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WITH no senior competition being played in the Bendigo Football-Netball League this year, the spotlight is about to shine as bright as it ever has on the under-18s.
Throughout its more than 60 years of competition the under-18 grade has typically kicked off the dew on a Saturday morning - the first game of the day leading into the reserves and seniors.
This year, though, the only football that will be played in the BFNL is the under-18 competition and it kicks off on Saturday with what will be the first of nine home and away rounds, which will be followed by a finals series of some format that is still to be confirmed.
While there will be no Gisborne competing, there is a welcome return being made, with Maryborough to field its first under-18 team since 2016.
With the under-18 competition the footballing focus of the BFNL for the remainder of this season - along with the 17-under netball - the lead-in to round one presents a chance to have a look at how each club has fared in the competition throughout its history.
The first season of the under-18 age group in the BFNL was 1954 - a year in which the inaugural premier was Golden Square, which beat Eaglehawk 10.13 (73) to 4.2 (26) in the first grand final; the Bulldogs also won the reserves flag that season.
There was no under-18 best and fairest medal awarded that year, but in 1955 the first recipient was South Bendigo's Trevor Oakley.
South Bendigo also won the flag in 1955 - the first of four-consecutive under-18s premierships for the Bloods.
The initial success of the South Bendigo under-18s was built off the coaching of Jack Conolan and came at a time when the Bloods were also the dominant force of the Bendigo league's senior competition.
Those early premierships set the Bloods on the path to becoming - along with Golden Square - the most successful club in the under-18s.
Both South Bendigo and Golden Square have 17 under-18 premierships - and each have had the opportunity to have plenty more silverware in their trophy cabinet, too.
The Bloods have also lost 13 under-18 grand finals, while the Bulldogs have been runner-up 12 times.
As well as winning four premierships in a row between 1955 and 1958, and another in 1961, the other South Bendigo era of dominance in the under-18s came when the Bloods won five flags on the trot between 1988 and 1992 in what is a league record.
Of the 17 premierships Golden Square has, the Bulldogs won 12 between 1962 and 1985, including two hat-tricks (1962-64 all against South Bendigo and 1983-85 all against Sandhurst).
Sandhurst has featured in more than half the under-18 grand finals, playing in 36 for 15 wins and 21 losses, with the Dragons' first flag coming in 1959 when they beat South Bendigo by 35 points.
The past 20 under-18 grand finals dating back to 2000 have included Sandhurst in 16 of them for an 8-8 split.
Throughout its history the under-18 best and fairest has been named in honour of firstly Dick Beattie, followed by George Symons, with Golden Square the club that has produced the most league medal winners with 17.
Among the Bulldogs' Symons medallists is the pair of Nathan Brown, who went on to play 219 AFL games with the Western Bulldogs and Richmond, and team-mate Sam Jacobs, who tied in 1994.
Fellow Bulldog Ricky Nixon, who later played with Carlton, Hawthorn and St Kilda, won in 1980, while the list of Symons medallists also includes dual Carlton premiership player Rod Ashman from Eaglehawk in 1971.
UNDER-18 HISTORY:
CASTLEMAINE
Premierships - 2
1960 - def Golden Square
1965 - def South Bendigo
Runners-up - 0
.............................................
League Medal - 5
1959 - Des Ray
1965 - Robert Brown
1983 - Leigh Trethowan
1988 - Shawn Filo
2002 - David Taylor
.............................................
Past Decade (2010-19):
Total wins - 41
Finals series - 1
Finals won - 1
EAGLEHAWK
Premierships - 7
1971 - def South Bendigo
1972 - def Golden Square
1974 - def South Bendigo
1987 - def North Bendigo
1998 - def South Bendigo
2003 - def Gisborne
2007 - def Gisborne
Runners-up - 8
.............................................
League Medal - 12
1971 - Rod Ashman
1972 - Robert Clough
1973 - Robert Clough
1977 - Derek Burford
1978 - Colin Jacobs
1989 - Corey Austin
1996 - Jason Abbott
1996 - Brett Manderson
1998 - Scott Tuddenham
2006 - Cory Jacobs
2007 - Ryan Threlfall
2011 - Kevin Archbold
.............................................
Past Decade (2010-19):
Total wins - 92
Finals series - 6
Finals won - 1
GISBORNE
Premierships - 3
2000 - def Eaglehawk
2002 - def Sandhurst
2018 - def Sandhurst
Runners-up - 5
.............................................
League Medal - 4
2002 - Marcus Powell
2004 - Adam Pokrovsky
2005 - Brenton Faulkner
2018 - Baxter Slater
.............................................
Past Decade (2010-19):
Total wins - 135
Finals series - 10
Finals won - 9
GOLDEN SQUARE
Premierships - 17
1954 - def Eaglehawk
1962 - def South Bendigo
1963 - def South Bendigo
1964 - def South Bendigo
1967 - def Sandhurst
1970 - def South Bendigo
1973 - def Eaglehawk
1977 - def South Bendigo
1980 - def Sandhurst
1981 - def Sandhurst
1983 - def Sandhurst
1984 - def Sandhurst
1985 - def Sandhurst
1993 - def Sandhurst
1994 - def Kyneton
2009 - def Sandhurst
2010 - def Sandhurst
Runners-up - 12
.............................................
League Medal - 17
1957 - Neville Strauch
1958 - G. Brereton
1964 - Bill Yates
1967 - Bruce Claridge
1968 - Bruce Claridge
1970 - Mark Browne
1975 - Peter Fitzpatrick
1980 - Ricky Nixon
1981 - Vic Allen
1984 - David Waldron
1987 - Darren Moorehead
1994 - Nathan Brown
1994 - Sam Jacobs
2001 - Andy Grant
2003 - Martin Bremner
2009 - Dale Lowry
2016 - Braydon Welsh
.............................................
Past Decade (2010-19):
Total wins - 140
Finals series - 9
Finals won - 9
KANGAROO FLAT
Premierships - 1
2019 - def Sandhurst
Runners-up - 0
.............................................
League Medal - 3
1996 - Scott Jackman
2000 - Josh Hutchinson
2019 - Mitch Trewhella
.............................................
Past Decade (2010-19):
Total wins - 72
Finals series - 3
Finals won - 7
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KYNETON
Premierships - 1
1997 - def Eaglehawk
Runners-up - 5
.............................................
League Medal - 4
1962 - W. Easterbrook
1990 - Andrew McArdle
1997 - Scott Smithwick
1999 - Paul Podbury
.............................................
Past Decade (2010-19):
Total wins - 38
Finals series - 0
Finals won - 0
MARYBOROUGH
Premierships - 0
Runners-up - 0
.............................................
League Medal - 0
.............................................
Past Decade (2010-19):
Total wins - 22
Finals series - 0
Finals won - 0
SANDHURST
Premierships - 15
1959 - def South Bendigo
1966 - def Echuca
1968 - def Golden Square
1969 - def South Bendigo
1975 - def Golden Square
1976 - def South Bendigo
1996 - def Golden Square
2001 - def South Bendigo
2005 - def Gisborne
2006 - def Eaglehawk
2008 - def Eaglehawk
2011 - def Golden Square
2012 - def Golden Square
2013 - def Gisborne
2014 - def Gisborne
Runners-up - 21
.............................................
League Medal - 9
1974 - Vin Dullard
1982 - Bernie Sloan
1986 - Matt Ellis
2010 - Paul Prime
2013 - Seb Greene
2014 - Tom Broadbent
2015 - Xavier Walsh
2016 - Oliver Leonard-
Shannon
2017 - Darby Graham
.............................................
Past Decade (2010-19):
Total wins - 179
Finals series - 10
Finals won - 19
SOUTH BENDIGO
Premierships - 17
1955 - def Eaglehawk
1956 - def Golden Square
1957 - def Sandhurst
1958 - def Sandhurst
1961 - def Eaglehawk
1978 - def Kyneton
1979 - def Kyneton
1982 - def Golden Square
1986 - def Sandhurst
1988 - def Sandhurst
1989 - def Golden Square
1990 - def Golden Square
1991 - def Kyneton
1992 - def Sandhurst
1995 - def Kyneton
1999 - def Sandhurst
2004 - def Sandhurst
Runners-up - 13
.............................................
League Medal - 12
1955 - Trevor Oakley
1956 - Dermott Power
1961 - Merv Smart
1963 - Colin Tully
1969 - Neil Grieve
1976 - Peter Tyack
1979 - Gary Patterson
1987 - Damien Moore
1991 - Kristen Brown
1993 - Neil Torpy
1995 - Nick Sargeant
2008 - Benjamin Smith
.............................................
Past Decade (2010-19):
Total wins - 67
Finals series - 2
Finals won - 2
STRATHFIELDSAYE
Premierships - 3
2015 - def Golden Square
2016 - def Sandhurst
2017 - def Sandhurst
Runners-up - 0
.............................................
League Medal - 2
2012 - Oliver Klemm
2015 - Tal Sardone
.............................................
Past Decade (2010-19):
Total wins - 146
Finals series - 9
Finals won - 12
SATURDAY'S GAMES:
Golden Square v Kangaroo Flat (QEO)
football 11.15am, netball 11.30am
Sandhurst v Strathfieldsaye (QEO)
football 2.30pm, netball 2.45pm
Maryborough v Castlemaine (Mb)
football 2.30pm, netball 2.45pm
Eaglehawk v South Bendigo (Eh)
football 2.30pm, netball 2.45pm
Kyneton bye
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