Former Fitzroy AFL speedster Scott Bamford hoping to help junior club Para Hills win an Adelaide Footy League flag – at the age of 43
Twenty-one years after playing in Fitzroy’s final AFL season, Scott Bamford still pulls on the boots.
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SCOTT Bamford played every game for Fitzroy in its farewell AFL season.
Twenty-one years on, the skinny goalsneak still pulls on the boots as he searches for his second senior premiership as a player.
Bamford, now 43, is hopeful of ending his 20-year flag drought when he lines up for his junior club Para Hills in the Adelaide Footy League’s division seven grand final at Payneham Oval tomorrow.
“I’m still able to run around and have a kick so I’ll do it while I still enjoy it,” Bamford says.
“It’s good fun and I’ve got some good mates down here.
“It’s a long time since my last flag.
“It’d mean a lot to play in another one after 20 years and at my junior club with these guys.”
Bamford’s sole senior premiership as a player came for Queensland club Southport in 1997 while on the Brisbane Lions’ list.
His league journey began in 1993 at North Adelaide, where he went on to play 201 games, including a losing grand final in his last SANFL season, 2007.
“Even though that (1993) was a long time ago, the time has gone really quickly.”
Bamford also featured in 24 games with post-merger Brisbane (1997-98), during which time he won that flag with Southport, and 13 at Geelong (1999).
Yet many remember him most for his one season at Fitzroy that happened to be the club’s last as a stand-alone entity.
After Fitzroy drafted him at the age of 21 with pick four in the 1995 draft, Bamford emerged the following year as a speedy, slender wingman – he was listed at 68kg, three kilograms lighter than Port Adelaide’s Jake Neade.
Bamford’s debut campaign was impressive on a personal level, featuring seven games at least 20 disposals, a third-place finish in the Lions’ best and fairest and the chance to play every match.
As for the team, it was a constant struggle.
Fitzroy triumphed just once that year (against Fremantle in round eight), lost its other 21 games by an average of 72 points and took to the field each week under a cloud of uncertainty amid financial problems and merger discussions.
Bamford does not stay in regular touch with his Lions teammates or know if he is the last member of that 1996 squad to still be playing.
But he retains keepsakes, such as blazers, photos and guernseys, and fond memories of his stint at Fitzroy, none more so than the club’s emotional final game in Melbourne – a 151-point loss to Richmond at the MCG.
“For me (playing for Fitzroy) was an opportunity for me personally to get into the AFL.
“I’m proud to have played for that club … but unfortunately they didn’t continue.
“The last ever game against Freo (in Perth) was a tough day but the one before (against Richmond) sticks in my mind – I shed a tear after that one.
“For a lot of people, football is their lives and a lot of people took that really hard so it was an emotional time around the club.
“I was lucky enough to come out of it all right and get picked up with the blokes that went to Brisbane.
“A lot of guys didn’t get that opportunity, which was a bit sad.”
Just as Fitzroy players went in different directions at the end of 1996, Para Hills personnel faced a similar dilemma last season when the Big Reds did not field senior teams.
Bamford, who had been lured back to Para Hills by schoolmates in 2009, coached the club to the division five flag in September 2015.
Remarkably, less than seven months later the club withdrew its squads due to a lack of player numbers.
Bamford switched to Mitchell Park and made his playing comeback in the second half of last season before returning to the Big Reds when they rejoined the league in division seven this year.
“It was certainly unexpected and very strange,” Bamford says of the Big Reds’ fall from grace.
“A lot of players left for various reasons and it was a bit of a snowball effect.
“A couple of us went out there (Mitchell Park), we enjoyed ourselves and had a bit of fun.
“But it’s good to be back out at Para Hills.”
Bamford reckons tomorrow will more than likely be his last game of A-grade football.
Once a wingman renowned for his pace, Bamford laughs that his body is now “old and slow”, that recovery from games takes a few days longer.
He is keen to finish on a high.
“It’s a very important day for the club.
“There’s been a lot of hard work by the people behind the scenes to get the club back up and running, as players, we’re just there playing.
“It’s very much a 50-50 contest but if we play our best footy, I’ve got no doubt we can win.
“It was a strong focus of ours to not stay in division seven.
“We want to get the club back up to where it should be.”