this recognition of Russell’s amazing influence on Australian Football.
“Born and raised in the Riverland of South Australia, Russell made Alberton his home from 1968 to include a club record 392 games, three premierships, six best-and-fairests and of course a record four Magarey Medals as fairest and best in the SANFL competition.
“On the field Russell was incomparable. Scrupulously fair, he always played the game in the right spirit. But Russell was tough, with his granite like physique, yet so balanced and poised he made the impossible look so routine. While Russell would evade and weave, the game would stop around him.
“Russell’s skills both on the ground and in the air were sublime. He played with equal doses of courage and brilliance which set him aside from any other player in South Australian history.
“And with a great sense of humour and insatiable willingness to put others first, Russell became one of the giants of South Australia.
“No person has done more for the Port Adelaide and South Australian football community than Russell Ebert. He represented everything about Port Adelaide, yet had the power to transcend rivalries and connect with the entire football community and beyond through his charity work.
“This is a man who made his family, his club and his community incredibly proud and he continues to do so tonight with this extraordinary honour.”
Ebert, who was an inaugural Australian Football Hall of Fame inductee in 1996, arrived at Alberton in 1968 from Waikerie.
Desperate to find an opening in Port Adelaide’s imposing League team, Ebert immediately raised his hand to play full-forward as a replacement for Eric Freeman who was called to Ashes cricket duties in the winter of 1968.
Ebert had rarely played full-forward previously, but he saw an opening and he gratefully accepted the opportunity on his way to topping Port Adelaide’s goalkicking list with 44 goals in 21 games.
However, it became very clear, very quickly that Ebert offered far more than a stay-at-home forward.
By the time he played his final match on September 7, 1985, Ebert was awarded a record four Magarey Medals, a club record six best-and-fairests and held the Australian record for most League games.
He was universally admired as the greatest player to grace the field in South Australia.
Upon his playing retirement, fellow Australian Football Hall of Fame inductee Port Adelaide chairman Bob McLean, declared, “It is the end of an era of the Port Adelaide Football Club – and the game generally. Port Adelaide, in particular, will be poorer now. He will no longer delight crowds with his superlative skills.
“He was always scrupulously fair in the way he played and was an object lesson to all footballers who aspire to be champions.
“He has been idolised by Port Adelaide fans and has been admired by supporters of other clubs. He is undoubtedly one of the all-time greats.”
Legendary Port Adelaide coach Fos Williams, also an Australian Football Hall of Fame inductee, once described Ebert as “the most skilful of all the Port Adelaide players coming under my control. There’s nothing he couldn’t do. He was a pleasure to coach.”
For all his individual accolades, Ebert’s greatest desire was team success. By his admission, Ebert’s greatest football achievement was captaining Port Adelaide to the famous drought-breaking flag in 1977.
Ebert described 1977 as a “monumental year” given the disappointments of previous Grand Finals.
“You can chuck in medals and State games and all that, but when you win that premiership you win it for the whole club, you win for every supporter,” Ebert said.
After a one-year stint at North Melbourne in 1979, Ebert returned to claim back-to-back flags with Port Adelaide in 1980 and 1981.
Until his playing retirement in 1985, Ebert captain-coached the club from 1983 to 1985, and was then non-playing coach in 1986 and 1987 before departing the club to coach Woodville from 1988 to 1990.
He returned to Port Adelaide in 1999 to launch the club’s school-based Community Youth Program which, to this day, is still promoting healthy lifestyle messages to Primary School students.
Russell Ebert OAM honours:
Playing career: 1968-1985
SANFL games: 392
SANFL goals: 294
VFL games: 25 for North Melbourne in 1979
VFL goals: 15
State games: 29
SANFL premierships: 1977, 1980, 1981
Port Adelaide best-and-fairest: 1971, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1981
Magarey Medallist: 1971, 1974, 1976, 1980
Club leading goalkicker: 1968 (44 goals)
PAFC Life Member: 1977
Jack Oatey Medallist: 1981
Australian Football Hall of Fame Inductee: 1996
Port Adelaide Hall of Fame Inductee: 1998
SANFL Hall of Fame Inductee: 2002
Member of Port Adelaide’s Greatest Team 1870-2000
Legend status in the South Australian Sport Hall of Fame: 2021
Legend status in the Australian Football Hall of Fame: 2022
