And for 14 AFL seasons, he lived up to that nickname, dazzling the competition with his electrifying skills.
Farmer played 249 matches and kicked 489 goals from 1995 to 2008, which included 118 games and 259 majors in his first seven seasons with Melbourne, before he headed to Fremantle.
In celebrating Indigenous Round this week, Farmer’s contribution is an important one in the history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to have played at the highest level.
But according to one of Melbourne’s favourite sons, Chris Connolly, who coached the small forward at Fremantle, Farmer has not received the recognition he deserves as an AFL player.
In fact, Connolly believes Farmer is one of the greatest small forwards in the game’s history.
“Absolutely,” he told melbournefc.com.au.
And he was staggered that Farmer was not included in the Indigenous Team of the Century, which was selected in 2005.
“I thought the fact he wasn’t selected in the indigenous team of the century was a disgrace,” he said.
“He was super competitive and very aggressive, and was often niggled and interfered with by the opposition. He would respond, if challenged, in an unethical way, and I thought that took a bit of shine off the perception of him.
“But I was a coach who coached against Jeff and I coached Jeff himself, and he’s the greatest goalkicking small forward in my time. And that was a 12-year coaching span in the AFL.”
Connolly went further by saying Farmer’s exclusion was “one of the great injustices in AFL footy”.
“Being a coach, I’ve got a very good understanding of Jeff, but I’ve also got a very good understanding of the small forwards in the competition,” he said.
“Jeff was a much better player than the majority of players in the indigenous team of the century, in my opinion.”
He said he had spoken to people “behind the scenes” at the AFL about Farmer’s omission.
“They said ‘who would you drop out?’. And I said ‘I could name 10’,” he said.
“I’d say ‘just add another to the bench, you had a bench of six anyway’.”
Having seen Farmer up close, Connolly said the small forward was also a hard trainer, with an outstanding running capacity.
“He was as good as any midfielder, in terms of covering ground. He was always super fit, and he always had great defensive skills,” he said.
“He would always chase hard and create a lot of turnovers - that was an underrated part of his game.”
As an assistant coach at Hawthorn, Connolly said Farmer demanded attention, as he “could do things other players couldn’t do”.
“I remember when I was at Hawthorn and we were coaching against Melbourne, we felt the only player who had any chance of matching Jeff in a contest was Shane Crawford,” he said.
“So we had to play our very best player in the back pocket.
“Jeff always had an opponent and, for the majority of his career, he had the best defender in the team playing on him. He was still able to kick a phenomenal amount of goals.”
Connolly recalled how Farmer was able to inspire his teammates at Fremantle. He highlighted his first match as Fremantle coach and Farmer’s first as a Docker - a pre-season encounter against the Western Bulldogs in 2002 - as an example of the goalkicker’s influence.
“I called them all in and said ‘whoever lines up on Jeff Farmer will not sleep the night before the game and he will be petrified lining up on Jeff’,” he said.
“For the first time, it really generated confidence among the group, even for guys like [Matthew] Pavlich, who was young. They knew that if they could kick the ball forward, then Jeff would create a goal.
“That lifted the spirits of the whole group, and we went from a wooden spoon to nine wins in 2002 and then 14 wins in 2003 and [our first finals series].
“Trying to reshape the club quickly was difficult, but he just inspired the whole place and attracted a lot of people to the game, which helped us pay off the $8 million debt we had.”
Reflecting on one particular Farmer moment, Connolly said it came in the form of an unexpected goal.
“We had a big game at Subiaco when I was coaching him,” he said.
“He had the ball just outside the players’ race, which was 50 metres out, and he was on the boundary. He unleashed a torpedo and it went through for a goal.
“I can never remember him kicking a goal at training in the four years I’d coached him up until that point. But he just plucked one out of the golf bag and went whack.”
Melbourne’s 2003 club champion, Russell Robertson, who played with Farmer, said his former teammate achieved “some unbelievable things” and had a “mind blowing” finals series in 1998 and 2000.
“What can you say about Jeff Farmer? He’s amazing,” Robertson told melbournefc.com.au.
“He would just do something that would blow your mind.
“That mark he took against Richmond over Garry Lyon in 1998 was a moment. I was sitting underneath that, waiting to crumb the ball and to see him jump up and rising was something I won’t forget.”
Robertson, who also played with Aaron Davey and Liam Jurrah, was also effusive in his praise for the current indigenous Demons.
“Flash [Davey] is a natural born leader and he could’ve easily been captain of the Melbourne Football Club,” he said.
“Davey’s forward pressure was great, and he was the best at it. Some of Aaron’s work left Melbourne supporters flabbergasted.
“We haven’t even scratched the surface with Liam. I think he will rewrite - not the history books - but the highlight reel.”
Overall, when reflecting on the 21 indigenous players to play for Melbourne, Connolly said their impact was significant.
“Eddie Jackson, who played in the 1948 premiership, set the scene,” he said.
“I grew up in the indigenous community at Shepparton and I played a lot of representative footy with Phil Egan, who came over from Richmond and played with Melbourne. ’Lally’ Bamblett is another I played with and we grew up together in the Goulburn Valley.
“So there have been some wonderful stories and some outstanding talented indigenous players to represent the Melbourne Football Club.”
