At North Melbourne’s A Celebration of Shinboner Spirit mid-season event, the club will announce the Shinboner of the Era for 2005-2015.
Earlier this year, a Shinboner of the Era selection committee was formed, with key officials nominating five North Melbourne players who they believed best typified what it meant to be a Shinboner.
Over the next five weeks, each candidate will be revealed one-by-one. Once the five names have been made public, North Melbourne members will then have their chance to select who they believe is the Shinboner of the Era.
The second player on the list is Brady Rawlings.
At every club there is a player who’s revered inside the four walls, but largely underrated externally.
For North Melbourne, that man was Brady Rawlings. Through 245 games across 13 seasons, the tagger won three Syd Barker Medals, the ultimate sign of his standing at Arden Street.
Unsurprisingly Anthony Stevens, who was Rawlings’ teammate from 1999-2004, has the highest of praise.
“Brady Rawlings typifies what a true Shinboner is,” Stevens said.
“He was 100 per cent effort, 100 per cent of the time. Every time he pulled on a North Melbourne jumper he’d treat it as a badge of honour.
“Every time you ran out next to Brady Rawlings, you knew exactly what you were going to get. He never died wondering.”
The consistency of Rawlings made him an ever-present part of the North lineup through the latter two-thirds of his career.
From 2003-2011, Rawlings never played less than 20 games in a season, including a streak of 94 consecutive games from Round 7, 2005 to Round 6, 2009.
“I remember Brady saying, ‘Everyone in this club’s past has earned our reputation, so now we have the duty to uphold that.’,” Stevens explained.
“To me that’s the legacy Brady leaves. He educated everyone at the football club on their duty to continue to live and breathe the Shinboner Spirit.”
Previously: Drew Petrie
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