IMAGINE being involved in a football club stripped of any hope of one day being successful and winning a flag.
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Something has to give.
This was the lay of the land in the towns of Corowa and Rutherglen in the late 1970s as they tried to compete in the Ovens and Murray league.
Corowa Spiders won a flag in 1968, but had stumbled on hard times.
Rutherglen’s premiership drought stretched back even further to 1954 after being a superpower in the league's formative years.
The rivalry was predictably ferocious, but their battles were largely about pride and bragging rights than anything of substance.
Flattened by a disastrous early season loss in 1978, Rutherglen president Hec Francis and his secretary Ewart Henderson found themselves on the same page about the long-term future.
Francis owned a transport business with a presence in both towns and Henderson had struck gold of his own in arriving in Rutherglen in 1954 and playing in the Redlegs’ most recent premiership team coached by Greg "Spudda” Tate.
To their shock and amazement they found a receptive ear at the John Foord Oval in Corowa.
"We copped a lot of flak as you would imagine," Henderson said.
"A lot of people were anti what we did, but eventually they came around.
"Many of them who said they wouldn't set foot in the John Foord Oval are now among the biggest supporters Corowa-Rutherglen have got."
Rutherglen was once the O and M epicentre to a large degree.
Bill Jasper had a long reign as league president and another town product, Sonny Downs, spent an equally lengthy stint as secretary.
Tribunal hearings were also held at Barkly Park where chairman Roley Harbison took a dim view of any on-field misdemeanors.
The merger was clinched soon after the 1978 season ended with both teams missing finals again, but Corowa produced a Morris Medallist in Mark Mills.
A coach had to be found and Corowa 1968 premiership star Peter Chisnall was appointed despite some support for the Rutherglen incumbent, Vin Doolan.
Chisnall's father Bill, who is still alive, aged 102, was sick at the time and his son was released from a coaching contract in Tasmania to lead the new entity.
He played in North Melbourne's 1975 premiership among 80 matches for the Kangaroos.
“Corowa had no money and some players and Rutherglen had money and was a bit low on the player side of things," he said.
“But it was hard because our fathers and their fathers before them fought wars on the bridges before they got to a game."
The merged team settled on the Kangaroos' player strip as the O and M was still zoned to the club and had churned out a production line of players.
But bringing the two teams together still had its issues during the off-season.
“I had players who wouldn’t play with Rutherglen players and vice-a-versa," Chisnall said.
“But the day our new jumpers arrived I lined them up about five metres apart said ‘anyone who doesn’t like anyone step into the middle here and we will sort it out now’.
“I told them ‘whoever wants to become a Corowa-Rutherglen player, grab a jumper’ and sure enough they did."
The Roos made finals three years in a row following the merger as youngsters Dennis Sandral, Wayne Milthorpe and Daryl Henderson found their feet in the O and M.
“The thing that probably beat us in the first couple of years was they were too young,” Chisnall said.
Despite initial misgivings, players wanted to play for the merged club and the decision was made to field a team in the Coreen league with the sudden talent surplus.
The second team also competed as Corowa-Rutherglen wearing the Kangaroos strip, but under a separate administration from 1982.
After 13 seasons and premiership success, the club switched to the Ovens and King league and became the Rutherglen-Corowa Cats.
The final link to the merger on the Victorian side was broken in the early 2000s when Corowa was dropped from its name.
The move was fought by Francis, who died in 2011, and Henderson, but to no avail.
"The amalgamation was a success, but the wheel has turned again after 38 years," he said.
"The cost of running the club here in Rutherglen is $250,000 and over at Corowa-Rutherglen $350,000.
"It is sad, but something must be done."
The Roos endured some more barren times between 1982 and 1986 before reaching a preliminary final in 1987 with an up-and-coming goal-kicking star, John Longmire, bursting onto the scene.
But they had to wait five more years to play off in a grand final only to fall short.
Corowa-Rutherglen’s only premiership coach is Peter Tossol, who was a household name for Wangaratta Rovers before taking on the Roos in 1999.
After playing finals in his first season in charge, the Roos exploded as a force and won the 2000 premiership in devastating fashion by a record 108 points and repeating the feat in 2003 by coming from the elimination final.
Damian Houlihan’s 10-goal haul in the 2000 decider remains the stuff of legend.
But at the other end of the ground was Rutherglen born and bred, Craig Tafft, who is rated as one, or if not, the best key defender to play O and M in the past 20 years.
Tafft’s father John was a fine Rutherglen defender in a career spanning more than 200 matches.
“I know when I coached Corowa-Rutherglen I was very aware of the importance of Rutherglen within the merged club,” Tossol said.
“Jack King was one of the greatest players to have played in the O and M and the flint running track where he trained Stawell Gift winners can still be seen near Craig's house.
“I had a fascination with Rutherglen's history, particularly during the gold rush era when they won 15 flags and defeated VFL teams who would regularly visit and play."
The Hiskins family was another prominent part of the rich Rutherglen tradition with Fred, Arthur, Stan and Rupert all playing at VFL level.
Tossol and Chisnall agree on Francis' legacy in bringing the two clubs together.
“Hec's instigation for the merger must have been so difficult and taken a lot of bravery,” Tossol said.
“Parochialism with mergers is generally always there but I always got a kick when I saw true club people at matches like Hec, Reg Edwards, Les Jones, Jim Sandral and Cliff Forge, who all put aside their old loyalties in the best interests of the club.”
King and five-time Redlegs’ best and fairest winner Billy Gayfer have been inducted into the O and M Hall of Fame.
Gayfer's three sons Mick, Tony and Will have all played for the Roos with Mick also a Collingwood 1990 premiership player.
Tony played for both Corowa-Rutherglen and Rutherglen-Corowa where he also coached and won an O and K league Baker Medal.
Ovens and Murray football makes a return to Barkly Park for the first time since the 1980 season next Saturday.
The Roos are winless and take on Wodonga, which is also struggling to keep pace with competition juggernaut, Albury at a time when administrators are floundering with attempts to create an even playing field for all and rusted on supporters are becoming disenchanted and disengaged.
The Rutherglen Cats have a bye in the Tallangatta and District league where they have played since 20004 after being part of the O and K league from 1992.
The Cats are entrenched in the top-five at the half-way mark of the season, but the club's last flag was in 1990.
Corowa-Rutherglen official Fred Longmire said another coming together should be discussed.
"As was the case in 1979, the Rutherglen and Corowa communities need to be mature enough to at least have a conversation about what joining together as one football-netball club would look like," he said.
PETER CHISNALL'S BEST COROWA-RUTHERGLEN TEAM
B: Rob Pickett, John McPherson, Kelvin Guest
HB: Daryl Henderson Dennis Sandral, Peter Stanton
C: Chris Killeen, Gavin Jones, Terry Doolan
HF: Anthony Carroll David Mapleson, Trevor Kuschert
F: Doug Norton-Smith, George Tobias, Tony O'Neill
FOLL: Mark Mills, Mick Livingston, Brian Houlihan
INTER: (from) Wayne Mills, David Bellette, Gerald Ward, John Clohessy, Trevor Jones