Wangaratta had won five straight wooden spoons when Damian Lang arrived

It wasn't like the 193cm, 90kg full-forward didn't have options, so it would have been easy for the big man to say, 'no thanks'.

But he joined the perennial battlers as assistant coach and helped transform the club to the powerhouse outfit it is almost 20 years later.

"It would have probably been easier to go and play at a better team and maybe win a couple of premierships, but the enjoyment was there to teach all those young kids how to go about it," he said.

Lang had played with Jason Lappin at Coburg the previous year, while Leigh Symons also came on board.

It's something one of the Pies' most loyal stalwarts and then coach Jon Henry will never forget.

"They made a commitment when it probably wasn't the most obvious choice and then they hung around for a few years and that's something that's held us in good stead," he offered.

"We weren't strong and they were a part of us improving, I take my hats off to those guys, joining us on the back of what we thought we could do."

Lang kicked 57 goals in his debut season and even though the Pies went on to win a sixth straight wooden spoon, it provided the highlight of his four-year stint.

Fierce rivals Wangaratta Rovers had racked up a 26-match winning streak over their neighbours, but the Pies' time finally arrived in round 10, 2002.

"It was a miserable day, teeming with rain and we got over them (8.6 (54) to 3.10 (28)), it was like we'd won the grand final. It was unbelievable the scenes, we did the awards at the Railway Hotel, which was our sponsor, and they literally had to do the awards standing on the bar, there were that many people in there," he said enthusiastically.

Adding to the Pies' achievement, Rovers went on to make the grand final and led early in the final quarter before North Albury swamped them.

One of sport's toughest challenges - getting off the bottom of the ladder - was underway.

Lang added 63 goals in 2003 as the Pies inched their way into eighth.

The following year, it clicked.

"When I think of 'Langy', I think of 2004 when he had that really good year, like he pretty much single-handedly got us into finals (snapping a long drought)," Henry recalled.

"When you break it down, he kicked five and six goals straight in a few games that we won by a handful of points, it was just his (football) 'smarts' and he had a massive impact for us, that's the year he really excelled."

Lang won the Doug Strang Medal with 90, including a stunning eight-goal first quarter against Albury.

His strong marking was a handful for all opponents, although he did have some terrific one-on-one battles during his O and M stint.

"The fella (Luke) Chapman from Myrtleford, I always struggled with him, he was just so quick and played some really good footy, he just wanted to spoil and punch (the ball) and scrag and nag, he wasn't worried about getting a kick himself, he was just there to do a job," he praised.

"And I think Aydan Brown from North Albury was another one."

The Pies snapped that finals drought before falling to Lavington in the elimination final.

Wangaratta ended a 12-year winless finals streak over Lavington in the 2005 qualifying final, but it was the Panthers who again ended the Pies' dreams in their preliminary clash.

Lang had kicked another 52 goals, bringing his tally to 262, but his body was wearing out.

He returned home to Leeton and coached the club in the 2006 Riverina Football League grand final loss against Ganmain Grong Grong Matong before the knees finally gave up four games into 2007.

It completed a 14-year journey for the skinny schoolboy who was playing for the Leeton Redlegs in 1993 and debuting for the Sydney Swans against Brisbane in round one, 1994.

"I think I was 65kg and skinny as a rake," he remembered.

"I was a Swans' supporter and Mark Bayes was my idol growing up and I ended up staying with him for a couple of weeks when I first moved up.

"We had 20 new blokes and had 15 of us living in the same block of units on three different levels, Adam Heuskes, Brad Seymour, Daniel McPherson, what are you going to do with 15 young kids in the big city? (laughs)."

Lang admits the AFL's professionalism of today is a million miles from the mid-90s.

"Sydney was down the bottom and Ron Barassi had taken over as coach (in 1993), and the Moore Park Bowling Club was the function centre," he said.

"It was like a big country club, it wasn't really like being in the AFL, everyone would go out for a beer and everyone have a job."

He admits his debut at the 'Gabba was "a bit of a blur", but he kicked three goals on Adelaide's Ben Hart in another game and also played on Carlton's Mil Hanna.

Lang finished with five senior games, although he experienced the thrill of playing on the MCG on grand final day.

"We played North Melbourne in the reserves and they beat us by seven points, but by the end of the game there were about 60,000 there, ahead of the Carlton-Geelong game," he recalled.

Lang spent the next two years with Port Adelaide in the SANFL chasing his AFL dream and in one of his rare senior games, remarkably kicked three goals from a back pocket.

Highly respected Carlton official Shane O'Sullivan was at the game and Lang was a Blue.

"My first game was against West Coast in Perth, so that was an eye-opener and the second I played on (North Albury enforcer) Glenn Archer, which was quite scary, I don't think he was too worried about me," he laughed.

"It was totally different to Sydney, you'd go out with an Anthony Koutoufides or a Brad Pearce and there were people all around them.

"I was number 44 (jumper) and 'Kouta' was 43, so I sat next to him for two years, so that was good.

"That was when you knew you were playing AFL footy."

Lang has had around eight operations on his knees, has no cartilage and now needs two new ones.

"Probably my injuries and the management of them (are regrets)," he said.

"I've been involved with the Giants' Academy up here and guys like Jacob Hopper, who's now at the Giants, the amount of work they do as young kids on their rehabilitation and injuries, it was just non-existent in our day."

Lang has been back in Leeton around 15 years and is the poster boy for what all clubs want.

The kid who plays AFL and then returns home.

"I had brothers playing there and best mates were still at the club, so in the last four of five years of my playing career, it was a burning desire," he said.

Now 44, Lang has coached the seniors and under 18s, been the football operations manager and was president for three years.

"Once you get back into a footy club, it's what jobs are next? What jobs are next? And you keep going," he admitted.

He makes the 30-minute trip over to Riverina Water Engineering in Griffith for work and has been involved in the irrigation game since moving home.

Lang married a Wangaratta woman (Shelley Brown), so given that connection, does he ever regret leaving the Pies just when they were on the verge of success, winning the 2007-08 flags?

"It would have been nice, I got to a stage where my body was slowing starting to get worse and it would have been hard to keep playing at that level and I always wanted to go and coach my local team," he said.

ALSO IN SPORT:

He was able though to attend the club's 31-year premiership drought when the Pies toppled North Albury in a fiery clash.

And everyone within the Pies' inner sanctum knew it was the arrival of him and a handful of others in the toughest times that transformed them from pretenders to premiers.