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BARRY Cable was a football giant in a 168cm, 75kg package.

Shorter than every current AFL-listed player, including rookies, and lighter than every Brisbane Lions and St Kilda player, Cable did not have the physical presence to strike fear into opponents.

But they learned to fear him nonetheless, quickly discovering his sublime skills were mightier than the biggest, toughest opposition enforcer.

Cable's reflexes were so quick he could fire off handballs from either hand before his opponents knew what had happened. He could do so from the bottom of packs, with an opponent on his hammer, or with a ring of players closing in on him.  

And nearly every time he hit his target. Like fellow West Australian champion Graham 'Polly' Farmer, that target could be 30m away and still be within Cable's range.

Cable was equally damaging by foot. Either foot. One of the last great proponents of the drop kick, he could hit long-range targets with passes that stayed low to the ground and bore through the air with the speed and unswerving accuracy of a crack sniper's bullet.

Cable also cut down opponents with his ability to read the play three or four steps ahead of where it actually was. With such heightened game sense, he not only knew where to run to get the ball himself, he was also able to play puppet master to his teammates, directing them where to run. When they caught on, they soon got used to being spoon-fed the ball in the open.

He also had cat-like agility, with a bagful of sidesteps, feints and blind turns that made him a better escape artist than Houdini.

And, as a keen long-distance runner, Cable was able to run his opponents off their feet.

Add the courage that sent him to the bottom of packs, time and time again, under bigger and heavier opponents, and Cable was the complete rover.

Becoming a football champion had been Cable's dream as a young boy growing up in Narrogin, 200km southeast of Perth. But, unlike most childhood dreamers, he spent almost every spare daylight hour from the age of 12 developing the skills and fitness he knew he'd need to make his dream a reality.

Such supreme dedication was one of the hallmarks of Cable’s 403-game career in the WAFL with Perth (225 games from 1962-69 and 1971-73) and East Perth (42 from 1978-79), in the VFL with North Melbourne (115 in 1970 and from 1974-77) and in state games (20 with Western Australia and one with Victoria.

In his mind, he could always get better and he could always get fitter - even after he'd won three Sandover Medals, a record five Simpson Medals (one was awarded retrospectively in 2007), four WAFL premierships, two VFL premierships, and an incredible seven consecutive club best and fairest awards from 1965-71.

In April 1976, Ron Barassi, who coached Cable at North Melbourne from 1974-77, described in his Sun column just what his star rover was striving for - the "complete eradication of error".

"I have never met a player who lives for the game as much as Cable," Barassi wrote.

In a recent one-hour phone interview with AFL.com.au, Cable said his relentless work ethic had been the key to his football success.

"I have no doubt all the time I put into my football paid off," Cable said.

"I think a lot of today's boys could do a lot more work on their skills because the game has always revolved around skill.

"If you've got a good kicking side, a good handballing side and they use their skills correctly during a game, gee, you've got to get a good result."
 
'Good' does not begin to describe Cable's skills. Try sublime and you're on the right track.

Cable's handball was his trademark.

Although Farmer is almost universally credited with transforming handball from a defensive last resort into an attacking weapon in the 1950-60s with East Perth in the WAFL and Geelong in the VFL, Cable's peers say he was in the same league.

One of his fiercest rivals, Richmond great and fellow Legend Kevin Bartlett, told AFL.com.au Cable was "the miniature Polly Farmer when it came to handball". Cable's former North teammates Wayne Schimmelbusch and Keith Greig said he and Farmer were the best two handballers in their era.

Although Farmer, at 191cm and 94kg, was 23cm taller and 24kg heavier than Cable, Schimmelbusch said Cable had been able to emulate Farmer's trademark long-range handballs.

"In one of the finals we played against Hawthorn in 1977, 'Cabes' shot off a handball on the wing. It would have gone 35m and it hit the bloke on the chest. He was capable of doing that but, then again, after the game he'd tell you all about it," Schimmelbusch said, laughing.

Cable's kicking was also elite. In an era when coaches were phasing out the drop kick and stab pass in favour of the more easily executed drop punt, Cable's skill at the art bought him some latitude.

Barassi told AFL.com.au recently he banned drop kicks at North when he took over as coach in 1973, but made an exception for then-captain Barry Davis and Cable.

Cable's game sense was also exceptional.

Greig, his captain at North from 1976-77, explained just how well Cable read the game.

"Some guys are ball watchers and ran to where the ball is, but others ran to where the ball is going to go - 'Cabes' had that instinct all his career," Greig said.

"Sometimes you wondered why he was running to a certain spot but then you'd see the ball go there and he's got it and you're going forward again".

Greig was 22 and in his fourth year at Arden Street when Cable arrived for his second stint at North and said, at the time, some Kangaroos youngsters initially struggled to keep up with Cable's football brain.

"When he first came over he would handball where he thought the player should be and, of course, being a young and inexperienced team we weren't reading that," Greig said.

"But gradually as we got better it all sort of fell into place and Cabes was just terrific in the way he brought everyone into the game."

And when it fell into place, North forged the most successful era in its history, winning the 1975 and 1977 premierships from a club-record five consecutive Grand Finals appearances from 1974-78 (Cable did not play in the 1978 loss to Hawthorn, having returned to Perth).

North's 1977 premiership ruckman Peter Keenan told AFL.com.au Cable was "the glue" of those flag teams, their "on-field general". Bartlett said no player had been more instrumental in North's 1970s success.

Cable was synonymous with premiership success throughout his career.

Perth had won just two flags since its 1899 formation when he joined the club in 1962. But he led the Demons to the 1966-68 WAFL flags with three consecutive best-on-ground Grand Final performances, each winning him that year's Simpson Medal.

And the first season after he again returned to Perth from North Melbourne, Cable captain-coached East Perth to the 1978 premiership over his former club, Perth.

At the end of 1979, a horrific accident in which he was pinned under a spinning tractor ended his playing career. Several days later, secondary infections nearly claimed Cable's life, while his right calf muscle had to be reconstructed with muscle from his hip.
 
However, true to character, Cable recovered to coach East Perth in 1980, leading it to the preliminary final.

The following year he returned to North to replace Malcolm Blight as coach with six games to go in the 1981 season. Cable led the Roos into the finals in 1982 and 1983 and finished at the end of 1984 with 40 wins from 76 games, a winning rate of 52.6 per cent.

In 1986, Cable returned to Perth to play a mentoring role with its youngsters, and from 1987-89 he was an assistant coach with West Coast, appropriately focusing on the Eagles' skills.

It was a remarkable football career, one that was recognised when Cable was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in its inaugural year, 1996. This year, he becomes just the 24th player to be made a Legend.

Cable works today to engage parents in their children's education with The Community Development Foundation, and has channelled his competitive spirit into cycling and golf. 

He told AFL.com.au he was humbled to become a Legend, but stressed it would not have been possible without his wife Helen's support.

"We've been together since 16 so Helen's sacrificed a lot to allow me to follow my dream in the footy," he said.

"You don't do anything on your own. Everyone has to be helped and supported."

Even football giants.

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