Games don’t come any bigger than Beauy v St. Bedes/Mentone!
The history and rivalry between these two clubs started back in 1963 when the fledgling Beauy Sharks started operating in the neighbouring suburb to Mentone, who at the time were a leading club in the strong and powerful Federal Football League, which had been formed in 1912 in a Mentone shopfront.
From day one it has been a fierce competition on the recruiting front and Mentone scored the first major win when they signed a young Beauy resident, Barry Breen, to play in their U/17 team weeks before he was approached by people from the Sharks. Under Barry ‘Hooker’ Harrison they then convinced a couple of young Sharks, Beau Kirkby & Rod Vawdon, to try out in what Hooker told them was the superior competition.
As the years progressed, we then saw the Beauy Football Club develop into a strong and competitive force in our own right, and when the South East Suburban F. L. and the Federal F. L. merged in 1982 it was Mentone who opted to play in Division 2 while the Sharks stayed, and maintained their place, in the top tier of the new competition for more than a decade. Then in the ’90’s we saw both Beauy and Mentone join the VAFA by different means after Mentone merged with the St Bedes Old Collegians A. F. C. in 1993 and Beauy crossed over in 1995.
Both clubs achieved early success in the VAFA with SBMFC winning the D Grade VAFA flag in 1993 with a team that included former Beauy junior, Tony MacGeorge, who went on to become a renowned VAFA full forward with multiple 100 goal seasons. Beauy won the 1995 E Grade flag under Garry Nicholson and then took out the D Grade Premiership in 1997 with a team that included former SBMFC triple B & F, Sean Hanrahan, plus two more recruits from Mentone – Phil Thomas & Drew Johnston. More significantly Beauy was coached by Mentone legend and seven times B & F, Brett Marchant, who is now the only Beauy Coach to take the club to two Senior Premierships. Brett had played in a major Premiership with Mentone as a 16 year old before he went to Melbourne and the team that defeated Ian Cooper’s Cheltenham also included two former Beauy juniors – Ken Ansell & Kieran Breen.
In the early 2000’s we watched on as SBMFC became the only club in the 125 year history of the VAFA to win the C, B & A Grade Premierships in consecutive years under the brilliant coaching of Luke Beveridge.
Since joining the VAFA the two clubs have crossed paths several times and we all enjoy the local rivalry that these games bring but probably our most significant encounter was the 2016 B Grade Grand Final when the Sharks, coached by four times B & F, Brayden Haynes, came from 16 points down at half time to snatch another Senior flag and a berth in A Grade. The rivalry and competition for local bragging rights, along with Parkdale, is sure to continue for many more years and on Sat 5th April the next version of the ‘Brett Marchant Cup’ will take place.
Book your seat now for the Opening Game Luncheon.
11:14am for a 12:00 Midday Start
