Bendigo Advertiser by Luke West
AMONG the stories in the sports pages in the August 2 edition of The Advertiser in 2004 was an article on the Dunolly senior football team. Such were the struggles the Eagles were enduring, the fact they won just an ordinary home and away game was big news.
The August 2 story under the headline “Dunolly celebrates victory’’ followed the Eagles’ 22-point win over Maldon in round 15 of the 2004 Maryborough-Castlemaine District Football League season. The 15.16 (106) to 11.18 (84) victory ended a 33-game losing streak for the Eagles, who only five months earlier had been on the brink of extinction.
Six years on, the Eagles have gone from a side where a win was such a rarity it created headlines, to a team that will tomorrow contest the MCDFL grand final against Newstead at Princes Park.
To get a true appreciation of just how significant Dunolly’s appearance in tomorrow’s grand final is, you need to go back to March, 2004, when Ray Flett was president.Just over a month out from the start of the 2004 season, the Eagles faced the grim prospect of going into recess for a year if they weren’t successful in leaving the Loddon Valley Football League and joining the MCDFL, a league they left at the end of the 1980 season.
The Eagles had played in the LVFL from 2001 to 2003; however, in 2003 they lost all 18 of their games by an average of 224 points. One of those defeats was to Bears Lagoon-Serpentine by 455 points; a game where the Bears’ Greg Gadsden booted 29 goals.
With the future of the club in jeopardy because of a lack of players willing to play for it in the LVFL, the Eagles were thrown a lifeline by the MCDFL. Three days after the plight of the Eagles was made public, they were accepted into the MCDFL following a meeting in Maryborough. The Eagles were accepted into the MCDFL just 45 days before round one, with their affiliation eliminating the bye.
The Eagles’ first four seasons back in the MCDFL yielded just four wins from 66 games. Of those 62 defeats between 2004 and 2007, 41 were by at least 100 points.
Finally, there were signs of improvement last year with six wins and an eighth-placed finish, before the Eagles established themselves as a power side this season, winning 13 of their 16 home and away games to finish second on the ladder, behind only Avoca (14-2).
With the Eagles now on the eve of playing in a grand final - following a pulsating one-point preliminary final win over Avoca last Saturday - The Advertiser this week spoke to the man who was at the helm of the club when it faced its darkest days in early 2004, Flett.
“We were hopeful that there would be light at the end of the tunnel; we probably couldn’t see it back then, but it’s good the team has now got to where it has . . . it keeps the town and the club going,’’ Flett reflected.
“Back then, it came down to when three of us, Robbie Edwards, Barry Taylor and I, went to the MCDFL and sat down with them to put our case forward for wanting to join.
“It came down to their vote, and if they had have voted against us joining, that would have been the end of the club for then, so that’s how close it was.
“Once we got into the MCDFL, it was never going to be easy, but they have gradually improved over several years with the addition of some players, and they are finally getting some rewards for it.
“Some of those kids who were in the under-17s when we were battling and are now in the seniors, and some of the blokes that toiled around getting belted every week, are finally going to get the chance to play in a grand final.’’
Flett was president for just the 2004 season, before later serving on the Eagles’ committee.
“When you start winning games, naturally, it has got a lot of people back into the club,’’
Flett said.“There’s a lot of clubs that are probably in the same situation where they haven’t won matches for a long time, but if they keep persevering they will get there.’’
The Eagles’ stunning on-field revival this season has been led by co-coaches James McNamee and Jeremy Sanders. “At the start of the year we just set out to make the finals, but once we realised we were more of a chance of some greater success, it was the spur to work a bit harder and see where we could end up,’’ said McNamee, who this week won the Berry Powell Medal as the MCDFL’s best and fairest.
The Eagles’ recruited well during the pre-season, not only securing the likes of co-coaches McNamee and Sanders, but ex-AFL players Robbie AhMat and Shannon Motlop, and Northern Territory Football League best and fairest Tim Karpany.
But there’s more to just the addition of that quality playing personnel that has helped turn around the fortunes of the Eagles. “Obviously, there has been a massive change in the mindset of a lot of the guys, and playing in a winning side has instilled some confidence to play at a higher level,’’ McNamee said.
“In our grand final side there’s going to be 16 Dunolly players from last year, so it’s not a vastly different side. “But the one thing we’ve been able to do is with the players we’ve brought in, they are high quality.’’
There promises to be plenty of support for the Eagles at Princes Park tomorrow, with the small town buzzing with excitement. Shop fronts in the town’s main street are decorated in blue and gold streamers and flags, while one supporter has painted the zebra crossing and road lines in the main street blue and gold.
And why not - when a club has been down for as long as Dunolly, its supporters are entitled to make the most of the enjoyment a grand final appearance brings, particularly considering the town hasn’t celebrated a flag since 1969.
Last Modified on 05/03/2010 23:27