MOST players look for their names in the best player lists. John Abley searched for his opponent's name - and took delight if it was missing. He did not care if his own name was overlooked by the critics.

Every player wants to get a kick. John Abley was much more content if his opponent went without.

"John would be offended if his opponent got a kick let alone a goal against him," recalls team-mate and former coach Geof Motley. "He was tough - and mean."

John Abley was the grandest of full backs. He was Australia's best at three consecutive national carnivals: 1956 in Perth, 1958 in Melbourne and 1961 - his final season of league football - in Brisbane.

Along such a phenomenal command of the All-Australian full back position, Abley kept some of the most-celebrated forwards in Australian football out of the best-player lists and to minimal kicks and scores: Geelong pair George Goninon and Fred Wooller, future AFL Commission chairman Ron Evans (Essendon), former Port Adelaide team-mate Neil Hawke when he represented Western Australia, Tasmanian hero Noel Clarke and John Peck (both Melbourne) and Jack Gerovich (Western Australia).

A member of Port Adelaide's Greatest Team and Hall of Fame, an inductee to the SA Football Hall of Fame in 2002 - and now the 14th Port Adelaide player to join the Australian Football Hall of Fame in the same class as fellow Port Adelaide premiership defender Greg Phillips.

Port Adelaide's master coach John Cahill was starting his SANFL league career in 1958 when Abley had established himself as the game's best full back.

"John was very humble off the field, but on the ground he had that aura - you could see he was a class act," Cahill said. "He had very safe hands - he would never miss a mark. His kicking hit targets. He could read the play; he would see the ball early, as all good players do.

"He was quiet. But inside, there was that inner strength. He was ruthless - you would not have wanted to be playing against John Abley.

"To be the All-Australian full back every three years would have been considered impossible. But John was at his peak for those carnivals. He had pride in his performances.

"A wonderful man; a great player. You would want him on your side. As a player - and a man - he commanded instant respect."

Abley joined Port Adelaide in 1950, the same year Fos Williams moved from West Adelaide to Alberton to start the "Golden Era". Abley became a vital part of the "Six in a Row" premiership run from 1954-1959 (and one of only six players to feature in all six premiership teams).

But the path Abley took to Port Adelaide did create controversy, particularly when he appeared to be "pinched" from under Glenelg's nose in one of "Big Bob" McLean's greatest recruiting raids.

Abley was 19 and had been tried in the Hawthorn VFL reserves ranks when he moved to Adelaide on February 16, 1950. The Glenelg Football Club was expecting him to live at his parents' home at Tarcoola Street, Brighton for 13 weeks and thereby meet the SANFL's residential qualification rules.

But as soon as the teenager hopped off the Overland Express from Melbourne at the Adelaide Railway Station, he was taken to the Port Adelaide Football Club to be presented to the members at the annual meeting. He then was kept in the Port Adelaide district with his residence on Old Port Road at Queenstown while Port Adelaide Football Club chairman Arthur Swain dealt with the significant fall-out.

A decade after Abley's retirement - with 212 league games and seven premierships on his resume - McLean revealed a Hawthorn official had written to him during the summer with the advice Abley was a "promising player and worth signing".

In the old language, Abley was 6 foot 2, 13 1/2 stone. The scouting reports of today would have noted Abley was well built, had a safe (but not spectacular) mark, a long kick and a trademark stutter when taking kick-ins.

McLean always insisted he was first to contact Abley - not Glenelg. Nor South Adelaide or any other SANFL club.

"I wrote to him while he was still in Victoria and before I knew where he was going to live in Adelaide, offering him accommodation in our district," McLean said. "Up to that stage, no other South Australian football official or representative had been in touch with him.

"Next we knew, Glenelg had enticed him back to their district," added McLean while Glenelg accused Port Adelaide of "trafficking" by offering Abley a L100 "signing on" fee - later matched by a Glenelg supporter.

Before Abley had the chance to get his name in any team's best-player list, he was in the headlines as Port Adelaide and Glenelg played a tug-o-war battle for his services.

Port Adelaide won - and waited while Abley sat out the first seven games of the 1950 SANFL season to become residentially eligible to play for Port Adelaide. But where? Port Adelaide's most-immediate need was a centre half-forward, but Abley's first hit-outs were generally described as "mediocre".

At the end of the 1950 season, with Williams having to find a replacement for retired full back Reg Schumann, Abley was trialled as the "goalkeeper" in a challenge match at Broken Hill.

In the 1951 pre-season, the practice game reports in the Port Adelaide Messenger newspaper noted Abley was a "quiet, unassuming type of chap who is keen to make good".

And he did. From that point, Williams never moved Abley from full back.

"John knew how to measure his opponent - and give no latitude," Williams said of Abley while naming him as his greatest full back.

Magarey Medallist Jeff Pash noted Abley had the "safest, most relaxed mark in the business".

Geoff Kingston was the SANFL's stand-out full forward in 1961 - a league-best 79 goals with West Torrens - when he knew Abley as an opponent, a State team colleague and a fellow All-Australian at the 1961 Brisbane carnival.

"John Abley scared me - I was fearful of him," Kingston recalls. "He was a major plank of that mean Port Adelaide defence with Geof Motley, 'Chicken' Hayes and Trevor Obst.

"John rarely said anything. He wasn't quick, he wasn't big but he was the most-disciplined player I ever had to play against. Every time you looked over your shoulder, he was there. You could not shake him. He just beat you. If he did not get the ball, he certainly made sure you didn't get it either.

"He was a remarkable player."

From 1951, Abley played just one half of a match - a State game against Victoria - in 1953 away from full back. He was moved by State captain Bob Hank to centre half-back after Victorian legend John Coleman reacted to a goalless first quarter with three goals in the second term. Triple Magarey Medallist Len Fitzgerald moved to full back - and conceded five goals to Coleman in the second half.

"Very few have contributed more to the Port Adelaide Football Club than John Abley," says Motley. "He will never be forgotten - nor should he be."

Certainly not to be forgotten is how Abley refused to stay in his wheelchair when he was presented as the full back in the Port Adelaide Greatest Team ceremony at the Adelaide Convention Centre in 2001.

Abley died, aged 80, in 2011.

Port Adelaide's roll call on the Australian Football Hall of Fame honour board now reads (using the Hall's categories) -

Players: John Abley, Craig Bradley, Nathan Buckley, Haydn Bunton senior, Russell Ebert, Andrew McLeod, Geof Motley, Greg Phillips, Bob Quinn, Warren Tredrea, Gavin Wanganeen.

Coach: John Cahill, Fos Williams.

Administrator: Bob McLean.

JOHN ABLEY

Born: October 1, 1930

Died: August 19, 2011

Played: 212 games, 1950-1961

Goals: 1

Honours - Premierships (7): 1951, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958 and 1959; represented SA 23 times; All-Australian full back, 1956, 1958 and 1961; Port Adelaide, SA and Australian Football Hall of Fame.

Michelangelo Rucci is a selector to the Australian and South Australian Football Halls of Fame.