Sport
27 July, 2023
Bulldogs ready to celebrate birthday bash
Avoca Football Netball Club have successfully defied COVID and floods to bring their 150th year celebrations to life tomorrow, and, according to president Bill Drummond, the club are excited to bring back a cavalcade of past and present champions of...
Avoca Football Netball Club have successfully defied COVID and floods to bring their 150th year celebrations to life tomorrow, and, according to president Bill Drummond, the club are excited to bring back a cavalcade of past and present champions of the field and court back to Avoca Public Park.
The club are determined to celebrate their entire history when the Bulldogs take on Maryborough Rovers, and will be holding reunions for a large majority of their 15 football and 14 netball premierships across their history, which — since the end of World War II — has taken in prominent stints in the Lexton Football League, Lexton Plains Football League, and, currently, the Maryborough Castlemaine District Football Netball League, where they have played since the 2005 season.
On the court, their last premiership was in 2019 after an undefeated season, when the Dogs proved too strong for Carisbrook, winning by eight goals, which came in the midst of a 45-game winning run.
The most recent premiership on the football field came in 1998, the final year of a hat-trick of premierships in the Lexton Football League, as well as the final year of the competition, defeating Lexton by 76 points.
Their first recorded game of football, as reported in the Avoca Mail, was played against Maryborough in 1873, and played a number of matches against other towns such as Clunes and Talbot before playing in organised competition from 1905 onwards.
Drummond says it’s fantastic to be able to finally get a set date to celebrate the club’s 150th anniversary, despite outside factors playing a role in their planning for the event.
“I think everybody in the club and the town are looking forward to it. We’ve taken the opportunity to celebrate not only 150 years of the club, but a number of reunions across football and netball, as we would like to acknowledge the successes we’ve had over that time,” he said.
“When we started preparing for it early, COVID was the issue, and we were worried about how we would navigate that through a weekend, but as it turned out, we got through it, and got hit with the floods. But our facilities will be bigger and better now that we’re back in them.
“It’s a bit disappointing we’ve had to move the date so often. I’m sure everyone who gets there on Saturday night will have a great time.”
On the field this weekend, Avoca will be looking for their third victory of the season, having won two from their last three matches, while on the court, the Bulldogs will also be looking for their 12th win of the season as they look to maintain their hunt for a top two spot.
With the added benefit of knowing that many of Avoca’s greatest names will have a key presence on Saturday, Drummond says it will be exciting for the club.
“A lot of the generational families we have had still have people involved today. It will be good to see their parents, aunties, uncles, grandparents, who are getting back to support the ones that are still running around,” he said.
Drummond’s main goal is to not just celebrate the great times in the club’s history, but also to acknowledge those that came before him.
“Premierships and successes are one part of what we are celebrating, but the other thing we need to celebrate is previous office bearers, club people and volunteers. It takes a lot to put a football and netball team on the park. You could only imagine what it would have been like through the war era,” he said.
“But in small towns like ours, it’s important that we have a football and netball club for all the benefits it brings. We want to acknowledge all the people who have got the club to where it is today.”
The Bulldogs have a comprehensive history detailed on their website, which has allowed them to prepare adequately for the event, something that Drummond attributes to long-time Avoca personality Ross ‘Rowdy’ Dawson.
“Rowdy Dawson can take all the accolades, looking after our history. He’s about to launch a new website that is bigger and better than the one we have,” he said.
“It allows our milestones to be measured. We have Stacey Blair playing her 500th next week, Colleen Drummond and Trevor Field reaching milestones earlier.
“Every week, it seems that someone is recording a milestone, so it’s great that someone has been able to do that research over a long period of time.”
In the backdrop of the Bulldogs’ big day, the club dropped the exciting news during the week that they will be gaining a new electronic scoreboard to replace the manual one that currently takes pride of place.
“Like most clubs, we’ve been looking at going digital and putting an electronic scoreboard in,” Drummond said.
“It won’t just be a good asset for the club, but a good asset for the community. Schools can use it for school sports, the local school and kindergarten can use it for emergency evacuation information, if the Pyrenees Shire want to use it for Australia Day — it’s an asset that can be used.”
$90,000 will be pledged towards the scoreboard, with $40,000 coming from the Bendigo Community Bank in Avoca, Maryborough and St Arnaud, as well as $25,000 from the AFL, with the rest to be provided by the club.
The news sums up the Bulldogs’ ambitions to continue to improve, even while celebrating 150 years of existence.
“It’s a long time, 150 years, in today’s modern world,” Drummond said.
“There’s a lot of pressure on small communities at the moment, and it’s hard to get volunteers. So to be strong, and to be able to put all football and netball teams on the ground and on the court has been a fantastic achievement over a lot of years.
“There’s a lot of hard work that has been done, and it would be great to celebrate that on the weekend.”
Tomorrow’s events will see members and supporters get together throughout the day, with a dinner, presentations and a solo artist performing music throughout the evening.
