Ron Best Memorial match to be held in Bendigo
There was no bigger name in Bendigo footy in the 1970s than the late Ron Best and now a memorial match will be held in his honour.
Ron Best spent a large part of his 16 seasons playing country football terrorising fullbacks in the Bendigo league.
The legendary goalkicker bookended a brilliant career with two masterful performances.
In 1968 on debut for Golden Square, Best booted 14 goals and in his last match, aged, 34, he kicked 14 goals in a premiership winning Northern United team in 1984.
Peter Fyffe was one of the BFL’s top fullbacks in the 1970s for Castlemaine and regularly ventured to the goalsquare to play on Best.
He played 19 matches for Carlton in the early 1970s and has no doubt Best could have also played at the highest level.
Fyffe played against a future Brownlow Medallist, Graham Teasdale, in the VFL but rated Best his toughest opponent.
“He would have made it easily,” Fyffe said.
“His reading of the play was second to none.
“He could anticipate where the ball was going and he had incredibly good bodywork.
“I had a few pretty good days on him I reckon, and there were a few days where he had the better of me by a fair bit.
“For him to kick only three or four goals was a really bad day.
“But a good day was anywhere between 10 and 15.”
Geelong came closest to wooing Best to the VFL with an offer of $3000 in the early 1970s.
But there was more money and more goals to be kicked in the bush.
Fyffe and Best became teammates at the end of their careers with Northern United with Fyffe able to win an elusive flag and Best completing the final chapters in an already storied career.
“We had a real healthy respect for each other and to play with him at Northern United at the end of my career was really great,” Fyffe said.
Best had kicked four successive 100 goal seasons with Golden Square before taking on the coaching job with North Central league club Charlton for one season in 1972.
“The whole town was enthralled with Besty coming to play,” former Charlton player Jock Clarke said.
“We weren’t exactly a team of champions and he couldn’t play at full forward and get the service and play the same game style he was used to with the good sides in Bendigo.
“He got some terrific incentives to go up there as he was entitled to get.
“But we lost games we shouldn’t have.”
Best returned to the BFL in 1973 and coached Sandhurst to a drought-breaking premiership.
He also kicked another four successive centuries of goals with Sandhurst before heading back to Golden Square to play under Tony Southcombe in 1978.
His 1981 season was his most productive with 161 goals, bettering the 145 he kicked for Sandhurst in 1975.
“He was a star,” Southcombe said.
“The best players I played with (at Carlton) were Bruce Doull and Alex Jesaulenko, and Geoff Southby and Phil Pinnell I also rated.
“But Besty is in the top half dozen no doubt.
“If you look at his interleague record that would be amazing too.
“He would kick eight or 10 goals in those matches.”
THE VERY BEST
(Ron Best’s 100 goal seasons in country football)
1968: 106 Golden Square
1969: 137 Golden Square
1970: 107 Golden Square
1971: 111 Golden Square
1973: 108 Sandhurst
1974: 135 Sandhurst
1975: 145 Sandhurst
1976: 108 Sandhurst
1978: 124 Golden Square
1979: 132 Golden Square
1980: 161 Golden Square
1981: 100 Boort
1983: 124 Northern United
*Career country goals: 1919 including 1624 in the Bendigo league.
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