NAGAMBIE
Current Affiliation: Kyabram District Football League (KDFL) since 1965
Formed: 1880s
Colours: Red, white and black
Emblem: Lakers
Senior Premierships: Waranga North East Football Association (WNEFA) 1938 (1 total); Goulburn Valley Football League (GVFL) - 1939, 1946-7 (3 total); KDFL - 1965, 1967, 1969-70, 1975, 1977, 1998-9 (8 total)
Senior Competition Best and Fairest Awards: Morrison Medal (GVFL) - Ken Shaw 1956 (1 total) McNamara Medal (KDFL) - R.Moore 1965; M.Black 1974; B.Finnigan 1975; T.Gallagher 1977; Eddie Shiels 1984, 1986, 1992-3; Murray Black 1985; Rohan Aldous 1998-9-2000; Michael Shiels 2007 (8 Medallists/13 Medals)
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. Records of the club's activities after that are scant until 1912, when it spent a season in the Goulburn Valley Football League, a competition that was to become its home for a much longer period of time later in the century.
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 without losing a match.
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 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 13, 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 2nd 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 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 8th 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. Since then, Nagambie's fortunes have nosedived, and only once in the past six years has the side even qualified for the finals, with the 2006 season even yielding the additional - not to mention rare - indignity of a wooden spoon.
Perhaps the humiliation deriving from this experience will be the spur the team needs to catapult it back towards the top of the ladder. Everyone associated with one of the KDFL's proudest member clubs will certainly be hoping so.
Where now?
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