Sacked podcast: Barry Hall reveals why he punched Matt Maguire, why he never got along with Malcolm Blight, and opens up about St Kilda’s drinking culture
Barry Hall knew Malcolm Blight wanted to get rid of him from St Kilda and not even a bizarre car ride home from the airport one night could mend their differences.
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Barry Hall says coaching great Malcolm Blight attempted to sack him as an example to his teammates in 2001 before the St Kilda coach was himself removed 15 rounds into the season.
Hall told the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast Blight attempted to turn him into a full back in 2001 after a 37-goal season in 2000 where he finally believed he belonged in the AFL.
It took a bizarre car ride back from Tullamarine Airport for Blight to finally relent and return him to the forward line.
He kicked five goals in the next two weeks but by mid-season had signed a non-binding Heads of Agreement with Sydney that they would broker a trade for him to move north for the 2002 season.
Hall admits his own stupidity and off-field antics forced him out of the club, saying he needed to become a leader but had too much baggage to do it at St Kilda.
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Commenting on the turmoil in St Kilda in those years, he admitted he was his own worst enemy but said he never gelled with Blight.
“It was a bit weird. Obviously Malcolm Blight was there, he was trying to sack me. He just didn’t like me at all. Which was fair enough. He had done it with (Tony) Modra at Adelaide.
He likes to sack a big fish. To put his point across that no one is safe. He just didn’t warm to me, put me at full back.
“I was kicking goals up forward and he put me at full back, so I didn’t like that too much and played accordingly and getting goals kicked on me left right and centre. We played over in Perth and Troy Wilson kicked five on me in a half at Subiaco and we were flying back.
“At Tullamarine Airport he said, ‘You are coming with me’. I said, ‘My car is here’. He said, ‘Come with me, you can worry about it later’.
“And Malcolm lights up a dart and drives back home and he said, ‘Yon‘t want to play full back, do you?’ And I said, ‘Nup’.
“And I said, ‘I have never played there and never wanted to play there. I kicked a few goals last year and now I am not playing there. I don’t get it. There is no one else to replace me up forward so I am not sure why you have done that’.
“He said, ‘Oh … Interesting’.
“And he was silent the whole way home and then dropped me off. I was stuck. I had no car. My car was at the airport. And I wasn’t on big money back then, so it was like, ‘What do I friggin do?’ I had to get a player to give me a lift back to the airport, and that was just Malcolm Blight. He is a bit bizarre like that.”
Hall was traded by St Kilda at the end of 2001 and even kicked the matchwinning goal against Hawthorn in his last game of his Saints career but admits he had to leave.
“I had so much baggage at St Kilda. The club was known as a party club, the culture wasn’t great, I was a bit of a boofhead on and off the field, I was drinking heavily and a country boy trying to live the life in the city and getting into quite a bit of trouble.
“By the time I got my sh-t together and did quite well there was that much baggage at St Kilda, I wanted to become a leader, improve myself, but I wasn’t going to get there with St Kilda. I burnt my bridge too much.
“I trained as hard as anyone, I was doing all those good things and it isn‘t being recognised and that is not blaming anyone. I felt the baggage was too much, I needed to move on and evolve as a player and leader so that was the decision to move on to Sydney.”
FAX THAT EXPOSED SAINTS’ MID-WEEK BENDER
Barry Hall has lifted the lid on St Kilda’s notorious party culture in the late 1990s and Stan Alves’ dramatic sacking only a year on from the 1997 Grand Final.
Hall played six seasons at the Saints including the 1997 Grand Final and admits he got into off-field fights and too often went on wild benders midweek in his early years.
He said Alves was aware there was some midweek drinking among players but had no idea of the extent of the issue.
He told the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast Alves once found out almost the entire team has been drinking heavily midweek.
“Look, I did some really silly stuff, drinking during the week, drinking on a Wednesday, I once drunk the night before a game. And I don’t have a couple, I get a proper meltdown,” Hall said.
“(It’s) silly when you look back at it now, I had an opportunity to play footy as a professional and you are doing that sh-t, if I was the coach and found out I would have sacked me.
It’s what happened back then, it wasn’t acceptable then but I knew other players are doing it too. It was almost acceptable there
“I remember once it was the Brighton Hotel, everyone was out on a Wednesday night, hospitality night and all the young girls used to get there. And it was back in the day when there were fax machines.
“Stan Alves got a fax from the footy club saying the boys were spotted drinking on the Wednesday before the game and we get to the team meeting on a Thursday and he’s just about to read the sides out and he said there has been a fax come through.
“We need the players who were out at ‘The Edgy’ to step up in front of the group.
“And there was 75 per cent of the group who stood up and walked out. He was expecting two. And it was like 15 blokes who hopped up in front of the group and you look back now its quite funny but he knew he had a problem. It was a pretty tense meeting, that time.”
Alves took a young and talented St Kilda side into a surprise 1997 Grand Final but was sacked 12 months later.
Hall said he was never involved in the backroom politics but while he remains close with his former coach he says even Alves admits he was too brooding after losses and tough on players.
“I am not sure what happened behind the scenes. I loved Stan Alves as a coach, I am a player who loves being yelled at. I would get p----d off and try to prove you wrong
“I thought he was ahead of his time the way he coached, but having read his book, you speak to his wife and they openly admit if he had have coached longer they might have struggled to stay together because he just held onto things.
“He was an angry man, if we lost a game we would be walking the corridors on Wednesday after, he still wouldn’t talk to you. He was a bit like that but in terms of game plan he was ahead of his time but handling stuff and delivering messages in more of a calm way was his downfall. I love Stan. He has a great message he shares now (as a motivational speaker) and he’s a ripper.
“I am not sure what happened behind the scenes, but we had a slide in 98 and that was it.”
WHAT LED TO MAGUIRE PUNCH
Barry Hall has for the first time revealed the dramatic backdrop to the Matt Maguire punch that nearly cost him the 2005 premiership, saying he was determined to make a physical stand at St Kilda’s perceived arrogance.
AFL Hall of Famer Hall admits he should have missed the premiership, telling the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast the punch was off the ball and should have seen him suspended.
Hall now understands many of his anger issues were related to his childhood, having finally spent time working on his underlying rage when he was sacked by Sydney and moved to the Western Bulldogs.
But he says in the lead-in to the preliminary final against St Kilda as a co-captain he believed his old side was rolling the dice not playing partially injured stars including Aaron Hamill and Justin Koschitzke.
St Kilda had to fend off speculation Hamill (calf) and Koschitzke (quad) were being rested after they were spotted participating in a secret training run at Brighton Park leading into the game.
Hall says he knew straight after hitting Maguire in the off-the-ball incident he was in trouble but Sydney was able to downgrade the incident to “in play” at a midweek tribunal hearing.
“Pretty much straight away (I knew what I had done),” he said.
“It was one of those brain farts that just happened, the backstory to that, I think St Kilda – and we aren’t sure if it was true or not – were resting Hamill, (Koschitzke) at that stage, I think they rested them, thinking they were going to knock us over and make the Grand Final.
“We got wind of that and I used that. Before we jumped on the bus to go to the ground, I called in all the players and I used that.
“(I said) ‘these blokes think they have written their Grand Final ticket and they are going straight in, we should be insulted, this is bulls---, we are not going to accept this’.
“I was that fired up about it, whether it was true or not is irrelevant. I was that fired up and everyone else was, that we were out and had a good crack at them.
“That was bubbling over … the excitement. It was a silly thing to do (to Maguire), it almost cost me a Grand Final and probably should have.
“I wanted to stamp my authority on the game and that action doesn’t do that, but I was in that zone.
“I had preached what we were going to do before the game and now I was showing them what I was going to do.
“I kicked a goal and went straight to Maxy Hudghton and we had a bit of a go.”
Hall said the club considered whether to launch a Supreme Court injunction that might have pushed his tribunal case back until after the Grand Final.
Instead it decided to launch a tribunal bid to downgrade his suspension even though he was well aware the punch was worthy of him missing the Grand Final.
“If you go off the rules, absolutely. There is in play and out of play and I was 50 metres away … we were running back towards goal so it was probably out of play,” Hall said.
He said the moment he was cleared by the tribunal he was instantly relieved so he could play but also remove the distraction for teammates leading into the Grand Final.
“We went into the back room and it was all smiles, we fronted the media. It was actually quite an enjoyable experience to be perfectly honest,” Hall said.
“We got the No.1 ticket holder of the swans who got me a private jet down there.
“We were on a private jet eating caviar and prawns on the flight. We go to the tribunal, we get off, we go out the back and do a quick thing for the media, we get in a limo and go out to Essendon Airport and back on the jet and home.
“It was a fantastic night, probably should have done it every week but it would have been expensive.”
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Originally published as Sacked podcast: Barry Hall reveals why he punched Matt Maguire, why he never got along with Malcolm Blight, and opens up about St Kilda’s drinking culture