ALLAN Barnes has enjoyed many great days at Rye, as a champion rover in the late 1980’s and early 90’s, where he played 169 senior games. Winning the Division 1 league best and fairest award in 1992 and the Rye Football Club senior best and fairest award in 1988. But he reckons nothing will top what happened a few weeks back, when Rye played Devon Meadows and all four of his sons played in the Rye senior side.
Clayton (24), Mitchell (21), Justin (18) and Tyson (16), took the field, creating history as the first time at Rye Football Club that four brothers have played together in the senior side.
Rye was within 14 points of title contenders Devon Meadows at halftime but was overpowered in the second half and lost 19.15 (129) to 11.11 (77).
Allan got a real kick out of seeing his boys so determined. “They were pumped up and ready to go,” he said. Allan’s sons never saw him play football, but he coached each of them in junior football, while also serving as president of Rye junior football club for many years and coaching the Rye reserves side from 2019 to 2021. “They’ve seen old photos of me playing,” Allan said. “They say, ‘you were a goal kicker?’. I say, ‘of course I was — the only one in the family’,” he laughs.
Justin won Rye’s senior best and fairest last year as a 17-year-old and is on Dandenong Stingrays list this season. Tyson, who is still eligible for under 17s, has made a promising start to his senior career, earning high praise from opposition coaches most weeks.
“He’s impressing me this year how he’s playing against the big boys,’’ Allan said. “He’s still under 17 eligible.”
Barnes played in the Essendon District league at West Meadows and had three years under Denis Pagan at North Melbourne’s under-19s. In the mid 80’s, Barnes and two mates would often travel down to the Mornington Peninsula to go fishing. They decided to join a local club.
“There were three of us from the Essendon District league…we used to come down here spear fishing and mucking around all the time, so we just picked a team in first division, and it was Rye. “We just rocked up on the doorstep and started training. I travelled for two years from West Meadows.”
Allan said when he went to leave Rye in the early 90s and return “up town’’, Rye’s club president at the time Nick Appleford declared, “no, you’re not, we’ve got you a job’. “I became good mates with Scott Beel and Sean Appleford and I haven’t gone home since,’’ Barnes said.
First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 24 July, 2024
