And the Swampies' odds blew out further when they were without a coach minutes before the decider at Walbundrie.

Henty were anxiously awaiting the arrival of Peter King, who unbeknownst to everyone, was at Henty hospital receiving painkilling injections to allow him to play with broken ribs.

King made his way into the rooms about 10 minutes before the bounce.

"I think it might have been closer to five minutes," premiership midfielder Darren 'Chick' Willis revealed.

"None of us knew where he was or what he was doing, so we took it upon ourselves to do our own warm up and get ourselves ready.

"He came in with his footy gear on and the whiteboard and said 'this is where you're playing, let's go and do it'.

"It wasn't copybook, but if you know 'Kingy' like we do, anything is bound to happen, and it did."

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Willis said King's plan was to keep a low profile because he didn't want the opposition to know he had broken ribs.

"I dare say they found out because they tested him out early, but he's the toughest man I've ever had the privilege to play football with," he said.

"They threw it at him and he absorbed it and we were able to get the job done.

"The most memorable thing was we were given no chance against a side that had a lot of ex-Ovens and Murray players and big names.

"'Kingy' instilled into us that 'they're human, we're human, they've got the names, but we've got the will to win' and that's what got us over the line.

"We heard on the Friday night there was some instability at Jindera regarding player payments and we used that as motivation.

"There was a bit of sledging on the field about it and I think we ruffled a few feathers with it because we played for nothing.

"We all played for jumper, the red and white."

Henty was also without first-choice ruckman Phil Takle due to a hamstring injury and he was replaced by the inexperienced Al Winter, who surprised plenty.

"Rod Page was the ruckman for Jindera at the time and he had years of experience on Al Winter, but Al absolutely took him to the cleaners," Willis said.

"That was a big factor in us winning the game because Allan was awarded the medal for best on ground."

Henty's 1990 premiership side has a reunion planned on Saturday during the Swampies' clash against Osborne.

Players from the team will present jumpers to the senior group before the match.

Henty 21.10 (136) def Jindera 19.13 (127).

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