Tony Modra has revealed he had tears in his eyes after being overwhelmed by the crowd’s response to his Mark of the Year against North Melbourne at Football Park in 1993.

Modra, who was inducted into Adelaide’s inaugural Hall of Fame, won Mark of the Year three times during his spectacular 165-game career and received numerous other nominations. The high-flying Crow identified one of his first big grabs over North great Glenn Archer in ‘93’ as his favourite.

“The first time I realised the crowd were in there wanting to watch you take hangers was the North Melbourne game in 1993 when they all just stood up,” Modra said on Wednesday night.

“I was nearly in tears, like I am now … I’m a bit of a sook! When you take that sort of mark, you need to kick the goal. I was trying to rub the tears from my eyes and concentrate on the goal because the crowd was just so loud. It was fantastic.

“That mark against North Melbourne in the goal square sort of set it off … seeing the grandstand erupt made me want to keep trying it again. I know coaches say, ‘You don’t have to fly for all of them’ but I sort of found differently ...”

Modra also told the 700 guests in the room on Wednesday night that he never kept the car on offer as winner of Mark of the Year in the 1990s.

“Winning the cars was something different to me,” he said.

“People would say, ‘You’ve won a car’ and I’d think, ‘Great, I’ll get to keep it!’ but then I got some advice from my accountant Eddie, who said it wasn’t wise to keep the car because you have to pay half in tax.

“I think Toyota were happy with that anyway because it was a Mitsubishi!”

It was in a Toyota that Modra signed his first contract with the Crows before the 1992 season.

The Riverland lad was at a photo shoot when fellow Hall of Fame inductee and former CEO and Chairman Bill Sanders produced the paperwork.

“Bill Sanders pulled me aside and into a new Toyota Camry. I thought, ‘Jeez, this looks alright! I wonder if this is a sign-on fee or something’,” Modra said with a laugh.

“Bill had the contract out, whacked it on the dash of the car and said, ‘Sign here’. I didn’t need any agents or lawyers back then. I just said, ‘No worries’ and signed it.

“I didn’t get the car, but it didn’t matter. It could’ve been a matchbox car, I just wanted to play for the Adelaide footy club.”

Modra was described as being ‘bigger than Bradman’ in Adelaide at his peak.

It’s been 18 years since the cult hero last played for the Crows, but he still received the biggest applause when he was called to the stage at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre at the Club’s inaugural Hall of Fame.

However, Modra insisted his popularity had waned, telling a funny story to highlight his point.

“When I was over in Perth still playing for Freo, I went to the dump with my wife one day to drop some stuff off. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a big poster of Tony McGuinness. I said, ‘You know you’re past it when you see that sitting in the dump!’ and had a laugh,” he said.

“Funnily enough, about five years later I was down at Victor Harbor going to the dump and there I (my poster) was! I looked at my wife and we didn’t say anything.”

Fellow inductee and former teammate Ben Hart, who is now an assistant coach at Collingwood, rates Modra as the best forward he ever saw.

“The legend still lives with Tony Modra,” Hart said.

“I show vision of Tony to the Collingwood players when they ask me, ‘Who was the hardest player you played on?’ I played on Tony at training for years. I kept him to two goals one day and that was a good one!

“The Pies players still call him ‘Godra’ as well.”