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Key Facts

Full name
Trevor Barker

Known as
Trevor Barker

Born
7 October 1956

Died
26 April 1996 (aged 39)

Age at first & last AFL game
First game: 18y 187d
Last game: 32y 330d

Height and weight
Height: 183 cm
Weight: 78 kg

Senior clubs
St. Kilda

Jumper numbers
St. Kilda: 25, 1

Trevor Barker

Advanced stats
Club
League
Career span
Games
Goals
Avg
Win %
AKI
AHB
AMK
BV
St. KildaV/AFL1975-19892301340.5826%12.893.913.1350
Total1975-19892301340.5826%12.893.913.1350

AFL: 8,728th player to appear, 410th most games played, 771st most goals kickedSt. Kilda: 1,188th player to appear, 16th most games played, 36th most goals kicked

St Kilda half back flanker and captain Trevor Barker is the front-runner in early favouritism for the Brownlow Medal. Statistics issued yesterday for the first 11 VFL rounds certainly back up his claims. The 24-year-old Barker is easily the leader for the most disposals at the halfway mark of the home-and-away season, and he is a close second to North Melbourne skipper Wayne Schimmelbusch in the number of kicks gained. He is also 11th on the list of players who have had the most handballs. Barker’s total of 296 disposals gives him a clear lead over Carlton’s Rod Ashman in a category where 31 players have a score of 200 or more.¹

St Kilda recruited Trevor Barker from Cheltenham and he was a consistently eye-catching performer for the club in a variety of roles in 230 VFL games between 1975 and 1989, booting 134 goals. One of the most popular players at the club, Barker was a superb aerialist who pulled down numerous spectacular marks, and who repeatedly hurled his slight, 183cm, 70.5kg frame 'where angels fear to tread'.

A dual St Kilda best and fairest winner, Barker played seven interstate matches for the VFL and Victoria, and captained the Saints from 1983 to 1986. Appointed coach of Sandringham in 1992, he steered the side to a premiership in his debut year, and again in 1994. He died tragically young, of cancer, in 1996. Trevor Barker's importance in the history of the St Kilda Football Club was emphasised in 2002 when he was chosen on a half back flank in the Saints' official 'Team of the Twentieth Century'.

Author - John Devaney

Footnotes

1. “Canberra Times”, 11/6/81, page 26. Barker ended up polling 15 votes in the 1981 Brownlow, seven adrift of joint winners Bernie Quinlan and Barry Round.

Sources

Full Points Footy Publications, Crème de la Crème

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Footnotes

* Behinds calculated from the 1965 season on.
+ Score at the end of extra time.