MEMORIES and stories from years gone by have been shared as the history of the Elmore Football-Netball Club was celebrated last weekend.
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The Bloods held their 150th anniversary celebrations at the Elmore Memorial Hall last Saturday night on a milestone weekend for the club that was formed in 1874.
Among those who relished the chance to reminisce was club stalwart Daryl Dobell, who holds the distinction of being both a dual premiership player with Elmore and also one of the 10 Bloods' players to have won the Heathcote District Football Netball League's Cheatley Medal.
Dobell won the Cheatley Medal in 1963, while he was also a member of both the Bloods' 1960 and 1963 senior premiership teams.
As well as his playing deeds on the field at Elmore, Dobell has also coached the Bloods' reserves and been a strong contributor off the field, including as a long-time league delegate for the club and secretary.
"The club means a lot to me... my father (Alf) played with Elmore for 18 years and my brother Alan and myself played in the two premierships in 1960 and 1963," Daryl said this week.
"It was a fantastic celebration last weekend and great to be able to catch up with a lot of past players during the day and at the hall.
"There are a lot of great memories with the club."
The bulk of the Bloods' history has been tied to the HDFNL, which the club first competed in across 1938-39 before rejoining it post-World War 2 in 1949.
Throughout their tenure in the HDFNL the Bloods have won five senior premierships - 1954 (defeated Tooboorac), 1960 (defeated Mount Pleasant), 1963 (defeated Tooboorac), 1985 (defeated Heathcote) and 2007 (defeated Colbinabbin).
According to the Australian Football history website, Elmore has also been affiliated with competitions including the Campaspe Valley Football Association, Elmore Cohuna Football League, Bendigo Football League and Echuca Football League.
One particular interesting nugget of information that was discovered during the club's research into its 150 years was from 1920 in what has become known as the "Year of the Ring-ins".
Elmore can lay claim to Roy Cazaly of "Up There Cazaly" fame having been a former player of the club having played with the Bloods in a 1920 semi-final as a VFL "ring-in" against Colbinabbin.
Cazaly was captain of St Kilda in that 1920 season, with the Elmore "ring-ins" also featuring fellow VFL players Billy Schmidt (St Kilda), George Noonan (St Kilda), Pat Maloney (St Kilda), Mark Tandy (South Melbourne) and Jock Doherty (South Melbourne).
According to Cazaly's account of the game to the Sporting Globe in May of 1937, the Colbinabbin side was also filled with 12 "ring-ins", with the first player Cazaly noticed in the opposition being Hawthorn's Dick Godfrey, with the Hawks at the time playing in the VFA.
Elmore would go on to beat Mount Pleasant in the grand final that 1920 season in the Campaspe Valley Association, which at the time was made up of Colbinabbin, Elmore, Goornong and Mount Pleasant.
Elmore continues its 150th anniversary season this Saturday with an away game against White Hills.
