By Jonty Ralphsmith
Over the Christmas period, the Star News’ sports team will be re-sharing some of the most popular stories from over the course of 2023.
Thank you for supporting our newspapers over the course of the year. We hope you enjoy the selection and have a wonderful holiday period, however you choose to celebrate.
Last weekend, Ryan Jones brought up career game 200. This weekend, his best mate Luke Bee-Hugo will bring up the 150-game milestone. They spoke about the journey to Star News last week.
Come and try.
Those three words sum up what it has always been about during Ryan Jones’ and Luke Bee Hugo’s tenures at Cranbourne.
Beat us if you can.
The best mates have provided the offensive flair to an era which has contained three premierships.
They’re the ones who find pockets of space and have helped the club form a notorious reputation for finding ways to ease the ball up the ground.
Marc Holt’s the legend, with 1000 goals, who has a banner at one end of Livingston Reserve, but so often it has been Bee-Hugo delivering it inside 50 after burning his opponent and being released to run the wing.
Jones has played his share of sacrificial roles to isolate Holt deep in between plenty of big games himself.
“Ever since I’ve been here, it’s been ‘everyone wants to beat Cranny’,” says Bee-Hugo, who arrived in 2014 after footy at Garfield and Beaconsfield.
“Teams from the 2009 (period) built that DNA and we’ve still got it.
Jones adds: “It’s built our resilience as well, which we have in spades and (coach Steve O’Brien) touches on it as well.
“It’s a never-say-die attitude where we always think we can win any game of football no matter what the situation is.”
In recent years there have been fierce battles with Cheltenham, but for much of their careers the success of a season depended on results against arch-rivals Berwick, Beaconsfield and Narre Warren.
One individual battle the pair both recall fondly is Jones against Berwick’s Riley Heddles.
Jones was taken out of the game in their meetings through the home and away season by the shutdown ex-VFL defender, but stood up when it mattered most in the 2016 grand final.
“We’d kick it just above your head and you had him on the speed, and you got a hop on him and could mark it,” Bee-Hugo reflected to Jones.
“Usually he would body check.
“You kicked one goal, but took five big marks on him that day and then they started to play back shoulder because he was hitting up, and we had a small forward line.”
Fast-forward to 2023 and Jones will again play a prominent role inside 50 in finals, as one of four players with at least 25 goals – the Eagles the only team to have that many avenues to goal.
A collective 350 games of experience to their names has positioned them well to maintain a positive mindset at the Eagles late in 2023.
Prior to annihilating Mordialloc on the weekend, the Eagles, despite doing a lot right, had lost three of their last four.
“It’s pretty easily turned around,” Bee-Hugo says.
“We have a lot of young kids and inexperienced senior players.
“It’s not as bad as it looks, but it’s never as good as it seems.
“All it takes is being five per cent cleaner and we win on the weekend and then everyone says we’re rolling into finals.”
For Jones, coaching is the clear next pathway to explore – and he already has experience in the space, having assistant coached Tyabb at 22-years-old.
“I learnt how to win my own footy, which not many of the boys thought I could do,” he said, tongue in cheek, of his time on-field at the Yabbies
A student of the game who has been exposed to most positions on the field and seen a lot in the local footy ecosystem, he thinks deeply about structures, game-plans and match-ups.
He jokes that he chews the ear off anyone who will listen to him about footy after Thursday night training, and it comes through in his succinct communication and nuanced perception of the game.
The way he and Bee-Hugo wax on the field demonstrates a different type of game awareness, one formulated through years of mate-ship, training and playing together.
“We link up pretty well,” Jones said.
“I’m able to just tick up and get a nice little hit up.
“We’re able to work on cues for when to turn and go, or when he is going to push out so I don’t have to, so it’s been pretty good.”
Bee-Hugo adds: “Sometimes because there will be open pockets of space and someone’s leading into it, and I’ll just kick around the corner to ‘Jonesy’ and we sort of know where each other will be.”
“Even in the granny last year, I remember I got the ball in the centre of the ground and I just kicked it his way and I knew he would be there and I hit him up.
“Then it got to ‘Holty’ and we got a score out of it.
“It’s just consistency – I reckon 120-130 of my games have been with Ryan.”
