"Just run, it's only Albury."
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The sneer from the boundary, as an over-throw dribbled through the outfield, told Kade Brown exactly what people thought of his cricket club.
Albury were cannon fodder, no-hopers, a laughing stock.
"There was no respect for us at all," Brown said.
"Before I even joined, I realised they were pretty ordinary. I went there because I thought I'd get a game in seniors. Some of the guys preferred the social life rather than the game of cricket.
"In my first year, I noticed there was a lot of sledging and a lot of talk out in the field. I don't mind that but when you're not winning, don't do it. You're not helping yourselves.
"If we're bowling and you've got a team 1/200, it's not really the time to be sledging.
"When I first started, you'd be lucky to get two or three people there watching. People would come for one or two beers and then walk away.
"It wasn't the nicest place to be, early days and I didn't love the club until two or three years in.
"But that comment, from a former team-mate, a premiership player, spurred me on to stay and try to improve the place rather than just walking away."
Repairing the reputational damage was a huge task though.
"The club was on its knees when I first joined," long-serving secretary Jon Van Ree recalled.
"We begged someone to play so they don't train, they just turn up and play and the next week, they're likely to spin around and tell you they've gone to a music festival.
"We were cellar-dwellers and people from other clubs, back in the days when we had relegation and promotion, would say to me 'your club shouldn't be here, you don't deserve to be in provincial.'
"We had carpet in the club rooms from the SS&A Club back in the eighties, so it was a question of pride."
Change had to be foundational and there were plenty of tough conversations along the way, with club president Cameron Walker central to the rebuild.
"It's a lot of hard work," Walker admitted. "Firstly, it was really hard to recruit because we had a long way to come back from. We weren't seen as a powerhouse club, we didn't have a long history because we reformed as Albury Cricket Club after the SS&A and then the Titans debacle.
"We were very lucky to keep Alex Popko, Jerim Hayes and Kade Brown. Without those three on the field, we really would have struggled a lot worse.
"We paid to get a few guys out here; the Sole boys from Scotland, Aaron Gillespie played out here and the three Poms - one of them being Ross Dixon who ended up coming back and marrying a local girl and now he's captain of our club.
"Getting Innocent Kaia out here two seasons ago, that's when we started being taken seriously on the field. Once that happens, it's easier to recruit."
Not that shifting the club's culture was a quick fix.
"You can't just tell blokes they're doing the wrong thing because you start creating factions within your club and it all disintegrates," vice-president Wayne Good explained.
"Whoever we brought to the club, we tried to make sure they were a cultural fit for where we wanted to go, rather than filling what we needed at the time. We made mistakes along the way, there were a couple of blokes who didn't quite fit but most guys have done really well."
Hayes, the NSW regional cricket manager, is now in his ninth season with Albury and has witnessed the transformation first-hand since joining as coach in 2013.
"They were the easy beats of the competition," he said. "But I'd spent 10 years at St Pat's, arguably the benchmark of club culture - and I liked the challenge of it here.
"We had to strip back and start again. We went right back to the start and decided that everything we did had to be the right thing for the long-term, building a club and building a culture.
"Everything's got to be sustainable and it was based around families. You spend 20 weekends a year, plus Tuesday and Thursday, in the heat and your wives and girlfriends say 'you're always out, why do you do it?'
"Any new player to our club, I want them to walk past me and say hello to my wife and kids. That's where you start with culture.
"When I got here, there was one player in our first 30 who had children. Now, it would be close to two-thirds. That's not to say we're an older crew but we've got the right balance."
Hayes is co-coaching with Popko this season, rekindling a partnership which formed in his fourth year at the club.
"I have a long association with Kade through football and I knew Jerim through pubs - and a bit of sport," Popko smiled.
"We had an impromptu meeting at The Astor, I was in my Ugg boots having a few drinks and liked what they were pitching, trying to build something from scratch.
"We were made up by a couple of imports, a few uni kids and some older types so the commitment level wasn't what it should be for an A-grade side.
"We all had a go at it, whether it coaching or presidency but if you don't have the numbers behind it, it's the most exhausting volunteer work you'll ever do. So we had a set vision, got the junior program up and running and the big key was getting the 'family first' vibe going.
"In doing that, you're not getting in trouble for playing cricket any more and it's created a good vibe.
"We're in central Albury, great spot for a ground and we get good numbers with all sorts of people coming to watch. It's been a long time coming but we're pretty happy with where it sits at the moment.
"The next thing is some success on the field."
Having gone 11 years without making finals, Albury finally cracked the top-six in 2019/20 and have now played in back-to-back prelims. But while that represents progress in itself, the pain of losing both games by one run and one wicket respectively has only stoked the fire further.
"Everything I do, whether it be business, sport or family, I want to be the best I can be," Walker said. "You don't settle for being second-best and give up.
"We can pat ourselves on the back and say 'yeah, it was a pretty good season' but ultimately we want to win the premiership and I'll be involved at least until that happens. If it takes another 10 years, so be it.
"I want to see us have success and do it consistently.
"You look at Lavington, Wodonga, North Albury and St Pat's, with their history, they've been doing it for years and that's where we need to be.
"As a president, you can lose that energy but Ross or Hazy will give me a call and they're so bubbly, they pick you up and keep you moving in the right direction."
Good, who's served as junior co-ordinator and curator in previous years, is full of optimism for the coming months.
"Last year we played better than we thought we would but a lot of that was driven by that culture around high performance and higher expectations," he said. "I think, this year, we've got it right."
Albury's strength in depth certainly backs that up, with several players who took the field for the preliminary final in March having to settle for a place in second-grade last weekend.
"There's absolute competition to get into our first-grade team and that's one of the biggest changes I've seen," Van Ree said.
"I've always worked in the background so it's good having a president and executive committee who are all really good in their roles. Ross Dixon is very good at chasing grants and it's really rewarding seeing those sort of things come off.
"I've made some lifelong friends here and some of the younger blokes are the reason I'm still involved. I had a choice to go back to Kiewa, a few years back, but I decided to stay here and to win a flag would be the tip of the iceberg in terms of the work, effort and commitment that everyone around here has put in over the journey.
"I'd be proud for myself but also for everyone else who's done the hard work in the background."
Brown, who captained the club for five years, has scored more than 3,000 runs for Albury and taken almost 200 wickets but nothing would give him more pleasure than to see them on top of the tree.
"It's funny," he said. "We've got a lot of ex-footballers and current footballers, people like Caleb Martin the soccer player and a lot of guys that just have that competitive edge rather than being 'genuine' cricketers.
"I think that's gone a long way as well.
"Over the last couple of years, we've called ourselves 'the misfits' because we all come from different backgrounds. We're probably not as skilful as some of these other sides but with how much we put into it, we're starting to see the rewards.
"It's good to have guys here who want to win.
BEHIND THE SCENES - OUR FOOTBALL/NETBALL SPECIALS:
"It would be great to be in a premiership-winning team which built from scratch but there's a lot of other guys who deserve it more than me.
"I'm pretty lucky that I can just rock up and play cricket but those guys have put in a lot of work which I probably don't even know about. They've got a lot more responsibility than I've had over the time so I'd enjoy it more for them rather than myself."
One glance around Billson Park shows just how far the club has already come. There are cars parked right around the oval, picnic rugs laid out in the shade, children playing in the nets and the whole place exudes the inclusive feel which was part of the vision Hayes described.
"My young bloke's four and he's on a bowling machine in there," he laughed.
"I enjoy seeing others succeed and for me, it's all about the kids and being happy. If you're not here, you'd be at home, in the pool or down the river so if you're going to be here, you might as well have your family here, enjoying it with you.
"To be honest, I enjoy Thursday nights even more than Saturdays. No matter what's going on at work or at home, you come down, sweat it out for an hour-and-a-half, grab a cold beer out of the fridge, a sausage off the BBQ and talk a bit of rubbish.
"In terms of our cricket, we're certainly not there - but I don't think you ever get there.
"On the field, there's no doubt we want A-grade success. We've lost two prelims in a row and, yes, they were heartbreaking but you can't win them unless you're in them.
"We're not shying away from the fact that we've lost two but we're here to win A-grade premierships.
"It's not just about winning, and that's when you get the off-field stuff. We've got a motto here: no fear, no egos and no excuses. It's an attitude thing and it's just a good place to be."
Popko, leading from the front, blasts 37 from 20 balls to set up Albury's first win of the new season.
"Coaching is non-stop but I'll jump into any role because I don't want to see the place burn," he said.
"You don't always realise the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes so getting into my mid-thirties now, it's probably my turn to throw a bit back.
"I just want to see the place run well. I know what people expect and if that sets a precedent, hopefully others will follow."
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