Decades of brilliant achievements led to Mick Sloan being named as one of five inaugural inductees into the AFL Central West hall of fame on Friday night.

Sloan, Tony Lewis (Bathurst Bushrangers and Eagles), Geoff Day (Cowra Blues), David Redden (Orange Tigers) and Graeme Clements (Cowra Blues) were all honoured in the online announcement for their contributions to AFL in the region.

Current Bathurst Giants senior women's assistant coach Sloan has been through a number of roles since he first donned a Bathurst Eagles jersey in 1993, after moving to the city from Canberra.

He was a part of the Eagles' five-premiership streak in the 90s, spent several years on the AFL Central West board and proved an integral part of the Bathurst Giants' formative seasons in the 2010s.

It's another great moment of recognition for Sloan who was one of the AFL's Outstanding Service To Australian Football award winners in 2019.

Sloan said it was a great honour to be part of the first AFL Central West hall of fame class.

"I'm very grateful for the nomination. It means a lot to me. For me, what I've done over the past 29 seasons, is for fun. It's great to be acknowledged but you certainly don't do these things setting out to achieve awards," he said.

"I particularly appreciate the induction when you look at the other people who were inducted in this first group. I know all of them and they've all been involved in the league for a long period of time. They were all doing a lot of work when I first arrived and have continued to do a lot of work in the league.

"I feel very humbled to be in that kind of company."

When Sloan first moved to the region from Canberra he never envisioned Bathurst becoming his home, but a big part of the reason he stayed was his great relationship with Eagles teammates.

He would go on to earn life membership and best and fairest honours with the club.

"I moved to Blayney for a job when I finished uni and was only going there for 12 months really. Twenty-none seasons later Bathurst is my home and I think that's because of the connection I made with the guys at the Eagles," he said.

"There was a great culture at the club. Some of my closest friends are still from that period of time. Winning five premierships in a row is a remarkable achievement for a team, and even though the league only had four teams at the time it was a strong competition.

"I feel like the Giants now have a lot of similarities to the Eagles in terms of the culture at the club. It's a positive environment, with lots of camaraderie, where people are respected."

If there's one concept that Sloan has always been at the forefront of it has been junior development.

When the Eagles merged with CSU to become the Bushrangers, Sloan became a junior coach and Auskick co-ordinator.

In his time on the AFL Central West committee and as president Sloan always sought to further opportunities for juniors.

"You can see the clubs who have invested in juniors are the ones that are growing and have a bright future. Most of our Giants, for example, are juniors," Sloan said.

"Getting the Giants 12s and 14s up was really significant and moving the junior games to Sunday really allowed our junior base to grow. From there the league has become stronger.

"I think we've seen clubs become better at managing their off-field, and I think those who have been inducted and many others have worked really hard over the last few years to get the off-field administration up to scratch."

That passion has been carried into the development of the women's game, which has exploded in popularity since its AFL Central West senior debut in 2015.

In 2019 Sloan was involved in his first premiership since 1997 after helping guide the Giants women to a title as assistant coach.

Sloan said watching the past decade of development at the Giants across all grades has been an amazing experience.

"I've done a lot of different roles in the league. I've coached, umpired, I've been an administrator and player. Every season I've been in at least one of those roles and I really do think what has renewed me has been the positive atmosphere of the Giants," he said.

"I can't speak highly enough of our committee, our coaches and our members. It's just such a great place."

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