Ron Barassi

The only child of Ron Barassi, Sr., Barassi was born in the central Victorian town of Castlemaine on 27 February 1936. 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. 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. 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. ==Australian rules football career==

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."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 's Ted Whitten during a 1954 match Melbourne Football Club was the dominant team of the 1950s. 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. Carlton years A resurgent Carlton gave him a dilemma in 1964. New president George Harris was desperate to have Barassi at Princes Park, and he was willing to offer a lucrative deal for the time – a three-year contract of A£9,000 (equivalent to $151,320 in 2023) plus bonuses — if Barassi would cross to Carlton as captain-coach. North Melbourne years Barassi returned to coaching in 1973. With administrators Allen Aylett and Ron Joseph, he recruited a new batch of stars for North Melbourne. Proven champions were recruited from clubs throughout the country, including Malcolm Blight, Barry Cable, John Rantall, Barry Davis and Doug Wade. Barassi started the "Irish experiment" at Melbourne, which started recruiting Gaelic footballers from Ireland and converting them to Australian rules footballers. He recruited the most famous of all, the 1991 Brownlow Medallist, Jim Stynes. Sydney years In 1993, Barassi returned to coaching for the Sydney Swans. This was seen as a coup for the AFL given Barassi's media skills and profile. In his three seasons in Sydney, he raised the profile of Australian rules football and the Sydney Swans in the rugby league–dominated city. ==Statistics==

Playing statistics : Coaching statistics ==Select career highlights==

• 6× Melbourne premiership player 1955, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1960, 1964. • Australian Football Hall of Fame (inducted in 1996 and granted Legend status). ==Personal life==

On 4 March 1957, Barassi married Nancy Kellett, whom he had met at work four years earlier. They settled in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, at Heathmont, and had three children between 1960 and 1964. The couple separated in 1975 and Barassi married Cherryl Copeland (born in St Kilda, Melbourne) in 1981. They were married until his death in 2023. Both Ron and Cherryl were active supporters of the voluntary assisted dying movement. 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. 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. Barassi moved to the suburb of St Kilda in the late 1970s and lived there until his death. Barassi was a passionate chess player, playing many games of classical chess in the late 1970s over the phone with Brent Crosswell—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”. For many years, Barassi owned the Mountain View Hotel at 70 Bridge Road in Richmond. He sold it for $1.6 million in 2000. For his 70th birthday he did a trek of the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea. On 28 February 2008, Barassi launched and signed his book Barassi, focusing on his personal life and scrapbook memoirs. In January 2012, Barassi suffered a bike accident, cracking three ribs. In September that year, aged 76, he went on to crew a yacht at Hamilton Island Yacht Racing Week with his friend John Bertrand. For his brave defence of the woman on New Year's Eve 2008, Barassi received a bravery award in 2012 and a commendation for brave conduct in 2013. On 16 September 2023, Barassi died following complications from a fall. He was 87. ==Cultural impact and legacy==

After retiring from coaching, Barassi remained a prominent Australian rules football celebrity and a figure of popular culture. 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. 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". 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. Barassi wrote the introduction to Philip Hodgins' 1990 poetry collection A Kick of the Footy. 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." 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. 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. He also launched his popular "Ron Barassi" footy boots. In September 2003, a bronze statue depicting Barassi kicking based on a famous photograph was unveiled at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. After the second week of the 2006 AFL Finals, with the four remaining teams all being non-Victorian, and 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. In late 2006, he became a Sport Australia Hall of Fame member. The best player in the Under-17 International Rules Series is awarded the Ron Barassi Medal. Barassi was the subject of a series 2 episode of Who Do You Think You Are?. In 2012, Australian playwright Tee O'Neill adapted Barassi's life into a theatrical performance. The play script was published by Currency Press. A bronze bust of Barassi was unveiled in his hometown of Guildford to celebrate his 80th birthday on 27 February 2016 . ==Honours and awards==

• Ron Barassi: Chronicling His Football Career Using His Scrapbooks and Memorabilia (2008). . . Icons of Australian Sport series. • Barassi: The Biography (2010). . . • Wisdom: Life Lessons from an Australian Legend (2011). . . ==References==