GLENN Archer loved playing football, but these days he doesn't have much time to miss it. When AFL Media spoke to the former North Melbourne defender he was just back from a trip to the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix.

"I've got a sports tours business and we took 50 guys over there," he explained.

"The trip was a beauty, especially with Mark Webber winning. It was an amazing feeling to be with 50 Aussies, on the back of a super-yacht in Monaco Harbour, shaking champagne bottles and carrying on. But I reckon the week took about two years off my life."

So busy is Archer's business career and personal life (he has four children aged six to 15), he rarely pauses to reflect on his achievements in football. However, his elevation into the Australian Football Hall of Fame has given him a great reason to do just that.

"It's a pretty special honour," the 39-year-old said. "When I got the letter from (AFL chairman) Mike Fitzpatrick it was a big shock. When you think about the guys who aren't in the Hall of Fame, I thought it might have been a bit early for me to get in there. I'm really humbled by it more than anything."

Archer grew up in Noble Park in Melbourne's south-east. A passionate Collingwood supporter in his younger days, he was captured by Channel Seven cameras running on to VFL Park as North Melbourne forward Kerry Good was lining up to win the 1980 night series Grand Final with a goal after the siren.

Over the next 25 years Archer not only became a passionate North Melbourne man, he also came to be regarded as the player who best embodied the club's never-say-die attitude. This was made official when he was crowned 'Shinboner of the Century' in 2005.

Archer credited his two-time premiership coach Denis Pagan with making it all possible.

"If it wasn't for his persistence in making me go down to North and give it a go I wouldn't have played one game," he said.

It was under Pagan's guidance that Archer's career took off in 1996, and he capped his rise by winning the Norm Smith Medal in that year's Grand Final win over the Sydney Swans.

"Every footballer takes pride in being able to perform on the biggest stage, so to be recognised with that medal was something that makes me very proud," he said.

A classic utility player - he was regarded as being too small to hold down a key position and too big to be a midfielder - Archer never looked back after the success in 1996.

By the time he retired at the end of the 2007 he'd won another premiership, been judged by his peers as the AFL's most courageous player six times, won All-Australian selection on three occasions and played a then-club record 311 games.

"You play for premierships, and when you get a chance to win them they're the ones that outshine all the other games by miles," Archer said.

"But there's a fair bit of luck involved when you get drafted. I was lucky I had a group of guys alongside me who were capable of taking us to the top. I was one of those lucky ones who got there at the right time."