John Elliott's reaction to his tribute from the AFL would be rude, loud and eminently quotable.
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The league has paid tribute to its long-time bete noir, who died on Thursday aged 79.
Before Eddie McGuire and Jeff Kennett, Elliott set the standard for a club president persistently taking on head office.
"No-one barracks for the AFL . . . they barrack for Carlton and Collingwood," Elliott once said.
Indeed, Carlton's longest-serving president was one of the ring leaders in a 1984 plot to form a breakaway national Australian Rule competition.
That plan proved a crucial catalyst for the then-VFL transforming itself over the next few years into the AFL.
"John Elliott was about Carlton first and last, but he loved the game deeply as a long-time player at amateur level and then as an administrator with a relentless drive to seek the best for his Navy Blues," said AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan.
"John was a giant figure in Australian business and politics in the 1980s and he was central to the theatre of the VFL and latterly the AFL, with the constant sparring with rival clubs and that search for any advantage that could lead to four points on a Saturday."
The quest for "any advantage" eventually proved Elliott's undoing.
He was deposed as president on Remembrance Day, 2002 - just days before the league hit Carlton with massive penalties for salary-cap breaches.
But Carlton was never as strong as the peak of Elliott's reign from 1983 to '02.
Under his watch the Blues won their most recent premierships, in 1987 and '95, and featured some of the league's greatest players, including Stephen Kernahan, Craig Bradley, Greg Williams, Brett Ratten and Stephen Silvagni.
"Before the days of the national draft, their search for talent across the country drew some of the greatest players in the club's history to Ikon Park, with a team that was a joy to watch at its best," McLachlan said.
Australian Associated Press
