Television grab of Hawthorn captain Leigh Matthews breaking Neville Bruns' jaw. However, what remains a mystery to Matthews was that, just days after he appeared before the commission, Victoria Police charged him with ''assault causing grievous bodily harm'', with the case to be heard in the Melbourne Magistrates Court. In his just released autobiography, Accept the Challenge, Matthews says he ''did the wrong thing so I can't really complain about the consequences of my actions''. ''But even in retrospect the second is a lot more confusing. Why the police decided to pluck this one incident from the many potential assaults that have occurred on football fields over the decades is still a great mystery. ''That one charge from round 12 in June 1985 remains the one and only time in the entire history of the VFL-AFL that the police have taken action about an on-field incident. ''Certainly, a select few individuals in the corridors of power must have known the answer to the 'Why this time?' question.

''I suspect that a couple of ministers in the Victorian Labor government at the time, sports minister and ex-Geelong rover Neil Trezise and police minister Race Mathews knew the critical difference that sparked the police action, as did the incumbent chief commissioner of police, Mick Miller. ''In fact, Mr Mathews was quoted in The Sun at the time as saying that the state government had ordered an urgent police inquiry into the wild scenes at Princes Park. Later he was to say that an Inspector Phil Bennett had started the investigation independent of any government prompting. ''These men are long removed from public life and the motivations that sparked the police action will never be uncovered.'' Matthews was initially convicted and fined $1000, but the conviction was overturned on appeal and he was granted a 12-month good behaviour bond. Matthews, with three premierships as coach of the Brisbane Lions and one at Collingwood, is one of the game's greatest mentors. But he says David Parkin and Mick Malthouse are the ''very best'' coaches since Matthews made his debut with Hawthorn as a player in 1969. ''David took four different groups of players to top-four finishes: Hawthorn in 1977-78, Carlton in 1981-82, Fitzroy in 1986 and Carlton again in the 1990s.

''Mick did the same with the Bulldogs in 1985, the Eagles in the early 1990s, and Collingwood in two bursts, 2002-03 and 2010-11,'' Matthews wrote. ''You can be lucky once, but not three or four times. David and Mick have proven their coaching abilities many times over.'' Matthews said Allan Jeans would have topped his coaching list had he included his efforts at St Kilda in the late '60s. On Paul Roos, he said: ''My gut feeling tells me Paul Roos was a very good coach/manager at the Sydney Swans, but a 57 per cent winning ratio from 202 games is not particularly high.'' On Kevin Sheedy's career at Essendon, Matthews says: ''Kevin Sheedy … statistically tops the sustained success scale. Four premierships from seven grand finals and a winning ratio of 61 per cent from 635 games in a fantastic record.''