Flag heroes from the Spiders’ seven-point win over the highly fancied Wodonga in the 1968 grand final were joined by more than 100 other guests at the John Foord Oval.

Coach Fred Swift, Kevin Witherden, Bill Phibbs, Lindsay Jacob and John Lane have passed since the triumph which ended a 36-year premiership drought and came just 12 months after the Spiders collected the wooden-spoon.

But Bert Tait, Fred and Robert Longmire, Geoff Tobias, Peter Chisnall, Dennis Hutton, Terry Phibbs, Graeme Fraser, John Hoiles and John Clancy were present.

Clancy, a dual Morris medallist and O and M Hall of Famer, was one of the Spiders key off-season recruits who helped the club soar up the ladder and negotiate its way through a tough finals to take the flag.

He joined Corowa on the eve of the season and couldn’t believe a community could get behind a football team so much.

“The trip up Sanger Street on the Saturday night after we won the flag was sensational and a sight to behold,” Clancy said.

“To watch grown men cry about a footy game was uplifting and also demonstrated what it truly meant to the town.

“I didn’t know people cared so much about their footy and I just couldn’t get over how passionate the people of Corowa were.”

Clancy was joined at the reunion by former team-mates from West Heidelberg where he played the previous season.

Chisnall said the premiership team had part of its origins in a Corowa midgets competition with clubs called South, Central and Sunnyside.

He was among a crop of talented youngsters who were fiercely protected chiefly by former coach Hoiles and Lane.

Ladies committee member, Lorna Crisfield, also spoke and long-serving boundary umpire, the late Chas O’Donoghue, was also fondly remembered.