Barry Hall
Encyclopedia
Barry Hall is a former Australian rules footballer. Hall is considered to be one of the best forwards of the modern era, being named All-Australian, leading his club's goalkicking on nine occasions and captaining the Sydney Swans
Sydney Swans
The Sydney Swans Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The club, founded in 1874, was known as the South Melbourne Football Club until it relocated to Sydney in 1982 to become the Sydney...

 to their 2005 AFL Grand Final
2005 AFL Grand Final
The 2005 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 24 September 2005. It was the 109th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League/Australian Football League, staged to...

 victory. In July 2011 Hall became the first player to kick 100 goals for three different AFL teams.

He began his career at the St Kilda Football Club where he twice led the club's goalkicking in 1999 and 2001. He is best known for his career with the Sydney Swans. He was one of the Swans best players during his time at the club, topping the club goalkicking from 2002 to 2008 and co-captaining the side between 2005 and 2007, including the club's drought breaking premiership in 2005. He also featured heavily in the AFL's promotion in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, gaining a similarly high profile to Tony Lockett
Tony Lockett
Anthony Howard "Tony" Lockett is a former Australian rules football player. Lockett is the highest goal scorer in the history of the VFL/AFL with 1,360 goals in a career of 281 games, that commenced in 1983 with the St Kilda Football Club, and finished in 2002 with the Sydney Swans...

 which saw him featured in a 2006 AFL and Swans joint promotion known as "Barry Hall Hall".

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
AFL Tribunal
The AFL Tribunal is the disciplinary tribunal of the Australian Football League .-Points system:Source: AFL Tribunal 2011 Guidebook...

 appearances have interrupted his career and contributed to a change of clubs.

Early life

Hall was born in Victoria and grew up in Broadford
Broadford, Victoria
Broadford is a small town in central Victoria, Australia. At the 2006 census, Broadford had a population of 3,054. The town is the headquarters of the Shire of Mitchell Local Government Area and is approximately north of the state capital, Melbourne....

, Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

. Hall played his junior football in Broadford however his other interest was martial arts
Martial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....

 and boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

.

At the age of 12 Hall moved to Melbourne to pursue boxing career. Training out of a makeshift boxing gym (his father's garage), he won a state title as an early teenager and had fought in 15 fights by the age of 15.

However Hall also proved a talent at Australian football. After playing for the Murray Bushrangers
Murray Bushrangers
Murray Bushrangers is an Australian rules football team playing in TAC Cup since 1993 based in Wangaratta. The team trains in WJ Findlay Oval. The team is coached by Darren Ogier...

 in the TAC Cup
TAC Cup
The TAC Cup is an under 18 Australian rules football representative competition held in Victoria, Australia. It is based on geographic regions throughout country Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne with each team representing 12 Victorian regions....

 and attracting the eye of talent scouts, he decided to focus on football.

St Kilda (1996–2001)

Hall made his AFL
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...

 debut for St Kilda in 1996. He helped fill the void of the record-breaking forward Tony Lockett
Tony Lockett
Anthony Howard "Tony" Lockett is a former Australian rules football player. Lockett is the highest goal scorer in the history of the VFL/AFL with 1,360 goals in a career of 281 games, that commenced in 1983 with the St Kilda Football Club, and finished in 2002 with the Sydney Swans...

, 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
Western Bulldogs
The Western Bulldogs are an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based at the Whitten Oval in West Footscray, an inner-western suburb of Melbourne...

. 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
Hawthorn Football Club
The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League . The club, founded in 1902, is the youngest of the Victorian-based teams in the AFL. The team play in Brown & Gold vertically striped guernseys...

 to win the match. One of the main reasons for leaving was the rise of Nick Riewoldt
Nick Riewoldt
Nick Riewoldt is an Australian rules footballer who is the current captain of the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League . He was the first draft selection in the 2000 AFL Draft.-Early life:...

, Justin Koschitzke
Justin Koschitzke
Justin Gregory Koschitzke is an Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League.-Career overview:Recruited in the 2000 AFL Draft at pick number two, there were high expectations on Koschitzke from a young age...

 and the recruitment of Fraser Gehrig
Fraser Gehrig
Fraser Gehrig is a retired Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League who played for the St Kilda Football Club and the West Coast Eagles...

, as well as salary cap constraints. Ironically, he left the year before Brian Waldron was appointed the club's CEO.

Sydney Swans (2002–2009)

He joined the Swans for the 2002 season and has prospered, leading the club's goalscoring in every season up until 2009 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. Hall's form reached a high in 2004 when he was named in the All-Australian Team
All-Australian Team
The All-Australian Team is an all star team of Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including interchange players and a coach, of the best performed during the season....

. He then took his game to a whole new level from 2005, and not only bagged 80 goals for the season and a second placing for the Coleman Medal, but set up many more goals as well. He was selected in the All-Australian list in 2005 and 2006 and captained the Swans to the 2005 AFL Grand Final
2005 AFL Grand Final
The 2005 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 24 September 2005. It was the 109th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League/Australian Football League, staged to...

 premiership. He led the Swans goalkicking in seasons 2005 to 2006, and in that two-year period he kicked two bags of seven against Essendon
Essendon Football Club
The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed The Bombers, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...

 in their matches in Melbourne (a win in 2005 but a loss in 2006). He also led the club's goalkicking in seasons 2007 and 2008, but in those two seasons he struggled with suspension and injury. He has also kicked big bags of goals against notably weaker opponents such as Carlton
Carlton Football Club
The Carlton Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club competes in the Australian Football League, and was one of the eight founding members of that competition in 1897...



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 led 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, 2008, against the Fremantle Football Club
Fremantle Football Club
The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed The Dockers, is an Australian rules football team which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in the port city of Fremantle at the mouth of the Swan River in Western Australia...

, 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
Geelong Football Club
The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed The Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club, named after and based in the city of Geelong, playing in the Australian Football League . The club has been the VFL/AFL premiers nine times, with a record equalling 3 in the AFL era. Geelong has also...

, 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
Len Mortimer
Len Mortimer was an Australian rules footballer who played with South Melbourne in the VFL.A full forward, in his first seven seasons in the VFL he topped South Melbourne's goalkicking charts. He was a member of the club's inaugural premiership side in 1909.-External links:...

.

Hall kicked his 600th career goal against the Western Bulldogs
Western Bulldogs
The Western Bulldogs are an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based at the Whitten Oval in West Footscray, an inner-western suburb of Melbourne...

 in Round 10 in 2009 when he kicked six in that game. After a striking incident involving Adelaide's Ben Rutten, Hall was put under an immense amount of pressure from coach Paul Roos to leave the club. Hall called a press conference on 7 July 2009 to announce that he was no longer going to play for the Swans. He kicked four goals in his last game for the club.

Western Bulldogs (2010–2011)

It was announced on 6 October 2009 that the Western Bulldogs
Western Bulldogs
The Western Bulldogs are an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based at the Whitten Oval in West Footscray, an inner-western suburb of Melbourne...

 had agreed to trade draft pick 47
47
Year 47 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Caesar and Vitellius...

 for Hall with Sydney
Sydney Swans
The Sydney Swans Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The club, founded in 1874, was known as the South Melbourne Football Club until it relocated to Sydney in 1982 to become the Sydney...

. On his Bulldogs' debut, in the second round of the 2010 NAB Cup
2010 NAB Cup
The 2010 NAB Cup was the Australian Football League pre-season competition that was played before the 2010 home and away season. The games were played between 12 February and 13 March, with the first match being between and at Subiaco Oval...

, he kicked six goals against Hawthorn. He then kicked four goals against Port Adelaide and had a part in the final and winning goal which gave the Bulldogs a place in the NAB Cup grand final against his first club, St Kilda. In the final he kicked seven goals, including five in the last quarter, to lead the Bulldogs to their first grand final success of any kind since 1970. He was awarded the Michael Tuck Medal for best on ground. He made his home and away debut for the Bulldogs in Round 1 against Collingwood at Docklands Stadium, but his side were defeated by 36 points. Hall kicked three goals.

Hall's good form at the Bulldogs continued, with four and five goals in successive games helping him get back to his best form of his early years at the Sydney Swans. In 2010 Hall was felled by Essendon
Essendon Football Club
The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed The Bombers, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...

 defender and rival Dustin Fletcher
Dustin Fletcher
Dustin Fletcher is an Australian rules footballer with the Essendon Football Club. He is renowned as one of the finest defenders in the AFL, and has played at full-back for his team for many years. He is the son of former Bombers captain Ken Fletcher...

 in Round 10, costing Fletcher a one match suspension. In Round 15 in 2010, he kicked six goals against Carlton and also suffered an ankle injury. He finished second on the 2010 Coleman Medal
Coleman Medal
The Coleman Medal is awarded yearly to the Australian Football League player who kicks the most goals in regular-season matches in that year...

 table with 73 goals in the home and away season, behind Richmond's Jack Riewoldt
Jack Riewoldt
Jack Riewoldt is a professional Australian rules footballer currently playing for Richmond in the Australian Football League.-Early life:Riewoldt was born in Hobart, Tasmania to parents Chris and Lesley Riewoldt. He has two younger brothers, Harry and Charlie Riewoldt. He is the cousin of Nick...

. He kicked his 700th goal against the Gold Coast Suns
Gold Coast Suns
The Gold Coast Suns were one of the eight original franchises that began play in the Senior Professional Baseball Association in 1989. The club split their home games between Miami and Pompano Beach, FL and hired future Hall of Famer Earl Weaver as manager. In the league's inaugural season, the...

 in Round 3, 2011 and in Round 17, 2011 against he became the first player to kick over 100 goals for three different clubs when he kicked five goals.

On 19 July 2011, Hall announced his intention to retire at the end of the 2011 season. Despite captaining Sydney to their 2005 premiership, Hall stated that he wanted to be remembered as a Bulldogs player due to them giving him a last chance at playing AFL football in 2010.

Hall ended his AFL career with 40 goals in his last eight matches and 55 overall for the 2011 AFL season
2011 AFL season
The 2011 Australian Football League season was the 115th season of the Australian rules football competition. It was the debut year for , and was scheduled to be the only season to be played with 17 teams...

. In total he kicked 746 career AFL goals, placing him 14th on the all-time goal-kicking list.

As of Round 3 of the 2011 AFL season
2011 AFL season
The 2011 Australian Football League season was the 115th season of the Australian rules football competition. It was the debut year for , and was scheduled to be the only season to be played with 17 teams...

, Barry Hall is the only player ever to have played against both Fitzroy
Fitzroy Football Club
The Fitzroy Football Club, formerly nicknamed The Lions, is an Australian rules football club formed in 1883 to represent the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria and was a foundation member club of the Victorian Football League on its inception in 1897...

 and the Gold Coast. Recently Hall had considered reversing his retirement a second time to join the new team but turned down the offer; this is despite Hall saying he would "never say never" to anything he is offered.

Sam McFarlane incident

Hall cut short the career of 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 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.

Matt Maguire incident

After an incident involving a punch to the stomach of St Kilda's Matt Maguire
Matt Maguire
Matt Maguire is a professional Australian rules footballer currently playing with the Brisbane Lions in the Australian Football League .-St Kilda Football Club:...

 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
West Coast Eagles
The West Coast Eagles are an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League. The club is based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 and played its first games in the 1987 season. Its current home ground is Subiaco Oval...

 in the grand final by four points.

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
West Coast Eagles
The West Coast Eagles are an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League. The club is based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 and played its first games in the 1987 season. Its current home ground is Subiaco Oval...

 defender Brent Staker
Brent Staker
Brent Staker is an Australian rules footballer in the AFL, who plays for the Brisbane Lions.-Early life:Staker grew up in Broken Hill in remote country New South Wales....

. Video footage from the incident indicated that contact was made with a punch to the jaw. 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 the most severe punishments in the modern era by the AFL Tribunal. Video footage of the incident was shown on television as far abroad as Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 on the ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....

 network.

Shane Wakelin incident

Hall was handed a one match suspension for an attempted strike on Collingwood's Shane Wakelin
Shane Wakelin
Shane Wakelin is a former Australian rules footballer for St Kilda and Collingwood in the Australian Football League.-AFL career:...

. Sydney later announced the team would not play Hall indefinitely. Sydney co-captain Brett Kirk
Brett Kirk
Brett Kirk is a former Australian rules football player of the Sydney Swans, and is known colloquially as "Kirky", "Captain Kirk", during the 2005 AFL Finals Series, "Captain Blood" and by teammates as "Hippy". Kirk is a hard working and onfield leader who has played in a premiership with the...

 later claimed that Hall's habit of hitting opposition players off the ball is a "bad habit". Shane Wakelin later on admitted he had "played for a free kick".

Kangaroos incident

On 22 May 2010 Hall was again the centre of attention when he was pushed over by Kangaroos
North Melbourne Football Club
The North Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Kangaroos, is the fourth oldest Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League and is one of the oldest sporting clubs in Australia and the world...

 defender Scott D. Thompson
Scott D. Thompson
Scott Thompson is an Australian rules footballer for the North Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League. He was selected 37th overall in the 2007 AFL Draft by North Melbourne.-Early career:...

 while tying his shoelace, triggering an ugly altercation between Hall and several other Kangaroos players. Hall reacted to the taunts by putting Thompson in a headlock and was subsequently reported for both wrestling and rough conduct. He was later found guilty of wrestling and fined, but not guilty of rough conduct.

Statistics

Year Team Number Games Kicks Handballs Total Disposals Tackles Marks Goals Behinds Goal Accuracy % Brownlow Medal Votes
1996 St Kilda 25 4 18 13 31 4 10 2 3 40 0
1997 St Kilda 25 15 70 58 128 22 52 14 13 52 0
1998 St Kilda 25 13 57 36 93 9 28 6 4 60 0
1999 St Kilda 25 20 184 58 242 13 141 41 36 53 9
2000 St Kilda 25 19 151 74 225 13 126 37 21 64 3
2001 St Kilda 25 17 140 36 176 12 97 44 23 66 6
2002 Sydney 1 17 154 36 190 10 114 55 31 64 11
2003 Sydney 1 24 218 73 291 22 167 64 35 65 7
2004 Sydney 1 24 244 101 345 30 191 74 39 65 11
2005 Sydney 1 26 299 91 390 32 206 80 41 66 16
2006 Sydney 1 25 283 82 365 49 216 78 38 67 8
2007 Sydney 1 20 176 62 238 24 135 44 30 59 3
2008 Sydney 1 15 165 62 205 11 132 41 36 53 4
2009 Sydney 1 11 82 29 111 17 64 31 13 67 -
Totals 250 2271 789 3060 268 1679 611 363 63% 78

Media and personal life

Hall has been the centrepiece of advertising campaigns, including the "Barry Hall Hall" and "Excitement Machine Machine" 2006 television and internet campaign in Sydney by George Patterson Y&R
George Patterson Y&R
George Patterson Y&R is an Australasian advertising agency with offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra and Auckland. The agency was formed in 2005 when the international advertising holding conglomerate WPP Group acquired the Australian marketing communications company, The...

 for the Australian Football League which was a finalist at the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association and Melbourne Advertising & Design Club awards and also the "Barry Hall vs Broadford" 2007 advertisement by JWT Melbourne for Ford Australia
Ford Australia
Ford Australia is the Australian subsidiary of Ford Motor Company and was founded in Geelong, Victoria, in 1925 as an outpost of Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited. At that time, Ford Canada was a separate company from Ford USA...

 pitting Barry Hall against his junior club (with cameos from Hall's nephew and aunt).

In 2008 Hall appeared in a series of "Barry Hall Hall" ads, however these were pulled from the air following the Brent Staker incident (see above).

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.

Hall's other interests include gardening
Gardening
Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants. Ornamental plants are normally grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants are grown for consumption , for their dyes, or for medicinal or cosmetic use...

 and collecting fast cars, including vintage car
Vintage car
A vintage car is commonly defined as a car built between the start of 1919 and the end of 1930 known as the "Vintage era". There is little debate about the start date of the vintage period—the end of World War I is a nicely defined marker there—but the end date is a matter of a little...

 and drag racing car
Drag racing
Drag racing is a competition in which specially prepared automobiles or motorcycles compete two at a time to be the first to cross a set finish line, from a standing start, in a straight line, over a measured distance, most commonly a ¼-mile straight track....

s.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK