I enjoyed the launch of the John Button Prize in Melbourne last ‘Thursday night. After the event I retired to a restaurant Button liked in Little Bourke St – The Shark Fin with two of his three sons, two of his three wives and two of what may be three grandchildren and some others. It was fun. We swapped a few John Button Stories. I told of the time in 1983 when as an idealistic young staffer with some good piece of news for the government, I said to Button “Shouldn’t we give this goal to the full forward to kick”. Button thought about it in silence for a while before responding “Half forward flanker’s got to kick a few”.
And someone told the story of a woman saying to Button that his two eyes were a slightly different colour. He replied with what I imagine was a combination of gruff humour and flirtatiousness “I’ve had wives who haven’t noticed that”.