MELBOURNE-based sports journalist Paul Daffey retains a special affection for central Victorian football.
In particular he loves the BFL because as a Bendigo Advertiser cadet journalist he had turned out for Golden Square in the early 1990s.
But it was in writing about Bendigo footy rather than playing it (he languished in the Square twos for a fair period) that Daffey thrived.
He has written three books about footy in regional areas and the Melbourne suburbs. With fellow Melbourne Age writer John Harms Daffey co-edited the 2007 and 2008 Footy Almanacs --- reports on every AFL match, plus the finals, for those seasons.
The largely untold story of Castlemaine goal-kicking prodigy Steven Oliver fired Daffeys imagination and he determined to investigate -- and chronicle --- something about the charismatic Magpie goalkicking star.
He discovered that then Carlton coach David Parkin had made a number of fruitless trips up the Calder Highway to the Maine to sign Oliver.
As a sportsman he ranks with Geoff Southby and Craig Bradley for all-round talent, except that he chose not to leave Castlemaine, Parkin told Daffey.
Let Daffeys words remind us of some of the great talents weve all been lucky enough to see down the years in the BFL.
Before the 2000 season Kangaroo Flat pulled off one of the biggest coups in country football when they re-united Simon Jorgensen and Derrick Filo.
The pair were still held in awe along the length of the Calder Highway from Kyneton to Mildura. In his first season of coaching in 1995, Filo pulled Kyneton through the finals like a team of horses dragging a stump.
The Tigers won their first BFL premiership in three decades. The next year Jorgensen coached Kangaroo Flat to victory over Kyneton in the Roos first Bendigo league grand final success.
Before these victories, the pair had shared Castlemaine best and fairests during the Magpies surge in the early 90s. So it was no surprise that Balranald (coached by Jorgensen and joined mid-season by Filo) won a Central Murray premiership.
Their signatures at the Flat for the 2000 season sparked a recruiting bonanza with Simon Elsum re-joining his old Kyneton teammate Filo: the Roos coach.
Most significantly David Hollywood Lancaster returned after stamping himself as the Bendigo Diggers standout player, Daffey writes.
Castlemaine had also picked up its share of recruits with many regarding Oliver as a recruit after hed broken an arm and undergone a knee operation during the 1999 season.
Even without Oliver the Magpies had finished runner-up to Maryborough and in 2000s annual season preview liftout some Bendigo Advertiser tipsters selected the Maine to run out premiers with the Flat runners-up.
Oliver kicked the opening goal of the new season after hauling in a strong mark. The Magpies then went on to kick four goals in 15 minutes before the Roos rebounded.
Rovers Ash Wilson and Wayne Landry, in their first game together, split the game open with darting runs. They both had choppy running actions and dyed blonde hair and seemed to revel in their pairing.
Filo and Jorgensen were slower to ignite for the Flat. Daffey writes that Filo was far from the possession magnet he had been in earlier years and Jorgensen was bulkier, and balder.
He spent the first quarter trying to keep up. Elsum was in better shape and with his bulging arms he looked ready for a body-building contest. Towards the end of the first quarter he killed the notion it was all for show when he summoned breathtaking nerve to launch himself towards a pack with the flight of the ball.
After that crunching mark Elsum kicked a behind, earning advice from the crowd that big muscles wouldnt help him kick straight.
The Roos gained momentum in the second quarter as the Magpies limited pre-season began to tell. Coach Shane Robertson forced himself to keep following the ball but at 36 years of age he was labouring.
Castlemaine trailed by five goals at half-time.
Daffey then spent much of the next quarter asking supporters whether Oliver should have stayed at Carlton where hed played 13 games and booted eight goals. The moment in the sun had come at Subiaco where Oliver took several gliding marks at centre half-forward and turned the game against West Coast as the Blues won.
Many had vivid memories of the Subiaco game and said it showed he could have created havoc. Other responded the Subi match had shown what Oliver could do and there was nothing more to prove.
Some mentioned hed captained the Victorian under-17 cricket team and that he played golf off single figures.
In the end the consensus was that it was Olivers life and it was up to him how he lived. It was accepted that he wanted to live in central Victoria rather than in central Melbourne and there was nothing more to it.
In that early 2000 match although Oliver booted four goals, Lancaster ended with eight as the Flat ran out easy 59-point winners: 22.18 (150) to the Maines 14.7 (91).
Daffey said when Lancaster played for the Diggers hed once seen Hollywood take 20 marks from his half-back flank. He was like a one-man wall in long sleeves. At the Camp Reserve and at only 183 cm and 80 kilograms, Lancaster constantly outmarked taller Castlemaine opponents, he wrote.
* In a footnote to the chapter, Olivers 135-goal season in 2000 is recorded with Lancasters feat of 112 majors also reported. Derrick Filos seven goals in one quarter against Gisborne is noted, as well .
Local Rites: A Year In Grass Roots Football In Victoria. By Paul Daffey. Black Duck Publications (published 2001).
Richards tips for round 2: Gisborne, Castlemaine. Eaglehawk, Golden Square. Season tally: 6.
By Richard Jones
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