Barry Hall says he’s not proud of his controversial on-field behaviour during his AFL career.
Hall was visibly upset as he watched a replay of his punch to West Coast Eagles player Brent Staker’s jaw, during the this week's episode of Insight.
“What’s it like, looking at that now?” host, Jenny Brockie asked.
“Yeah, I don’t like it,” he says.
“It’s not something I’m proud of. Like, I look at that and I’m disgusted in it because he has to live through that now, not just me.”
Speaking with a panel of illustrious sports stars including Lauren Jackson, Matthew Mitcham, and Libby Trickett, Hall looked back on his childhood training as a boxer with his father as coach, and how that may have shaped his performance as an AFL player.
“My dad’s a really hard man. Probably he hasn’t got very good words of wisdom,” Hall said.
“It was all ego-driven and it was drummed into me at a young age, to not let anyone have anything over you, always fight your way out of corners.”
“When I could channel that in a right way, I could benefit from it, but on the other sense, it hindered me in a lot of ways as well.”
Hall has described himself on field as a “super competitive”, “angry, frustrated man.”
“I was competitive to the point of being unhealthy. That I’d make it personal if someone beat me … and I’d do anything to get them back.”
Barry Hall clashes with Drew Banfield (West Coast_ during an AFL Elimination Final Match. 2004. Source: Getty Images AsiaPac
Hall says he was initially drawn to boxing because he “just wanted to impress dad” but realised that it was not his passion.
Using a lost fight as “an excuse to get out of boxing” Hall moved into AFL for leisure, but was soon spotted by scouts who signed him to St Kilda in 1996.
However, the change of direction wasn’t as well received by Hall’s father.
“[He] didn’t like it.”
“Is that all? You didn’t talk for quite a while?” Brockie asked.
“No, yeah, yeah. It was quite a few issues.”
Barry Hall has opened up for the first time about his experience with depression, following his retirement.
Hall, who left AFL in 2011, told Insight that there were “two or three months… that I really struggled.”
“I didn’t get out of bed, I didn’t answer mates’ phone calls, I was eating terrible, I was drinking heavily. It was a tough time. And look. I didn’t know it at that stage, but… that was a form of depression.”
“I didn’t know anything about it because, you know, we’re big tough burly men who don’t get depressed.”
“That’s why I was steadfast in coming on this show because I think it’s a real issue in sport.”
Insight looks at how Australia's most skilled athletes have coped with life after sport | Game Over - 11 and 18 April, 8.30pm SBS
Catch up on both shows now. Part I:
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And Part II:
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