Australian Football

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KEY FACTS

Official name
Kyabram Football Club

Known as
Kyabram

Formed
c 1880s

Colours
Black and red

Emblem
Bombers

Affiliation (Current)
Goulburn Valley League (GVL) 1894–2024

Senior Premierships
Goulburn Valley Football League - 1919, 1921-2, 1926-7-8, 1948, 1950, 1958, 1975, 1996, 2013, 2016-17 (14 total)

Website
www.kyabramfc.vcfl.com.au

Kyabram

When the Goulburn Valley District Football Association, precursor of today’s Goulburn Valley Football League, commenced operations in 1894, Kyabram was one of six inaugural members. The side performed badly, however, and this, coupled with difficulties in arranging transport to and from away matches, precipitated a withdrawal from the competition before the season had ended. For the next three years, only scratch matches were engaged in, with most of the best footballers in the town throwing in their lot with Undera, which was the closest club geographically to Kyabram. In 1898, however, Kyabram resumed in the GVDFA, which is where, apart from one season, they have remained ever since.

It would be fair to observe that Kyabram did not exactly set the world on fire during their first few seasons of bona fide league competition, but once they managed to break through for a first premiership it was - to mix metaphors - as though the dam had burst. That initial flag came in 1919, courtesy of a 5 point challenge final defeat of Tatura, and was a prelude to a decade of dominance which yielded no fewer than five further premierships.

The 1930s, by contrast, produced little for Kyabram supporters to enthuse over, with a losing first semi final against Rushworth in 1939 the closest the side managed to come to taking a serious tilt at more premiership honours. Any further progress was wrecked by the intervention of war, which in 1940 saw the Kyabram district lose so many young men to the armed services that its football club was reluctantly forced to go into recess, twelve months before the league as a whole did the same.

In terms of senior premiership victories Kyabram has only been sporadically successful since world war two, but the club’s all round impact on Goulburn Valley football has transcended such a rudimentary evaluation. The 1960s, for example, produced no flags, but saw Goulburn Valley football all time greats such as dual Morrison Medallist Jeff Cooper, a dynamic and often spectacular rover or wingman, and prolific goal kicking full forward Dick Clay, the first GVFL player to ‘top the ton’, and a Morrison Medal winner himself to boot, line up in the famous black and red jumper.

Premierships are still the undoubted highlight of any footballer’s career, however, and this was emphasised in 1975 when the Bombers ended a seventeen season run of ‘outs’ to overcome the grand final challenge of Euroa. For Kyabram captain-coach Peter Lyon the win was the culmination of a senior football career that had commenced in 1955 - three years before the club’s previous flag. After accepting the premiership cup from league president, Jack Arthur, Lyon told the record crowd inside Deakin Reserve that “If there was any justice in the world it had to be my turn”.

Justice, of course, is famously blind, and it could be argued that Lyon had gone a long way towards creating his own happy ending with a determined and resolute four quarter performance capped by a goal midway through the final term which, in effect, ‘broke the camel’s back’. The match had been extremely closely contested all day, with the Bombers leading by 7 points at quarter time and 4 points at the half. At the last change, scores were even, and then, at the fourteen minute mark of the fourth quarter came a couple of incidents which effectively decided the match. First, Euroa’s John Knight missed badly when a goal would have left the match still hanging in the balance; then the Bombers swept the ball to the opposite end of the ground for Thorne to nab the goal that gave his team some breathing space for the first time in the game, and the impetus to go on and record a victory by 3 goals, 14.12 (96) to 11.12 (78).

Over the years, Kyabram has been an extremely productive source of talent for top level clubs, commencing with champion Carlton forward Clarrie Fisher in 1914, and including the likes of Ross Dillon (Melbourne, and later Norwood), the aforementioned Dick Clay (Richmond and Prahran), Shane Fitzsimmons (Melbourne and West Perth) and Melbourne wingman Noel O’Donnell. Perhaps the most noteworthy Kyabram product, however, was Garry Lyon, who sadly for the Bombers had not played a single senior game when he was whisked away by Melbourne to commence an illustrious, fourteen season, 226 game V/AFL career that saw him achieve virtually everything the game had to offer aside from involvement in a premiership triumph.

Kyabram’s next flag came in 1996 thanks to an impressive 18.13 (121) to 10.12 (72) grand final defeat of Tatura. Following that, however, pickings tended, for a time, to be somewhat lean for one of the GVFL’s oldest and proudest members, whose senior side in 2006 managed just 4 wins from 18 home and away matches to finish well out of contention in tenth place. The following season proved even more disappointing as the Bombers could only manage a couple of wins, a result which consigned them to second from last place on the ladder. They showed considerable improvement in 2008, qualifying for the finals in fourth place with 11 victories only to go down in their elimination final clash with Shepparton Swans by 46 points. Further improvement followed, with the 2009 and 2010 seasons bringing consecutive losing grand finals at the hands, respectively, of Mansfield and Shepparton United. 

When they next reached the grand final in 2013, however, they made no mistake, comfortably accounting for Shepparton United by 51 points. Two years later there was another losing grand final, this time against Benalla, before arguably the greatest season in the club's history in 2016. Top of the ladder heading into the finals with 18 wins from 18 the Bombers went on to defeat Rochester in both the second semi final and grand final to earn the rare appellation "premiers and champions". A year later they went back to back for the first time in ninety years and did so in style, winning every match including the grand final against Shepparton in which they prevailed by 55 points. 

History seemed to be repeating itself as the Maroons swaggered their way through to the 2018 grand final with a one hundred per cent record. However, opponents Shepparton were on something of a roll after convincing wins in both the first semi final and preliminary final and they ended up spoiling Shepparton's record with a gutsy 2 point win.

Source

John Devaney - Full Points Publications


 

Footnotes

* Behinds calculated from the 1965 season on.
+ Score at the end of extra time.