North Albury will be out to break the longest hoodoo in Ovens and Murray Football League history on Thursday.
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The Hoppers haven't beaten their strong rivals since round five, 2008, with Albury racking up 28 successive wins.
Albury shares the second longest winning streak over a team, its current 26-match stretch over Corowa-Rutherglen, while Wangaratta Rovers also had a 26-game streak over Wangaratta.
The Tigers are targeting a league record 15 straight finals campaigns, overtaking Wangaratta Rovers run from 1969-1982, while North hasn't played finals since 2015.
Yet quite remarkably, in the space of just over a week, North will now start slight favourites in the annual Anzac Day.
The Hoppers hammered Corowa-Rutherglen by 98 points in round three and then blasted Wodonga Raiders by 131 points last Saturday, which is the club's biggest win since a 163-point hiding of Raiders in 2007.
Albury, meantime, has suffered 21 and 20-point losses to Lavington and Rovers respectively.
"I know it's been a long time (since we last beat Albury), everyone's pretty excited and when you put up that sort of score (193-62 against Raiders) on the board, everyone's enjoying their footy, there's not much to not like about it," North coach Tim Broomhead, who this week re-signed until the end of 2026, said.
"We just want to keep improving and Albury's a proven top team in the league, it's a really good challenge for us."
Since Albury reclaimed its powerhouse status in 2009 - the start of 10 successive grand final appearances with seven wins - it has rarely lost three games in a row.
North's form is irresistible, with Josh Minogue kicking 11 goals against Raiders and Broomhead one of the league's best players, but the Tigers will be desperate to make a statement at home.
And so too will Wodonga Raiders on their patch against fierce rivals Wodonga.
Raiders are smarting after that loss to the Hoppers, but apart from a poor second half against premiers Yarrawonga in round one, Wodonga has been strong, winning three straight games to sit fourth.
"If they beat us on Anzac Day, I'm sure they'll hang their hat on that for the season, it's a local final," Wodonga co-coach Jarrod Twitt said.
Raiders-Wodonga starts at 3pm, while Albury-North is 2pm.
