He kept the great Jason Dunstall, one of the dominant forwards of the era, to two goals. He dominated him, which makes a mockery of the disingenuous footage on Channel Seven's The Game on Thursday night, which showed Dunstall marking and goaling in opposition to Smart. At training, it was his bouncing, bounding athleticism and innate strength that could not be overlooked. He has never been overlooked, never dropped, and with three All-Australian selections to his name, has continually distinguished himself. I've spent a good part of this past week digging up old records, notes and weekly reports from those early days.
Several things stand out.
At the time, when most of us were only thinking of being competitive, he was thinking and dreaming about premierships. He knew the value of hard work and surprisingly, for one so independent in attitude, the importance of teamwork. The other thing that struck me, to my discomfort, was how constantly critical I was of him. You always knew that with Nigel there were other things in life beside football. That created some real consternation in later years, when Malcolm Blight and John Reid were steering the club towards total professionalism and Nigel was holding a senior executive position with Toyota.