
Inaugural VAFA Golf Day a smashing success
A new annual Ammos tradition launched in fine style with the inaugural VAFA Golf Day at the magnificent Kingston Heath on Tuesday. A spectacular sunrise welcomed the full field of
TIME WAS: 2001
January, half way done already, brings us big time tennis and ODI slap-fests that threaten only to bore us and further disappoint us. And soon it will be Australia Day, which marks not only another barbecue to mark Artie Phillip’s arrival, but also the unofficial beginning of another VAFA campaign.
Modern sports science tells that if a club is not back on the track in time for the flag waving, then there could be trouble ahead. On the other hand, VAFA clubs have never been captive to such precision and while some teams will make their squad sweat before the holiday, others likely will remain relaxed and un-reconstituted until early February, when the panic usually sets in about practice matches not yet arranged or not enough men on the track to fill n teams.
Some things never change, but promotion and relegation ensure that the VAFA canvas is always a work in progress and never completed.
Let’s look back ten years – half a lifetime or more for some of our readers, admittedly, but no more than a blink of an eye to others.
Of the A Section line-up in 2001, but four clubs remain in the top tier. Old Xavs, Uni Blues and Old Scotch did not go down over the decade, while Trinity did and bounced back. Premiers Marcellin, and fellow-finalists St Bernard’s and St Kevin’s, as well as Old Brighton are now in Premier B, while Mazenod and MHSOB are in Premier C.
Playing Premier football this year are De La Salle, Old Melburnians and Old Haileybury (B Section in ’01), St Bede’s/Mentone Tigers and Collegians (C Section) (Collegians, a foundation club, had previously never played lower than B Section, leaving Old Scotch as the only current club with that distinction) and the big bolters Old Carey (who finished bottom in D1 in 2001).
The other steamers have been Werribee and Rupertswood, who will both play in Premier C after being in D4 a decade ago (Rupo’s first senior season). Others have not enjoyed such stellar progress. Of the twelve D4 clubs in ’01, five will be there in ‘11.
Oakleigh has clambered from D2 to Premier B, while Therry Penola has made the same trip in reverse. Fitzroy Reds were in D3 and now, as Fitzroy, will play in Premier C.
Only Old Ivanhoe and Beaumaris will have a ten year reunion in Premier B, while AJAX and Old Essendon are the only Premier C campers who were there in ’01.
Season 2001 returned to a regular schedule after the Sydney Olympics hysteria the year before. After nine rounds, MHSOB hit top spot in A Section, but couldn’t sustain it and missed the four. St Kevin’s ended Xavs’ record run of six consecutive premierships in the first semi-final, long remembered because of the absurd length of the final term. Marcellin, under Simon Dalrymple and wearing those outrageous sky blue shorts, won its only A Section flag before a massive crowd. Its skipper Andrew Treganowan won the goalkicking, while Bernie Dinneen won his first Woodrow Medal.
It was a remarkable season for the Eagles, who had remained in A Section only because Old Melburnians had been relegated over a serious registration breach.
Marcellin’s recruiting yields were slim, and one third of their best team was over thirty, yet they won the minor premiership. They defeated St Bernard’s in second-semi and then the Mike McArthur-Allen coached St Kevin’s in the grand final.
Gerard Sholly’s star-studded Old Ivanhoe, which included the likes of James Hope (pictured), Rohan Weddle, Marcus Toovey (leading goalkicker in the comp) and Luke Lochran in their prime, won B Section from De La Salle, bouncing back to A Section after being tossed the year before. Ormond’s Matt McConvill won the GT Moore Medal (to go with his two Woodrows).
Hampton Rovers won C, with Norm Goss on clipboard, Denver Artz in the middle and captain Stephen Anderson leading the ruck, took the flag from minor premier Old Essendon. Old Camberwell, with the estimable Nigel Credlin in the pivot, chaliced over Banyule in D1.
There were two clubs who went through the season unbeaten and untied. Mentone Amateurs (since merged and renamed Parkdale) had three Sullivans in its D2 premiership win over Williamstown CYMS. Fitzroy won D3 under Graham Burgen to begin its drive through the sections, winning the grand final from Bentleigh, which is the only club other than Parkside to have disappeared from the VAFA in the timeframe.
Syndal Tally Ho saluted in D4, despite losing its memorabilia and other valued items in a clubroom fire in April. Since 2009, the club has been known as Chadstone, but is yet to win a game under its new moniker.
The 2001 umpiring fraternity featured names and faces familiar to today’s VAFA fans – among the grand final arbiters were Chuck Hinton and Mark Gibson (A), Tim Sutcliffe (B), Steve McCarthy and Jason McNiece (C), Anthony Damen (D1), and Grant Wardrop (D4). The men in white wore numbers on their backs for the first time, enabling spectators to easily (some might remember, a bit too easily) identify the whistlers.
Amateur Footballer scribes in 2001 included Jason Frenkel, who began the year writing A Section, but was succeeded by Brad Beitzel. Damian Carroll covered B, Tom Brain C, Barry Hickey D1, Eivion Bowen D2, Ed Sill and Peter Williamson D3 and Gavan Flower D4.
Representative football was a big part of the ‘01 calendar and the Big V went 5-0, with the seniors defeating SA and Vic Country, the U19s beating NSW/ACT and a combined Metro junior team and the C-D4 team beating WA. Representing the Big V in U19 games that year are a few players that are still going around (or were last year) , including Stuart Low (Old Ivanhoe), Jackson Brooke (Uni Blues), Jason Ritterman (AJAX), Peter Harrison (De La Salle), Ben Hakim (Old Essendon) and James McDonnell (Old Xaverians). Captaining the senior Victorian teams in 2001 were Uni Blue Gil McLachlan (v SA) and Old Xaverian Simon Lethlean (v VCFL). Old Scotch forward Luke Hawkins (pictured), he of the lethal left foot, booted seven against Vic Country.
At board level, Richard Evans began this term as president, while Bruce McTaggart slipped into the chairman’s role. Phil Stevens remained the VAFA CEO, backed by Brett Connell and Sue Anderson.
While VAFA reinstatement rules were still in a state of flux in 2001, records show that among the 3,473 new player registrations, sixty-three players came from the AFL, VFL or interstate equivalents.
In 2001, Ivanhoe Assumption finished third in D1. That partnership went south in the last decade, but in 2011, we shall see a new merged entity in Prahran Assumption competing in Division 3.
The season ahead, as well as being a discrete campaign, will also be yet another chapter in the passing parade and what occurs this year may recerberate for the next decade. Or not.
A new annual Ammos tradition launched in fine style with the inaugural VAFA Golf Day at the magnificent Kingston Heath on Tuesday. A spectacular sunrise welcomed the full field of
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