Saints Daryl Cunningham, brother Geoff and Trevor Barker celebrate after beating Richmond. Barker was captain from 1983-86 and a dual winner (1976 and '81) of the best-and-fairest award, which is now named in his honour. Source: Herald Sun
A flamboyant high-flyer, Trevor Barker was more than just an exhilarating player. Source: Herald Sun
ST KILDA has nominated Trevor Barker for induction into the AFL Hall of Fame.
The surprise is not that Barker has been nominated, but that it comes 24 years after he played his last game for the club.
No one really knows why his name had not been presented to the AFL for consideration before last Friday, though Chinese whispers have it one senior member of the Saints' Hall of Fame selection committee did not rate him as highly as others within the club.
Changes to the selection panel have prompted a change in thinking.
The main change has been the departure of former coach Allan Jeans, who was coach when Barker won the first of two best-and-fairests in 1976. Jeans died in 2011.
Former teammate and current chief executive Michael Nettlefold is none the wiser.
"I asked of the Hall of Fame committee, 'Why hasn't Trevor Barker been nominated for the Hall of Fame?' and Gary Colling looked at me and said, 'Trevor Barker was this football club for a long period of time'," Nettlefold said.
"He set up all our school programs, he was the promotions officer at the club for five or six years, and a lot of that support through the bayside suburbs was because of the work Barks did those days."
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Barker, who died of cancer aged 39 on April 25, 1996, is a Saints icon. He is a member of the club's Hall of Fame and a possibility to join Jeans, Ian Stewart, Daryl Baldock and Tony Lockett this year as club Legends.
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He was also captain from 1983-86 and a dual winner (1976 and '81) of the best-and-fairest award, which is now named in his honour.
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A flamboyant high-flyer, Barker was more than just an exhilarating player.
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"He was one of the best tacklers you've seen off a half-back flank, he was incredibly courageous - like Ken Hunter-courageous - and remember he was 183cm and 70kg, so he was shorter and lighter than Nick Dal Santo and he used to play state full-back," Nettlefold said.
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"He was a freak. I saw him leap-frog teammate Gary Sidebottom one night at training, and Sidebottom was six foot five or six (195cm).
"I reckon he was in the air what Peter Daicos was on the ground in that era."
Nettlefold said Barker was a highlights reel as well as being "incredibly team-oriented". "He played full-back, half-back in poorly performed sides and was rarely beaten, and then they'd play him full-forward, and I think he kicked 134 goals in his career," he said.
Barker played 230 games, mostly wearing the famed No.1 jumper. "There wasn't a kid at the ground who didn't have No.1 on their back," Nettlefold said. "He certainly deserves real consideration because through that period he was a star."
The AFL Hall of Fame ceremony will be held in Canberra this year.
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