Shinboner number: 817
Guernsey number: 11
Born: March 24, 1973
North Melbourne games: 311 (1992-2007)
Goals: 143
North Melbourne Hall of Fame inductee: 2012
Shinboner of the Century

Glenn Archer had a simple but daunting assignment in the 1996 Grand Final against the Sydney Swans. In addition to minding his direct opponent—Craig O’Brien in the first quarter and Troy Luff thereafter—he was to drop back at every opportunity to fill any space in front of Swans fearsome spearhead Tony Lockett.

Lockett was the danger man for the Kangaroos and, at 191cm and 94kg, there was no scarier wrecking ball to have charging your way. Time and time again, however, Archer unflinchingly blocked the hole in front of the star forward, often running back with the flight of the ball to short-circuit Lockett’s marking attempts.

Archer’s actions that day were no surprise. His career was defined by a courage that seemed to have little regard for his physical wellbeing. “I couldn’t think of anything worse than finishing your career and people saying, ‘He was a good player but he wasn’t very hard at the pill’. What a wasted career. I’d rather have not even played,” Archer reflected.

“Respect is massive in footy, from your teammates and opponents, even the public, and you don’t get any respect if you don’t put your body on the line when it’s your turn.”

Archer was more than just a fearless hard nut. He could seriously play, too. In that 1996 Grand Final, he had 22 possessions and took eight marks, a performance that earned him the Norm Smith Medal as best player on the ground.

Little more than five years earlier, Archer’s AFL career had almost finished before it began when he quit pre-season training with North’s under-19 squad after only two weeks.

He went back to Noble Park to enjoy playing local footy with his mates, but then North under-19s coach Denis Pagan eventually convinced him to not let “an opportunity of a lifetime go”.

Archer made his AFL debut the following season, 1992, and when Pagan was installed as North’s senior coach a year later, he quickly established himself in the Roos’ best 22. Archer wasn’t quick or particularly athletic and, at 182cm, should have been too short to play on key forwards.

But he had a remarkable record on opposition spearheads such as Richmond’s Matthew Richardson (197cm and 103kg) and Carlton’s Lance Whitnall (192cm and 100kg), using raw aggression and football guile to cut them down to size. “An opponent’s size is only a disadvantage if you allow it to be. I’ve always given away centimetres and kilograms to opponents, but I’ve never felt much smaller than them,” Archer said.

Stationed alongside fellow tough men Mick Martyn, Dean Laidley and Byron Pickett, Archer was part of a North backline that had a menacing edge during the 1990s.

Archer’s record in big matches was also outstanding. In addition to his best on ground performance in the 1996 Grand Final, he was North’s best player in its Grand Final loss to Adelaide in 1998.

Archer was also dangerous when swung into attack, having played a lot of his junior football at full-forward. He kicked 143 goals for North, including a career-high 28 majors in 1995 that included a six-goal haul against West Coast in Round 11.

His record in big matches was also outstanding. In addition to his best-on-ground performance in the 1996 Grand Final, he was North’s best player in its Grand Final loss to Adelaide in 1998 and nullified Whitnall when the Roos bounced back to defeat Carlton in the following year’s premiership decider.

In his final season, 2007, Archer broke Wayne Schimmelbusch’s club record of 306 games, stretching the mark to 311 matches by the time he retired later that year. His record would stand until Brent Harvey passed it in 2011 on his way to breaking the AFL games record five years later.

Of all Archer’s individual accolades, the most prestigious came in 2005, when a gathering of nearly all of North’s surviving past and present players voted him Shinboner of the Century. The award recognised the player who most embodied the club’s revered ‘Shinboner spirit’ during North’s first 80 years in the VFL/AFL.

The field included never-say-die competitors such as Schimmelbusch, Wayne Carey, Noel Teasdale and Anthony Stevens. But as strongly as that Shinboner spirit had coursed through those North greats in their playing days, Archer was a fitting and popular winner.