Barks

[bigcarl]

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/ ... 9b386eb692

Loved watching Barks. Outrageously courageous and spectacular. Arms like bands of steel when he tackled. A beacon through some dark years.

[saintspremiers]

For those that didn’t see him play, his final years were as a fantastic undersized defender.

He had the same tenacity at the pill as Geary has, but with a bit more polish on a very slender frame.

[The Fireman]

lucky enough to meet him and his parents, great people.

[Aussie Jonestown]

Absolute legend, a champion footballer and human being.
He had so many qualities to admire and he had them in abundance.
Trevor Barker is my favourite St.kilda player of all time.

[saynta]

https://www.afl.com.au/news/2019-06-04/ ... ll-of-fame

[shanegrambeau]

One thing against Barks was the relative lack of awards. B&F 'only' twice. So they couldn't reel out the platitudes as easily. Of course, we know how he is like bone matter, spine in our soul as Saints supporters, but I wonder how many fans of other clubs know our B&F is named so.

I never forget the game he played right at the end of his career...forced to stand the danger hulk Brian Taylor in the absence of a suspended Spud. Didn't stand a chance but still reached up for a specy during our drubbing. Sole highlight in another Victoria Park disaster.

I hope his spirit gets into our current players. Come on Barks.

I must say I was surprised that Shane Grambeau wasn't mentioned, (or Tim Pekin for that matter)

[kosifantutti]

wallace on the money....

a leak....

Can anyone upload a pic of the mark at windy hill......

His mum so proud....
Jack (his Father) a great saints supporter would have been thrilled for him

https://www.leighhenninghamphotography. ... -gems/1979

[To the top]

How fantastic for Norma

And Jim Deane, mine host at the Queen’s Head Hotel up the laneway from Adelaide Oval

Another champion

Peter Darley, also a South Adelaide legend, took the leasehold of the Queen’s Head some years later

[Joffa Burns]

Absolute legend, a champion footballer and human being.
He had so many qualities to admire and he had them in abundance.
Trevor Barker is my favourite St.kilda player of all time.

yep Barks4Eva

[The Fireman]

https://www.afl.com.au/news/2019-06-04/ ... ll-of-fame

unreal..the memories come flooding back

[mr six o'clock]

Absolute legend, a champion footballer and human being.
He had so many qualities to admire and he had them in abundance.
Trevor Barker is my favourite St.kilda player of all time.

I agree
Whilst the kids of today still worship their footy heroes , was there anything better than running onto the ground at Moorabbin after a win and getting to congratulate one or more of the players.
The memories never die
Barks was always hard to get near . Fans would be all over him . Women of all ages would be trying to kiss him.
I was lucky enough to pat him on the back twice and my best memory was getting a high five off him .
I know his picture is on the side of the building at Moorabbin but a statue would also be fitting.

[SaintPav]

Legend.

[seano1]

yes maybe Wallace knew, must admit i was quite happy with Hunter getting in as well , about the same size as barks and loved his marks and defensive skills

[SaintWodonga]

Can anyone break the paywall with Robbo's article? (please)

[chook23]

wallace on the money....

a leak....

Can anyone upload a pic of the mark at windy hill......

His mum so proud....
Jack (his Father) a great saints supporter would have been thrilled for him

Right on cue, uploaded by the club
tonight as part of a fantastic, personal piece by Russell Holmesby - click here for the pic and article

https://m.saints.com.au/news/2019-06-04 ... vor-barker

Thanks

That is not the photo ......

Kosi has posted it though

[chook23]

wallace on the money....

a leak....

Can anyone upload a pic of the mark at windy hill......

His mum so proud....
Jack (his Father) a great saints supporter would have been thrilled for him

https://www.leighhenninghamphotography. ... -gems/1979

Thanks Kosi

[kosifantutti]

wallace on the money....

a leak....

Can anyone upload a pic of the mark at windy hill......

His mum so proud....
Jack (his Father) a great saints supporter would have been thrilled for him

https://www.leighhenninghamphotography. ... -gems/1979

Thanks Kosi

I couldn’t post this from work.

[Joffa Burns]

https://www.afl.com.au/news/2019-06-04/ ... ll-of-fame

unreal..the memories come flooding back

Brilliant

[guitars4]

https://www.afl.com.au/news/2019-06-04/ ... ll-of-fame

unreal..the memories come flooding back

Yeah mate watched it too & bought a tear to my eye What a bloke ,little wonder why he was known as the " patron saint of loyalty" & a St.Kilda legend, unfortunately taken way too early . Thanks for the memories Bark's you will always have a special place in my heart .

[saynta]

AFL News
Loving mum Norma Barker pays tribute to her son Trevor, who has been inducted into the Hall of Fame

Trevor Barker was a beacon of hope through some of St Kilda’s toughest days. A “Hollywood footballer” with long blond hair and tremendous courage, he was loved by all. But perhaps by none more than his mother, Norma.
Mark Robinson, Herald Sun

|
June 5, 2019 8:37am

..

Norma Barker’s withered hands clutch the lace-up jumper, she brings it to her face, closes her eyes and takes a heaving breath.

Then she cries.


“I can still smell him,” she said.

She buried her face in it again.

“Oh dear,” she said.

“I lost my little girl, too, you know. Katrina. She died when she was five with a congenital heart condition. Trevor was nine and he never got over losing his beautiful little sister. She got through the surgery OK, but she died about two weeks later.”

That was in 1966.

“But they learnt from her. I got lovely letters from the Children’s Hospital to say they saved so many other children. That was nice to hear.”

Norma Barker is the mother of Trevor Barker, arguably St Kilda’s most loyal son, and on Tuesday night she accepted Trevor’s induction into the AFL Hall of Fame.


“He wouldn’t be expecting anything like this because he was a team man and he never was looking for accolades,” Norma told the Herald Sun.

“He would do anything for his beloved Saints, anything.

“A few clubs wanted him but no way he’d leave.

“Hang on, he nearly did once. To Melbourne. I think it was Barassi. Was he with Melbourne?”

Trevor died of cancer at 8am on April 26, 1996. He was 39.

Six thousand people attended his funeral at Moorabbin Town Hall.
Norma Barker with her son Trevor’s jumper. Picture: Michael Klein

Trevor Barker was a Hollywood footballer: Charismatic, long blond hair, spectacular marks, tremendous courage and, Norma said, a real “ladies man”.

He wore No. 1, often in long-sleeves, and but on this day, Norma had her son’s old lace-up, borrowed for the afternoon from the St Kilda museum.

“I can still smell him,” she said.

“If you’d like me to put it on … I’d like to do it.”

Barker was a beacon of hope through a mediocre period for the Saints and Barker, more than any player, embodied St Kilda’s mantra: Strength through loyalty.

He played his first game in 1975, played 230 games overall, was captain for four years and was a two-time best and fairest winner. That award is now named in his honour.

Saints fans loved him, rival fans admired him.

His blond hair would streak across the TV screens as Barker launched himself into packs and on to backs and his marks remain iconic moments in Australian Rules.
Sandringham captain Anthony Allen and coach Trevor Barker with the 1992 VFA premiership cup.

Time and again, commentators would bellow “BARKER” in an excited voice almost breaking down the pronunciation.

When he left the Saints, he coached Sandringham to two VFA premierships, in 1992 and ’94, before returning to the Saints as an assistant coach.

It seemed logical and written in the stars that he would one day become senior coach.

Norma has many photos of her family and friends at her Cheltenham home.

One was of Barker at training at Moorabbin. “Look at the awful long hair,” she said.

At 91, Norma was worried how she’d scrub up in the photograph with the jumper. “Should I put my spectacles on to hide my tears? I look 110.”

She slipped it on and barked: “How’s that?” She spun around as if she was on a catwalk.
Norma Barker models Trevor’s jumper. Picture: Michael Klein

TREVOR was a Cheltenham boy. He attended Cheltenham High School and played footy for the first time at the Bentleigh Tigers.

Norma and her husband, Jack, who split and then divorced when Trevor was 16, would watch Trevor play at Bentleigh. “Yep, every week. Jack and I would get up, have a quick cuppa, and put the trackies over our PJs because it was so cold, it started at 8am. We loved it.”

She knew he had something as a player. “I thought he had potential, yes.”

By the time Trevor was at the Saints, Jack was gone and she’d watch the game with girlfriends. “We were called ‘the back row’ at Moorabbin. There were 14 of us sitting together. We were very loud. He would take those high marks and come down on his back. I would be worried. One day he got kicked in the face and I sent one of my friends down to the rooms because we weren’t allowed in the rooms in those days, mothers and women.”

Asked to describe him as a player, she said: “He was just the best. Well, I thought he was.
Jeff Sarau and Trevor Barker celebrate after a St Kilda win.

He’d take great marks, he was a speedster, and he used to tackle well. He was a wonderful tackler.”

Asked to describe him as a person, she said: “He was always my beloved son first and football was what he chose to do. He wasn’t all that demonstrative, you know, for cuddles or anything like that, but we were very close. He loved footy. He used to play kick to kick over the back fence with the next door neighbour, on Centre Dandenong Rd and Tilley. That’s where he grew up.”

Asked her favourite football moment, she said: “Seeing all the little ones running around with No. 1 on their back. That gave me goosebumps. That was beautiful.”

Asked her favourite all-time moment, she said: “When he was born. I always wanted a boy and a girl, and he was my first. All I ever wanted to have in my life was a happy marriage and at least two children. I had an unhappy marriage and I lost my children.

“But I’ve had a good life.”
Trevor Barker visiting a sick St Kilda fan in hospital in 1981.

INITIALLY, Trevor didn’t tell his mum of the cancer.

“He coached Sandringham to two premierships and I noticed it then. He was starting to get very dark circles under the eyes and it seemed to me he was getting sicker and sicker. When I’d see him, I’d say, ‘Gosh Trevor, you look thin, you look terrible’.

“He knew for quite some time, but he didn’t say anything. I remember my mum, she was in hospital, and we went to visit her one day and mum said: ‘Trevor, are you all right, you don’t look well. My mum (Jane) picked it.

“Then one day, he came to mum’s home and broke the news.”

Two years passed and he was dead.

When Trevor died it seemed despair hounded her.

“There’s been highs and lows,” Norma said. “You’ve got to soldier on and get on with your life because if you don’t the rest of the family is going to suffer. I decided I was going to be brave.

“You never think your children are going to die before you. So I decided I wasn’t going to have any more. I wasn’t meant to have them.

“Sometimes, but not very often, I have said, ‘why, why did I have two children and lose them both. What have I done wrong?’
Pallbearers Danny Frawley, Kevin Neale, Stewart Loewe, Simon O’Donnell and Barry Breen at Trevor Barker’s funeral.

“I do talk to God a bit. I thank him for the blessings and growl at him at the same time.

“But time heals all wounds. I still shed quiet tears, particularly when you see people out shopping with their children, so happy, and I think that could’ve been me. But I say to myself, keep a stiff upper lip.”

She rushed into her bedroom and returned with a photograph of Katrina and Trevor.

“You can look at his adoring look to his little sister. She was four. She started school and could only go for one month. When she was sick, she’d say, ‘Don’t cry mummy, I feel really well’.

“She knew she wasn’t, but she kept telling me she was. You know, Jack and I were called in and she passed away before we left the hospital.”

Trevor was her everything after losing Katrina and then splitting with Jack. Her life was everywhere when Trevor died.

That was 23 years ago and people still tell her how much of a hero Trevor was.

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HER invitation to Tuesday night’s function came via the mail.

“I was so emotional and overwhelmed to think he would be on the list to join all those esteemed players,” she said.

“I got a letter from Gillon McLachlan … do you want to see it?”

It was in pride of place on the kitchen bench.

It started, “Dear Norma, it’s my honour to inform you the AFL Commission has endorsed your late son Trevor for entry into the Hall of Fame …”

Norma: “It’s a beautiful letter and isn’t that an honour.”

Her table of 10 included Melinda, Barker’s partner at the time of his death.

“She’s been like a daughter to me, a beautiful girl,” she said.

Norma bought a new dress and new spectacles for the night.
Norma Barker with her letter from the AFL. Picture: Michael Klein

“I went into Specsavers because I was choosing new spectacles to wear on the night of the cocktail do. I was getting my glasses and the lass said, ‘Gee, they’re nice, is it a special occasion?’

“I said, ‘Yes, actually, I’m going to the AFL Hall of Fame dinner. My son is being inducted’. Well, you should hear her. ‘What, are you Trevor Barker’s mother?’ She was telling everybody, it was so exciting.”

You do know you weren’t allowed to tell anybody. “Ahh, oops … you do know they can get it all on the internet anyway.”

At 91, Norma is still rascalish, a trait clearly captured by Trevor.

“He was the biggest flirt, was he ever,” she said. “You’d think he was in bed, but he’d jump out the window and go and meet girls. He was about 16 or 17.

“He was a naughty boy, really.

“Trevor had several girlfriends before he met Melinda. I liked them all and I still get calls from these girls he went with all those years ago. They never stopped loving him.

“Yep, he was a ladies man, but that all changed when he met our beautiful Melinda.

Can anyone break the paywall with Robbo's article? (please)

[Bernard Shakey]

Wow!!
I can't believe Robbo wrote that. Very moving beautiful story.

[tedtheodorelogan2018]

Great article Saynta.

[bigcarl]

He was a ladies man, but that all changed when he met our wonderful Melinda


Lol, understatement of the year

[oldie60]

Fortunate to see 90 per cent of his games and personally don't believe there has been anyone like him at St Kilda. Played for the jumper even when injured and more often than not gave away height and weight but it seemed to motivate him to try harder something i don't believe the overpayed kids of today would know anything about. Absolute legend.

[To the top]

He was also the anointed incoming Coach of St Kilda ahead of his health problems surfacing as they did

The ink was dry