The son of legendary stalwart Garry and loyal identity Anne, Chris Hurst emerged during the late 1990s as one of the foremost club men and longserving players.

Believed to be the youngest member ever financial, his father had his baby son's membership paid up after he was only minutes old. So, naturally, Hursty would grow up with blue and white in his veins.

Although Chris played a number of unfulfilled Junior Colt and Senior Colt finals campaigns, his generation was marked by fellow born-and-bred greats such as Robert Copson, Shane Riggs, Scott McDonald, Darren Joyce and Matthew Hendy. Eventually however, he would be rewarded with senior success - establishing himslef as a premier tall in the A Grade, a key forward with a great pair of hands and a reliable long kick.

As a kid, Chris did an honest apprenticeship in the 1987 Reserves flag before playing in the 1990 A Grade premiership - a year he took out the club's Leading Goalkicker accolade. In 1991, like Brett Riggs before him, Chris experimented with trying out at Centrals to improve his fitness and confidence, surprisingly to enjoy a short-lived stint of league football with the Bulldogs that season. However, perhaps homesick and realising that he should have gone down to Centrals earlier, Chris returned to South to be part of yet another premiership - in 1992, and then 1993 - under Malcolm McGrath.

By the late 90s a longserving veteran, Chris was appointed Vice Captain of the As in 1997 and 1998, and then in 1999 his father Garry would never have been as proud to see his son captain the club. Hursty was runner-up only to Eddie Schwerdt in the 1995 A Grade Best and Fairest, and duly received the Cluplayer of the Year not once, but twice, in 1996 and 2002.

Just like his old man - with the same great sense of humour and enormous passion for the club he grew up at - Chris is no doubt one of that brilliant generation of the 1990s who led our club through its most recent successful times in the modern age. Hurst remains an important name at South Gawler.