Ovens & Murray Football League

Ovens & Murray Football League

General Information
Founded	1893
Current clubs	Albury Corowa Rutherglen Lavington Myrtleford North Albury Wangaratta Wangaratta Rovers Wodonga Wodonga Raiders Yarrawonga
2010 Season
Premiers	Albury

The Ovens and Murray Football League, often referred to locally as the O&M, is a semi-professional Australian rules football league based around ten clubs in north-eastern Victoria and the southern Riverina region of New South Wales, and affiliated with the Victorian Country Football League. The current chairman of the league is Greg Claney and the current general manager is Tom O'Connor.

All clubs field teams in three grades - senior, reserve and under 18s - as well as three grades of women's netball in an associated competition. A home and away season of eighteen rounds is played so that each club plays each other twice, followed by a series of finals involving the top five teams, played to a McIntyre System schedule culminating in a Grand Final, usually played at the Lavington Sports Ground. Attendances at games during the home and away season vary from 300 to 2,000, while the grand final can draw in excess of 15,000 spectators.

History

Beginnings

Organised competition in the area started as the Ovens & Murray Football Association in 1893, although it was interrupted in 1911 when Albury was excluded, with the competition renamed Rutherglen DFA for that season. Albury was readmitted in 1912 and after some club shuffling with The Chiltern & District FA, the competition reformed under the Ovens & Murray Football Association banner again in 1914.

After a three-year break due to World War I, the association reformed for the 1919 sesason with four clubs, Border United, Howlong, Lakes and Rutherglen. In 1920 the league didn't reform; the clubs moved to the Chiltern DFL.

The competition reformed in 1921 with Lakes Rovers, Rutherglen, St Patricks, Cowora, Springhurst and Wahgunyah. In 1922, larger town clubs Benalla and Wangaratta joined the OMFA whilst Wahgunyah and Springhurst moved to the Chiltern DFL. In 1926, the name was changed to its present form. Around this time the clubs contesting the league included Wangaratta, Hume Weir (which drew many of its players from workers constructing the Hume Dam at the time), Yarrawonga and two clubs from the town of Albury, St Patricks and Albury (not to be confused with the present Albury club). These two clubs were largely divided amongst sectarian lines, St Patricks being Roman Catholic and Albury being Protestant and, after much tension, in 1929 the two clubs agreed to disband and form two new clubs, East Albury and West Albury, with the player base to be drawn geographically.

In 1930, Haydn Bunton was recruited from the league by Victoria Football League (VFL) club Fitzroy, where he became regarded as one of the best VFL players in the Depression era and would go on to win three Brownlow Medals. Bunton Park, where North Albury Football Club is based, was not named after Haydn, but rather his brother Cleaver Bunton, who was elected president of the O&MFL in 1930 and would serve in that role until 1969. (Cleaver would also later serve as mayor of Albury for 30 years.)

Post-World War Two

In 1940, the league went into recess for the duration of World War II, before full competition resumed in 1946. In 1947 North Albury was admitted, followed by Wangaratta Rovers and Myrtleford, who were admitted from the Ovens & King Football League in 1950. The Wangaratta Rovers would go on to dominate the O&M for the remainder of the 20th Century, winning fifteen premierships to date, a number only recently overhauled by Albury with their own streak of flags.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s the league began to gain a reputation within Victoria as being the strongest competition outside the then VFL and VFA. The best players were often recruited from the O&M to play for one of the "city" clubs, but it was not uncommon for a VFL player to retire from the "big" league and play in the O&M or another country league, and perhaps start a coaching career there as well, often at the same time as a playing coach. One notable example of this, as far as the O&M was concerned, was Bob Rose, who retired from Collingwood as a player in 1955 and coached the Wangaratta Rovers to two premierships in 1958 and 1960, after which he returned to Collingwood to continue his coaching career.

1970s and 1980s

In 1968, the VFL introduced country recruitment zones throughout Victoria and Riverina, which limited the areas from which each VFL club could recruit. The O&MFL was allocated to North Melbourne, and thus quite a few of the better players from the O&M came to play for the Kangaroos, contributing in part to that club's rise to success in the 1970s. These included Xavier Tanner and John Longmire, who had won the O&M seniors leading goalkicker in a season in the 1980s with Corowa-Rutherglen before his move. The zoning system was discontinued in the late 1980s as the VFL/AFL introduced a draft system.

In 1974 the O&MFL was disaffiliated by the Victorian Country Football League (VCFL) when the O&MFL refused to accept an application from the Lavington Football Club to join the league. By this stage the football club was based at the Lavington Sports Club, an established licensed club, and was strong enough to field teams in both the Tallangatta League and Hume Football League the following year.

The makeup of the competition remained stable until 1979, when Corowa and Rutherglen merged into Corowa-Rutherglen, and the Lavington Football Club was finally admitted from the Farrer Football League, so the number of clubs remained at ten.

Lavington's home ground, the Lavington Sports Club Oval, provided an ideal venue for many sports as the sports club gradually developed it after its construction in the 1970s. The league has designated it as the venue for most of the league's grand finals since the 1980s. Recently, added assistance for the staging of the grand final through regional promotion and in-kind sponsorship has been provided by the Albury City Council.

In 1983, after an unsuccessful debut season playing for Hawthorn the previous year, Gary Ablett played for Myrtleford in the O&M for a year, before he was recruited by Geelong where he recommenced his career in the VFL/AFL and established himself as one of the code's best players, being inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2005.

By the late 1980s, the Wodonga Demons of the Tallangatta League had made a number of bids to join the O&M, and in 1989 were accepted into the competition to serve the west of the city of Wodonga, based at Birralee Park. They changed their name to the Wodonga Raiders Football Club so as to not cause confusion with the Benalla Demons and the long established Wodonga Football Club.

Recent years

In 1996, after a string of unsuccessful seasons in the O&M, Benalla moved to the Goulburn Valley Football League. In 2000 the Penrith Panthers Leagues Club, financiers of the Penrith Panthers National Rugby League team, merged with the Lavington Sports Club. As a result, the Lavington Football Club changed their nickname from the Blues to the Panthers, added "Panthers" to their title, and adopted a guernsey in the same colours as the NRL Panthers, but in the Port Adelaide AFL pattern.

Also around this time, the Wagga Tigers Football Club, which had dominated the Riverina Football League, made a bid to join the O&MFL; however, partially due to concerns from the league's southern clubs about travel times, the bid was rejected. The Wagga Tigers then successfully bid to join the AFL Canberra.

In 2000 the O&MFL, in an association with the AFL North Melbourne Football Club, fielded a team in the Victorian Football League called the Murray Kangaroos, playing home games between Coburg and Lavington. However, due to concerns from O&M clubs about player availability, the Kangaroos about travel time, and poor attendances compared with O&M league games, the venture was discontinued after three seasons and the Kangaroos subsequently set up an affiliation with the established VFL club Port Melbourne.

Junior Development

More successful has been the Murray Bushrangers TAC Cup Under 18s side, who play their home games in Wangaratta; prior to the AFL national draft and the inception of the TAC Cup, young players in the area would usually play through the grades with their local club, with less likelihood of being scouted by the recruitment staff from AFL clubs. Although there has been some concern from clubs about these players being removed from the local competition, the ones that do not get drafted usually return to their home clubs to play locally once they come of age.

Even in that case, there is some chance that a late-maturing "older" player in their early 20s will be drafted by an AFL club. Several notable examples to be drafted directly from the O&MFL include Fraser Gehrig (Wodonga Raiders/West Coast Eagles/St Kilda), Guy Rigoni (Myrtleford/Melbourne), and Brett Kirk (North Albury/Sydney Swans).

Currently, all clubs field sides in the Under 19s competition, aside from Myrtleford, which fields a joint team with the Bright Football Club as the Alpine Eagles.

Current clubs

Club	Nickname	Colours	Location	Official Website
Albury Football Club	Tigers		Albury	official site
Corowa Rutherglen Football Club	Kangaroos		Corowa	official site
Lavington Panthers Football Club	Panthers		Lavington	official site
Myrtleford Football Club	Saints		Myrtleford	official site
North Albury Football Club	Hoppers		North Albury	official site
Wangaratta Football Club	Magpies		Wangaratta	official site
Wangaratta Rovers Football Club	Hawks		Wangaratta	official site
Wodonga Football Club	Bulldogs		Wodonga	official site
Wodonga Raiders Football Club	Raiders		Wodonga	official site
Yarrawonga Football Club	Pigeons		Yarrawonga	official site

Premiership table

Premierships	Football
CLUB	SENIORS	RESERVES	UNDER 19s	TOTAL
Albury (1896-)	17	2	1	20
Balldale (1909–1913)	0	0	0	0
Barnawartha (1911–1919)	0	0	0	0
Beechworth (1893–1915)	3	0	0	3
Benalla (1946–1996)	4	3	2	9
Border United (1895–1947)	1	0	0	1
Chiltern (1893–1911)	0	0	0	0
Corowa (1898–1978)	2	1	0	3
Corowa-Rutherglen (1979-)	2	2	3	7
East Albury (1929–1950)	0	0	0	0
Eldoraldo (1893)	0	0	0	0
Excelsior (1896–1910)	1	0	0	1
Howlong (1911–1914)	1	0	0	0
Hume Weir (1924–1925)	0	0	0	0
Lake Rovers (1903–1919)	3	0	0	3
Lavington (1979-)	4	1	1	6
Lilliput (1894)	0	0	0	0
Myrtleford (1950-)	1	2	1	4
North Albury (1947-)	6	2	0	8
Rutherglen (1893–1978)	15	0	0	15
Southern (1898–1907)	0	0	0	0
Springhurst (1921)	0	0	0	0
St. Patrick's (1921–1934)	6	0	0	6
United Miners (1894–1895)	0	0	0	0
Wahgunyah (1908 + 1921)	0	0	0	0
Wangaratta (1893-)	13	4	3	20
Wangaratta Rovers (1950-)	15	7	7	29
Wangaratta West End (1893)	0	0	0	0
Weir United (1930–1931)	2	0	0	2
West Albury (1929–1932)	1	0	0	1
Wodonga (1939-)	7	19	12	38
Wodonga Raiders (1989-)	1	4	2	7
Yarrawonga (1929-)	3	5	0	8

NOTES:
1893-1910: Ovens & Murray Football Association
1911-1913: Rutherglen & District Football Association
1914-1915: Ovens & Murray Football Association
1916-1918: Recess - World War I
1919-1925: Ovens & Murray Football Association
1926-1940: Ovens And Murray Football League
1941-1945: Recess - World War II
1946-2009: Ovens And Murray Football League

Most Premierships/CLUB/PREMIERSHIP YEARS

18/Albury/1902, 1908, 1913, 1928, 1937, 1939, 1940, 1947, 1956, 1966, 1982, 1985, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2009, 2010, 2011

15/Rutherglen/1895, 1896, 1898, 1899, 1901, 1903, 1904, 1907, 1909, 1910, 1912, 1914, 1915, 1936, 1954

15/Wangaratta Rovers/1958, 1960, 1964, 1965, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1988, 1991, 1993, 1994

14/Wangaratta/1925, 1933, 1936, 1938, 1946, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1957, 1961, 1976, 2007, 2008

7/Wodonga/1967, 1969, 1981, 1987, 1990, 1992, 2004

6/St Patrick's/1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1926, 1927

6/North Albury/1948, 1955, 1980, 1984, 1999, 2002

4/Benalla/1953, 1962, 1963, 1973 (Left O&M and joined GVFL in 1998)

4/Lavington/1983, 1986, 2001, 2005

3/Yarrawonga/1959, 1989, 2006

3/Lake Rovers/1905, 1906, 1919

2/Weir United/1930, 1931

2/Corowa/1932, 1968

2/Corowa-Rutherglen/2000, 2003 (merged 1979)

1/Howlong 1911

1/West Albury/1929

1/Border United/1934

1/Myrtleford/1970

1/Wodonga Raiders/1998

Interleague competition

The O&M has won the first division of the Victorian Country Football League interleague championship fourteen times, the most recent victory being in 2006. In interleague competition the team wears a gold guernsey, emblazoned with a modern-style black and gold "O&M" logo, and black shorts.

Morris Medal

The Morris Medal is given for the best and fairest player in the O&MFL during the home and away season, similar to the AFL's Brownlow Medal. In the week preceding the grand final, a vote count is held to decide the recipient of the award. The player who has won the most Morris Medals is Robbie Walker, who won five whilst playing for the Wangaratta Rovers, followed by Jim Sandral (Corowa) and John Brunner (Yarrawonga) with three apiece. The list of Morris Medallists follows:

1933. Fred Carey (Wangaratta) 1934. H Ball (Yarrawonga) 1935. Noel Barnett (Albury) 1936. A Mccauley (Rutherglen) 1937. G Hayes (Yarrawonga) 1938. Kelt Emery (Wodonga) 1939. Bill Francis (Rutherglen) 1940. Gordon Strang (Wodonga) 1946. A Dunn (Rutherglen) 1947. Keith Williams (Corowa) 1948. Alec White (Yarrawonga) 1949. Jack Eames (Wodonga) 1950. A Dunn (Rutherglen) 1951. N Hawking (Rutherglen) 1952. Norm Webb (Wodonga) 1953. Tim Lowe (Wangaratta) 1954. Kevin Hurley (Benalla) 1955. Ray Preston (Wangaratta) 1956. Lance Mann (Albury) 1957. Neil Currie (Myrtleford) and Lance Oswald (Wangaratta) 1958. Jim Deane (Myrtleford) and Bob Rose (Wangaratta Rovers) 21 1959. Jim Sandral (Corowa) 1960. Bob Rose (Wangaratta Rovers) 1961. Jim Deane (Myrtleford) 1962. Jim Sandral (Corowa)

1963. K Bennett (Albury) 1964. D. Sykes (North Albury) and Jim Sandral (Corowa) 1965. J Ambrose (Albury) and Alby Dunn (Corowa) 1966. Neville Hogan (Wangaratta Rovers) 1967. Gary Williamson (Wodonga) 1968. John Waddington (Benalla) 1969. Jeff Hemphill (Wangaratta) 1970. John Clancy (Corowa) 1971. John Clancy (Corowa) 1972. Bruce Waite (Myrtleford) 1973. John Smith (North Albury) 1974. A Way (Corowa) 1975. Andrew Scott (Wangaratta Rovers) and Jack O'Halloran (Wangaratta) 1976. Jack O'Halloran (Wangaratta), Mike Andrews (Myrtleford) and G O'Brien (Wangaratta Rovers) 1977. R Page (Myrtleford) and K Boundy (Rutherglen) 1978. M Mills (Corowa) 1979. P Howard (Myrtleford) 1980. P Howard (Myrtleford) 1981. Rod Coelli (Albury) 1982. Peter Gorski (Albury) 1983. Terry Burgess (Myrtleford) 1984. Rudy Yonson (North Albury) 1985. Ralph Aalbers (Lavington) 1986. Les Parish (Yarrawonga) 1987. R Hamilton (Lavington)

1988. John Brunner (Yarrawonga) 1989. Brett Allen (Wodonga) and John Brunner (Yarrawonga) 1990. Jamie Ronke (Benalla) 1991. Robbie Walker (Wangaratta Rovers) 1992. Steven Murphy (Wodonga) 1993. Tim Scott (Albury) 1994. Tim Scott (Albury) and John Kingston (Corowa-Rutherglen) 1995. Ken Howe (Albury) 1996. Leigh Newton (Albury) 1997. Robbie Walker (Wangaratta Rovers) 1998. Mark Lambertini (Myrtleford) 1999. Robbie Walker (Wangaratta Rovers) and Corey Lambert (North Albury) 2000. John Brunner (Yarrawonga) 2001. Robbie Walker (Wangaratta Rovers) 2002. Tim Hargreaves (Yarrawonga) and Dustin Burns (Wodonga Raiders) 2003. Robbie Walker (Wangaratta Rovers) 2004. Ryan Mackenzie (Corowa-Rutherglen) 2005. Brad Murray (Myrtleford) 2006. Craig Ednie (Yarrawonga) 2007. Jonathon McCormick (Wangaratta) 2008. Jake Ryan (Corowa-Rutherglen) 2009. Michael Stevens (Yarrawonga) 2010. Jamie Allan (Wangaratta)

The 1990 Bloodbath Grand Final

Shortly after the commencement of the 1990 grand final between Wodonga and Lavington, played at the Albury Sportsground, most of the players of the two teams became involved in a bench-clearing brawl. As the game was televised by a local TV station, the footage received sensationalistic national media coverage where the brawl was generally described as a shocking indictment on the code. Even though over a decade had elapsed, comparisons to this incident were made after the 2004 AFL Cairns Grand Final descended into a similar fracas. [1]

Wodonga eventually won the match by 20 points and thus the premiership, and the league tribunal handed out a number of lengthy suspensions to players from both sides for the following season. Incidentally, the result marked the second premiership for Wodonga's coach of that time, Jeff Gieschen, his first for the club being in 1987, before he went on to coach West Perth and then an ill-fated stint at Richmond in 1997-1999.

2007 Ladder

Ovens & Murray FL	Wins	Byes	Losses	Draws	For	Against	%	Pts
Wangaratta	14	0	4	0	1945	1306	148.93%	56
Yarrawonga	14	0	4	0	1809	1215	148.89%	56
North Albury	12	0	6	0	1887	1485	127.07%	48
Wodonga	11	0	7	0	1599	1263	126.60%	44
Wang Rovers	11	0	7	0	1682	1376	122.24%	44
Albury	10	0	8	0	1704	1611	105.77%	40
Lavington	6	0	12	0	1558	1736	89.75%	24
Wodonga Raiders	6	0	12	0	1361	2103	64.72%	24
Corowa-Rutherglen	3	0	15	0	1434	1871	76.64%	12
Myrtleford	3	0	15	0	1247	2260	55.18%	12

FINALS

Final	Team	G	B	Pts	Team	G	B	Pts
Elimination	Wodonga	13	11	89	Wangaratta Rovers	11	12	78
Qualifying	North Albury	15	14	104	Yarrawonga	8	11	59
1st Semi	Wodonga	16	12	108	Yarrawonga	11	13	79
2nd Semi	North Albury	12	10	82	Wangaratta	11	6	72
Preliminary	Wangaratta	15	15	105	Wodonga	10	11	71
Grand	Wangaratta	15	10	100	North Albury	6	13	49

2008 Ladder

Ovens & Murray FL	Wins	Byes	Losses	Draws	For	Against	%	Pts
Wangaratta	15	0	2	1	2149	1236	173.87%	62
Corowa-Rutherglen	13	0	5	0	1769	1390	127.27%	52
Lavington	12	0	6	0	1842	1373	134.16%	48
Wodonga	12	0	6	0	1646	1388	118.59%	48
Yarrawonga	10	0	8	0	1905	1572	121.18%	40
Albury	9	0	8	1	1652	1532	107.83%	38
Wang Rovers	8	0	10	0	1679	1441	116.52%	32
North Albury	8	0	10	0	1779	1665	106.85%	32
Wodonga Raiders	2	0	16	0	1080	2264	47.70%	8
Myrtleford	0	0	18	0	813	2453	33.14%	0

FINALS

Final	Team	G	B	Pts	Team	G	B	Pts
Elimination	Wodonga	11	10	76	Yarrawonga	9	12	66
Qualifying	Corowa-Rutherglen	11	15	81	Lavington	13	10	88
1st Semi	Wodonga	18	8	116	Corowa-Rutherglen	10	8	68
2nd Semi	Wangaratta	10	12	72	Lavington	8	8	56
Preliminary	Lavington	12	18	90	Wodonga	13	9	87
Grand	Wangaratta	12	14	86	Lavington	7	12	54

2009 Ladder

Ovens & Murray FL	Wins	Byes	Losses	Draws	For	Against	%	Pts
Albury	18	0	0	0	2383	1295	184.02%	72
Yarrawonga	15	0	3	0	2029	1300	156.08%	60
Wodonga	11	0	7	0	1851	1284	144.16%	44
Wangaratta	10	0	8	0	1898	1380	137.54%	40
Corowa-Rutherglen	9	0	9	0	1751	1480	118.31%	36
Lavington	9	0	9	0	1488	1592	93.47%	36
North Albury	8	0	10	0	1548	1612	96.03%	32
Wodonga Raiders	5	0	13	0	1480	1640	90.24%	20
Wang Rovers	5	0	13	0	1366	1545	88.41%	20
Myrtleford	0	0	18	0	569	3235	17.59%	0

FINALS

Final	Team	G	B	Pts	Team	G	B	Pts
Elimination	Wangaratta	17	18	120	Corowa-Rutherglen	6	13	49
Qualifying	Yarrawonga	17	11	113	Wodonga	15	8	98
1st Semi	Wodonga	15	11	101	Wangaratta	13	17	95
2nd Semi	Albury	18	16	124	Yarrawonga	10	9	69
Preliminary	Yarrawonga	15	10	100	Wodonga	6	11	47
Grand	Albury	22	13	145	Yarrawonga	9	14	68

References

External links

• Official Ovens and Murray Football League website
• Country Footy Scores O&MFL page
• Footypedia O&MFL page
• OMFL History and Records at Full Points Footy