Anyone who has followed the BFNL for any length of time would have seen Steven Oliver and watched his prodigious goal-kicking feats.
Now I’ve penned previous articles about Ollie, but the man’s immense ability, super long-kicking skills and creativity around the goalmouth deserves more than two or three stories.
He’s only the second full-forward after Ron Best to have booted 1,000-plus BFNL majors
And must rate as a certainty to eventually make the BFNL’s Legends list. He’s already a Hall of Famer.
But back to his early days as a footballer. As a teenager Steven gave the city a shot.
He went down to give the Carlton pre-season a try-out. But not long afterwards he injured his back while playing for the State under-17 cricket side of which he was the captain.
So that stress fracture meant his pre-season with the Blues was spent in the pool and he became fed-up and returned to the Maine.
After the next summer spent playing district cricket for Essendon he spent the autumn-winter season turning out for the Maine Magpies and playing with his mates with whom he’d forged strong bonds at Castlemaine Tech.
Following a summer playing district Victorian club cricket with Essendon, Ollie’s desire to play with the Blues had dwindled and he spent the season at the Camp Reserve.
It was 1990 and the Maine Maggies ended up in fifth position, but in 1991 they moved right up the BFL ladder with Ollie’s exploits attracting big crowds as spectators drove from everywhere to park at the Camp Reserve –-- and watch.
And it wasn’t all about Oliver. Derrick Filo, the son of a Samoan father and a Castlemaine Mum, bulldozed through packs.
Brent Crosswell’s son Tom Kavanagh was a rebounding half-back and in-and-under mid Simon Jorgensen was everywhere.
Still, the Magpies couldn’t quite snaffle the ’91 flag. South Bendigo held off their 1991 grand final challengers in front of 10,000 spectators in a gripping Big Dance: 14.14 to 10.16.
And then 1992 dawned with Castlemaine the pre-season sports writers and punters flag favourites.
There was a massive punch-up before that year’s Big Dance’s first bounce as central umpire Craig Pearce waited on tenterhooks for the signal from TV8’s Alan Besley parked on the boundary line that the coverage had started.
And when it got going Golden Square defenders hit Ollie with everything as the match got into gear.
And still the big spearhead led the Maine to a five-point premiership win: 14.13 to the Square’s 14.8.
It was their first BFL flag in 40 years. Since 1952, to be precise
And then the AFL Blues came knocking again.
Ollie won the battle to continue living in the Maine, but three times a week he finished up work in the office at Castle Bacon at 3 pm to ensure he arrived at Princes Park 10 minutes before training started.
Perhaps his greatest feats in the 13 games he ultimately played with Carlton came in the 2000 season’s Subiaco Oval game against West Coast when he hauled in a string of marks --- nailing three goals --- and turned the game the Blues’ way.
He finished his career with eight AFL goals, but halfway through that season turned out to be Ollie’s last in the navy blue guernsey as he quit Carlton for good.
And just like Tony Southcombe, Oliver had found the down-and-back driving just too much.
“Towards the end I finished up on the side of the road after falling asleep. I thought: ‘Ah well, that’ll do me’ and so I ended my Carlton career,” he later said.
Bluey had also ended up one evening in a roadside ditch.
But then Steven’s Castlemaine career surged again. He was the player-coach for three seasons before handing over to 1987 Carlton premiership backman Shane Robertson.
One of the most intriguing match-ups in the early Noughties was the Castlemaine-Kangaroo Flat fixture.
And who should be the playing coach at the Flat but Filo, the league’s greatest midfielder.
Like Ollie Derrick had had a stint -- mainly in the Twos -- with Carlton and like Steven he couldn’t latch onto life in the Big Smoke.
Out at Dower Park ‘Dekka’ had his old mate Jorgensen with him, so the playing coach and his assistant were back together after starring in a Central Murray premiership side at Balranald.
Not surprisingly ‘Dekka’ and ‘Jorgo’ were successful recruiters. They signed up Bendigo Diggers centre half-back Simon Elsum and key forward ‘Hollywood’ David Lancaster.
In the Bendigo Addy footy supplement published the day before the 2000 season started we pundits tipped the Maine to win that season’s flag with the Flat in second spot.
After all, Castlemaine had finished runners-up to Maryborough the season before: 1999.
In a high-scoring grannie Maryborough triumphed: 20.17 (137) to the Maine’s 17.4 (106).
Carlton’s David Parkin had been chasing Steven for quite a while. Sports writer and footy historian Paul Daffey understands that the Blues’ coach stuffed brown paper bags with cash, headed up the Calder Highway and virtually pleaded with Ollie to sign.
He wasn’t always on his own. On some trips Parkin was accompanied by Colin Kinnear and on others by Ian Collins.
The big spearhead turned each offer down. “They were persistent, though,” he recalled.
As the 2000 season’s finals drew closer a pivotal home-and-away match was played between the Maine and flag contenders Kangaroo Flat.
All eyes were on the key forwards, Ollie and long-sleeved ‘Hollywood’ David Lancaster.
The Flat spearhead was just 183 cm (6 feet) tall and weighed in at 80 kilograms (12 stone 5 lbs.)
But on that important afternoon Hollywood nailed eight goals while the Flat defence held Ollie to four.
Inspired by Lancaster’s performance the Roos trounced the Maine by 59 points.
But in late September a quite different story unfolded.
The Magpies had won every remaining home-and-away match after the Flat thumping, and they ran out 12-point winners in the 2000 grand final: 12.11 (83) to the inaccurate Kangaroo Flat’s 9.17 (71).
Ollie didn’t kick a major but ended the 2000 season on 135 majors with Ron Best medal runner-up ‘Hollywood’ Dave on 112. He’d managed only two snag rolls on grand final day.
We footy writers ascribed Ollie’s goalless day to the persistence, marking skills and accurate punch-aways to full-back Brett Gloury.
‘Growler’ had played four games for Collingwood with his debut game a nightmare. He’d been matched up against Essendon’s 208 cm (6 ft. 10 ins.) full-forward Paul Salmon.
In the later wash-up after the BFNL grand final 24 seasons back, centreman Shannon Milward won the Flat’s fairest and best award while Ollie won Castlemaine’s: his third.
He was installed as a BFNL Hall of Famer on a star-studded evening back in late 2019.
Alongside Ollie at that ceremony were his Maine teammates Derrick ‘Dekka’ Filo and John ‘Chicka’ Jefferies, both of whom joined Oliver as Hall of Famers.
With thanks to former Addy colleague and Victorian country leagues historian and writer, Paul Daffey.
We’ve both watched Ollie in action umpteen times, mostly separately, but once or twice as a joint reporting team.
Incidentally, Ollie had his last day in the job as the BFL’s CEO on Friday, May 17th, 2013, before taking up his new role at the Bendigo Golf Club.
And here’s another one for you --- Steven Oliver plays golf off a single figure handicap. And he was a top grade cricketer: a real-life all-round sportsman.
