Michael O'Loughlin of the Swans congratulates team mate Barry Hall after scoring a goal during the round 22 AFL match between the Sydney Swans and the Carlton Blues at the Sydney Cricket Ground on September 3, 2006 in Sydney, Australia. Slattery Images
So in the end he finished with both a whimper and a bang. Barry Hall’s career at the Sydney Swans came to a pretty ignominious end. One of the stars and leaders on the team had to quit mid-season because he was a liability to the side.
That is a pretty horrific turn of fortune.
Despite his protestations, he could never shake off the moniker of Big Bad Barry and ultimately it would come to haunt him.
2005 was his best year.
He kicked a career high 80 goals and lifted the Premiership Cup. He followed it up in 2006 with 78 goals but infamously was missing in action for the Grand Final. After kicking nine goals in two games against the Eagles earlier in the year, he kicked a paltry 0.2 in the Grand Final.
Something was already wrong in 2007 when his production dropped to 44 goals from 20 games. Then he clocked Brent Staker and that was the beginning of the end.
He came back, but was damaged goods.
The Swans have been hard done by here – they don’t even any trade value from Hall.
He claims that he wants to play on elsewhere, but who would take him? Opposition backmen are going to be lining up to niggle and taunt him.
The umpires haven’t given him any sympathy in the past and aren’t about to start doing so now. This could very well be the end of the line for him.
In a contact sport, if you have a very short fuse and are prone to crazy acts, you are going to be provoked until you finally snap. The opposition do what they can and the only reason they would resort to such tactics is because they work.
Sam Mitchell knew what he was doing and it helped the Hawks win a game where they needed all the help they could get.
Hall needed the sense of humour that Brendan Fevola and Jonathan Brown has; humour has the ability to defuse the situation.
When Hall grows up and has the ability to reflect and think back on what was, he will probably have a few regrets.
On top of the list will be that he was not strong enough to avoid being sucked in. Because of this, his actions adversely affected his team-mates, and in a team sport, there is no worse crime than that.
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