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Harry Bentley was a leading rover for East Fremantle in the sixties, playing eighty seven games and was a member of the side that broke the Swan Districts premiership run in 1964. The club can also thank him for the recruitment of younger brother Ron, who gave the blue and whites great service all over the ground in the seventies.    “I was approached by South Fremantle after being part of Mines-Rovers 1969 flag at the age of nineteen,” Ron recalled. “I tied with Noel Saunders for the fairest and best at Mines-Rovers that year, but any ideas I might have had of going to Fremantle Oval were put to bed when I received my National Service callup.” Bentley hadn’t played any football until the age of fourteen, but blossomed quickly as a junior, playing in the league side at seventeen. Prior to leaving for Puckapunyal, Ron was selected to play in a legacy game at Bunbury, after which a prominent Victorian official asked if he’d be interested in playing in the VFL. “VFL,” he replied, “I haven’t even thought of WAFL.” In Victoria, he was selected in a combined Army side against North Melbourne in 1970. “After that game, Laurie Bennett, who had played at East Perth, and myself were invited to have a run in a scratch match at Arden Street,” Bentley said. “We were booked into a hotel room, and took another West Aussie country boy, John Duckworth, who ended up sleeping on the floor.” “Early on the Saturday morning there was a knock on the door, and a bloke introduced himself as a Fitzroy official. He proceeded to take us around the back and opened up a wad of notes. “Sign a form four with us and the cash is yours,” he said. Being young and in need of a quid, we signed immediately.” “They even paid for the hotel room.” Bentley was posted to Sydney so never turned out for the Lions, but Duckworth was flown to Melbourne for matches by Fitzroy and went on to play fifty eight games in a career chequered by a serious car accident and army service, before returning to WA and starring in the WAFL. Bennett played seconds for the club.     When posted back to Western Australia, Ron Bentley did pre season work at Subiaco under Haydn Bunton. East Fremantle soon got wind of this, and were able to persuade him to follow in brother Harry’s footsteps. The elder Bentley had retired in 1967.  1971 was a frenetic year for Bentley. “I was playing for the Army team on a Wednesday, seconds with East Fremantle on Saturday, then travelling to Collie and all points South to have a run in the South West League with Mines Rovers,” he recalled. East coach Allan Joyce heard about it and was quick to put an end to Ron’s plethora of football. “Too much,” he said. It was during that year that Bentley played in a testimonial match for West Perth coach Graham Farmer. He made the most of the occasion to perform well and made the East selectors sit up with a screamer over the aging champion of the game, Farmer.  Bentley’s early days in the game were notable for his association with stars of the game, including Duckworth and Farmer, and the trend was to continue when he was named in the East Fremantle league side for the first time. Sitting on the bench, he was accompanied by another debutant, Brian Peake.  Ron’s first full league game was  at centre half forward against Perth. “I remember Greg Saunders flattening Perth tough man Colin Lofts in that clash,” he recalled. He soon became a regular member of the blue and whites league side, playing mainly in defence. His pace and ball skills were complimented by sound marking and kicking, with the ability to play on a variety of opponents an added string to his bow.   These attributes were on show in the 1974 grand final, also against the Demons, when his defensive job on explosive and damaging Perth forward Murray Couper was a significant factor in the East Fremantle premiership win. Holding the goalkicking ace kickless for the first three quarters before being thrown onto the ball, Bentley was one of his team’s best in front of forty thousand spectators.     After losing three games out of four in May/June, coach John Todd had been skeptical of the side’s premiership chances. Bentley said: “I was confident we had the players to go all the way, and told Meryl Todd: “I think we’ll take the flag.” Ron spilt the beans about the mystery of the daubing of the entrance to East Fremantle Oval in West Perth colours prior to the 1977 preliminary final. “Les Fong and John Duckworth got the blame for that so apologies to them,” he said. “After we had lost the second semi to Perth by fifty four points and West had accounted for East Perth by twenty two we were in need of motivation, so Tony Micale(a painter in those days) and myself thought we’d provide some. We got there early Wednesday morning and painted the bitumen at the entrance in West Perth colours. When Allan Joyce arrived for training Thursday night and copped the driveway he exploded into colourful language, the only time I ever heard him swear.” “Then someone came forward and swore they’d seen Fong and Ducky climbing the fence, which was interesting because the gate was always open.” “Anyway, it was all worthwhile because we got over the Cardies, maybe we should’ve repeated the process the following week in red and black because Perth demolished us in the grand final by seventy three points.”    Bentley retired in 1978 after becoming disillusioned with the club’s selection policy. “ I thought the committee was interfering in selection, although coach Joyce denied this,” Ron said. “I may have also been getting a bit sick of the city,” he added.  Persuaded to return to Moss Street for pre season work the following season, he decided to accept an offer to play at South Perth, but finally succumbed to his yearning for the country life by moving mid season to Mingenew, where his affinity with East Fremantle saw the recommendation to the club of a young forward, Clinton Browning, who went on to play two hundred and twenty league games, including a scintillating display in the 1992 grand final.   Approached by Geraldton club Railways, Bentley moved to the northern city, and has been there ever since. He played in two premierships with Railways before coaching the club to a couple more in an eight year tenure, then crossed to Rovers as mentor for another two seasons. Murray Wrensted was one of the many juniors that benefited from the coaching of Ron Bentley. Ron has three boys: Dylan(who plays for Railways), Josh(North Fremantle), and Jarrad, as well as a daughter, Tamara. These days he is a contented man enjoying the life a seaside city offers, and keeps himself busy with part time work at the Port, while maintaining a keen interest in football at Geraldton, East Fremantle, and the Fremantle Dockers.  Doug Green was a player much admired by team mates and fans, and Bentley is another who regards the defender as best he played with.   In a career of a hundred and thirty games, Ron Bentley was not only a valued player on field, but a livewire off it. Despite the obvious developments in the game today, the characters of the game such as Bentley have all but disappeared, and the code is the poorer for it. A solid and dependable player, he excelled on the big stage of a grand final and was a leading performer in the win. Ever the low key team man, Bentley pays tribute to all he played with.  “It was my privilege to play and enjoy friendships with some of the stars of the game.”             

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