Nostalgists,
May his name live long in infamy.
You can imagine my shock this morning upon being awoken from a deep slumber to learn that the Great Big Bad Barry Hall has been inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame.
Never, ever, in my wildest dreams, thought that the day would ever be seen.
He is now an officially sanctioned reformed recalcitrant
All his offences, sins and long record of bending, snapping, breaking and riding roughshod over the Rules of The Game must have been forgiven, or at least put to one side, because there is nothing surer, they will never be forgotten.
What a player!
Christ, could he break things!
Bloke's backs, joker's arms, even bowled over a Bamford or two.
He was very big, very bad, and very Barry.
When he came to the Swans after being forced out at St KIlda due to salary cap constraints, they thought they would be able to reform and tame him through the "Sydney System"; oh, how wrong they were.
No regard whatsoever for authority.
Super Coach Roos essentially came to regard him as "un-coachable".
For all his grand service, he was eventually pushed out of the Swans, also, and wound up playing the twilight of his career at the [now very ironically] Western Bulldogs, before finally seeing the writing on the wall.
Upon hearing the news of his surprise induction, the Stats Guru was on the phone first thing telling me he'd reached deep into the record books and found that for all the wonderful games Bazza played and all the six-pointers he booted, he was suspended for a full third of his playing career.
In other words, for every two games he played, he was rubbed out down at the Tribunal for one.
One course the nadir came when he had a "brain explosion" and king hit Brent Staker of the Weagles at Cathy Freeman Stadium for no other reason than he was also a serial pest; Brent went down like a sack of potatoes, and Barry went to the naughty corner for seven weeks.
Saw it with my own eyes [just]:
http://crazycraves.blogspot.com.au/2008/04/all-over-bar-shouting.html
It is the one thing in his long illustrious career that he truly regrets...it haunts him now because for Staker "people he doesn't even know will be reminding him of it, he has to live with that, I have to live with that"
By reports filtering in from the Colonies, where the induction ceremony was held, Baz also remarked that he should not have played in the Miracle Year's 2005 Grand Final, after a beating a striking rap; clocking a St Kilda player, ironically, in the prelim.
Got off on a technicality, only because he called for silk.
“It sounds funny, but there was a bit of a clause, we had a good QC. Always get a good QC. [ed note: Terry Forrest QC - now a judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria]. The number one ticket holder at that stage got us a private jet, he wanted no fuss. Put us on a private jet. We got a limo from Essendon Airport, out the back of the tribunal, got off the charge, back in the limo — on the private jet back home, quite enjoyable.”
Unfortunately, Barry didn't remark on the quality of the Champagne on the return journey.
However, he was without doubt one of my very favourite players at the Swans during that era 2002-09 [you only have to enter "BBB Hall" in the search engine on this bloggy blog blog thingy to see]...had all the skills, could turn on a dime, outmuscle anyone, a master exponent of the hip'n'shoulder, a brutal tackler, enjoyed a snap shot through the big sticks as much as a 70 metre set shot; and, most importantly, crikey could he kick goals or what?...a lot of them...all 467 for Sydney in a career tally of 746 big ones [which "only" brings him in at 15th on the list of the all-time greatest goal-kickers].
Talent to burn, charisma to set fire to, and a prime example of why footballers should not be required to talk to the press...he could hardly string a sentence together in any interview after a game.
But he never quite got to the 300 games that automatically qualifies you for Life Membership of the AFL, whether they like it or not; "only" played in 289 matches...but, of course, he would have easily hit the magic number if he wasn't such a bad boy.
He, like everyone else, thought that there would never be any acknowledgement from the Powers That Be of his career as an out-and-out Football Star.
Now he has reached the Pantheon, he can reflect on the fact that he was never ever like other great players who will never be admitted to the Hall of Fame, because maybe they won a Browlow on drugs or something like that [no names, no pack drill].
Off the field, Barry was a complete gentleman, never got into any scandals.
All of the above said tho', he was very impressive, for mine, on the panel on the two-part Insight program on the SBS television dealing with mental illness in retired sports stars.
Hall struggled for a long, long time with clinical depression after finding himself "basically unemployable" when he gave the game away.
A very brief career in boxing did him no good, as did running around with a suburban footy team at training - he could just not see a way forward; lost in space.
However, much to his credit and those around him, he sought professional help, found a degree of peace, got married, and is now a recently minted father at the age of 40.
All power to yr oars, Bazza.
Now, you are an all-time giant of the footy caper.
Bravo!
For all your human frailties, you will be long remembered as one of the genuine, true characters of the game.
And it's such a shame; there are not many of them left now, in this day and age of a homogenized sporting world.
