The Terrace

Today is Tuesday, so it’s time for another red-headed tribute. This time we salute the Geelong boy who done good and ended up residing in the prestigious City of Stonnington. Barry is now referred to as ‘Stonners’ by close friends and associates owing to his ubiquitous presence on the high streets of Prahran.

The rhubarb-bouffant

Seriously, apparently Barry’s real nickname is ‘Rhubarb’. At least that’s what his playing card suggests. Rhubarb – who played in an era of unprecedented red-headedness at the cats (think Bourke, McGrath, Hickmott and Bruns) – was a Geelong boy who was recruited from St Joseph’s college. He enjoyed a very successful career – albeit cut short by a chronic leg injury – at the Cats by playing 241 V/AFL games and kicking 223 goals. He won the 1990 ‘Carji’ Greeves medal and was an all-Australian player two years later. Amongst other, things Baz will be remembered for the day of the ’95 Grand Final where, as injured captain, he got into a brawl with a group of Carlton players at half time. It made no difference and we eventually got flogged (again), but it gave us all some dignity on an otherwise undignified day.

We think the portrait above is a fine one by which we can remember him fondly. His full-bodied hair has been trimmed, in a very 1990’s sort of way, at the sides and back to reveal a unique rhubarb-bouffant effect. Nice, Rhubarb. We salute you.

Geelong (Blakey and Gaz in particular) allegedly created a world record on Sunday by kicking the quickest goal ever in a game of AFL football. It probably doesn’t mean it was a world record (we’re sure some squid playing up bush has dobbed one quicker), but here at The Terrace we’ll take it none-the-less. For the…ummm…record, the goal was kicked in under 9 seconds. We’re not sure if it is indeed a record for a VFL/AFL game. Does anyone know? I seem to recall Gary Senior kicked a quick one at the start of the ’89 GF, but i don’t think it was that quick. As an aside, our archivist has spent the last four nights fumbling through the office records to reveal a dozen Geelong significant records, including:

1. Highest number of possessions in a game (498 vs Brisbane, 2009)
2. Greatest ever winning grand-final margin (Geelong 24.19.163 vs Port Adelaide 6.8.44, 2007)
3. Only team to have nine players selected in an All-Australian team (2007)
4. The highest ever aggregate total for points scored in a season (3,334, 1992)
5. Highest ever score (Geelong 37.17.239 vs Brisbane Bears 11.9.75, 1992)
6. Ahhhh…highest number of losing grand finals in the ’90s (3 – ouch!)
7. The only player to have been awarded the Coleman medal three years in a row (guess who in 1993-94-95).
8. The only Victorian club to temporarily change their song from a traditional baritone/brass-band-backed classic to a post-modern cock-rock anthem (Cat Attack, 1991-92)
9. The only club to win three games in a row by more than 100 points (1989)
10. The record for the most goals kicked in a VFL/AFL Grand Final (guess who with 9 goals in 1989).
11. Record for the longest winning streak in AFL/VFL history (23 games, 1952-53 – soon to be smashed perhaps?).
12. Keeping a club to the lowest ever score (Geelong 23.24.162 vs St Kilda 0.1.1 in 1899)

Further suggestions to boost The Terrace’s archive would be more than welcome…

Anyway, enough said. Enjoy the goal!