Rodney Eade has revealed the worst decision of his football career on This is Your Sporting Life for Tobin Brothers – celebrating lives.
Eade played 229 games for Hawthorn across the 1970’s and 80’s and was a part of four premiership teams.
Of those Grand Finals, one stands out to him in particular.
“In 1985 I was dropped for the Grand Final and I played in the Preliminary Final and got votes in the media and votes in the best and fairest and got dropped so I still to this day can’t really explain that,” he told This is Your Sporting Life for Tobin Brothers – celebrating lives.
“I was filthy and dirty and played in the second’s Grand Final and for the life of me still don’t understand why.
“To come back in 1986 and to win that and then play in the premiership probably gave me the most satisfaction.”
Going into 1987, Eade found himself on the outside at the Hawks again, which led to the “worst footy decision” of his career.
“In 1987 I got dropped for the finals series and I think ego kicks in, the Brisbane Bears had spoken to me and I thought I had more senior footy in me, I want to play consistent senior footy and I found it appealing to go there,” he said.
“In hindsight it’s the worst footy decision I’ve made.
“The next year, Hawthorn went back to back and I’m not saying I would’ve been in the team, but it gives you opportunity and you go to the Bears and struggle as a team.”
The near-400 game coach played 30 games for the Bears between 1988 and 1990.
However, he said the silver lining of that decision is it opened the coaching door for him.
“It’s the best career move I made though because I would never have coached,” Eade said.
“I didn’t have the burning desire to coach.
People had said to me, you’ll coach one day and even though I was a bit of a jokester, I wasn’t a great speaker publicly, so I didn’t really want to do it.”
Eade would go on to coach at Sydney, the Bulldogs and Gold Coast in a career that would span over 20 years.
Listen to Rodney Eade's chat on This is Your Sporting Life with Peter Donegan in the player below, thanks to Tobin Brothers: