The 'club without a town' has its nickname for a reason, with little to suggest you're approaching a powerhouse of country football as you drive past the endless paddocks in the central eastern Riverina.

But flashes of yellow and black, plaques fixed high in the trees listing the Tigers' many premiership-winning years, hint at what I'm about to discover.

Osborne's incredible success over the last 120 years defies their location "in the middle of nowhere," as club treasurer Stephen Bennett puts it, so the obvious question is this: how do they do it?

Bennett, named clubperson of the year in 2021 for his efforts in the netball section, is organising memberships on the front gate as a steady stream of cars continues to roll in from, well, somewhere.

"When you come to Osborne, it's because you want to be here," Bennett said.

"It's not a place where you can just drop the kids off.

"My wife and I have looked after a netball side for years. We've managed those girls since they were knee-high through to under-17s and a lot of them are making their senior debuts today.

"It's a real privilege to watch them grow as kids into adults and to be so well-supported and well-mentored by the older players.

"To think you're a little part of it is fantastic. I feel really privileged that we've been involved.

"One of the great things here is that people don't see getting a job as being a burden, it's more of a privilege to be asked."

That collective willingness to serve is going to be pivotal if the club's new president, Jason 'Spud' Webster, is to oversee a continuation of the incredibly high standards Osborne have become accustomed to over the last few decades.

They've played in 21 of the Hume league's last 35 senior grand finals, winning 15 premierships in an era of unrivalled dominance.

"I'm extremely honoured and bloody nervous," Webster said. "I don't want to be the president that stuffs it all up.

"The community expects a lot from their footy club but at the same time, I know I've got them behind me.

"We don't sell alcohol until half-time in the seniors. We get criticised by a lot of clubs about that and when I first came to Osborne, I thought 'that's a bit weird', but if no-one's drinking, everyone's working.

"As soon as you stop and have a beer, that's it for the day.

"When we look around other clubs, you see a lot of people standing around drinking and the same person doing all the work.

"I really think umpires and officials love coming to Osborne because they don't have someone half-full of beer yelling abuse at them over the fence. You don't have that worry at the end of the day about how people are going to get home. Families love it because they're not dealing with people who are drunk.

"Yes, we could sell beer earlier in the day and make more money but we really believe it adds to our culture and the community at Osborne embraces it because they see the benefits."

Few people understand that culture and community better than 95-year-old Garry O'Connell, who I find engrossed in the reserves game on the far side of the oval.

O'Connell has been the club's secretary, treasurer, captain, coach and he was president here for 26 years. Having seen his four sons and nine grandsons represent Osborne after him, O'Connell has now been part of the club for almost 80 years.

"I've seen nothing else," O'Connell said. "I was 16 when I first came here and that's a bloody long time ago.

"We had a farm near here, I came down one Sunday and they made me the secretary.

"When they got sick of me doing that, they put me as the president and I had to keep everyone bloody happy! In those days there was no transport, so half the team went in the back of a truck. It was completely different back then.

"I'm very proud, naturally, of what the club's achieved, but it's a big job keeping it going, let alone staying at the top. We have been fortunate in the last 15 years to have five or six of the best coaches in NSW.

"Our older players help to coach the younger players and it's a great asset to have good juniors."

I ask O'Connell how much he enjoys being here on a Saturday now that he's no longer hands-on.

"It all depends whether we win or not," he said. "But I always look forward to it.

"I've been living in Albury for the last three years and I depend on someone to come and get me now. I might have missed a couple of matches but very few."

Attracting the calibre of coaches O'Connell is talking about doesn't come cheap and whispers of Osborne's financial clout are widespread.

"I totally get it," Webster said.

"I played 300 games at Rand and when I watched Osborne from a distance, I was thinking 'them buggers, they must be that wealthy and they're buying players, doing this and that' but once you get involved, you realise it's the people who make the club.

"I understand clubs would be envious and jealous of Osborne's success in the past but all I can say to that is all their success has come from hard work, it certainly hasn't been a big pile of money.

"In saying that, Osborne work really hard for the money they have.

"We spent all day at the Gold Cup, with 25 volunteers serving beers at Albury, we had about 60 blokes in a shearing shed in the middle of February crutching sheep all day for the footy club, we share farm some land and it's all volunteer work, we go to the Henty Field Days and pick up all the rubbish, so the money we do have, so we can buy quality coaches, is hard-earned.

"A lot of people do a lot of hard work for us, it's not just someone giving us that money, a big sponsor or a wealthy farmer, it's the community working really hard for that money.

"It's always been a policy of Osborne to go and get the best possible coach - and often that does cost money. That's been their motto for a long time: look after your locals and get the best possible coach, it's as simple as that."

The family connections continue in the form of sisters Michelle and Suzanne Forck.

Our window of opportunity is brief, with Suzanne in between coaching and umpiring duties on the netball court, while trainer Michelle is equally busy.

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"Because I do remedial massage, I prove to be fairly popular in the rooms," she smiled.

"I had to find time just to come over here because I had a few people lining up to see me. I'll be on my feet until seniors finish and even then, I might be looking at any injuries sustained after the game.

"It's a long day but very rewarding.

"When we won the premiership in 2019, Hayden Gleeson said to me after the game he wouldn't have been able to get through the season without me and that's a good feeling.

"Knowing you've contributed something to help someone get the ultimate prize is pretty special."

The pair were part of Osborne's last premiership-winning A-grade side in 2001.

"We never considered changing clubs," Suzanne said. "It's great for families and very inclusive. When we were kids, it was all about football and the netball was just a sideline whereas now, we've got eight competitive sides plus NetSetGo so that draws a lot of people to the club.

"It's all on the one day which is a big thing. The Farrer and Riverina leagues don't do that, the juniors are all on Sunday, but the kids can run around here and you don't have to worry about them because everyone looks after each other."

Under the sign marked 'Osborne Headquarters' and into the rooms, I find club stalwarts Stuart Sly, Bob Jacobsen, David Schneider and Peter McDonnell having a yarn.

"Saturday is a day away from the farm and I reckon that's good for your mental health," McDonnell said. "Being here today is super important, it's top of my list and we don't talk about farming here."

"No, he just annoys us," comes the laughing retort from across the group.

"It's important to keep the community together," Jacobsen added. "Some bigger towns have drifted apart but we all stick together because there's nowhere else to go."

Sly concurs. "These blokes here are what keep me coming back," he said.

"Everyone that's ever had anything to do with the club is still here, still involved. I haven't got any family playing now but I just love coming out and being part of it."

Osborne's first netball president, Colleen Smith, has seen enormous growth since the club joined the Hume league in 1970.

"We started off with just a dirt court and no lights until we got a pole and ran a long lead over from the football club," Smith said.

"The men carted gravel for us and made two courts.

"It was pretty hard at the start but everyone had a job.

"I coached the C-grade and the A-grade to premierships, I was vice-president of the Osborne Football Club Ladies Auxiliary for a number of years and I've done the rosters so I guess I've just been a jack of all trades.

"We're a family, all of us. When I first started, I coached some of the midgets and now they're here playing A-grade and B-grade and they're married with kids.

"It's a really wonderful atmosphere."

Of course, Osborne is not unique in its desire to be family-orientated, community-focused and welcoming to newcomers, far from it, but one glance at the Tigers' packed trophy cabinet is a reminder of their major point of difference.

"County footy's all about being pretty social but Osborne's culture among the playing group is that footy comes first," Webster reflected.

"The Osborne players have got a real professionalism; they want to train hard and they want to get the best out of themselves so they do everything they possibly can to be a good footballer and then they'll be social once they achieve it.

"Everything I ever wanted in a football club, they do it and they do it above my expectations."

The sustainability of Osborne's blueprint faces its biggest test in the wake of COVID but today's thumping win over Holbrook suggests they will face it head-on.

"We've got the same challenges every other country club has got, with lack of juniors and players having to travel long distances, so it's certainly not easy, but I think Osborne's had those challenges for 120 years," Webster said.

"They've never had a town so the challenges are not new.

"They've never relied on the immediate area, they've got to draw families from 100km away just to call Osborne home."

And with a home like this, who needs a town?

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