Tony Barnett

HTML <h2><strong>No</strong><strong> 46 TONY BARNETT</strong></h2>

HTML <h2><strong>6 feet 6 inch (198cm) Forward/Guar</strong><strong>d</strong></h2>

HTML <h2><strong>1976 Olympic Games</strong></h2>

HTML <p>In 1975 the much vaunted University of Oregon men’s basketball team (“The Kamikaze Kids”) was touring Australia. The Oregon Ducks team was extremely aggressive and based their game on defence. The team contained future NBA players Ron Lee and Greg Ballard. They were a very difficult team to score against. In the game against the St. Kilda Saints at Albert Park stadium in Melbourne however the tall young Australian with the super smooth jump-shot and high release was “lighting it up from everywhere”. The young Australian Tony Barnett went on to score 39 points in a losing side in that game.</p>

HTML <p>Anthony “Tony” Barnett was born June 11th, 1952 in Melbourne, Victoria.</p>

HTML <p>He was introduced to basketball at the age of eleven at the Balwyn Youth Club in Melbourne. A group of the children at the regular weekly activity session were asked if they would like to play a game called basketball in the local league. Some, including Tony, gave it a try and spent the season being soundly beaten by all opposition. “Scoring a basket was seen as a great individual achievement and a team effort of over ten points for a game a rarity,” recalls Tony.</p>

HTML <p>Tony continued playing for the Balwyn Youth Club with increasing success. His father took on the job of team chauffeur, collecting and driving the team to match venues in the family Holden station wagon, fortunately there where only around six children for most games. Tony recalls, “Without any seatbelt laws, or even seatbelts, we were spread from the front seats to the luggage area”. </p>

HTML <p>In 1966 scouts from the Presbyterian Club chose potential players, including Tony, from District League for their under-age teams in the Melbourne competition. Tony played in the under-16 Presbyterian team. He was coached, first by Howard Parkinson and then by future Australian National Team Coach Barry Barnes, until his family moved to Brisbane at the end of 1967.</p>

HTML <p>“Going from Melbourne, the then hotbed of Australian basketball, to Brisbane resulted in an elevation in my status as a basketball player, with considerable success at school, junior and senior level,” says Tony. The statistical highlight for him during his time in Brisbane was scoring 92 points as an 18 year old for the Lang Park club in a senior game against Ipswich in the Brisbane League.</p>

HTML <p>In 1970 Brisbane were ranked 16 out of 16 teams for the inaugural Australian Club Championships. To the surprise of many they finished tenth. Although soundly beaten by the eventual winners Melbourne Church during a round game, it was during this game that Tony came to the realization that he was on the same level as the Church players. Tony recognises the coaches in Queensland who helped him to reach that level. “I am thankful for Bob Young’s coaching efforts and dedication to my development as a player during my time in Brisbane.”</p>

HTML <p>In 1971 Tony returned to Melbourne to play in the highest level weekly club competition in Australia, the Victorian Basketball Association (VBA). He joined the Presbyterian Club that he had played for as a junior. After representing Victoria at the Australian Championships in Mackay (1971), he was selected in the Australian Team for the 1971/72 eight-week tour of the USA, Greece, Iran and the Philippines. He sums up the tour. “The tour was an amazing basketball and cultural experience for a 19- year-old on his first trip outside of Australia, with the Acropolis in Athens and Grand Bazaar in Tehran being most memorable.”</p>

HTML <p>Back in Melbourne Tony decided to seek a transfer from Presbyterian to St Kilda. During 1971 he had trained with St Kilda on a regular basis after Presbyterian training sessions. He was very impressed with the Saints’ coach Ken Cole, the attitude of the players and the management. Playing with the Saints in 1972 he enjoyed Australian and Victorian Club Championship success. “This was tempered by possibly my biggest disappointment in basketball, not being selected for the 1972 Olympic team,” says Tony. Some comfort was gained for Tony in the Saints victorious Victorian Championship playoff against Melbourne Church. Tony was top scorer for the final series and equal leading scorer with Eddie Palubinskas in the three-game playoff for the Championship which involved eight members of the Olympic team, six with Melbourne Church and two with the Saints.</p>

HTML <p>In 1973 Tony was a member of the Victorian All Stars team to tour the USA.</p>

HTML <p>In the 1974 Victorian Championship season he set a then record of 566 points for the season (including the finals) at an average of 23.8 points per game. That same year St. Kilda won the Australian Club Championships. </p>

HTML <p>Tony was selected to the Australian Team to play in the 1974 World Championships in Puerto Rico but withdrew due to his financial difficulties. St. Kilda was the Australian Club champions again in 1975. Tony played as a member of the Australian Team that won the Oceania Olympic Qualification Tournament in 1975 and the Australian Team that toured the USA and China. </p>

HTML <p>Tony recalls, “We were amongst the earlier visitors to China towards the end of the Cultural Revolution. Our time in Guangdong, Beijing and Shanghai was spent with official tours (including the Great Wall), official banquets and basketball games in packed stadiums. In Beijing we played the Chinese and the People’s Army teams, which contained essentially the same players. The games were held before 15,000 spectators in the Beijing Workers’ Gymnasium which the upper decks obscured to those of us on court level by a haze of tobacco smoke. Tony adds, “At the time the Chinese motto in international sport was ‘friendship first, competition second’. Unfortunately the referees didn’t seem to be aware of this and I was the only starting five Australian to get to half-time, the other four fouling out in both games.”</p>

HTML <p>Consistent scoring and strong play resulted in Tony achieving his basketball ambition when he was selected on the Australian Basketball Team for the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games.In preparation for the games Tony and the team played four games against the touring Mississippi State University team.</p>

HTML <p>The Olympics is a great experience for any player and Tony loved the thrill and the competition. “The Olympic Team march from the Athletes’ Village to, and into, the Olympic Stadium was a major highlight of my basketball career. Unfortunately, an ankle injury during the game against Japan brought my participation as a player to an earlier end than I would have liked,” says Tony. The Aussies had a great tournament and finished in 8thplace, the best result by an Australian Team to that time.</p>

HTML <p>In 1977 Tony was a member of the Australian Team that toured the USA, Spain and Italy and played matches against touring Italian team Perugina and US College team Wartburg College.</p>

HTML <p> In 1978 he took a year off basketball to concentrate on the last year of his degree studies. 1979 was the inaugural year of the National Basketball league (NBL) and Tony playing with the St. Kilda Saints won the inauguralNBL Championship. He also played for Victoria in the Australian Championships (between States) that year when they won the title. </p>

HTML <p>Tony was a member of the 1979 Australian Teams that played against the touring Yugoslavian club Cibona and which won the Oceania Championships that were played in Australia. These were the last games Tony was to play for Australia.</p>

HTML <p>Tony states that 1977 tour of USA, Spain and Italy was a highlight in his career while playing for Australia. “I think we were the first Australian team to come away from a US tour with more wins than losses. Playing in the famous Real Madrid Christmas Tournament was a highlight and the Real Madrid team was one of the two best teams I played against in my career, the other being the USSR at the Olympics.”</p>

HTML <p>Tony and St. Kilda won their second NBL title and another VBA title in 1980.</p>

HTML <p>He continued playing with St Kilda until mid 1981 when he went to America to take a Masters Degree in Exercise Physiology. During his time (1978-81) at St Kilda they dominated Club basketball in Australian by winning the Australian Club Championship in 1972, 1974, 1975 and 1976 and the NBL in its first two years, 1979 and 1980. </p>

HTML <p>When he returned from the USA to Australia in 1981Tony was thirty years of age and had played limited basketball for two years. Nevertheless he played a season with the Geelong Supercats in the NBL in 1983 before moving with his work to Sydney and playing in the NBL for the Bankstown Bruins in 1984 and 1985. At the end of the 1985 season Tony retired due to an ankle injury and then in 1986 had a year as Assistant Coach with the West Sydney West Stars.</p>

HTML <p> In terms of coaches Tony remarks, “Of the many coaches in my career, I rate Ken Cole as the best. His detailed understanding of the abilities of opposition players obtained from hours of observation, and motivational abilities at individual and team level were exceptional.” He also cites Bruce Johnstoneas a major influence. “Bruce was a major supporter of the St Kilda Club during my playing years there and a touring party member with the 1971-72 and 1977 Australian teams and the 1973 touring Victorian All-Star team. He was a great mate and influence, as well as maybe my biggest fan.”</p>

HTML <p>After his basketball career finished Tony concentrated on his academic work and established an international career in Exercise Physiology and is a Teaching Consultant in Human Performance. He has taught at Nottingham Trent, Melbourne and Hong Kong Universities and worked as a co-investigator on a National Institute of Health project with Baylor College of Medicine and in programs with Queensland University and the University of NSW. Tony has also been an avid walker, cyclist and climber which he has undertaken in many countries. Mountain climbing has been one of his pursuits in recent years and his efforts include climbing frozen waterfalls in Norway and Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina which is the highest mountain in the world outside the Himalayan/Karakoram region.</p>

HTML <p>Tony Barnett was one of Australia’s outstanding shooters and basketball players in his era. His shooting techniques became a model for youngsters and coaches throughout Australia.</p>

HTML <p>Tony shooting against the University of Minnesota in 1971 (A. Barnett)</p>

HTML <p>Tony Barnett shooting in the 1972 VBA Finals (A. Barnett)</p>