Current Barry Round news

[geoffjennings79]

I have a distant memory of him standing near the race watching the reserves game with other players. Must have been early 70's and I was so young I can't recall anything about the game. Must have been one of the first games I saw and it was so exciting to see the old man point out players you had never seen up close, only knew about their deeds from listening to the radio. Did he want to leave Geoff? He would have always been second fiddle to Dempsey. Or the club needed cash and sold him off, like they did others. Seems like an act of stupidity to let him go.

I read in the last few days where he was quoted as saying Goggin forced him out when he arrived over the 75/76 summer, and I know Goggin brought his former team-mate Hampshire with him, but I thought at the time when he moved to South, Roundy said he moved for more opportunity, as you say always being second fiddle to Dempsey. So could both be partly true, if he was thinking of moving anyway.
His goal scoring dropped off after that ankle injury (in 1973), and I think he even played back pocket at times in 74/75.

Ironically, at South in the late 70s he was rucking with Teasdale, and for the 1979 season with both Teasdale and Len Thompson,. For the early games in 1979, he was the third banana behind the other 2, hardly rucking at all, then I think Teasdale got injured and was out for the rest of the season, but the ageing Thompson was still seen as the #1 ruck.

In the round 5 game against North, Round didn't ruck much, but came up against former team-mate Dempsey, now a Roo. And old protagonists and regular state team-mates Dempsey and Thompson faced off with both in different colours to the many seasons before.

So Dempsey v Thompson/Teasdale/Round, and Roos won easily.

(Was also Russell Ebert's one and only VFL season, and he played in that game as well.)

And in the same round, we got spanked by Peter Moore-led Pies at Waverley, with Hampshire as first ruck, being chopped out by Templeton!

Great times eh gordo?!

 

[worbod]

I bought a copy of the Warragul Football Club History Book 1879-2002 many years ago. It is a very intriguing read in that it displays games and goal records for most seasons. I was able to find Barry Round's stats within and thus add them on to his other totals:

33 games, 50 goals Warragul
135 games, 136 goals Footscray
193 games, 157 goals South Melbourne/Sydney
22 night/preseason games, 19 goals
5 games, 4 goals Victoria
110 games, 104 goals Williamstown
3 games, 4 goals VFA

501 games of senior football and 474 goals

 

[The Buck]

My mum worked at the Ammunition Factory, Gordon St, in the seventies.
Roundy worked in the carpenters' shop and was very well liked.
Every year the workers put on a show for handicapped kids.
One year a little boy asked Barry if he could get his autograph and of course he obliged.
The kid added "can I have three please?"
Barry said "why do you want three?" The boy replied, "because I can swap three of yours for one of Alex Jesaulenko's!"
The big fella laughed his arse off.

 

[worbod]

Using a copy of Unleashed I was able to discover that Barry Round played 7 night-series games and kicked 10 goals for Footscray. Then by using the night series links on Hard Ball Get, I was able to track down how many night/preseason goals he kicked for Sydney, and then add them into my previous post.
Wikipedia and the Australian Football website give Round 103 goals for Williamstown but the AFL Record Season Guide credits him with 104, so I am giving Barry the extra goal.

 

[geoffjennings79]

This is paywalled, so if anyone can bypass, it's about Roundy's wake last Friday:

CODE Sports

CODE Sports

www.codesports.com.au

 

[Hoges64]

This is paywalled, so if anyone can bypass, it's about Roundy's wake last Friday:

CODE Sports

CODE Sports

www.codesports.com.au

Barry Round was farewelled by Footscray, Swans and Williamstown legends on Friday, all of whom paid tribute to his life and Hall Of Fame career​

Barry Round was a Hall of Famer, a Brownlow Medallist and a Bloods Champion. PAUL AMY attended the wake held in his honour.

January 21, 2023 - 6:00AM

One of footy’s greatest ever contributors, Barry Round, was farewelled on Friday.

Barry Round once joked that he chose to play at Williamstown because he counted more pubs in Willy than the other VFA club chasing him, Port Melbourne.
The big fellow did like a drink, and his thirst was not easily satisfied.

“When he was going, look out,’’ former Williamstown star Saadi Ghazi says with a laugh.
Many former teammates and opponents of the champion ruckman and Brownlow Medallist lifted a glass in his memory on Friday at the Carlton Brewhouse in Abbotsford.
Round died on the Gold Coast on December 24, aged 72, after a few months of poor health.
Swans coach John Longmire, Terry Daniher, Wayne Schimmelbusch, fellow Swans Brownlow Medal winners Peter Bedford and Gerard Healy, Simon Madden, Steve Wright, Dennis Carroll, Tony and Paul Morwood, Silvio Foschini, Val Perovic, Denis Banks, Ted Whitten Jnr, Mike Perry, Alan Stoneham and Terry Wheeler were part of the large turn-out for what Round’s family had said would be a “celebration of his great life’’.

Val Perovic among a large number of former teammates and opponents lifting a glass in honour of Barry Round this afternoon. It's a great send-off for the big fellow. pic.twitter.com/9BDb4ra7B2
— Paul Amy (@PaulAmy375) January 20, 2023

Former Sydney chairman Richard Colless and ex-Swans president and prominent board member and shareholder Craig Kimberley also attended, as did celebrated football songster Mike Brady and former Victorian cricketer Bob Baldry.
Ghazi, Ian “Chops’’ Rickman, Kim Kershaw, Tony Pastore, Billy Swan, Anthony Eames, Mark Fotheringham, Ricky Slevison, Larry Simmons, Wayne Muschialli, Brad and Simon Lloyd, and Tony Hannebery were among the large contingent of past Williamstown players and officials.
There were tributes from Rickman, triple Brownlow Medal champion and former South Melbourne coach Ian Stewart, ex-Swans captain Mark Browning and former league ruckman Garry Baker for one of Australian football’s most enduring players.
Remarkably, Round’s career in league and association ranks spanned four decades: he made his debut with Footscray in 1969 and took his final bow with Williamstown in 1991, the year he turned 41.
In between he won enough awards to fill a large safe.
Emerging from Warragul in Gippsland, where some of the locals still call him “Tiny’’, Round played 135 senior games for Footscray.

Barry Round (left) started his footy career with Footscray in 1969

His first was in Round 1 of 1969, on the day Bulldogs great Ted Whitten played his 300th match.
Round crossed to South Melbourne in 1976. In the following decade he had 193 games, was a two-time club champion and shared the 1981 Brownlow Medal with his former Bulldogs teammate and fellow Gippslander Bernie Quinlan.
He finished sixth in the 1982 Brownlow count.
Round also captained the Swannies from 1980-84, leading them in their move to Sydney.
Years later the club chose him as first ruck in its team of the century, placed him in its hall of fame and, last year, elevated him to a “Bloods Champion’’.
The AFL inducted him to its Hall Of Fame in 2001.
Round was 36 when he joined Williamstown in the VFA in 1986, yet it turned out to be another memorable and successful phase of his career.
He won the JJ Liston Trophy in 1987, joining Des Fothergill in achieving the Brownlow-Liston double, and took the 1987-88-89 best and fairests.

Round (L) was a part of both the Swans’ and the AFL’s Halls of Fame. Picture: Matt King/Getty Images

Round was captain and coach of the 1990 premiership team, winning the Norm Goss Medal as best-afield.
A knee injury finally forced him into retirement as a player in 1991. He coached the Towners until the end of 1993.
As Sydney did, Willy named him first ruck in their team of the century and installed him as a legend in their hall of fame.
Round also served on the board from 1996 to 2009, standing down when he and his partner, Jenni, made the move to the Gold Coast to be closer to his daughter, Natalie, and son, David (who .
“What a great footballer!’’ Stewart said in his tribute.
He laughed as he recalled a game in which an exhausted Round, playing against two opponents in the ruck, approached him at three-quarter time and asked for a breather.
“Sure,’’ Stewart said. “You can play centre half forward.’
“Well, he did go to centre half forward and he took three marks in the pack … and we got across the line. That was what ‘Roundy’ was like as a player.’’

They've bounced the ball for big Barry Round's farewell in Melbourne, at a place where he would have been right at home, the Carlton Brewhouse. Big turn-out of his former teammates and opponents, including Garry Baker and Steve Wright. pic.twitter.com/i3djSkLmS0
— Paul Amy (@PaulAmy375) January 20, 2023

Stewart told how he received a call saying Round was gravely ill and, having not spoken to him for a long time, decided to make contact.
Round was in care, but a nurse accepted the call and held the phone to his ear as Stewart spoke.
“I said, ‘Roundy’, you’re the best player I ever coached’. I said, ‘You’re one of the best team men I’ve ever seen’. I said, ‘The whole football community loves you’,’’ an emotional Stewart said.
“And in a voice just louder than a whisper, ‘Roundy’ said, ‘I appreciate that, Stewy’, and they took the phone away.
“That was 48 hours before he passed away.
“A beautiful, beautiful human being was ‘Roundy’. I sat down and put the phone away and all the memories started flooding back … and I said, ‘I’ve been blessed, to be able to coach him for 100 games’.’’
He said it was one of the most important phone calls of his life.
Browning said Round was a “glue’’ for the club when it was experiencing tough times in the South Melbourne-to-Sydney era.

Brownlow Medal champ Peter Bedford at today's memorial service for Barry Round with a former Victorian Sheffield Shield cricket teammate, Bob Baldry, who was among the group representing Warragul. pic.twitter.com/0vFCNa84ju
— Paul Amy (@PaulAmy375) January 20, 2023

He said Round was a formidable player and teammate, with “incredible endurance, courage and game sense.’’
Browning highlighted that Round played in an era of brilliant ruckmen, including fellow Brownlow winners Len Thompson, Gary Dempsey, Graham Moss, Graham Teasdale and Peter Moore.
“He was playing against absolute quality, week in, week out,’’ he said.
“Marking was his No 1 strength, and the reason for that was that he never took his eye off the ball.
“He never had a great leap, but he never took his eye off the footy.
“Now we talk about his kicking. Remember, he kicked 293 goals in 328 games.’’
Browning read a tribute from Sydney chairman Andrew Pridham, who said Round was a “true Bloods champion and will always hold a special place in the history of the Swans’’.
“Barry was a unifying figure who always identified the positive in everything and everyone,’’ Pridham said.

Barry Round leading the Sydney Swans out for their first Sydney game.

The Swans name their best clubman award after Round. Browning said it was appropriate, because “he was the best clubman in the history of the club’’.
Round’s former South Melbourne teammate Shane Zantuck was emcee of the tribute and noted that he was a hall-of-fame prankster as well as a player.
He recalled his first day at South Melbourne, when Round steered him to a locker.
It belonged to renowned Swans hard man Stewart Gull, who was not amused to find the newcomer had claimed it. Of course, Round had worded up Gull about the joke.
Baker played with Round at Footscray and Sydney, and said his teammate was “never happy unless he took a dozen or 15 marks’’.
He recalled a training camp in Thailand in which Round had a long session on the drink at a beach bar, but still found the stamina to finish third in a 6am running session.

​

“Then he sat back down on the same table and had another good old crack,’’ Baker said.
“Rest in peace, Bazza!’’

More Coverage​

Training in a carpark: The story of Swans pioneersVale Barry Round, Swans great and AFL pioneer

 

[geoffjennings79]

Cheers Hoges64 - much appreciated, a good read (sadly, not much from a Bulldogs perspective).

 

[worbod]

A caricature of Barry by well-known football cartoonist George Haddon, from 1980 when Barry was captain of South Melbourne.