News
BFNL REWIND - BFNL's former clubs make a powerful list
News
BFNL REWIND - BFNL's former clubs make a powerful list
Published on:
26 February 2025
With the 2025 season fast closing in and only eight clubs competing let's take a look at the teams which have left us.
Of course northern region clubs Echuca and Rochester departed way back in the 1970s while Northern United and Kennington-Strathdale folded completely in the 1990s.
And just the season before last Kyneton said goodbye and joined the Riddell District FNL.
Now we have late Nineties powerhouse Maryborough in recess ---- hopefully, just for this year --- leaving Castlemaine and Gisborne as our only regional-based clubs along with the six Bendigo city clubs.
So let's have a brief look at Kennington's Team of the Century as selected by the club's official scribe and historian Peter Harrick. Before I list the team line by line, here's a run-down on some of the players.
The Saints five leading goal-scorers down the decades are Abby Bower, Steve McKerrow, Wayne McCumber, Rod Southon and Jack Hargraves.
Bower twice nailed 12 goals in a game in the Bendigo Football Association days finishing up with 203 overall from 1937-47 remembering that footy (and all sport) was in recess during World War 2: 1940-1945.
Kennington was off the park between 1941 and 1946.
Steve McKerrow, who later played in the BFL with Sandhurst and Kangaroo Flat, drilled 258 majors between 1974 and 1978 with his best a 10-goal haul.
He also had a nine-goal. an eight goal, a seven major, and several six-goal contributions along with 18 five-major hauls.
Bower and McKerrow weren't towering forwards as in today's AFL structures. They were both about 178 cm (5 ft 10 in the old scale).
But the Saints leading goalkicker overall was Jack Hargreaves, recruited from Sandhurst 1952. He was captain-coach 1952-1955 handing over to Alan Nalder who rejoined Kennington from South Bendigo in 1956.
Hargreaves played in three Bendigo Football Association grand finals, including the Melbourne Olympics year flag in 1956, with two BFA goalkicking awards and two second places: winner in 1952 (79 goals) and 1956 (72) with second places in 1953 and 1954.
Jack nailed 303 goals altogether with three bags of 10-plus: 11, 13 and 15. He also drilled five goals in a match 15 times with his 15-major bag a BFA record for Kennington.
Among other key players for the Saints was Wayne McCumber who could play in the ruck and up forward. He was recruited from Heathcote in 1978 having won the Heathcote DFL fairest and best league awards in 1976 and 1977.
Before a serious back injury ended his career prematurely, McCumber played 99 games for Kennington with club fairest and best awards in 1979 and 1981 and runner-up in the GCFL league's Nalder Medal count in 1981.
He had slotted 184 goals in his career which spanned 1978 to 1983.
Rod Southon holds a unique place in Kennington-Strathdale history. He won the BFL's Michelsen Medal in 1988 and banged home 13 goals in a BFL match against North Bendigo: a BFL club record for the Saints.
Phil Byrne holds a unique place in Bendigo footy. A BFNL Hall of Famer (selected in 2014) along with McKerrow (the same year) he not only lined up with Kennington-Strathdale, but also with Eaglehawk, Kangaroo Flat and South Bendigo.
I remember Phil running out onto the QEO for the Bloods, along with twin brother and experienced AFL player Ray, with both footballers approaching the twilight of their careers.
So here's the Kennington-Strathdale All Star side:
B: Wally Dean, Phil Byrne, Peter Larson.
Hb: Bob Hopley, Peter Floyd, Bob Doble.
C: Neville Johnston, Les McMurray, Quinton Blackmore.
Hf: Steve McKerrow, Bill Ripper, Wayne Mc Cumber.
F: Barry Seppings, Jack Hargreaves, Leon Grose.
Foll: Alan Jones, Rod Southon. Rover: Alan Nalder.
Inter: Darren Kulbars, Abby Bower.
As I've pointed out I know quite a few of these players personally. Of course I ran into McKerrow and Byrne at the Hall of Fame inauguration night 11 years back.
Blackmore, now in a wheelchair after a horrific car crash in Tasmania some years back, came up to me for a chat after a recent Ron Best Memorial match at the QEO between Sandhurst and Golden Square.
He loved revisiting old Addy stories about his dashing runs down the outer wing of the Harry Trott oval often resulting in a long-range major..
Neville Johnston kindly showed my wife and I through his new apartment where a chairlift had been installed. We went ahead with ours after seeing Neville's.
And the late Leon Grose was a neighbor of ours, living only a block from the QEO. He'd invite me in every now and then to look back at some of his footy albums and we'd reminisce about South's old Nineties glory days.
