1995 – A Vintage Year For The Sharks
The opening of the 1995 footy season, the thirty-third year of the Beauy Sharks as a local District Football Club and Community organization, was a watershed moment as the club had undertaken a massive leap into the unknown by leaving the local Southern Football League (SFL) and joining the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA). Football politics was a major reason, amongst others, for this move when the SFL made a much-criticised decision early in February 1995 and announced it on the night Beaumaris was kicking off their pre-season training under Senior Coach, Garry Nicholson.
The previous years had seen the Sharks end their record breaking run as a 1st Division Finals contender in 1991 and then followed a cyclical downturn period of two years which saw the club down near the bottom of the ladder and $20k in the red at the end of the 1993 season before club stalwart, Garry Nicholson, who started with the Sharks as an 8 y.o. Mighty Midget in 1963, put his hand up to offer to coach the Seniors for nothing for three years starting in 1994.
This generous offer helped the club to wipe that deficit off in 1994 while at the same time a group of dedicated long-term Senior players including Andy Easton, Tom McNicholas, Mark Hall & James Whitla were joined by some outstanding recruits including Paul Sherman, Sean Hanrahan and Phil Thomas to keep the side above the relegation zone on the field. (All seven named have been awarded Life Membership of the Sharks for playing and later service as coaches or committee members). At the same time, Peter Maloney, a Vietnam Veteran and U/17 Team Manager, took up the reins as President, with the Executive of Sid Catlin, Peter Foley, Ron Nicholson and the late Geoff Wright.
Things looked bright on that first night of preseason training in 1995 with the club financial and in good hands and 42 players turning up to train. On the same night Peter Maloney and Peter Foley were invited to the club’s annual check-in with the SFL Board and they were looking forward to reporting on the great financial results and the recruiting and work that had gone in to ensuring a strong 1995 season.
However, the SFL Board had another agenda. The mainstream press had been reporting on the demise of the Dandenong VFA club who had gone into administration with debts of $250K and their subsequent plans to arise as a new club to be known as the Redlegs and who had applied to play in the SFL. Thus, the Phoenix was to arise from the Ashes and shaft all of their creditors along the way, and this led to much criticism in the press.
However, what was not known, was that the Redlegs demanded a spot in the SFL 1st Division, even though the Grades were settled, and the SFL had agreed to that demand. Thus, it happened that when the two Peters visited the SFL headquarters to report on the Sharks promising 1995 outlook, they instead were told that the BFC was to be demoted to 2nd Division so that the Redlegs could be placed into 1st Division.
“Hell Hath No Fury Like A Footy Club Unjustly Dumped” and a very angry committee had a phone hookup the next day with the result being to call Beaumaris resident, VAFA CEO Phil Stevens, the next morning. At first, Phil would not take the call, as he thought it was a hoax from a fellow VAFA Board Member, but once he realised that it was genuine things moved very quickly with a BFC Annual Report dropped at Phil’s home that night and a meeting between the two Executive Groups arranged for the Friday evening at Elsternwick Park. The deal was done very smoothly until the SFL found out that Beauy was leaving and that the Redlegs were not going to be able to activate their plans and reform as a club; the SFL had lost Beauy and the Redlegs in a week and in desperation the SFL Board visited the VAFA to request that the VAFA knock back the Sharks application to join.
No way that was going to happen and from then on it was full steam ahead for the BFC’s first VAFA season in1995 and the need to build the club’s first U/19 team from scratch under the then U/17 Coach, Peter ‘Rabs’ McBrearty. It was a great achievement for the club to finish the season with two flags for the Seniors & U/19s and a fourth place for the Reserves.
Thirty years on and everyone wearing the Blue & Gold guernsey in the Seniors’ photo below is still alive and kicking! We have lost a few others along the way, including Geoff Wright, John Martin, Simon Massey, Phil Kaufman, “Cob” Wild and Rudi, the goal umpire, but they will be with us in spirit when we get together to catch up and tell tall tales about what ended up being an incredibly successful season. At this point we don’t know what has become of Flynny, our 1995 Reserves Coach, and any info would be appreciated and the only player we haven’t tracked down yet is Mark Mooney. Just respond to this email if you have a contact number or email address please?
After the dramatic cross from the SFL over the summer break, we found ourselves in the uncharted waters of the V.A.F.A. and by September the Seniors, Reserves and our inaugural U/19 team were facing up to Finals action. The Ressies dropped out after a narrow loss in the 1st Semi, but the Seniors and 19s pushed through to the Grand Final with the Seniors surviving a narrow call in the 2nd Semi, after trailing at the 30 min mark, before a bit of magic from Tim Holt saw his winning snap-shot cross the goal line as the siren blew.
This win proved crucial to the Seniors as injuries would have made it a tough assignment to get through the Prelim and the extra week’s rest enabled the side to regroup and take on the Pirates, with Dave Wright the sole casualty from the semi after a serious patella injury. The Grand Final at Mordialloc before a big crowd contained its dramatic moments with devastating knee injuries to Brook King and Jimmy Whitla but a team which contained six eventual Club Champions and a young Saints listed player, Richard Maloney, was able to comfortably take down the Pirates who'd had to play three finals in a row.
So, in the Club’s first year in the VAFA, it was Garry Nicholson and Andy Easton who were able to hold up the Sharks inaugural VAFA Premiership Cup a week before the Under 19s, coached by Peter ‘Rabs’ McBrearty, made it a double when they knocked off a powerful St Kevins side with their strong come-from-behind win. The Club’s Grand Final Award went to CHB Paul Sherman while Sean ‘Rooster’ Hanrahan took out the Senior B & F Award and the Best Player in the Finals Series Trophy after two strong games at CHF, including five goals in the Grand Final. Brook King led the goalkicking tally and he has the second best match result with 16 goals in a game – just behind Geoff Skinner’s 18 goals thirty years earlier.
We hope that you can all join us for this reunion at the club which will be for both teams and enable a catchup with old friends and teammates. It is open to all family, friends and supporters who were there on the day, and you can book your seat by clicking on the QR Code in the flyer above or on the link below.
Just book your ticket/tickets on any of the ten tables listed on the platform and we will sort out the seating arrangements before the day. Festivities start with the bar opening at 11.30am and will feature the Ressies & Seniors playing Marcellin to hold their spot in the four.
Please direct any queries to Ron Nicholson on 0416 133655 or to ronnicho@bigpond.com
https://www.trybooking.com/DBNAP
It was a big day at the packed clubrooms for the Sunday morning celebrations and Senior photo, and you can see the joy on everyone’s face below after the drought-breaking Senior Flag of the day before, with the sunnies reflecting a few sore heads before we got into it again. Paul Sherman was last to leave and first to arrive as he set his tent up out the back to sleep in overnight – something he did for all three of his Premiership celebrations.
