Weekly Times | ONLY four men can now claim they are part of Pyramid Hill’s premiership history.
The football club is celebrating its 125th anniversary this weekend, but for more than half their lifetime, the Bulldogs — formerly the Saints — have gone without the taste of grand final glory.
Pyramid Hill last hoisted a cup in 1950, when Robert Menzies was Australia’s prime minister, our forces were deployed to Korea, and Malcolm Blight and Sam Kekovich were born.
Pyramid Hill defeated Mitiamo by five points in the Mitiamo and District Football League final.
The club has been in the Loddon Valley Football League since 1995 and most recently lost the 2011 final to Bridgewater.
Theirs is one of the longest premiership droughts in Victoria.
John Gregory was 17 when he was part of the 1950 premiership team.
His older brother, Bill, was also in the side, and his father, Robert, was the president of the club and the league.
Gregory, 82, said it would be “hard to say” how he would feel if the premiership drought ended.
“We’ve had a lot of disappointments,” he said.
“They seem to get about third or into the grand finals and get beaten.
“But then they climb up again and they’re still trying.”
John Carroll, who was the 20th man when players were only subbed once, remembers a terrifying moment with minutes remaining in the game and the opposition rover streaking down the wing with the ball.
“We’re only five points in front and he had a shot for goal and it went out of bounds,” Carroll said.
Carroll, 80, played in the grand final two years later when Pyramid Hill lost to Mitiamo.
He played out his football years with the town where he is still based, and his five sons — Shane, Paul, Anthony, Michael and Jayson — all kicked at least a goal each in the match to mark the club’s centenary in 1990.
The other players remaining from the 1950 side are Alan Rumble and Kevin Hunt, who went on to play with Carlton four years later.
This weekend’s celebrations, which coincide with Pyramid Hill’s first home game for the Loddon Valley league season, will include an auction of jumpers incorporating both the Bulldogs and Saints strips, and a breakfast at the club on Sunday followed by exhibition football and netball matches.
