Along with the radio industry reflecting on the health and wellbeing of its people, the AFL will be too ahead of season 2025 with the deaths of Dale Tapping, Adam Hunter and Troy Selwood, part of the 95.5 K Rock Football radio commentary team, all announced this week.

Former captain of the Brisbane Lions and now radio presenter and podcaster Jonathan Brown (main picture) paid tribute this morning on Nova 100’s Jase & Lauren to his friend and former teammate Troy Selwood.

Lauren Phillips: A sad day for the AFL, and it’s a sad day for his family and friends. You guys were great mates.

Jonathan: Yeah, absolutely. So we had many great times. I talking to Kylie last night and obviously you get reflective day when close ones passed away. And he came to our wedding.

Unfortunately, in the footy world, when we all separate and we don’t play with each other, we don’t get to spend as much time as we like together. But he was just such a wonderful, wonderful human. He had a beautiful soul about him, and including at the wedding, I think he might have nearly got kicked out of our wedding, along with Dan Merrett who was his great mate, because the boys got carried away on the dance floor. They thought they’d put a trail of Crown lagers on the dance floor to make a slip and slide. Which the venue operator wasn’t too keen on!

I said you can’t kick some of my best mates out of my own wedding. But, he’s just, he loved life. He had a great smile, and it was a very empathetic bloke as well. So that’s why teammates loved him, and why everyone in the footy club loved him, and everyone involved that he met loved him. So, you know, really tough day. I knew he’d been going through some struggles, unfortunately, but it never quite prepares you for the shock of a mouthful like that.

Clint Stanaway: He loved to help. He loved to mentor, especially young footballers. He played that role at Geelong. Was he like that at Brisbane?

Jonathan: Absolutely he did. He finished his career as the captain of the Geelong VFL team when he was really starting off his post footy career as an administrator down there. He started learning and cutting his teeth under Stephen Hocking and Neil Balme there, two of the great football administrators, and he was still playing there because they wanted him to mentor the younger Geelong players coming through. He was able to win a premiership back in 2011 or 2012 I think.

You don’t just put anyone in those sorts of roles, do you? Obviously he had great empathy. He was such a positive character around younger fellas. And had a real interest in developing younger men. He did a fantastic job helping Stephen Wells in that recruiting department with Geelong drafting the next crop of premiership players that we saw in 2022 for the mighty Cats and and he continued on that good work at Geelong Grammar recently, up until his passing yesterday. So, yeah, those jobs don’t get handed out lightly unless you’ve shown in the past that you’re very good at that.

I remember when he first come to the footy club, and people asking him what his nickname is. The four Selwood boys are a famous family. You’ve got Scooter. Joel’s probably GOAT, the greatest of all time. I’m not sure what Adam‘s was at West Coast, but Troy’s was Bunno.

People asked him, how do you get Bunno? And he go, Well, you know, the great thing about footy clubs. They’ll give you nicknames. Craig McCrae, one of the funniest characters I played with, now the Collingwood coach said, well, Troy Selwood. He needs a nickname. Sell wood. Where do you where do you sell wood? Bunnings. So that’s how he got Bunno.

I tell you what he was he was hard as a piece of four by 2, as well. That’s the way he played. And I think Michael Voss spoke about in the Herald Sun this morning about his courage and his ability to put his body on the line over and over again.

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