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Congrats to the Bernie Naylor clan and South Fremantle fans it's a great recognition. And congrats to Mel Whinnen who spoke very well and you could not meet a more humble former champion. Johnno was a laugh what a footballer he was and would have been the life of the party by the sounds of it. I would love to buy a ticket to a speaking night with Wayne Johnston, Mark McClure and the Buzz. I bet they can tell some stories. Throw Parko in too and I'll pay double.

In any case, it all sounds a tad Americanised to me; I am absolutely certain that the Victorians would not have had the gumption to come up with something all by themselves. What they don't realise is that a player is only 'great' on the basis of whether he is regarded so by the club's supporter base.

Is Wayne Johnson better than Robrt Wiley for example? I would say no. If most had to choose only one for their team Wiley would win the spot more often than not I reckon

The thing about John Todd is that he coached the bloody WCE into the finals in quite difficult circumstances.

Wiley is streets ahead of johnstone; both Perth and Richmond won flags because of him; they also both went backwards quickly after he left.

Anyway we are flogging a dead horse because even though we have Cometti and co on the commitee now theyvwould still be overun. Maybe we need someone like Ron Boucher on the selection panel to enforce a few selections

I saw a list of some of the WA greats who are not in the AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL Hall Of Fame including- George 'Staunch' Owens, Ray Schofield, Keith Harper, Keith Slater, Tom Outridge, 'Bonny' Campbell, Derek Chadwick, Ken Bagley, Peter Featherby, Robert Wiley etc........and yet David Neitz a more than handy Vic player but certainly no champion was inducted this year less than 10 years from retirement!

By any metric other than state John Todd is so far in front of Sheedy he is not in the same galaxy.

Kevin Sheedy is a typical Victorian cheat - do you remember the time as the Victorian coach he deliberately played four interchange players in a game (cant recall whether it was against us or SA) when the other side had just three as agreed ??
That bastard even set up the second Sydney side purely to train up recruits for the Victorian clubs and to weaken the Sydney Swans base - did the same with his support for Fremantle's admission due to his hatred of WCE

Heard Mel Whinnen interview with Karl Langdon tonight.Mel's father played for East Perth but Mel's mum was always a WP supporter.She use to take Mel to the Cardies games and dad refused to go.
Mel grew up on the Ep /Wp border.3 houses in the Ep zone.As a teenager was on the bench in the 1960 GF.Also played in 1969,71,75 and losing GF in 1973.But jokingly said no comment on 73.Second in the 1964 Sand over medal.Pulled on the Wa jumper 14 times.Mel was also an Engineer by Occupation. A wonderful player from WA's golden era of Football.Almost 400 games.
Is there any posters who seen Bernie Naylor play or where told by there fathers or someone else.How good this dead eye dick was kicking torpedo goals.Is Bernie's ability to kick every goal as a torpedo punt lost on modern day players.Could anyone playing today do that ?????.

I haven't read the print version of the West, but for those bemoaning lack of coverage in the Vic press for the local heroes, this is the sum total of what the online West had to say:

Former Western Bulldogs coach and Hawthorn premiership player Terry Wallace, ex-Melbourne power forward David Neitz, former Carlton skipper Wayne Johnston and West Australian greats Bernie Naylor and Mel Whinnen were the other inductees....................................

[15 paragraphs later]

..............................South Fremantle great Naylor was previously inducted into the West Australian Football Hall of Fame for his heroics in the 1940s-50s, as was 1960s-70s West Perth stalwart Whinnen.

As for Todd vs Sheedy - a big fish in a small pond will never compete with a big fish in a big pond.