BY RICHARD JONES
It's no surprise to learn that Bendigo footy only went ahead in the first three years of World War 2.
Those were the 1939, 1940 and 1941 seasons as the BFL went into recess and only sparked up again as WW2 ended in 1945.
There was a Bendigo footy season in 1945 as the war was seen as winding up.
So there was no Bendigo footy from 1942 to 1944 with the new era sparking up again in 1945 with Germany surrendering in May, but Japan not winding up until the atomic bomb assaults on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August '45.
So let's go back to 1939-40 and look at what happened to the footy comp[etition.
Of course all clubs had footy players signing up for the Aussie armed forces, and lack of numbers allied with fuel rationing and food supply shortages meant clubs were well down in numbers.
But even so as 1940 loomed the BFL had a full complement of eight clubs.
Echuca East had joined the league which meant there was no bye, but as the season got underway no one was sure how East would compete.
Square entered the season as reigning premiers --- they'd won in 1938 and '39 --- and started their season with a big win over Sandhurst.
After three rounds Eaglehawk and Hurst were bottom two and even Square was struggling after the early win.
It was a madcap season as all sides continued to lose players who were enlisting to fight in the armed services.
Even after a footy carnival where the proceeds went to war funds, travel and lack of players claimed Echuca East.
By the end of June Kyneton, Rochester and Maryborough had all withdrawn, also, with shortages of players and petrol rationing and high costs of filling up buses the big impacts on the country clubs.
So it was back to a four-club competition so each club knew they had a definite finals spot in place.
Sandhurst sat in last position, but was still dangerous and proved it by toppling ladder leader South Bendigo in a home-and-away round.
Coach Bob McCaskill had his revenge over eventual fellow BFNL Hall of Fame Legend Reg Ford when the Maroons knocked Golden Square out of the finals with a first semi-final win.
They had to down Eaglehawk to meet season stand-outs South in the grand final and, although the Hurst almost kicked themselves out of contention, won a grannie thriller on the last kick of the day: 13.18 to 13.13.
The Bloods snatched an early lead and controlled the grannie up to half-time. But McCaskill, in what turned out to be his last full season of BFL footy, led the Maroons to their second half ascendancy by booting two majors himself early in the third term.
There was just a kick or two in it for the rest of the grannie, and the Maroons only got home when Theo Hellwege snapped a major over his shoulder from 45 yards/metres out to seal the Sandhurst victory.
That was McCaskill's final Hurst flag because he moved to Melbourne and was to forge important contributions at both North Melbourne and Hawthorn.
He coached North from 1941 to 1947 and the Hawks from 1950 to '52. McCaskill led North to their first VFL finals appearance in 1945, remembering that North, along with Hawthorn and Footscray, had only joined the VFL (later the AFL) from the VFA in 1925.
But in the BFL McCaskill had spent 15 seasons with Sandhurst, taking them to nine premierships from 12 grand finals ---- a record unlikely to ever be touched, let alone equalled, in BFNL history.
WW2 grand final scores --- 1939: G. Square 14.8 (92) def. Maryborough 12.12 (84); 1940: Sandhurst 13.18 (96) def. Sth. Bendigo 13.13 (91); 1941: E'hawk 17.16 (118) def. South Bendigo 11.14 (80).
1942-1944: league in recess.
1945: Golden Square 23.20 (158) def. Eaglehawk 8.9 (57).
