TAC Cup: All power to a rebel bunch of pioneer bushrangers

THIS year marks 25 years since Ballarat Rebels, Bendigo Pioneers, Gippsland Power and Murray Bushrangers joined Victoria’s new elite underage competition, writes HANNAH DRISCOLL.

AFL - West Coast Eagles vs St Kilda Saints at Patersons Stadium, Perth. PICTURED- Saint Brendan Goddard looks down field.

THE pie flew across the room towards the table at the front of the room.

Among those at the table was Tony Frawley, who had spent a year working with Geelong Falcons in the Victorian State Football League (later known as the TAC Cup).

Now, he was in Horsham trying to sell the concept of having regional teams in the competition.

It was not an easy sell because many, including the pie thrower, felt it would hurt country football by taking the cream of the crop.

“He said, ‘This is b***t, it’ll kill country footy’, and walked out,” Frawley recalled. He never found out who the man was.

This year marks 25 years since Gippsland Power, Murray Bushrangers, Bendigo Pioneers and Ballarat Rebels joined Victoria’s premier under-18 competition.

Their graduates are some of the AFL’s modern champions, exemplified by the best-of-25 years team that AFL talent ambassador Kevin Sheehan has compiled for The Weekly Times.

The team does not include Geelong Falcons players, as the Falcons (with a Ballarat contingent that Frawley oversaw) played in the inaugural year in 1992, along with five metropolitan sides.

This new talent pathway was part of a huge upheaval for the Australian rules football landscape at the time.

Through the 1980s the VFL had spread to include teams from other states, with the name officially changed to AFL in 1990.

The national draft had been introduced in 1986, and country zoning was abolished. Metropolitan zoning met the same fate in 1989.

The under-19 competition was wound up after the 1991 season, and a new elite junior competition — with teams independent of any AFL counterpart — was devised as its replacement.

Ken Gannon, then AFL club Geelong’s chief executive, and Sheehan, a Bendigo product himself, were put in charge.

“The overall philosophy of the TAC Cup is everyone has the same resources,” Gannon said.

“Whereas in the VFL of the day, the clubs that were broke didn’t have the money to work at their zones.”

Sheehan said it was a “massive change”.

“We brought the draft in, went to a national competition, then had to change all our (talent) pathways,” he said.

“The first was Melbourne, then country Victoria, and it still remains the heartland of the game.”

Geelong Falcons won the first premiership and nine of its players were drafted, but the competition was getting ready to expand in 1993.

Forums were held across the state to explain the concept. “Fiery” and “loud” were just some of the terms used to describe them.

Ray Byrne was the initial Gippsland Power manager, and later held the same job for the Pioneers.

“They didn’t accept it. None of them,” he said.

Byrne grew up in Bendigo, playing in Golden Square’s 1972 premiership before heading to the VFL, where he played more than 200 games for Carlton, Collingwood and Geelong.

“I thought it was fantastic. Back in the old days of zoning we never had anything like that — expert coaching, gym. It was a mini AFL club we were setting up. The kids loved it.”

He and Frawley, Ballarat’s inaugural manager, could see the benefits of the new system. Kids would not have to uproot to Melbourne like they did in the days of the under-19 competition, and therefore would be more likely to stay involved in country footy if they did not get drafted.

Then there was the added professionalism, which Sheehan said country clubs could no longer provide.

“We’re heading towards a fully professional competition,” Sheehan said.

“By the mid 1990s we were full-time footballers … there was a lot more to it than just playing against stronger bodies on the weekend.

“It was all the preparation, whether that be game strategy, strength and conditioning, diet, recovery — all the things around the area of professional athlete for a contest was not in the realms of what a senior country club could do.”

But the concept still faced plenty of opposition.

“I could understand. I am a country person,” Frawley said. “We were taking the best kids from, say, Stawell Football Club and playing them in Melbourne or Ballarat on a Saturday, when he was probably the best player Stawell had.”

In the first year Frawley says they were “flying blind”, trying to figure out how to organise a team that covered vast expanses of the state.

The 1993 draft was the first to be broadcast on television.

Among the names read out that day were Fraser Gehrig, Mark Stevens and Ben Robbins — some of the first draftees from those country sides.

In the almost 25 years since, Byrne said there were plenty of local footballers who benefited.

“If you have a look at the interleague side in Bendigo, and best-and-fairests across the region, I’d say 80 per cent have come through TAC Cup,” he said.

“It’s been very good for local footy, very good for AFL and VFL and been a huge success.”

AFL talent ambassador Kevin Sheehan picks his team of the best players from 25 years of the Bendigo Pioneers, Ballarat Rebels, Gippsland Power and Murray Bushrangers

page 92-93 footy field Jue 13

Leon Harris.

LEON HARRIS

(Coach)

The former Fitzroy player coached, managed and was a selector of Vic Country teams for over 20 years. Sheehan says “virtually all these players would know him … Legendary, really, for Vic Country.”

NATHAN BROWN

(Pioneers/Western Bulldogs, Richmond)

“I can remember the first time I saw him play. He was a 17-year-old, bottom ager, but he was just a stick and I thought, that can’t be right. But then I looked at his skill and it was brilliant.”

MATT CROUCH

(Rebels/ Adelaide)

“He is a brilliant young player, he was All-Australian last year, and he had a brilliant year. One of the young stars of the competition.”

NICK DAL SANTO

(Pioneers/St Kilda, North Melbourne)

“Class personified. Sixteen years of age playing for Vic Country, then he played in a grand final for Bendigo Pioneers on the MCG as well. That’s what the clubs are looking for — who in a few years could play on the bigger stage of the game and play well? Nick could right from the start.”

BRETT DELEDIO

(Bushrangers/Richmond, GWS)

“It was no surprise to see him go No. 1 in the draft. A brilliant underage player, played I think as a 16-year-old in a key position for the Murray Bushies, too.”

JAMES FRAWLEY

(Rebels/ Melbourne, Hawthorn)

“He became an All-Australian, and a premiership player. A very consistent, strong one-on-one player.”

JARRYN GEARY

(Pioneers/St Kilda)

“He’s captain of his football club, a marvellous achievement for a guy who’s not as blessed with natural talent. His workrate, his courage, his perseverance have made him a very good senior player.”

BRENDON GODDARD

(Power/St Kilda, Essendon)

“He was one of my favourites, probably one of the best under-16 players I’d ever seen. His marking and kicking, he was out on his own, a class above. It was no surprise he went No. 1 in the draft.”

ADAM GOODES

(Rebels/Sydney)

“He went No. 43 in the draft. They queried his kicking — well, I remember he kicked six-straight in the TAC Cup grand final to be best-on-ground when the Rebels won.”

BARRY HALL

(Bushrangers/ St Kilda, Sydney, Western Bulldogs)

“I was up at the Murray Bushies one night for their presentation night, and there was a kid who lobbed up on a motorbike who won the best clubman. He had ridden the motorbike to training from Broadford, which was closer to Melbourne than it would be to Wangaratta. It was Barry Hall … It shows the extent to which some men would go to, to realise their dream.”

DYSON HEPPELL

(Power/Essendon)

“Rising to stardom to captain his football club, in a very challenging time for Essendon. A star at underage level for Gippsland Power and Vic Country. He is a running machine, a great user of the footy.”

STEVE JOHNSON

(Bushrangers/Geelong, GWS)

“A genius from the Murray Bushrangers. It took him a while for it all to sink in as to how good he could become, and to become one of the most creative medium-sized forwards of the game. There are a few freaks, and Eddie Betts and Stevie J are two of those that can do it against the odds.”

Dustin Martin.

DUSTIN MARTIN

(Pioneers/Richmond)

“Late in his 17th year, he returned from Sydney, where he’d been with his father, and started playing for Castlemaine. He was dominating. Then they popped him in the Pioneers for the last half-dozen games, and within one game the network’s talking about him.”

ROBERT MURPHY

(Power/Western Bulldogs)

“I remember him in a grand final. He was a very thin, lightly-built boy for Gippsland Power on the MCG with all the grace of Robert Flower. It’s not about your build, it’s about your moves, and he had every trick in the book as he spun his magic very, very early as a 17-year-old.”

SCOTT PENDLEBURY

(Power/Collingwood)

“The famous sliding doors story with Paddy Mills. He dropped out of AIS basketball to pursue football, went to Gippsland Power and Paddy took his spot.”

DREW PETRIE

(Rebels/North Melbourne, West Coast Eagles)

“Drew, at 300-odd games, has been a marvellous player. He was one of the great high marks of the competition, a great worker, presented brilliantly at centre half-forward for most of his career, but then was able to clinch it in the ruck.”

BEN REID

(Bushrangers/Collingwood)

“Now playing forward for Collingwood, but he was picked as an All-Australian in the backline.”

JARRYD ROUGHEAD

(Power/Hawthorn)

“He came to Hawthorn the same time as Buddy Franklin, and Hawthorn thought they were getting the bookends, and they ended up with two great forwards. Lots of things do change once they get to an AFL club. He was such a great role model for people that are challenged, challenged medically, to overcome adversity.”

JOEL SELWOOD

(Pioneers/Geelong)

“He was a star in his 17th year, then was injured in his 18th year … they felt the knee injury that kept him out that year might shorten his career … that (shortened) career is now 12 years and doesn’t look like stopping.”

STEELE SIDEBOTTOM

(Bushrangers/Collingwood)

“In a grand final, here at Etihad Stadium, he had 34 possessions and kicked 10. It was an amazing individual performance.”

DALE THOMAS

(Power/ Collingwood, Carlton)

“He was best-on-ground in a TAC Cup grand final. Good kids perform on the big stage.”

JARRAD WAITE

(Bushrangers/Carlton, North Melbourne)

“He was a thin wingman way back at the start … and ends up a wonderful goal kicker and still an exciting player in the AFL today at 35.”

JACK ZIEBELL

Bushrangers/North Melbourne)

“He’s now captain of his club. He was a wonderful player for the Murray Bushies. He ended up at school at Caulfield, so not every kid stays home … but still loyally went back and played with the Bushies and was a premiership player with Sidebottom.”

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