Hall of Fame inductee Barry Hall has admitted he shouldn't have been eligible to play in Sydney's 2005 Grand Final after punching St Kilda's Matt Maguire in the preliminary final win over St Kilda.

As we now all know, Hall went on to captain the Swans to a famous, drought-breaking premiership a week later. However, at the AFL Hall of Fame awards last night, he confessed that he "got away with one".

The enigmatic forward said the club used a loophole in the rules to get him off with a reprimand.

“There was a little glitch in the rules and we knew that,” Hall said at the Hall of Fame function on Tuesday night, where he was elevated to the Hall of Fame.

“I shouldn’t have played. If rules are rules, I shouldn’t have played the Grand Final.

“I hit a guy. The rules were “in play, out of play”, he was clearly out of game.

“I got away with one. What can you do?"

With Maguire down in back play, Hall roamed free in the forward 50, taking a mark and kicking a goal from the ensuing play.

He then went on to kick two goals and take 10 marks in front of almost 92,000 fans at the MCG against West Coast in the Grand Final, ending a 72-year premiership drought for the club.

The punch on Maguire certainly wasn't the most controversial incident of Hall's career, with Hall admitting his one-punch knockout of West Coast's Brent Staker "still bothers" him.

“It bothers me, yeah it does,” Hall said.

“I do a lot of speaking — and guys like to be guys — and say, ‘that was great what you did’. Well, that’s just a load of crap. It wasn’t great.”

Hall, who became a father just six weeks ago, said it bothered him that his son will watch that before going on to say it is also something that Brent Staker has to live with.

“Kids have got to watch that,” Hall said.

“I’m a father now. I don’t want my boy to see his dad do that.

“The bare bones of it is that Brent Staker has to live through that now.

“I’m sure if his mates are like mine, they’ll be reminding him every day about it. And maybe in a light hearted way. But he has to live through that.

“And people that he doesn’t know would be reminding him of that so that does bother me. It bothers me quite a bit."

Despite a number of controversies, Hall fell just shy of the 300-game mark after playing for St Kilda, Sydney and the Western Bulldogs, finishing with a tally of 289 games and 746 goals.

Hall led his club's goalkicking on 11 occasions on his way to becoming the first ever player to kick 100 goals for three different clubs.