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Ron Barassi's opposition to AFL honour revealed as Mick Malthouse calls out 'missed opportunity'

Barassi will have a special grand final medal named after him, but not the AFL premiership cup.

sam goodwin
Sports Editor
·3-min read

Ron Barassi is set to be honoured on AFL grand final day, with officials making plans to introduce a special medal for the winning captain named after the Melbourne Demons legend. But according to coaching great Mick Malthouse, the AFL has missed a trick in not naming the premiership cup after Barassi.

Glenn McFarlane of the Herald Sun revealed the news on Fox Footy on Thursday night that the AFL will honour Barassi's legacy on grand final day moving forward. The former Melbourne and Carlton player died last September at the age of 87, and calls have been growing for the AFL to honour him in a lasting way.

Ron Barassi and Mick Malthouse.
Mick Malthouse has questioned why the AFL premiership cup isn't named after Ron Barassi. Image: Getty

That honour will come via a special medal for the premiership-winning captain named after Barassi, and could be implemented as early as this year. “It will go to the premiership skipper, which I think is fairly appropriate given that Ron was twice a premiership skipper with Melbourne," McFarlane said. "He was also a vice-captain of Melbourne through two premierships as well.

“He used to sign his signature 17, 4, 10 and that’s for 17 grand finals, four clubs and 10 premierships, how amazing is that? It’s not over the line yet, but we’re pretty sure it’s going to happen this year. Prototypes have already been looked at including Ron’s image on the medal."

Ron Barassi, pictured here in 2022 at a Melbourne Demons game.
Ron Barassi in 2022 at a Melbourne Demons game. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

But discussing the situation on Friday morning, Malthouse questioned why the AFL has resisted naming the premiership cup after Barassi. Many have suggested it would be the best way to honour one of the all-time legends of the game.

"I just think we may have missed an opportunity," the former Collingwood coach said on Channel 9. "I think the Ron Barassi Cup would be something that every club aspires to. That would be a club more so than just a player as a captain.

"Fantastic that he's been honoured. Make no mistake about it, I'm not knocking that because Ron Barassi is football and has always been football and he was such an outstanding person too. But I really do think though we might miss an opportunity.

"It is fantastic to see something that says Ron Barassi on it. And when you look at the Norm Smith Medal, we know what Norm Smith and Ron Barassi accomplished together. And it is the greatest day of the year for football...to have two sides come together and the captain comes away with the Ron Barassi medal. I know all the captains that I would have coached, they would have loved it, there's no question. I just think that the honour could be extended even beyond that."

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But McFarlane revealed on Thursday night that Barassi was opposed to having the premiership cup named after him, and the AFL is simply respecting his wishes. “There was one man opposed to it, and that was Ron Barassi himself," McFarlane said in regards to naming the cup. "He didn’t want it to be named after him. He thought that it was a situation where it needed to be not named. Ron thought that it wasn’t appropriate."

The AFL has been working closely with Barassi's family to find the best way to honour him, and would no doubt want to respect his own wishes on the matter of naming the cup. “It is a really fitting way and it’ll be magnificent. We’ve got the Jock McHale medal, the Norm Smith medal,” McFarlane said.