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]
How footy beat the flood
September 15, 2010 by Leave a Comment
by Pete Miers We were 20 kms from Marong when the phone rang, Rex telling me the road ahead was closed between Bridgewater and Serpentine. We had already heard that the SES had shut down the Boort road to Quambatook, so our options were rapidly diminishing. There was nothing for it but to divert right at [Read more]
Local Footy: Rain takes toll on country footy finals
September 8, 2010 by 3 Comments
There’s a legend in north-west Tasmania that conditions for a match at Forth were so wet that the Forth River broke its banks and fish began swimming between the goal umpire’s legs. Conditions were almost that wet in nearby Launceston on Saturday, when one team in the Northern Tasmanian Football Association’s second-division grand final failed [Read more]
LIONS ARE THE KINGS OF LYRUP
September 6, 2010 by Leave a Comment
LYRUP V EAST MURRAY IFL – GRAND FINAL 2010 By Nick Kossatch The Lyrup Lions are the 2010 kings of Lyrup after their brilliant 28-point win over the East Murray Tigers in the Independent Football League Grand Final at a windswept and at times damp Lyrup Oval. It was one of the great [Read more]
LOCAL FOOTY: 137 YEARS OF WAR- Rochester v Echuca
August 26, 2010 by 7 Comments
The eternal desire by the Rochester Football Club to beat Echuca will be magnified ten-fold when they meet at the Rochester Showgrounds in the final round of Goulburn Valley Football League this Saturday. At stake for Rochy is more than the immense pride and satisfaction that always comes from beating their arch-rival but a place [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]
Local Footy: American dream becomes reality
August 19, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Country footy is full of legend and lore. Country footy is not full of Americans. So what’s an American doing playing senior footy in the competition currently considered the best in the bush, the Goulburn Valley league? Dan Sarbacker was at a loss when he finished his study and soccer commitments at the University of [Read more]
RIVERLAND SUPERDOGS V EASTS RND 11
August 15, 2010 by Leave a Comment
OUT-OF-JAIL AS SUPERDOGS WIN BY A POINT. ROUND 11 AFL MASTERS OVER 35’S The Riverland Superdogs overcame some wayward kicking, poor disposals and an 18-point three-quarter-time deficit to post a fighting one-point win against Easts at Lyrup Oval. Conditions were windy but it did not deter the large female contingent present for ‘Ladies Day’ under [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]
Perhaps footy isn’t the answer to everything?
July 15, 2010 by 15 Comments
Music’s coming out of the speakers; the dog is stretching out behind me making funny noises, I’m sipping from my bottle of lemon ice tea and I am bored. And sick. I’ve been sick for a couple of weeks now, the day of the Thursday night Carlton v Brisbane Lions game was the first day [Read more]
Another Power team loses, this time to the Superdogs
July 14, 2010 by Leave a Comment
ROUND EIGHT AFL MASTERS OVER 35’S by Nick Kossatch The Power lost another match; however it was in the form of Portland Power, this time to the Riverland Superdogs at Rosewater Oval on Sunday by eight points. The visitors welcomed new players Dean Romeo, Barry Gavranich and ex-Superdog and Central Districts and Hawthorn player Robert [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]
KEN PIESSE: FAVOURITE SONS FROM THE MID MURRAY
July 3, 2010 by 4 Comments
Sharrock, Bos, Wallis, Raines, Frèe, O’Bree, Guerra… the Central Murray region has been a goldmine for the big city clubs, some of the VFL’s very best hailing from the townships of Tooleybuc, Jerilderie, Wandella and the like. As much as I admired the prodigious punting of Sharrock and the pepper-and-salt arrogance of Raines, as smooth [Read more]
The Perry Meka Roadshow
June 29, 2010 by 7 Comments
By Paul Branagan I was obviously out of my inner-suburban comfort zone when I buggered up the take-a-number system at the Nagambie bakery. It was 11.30am and I was on my way to the Shepparton United / Shepparton Swans clash at Princess Park by the Goulburn River. Innocently I picked up what I thought was [Read more]
Ken Piesse: Favourites sons of the GOULBURN VALLEY
June 23, 2010 by 11 Comments
KEN PIESSE: FAVOURITE SONS FROM THE GOULBURN VALLEY Years ago I was interviewing an old Australian cricketer, one-Test wonder George Thoms, when he stopped in mid-sentence and said: ‘Ken… you’re a good listener.’ ‘George,’ I said, ‘I just love hearing all your stories.’ Footy or cricket, I have been a sucker for a good yarn [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]
KEN PIESSE FAVOURITE SONS FROM THE WIMMERA
June 18, 2010 by 1 Comment
McKenzie Creek is a near-forgotten whistlestop outside Jeparit, but for footy fans, especially down Geelong way, it will always be notable for being the childhood home of iconic Cat’s goalkicker Doug Wade, a true 1960s and 1970s goalkicking great. Doug may have been recruited direct from Horsham, but he played his first senior footy [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]
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