Bendigo Turns Blue was how the Bendigo Advertiser hailed Carlton Football Club’s visit to its original recruiting heartland. As any diehard Blues supporter would know, this zone was rich in talent which assisted the Blues through a golden period that hailed many premiership players and champions such Geoff Southby, Trevor Keogh, Greg Williams, Jimmy Buckley, Ken Sheldon, Peter McConville, Warren ‘Wow’ Jones, Peter Dean etc.
The print and electronic media in Bendigo gave the Blues plenty of coverage and it was very positive with the players seeming to be going out of their way to not only conduct footy clinics for the kids but visited 30 groups from kindergartens to senior citizens. As the Bendigo Advertiser put it, in a week where the spotlight has been on the negatives in sport, Carlton’s two day AFL Community Camp was deemed a resounding success, the Carlton players interacted with the Bendigo community in a positive way.

Comments from VFL Vic County Reg. Develop. Manager Tony McNamara was “The feedback l’ve received from the groups they visited has all been positive. The club did a fantastic job. At the sportsman’s night the players mingles with the crowd for three hours”.

A teacher at St Peter’s Primary described the kids as being beyond excited with anticipation with Carlton players Kade Simpson, Luke Mitchell, Andrew Collins and Dylan Buckley visiting them. The kids were taken for warm-up, drills and then a ‘mark-off’ until there was one last young lad marking all the kicks. “It was great to see, especially the way the players made the effort to get everyone involved and cheering. I even found myself barracking for these young kids as they took on professional AFL players”.

“The players then moved on to Scope, an organisation dedicated to creating equal opportunities for disabled Australians. The players interacted with everyone comfortably and you could tell it was an enriching experience experience for all involved. It was a fantastic day to be part of”.

There was no shortage of footage on the news that night and Bendigo Advertiser had quite a few pages dedicated to the Blues visit which was great. Some of work colleagues had children in the schools the players visited and their kids haven’t stopped talking about the visit and on how much they enjoyed the footy clinics.

I have just moved to Bendigo for work and was lucky enough to go to a function that they held at the All Seasons Hotel on the Thursday night. It was money well spent with all the proceeds going to local footy development in the Bendigo region. Each table was allocated at least one senior player and I was seated next to big Sam Rowe, seriously you would struggle to meet a nicer guy. He was very friendly and open and talked freely about his battle with testicular cancer, he was looking forward to the coming season and was hoping he could fit somewhere up forward in the senior team.

The MC started with Brad Green and talked about his move from Melbourne, Green said that when Mick Malthouse left him a message to call about an assistant’s role he thought it was a prank by his mates and didn’t return the call initially!! The MC then interviewed Marc Murphy, Nick Duigan and Andy Collins, the latter looked a bit reluctant / uncomfortable being up on stage – being the only Bendigo boy on our list it was a given he was going to be interviewed and he had his own column in the local rag for the visit. There was a few mates of his in the crowd and he seemed to warm to the task. He said that he would like to come back to Bendigo and play with his local club and kick 100 plus goals which brought a laugh from the crowd of Blues faithful, he did add that hopefully that won’t be for a while. He said that he would love to go back to Bridgewater and be a farmer.

There was an interval and Sam Rowe was called up onto stage for a chat and he discussed the last 12 months what he went through and gave advice that all men should go for regular health checks. He said that whilst the timing was unfortunate in that he was trying to make his way into the AFL he was also very lucky that he had a great support network from the players, officials and administration around the club. As it turned out there was a young lad around 18 years old on our table who was about to go through the same treatment that Rowe did last year, they got him up on stage and presented him with a signed Carlton jumper which was a nice touch. He was too emotional to talk and went back to his seat but it was great to see some of the Blues player come up and give him words of encouragement, one in particular Dylan Buckley spent a good ten minutes talking to this young lad.

The players intermingled pretty freely through the crowd going up to people tables and talking to the faithful who had spent their hard earned to see the players in the flesh. There was no arrogance or what appeared to be players dodging / shying away from interacting with the crowd. It was amusing in a way how the players would come up to you and introduce themselves e.g. “Hi I’m David” (David Ellard) – yes it was the correct and polite way to do it rather than be too pretentious, but I had a smirk anyway thinking of course I know who you are . The players were getting photos taken, signing jumpers / posters etc – those who didn’t bring anything to get signed started grabbing napkins from their table and getting the boys to sign these. Two young ladies in very tight fitting dresses thought all their Xmas’s had come at one with one sitting next to Kane Lucas and the other Shaun Hampson.

There were a couple of ex players there Stephen Oliver like yours truly has been in a good paddock of late. I felt like going up to him and saying why oh why did you leave us you bugger............. There was also Damien Lock the rover who played 18 games for the Blues from 1998 to 1999. When he was pointed out to me I couldn’t believe it, he looked like an extra for a Ned Kelly film with his long wispy beard, trust me he had a good night even if he couldn’t remember it the next day.

Overall it seemed that the effort by the Carlton FC was well worth it and the timing of getting out of Melbourne as the alleged drug scandal hit the airwaves was a good thing. A lot of negative things are said and printed about footballers and their clubs, but with what I have read, seen and heard about the Blues players, officials and admin they were a credit to themselves during their Community Camp visit to mighty Bendigo area.

Great read, good to hear some positive stories with all the other crap going on in the AFL.

Great stuff Bomba, thanks for sharing.

And well done to the team and staff who represented the club so well in Bendigo.

Great write-up Bomba...hope you're enjoying Bendigo.

Super stuff Bomba.

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I hope Essendon* folds.

Great write up Bomba.

& well done Blues!

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#DonTheStash

Thanks Bomba, good post. I was amazed at the coverage the Addy gave the club. Spanned 3 days !!

Oh, and welcome to Bendigo. Best town in Oz.

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The problem with Socialism is, you eventually run out of other people's money.

Hi Doc, yes enjoying the town and the sourrounds - i love the hot weather, it will be interesting once the footy seasons starts on how many leave passes l can get to go see the Blues play

I have maintained my membership / reserved seats for myself and two of my kids so I am planning to try and get to most games - the travel's not the issue, its the better half...................................

So we will hardly catch up??....
..... i hope you enjoy it there mate!

Let me know when youre back in town....

Good write up !

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

I also attended the Sportman's night at the All Season's...

I tried to convince a few people from work to come along but they obviously aren't as big a fan as myself and I ended up going by myself but was glad that I did.

Was seated next to Nick Duigan with only 2 other people (on the table next to Bomba as it turns out Would've said Hi if I'd known!) so was able to chat to Nick for most of the night.

He is a top bloke and seemed genuinely interested in what anyone who chatted to him had to say....

As Bomba said, there was not one Carlton player who wasn't friendly and approachable the whole night and they couldn't have represented the club or themselves any better.

I was able to get nearly all players signatures in his autograph book for my son and every player asked who to make it out to and wrote a nice message.

I mentioned to Nick that my son calls any mark taken with the flight a "Duigan" so was wrapped when his message to my son on his autograph was "Thanks for your Support..Keep doing The Duigan"

Haven't heard anything but good things about all the stuff they did in Bendigo so hopefully a few Primary school kids have been convinced or swayed by the clinics and visits while they were here.

Yeah it wont be as easy to catch up these days, but will obviously get to Melb a fair bit mainly on match days though

will drop you a line for sure

Go Blues

Thanks for that. Great read!

Go Baggers!

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dane's trolling again

Thanks for a great article Bomba..............all the best in your new job up there.Enjoy the place mate.Spent a lot of time up there as a kid as my mother is from there............a really good place once you get to know it.

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All my dangerous friends

Yeah nah..... It should be good, working in Castlemaine and living in Kennington right on the border of Flora Hill

will get back into camping and take along my little ferals with me which I am looking fwd to

Cheers

Really enoyable read Bomba and Blueblood.
Great thread. So full of Navy Blue goodness.

I bet you guys made a good impression on the Carlton players too.
Thet'd be so glad to be part of something so special.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Someone should post this on Bomba Blitz...

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

Excellent idea. I'm sure they could use some cheering up at the moment.

Go the 'Square.

How long does it take to get to know it Mick?

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

More than two minutes !

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All my dangerous friends

We certainly did get some air time, much more than anything I can remember for Essendon* while they enslaved the 'Bendigo B*mbers'.

I must admit, when I was going down the signature line, the guys only wanted to know what Andy Collins was like as a Maths student. [Andy introduced me as his former Maths teacher.] As a Maths student, he made a really good footballer!