Early in his speech the 65-year-old Vautin quipped that he felt like he was 35 and looked like he was 95, and had originally wanted to play Sheffield Shield cricket for Queensland.

Vautin recalled playing at a schoolboys carnival in the 1970s and hitting a six off a “long blond haired fellow”, and then didn’t see the next five balls from the same bowler who sent his stumps flying.

Vautin soon discovered the bowler was Carl Rackemann – a future Test bowler – before an ample-shaped batter hit Vautin for five fours and three sixes the next day.

Vautin soon learned the player who hammered him around the park was Greg Ritchie – another future Test player.

“Between those two, they ended my cricket career, of course until the catch,” Vautin said.

Vautin said the catch – a one-hander in the Allan Border tribute match in late 1993 – was described as a fluke although he made the audience laugh when he said it was the greatest catch of all time.

Vautin mentioned playing rugby league in Brisbane and attracting offers from Cronulla and North Sydney before signing with Manly.

At training, Manly’s first premiership-winning captain Fred Jones approached Vautin and said, “Who’s this little fatty then?”

Another teammate, Graham Eadie, promptly said “righto that’s what we’re going to call you, we’re going to call you ‘Fatty’…so that’s how I got the nickname, it’s still got me bamboozled”, Vautin said.

Vautin talked about a brawl in Manly’s dressing-room in the lead-up to a contest with Wests, after one player called a teammate a cat.

“Terry (Randall) had a cut eye and ‘Magilla’ (Ian Thomson) had a broken nose, and (we) hadn’t even kicked off,” he recalled.

Vautin said the bacon he ate during Australia’s turbulent 1985 tour of New Zealand was the greatest he ever tasted, to which teammate Steve ‘Blocker’ Roach said, “Why wouldn’t it be? There’s 20 million sheep in this country.”

In reply to Roach’s comment, Peter Tunks reportedly called Roach ‘an idiot’ and said “everyone knows that bacon comes from cows”.

Vautin referred to some embarrassing moments when commentating, as well as being on The Footy Show.

As for Kerry Packer, Vautin said it was “quite scary” to meet him around 1999 and 2000 when some National Rugby League (NRL) clubs were merging.

Vautin was against the Manly and North Sydney amalgamation, and chatted with Packer about various things.

“I had two hours with him, it was amazing, he was absolutely fantastic,” Vautin said.

“He said ‘who’s the best sportsman you’ve ever seen?’ I said ‘I think Muhammad Ali’.

“He said ‘good choice’. He said ‘mine’s Tiger Woods’.”

Vautin recalled coaching in the 1995 State of Origin series, including the selection of the Queensland team when Super League players were unavailable.

Adrian Lam – from Papua New Guinea – was chosen after Vautin said “New Guinea was joined on to Queensland in 4 million BC…so that’s how we picked Adrian Lam”.

Vautin also recounted how he mistook Ben Ikin for an autograph hunter when they met in a lift at the team hotel, as the then 18-year-old Ikin wore a hat backwards and was also dressed in board shorts, a singlet and thongs.

Vautin recalled another well-publicised story, involving captain Trevor Gillmeister playing in game three after being warned that his life could be in danger due to an infection.

“That was the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen anyone do, but it was also one of the bravest,” Vautin said.

Following a question-and-answer session with Vautin, the Red Devils held a jersey auction which involved plenty of keen bids.

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