The thoughts of the entire Brisbane Lions family are with club Hall of Famer Matt Rendell and his family as he lies in a critical condition on life support in a Melbourne hospital following a heart attack while walking his dog over the weekend.

Rendell, 64, a former Fitzroy captain and club champion who finished his playing career with the Brisbane Bears, has been a hugely popular figure across the AFL industry for more than 40 years as a player, coach, recruiter and media personality.

After hanging up the boots in 1991 the 200cm gentle giant known industry-wide as ‘Bundy’ worked as an assistant-coach and match day tactician at St.Kilda under Grant Thomas before extended stints in recruiting at Adelaide and Collingwood.

More recently he has been a respected voice on prospective draftees and the AFL trade period on radio SEN and Trade Radio, always with an endless supply of humorous and interesting stories from his recruiting days.

A ruckman/forward originally from SANFL club West Torrens, Rendell played a practice match for Torrens against Fitzroy in 1979, looking very much the star he became, and joined the club in 1981. He played 164 games over 11 years, was captain from 1985-87, won the Perc Mitchell Medal as club champion in 1982-83 and claimed All-Australian honors in 1983 and ’87.

Having slotted straight into to the #9 jumper made famous at Fitzroy by 1913 and 1922 premiership player Jimmy Freake, Rendell wore it more times than any other Fitzroy player.

He debuted at Fitzroy under coach Robert Walls, who had also worn #9 in three years playing at the club after a stellar career at Carlton and was elevated to the Fitzroy captaincy by Walls to replace the legendary Garry Wilson in ’85.

After Walls moved on Rendell served as captain for two years under coach David Parkin before handing the leadership on to Paul Roos. He finished his career at Fitzroy under Parkin, Rod Austin and Robert Shaw, and was one of great old-fashioned ruckmen.

In a 1991 season in which the Bears collected the wooden-spoon, an injury-plagued Rendell played Rounds 4-5-6 and a farewell game in Round 24, when Fitzroy they beat West Coast at Princes Park. At 32 he decided he’d had enough.

He was well-remembered at Fitzroy for an extraordinary game against defending premiers and ladder leaders North Melbourne at Junction Oval in Round 13 1983.

Walls, never afraid to try the unexpected, stationed Rendell as a seventh forward to combat champion North ruckman Gary Dempsey and his ability to change a game marking deep in defence.

Rendell, only 24 and without a goal in his previous 16 games, turned defence into attack, kicking a career-best eight goals in his 52^nd game as Fitzroy won by 150 points. At the time it was more than double the previous biggest loss by a defending premier in AFL history.

Rendell scored a rare perfect ‘10’ in ‘The Age’ Player of the Year voting and received three Brownlow Medal votes.

With Bernie Quinlan and Mick Conlan kicking seven goals apiece and Les Parish picking up a career-best 39 possessions, Fitzroy won 34-16 (220) to 10-10 (70).

It was the club’s second-biggest win all-time, behind only the 190-point win over Melbourne in 1979, which is the biggest in AFL history. And more than 30 years later it remains the highest score ever kicked against North.

In his 103^rd game Rendell captained Fitzroy’s last finals win against Sydney at the MCG, and the following week did likewise in their last final – a loss to Hawthorn at Waverley in the great Bernie Quinlan’s 366^th and last game.

Rendell is player #985 on the all-time Fitzroy playing list, one ahead of Terry O’Neill, who later played for Coorparoo and Queensland, and two ahead of Scott Clayton, a 160-gamer at Fitzroy and a great mate who later served for 10 years as Brisbane Victorian Manager and Recruiting Manager before his son Josh played with the Lions in 2016.

In his 22^nd game Rendell was a teammate of first-gamers Paul Roos and Gary Pert, who went on to become all-time Fitzroy greats, and 11 weeks later played in the debut of Richard Osborne, another star in the making.

While Rendell was Fitzroy captain he oversaw the debut of Ross Lyon, John Blakey and Queenslanders Scott McIvor and Michael Gibson in 1985, Michael Gale and Jimmy Wind in 1986 and Brett Stephens, Darren Kappler, Matty Armstrong and Ken Hinkley in 1987, among others.

His leadership, powerful but balanced, and his laconic, club-first personality left a huge impression on a playing group enjoying their last successful period before financial problems took hold and eventually sent the club into the Brisbane merger.

But Rendell was not long retired when he answered an SOS from good friend Walls, who had just finished his first season as coach of the Bears. It was a young side lacking experience and leadership, and Walls asked Rendell to play on to help build the fledgling team.

Underdone, he played the last 13 games of the 1992 season to stretch his career to 177 games.

In his eighth game for the Bears and his only game against Fitzroy at Princes Park in Round 18 he watched in awe as a 17-year-old Michael Voss, wearing jumper #56, made an eye-catching debuted for the Bears in a 41-point win – their first interstate win since Round 21 1989.

Rendell, who at 33 was the oldest player in the competition in 1992, kicked three goals and controlled the ruck. And although he was overlooked by the umpires in Brownlow Medal voting he was rated best afield by the Bears coaching staff - by a whisker from Voss, who had a team-high 26 possessions on the wing, and Rod Owen, who kicked a career-high eight goals.

Ironically, Rendell had been on the losing Fitzroy side the last time the Bear had won in Melbourne.

Rendell was one of only 13 players in history to play for Fitzroy and the Bears pre-merger. The others were McIvor, Gibson, Lyon, Alastair Lynch, David Bain, Kevin Caton, Daryl Cox, Brad Edwards, Bernie Harris, Brendan McCormack, Chris Stacey and Mark Zanotti.

He has never lost his Fitzroy connections, and in recent years would regularly be seen walking along the beachfront in Melbourne with ex-teammates Clayton, Leon Harris and Laurie Serafini, and other occasional ring-ins, reflecting on the good old days and solving any and all of the game’s problems.