Football has evolved, but Barrie Robran would have been a 'champion in any era'

Australia Broadcast Center

19-07-2025

It was typical of Barrie Robran that when he was asked to reflect on what he described as his "claim to fame" on the sporting field, he chose to dwell on the abilities of someone other than himself.
What made his answer surprising was not so much its humility as the fact that it did not involve the sport with which Robran's name will be forever associated.
Since his death last week at the age of 77, Robran has been widely remembered as the greatest Australian rules footballer South Australia has produced.
But in an interview with the ABC a quarter of a century ago, Robran highlighted the time that he and Barry Richards — the swashbuckling South African who helped South Australia secure the 1970/71 Sheffield Shield — played cricket together for Adelaide side Prospect.
"I say my claim to fame is that I opened the batting one year with Barry Richards, and he's the best cricketer or the best batsman that I've ever seen," Robran said.
"I wasn't fortunate enough to ever have seen Don Bradman play but I wished in some way that I could because if Sir Donald was a better batsman than Barry Richards, I think my sporting life's the poorer for not having seen Sir Donald bat."
The reflection was tender and poignant, and was uttered with the soft-spoken sincerity for which Robran was renowned.
But in the eyes of at least one observer, there was perhaps no need for Robran to have felt the twinge of regret.
While Robran may not have seen Bradman at the crease, commentator Bruce McAvaney is very much of the view that the former was, in some sense, an heir to the latter, and that their names will always belong in the same breath.
"We're talking of the Bradman of footy," McAvaney said of Robran on Wednesday.
Robran would naturally have rejected the comparison, but McAvaney was adamant.
That genius will today be commemorated when Robran's North Adelaide takes on Port Adelaide in the SANFL at Prospect Oval.
A minute's silence has been held before the bounce of every SANFL competition match this weekend, and players and umpires will again wear black armbands when the Roosters — for whom Robran played 201 matches — and Port Adelaide take to the field this afternoon.
"He'd come to every game and sit on the eastern side with his deck chair and his two mates," Roosters CEO Craig Burton said.
"The words 'good bloke' get thrown around a lot but he's right at the top of the list."
In a statement released late on Friday, members of Robran's family said they had been "overwhelmed" by the "many kind and thoughtful words and memories" that had been shared about their "loving and caring husband, father, grandfather, and uncle".
While they "respectfully declined" a government offer of a state service, they said they had taken "solace in the knowledge that Barrie's impact and influence on so many was so great, in such a positive way".
"His loss will have a profound impact on us all and we will miss him dearly," the family said.
"Those who knew him appreciated his humility, reflected in a preference to let his achievements speak for themselves.
"We will be following Barrie's wishes for a small private family funeral."
For some, Robran's death has been a moment to reflect on the passing not just of a great of the game, but of a golden age.
Robran's biographer Bruce Pointon said those who had grown up watching South Australian football in the 1970s had been privileged to see some of the state's best-ever players, including Robran and Russell Ebert.
"They were really stars and made the game quite attractive," he said.
Part of the attraction, Pointon explained, was the fact that Australian rules was then a more open game.
While Pointon said football had become faster and more intense, the way it was played in the 1970s showcased the game's basic skills.
"In those days you had a position to play and the zone of your involvement in the game was fairly strongly insisted upon, 'You're a half-forward flanker, you're a back pocket, so what are you doing down at centre wing?'
"There was a much bigger emphasis on the position that the person played and therefore the role that that implied."
Another major difference between football then and now is the remuneration to which players are entitled — a point made by Robran himself in his interview with ABC Radio in 2000.
"The first year I played football in Adelaide for North Adelaide, I played 19 matches and I received $5 a game, which was a total of $95," Robran said of the year he debuted, in 1967.
"Now some of them are getting — I dread to think what some of them are getting, but in the tens of thousands of dollars a game. I guess it's all relative but it certainly didn't detract from my enjoyment."
Despite football's evolution, both Bruces — Pointon and McAvaney — remain certain of one thing: Robran would have excelled regardless of the age in which he played.
"His skills of manoeuvring and dodging and weaving ... made him a very, very difficult person to tackle," Pointon said.
"I don't think anyone read the game any better than Barrie. He could get to the contest as well as anybody," McAvaney added.
ABC