The achievement of Albury Thunder in the Group 9 rugby league arena this season cannot pass unnoticed by those critics up the Olympic Highway.
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For years the rugby league establishment – with its focus firmly on Wagga and the traditional centres such as Gundagai, Cootamundra and Young – has looked down on the Border.
Surely, not anymore.
This year the club will compete in finals across all five competitions: first and reserve grades, league tag, under-18 and under-16.
On Saturday, in front of a vocal home crowd at Greenfield Park, first, reserve and under-18 teams play while the league tag and under-16 teams play in Sunday’s qualifying final at Gundagai.
No other club in the competition has enjoyed the same success this year.
It is a feat the hard-working committee and players should be proud of.
Since Group 13 wound up in the early 1990s, Albury has battled for respect in Group 9 and gone through several incarnations before finding success as Thunder from 2011.
Under captain-coach Josh Cale, Albury won their breakthrough Group 9 first grade premiership in 2012 and did it again in 2013 and 2014. The critics were quick to dismiss the success, claiming the club had bought a premiership.
The same critics perhaps forgot about the club’s three Burmeister Shield premierships (2010, 11, 12) or Albury’s successes in the junior grades, including an under-16 grand final appearance in 2006.
Maybe Albury is just too far from view. The Group 9 team of the year announced this week includes just two Thunder players, Dave Cowhan in the first XIII and Shannon Rupapere a notable mention. Other first grade finalists South City, Gundagai and Junee all have four while fifth-placed Young has three and sixth-placed Temora has five.
Whether they played as the Albury Blues, Albury Southern Rams, Lavington Panthers or Thunder, rugby league’s proud history on the Border has been kept alive.
It shouldn’t go unmentioned, the club leads the way both on and off the field.
In April, the Thunder got right behind a campaign to raise mental health awareness.
More than 200 people took part in the mental health programs that ran alongside the games at the inaugural What’s Your State of Mind event at Greenfield Park.
Best of luck, Thunder – do us proud.
