THE alarm goes off at 4am and John Barnes springs out of bed, much like he did in the ruck in 202 games for Essendon and Geelong.

But Barnes isn’t strutting his stuff in front of thousands of fans any more.

The 46-year-old is collecting rubbish in the dark with little more than the waking birds for company.

Barnes is a garbo — and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Everywhere you go people ask ‘Why?’,” Barnes told the Herald Sun.

“I couldn’t see myself doing it, but now I am and I can’t see myself doing anything else.”

One of the game’s more colourful characters, Barnes was a member of Essendon’s near-invincible 2000 premiership side just 12 months after being cut by Geelong.

An athletic big man with a big tank, he retired with a dodgy achilles after the Grand Final loss to the Brisbane Lions a year later, bowing out after featuring in 21 finals, including five grand finals.

media_camera John Barnes is up at 4am to get ready for work. Picture: Colleen Petch

media_camera Barnes says he loves his job. Picture: Colleen Petch.

media_camera A stereotypical post-footy career wasn’t for Barnes. Picture: Colleen Petch.

Barnes turned to ruck coaching at Essendon, the Western Bulldogs and Collingwood, did some TV work and also coached at suburban level.

But the stereotypical post-footy career wasn’t for him. The job he now loves came after a conversation with his neighbour three years ago.

“My next-door neighbour had a labour hire business. I got up one morning and I said: ‘Ronnie, my kids are about to finish school, I need to show them I work and have a good work ethic’,” Barnes said.

“The next day he rang me up and said: ‘You’re starting at 4am, running behind a rear loader’ and I was like, ‘Oh’.”

Barnes arrived at the depot where the inevitable double-takes and puzzled looks started.

“I went down and had a crack at it and met some blokes. It didn’t take too long for people to start talking footy, but you know, you don’t entertain them for too long,” he said.

“I loved it. I was starting at 4am, home by 10.30am and was thinking: ‘S..t, what am I gonna do for the rest of the day?’.

“They put me on the litter crew, where you go around picking up mattresses, TVs and stuff, like hard waste. Then they said ‘We need someone to wash the trucks’ so I did that for three months before a full-time position came up.

media_camera Barnes holds the 2000 premiership cup with former Essendon teammates Gary Moorcroft and Michael Long.

“I just go with the flow, tell a few jokes, listen to some music, piss-fart around a bit. I just try to make the job enjoyable and make the most of it.

“I got completely out of footy four years ago. I don’t watch games on TV, I haven’t watched it live and the way the game is played now you can probably guess why. It’s disgraceful.

“I do a few speaking engagements and they ask what you do for a job. When I say garbo they’re like ‘Oh gee, I wanted to be one of them when I was a kid. It was either a firey or a garbo because kids are obsessed by trucks and when they see you drive past you honk on the horn.”

But the road hasn’t exactly been clear for Barnes. He was diagnosed with epilepsy a couple of years ago after suffering a seizure only months into the garbo job.

Barnes was on his way back from a day at the Great Western Racing Club when, without warning, he had a fit in the passenger seat of a car driven by premiership teammate and good friend Dean Wallis.

“I was in hospital for a week with these probes on my head,” Barnes said. “I had all the scans and basically I wasn’t sleeping well enough and I needed more sleep.”

media_camera Barnes during his days as a Geelong player.

“I’m medicated right and I haven’t had a seizure for 18 months, knock on wood. It was a life changer.”

Then there was the weight, which had blown out to nearly 120kg on a diet of peanuts, chips, pies and beer. Barnes played at 98kg.

“I couldn’t do my shoes up so I thought, ‘That’s it, I’m going on a diet’, Barnes said.

“I cut everything I ate in half. I started eating tuna and cruskits. I’m a calorie counter.”

The epilepsy forced him to fight for his job with Hume City Council, but for Barnes it was a job worth fighting for.

“It’s freezing cold in the morning, but I love being outdoors,” he said.

“I can’t imagine how people do 9-5. That would kill me.”