Former Essendon premiership player and Moonee Valley councillor John Barnes will contest the seat of Essendon for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation as the party dramatically expands its Victorian election campaign with another 10 lower-house candidates.
The latest announcement puts One Nation candidates into a mix of traditionally safe Labor electorates, Liberal and Nationals-held seats and fast-growing outer-suburban districts, as the party attempts to turn a surge in statewide polling into representation in Victoria’s Legislative Assembly.
One Nation’s official Victorian candidate list now confirms Barnes for Essendon alongside Ben Lucas in Narracan, Darren Hercus in Nepean, Elita Dabrowski in Sunbury, Garner Smith in Murray Plains, Jeremy Johnson in Yan Yean, Jessie Weatherley in Eltham, Matthew Katselis in Melton, Michael Piastrino in Berwick and Trevor Hammond in Narre Warren South. State leader Warren Pickering had already been announced for Pakenham.
Barnes is easily the highest-profile recruit in the latest batch.
The former ruckman played 202 AFL games across Essendon and Geelong during a career spanning 1987 to 2001 and was a member of Essendon’s dominant 2000 premiership side. Essendon records confirm he played throughout the club’s 2000 premiership campaign after returning to Windy Hill following eight seasons with Geelong.
He has since moved into local politics and currently represents Buckley Ward on Moonee Valley City Council after being elected at the 2024 council elections.
Barnes has also been publicly involved for years in efforts by former AFL players seeking compensation over the long-term effects of concussion and head trauma. In 2019, he joined a planned concussion class action after speaking publicly about neurological symptoms he believed were connected to repeated head knocks during his playing career.
One Nation describes Barnes as a 39-year local who will campaign on community safety, cost-of-living pressures and local representation.
His entry turns Essendon into one of the more closely watched contests involving One Nation, although Barnes faces a significant electoral task.
Labor’s Danny Pearson won Essendon comfortably in 2022, receiving 41.07 per cent of first preferences before finishing with 62.45 per cent after preferences against Liberal candidate Angelo Baronessa’s 37.55 per cent — a Labor margin of about 12.5 percentage points.
The seat covers communities including Essendon, Moonee Ponds, Ascot Vale and Flemington and sits within the Northern Metropolitan Region.
Barnes is not the only local government figure One Nation has recruited.
Gannawarra Shire Mayor Garner Smith will contest Murray Plains, putting One Nation directly up against the Nationals in one of regional Victoria’s strongest conservative seats.
Gannawarra Shire records show Smith has served as mayor since 2024 and was re-elected to the position for 2025-26. One Nation describes him as a fourth-generation local, economist, farmer and small-business owner.
Murray Plains was won by Nationals veteran Peter Walsh at the 2022 election and has traditionally been a strong Nationals electorate.
Baw Baw Shire councillor Ben Lucas will contest Narracan, another Liberal-held regional seat.
One Nation describes Lucas as a Drouin local, Army veteran, small-business owner and twice-elected Baw Baw Shire councillor. Narracan is currently represented by Liberal MP Wayne Farnham and has been held by the Liberals continuously since 2006.
The decision to run candidates in Narracan and Murray Plains shows One Nation is not restricting its campaign to Labor territory.
The party is positioning itself to compete for conservative voters in Liberal and Nationals heartlands as well as disaffected voters in Labor-held outer suburbs.
That strategy will also be tested in Berwick, where Michael Piastrino will challenge sitting Liberal MP Brad Battin.
Piastrino is an award-winning hairdresser and salon owner who has previously contested elections. The VEC confirms Berwick is currently held by Mr Battin, while One Nation says Piastrino will campaign around family, community and opportunity.
One of the most important tests for the party could come in Nepean.
Darren Hercus will return as One Nation’s candidate after producing one of the party’s strongest Victorian lower-house performances at the May 2026 by-election.
Official VEC results show Hercus won 9,941 first-preference votes, or 24.52 per cent, finishing ahead of independent Tracee Hutchison on primary votes and behind Liberal candidate Anthony Marsh, who ultimately won the seat with 63.24 per cent after preferences.
One Nation describes Hercus as a structural engineer and Safety Beach small-business owner campaigning on business costs, housing, emergency services and roads.
His Nepean result is important because it provides One Nation with something it largely lacked at the 2022 Victorian election — evidence of a substantial lower-house primary vote in an individual Victorian electorate.
The party’s statewide lower-house performance four years ago was tiny.
VEC figures show One Nation received just 8,077 lower-house first-preference votes statewide in 2022, equivalent to 0.22 per cent, reflecting the limited number of Legislative Assembly seats it contested.
Its upper-house performance was stronger, with 76,734 votes, or 2.04 per cent, delivering the party its first Victorian MP, Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell, in Northern Victoria Region.
The political landscape in 2026 looks markedly different.
A Roy Morgan poll conducted from August 5 to 7 put One Nation on 23.5 per cent of the Victorian primary vote, just behind Labor and the Liberal-National Coalition, which were each on 26 per cent. The poll surveyed 2,084 Victorian electors.
A separate RedBridge poll conducted after Labor’s leadership change put the Coalition on 30 per cent, Labor on 23 per cent and One Nation on 22 per cent. ABC analysis noted One Nation had been even higher, at 27 per cent, in a RedBridge poll conducted in June.
The different polling methodologies produce different numbers, but both point to One Nation entering the campaign with support dramatically higher than its 2022 Victorian result.
That creates both an opportunity and a challenge for Pauline Hanson’s party.
Polling support does not automatically translate into lower-house seats under Victoria’s preferential voting system, particularly when candidates are contesting electorates with entrenched Labor, Liberal or Nationals incumbents.
One Nation therefore needs recognisable local candidates and campaign organisations capable of converting statewide support into votes at individual polling booths.
Barnes’ recruitment appears designed to do exactly that.
His football career gives him unusually high name recognition in Essendon, while his council position provides an established connection to local government and community issues.
The remaining candidates are also being presented heavily on their professional and local backgrounds rather than as career politicians.
Jeremy Johnson, running in Yan Yean, is a cyber-security professional, former Army reservist and young father. One Nation says he will campaign on cost of living, crime, infrastructure and government spending.
Jessie Weatherley will contest Eltham. The party describes her as a 20-year local, mother, business owner and former school council president focused on community safety, education, aged care and government accountability.
Eltham is currently held by Labor’s Vicki Ward. She won 59 per cent after preferences at the 2022 election against the Liberal Party’s 41 per cent.
Matthew Katselis will stand in Melton, where One Nation is targeting one of Melbourne’s fastest-growing outer-western communities.
The party describes Katselis as a logistics professional and soccer coach campaigning on roads, public transport, housing affordability and infrastructure investment. Melton was won by Labor’s Steve McGhie in 2022.
Naturopath and small-business owner Elita Dabrowski will contest Sunbury, another Labor-held seat in Melbourne’s expanding north-west, while tradesman Trevor Hammond will stand in Narre Warren South.
One Nation says Hammond has operated a small business for more than 43 years and will focus on crime, energy, housing, cost of living and infrastructure.
Sunbury and Narre Warren South were both won by Labor at the previous state election.
The latest lower-house team follows One Nation’s formal Victorian campaign launch earlier this month.
Senator Hanson announced Warren Pickering as the party’s Victorian state leader on August 4, with Pickering also contesting the Labor-held seat of Pakenham.
The party has already announced candidates across all eight Legislative Council regions, including incumbent Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell in Northern Victoria.
One Nation had flagged much earlier in the year that it planned a far more expansive Victorian campaign than in 2022.
In March, Pickering said the party had been inundated with prospective candidates and was preparing to field candidates broadly across both houses of Parliament, with particular ambitions in regional Victoria and the outer suburbs.
The Barnes announcement now gives that campaign one of its most recognisable faces.
There is an important procedural qualification: although parties are announcing and endorsing their candidates now, formal nominations for Victoria’s election do not open until November 4 and close at noon on November 9.
Victorians vote on Saturday, November 28, electing 88 members of the Legislative Assembly and 40 members of the Legislative Council.
The central question between now and then will be whether One Nation’s large statewide polling numbers survive the campaign and translate into seats.
Its lower-house challenge is particularly difficult because candidates such as Barnes, Lucas, Smith and Piastrino are running against established MPs in electorates held by both sides of traditional Victorian politics.
But that is also what makes the latest announcement politically important.
One Nation is no longer concentrating only on winning an additional upper-house seat or harvesting a statewide protest vote.
It is building a lower-house campaign designed to challenge Labor in metropolitan and growth-area seats, the Liberals in suburban electorates, and the Nationals in regional Victoria.
And in Essendon, the party has recruited a man who already knows what it is like to walk onto a big stage wearing red and black.
This time, John Barnes will be asking Essendon voters to back orange.
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