Myrtleford and Wangaratta break long winless streaks in finals

Myrtleford players and supporters shed tears when the club snapped a 13-year winless streak in last year's thrilling three-point elimination final win over Wodonga Raiders at Albury Sportsground.

"Lachie Dale ran over to me yelling and screaming and I looked back to where all our supporters were and they were jumping around," teenager Will Quirk recalled.

"I remember getting goose bumps, it was crazy. Being a young bloke I was always around the club (Quirk's father Michael is a former captain and president) and I'd never seen finals or was old enough to remember them.

"It was a pretty overwhelming feeling and I shed a tear after the game."

Riley O'Shea was another who struggled to take in the enormity of the situation.

"It is emotional, it's a big club, lot of passion, lot of pride, lot of hard years, it's (the win) well deserved," he said just seconds after the game.

Even for neutral observers, it was difficult not to get caught up in that frenetic last quarter and it was no surprise, given the two close meetings earlier in the season.

"They were a bit like us, they wanted to move the ball quick and and their major ball-winners are pretty good players," Hugh Wales said.

"Momentum is such a big thing in footy and when they've got the ball and they're going, they can really make you pay."

However, the inaccuracy of Raiders never allowed them to peg back a deficit.

Raiders hadn't kicked a goal since the 11-minute mark of the second quarter, landing eight straight behinds to fall 22 points down at three-quarter time.

But goals to Jarrod Ardern, Ethan Boxall and Dylan Clarke cut the margin to three points with an eternity - seven minutes - left.

Remarkably, there were no scores from that time with Raiders dominating territory but, again, missing chances.

"It was probably just a bit of experience (which counted against us) in that final quarter," defender Wales said.

"We learnt that if the other team gets a few goals, there's no point changing the way you play and rather than playing to hold on, you've still got to play to win it."

Wales and Quirk were part of a defensive unit which was under siege, but co-captain Matt Dussin produced an unforgettable last quarter, taking a series of strong marks.

"Matty does that week in, week out, so to have him lead from the front is pretty normal," Quirk said.

"When you have a captain doing that every game, it gives you the drive to give him a hand, he's a great leader and I love playing with him."

The Saints would continue their run the following week and will always be part of history as the club which ended the greatest grand final run in O and M history.

Albury had played 10 straight, winning seven, but fell in the first semi in another thriller, this one by seven points.

Lavington ended the streak in the preliminary final.

Lavington played a role in another drought breaker (qualifying final) in 2005.

Wangaratta hadn't won since its 16-point elimination final win over Corowa-Rutherglen in 1993, but the club held off the Panthers by 13 points.

"We got out to a good lead, I think it was five goals at one point and we just held on," ruckman Dale Carmody said.

Lavington had won the 2001 flag and still retained the nucleus of that side, launching themselves at the finals newcomers in the second half.

Like Myrtleford 14 years later, Wangaratta had battled for long periods, winning six successive wooden spoons from 1997.

The Pies had broken through to finals the previous season, falling to Lavington in the elimination final.

But under inspirational coach Jon Henry, Wangaratta had a crafty plan to combat the Panthers' strength.

"They had a very good ruckman in Pete Doherty and we had a plan, so 'Henners' tells me, to come through the middle of the ground and I just park myself in the middle and the idea was that we would kick it over his head and it seemed to work," Carmody said.

The pair would meet again in the preliminary final.

"When you're playing against a well-coached team (Lavington was led by Tim Sanson), they had obviously done their work on us and we weren't able to get away with it a second time."

The Pies would miss finals the following year, but the experiences of 2005 held the club in good stead when it finally snapped a 31-year premiership drought in 2007.

"Lavington was obviously a perennial finalist at that stage, super well coached so to beat them on a biggish stage was a sign that we had matured and 'Hopper' (midfield star and former Carlton on-baller Jon McCormick) missed the finals with a knee injury," Carmody recalled.

"Guys like 'Cairnsy' (Brendan Cairns), the Porter boys (brothers Judd and Daine), those finals that we did play really set us up later on.

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"It probably made a lot of the younger guys realise that we could mix it with the good teams and play finals footy and it was a really good launching pad."

Carmody and Henry were still around when the Pies toppled North Albury in 2007, combining with a host of younger players, like the Porters, and profile recruits, including Paul Kirby.