A skinny kid from Boolarra

Born in Tasmania and raised in the small Gippsland farming town of Boolarra, Bones was playing senior football with the local club in the Mid Gippsland League in the mid 1950s by the time he was 15 years of age.

Tall and slight, hence his nickname, Bones was recruited by the nearby Morwell club, which competed in the strong major Latrobe Valley when he was just 17.

Runner-up best and fairest in a Morwell 1961 premiership side, his versality and ability to hold down most positions with authority made an immediate impression at this higher standard and he also represented the league.

By this time VFL (now AFL) talent scouts had been watching the skinny kid from Boolarra read the play better than most and take strong marks against bigger and more physical opponents with great judgement and timing.

In 1963 Bones was invited to try out with Richmond Football Club, an opportunity he grasped with open arms.

But when big burly Paddy Guinane — a legend of the Tigers in those days — used his back to catapult himself for a mark in a training session Bones’ VFL aspirations virtually disappeared with it.

The diagnoses was a disc protrusion that Bones said affected his kicking for the rest of his long playing career.

‘‘After that happened I lost a lot of power and about 20 metres when kicking the ball. It still bothers me even today,’’ Bones reflected.

But it wasn’t enough to stop Bones from playing.

After Richmond he took a break from football and his adventurous nature took him on an overseas working holiday, which lasted three years.

But the urge to play football never left him and when back on Australian soil he restarted his football journey at Geelong where he ran a pub, The Golden Age, with a good mate and played with East Geelong in the Geelong and District League.

Then after two seasons in Geelong it was back to familiar country — Morwell — for two more seasons in the Latrobe Valley League.

A connection with a relative in Warrnambool lured him west again and a two-year stint with South Warnambool in the Hampden League where his teammates were Geelong players, Brownlow Medallist Alistair Lord and Ken Goodland.

Never one to let the grass grow under his feet and always looking for a fresh challenge Bones headed to the Goulburn Valley in 1970 when be bought a piggery at Girgarre.

He spent the season playing with Stanhope, then competing in the Goulburn Valley League.

That was a just a brief one-year stint and Bones then relented to “local” pressure, taking on a coaching role under “Bluey” Chivers at the Kyabram and District League club, Girgarre.

It turned out to be one of the most eventful years of his playing and coaching career.

Chivers suffered a broken jaw in a mid-season game and Bones found himself coaching the Roos’ senior and reserves sides for the rest of that 1971 season.

And playing in the midfield he led from the front, obviously impressing the umpires because he won the Kyabram and District League’s McNamara Medal that season.

It was back at Stanhope in 1972, coaching the reserves and then the seniors over a four-year period.

But another dose of itchy feet led him back to his old stomping ground of Gipplsland — East Gippsland to be more precise — where he coached Orbost reserves to a premiership in 1975 and played in the flag-winning senior side the same day in what he described as being “a huge day”.

On the move yet again, Bones was back in the Goulburn Valley after the Orbost stint and continued coaching in senior and reserves roles again with Stanhope and later Merrigum and Kyabram reserves teams.

He coached the Kyabram and District League side to win an interleague game and was also in charge of a Heathcote and District League Under-19 side, which also had a resounding interleague win.

Bones played into his late 30s and even extended his playing career into his 40s playing in a Kyabram-based Superules side for players over 35 years of age in the early 1980s.

When you have played and coached as long as Bones did, you see and play against a lot of good footballers.

He named former South Warnambool teammates Alistair Lord and Ken Goodland as among the best players he had encountered in his career, but he rates a rough and extremely ready ruckman from Orbost called Ron Dooley as good as country player he had teamed with.

In his Stanhope days Bones said Maurice Gibbs was a “very coachable player” who gave 110 per cent for every minute of every game.

And he rates Kyabram’s Bernie Harlen, a player who played much taller than he was and a master at reading the play in defence, was among his toughest opponents.

Noel, now 80, is married to Jean and they live in Bendigo these days.

They have four children Carla, Tara, Matt and Ben.

Ben has a strong Kyabram connection, growing up in the town and captaining the Bombers in a successful career, which included a stint with North Melbourne reserves after being drafted.

Hats off to Longwood

Someone rather cruelly predicted Kyabram District Football League battler Longwood may need all the eight ex-AFL players to win a game this season.

Last week it was revealed Longwood was announced as one of the eight clubs selected in the Carlton Draft promotion where ex-AFL players line-up for a one-off game with a club in a bid to assist with the recovery of clubs after two COVID-19 shortened seasons.

Longwood president Ricky Shiner was ‘‘over the moon’’ his club was successful in the Carlton Draft initiative, which is aptly sponsored by Carlton Draught.

And with 500 clubs nominated in the draft it was little wonder Shiner was deliriously happy his club had made the final eight cut.

Out of the available AFL recruits he named legend Eddie Betts as the player he would like to draw in the draft to be made on April 27 and broadcast on Fox Footy.

Other players in the draft are Shaun Burgoyne, Jarryd Roughead, Nathan Jones, Alex Rance, Brendon Goddard, Dale Thomas and Cam Mooney.

And as for that prediction which had Longwood needing all of those ex-AFL players to win a game, let’s ignore that and take our hats off to Longwood and admire its ability to keep fielding teams in the Kyabram League despite its continued lack of onfield success.

In fact Longwood is just one of four clubs in the league that fields sides in every grade of football and netball.

McInnes wins prestigious award

Paul McInnes has won his second Kyabram Bowls Club Herb Prior Medal at Ky Bowls Club.

The prestigious award is based on each player scoring the performance of the other three players in their rink out of five in each pennant game for the season — a 15-point maximum per round.

The scores are then tallied for the 14 rounds.

Paul, who won the award back in 2012, polled 135 points, seven more than the runner-up Rob Anset (128) with Mal Williams third (119).

Then followed by Glenn Fields (111) and club singles champion Greg Shilling (110) and runner-up Joe Greco (109).

The award honours one of the club’s greatest bowlers Herb Prior.

$5000 up for grabs

Tongala footballers and netballers are in line to vie for the richest awards in regional Victoria this year.

Moama Bowling in a deal with the Riverine Herald and Campaspe News is putting up $5000 for the awards which is restricted to players from Echuca and Rochester (Goulburn Valley Football League) Tongala, Echuca United and (Murray League), Picola and Mathoura (Picola League) and clubs Colbinabbin, Lockington Bamawm United and Leitchville Gunbower (Heathcote League).

Maso plays 300th game

A notable milestone was achieved by popular Stanhope footballer Jarrad Mason in the opening round of the Kyabram and District Football League.

The man they call “Maso” made his 300th appearance with the club at senior or reserves level in a career which started as an eight-year-old with Stanhope’s Under-12 side.

He also managed to fit in stints with Tongala, Tatura, Colbinabbin, Shepparton East and Congupna in his 32 years in the game as a player.

Now 40, he is a member of Stanhope’s reserves side, which made his milestone all the more memorable with a six-point win over Merrigum.

Sympathies to Watson

It was a bittersweet week for Kyabram trots trainer Mark Watson last week.

Watson produced Prosecco Boy to win at the Shepparton meeting and also got a winner, Miss Artemis, at the Friday night Bendigo meeting to make it two wins in her last three trips to the races.

But there was a dampener on the wins with the passing during the week of Watson’s father-in-law in Broken Hill.

Another Kyabram trainer Paul Fidge also produced a winner at the Bendigo meeting in Imperials Reason who is building an impressive record of late with three wins from his last four starts.

Imperial Reasons, a son of former $1 million plus earner For A Reason started his racing career in the Riverina had a stint in the KerryAnn Morris stable at Menangle before returning to Victoria to be trained by Fidge.