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Tigers contest 2 big games in 1995 Print E-mail
Bendigo FLKYNETON was gearing up for a big finals campaign as the end of July rolled around in 1995.

The Tigers had sneaked home by one, straight kick over Golden Square at the arctic Showgrounds in round 13 and faced top-of-the-table South Bendigo in round 14.

One big difference in the fixture list 13 years ago was the number of Sunday matches clubs regularly played, plus there were two double headers that season.

On June 25th Northern United played Eaglehawk in the early game, followed by the Square-South late match.

And then on August 13th Maryborough faced Castlemaine while old rivals South Bendigo and Sandhurst faced each other in the second clash.

And during winter’s middle month in 1995 a new board of management --- until then a ‘caretaker’ organization -– was pout in place to run football and netball in the BFL until the league’s annual general meeting at the end of the year.

The board was headed by John Walsh and comprised BFL executive officer, clearance secretary and treasurer Kevin McNaughton and members Allen Dillon, Michael Dawson and Lance Standfield.

THE Tigers had just managed a come from behind victory over Golden Square in round 13.

The Bulldogs had increased their four-point half-time lead to nine points by the last change and an early goal to Steve Heinke (his third) gave the Square a 17-point buffer.

Suddenly Derrick Filo’s Tigers came to life. Busy midfielders Tony Kelly and David Nolte combined to give Nick Heath the opportunity to score his first major of the afternoon.

Roger Cordy, in his first senior appearance for the year, had a hand in the next as Michael Goodyear capitalized on Cordy’s work to bring the margin back to one goal.

Kyneton was back in the game. The defence shut down Square attacking attempts and Paul Cochrane --- virtually unsighted all day --- roved a marking contest and goaled to tie the score.

Time was running out and a draw seemed likely. Then Cochrane marked and goaled to break the deadlock and hand the home side a six-point victory.

Simon Elsum, Nolte, Kelly, Andrew McArdle, Paul Cass and Daniel “Lenny” Schmidt were in the Tigers’ best. For the Square Quentin Blackmore, Darren Moorhead, Peter Garrner, Brad Giri and Bowden Hamilton were their leading players.

Apart from Heinke’s three goals Nick O’Brien snared two for the Bulldogs. Ged Cleeve was a late withdrawal, called up for TAC up duties with the Bendigo Pioneers.

The other thriller in 1995’s round 13 was the drawn game between Castlemaine and Kangaroo Flat.

The scoreboard had the Roos in front by a point at final siren time. However the goal umpires conferred in the middle of the Camp Reserve and amended the scores to show the two clubs had amassed 81 points apiece.

Steven Oliver ensured the two, premiership points for the Castlemaine club with two booming, 60 metre goals. With most players able to move the ball about half that distance Olly banged home the match-drawing majors as if he had a dry ball --- and a hefty tail wind.

Eaglehawk did not register a score, not even one point, in the first half against top of the table South at Canterbury Park.

David Nicholas booted eight goals as the Bloods posted 33 majors and held the Two Blues to three points for the day.

Maryborough beat North Bendigo by eight goals while Sandhurst accounted for Northern United by 27 points.

Final scores, round 13 ’95: Kyneton 10.8 (68) d G. Square 9.8 (62); South Bendigo 33.20 (218) d Eaglehawk 0.3 (3), Maryborough 14.10 (94) d North Bendigo 6.11 (47); Sandhurst 9.15 (69) d Northern United 6.6 (42) and Castlemaine 11.15 (81) drew Kangaroo Flat 12.9 (81).

AND so it was onto round 14. Peter Curran’s South Bendigo jumped Kyneton in the first half to lead 9.8 to 5.6 at half-time in their QEO battle.

Filo moved Simon Elsum into the ruck for the start of the third quarter and his spring and athleticism was handy against big John Hill and Brad Day.

But the South defence, led by Marc Nulty and Robin Keck, shut down the Tiger attack and restricted Kyneton to three points in the “premiership quarter”.

The Bloods ended up 35-point winners with Stephen McMurray, Peter Tyack and Phil Hetherington all booting two goals in the 12.15 (87) to 7.10 (52) victory.

Eaglehawk had another horror day totalling just 2.2 (14) at Princes Park. Maryborough booted 21.11 (137) with the club hosting a special night after the game to recognize Anthony O’Shea’s 200 club games with the Magpies.

In other games Golden Square 15.14 lost to Castlemaine 18.10, Kangaroo Flat 11.10 went down to Sandhurst 14.6 while in the Sunday game Northern United was too good for North Bendigo: 17.13 to 10.9.

At the end of 14 rounds it was a tightly knit bunch at the top of the senior goalkicking table. Sandhurst’s Matt Sexton led on 70, followed by David Lancaster (Kangaroo Flat) 69, South’s David Nicholas with 63, Gavin Exell (Northern United) 60, Maryborough’s Glenn Hawker 53 and Steven Oliver (Castlemaine) on 52.

Oliver had kicked nine goals in the win over Golden Square in round 14 (to take his total to 52) and the very next weekend was to boot eight of the Magpies’ 11 goals in the round 15 30-point loss to South.

After 14 rounds, Exell led the club senior award with 24 votes. Next were South’s David McMurray (20), Flat’s Chris Giri (18), Square’s Darren Moorhead (17) and Maryborough’s Gordon Sumner (17).

With four rounds to play before the finals in the ’95 season South sat on top of the ladder with just one loss. Sandhurst had lost only twice and filled second spot.

The Top Five --- South Bendigo 13 wins, 1 loss, 52 premiership points; Sandhurst 12, 2, 48; Kyneton 11, 3, 44; Kangaroo Flat 8, 5, one draw, 34;
Castlemaine 7, 6, one draw, 30.

Outside the Top Five: Maryborough 7, 7, 28; Golden Square 5, 9, 20; Northern United 5, 9, 20; Eaglehawk 1, 13, 4; North Bendigo 0, 14, 0.

Richard’s tips for round 14: Golden Square, South Bendigo, Maryborough and Gisborne. Season tally: 46.

By Richard Jones
 
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