THREE-time Carlton Premiership player Garry Crane, universally considered the best player afield in the 1968 Grand Final with Essendon, has supported the call for the AFL to consider the awarding of the Norm Smith Medal retrospectively.

In a week in which he and most of the 17 other surviving members of the drought-breaking ’68 Premiership are to be reunited on the 50^th anniversary of the match at the MCG, Crane, now 73, has welcomed the push.

“I would be over the moon to win a Norm Smith Medal. Norm Smith was an idol of mine,” said Crane, a club best and fairest winner in 1969 and member of Carlton’s coveted Team of the Century.

“They (the AFL) spoke about it a while ago, but I don’t know what came of it. Whatever the case, they’d want to get a move on as I’m not getting any younger . . . and it would be lovely.”

The AFL Record report. (Photo: Blueseum.org)

Since the 1979 Grand Final, when Carlton’s Wayne Harmes was adjudged the inaugural winner, the Norm Smith Medal has been presented on an annual basis by an independent panel of football experts.

The League, through a panel of football and media doyens assembled by the AFL Record, has also acknowledged 15 players best afield in each of the Grand Finals (including the 1977 tied contest) from 1965-1978 – amongst them Crane in ’68, David McKay in ’70 and Robert Walls in ’72.

Those 15 players are listed on page 621 of this year’s official AFL Season Guide, beneath the following rider:

“Because there is little or no vision of Grand Finals before 1965, that was deemed to be the cut-off point.”

But each of the Grand Finals of 1968, ’70 and ’72 were recorded in totality by the Seven Network.

Carlton great Garry Crane. (Image: Carlton Media)

Asked to recount his memories of the ’68 Grand Final, Crane replied: “as with the second-semi I kicked the first goal”.

“What stuck in my mind most is playing well, winning the game and finally believing I was up to AFL football,” said Crane, a 148-game player in 13 seasons with the club.

“(Ron) Barassi was a hard task master. He used to say ‘You can’t claim to be a League player until you’ve played 50 games and I was just as hard on myself,” he said.

“Ken Hands was my first coach, then Barassi came in ’65. I found him to be a tough taskmaster and he never gave a compliment. In fact, it wasn’t until I was coming off the ground after the ’68 Grand Final that I got the first compliment from him, and he didn’t realise a pat on the back would have made a little bit of difference.

“But ‘Nick’ (John Nicholls) was a bit different – a little encouragement from him went a long way with me.”

Crane considered the ’68 Grand Final, in which Carlton won with less goals kicked, as “a terribly hard slog”.

“At no stage did we think we had the game won,” he said.

“I had a good game in the second semi, which gave me a lot of confidence, but I was incredibly nervous coming up to the Grand Final. For memory Ian Collins, who knew how nervous I got, told me that the best thing to do after running on to the ground was to scream my lungs out . . . and I think it worked.

“He also told me to get involved in the rough stuff from the first bounce . . . and the butterflies left straight away.”