70 cheers for Bill Barrot

Happy 70th birthday to Bill Barrot.

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From the Blueseum:

Career : 1971
Debut : Round 9, 1971 vs Hawthorn, aged 27 years, 23 days
Carlton Player No. 827
Games : 12
Goals : 10
Last Game : Round 22, 1971 vs Collingwood, aged 27 years, 114 days
Guernsey No. 24
Height : 180 cm (5 ft. 11 in.)
Weight : 81.5 kg (12 stone, 12 lbs.) 
DOB : 6 May, 1944

Billy Barrot was a champion centreman at Richmond for ten seasons from 1961 to 1970. In 120 games for the yellow & black, he kicked 91 goals. As well, he played in two Premiership teams, won Richmond’s Best & Fairest, and represented Victoria on 11 occasions.

Originally from Jordanville in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Barrot was an explosive player, with outstanding stamina and endurance, but he was also notoriously difficult to coach. His time at Richmond, while very successful, was anything but harmonious. At the end of the 1970 season Richmond stunned the football world by announcing that they had agreed to swap Barrot – the star of their 1969 Premiership win over Carlton – to St Kilda, in return for the Saints’ dual Brownlow medallist Ian Stewart.

It was an epic blunder by St Kilda. Barrot played well in his debut match, kicking four goals. But in his second game, he was dragged at half time – and promptly walked out on the Saints. Meanwhile, Stewart was starring for Richmond, on the way to his third Brownlow.

With memories of the ’69 Grand Final all too fresh, Carlton offered the 27 year-old Barrot another chance, which he accepted. Coach Ron Barassi said later that Barrot’s arrival had lifted the Blues, however all that fell apart in the last match of the season – Round 22, 1971.

As Ian Collins remembered; “at half time against Collingwood, Barrot told Barassi he wasn’t going to play for him any more. Barassi said ‘thats good – give us your jumper,’ and that was the end of Billy with Carlton. We were six goals down and we went back and won the game. It was hard on the player, but the other seventeen reacted to it positively – which is what Barass wanted.” (History shows that Bryan Quirk did a ‘Teddy Hopkins‘ when he replaced Barrot in this game…but we digress).

Barrot’s 12 games and 10 goals for Carlton in guernsey number 24 gave him career totals of 134 and 105 respectively. Although he left the game somewhat prematurely, his list of achievements was the envy of many others with much longer careers. After being delisted by the Blues, Barrot trained with North Melbourne in 1972, but wasn’t retained. He then headed to VFA club Oakleigh (where he later coached), and SA club West Torrens in 1973.