Barassi

Title: Barassi
Author: O'Neill, Tee
Price: $22.99

Ron Barassi - iconic Australian Rules footballer - champion coach, motivational speaker and elder statesman. Do they make men like him any more?

Barassi starts in World War II with Rons father, Ron Snr, himself a champion footballer, and one of the Rats of Tobruk, a powerful and heroic figure to his son, who is tragically killed in Libya. We follow the development of young Ron, who, under the care and mentorship of legendary coach Norm Smith, relentlessly turns himself into 'Mr Football'. Ever driven to challenge himself, and live up to the impossible memory of his father, Barassi goes on past his glory playing days to successfully coach football clubs, taking them from 'wooden spooners' to premiers. While that success is tempered with the failure of his marriage, small business, and his old club Melbourne, Number 31 is often daunted, but never beaten.

Barassi is the story of a champion Australian Rules footballer and coach, Ron Barassi. Barassis premiership footballer father wore number 31 in the 1940 VFL Grand Final and was later killed as a soldier in Tobruk. He left a small boy who dreamed of one day being just like his father. That same boy was developed into a champion by a loving, but no-nonsense mother and a formidable foster father, Norm Smith.

This is the story of the boy who becomes the legend, and who shapes the mighty game we know as Australian Rules Footballour indigenous game, the game that demands courage, skill, determination, innovation, selflessness, and the bit of 31 that is in us all.

Publisher: Currency Press Pty Ltd
Publication date: 01/09/2012
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780868199597
Publishing status: Last copy available