Not many players have made such an impact, in such a short time, as Adrian McAdam.

Pick 98 at the 1992 National Draft, from Alice Springs, Adrian was the brother of Gilbert and Greg, who'd both played at the highest level.

"He's (Adrian) an amazing sportsman," Denis Pagan said in a 1993 documentary. 

McAdam's impact was brief, but certainly special. On April 23, 1993, he made his North Melbourne debut.

He'd already kicked 30 goals in four games in the reserves, but alongside two of the greatest forwards of the modern era, Carey and Longmire, it was surely going to be tough to make his mark.

Over 35,000 packed into the MCG, as Carey pulled down 11 marks, Longmire booted 3, and a 22-year-old first-gamer booted 7 ... that's right, 7 goals!

Right from the first kick, from a tight angle down the Southern end, McAdam's debut was spectacular.

Wearing the number 41, he put on a show on a Friday night, 7.2 from 12 disposals. How could he top this? Well, a week later, McAdam kicked a lazy 10 against Collingwood. 

In his first year, from just 17 games, he booted 68 goals.

Remarkably, just 35 games after that dream Friday night, McAdam's AFL career was over. After a broken jaw in a pre-season game, he admits to losing "a fair bit of interest" and headed home.

"It could have been different," McAdam later recalled in The Herald Sun. 

"Had I grown up in Melbourne I would have been all right, would have known how to be more professional and more dedicated. I didn't work hard enough when things went bad.

"I'd loved to have played more. I still think about North Melbourne winning a premiership in 1996 and how I could have been part of it."

Five years earlier, a young forward by the name of John Longmire played his first game in the royal blue and white.

He was barely 17-years-old, but Longmire had already proven himself against men; he kicked 82 goals as a 16-year-old at Corowa-Rutherglen. 

Running out onto Waverley Park, he had a memorable debut. From just 11 disposals, he booted 4 goals, wearing the number 43 jumper.

11 years later, as a premiership player and with 200 games to his name, Longmire retired as one of the club's greatest ever forwards.

He booted a total of 511 career goals, third only behind Wayne Carey and the games-record-holder, Brent Harvey.

Heading right back to 1962, a future Team of the Century member played his first ever game.

20-year-old Peter Steward ran out alongside three other debutants at Lake Oval in Round 1 against South Melbourne; one of those another very handy player, Bernie McCarthy. 

Remarkably, Steward became the first ever player to undergo a knee reconstruction, in 1963. 

“We were playing Hawthorn when I took possession of the ball. These days I would have handballed it off but back then it was a matter of trying to barge my way through my opponent Kevin Coverdale," he recalled in The Herald Sun. 

“But he caught me and twisted my body, which in turn twisted my right knee as I came down. I was in agony for a while so I knew it was pretty serious.

“The operation wasn’t on the landscape in those days but our doctor John Grant, who I thought was just a doctor and not a surgeon, asked me if I wanted to take a risk and be part of the surgery. I said I would do anything to play again because I was lost, thinking of what I was going to do if I couldn’t play footy?"

Well, almost two years, Steward made his return and never looked back. 

A key-defender, he finished seventh in the Brownlow Medal in 1968 and captained the club for much of 1970, with John Dugdale out injured.

Wearing the number 15 his entire career, he played 126 games and went on to be named in the club's Team of the Century in 2003.