Barassi Leaves His Mark On A Fourth Club
The Age
Thursday August 24, 1995
Ron Barassi has finished with his fourth AFL club. The Swans may, by some miracle, still fall into the finals but only because the final eight allows for a large contingent of scrubbers.
His record at his past two clubs does not read well for a master coach. In five years at Melbourne, his best finish was eighth; the Swans have been 15th in the past two seasons under Barassi.
At North Melbourne and Carlton, he had been an innovator.
Since then, he has been passionate, but many critics say off the pace. Down at the MCG, he put players in flotation tanks. Nothing happened; they didn't even play better in the wet.
When he took over the Swans after Gary Buckenara paid the price for being an untried coach in a one-team town that didn't like footy anyway, Barassi's first opponent was Carlton and David Parkin.
Parkin noted after the game that he got away with murder; Barassi had not coached for eight years and it showed. Sydney people say he never caught up and that coaching assistants struggled to get him to embrace new theories and philosophies.
One player was blunt enough to say Barassi had ``no idea".
Football was moving just as fast in the coach's box as it was on the field and the coach was out of breath.
Barassi gave up the coaching job because he felt he could not sustain the energy required for another three-year stint.
The time was ripe for a change.
But Barassi's legacy at Sydney should not be judged solely by his performance as a tactician. If it was, he would barely get a pass.
His performance as an ambassador and leader of a club that had been a rabble for much of its new life in Sydney was exemplary.
Barassi brought dignity and credibility to a club that had been rendered a laughing stock by the mismanagement of Geoff Edelsten and others. Under wizard Tom Hafey, it was successful on the field but it was crumbling off it.
The Swans were detested by other AFL clubs. Sydney was seen as unprofessional; it couldn't pay its bills or its Harrys; it let young footballers of the quality of Wayne Carey and John Longmire slip through a recruiting net that, it must be said, would not have picked up the Harbor Bridge had it floated by. The club was a drain on league resources.
The club now has an eye and an interest in youth, picking up Rocca the younger and Crawford the younger. It had the money and the pugnacity to win the battle for Tony Lockett.
It is now genuinely respected by other clubs.
Much of this is due to the stature of Barassi and the character he brought to the club.
He forced people to take the Swans seriously. He knew how successful clubs ran and demanded nothing less.
He made Sydney folk warm to the club again and he will be perfect in his role as director involved in marketing.
Sydney supporters can be assured the club is on the road to a better future because Barassi has left a philosophy of hard work and inspiration.
The year after he left Carlton, the Blues won the premiership; within two years of leaving Melbourne, the club was third, and within two years of leaving Arden Street, North Melbourne finished fourth.
Barassi, professional and proud, always leaves his stamp.
© 1995 The Age