Harley talks about Leigh the legend

By Michael DiFabrizio

When Tom Harley sits down to talk about one of his favourite footballing legends, his respect for Leigh Matthews quickly becomes obvious.

As a new book, Legends of the Australian Football Hall of Fame, is released celebrating the game’s 24 legends, Harley took time to reflect on the achievements of his fellow Channel 7 commentator.

Matthews was a four-time premiership player with Hawthorn in a career that spanned 332 games and involved 912 goals and eight best-and-fairest awards.

“He ticks the box (as a legend) in so many categories,” Harley says. “He would’ve been inducted as a player, and his playing record speaks for itself.”

“When you have a player win a best-and-fairest he’s a good player, if you have a player win a best-and-fairest in a premiership side he’s a good player, but you can imagine winning eight.”

Harley remembers being in awe of Matthews’ goal scoring abilities.

“I remember Leigh when I first started following football, I was an Essendon fan. I started following the Bombers in the mid-80s when Leigh was playing for the Hawks,” he says.

“At that stage of his career he was a small forward if you like, but to kick almost 1000 goals when he’s not Tony Lockett or Jason Dunstall or Gary Ablett, he was a midfielder-come-forward – those records just stack up.”

Once Matthews’ playing career came to an end, he turned to coaching. Before being inducted into the Hall of Fame as a legend in 1996, he coached Collingwood, which included winning the 1990 premiership.

It was after he was inducted that he went on to coach the Brisbane Lions and win a further three premierships.

“The history of the Collingwood Football Club was all around the ‘Collywobbles’ and he was able to come in and instil a real level of competitiveness, and get them back on the stage that perhaps they thought they belong,” Harley says.

“He was successful at Collingwood and then went up to arguably the greatest challenge in revamping what was the Brisbane Bears, which morphed into the Brisbane Lions, and won three premierships there.

“So, when talking about his overall record, he is four premierships as a player, four premiership as a coach, so eight premierships all up, almost 1000 goals.”

The ease in which these facts are recalled is a testament to the respect Matthews has within the football community.

For Harley, the biggest influence Matthews had on his playing career was as an opposition coach, and the way in which he had his team play.

“I’ll never forget one time in 2002, the Brisbane Lions came down to play Geelong at Skilled (Stadium) and we had a young side,” Harley says.

“I was actually playing on Michael Voss, playing a tagging role, and he absolutely cleaned up Joel Corey and broke his collarbone, and Joel missed a lot of weeks as a result.

“They bullied us and beat us by plenty, 70 points or something, and I remember coming into the rooms afterwards and ‘Bomber’ Thompson our coach said, ‘Never forget what that’s like to be bullied by a team, because in a couple of years time they’ll be old and slow and you guys will have muscles and you’ll be able to do the same to them’.”

These days, the two men work side by side in the commentary booth.

While Harley already had admiration of Matthews the player and Matthews the coach, he’s enjoyed getting to know Matthews the person.

“He’s the preeminent voice of reason in the AFL,” Harley says.

“He is a lovely guy, I feel really privileged each Friday and talk footy with Leigh, I feel very comfortable picking up the phone and just having a chat to him about stuff, I’ve got to know him also on the social side if you like, and I just love the way he sees football, he doesn’t overcomplicate things.”

“We’re in a time where we all try to overanalyse football but he keeps it very simple, and he is a genuinely lovely guy.”

For more information on the book click here