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NOT every inductee into the BFNL Hall of Fame has had VFL/AFL experience but there are quite a number who did have a spell in the big league.

Going back to the very first Induction in 1986 we had Greg Williams (Geelong/Sydney Swans/Carlton), Kevin Curran (Hawthorn), Alan Martin (Footscray) and Peter Pianto and Colin Rice (both Geelong).

Then there's Fred Swift (Richmond), Clive Philp (Hawthorn), Bob McCaskill (a coach at North Melbourne and Hawthorn after his BFL days were over), Graham Arthur (Hawthorn), Eddie Esposito (Melbourne), Wally Culpitt (Hawthorn) and Tony Southcombe (Carlton).

A pair of inductees with VFL savvy in the October 2014 Hall of Fame induction were Golden Square and Eaglehawk's John Ledwidge and Kyneton's Kevin Parks.

Parks had played 10 games for Essendon before he ventured to the Kyneton Showgrounds. He'd been recruited from Broadford (before that he'd played for Kilmore) in the then Waranga North East Football Association.

Broadford is now part of the Riddell District Footy League.
Ledwidge racked up 40 games with South Melbourne on his way to Golden Square in the then BFL.

Kevin Parks (Kyneton)
Kevin occupies a unique spot in the history of the Kyneton Football and Netball Club.
He's one of only three Tigers in the club's history to have played in three premierships.
Kevin's feats were achieved in 1960, 1961 and 1966.
During his seven seasons at the Kyneton Showgrounds Kevin played 139 matches, booted 170 goals and won the Tiger best and fairest awards in 1960 and 1962.
But his most significant personal achievement came in 1960 --- a Kyneton premiership year --- when he won the BFL's Michelsen Medal. He polled 19 votes.
An interesting side-bar to Kevin's career came in the 1963 second semi-final.
He kicked five goals --- four of them against the wind in the second quarter --- as Kyneton beat Rochester to earn first spot in the '63 grand final.
He was voted best afield by both Advertiser writers John Rice and Jim Elvey in that second semi.
However Rochy won the 1963 grand final: 16.22 (118) to Kyneton 10.14 (74).
Kevin was vice-captain of the BFL inter-league team which won the 1962 country championships at Horsham.
Final scores: Bendigo 18.17 (115) def. Wimmera 13.9 (87).
He was a regular inter-league representative for the BFL during his playing career with the Tigers.
And before his Kyneton career, it's significant to note Kevin had played 10 games for VFL powerhouse Essendon during the 1958-59 seasons.

John Ledwidge (Golden Square, Eaglehawk)
Arriving from VFL club South Melbourne, John played and coached in more than 450 Bendigo Football League games.
At both Golden Square and Eaglehawk he served as the senior playing coach.
Between 1959-65 he steered Golden Square to two BFL flags -- in 1964 and 1965.
He was the coach for the first five years of this period, stepping down as coach at the end of 1963 and captaining the side for the remaining two years.
In 1962 John coached Bendigo to the first ever Caltex Country Championships title and in 1968 was Eaglehawk's player-coach in the Two Blues' premiership.
After a stint with employment in the North Central League, John returned to coach Eaglehawk in 1970-71 and led the Hawks to the 1971 BFL flag
He coached Eaglehawk in two further stints: in 1978-79 (and was made a club life member and a BFL life member during this period) and again in 1991-1992.
The Two Blues made the preliminary finals in each of those four seasons.
He was installed as the Eaglehawk Football Club's Team of the Century coach at the club's 125th anniversary celebrations in 2005.
Overall John's BFL service spanned 28 seasons. He was captain for nine years, played in 185 BFL matches and coached 270: a staggering total of 455 senior BFL games. Four premierships were garnered during John's outstanding career.

Ron Wicks (Kangaroo Flat)

Ron's 392-game senior career kicked off in 1983 when he was 17. The Roos played YCW at Backhaus Oval that day.
He went on to play right through the Eighties and the Nineties and reached his senior 300-game milestone in a home game against Gisborne late in season 2001: 18 seasons later.
He won Kangaroo Flat's best and fairest awards five times --- in 1987, 1989, 1993, 1996 and again in 1998.
Season 1993 was especially memorable for Ron as not only did he win the club best and fairest but the league's premier individual award: the Michelsen medal.
Ron polled 24 votes to clinch the medal.
He played in Flat's one and only BFNL senior premiership side in 1996 and tied with flag-winning coach Simon Jorgensen that year in the club count.
The Roos hung on in a cliff-hanger to defeat Kyneton by one, straight kick in the 1996 grand final.
Ron was regularly selected as a wingman in the BFNL inter-league side during the late Eighties and early Nineties. He represented Bendigo in 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1993.
In 1989 Ron was a member of the Blue and Gold side which won the Division 1 country championship under coach Neville Strauch in a memorable victory over the Geelong league on the QEO.
He also played in the runner-up side to LaTrobe Valley at Morwell the following season.
Ron was inducted as a Kangaroo Flat life member in 2001 and also as a BFNL life member the same year. Late in the 2014 home and away season he was inducted into the Kangaroo Flat FNC inaugural Hall of Fame.

Harry Watts (South Bendigo, Castlemaine)
Centreman Harry played 201 games with South Bendigo and four as player-coach with Castlemaine.
He was out on the QEO playing in a quartet of grand finals for two premierships with the Bloods: in 1969 under coach Colin Rice and again in 1974 when Bernie McCarthy was at the helm.
Harry well remembers Rice's spell at South, as the former Geelong premiership player took the Bloods to three grand finals in succession.
South went down to Echuca and Eaglehawk in the 1967 and 1968 play-offs but triumphed over the Two Blues by three points in the tense '69 decider. Third time lucky, maybe!
Harry had started off as a 16-year-old in 1962 but didn't move into the pivot position until three or four seasons later.
He won six club best and fairest awards – two of them in premiership seasons -- during his decorated career with South Bendigo: in 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1973 and 1974.
He was installed as a Bloods' life member in 1970, represented the BFL on three occasions (against Ovens and Murray, Sunraysia and the North-East Waranga League) and in 1973 also turned out for a representative BFL side against a national Papua New Guinea side.
He mentioned to me during an interview leading up to the induction that he and his teammates knew that many of the PNG players often didn't wear boots during their games at home. But they pulled them on for their trip to the southern states!
An achilles tendon injury ruined Harry's season-and-a-half as player-coach at Castlemaine in 1976-77 and by 1979 he was back as playing coach with the Bloods, eventually handing over to Reg Gleeson at season's end.

Richard's tips for Round 13: Eaglehawk by 29 pts. (vs. Flat), Square by 41 pts. (vs. Gisborne), Strath Storm by 43 (vs. C'maine), Kyneton by 17 (vs. South) and Sandhurst by 67 (vs. Maryborough, @ QEO).
Season total in 2015: 47.

By Richard Jones