Nathan Buckley is the latest to rise from the Port Adelaide Football Club to the AFL Hall of Fame.

One of four players inducted into the prestigious gallery of greats in 2011, Buckley was honoured for his extraordinary 280-game AFL career with Brisbane and Collingwood.

It is an achievement which started at League level at Port Adelaide in the SANFL, where in 1992 - as a 20 year-old - he won the Magarey Medal and Port Adelaide Best & Fairest award as the club stormed to the SANFL Premiership.

Coach of the 1992 team - and fellow AFL Hall of Fame member - John Cahill remembers Buckley as gifted and driven, even as a teenager.

“Nathan was very focused. He really knew where he wanted to go,” Cahill said. “And he knew how hard he had to work to get there.”

Buckley arrived at Port Adelaide from Southern Districts in Darwin. He played his first senior game for the Magpies in 1991. His father Ray - who had played League football with Woodville - knew that Port Adelaide was the best place for his talented son to continue his football apprenticeship.

“He was a coach’s dream. He wanted to improve and wanted to now how to improve,” Cahill said.

“Nathan was dedicated on and off the field. His mindset was second-to-none. If you were going nominate someone who would have this success, it was Nathan.”

While Buckley had an outstanding individual season in 1992, Cahill says he had great support from a team captained by Greg Phillips. Together they won the Magpies’ fourth Premiership in five years, an era that paved the way for Port Adelaide’s entry into the AFL.

“Nathan was surrounded by a talented team that allowed him to play to his strengths which were to attack the ball and attack the goal.”

They were strengths that brought Buckley national attention and made him the number one target of recruiters in the then VFL. He played a season with Brisbane in 1993, winning the inaugural Rising Star Award, before making his way to Collingwood where he shared the 2003 Brownlow medal.

The Port Adelaide Football Club congratulates Nathan Buckley on his richly deserved inclusion in the AFL Hall of Fame.

Members of the AFL Hall of Fame with links to the Port Adelaide Football Club:

Players: Bob Quinn, Geof Motley, Russell Ebert, Craig Bradley, Gavin Wanganeen, Nathan Buckley
Coaches: Hayden Bunton Snr (played with Magpies in 1945), Fos Williams and John Cahill
Administrators: Bob McLean

The Port Adelaide Football Club is proud of its record of success, but also the contribution its great players, coaches and administrators have made to the game over more than 140 years.