By Casey O'Connor
You never know what is around the corner in sport and life in general. Few fans could have envisaged the startling announcement of Ash Barty’s retirement this past week.
Should we have been surprised?
Barty is one of the few elite sports-person who has always marched to the beat of her own drum as she showed the world when she walked away from the game disillusioned in 2014.
While many speculated back then that the world would never see the best of Barty, she proved the cynics and naysayers so wrong when she returned in 2016.
Her retirement announcement obviously reflects her belief she has given tennis her all.
While she feels she has no more to give there is little more tennis can offer her. She goes out on her terms as Number One in the world.
A Wimbledon crown, her lifelong goal achieved and an Australian Open trophy alongside her 2019 French Open and a US Doubles Open title.
In spite of all her achievements over she has always made it very clear she is a home body who wants nothing more to be home in Springfield with family, her fiancée and her dogs. She never shied away from saying how gruelling 2021 had been.
Good on Ash I say and while I am sorry the Barty Party has come to an end it is so refreshing, appealing and unusually normal to see an elite sportsperson say – “I’m done”.
One of my favourite Barty moments that springs to mind was her reply to a reporters as she headed home after winning Junior Wimbledon as a 15 year old. When asked what she was going to do when she got home she simply said, “Going to Fraser Island with my Dad to go fishing.”
It summed Ash Barty up then and now.
Where the beat of Barty’s drum takes her, only she and those close to her will know but she has given her fans and this country much to be grateful for and I am certain this is not the final paragraph in the Ash Barty story.
The next chapter may not include tennis, but I am sure it is something that will once again make her legion of fans proud.
While the Barty Party has wound up, the Buddy Franklin Frenzy was in full swing on Friday night at the SCG when Franklin kicked himself into AFL immortality with that magical 1000th goal.
As thousands of fans flocked on to the ground keen to be part of the moment, Swans fan Alex Wheeler slipped quietly out of the ground with the famous pill.
Buddy and the famous ball were reunited on Monday with Wheeler admitting he slept with the Sherrin while it was in his keeping. Surely this player-fan connection that will be more than just fleeting. Wheeler has one amazing story that is his and his alone to share.
Casey
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