A HUGE rivalry between the Bendigo and Ovens and Murray leagues will be renewed in their football and netball showdowns on May 23 at Queen Elizabeth Oval in Bendigo.
It’s more than a test against many of the best from another league as both leagues join forces to raise Mental Health Awareness by wearing blue armbands in all matches.
For the past two seasons Bendigo has played the Victorian Amateur Football League.
It’s been 29 years since Bendigo tackled O and M on the footy field.
Back in 1997 it was the Ovens and Murray which won a superb contest, 130-121 on its way to being crowned the country champions.
Now the Simon Rosa-coached Bendigo prepares to take on a league which has dominated many country championships series.
The semi-final clash between Bendigo and Ovens and Murray at Lavington in 1989 is one of the most memorable in the blue and gold’s history.
A Bendigo team coached by the late Neville Strauch and captained by Sandhurst legend Brendan Hartney won in the rain and slush by 16 points.
Later in the year and Bendigo was number one after a 41-point triumph against Geelong in the grand final on the QEO.
A star-studded Bendigo team included South Bendigo coach Peter Bradbury, wingman Francis Burke and gun rover Peter Tyack; Eaglehawk’s Bert McIvor, Andrew and Steve McDougall; and Northern United forward Rick Marklew.
Other outstanding contributors across that inter-league campaign included Kangaroo Flat wingman Ron Wicks, Sandhurst full-back Chris Greene, and Golden Square’s Russell Parkes, Alan Patterson and Leigh Williams.
A year later and Bendigo beat the Kevin ‘Cowboy’ Neale-coached O & M in a semi-final in Lavington by 10 points.
O and M is on a run of three consecutive wins against Bendigo.
All three matches were closely-fought as O and M won in ’92 by 14 points, in ’95 by eight points, and nine points in ’97.
The Jake Sharp-coached O and M of ’26 will be determined to mark four in a row.
Since it beat Bendigo in the first Victoria Country championships grand final in Ballarat in 1954, Ovens and Murray has racked up an incredible record of 14 wins and six runner-up.
It took Bendigo until the 1962 season to capture its first country championship win.
The blue and gold was number one in 1972 and ’89, and been runner-up in five campaigns.
Although the country championships are no longer run, leagues can now plan for one-off challenges each season.
On May 23 it’s a finals-type intensity for all players as Bendigo and O and M vie for supremacy.
