Ron Barassi

The only child of Ron Barassi, Sr., Barassi was born in the central Victorian town of Castlemaine on 27 February 1936.[4] The following year, his father moved to Melbourne to play VFL football with the Melbourne Football Club. A pugnacious rover, Barassi's father was a reserve in the Demons' 1940 premiership team before leaving to serve with the army in North Africa, where he died in the Siege of Tobruk.[5][6] The young Barassi spent his early years in Guildford, Victoria. He was educated at Castlemaine Tech and then at Preston and Footscray techs in Melbourne.[4]

Barassi was a third-generation Italian Australian[7] whose Swiss Italian ancestors migrated to Victoria during the gold rushes of the 1850s and 1860s. They settled areas such as Guildford, Castlemaine and Daylesford.[8]

Barassi unintentionally changed the game before he even took the field. After his father's death at Tobruk in 1941, a group of players and officials at the Melbourne Football Club pledged to support his widow, Elza, and her young son. As a teenager, Barassi was determined to follow in his father's footsteps at the Demons, but the zoning system of the day required him to play for either Collingwood or Carlton.[6]

Father–son rule

Barassi in 1953 with his father's trophies and guernsey

To ensure he played with the Demons, Melbourne went to the VFL and successfully lobbied for the creation of a father–son rule to allow clubs preferential recruiting access to the sons of players who have made a major past contribution to the team (50-game minimum at launch). When the time came for Barassi to be signed, Melbourne picked him from Preston Scouts in 1952 and he became only the second player signed under the new rule (after Harvey Dunn Jr). This rule, with some modifications and adapted to the drafting system created in 1986, endures to the present day in the AFL.[6]

The club had gone to great lengths to recruit the young Barassi, and coach Norm Smith took him under his wing after his mother moved to Tasmania. Smith offered the 16-year-old use of his backyard bungalow. Looking back on the experience, Barassi believed that living with the man who was voted as the coach of the AFL's Team of the Century had a profound impact on his development. On his website, Barassi wrote that:[9]

"Norm Smith loved his footy. That suited me fine. His ability with young people, his strength of character, his ethics and values, came into my life at the right time."

Melbourne years

Barassi (right) and Footscray's Ted Whitten during a 1954 match

Melbourne Football Club was the dominant team of the 1950s.[6] Under the coaching of Norm Smith, Barassi developed quickly.[6] Barassi's first game was against Footscray in 1953 in which he was shirtfronted by Footscray's Charlie Sutton.[4] Initially unsure as to Barassi's best position, Smith played him as a second ruckman in 1954 despite his lack of size for the position. Barassi played more as a second rover, and the term "ruck-rover" entered the football lexicon.[6] Within a few years, most teams imitated this structure, which ultimately paved the way for a new style of quicker on-ball play.[10]

Barassi soon proved himself as an influential footballer, and he was quickly handed leadership responsibilities. In 1957, he was appointed vice-captain, and he was made captain three years later.[6] After losing the 1954 Grand Final to a more experienced Footscray football team by 51 points, the Demons dominated the VFL by winning three successive flags in 1955, 1956, and 1957, with the team at the time hailed as the best to ever play the game.[6] The image of Barassi breaking a tackle in the 1957 Grand Final is captured in Jamie Cooper's painting The Game That Made Australia, commissioned by the AFL in 2008 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the sport.[11]

• Melbourne premiership player 1955, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1960, 1964.[5]
• Melbourne leading goalkicker 1958 (eq), 1959.[12]
• Melbourne Captain 1960–1964.[12]
• Melbourne Best and Fairest 1961, 1964.[12]
• All Australian 1956, 1958, 1961.[12]
• Playing coach representing Australia in "The Galahs" Australian Football World Tour 1968.[12]
• Carlton premiership coach 1968, 1970.[12]
• North Melbourne premiership coach 1975, 1977.[12]
• Australian Football Hall of Fame 1987.[12]
• VFL/AFL Team of the Century 1996.[12]
• Sport Australia Hall of Fame 2006.[6][17]

• Melbournian of the Year 2006.[17]

• VFL/AFL Italian Team of the Century (coach) 2007.[6][13][18]

During his coaching career at North Melbourne he survived a car crash, which caused life-threatening injuries and resulted in the loss of his spleen. His passenger, former St Kilda player and Brownlow medallist Neil Roberts, was also hurt. Barassi used a motorised buggy and a wheelchair for a short time. Despite this setback, he attended training nights at Arden Street and could be seen directing players with assistants.[19]

Barassi's first trip overseas occurred in 1961. He later travelled much of the world. In 1967, in New York City during the Australian Football World Tour, Barassi was involved in a fight in which detective Brendan Tumelty broke Barassi's nose and both were sent to the same hospital. They were friends ever since.[20]

Barassi moved to the suburb of St Kilda in the late 1970s and lived there until his death.[21]

Barassi was a passionate chess player, playing many games of classical chess in the late 1970s over the phone with Brent Crosswell[22]—a player whom Barassi was actively coaching—often for more than four hours at a time and lasting 50–60 moves per game. In a newspaper article, Crosswell humorously described how Barassi would psychologically break Crosswell down in over-the-board games by neglecting to bring him food or drinks and that “he would never provide chairs bearing any logical relationship to the table on which the chess set was placed”.[23][24]

For many years, Barassi owned the Mountain View Hotel at 70 Bridge Road in Richmond. He sold it for $1.6 million in 2000.[25]

For his 70th birthday he did a trek of the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea.[26]

On 28 February 2008, Barassi launched and signed his book Barassi, focusing on his personal life and scrapbook memoirs.[12]

On New Year's Eve 2008, Barassi was assaulted when he went to the aid of a young woman in St Kilda. Barassi, dining with friends, saw a woman punched to the ground around 12.30 am.[27]

On 16 September 2023, Barassi died following complications from a fall. He was 87.[5]

Statue of Barassi at the Parade of Champions, Melbourne Cricket Ground

After retiring from coaching, Barassi remained a prominent Australian rules football celebrity and a figure of popular culture.[5]

In 1996, he became an inaugural inductee in the Australian Football Hall of Fame, one of few former greats to be bestowed the honour of the "Legend" category. He is also one of only three Australian rules footballers in the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, alongside Leigh Matthews and Ted Whitten.[28]

Barassi was involved in grassroots football development and was an advocate for the development of the game internationally, particularly in South Africa. Reflecting this, Barassi lent his name to the Barassi International Australian Football Youth Tournament.[12]

Barassi was a supporter of Australia becoming a republic.[29]

Barassi was one of the last runners in the Queen's Baton Relay for the 2006 Commonwealth Games, being held in Melbourne, Australia, from 15 to 26 March. His section of the relay, run on 15 March, involved taking the baton from a series of pontoons in the middle of the Yarra River onto shore. It was handed to him by David Neitz, captain of the Melbourne Football Club (the team with which Barassi was long associated). This was accomplished by having Barassi walk on a pontoon that was submerged just beneath the surface of the water, giving the impression that Barassi was "walking on water".[12]

Barassi is the namesake of the Barassi Line, a concept originated by scholar Ian Turner to describe the geographical divide in Australia between Australian rules football and the two rugby codes. The line is imagined to intersect the border towns of Corowa and Wahgunyah, where, in 2014, Barassi attended the unveiling of a plaque commemorating the Barassi Line.[30]

Barassi bust unveiled at Guildford in 2016 for his 80th birthday

Robert Helpmann's 1964 ballet The Display includes a lengthy football sequence for which Helpmann recruited Barassi to coach the male dancers in Australian rules.[31] Barassi wrote the introduction to Philip Hodgins' 1990 poetry collection A Kick of the Footy.[32] The frontman of satirical Melbourne band TISM went under the pseudonym Ron Hitler-Barassi. Barassi disliked the reference, saying "My father was killed by Hitler's men in Tobruk so you can imagine my displeasure."[33] Artist Lewis Miller won the 2000 "Sporting Archibald" for his portrait of Barassi, which was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra. Barassi has appeared in the Specky Magee books. In 2015, Barassi collaborated with singer-songwriter Tex Perkins on the song "One Minute's Silence", a tribute to the diggers who died at Gallipoli.[34] He was mentioned several times in episodes of the television show Kingswood Country. He was one of the first footballers to have his own football clinic on television and during the 1960s.[35] He also launched his popular "Ron Barassi" footy boots.[36]

In September 2003, a bronze statue depicting Barassi kicking based on a famous photograph was unveiled at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.[37][38]

After the second week of the 2006 AFL Finals, with the four remaining teams all being non-Victorian, with Victorians reeling from their recent weakness, Barassi controversially called for an inquiry to unearth the reason Victoria was trailing in the AFL despite the state giving birth to the national competition.[39]

In late 2006, he became a Sport Australia Hall of Fame member.[40]

The best player in the Under-17 International Rules Series is awarded the Ron Barassi Medal.[17]

Barassi was the subject of a series 2 episode of Who Do You Think You Are?.[41]

In 2012, Australian playwright Tee O'Neill adapted Barassi's life into a theatrical performance.[42] The play script was published by Currency Press.[43]

A bronze bust of Barassi was unveiled in his hometown of Guildford to celebrate his 80th birthday on 27 February 2016 .[44][45]

• Ron Barassi: Chronicling His Football Career Using His Scrapbooks and Memorabilia (2008). ISBN 9780980301564. OCLC 246200694. Icons of Australian Sport series.
• Barassi: The Biography (2010). ISBN 9781741752120. OCLC 670391075.
• Wisdom: Life Lessons from an Australian Legend (2011). ISBN 9781742378756. OCLC 755942966.

• Ron Barassi's playing statistics from AFL Tables
• Ron Barassi's coaching statistics from AFL Tables
• Ron Barassi at AustralianFootball.com
• Ron Barassi at the Sport Australia Hall of Fame
• Ron Barassi's Personal Website
• Interview – An interview conducted by George Negus for the ABC-TV programme George Negus Tonight
• AFL legends page at the Wayback Machine (archived 22 June 2004)