Australian Football

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KEY FACTS

Official name
Nagambie Football Club

Known as
Nagambie

Nickname
Lakers

Formed
1880s

Colours
Red, white and black

Associated clubs
Nagambie WFC

Affiliation (Current)
Kyabram District League (KDL) 1965–2024

Affiliations (Historical)
North Eastern Football Association (NEFA) 1898–1912; Waranga North East Football League (WNEFL) 1913–1938; Goulburn Valley League (GVL) 1939–1964

Senior Premierships
Waranga North East Football Association (WNEFA) 1938 (1 total); Goulburn Valley Football League (GVFL) - 1939, 1946-7 (3 total); Kyabram District Football League - 1965, 1967, 1969-70, 1975, 1977, 1998-9, 2010, 2014, 2016-17 (12 total)

Nagambie

While football was certainly played in Nagambie as early as the 1880s it was not until the ensuing decade that a club bearing the town’s name began to compete regularly. In 1897 Nagambie was one of four founder members of the short-lived Upper Goulburn Valley Football Association, finishing runner-up in its debut season to Murchison. After moving to the North East Football Association, the club had moderate success, making several grand finals without ever winning one.

The 1913 season saw the formation of the Waranga North East Football Association with Nagambie joining Avenel, Euroa, Murchison, Rushworth and Seymour as a foundation member. Success was a long time arriving, but when it did it could scarcely have been more emphatically achieved, for in 1938 Nagambie not only went top, but did so after winning every match for the year

The 1939 season saw the club commencing its second stint in the GVFL and it promptly achieved a memorably rare ‘double’ by collecting a second successive unbeaten premiership. Many of its wins that year were convincing, but in the grand final it was stretched all the way by Rushworth, and only scraped home by 5 points.

The immediate pre- and post-world war two years saw Nagambie fielding arguably the strongest teams in its history. When the GVFL resumed after its wartime recess in 1946 Nagambie was quick to re-assert itself, winning the flag both that year and the next. Both triumphs were noteworthy in different ways. In 1946, the Lakers’ opposition in the grand final was provided by a team of guards from Prisoner of War Group Thirteen, which was a member of the GVFL for that one season only. As several of its players had VFL experience it was quite a powerful team, but on grand final day Nagambie proved to have its measure, winning a high standard encounter by 33 points, 20.13 (133) to 14.16 (100).

Nagambie’s 1947 premiership win was a classic ‘against the odds’ affair. In the second semi final clash with Kyabram the side looked anything but premiership contenders and was emphatically defeated, and although it managed to get past Lemnos Shepparton in the following week’s preliminary final, the margin was a mere 4 points, and once again the team’s performance was far from convincing. A grand final is a game apart, however, and when it counted most Nagambie came good, although the result - a 9.8 to 9.7 win - could not have been any closer.

During the 1950s country football gradually became more professional in outlook, and in a major league such as the GVFL this spelt trouble for smaller clubs such as Nagambie. Nevertheless, the senior side at least continued to prove competitive, contesting grand finals in both 1958 and 1960. However, when the GVFL announced that it would be introducing a compulsory thirds competition in 1965, it was tantamount to an invitation to small clubs like Nagambie and Rushworth to pack their bags and leave, which they both promptly did. While some observers at the time might have regarded this move as constituting an admission of defeat, subsequent events have proved that it was actually both positive and informed, deriving from an awareness that to continue to exist, indeed thrive, in a small pool was infinitely preferable to slowly asphyxiating in a large one.

The 1965 season saw the Lakers plying their trade in the Kyabram District Football League, an environment they found infinitely to their liking. In their debut season they won a flag, and by 1971 had added three more, besides finishing runners-up twice. When they thrashed old rivals Rushworth by 83 points in the 1999 grand final it gave them their eighth KDFL premiership, making them the competition’s most successful team over the preceding four decades.

The 2000 season brought another grand final appearance, but Stanhope proved too strong. After that, Nagambie’s fortunes nosedived, and only once in the ensuing six years did the side even qualify for the finals, with the 2006 season even yielding the additional - not to mention rare - indignity of a wooden spoon. By 2009, however, the Lakers were again among the competition’s pace setters, topping the ladder going into the finals before comfortably overcoming Lancaster in the second semi final. However, when it mattered most Nagambie’s form, which had produced 17 wins from 18 matches during the home and away matches, was mysteriously absent, and the Lakers lost the grand final by 17 points to rank outsider Undera. The under eighteens also qualified for the grand final in 2009, and like the seniors they went into the match as warm favourites only for opponents Rushworth to kick straighter and remain steadier in squeezing home by 4 points.

Finally, in 2010 Nagambie broke through for a ninth senior grade KDFL flag when they overcame Undera in the grand final by 15 points, 12.17 (89) to 10.14 (74). The 2014 season brought a competition record tenth senior grade premiership when the Lakers accounted for warm pre-match favourites Merrigum by 35 points on grand final day. Scores were Nagambie 18.12 (120) to Merrigum 13.7 (85).

In 2015 Nagambie were minor premiers but bombed out of the flag race with straight sets finals losses to Merrigum and Stanhope. This was followed by a superb 2016 season which saw the Lakers procuring their eleventh flag with a 17.16 (118) to 15.10 (100) grand final defeat of Avenel. In 2017 they made it a round dozen by going back to back for the third ever time. Grand final opponents Violet Town matched the Lakers for much of the first half but over the final two quarters it was all Nagambie as they added 11 goals to 5 to win pulling away by 53 points, 21.16 (142) to 13.11 (89). A year later they again qualified for the decisive match of the season but opponents Tallygaroopna proved to have their measure and eased home by 21 points.

Source

John Devaney - Full Points Publications


 

Footnotes

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