It is with much sadness that I report the death of North Premiership Rover, Barry Potts. Barry was universally recognised as best on ground in North's 5 point victory over Norwood in the 1960 SANFL League Grand Final. Barry's road to being a Premiership hero is almost certainly unique.
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Barry Potts had won the 1957 Tomkins Medal as Best and Fairest in the Senior Colts (Under 19s) competition. He had made quite an impact when introduced into league football the following year and played in winning games in 13 out of his first 14 league games. He then was one of the first of a number of injuries copped by North which cruelled their chances. They did finish minor premiers but lost their last 2 minor round games and two finals to bow out after promising so much.
1959 was the opposite with North winning their first game before losing their next 12 and it was only a late rally that saw them finish seventh and avoid what would have been their first wooden spoon since 1912. There was great upheaval and many players left, including Barry who went back to his local club, Broadview.
North under new coach, Jack McCarthy surprised most by being up near the top echelon of teams all year, but come late July it was obvious that there was a missing link, a lack of a second rover, so an S.O.S. went out to Barry Potts to resume his league career, which he did in Round 17, the second last game of the minor round. He played in the Second Semi Final, where North beat Minor Premier, Port by 10 points and Norwood then defeated Port to ensure a North vs Norwood Grand Final.
Such was Barry's anonymity that he wasn't mentioned in any newspaper match preview, but what a mistake that was. In a very tight game, North came from 8 points down with about 10 minutes to play to win by 5 points with Barry scoring 7 goals out of North's 14 goals. No other North player scored more than one goal. He was unanimously chosen as best on the ground.
Barry suffered a badly corked thigh before half time but injections in the leg enabled him to carry on and he scored North's final goal.
Barry continued at North for another 3 seasons and ended up playing 66 games but other than one bag of 5 goals in the first game of 1962 he never scored more than 3 goals in a game again. His 7 goals in the 1960 Grand Final must have been the source of much chagrin to his Uncle "Tiger" Potts who was a wonderful servant of the Norwood Football Club and was in his 25th year as Norwood Head Trainer in 1960. "Tiger" served Norwood in various capacities for 47 years, both as a player and a trainer.
If I could make a comment here I have been quite disappointed that as far as I know there has been no media coverage of Barry's passing. If there had been a Jack Oatey medal in 1960 he clearly would have won it. Surely his 1960 Grand Final effort deserved a line or two in our papers or a comment on the SANFL website.