All three words are just some of the terms used by the football public to describe Ben Hudson.
The ruckman, who will saddle up for his second year as a mature age rookie, was named as an emergency for Collingwood’s two NAB Challenge matches and was one of the best afield in the VFL Magpies’ win over Port Melbourne last Sunday.
Following the departure of Darren Jolly, Hudson, with 168 games under his belt, is Collingwood’s most experienced ruckman and is sure to prove invaluable in guiding youngsters Brodie Grundy and Jarrod Witts through the 2014 season.
Should Hudson be selected to play just one senior game this season (he managed seven last year), he will join a select group of Collingwood footballers.
Having celebrated his 35th birthday on Monday, Hudson will become one of the ‘oldest’ players to have ever represented the Black and White when he plays his first senior game of 2014.
It’s pretty impressive considering there have been 1111 players to have played a senior game for Collingwood since 1897.
Just playing one game in the next 98 days will see Hudson move into 10th place, and if he is selected to play against Greater Western Sydney in round 22 (Saturday 23 August), he will leapfrog Nathan Buckley, Syd Coventry and Jim Sharp and move into seventh place on the all-time list.
And maybe, just maybe, Hudson might play on into his 36th year.
If he does, he will be a chance to move past Gordon Coventry and George Angus and become the fifth oldest Magpie of all time.
Hudson is currently the 12th oldest player in Collingwood history, having most recently played against the Suns in round 17 last season when aged 34 years and 146 days.
Of Collingwood’s oldest players, Hudson is one of only two to arrive via another club while in his 30s.
The other is Richard Osborne, who played a handy 29 games for the club under Tony Shaw between 1997 and 1998. Osborne was aged 32 years and 286 days when he pulled on the Black and White for the first time against Port Adelaide in round one of 1997.
It would be remiss of us to forget to mention Jim Sharp, too.
After 161 games with Fitzroy, Sharp moved to Collingwood in 1911, aged 29.
He played 17 games for the Magpies between 1911 and 1912 before retiring and becoming club President in 1913.
Incredibly, five years later, Sharp was summoned back into his Collingwood jumper for one last game against Geelong at Corio Oval in 1917. A player was unable to arrive at the ground in time, so President Sharp answered the call of duty. That one senior game made him the eighth oldest player to represent the club in a VFL/AFL match.
For the trivia buffs, Sharp is in fact Paul Seedsman’s great-grandfather.
| Name | Career Span | Age at Last Game |
| Ted Rowell | 1901-1903; 1906-1915 | 39 years and 95 days |
| Les Hughes | 1908-1922 | 38 years and 144 days |
| Bill Proudfoot | 1897-1906 | 38 years and 75 days |
| Jock McHale | 1903-1918; 1920 | 37 years and 141 days |
| George Angus | 1902-1911 | 36 years and 133 days |
| Gordon Coventry | 1920-1937 | 36 years and 0 days |
| Syd Coventry | 1922-1934 | 35 years and 101 days |
| Jim Sharp | 1911-1912; 1917 | 35 years and 100 days |
| Nathan Buckley | 1994-2007 | 35 years and 57 days |
| Phonse Kyne | 1934-1944; 1946-1950 | 34 years and 287 days |
| David Cloke | 1983-1989 | 34 years and 224 days |
| Ben Hudson | 2013 | 34 years and 146 days |
| Richard Osborne | 1997-1998 | 34 years and 75 days |
| Des Tuddenham | 1962-1971; 1976-1977 | 34 years and 70 days |
| Bert Colechin | 1916-1921 | 34 years and 69 days |
| Tony Shaw | 1978-1994 | 34 years and 50 days |
| Shane Wakelin | 2001-2008 | 34 years and 32 days |
All statistics in this article are sourced from the wonderful AFL Tables website.
