The 1995 Story of the Inaugural Sharks’ Under 19 Team
After the dramatic cross from the Southern Football League (SFL) over the summer break, we found ourselves in the uncharted waters of the V.A.F.A. and the Club’s first task was to put together a new team to play in the VAFA’s highly regarded U19 Competition. With the U17s having performed well under coach Peter “Rabs’ McBrearty it was an easy decision to offer him the role of coach for the Beaumaris Football Clubs Inaugural U19 team, and he grabbed the opportunity with passion and commitment. We started assembling a team based on our U17s of 1994 and then some good fortune came our way when the VFA disbanded its Thirds competition and we had some Beaumaris boys return to the Sharks and bring some new faces to the club from Sandy’s U18 Premiership team.
Rabs’ group had an interesting start to the year with numbers slowly increasing at training as word got around about this new team but there was a hiccup when a Friday evening training session was scheduled only two weeks out from the first round and only six players turned up. (Big mistake asking U19s to train on Friday evening and interfere with their social life). However, it all turned around only a week later when the team was asked to play in a VAFA U19 Lightning Premiership on the Sunday afternoon so that they could evaluate how the participating teams were travelling. All of a sudden, we had numbers galore because there was some real football to be played and you guys duly saluted with the first of two trophies for 1995.
The season proper showed that we had some real talent in the team and by September we were sitting in the top two and faced the task of dispensing with Old Brighton in the 2nd Semi before meeting St Kevins in the Grand Final. The only unfortunate part of the 2nd Semi was an injury to Xavier Johnson but the team had its Skipper, Richard Thatcher, waiting in the wings to return for the Grand Final.
As the season progressed we saw the Seniors, Reserves and Under 19s all inside the four and then the Ressies dropped out after a narrow loss in the 1st Semi, but the Seniors and ‘19’s pushed through to the Grand Final with the Seniors surviving a narrow call in the 2nd Semi, after trailing at the 30 min mark, before a bit of magic from Tim Holt saw his winning snap-shot cross the goal line as the siren blew.
The 19s had a week off after defeating Old Brighton in the 2nd Semi and were able to fully enjoy the Seniors win with the photo below showing many 19s players at the Sunday celebrations. That set the scene for a Sharks U19 Grand Final against a strong St Kevins team led by the redheaded Paul Greenham, who would later be listed at the Tigers. The Grand Final at Monash Uni took place a week after the Seniors Grand Final and we saw the Sharks trailing for most of the day with Greenham hard to contain, but after a few inspiring words from the coach at three-quarter time we enjoyed an inspired last quarter comeback with Scott Fraser and Ryan McGrath having outsized impacts in that last term before Rabs & Richard accepted the BFC’s first ever U19 Premiership Cup. We heard that Rabs turned up at a Brighton nightclub in the early hours of the next morning with the Cup before waking up at home on Sunday with his arms wrapped around the trophy.
Scott Fraser won the award for B.O.G. in the Grand Final while Ryan McGrath was the Best & Fairest ahead of leading goalkicker, Nick Boctor.
It was a great season, and we hope that you can all join us for this reunion at the club which will be for both teams and enable a catchup with old friends and teammates. It is open to all family, friends and supporters who were there on the day, and you can book your seat by clicking on the QR Code in the flyer below or on the link below.
Just book your ticket/tickets on any of the ten tables listed on the platform and we will sort out the seating arrangements before the day. Festivities start with the bar opening at 11.30am and will feature the Ressies & Seniors playing Marcellin to hold their spot in the four.
Please direct any queries to Ron Nicho on 0416 133655 or to ronnicho@bigpond.com
https://www.trybooking.com/DBNAP
**At this point we are still looking for contact details for:
Heath Dwyer, Brett Ferguson, Scott Fraser, Xavier Johnson, Michael Lance, Matt McLeod, Steve Smith.
Please respond to Past Players if you have a contact number or email address for any of the guys mentioned above?
