THE legendary Two Blues of Canterbury Park have consistently been one of the Bendigo Football League's power clubs with on-field success a byword at the club.

So it should come as no surprise that in the first 20 years after the 1880 formation of the club, Eaglehawk was dominant.

The first premiership was landed in 1882, under the leadership of Charlie Leggo.

From 1880 to 1890 the Two Blues proved to be the trump card of the Bendigo Football Association.

They took out consecutive premierships in 1882 and 1883 and were again successful in 1886 and 1887 before winning the fifth flag in 1889.

It has to be remembered that back then club footy as we know it in the 21st century was a long way off, and that was the case right through country Victoria.

It was not out of the ordinary for games to be organized, on a challenge match basis, and then be abandoned because of a lack of interest from the players.

STILL, football in the Bendigo area had gone from an ad hoc game with a few clubs with limited fields of play to a fully established and functional league.

There were now fixtures and a premiership to aim for.
The code had certainly established itself as the major winter sport in the community and now had access to a number of quality grounds.

Bendigo's record in invitation matches as an association had improved and indeed in 1888 Bendigo hosted a touring English team. A modified game, somewhat akin to the sort of football that the current Irish challenge brings out, was played on the Upper Reserve.

So as the 1890s loomed there was an air of confidence and expectation for what the next decade was to bring forth.
And Eaglehawk was to figure very prominently in what has become known as the Golden Nineties in Bendigo footy.

Back then there was no grand final. There wasn't even a finals system. The club which finished on top of the ladder at the end of the season was declared the premiers: the champion team.

Eaglehawk was one of five competing clubs as the 1890s got underway: Sandhurst, Bendigo, North Bendigo, North Sandhurst and the Two Blues.

Three grounds were used. They were the Upper Reserve, Canterbury Park and the Showgrounds, known today as the Tom Flood Sports Centre.

The rivalry between Sandhurst (maroon and blue) and Bendigo (blue and red) was the key factor in the early 1890s.

Sandhurst finished top in 1890 and 1891 and again in 1893, the year South Bendigo was formed. Bendigo was the top club in 1892.

THEN Eaglehawk stirred into life.

The 1894 Two Blues side, known as the Waterbury Invincibles, was unstoppable that year. Able to draw on a vast number of miners the 1894 Eaglehawk team went through the season undefeated.

That year the Waterbury Watch Company announced it would offer 20 gold watches in a Victoria-wide competition to the club which kicked the greatest number of goals over 18 matches.

Waterbury was a well-known watch and clock manufacturer with its main claim to fame the invention of a watch which the average person in the street could afford.

Up to that point, watches had been the preserve of the wealthy.

The competition was open to every football club in Victoria and the winner would have to be a club out of the ordinary.

Eaglehawk was that club.

The Two Blues won the Bendigo Football Association premiership undefeated and in their 16 competition fixtures were clearly the most dominant team in the league.

In their 16 wins the Two Blues had snared 141 goals, a long way ahead of second-placed South Bendigo with eight wins and 74 goals.

But Eaglehawk now needed two more games to qualify for the watches.

So Eaglehawk played challenge matches against representative teams from Maryborough and then Echuca, adding a further 17 goals to their tally while conceding just two.

FOLLOWING the prescribed 18 matches, Eaglehawk had racked up the impressive tally of 158 goals. Essendon had booted 150 goals and in third place was north-eastern club Beechworth.

Remember, this was three years before the formation of the VFL in 1897. Essendon was contesting the old VFA, the forerunner of the revamped and different-looking VFL of today.

Eaglehawk's amazing 1894 run wasn't over yet, though. The Two Blues took on a representative Bendigo team watched by thousands of spectators at the Upper Reserve.

Needless to say, the Two Blues won 6.8 to 4.5 in the match billed as the Watson Sustenation Fund Challenge.

The 1894 Waterbury Invincibles were captained by Eddie Hummel, who was a defender. Among its stars were Joe Munday (42 goals), "Jordan" Hall (29) and Jack McDonald (22).

Along with Hummel in defence were Albert Hooper, "Wanger" Tregonning, Jimmy Steward and "Number" Esposito.

These backmen of 1894 let just 37 goals through in the 16 BFA matches.

Dick Harvey was a brilliant centreman while Dicky Berriman and Jackson were hard-working followers. The only sour note was that Bogle didn't qualify for a watch because he'd been suspended mid-season for abusing an umpire.

"NUMBER" Esposito's nickname had an interesting beginning.
He earned his nickname while running the old Cricketer's Arms Hotel in Simpson's Road. Several customers had enjoyed Esposito's hospitality just a little too well one evening.

A scuffle developed and then escalated with matters seeming to be getting out of hand.

Mine host intervened in the fisticuffs. After flattening two brawlers Esposito was heard to inquire: "Right. Whose number is next?"

Unfortunately for Esposito and his illustrious teammates, none of them received the original gold watches. The ship bringing the watches to Australia sank.

So Waterbury hastily presented 40 new, nickel watches - one for each player and one for his wife or ladyfriend.

The Two Blues weren't finished just with the 1894 premiership. They carried all before them over the next four years and their run of five, consecutive premierships has only ever been surpassed by Bob McCaskill's Sandhurst juggernaut of 1929-1934.

By the turn of the 20th century Eaglehawk had won an amazing 10 premierships. The club's major challenger would turn out to be 1899 premiers South Bendigo as the new century dawned, but that's a story for another day.

WITH thanks to fellow BFNL researchers and historians, Zack Harvey and Darren Lewis.
Richard's tips for Round 16: Eaglehawk, Golden Square, South Bendigo, Gisborne and Strathfieldsaye.

2011's season total: 56.

By Richard Jones