Australian Football

Rhett Baynes’ story is one of the most tragic in football history. He commenced his senior league career with Perth in 1980 aged just 16. An imposing ruckman or key position player, he was considered by some to be one of the brightest prospects in football at the time. He played 78 WAFL games and kicked 40 goals for the Demons over the course of five seasons. He also represented Western Australia against South Australia at Football Park in 1984, lining up at centre half forward as his team scored a much heralded, if somewhat controversial, single point win.

The 1985 season found Baynes at Carlton, where he did enough in his 11 appearances for the year to suggest that the Blues had, to coin a phrase, scooped the jackpot. However, he failed to kick on, for reasons which, it emerged, had much more to do with his mental state than any lack of football ability. At the end of the 1986 season, after 13 VFL games and six goals for Carlton, Baynes returned to Perth, and never played football again. Four years later, his mental torment presumably having become too much for him to cope with, he took his own life.

Author - John Devaney