So it wasn't too uncomfortable for Sandy Creek Football Club president Doug Williams when he found himself discussing a potential merger with neighbouring club Kiewa over beers at the Tangambalanga Hotel in 1969.

"The league decided to bring in reserves and at the delegates meeting I said, 'Yeah we can get reserves no worries at all, but seniors would be our problem'," Doug recalls.

"We were both struggling for numbers and neither of us would have won for a long time.

"The clubs always got on pretty well and I was good mates with Kiewa's president.

"We had been thinking about it for a while."

Sandy Creek and Kiewa had been competing within the Tallangatta and District Football League for 17 years but in various other associations before that, extending back to their establishment in 1898 and 1908.

Kiewa had seen more success with three shots at premierships but the tides were to turn following the merger.

It was not without its scrutineers, though.

"There were a few that didn't want to amalgamate which is going to happen, but within a few months they forgot about it," Doug says.

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"It was the best thing to have happened."

Four delegates from each club came together, pooled their money and wrote a constitution.

It all went very smoothly ... except for that one time after the merger when they forgot to organise the chook raffle.

"Jim said, 'Give me five minutes', went away and came back with a bag," Doug explains.

"We did the raffle and the winner opened the bag and it was a live rooster.

"Jim had gone up to his mate's place and grabbed one.

"No one wanted a live rooster so he let it go and it went back to old Charlie's place."

Later that year, wearing Hawthorn's brown and gold for the first time, Kiewa-Sandy Creek won the premiership under coach Alan Rodgers.

Dan Toner was in the team.

"It was fantastic because we went from 12 or 14 at training to 40 - it made a huge difference," he says.

The Hawks took flight from that year on and Vin O'Neill was among the players tasting glory in 1972.

"We were successful pretty much through to the mid-1980s," he says.

"We won in '76, 77, 81, 83 and 84.

"I played under three different coaches in premierships and they all had a different style."

Des Richardson led the team in the '80s as one of the club's most successful coaches.

"It's just a great family club," Des says.

"I don't think there would be a decade go by where they haven't won the premiership.

"A lot of amalgamations have happened in the league, but this is one that has been very successful and continues to be."

There were countless mergers and re-brandings in the league and in the 80 years leading up to its formation.

First, Eskdale joined Mitta Town to become Mitta United in 1952 and after the Hawks, there was Bethanga/Granya, Bogong/Tawonga, and Dederang/Mount Beauty.

By 1960 Tallangatta and District was considered one of the best leagues in Victoria, attracting teams from NSW.

In Dan's time there were two teams that had crossed the border to play in the league, bringing some controversy.

"We played South Albury here one day and after an enormous amount of fights the umpire locked himself in the changeroom. We had to escort him out to his car," he says.

"South Albury were a blight on the league and they folded."

It's another interstate contender, in Thurgoona, that has been the biggest competition for the Hawks in recent years.

Currently sitting at fifth on the ladder, they will be hoping they can repeat their 2018 performance against the Bulldogs.

The senior men have just wrapped up their training on a cold Thursday evening and are piling in for dinner as Doug and his fellow club stalwarts reminisce.

"I'm biased, but this would be the best club in the league by a mile," he declares.

"Any successful club has always got a good committee, and we do."

The group sit under new heating that has been installed in the hall, which once belonged to the Army and was sent over to Tangambalanga in three pieces in the 1970s.

It sits on the grounds at Coulston Park which was originally Kiewa's (the constitution says every second game should be played at Sandy Creek, but the grounds are still used regularly including for inter-league games).

A night game was played there for the first time in the Tallangatta league's history during round three, and current president Damien Britton wants to keep the innovations coming.

"We have more and more families and on a Thursday night there will be 130 kids out there with juniors and Auskick," he says.

"It's good to see the improvements in the grounds."

Damien has better netball facilities on his wish-list and says the club could also be involved in women's football.

"We've talked with Dederang about having a Kiewa Valley women's side," he says.

"It's in the pipe work and something that will happen in the future."

Vin considers the increased focus on netball crucial to the club's growth.

"The netball was played on Sundays and there was only one senior team from each club," he says.

"They brought them in to play on the Saturday and that's made a huge difference to football-netball clubs and the crowds."

A-Grade netballer Ellen Cook is the driving force behind an event to recognise the club's 50^th anniversary.

She has been organising a community day at Coulston Park and a celebration ball on July 13 at the Commercial Club in Albury.

"It was important to mark the milestone," she says.

"I've played all my netball here - it's such a great club to be apart of.

"We're doing a team of the half century which will be announced on the night."

Considering what has been the biggest changes in the league's history, Doug nominates the interchange rule and the league's overall management.

"We have a league executive instead of just president and secretary, and today most of the decisions are made before the delegates meeting," he says.

"In my time you'd go there and end up in a blue and they all only thought club and not league.

"When I took over as league president I tried to get them all together.

"You'd take them all down the road after the meeting, they'd have a few beers and then by the end they'd realise they're not bad blokes."

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