News
BFNL REWIND | Local footy broadcasters who've left their mark
News
BFNL REWIND | Local footy broadcasters who've left their mark
Published on:
05 November 2025
BY RICHARD JONES
There have been many football broadcasters with whom I've worked in 40-plus years covering Bendigo footy, but here I'll focus just on two.
They're Geoffrey Morris, who sadly passed away in March, 2013, and Father Jackson Saunders who's back in central Victoria after a few years in the Shepparton region.
All three of us worked together for a little while on Phoenix-FM and I called a Bendigo Pioneers game from Square's Wade Street oval one Sunday for Phoenix when Jackson was in Year 11 at Catholic College.
He reminded me yesterday that it was a 2008 match between the Pioneers and the Eastern Rangers and I recalled my wife Judyth and I had raced across western Victoria back to Bendigo after a food and wine weekend with Harcourt friends in the Grampians.
Jackson continued calling with Phoenix until mid-2012 when he crossed to Fresh-FM to call BFNL matches and other sports.
"I loved Phoenix but I wanted to pursue my interest in (regular) sports broadcasting and Fresh was the sports specialist station with more opportunities.
"So in mid-2012 I made the difficult decision to leave Phoenix and join Fresh-FM," he recalled.
"Wallace Teasdale, the station manager, welcomed me to Fresh-FM and we began a great friendship. There was also John Hunter, Joel Peterson, Jock Clark, Nick and Mike Lowther, Norm Jenkin and a heap of others ---- a good, strong team."
When he moved to Shepparton in 2022 Jackson joined ONE-FM and continued to call footy. He was an assistant priest for the Shepparton and Dookie regions.
And then this year Father Jackson returned to Fresh-FM when he was appointed assistant priest at Sacred Heart Cathedral as well as at St. Monica's, Kangaroo Flat and St. Joseph's, Quarry Hill.
Jackson took a little time out to recall how he got involved in local and district footy.
"As a kid living at Marong I loved footy. I listened to Rex Hunt's radio descriptions of AFL matches and that's where the buzz came from.
"I used to kick a footy around our paddock and imagined I was in an AFL match and described it to myself --- a great childhood memory.
"Now a Catholic priest I do feel my broadcasting experience has helped me. I'm called on to lead services and masses, conduct weddings, funerals and many other services.
"Public speaking is a huge part of that and my experience in radio has certainly helped me. In community radio I learnt how to communicate with people and it helps me to be a better communicator of the Gospels."
Jackson summed up his lifetime career paths very simply.
"I have continued to make friends and contacts in the media. It's not every day you come across a footy commentator who is also a priest."
Geoff Morris was a truly remarkable person. Blind from very early in life he lived a full and very interesting 70-plus years.
Footy was just one of his loves. He was a devoted bluegrass music fan and went to the USA a few times to pursue his passion, tracking down some of his favourite singers for one-on-one interviews for his radio sessions back home.
We co-presented footy shows on both 3CCC and Phoenix-FM. Back in those 90-minute Saturday morning 3CCC shows Geoff had one strict rule.
BFL and other district footy leagues only. No AFL talk. "The AFL has zillions of other outlets, so we're not here to add to its almighty coverage," he used to say.
One young Addy reporter learnt this rule the hard way. One Saturday his call was put through and he wanted to tell me two things: Geelong had lost the night before and North Melbourne was odds-on favourite to win its match that afternoon.
"Thank you for your call," Geoffrey said abruptly. "We're here to talk BFL footy --- have you anything to predict about today's matches: the winners, perhaps."
We heard an immediate loud clicking as the Addy scribe hung up and we continued with our predictions, injury updates and assessments of who'd kick the most goals that afternoon.
Anthony Hudson was a reasonably regular Saturday morning guest. After the 90-minute show had wound up I'd offer him a lift home.
I knew Huddo was a Year 11 or Year 12 Bendigo Secondary student.
But it wasn't until I walked out the back of the old Fire Station studio one Saturday that I saw Huddo mounting his pushbike. Apparently he'd ridden it from home up View Street.
Of course Geoff was also a social counsellor as he'd studied law and social work at Melbourne University and had worked at the Austin Hospital in Melbourne.
I never, ever intruded on his counselling work so if we were talking on our mobile phones and a message came in for Geoff concerning a person needing urgent care I'd hang up and we'd resume our talk the next day.
He died on 5 March 2013 aged just 72. I actually had a brief chat with him on his final ambulance trip to Bendigo Hospital. Geoff was very agitated, naturally enough, so we only spoke a few brief words.
A municipal memorial service was held for him in the Bendigo Town Hall in March, 2013. It was very sad for all of us who'd spent years and years broadcasting footy and other activities with him on radio.
But we stuck it out --- the service, that is --- and said our final goodbyes to a remarkable man.
[More on regional footy broadcasters in a later BFNL article]
