A NEWSTEAD boy through and through, Peter Fyffe came in to play major league football with Castlemaine in the Bendigo league while still a teenager. It was 1969 and 17-year-old Fyffe played on permits with the Magpies. He’d already played senior footy with Newstead at the age of 16 under Castlemaine legend John Williams and [Read more]
Sandhurst All-Stars
March 25, 2012 by 16 Comments
As relayed by Richard Jones. As authored by Darren Lewis.
Dragons prepare for big season in 150th year
March 8, 2012 by 3 Comments
By Richard Jones SANDHURST Football and Netball Club, one of the Bendigo league’s oldest, is gearing up for a big 2012 as the Dragons prepare for their 150th year. With ex-Dragon Joel Selwood now anointed as captain of reigning AFL premiers Geelong, Sandhurst hopes to have as many former players, members and officials as possible [Read more]
A MEXICAN VENTURES INTO RUGBY TERRITORY …. IN MELBOURNE !!
March 4, 2012 by 1 Comment
By Richard Jones It was never going to be an easy assignment. A Victorian venturing forth to take in his first, live look at a transplanted northern states’ code in Australian Rules heartland. But I agreed to accompany our English son-in-law, his Dad who’s out in Oz on a summer holiday and sundry Queenslanders and [Read more]
TEAM OF DECADE BOASTS WONDERFUL HOUSEHOLD NAMES
May 19, 2011 by Leave a Comment
THERE was a tremendous air of anticipation in the room at the All Seasons Quality Resort at the end of October last year. Not only were 10 new people for the BFL’s Hall Of Fame to be inducted, but also the Team Of The Decade for 2000-2009 was to be unveiled. Members of the BFL’s [Read more]
RON CAWTHAN: A LIFETIME’S SERVICE TO CASTLEMAINE
February 24, 2011 by Leave a Comment
RON started playing footy at the tender age of eight when he turned out for the Wesley Hill club in the Castlemaine District Junior Football league. It wasn’t until 1971 that he first wore the Castemaine colors when he played for the Magpie under-18 side. He spent two seasons with the Thirds, finishing runner-up in [Read more]
Tony Kelly: An icon of the Kyneton Football Club
February 8, 2011 by 2 Comments
by Richard Jones TO SAY that Tony Kelly is one of the enduring characters of the Kyneton and Bendigo football communities is to state the obvious. He is one of the BFNL’s genuine larger-than-life personalities and richly deserved his elevation to BFNL Hall of Fame status last October. Kelly was a fearless ball-getter on the [Read more]
Maryborough’s proud history dates back to 1872
January 25, 2011 by 10 Comments
by Richard Jones MARYBOROUGH has had an established football club since mid-1872 when three matches were played against neighbouring Avoca. Actually, an attempt was made to start up a club in June 1869 but it was unsuccessful. Nothing was done until 1872 when 30 men gathered at the Bull and Mouth Hotel and adopted rules [Read more]
MAROONS WIN 1970 PRELIM., BOOK DATE WITH ECHUCA
September 18, 2010 by 2 Comments
WITH Echuca already ensconced in the 1970 grand final, Sandhurst had to beat Eaglehawk in the preliminary final to earn a spot in that season’s big dance. Forty years ago, the BFL had a Top Four in place. Eaglehawk had won the first semi-final to snatch a preliminary final place while the Hurst was coming [Read more]
Bendigo Football: 1960 Season Finale
August 20, 2010 by 3 Comments
ROCHESTER, KYNETON HEAD LADDER: END OF 1960 SEASON ROCHESTER and Kyneton were the top two clubs at the end of the 1960 home-and-away season with Sandhurst and Castlemaine rounding out the top four. In mid-August and with three rounds still to be played 50 years ago the Tigers headed the table on percentage from the [Read more]
Sheldon, Diesel leaders of 1997 BFL All Stars
July 20, 2010 by 3 Comments
by Richard Jones NOW that the 2010 BFL Hall of Fame and Team of the Decade concepts are up and running, it’s perhaps timely to look back at an All Stars function held 13 years ago. In October, 1997, the VFL-aligned Bendigo Diggers Football Club hosted an evening in which 23 top players from Bendigo’s [Read more]
ECHUCA, MAGPIES WIN WINTER MUD BATTLES: JULY 1960
July 3, 2010 by 6 Comments
IN the mud and slush of mid-winter 1960 Echuca and Castlemaine scored surprise victories over fancied opponents Golden Square and Sandhurst. The Advertiser’s chief football writer John Rice described the July 11th round 50 years ago as contested “on muddy battle grounds”. “Tailenders Echuca downed the Square, which was fighting for a place in the [Read more]
THREE SOUTH PREMIERSHIP TEAM MEMBERS RETURN TO QEO
June 21, 2010 by 2 Comments
TWENTY years on, South Bendigo’s three premiership-winning teams from 1990 will celebrate their QEO successes on Saturday, June 26th. The Peter Bradbury-coached seniors downed Golden Square by 22 points in a classic grand final, Brendan Francis’ reserves accounted for Eaglehawk by 27 points, while in the under-18s the Brian Teasdale-mentored Bloods beat the Square by [Read more]
CENTRAL VICTORIAN SPORTS WRITERS AND COMMENTATORS
June 5, 2010 by 4 Comments
OVER a period of three decades I have worked with some interesting media people. All of the ones listed here have reported on, or broadcast, Bendigo and district footy fixtures. They have then gone on to to ply their craft in Melbourne at AFL level. In my early days at the Bendigo Advertiser it seemed [Read more]
VITTI RELISHES WET DAY, MUDDY GROUND
May 30, 2010 by Leave a Comment
FORMER AFL boundary umpire Matthew Vittiritti was chuffed when he awoke on Saturday to the cold and rain of a late May day in Bendigo. The 300-game veteran said after running the Queen Elizabeth Oval boundary for the South Bendigo-Strathfieldsaye game the miserable conditions suited him. “I was hoping it was going to be raining. [Read more]
MORE EX-AFL PLAYERS WHO HAD BIG IMPACTS ON BFL CLUBS
May 30, 2010 by 1 Comment
MOST footy followers would be aware of the never-ending stream of talent which flows from central Victoria, and especially the Bendigo Football League, into the clubs of the VFL/AFL. Consider the four Selwood boys, Nick Dal Santo, Greg ‘Diesel’ Williams, Rod Ashman, Peter Dean, Geoff Southby, Peter McConville and Jimmy Buckley: and that’s less than [Read more]
Bendigo Relections: Two Blues celebrate dual 1980 BFL premierships
May 12, 2010 by 4 Comments
by Richard Jones EAGLEHAWK celebrates its 1980 senior and reserves premierships at Canterbury Park this weekend. Thirty years on with the 2010 top-of-the-table clash between the Two Blues and Golden Square unfolding in front of them, the flag-winning stars of yesteryear will spend a day of reminiscing. Eaglehawk came from 14 points down late in [Read more]
BLOODS TAKE ON ST KILDA IN 1904 MIDWEEK CLASH
May 1, 2010 by Leave a Comment
SOUTH Bendigo played matches against a number of Melbourne-based teams in the early part of last century achieving more success at home on the Upper Reserve than in the city. At the end of August 1904, the Bloods travelled to Melbourne for a full-scale match against VFL cub St Kilda. The Saints posted 13 goals [Read more]
Local Footy Flashback: Bendigo FL – Round 1, 1960
March 23, 2010 by 5 Comments
FIFTY YEARS AGO IN THE B.F.L. — ROUND ONE, 1960 by Richard Jones TWO close finishes highlighted the opening round in the BFL half a century ago, a time when life was much simpler and less hectic.
Country Footy: Coaches who stamped their mark on the BFL
March 11, 2010 by 6 Comments
By Richard Jones JOURNALISTS and senior coaches often form prickly relationships, but it doesn’t mean that there’s no dialogue between the two parties. Here in the Bendigo league there’s been some remarkable figures. Clearly success is measured by the number of premierships a senior coach garners for his club yet I have found some mentors, [Read more]
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