LAST October's Hall of fame induction of 10 Bendigo footy legends was a crowd pleaser in more ways than one.

To see the genuine pleasure on the faces of the families and friends of Ron McHardy, John Ledwidge and Kevin Parks was truly memorable.

Not that the other inductees weren't equally as worthy as that esteemed trio. It's just that McHardy, 91, along with Ledwidge, 80, and Parks (who turns 80 this year) were among the oldest attendees at the packed BFNL function.

Let's have a look at the achievements of some of the 2014 Hall of Famers, the first of a series of articles for the 2015 Bendigo FNL Record.

Phil Byrne
(Golden Square, Kennington-Strathdale, Eaglehawk, Kangaroo Flat, South Bendigo)

PHIL enjoyed a stellar career of 250 senior games which included two premierships and a host of inter-league appearances including captaining the Blue and Gold.
Then there were a string of goal-kicking and best and fairest awards garnered along the way.
He started off with Golden Square in 1971 before moving to Kennington-Strathdale, captaining the Cockerels in the 1974 season.

A shift to Eaglehawk saw Phil involved in the 1980 and 1982 premiership teams --- the 1982 victory being especially memorable as Phil was the club captain-coach and, memorably, the Hawks lost just the one game for the season.

Phil served as Kangaroo Flat captain-coach in 1984, the same season he skippered the Bendigo inter-league team.
He was named the BFL Player of the Year in 1985 and was selected in the league's All Star teams of 1981-1982-1983-1985.

Captaining the Blue and Gold inter-league sides in 1982-83-84 were highlights of his career but he also represented Bendigo in 1973-1977-1978-1980 and in 1981.
He won two club best and fairest awards at Kennington and was named on a half-back flank in the club's Best Team in History.

Phil topped the goal-kicking twice at Eaglehawk and once at South Bendigo, and was voted the Bloods' best and fairest in 1985.

Gary Evans (Eaglehawk, YCW, Northern United)

GARY started as a 17-year-old at Eaglehawk and racked up 174 senior games for the Two Blues.
Prime among his achievements at Canterbury Park was the 1980 centenary year premiership and in the club best and fairest count that season he finished runner-up to Tom Devlin: by a single vote.
He played eight finals games for the Hawks for a premiership, a runners-up and a preliminary final appearance.

He moved to YCW for the 1982 season and the Eagles won the new Bendigo Golden City Football League's Division 2 flag with victory over North Bendigo. YCW had come from fourth place to snatch the flag and used 10 under-18 players in the premiership side.
The home-and-away season was long in the early Eighties, especially in 1983 when 12 clubs contested a consolidated single division.

On to Northern United for the start of '84 where Gary was a pivotal, hard-running member of the Swallows' four, consecutive BFL flags: in 1984, 1985, 1986 and 1987.
He was named in the Swallows' best in that ground-breaking 1984 victory with his pace and anticipation a key ingredient for Northern United during his five seasons at United.
He retired after the Swallows 1989 grand final loss to the Square.
Gary played 15 inter-league matches for Bendigo and his BFNL games tally stands at 303 -– 174 with Eaglehawk, 35 in two seasons at YCW and 94 with Northern United.

Ron McHardy (Golden Square)
RON played more than 200 games for the Square, completing his years of service to the Wade Street club in 1960 when he was 36.

He played in three grand finals for the Square, but unfortunately none of those sides could sneak over the line on the last day of the season.

Ron ran onto the field as a rover and centreman early in his career and although, as he says himself, he might have been considered by selectors and supporters as "a bit short'' he was the club's centre half-forward towards the end of his career.

He played three inter-league games for the BFL even though in Ron's era representative games were a bit of a rarity.

VFL club Footscray, Mildura (or the Sunraysia as we know it today) and Ballarat were the sides Ron played against for the BFL.

It's taken for granted these days but Ron's ability to use the football on both sides of his body was exceptional in the immediate post-war years.
Drop kicks and stab passes were the order of the day in the Forties and the Fifties and Ron could use either left or right foot to deliver the ball to teammates.

As far as individual honours were concerned Ron won Golden Square's best and fairest award twice --- the second near the end of his playing days when he was 34.
But his most significant personal milestone came in 1947 when he tied for the T.R. Davies Medal: the forerunner to the league's current day Michelsen Medal.

He also finished third that season in the league goal-kicking award won by Vin Kelly of Rochester.
Ron and three other players could not be separated at the completion of the 1947 Davies Medal count --- his Golden Square teammate Doug Wilson, Rochester's Herb Zegelin and Sandhurst's Bill White.

Popularly known as 'Hank', Ron was made a life member of the Golden Square Football Club in 1958. He still regularly attends Square games.

Steve McKerrow (Kennington-Strathdale, Sandhurst, Kangaroo Flat)
WHEN he first moved to Bendigo in the mid-1970s from the Woorinen club in the Swan Hill region, Steve was handed a BFL executive ultimatum.

Play for Kennington-Strathdale while you're at Teachers' College or don't play BFL at all.
So he played 85 matches in five seasons for Kennington with his designated club winning just five times during that period.

He moved to Sandhurst for the 1979 and 1980 seasons where his uncanny goalkicking ability was better utilized.

He'd topped the Kennington goalkicking table in each of his five years there, but with the Maroons he notched 100 goals.

Going into the 1979 grand final on 99 goals he managed to pop through a couple despite a monumental loss to Tony Southcombe's rampaging Golden Square.
Steve had a late start to the 1980 season because of pennant tennis commitments, which stretched into he autumn. But in one staggering stretch of the BFL season he leapt to 100 goals in just 11 games.

In one memorable burst of four matches Steve bagged 50 goals. It could have been more as on a fine sunny day against South Bendigo in the middle of the four-game blitz he kicked 11.11.
He reached the 'ton' with eight majors against Castlemaine and another eight during the finals meant Steve finished the 1980 season with 109 goals.

By 1981 he was playing with Kangaroo Flat in the new Bendigo Golden City F.L. divisional structure and kicked 107 goals during the home-and-away round, plus seven more in the finals.
The Roos won Division 2 by one, straight kick over Northern United and Steve went on to play out his career at the Flat. He coached the Reserves towards the end of his 200-game BFL career which ended in 1990.

He represented Bendigo more than a dozen times playing as a forward pocket or deep half-forward in the era when Ron Best was the automatic choice as the BFL spearhead.

Richard's tips for Round 2: Kang. Flat by 21, Gisborne by 37, G. Square by 30, Strath Storm by 19 and Sandhurst by 28.
2015 season tally: 4.

By Richard Jones