R.I.P.
Tigers flags hero Barrot dies, 72Jon Anderson
Herald Sun
29 November 2016BILL Barrot, the roaming Richmond centreman of the 1960s who put the “m” into mercurial, has died of heart failure aged 72.
Barrot was a catalyst of the Tommy Hafey years, setting the Tigers alight in premiership seasons 1967 and 1969.
Those years provided “Bugsy” Barrot with the only five finals of a 120-game career with Richmond (he also played two games with St Kilda in 1970 and 12 at Carlton in 1971) and each time he was named in Richmond’s best, in 1967 twice best on ground.
He was a strongly-built 180cm centreman who could also go forward with devastating effect as he proved against Carlton at Princes Park in Round 19 of 1969 when kicking eight goals after swapping between the centre and full-forward with Eric Moore.
AFL Team of the Century wingman Francis Bourke, who formed the famous Richmond centre line of Bourke-Barrot-(Dick) Clay, recalled his teammate.
“He was by far the best running drop-kick exponent I saw and you could argue he was most spectacular big-game player I’ve seen for Richmond,” said Bourke, 69.
“Who else but the eccentric Bugsy Barrot would take a mark on the forward flank in front of the MCC Members, hold the ball aloft to that section of the crowd before slotting a 55m torpedo goal straight through the middle in the Grand Final, as he did in 1969?
“He was born to play in big games and had a unique way to respond to the pressure of those games. He was extremely powerful and the ball seemed to drop into his hands, which is what often happens with those freakish players.
“We wouldn’t have made the finals in 1969 but for Billy kicking all those goals against Carlton when we were in real trouble.”
Ian Stewart, centre in the AFL Team of the Century, was a regular opponent of Barrot between 1963-71 and they swapped clubs in 1970, Barrot to St Kilda and Stewart to Richmond.
He believes the ultimate accolade paid to Barrot were the number of children who wore his number 24.
“Richmond obviously had many great players in that era but because of the spectacular nature of his game, more kids wore 24 than any other Tiger number,” said Stewart, 73.
“He was a very fit player and as such a prolific runner, like a lot of players are today.
“He was supremely confident the ball was going his way and as such would run forward, making him a dangerous opponent.
“I honestly don’t why he dropped out of favour at Richmond but I would think it hurt him because he was very much a confidence player.”
Barrot (centre) with premiership teammates Francis Bourke and Dick Clay.
Legendary sports journalist Mike Sheahan said you needed to think of enigmatic players to conjure up an image of Barrot in full flight:
“When Billy Barrot was on he was Phil Carman-like, unstoppable,” Sheahan said.
“But you didn’t always know when you had him or not. To give you an idea, Billy at his best was a better player than Patrick Dangerfield because he hurt you a lot more with his feet.
“He was the player who the opposition hope and pray would have a bad day because there was nothing you could do otherwise.”
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/teams/richmond/richmond-premiership-hero-bill-barrot-has-died-aged-72/news-story/d3e580cac850473746bbcbf4daf895bb
