Celebrations: Rushworth’s senior side after winning the premiership in 2004.
Rushworth returns to the top flight of Kyabram District League football this weekend, 20 years after kicking six final-quarter goals to storm to its only senior premiership in the league against the club that has been the dominant force of the past three seasons.
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The Tigers won the 2004 title by 30 points against Lancaster, which has won the past two KDL premierships and was well on its way to another title in 2021 before COVID-19 got in the way.
Rushworth’s return to senior ranks will mean there is no bye in the competition this season — an impressive 14 clubs back in the hunt for the 2024 Kyabram league’s senior football title.
The Tigers joined the KDL in 1998 and, in only their second year, played off in a grand final against Nagambie.
They replaced another yellow and black team, Yea, which was in the KDL from 1987-97 before moving across to the now defunct Central Goulburn league.
Rushworth’s return is in contrast to the Ardmona club, which went into recess in 2022 after two frustrating seasons of COVID-19 interruptions.
Ardmona was a powerhouse in the 1990s, when the side won three premierships, and the Bush Cats have four titles to their credit.
Two years ago, the Tigers won just one game at the senior level, beating the winless Longwood by 64 points, before electing to field only a reserve-grade team in 2023. That second-grade team also finished the season with one victory.
Longwood will be the returning senior team’s first opponent at Ironbark stadium (Rushworth’s home ground), a week after it tackles Merrigum in its round one return to the top level.
There are five clubs in the KDL senior football competition that have either won just the one or no premierships.
Alongside Rushworth, Violet Town has one premiership from its 17 years in the competition (in 2012).
Still to claim a grand final victory since rejoining the competition in 2019 is Shepparton East, Longwood (which came into the KDL in 2010) and Dookie, who became affiliated with the KDFNL in 2018.
Shepparton East did win the 1958-59 Kyabram District Football Association flags and then made it four in succession by claiming the first two titles of the new KDFL in 1960-61.
Immediately after that 1961 grand final win, the now Eagles left the competition and didn’t return for 58 years.
Back to back: Lanaster last year completed back-to-back titles and its 11th Kyabram District Football League senior football title when it beat the most successful club in league history, Nagambie (13 premierships). It was the second time in recent history, the other being 1980-81, that the Wombats had won back-to-back titles. In the league’s modern era (since 1960) no team has won three premierships in a row (Shepparton East won the 1958-59 Kyabram District Football Association flags and won the first two titles of the new KDFL in 1960-61).
Photo by
Megan Fisher
• Lancaster, the second most successful football club in KDL’s history, will unfurl its 11th premiership flag on Saturday, April 13, when it plays Stanhope at the Lancaster Recreation Reserve.
In its 2023 premiership season, the Wombats lost in round two by five points (to Shepparton East), then again in round four to Murchison-Toolamba (by one point).
They then won 14 successive games to secure another title, completing a second back-to-back premiership quinella in the modern era (the first was in 1980-81).
In 1932-36, the Wombats played in four successive grand finals and won three of them, in 1932 and 1933-34.
They do not have to wait long for a repeat of the 2004 losing grand final; they have been drawn to play Rushworth in round three.
The last time the clubs met, in round two of 2022, the scoreline was 194 to 18 (in Lancaster’s favour).
• Girgarre finished last season on the bottom rung of the ladder, only 12 months after returning to the finals for the first time in two decades.
The side defeated Tallygaroopna and Longwood in successive weeks, late in the season under coach Brendan Baumann, but lost seven games by 100 points or more.
The Kangaroos face one of those teams, Tallygaroopna, to open the season at Girgarre Recreation Reserve on Saturday.
After facing successive weeks against 2023 season finalists, they front up in round four against the returning Rushworth.
• Merrigum’s season opener against Rushworth will provide the stage for returning club legend Leigh Hall to unveil his new team.
Hall, who has been coaching in the Goulburn Valley League at Tatura, will aim to get four points on the board early, as the following two weeks, they face the runners-up from the previous two seasons — Nagambie and Murchison-Toolamba.
In last year’s season opener, the Bulldogs beat Violet Town by two points, but eight of the 10 goals came from players who are no longer with the club — former coach Jayden Stiles and Jarryd Pertzel, who is now playing with Kerang.
Merrigum is a long way off the record-breaking feats of its football team from the 1950s when it played in seven consecutive grand finals and won four of them.
• New Stanhope coach Adam Lovison will hope for a little more consistency than the see-sawing start of season 2023, when he was second in charge to Mark Adamson.
The Lions lost by 84 points in round one (to Nagambie, which still has the record for the most KDL senior football titles with 13) before beating Girgarre by 135 points the following week.
In round three, they lost by 74 points to eventual premier Lancaster before a three-week surge saw them register 64, 108 and 68-point wins to rejoin the top echelon of teams.
• In other games, Dookie United and Undera face off at the Dookie Recreation Reserve, while the match of the round should be between the grand finals of the past two seasons, Murchison-Toolamba and Nagambie.
In the other match, two teams that missed out on finals last season, Avenel and Violet Town, meet at Violet Town.
