AS REVEALED exclusively in the Herald, and revealed "exclusively" elsewhere 11 days later, Barry Hall is serious enough about a professional boxing career to fly to the US next month to meet a promoter. And Danny Green is serious enough about Barry Hall that he wants a piece of the action.
As it stands, Hall is unlikely to make the move from the field to the ring immediately, with the final year of his Swans contract keeping him tethered to the goalposts. Maybe Sonny Bill Williams wasn't the Rosa Parks of career-jumping footballers after all.
However, with the official backing of the AFL Fullbacks Association, we offer a plea: Don't leave the switch so late Barry that you end up as some freak show exhibit fighting Warwick Capper on the undercard of the jelly wrestling at a seedy Surfers Paradise nightclub.
Show us you are equally effective with those meaty mitts when the bloke on the receiving end is looking. Show us you can take a punch as big as you can throw.
And show us now.
Need convincing? Here are some good reasons why Big Bad Barry should pull on the gloves.
* When you stuff up off the field in the AFL they compare you with squeaky-clean role models such as Robert Harvey. When you stuff up out of the ring they compare you with Mike Tyson.
* Barry "Festival" Hall already has a nickname as good as Carl "The Truth" Williams (the former heavyweight used to boast his opponents could not handle "the truth"), James "Bonecrusher" Smith, "Marvellous" Marvin Hagler and (personal favourite) Michael "Second To" Nunn.
* There are so many titles floating around in boxing's alphabet soup that winning a couple of six-rounders against overweight tomato cans should make you a world champ. How does IBF heavyweight champion sound? (That's Intergalactic Bored Footballers.)
* Hall is used to being surrounded by Bloods. So he should not mind being covered in it.
* Hall will have to spend up to 2640 minutes on the field (22 games of 120 minutes - suspensions notwithstanding) to earn his estimated $700,000 next season. He would have to spend a maximum 36 minutes in the ring (12 x three-minute rounds) to earn more than that from his first pay-per-view bout.
* In boxing, they only make you go to anger management if you are not angry enough.
* The promotional line for Hall's first big fight writes itself: A date with John Hopoate.
* After the Brent Staker KO, Big Bad Barry already had a better highlights reel to show big-money American promoters than any other local prospect. And he hasn't even climbed through the ropes.
* If you hit someone on the football field you have to spend Tuesday night watching the punch replayed endlessly in slow motion at the tribunal. If you hit someone in the boxing ring you spend Tuesday night watching the punch replayed endlessly in slow motion with your mates at the pub.
* Years spent believing he was the victim of officialdom has Hall perfectly primed for any encounters with Don King.
* From his limited public utterances on global affairs, we are pretty sure Hall won't believe being able to land a big punch makes him qualified to comment on the September 11 terrorist attacks. And he does not look like the type to dress up as a Harlem pimp for the pre-fight press conference.
* No more tight shorts.
* Boxing doesn't have an annoying hands-in-the-back rule. It doesn't even have a fists-in-the-face rule.
* Having endured a decade of boring team meetings and long-winded coaching instructions, it has got to be refreshing to hear your corner yell: "Just hit the bastard, Bazza!"
* The Swans played their last home final against North Melbourne in front of just 19,127 fans. If Hall can work his way to a title fight he alone could draw more than that to a decent outdoor venue.
* If Ben Cousins returns next season then the potential media exposure on current affairs shows and newspaper gossip columns for any of the AFL's other bad boys is going to be severely limited.
* And, most importantly, having another big-name Australian fighter to promote reduces the risk of another Jeff Fenech-Azumah Nelson rematch.
