Easy as C, B, A

Chelsea Roffey

WHEN former league footballer Luke Beveridge took over the coaching reigns at St Bede’s/Mentone in 2006, the club was on a downward spiral.

It had just been relegated to C Grade in the Victorian Amateur Football Association after making the B Grade finals only a few seasons earlier. It was make or break time, and Beveridge – whose AFL playing career spanned 11 years with Melbourne, the Western Bulldogs and St Kilda – had some strategies to test in his new coaching foray.

“When you say that you go through some adversity and it challenges people, some people fragment and other people stick together,” Beveridge says.

“What happened was we did galvanise and we did stay together.”

The players put their heads down over the pre-season leading into that C Grade year, right through to the grand final. In front of more than 5000 people, St Bede’s came from behind to beat Ajax in the dying moments of a match that has gone down as one of the great games in Amateur football.

“Sometimes going down can be the thing that really gels a club together,” VAFA chief executive Michael Sholly says.

In three of the four years Sholly has been at the helm of the Amateur league, he has witnessed the rise and rise of St Bede’s. In 2007 they returned to B Grade, ultimately taking home the premiership in a feat that illustrated the perseverance and determination of the side.

Last Sunday, St Bede’s/Mentone made VAFA history when they became the first club to win premierships in C, B and A Grade over three consecutive years.

Their victory over competition heavyweight Collegians was even more surprising given they controlled the match from the outset, unlike the previous two premierships, where they fought back from a deficit.

“I think this year everyone expected them to at some stage during the year to falter, but they were very resilient,” Sholly says.

“They probably slipped under the radar in the early part of the year. Probably most people thought they would slip away and they didn’t need to pay as much attention as to the heavyweights of the competition.

“But they just didn’t let up. They had a strong, aggressive team that played together. And they really did have a champion team.”

Beveridge says the spirit and feeling within the team – which was made up of more than half of the players from the C Grade premiership side – started way back in 2006. At the start of 2008, they were unsure as to how they would fare in A Grade.

“You go into the new section [and] you’re sort of hoping you’re going to come up to speed and be competitive,” Beveridge says.

“So we didn’t set any really I suppose tangible goals as far as ladder position and things like that.

“With the relegation system the ultimate objective is always to maintain your position in the actual section and obviously, if you can, challenge in the finals.”

Beveridge has experienced the ultimate success in all three of his coaching years to date, but is quick to recognise the efforts of the players in creating the results.

“The way they [the players] were able to adapt and have played the way we’ve been able to over the last three years has been a real credit to them,” he says.

Sholly likens the achievement to a champion race horse taking on extra handicaps with each race. 

“Certainly this achievement of winning the premiership in each of them is remarkable considering you’re going up a standard each time,” he says.

“It’s not like your winning just three premierships.”

Sholly said the club’s triumph is further enhanced by the continually improving standard of the VAFA competition, bolstered by the relaxing of “amateur” laws.

“The team that they [St Bede’s] beat on the weekend had six players who had played AFL football,” Sholly said.

“It’s only been growing – the strength of our competition – because of our reinstatement rules.

In Sholly’s view, St Bede’s have enjoyed an historic run of success because they were in for the long haul.

“They got themselves an excellent coach, a good administration behind them and they had a plan that they stuck to the whole way,” he said.