BY RICHARD JONES
I've taken readers through footy leading up to, and in a few years during, World War 2 so now it's timely to look back even further --- World War 1, and straight before and straight after.
Footy was played during the first year-and-a-bit of WW1 (1914 and a portion of 1915), but after the 1915 season started with great hopes for a big year the inevitable drain of players was too significant and the newly-named BFL went into recess.
Rochester had come in for the 1915 season, replacing California Gully, and was on top of the ladder when the league went into recess in July.
There had been a few colourful seasons leading up to the Great War. Long Gully left the league in 1912 and were replaced by brand new club Bendigo City.
This team was formed through the amalgamation of the Kennington and Central Districts junior clubs and league officials were sure they'd be a very talented side.
But there were other matters on club and league officials' minds that 1913 season. Leading up to the annual Bendigo vs. VFL clash set down for July 3rd there was heated controversy about the local players selection issues.
Selectors tasked with naming Bendigo's side seemed to have ignored quality players from the top two clubs --- South and Eaglehawk --- and the rep. side was therefore much weaker.
The vitriolic criticism was justified with the Bendigo side totally overwhelmed --- VFL 18.11 (119) def. Bendigo 4.5 (29).
Of course the competition name changed in 1913, an important year. The old Bendigo Footy Association name was turfed and in came the present day Bendigo Football League.
South was the pacesetter in the opening half of that 1913 season, belting Cal Gully by 75 points with Bendigo City showing it was going to be a power club with a close loss to Eaglehawk.
City had an imposing forward line, a fact underlined just before the finals when they thrashed Cal Gully.
Forward Dave Mahoney, who would go on and play VFL footy with Richmond, nailed a massive 24 goals of his side's 30. Mahoney's tally, only equalled by Eaglehawk spearhead Harry Morgan 40 years later against Rochester, still stands as the equal individual BFNL record.
And City went on to take home the 1913 premiership cup with their grand final win over South, but World War 1 would soon put a stop to all sports activities.
But by April-May of 1919, with WW1 over, footy returned to Bendigo.
South hosted new club Bendigo East, who wore black and white colours similar to Collingwood's, while Eaglehawk was host to re-formed Sandhurst at Canterbury Park.
It was May 3rd so the BFL committee and club administrators had taken a while to get things up and running.
Interestingly, my research has uncovered a completely forgotten sidelight to the re-formed Sandhurst F.C.
It was basically an up-market side from the old Lerggo's team which had played in the trades competition during the war. So whether it was actually a new club or a continuation of the old, historic club founded in 1861 raged a bit in that post-war era.
All clubs had members and players who had died during WW1. South played one match wearing black armbands in memory of Captain H.H. Hunter, a former player and later BFL president, who had lost his life on Europe's battlefields.
Hurst and the Two Blues finished equal on premiership points at the end of that 1919 season which meant a play-off had to be staged to determine the BFL's minor premiers.
Eaglehawk fought hard to overhaul a three-quarter time deficit but in the end went down by three points.
So, onto the finals. Hurst met third-placed South in the grannie and was tipped by all pundits to finish a dream debut with a flag.
But after an amazingly low scoring encounter in front of a massive Upper Reserve crowd just five goals in total were landed.
South's straighter kicking for goal got them home by a single point: 3.7 (25) to Sandhurst's 2.12 (24).
And so with the return of footy it meant many families could gradually get back to normal through the Twenties.
Although unbeknown to everyone, another catastrophe loomed at the of the 1920s and the start of the 1930s: the world wide economic Depression.
