Bazza's all or nothing year
27 March 2004 Herald Sun
Tim Morrissey
SYDNEY Swans spearhead Barry Hall is backing himself for a big year going into tonight's blockbuster opener against the Brisbane Lions.
The Swans' menacing centre half-forward believes anything less would be disappointing ? a big call from Hall because last year Big Bad Bustling Barry was sensational.
He booted a career-high 64 goals, including a six-goal haul in the Swans' amazing qualifying final win over Port Adelaide, and took a team-high 167 marks.
But Hall is confident he's done everything right during the pre-season to have a monster year.
"The main focus for me is to keep improving and get better and fitter and bigger and stronger," Hall said. "I think that's happened over the pre-season . . . I had a pretty good pre-season and I'd certainly would be disappointed if I didn't go any better this year."
It's good news for Swans fans who might have been worrying that Hall was going soft and new age after reports he was recently seen reading a book.
As author and mad Swans fan David McGonigal pointed out in an e-mail yesterday: "I have a photo of Barry Hall holding my recent book on Antarctica. A book! You won't see the Pies' (Anthony) Rocca doing anything that extreme. Next it'll be lattes ? or frapaccinos."
Instead there's only more bad news for defenders, with Hall confident his game will keep improving.
"There's a lot of improvement there still and towards the end of last year I was starting to add a few more strings to my bow, I suppose," he said.
"We spoke about that over the pre-season, me and (Swans forwards coach) Johnny Longmire . . . the fact I can improve a lot more.
"That's been one of the things I've realised in the last couple of years is you don't need to only be kicking goals, taking marks and doing specular things to be a good player.
"It's all that stuff which doesn't get the accolades that people write about in the papers, but if you do all those other things it makes you a hell of a lot better player."
The Swans were the only team to beat Brisbane twice last year during the home-and-away season but the Lions' stunning fourth-quarter performance to end Sydney's fairytale run in the preliminary final still stings Hall.
The 27-year-old forward would love nothing more tonight than to get one back on Brisbane and show the rest of the AFL that last season wasn't a flash in the pan.
27 March 2004 Herald Sun
Tim Morrissey
SYDNEY Swans spearhead Barry Hall is backing himself for a big year going into tonight's blockbuster opener against the Brisbane Lions.
The Swans' menacing centre half-forward believes anything less would be disappointing ? a big call from Hall because last year Big Bad Bustling Barry was sensational.
He booted a career-high 64 goals, including a six-goal haul in the Swans' amazing qualifying final win over Port Adelaide, and took a team-high 167 marks.
But Hall is confident he's done everything right during the pre-season to have a monster year.
"The main focus for me is to keep improving and get better and fitter and bigger and stronger," Hall said. "I think that's happened over the pre-season . . . I had a pretty good pre-season and I'd certainly would be disappointed if I didn't go any better this year."
It's good news for Swans fans who might have been worrying that Hall was going soft and new age after reports he was recently seen reading a book.
As author and mad Swans fan David McGonigal pointed out in an e-mail yesterday: "I have a photo of Barry Hall holding my recent book on Antarctica. A book! You won't see the Pies' (Anthony) Rocca doing anything that extreme. Next it'll be lattes ? or frapaccinos."
Instead there's only more bad news for defenders, with Hall confident his game will keep improving.
"There's a lot of improvement there still and towards the end of last year I was starting to add a few more strings to my bow, I suppose," he said.
"We spoke about that over the pre-season, me and (Swans forwards coach) Johnny Longmire . . . the fact I can improve a lot more.
"That's been one of the things I've realised in the last couple of years is you don't need to only be kicking goals, taking marks and doing specular things to be a good player.
"It's all that stuff which doesn't get the accolades that people write about in the papers, but if you do all those other things it makes you a hell of a lot better player."
The Swans were the only team to beat Brisbane twice last year during the home-and-away season but the Lions' stunning fourth-quarter performance to end Sydney's fairytale run in the preliminary final still stings Hall.
The 27-year-old forward would love nothing more tonight than to get one back on Brisbane and show the rest of the AFL that last season wasn't a flash in the pan.
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