Hall of Fame inductee Peter Bell has described how a meeting with Denis Pagan saved his AFL career.

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After just two games in Fremantle’s inaugural season (1995), Bell was delisted.

Confident of gaining another chance at the highest level, his spirits plummeted after he was overlooked by every club at the 1995 National Draft.

But thanks to football administrator and media personality Bob Maumill, he was given a second chance.

"Denis Pagan came to my flat in South Perth after Bob, who was involved with South Fremantle at the time, said to Denis: 'this bloke can play'," Bell explained to The Age.

"I went across to North and played OK in a scratch match and went from there. So I owe my AFL career to Bob Maumill."

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But it wasn’t all plain sailing. Bell admitted Pagan was a tough task-master.

Despite playing almost every game in 1996, his place in the Grand Final was in jeopardy after a “putrid” performance in the Preliminary Final.

"In those days Denis would walk around to the players and tell you how you performed in front of the other players," Bell said.

"He told me 'you just the biggest opportunity of your life slip'.

"I stewed on it for 48 hours, and then he told me on Monday I was in the team, so 'train well this week'."

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Just 25 games into his AFL career, Bell was a part of the Roos’ third premiership side.

“Denis really backed me in and gave me great confidence, but it was certainly surreal to go from being delisted by the new club in the competition to looking around the MCG on Grand Final day being part of a premiership with a powerful North Melbourne team, having only been at the club for just over six months,” Bell told The Herald Sun.

Three years later, the rover was a dominant performer in the 1999 Grand Final win over Carlton, amassing 31 disposals and booting four goals.

The pain of defeat a year earlier was a driving force for the Roos’ success.

"We were favourites in 1998 after winning 13 games in a row," Bell said in The Age.

"We kicked poorly in the first half and Adelaide just ran all over us in the second half. So 1999 was very sweet and I felt part of the club by then."

After 123 games, two premierships and a Syd Barker Medal, Bell returned to Fremantle, living out his promise to finish his career in Western Australia.

“I changed my mind with every passing hour,” he said of the call between North and Fremantle.

“But I always felt like there was a real compulsion to head back home.

“There was unfinished business and it was a real ambition to play out of WA.’’

Traded to the Dockers, Bell’s second spell at the club saw him become one of its greatest players of all time.

He finished his career with 286 games and 250 goals, two premierships and two All-Australian guernseys.