By Richard Jones THERE’S plenty of stories about former Bendigo and central Victorian footballers who’ve made the transition from local comps to the AFL. For example the four Selwoods, Nick Dal Santo, Greg ‘Diesel’ Williams, Geoff Southby, Rod Ashman, Jimmy Buckley, Peter McConville and Trevor Keogh all made the trip down the highway to the [Read more]

By Richard Jones JUST as in football’s playing ranks, there’s never a shortage of memorable characters running affairs at club or league levels. Here in the Bendigo league we’ve had controversial and colourful presidents and chairmen, feisty secretaries and treasurers, but also a sound quota of extremely gentlemanly and thoughtful people. But it doesn’t matter [Read more]

By Richard Jones IT SHOULD come as no surprise to footy followers that our unique Australian code draws plenty of ‘characters’ to weekly matches. Here in central Victoria we have attracted, and continue to attract, our fair share. Over a period of three decades I’ve seen quite a few.

By Richard Jones GOLDEN Square plays off with old rivals South Bendigo in this Saturday’s Bendigo Football League grand final. The Square Bulldogs went down by a goal to Eaglehawk in last September’s cliffhanger decider. The Bloods, meanwhile, have made the grand final for the first time since 1995. Perennial losing preliminary finalists, South snapped [Read more]

Richard Jones BRENDAN Hartney was always destined to play for Sandhurst and follow in the footsteps of his late father, Leo. Leo Hartney not only donned the maroon and blue colors of Sandhurst, but when his playing days were over was a faithful servant of the club, serving for a period as chairman of selectors. [Read more]

IN LATE winter 1949 I watched Geelong play Footscray at Kardinia Park. Other matches on the VFL schedule that weekend were all played at suburban venues: Princes Park, Windy Hill, Punt Road, Victoria Park and the Junction Oval. The competition had 12 teams, a number that had stayed intact from 1925 right through the Depression [Read more]

By Richard Jones SOUTH Bendigo won the Bendigo Football League’s sensational 1955 grand final by a point over hard-working Sandhurst. It was a day when weather conditions really played a huge part as the QEO was lashed by freak winds and heavy rain.

By Richard Jones ECHUCA’S between-the-wars centre half-forward George Ogilvie rates as one of the greatest players the Bendigo league has seen. Amazing as it might seem, Ogilvie didn’t start playing in the BFL until he was 29. He’d seen service in World War 1, played with Richmond in the VFL and Port Melbourne in the [Read more]

By Richard Jones AS my original list of the Top Ten best Bendigo Football League players was so well received, here’s another list of country footy stars to consider. This second list contains more players from recent times than the original squad. A number of players in this group were teammates in Bendigo’s stunning 1989 [Read more]

By Richard Jones DURING the early 1980s turmoil in Bendigo football, one of the stranger proposals was to introduce a college or university team into senior ranks. A football team from the then College of Advanced Education, now LaTrobe University, Bendigo, was suggested as an additional senior club. The Bendigo and Golden City leagues had [Read more]

By Richard Jones JACK Jefferies’ service to the Castlemaine Football Club has spanned every decade from the 1940s to the early part of the 21st century. He has been a player – and a premiership player, at that, in 1952 – a club president, vice-president and committeeman and also the vice-president of the Bendigo Golden [Read more]

By Richard Jones SOUTH Bendigo retained its unbeaten 2009 Bendigo Bank Bendigo Football League record with a 70-point win over Strathfieldsaye at the Tannery Lane Oval on Sunday. Inspired by midfielders Shaun Bergin, Brady Childs, Neville Clark and Dujon Fuzzard the Bloods had the four premiership points in the bag by early in the second [Read more]

By Richard Jones In the early years of the twentieth century two of the Bendigo Football League’s present-day power clubs dominated. South Bendigo and Eaglehawk took it in turns to snare what was called “the premiership of the district” in the Bendigo Football Association. For a number of seasons no finals were played; clubs that [Read more]