A proud Orange Tiger, Redden has a list of accolades a mile long. He was awarded league life membership in 2009, spent two years as AFL CW president, and eight as secretary.

Redden was also a three-time premiership player for the yellow and black and an integral part of the league throughout the 1990s.

"To be put into the group that I have been put into is pretty humbling and flattering," the hall of famer said.

"It was a complete surprise and very joyful for me to be included with those four guys who I have the utmost respect for. Those guys helped me become a better bloke."

The other members inducted alongside Redden were Cowra's Graeme Clements and Geoff Day as well as Bathurst's Michael Sloan and Tony Lewis.

Redden took on the role of league secretary in 1992 and was probably his own harshest critic.

"I had just moved to Orange and wasn't even 24 and I put my hand up to have a crack," he said.

"From my memory, there was nobody else who put their hand up and it was probably pretty wise because it was an interesting job.

"I was never going to be a great contributor as a player so I thought I'd take up the opportunity. I don't necessarily know that I was viewed as being an outstanding administrator by any measure, I never thought I was but I did give it my best."

Throughout his tenure, he had to deal with accusations of bias towards his Tigers, be it when he was umpiring or within his admin duties.

But the highlights far outweighed the trouble.

"Certainly a couple of the representative tournaments when we travelled away and won," he said when asked what his fondest memories were.

"One particular trip to Nowra when we went away and won. It was a great event, great football and a great trip home. It coincided with Triple J's top 100 of all time so on the way home we had it blaring and slabs everywhere so that was great fun."

AFL Central West Competition & Development Coordinator Casey White spoke highly of Redden and the rest of the inductees.

"We have four life members, but nobody is sure where the next will come from. As such, we decided there was a real opportunity to bridge the gap between the club's own recognition strategies and our league's life membership," he said.

"We developed a criteria and matrix, which was sent to clubs for submissions. I expect now that we've had a first induction, we will see more from the early seasons put forward nominations."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: