The Ovens and Murray club has already selected, and notified, the first five inductees and will unveil them at the SS and A Club in Albury on March 16.

The event will also be a season launch for this season.

The Hall of Fame will look to recognise the players, coaches, administrators and volunteers who have contributed significantly to the club over a long period.

A selection committee comprising Brendan Smith, Steve Murphy, Brian Gilcrist, Ernest Whitehead, Graeme Hiskins and Lloyd Deane picked the inductees, with one to be named a ‘legend’.

Dogs board member Smith said the Hall of Fame, which is also open to the netball contingent, would be similar to the league’s Hall of Fame.

“Plenty of (current) players don’t have a great knowledge of the history of their clubs these days,” Smith said.

“The history can get lost so we want to try to preserve it.”

Inductees must meet a strict criteria.

They must be retired from playing for at least three years, have a minimum of 50 games played or coached, in football or netball, and receive a minimum of five out of six votes from the selection committee.

Administrators and volunteers must have a minimum of 20 years’ service to be eligible, while a member of the selection committee may be a candidate but shall not vote on their own induction.

A legend will be a person who has caused the club, or game, to change significantly for the better.

No less than 20 per cent of inductees will be legends.

Smith said selecting inductees would get harder each year.

“The first five are pretty easy,” he said.

“You have to weigh everyone up.

“We’ve tried to get a cross section from the footy club.

“The two successful periods were from 66-73 and then from about 86-95, so you had those two eras that you could pick lots from but we wanted a broad range.

“There’s lots of good players who played when they didn’t have good sides around them.”