Kevin Sheedy can look back on a 49-year connection with Northern Territory football and its people with a lot of pride and a big sense of achievement.
The five decades since he landed in Darwin two months after former club Richmond beat North Melbourne in the 1974 VFL Grand Final have advanced the game to Australia's Top End while placing the spotlight on this country's multi-skilled indigenous footballers.
Anointed an official AFL legend in 2018 after his induction into the AFL Hall of Fame 10 years earlier, Kevin John Sheedy's on-field exploits include three premierships as a player with Richmond and four premierships as coach of Essendon.
He also coached Victoria in state football and took charge of the Australian side against the Irish and was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2009.
His combined 929 VFL-AFL games as a coach and player with the Tigers, Bombers, and GWS Giants from 1967-2013 is an Australian record.
But it is the recruitment of a skinny kid who began his football with NTFL club St Mary's in the mid-1980s that Sheedy is best remembered by Territorians.
Michael Long made his representative debut against North Melbourne in 1988 and played as a ruck rover against Sheedy's Essendon in a winning NTFL side a year later.
"I saw Michael in those rep games and at West Torrens when he played under a former player of mine in Paul Weston,'' Sheedy said.
"But he first really came to notice at the 1988 Bi-Centennial Carnival when he starred for the undefeated NT side that won the Division 2 crown in spectacular style.
"I thought he was the bantamweight champion of the Northern Territory, in fact, I would have gone to the South Pole to watch him and Lionel Rose fight.
"And he could play footy as well, it's why we were so happy we drafted him that year ('88) because Essendon had only had one Aboriginal play for them in the previous 130 years.''
That changed the football landscape at the club because after that I recruited about 30 indigenous boys.''
Alwyn Davey, Cockatoo-Collins, Paddy Ryder, Gavin Wanganeen who could play a bit, Derek and Dale Kickett, Dean Rioli, and Shawn Lew Fatt were just some of them.
Another recruiting target was Darryl White, who was to become a three-time premiership player at Brisbane.
"I thought I had Darryl all to myself, Alice Springs was not a big recruiting ground back then,'' Sheedy said.
"But then the VFL changed recruiting zones and gave Alice Springs to Brisbane, the rest is history with Darryl White going to Essendon.''
Away from the playing arena he was admitted as a member of the Order of Australia in 1998 for his services to sport and the community and awarded the prestigious Australia Sports Medal in 2000 for his services to the game.
Among a series of other awards and innovations introduced by Sheedy, the hugely popular Anzac Day game between Essendon and Collingwood and the Essendon-Richmond Dreamtime Game were his creations.
An ex-serviceman himself, Sheedy's plan to play a regular fixture between Essendon and Collingwood as a tribute match for serving and past service personnel has been widely accepted by AFL officials and the general public.
The Dreamtime Game has followed a similar path since its introduction in 2005 after Sheedy spoke of a way to celebrate the contribution of indigenous players to the national game.
Already planning another sojourn to Darwin and the north country later this year, Sheedy recalled his first visit to the Top End in 1974 when contacted by this writer.
"I'd been to New York and landed in Darwin with Brian Roberts and Neil Balme because I wanted to travel and find out a lot more about what I didn't know back then,'' Sheedy said.
"Playing football all the time and training keeps you secluded from the real life and when I got to Darwin I looked after the footy matters and the training drills while the other two mixed with the good life.
"So I was a player-development officer at Richmond looking for possible chances to improve the VFL in those days.''
The Darwin trip gave Sheedy his first close-up look at indigenous footballers and he was mightily impressed by what he saw.
"I couldn't believe how good they were,'' he said. "The only indigenous player I'd seen in the VFL was Sid Jackson at Carlton and he was hard to catch.
"I would have been back to the Territory 20 times since '74, Darwin and I have a pretty good association, we trust each other and that's important.
''They've always known if they needed something I was always in there to help.''
Essendon and Sheedy first played the NTFL side at Darwin's Gardens Oval in 1986, opening a chapter in Top End football that ran until 2001 when Port Adelaide beat the Buffaloes at Marrara's TIO Stadium.
The Bombers had played games around the world in the early '80s and Sheedy wanted to include Australia's regional areas in the club's expanding itinerary.
"We played in Albury on the Murray River, Mt Gambier in South Australia, Cairns in north Queensland, and even a little town just south of Perth,'' he said.
"Darwin was next on our agenda and we made sure it was a long-term project, five visits to be exact.''