Jason Barnett crowned Australia’s top KFC SuperCoach for 2020
Jason Barnett has joined an illustrious list of KFC SuperCoach winners, taking out the ultimate prize for 2020 — and he has a simple message for other coaches striving to achieve the same success.
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Jason Barnett timed his run to perfection to become Australia’s top KFC SuperCoach.
The 33-year-old from Ballarat scored 2424 in the last round to jump from third overall to first and take home the grand prize of $50,000.
Barnett, an Essendon fan, was placed in the top 15 coaches for the last seven rounds and his team Croz Bees made its move in Round 15 when it climbed from 14th to 10th.
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He rose from seventh to third in Round 17 but burned his last trade when Sydney’s James Rowbottom was managed, relying on the “SuperCoach Gods” in Round 18 to be crowned Australia’s top coach.
“The big doozy was with about five rounds to go I think,” he said.
“It was sort of a panic trade. I needed to bring in a forward and get another premium on the ground just to keep up with that lead pack.
“Nothing really in the price range sort of fit into what I wanted and I ended up with James Rowbottom … he was underwhelming to say the least and ended up getting rested in Round 17 which forced me to use my last trade to bring in Chad Wingard which was all I could afford as well.
“I sort of got pigeonholed into a couple of trades I didn’t want to make.”
While other coaches burned five trades when football resumed in June, Barnett was satisfied with his starting side and only made three changes.
“I think by Round 3 … I’d got to about rank 115,” he said.
“Once you get that good start you’ve really just got to try to stay aggressive and keep trading as hard as possible just to stay up there.”
His patience gave him the flexibility to trade aggressively during the Round 14-16 byes while other coaches had to be cautious.
“It was obviously a stranger season than usual, just with everything going on. Obviously the footy festivals and games of footy basically everyday,” he said.
“That didn’t give you a lot of time to take stock. Some of the lockouts were back-to-back without a day in between so it really kept you on your toes.”
ðŸ¾| WE HAVE A WINNER!
— SuperCoach AFL (@Supercoach) September 21, 2020
After 18 rounds and 37 trades, Jason's Croz Bees have taken out #SuperCoach for 2020 🥳
Here's the top-10 👠pic.twitter.com/Ov4c9EXDx7
Barnett, who works as a financial planner, rated Jake Lloyd, Lachie Neale, Max Gawn and Brodie Grundy as his best starting picks.
One of the players who helped set him apart was Gold Coast midfielder Hugh Greenwood, who finished third for overall points of this year’s forwards.
“Getting those few picks right at the start and not having to trade them all season goes a long way to help,” he said.
He plans to put his winnings towards a house and has a message for other coaches who think it takes a season of perfection to finish ranked as No. 1 – even the best make mistakes.
“You sort of make mistakes at the start and you need a bit of luck to turn those around and I got the luck there in the end,” he said.
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Originally published as Jason Barnett crowned Australia’s top KFC SuperCoach for 2020