Hall of Fame: Barker, Malthouse soar again

The clouds were beginning to gather over St Kilda in 1975, but there was if not a silver lining, a couple of golden threads. There nearly always is at St Kilda. Two from this time were Trevor Barker and Mick Malthouse, who were both inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame on Tuesday night.

Barker in so many ways embodied the Saints. He was a thrilling footballer, a flaxen-haired long-sleeved high-flier who time and time again erupted out of the Moorabbin mud to take mark-of-the-week. To photographers, he was a gift. His athleticism was manifest, his courage too; in those less scrupulous days, to hurl yourself into packs the way he did was to invite an unmentionable hereafter. Less feted except by teammates was Barkers own fierce attack on man and ball.

Trevor Barker in 1980.Credit:Contributed

Barker loved the Saints, and they loved him back, and it was until death did they part. He captained the club, represented it in state games, flew its flag in all forums and in due course was invested as a legend there and lent his name to the best-and-fairest trophy. But he could not subvert its destiny. In a 15-year, 230-game career, he did not play in a single final. Instead there were seven wooden spoons.

Barker must have had opportunities to abscond, but did not, could not, would not. St Kilda ran through him like the Nepean Highway. He came from Cheltenham and when he was done went to Sandringham to coach, and at last to win premierships in 1992 and 1994. But within 18 months, he was dead, of colon cancer. He was just 39.

Malthouse was from another mould altogether; is that not the beauty of footy? He was, to use a description of that time rather than this, a rugged defender, a straight-ahead player for a straight-ahead era. Squeezed at St Kilda, he moved to Richmond in mid-1976 and played in the rampant 1980 premiership team. Fate conspired with him as much as it conspired against Barker.

All the while, he was forming a vocation for what became his ultimate calling, as a 30-year triple premiership coach with four clubs, who in 2015 at last broke Jock McHales 714-game record for games coached in VFL/AFL footy. A month later, for the first time and last, he was sacked. To understand what a feat it was to outrun that certain fate for so long, contemplate what became of his successor at Carlton just this week.

Mick Malthouse during the late stages of his coaching career at West Coast.Credit:Barry Baker

Gruff and bluff, Malthouse did not court public favour as others did, nor act as a giant, nor – save the occasional gnomish pearl – present as a sage. But he did dedicate himself to his mission, and stayed abreast of the footy times, and inspire fierce loyalty, and out of these fashioned West Coasts first two premierships and in 2010 a drought-breaker for Collingwood. If three flags in 30 years seems meagre, remember that this is a fiendishly tough competition. A finer measure might be his 20 finals seasons, totemic of excellence.

Publicly, Malthouse “lost” only one player. In only his second season as coach, at Footscray, and Brad Hardies first, the West Australian won the Brownlow Medal. But Hardies unconventional – perhaps futuristic – way of playing the back pocket, having little regard for the opposition forward pocket, soon grated on Malthouse. The next year, after being benched one day at Waverley, Hardie tore off his jumper and brandished it at Malthouse in the box. The next year again, he was playing for Brisbane.