A SANFL Hall of Famer since 2002, Bagshaw was honoured for his 360 games for Sturt and 14 for his state, in which he kicked 258 goals, won seven premierships and was dubbed his club’s best and fairest on five occasions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQr0CFMPksA

Hart is the fifth Crow from the club’s back-to-back premiership era – after Mark Bickley, Mark Ricciuto, Darren Jarman and Andrew McLeod – to be inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame.

Debuting in 1992 aged just 17, the defender was the youngest player in Adelaide’s inaugural squad and went on to become the first Crow to reach the 300-game milestone. He won All-Australian selection in his first two seasons, as well as in 1999 – when he was also named the Crows’ club champion – and 2002.

Hart in action in 2005. Photo: Tom Miletic, AAP.

The current Collingwood assistant said the honour was “pretty surreal”.”It’s come as a bit of a shock… but to be recognised for what you were able to do as a player is fantastic and overwhelming at the same time,” Hart said.

“For me it was always about just being able to compete… to be able to put the best as I could against opponents to see where I stood was my mindset.”Hart told the ceremony in Melbourne that his first press conference “was done in my school uniform I think”.

“I remember 1992 – we were playing St Kilda. Cornesy (Coach Graham Cornes) asked, ‘Who wants to play on Tony Lockett?’ I don’t know why, but my arm shot straight up in the air. I wanted to do it.

“I had to find ways to beat these guys, or match these guys. They taught me how to play the game.”

Crows Chairman Rob Chapman said in a statement that Hart was “a true champion of our club and deserving of every accolade that comes his way”.

“We watched him grow from a fresh-faced teenager in the club’s early days and become a premiership defender who was hardly ever beaten,” said Chapman.

“He was versatile and had the rare ability to play on both tall and small forwards and look at ease.

“Ben will always be a favourite of many Crows fans for the outstanding service he gave our Club over a long period of time.”

Essendon great Michael Long paid tribute to indigenous trailblazer Maurice Rioli who was posthumously inducted at the gala ceremony at Melbourne’s Crown Palladium.

Rioli, who won the Norm Smith Medal in Richmond’s losing 1982 grand final, joined the exclusive club along with triple premiership Brisbane Lion Nigel Lappin, St Kilda premiership full-back Verdun Howell and East Fremantle Sandover Medallist Ray Sorrell.

Long, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007, hailed Rioli as a pioneer.

“To win that (Norm Smith) Medal … just how important that moment was and that game was to the Northern Territory – it was the start of so many bigger things,” Long said.

“Maurice is probably the most significant (player) in terms of being a pioneer playing in the VFL back then, which was really important. It put NT on the map of Australian Rules football.

“Just his magical skills, his vision … he had everything as a complete footballer. He was totally unique in the way he played the game.

“That’s the inner quality that he always had that was part of his armoury.

“He was the Rolls Royce of Territory football.”

Rioli, a trailblazer for his people, his family and whose name has become synonymous with footballing brilliance, suffered a fatal heart attack on Christmas Day, 2010.

He was the uncle of former Essendon player Dean Rioli, who accepted the award with Rioli’s son Gavin.

Hawthorn’s Norm Smith medallist Cyril Rioli and Richmond youngster Daniel Rioli carry on the family name at the elite level.

Accepting his accolade, former Brisbane midfielder Nigel Lappin revealed just how close he came to missing out on the Lions’ historic third AFL flag in a row with a punctured lung.

Lappin became the third member of Brisbane’s famed ‘Fab Four’ – after Michael Voss and Jason Akermanis – to receive Hall of Fame honours.

Brownlow medallist Simon Black completed that gifted quartet, but is not yet eligible for induction.

Nigel Lappin at training ahead of the 2003 Grand Final. Photo: Shaney Balcombe, AAP.

Lappin was widely praised for his role in helping Brisbane secure their third flag in succession in 2003, but he very nearly didn’t take the field against Collingwood.

“I only had one rib that was fully fractured … I had a couple of others that were fractured (too),” Lappin said.

“I couldn’t play the (preliminary final) out and the following week was tough … my wife had to help me out of bed for the first couple of days.

“On the Friday night I had a fitness test and (teammate) Aaron Shattock put me through the ringer a little bit. I got through it ok but I was struggling to breathe after it.

“I remember going to the physio that night to get a massage because I just couldn’t relax. I told the physio I had a funny feeling in my neck and I wasn’t sure what it was. We decided it was just a bit of swelling.

“But I was really lucky I didn’t go to the doctor because I’d actually punctured a lung at training. If I’d been to the doctor there’s no way I would have played the next day.”

Lappin eventually convinced the club’s medical staff he was right to play after a physio laid a surprise punch into his ribs at the MCG on game day.

“I was wearing a guard and it wasn’t too bad,” he said.

“I got through that ok but I remember Leigh (Matthews) coming to me and asked if I was playing or not. This was not too long before the game and I said, ‘Yeah, I can do it’.”

He went on to play a key role in the 50-point thumping of the Pies.

Lappin is currently an assistant coach at Geelong under senior coach and former teammate Chris Scott.

“The other really sad thing for me was one of my closest mates at the footy club, Chris Scott, he was suited up to play,” he said

“He’d battled (osteitis pubis) all year, so that was really mentally challenging as well knowing that my best mate was going to miss out on the grand final.”

This year’s induction ceremony did not include the elevation of a current Hall of Fame member to ‘legend’ status, St Kilda and Sydney great Tony Lockett was the last member to be afforded that honour last year.

The class of 2016 swells the Hall of Fame’s numbers to 269 inductees.

AFL HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES FOR 2016:

PAUL BAGSHAW:

* 360 games for Sturt 1964-80, kicking 258 goals

* Sturt premiership 1966-70, 1974, 1976

* Sturt best and fairest 1966, 1969-71, 1977

* Sturt leading goalkicker 1978

* Sturt captain 1973-80

* Sturt Team of the Century

* SA Hall of Fame

BEN HART:

* 311 games for Adelaide 1992-2006, kicking 45 goals

* 27 games for North Adelaide 1990-92 and 2007, kicking four goals

* Eight games for South Australia

* Crows premiership 1997, 1998

* Adelaide best and fairest 1999, 2002

* All Australian 1992-93, 1999, 2002

MAURICE RIOLI:

* 168 games for South Fremantle 1975-81 and 1988-90, kicking 133 goals

* 118 games for Richmond 1982-87, kicking 80 goals

* South Fremantle premiership 1980

* Simpson Medallist 1980, 1981, 1983

* Norm Smith Medallist 1982

* Richmond Best and Fairest 1982, 1983

* Indigenous Team of the Century

* Western Australia Hall of Fame (2004)

* Northern Territory Hall of Fame, Legend (2010)

VERDUN HOWELL:

* 159 games for St Kilda 1958-68, kicking 59 goals

* Nine games for Victoria

* St Kilda premiership 1966

* Brownlow Medallist 1959

* St Kilda best and fairest 1959

* St Kilda Team of the Century

NIGEL LAPPIN:

* 279 games for the Brisbane Lions 1994-2008, kicking 174 goals

* Three games for Victoria, kicking two goals

* Lions premierships 2001-03

* Brisbane best and fairest 2004

* Lions captain 2007-08

* All Australian 2001-04

RAY SORRELL:

* 155 games for East Fremantle 1956-63 and 1966-67, kicking 55 goals

* 23 games for South Fremantle 1964-65, kicking eight goals

* East Fremantle best and fairest 1957, 1963

* Sandover Medallist 1961, 1963

* East Fremantle Team of the Century

* WA Hall of Fame (2004)

-with AAP