Shinboner number: 696
Guernsey number: 4
Born: September 17, 1956
North Melbourne games: 190 (1978-86)
Goals: 214
North Melbourne Hall of Fame inductee: 2012

Ross Glendinning could well have played in North Melbourne’s 1977 premiership side. Only a clearance dispute between the Kangaroos and Glendinning’s West Australian side, East Perth, held up his debut at Arden Street until 1978.

He sat out the first part of the 1977 season, before resuming with the Royals in July. When he finally ran out for the Kangaroos, North supporters realised what all the fuss was about. Glendinning kicked three goals on debut, and four the following week, before coach Ron Barassi sent him to full-back.

“I played mostly full-back at East Perth and a little bit at centre half-back,” Glendinning said. “But I’d played a bit of junior footy forward, and I always liked to play up forward when given the opportunity.” It was that versatility that saw Glendinning not only become one of the VFL’s finest defenders, but a player his coaches could swing forward if the club needed a marking target. “I had a sense of what I had to do as a forward, having played on the better full-forwards and centre half-forwards,” he said.

He was a fine reader of the play, and, like his fellow full-back David Dench, could quickly turn defence into attack. “I liked to back myself in,” he said. “My old man had played a bit of footy and he was pretty good at teaching me certain ways to play the ground, how to read the play. It’s still the hardest thing to teach, because it’s quite intuitive.”

Glendinning played all 24 games in 1978, and was full-back in North’s losing Grand Final to Hawthorn opposed to Michael Moncrieff. “They bounced the ball, and would you believe it, in about five seconds it’s coming our way,” Glendinning recalled. “Moncrieff takes a mark and has a shot at goal, and I’m thinking, ‘That’s a great way to start, Roscoe! First 30 seconds and your bloke’s kicked the opening goal.’”

North trailed by 19 points at quarter-time, and eventually lost by 18, but Glendinning was one of the club’s finest contributors. He had also played in a losing Grand Final for East Perth (1976) and, such is fate, East Perth would win the 1978 WAFL premiership.

Spending more time forward in 1979, he kicked 59 goals in what some observers say was North’s finest ever team. But he missed the preliminary final through injury, a loss to Collingwood. Throughout the 1980s, Glendinning’s durability and consistency was critical to North playing finals on four more occasions between 1980 and 1986. Indeed, he rarely missed a match, averaging more than 20 games per season throughout his nine years at the club.

In 1983, Glendinning became the fourth North player to win the Brownlow Medal. He tallied career best figures in disposals (522) and marks (166), kicked 20 goals, and was named All-Australian. Of the count itself, Glendinning said: “It was in the days where blokes would be drinking heavily there. It wasn’t a black tie event, people were still smoking at tables, so it was a lot different. Luckily for me, I managed to get in front at the end of the count and win it.” He polled 24 votes, one ahead of Richmond’s Maurice Rioli, and two in front of Essendon’s Simon Madden.

After 190 games and 214 goals, Glendinning was lured back home in 1987 as captain of the newly-formed West Coast Eagles, playing a further 40 matches and leading the club’s goalkicking in 1987 and 1988.