Footage of Ron Barassi’s final VFL game comes to light

Rare colour footage of one of the game’s greatest players in Ron Barassi has emerged, showing a battle between his two former sides.

Carlton has unearthed rare colour footage of Ron Barassi’s final VFL game – against his old side Melbourne – in an extraordinary footy discovery that has been hidden away for 54 years.

“I’m Melbourne and always will be,” Barassi said earlier in the week before the clash between the two clubs he played a collective 254 games for (Melbourne 204 and Carlton 50).

“My dad (Ron Sr.) went to Melbourne in the year I was born (1936) … it runs through my veins.”

The rare footage comes from Carlton’s round 7 clash with Melbourne at Princes Park in May 1969 – two months before man first landed on the moon.

Barassi at the ‘G. Picture: David Caird

It was donated to the Blues recently by long-time Carlton supporter and independent filmmaker Nigel Buesst, who was also a part-time stringer for the ABC.

Buesst, now 85, shot the footage on his Olex 16mm camera, capturing the moment Barassi made a shock VFL comeback against his former side.

He contacted the club’s historian Tony De Bolfo recently and agreed to hand over the footage for the sake of history.

The Herald Sun has been granted exclusive access to some of the footage which shows Barassi clearing the ball with a kick as well as addressing the team at three-quarter-time.

An extended version of the footage is set to be released on the Carlton website on Thursday.

Barassi had retired as a player the previous season just before leading the Blues to the 1968 premiership – the first of his four premierships as coach.

But the then 33-year-old stunned the footy world when he came out of retirement for one game – his 50th for Carlton – which was partly designed to ensure his two sons (Ron and Richard) were eligible for two clubs under the father son rule.

Fifty games was the criteria for the father-son rule at the time.

As Barassi told this reporter: “It was my 50th game for Carlton and (it) meant that my sons could play for the Blues or the Demons if they wanted to.”

“I also had the feeling that our running game had started to drop off and I wanted to get it going again.

“As it turned out, my last game was against Melbourne. John Beckwith, who was coaching the Demons, reckoned I was treating them with contempt by making the comeback. It might have looked that way, but I wasn’t.”

Barassi is a legendary figure at both clubs playing on Friday night.

Barassi had 11 disposals in the game and kicked three behinds, but he didn’t last the full game. He suffered a hamstring injury in the third term which ended his day prematurely.

Barassi ended up having a shower during the latter stage of the third term but was back out to address the Blues players at three-quarter-time.

Whatever the master coach said to his troops must have worked as the Blues went from trailing by six points at the last interval to winning the match by 30 points, despite kicking 14.24 (108) to Melbourne’s 12.6 (78).

It was Barassi’s final match in that famous No. 31 jumper as he said afterwards: “On Sunday I had my first taste of what it is really like to be retired – and quite frankly I didn’t like it one bit.

“But it is a fact of life I have to live with, and I certainly can’t complain about the length of time I’ve been fortunate enough to spend in league football.”

Among the Carlton greats who played in the game included John Nicholls (who was captain on the day), Serge Silvagni, Alex Jesaulenko, Robert Walls and a third-game player called Bruce Doull.

The Demons had their stars involved in the game, as well as a future Australian Test cricketer in Max Walker, who was playing his 29th game.

That match signalled the end of Barassi’s career as a player, but he would go on to win three more flags as a coach further enhancing his legend status.

Originally published as Footage of Ron Barassi’s final VFL game comes to light