By Brad Kingsbury
CRANBOURNE Football Club hosted a reunion of its 1985 and 1995 premiership teams on Saturday, with former players and officials confident that the Hawks could again become a football power.
Many former players and officials made the effort to attend the day, which featured the club’s traditional clash with neighbours Devon Meadows.
Triumphant coaches Daryl Nisbett (1985) and Andrew Dalgleish (1995) attended, with a highlight of the day being the surprise inclusion of Mr Dalgleish in the club’s senior team on the day his first game since retiring at the start of the 2004 season.
Before the game, Mr Dalgleish, who has been assisting the side as runner this season, said that the effort to win the 1995 flag had been massive given the club was in its first season of competition in the Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League after the South West Gippsland league folded.
Mr Nisbet said that the 1985 victory had started years of success at the club that saw it win three consecutive premierships.
“It’s great to get back to the club for these things and have a beer with good mates,” he said.
“The 1985 side was the first year of three and we got better with each one. Most of the blokes were still learning about it in 1985.
“We just took control of the game at the 21minute mark of the final quarter (against Doveton).
“The next two years the blokes were hardened finals players. We were very young and most of those players stayed together.
“We had an era, if you like.”
The oldest former player in attendance was 1951 premiership player Owen Kelsall, 79, who is one of only four players from the side still alive.
Mr Kelsall’s nephew Chris played in the 1985 flag and his grandson is a current team member.
He said that Cranbourne had some great rivalries over the years but had always presented itself as a competitive team.
“Tooradin was the club we had the greatest rivalry with in my day,” he said.
“I started playing in 1945 and always played with Cranbourne. We played against Scoresby, Ferntree Gully and all those clubs back then and we played against some pretty tough opponents.”
Mr Kelsall said the toughest he ran into was former Richmond strong man Bob Wiggins, who was playing with Scoresby at the time.
“He was tough all right. He broke my collarbone,” he said.
