LINDY BURGESS
Myrtleford, Wodonga, Wodonga Raiders, Corowa-Rutherglen
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- Coach: Myrtleford: 1993, 1995-97, 2006; Wodonga 1994, Wodonga Raiders 2003-05, Corowa-Rutherglen 2008-10
- Premierships: 1995, 1997 (Myrtleford);
- Runner-up 2006 (Myrtleford)
- Toni Wilson Medal: 1993, 1995, 1996
- O and M B grade best and fairest: 2010
- Ovens and Murray representative
- Ovens and Murray coach
THE Ovens and Murray netball competition started in 1993 and has produced a string of on-court stars ever since.
But few have had the impact on and off the court as Lindy Burgess.
She was born into a football family, with her father playing in Myrtleford’s only
premiership in 1970 and brother Terry winning a Morris Medal and three club best and fairests for the Saints before playing in a flag with Wodonga at the end of his career.
Burgess followed in the footsteps of her mother Virginia, who was a Tasmanian
netball representative, to leave a lasting legacy on the O and M netball scene.
She had already risen to State League ranks when named Myrtleford’s first A-grade coach, and won three league best and
fairests in the competition’s first four years.
Supremely fit, Burgess dominated the mid-court and led the Saints to their first
A-grade flag in 1995 and repeated the feat two seasons later.
After a short stint in Western Australia, Burgess returned to the O and M and coached Wodonga Raiders for three seasons before taking Myrtleford into another grand final in 2006.
In a move which won her even more respect, Burgess agreed to resurrect the Corowa-Rutherglen A-grade team which had gone into recess in 2007 after being winless the previous year.
The task was a massive one, but miracles do happen and the Roos rebounded to win their first match of the 2008 season under Burgess.
She stayed with the club long enough to win a league B-grade best and fairest after overcoming a serious back injury.
Burgess coached four O and M clubs and regularly played in representative matches.
The Burgess family’s long association with the O and M continues today.
Her late father Terry Snr played in the Saints’ only O and M premiership team in 1970, while Terry Jnr played for and coached Myrtleford, winning the 1983 Morris Medal in the same season Geelong superstar Gary Ablett played in the team.
Another brother, Scott, played in the Saints’ heart-breaking 2005 grand final loss and his son Christian is now in the team.
DOUG STRANG
East Albury, Albury
- Coach: 1938-40, 1946
- Goals: 391
- Century goalkicker: 1938 (126 OM Record), 1939 (117)
- Most goals in a match: 20 (1939)
- Premierships: 1937, 1939, 1940
- Albury Team of the Century
- Richmond premiership player: 1932, 1934
- Richmond leading goalkicker: 1931, 1932, 1933
DOUG Strang was destined for a long and successful career in yellow and black.
Born in 1912, Strang’s father Bill played for Albury and South Melbourne before cementing a permanent place for himself in the game’s record books.
After one season for East Albury in 1930, Strang joined Richmond for a short, but spectacular five years with the Tigers in the VFL.
In just his second game and aged 18, Strang kicked 14 goals against North Melbourne, which remains, more than 80 years later, the most goals kicked by a Tigers player in a match.
He played in the club’s 1932 and 1934 premierships, but a knee injury in 1935 cut short what would have been one of the great VFL/AFL careers.
Strang joined Kyneton as coach in 1936 and led the club to the Bendigo league premiership before returning to the O and M to play under former Richmond teammate and Brownlow medallist Stan Judkins the next season.
He kicked five goals in the grand final win against
Yarrawonga before his exploits up forward became the stuff of O and M legend.
Strang became coach of the Tigers in 1938 and proceeded to kick 126 goals — a feat which has never been eclipsed.
In 1939, Strang again cracked the ton in the O and M with 117 goals as the Tigers claimed the first of back-to-back premierships with him at the helm.
Strang kicked eight goals in a starring role, but in a remarkable family affair, his brother Gordon coached Wodonga and was the Bulldogs’ best player in a grand final decided by only three points.
Gordon won the Morris Medal in 1939.
The 1940 season was cut short at round 10 due to the onset of World War II, and Doug Strang had booted another 58 goals when the grand final was brought forward and the Tigers completed back-t0-back flags.
The O and M’s goalkicking award is named in honour of Strang, who still holds the record for the most number of goals by an Albury player in a first semi-final, preliminary final and grand final.
Strang’s goalkicking record of 126 was equalled by Lavington’s Chris Stuhldreier in 1996.
BRETT ALLEN
Wodonga
- Matches: 204
- Goals: 376
- Premierships: 1981, 1987, 1990
- Morris Medal: 1989 (Runner-up 1984, third 1984)
- Club best and fairest: 1988 (Runner-up 1986, 1987,1989)
- Ovens and Murray representative
- Wodonga FC Team of the Century
AN imposing onfield presence helped elevate Brett Allen to be one of Wodonga’s finest players.
At 196cm and strongly built, Allen tormented opposition teams in the ruck or playing up forward in 204 matches for the Bulldogs.
His nickname, Bear, was fitting as he monstered many rivals in a career that began in the Wodonga under-18s in 1979 and took him to many corners of the country.
Allen played in the first of three Wodonga premiership teams in a famous 1981 win under coach David McLeish when the Bulldogs reversed a second semi-final thrashing from Albury to beat the Tigers in the grand final.
After a season in Queensland in 1985, Allen’s career moved into overdrive as the Bulldogs began a sustained run of success that would last until the mid-1990s.
Allen and fellow big man Steve Murphy were the foundation stones on which the Bulldogs won flags in 1987, 1990 and 1992.
He starred in the 1987 grand final rout of Lavington and next season won the club’s best and fairest.
In 1989, he shared the Morris Medal with Yarrawonga’s champion rover John Brunner and the pair met again on grand final day as the Bulldogs were beaten by the Pigeons. The Bulldogs went one better in 1990, but Allen didn’t escape the umpires’ attention in the “Bloodbath” grand final as 15 players were suspended.
He spent the next two seasons at Barooga where he added to his premiership tally in 1992.
Allen booted 376 goals in his O and M career and was an automatic selection in the Bulldogs’ Team of the Century.
NOEL LONG
Yarrawonga
- Matches: 192
- Goals: 365
- Grand Finals: 1972, 1974
- Most goals in a match: 11
- Coach: 1979-81
- Ovens and Murray representative: 14 times
- Ovens and Murray coach: 1982-83
A JOB advertisement in the old Sporting Globe newspaper was the catalyst for Noel Long starting out on a memorable football journey with Yarrawonga and the Ovens and Murray league.
A butcher by trade, Long carved out an illustrious 192-game career for the Pigeons between 1963 and 1974 after previously playing at the highest level for Footscray under Ted Whitten.
His impact was immediate.
A difficult match-up for opposition teams, Long was a superb mark and blessed with an acute goal sense — he once kicked 11 goals in a match against North Albury.
Long booted 365 career goals for the Pigeons and played under coaches Bill Stephen, John Knox, John Hayes, Ken Fraser and Bill Sammon.
In the latter stages of Long’s career, the Pigeons rose as a force, but three times in four years they were denied premiership success by arch-rival Wangaratta Rovers.
A knee injury ruled Long out of the 1971 grand final, but he was among Yarrawonga’s best players in the other two premiership deciders.
Post-retirement, Long became coach of Yarrawonga in 1979, and after a punishing pre-season regime, the Pigeons reached the preliminary final in his debut season at the helm, only to be denied a grand final berth by a last-minute goal from Wodonga.
During his playing career, Long represented the O and M 14 times with distinction, including the 1968 championships win.
His affection for representative football was obvious, and Long had no hesitation in saying yes when approached to coach the O and M in 1982.
Ballarat was the king of country football in the early 1980s under former Richmond player John Northey, but the O and M provided some of the biggest challenges to it winning three titles in a row.
A life member of the Pigeons, Long watched on with admiration when sons Jeff and Tim helped the club to an against-the-odds flag in 1989 under another Hall of Fame inductee, Neil Davis.
DON ROSS
NORTH ALBURY
- Coach: 1959-62
- Club best and fairest: 1951
- Grand Final: 1950
- Morris Medal: Runner-up 1961, 1962; third: 1959
- Ovens and Murray representative
- Footscray premiership player: 1954
- Footscray best and fairest: 1956
DON Ross’ talents as a player were obvious very early.
The schoolboy star attended Albury High School and represented NSW in interstate carnivals in Perth and Brisbane before graduating to Ovens and Murray ranks with North Albury.
The Hoppers joined the O and M in the late 1940s and Ross was only a teenager when they played off in their first grand final in 1950.
Already in the sights of VFL clubs, Ross won his only best and fairest for North Albury as a 17-year-old the following season before joining Footscray.
His club of choice was an inspired one.
In his third season at the Western Oval, Ross played in the centre in the Bulldogs’ only VFL/AFL premiership in 1954 under coach Charlie Sutton in a team that also contained household names Ted Whitten, Jack Collins and Brownlow medallist Peter Box.
Box won his Brownlow two years later, but was edged out by Ross for the club’s best and fairest in the same season.
Ross played 128 matches for the Bulldogs, but in a decision difficult to comprehend today, he returned to North Albury as coach in 1959 at the age of only 24.
Footscray reluctantly released him and Ross set about becoming one of the O and M’s finest players.
Ross didn’t win a Morris Medal, but was runner-up twice and came third and fifth in his four years in charge of the Hoppers.
He was in elite company, being pipped by O and M legend Jim Sandral twice and losing to Myrtleford’s Jimmy Deane by only a vote.
Ross also represented the O and M, including the 1961 championships win against the South West league, with former Collingwood great Bob Rose just one of his many talented teammates.
His carpentry skills were put to good use in helping build the North Albury changerooms
At the end of his career, Ross turned his talents to training racehorses from his Jindera property.