Have moved 'dependencies' & fixed 'apply' to 'plugins', Have fixed all the deprecation warnings & now running 8.14.3 with the '9.1.0 deprecation warnings' which are about this behavior.
Thanks to 'VampireBjörn Kautler' Leader
https://discuss.gradle.org/t/cant-run-dependencies-earlib-on-gradle-9-1-0/51615