Graham Frank Moss

PLAYER: 1969-85

GAMES: 366; Claremont 254; Essendon 84; WA 23; Vic 5

PREMIERSHIP: Claremont captain-coach 1981

HONOURS: Brownlow Medal 1976; fairest and best Claremont 1977-80, Essendon 1974-76; Claremont coach 1977-86; AFL Hall of Fame 1996

It is unwise to ever mistake fairness for softness.  Graham Moss was one of the fairest players of his era but also one of its great competitors.  As a ruckman he was very nearly complete – a master of what are now known as stop-play situations, able to direct the ball to smaller men in good position.  A strong mark and a smart player who used hand ball to good effect in the mold of Graham Farmer.  And, he was capable of kicking goals.  But for all that, Moss will be forever known as the man who walked away from the VFL at the height of his powers and who eventually vindicated that decision by guiding Claremont to the 1981 premiership. 

Moss went to Essendon in 1973 with a pedigree in state football but whose gentle nature had some querying whether he would withstand the physicality of the Victorian game.  The questions were answered quickly.  Moss finished second in the Brownlow Medal in his first season and never finished worse than 10^th in four years.  But, after winning the 1976 Brownlow he returned to Claremont where he took the Tigers from a struggling outfit to a glamorous power team of the early 1980s as he finished second in two Sandover Medals in the process.