KENNINGTON, which later played in the BFL as Kennington-Strathdale, won an important premiership in Melbourne’s Olympic year 60 seasons ago.

The Green and Golds who once went under the iconic nickname of the Parakeets defeated YCW by 17 points on October 8th 1956 to clinch the Bendigo Football Association flag.
Kennington enjoyed a chequered history, up and down from the BFL to the BFA which later morphed into the Golden City Football League. Its BFL stints came quite a few decades after the ’56 flag, however.
But where did Kennington come from and who were the founding figures in its history?
Well, the club was formed 80 years ago in 1936 when Jim Keating and the Pritchard brothers, who were town businessmen, held a meeting with interested sports people. This was in a room above Ashman’s clothing store then sited in Hargreaves Street.
The old St. Kilians club had disbanded which allowed the new Kennington entity to take over the Saints’ green and gold guernsey colours.
There’d been a fair bit of enthusiasm about a new club, an interesting fact considering the planet was in the grip of the world-wide Depression in the Thirties.
The new club’s debut in the 1937 season was against 1936 premiers CYMS. Captain-coach was Chris Mani, a product of the now defunct St. Kilians, president was Jim Keating and club secretary was Bert Moller.
But it wasn’t going to be an easy transition into the BFA ranks.

WAITING for the brand new Kennington club’s players out on the playing surface were the Mathews brothers, proprietor of a Bendigo city drapery firm, and a batch of police constables.
The Mathews’ brothers were determined to confiscate the Kennington guernseys as they alleged the ex-St. Kilians officials had not paid for them.
After a bit of argy-bargy and some excellent negotiating from president Keating and his fellow club officials, Kennington’s players were permitted to keep their old and very patched-up jumpers.
The truce arranged with the Mathews included the clause that Kennington would purchase their new jumpers for 1937 from the firm.
So eventually the Rd. 1 fixture went ahead.
It was a close and hard-fought contest with CYMS ahead by just five points at three-quarter time: 7.12 to Kennington’s 7.7.
In the final term the favoured side burst away, booting five goals to three to win --– 12.15 (87) to 10.9 (69).
Ripper and Mooney were the standout players for the Kennington in the club’s first game and the side looked ahead to Round 2 and their first-ever clash against South Bendigo.
The South side was what we’d call the ‘Reserves’ or ‘Twos’ in the 21st century as the Bloods’ firsts were always an important cog in the top tier BFL.
And although Bower snagged five goals for the Green and Golds, South ran away with the Round 2 match winning 22.17 (149) to 10.11 (71).

AS I’VE mentioned at the start of this article the Depression had bitten families really hard.
Consequently a number of players in the two Bendigo footy competitions were nomads constantly searching for jobs. So a pound or two or even 10 shillings – if you could get it -- for playing footy was a valuable fillip to a family’s income.
Add to that the fact that the Pritchards were well-known businessmen in Bendigo so there was an extra reason to sign on for Kennington.
Men desperate for money to feed their families ended up with Kennington --- and the Pritchards. There were employment wages and money for playing footy available if you could snag a job plus a spot in the footy side.
Players such as Len Lindrea, Vern McDonald, the Woolley brothers, the Muirs and Andy Ranger all ended up in the Green and Gold.
One of the most notable on Kennington’s early lists was ‘Cracker’ Knight who went on to play with Collingwood in the then VFL.
And one of the first life members was Mrs. Kate Gildea who served as the club gatekeeper for many seasons.
But there’s no doubt the highpoint for Kennington in its short and reasonably stormy career --- don’t forget the 1993 walk-off at Maryborough by the Saints as they were then known --- was the success in 1956, the year of the Melbourne Olympics.
It was the very first time an Olympic Games had been held in the southern hemisphere. And 60 years before the Rio Olympics were eventually staged.

THE club had to overcome a significant hoodoo in order to account for old nemesis YCW in the QEO grand final.
Like their opponents in the season decider Kennington had proved to be one of the most consistent teams in the BFA competition but had nothing to show for that consistency.
Straight after World War 2 YCW had played off in five grand finals and had claimed four premierships.
Kennington on the other hand had contested three grand finals. These had been the 1950, 1952 and ’54 big dances with YCW winning one of them and White Hills the other two.
The Green and Golds had lost by heart-breaking three and six-point margins while the other grand final loss had been by a more substantial 45 points.
So it remained to be seen how bold a showing Kennington could put up in its fourth try in seven years to take home the coveted premiership.
Following a costly loss to 1956’s bottom side White Hills Kennington had to win six games on end, including fixtures against some of the clubs in the Top Four, just to make the finals.
They managed this feat and going into the grand final could boast two successive home and away round victories over YCW with all matches played on the joint home ground for the two clubs --- the Neale Street oval.
The big game was played on October 8th. This might seem to modern eyes to be an out-of-kilter date but in the 1940s and 1950s seasons often didn’t start until May, meaning the last week or two of the finals series always spilled over into October.
Odd to we footy followers these days, used to an April start and finals through September.
Even so early October 60 years ago was like mid-winter with water lying in puddles and mini-lakes across the QEO while intermittent showers lashed the big crowd as rain squalls swept across inner Bendigo.

ONLY a single point separated the two grand final sides by the long interval with YCW ahead by a single point: 4.3 to 4.2.
Back came the Green and Golds in the third term with Jack Hargreaves landing three of his five goals for the day in the ‘premiership quarter’.
One of his three majors would have earned a goal-of-the-day accolade in later decades as he snapped accurately from deep in the One Eye Pocket at the Barnard Street end.
With Kennington ahead by 16 points, the final quarter turned into a slog in the slushy and physically draining conditions.
A 20-minute period went by without a single behind being registered. Finally the deadlock was broken although Keating and Mulqueen were off-line with their shots for YCW.
Then Kennington’s inspirational Hargreaves, lying on the deck, soccered through his fifth goal to give the Green and Golds an unbeatable lead.
Nineteenth man Stan Ross marked and goaled from an acute angle to ice the game for Kennington and even though YCW captain-coach Chalkley steered through YCW’s sixth goal after the siren it served just to reduce the final margin to 17 points.

THE grand final winning team
B: Ron Nalder, Ron Woolley, Paddy Hopley.
Hb: Peter Floyd, John Hamill, Neville Johnston.
C: Bruce Jones, Ken Johnson, Rex Nancarrow.
Hf: Eric Nalder, Alan Somerville, Ken Mannix.
F: Graeme Worme, Jack Hargreaves, Kevin Boucher.
Rucks: Bill Caldwell, John Fearn.
Rover: Alan Nalder.
19th and 20th men: Stan Ross, Fred Woolley.
Hargreaves finished the 1956 season with 72 goals to take out the BFA goalkicking award.
He’d nailed 57 majors in the home and away rounds and a further 15 in the finals: four in the first semi, six in the preliminary and a match-defining five goals in the grand final.
Final scores: Kennington 9.7 (61) def. YCW 6.8 (44). Gate takings £354, a Bendigo Football Association record.

IN THE Bendigo Football League South Bendigo won their fifth flag in seven seasons --- three on the trot, if you don’t mind, from 1954-56 inclusive --- under the astute direction of super coach Alan “The Fox” McDonald.
The final scores in their third consecutive victory: South 10.19 (79) def. Eaglehawk 9.15 (69).
The Hawks, under playing coach and Two Blues’ Team of the Century member Basil Ashman, made amends in 1957 downing the Kyneton Tigers by 30 points in the BFL’s Big Dance.

With thanks to historian and one-time broadcasting colleague Peter Harrick for use of material published in his book – ‘Kennington: Olympic Premiers 1956’.
Richard’s preliminary final tip: Golden Square by 23 points over Eaglehawk.
Season tally for 2016: 74. Correct in 2016 finals so far: 4 out of four.

By Richard Jones