AFL legend Eddie Betts played 350 games and kicked 640 goals over the course of his career.
After retiring in 2021, he's written a memoir – and returned to the game.
In fact, despite his prolific AFL playing career, he may win his first AFL Grand Final as an assistant coach for premiership favourites, the Geelong Cats.
"I was going to step away from footy," Eddie tells One Plus One, "but then I really enjoyed that coaching aspect, watching the young kids develop their skills and implementing that on game day."
Still in love with the game
Despite enjoying his new role on the sidelines, come game day he still misses running out on the ground.
"I do really miss the crowd," Eddie says, "and if you watch me play footy, I've always got a smile on my face".
"Everything I do – my smiling, entertaining, kicking goals – it's about getting the crowd involved."
COVID lockdowns and restrictions impacted his last couple of years in the AFL, meaning he spent his last matches playing in empty stadiums without the roar of fans.
"I was at my last game, and normally it's packed," Eddie says.
"Your family's there, you get cheered on, your kids are on the ground with you, and it's just been a really emotional day.
"But there was no one there – no crowd, just our team – and was it was kind of sad."
He also misses the massages he used to get as a player.
Now, as an assistant coach for Geelong, he often sees the players getting massages and wonders: "can I just book myself into a session?"
Finding his voice
Eddie continues to advocate against racism in his post-AFL life.
"It wasn't until Adam Goodes that I really did find my voice, after seeing what he had to go through within the AFL organisation and the way he was treated," Eddie says.
Adam Goodes was a giant of the game as a dual Brownlow medallist and dual premiership player.
But quit the AFL in 2015 after three seasons of continuous booing and racist slurs.
"We face this in our everyday lives," Eddie says.
"I still face it."
Racism, Eddie says, has a lasting impact.
"Every time I pick up a banana, I get a sickening feeling in my tummy," Eddie says.
"It takes me straight back to that incident at Adelaide Oval when that lady threw the banana at me, calling me all these names."
"It is awkward for people who don't deal with racism or don't understand it," Eddie says, but that's no excuse to let racism go unchecked.
"Until you're brave, until you make that first step of calling it out, or educating someone, or educating yourself – that's when we start making those changes and we start progressing."
The smiling assassin
These days, Eddie opens his home to young Indigenous AFL and NRL players, hosting his legendary "mob nights" at his home.
For many of the players who are far from their own home, it's a safe place to relax, to gather around the table, have a meal and a yarn.
"We're all equal around this table," he says.
Almost 12 months since he retired, Betts says he hasn't spent much time reflecting on his career.
But most of all, he wants people to remember him He hopes however fans remember him as a as the "smiling assassin".
"If I made people happy – coming to the games and sitting on the seats and watching me go out and do what I do on the footy field, or sitting at home on the couch watching the game on TV – if I made you smile then my job was done."
Watch Eddie Betts on Kurt Fearnley's One Plus One, Thursdays at 9.35pm on ABC TV or any time on ABC iview.
