Barassi back to his roots

Andrew Mathieson
FOOTBALL legend Ron Barassi tells the story of cold showers and muddy grounds, well before the days he dashed around the amphitheatre of the MCG.
“It wouldn’t have mattered much because after the game we just jumped on our bikes and rode home anyway,” a reflective Barassi says.
“You’d go home pretty dirty in those days.”
They were of a more innocent time when pie nights got a kid down to his local footy ground.
The chunks of tender meat were preferable to mud in your eye from an old-fashioned tackle.
For Barassi, the early years at Preston Scouts were the real meaning of grassroots football.
But even back then battling away in Melbourne’s inner northern suburbs, he got a taste of things to come.
One of his first opponents against neighbour Preston Districts was a young Murray Weidemann.
Less than a decade later, the rival pair would cross paths in the 1958 VFL grand final.
Weidemann, the Collingwood enforcer, attempted to intimidate the Melbourne ruck rover in the Magpies’ shock 1958 premiership win.
Like a true Demon and later Carlton star, Barassi jokes about their rivalry still.
“People think you hate Collingwood because of that and, you know what, they’re right,” he laughs.
Barassi had been zoned to play for Collingwood, but to follow his father’s footsteps at Melbourne, the club successfully lobbied to introduce the father/son rule.
The 73-year-old’s involvement has turned full circle, now revisiting his grassroots past.
Barassi will be attending the Bellarine clash between Drysdale and Portarlington on Saturday in what is his first trip to the Bellarine for “many years”.
Every month for the past six years he attends a local footy game on behalf of the Victorian Country Football League, addressing a pre-game luncheon and mingling with happy faces in the crowd.
“I have seen more country football in my ‘retirement’ than ever before,” he admits.
“But I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t love going.”
Hard to believe for arguably football’s most recognisable identity, but football wasn’t Barassi’s priority despite living with legendary Melbourne coach Norm Smith, he tells.
The then teenager was intent on establishing a career as a cadet executive, which included a stint as office boy, in the Brunswick firm.
“When I was 14 or 15, I was very busy with my life and I wasn’t worried much about football, but I was at a great little club,” Barassi says.
“Then I went to the Melbourne thirds, which was fantastic, but I didn’t look too deeply into football until I first made the Victorian side when I was 20.
“That was with Murray Weidemann too.”