THERE'S no disputing the fact that Albury United are one of the Albury Wodonga Football Association’s most successful clubs.
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But the team in green weren't always the perennial contenders they are today.
First formed in November 1966, it took United until 1997 to win their first silverware in the senior men's competition.
Of course, the senior women had beaten them to the punch quite convincingly, winning the league-Cup double in 1990, seven years before the senior men managed it.
But before then, the only silverware they had to show for their efforts was a championship and Cup win for the reserve men in 1980.
The club often struggled when I was there, but there was always hope a good crop of juniors would come through.
- Mike Flower
Club stalwart Mike Flower, who joined the club's under 14s team in the 1980s, remembered that senior success in those days was hard to come by.
“I stayed at the club until I was in my early thirties after joining as a teenager,” he said.
“It's hard to say why I hung around for so long.
“There was probably a sense of duty to it – you put a lot of time and effort into a local club.
“We didn't have a strong senior team when I was there, but the juniors were good.
“If everyone left because we weren't having success, there wouldn't be a club today.”
At one point there was talk of the senior team going into recess, a fate Flower said the team narrowly avoided.
“We wanted to keep it going, we knew it was going to be painful, but there had to be something for our juniors to aim for,” he said.
“We knew if we could turn it around it had a strong future – the atmosphere at the club had a lot to do with it.
“We had a very good batch of juniors at that stage, we got the right coaches in at senior level and that led to the likes of Matt Campbell, Paul Hayes and Cade Webb came through.
“Many of them have stayed around the club for a long time now – obviously Matt coaches the senior side, Marty Chambers devotes his own time as president.”
It's been roughly 20 years since Flower was officially involved with the club – work commitments change, life goes on.
But on the rare occasions that he's able to get back to the Border, Flower says Jelbart Park still feels like home.
“I've been away for a long time, but I was at a senior function earlier this year and it was like I'd never left,” he said.
United's three-day celebration kicks off with an informal function at the Star Bar on November 18.