One of the most passionate and courageous players to ever pull on an AFL jumper, Archer’s love of the game was forged at his local Noble Park Football Club and on weekends following his beloved Collingwood.

Zoned to North Melbourne, he played Under 19s with the Kangaroos and progressed to make his AFL debut in 1992 before cementing his place in the senior line-up the following season as one of a prodigiously talented young group rising through the ranks at Arden Street.

Archer and the team rapidly improved year after year and by 1996, they rose to the top of the AFL mountain – Archer collecting the Norm Smith Medal as best afield in their premiership win. He also earned the first of his three All-Australian selections.

Another premiership followed in 1999 and by the time Archer hung up the boots in 2007 after a stellar 311-game career, he had become one of the greatest players of the modern era and an all-time great in North Melbourne history. He would subsequently be in the club’s Team of the Century and named ‘Shinboner of the Century’ as the player who best embodies North’s ‘Shinboner Spirit.’

The AFL Players Association awarded him the Robert Rose Award for Most Courageous Player six times in nine years between 1998 and 2006, the most of any player in the award’s history.