Yarrawonga’s Neil Barter on record-keeping mission

By James Kleeman

Nov 29, 2022

Keeping track: Neil Barter has compiled years of goal-kicking records from football teams in the Ovens and Murray Football Netball League over several decades.

A sad truth of country football is that a large majority of its records, over time, have disappeared from the world.

Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content

Whether through natural disasters, like the recent flood crisis which tore through clubrooms across the region, or more gradual processes, physical records are few and far between.

For a dedicated few, this is a problem that needs fixing.

Yarrawonga’s Neil Barter more than 20 years ago set out on a mission to gather goal-kicking records from local leagues across the years.

It started for the centenary of the Ovens and King Football League, and has since branched out to various leagues in the north-east as they have undergone transformation.

Barter has accumulated extensive records of Benalla Football Club goal-kickers when the club played in the Ovens and Murray Football League from 1922-1930, and from when the club returned in 1946 right up until its exit in 1997.

Barter has goal-kicking records from the O&MFL dating as far back as 1893, and continues to keep track today through a range of newspapers from across north-east Victoria.

Through exercise books, Barter has also kept track of goal-kickers from 1903 to the present day for the Ovens and King Football League, and from 1935 to 2012 for the now-defunct Benalla and District Football League.

What started on exercise books has now transitioned to more than 8800 names from the Ovens and Murray League recorded on an Excel spreadsheet in an effort by Barter to move his work into the public domain.

Barter, 81, said the endeavour was something that kept him “fresh in the mind” in his retirement.

But it’s also something he simply loves to do.

“I’m simply a school teacher who loves mathematics,” he said.

“I love the fact that footy churns out so many possible statistics.”

Statistic-heavy work such as this requires many hands, and as Barter would emphasise, he is appealing for more information.

“In 1993 when Benalla had their huge flood go through it apparently wiped out stacks and stacks of their records in their grandstand,” Barter said.

“There would be people crying out for information, and now we’ve got this effort I’ve just started, I need a ton of assistance to make sure I’ve got it right.

“I’m yelling for help and I don’t mind if takes me years to do it, as long as I’m alive I’ll stick with it.”

Barter, among others, is asking all football and netball clubs across the region to get in contact should they have knowledge of records that could help fill the gaps, or if they’d like to know more about the records.

Barter can be contacted via email at barterfneil@gmail.com