Australian Football

The Magpies’ haul of fifteen senior grade Ovens and Murray Football League premierships has been bettered only by Albury, who have won twenty-one. However, Wangaratta also spent a total of nineteen seasons [1] competing in the Ovens and King Football League, capturing five flags in that competition.Indeed, the Magpies’ first three grand final triumphs, in 1905 against Whorouly, 1906 against Milawa, and 1920 at the expense of Eldorado, all came in the OKFL.

Wangaratta’s first concerted stint in the OMFL lasted from 1923 until 1929 and saw the club commencing its involvement with five straight grand final appearances. However, only once, in 1925 against Hume Weir, were the Magpies successful. On every other occasion they lost to St. Patrick’s, a club which only existed for nine years but which claimed half a dozen premierships during that time.

The 1930s proved to be a much more productive decade for Wangaratta. In 1930 and 1931 and 1932, the club captured OKFL flags and went on to add three more in the OMFL later in the decade. Between 1941 and 1945 the OMFL went into recess with Wangaratta spending the 1941 season in the OKFL before that competition too went into mothballs. That single season involvement was unusual in that Wangaratta fielded two separate teams, Magpies and Rainbows, in the competition. These two teams ultimately played off for the premiership, with Rainbows emerging victorious.

When the OMFL resumed operations in 1946 Wangaratta was welcomed back into the fold and promptly nailed its colours firmly to the mast by claiming another premiership. Opposed in the grand final by Albury, the Magpies won a tough, tense tussle by 5 points, 14.10 (94) to 13.11 (89).

The teams fielded by Wangaratta in the late 1940s and early 1950s were among the finest in OMFL history, a fact emphasised by their feat in emulating the Saint Patrick’s side of the 1920s by winning four successive premierships. The seasons in question were 1949 to 1952 and the Magpies’ vanquished grand final opponents were, in order, Wodonga by 32 points, North Albury by 16 points, Wodonga again by 4 goals, and Rutherglen by 20 points. The remainder of the 1950s produced two further grand final appearances, with the Magpies losing to North Albury by 10 points in 1955 and downing Albury by 2 points in 1957.

Looking back, it seems clear that the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s represented something of a heyday for the club, spawning as they did eleven of the club’s overall tally of twenty senior grade flags. By contrast, the last six decades have seen the Magpies getting as far as the senior grade grand final just nine times, winning in 1961, 1976, 2007, 2008 and 2017. Between claiming that 2008 flag and that of 2017 the Magpies tended to struggle and indeed they did not contest a finals series from 2012 to 2016. The 2018 season saw them finish one place adrift of finals qualification.