Michael Taylor was mid-way through the 1990 season at Collingwood coaching under Leigh Matthews when he got a phone call from Bob Hammond back in Adelaide.

Taylor describes Hammond as “the best coach I ever had” during their time together at Norwood, and now Hammond who was assembling the Crows’ inaugural coaching panel wanted him to come home.

“Halfway through 1990 he said ‘this could happen, keep your options open and I’ll give you another call when things start moving’,” Taylor said.

“My family was pretty well ready to come back home and Bob called me back a few weeks later and said they were going through the process of appointing a coach.

“Then Cornesy (Graham Cornes) rang me and I flew over for a day and had lunch with him, and I could see then and there that it was going to be a good partnership, and I accepted the role.”

Taylor has recounted his journey to the Crows and time as assistant coach after being inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame on Tuesday evening.

Fellow South Australian Matthew Pavlich was also inducted into the Hall of Fame while the late Port Adelaide great Russell Ebert was elevated to Legend Status.

Taylor, a six-time Norwood best-and-fairest winner, two-time premiership player and former captain, who also played 94 games for Collingwood, said he was “overwhelmed” by the honour after attending a gala ceremony in Melbourne.

“It’s a massive function and I saw players I played against and they all came up to me and said g’day,” Taylor said.

“It’s a respect from the football public, all the text messages I got, I’m half-way through getting back to them because I like to thank them.

“It’s the biggest function I’ve ever been to, so well run, your family is there, it was wonderful.”

Taylor joined the Crows in 1991 after three years coaching at Collingwood which culminated with a drought breaking premiership.

“Leigh (Matthews) brought me there to play in the twos and coach, which I was happy to do because I loved training and I’d never coached before so that was a great learning experience for me,” he said.

“In those days we didn’t have many coaches at all – there was myself and Leigh and one other doing a bit of ruck coaching – but Leigh put a process in place and they played extremely well throughout the year and on grand final day.

“It had been 30-odd years since they’d won a flag so to see the supporters and players who’d lost grand finals, it was very special.”

After everything he’d achieved in football, Taylor said joining the Crows for their entry into the national competition was an exciting new challenge and he embraced the chance to work alongside the likes of Cornes, Hammond, Neil Kerley, Trevor Jacques and Leon Holme.

“And there was Bill Sanders and John Condon, two great men and as they say if you get the top right then it will spread right through,” Taylor said.

“We didn’t interact with the opposition too often as players but Cornesy and I played state footy together and I always admired the way he played.

“You could see when he was playing he was going to coach, it was in his DNA, and he was magnificent to work for, such a fantastic person.

“In pre-season we had 72 players training 13 days out of 14 so it was a bit of a shock to them because they were all working as well.

“But I loved every minute of it, it was go, go, go, all the time. I trained with the players and so did Cornesy and that helped a lot.

“The gym was only small so we had a three-way rotation, you had to be over here then over there but everyone did a wonderful job.”

Like many involved in the early days of the Club, Taylor will never forget the very first win over Hawthorn in Round One, 1991.

“I thought we were half a chance because we’d come off pretty good trial games, we weren’t disgraced, and the systems were put in place,” he said.

“It was pretty daunting for the players who hadn’t played at that standard but we had a good leader in Chris McDermott, what a captain, oh my goodness me.

“He led from the front and then you had Jars (Andrew Jarman) and Tony McGuinness and if you have eight or 10 doing the right thing then the rest will follow.

“The hardest thing was getting used to the travel, playing on new grounds, sleeping away from home. It’s a formality now but in those days we’d fly on a Friday so I’d be at work at 4am and then travel with the team to Melbourne.”

Taylor remained with the Crows until 1995 before coaching West Adelaide for five seasons and returning to Norwood where he became football director, and remained on the footy committee until this year.

“I’m a mad golfer at the minute so that’s what I’m up to now, I still go to Norwood functions and I watch the Crows, they’re a fantastic club,” he said.

“I loved my time at the Crows, it’s like a family, you do your bit and you get a buzz out of the whole thing.”