THE Maryborough Magpies confirmed 2008 pre-season talk that they were a club on the improve and a definite contender for the Bendigo Bank Bendigo Football League finals series.
Under the QEO lights on a Saturday night in Round 3 four years back, the young Pies were far too accomplished for Sandhurst.
The Dragons looked to be a side on the slide as the Magpies ran away with the four, premiership points in the second half.
Following an impressive performance against reigning premiers Eaglehawk in Round 2, Maryborough controlled the Saturday evening fixture after an even first term.
And even though Magpie key defender Adam Hurse was sidelined with a corked thigh in the opening quarter it made little difference.
The Pies made their match-winning move in the first 17 minutes of the second stanza. After scores were all tied up at 18 points apiece at the first change, Maryborough put the pedal down.
The Magpies' burst of 4.4 scuttled the Dragons. Speedy small forward Matthew Bilton, who kicked two of the four goals, winger Chris Thomson and important midfielders Joel Malone and Matt Johnston broke the game open.
THE Dragons did manage to close the quarter out with three majors in the last 11 minutes of the first half. Big men Matt Thornton and Sam McGee, along with midfielder Tyson Findlay, booted the Sandhurst goals.
That left the Hurst just nine points down at the long break, but the home side could manage only a paltry 1.5 for the rest of the night.
Meantime, Maryborough added 5.3 with elusive on-baller Michael Noonan, half-back Glenn Handley and follower Shane O'Connor all prominent.
The final stanza was a bonanza for the Magpies who increased their lead to a touch more than five goals by the final siren.
Maryborough coach Shane Fisher, who had announced only 24 hours earlier that his playing days were over because of a serious, recurring injury, said his team had improved "out of sight" in the opening two rounds.
"But I though we let ourselves down a bit tonight," he said.
"We could have kicked 10 goals in that second quarter and recorded a really big win, but I guess that's credit to Sandhurst."
Hard-working Hurst midfielders Michael Cornish and Tyson Findlay were clearly the best two for the Dragons who had managed just nine goals in their opening two BFL matches of 2008.
MARYBOROUGH 3.0 7.4 9.4 12.7 (79)
SANDHURST 2.6 5.7 5.9 6.12 (48)
GOALS - Maryborough: M. Bilton 3, Jamie Bond 3, M. Brown 3, M. Johnston, M. Noonan, C. Thomson. Sandhurst: S. McGee 2, T. Findlay 2, M. Cornish, M. Thornton.
BEST - Maryborough: M. Noonan (best on ground), J. Malone, G. Handley, M. Johnston, M. Brown, M. Bilton and S. O'Connor. Sandhurst: M. Cornish, T. Findlay, R. Gow, M. Borchard, M. Prowse.
MEANWHILE in an even earlier season match 11 months later, Bendigo selectors had a one-off opportunity to see potential Blue and Gold players in action.
The occasion was the stand-alone Bushfire Appeal match on March's Labour Day weekend in 2009.
The representative Bendigo line-up went down by four goals to the Bendigo Bombers in a well-attended match at the QEO.
The actual result didn't matter all that much. It was a historic match as far as Aussie Rules was concerned --- a Victorian regional league taking on a VFL club.
The specific aim was to raise funds for the victims of February 2009's Black Saturday fires which raged less than two kilometres from Bendigo's CBD.
The match was played on the holiday Monday with the Bombers wrapping up their eventual victory with a scintillating first quarter.
The VFL side booted six goals to one and in fact had posted 6.3 (39) before former gun Castlemaine spearhead and present day Central Victorian Football CEO Steven Oliver landed the BFL's first major.
Simon Weekly was the livewire in the Bombers' front half. The 2007 BFL Rookie of the Year banged home two of his four goals for the day in the opening stanza.
Weekly was busy match-long while his teammate Christian Bock controlled the ruck battles.
Blue and Golds skipper and centreman Shannon Milward ried everything to get his side moving. The 2008 Michelsen medalist consistently bullocked through packs, firing out handballs.
Gisborne midfield powerhouse Ollie Messaoudi was Milward's lieutenant, gathering plenty of possessions. But woeful field kicking and misdirected handpasses, especially across half-forward by the BFL side, turned the ball over far too often.
Sandhurst's Lee Coghlan kicked truly from the swimming pool pocket right on half-time. That solitary second quarter major left the BFL All-Stars well behind at the long break, even though the defence led by Malcolm Borchard had restricted the Bombers to just two six-pointers in the second term.
TRAILING by 39 points the Blue and Golds looked a different unit in the third term. Majors to Justin Maddern, the late Shaun Bergin and Darren Farrugia brought the crowd to life.
When Oliver marked a long kick from Grant Ford and converted the BFL All-Stars seemed to have all the momentum.
Those four, unanswered majors had reduced the margin to 15 points. Then gradually the Bombers' backline, led by Tyson Slattery, re-asserted their first half ascendancy and the VFL side steadied.
First Kade Klemke goaled from a forward thrust. Right on the three-quarter time siren Dash Barrolli soared high in the goal square to pluck the mark-of-the-day.
The smallest man in a pack of four players Barrolli clung to the leather as if his life depended on it. His goal after the siren restored a 29-point buffer to the Bendigo Bombers.
But again the All-Stars reduced the deficit with last quarter goals to Maddern and Oliver at the Barnard Street end.
Maddern threaded through his major from close to the boundary line, tucked in on the South Bendigo social rooms flank.
When Eaglehawk 2008 premiership skipper Brady Herdman goaled for the Blue and Golds, the margin was once more slashed to 18 points.
It was left to Essendon's Irish recruit Michael Quinn to put the game out of reach for the BFL.
Quinn broke clear of a midfield contest and kicked the final major of the day, on the run.
And the day proved a great financial success. The Bendigo Football Unites charity event raised $86,000 for the bushfire victims of Bendigo's western suburbs.
Bendigo Bombers 6.3 8.7 10.9 12.11 (83)
BFL All-Stars 1.1 2.4 6.4 9.5 (59)
GOALS - Bendigo Bombers: Simon Weekly 4, Michael Still, Brent Chapman, Troy Coates, Kade Klemke, Stacey Fiske, Ky Miller, Dash Barrolli, Michael Quinn. BFL All-Stars: Steven Oliver 3, Justin Maddern 2, Brady Herdman, Darren Farrugia, Lee Coghlan, Shaun Bergin.
BEST - Bendigo Bombers: Simon Weekly, Christian Bock, Blair Holmes, Tyson Slattery, Michael Quinn, Thomas German. BFL All-Stars: Shannon Milward, Ollie Messaoudi, Justin Maddern, Grant Ford, Malcolm Borchard, Shaun Bergin.
Richard's tips for Round 3: Eaglehawk, Kangaroo Flat, Golden Square, South Bendigo, Strathfieldsaye.
2012 running total: 8.
By Richard Jones
NORTHERN United Football Club went into recess after just one round of the 1996 BFL season had been completed.
The Swallows played just the opening round fixture against Castlemaine, meaning the whole '96 draw had to be revised.
The presidents and secretaries of the remaining eight clubs met with BFL chief John Walsh and his board of management in mid-April to thrash out a revised schedule for the season.
High on the agenda for the meeting was whether the 19 goals Castlemaine spearhead Steven Oliver booted against United in Round 1 should stand.
There was much discussion around the issue, but in the end Oliver's huge haul stood.
Sandhurst was in an odd situation. The Dragons had snared eight premiership points following a bye in Round 1 and the Round 2 forfeit against United.
The Hurst was listed to play Kangaroo Flat in Round 3. The Roos had tasted two tough hitouts against Kyneton and Castlemaine in the first fortnight.
With all the turmoil in the BFL 16years ago, only three matches were contested in Round 2. All matches were hit by a severe thunderstorm and deluge during the third quarter.
Kyneton remained on top of the ladder with an eight-goal victory over Golden Square at Wade Street.
The Flat led Castlemaine by just five points at half-time at Dower Park but outscored the Magpies six goals to four when the rains came.
Barry Pitson booted seven goals and David "Hollywood" Lancaster four of the Roos' 14 majors.
At the QEO, South Bendigo steamrolled an undermanned Eaglehawk and allowed the Two Blues just four goals for an entire afternoon's work.
NORTHERN United's last-ever coach Tony Southcombe told the Advertiser the Swallows could not compete in the BFL on a $70,000 budget.
"We have been working on a $70,000 budget for the past two years. Compare that with other clubs who, I believe, would have been working with $120,000, $130,000 or even $150,000 up to $200,000 turnovers to maintain their clubs," he said.
"I don't think the people at Raywood and I don't think the people on our committee realized how much hard work had gone into putting a competitive footy side on the field for $70,000 the last two years."
The Swallows' ruckman and coach was commenting in the wake of United's decision to go into recess --- effective as of Monday, April 15th, 1996.
Southcombe said the four BFL flags of the mid-1980s had worked against the Swallows.
"All those successes gave us a false sense of security. If we had come into Bendigo, in our high times, and made a base here we would have built a solid foundation for the football club.
"We were never going to survive in the long term until we came to Bendigo and got a structure. That structure would have meant we had under-16s, under-14s and under-12s.
"Then you would also have had a junior committee coming up through the ranks, as well."
Southcombe said United had had the opportunity to base itself at Kennington three or four years earlier --- at the start of the nineties --- and would have been handed a junior structure.
"It's common knowledge now that there's not a Bendigo league football club on the other side of the railway line which runs through the centre of Bendigo.
"I just can't see the reasoning. Not only from the Northern United point of view but also from the league's point of view," the coach said.
"There's a whole area in the Kennington and Strathdale suburban region where there's the Flora Hill Secondary College, the La Trobe University, the Catholic College further out and countless junior schools and here we are with no football club to service that area."
SOUTHCOMBE said in his opinion it was "too late" to revive senior footy in the Kennington area.
"We even tried (to re-locate) last year (1995). I'm not sure exactly how it was handled or what happened, but I believe the (then city) commissioners couldn't see fit to have a senior side out that part of town."
Asked whether a junior structure could have been established out at Raywood, Southcombe responded: "We've been trying to form a junior structure there.
"Our under-18s coach Ashy Matthews rang 80 to 90 kids and interviewed them over the past few weeks.
"We finished up on the first day with just 18 kids to play under-18 football."
The three-time Swallows premiership coach said he didn't think United would come back.
"The word ‘recess' is being used in the short term. The football club has a few, small debts to tidy up around Bendigo.
"They will run a few functions over the next three to four months to clear those debts. The word ‘recess' is being used while they've got those debts.
"I'd say once the debts are out of the way that will be the end of the Northern United Football Club."
And Southcombe's prophetic words rang true. The Swallows were never seen again, although a merged Calivil United Football Club in the Loddon Valley League came into existence later.
Calivil United continues to play the odd home game at the Swallows' former power base, Raywood.
OUT on the footy fields in mid-April 16 seasons ago, South Bendigo's Frank Burke played his 200th game for the Bloods.
After leading the Bloods onto the field, Burke was chaired off the QEO at the end of South's 23.18 (156) to 4.2 (26) annihilation of Eaglehawk.
Simon Rudd booted six majors for South and Stephen McMurray four.
Brad Day controlled the ruck battles while Shaun Leech, Ross and Wayne Maxted and Michael Easton controlled the midfield.
Darren Thompson and Tim Dingfelder were the only real contributors for the Two Blues.
At Wade Street, Tigers big men Terry Mangan and Nick Heath sparked Kyneton's second quarter six-goal blitz against Golden Square.
The two followers contributed three of the six goals themselves and had a hand in the others. Kyneton booted 6.3 to 1.4 to take a half-time stranglehold on the match.
Full-forward Wayne Eve led upfield to leave the two Tiger big men one-out with their Bulldogs opponents.
Tony Kelly banged home a memorable 50m running goal at the Maple Street end during the second quarter.
Square managed only another three goals for the day after the pouring rain swamped the Wade Street ground. The kick-off-the-ground technique was the surest ball use after the storm hit.
And the boundary umpire on the scoreboard side reached double figures for his third quarter throw-ins with the football frequently out of bounds on that wing --- now known as the Peter Moroni wing.
AT DOWER Park Kangaroo Flat had to battle hard to outlast Castlemaine by 19 points.
The Magpies led 8.7 to 7.8 at half-time, rotating Oliver and Stuey Annand between centre half-forward and full-forward with big man Mark Oxley controlling the ruck.
Then the Roos took charge in the rain, adding 7.11 to 3.2 to run out 19-point winners. Pitson booted four of his seven goals in the third term while Scott Coulson rebounded well off half-back and Mark Drill tagged dangerous Tom Kavanagh effectively.
Richard's Round 2 tips: Maryborough, Gisborne, South Bendigo, Golden Square and Castlemaine.
2012 running total: 5.
By Richard Jones