Michael Tuck

Early career (1971 - 1973)

Raised in Berwick, in Melbourne's outer south-eastern suburbs, Tuck joined Hawthorn in 1971 from the country zone club of the same name, and remained at the club for his entire career. Tuck initially played as a full forward and the understudy to the great Peter Hudson, kicking 63 goals in the VFL Reserves in 1971. He made his Senior debut against Richmond in the eighth round the following year and kicked goals with his first three kicks in senior football, but soon after lost form and was dropped from the senior side. Tuck would play in Hawthorn's winning 1972 Reserve grade premiership side.

Rising career (1974 - 1985)

In the following years Tuck was tried as a winger and defender before in 1974 finding his true niche as a ruck-rover and firmly establishing himself in the Hawthorn senior side. With Don Scott and Leigh Matthews Tuck came to form a following combination feared by every other VFL club and a crucial role in Hawthorn's 1976 and 1978 premierships. Tuck was a team leader as Hawthorn appeared in seven successive grand finals between 1983 and 1989. In the last four years of his career Tuck was moved from the ball to the less demanding role of a running half-back flanker, but he still averaged over 17 possessions per game in the final years of his career.

Captaincy (1986–1991)

Tuck was the natural successor to the Hawthorn captaincy in 1986 after Leigh Matthews' retirement. He captained them from that year until his retirement in 1991 at the age of 38. He won a total of seven VFL/AFL premierships with Hawthorn, captaining the club in four of them.

Tuck never won Hawthorn's best-and-fairest, but was runner-up on six occasions, and there was a good deal of controversy in 1982 and 1983 when he failed to poll a single vote in the Brownlow Medal, which led to votes for each match being made publicly available for the first time ever in 1984.

His last game was in Hawthorn's premiership win in the Grand Final over West Coast.

Records

Tuck holds a number of VFL/AFL games records. These are:

He retired as the tenth-oldest player ever; he was 38 years and 95 days old when he retired.

In 2016, Brent Harvey broke Tuck's record of 426 VFL/AFL games, playing 432 senior games.

Legacy

Tuck was a skinny ruck-rover with great stamina as evidenced by the length of his career. He held the record as the VFL/AFL games record holder with 426 senior games, from his retirement until 30 July 2016, when the record was broken by North Melbourne's Brent Harvey. However, Tuck's durability is not only reflected in the number of senior games he played, but in having played fifty games in the reserves before becoming a regular senior player. Tuck did poll 120 Brownlow votes for his career, but never got anywhere near winning the award.

Two of his sons have played in the AFL, Shane Tuck for Richmond, and Travis Tuck for Hawthorn.

The medal presented to the best afield in the preseason cup final was named after him in 1992, as was a grandstand at Glenferrie Oval. He was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996.

Coaching career

Tuck briefly served as a reserves coach at Geelong, under former Hawks team-mate Gary Ayres.

Personal life

Tuck is the brother-in-law of former Geelong player Gary Ablett, Sr., having married Fay Ablett.