Australian Football

With 426 senior games from 1972 to 1991 Michael Tuck was one of the most durable players in V/AFL history, and yet it took him several seasons to secure a regular place in the strong Hawthorn line-up. The Hawks used him in several different positions during his early days at the club, but it was not until they tried him as a ruck-rover that he really hit his straps.

Lean and wiry, Tuck was deceptively strong, handled the ball extremely well, and could run all day. During the mid-1970s he combined with ruckman Don Scott and rover Leigh Matthews to give Hawthorn the most damaging first ruck combination in the league; in 2003, these three players were named as the first ruck in the club's official 'Team of the Twentieth Century'.

In 1986, Tuck took over the Hawks captaincy from Matthews and went on to lead them to four flags, making him one of the most successful V/AFL skippers in the history of the game. Although he never won a Hawthorn best-and-fairest award, he ran second half a dozen times, and was without doubt one of the club's most important players during its halcyon phase of the mid-'70s to early '90s. A Victorian representative on 11 occasions, Tuck was named an All Australian in 1979 and 1983 - rare individual accolades for a player whose paramount concern was always the success of his team.

Author - John Devaney