Revelling in the Riverina: Recap

REVELLING in the Riverina

 

 

The vintage years

 

Recap

 

Our five month-long Riverina road trip has reached the end. For the mighty Ford Falcon GTHO Phase III, it’s back to Holbrook to be reunited with your owner and a 53-year celebration of Alan Moffatt’s victory in the 1971 Bathurst 500. The revelry lives on.

 

Buckle up and listen to some fast car music with Luke Combs’ – Fast Car:

 

 

With an arm wave out the window, let’s do a victory lap of Holbrook’s main drag – Albury Street – before handing back the car keys at the Riverina Hotel – locally known as the ‘Middle’. As we cruise past the verandahs and facades that hint of Holbrook’s heydays it’s time to salute two former ‘Brookers’ who were recently inducted into the NSW Australian Football Hall of Fame.

 

Doug Priest, son of Riverina football legend Merv Priest, commenced his football career at Holbrook in 1962. He made his debut in the senior team as a 15 year old the following season. Doug played as a ruck-forward in the Brookers’ 1964 Farrer League premiership team. He was scouted by South Melbourne and commenced his 26 game VFL football career in 1966, breaking into the senior side in round 11 against Essendon. Upon returning to the Riverina in 1970 he was appointed captain coach of Ariah Park-Mirrool. It was a case of enter Doug Priest and exit a young Ricky Quade, who was on his way to South Melbourne. 

 

After coaching Ariah Park- Mirrool in the South West League Doug moved to the Wagga Tigers – one of his father’s old clubs – in 1972 as playing coach. He led the Tigers to a premiership in 1975 and played a leading role in the 1977 premiership victory over North Wagga, a season in which he won the Farrer League best and fairest award.

 

Doug retired after playing in the 1978 premiership and commenced a highly successful involvement in representative football (as coach of the Farrer League and the Riverina League and as a state selector of the NSW team).   

 

Bert Haynes chalked up 360 games for Holbrook and booted over 700 goals. He was captain-coach in 1977-78 and in 1981.  Bert played in the Brookers’ 1970 premiership team and was won the club best and fairest awards on four occasions. The towering ruck-forward was awarded the Upper Murray League’s best and fairest player in 1976 when coaching Tumbarumba. A true gentle giant, Haynes’ two greatest strengths were the way he read the game and his big engine. When his playing days finished, Bert became president of the Holbrook Football Club serving for ten years. He also served as vice-president of the Hume Football League from 2005-2013. 

 

As we passed through other Riverina towns on our road trip we took the opportunity to salute inductees into the inaugural NSW Australian Football Hall of Fame who originated from, or made some of their contributions at those settlements/leagues. Now it is time to recognise all of the other inductees from the ‘Riverina’ (including Northern Riverina, Riverina, Murray and Hume).

 

• Sir Doug Nichols, Gordon Strang, Haydn Bunton Snr., Brett Kirk, John Longmire, Patrick O’Donoghue and Ross Henshaw from the Murray region
• Melinda Hyland, Brad Aiken, Wayne Carey, Tim Beard, John Yates, Bert Schmidt and Bill Mohr from Riverina
• Gary O’Connell from the Hume region

 

Like every season, 2024 brought a mixture of experiences for Riverina football clubs. Next, we will look at some of the highs and lows of the clubs we’ve visited on our road trip and consider issues affecting the future directions of Riverina footy. 

 

Let’s start all the way back at our first waypoint, at Tumba-bloody-rumba.

 

Tumbarumba won only four home and away games in 2024 but played in the finals, winning one. How is that possible? In the four club Upper Murray League every club makes the finals. While two clubs, Border-Walwa and Federal, remain in recess and don’t appear likely to resume, just how sustainable is a four club competition?  

 

Having a small number of clubs is nothing new for the Upper Murray League. For almost all of its existence (1893-2024) the league has had only four, five, or at most, six affiliated clubs. Its current members (Cudgewa, Corryong, Tumbarumba and Bullioh) are close enough to Albury and Wagga Wagga to attract players, but three of the clubs are far enough away to avoid being absorbed by any neighbouring leagues. As long as the people of the Upper Murray region continue to support the local footy and netball, it will endure. But the UMFNL cannot afford for another one of its own to fall or be forced into recess – a four club competition can work, three clubs is not sustainable.

 

The Cootamundra ‘Blues’ made the finals for the first time since 2020. They played Yass ‘Roos’ in the Qualifying Final and lost, but get another chance in the Preliminary Final.

 

With long road trips away and hosting visitors who, on some occasions, arrive short handed, means topsy-turvy week-to-week results. Can the Blues make a long term future in the Canberra AFL (Community Division Three competition)?  Is there a door open for them back in the Riverina area should they decide to abandon the multilevel national capital competition?  Their return would avoid the need for a bye, but would they be competitive in the Farrer League ? And, could they muster the numbers for two men’s teams and five netball teams?

 

West Wyalong-Girral, Ungarie and Hillston belong to another league with a small number of clubs. The Northern Riverina League is composed of five clubs stretching out on an arc from West Wyalong to Hillston. Ungarie have struggled to be competitive in recent years, but their three wins from 12 matches in 2024 should at least keep their spirits alive. The ‘Magpies’ played a final and were far from disgraced. West Wyalong had a bleak season with just one win, while Hillston topped the ladder again and were back-to-back premiers.

 

In the Riverina League, Griffith, Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong  and Narrandera Imperial had vastly contrasting seasons: GGM were undefeated minor premiers; Griffith finished fifth, winning as many as they lost; while Narrandera Imperial finished last after losing all but one match. 

 

In the Farrer League, Barellan went through the season without a win, while the Northern Jets (Ariah Park Mirrool/Ardlethan) just missed a place in the finals. Late in the season The Rock-Yerong Creek looked set to add another to their enviable tally of Farrer League premierships, but in the finals Marrar and East Wagga-Kooringal have demonstrated that it won’t be a one horse race.

 

Recently, there was an AFL Riverina plan that would have seen the Riverina and Farrer  leagues lose their identities, becoming Riverina Premier Division and Riverina Community Division One, respectively (with the possibility for promotion and relegation between the two divisions). A wave of public disapproval in 2022 led to the rebranding and divisional structure proposal being dumped. It was not the first time the Farrer League fought successfully to preserve its identity and maintain its links with the past. Following the 1982 shakeup of leagues in the Riverina, the title ‘Farrer League’ disappeared and was replaced by the Riverina District Football League banner. The historically important title of the league was brought back in 1985.

 

Deniliquin Rovers, Jerilderie, Berrigan and Rennie belong to a league which has 15 clubs – a very high number for a country league. The Picola and District FNL has been strong on principle and adventurous in its break away from AFL Goulburn Murray. Their stance, in highlighting the deficiencies of the AFL’s financial contributions to country football, should be applauded. But it comes at a cost in the extra burden shouldered by local administrators. On the other hand, there is a big benefit in the league not having to contribute affiliation fees to the AFL body. Country leagues are watching to see how sustainable the league’s go-it-alone position be in the longer term. In 2024 the NSW clubs in the P&DFNL struggled, although Jerilderie and the Deni Rovers flew the flag for the North of the Murray football world, both winning eight games.

 

The number of clubs is an issue front and centre to the league’s planning. It was recently announced that Dookie United (from the Kyabram District FNL) will be returning to the P&DFNL in 2025, making a 16 club competition. The ‘Dooks’ participated in the Picola League between 2006 and 2017. During 2024 the league considered a proposal to return to a two division structure (a geographical division was in place between 2009 and 2018) but resolved not to follow that path. But the concept could just be sitting on the back burner for now.

 

Currently, it is a very uneven league in terms of football results. Winning margins in excess of 150 points are a weekly occurrence. Clearly, several of the Victorian clubs in the league (Waiaa, Strathmerton, Tungamah and Katamatite in particular) are far too strong for bottom of the ladder clubs Yarroweyah and Blighty. An example of the trend occurred in round 17 when Tungamah defeated Yarroweyah by 293 points.The imbalance is a recurrent theme in the football competition, although netball produces more evenly matched contests.

 

In the Hume League, Rand Walbundrie Walla ‘Giants’, Jindera and Holbrook all made the Hume League finals. The perennial Hume League question remains to be answered. Can the ‘September specialists’, Osborne, be eclipsed this year? The Holbrook ‘Brookers’ are best placed to challenge and maybe they can repeat their 2022 victory over the Osborne Cats. An issue focusing attention in the Hume League is the six-team finals format? While it gives more teams a chance for a place in the September action, it arguably disfavours the third placed team who are placed in the ‘hot seat’ of an elimination final contest.

 

Meanwhile, several clubs in the Hume League are benefiting from having ‘fly in’ players from Darwin, Melbourne and Canberra. Although it has drawbacks in terms of the cost to clubs and to internal club cohesion, it is a modern trend in trying to solve the age-old problem of clubs from small towns remaining competitive and viable.

 

Our circuit of the Riverina has taken us from the foothills of the Snowy Mountains to the  edge of the western plains, from the Lachlan to the Murray, along bustling interstate freeways, busy highways, quiet country roads and lonely rural lanes. We have turned back the pages to the vintage years of 20 or more football clubs, many of them still active, but some long gone. We have nosed the Falcon up to the boundary fence at grounds that were once the playgrounds and launching pads of Brownlow Medallists, Coleman Medallists and AFL and NSW Hall of Fame champions, among the many thousands of lesser known and unheralded Riverina footballers. Deliberately by-passing the biggest towns, we have cruised up and down the main drags of towns such as Holbrook, West Wyalong, Hay, Berrigan and Jerilderie, learning a bit about their culture along the way. We have stood in the crowds beside the 44 gallon drum fires at footy grounds with character a plenty – Ungarie, Ganmain, Ariah Park, and more. We have quenched our thirsts at country pubs, among them Pretty Pine, Rand, Mirrool, Conargo and Pleasant Hills, where we heard stories of footy games long in the memories of old patrons and, for the price of a beer, we’ve garnered more than han a quid’s-worth of local history. We have pulled up at lonely places – Rannock, Four Corners and Pleasant Hills – and found deserted football grounds still faintly echoing the sounds of games played more than half a century ago. We have been informed by Robbie Mackinlay’s highly entertaining Glory Days footy podcasts. And we have listened to a jukebox full of music, some home grown, some imported, each song chosen to keep the feet tapping and the vocal chords humming.

 

Let’s hit the finish line with a last look at our trusty vehicle as she is put through her paces.

 

 

 

 

 

Previous episodes of Revelling In The Riverina, and more from Peter Clark can be read Here.

 

 

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