Glenrowan was under siege again recently, not by the armour-wearing Ned Kelly and his gang, but by sharp-shooting full forward Brad Bell, who kicked a league record 22 goals.
Bell and his gang of Greta Blues bailed up the hapless home side and proceeded to rack up a list of records as long as your arm.
They were a law unto themselves, booting an Ovens and King League record score of 56. 16 (352), led by Bell who broke the 81-year-old single game record of 21 goals.
Such was life for Greta on the day that it also registered the highest winning margin in league history and the highest double goalkicking tally of 36, shared by Bell and his partner in crime Chris O'Conner, who booted 14.
As in Kelly's siege of 1880, mystery also surrounds Bell's siege of the Glenrowan Kelly Tigers.
The club insists Bell booted 23 goals and lodged the official statistics with the league as such.
Bell easily eclipsed his previous best effort of 13 goals, and credited his newfound success to a new goalkicking process.
"I changed it this year and kicked six goals in my first game and stuck with it," he said.
"There's no smoking gun, there's not much to it. I just spin the ball backwards and forwards, wipe my hands on my shorts and shoot."
The 23-year-old spearhead said he struggled to break out early in the game.
"Chris kicked the first five goals of the match," Bell said.
"I hadn't seen much of the ball up until then, but finally got involved and finished with seven in the first quarter.
"I thought 'this is my day' and as I started to kick more goals, the guys on the bench were yelling out how many I had as the game went along.
"In the last quarter the crowd were yelling to the boys to get the ball to me so I could break the record.
"I think the supporters were more excited than me when it happened, but it really was an unforgettable moment and one that I'll probably enjoy more after I retire," he said.
"I wasn't taking much notice of the score until the final quarter and thought, 'wow, how much bigger can it get?'
"I've never seen a final score like that I my life. Glenrowan has lost a fair few players this year and are struggling for numbers, but even so, I would have hated to be on the end of belting like that."
Bell moved back home from Melbourne in May and wasn't thinking about playing football.
"I'd given up on this season until I got sick of Melbourne and the club kept chasing me," he said.
"The job in Melbourne wasn't giving me what I wanted and I've got a house up here so I decided to move back home."
Greta's coach Dan McLaughlin said Bell's remarkable display was "outstanding".
"He barely missed. He was getting a lot of shots from 40-45m out, but he still finished with something like 22.3 or 23.4," he said.
"There's a bit of confusion as to what he actually finished up with.
"He's been such a standout for us and it's no coincidence the five games he's played have been five wins."
Greta's score shattered Chiltern's record of 52.25 (337), also kicked against Glenrowan in 1992, while Bell's tally puts him ahead of Bert Carey, who finished with 21 goals in a game against Everton 81 years ago.
AUSWIDE – BY PHIL McLEOD.
Volume 42, No.20 - Issue 1378
June, 27 - July, 3, 2012.
http://www.insidefootballonline.com/auswide.html
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Last Modified on 03/07/2012 14:09