Barrie Robran

(1947-2025)

In the Greatest Game of Football ever played, the 1973 Grand Final, where his North Adelaide side was going for three Premierships in a Row (after triumphs in 1971 and 1972, along with the 1972 Champions of Australia Trophy) Barrie Robran just-about won it off his own boot.

You can Google his stats and many accomplishments ( https://sanfl.com.au/history/hall-of-fame/barrie-c-robran-mbe/ ): all we can add is that he was the best footballer that most of us have ever seen, and one of the nicest. He was invited by Glenelg Football Club to mark an anniversary of the 1973 GF (1998, from memory) and it speaks volumes of how stylish he was, that he not only turned-up (as a star on the losing side, why would anyone?) but spoke with rare grace and feeling.

He recalled that his first game for North at Glenelg Oval in the winter of 1967 was memorable for the wrong reasons. It had been raining hard for over a week, and in those days, the “G” was a glue-pot after a spot of rain. It looked like those WWI photographs of the Somme or Verdun. Young, callow, Barrie was not the sort to flourish in those conditions and by half-time, he recalled, he hadn’t got a touch. The Coach directed him to take an early shower.

Barrie said that he’d stood in the visitors’ rooms shower for 20 minutes, feeling sorry for himself. He was too modest to add – not that it was needed – that he well and truly bounced-back from that experience.

Some GOATS go to Heaven. Vale, Barrie.