Claremont/Scarborough JFC
WAFL
Claremont (2013)
East Perth (2014-2018)
AFL
West Coast (2015-Present)
Thomas Barrass (born 8 October 1995) is an Australian rules footballer who plays for the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL). He has played as a key defender since his junior career with Claremont. Barrass was drafted by West Coast with pick 43 of the 2013 national draft, but did not make his senior debut until round 17 of the 2015 AFL season. He was nominated for the 2016 AFL Rising Star and won a premiership with West Coast in 2018. Promising key defender Barrass has established himself as one of the league's better stoppers since being drafted from Claremont.
West Coast career[]
Drafted with West Coast's third pick in the 2013 national draft, Barrass started the 2014 season on the injury list after surgery on a hip. After returning, he played just eight games for East Perth’s reserves before being sent off for a season-ending groin operation.
Barrass started the 2015 season in the WAFL reserves but quickly graduated to the league side, where he performed strongly against much more experienced opponents. His surprising form and the team's shortage of fit key defenders saw him called up to make his AFL debut against the Swans, and he played three late-season games.
2016 was a breakout year for the young key defender, who banged down the door with strong form in the WAFL before eventually getting a senior call-up. Once in the AFL side he performed well enough to hold former club champion Eric MacKenzie out of the side in the second half of the year, with his intercept marking a particular feature. Barrass won a Rising Star nomination in the final round.
Although he started the 2017 season outside of the best 22, Barrass quickly established himself in the backline alongside MacKenzie and Jeremy McGovern and played 19 games for the season. With MacKenzie injured in 2018, Barrass began taking the opposition's top forward target on a regular basis. After missing action in the second half of the year due to a persistent back injury, he hit form during the finals and performed a vital shutdown job on Collingwood giant Mason Cox in the Grand Final victory.
Barrass started 2019 strongly, but a month into the season he suffered a foot injury, one of several attributed to the harder Perth Stadium surface, that kept him out of action for several months, and struggled to recapture his form on his return.
Career Highlights[]
- Premiership medal (2018)
- Rookie of the Year (2016)