In the first of a ‘Bingle Recruitment Zone’ special series focusing on 20 highlights from Richmond’s trade/draft history post-season, we take a look at the famous Ian Stewart-Bill Barrot swap.
A tremor reverberated throughout the football world in late 1970, when St Kilda’s dual Brownlow Medallist, premiership champion centreman and former captain Ian Stewart joined Richmond in a sensational swap for brilliant dual Tiger premiership centreman Bill Barrot.
The pair had earned glowing reputations as two of the elite players of the competition at the time.
Barrot, who was 26, and a veteran of 120 games, had been a star in Richmond’s 1967 and 1969 premiership triumphs with his dynamic style of play.
‘Bugsy’, as he was affectionately known, was robust, relentless, a booming kick, and could run all day. He was a match-winner, and idolised by Tiger fans.
Following a frustrating 1970 season, however, where he was hampered with nagging hamstring problems, and managed to play just nine games, Barrot had fallen out of favor with the Club’s hierarchy. Rumors started circulating that he was on the way out of Punt Road.
Stewart, then 27, had achieved pretty much all there was to achieve in eight excellent seasons with St Kilda. He’d been an absolute stand-out with his vast array of silky skills, matched with an abundance of courage, winnning back-to-back Brownlows in 1965-66, playing a major role in the Saints’ one and only premiership side in ’66, and captaining them in 1969.
By the end of the 1970 season, however, Stewart was stale. His relationship with St Kilda coach Allan Jeans was strained, and he decided to seek a change of football scenery. ‘Stewie’ had even mentioned the possibility of retirement, rather than continuing with the Saints . . .
In Elliot Cartledge’s excellent book, ‘The Hafey Years’, Stewart outlined the chain of events that led to the shock swap.
“It was a bluff, me saying I was going to give the game away,” Stewart said.
“But I’d lost my way and lost motivation. I was a bit wayward.
“I ended up in Western Australia, but it was a whole charade.
“Alan Schwab was part of that. He was assistant secretary at St Kilda before he went to Richmond – that’s how I got to know him.
“He was assistant to Ian Drake, who was a very good administrator.
“I never had a blue or a row with Allan Jeans, but I think I’d run my race . . .
“’Schwabby’ (Richmond secretary Alan Schwab) and I orchestrated the whole thing,” Stewart said.
“We got the Saints’ president, Graham Huggins, to approach Barrot. Huggins was a good president, but really didn’t know about the finer points of football. My name was never mentioned . . .
“Huggins fell for it and Barrot is a very infectious fellow . . . after a while you can see what you want to see.
“For want of a better way of putting it, Huggins fell in love with him. He and Drake made all of the decisions and Jeans didn’t rock the boat . . .”
Barrot also recounted his version of how the trade unfolded in the book . . .
“Clubs from South Australia and Western Australia were on the phone saying, “Do you want to come over here, Bill? So I knew there was a bit of trouble in the background,” Barrot said.
“They were all asking me what I wanted to do for the next year, so I knew something was going on.
“Ray Dunn (Richmond president) told me after I had to leave that, at the committee meeting about me, I got beaten by one vote.
“It was part of the power struggle between Graeme Richmond and Ray; I was just the meat in the sandwich.
“They were meeting together – Ray Dunn, Allan Cooke, Alan Schwab and Tommy (Hafey) – and it was all set up . . .
“It hurt me a lot; getting the sack from Richmond broke my heart. You see, I’d put so much effort into being good at something . . . I drove myself more than hard – stupid hard. I gave it everything I had. I couldn’t have given it anymore.”
Eventually, after some protracted negotiations, the biggest trade deal in league football history to that point (and arguably still the biggest) was completed.
Here’s how the sensational swap was reported in ‘The Age’ newspaper by leading football writer Ron Carter . . .
“One of the biggest football swaps of all time – Bill Barrot and Ian Stewart – became official last night.
“Barrot became a St Kilda player and Stewart a Richmond man.
“Their clearances were approved by the Victorian Football League permit committee . . .
“Barrot joined Richmond in 1961 and has played 120 games. He was in and out of the side last year.
“Stewart has played 130 games with St Kilda since he joined the club in 1963 from Tasmania.
"The swap was arranged when Barrot and Stewart said they were unhappy with their clubs.”
Barrot kicked three goals in his first game for St Kilda, in the opening round of the 1971 season. The following week, however, he was dragged from the field at half-time – and never played for the Saints again. He ended up transferring to Carlton a few weeks later. But after a dozen games with the Blues, Barrot’s league career finished at the end of the ’71 season.
Stewart, on the other hand, positively thrived in the environment at Tigerland. Playing with renewed energy, he won a third Brownlow Medal, in his debut season at Richmond and, two years later, was a key member of the Club’s 1973 premiership side.
He retired from league football during the 1975 season, having packed plenty in a superb 78-game career with the Tigers. So influential was he, in less than five full seasons in the famous Yellow and Black, that when Richmond announced its Team of the Century in 1999, the name I. Stewart was read out as one of the interchange players.
Stewie remains the only player in the entire history of the competition to have been selected in the Team of the Century at two league clubs, to have won Brownlow Medals at two clubs, and been involved in a premiership at two clubs.
To this day, he remains extremely grateful that he got the chance to experience football life at Tigerland during the Club’s golden era.
“It was a very, very supportive, friendly, caring group of people and I go as far to say that the group of people who were at Richmond through that time are some of the finest people I have every come in contact with, at any capacity . . .” Stewart said.
