SA Footy

South Australian football legend Barrie Robran has passed away, age 77.

Robran represented North Adelaide from 1967 to 1980 and won the Magarey Medal on three separate occasions, cementing his legacy as one of South Australia's greatest football players of all time.

3x Magarey Medal: 1968, 1970, 1973
7x North Adelaide Best and Fairest: 1967–1973
2x SANFL Premiership: 1971, 1972
Championship of Australia Championship: 1972
South Australia State team Captain: 1974
North Adelaide club Captain: 1974–1977
Australian Football Hall of Fame: Inductee 1996, Legend Status 2001
North Adelaide Team of the Century: (Ruck Rover)
South Australian Football Hall of Fame
North Adelaide Hall of Fame - (Icon Status)
South Australia State selector: 1984–1998

RIP to one of the true icons of South Australian footy

Been a tough couple of years with first Ebert and Kerley and now Robran, arguably the greatest footballers this state has produced.

Condolences to the family and the North Adelaide footy club

I met him briefly when involved with the State team in 1994.

He was an outstanding footballer but an even better man.

RIP, Barrie!

I was lucky enough to see every league game Barrie played, I was 12 years of age when he debuted so I was also old enough to realise that he could do things no other player could do.
I once told a West Adelaide supporter that I had seen everyone of Barrie's games. He just replied "You lucky bastard".
Even Fos Williams and John Cahill admitted that as good as the other champs were, Robran was on another level prior to his knee injury.
We all know of his game against Carlton in 1972, his game against Hawthorn in 1971 was just as good. If only there was vision of those games. Another game that sticks in my memory is the 1971 Second Semi Final. At the 18 minute mark of the last quarter, Port were 21 points up. Inspired by Barrie who kicked 3 goals himself, North rattled on 7 goals 1 behinds to 1 goal 1 behind to win by 15 points. He then went on to be best on ground in the 1971 and 1972 Grand Finals. His "hand of God" effort to somehow dive and take the ball off Michael Taylor's boot in the dying stages of the 1973 First Semi Final is another memory that will last forever. There are so many memories.
Of course, his brilliance was dimmed after the serious knee injury he still had his moments.
One game that sticks in my mind was against Port at Adelaide Oval in 1976. On one leg Barrie scored 6 goals and kept a mediocre North Adelaide side in the contest against a great Port side.
Another memory of his post knee career was in a game against West at Richmond when North were a shocking side. Barrie on one leg was clearly North's best player. The next day on World Of Sport, the West Coach, Fos Williams said to Barrie "I wish you were tell everyone how much you are struggling today after your efforts yesterday," Barrie just responded :"It is not too bad Fos:"
We will never see his like again. He was a once in a lifetime player.

My absolute hero growing up.

Vale Barrie.

RIP Barrie Robran.

I’m too young to have seen him play, but one thing that stands out on this footy site is the absolute respect and admiration Barrie Robran has for both his onfield brilliance and his character off-field, from everyone.

How lucky of you “robranisgod” to have witnessed every game he played and thank you and others on this site who have documented stories of his greatness over the years. Some context to go with that magnificent statue that welcomes the world to Adelaide Oval.

A sad day for his family and friends, the North Adelaide community and indeed Australian football.

One great memory of the gr8 man
Taking a high mark and as he is falling to the ground ,would handball to a team mate running past, before he landed on the turf

R I P Barrie

RIP great man, a massive loss.

I saw him play on one leg in 1980, and he still was better than anyone else on the field.

Unfortunately there’s not much footage of his brilliance, but here’s a snippet.

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=44338#p2668705

Great tribute on the SANFL site - https://sanfl.com.au/league/news/vale-b ... whvsyvifnn

RIP Barrie, wish I got to see him play

*Copied this thread into the SANFL forum for a bit, deserves to be outside of the history forum.

RIP Barrie.

Best Ive seen and was one of the earliest 2 sided players in th SANFL.

Brilliant mark and just seemed to lope along the ground in slow motion but never seemed to be caught. Darren Jarman reminded me of his smooth running and evasive skills. Built like Bernie Quinlan, marked like Jesaulenko and was the complete footballer.

RIP Barrie Robran.

Limited memories from a long time ago but was there for both the Hawthorn [1971] and Carlton [1972] games and he stood tall.
Not a North supporter but he had the height, agility, skills to play any position on the ground [some thing you can very rarely say] and be outstanding.
Meet him off the field once and the words humble and classy start to sum him up.

Lost a good one today.

One of the lucky ones like RIG, saw most of Barries career pre knee injury.

Has been well documented his brillance, his modesty and the total person he was.

Many a conversation as a youngster back in those days and then later on in life at the footy club with him

He just made things look so simple on the footy field

Guys my age were blessed seeing players such as Barrie, Russell and Paul Bagshaw just to name a few.

A very sad loss for S.A., CONDOLENCES to the Robran family and friends and the NAFC.

One of lifes best has passed on.

RIP Barrie, will never be forgotten