Canberra Times
James Hird and Nathan Buckley are fighting for supremacy from the Essendon and Collingwood coach's boxes respectively, but 28 years ago they sat side-by-side in an under-13 team photo for Ainslie.
Hird played 253 games for the Bombers, winning two premierships, one Brownlow Medal and one Norm Smith Medal.
Buckley amassed 280 AFL games, a Norm Smith and a Brownlow as well, but that grand final victory eluded him.
Both also boast the illustrious Ainslie under-13 best-and-fairest awards on their resumes.
It was Hird who took the honours in Thursday's Anzac clash between Essendon and Collingwood at the MCG - and it was the memory of Hird that lived strongest for former Ainslie junior president Clare Palmer.
Hird grew up playing footy for the Tricolours and his final game for the club was the 1990 senior grand final, which Ainslie won, while Buckley spent only 1½ seasons wearing the red, white and black.
For Palmer, three things stood out about ''Jimmy'' Hird, as he was then known: his determination, his courage and his ''spindly'' young body.
''[Hird] was very determined, his whole goal was to go to Melbourne and play football [for Essendon],'' Palmer told The Canberra Times.
''He was quite a spindly [kid], he wasn't a well-built fella when he left, [but] he built up and of course became a very good footballer.
''Nathan Buckley was only in juniors and he was only here about a season and a half.
''He was promising, but with kids you never know.''
She said former Melbourne and North Melbourne player Shaun Smith was another Ainslie junior who stood out.
Palmer also coached, and remembers one of Hird's sisters playing in her under-sevens team.
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