No team has suffered a loss as heavy as the one dished out by Albury on Saturday and won the flag.

The Tigers destroyed an undermanned Pies, who were missing 10 automatic selections, by 97 points.

Since 1988, only six clubs have suffered heavy losses and bounced back.

Wangaratta itself did it last year when Albury smashed the visitors by 68 points.

The Pies then posted one of the biggest upsets of the modern era by toppling an injury-hit Tigers by 21 points.

The only team which has rivalled a near three-figure loss in that time was Lavington’s 91-point hiding against Myrtleford in round 10, 2005.

“We were missing 10 or 11 players and I remember in that game we lost three players in the first five minutes,” Lavington coach Tim Sanson said.

Sanson says the key was to quickly forget the result.

“But you put it in the memory bank, the way that they carried on that day, we knew we would get better and I told them we’ve only got to beat these blokes once,” he said.

“The thing for us is they (Myrtleford) didn’t see us again until the grand final.

“I think we finished third and got beaten in the qualifying final, so we came through the hard way.

“It was an ambush pretty much because the last time they saw us they flogged us and thought, ‘we’ve got these guys measure’, but they hadn’t played half the guys.”

Lavington beat Myrtleford by a point in the grand final.