Brian Roet

Recruited from the University Blacks in the VAFA, Brian Roet was a serendipitous find for Melbourne; scouts had originally attended an amateur match to watch a teammate but signed Roet instead. Known as "Doc," the key defender famously balanced a demanding medical degree with top-level football, often taking the field on little sleep after hospital shifts and initially refusing match payments to preserve his amateur status. He made the centre-half back position his own during a successful era for the Demons, playing a crucial role in the club's 1964 Premiership victory over Collingwood. Roet stepped away from the game in 1965 to further his medical studies in Hong Kong, though he returned for a brief cameo in 1968 before eventually establishing himself as a renowned psychotherapist and author in London.