WHEN compared to nearly all of those he now stands alongside in the Hall of Fame, Jim Bartel was a late starter to footy.

Further, if mother Dianne had said yes to a sliding-door opportunity when she took young Jim and elder sisters Olivia and Emma to the United States for a year when he was 10 as part of a teaching exchange, he might be being recognised now as a great of American football, rather than the Australian game.

While most start kicking a footy before five, Bartel had never played a competitive game of footy when the family headed to the states. He immediately took to the American game, as well as soccer and basketball, to the extent that a local family suggested he stay on in the USA for a sporting pathway through high school and college.

Dianne wasn’t about to leave her youngest child in the USA, despite his talents, and the young man started his path to becoming a triple premiership champion for the Geelong Cats upon his return, thanks especially to the contribution of his mother and sisters.

“I’d never played footy until I came home from the states, but I was always a very active kid with lots of cricket, basketball, other sports,” Bartel recalls.

“I used to ride my bike to watch my sisters play netball and I got asked to fill in for a game one day at the local footy ground (Bell Park) where my sisters would play. I started fulltime the next year after the coach spent most of the season chasing mum asking me to play again.

“It all started from there, when I was 11, which was older than most other kids when they start, but playing so much sport as a kid built the greatest bonding experience with my mum over those years through my teens.

“Any kid who comes from regional Australia knows that you spend a lot of hours in the car and for me it was with mum.

“To get the call about the Hall of Fame is a huge honour and I immediately told (partner) Amelia and then wanted to share it with mum and (sisters) Olivia and Emma, because it’s their news too for everything they did for me.”

For those who didn’t see him at his peak, Bartel was tough, highly-skilled, could see the game unfold before most and was an exceptional mark for his size, outpointing nearly all other midfielders in the air. He did the common things uncommonly well and, in wet conditions, the sight of the Geelong number three in long sleeves would immediately cheer Cats’ fans, such was his record in poor weather.

As a sports-mad kid, Bartel spent his teens happily rolling from footy season into basketball and then cricket, without thinking too much of the future, until his bottom-age year with the Geelong Falcons. Then, only he and fellow 16-year-old Luke Hodge would get a regular game in a strong outfit alongside their elders hoping for higher honours.

“I was a bit oblivious to my footy development, because I was also playing cricket with the Victorian Under 17s, but it then became a very real idea a year later once Stephen Wells and ‘Bomber’ Thompson came to chat to me a couple of times.

“When I look back now, I’m just so grateful I got to taken by Geelong at a time of transition, and be able to be part of such a great club.”

In the recent drafts before 2001, the Cats had begun their refresh by selecting the likes of Corey, Ling, Enright and Chapman, while it’s footy lore now that their extraordinary 2001 haul yielded them not just Bartel, but Kelly, Johnson and an Ablett.

That group would be the core to end a 44-year premiership drought and secure three flags in all between 2007-11, with Bartel front and centre in all three.

“I played with something like 16 All Australians in my career.

“At training every week, I got to go a workplace where everyone is trying to get better every day. It was incredibly stimulating and I was incredibly fortunate.”

The words of Thompson, and the relentless drills around match style and the correct way to play, still ring in his ears all these years later, and there’s immense pride he was part of changing the modern history of Geelong.

“The Cats were a very good club, but they were trying to be great, and that’s very hard to achieve.

“The story of how it was done, led by Frank Costa, Brian Cook and Bomber, is well known these days, but to be part of that is still such a great thrill for when I look back on my time in footy.

“When I see former team mates these days, it’s great to be able to explain who they are to my boys (Aston and Henley), who are starting to ask about the game, and to be able to say that I played with that guy.”

As a group, they drove each other relentlessly once there was a sniff of success. Bartel himself felt their time had come after one particularly meritorious win against Adelaide in Adelaide at Football Park, then a yardstick of the competition.

“That group of players we had were all such competitors. Some of the training sessions we had were just ferocious but it set us up to win so many big games because of how we trained.

“In 2007, we were playing the Crows at Football Park, and they were absolutely loaded with the likes of Ricciuto, McLeod, Edwards, Goodwin and others.

“Great sides have to be able to win on the road and we fought this game out and won.

“Afterwards, I remember clearly thinking we were ready to do something special.

“Behind the ball, I’ve got Scarlett, Enright, Harley, Milburn, Egan and Mackie. In front of the ball, I’ve got Stokes, Johnson, Chapman, Mooney and a young Selwood and around the ball we’ve got Ottens, King, Ablett, Ling, Corey and myself. I was thinking we will have to be off for someone to beat us.”

On the biggest days, Bartel was an ever-present star, no better emphasised by the three flags he was part of.

In the break-through 2007 premiership year, Bartel claimed the Brownlow Medal despite missing the last two home and away games, and then had 28 touches with two goals on the last Saturday in September.

In the 2009 premiership, an all-time classic Grand Final against St Kilda, Bartel firstly contained and then eclipsed the brilliant Lenny Hayes while, in the 2011 premiership, he would claim the Norm Smith Medal with 26 touches and another three goals.

In the latter part of the premiership period, two more greats in Tom Hawkins and Harry Taylor would cement themselves as pillars of the spine, while the coaching change-over from Thompson to Chris Scott only served to drive the players on to ensure they achieved all they could.

For every player, administrator and member of the coaching staff, the mantra was to keep aiming for the premiership every year, never concede a year to fall down the ladder, and to risk the pain of a heartbreaking finals’ loss for the pursuit of success.

“I always wanted to be the man in the arena, trying to strive and win, and that was absolutely what all the senior players felt and Chris drove exactly the same message from the time he arrived,” Bartel says.

To be in the Hall of Fame, and one day explaining what that means to Aston, Henley and newborn Paloma, draws a wide smile.

“When my kids are older, they will know that dad was ok at something,” he laughs.

“You can’t hope or expect you will get this, and it’s an incredible honour.

“To get a call from Richard Goyder, I initially thought I’d got myself into trouble somehow with the AFL, but I love the history of the game and I consume the material around the Hall of Fame every year.

“I see the records that people have and I read all the big double big spreads that come out and I love seeing the absurd stats from some of the old-time players that you see go in.”

Of that Geelong side, Bartel now joins Matthew Scarlett in the Hall of Fame and the former fullback is one of three who stands apart in Bartel’s mind of all his team mates.

“I played with so many great players, that people always ask about, but to play with Scarlett, Ablett and Selwood was a privilege.

“Scarlett is a player who helped revolutionise the game as a full back who would regularly have 25 touches and be so attacking.

“Gazza and I played underage footy and he was just awesome. I still can’t believe some of the things he did.

“Joel had the drive from day one to be the best. I was so happy with Grand Final day last year because everyone got to see what we already all knew at Geelong. The broader football world could all see why we loved him.”

To reflect on a long career, there are the memories of fronting against the all-powerful Brisbane midfield and hoping to not be embarrassed, wondering in his first year how to tackle a giant Glen Jakovich and then still having the drive over so many years to compete and be the best, and rage against the dying of the light.

He loved every minute.

“For me, sport is not a negotiation for kids. You have to play something. You get so much out of it with relationships and everything about understanding highs and lows, wins and losses.”

For a country kid who just wanted to be active, Jim Bartel is now a member of the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

The Jim Bartel file

• 305 games for the Geelong Cats, 202 goals
• 2007, 2009, 2011 Premierships
• 2007, 2008 All Australian
• 2007 Brownlow Medal
• 2011 Norm Smith Medal