Tiger greats gather to farewell BarrotJON ANDERSON
Herald Sun
7 December 2016PLENTY played more games and hundreds kicked more goals but few have matched the excitement generated by Bill Barrot in a Richmond career spanning from 1961-70.
And that was the theme on Tuesday at a memorial service in Dandenong when a crowd of 300-odd came to celebrate the life of the enigmatic centreman in 120 games with the yellow and black, Barrot dying from heart failure aged 72 on November 29.
His premiership teammates from 1967-69 were out in force, including Roger Dean, Tony Jewell, Graham Burgin, Mike Perry, Dick Clay, Francis Bourke, Paddy Guinane, John Ronaldson, Kevin Bartlett, Michael Green, John Perry and Ian Owen.
It was those years that were spoken of when eulogists in brother Lou Barrot, Francis Bourke, racing trainer Robbie Griffiths and Richmond historian Bill Meaklim captured the extremities in Barrot’s life.
From a junior Victorian discus champion and teenage five-handicapper at golf, to a racehorse trainer at Cranbourne where he more resembled US comedian Rodney Dangerfield than AFL footballer Patrick Dangerfield, whose explosive playing style has been likened to Barrot.
The Richmond premiership centre-line of Bourke-Barrot-Clay will remain indelibly etched in AFL history, the same line that forms Richmond’s 1997 Team of the Century. According to Bourke, Barrot was the catalyst for the fame that line enjoys to this day.
“Billy could do things most of us wouldn’t even consider such as the goal he kicked at Adelaide Oval against Sturt in an end of season game. He was the key to the Bourke-Barrot-Clay ‘thing’ as I call it, but don’t worry, Dick (Clay) and I have got plenty of mileage out of it,” said Bourke, 69.
Clay, who played with Barrot from 1966-70, agreed that Barrot was a one-off: “Ask anybody about Billy and you will get the same descriptions: inspirational, explosive, dynamic. It didn’t worry him if it was wet or dry because he read the play so well,” said Clay, 71, who played 213 games with Richmond including four Premierships.
“Some players just seem made for big games and that was Billy. And he was superfit which helped although towards the end he probably became too obsessed with the weights.”
Certainly fitness was a key component in his life, from his bulging biceps to the racehorses he trained after his football career ended with VFA club Oakleigh. As Robbie Griffiths noted, when speaking on behalf of the Victorian branch of The Australian Trainers’ Association, Barrot was a fitness fanatic.
“He was hardcore about fitness and I have no doubt people like Bill and Tommy Hafey changed attitudes towards fitness. He would come down to the Cranbourne track each morning where there are 158 trainers, and I reckon by the end of the morning he had spoken to every trainer,” laughed Griffiths.
Michael Green said there wasn’t too much Barrot couldn’t do if he set his mind to it.
“I played with and against many champions but very few of them were what you would call out and out matchwinners, but Billy certainly was,” he said.
“One of the tests of Bill Barrot was how opposition supporters responded so strongly to his death because his style and personality made him one of those rare players who was loved outside of his own team.”
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