THIRTY years ago a team in blue and yellow called the Bathurst Eagles first laced up their football boots for a game of Australian rules and now, three decades on, those currently involved with the sport in the city are organising a celebratory dinner.
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Bathurst, formally known as the Eagles and now the Bushrangers following a merger with CSU, were a founding member of the Central West AFL along with Cowra, Parkes, Young, Dubbo and Orange.
Committee member for the Bushrangers, Shaun Rowlands, said life members and past players will feature heavily throughout Saturday night’s reflection of the past 30 years.
“Most founding members of the Central West AFL are hosting a dinner. It will be a great night and people can still buy tickets,” Rowlands said.
General manager of the Central West AFL, Tony Lewis, said a lot of things have changed over 30 years, but the sport is still going strong.
“When we formed we were the Eagles and one of the strongest teams in the competition. We won five premierships in the ’90s and appeared in seven grand finals,” Lewis said.
“Justin Kennedy was playing for us and as a uni assignment had to set up a sporting club, well he went one better and put it into practice and the CSU Bulldogs were born into the Central West AFL competition.”
With the blessing of the Eagles, Kennedy left the club in 2000 and joined the team he started.
“They were in the competition for four year and did not know how to run a club, but they did enjoy playing,” Lewis said.
“CSU did beat us a few times. I can say that we didn’t love them or hate them.
“The university funded the sport for years, but when that stopped CSU Bulldogs had to rethink. The Eagles were going through administration cutbacks, so it was decided to merge the Bathurst sides.”
Neither club was willing to join under the same name, but agreed to be the Bathurst Bushrangers in 2004.
Since the merger Bathurst has had an influx of players and have been a CWAFL heavyweight.
“We have the uni and get three or four good players from there each year,” Lewis said.
“In that regard we are lucky, but we have had our share of hard times too.
“Things go in cycles, we needed players to back up from reserve grade to play firsts because we didn’t have enough for both.”
In 30 years Lewis believes 20 sides have come and gone through the competition.
“Kelso started a side called the Kelso Crows, but they only lasted one season, as did Coonabarabran,” he said.
“Other teams were Lithgow, Cootamundra and Dubbo had two sides.”
Since becoming the Bushrangers, the Bathurst club have competed in every first grade grand final and claimed three premierships.
Currently the CWAFL has seven member clubs – the Orange Tigers, Parkes Panthers, Cowra Blues, Dubbo Demons, Mudgee Black Swans, Bathurst Bushrangers and Young Saints.
The sport has not been immune to rule changes and Lewis can not “count on his hands and feet how many times rules have changed”.
“The game is a lot faster and quicker than it was 30 years ago. Clubs are held accountable and have to run as a small business to survive,” Lewis said.
The dinner is on Saturday at the Victoria Hotel. Tickets are $40 and can be bought at training or from Rowlands (0401 015 250).
