Club legacy revisited at Kilcunda-Bass

By Tayla Kershaw  

KILCUNDA-Bass Football Netball Club recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of its 1974 Fourths premiership win.

The occasion saw the return of almost the entire team, presenting plenty of opportunity to reflect on the joys and successes of the club.

Les Hender sat with The Sentinel-Times and looked back on his time at the club.

The Hender family cemented its contribution to the club’s history books by producing three generations of Senior premiership players.

Les’ father – also named Les – won a Senior premiership in 1950, Les won his premiership in 1980 and Les’ son Brad won in 2011.

“My dad played in two premierships. He played for Kilcunda, and Kilcunda and Bass merged in 1957. In their very first year as a merged club, they won the flag,” Les said.

“My brother (Steven) and I started in the Fourths in ’72 and we won the flag in ’74. We both started playing Seniors when we were 16 and played in the grand final in 1979. We got beaten then, but we won in 1980.

“I reckon we all played more than 150 Senior games each.”

Steven gave footy away after a knee injury.

Les also suffered an injury, but his story with the club did not end there.

“I was actually out injured in the Seniors one day in ’86, and they had no one to coach the Seconds. I was asked to give it a go,” he said.

“I remember it was a practice match and I must’ve done alright – either that or they couldn’t get anyone else to do it. They gave me the job in the Seconds and in my first year of coaching, we made the grand final.

“We got beaten. The worst thing was I had to drop a few players – a lot of them I called my mates – and we lost. At this point, I said this coaching thing wasn’t for me. I didn’t want to lose mates over it. I didn’t coach the next year.”

In 1988, Les had a change of heart and rallied his old teammates from the Fourths, encouraging them to join the Seconds and “get serious” about training.

“There’s a bit of a story to it. I nearly hand-picked my Seconds team,” he said.

He recruited the champion of the club Paul Eden, who was unsure about the training schedule because it conflicted with milking the cows.

Les encouraged him to get down to the club when he’d finished work, staying back to have a kick with him and running a couple of laps.

“He didn’t need a lot of training,” Les said.

“I also got Peter Mabilia back, who was also an absolute champion of the club. We had a pretty good team. I went to see all the blokes who were around my age from the Fourths and told them they had to get serious and come to training – we were running out of time to win a flag.

“Little in my wildest dreams did I think we’d go undefeated and win a flag in the Seconds. That meant a lot because all of those blokes were mates, and I honestly don’t reckon if we’d just gone along the same way we were we would’ve won the flag.”

Les coached the following year and continued playing a bit of Seniors, making it through to the finals.

He gave away playing the game at the age of 30 due to work and family commitments.

He became involved with the club once more after his son Brad started playing in the junior teams on Sundays.

“My son ended up making the Gippsland Power squad but wanted to play with his mates at Bass, he started playing Seniors at about 16 as well,” Les said.

“In 2011, they won the flag – I was pretty proud. There was a lot of talk at the time of Brad’s son Heath having a lot to live up to, to be a fourth-generation player, but my dad never put any expectation on us to play footy, and I never put one on Brad. It wasn’t as though we were forced into it. We did it because we wanted it.”

Brad went on to play for Inverloch-Kongwak for a while and is now coaching his son in the Fourths at Dalyston.

Since Brad finished playing, Les hasn’t had as much to do with footy, preferring the joys of travelling and watching grandkids fulfil their sporting potential.

“I have grandchildren playing for Dalyston and for Power, and a granddaughter playing soccer,” he said.

“The main thing I want them to learn is not to play because you feel you have to – play because you enjoy it. To me, winning premierships is secondary. The main thing is mateship.”

The incredible ongoing friendships formed from the 1974 Fourths team are proof of the importance of team bonding and a strong club culture.

“It is magnificent to still be in contact with the blokes from the Fourths. When you think it has been 50 years, it’s pretty amazing,” he said.

“We have just stayed mates all through our lives. We’re all at different places in our lives, but if someone needed a hand, those blokes would be there. A lot of people can’t believe that. They don’t realise it’s a bond. That’s the greatest thing about football. I hope we never lose that in our society.”

Les said it has given him great pride to see his family follow their children through their sporting journeys and hopes to continue to see the family-orientated side of grassroots sport flourish.