John Barnes (born 1 June 1969) is a retired

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

Playing career

Barnes' VFL/AFL career included two

State of Origin A State of Origin competition is a type of sporting event between players representing their state or territory. State of Origin began in Australian rules football on 8 October 1977 between Western Australia (WA) and Victoria, at Subiaco Oval ...

games for Victoria.

Early career – from Essendon to Geelong

The young Barnes was a ruckman/forward recruited by

Essendon Essendon may refer to: Australia *Electoral district of Essendon *Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington *Essendon, Victoria **Essendon railway station **Essendon Airport *Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League United King ...

in 1986 from

Cobram, Victoria Cobram is a town in the Australian state of Victoria. It is on the Murray River which forms the border between Victoria and New South Wales. Cobram along with the nearby towns of Numurkah and Yarrawonga is part of Shire of Moira and is the admi ...

. He was traded after five seasons with Windy Hill to the

Geelong Football Club The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed the Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition, and are the 2022 ...

for

Sean Denham Sean Denham (born 29 April 1969) is a former Australian rules footballer. Recruited from Melton South, Denham was an unheralded rover, who came to Essendon from Geelong in a swap that saw ruckman John Barnes sent the other way following the 1 ...

. Under the coaching of

Malcolm Blight Malcolm Jack Blight AM (born 16 February 1950) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for and coached the North Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and Woodville Football Club in the South Australian Nati ...

and later

Gary Ayres Gary James Ayres (born 28 September 1960) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He is currently the senior coach for the Montrose Football Club in the Eastern F ...

he would go on to feature prominently in the losing 1994 and 1995

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

sides. During a Round 5 encounter at Princes Park against

Carlton Carlton may refer to: People * Carlton (name), a list of those with the given name or surname * Carlton (singer), English soul singer Carlton McCarthy * Carlton, a pen name used by Joseph Caldwell (1773–1835), American educator, Presbyterian ...

in 1997, after a marking duel, Barnes landed awkwardly on his left elbow, dislocating it and sidelining him for ten weeks. Barnes was delisted by the club in 1999. He had played a total of 144 games with 65 goals with the Cats.

Return to Essendon

It was Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy, however, who tempted Barnes back to Windy Hill, and he was selected at number #59 in the 1999 AFL Draft. A shortage of ruckmen at the club led Sheedy to reacquaint Barnes with his former club. A season later, after a defeat to the

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions is a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was formed in late 1996 via a merger of the Melbourne-based 1883 foundation VFL c ...

in the 2001 Grand Final, Barnes retired. He had totalled 58 games and 25 goals with the Bombers during his original tenure and return to the club.

Playing statistics

: , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

, , 20 , , 6 , , 9 , , 4 , , 21 , , 8 , , 29 , , 14 , , 6 , , 2 , , 1.5 , , 0.7 , , 3.5 , , 1.3 , , 4.8 , , 2.3 , , 1.0 , , 0.3 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

, , 20 , , 2 , , 0 , , 1 , , 12 , , 6 , , 18 , , 8 , , 1 , , 1 , , 0.0 , , 0.5 , , 6.0 , , 3.0 , , 9.0 , , 4.0 , , 0.5 , , 0.5 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

, , 20 , , 2 , , 1 , , 1 , , 10 , , 8 , , 18 , , 8 , , 2 , , 5 , , 0.5 , , 0.5 , , 5.0 , , 4.0 , , 9.0 , , 4.0 , , 1.0 , , 2.5 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

, , 20 , , 2 , , 2 , , 1 , , 9 , , 8 , , 17 , , 6 , , 1 , , 7 , , 1.0 , , 0.5 , , 4.5 , , 4.0 , , 8.5 , , 3.0 , , 0.5 , , 3.5 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

, , 20 , , 0 , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

, , 6 , , 13 , , 5 , , 0 , , 106 , , 73 , , 179 , , 74 , , 7 , , 165 , , 0.4 , , 0.0 , , 8.2 , , 5.6 , , 13.8 , , 5.7 , , 0.5 , , 12.7 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

, , 6 , , 18 , , 4 , , 1 , , 149 , , 130 , , 279 , , 116 , , 10 , , 265 , , 0.2 , , 0.1 , , 8.3 , , 7.2 , , 15.5 , , 6.4 , , 0.6 , , 14.7 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

, , 6 , , 24 , , 1 , , 1 , , 184 , , 181 , , 365 , , 132 , , 16 , , 389 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 7.7 , , 7.5 , , 15.2 , , 5.5 , , 0.7 , , 16.2 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

, , 6 , , 25 , , 9 , , 7 , , 183 , , 218 , , 401 , , 185 , , 22 , , 285 , , 0.4 , , 0.3 , , 7.3 , , 8.7 , , 16.0 , , 7.4 , , 0.9 , , 11.4 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

, , 6 , , 19 , , 16 , , 6 , , 151 , , 122 , , 273 , , 114 , , 9 , , 225 , , 0.8 , , 0.3 , , 7.9 , , 6.4 , , 14.4 , , 6.0 , , 0.5 , , 11.8 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, , 6 , , 15 , , 12 , , 13 , , 118 , , 71 , , 189 , , 82 , , 6 , , 104 , , 0.8 , , 0.9 , , 7.9 , , 4.7 , , 12.6 , , 5.5 , , 0.4 , , 6.9 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

, , 6 , , 15 , , 9 , , 4 , , 114 , , 83 , , 197 , , 69 , , 15 , , 173 , , 0.6 , , 0.3 , , 7.6 , , 5.5 , , 13.1 , , 4.6 , , 1.0 , , 11.5 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

, , 6 , , 15 , , 9 , , 1 , , 126 , , 81 , , 207 , , 77 , , 8 , , 216 , , 0.6 , , 0.1 , , 8.4 , , 5.4 , , 13.8 , , 5.1 , , 0.5 , , 14.4 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, , 22 , , 24 , , 10 , , 2 , , 188 , , 123 , , 311 , , 115 , , 26 , , 400 , , 0.4 , , 0.1 , , 7.8 , , 5.1 , , 13.0 , , 4.8 , , 1.1 , , 16.7 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, , 22 , , 22 , , 3 , , 1 , , 133 , , 100 , , 233 , , 78 , , 23 , , 218 , , 0.1 , , 0.0 , , 6.0 , , 4.5 , , 10.6 , , 3.5 , , 1.0 , , 9.9 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 202 ! 90 ! 43 ! 1504 ! 1212 ! 2716 ! 1078 ! 152 ! 2455 ! 0.4 ! 0.2 ! 7.4 ! 6.0 ! 13.4 ! 5.3 ! 0.8 ! 12.2

Post-playing career

Barnes was a runner for Essendon and was fined by the AFL for spending too long on the ground, before he was controversially suspended for two matches by the AFL for interfering with play during the 2005 season. In 2004, he played for the East Keilor Football Club in the

Essendon District Football League The Essendon District Football League (EDFL) is a professional Australian rules football league competition based in Essendon, Victoria, consisting of teams based in the north-west suburbs of Melbourne. Founded in 1930, the men's competition c ...

. He participated in the 2006

AFL Legends Match The E. J. Whitten Legends Game was an annual Australian sports entertainment Australian rules football match. It is played for charity played as an all-star game. Retired star players are reunited, along with selected non-footballing celebrities ...

, playing for Victoria. Barnes became the ruck coach for the Western Bulldogs in the 2008 season. In 2009, he was appointed as coach of the

Doutta Stars Football Club The Essendon Doutta Stars Football Club is an Australian rules football club located 10 km north west of Melbourne in the suburb of Essendon, Victoria, Essendon, and affiliated with the Essendon District Football League in 1946. Histor ...

in the

. He also had a stint as the ruck coach for the Collingwood Football Club, but left that role and 'got completely out of footy' to become, as of 2015, a garbage collector in suburban Melbourne.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barnes, John 1969 births Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Australian rules football coaches Essendon Football Club players Essendon Football Club premiership players Geelong Football Club players Cobram Football Club players Living people Victorian State of Origin players VFL/AFL premiership players