South marks premiership-winning treble of the 1990 Bendigo Football League season

SOUTH Bendigo will this weekend celebrate an extraordinary feat that has been achieved just three times in the Bendigo Football League.Starting tonight, the Bloods will hold a 20-year reunion for their 1990 season.But the club won’t be celebrating just one flag, or two – three premiership teams will be honoured as part of the reunion.With Roy Bakes at the helm as president, the Bloods claimed the BFL trifecta in 1990, winning the senior, reserves and under-18 premierships.Since the BFL moved to three grades in 1954 with the introduction of the under-18s, only two other years have all three flags been won by the same club – Golden Square in 1964 and Gisborne in 2002.The Bloods of 1990 stormed through the home and away season in all grades, with the three teams finishing on top of the ladder, winning 51 of 54 games and boasting a combined percentage of 1112.4.The reserves went through the home and away season undefeated, the under-18s lost just one game, while the seniors were beaten in two matches – by four points by Golden Square in round one, and by 24 points by Kangaroo Flat in round 15.Included in South Bendigo’s senior wins in 1990 was a 301-point victory over Kennington-Strathdale in round seven at Neale Street.With David McMurray kicking 13 goals, Steve Allender nine and Marty Harrington eight, South Bendigo kicked a BFL record score of 49.28 (322) to the Saints’ 3.3 (21) as the Bloods boosted their percentage from 176.0 to 245.7.After their dominant home and away seasons, all three South Bendigo sides subsequently took the direct route to the grand final by winning their second semi-finals, with the seniors, led by a seven-goal haul from David Ivey, particularly impressive in an 84-point flogging of Sandhurst.Following the second semi-final, the Bendigo Advertiser lauded the Bloods as: “the shortest priced BFL premiership favourites for many seasons’’.BFL grand final day in 1990 was Sunday, September 23, and clashed with the AFL second semi-final between Collingwood and Essendon, which was shown into Bendigo live on TV.The senior contest pitted South Bendigo against Golden Square in what was a rematch of the 1989 grand final, which the Bulldogs had won by 18 points.Golden Square was gunning for a hat-trick of flags, having also beaten Northern United by 14 points in 1988, while the Bloods were aiming to snap a 16-year premiership drought, having not tasted the ultimate success since defeating Sandhurst by 22 points in 1974.But it was the Bloods who were able to atone for their grand final loss the previous year, defeating Golden Square by 22 points, 15.24 (114) to 14.8 (92).It was a fiery grand final in which three players were reported on striking charges – Darren Kulbars (Golden Square), Darren Harris (Golden Square) and Peter Hinck (South Bendigo).The coach of the Bloods was Peter Bradbury – the 72-game former Essendon and Collingwood VFL player, who was part of the Bombers’ 1984 premiership team.Bradbury joined the Bloods in 1989 having played with Port Melbourne in the VFA in 1988.“Golden Square had the wood over us having beaten us the previous year,’’ Bradbury recalled this week.“But we did a lot of research on their players and all year we watched them... they beat us the year before and we wanted to get revenge for it.“Both sides had good players; we respected their players as much as they respected us, so that was great between the clubs.“But there was definitely that bit of niggle and in the first half of that game you had to watch yourself.’’The grand final was played in front of a crowd that paid a gate of $16,300 and was in the balance at half-time.With the aid of the breeze to the city end, the Bloods kicked the first three goals of the game in the opening nine minutes through centre half-forward Steve Allender, Mark Keck and Sean Cahoon.However, by quarter-time the Bulldogs – whose side included a future AFL star in Wayne Campbell, who was celebrating his 18th birthday that day – had rallied and edged to a four-point quarter-time lead, 5.0 to 4.2.The second quarter was similar to the first – the Bloods gained control early, before the Bulldogs fought back.The Bloods built a 23-point lead during the second quarter on the back of the hard work of captain and star rover Peter Tyack, Matthew Higgins and half-back flanker Shaun Leech, while up forward Bradbury, Keck and Ivey all goaled.However, from 23 points down, Golden Square cut the margin to nine points at half-time, 9.8 to 8.5, although, the Bulldogs suffered a blow during the second term with Kieran Byrne breaking his arm.The third quarter is known as the premiership quarter, and that proved to be the case in this game.The Bloods broke the game open in the third quarter by kicking 4.8 to 1.2, with the dominance once again led by Tyack, who 11 years earlier in 1979 had won the Michelsen Medal while playing for Sandhurst.Bendigo Advertiser reporter Richard Jones said of Tyack’s third quarter: “Tyack ran riot in this period, carving up the Bulldogs’ defence’’.Tyack’s third quarter was capped by kicking a miraculous goal from what is now the scoreboard pocket.By three quarter-time the Bloods’ lead had grown to 33 points, and although the Bulldogs did outscore them in the last quarter, it was too much ground to make up as South Bendigo won its 21st senior flag.“It was an intense game, but I thought my boys stood up well to the occasion,’’ Bradbury said.“After the 1989 grand final Golden Square came in and thanked us for the game, and I did the same in 1990, but I don’t think I got the same response because it was such a hard game.’’The Bloods’ goals were shared around, with McMurray, Cahoon, Keck, Ivey and Tyack all kicking two apiece.Tyack, who later coached the Bloods and is now chairman of selectors, won the Kevin Curran Memorial Trophy, XXXX Award and VCFL Medal.“Peter was at the bottom of every pack that day,’’ Bradbury said.“I remember the morning of that grand final I went to his house and we ended up doing a bit of speedball work and boxing listening to Young Guns, and that really fired us up.“Peter had been around Bendigo for such a long time as a great player and was very inspirational.’’Other players in the best for the Bloods were David Griffin, who was later on the Sydney Swans list, Leech, Brian Kendall, Cahoon, Trevor Wright, Bradbury and Higgins.Golden Square’s Dean Strauch, who kicked three goals, won the Nalder Medal, while the Bulldogs’ best players included Campbell, who the following year played the first of his 297 AFL games for Richmond.“We just didn’t know how to shut Wayne down,’’ Bradbury said.“In the 1989 grand final I put Peter Hinck on Campbell, but he kicked four goals in the first quarter.“In 1990 we needed to shut him down, but he was very elusive and still got away from us.“Full credit to him – the kid went on and played some really good AFL football.’’1990 was the first of four senior premierships the Bloods won between ’90 and ’94, with the club also celebrating flags in ’91, ’93 and ’94, but they haven’t won one since.During those five years between 1990 and ’94 the Bloods won 88 of 101 games.Grand final day, 1990, for South Bendigo started with its under-18s defeating Golden Square by 15 points, 9.14 (68) to 8.5 (53).The Bloods’ under-18s were coached by Brian Teasdale, with the best players in the grand final win including Daryl Symons, Kristen Brown and Micheal Pavleka, while Travis St Clair was their leading goalkicker with three.Golden Square’s hopes of causing an upset weren’t helped when forward Phil Hetherington – who later won a Ron Best Medal in 2001 with South Bendigo and forged a reasonable cricket career – was sent off for 15 minutes for a head-high tackle in the first quarter.In the reserves clash, the Bloods, coached by Brendan Francis, who is now the vice-president and team manager, were red hot favourites having gone through the season undefeated.But playing against Eaglehawk, the Hawks certainly took it up to their more fancied opponents.At three quarter-time South Bendigo led by just four points, 10.8 to 9.10.However, the Bloods showed their class in the last term, booting six goals to two to win 16.10 (106) to 11.13 (79), with Brad Fawcett, Marty Harrington and Dean Henderson the best players.Jarrod Mitchell and Harrington each kicked four goals.Twenty years on from the Bloods’ remarkable success of 1990, Bradbury – who also coached the Bloods’ 1991 flag before leaving for East Gambier – looks back fondly on that season, particularly on the back of the grand final defeat suffered a year earlier in his first season as coach.“Coming up to a country club in 1989 I had to move my family, and there was a fair bit of talk about a former league player coming in, so to lose that grand final after all the effort I put in, I thought, ‘I can’t let that happen again’,’’ said Bradbury, who is now 51 and has a goat farm at Murrindindi, near Yea.“I always had the reserves out with us at training, and spent a fair bit of time with the juniors, so to actually come out of that year with the three premierships was awesome... the whole club just had a buzz.’’This weekend’s celebrations:Tonight from 7:30pm: Replay of the game in social rooms.Tomorrow from 1pm: Watch the South Bendigo v Golden Square game at the QEO, followed by a meal.Sunday from 11.30am: Family barbecue at social rooms.All past players, committee, volunteers and supporters welcome to attend.For more information contact Mal Balnaves on 0409 434 760