"When discussing ruckmen [to inaugurate], every player who saw him play or took the field against him, deferred to Polly.

"Our game has always started in the centre square, with a contest between two big men, and Polly was the greatest of all the big men who seek to set the standard of competitiveness for their teams, lead from the front at every contest and compel their teammates to match their skills and commitment in the pursuit of victory.

"Beyond football, as a proud Noongar man, he was a leader for the Aboriginal community and his standing in the game and in society enabled his people to believe that they too could reach the peaks and achieve their best potential.

"He laid the path for so many great footballers from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to come into the elite levels of the game and showcase their skills.

"At every point of his career, his teams found success on the field, thanks largely to his dominance that built a record that few players could ever hope to match."

Farmer won 10 club best-and-fairests across 19 seasons with East Perth (1953-61), Geelong (1962-67) and West Perth (1968-71); was a part of six premiership sides and dominated at state level for WA and Victoria – but one of his lasting legacies was his desire to help Aboriginal youth achieve their potential.

Farmer also established the Polly Farmer Foundation with former High Court judge Sir Ronald Wilson, former Aboriginal Affairs minister Fred Chaney and ex-Geelong CEO Greg Durham to help Indigenous people aspire to greater achievements through education.

"I want the foundation to be of practical assistance to young Aboriginal people with potential to do something with their lives," Farmer said.

"Not just sport, but in the professions and business. We want to develop links with the tertiary institutions and make sure Aboriginal people become leaders."

In October 1997 WA Transport Minister Eric Charlton announced a new $400 million northern city bypass would be named the Graham Farmer Freeway.

"The northern traffic bypass system links West Perth and East Perth which are, coincidentally, the two districts he represented with distinction on the football arena," Charlton said at the time.

WA football legends pay tribute

Fellow AFL Hall of Fame Legend Barry Cable said Farmer, who was raised in North Fremantle, was one of the greatest Australian rules footy players.

"I remember Graham very well because I played against him, I played with him, I was with him in the first three years of the Eagles as a skills coach," he told Gareth Parker's Mornings program on Radio 6PR.

"I don’t think there’s any doubt he was the greatest ruckman in Aussie rules – he led the way in that area, he had a very unique game.

"People say he changed the style of ruckman but I feel he was the only one who could do what he could do.

"He had a special game and ruck play all of his own, and no one has ever been able to follow it. There was no one who did it before him and no one’s ever done it after him."

Many of Farmer's contemporaries can't quite pinpoint where the 84-year-old learnt his craft but Cable remembers the unique qualities he brought to his game.

"He wasn’t such a tall man but he had a very good spring and great judgement in sort of floating in against taller guys, his judgement was very good, he could just float in either in front or behind or from the side, take hold of the ball and handball it out," Cable said.

Cable said the big man did get discriminated against, particularly when he moved to Victoria to play for Geelong in 1962, where a year later he led the Cats to their first-ever VFL premiership.

"That in itself was a big job for Graham particularly in those days when the Indigenous side of things was never as clear as it was today. He went through a fairly tough time in those days," Cable said.

"Because of his greatness and the sort of person that he was, he worked out ways to overcome it and even though he was discriminated against at times, he was big enough to cop it and get on with it and never used it as an excuse, and therefore he was able to become what he was."

Farmer played the game of footy at a time in WA when institutionalised racism was a fact of life.

The footballer and his Noongar people, traditional owners of southern WA, were still considered "flora and fauna" under Australian law, and in Perth all Aboriginal people were required to be in their homes by nightfall (so as not to disturb the peace of the local white folk).

Except, of course, if you had footy training.

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Another East Perth football legend, Mal Brown, said he had been aware Farmer's health was on the wane for some time.

"I've been aware that things haven’t been too good ... I have a pretty close relationship with his son Dean, and have been aware of the progression [of his illness]," Brown told Mornings on 6PR.

"He was a tough bugger. Don’t let anyone underestimate Polly’s ability to look after himself in terms of boundary throw-ins.

"When you consider every aspect of the game, wherever Polly played, he had success, he was a star."

Brown said Farmer, as well as his good mate Cable, were more than icons of the game; they were pioneers who made a difference and opened doors for other Indigenous footballers.

"Farmer and Barry Cable set a great example for the young Indigenous players that are playing today," he said.

Geelong great Sam Newman, himself a ruckman who learnt much of his craft off Farmer, said the West Australian's passing was a sad day.

"He was giant of a player in many different ways; I started my career with him in the Geelong football side from 1964 up to when he left in '67," Newman said.

"I learned my whole football craft from being in a team and watching him play. He was a tremendous inspiration.

"He was great physically, mentally he was unbeaten and spiritually he was the soul of the Geelong Football Club and possibly the soul of the people he represented.

"Some people are born into a pretty cushy life, you know well the history of Graham Farmer, a ward of the state who came up through extremely difficult circumstances, saw a love and a passion for our game and worked tirelessly and incredibly hard to perfect it.

"He was a marvellous man who overcame adversity and never whinged about it and just made every post a winner because he was dedicated and committed.

"I never heard him make excuses. He was a success in every part of his life.

"He was a true - and I know this is bandied around a lot - a true legend of our game.

"His magical work with his handpassing got him out of trouble and in fact was probably the reason the game has escalated where it is today because he was the first person I ever saw that used hand-passing as an offensive weapon.

Newman said Farmer was a modest man, shy and introverted, but very good company.

"He was the engine room and the heart and soul of the Geelong Football Club while he was there," he said.

WAFL historian Sean Cowan said Farmer's game changed considerably when he moved to Geelong, where he faced much bigger ruckman on heavier grounds, but was still able to dominate despite his 191cm, 94kg frame.

"He was such a dominant ruckman, not just as a tap ruckman but for his trademark grabbing the ball in the air at a ball up or thrown in and handballing it, sometimes 20m, even before his feet returned to the ground," Cowan told WAtoday.

"In his first professional stint in WA, playing for East Perth, he was already using the handball to his advantage. He was even more of a dominant player back then, because the faster WA grounds suited him better."

Cowan said when Farmer played for East Perth he was more of a Nic Naitanui-type player and became more like an Aaron Sandilands-style ruckman during his six years at Geelong through his tap prowess in the ruck.

"But he also brought incredible athleticism, rather than being a lumbering type," Cowan said.

"When he returned from Victoria to captain-coach West Perth, he had become a much bigger bloke, a much more sizeable ruckman, and a completely different player.

"If you look at caricatures of him in the mid-50s they portray him as a skinny ruckman, with long slender arms ... he certainly was built more powerful when he returned to West Perth."

"I don't think I've ever met anyone who thought Polly Farmer was overrated.

"Without doubt he was among the top dozen footballers of all time, not just in WA but across the country... this would be the judgement of all football scribes; he was an extremely talented footballer but there's also that extra legitimacy as a player who truly changed the game because of the way he played it.

"There are few footballers who sit in that echelon with him."

Farmer was also an All Australian in 1956, 1958, 1961, won the Sandover Medal three times and remarkably is recognised as the 'First Ruckman' in each of the AFL’s Team of the Century, the Geelong Team of the Century, the West Perth and East Perth Teams of the Century and the Indigenous Team of the Century, where he was also named captain.

His played a total of 393 senior matches combining WAFL, VFL and state games, exceeded among Indigenous players only by fellow Hall of Fame Legend Cable (403 games in total for Perth/North Melbourne/East Perth/WA/Victoria).

Graham Farmer’s record:
Australian Football Hall of Fame, Inaugural Legend of the Game (one of 12).
Played 176 games for East Perth 1953-61, kicking 157 goals.
Played 101 games for Geelong 1962-67, kicking 65 goals.
Played 79 games for West Perth 1968-71, kicking 55 goals.
Played 31 games for Western Australia, kicking 19 goals.
Played six games for Victoria, kicking six goals.
East Perth Best and Fairest 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1960, 1961.
Geelong Best and Fairest 1963, 1964.
West Perth Best and Fairest 1969.
Sandover Medal 1956, 1957, 1960.
Simpson Medal 1959.
East Perth premiership 1956, 1958, 1959.
Geelong premiership 1963.
West Perth premiership 1969, 1971 (both as playing coach).
All Australian 1956, 1958, 1961.
AFL Team of the Century (First Ruck).
Indigenous Team of the Century (First Ruck, captain).
Geelong Team of the Century (First Ruck).
West Perth Team of the Century (First Ruck).
East Perth Post War Team of the Century (First Ruck).
West Perth coach 1968-71 for premierships in 1969 and 1971.
Geelong coach 1973-75.
East Perth coach 1976-77.