Barry Cable (born 22 September 1943) is an Australian former Australian rules footballer who played in the West Australian National Football League (WANFL) and Victorian Football League (VFL). Cable played as a rover. He won the Sandover Medal three times while playing with the Perth Football Club.
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Cable played 225 games for Perth from 1964–1969 and 1971–1973. He played in 3 successive premierships (1966–1968), and won the Simpson Medal as best on ground in all three Grand Finals. His time with Perth was interrupted by a stint with North Melbourne Football Club in the VFL in 1970 where he won North Melbourne Football Club's best and fairest award and came 4th in the Brownlow Medal. The Herald-Sun newspaper reported that Cable was the highest paid player in the V.F.L. in 1970. Back with Perth from 1971 he won the club fairest and best again that year and 1973, and was Captain/Coach for 1972–1973.
He returned to North Melbourne in 1974 and played in North Melbourne Football Club's first V.F.L. Grand Final, since 1950. Runners up in 1974, Barry Cable then played in North Melbourne's first day premiership in 1975.
Cable played 22 state games for Western Australia winning a Tassie Medal (1966) and named in the 1966 and 1969 All-Australian Teams. In a richly rewarded career he won 3 Sandover Medals (1964, 1968, 1973) as the fairest and best player in the league, and 5 Simpson Medals (1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1977). He won 8 Fairest & Best Awards for his clubs – 7 with Perth and 1 with North Melbourne. In 2007 he was retrospectively awarded his fifth Simpson Medal by the West Australian Football Commission for his efforts in the 1977 inaugural State of Origin match between Western Australia and Victoria.
Accepting the position of Captain/Coach with East Perth Football Club in 1978, Cable took the Royals to a hard-fought premiership that year over his old club, Perth. Cable retired as a player at the end of the next season after suffering a tractor accident on his farm which left him crippled.[1]
Cable had significantly less success in the VFL as a non-playing coach than as a player, although he did get North Melbourne into the finals in two of his three full seasons in charge during the early 1980s. In 1983 he coached the team to be minor premiers, but North Melbourne lost both final matches to an early exit.
The Barry Cable Room at the Subiaco Oval is named in his honour.[1]
In 1996 Cable was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
In 2004 he was inducted to Legend Status in the West Australian Football Hall of Fame.
In 1993 he rode a specially modified bicycle and crossed the Nullarbor Plain in 9 days to toss the coin at the 1993 AFL Grand Final.
In 2007, Cable was working as a community development worker for the Community Development Foundation in Perth.[2]
Cable now lives at his home in Perth with wife Helen, two sons; Barry Jr and Shane (former AFL player and coach) and five grand-children; Shelley, Benjamin, Timothy, Jeremy and Joshua.
Preceded by Malcolm Blight |
North Melbourne Football Club coach 1981–84 |
Succeeded by John Kennedy, Sr. |
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