And it’s fitting that the dual Yarrawonga premiership star will celebrate the moment in the league’s biggest game of the opening month given his habit of performing at the highest level.

“He’s definitely the most competitive person, he’s right up there, at training he just hates being beaten and he’s got a huge appetite for a contest,” Pigeons’ co-coach Chris Kennedy said of the 30-year-old.

“Yeah, no-one wants to take him on in the tackling drills.”

Barnes arrived at Yarrawonga in 2009 after four successive premierships at Murray League outfit Nathalia, as well as 30-odd games with Geelong’s reserves.

“I’ve always had it (that competitive streak), Nathalia was always renowned as a fairly tough side when I was coming up there,” Barnes said.

“I played with some guys, who were slightly older, who are now some of my best mates, they were pretty hardened by their upbringing from their old man and the style of footy that they played, so I probably saw the way they went about it.”

Barnes’s inspirational feats could fill a small book, with Kennedy pointing to the 2011 preliminary final against Lavington.

“We were at our wit’s end as to do what do with the ruck, and our runner said, ‘I’d throw Barnesy in there’,” he said.

“He went in the ruck and really swung the game.

“He’d never played ruck before and in the last quarter he got Yarrawonga into a grand final.”

That was Barnes’s first year as co-coach.

He did four years with Kennedy, leading the club to successive premierships.

Barnes filled the role with Brendan Fevola in 2015 and then finished his six-season stint when Kennedy returned last year.

He’s no longer part of the leadership group, but Barnes doesn’t need a title.

He plays with no respect whatsoever for his own health, launching himself like a torpedo into areas some wouldn’t dream of.

“I’m not the cleanest with the footy or the best foot skills at the club, so to be able to make an impact that way, to bring the players on, I feel that’s one of my attributes that I try and use,” he said.

He’s loved by the Pigeons, and the feeling’s mutual.

“Whether I go walking down the street or just at the footy, that’s what I really enjoy about Yarrawonga, just the support on and off the field,” Barnes said.