Coaches Who Stamped Their Marks on BFNL Footy
In the four-and-a-half decades I’ve been broadcasting and writing about senior BFNL footy there’s been some prickly relationships with some coaches.
Of course here in the Bendigo league there’s also been some remarkable figures I’ve interviewed.
Clearly success is ranked by the number of premierships a mentor garners for his club, but I’ve found some memorable people without a single flag to their names who have left lasting impressions with me.
Among them are Robert Ross (Kangaroo Flat), Malcolm Stevens (Castlemaine), Leon Grose (Sth. Bendigo) and Christian Carter (Golden Square) although, just as a player, Carter has been a vital part of Square premiership teams.
So here are my First Five.
Derrick Filo (Kyneton, Kangaroo Flat, Eaglehawk): when he was a playing skipper at Castlemaine I never thought of ‘Dekka’ as a senior coach.
Admittedly he had captained the Magpies to their 1992 premiership, but it wasn’t until he returned to the BFNL from Balranald to coach the Kyneton Tigers that Filo’s leadership really blossomed.
He led the Tigers to their great 1995 and 1997 flags --- and a narrow six-point loss to Kangaroo Flat, in between, in 1996 --- and then revitalised the Roos as the Noughties dawned.
Unable to counter powerful Gisborne sides in the early seasons when he moved to Eaglehawk Filo galvanised the Two Blues to their dramatic two-point flag win over the Graveyard Dogs in 2007: 12.12 to 12.10.
Filo was again at the helm when the Hawks won the 2008 flag, once more by a single kick: Eaglehawk 14.11 (95) def. Golden Square 12.17 (89).
Dekka later went on to coach a far less powerful Castlemaine side before handing over to his brother Shawn, but at least he was home on Camp Reserve turf.
Brian Walsh (Sandhurst, Golden Square): Walshie was another returning central Victorian identity, but also with experience at VFL/AFL levels where he’d racked up 115 games (211 goals) with Carlton and Essendon.
The 1969 Michelsen Medal winner, Walsh started out his coaching career with his old club Sandhurst, but the Dragons just couldn’t get over the line in 1985 against the all-powerful Northern United and went down by five goals.
Walsh had the last laugh, however.
Now at Golden Square his Bulldogs ended the Swallows’ run with a 14-point 1988 grand final win: 10.13 to 8.11.
Walsh made it a double as Square downed the Peter Bradbury-coached South Bendigo in 1989 with a three-goal victory.
But his greatest moment was yet to come.
Re-appointed in the summer of 2000-01, Walsh’s Square took home another BFNL senior flag, emerging from the elimination final to win at each of their four finals outings.
It was a 14-point grand final win over Sandhurst, 14.11 to 12.9, 22 years ago (in 2001) as Walshie’s side became the first BFNL senior club of the modern era to win a premiership from the first weekend of the play-offs: the sudden death elimination final.
Tony Southcombe (Golden Square, Northern United): dual winner of the Michelsen medals in the 1972 and ’75 seasons ‘Bluey’ played in the Square premiership teams in both years.
Then it was as a playing coach that Southcombe stamped an enduring mark on BFNL history.
After going down by three points to Sandhurst in the 1978 play-off --- 19.10 (124) to Square’s 18.13 (121) --- Bluey’s 1979 side was never going to lose.
I watched long-time and fervent Hurst supporters walking out of the QEO straight after three-quarter time as the Bulldogs crushed the Dragons: 21.14 to 8.15.
Southcombe’s crowning achievements were still to come. He steered fledgling major league club Northern United to three successive BFL flags in 1984-85-86.
He was still there as an on-field player and tap ruckman with Brendan Mason as the new playing coach with the Swallows making it four-in-a-row in 1987.
Along with recruiting whizzes ‘Truthful’ Terry Mangan and John ‘Mulla’ Mulqueen Bluey assembled an ace United side: Ron Best, Garry Mountjoy, Gavin Exell, Ron Couchman, Rod Lea, Murray Osborne, Leon Holt and Dave ‘The Painter’ Wharton.
Although it’s not a BFNL club Southcombe also had more coaching success taking Elmore to a Heathcote DFNL flag after his BFNL triumphs.
Denis Higgins (Eaglehawk, South Bendigo): I’ve seen, and reported on, some terrific BFNL footy grand finals, but none surpass the 1980 play-off.
Eaglehawk, under Higgins’ astute leadership as the playing coach, hung on to win by two points over Golden Square: 17.20 (122) to 19.6 (120).
But he wasn’t over-impressed at match-end with the media panel anointing Dogs’ on-baller Daryl Salmon as best afield and winner of the Nalder Medal.
At the after-match presentations, the Hawks’ coach made it clear he thought Eaglehawk ruckman-defender Gary Addlem was more deserving of the medal.
Still, Higgins and his elated teammates had the last laugh --- they had the premiership Bendigo Advertiser Cup in their keeping.
And like a lot of other leading BFNL players of the era Higgins was also a consummate inter-league player.
He kicked the winning goal for the Blue and Golds in a Division 1 country championships semi-final.
Bendigo downed Wimmera by less than a kick on the back of Higgins’ major.
There were only a couple of minutes left to play.
Billy Barham (Kyneton): now although Bill didn’t lead the Tigers to a flag he’s in that category I mentioned in the introduction: a memorable coach.
Perhaps just as much to we outsiders as to the club’s selectors and other insiders.
Bill followed legendary player-coach Clive Philp’s mantra of “us and them” and the ‘How Dare We Fail’ motto and instilled in his Tiger playing group a desperate desire to win.
I’ll never forget a typical freezing winter Saturday at the Kyneton Showgrounds with Billy huddled with his players at three-quarter time --- with the sleet bucketing in sideways.
Billy was frantically waving his arms indicating to his players which wing of the Showgrounds they should use to get the ball inside 50m.
His sons Marcus and Jordan were senior premiership players with Gisborne in the Noughties, with playing coach Marcus instrumental in the Dogs’ 2005 and 2006 flags.
Jordan was the Ron Best goal kicking medal winner in 2008 with 75 majors.
Bill’s consummate knowledge about the transformation in the way Aussie Rules footy has changed down the decades, with far more use of handballs, must have been invaluable to Marcus as he led the Graveyard Dogs to those two senior flags.
Still to come: John Ledwidge (Square, Eaglehawk), Darryl Wilson (early at Kang. Flat and then triple flag winner at Strath Storm), Leon Grose (South Bendigo), Robert Ross (Kang. Flat) and Malcolm Stevens (Castlemaine).
