Hawthorn Football Club legend and seven-time Premiership winner Michael Tuck has sold his Berwick home of almost 20 years in a $1.63m sale.
And the footy-fan buyer’s only demand for an otherwise unconditional deal was that the 426-game veteran give them a personal tour to show them how everything around the residence works.
After just 25 days on the market, less time than a typical auction, the four-time Grand Final-winning captain and his wife Fay, sister to Geelong legend Gary Ablett Senior, locked in a buyer who first saw the home after the Herald Sun wrote about it early in May.
The Berwick house comes with impressive sunset and suburban views.
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“I live in Bayswater, and never thought I would buy in Berwick, but when we saw this house and the article … we just fell in love with it straight away,” the buyer said.
“One of the clauses was that Michael shows us around the property and how to use everything. And he was very happy to do that.”
Known as Dave and Anna, the pair had been looking for a place to move into together for a short time.
While Anna and her kids are Hawks fans, Dave is a Blues man — though had always been in awe of Tuck’s on-field prowess and even trained at the Hawthorn Football Club gym for a number of years.
The home comes with a pool, balcony and deck to enjoy in fine weather.
Hawthorn great Michael Tuck played in seven Premiership wins for the Hawks, four of them as captain.
“So, to know that it is a Hawthorn players’ house with history is important to us,” he said.
Tuck, who held the AFL and VFL record for most games played until 2016 when Brent Harvey surpassed him, has lived at the property for close to 20 years since wrapping up his on-field career.
His football playing sons Shane and Travis Tuck, who played games for Richmond and the Hawks respectively, grew up playing in the Wilson Botanic Park over the back fence.
The family’s four-bedroom house on an 899sq m block had serious character cache, with exposed brickwork and timber beams overhead in the living areas, as well as a floorplan boasting multiple entertainment spaces, a pool, sauna and balcony with impressive views across Berwick.
One of the home’s expansive living spaces currently hosts a mural featuring Tuck.
The home’s exposed brick and timber beam interiors wowed some prospective buyers.
The buyers are expecting to make relatively few changes to the residence, which they said Tuck had done a “beautiful job renovating” with the only plans so far being a Balinese-style gazebo for the deck and a refresh of the paint inside.
“But I’d love to have him back in a year or two when we have added our touches to it,” Dave said.
He’s also looking forward to getting his first ever recliner chair and a big-screen TV to recreate Tuck’s favourite place to watch a movie or football game in the home’s lounge room.
McGrath Real Estate’s Ali and Mo Aboucham handled the sale and said both the buyers and the underbidder had been football fans who had appreciated the home’s owners.
The home had been listed with a $1.55m-$1.7m asking price, and had done well to lock in a result in that range despite an interest rate hike being announced during the sale campaign — and two days before the federal budget which had been widely speculated to make major changes to property taxes.
The kitchen is another part of the residence making the most of the views across the area.
A sauna was also on the home’s surprising features list.
“It’s a unique home, so it’s a bit of an isolated result in this case,” Ali said.
“The majority of people who came in were in awe of the views.”
The agent said the sale would fund a downsize for the Tucks, who are understood to be keeping an eye out in the suburb where Michael has lived most of his life.
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