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Barry Hall

Barry Hall in 2006, playing for the Sydney Swans.
Personal information
Full name	Barry Hall
Nickname	Bazza, Big Bad Bustling Barry
Born	8 February 1977 (1977-02-08) (age 33)
	Broadford, Australia
Height	194 cm
Weight	104 kg
Playing information
Australian rules football
Position	Full-forward
Club
Years	Team		Pld	G	B	P
1996–2001	St Kilda		88	144	100	964
2002–2009	Sydney Swans		162	467	263	3065
2010–	Western Bulldogs		0	0	0	0
	Total		250	611	363	4029
As of 17 October 2009
Source: AFL Tables

Barry Hall (born 8 February 1977) is a professional Australian rules footballer for the Western Bulldogs. Hall was one of the AFL's most prominent players from 2004 to 2006, being named All-Australian, featuring in Brownlow Medal voting and playing in the International Rules Series. He played several seasons at the St Kilda Football Club, where he twice led the club's goalkicking (1999, 2001).

Hall played in 12 of 22 matches in the 1997 AFL Premiership Season home and away rounds in which St Kilda Football Club qualified in first position for the 1997 AFL Finals Series, winning the club’s 2nd Minor Premiership and 1st McClelland Trophy. ^[1]

Hall is best-known for his playing career with the Sydney Swans. He was one of the club's best players and onfield leaders, topping the Swans' goalkicking from 2002 to 2007 and captaining the side on numerous occasions including the club's drought breaking premiership in 2005. He also featured heavily in the AFL's promotion in Sydney, having been part of the "Barry Hall Hall" marketing campaign in 2006.

The former junior boxing champion's AFL career has been marred by a reputation for onfield aggression which has earned him the label of football "wild man" and he became one of the most feared players on the field. Several controversial and highly publicised incidents (often called "brain snaps" by the media) and tribunal appearances have interrupted his career.

The nickname "Big Bad Barry" stuck after commentator Sandy Roberts, during Seven Network's AFL coverage, described Hall as "Big Bad Bustling Barry" due to his uncompromising approach to opposition back men^{[citation needed]}. He has become one of the best-known Australian Rules players in Sydney, having a similar profile to Tony Lockett before him.^[2]

On October 6, 2009 Hall was traded to the Western Bulldogs.

Early life

Hall was born in Victoria and grew up in Broadford, Victoria. After playing football as a junior he switched to boxing for a few years.^[3] Training out of his father's boxing gym he won a state title as an early teenager.

However Hall also proved a talent at Australian football. After playing for Murray Under 18s in the TAC Cup and attracting the eye of talent scouts, he decided to focus on football.

AFL career

St Kilda

The tall full-forward made his AFL debut for St Kilda in 1996.

He helped fill the void of the record-breaking forward Tony Lockett, who had moved to the Swans the previous season.

He played for St Kilda until 2001, kicking 144 goals in 88 games and being the club's leading goalkicker in the 1999 and 2001 seasons. His career best game of 8.2 came with St Kilda in Round 16, 2001 against the Western Bulldogs.

He left St Kilda at the end of 2001 in style, kicking a goal after the final siren of a Round 22 match against Hawthorn to win the match. One of the main reasons for leaving was the rise of Nick Riewoldt and the recruitment of Fraser Gehrig.

Sydney Swans

He joined the Swans for the 2002 season and has prospered, leading the club's goalscoring in every season since and being named club best and fairest in 2004. He has said that he benefited from the move to Sydney, in particular the relative anonymity he enjoyed when first arriving, playing alongside Tony Lockett in Lockett's comeback from retirement season.^{[citation needed]}

Hall's form reached a peak in 2004 when he was named in the All-Australian Team. He backed this up with consecutive appearance in the All-Australian list in 2005 and 2006.^{[citation needed]}

He led the Swans' goalkicking in seasons 2005 and 2006, and in that two-year period he kicked two bags of seven against Essendon in their matches in Melbourne (a win in 2005 but a loss in 2006). He has also kicked big bags of goals against notably weaker opponents such as Carlton and Hawthorn.

Hall earned a reputation as a controversial player, with several appearances at the tribunal resulting in four suspensions for a total of 10 matches. He has given away almost twice as many free kicks as he has been given over his career, and in 2003 Swans coach Paul Roos questioned whether Hall was given all the free kicks he deserved.

Hall struggled with injuries through the 2007 season and his form was generally considered to be somewhat down from his peak, although he played a number of outstanding games and still lead the club's goalkicking with 44. In 2008, Hall began the season in good form but, following a reckless punch thrown against West Coast Eagles player Brent Staker and a further incident where he aimed a punch at a Collingwood player, he missed a number of games and was suspended from the Swans' team on 8 July 2008.

In Round 19 in 2008, against the Fremantle Football Club, he kicked the last goal in the final minute and won the game by four points. He kicked a bag of goals in that game and in Round 20, against the Geelong Cats, he kicked five goals and one behind. In spite of the Swans' 39-point defeat to the reigning premiers he was the leading goalkicker for the game.

In 2008 Hall was awarded the Paul Roos Award for the best player in the finals. He finished the year as Sydney's leading goalkicker for the seventh consecutive year, equalling the club record of Len Mortimer.

Hall kicked his 600th career goal against the Western Bulldogs in Round 10 in 2009 when he kicked six in that game.

After a string of controversies and pressure from coach Paul Roos, Hall announced a press conference on 7 July 2009 to announce that he was no longer going to play for the Swans.^[4]

Western Bulldogs

It was announced on 6 October 2009 that the Western Bulldogs had agreed to trade draft pick 47 for Hall with Sydney.^[5] On his Bulldogs' debut, in the second round of the 2010 NAB Cup, he kicked six goals against Hawthorn. He backed this up with a four goal performance against Port Adelaide and had a hand in the final goal which got the Bulldogs to the NAB Cup Grand Final against Hall's first club, St Kilda. In that final, he was able to snag 7 goals, including 5 in the last quarter, to lead the Dogs to their first Grand Final success of any kind since 1970. He was awarded the Michael Tuck medal for best on ground.^[6]

Controversies

Sam McFarlane incident

Hall cut short the career of the budding young midfielder Sam McFarlane, in an off the ball incident in 1997. Whilst playing in a reserves game for St Kilda against North Melbourne, Hall struck Sam Mcfarlane, a slightly built wingman, in the jaw breaking it in three places. McFarlane spent the next three days in hospital getting the jaw wired back together and was sidelined for ten weeks. Although McFarlane returned for the final two games of the year, he never returned to play league football again.^[7]

Adam Simpson incident

In 2000, Hall was suspended for one match for headbutting Kangaroos tagger Adam Simpson.

Joel Corey incident

In 2001, his last year at St Kilda, he was suspended for three matches for striking Geelong onballer Joel Corey. One of the reasons why Hall left St Kilda was, according to then coach Grant Thomas, that he wanted to get out of an environment where onfield incidents were too frequent for him and, otherwise, his career might have been over.^{[citation needed]}

Matt Maguire incident

After an incident involving a punch to the stomach of St Kilda's Matt Maguire in a 2005 preliminary final match, Hall was reported for a level two striking and offered a one week suspension for a guilty plea. This suspension would have meant missing the next week's grand final. Hall's representation successfully argued that the incident was 'in play' despite the ball being 50 metres away. As a result the charge was reduced to a level one offence which reduced the penalty to a reprimand and he went on to captain the Swans to their first premiership in 72 years, defeating the West Coast Eagles in the grand final by four points.^[8]

Brent Staker incident

In an incident which shocked Sydney and West Coast fans alike, in Round 4, 2008, Hall was reported for striking West Coast Eagles defender Brent Staker.^[9]. Video footage from the incident indicated that contact was made with a punch to the jaw, knocking out Staker. Staker took no further part in the game, remaining off the field for the duration of the game. Later in the same game, Hall broke his wrist on the metal railing behind a soft cardboard advertising board. After the game the Match Review Panel ranked the incident as intentional, severe impact and high contact, therefore the offence was directly referred to the AFL Tribunal. He was subsequently suspended for seven games, one of most severe punishments ever by the AFL Tribunal.^[10] Video footage of the incident was shown on television as far abroad as Denmark and the United States on the ESPN network.^[11]

Shane Wakelin incident

Hall was handed a one match suspension for an attempted strike on Collingwood's Shane Wakelin.^[12] Sydney later announced the team would not play Hall indefinitely.^[13][14] Sydney co-captain Brett Kirk later claimed that Hall's habit of hitting opposition players off the ball is a "bad habit".^[15] Shane Wakelin later on admitted he had "played for a free kick".

Triple 50m penalties

In the 2009 match against Hawthorn, Hall gave away three consecutive 50m penalties. Jarryd Roughead who marked inside his defensive 50m ended up taking the free kick directly in front of his own goal. Hall was then benched by his coach.

Ben Rutten incident

On the three-quarter time siren of Sydney's Round 13 clash against Adelaide, Hall was reported for striking Adelaide defender Ben Rutten, placing his future with the Swans in doubt. Footage has shown that contact was made by a punch to the face and he was suspended for two matches.

Resignation

On 7 July 2009, Hall announced his resignation as a Sydney player and acknowledged that his behaviour needed to change.^{[citation needed]}

Statistics

Personal life

Hall's personal life has hit the media tabloids on several occasions, with his much publicised relationships with Kylie Stray and bikini model Tahli Greenwood.^[16]

See also

• After the siren kicks in Australian rules football

References

External links

• Barry Hall profile on the Official AFL Website of the Sydney Swans Football Club
• Barry Hall's statistics from AFL Tables
• Barry Hall Hall
• Video of the Brent Staker Incident