A football team that spent the past two years getting beaten by hundreds of points found itself with a choice to make — give up, or go all in. With a renewed focus on community, families have now returned to the club, so too a sense of hope.
On a recent Wednesday afternoon, with a faltering sun streaking through creaky gum trees, Daryl Hore took the usual dusty turn-off to Wahgunyah Football Netball Club with an unusual feeling.In its place, an unlikely rumble of optimism and more than a bit of pride."To see this tonight, I can't quite believe it," Hore said, scanning the football ground in awe.
Broadcasters like 3AW's Neil Mitchell praised the club's stoicism, but "keyboard commandos" — Hore's term — gleefully shared the result, questioning if the team was one of the worst in the country.It's the sort of result that can haunt a community, but the attention at least brought with it some brief moments of uplift.Wahgunyah lost that match by a comparatively narrow 28-point margin. More enduring change was needed.
Yet a single-lane bridge over the Murray River is all that separates the town from the comparatively bustling Corowa, with multiple pubs, cafes, shops and a population five times greater.So why turn up, fight struggle after struggle, bear witness to defeat after dispiriting defeat, just to keep the club alive?"For some, it's the history of the club.
Across the 50-metre arc, a newly formed all-abilities group were holding their second training session. An electricity pinged about the room. This wasn't a club on the brink. This felt like a thrilling lift-off."We just want to make it a great place for people to be."As fate, or a clever bit of scheduling would have it, Wahgunyah's first game of the season on Good Friday was against near neighbours and sometimes rivals, Rutherglen.At one low point last year, Wahgunyah suggested merging with Rutherglen, only to have its advances rejected.
The players, some so small they resembled figurines, skipped into the changing rooms, in awe of their achievement. When Wahgunyah's all-seeing timekeeper Neil "Blue" Martin rang the final siren, the scoreboard showed Wahgunyah 6.7.43 to Rutherglen's 21.15.141. How Taylor Swift faux pas sparked a chain of events that led to Bruce Lehrmann's defamation case being reopened
Football Mick Malthouse Biggest Loss Country Footy Beechworth Rutherglen Corowa Akermanis Results Club Netball Community
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