Indigenous trailblazer, St Mary's and Sturt champion Michael 'Flash' Graham inducted into Australian Football of Hame

Jarred Cross Published June 19, 2024 at 8.00am (AWST)

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Sturt and St Mary's champion was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame on Tuesday. (Image: SANFL)

Dual state league champion and Indigenous Team of the Century member Michael Graham has been honoured for one of the more remarkable careers carved out in his sport with induction into the Australian Football Hall of Fame on Tuesday.

For the bulk of two decades 'Flash' split his time evenly following the football season between South Australia and the Northern Territory to notch more than 500 senior games at the highest level.

From 1969 to 1987 Graham played 230 games for three premierships and two club best and fairest awards with NTFL side St Mary's.

He was awarded the Nichols Medal as the competition's best and fairest for the 1973-74 season.

In the winter months, Graham carved out a 15-year, 282-game, 455-goal and two premiership tenure in the SANFL with Sturt.

From his early days as one of fifteen children and living in the Point Pearce mission on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula, the speedy half-forward graduated the nearby Penola Football Club to be selected in both Sturt's and the NTFL's Team of the Century.

Speaking at the AFL's Hall of Fame ceremony on Tuesday, Graham attributed football influences in his father and older brothers, chasing rabbits around the paddock as a kid and his heritage to his ability and speed on the park.

He thanked his brother Cecil for the invitation to join him in Darwin and begin what became a year-round footy career, and little need for preseason training.

"So I got to play, come back match fit, then I'd go up to Darwin match fit from playing down south. So it worked good for me," Graham said.

In a pre-recorded piece of vision played on his induction, Graham's Sturt teammate and fellow Hall of Fame member, Rick Davies said with his additional stints in leagues across the country, "I believe he's played more decent football games than anyone else in Australia".

*Graham said "I loved playing footy. I still do" after more than 500 senior games between South Australia and the Northern Territory. (Image: Daniel Pockett/AAP PHOTOS)*

"You don't play in games in Adelaide, then go to Darwin, then go to Waikerie, then go to New South Wales, then go to Katherine if you can't play," Davies said.

In 1973, Graham ran second to Hall of Fame legend Barry Robran for the Magarey Medal league best-and-fairest.

In South Australia, he's a member of the SANFL's Indigenous Team of the Century.

It was also a period where he was one of the few First Nations players in the top competition.

"I thank the Hall of Fame selectors for picking me at last..I've only waited 45 years," Graham joked.

"It is a great honour, and I feel proud for us, the Aboriginal, Indigenous mob who play these days. Back in my day, there were only a couple.

"I look out here, there's so many great footballers, and it's good to see the Indigenous mob involved with AFL."

He had earlier said "I loved playing footy, and I still do".

Graham was inducted into the South Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2002, and AFLNT Hall of Fame in 2019.

Michael Graham

Australian Football Hall of Fame

South Australian Football Hall of Fame

AFLNT Football Hall of Fame