Barassi’s premiership bliss after drought breaks

Ron Barassi slept soundly Sunday knowing Melbourne’s premiership drought was broken and his legacy lives on.

Bluey Adams and Ron Barassi after winning the 1964 grand final. Picture: Melbourne Football Club Collection

Ron Barassi dined on doughnuts iced in the Melbourne colours to ease the nerves before the game and slept long into Sunday content the team which had not tasted premiership success since his last game in 1964 had broken the drought.

It was a thrill too to see the No.31 which he and his father wore in seven Melbourne Premierships figure so prominently in the historic event.

Bayley Fritsch, the electrician from Coldstream, inherited football’s most famous guernsey and did it proud on the night.

The forward kicked six goals in the Demons win over the Bulldogs and placed second in the Norm Smith medal for best on the ground.

Norm Smith was a forward who kicked seven goals in the 1940 premiership playing alongside Ron Barassi Sr.

Smith went on to coach the younger Barassi, who he helped raise, in six successful Premiership campaigns between 1955 and 1964.

Fritsch has been to Barassi’s St Kilda home and is aware of the significance of the jumper he wears and the achievement in winning Saturday night’s game.

“To go down in the history books to end that drought is really something special,” he said after the game.

“It is crazy, surreal, I can’t really put it into words. We did it! Obviously a lot of hard work has gone into this. We had a mission from day one of the pre-season and for that to come to fruition was ­unbelievable.”

Barassi watched the game with his two sons, Ronnie and Richard, in Melbourne and reportedly shed a tear as 57 years of pain were washed away.

Barassi starred in many of grand finals, but the highlight of them was when he kicked 4.3 in the 1959 Premiership.

His game drew accolades from all who witnessed it. Melbourne Cricket Club chief Ian Johnson declared at a function that night it was “Barassi’s premiership” which he repeated later in a telegram.

A young Melbourne couple by the name of Bob and Hazel Hawke were also moved to send a telegram of congratulations at the effort.

Barassi was a midfielder. The term ruck rover came into existence to explain the role he played.

Some say he and Smith invented the position and in a way it was fitting to see Christian Petracca, Melbourne, win the Norm Smith for his bollocking and brilliant football. A confusion in the statistics has Petracca credited with a historic 40 possessions in the match – one more than any player previous – but that was corrected back to an equal highest 39 later.

Still, he played a game for the ages. Streaking out of the centre, kicking goals and imposing his physical strength on the contest in the way Barassi had over half a century before.

In 1959 Barassi had played what fellow Melbourne champion Franks “Bluey” Adams called “the greatest 10 minutes of football I have ever seen” to finish off the second quarter.

The ruck rover shrugged off two tacklers to kick one from the boundary, then split open two packs to mark kicks from the centre which he converted.