THERE have been few footballers more decorated, brilliant, courageous, complete, or complex than Ian Stewart. Despite, or perhaps driven by, an upbringing that was not without difficulty, he found the application and ambition to rise to the greatest heights. Stewart is one of only four players in history to win three Brownlow medals. Yet he sometimes perplexed those who coached him, and those he later coached, with what he acknowledged was an erratic nature.

Stewart was born in 1943 amid the forbidding mining country of Tasmania's west coast which few, in those days, visited by choice, and which was accessible only by tortuous mountain roads. He grew up in Hobart and has told in more recent time of early years spent in an institution for boys where "it was a matter of having to fight to survive . . . if you did something wrong you were punished immediately".

His football ability would provide a pathway in life. In 1962, at age 18, Stewart made his senior debut with Hobart and it was immediately obvious he was a player of special gifts. Within a month of his debut he was chosen to represent his state. It was a rise as meteoric as that of his idol, Darrel Baldock, at the other end of the island a few years earlier. Stewart was chosen as a reserve for a match against the VFA in Devonport and despite coming on to the ground only in the last quarter, revealed a quality that was unmistakable.

At the end of that year, Stewart headed for Melbourne to take on the best. His heroes were fellow-Tasmanians, Baldock and Verdun Howell, so St Kilda was the obvious destination. The historical record tells of the emergence of a prodigy. In his debut season he ran third in the club best and fairest, and he won the award in his second season. The next year he won the Brownlow Medal for the first time.

In these days of the draft, and the need for physical development during the early-career phase, such a trajectory as Stewart's is less likely to be achieved. The modern player closest to it is Chris Judd. As with Stewart, Judd finished in the top three of his club award in each of his first three seasons and won the Brownlow in his third year. Stewart, though, would repeat his Brownlow victory in season No. 4.

As with Judd, but decades earlier and in more complex circumstances, Stewart would also switch clubs. Burnt out at St Kilda and at odds with coach Allan Jeans, Stewart transferred to Richmond in a swap for Tiger centreman Bill Barrot. Refreshed by his new environment, he rose to football immortality by winning a third Brownlow in his first season at Punt Road. He would also play in another premiership team when the Tigers downed Carlton in 1973.

Stewart was not only a player of extraordinary skill and courage, but also of a rare perfectionism. Russell Holmesby's book of St Kilda's greatest players, Heroes with Haloes, quotes him as saying he was "never thoroughly satisfied with any game I played." Stewart also admitted that: "Yes, I was frightened . . . but I thought it was a risk worth taking."

The risks were many and breathtaking. The sight of Stewart backing blindly into on-coming packs, tongue visible between his teeth, eyes never leaving the ball, was his signature. So often he took the mark and then demonstrated another of his sublime skills, delivering the most elegant, penetrating, left-foot drop kick to his team's maximum advantage. When he wasn't winning the ball in aerial contests, he was doing so with the same sense of grace and apparent fearlessness at ground level.

Steward would later coach at South Melbourne and, briefly, at Carlton. He was regarded as an enlightened thinker whose tempestuous nature was such as to limit his shelf-life in such an emotional environment. He will always be remembered, though, as a player who displayed the physical and artistic virtues of football like few others, before or since.

IAN STEWART

Born: July 30, 1943

PLAYING CAREER

Recruited from: Hobart

VFL/AFL debut: April 20, 1963

Games: 205 (St Kilda 127 games, 1963-70, Richmond 78 games, 1971-75)

Goals: 80 (St Kilda 25, Richmond 55)

Honours: Brownlow medallist 1964, 1965, 1971; St Kilda best and fairest 1964, 1966; Richmond best and fairest 1971; Premiership player 1966, 1973; AFL Hall of Fame original inductee; St Kilda Hall of Fame legend; St Kilda captain 1969; member, St Kilda team of the century.