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Australian rules football legend Ron Barassi will be honoured with a state memorial, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has confirmed.
Barassi, who won 10 premierships throughout his time as a player and a coach, died on Saturday at the age of 87 after complications from a recent fall.
Mr Andrews announced on Monday that Barassi’s family had accepted an offer from the state government for the state memorial.
Details of the service are still being worked through with an announcement to be made “in due course”.
In radio interview, Mr Andrews described Barassi as the “father of modern football… the sort of football that we love and are passionate about today”.
“Like you look at old tapes, and it’s not to be critical of that style of football, but it’s sort of unrecognisable in some ways,” he told ABC Radio Melbourne’s Raf Epstein.
“So the pace, the speed, the action, the kind of vibrancy and vitality of the game, is his doing, him and others.
“I met him on a number of occasions. (He was) thoroughly decent and wise and giving. Like he’d sit and talk to people and you’d just listen and soak it all up.
“The wisdom just poured out of him. He was an amazing guy, and we send our best wishes to his family and friends.”
Throughout his career, Barassi played 204 games for Melbourne – winning six premierships in the process – and 49 games for Carlton.
As a coach, Barassi led Carlton to premierships in 1968 and 1970, before delivering North Melbourne two flags in 1975 and 1977. He also coached Sydney from 1993 to 1995.
Barassi was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1966 and elevated to Legend of Australian Sport in 2006.
The AFL Commission is currently weighing up how best to honour Barassi, amid calls for the premiership cup to be named after him.
“It’s hard to imagine a bigger or more significant figure in the history of Australian Rules than Ron Barassi,” outgoing AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan said.
“His legacy is being considered. There is, I know, a lot of push for renaming the premiership cup.
“There are other ways to remember him. Those things are being discussed.”
