Player, captain, coach, media performer, ambassador and prophet: there was no aspect of Australian rules football in which Barassi did not excel. His handsome, mustachioed visage was the face of football.
died on Saturday aged 87
He is in the AFL’s team of the century, was the first legend inducted into the AFL’s Hall of Fame, is in the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, has a statue in his honour at the MCG and an imaginary line in his name, coined by Professor Ian Turner in 1978 to describe where footy codes divide in Australia.
In the manner of the times, there was no mollycoddling. Frank “Bluey” Adams, Barassi’s long-time teammate, thought Smith in his need not to be seen to play favourites was hard on his protégé to the point of being “grossly unfair”. “I have no doubt it made Ron mentally tougher,” he said. Initially, Smith played Barassi as a second ruckman but Barassi played ruck more like a rover, and so the then-novel position of ruck-rover was born with Barassi as its progenitor and model. An iconic image from the 1957 grand final of Barassi bursting out of a tackle to kick a goal gives you an idea of how he played, although he always protested the idea that his game was more about power than finesse. “I have often wondered why people said this,” he wrote.
Melbourne coach Norm Smith drinks a victory toast from the 1960 VFL premiership cup, watched by John Beckwith, John Lord and Ron Barassi, after their win over Collingwood.In the 1959 grand final, Barassi’s 10-minute, three-goal, second-quarter burst broke Essendon. “It was the most telling individual effort I have ever seen anyone perform in a grand final,” said Adams.
Melbourne captain Ron Barassi holds up the 1964 VFL premiership cup as Collingwood captain Ray Gabelich looks on.Melbourne beat Collingwood for one last premiership in 1964 in a heart-stopper of a grand final. In his newspaper column, Barassi was gracious, saying it was a pity there could not have been two winners. “Collingwood were a team I would have been proud to play in,” he wrote. He didn’t know it on the day, but it was his last game for Melbourne.
Carlton held Barassi to his own benchmarks. One week before the 1968 finals, he was dropped by his own match committee, a move he said he admired even as it shocked him. He coached that breakthrough premiership from the bench. Nonetheless, the Barassi star was at its zenith, emanating not an aura, but an aurora. Again, Collingwood were Barassi’s fall guys, another recurring theme.
Barassi’s marriage had dissolved in 1975; in 1981, he married Cheryl Copeland, an artist wholly disinterested in football. They would spend the rest of his life together in a sprawling bohemian St Kilda apartment.
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