go the swanee's, page-25

re: afl finals. barry hall thick as a brick....... His mum, Mrs Biffo, has put an unassailable case for her little boy Biffo Jnr to be allowed to play:-

"Don't spoil my Barry's dream"

18sep05
THE mother of Swans star Barry Hall has pleaded for him to be allowed to play in Saturday's Grand Final.

Helen Hall said her son had earned his place and there was "nothing" in the incident with Saints defender Matt Maguire that threatens to have him suspended from the biggest game of the year.

Mrs Hall's plea came as former Sydney defender Andrew Dunkley urged the Swans to go to court if necessary to enable Hall to play in the grand final.

Mrs Hall said her son would be devastated if he lost his chance to win a Premiership - a dream he had harboured since he was eight.

"It would rip my heart out, and his," she said yesterday from her Broadford home in Melbourne.

"It's his dream. He's always had a footy in his hand, ever since he was a little boy. He had it in his blood."

The AFL's match review panel is expected to analyse video footage from the first quarter of Friday night's preliminary final in which Hall appeared to give Maguire a right-hand jab to the stomach behind play.

A winded Maguire fell to the ground and took some time to regain his composure.

The incident could have Hall charged with striking and cost him his place in the Grand Final. But Mrs Hall said the Swans captain was innocent of any wrongdoing.

"There was nothing in it at all. If they view it properly they will see there's nothing in it," she said.

"It was acting more than anything. He (Maguire) was acting for a free kick."

She said Hall had been the recipient of worse incidents without such public scrutiny.

"He goes out there week in, week out and gets his head ripped off and nothing's done about it," she said.

"I have to watch him getting mauled and then a little indiscretion like this gets blown out of proportion. It gets under my skin."

Mrs Hall said her son was hard done by on all accounts.

"He can't even get a free kick off the umpires, let alone a Brownlow vote," she said.

She said her son's real personality was far from his public "Big, Bad, Barry" image.

The stereotype made it hard for him to get a fair go and could also affect any decision by the match review panel, she said.

"The media make him out to be a big bad person, but he's nothing like that," she said. "He's very family-oriented. He loves kids."

Mrs Hall said her family would keep all its fingers crossed that Hall would be left alone to concentrate on Saturday's game and lead the Swans to a Premiership.

"I'd be bitterly disappointed if he didn't play," she said. "He deserves it for working so hard.

"The one thing he has always wanted to do is play in a Grand Final again."

Hall's last shot at a Premiership was in 1997 when he was with the Saints, but the team's Grand Final dreams were shattered by Adelaide.

Mrs Hall, who missed Friday night's game because of the flu, said she was thrilled the Swans were able to get over the line in the final quarter.

She believed her son had performed brilliantly.

"But it's not just one person that wins the game for them. It's a team effort," she said.

Mrs Hall said she was excited about attending Saturday's Grand Final and hoped her son not only played on the day, but also experienced a Premiership win.

"That's what I'm praying for," she said.

Yesterday, St Kilda's Matt Maguire would not comment on the incident.

Dunkley faced a similar situation nine years ago, when he was suspended for striking Essendon's James Hird in a preliminary final.

Sydney went to the Supreme Court, gained an injunction, and Dunkley went on to play in the side that lost to the Kangaroos.