I’VE known John Forbes since the late Seventies when he was the heart and soul of the Loddon Valley Football League.

In those days hard copy previews and match-by-match summaries of district leagues were conveyed to the Bendigo Advertiser by bus or private car or, in the case of the MCDFL, by passenger train on Sunday afternoons.

Forbesy’s wraps and previews of the LVFL would always arrive in time for Wednesday’s full-page weekly summaries of the regional leagues and for Friday’s Addy previews.
And then by the early Nineties a few of us started tripping down the Calder Highway to Keilor, the northern metropolitan suburb where John and Fay lived at that time.
The last day in September was the date we all had pencilled in our hard-copy diaries --- no iPhones back then --- because Forbesy (as national promotions manager with Puma) had snaffled AFL grand final passes for our group.

So following the Friday night assembly, the quaffing of a few cooling ales and even a viewing of some of Channel Seven’s all night telethons re-running great grannies of the past it was time for a bit of shut-eye.

We were all up bright and early on Saturday mornings because we had to attend a grand final brekkie. Of course.
A few of the central Victorian lads fancied a flutter at one of the nearby pokies before we sat down to the breakfast.
And there’s one, in particular, which has stuck in my memory.

Not so much for the quality of the eggs and bacon and the bangers because they were always good.

But for the sight I could see out a side window. There on the grass not far from the breakfast venue were the West Coast Eagles going through some mid-morning warm-up drills with coach Mick Malthouse.

“Is this a good omen or a bad omen?” was the question flicking through my brain.

Because just a few short hours later my beloved Geelong Cats would be taking on these accursed Weagles in front of a massive MCG crowd.

WHEN I think back it must have been the 1994 grand final breakfast we were all at.
The same two clubs had played off in 1992, it’s true, but I don’t believe I had the same portent of doom hovering over me.
Forbesy tried to put everything into context. He said sides that looked good on the grass outside a breakfast venue before midday on grand final day didn’t necessarily win AFL premierships.
So those two were hard enough to get through: the 1992 and 1994 deciders.
But the worst of all was the 1995 grand final. Everything was fine at Forbesy’s place, the breakfast went well but then Carlton demolished the Catters by 10 goals in the Big Dance.
To make it worse Gary Ablett sen. didn’t fire a shot the whole afternoon. ‘Sos’ Silvagni shut him down.
Back to an inner city Flemington Road hotel/motel for the after-match and there were some very smart-arse BlueBag supporters waiting.
After a few extremely barbed comments it was Forbesy who stepped into the breach and called a halt to the verbal sparring.
“Richard’s had a bad afternoon. Don’t make his evening a misery as well,” were his well chosen words of advice.
Chastened, the Carlton faithful stared into their drinks and muttered among themselves. Mind you, I haven’t heard a single peep out of those BlueBaggers since the Catters took out the 2007-09-11 flags!

AND AS I’ve pointed out John and I go back a long way in central Victorian footy circles.
A while back as we were de-cluttering our old house prior to moving into a spanking new smaller abode I found a footy snap or three taken at a Loddon Valley ground.
There perched on a truck were John and I alongside the doyen of local footy callers: the late, great Dick Turner of 3BO fame.
I thought it must have a LVFL big dance from the mid-80s. Dick passed away in 1988.
But it wasn’t. John told me recently it was an inter-league game Loddon Valley vs. Golden City (Div. 2 of the old BGCFL from 1981 or ‘82), and yes, it was played at Newbridge.
Dick and I called the action out on the grassy deck while John provided the special comments. Flat-bodied farm trucks were all the go back in the day for local footy broadcasts so we were perched on the tray.
All the 3BO panel controls, notebooks, radio headsets, Elvee programmes and pens and pencils were on the tables in front and to the sides of us.
“I’ll call the board,” thundered Dick as he informed the listeners --- not to mention people clustered on their deckchairs near the truck --- who was in front and the margin between the two competing leagues.

AT HALF-TIME and straight after the final siren Forbesy clambered down from the truck, roving microphone in hand, to grab some pertinent comments from coaches or captains or even a prominent player of two.
At the end of the game seemingly from out of nowhere another truck would appear, headed for the dead centre of the oval.
It was the platform for all of the after-match presentations and speeches.
Forbesy would be up on that truck, having deserted Dick and I, making more than one single speech and presenting the Players of the Day with their inter-league medals.
It would never have been a Loddon Valley inter-league occasion or indeed a grand final --- let alone a Harding Medal best and fairest count --- without a presentation or three from the inimitable Johnny Forbes.

HIS 60th birthday bash was another memorable occasion.
Not a swish pub or a mansion converted into a special events venue for Forbesy.
No, his 60th was conducted in some style at the Essendon Airport departure lounge, where guests could go outside carrying drinks and nibbles and watch the light planes based at that airfield landing and taking off.
It was late October, 2001. Actually October 21st, I’ve since been informed.
Among the notable speakers were John’s old Puma Australia boss, Olympic Games gold medallist Herb Elliott.
Now I don’t know of anyone else, personally that is, who’s had an Olympic athlete --- and an Australian sports icon at that --- speak at their birthday bash.
John, of course, had been an unmistakeable figure as national promotions manager for Puma from 1986.
So Herb spoke at the birthday occasion along with family members and friends. Plus there were two other notable speech-makers.
Former Collingwood president the inimitable Allan McAlister and Ian Dicker, later to be the supremo at Hawthorn, also had their say.

OF course there are the regular and ongoing Friday night dinners at the Kangaroo Flat Sports Club.
John gathers together a disparate group of diners, men and women, who talk about many topics although footy’s not all that popular among the women attendees it has to be said.
Nonetheless Forbesy, Norm Quin, Ken Ludeman and occasionally ‘Truthful’ Terry Mangles and I would reminisce about the old days in Bendigo and district footy.
John recalled one night how Inglewood had been a foundation member of the VFA. Yep, the famous old Victorian Football Association formed long before the VFL was even thought of.
Port Melbourne and Williamstown are the only clubs still going around from the former VFA while Inglewood was an 1877 VFA foundation club: North-West Division.
The heritage Melbourne Football Club visited Inglewood in 1877 and played a match there. Carlton visited two years later in 1879 for a game.
Remember, it wasn’t until 1897 that the VFL (forerunner of the now national AFL) with its eight competing clubs got under way.
Richmond didn’t front up in the VFL until 1908 and North Melbourne, Hawthorn and Footscray not until 1925.
Those latter three from the VFA. Plus the Swans were known as South Melbourne back in the day.
By 1903 Inglewood was a foundation member of the Loddon Valley Footy League and won the inaugural premiership.
As the former editor of the weekly LVFL Elvee footy record, John has re-lived many stirring clashes between the present day Blues of Inglewood (the town where I was born) and his beloved Mitiamo Superoos.
FOOTNOTE: On Friday May 5th Judyth and I were lucky enough to attend a Rochester Lions Club Centenary project to raise funds so that a museum to house Forbesy’s massive memorabilia collection could be established.
Memorabilia from basketballers, AFL players, athletes, tennis players, administrators of every hue and colour and even stuff from the NFL: or gridiron as some Aussies love to call the USA’s favourite sport, one of my faves as well.

Round 6 BFNL selections: Strath Storm, Kyneton, Sandhurst, G. Square and Eaglehawk (Sunday).

By Richard Jones