News Vale Barrie Robran

[Ford Fairlane]

Can anyone elaborate on the Leigh Matthews incident? the details are pretty vague

There's a doco on Barrie and he says he came out on the lead for a mark in front of goal, leapt and lifted the knee to protect himself as you did and Matthews just barrelled into him late, I'm guessing from front on. Barrie, ever the gentleman said he never held any animosity to Leigh, called it a fair bump but said it was late. I vaguely remember Bernie Quinlan may have collected him at the same time, probably from behind if he was playing in defence on Robran and Barrie was crushed in a human sandwich and his knee buckled.

The state game was played at the SCG of all places. I remember watching the game but the incident was over so quickly I can't recall it.

Barrie played for North Whyalla who wore the black and white prison bar guernsey back then. What might have been.

 

[JimmyBC]

There's a doco on Barrie and he says he came out on the lead for a mark in front of goal, leapt and lifted the knee to protect himself as you did and Matthews just barrelled into him late, I'm guessing from front on. Barrie, ever the gentleman said he never held any animosity to Leigh, called it a fair bump but said it was late. I vaguely remember Bernie Quinlan may have collected him at the same time, probably from behind if he was playing in defence on Robran and Barrie was crushed in a human sandwich and his knee buckled.

The state game was played at the SCG of all places. I remember watching the game but the incident was over so quickly I can't recall it.

Barrie played for North Whyalla who wore the black and white prison bar guernsey back then. What might have been.

Bloody Leigh. I've gone down the rabbit hole on this and ended up wanting more info on Eckermann putting Matthews to sleep as well lol.

Anyway rest in peace Barrie the way everyone from all supporter base backgrounds talk about this guy is really something special I wish I'd seen him play.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

A couple of years ago I attended the funeral of Dr Fred Chocka Bloch who ran the Adelaide Uni footy club for about 25 years and taught me introductory accounting. Chocka ran the Commerce department when the Economics department split in 2 in the late 1990's into Economics and Commerce. A lot of his old North Adelaide team mates from the 1960's, including Barrie, attended the funeral.

I knew Chocka well, especially during my undergraduate degree, as I was regularly in his office in the Napier Building and whilst I continued playing for the Blacks until the early 90's when I moved to Sydney. But I never knew the following story that his daughter told during his eulogy.

Chocka loved Barrie the footballer and Barrie the bloke. Chocka was a keen Collingwood barracker but stopped barracking for them when Leigh Matthews became their coach, as a mark of respect to Barrie. Chocka blamed Matthews for unnecessarily colliding/collecting Barrie and in the process destroying his knee.

A lot of ex old SANFL players might not say it publicly, but many of them hold Matthews guilty of an unnecessary cheap shot late bump on Barrie, very late in the game. I think Barrie's private thoughts and public thoughts about the incident diverge.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

The Robran family are talented sports people. Not just Barrie and his sons Matthew and Jonathon, his brother Rodney played nearly 200 games for North Adelaide, but their sister Julie was a star netballer, for SA when SA was a dominate side, and she captained Australia ( before they were called the Diamonds) and was captain of the 1983 Oz World Cup winning side.

Julie married Barrie's, and Rodney's teammate Maurie Francou and one of their kids was Josh. Josh's boys have carried on the North Adelaide link and maybe one of his boys will play for Port in the AFL one day, already played a few games for the Maggies.

Rodney Robran was reminiscing about Barrie with his daughter Jade on AA this morning. Jade is married to player manager Ben Williams, who looks after Jason Horne Francis, Jase Burgoyne and Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera .

Jade Robran and her Dad Rodney share their stories about Barrie - David & Will

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[RussellEbertHandball]

I've always thought that North Adelaide's win in the last quarter by 1pt in the 1972 Championships of Australia game at AO was one of the high waters mark for SA footy. Barry was obviously was a star that day and the famous story how he dodged and weaved 3 Carlton players in the last quarter to set up a goal and the last of the 3 players, Alex Jesaulenko stood back and applauded his efforts.

However I never knew Carlton played 2 games in 2 days. I was only 8 in 1972 and had a casual interest in footy until 1974 when I started watching and playing the game week in week out.

Chequebooks, upsets and the Artful Dodger — inside the proud history of South Australian footy

From Barrie Robran to John Halbert, South Australia is a hotbed of footy talent that went largely unnoticed in the east. As the AFL heads to Adelaide for Gather Round, we look back at the best of the bunch.

www.abc.net.au

In 1972, the competition expanded to four states, with Carlton from the VFL, North Adelaide from the SANFL, East Perth from the WANFL (later the WAFL) and City-South from Launceston in Tasmania. North Adelaide beat City-South to make the final.

"Carlton played East Perth, who had Mal Brown, who went berserk and fought [the Blues]," Mitchell says.

"They got through, they would have been a bit sore and sorry after that game, but they still would have thought they would make mincemeat [of North Adelaide]."

A drawn VFL semi-final had thrown the schedule out, meaning Carlton had to play North Adelaide the day after beating East Perth. On a miserable wet and windy day at Adelaide Oval it was level at quarter-time, then Carlton kicked four goals to two to lead by 16 points at the half.

The Roosters all but blew it in the third term, kicking 3.6 to trail, leaving Carlton five points to the good with a five-goal wind to come. But two goals to the home side, including the winner from Darryl Webb, saw them home.

Robran had a day out in the mud, capped by a moment that has gone down in folklore — even if footage of it no longer exists.

“I can still picture it at my age,” Mitchell says.

“Barrie had three (Carlton) players coming at him, and he back-turned so brilliantly that he evaded all three.”

The last of the trio was Blues great Alex Jesaulenko, who stood and applauded his rival.

"It (North Adelaide beating Carlton) felt fantastic, but it was almost that individual acknowledgement of Robran as much as anything else," McAvaney says.

"So North Adelaide won and the fact that it was Jezza (applauding Robran), it was like one god to another."

It was a high point for both the player and the club. The Roosters would lose the 1973 grand final to Glenelg by seven points — they would not win another flag for 15 years.