Maine seethes over 1992 BFL player probe
Tensions were high at the Castlemaine Football Club in mid-June 1992 over a BFL investigation into one of their players.
Magpies’ reserves player Chris Bishop had just been cleared by the BFL Tribunal on a conduct unbecoming charge concerning a match played many weeks earlier – on April 18th.
The charge related to an incident which occurred in the Kennington vs. Castlemaine game where 25-year old Saint Sean Cummings suffered a broken jaw.
So why had it taken so many weeks for the charge against Bishop to come up?
Well, BFL investigation officer Bob Richards did his probe into the affair and lodged a report with the BFL board of management.
Apparently it had taken until June for that report to be finalised.
Bishop was unaware that Richards’ eventual charge had even been laid or that he’d been investigated.
“The only way I found out about it was when I read the June 4th Advertiser,” he said.
“I’d heard rumours that something might be afoot, but nothing official. It was all hearsay.”
Although he’d not been suspended following that June marathon sitting it’s amazing that Bishop had only found out about the upcoming June 9th pending investigation by reading the Advertiser.
He remained completely astonished that he’d only heard about the lodged charge one week before the hearing was to be held, especially since the media already knew about the date.
“I’m thinking about lodging a complaint, but I wouldn’t like to say too much (in an interview) until I’ve had a chance to talk to my club,” he said.
Bishop added it was “hard to believe” that he had to read about his upcoming tribunal hearing before being informed by the league or someone from the Tribunal.
“I received a letter telling me of the charge the day after it appeared in the paper. I was completely surprised it had even got to that stage.
“As far as I’m concerned I’ve done nothing wrong,” he told me as I prepared the back page story.
Bishop declared that the eight-week delay between the match and the charge made getting his tribunal defence together extremely difficult.
The Castlemaine player, who worked for Telecom, said he was “very annoyed” about having to take a day off work to prepare for the tribunal hearing, especially since he had just seven days to try and recollect the whole thing and “put my case together.”
Castlemaine president Ian Shelton said the league had made “a serious mistake.”
“The amount of time which has elapsed since the incident did not match the seriousness of the charge.
“Chris is a decent lad with no (Tribunal) history and if you knew him then you’d know the incident occurred with no malice whatsoever.”
Mr Shelton agreed with Bishop that the charge of ‘conduct unbecoming’ remained a slur on a person’s character.
“And we should have been notified by either the league or the Tribunal and not have to read about it in the paper.”
BFL president Rod Fulton agreed the whole incident “was unfortunate”, but added the league was in no way obliged to tell players they were being investigated.
“It’s not as black and white as it sounds. There were extenuating circumstances.
“But maybe we gave the story to the media too soon and I’ve apologised to Ian and his club for that,” Mr Fulton said.
So, in summary --- Castlemaine Twos player Chris Bishop was cleared on a conduct unbecoming charge, the charge laid by BFL investigations officer Bob Richards.
Mr. Richards lodged his report eight weeks after the match involving Bishop had been played, and league boss Rod Fulton agreed the timing was unfortunate and apologised to Maine president Ian Shelton.
The Magpies’ boss emphasised the league had made “a serious mistake.”
Luckily these days there’s very few Tribunal hearings. I used to spend many a winter Monday night in the 1980s and 90s taking notes at Tribunal hearings in the old admin. rooms at Weeroona Oval.
I could leave the hearings at 11.30 pm, drive back to the Addy office in Pall Mall composing my report in my head during the short journey, type up the story and the wrap would still be printed in the Tuesday’s Addy, on the back page.
When computerisation with its green screens came in a few years later, deadlines were much, much earlier strangely enough and Tribunal hearings wrap-ups had to wait for Wednesday’s papers.
And also in mid-June 1992 eight BFL players were selected in the Victorian Football Development Foundation under-17 Teal Cup training squad.
They were Maryborough’s Matthew Aston and Glen Gorman, Kangaroo Flat’s Nathan Chapman, South Bendigo’s Leigh Colbert, Dylan Flavell and Adam Shanahan, Golden Square’s Tony Plim and Sandhurst’s Paul Sexton.
If some of these names sound familiar to you, they should.
Colbert and Chapman both played AFL footy --- Colbert 105 games with Geelong and 104 for North Melbourne (209 total) and Chapman 76 games with the then Brisbane Bears and Hawthorn --- while Aston was the Michelsen Medallist in 2002.
The 25-strong squad was set to train at Square’s Wade Street Oval on June 14th (a Sunday) before the squad’s numbers were trimmed down.
On to mid-March 1995 and the BFL’s night pre-season series was well under way.
In that March second round of matches, Castlemaine was matched up against Kangaroo Flat in the 8.30 pm late game.
Roos coach Robert Ross was confident the additions to his senior playing list were going to work well in ’95.
Bond, a new recruit from South Launceston, would be playing at centre half-forward Ross told me in a pre-match interview.
The Tassie recruit had played under former Richmond premiership rover Dale Weightman, the South Launceston coach.
And he’d added extra height with Matthew Ritchie, along with former Maine premiership ruckman David Cox, both at Dower Park for 1995.
“Lack of height told against us last season when we finished sixth,” Ross said.
Castlemaine had champion full-forward Steven Oliver as playing coach in 1995 so he was coming up against a flag-winning Magpie teammate in Cox.
With Cox right there in the Pies grand final winning side Ollie had booted 146 majors for Castlemaine in their flag-winning year of 1992.
He’d play either at full-forward or centre half-forward during 1995 he told me in a pre-match interview.
The early night match that week pitted league powerhouses Golden Square and Eaglehawk in a big clash.
It was going to be a major test for Two Blues coach Robert O’Connell as his side came up against 1994 grand finalist Square.
One interesting sidelight which I’d completely forgotten about concerned defender or midfielder Bert McIvor.
I clearly remember him playing for Eaglehawk in the Eighties against Northern United in some stirring grand finals, yet in 1995 he wanted to depart Square to play for Loddon Valley club Newbridge.
Some things stick in your memory yet McIvor’s ’95 situation had completely slipped in mine.
With many credits with Square’s under-18 sides to his name, new senior coach John Fisher had to mould a competitive top-ranked side.
One interesting sidelight to the early part of the looming 1995 season was the naming of netball legend Pam Schepers to the league’s board of management.
Under the terms of the BFL’s business plan the board needed to include a full voting netball representative.
So it was Pam Schepers who took up that position on the board of management.
Richard’s 2024 tips:
- Top Five: Sandhurst, Gisborne, Eaglehawk, South Bendigo, Golden Square.
- Grand final: Sandhurst vs. Gisborne.
- Michelsen Medal: Fergus Greene (Sandhurst).
- Ron Best Medal: Brock Harvey (South Bendigo).
- Big Improver: Castlemaine.
- Big slider: Strath Storm.
- Spoon: Maryborough.
