Keith Greig

Keith Southby Greig (born 23 October 1951) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the North Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL).

Red-haired and pale-skinned, Greig was regarded as one of the most graceful players of his era with superb ball-handling skills. His stamina and free-flowing running style made him a perfect wingman, but in his later years he was used more as a half back flanker. He is one of few players to win back-to-back Brownlow Medals and was an inaugural inductee in the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

Playing career Greig played his junior football for Brunswick in the Victorian Football Association, and in 1968 he won the Gillon Medal as the best and fairest in the VFA Thirds competition. He was recruited to the VFL by , at the age of 19. From the beginning his technical brilliance did not go unnoticed, and he was picked for his first State Representative game after only having played nine senior VFL matches. Greig went on to represent the Big V 12 more times over his career, and was state captain in 1978.

In 1973, he won the Brownlow Medal with 27 votes. In 1974, he became the eighth player to win the Brownlow twice, again with 27 votes, and the fifth player to win it back-to-back. North played in the 1974 VFL Grand Final, their second appearance in a Grand Final. They lost to , but Greig was one of North's best players.

The following year, North won their first VFL premiership and again, Greig was among North's best players. Earlier in the year, he had been awarded membership of the Order of the British Empire for his services to football. With the retirement of Barry Davis, Greig was appointed club captain at the start of the 1976 VFL season. But it was a position he did not relish, and subsequently missed out on the 1977 premiership. He was named an All-Australian in 1983. Greig's final VFL match was the 1985 semi-final against , which North Melbourne lost by 30 points.

Relationship with Ron Barassi To many outside observers, the partnership between Greig as captain and coach Ron Barassi during the 1970s was among the best in the league. But in 2004, Greig revealed in an interview that the relationship became so strained that at the end of 1979 he resigned the captaincy and came close to leaving the club. Although Barassi was known for saying things he later regretted when in an angry mood, one particular insult hurt Greig deeply: "If it wasn't for football you'd be nothing but a shit plumber".

In 1992, Greig returned to North Melbourne as chairman of selectors.